< Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Nick knew something was wrong the next morning when he met Lance at his locker and Justin was nowhere to be found. "Have you seen J?" Nick asked as he opened his locker and put his bag away. He pulled out his math books and pencil case before closing the locker again.

Lance shook his head. "Nope."

"Hmm," Nick felt his stomach churn. It wasn’t like Justin to not be at his locker in the morning, and usually on days he wasn’t going to come to school, he’d call Nick to let him know. He hadn’t received a phone call so Nick figured Justin would be there. "I wonder what’s up?"

Lance shrugged. "No idea." They shared a look of confusion before both shook it off. "Do you think they’ll say hi to us?" Lance asked, voice soft.

"Who?" Nick checked down the hall, before looking at his watch.

"Joey and Chris. I mean... Do you think they’ll say hi?"

It was a question that Nick had been thinking about as well. On one hand he figured that of course they would, but at the same time, didn’t even think they cared enough about freshman to make a big deal about it. He only shook his head. "I don’t know. That would be so cool though. Don’t you think?"

Lance nodded. "Yeah, because they’d say hi to us, which would cause Brian and Kevin to look over at us and then Kevin would notice you. It would be your perfect opportunity to say hi to him."

Nick’s mouth broke into a giant grin. "I know! God, that would be awesome." His grin turned into a frown. "But Justin won’t be here to see it. Damn, I wish I knew where he was."

Lance was about to answer until he saw the awaited foursome heading down the hall towards them on their way to the senior lounge. He grabbed Nick’s arm in warning and flashed him a nervous smile.

Nick needn't have worried about Justin missing Nick’s big moment because as the foursome was about to pass someone stepped out and grabbed all of their attention. Looking at the blonde, Lance and Nick’s jaw dropped as they recognized Britney. Christina was not too far behind.

"Hi Kevin," Britney flirted sweetly. "Great game last night."

Nick and Lance exchanged looks of surprise. According to Nick’s schedule hidden in his binder, they had an away game the night before in Preston, an hour and a half away. Nick had never gone to any of the away games, mainly because they were so far and they never had means to get to them. But hearing that Britney and Christina had gone made him narrow his eyes at them.

Kevin flashed the two blondes one of his famous smiles and he pretended to blush. "Aww, thanks girls. You didn’t drive all the way up there to just see me did you?"

Lance didn’t miss the way Chris openly laughed at the situation, while Brian and Joey were at least a little more polite, hiding their smirks. Both freshmen girls were positioned with their hands on their hips, thrusting their minuscule chests out for Kevin’s benefit, skirts at an all time short length. The giggles pierced through their brains.

"Of course we didn’t drive silly, we don’t have our licenses We got Christina’s older sister to take us. And we didn’t go just for you, we went to support Lincoln High. But it was awesome the way you saved the day again Kevin," Britney batted her eyelashes and tried to do a sexy, pout thing. Christina stepped in and put her hand on Kevin’s chest.

"You’re our favourite player on the team Kevin, I even have that picture from the paper last week taped inside my locker." Christina swung her locker door open and showed Kevin the article that was taped inside. He simply grinned and winked at her.

"Wow girls, you really know how to flatter a boy." Kevin showed no trace of mocking them and only pulled a marker out from his binder. "You want me to sign that for you?"

Both Britney and Christina looked as though they were going to faint. "Oh gosh Kevin, would you?"

Kevin nodded as he signed the article, decorating it with a heart and a smile. Britney’s face fell as she didn’t have anything in her locker for him to sign. He only winked and nodded for her to give him her binder. "How about I just sign this, so you’ll have it with you all the time."

Britney only nodded mutely, her eyes wide and eyes glazed over with awe. It was Christina who was pouting now that Britney was getting special attention. And as quickly as the exchange happened, it was over and the four older teens were on their way down the hall, towards their original destination. Christina and Britney started squealing and giggling as they ran down the hall to tell all of the girls they knew that Kevin Richardson had not only talked to them, but given them autographs.

"Sluts," Nick muttered under his breath jealously. Lance only patted the blonde on his shoulder comfortingly.

"Awww, you should have had him sign your journal Nick, I mean, it’s all about him."

Nick simply growled and Lance stifled a giggle. Hearing his friend's laughter, Nick couldn’t help but join him. "I’m so pathetic."

Lance shook his head. "They’re pathetic, you are not."

"Thanks Lance," Nick sighed. "I should get going to homeroom, I’ll see you in phys ed."

