***
"Was our singing really that bad?" Joey wondered when they got back to Justin's house.
"Joey, she was just old, shut up," Chris said.
"Yes it was that bad," Jason snapped. His brown eyes were ablaze. "You were off key in the second verse," he said, pointing at Chris. Chris crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "And you came in too late," he pointed at Justin. Justin was upset but didn't let it show. "And you..."
JC had had enough. "Shut up!" he said to Jason. "That was our first performance! And maybe if you hadn't been trying to drown us all out, we would've sounded better," he said, voice rising.
"JC..." Joey began, but JC ignored him.
"And I personally thought we sounded good for our first performance," he snapped.
"JC, calm down," Chris said, glaring at Jason. He motioned to Joey, who grabbed JC and dragged him to another room.
"Get out," he directed at Jason.
"You don't have authority over me," Jason sneered. "This isn't even your house."
"But he lives here. And it's my house. And I want you out," Justin said. "And he wants you out. So. Get out."
"I don't have to listen to you, you half assed little punk!"
"Don't you call him that," Chris said, coming to the defense of his friend.
"I think you should leave," Joey said calmly as he came into the room, but it had a threatening note to it. "Before I make you leave."
Jason cursed before slamming the door behind him. Joey went to get JC and Justin sat down heavily. Joey and JC came in and sat down. Chris was too tense to.
"We need to get rid of him. I don't care if we do this as a foursome, we can't keep him," he finally said. Joey snorted. "Keep your mind out of the gutter," Chris snapped.
Joey looked up at him in surprise, then grabbed onto him while he was passing by and pulled him into a seat. His leg continued to bounce restlessly up and down.
"We need a bass, though," JC reasoned. "I mean, in order to round out the sound..."
"But where are we going to get one?" Joey finished. They all thought for a minute.
Suddenly Justin stood up, knocking his chair to the floor with a loud clatter. The others looked at him in surprise. "I've got it!" he said, eyes bright with excitement.
"What?" JC asked. "I'll just call my old vocal coach," he said. "See if he has any ideas."
"Good idea!" said Chris with a smile. Justin ran to the phone and dialed the number. He went into the other room. The others waited anxiously for his return. He came back five minutes later with a big smile on his face.
"Find someone?"
"He said he had a couple in mind, but he'd look and get back to us."
"So what do we do now?"
"We wait."
******
They were all seated around Justin's kitchen table again. "So do you think Lou's mad that we kicked Jason out of the group?"
"Naw," JC said in response to Joey's question. "Why would he be? We didn't get along, and since we didn't get along, we'd probably have problems later on."
They were interuppted by the phone ringing. Justin jumped up. "Hello? Oh hi Andrew," he said, eyes widening. "It's him," he mouthed to the other guys. "You did? That's great! Wow, thanks so much...yeah, we'll thank you when our first album comes out," he laughed. "So what's his name?" Justin's face fell, making his bandmates wonder. "Oh...well, we'll be okay,' he said. "What's the number?" He wrote it down. "Great. Thanks so much, Andrew," he said. "Bye." He hung up.
"So?"
"Well," Justin said. "Andrew found someone...his name is Lance Bass. He's got a true bass voice, he lives in...Mississippi, and..." he paused. The others looked at him. "And his mother will never let him do it."