Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2001 16:11:16 -0500 From: Adam Irwin <bottledup03@hotmail.com> Subject: Grand Central High Disclaimer Um, I hate doing these things, as I think most authors do. If you are under the age of 18 (or what's legal in your country) then you should not be reading this. But on the other hand, if you're under 18, I don't think you're going to tell me that you are. So I could care less. As for any thing else, this is fiction, I don't know any of the pop stars I write about. I don't know if any of them are gay, or what. Like I said before it's fiction, I make all this shit up. ------------------------------- Note This story is an Alternate Universe story. The characters ages are changed for purposes of the story making sense. They are still some what realistic, except for a few that are overly younger, but I'm sure you'll get used to it. -------------------------------- "He looks lonely." "What's his stats Lance?" "I'm not that quick Joey." The blond haired boy replied to his seemingly older friend. "Sure, now really, whats his stats?" Joey asked again, giggling. "Alright, alright. He's in your grade Brit. He just moved here from Tenessee, and it looks like he don't have many friends." Lance replied to the question simply. "You guys know anything else about the kid?" He asked, directing his attention towards the two of the three girls at the table. "He's in my geometry class, not to bright. But nice, really polite." The blond replied, looking towards her bestfriend for any more information. "Cute, really cute." The girl that had been addressed as Britney before replied. "Well, I think we noticed that." The blond girl replied to her, laughing. "Shut up, what about you Jess? You think he's cute?" Britney turned towards a more older girl. "I don't date younger guys Brit, remember?" She laughed, continuing to eat her salad. "Um, is any one gonna be nice to him and invite him over?" An older, but smaller boy asked, laughing at how all of them talked about him, with out giving a second thought about him being lonely. "Oh, I'll go invite him to sit with us." Britney replied quickly, and walked from the table heading in his direction. "Is this seat taken?" The young boy looked up at her, his curls catching the sun off the roof light. He blushed, and looked back down. "Um, no you can sit their." "What's your name?" She asked politely, the first thing she thought of. "Justin, Justin Timberlake. What's yours?" Britney giggled at how anxious he was to talk to her. "It's Britney. I couldn't help but notice that you were over here all alone. And I wanted to know if you wanted to sit with me and my friends over their." Britney pointed towards her table of friends, and they all waved, just causing Justin to blush again. "Thanks, I'd like that." Justin smiled, and stood carrying his tray with him. He let Britney sit first, and took the only other empty seat at the table, next to the girl that Britney had called Jessica, although he didn't know any of the names. "Guys, this is Justin. Justin meet, JC, Joey, Chris, Lance, Christina, and that's Jessica." Justin smiled at them all, and each of them smiled back. "What grade you in kid?" JC asked, he knew the answer, but he just wanted to make small talk. "I'm a sophomore." Justin answered, a little shy that he was being introduced to so many people at once. "What about you guys?" "Me, Joe, Chris, Jess, and Lance are all senoirs. Lance should be a junior, but the smart ass skipped a grade. And Britney and Christina are in your grade." JC answered for the table, giving a stare at Lance as he called him a smart ass, Lance just laughed it off, and kept eating. "Let me see your schedule." Joey grabbed quickly for the boys papers, nearly knocking Jessica's tray off the table. "Watch it you ass!" "Calm the fuck down Jess, you aren't damaged." Chris teased her, as she muttered under her breath in anger. "Ew, you got chorus with all of us 9th period." Joey tossed the paper back to him. "All of you are in chorus?" Justin asked, looking around the table. "Yeah, all of us." JC said in a sarcastic tone, obviously teasing the new kid. He didn't realize that the kid was easily embarrassed, because the others started to laugh at how red his face was. "Dude, it's a joke. You'll get used to it, we always tease the new kids." "I know." Justin answered, still low and his face still read. They could tell he was still embarrassed. But he was saved by the bell, as the people who he had just gotten to know were all walking away. Seemingly none of them even saying bye to each other. He turned to grab his stuff, when he caught sight of JC still sitting at the table. "Aren't you going to class?" Justin asked, as he looked at his own schedule to