~*~*~*

The second sign that things weren’t right was when Justin didn’t meet Lance before lunch. Lance waited until it was later than usual and headed to the Soph Quad, figuring that Justin had forgotten him. It was when he saw Nick watching the door impatiently and only AJ at the table that he realized Justin was still MIA.

"Where’s my lunch?" Nick asked when he only saw Lance.

"I don’t know your locker combo, I couldn’t get it."

"Where’s Justin though?" Nick asked sadly. He couldn’t figure out where Justin was and why he hadn’t heard from him all day. This was highly irregular and it was starting to worry him. Sadly enough, Lance only shrugged.

"I don’t know, I haven’t seen him all day."

Nick stood up and tried not to show how worried he was. "Well, I’m going to go and get my lunch. I’ll be back in five minutes."

As Nick jogged towards the door and into the school, Lance realized that he was alone with AJ. Well, not alone in that it was just the two of them outside, because there were at least fifty to sixty other people outside on that beautiful Thursday afternoon, but alone at their table and forced to make conversation. It wasn’t that they had ever not had anything to talk about, it was more the fact that Nick or Justin had always been there with them as a buffer, and he could always count on them to make things less awkward. Lance picked at his zip lock bag of cookies before raising his eyes to meet AJ’s.

"So, Nick tells me you might be working on the school paper?" AJ started the conversation. He couldn’t help but stare deep into Lance’s eyes, getting lost in their depths. He forced his gaze away and it moved from Lance’s nose to his mouth and finally rested back on Lance’s eyes. He smiled when Lance’s eyes lit up and his lips curled into a grin.

"Yeah. I went last night to check it out, and it seemed to go okay."

"Isn’t Chris the editor? He seems to be a bit of an ass."

Although he didn’t really know Chris, Lance was surprised at the surge of protectiveness he felt for the senior. Yes, in the beginning he’d been a real jerk to him, but Lance couldn’t get over the panic in his eyes and the relief when he’d fixed the problems. He had an idea that Chris was greatly misunderstood by a lot of the school’s population. "He was at first, but when you get to know him, he’s pretty cool. Asked for my opinions and stuff, he was nice."

AJ was impressed. "Cool." They continued on with small talk until Nick returned, much longer than five minutes later. There was a frown on his face and his eyes were missing their usual sparkle. "You okay Carter?" AJ asked. He moved over so that the blonde could sit down.

"There was only one lunch." Nick looked up, frustration clear on his face. "There was only one lunch there."

Although AJ was confused, Lance knew what that meant. It meant that Justin was at school that day, he was just avoiding them. His heart went out to Nick and he gave his friend a sympathetic smile. "I’m sorry Nick."

"Sorry for what? So you only have one lunch, you figure you were gonna be hungry enough for two? I can give you my apple."

Nick shook his head. "I bring two lunches every day, one for me and one for J. If one’s gone, that means he’s here, but he’s avoiding me. He’s eating somewhere else."

The confusion fell from AJ’s face and was replaced with a sympathetic smile. "Sorry kiddo."

All Nick could do was shrug it off. He tried to think of what could have happened for Justin to get mad at him, but was coming up blank. Before he could think more about it, Josh appeared in the Quad and joined them at the table. When he saw Nick’s untouched lunch, he pointed at it.

"You gonna eat that? I’m freaking STARVED!" Nick shook his head and pushed the brown paper bag at him. Josh grinned and dug in, taking a huge bite out of the sandwich. "We were having the soccer tournament for all of the elementary schools today. Everyone else is still there, but I had to leave so I can come here. I never realized how much work is involved with it. I swear, I did more running today than I have since birth."

The table, including Nick despite his sour mood, all laughed and watched Josh inhale Nick’s lunch. The bell rang and everyone headed towards their respective lockers and classes. It wasn’t until science class that afternoon that Nick found himself face to face with Justin. He felt his stomach churn sickly knowing that his best friend was mad at him and tried to catch Justin’s eye. Unfortunately, Justin was doing his hardest to ignore him.

"J, where you been?" Nick asked softly. Justin had come into class seconds before the bell had rang and the teacher was making his way to the front of the room to start the class. Justin didn’t respond so Nick repeated himself a little louder. Again, he received no response. "J? Justin?"

This time Justin did turn to him, he gave Nick a nasty glare and said "shhhhh." Nick was so shocked that he dropped his pen and had to scramble to pick it up. He sat back down on his stool and fidgeted nervously with the faucets at their lab table. His lips formed an undeniable pout and he didn’t dare look up at the chalk board or anything else in the class. He kept his eyes on his notebook, barely hearing anything that Mr. Phillips had said.

