He sighed and focused his attention back on the floor below him. "Why are you making this so difficult?" he asked himself, shaking his head. "It's not like you like her. You have a...girlfriend, you love her, you're happy." Josh glanced up at Danielle, watching her laugh at her own amusement. He adored her silliness. "...really, you are." he finished the thought in his head, and ran his hands through his hair. He thought long and hard on a good conversation starter, until he finally blurted something out.
"You always eat such a healthy breakfast?" he asked, pointing to Danielle's fudge round. Danielle stopped spinning, and glanced at her hand oddly, then at Josh. "As opposed to that nasty coffee crap?"she asked sarcastically. He tried hard not to laugh. "Good point." he said with a smile. Danielle shook her head and took another bite.
"Danielle?" a woman's voice called in the hallway. "Josh?" a man's voice called immediately afterwards. Jana, and Mr. Richards, both arriving from opposite directions met in the doorway. "Danielle, there's a young woman here to see you. She claims to you have forgotten your very important, life depending medication this morning, and she insists she give it to you personally." Jana stated confused. Danielle shook her head and reprocessed the statement in her head, hoping then it would make more sense to her. "Medication?" she asked. "Mercedes." she mumbled under her breath, as she jumped out of her chair, and headed out the door.
"The guys are here, Josh." Mr. Richards informed Josh. "Bout time." he mumbled, heading out the door and the opposite direction of Danielle. Danielle hurried to the end of the hallway, towards Jana's desk, and sure enough there stood Mercedes, twirling her hair. "Medication I HAVE to have?" she asked, almost disappointed in her excuse. "Hey, it's early, and besides I had to find SOME excuse to get to..." Mercedes stopped once she spotted Jana returning to her desk. "I can't believe you forgot these!" Mercedes yelled, shoving a bottle of TUMS into Danielle's hand, winking at her. "The doctor said you have to have these at ALL times." Danielle smiled and rolled her eyes. "Jana, it's okay if I show her the studio, isn't it?"
"Be kind of hard to do it on this." Mercedes said, gliding her hands along the control board. "All these knobs and buttons would be in the way!" she smiled at Danielle evilly. "Will you stop!?!" Danielle, exclaimed, grabbing Mercedes hands. "You'll mess something up!? Besides, no one is doing anyone else in here, ok?" she said annoyed. "..and then I was like, "No, dude, that's my mom." a voice said, followed by other voices laughing behind it. The girls turned around to see who it was, and were shocked to see Justin Timberlake amusing the other 4 members of NSYNC. Danielle and Mercedes gasped with shock. "Fellas, this is Danielle, and I take it this is the famous Mercedes?" he asked Mercedes.
She stiffly nodded her head. "Ladies, this is Chris, Joey, Lance and Justin." The seven of them exchanged hands and said their hellos. "Alright, guys, lets discuss recording sessions." Mr. Richards said, re-entering the room. Danielle and Mercedes backed themselves into the corner, and sat down on the chairs. Danielle felt Mercedes scratch her arm. "Oh my god." she whispered sweetly. "Justin's even HOTTER then I thought." Ten minutes later, the short meeting was over, and everyone had taken up separate locations in the studio. "So, um, whatcha guys gonna be doin?"Danielle asked Josh shyly, moving beside him.
"We're just gonna be tampering with some new stuff- that's all. Recording for a few days." He smiled at her and she felt her face burn. "So, does that mean I don't get to sit here and harass you anymore?" she asked, pulling her hair behind her ear. "Na, I mean, it's just for a few days. I, well, we, have to work with Ryan again Friday."
Danielle cringed at the thought of Ryan. "I mean, it's not like you, harass me anyway, it's not harassment, I mean, I like your company, I mean, I, I..." Josh shook his head, and began fiddling with the knobs on the control board. Danielle smiled to herself with delight. She turned around and examined the room. "Anybody know where Mercedes went?" she asked curiously. Everyone glanced around, puzzled.
"...and where's Justin?" Chris asked. The six of them looked around at one another confused. Joey shrugged. "Well, he did say something cheesy like, the only other Mercedes as cute as that one is parked at home in his garage." They sat there in silence for a moment, until it was broken by the giggling coming from the next room.
Six