"Thanks," Rainbow and I said at the same time.
     "Ocean," Lance said, turning to me. "Did you know I love the beach?"
     "Of course I knew that. I love the beach too," I replied. JC was engaging Rainbow in conversation and they both laughed.
     "Well, i see that you all are properly acquainted. I suppose I should scoot on out," Steve said.
     "Thanks, Steve," everyone chorused.
     "No prob, guys. Have fun," Steve replied and shut the door on his way out.
     "What's in the bag?" Chris asked, pointing to the bag I was clutching in my now still hands.
     "Oh! We've got stuff for you guys," Rainbow said, pulling out a gift bag. "JC, we went up to Whistler BC and we got a bunch of Hard Rock menus. JC took the bag and began sifting throught the contents.
     I pulled another gift bag out. "Lance, we know you love the beach and Taz, so here you go." We gave Chris a talking Taco Bell dog (stuffed of course), Joey a Superman dool that looked exactly like him and Justin a Lakers jersey.
     "Oh my gosh! Thank you so much, you two! We'll take this stuff with us on the road with us-this is so great! Thanks, you guys!" Justin gushed.
     "I love this! This is so cute!" Lance exclaimed, showing everyone the sand pail and shovel with Taz inside the bucket.
     "Busta! Busta! Come here!" Chris whistled. A little dog came running  and Chris bent down, pushing the button to make the Taco Bell dog talk. Busta yipped and backed away slowly. We all laughed.
"So, um, how long are you guys staying here?" I asked.
"Uh, about two or three days," Joeysaid.
"I'm spending as much time as possible on the beach," Lance added.
"Oh, the beached here are awesome. The ocean is this blue green color you can't find anywhere else and-" I was cut off by Justin.
"Guys, let's go get some breakfast. I'm hungry," Justin said.
"Good idea," JC agreed and all seven of us trooped downstairs accompanied by Lonnie, their security guard. We piled into another limo where I ended up sitting next to Lance and Justin-Rainbow was between JC and Joey.
Once we were settled in and the limo was movin, Joey asked, "You two seem really close-how long have you guys been friends?"
"Oh my gosh, like forever," I said.
"Umm...since about seventh or eighth grade," Rainbow said.
"I also noticed you guys are dressed kinda alike," Chris commented. "Did you plan that or what?"
Rainbow and I shook our heads. "Nope. We've planned it like that exactly once and that was in our freshman year of high school," Rainbow said.
"And since then we've dressed alike off and  on with out telling each other," I added. "We're so close it's not even funny."
"That's reallly cool to have a friendship that strong," JC said as Justin's cell phone rang.
"Hello?" Justin answered. "No! Tell her *no!* I'm not going *anywhere* with her!"
"Who was that?" Lance asked as Justin hung up the phone.
"Britney?" Chris guessed.
Justin nodded. "She's loving in a dreamworld, man. She *thinks* we're going out and stuff, but we're *not.*"
"Are you serious? Those rumors about you and Britney going out aren't true?" Rainbow asked, her eyes wide.
"They are totally totally false. Nowhere near the truth," Justin confirmed. "Media...paparazzi, they get bored."
"We have *never* liked her," I said and Joey gave me a high-five.
"Right on!" Chris exclaimed. "We only act cozy with her for the cameras. In reality, we stay *far* away from her."
"And now she's stalking me," Justin concluded. "She's asking me out and sending flowers and stuff-it's getting annoying!"
"I'll bet," Rainbow murmured as we pulled up to the restaurant.
And so the rest of the day was spent hanging out at the restaurant and then going to the events center to start the soundcheck. The guys taught us their dance moves and I was having trouble getting some things just right.
"Oh my gosh! I lost all my dancing talent today!" I exclaimed in half frustration, half humor.
"Hey, don't worry about it. I suck at dancing," Lance said with a grin.
"Oh, whatever. Your dance moves are perfect," I muttered, trying to execute the move once more. Once again, I messed it up.
"Okay, here. I'll help you out," Lance offered. He came up behind me and gently placed his hands on my hips and guided me through the motions. "Think you got it now?
I thought for a minute. "Hmm...like this?"
"No, it's more like this," Lance said, once again placing his hands on my waist and moving my body along with the music.
"Oooh-kay. I think I got it now," I said, thinking how I should maybe say I *didn't* get it so that Lance could possibly put his hands on me again...That reminded me of a Christina Aguilera song...I just know when you put your hands on me, I feel...
Whoa, wait a minute! What was I thinking? This was the guy *Rainbow* thought was hot! I looked over at her and saw her flirting with JC. But I still felt bad about being where Rainbow should have been.

After the kick butt concert, Lonnie stopped Rainbow and me on our way out. "The guys wanna see you."
"Um, okaay," I said.
Lonnie grinned. "It's not bad, trust me. Come on." He led us to a room in back where the guys were inhaling food and water to no end.
"Hey! There they are!" Chris exclaimed.
"How'd you two like the show?" Justin asked as Joey picked Rainbow up off the ground in a bear hug.
"It was great! You guys delivered the best, as usual," I said as Lance smiled at me.
"Thank you so much. We were so relaxed tonight because we were with you guys all day," Lance said.
"Why does being with *us* make a difference?" Rainbow asked,
"You guys aren't weird like other fans are..." Joey said.
"Yeah, you act totally normal around us and treat us like normal, everyday guys, not gods," JC eplained further.
"Well you *are* normal, everyday guys," I replied.
"We just wanted to thank you for that," Justin said. "This has been an awesome day."
"Uhh, can we have your guys' phone numbers?" Lance asked. "So we can um, keep in touch?"
"Sure," Rainbow and I said and gave them our phone numbers. In our room, we had separate phone lines so we wouldn't tie up each other's lines. We also had another line for the internet.
"Once again, thank you guys so much for the awesome and relaxing day," Lance said.
"Thank *you* for letting us spend it with you," I repled. "Um, feel llike taking a few pictures?"
"Of course," Chris said.
Twenty minutes and two and a half rolls of film later, Steve came in. "Hey everyone. R and O, your limo awaits."
"Okay. We'll be there in a minute," Rainbow said. The guys hugged us goodbye and told us they'd keep in touch-maybe even call us tomorrow. Rainbow and I waved goodbye to 'N Sync and Lonnie, then went out with Steve and entered our limo.
"Did you guys have a good time?" Steve asked.
continued