Justin crossed his arms over his chest and continued brooding. He’d had an absolutely horrible day and it was all Nick’s fault. He couldn’t focus on anything except how mad he was at the blonde, yet at the same time hated the look of surprise and hurt on Nick’s face at the glare he’d given him. When Mr. Phillips had given them time to work on the questions at the back of the current chapter, Justin was relieved to have something to focus on. He finished the first one and realized that he had no idea what he was supposed to be looking at. Stealing a glance over at his best friend, Justin was surprised to see that Nick was simply staring at a new page in his notebook, not writing anything. It looked like he couldn’t even see anything, he was simply sitting there with a blank expression on his face.

Justin knew he should say something, but wasn’t sure what. As he was about to lean in, Nick looked up and their eyes met. When Justin opened his mouth to speak, he was surprised when "I am so mad at you," came out. His face turned into a mask of shock as Nick’s expression didn’t change.

"I kinda figured," Nick replied simply before opening his text book to start on the questions. Justin hadn’t expected the cool response and thus was thrown back.

"Don’t you care?" Justin asked, getting angry again. He was supposed to be mad at Nick, not the other way around. Now he was mad simply because Nick was mad.

Nick looked up and frowned. "I cared all day when I’ve been worried about where you’ve been. I cared at lunch when I went to my locker and saw only one lunch there, and I cared when I asked what was wrong and you shushed me."

A hand slapped the desk in front of them, startling both Nick and Justin, causing the whole class to burst into laughter. "Now I’m shushing you Mr. Carter. If you haven’t noticed, this isn’t social hour. If you don't have enough work to keep you busy, perhaps I can fix that."

Nick glared at Justin and ducked his head down in embarrassment. "No, Sir. I have plenty work thank you."

"Well then do it instead of talking to Mr. Timberlake."

And with that, they had been left alone, both teens agitated. After class Justin jumped out of his chair and ran for the door, leaving Nick to watch him in frustration. He had one class left for the day and barely got through that before he was back at his locker and talking to Lance. They were discussing the fact that Halloween was the next day and figuring out what costumes they were going to wear.

Justin had felt guilty all through final period at the way he’d talked to Nick and almost got him into trouble. He knew he’d been overreacting but he’d been hurt and wasn’t sure how else to deal with it. After he’d gone to his locker and gotten his bag and sweater, he decided to go down and around the hall to Nick’s to apologize. It was as he turned the corner that he saw Lance and Nick talking and laughing about something, obviously not missing his presence at all. They were talking animatedly and Justin felt a surge of jealousy pumping through his veins. He forgot all about apologizing and was about to turn and walk away when he heard his name being called from down the hall.

"Justin!" Lance called. It had been the first time he’d seen the other boy all day and although Nick wouldn’t talk about what happened in science, he knew it must have been serious by the mood the blonde had been in afterwards. He gave an enthusiastic wave and saw Justin give him a brief wave in response. "Where have you been?" Lance asked. He was trying to cut through the tension as it had risen to stifling degrees.

"Around," Justin scowled. He couldn’t be mad at Lance if he was going to be so nice to him, and honestly, Justin knew he didn’t exactly have a right to be mad at either of them. Justin saw Nick slowly turn around and avoid looking at him, that made Justin feel even worse and he suddenly wanted to cry.

"Well, we missed you today. You missed Josh eating Nick’s lunch in like two bites, I swear. I’ve never seen him eat like that."

Justin gave a soft laugh but he knew that Nick probably hadn’t eaten lunch because he was so upset about his absence. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and shrugged. "So, what’s up?"

"Oh shit," Lance yelped. "I’ve got to get to the Report. I don’t want Chris to think I’m not coming." Lance wasn’t as nervous as he had been the day before about going to the paper, but he still wasn’t 100% comfortable with it either. He didn’t know how Chris would react to his reappearance and wanted to get there as soon as possible so he didn’t miss anything.

"You want company?" Nick asked softly. Their eyes met and Lance shook his head.

"Nah, I’m good. You just want to come in case he’s there." Lance and Nick shared a knowing look and they both broke into laughter.

"Uh, yeah!" Nick snorted.

Justin knew they were talking about Kevin, but at the same time had no idea what they were talking about. "HE is in the cafeteria for a prom committee meeting. I saw them going there as I passed by on my way here."