remember where he had to go. "Nope, I'm a senior, I don't have too many classes. Just an English, Social Studies, Lunch, and Chorus. Joey, Chris, Lance, and Jess they have electives and shits, but I have all my requirements, so I just get to chill for a while. Wherever I want. And I got a few friends in the next lunch, so I just chill out here." JC replied, looking back at the kid. "You want me to show you to class?" Justin smiled, and allowed JC to lead him through the halls. He noticed that JC said hi to about every kid in the halls, except for the dorky ones, the nerds, or the ugly ones. He also noticed that those were the kids he would have been hanging out with if it wasn't for JC. He smiled, and kept up pace, feeling big, that is until he ran into a much taller kid. "Watch where you're going pipsqueak." Justin looked up to see what he knew had to be a senior, with menacing facial hair, and an angry look on his eyes. He turned, but only saw another senior, one more at his eye level. "Sorry." He squeezed out, looking around for Josh, or at least his class number. Seeing neither he, stepped back to walk around the two men, but found that they followed his steps. "Nah, I don't think you are sorry. I think you owe us." The tall one said, pushing him up against a locker. "Yeah, I think my cuz is right, you owe us a favor. How bout you embarrass yourself in front of everyone, by screaming you're a girl." The short one smiled, and pushed Justin back up agains the locker. "No." Justin answered silently, looking for JC again. He quickly caught his eyes, and watched as JC slowly and calmly walked over towards them. "Hey Kev, Bri, you guys find a newbie to pick on?" JC walked over, winking at Justin for him to play along. "Yep, he's tiny ain't he." Kevin laughed, as he held Justin by the shirt. "Well, I don't know Kev. He's only a sophomore, pretty cool actually. Justin sat with me last period in lunch, why don't you back off?" JC looked at Kevin calmly, laughing as Kevin did what he was asked of. "Sorry dude, didn't know you knew the kid. Just tell him to watch out where he's walking." Brian replied, but his demeanor that held attitude wasn't as big now. "Don't sweat it Justin, they're cool. Just a little bit of an attitude. School bullies, ya know. But hell, I'm glad their my friends, trust me, when you get as popular as I am, you need a few tough guys around you to keep others in check." JC laughed, and pulled Justin by the backpack to follow. "This is it?" Justin asked as he looked at the room. JC smiled, and shook his head. "It's so small." "Yeah well, that ain't the worst part of it. Wait til you meet Mr. Marley." JC just smiled, and walked off leaving Justin to walk in on his own. ------------------------------- "What period is it again?" Joey asked glancing at Lance. "It's ninth period for the fifth time Joey. The last period of the day." "How much longer til it starts?" Joey asked, as he looked around the room, watching the crowd of students move about. "Since the warning bell rang two minutes ago, a minute." Lance replied with a little anger in his voice. Chris just laughed at the two of them, scanning the room. "I have a feeling Justin's gonna be late." Britney whispered to Chris, noticing that he too was looking around the room. "Oh well, he'll get the idea that it isn't smart to show up late for Mr. Wright's class, even if it is only chorus." Christina whispered back to them, as the bell rang. "Alright, quiet down." The class continued to whisper to each other, but the whispers were so numerous that they were loud enough to be heard by the teacher. "I said shut up." The room quieted at that remark, and Mr. Wright scanned the rows. "I see that everyone is here." "Sorry I'm late, I didn't know where I was going." Justin walked into the room. "What's your name young man?" "Justin, Justin Timberlake. I just moved here." Justin replied. "Alright Justin, I don't care if your new or not. I don't care if you don't know where you're going, you get the same punishment as the rest of them. 10 pushups." Mr. Wright demanded, and Justin didn't know if he was joking or not. "Well, you gonna do them, or do I have to help you?" No one laughed at the comment, but Justin still felt the eyes of the room on him. Justin dropped to the floor, and did the ten pushups with out much problem. "Take a seat any where, their are no assigned seats in this room." Mr. Wright directed Justin, who scanned the room for his friends. After all they had told him that they had chorus ninth. He quickly caught eye of the two bullies from earlier, and shunned away from them. Then he noticed Jessica, but he knew he probably wasn't welcome their. Looking up he saw JC and Britney with a seat in between them, and he quickly walked