AN:  Hi everyone!  Or anyone.  Is anyone there?  *tap, tap*  Ahem, feedback, crucial, 
please... I don't bite- honest!

inspiredthoughts@hotmail.com

And on a short Justin note... I can have some issues with Justin but I like the kid 
(over all).  I might pick on him some in stories but its all in good fun.  And yes I felt 
like posting this due to the "Canadian Incident" - which was not cool.  It doesn't matter 
if you dig someone's music or not, it still takes guts to get up on stage in front of 
thousands and put yourself out there.  Booing or throwing trash and in some cases muffins, 
is NOT acceptable concert behavior.  Props to Timberlake for handling it as well, and 
professionally, as I heard he did.  Whatever else he does, he knows how to handle his 
business.

That being said, back to fiction.      



********************** Nightmare of a Lifetime: Chapter Twenty-Two **********************


Nicole danced impatiently as she waited at the side of the stage Britney Screw Me Spears had 
been strutting and preening on.  The diva was sitting on a stool and sipping a bottle of 
Evian water as she chatted with her ecstatic audience.  It was almost show time.  

"Are you seriously going to do this?" Bill demanded.

She flashed him a wicked grin, a very wicked, VERY pleased grin.  

Bill sighed.  "He's going to kill you, slowly, on national television no less, after this."  

She clapped her hands together and nodded enthusiastically.  "Yes, but not until I give him 
a heart attack."  

"You don't even know that he's watching this..." the camera man cautioned.

"Are you stupid?" Perry demanded.  "It's a live performance at Madison Square Gardens, 
the place the guys are playing at tomorrow.  There's camera crews everywhere and thanks 
to the American teenagers and that whore that is Billboard's Top 10, pop is bigger than 
ever.  They're watching.  I know the idiots that well.  Now shut up, this is about to get 
good."  

"You're going to loose a hell of a lot of street credit doing this," he interjected mildly.  

She glared at him stubbornly.  "I'm doing this Bill my dear.  And hello, stuck in boy band 
hell, my street credit has been vanishing as quickly as my damn sanity.  I want little 
Justy to see his worst nightmare come true in front of thousands."  

"You're evil."  

Nicole cackled and flipped him off with a grin before turning her attention back to the 
stage with anticipation.

"All right everyone," Britney said sweetly, her voice drawling slightly with a Southern 
twang that rubbed Nicole's nerves wrong.  But Justin, unhappy Justin, she was doing this 
for a reason.  A very tall, pissed off, buzzed cut reason.  "I have a little surprise for 
you.  One of my good friends is here and wanted to say hello to everyone.  Is that all 
right?"  The huge crowd screamed their support and Britney simpered cutely.  "Awesome, 
Perry, come on out!"  

She took a deep breath, and started living out one of HER worst nightmare.  Nicole skipped 
out onto the stage of a Britney Spears concert.  In Madison Square Gardens.  In front of 
thousands upon thousands of fans.  In front dozens of television crews.  There was a 
collected hush of shock from the audience as jaws dropped to the floor.  

Nicole slung a companionable arm around the pop princess.  "Howdy."  

More silence from stunned fans.  

Perry shrugged apologetically at Britney who was smiling until she pinched one cheek, 
kissed her wetly on the mouth, and skipped off the stage.  

Britney's jaw dropped to the ground.  

Bill met Nicole on the other side of the stage, spluttering with laughter as his camera 
shook in his hands.  "I... I can't believe... you kissed... oh my god..." he wheezed 
incoherently.  

Perry was busy wiping at her lips.  "Oh my god... I cannot fucking believe I just did that.  
I need mouthwash.  And bleach.  Industrial disinfectant because who knows where those lips 
have been.  Oh my freaking god..."

Her cell phone rang she answered it without thinking.  Lance was spluttering at the other 
end, caught in horrified amusement.  "Did you really just do what we all saw you do?"  

"One question Poofu before I go kill myself, Justin?"  

"I'll let you know when they revive him.  He passed out."  

Nicole fell to her knees and raised her arms to the sky.  "There is a god!"  

And then there really wasn't a whole lot of time for words because she and Bill were too 
busy running from security.  So she hung up on and Lance and ignored the insistent ringing 
of her cell phone that followed.  

*********************************************************************************** 

"We are dirt, you are master..."  

Perry stared down at Chris and Joey, who were prostrating themselves in front of the 
elevator she had just gotten off of.  "Guys..."

"Dirt!" they wailed as they tugged on her shoelaces.  "Teach us master, instruct us in 
your subtle art of torture.  We wish to learn!"

Dan the bodyguard came striding down the hall and yanked them to their feet roughly as 
he winked at Nicole.  She blew him a kiss and he made a face.  She laughed.  Lance walked 
up to her with a frown.  "How the hell am I supposed to top that when I show off my 
tattoo?" he whispered fiercely in her ear.  

"We'll think of something, trust me," Perry whispered back.  

Bill tapped them both on the shoulder.  "Want to speak up a bit there children?  All the 
nice people at home would like to hear your deep dark secrets too."      

"Nope," they replied in perfect unison and laughed, Lance's low voice rumbling beneath her 
higher pitched mirth.

JC snorted as he made his way through the crowd.  Lance stepped away and Jayce touché his 
fingers softly to her lips, a bemused smile on his lips.  "Was it worth it?" he asked, 
blue eyes serious.  

"How long was Justin passed out?" 

"Four minutes and twenty three seconds!" Chris yelled as Dan shook him and rolled his 
eyes.  

"Totally worth it," Perry replied seriously.  JC chuckled and kissed her on the cheek.  

They all got quiet when Justin appeared, looking shell shocked and pale.  His livid eyes 
fastened on her with hunger.  "You have until the count of three..." Justin whispered.  
"One, two, THREE!"  

Nicole yelped as Timberlake rushed her.  She ducked under his swing but the little bugger 
was fast.  Or not so little.  

"Are you sure it was worth it?" JC asked, several minutes later, as he stared down at 
Nicole.  Justin was sitting on her pulling her hair and screaming obscenities.

"Very sure..." she panted as she twisted and managed to punch Timberlake in the gut hard 
enough to make him gasp.    

***********************************************************************************  

Episode Nine was the jewel in the crown of *NSYNC: Tour of a Lifetime.  The arm incident 
was publicity.  "The Kiss" drew record numbers of viewers because it was a kiss, between 
Nicole Perry and Britney Spears.  The tabloids were going into a feeding frenzy of rumors 
and pictures and secondhand interviews.  

It didn't help matters at all when Nicole and Justin both appeared with black eyes the 
morning after, clearly having had a nice scuffle.  

MTV was thrilled.  They doubled Perry's bonus and Malcom tried not to laugh too hard.  
*NSYNC's performance in Madison Square Gardens, even with Britney Spears as a guest, was 
almost anticlimatic.  TRL would have been a lot funnier the next day if Perry had been 
there but she and Carson had issues that involved restraining orders so she got to spend 
the day at home, with her little brother, without cameras instead.  She came back beaming.

So Nicole's tenth week as a part of the "tour from hell" drew to a close and featured a 
wonderful episode chronicling everything from her phone reunion with Robert the Gentleman, 
to plans of a Pekinese's demise, to, well, "The Kiss" and the shocked reactions of the 
world.  All in all it was an eventful week.