For the first time since he arrived, Justin and Nick looked each other in the eye and Nick gave a short nod. "Thanks."

Lance raised his eyebrows and gave Nick a look of sympathy. "Well I have to go. Later guys." And with that, he was down the hall and out of sight.

"When did he start writing for the Report?" Justin asked, wanting to make small talk. Nick looked surprised that he was still there and shrugged.

"Yesterday."

"Yesterday? When you were supposed to come over to my house to watch the basketball game? Yesterday when you ditched me to hang out with Lance and didn’t even call?" Justin couldn't keep it locked inside of him anymore. He needed to yell at Nick, to tell him how hurt and angry he was. There was a moment where Nick’s eyes were filled with confusion, and then it made way for regret.

"Oh damn..." Nick groaned as he leaned back against his locker. "I totally forgot. I’m so sorry man!" Nick slid down so that he was sitting against his locker, his hand over his eyes.

"You forgot me! Mom said it was okay and we were going to order pizza,. And it was going to be us watching the game, we haven’t done that in forever." Justin’s anger made way for the hurt and he was pouting now.

Nick was too stunned to respond. He watched as Justin’s face changed from angry to defeated and sad and that made him hurt at Justin’s pain. He stood up and dusted off the seat of his jeans.

"And I waited and waited, but you didn’t call. So I called your house and your mom said that you had gone to Lance’s after school and weren’t coming home till bedtime."

"I’m so sorry Justin. I totally forgot. I..."

"You forgot me. You’re forgetting me and you’re replacing me with Lance and pretty soon you’re not going to need me around anymore."

"You’re being silly J, I’d never replace you." Nick pleaded.

"You already are."

"I’m not!" Nick stamped his foot angrily. "You’re my best friend. You’re ALWAYS going to be my best friend."

Justin looked down and stared at his sneakers. He raised his chin and looked into Nick’s eyes. "Promise?"

"Of course I promise..." The rest of Nick’s sentence was cut off by giggling from across the hall. They both turned to see Britney and Christina watching them with extreme interest, flirtatious smiles on their faces.

Nick heard Justin whisper ‘oh god,’ under his breath and grinned at his best friend. "I have to tell you something about them," Nick mumbled.

"Me too," Justin replied. Both of them gave each other one last look before pasting smiles on their faces. They turned to the girls.

"Hi Justin. Hi Nick." Christina said the moment they’d been acknowledged.

"Hi Christina." Nick replied.

"You two okay? Justin ate lunch with us today instead of with you like he always does, and then you looked like you were fighting in science which made Mr. Phillips get all crusty with you." Britney pouted as she stepped in closer to the boys.

At the mention of Justin eating lunch with them, Nick’s head spun around and he gave Justin a questioning look. All he received was a painful nod in response. Nick covered up his surprise by saying, "just fine Britney, thanks for the concern."

Christina looked at her watch and frowned. "Come on B, my sister’s gonna be here soon."

Britney looked like she didn’t want to leave. She stared at the boys before shrugging. "I might hang out here. You guys sticking around?"

Nick could see the rage on Christina’s face as she pasted a forced smile on her face. "Fine. Thanks a lot Brit."

"Actually," Justin said loudly. "We’re not. I’ve got to get going so..."

"Y..yeah!" Nick added quickly. "Me too."

Britneys’ smile faded and she looked down the hall at Christina who had one hand on her waist. "Well? You coming then Britney!" Christina flashed the two boys a sexy smirk before spinning on her heel and stalking off towards the front door.

Britney sighed before she smiled at Nick and Justin and chased her best friend down the hall. Nick was sure he could hear Christina yelling at her from around the corner.

"You really got to go?" Nick asked, his voice soft and sad.

Justin nodded. "Gonna go practice. They posted try outs for basketball. It’s next Wednesday night."

Nick frowned. "You practice so much J. You know you’re going to make it. Why don’t you not practice tonight and we’ll go to the Shake Shack for a snack. Then we can go to your place and do our homework."

Justin thought about it skeptically. "Kevin’s not going to be there. I read the poster and prom committee is meeting until at least six o’clock, it’s not even four."

Nick shrugged his shoulders carelessly. "I don’t want to go there because Kevin’s going to be there, I want to go there because you’ll be there." He threw his arm around Justin’s shoulders and hugged his best friend. "I miss you. And I have so much to tell you, I've been dying all day to share my news."