up to them. "You should really try to be on time next time." JC snickered, as Justin sat down. Justin just turned to him and smirked. "Yeah, thanks for warning me guys." Justin replied silently as he payed attention to the teacher. Listening to him talk about some song, or some performance they were going to be doing soon. He couldn't help but think about the day he had just had. It was his first day in the new school, and in the new state, and he thought he was going to spend it by himself. Like he had for half the day, but then lunch, and he had met some great friends. At least he hoped they were his friends. He couldn't be sure, they liked to tease, and he wasn't sure if they were just teasing him, or really making fun of him. But at the moment he really didn't care, his thoughts just kept going back to the one of them that he couldn't stop dreaming of. His mind raced, as he daydreamed so long, that he was unaware the bell had even rung for class to end. "JUSTIN!" The scream was loud enough to snap Justin up from his thoughts, and cause him to jump. "What?" He asked turning to see that it had been Christina who had screamed. "We're going to the mall, do you wanna come?" Christina asked, laughing at Justin's face. "Um, who's going?" "I think you're gonna fit in pretty good kid." Christina smiled, and pulled him down the steps. He was a little confused by what she had said, but he shrugged it off and kept up. "Well, let's see. Every one you know is going." "Even Kevin and Brian?" Justin asked with a look of disgust on his face. "Yeah, and some of their friends too. Oh, and Jessica is bringing some of her friends." Christina replied, not catching the look on Justin's face as they walked out of the building. "How we getting their?" Justin asked, looking around and noticing that they were late and the buses had left. "Did you think we were riding the bus? Come on kid, not in our social group. We ride in style." Christina laughed as she pointed, to five cars sitting in a row. They were all neatly parked, the biggest a van, the other a jeep, and the last three decent sized cars. Justin looked at them, and saw the friends he had met. "The jeeps JC's, the van's Lance's. The red ones Joe', the blue ones Chris's, and the purple one, thats mine." "You can drive?" '"Yeah, I am 16, so is Brit, I mean you are, aren't you?" Christina asked. "Well, I mean, I will be in a few months." Justin smiled awkwardly hoping it didn't change anything. "Then I guess that means you won't be driving us any where. Well the rest of us have licenses, so you're cool. I'm taking Brit and Chris. Chris would have drove today but his cars in the shop. And Brit doesn't have a car of her own. As for Joey, he's taking Jessica and her two friends. Lance prefers to drive alone, but he's stuck with Kev and Brian's three friends. You, well you get to ride with JC, but be careful, Brian and Kevin can stink up a car in two seconds flat." "Thanks for the warning." Justin smirked at her, as they walked off towards the cars. "Finally, what the hell took you two?" Joey asked as he jumped into his car and rolled down the window. "Alright Jess, get you and your uptight friends in the car." "Did he just?" "I think he did." "Oh shut up Mandy, and get in the fucking car." Brit smirked and jumped into Christina's car. Soon they were all in the cars they were assigned too, and they all piled out of the parking lot. JC was the first, leading the way to the mall. Justin wasn't enjoying the ride, Brian had taken the front seat, leaving him in the back with Kevin. The radio was blasting some loud rock and roll, something Justin wasn't the biggest fan of as they drove down the roads. "You want a smoke kid?" Justin startled himself out of thoughts, to see Kevin offering him a cigarette. "Uh, I don't smoke." "Oh that's cooool." Brian emphasized the cool to piss Justin off, as he was handed a cigarrette of his own. "Back off him guys, so what if he doesn't smoke, I don't either." Justin knew that should have made him feel better, JC had just defended him. And he knew they weren't going to pick on him for the rest of the car ride at least, but being defended just made him seem even more insignifcant. --------------------------------- "So, where we going now?" Christina asked as she handed Joey another bag. "Home." Joey said underneath them. "No, seriously, how about dinner?" Chris asked as he looked to his watch. It was already 6, and he was tired of shopping. He knew food would change that, he just needed to reenergize. "Cool, I could go for some food too." Howie, one of Kevin and Brian's friends agreed. They all worked their way to the food court, each of them heading off to different restaraunts, agreeing to meet at the four tables they set aside. "First