Justin couldn’t help the grin that covered his face as he hugged Nick back. He hated fighting with Nick, even though Nick hadn’t realized they were fighting. He felt as though a giant weight had been lifted from his shoulders and he was so giddy he giggled. "Okay. I gotta phone my mom first though, tell her we’re taking the bus to the Shack."

Once they’d made their respective phone calls and were at the bus stop waiting for the bus to take them for their snack, Nick turned to Justin to fill him in on everything that had happened the day before. Both with him in the art room and Lance at the school paper. Justin listened to everything in surprise, sorry that he’d missed it and glad that Nick was filling him in. He laughed hysterically at the scene that he’d missed that morning, wishing he’d been there to see it. He could just picture how funny the expression on Nick’s face would have been and how trampy the girls were acting. Nick punctuated his story by talking exactly how the girls had spoken to Kevin and Justin nearly choked he was laughing so hard.

By the time they had gotten to the Shake Shack, Justin was telling Nick about the doctor’s appointment, his evening the night before and his horrible day. He apologized for being so angry at him. "But don’t worry, I’ve paid for it." Justin promised with a shudder. Nick was snickering at Justin’s theatrics and nearly made his milkshake squirt out his nose. They had ordered a vanilla float for Justin, a peanut butter and banana milkshake for Nick and a basket of onion rings and French fries to share. Since Nick hadn’t eaten lunch that day, it wasn’t long before there were empty plates between them. |

"What do you mean?" Nick asked, eyes wide. He hadn’t felt this good in a long time and was happy to have it be just him and Justin. He loved hanging out with Josh, AJ and Lance, but it had been a long time since they had done something alone, the two of them.

"Well, I didn’t know where else to eat today, so I ...." Justin inhaled deeply before letting it all out. He sighed and shook his head. He didn’t need to finish his thought, Nick already knew.

"You didn’t?" Nick’s squeal caused for Justin to duck his head in embarrassment. "With THEM and in THERE?"

"Yeah!"

"Gross!!" Nick couldn’t believe that Justin was mad and hurt enough to risk eating in the cafeteria, and not even just the cafeteria, but in the cafeteria with none other than the peroxide twins. That was where the Freshmen ate and usually it was a battlefield in there. Food fights were always erupting and for the most part, it was a horrible experience. Nick and Justin had eaten there for the first few days and were thankful when Nick had met AJ and had been invited to the Soph. Quad. Nick couldn’t even begin to imagine the torture Justin had been subjected to eating with Christina and Britney and silently wondered if they giggled all the time, even when no one was around, or when they were eating. Suddenly, Nick had a vision of the girls taking a bite and trying to chew and giggle at the same time. They both laughed for a few moments before Nick became serious. "I’m sorry you were upset enough to have to eat there J."

Justin shook his head. "No. I was being stupid. I should have come to talk to you, but I couldn’t." The moment was broken when the door opened and Justin’s mom entered the restaurant, looking for her son. Justin looked up and smiled as he saw his mom at the door. He waved and called her over. "Hey. MOM!" When Lynn Timberlake’s eyes rest upon her son she grinned and wove her way through the restaurant to their table.

"Hey baby," Lynn said as she ruffled her son’s curls affectionately. She looked at Nick and winked at him. "And Nickolas, aren’t you looking handsome as ever."

"Awww mom," Justin whined. "You’re gonna embarrass him."

Nick only grinned as he hugged his second mother. "Hi Lynn. What are you doing here?"

"Well, I figured that rather than have you and Justin take the bus back to our house, I’d stop by and get you. Plus your father mentioned something about getting some dinner, so I figured I’d kill two birds with one stone."

Moments later, they were joined by a waitress. She set the boys’ tab on the table as she smiled at Lynn. "Can I get ya anything?"

Lynne took the menu from the woman and quickly looked it over. "You do take out, right?"

The waitress nodded. There was a call from the other side of the restaurant and Lynn waved her hand. "Go ahead sweetie, I’ll be a moment." The waitress flashed her a thankful smile and headed off to pick up her latest order.

Justin and Nick exchanged wicked grins. Justin slid the bill closer to his mother in hopes that she would offer to pay for their snack. He was surprised when she looked directly at him and raised an eyebrow. "If I’m correct, between the two of you, you should have more than enough money to pay for this."

The smiles dropped from both of their faces as they were replaced with looks of disbelief. Lynn only laughed.

"You think Jane and I don’t talk? I know full well that the two of you are raking in twenty five bucks a week on Justin’s ‘lunches’."

The two teens had enough common sense to not hide the guilty looks on their faces or dispute the fact. Afraid they were in trouble, neither spoke. It was Lynn who spoke first.

"So I think you can take care of this one on your own Justin."

Justin bit his lip before asking the question on the forefront of his mind. It was risky, but he couldn’t help himself. "Does that mean I don’t get my five bucks every day?" Nick hid his snicker behind his hand and tried to cough to cover up the sound. Lynn’s lips curled into a smirk that she too was trying to hide.

"Well, Jane and I have agreed that if she’s going to provide you both with lunches for the week, I should at least provide you with snack money for the weekends and evenings."

Nick and Justin both high fived each other. The waitress returned and Lynn looked at the boys for assistance. "What should I get? What’s good?"

"Bacon cheeseburger!" They both replied enthusiastically. Lynn nodded. "I guess a bacon cheeseburger for Paul, give him an order of onion rings and I’ll take a club sandwich with fries. And we’ll also have two junior dogs with two kiddy fries and a family sized garden salad." Lynn was ordering for herself, her husband and her two younger sons. Knowing that Justin had already eaten, she didn’t have to worry about whether or not she should order anything for him.

"Would you like anything to drink while you wait?"

Justin wiggled his eyebrows and his mother sighed. "Should I?" Her response was a nod from her son.

"Fine, you’ve convinced me. A root beer float please. God, it’s been so long since I've had one."

"Not a problem ma’am. It’ll be about fifteen minutes tops." Minutes later, the waitress returned with Lynn’s float and Justin’s eyes widened comically.

"If I’m correct, young man. You've already had one." Lynn teased as she took a long drink from her glass. Nick watched in amazement how her face looked similar to Justin’s when he would drink a root beer float and he knew that it was where Justin got the taste of it from. They spent the fifteen minutes until their order was up talking and laughing, Nick enjoying the relaxed afternoon with his best friend.

"So, what are you guys dressing up as for Halloween," Lynn started to ask as they headed out of the restaurant. Just as they stepped out into the parking lot, they heard someone yelling at them.

"Fresh meat!!"

Both Nick and Justin turned to look, recognizing the familiar nickname. Lynn on the other hand didn’t understand.

"Fresh meat? What’s that supposed to mean?"

Justin blushed and snickered. "It’s us. We’re fresh meat. Like freshmen.." Lynn only clucked her tongue against the roof of her mouth.

"Hmmm."

Nick’s eyes bulged out when he recognized the person talking to them. It was Joey Fatone.

"Huh?"

Joey was jogging over and Nick and Justin exchanged glances. Lynn realized that her presence there wouldn’t help the fresh meat image so she headed towards the car to wait for them.

"Thanks for the paint tip yesterday. We had to scrap all the wood that the dumbass ruined when he used the other paint. If he had have just read the can he would have known not to use it. Last night we went to Home Depot and got what you suggested and spent all night painting the one wall. I was surprised, but it worked with one coat. Thanks dude."

Nick could see Brian standing on the curb, waiting for Joey to go inside. He blushed under the attention and gave an embarrassed shrug. Justin on the other hand, beamed proudly. "You’re welcome." Nick squeaked out.

"Joe, come on! I’m hungry." Brian called. Joey gave him the finger and rolled his eyes.

"He’s so impatient. Well thanks again kid. You’re a lifesaver." Joey turned and headed towards the restaurant. It was when he was about a hundred feet away that Nick found his voice.

"Hey..." Joey stopped running and turned around. He waited a second and Nick’s voice froze again.

"Yeah?"

"Don’t forget.." Nick stuttered. "Don’t forget a finisher. It’s good paint but you’re going to want something to protect it against the heat from the lights. Plus with people moving the wood so much it might peel or chip. If you treat it early it’ll last longer. And even though it looks good now, you might want to put a second coat on. Just to be safe."

Joey gave them both a nod and a wave. "Will do Fresh Meat. Thanks." Joey met up with Brian and headed inside, neither of the juniors looking back. Nick and Justin stood in the middle of the parking lot in awe that Joey Fatone had just talked to them. It was the sound of Lynn’s horn that startled them out of their daze.

"Food’s getting cold boys. Get in."


They were halfway to Justin’s house, chattering excitedly about their afternoon when Lynn’s question finally permeated Nick’s thoughts.

"Oh man. Halloween!?! What ARE we going to wear?"

End Chapter 8


Chapter 9 >