ones done." JC smiled as he took a seat. Justin sat next to him, smiled over at him. "So, you like everybody?" JC asked. "Um, well you guys are cool. Brit's nice, Christina's been nice too. Jessica, Mandy, and Nikki girl seem like bitches. And uh, sorry, but Kevin and his friends, they're kinda assholes to me." Justin replied, taking a handful of fries, and slipping one into his mouth. "Yeah, I'm sorry about that. They don't like many lower classmen. They knew Britney and Christina since grade school. And Nick is one of them, so they don't care that he's only a junior. But the rest of them our seniors, like us." JC replied, as the rest of the group that came with them slowly filled in the remaining seats. "Don't you love this shirt?" Mandy held up a shirt that said bad girl on it for everyone to see. "Yeah, but it doesn't fit you Mandy. I mean your personality, you're a goody-goody, you need one that says stuck up." Joey teased back at the girl, and Justin got the picture, that Mandy, and Nikki weren't good friends of the group. He wondered why Jessica even was. "Alright, anyone who's riding with me I wanna go home. I'm tired of shopping." JC stood from the table looking around. "No one wants to leave." "I can take Kevin and Brian in my car", Lance spoke up, remembering that he had some empty seats still. "it's no problem." "Thanks Lance." JC started to walk away. "Um, I think I'll go too." Justin stood and chased after him. "Can you drop me off?" "Sure kid, lets go." JC smiled as they got into the car. "Where do you live any ways?" "Do you know where Pointe Place is?" Justin asked. "Yeah, you live in their." "Um, yeah, that new division they just added, we live up their." "Dude, you must be rich." JC sorta asked, and sorta speculated, Justin just blushed. "I don't think we are, I mean, we are well off, but not rich." Justin replied, and after JC noticed the shade of red he was, he dropped the subject. "So, how old are you anyways? Figuring you're a sophomore I'd say your 16, and probably have your license." "Well, I'm not exactly 16 yet." "Oh, cool, you can be the baby of our group. We haven't one of those in a while." "I'm not a baby, I'm just younger then ya'll." Justin replied, acting as if he was upset by the comment. "Oh, and you say ya'll. Now we got two things to make fun of you for." JC teased Justin, pushing him friendly. "Yeah, yeah, whatever." "It's cool though, I like younger guys." JC smiled, and kept driving. "You like younger guys?" Justin asked, a little nervous by the conversation. "Yeah, I'm bi, that isn't a problem is it. Cuz, I could drop you on the side of the road if it is." JC teased, slowed down, and just started to laugh. "No, no problem. Just caught me off guard that you're so, um, open." Justin replied, hoping that he hadn't ruined the new friendship. "It's cool, it catches every one off guard at first. But I figure if people aren't cool with it, I would have been voted Mr. Popular three years in a row, so I guess my sexuality doesn't really matter." JC replied, like he had had this conversation before. "It's not even a big deal, I haven't even dated many guys, just one or two. So, which road is yours?" "Um, this one right up their." Justin directed the rest of the way down, until they came to a nice house, more like a modern farm house. "This is your house?" JC asked with awe. "Yeah, uh, ya know, this new part is kinda, well they did it to look like farms and stuff. We gotta lot of acres, my mom likes it cuz we got a pool and shit, not to mention the pond down back." Justin started to explain, but soon realized that if he didn't stop he was going to sound like he was bragging about his house. "Um, but it's not that cool. Well, thanks for the ride. I'll see you tomorrow?" Justin asked the question, not sure if he really would. "Yep, I'll pick you up in the morning if you want." JC offered. "That'd be cool." Justin reacted fastly, and he knew he sounded extremely anxious, and he knew that was why JC was smiling and laughing at him. "Alright, I'll see you tomorrow." JC drove off leaving a nervous Justin behind before he could even say goodbye. Justin didn't know why he was nervous, or why he stood in his driveway until he realized he was freezing. Shaking himself out of his daydreaming this time, he walked into his house quickly, and up the stairs to his bedroom. -------------------------- TBC ????? -------------------------- I liked writing this story, it gave me the chance to take a break from Reaching Out. That doesn't mean I'm quitting Reaching Out, but if you guys like this story, I can write both. If you don't, I'll just head back to Reaching Out. Let me know what you think at bottledup03@hotmail.com and you could be seeing this story back in a little while.