"You have so many relationships in this life. Only one or two will last. You're going through all this pain and strife, then you turn your back and they're gone so fast." Liz strummed her guitar and she and Haylee sang. Haylee stood and danced.

"I hate you." Liz joked. "I'll never learn to dance. I'm like, not coordinated enough or something."

Haylee gave Liz a look, took both of her hands, and pulled her to her feet. "DANCE." She commanded.

"I TOLD you. I CAN'T."

"TRY!"

Liz sighed and shook her hips.

"Move your feet, Liz. Like this."

Liz tried to imitate Haylee's movements. She looked so cute, but Liz looked as though she were being electrocuted. Haylee frowned.

Liz swung her hips a little too wide and took out the card table. "I'm not just BAD, Hay, I'm DANGEROUS." She giggled.

Haylee sighed and they both got down on their hands and knees in the RV to clean up the mess. "It's just that there isn't enough room in here." Haylee said.

"Hay, there ain't enough room in the WORLD for ME to dance."

They laughed and Haylee shook her head. She became quiet for a second. "What would you say if you met him?"

Liz put the last card back on the table and stood up. "I'd say... 'Hello Tay. My name is Liz. Can I see you naked?'" She grinned cheesily and laughter shook her wavy brown hair and lit up her blue marble eyes.

"NO! I've GOT it!" Haylee stood. "'Taylor, my name is Haylee and I simply ADORE you. Would you marry me?'"

"US, Hay, marry US!" Liz corrected.

"Oh yes, 'Would you marry US?'" Haylee revised. They laughed again.

"Would you really share him, Hay?"

"Sure! Of COURSE! But ONLY with you." Haylee replied.

Liz gestured to the poor table. "Think I could get a job on a demolition crew?"

Haylee laughed. "Hey, when's the next big event?"

Liz flipped through the calendar. "Um... there's a benefit... tomorrow night. They're supposed to play three songs. It's in San Diego."

"YAY!" Haylee cheered. "Maybe tomorrow will be THE night." She sighed, daydreaming happily. "Hmmm... To meet them... How long have we been following them now?"

"Um... It will be a year and a month on the twenty-seventh... Can you believe we haven't already met them? I mean, for the love of CRAP... They live in our CITY."

"Yes... very strange inDEED. Also very sad. And I had no IDEA you felt so strongly about crap..."

"I do." Liz said with mock seriousness.

"Well, now I know." Haylee said.

"Yes, I know you know." Liz hit her in the face with a pillow.

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"So Tay..." Zac whispered as they walked down the hall. "Was he a good kisser?" He snickered.

"Zac, I'm going to break your arm off and BEAT you with it if you don't LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Ike joined in, "Tay, be quiet. You're gonna get us busted." He smiled. "But seriously... how was he?"

"I didn't let him kiss me, you morons."

Zac turned around and hugged his sides to make it look like he was making out with someone. He moaned dramatically and made slobbering, smacking noises.

Tay smacked him on the back of the head. "Cut it out, spazz."

Zac pouted and then laughed.

"Shhh..." Ike said suddenly, grabbing each of them by an arm. They heard talking and followed the sound. Tay peeked around the corner when they found the room it was coming from. He quickly shot his head back out.

"What did you see, Tay?" Zac asked.

Tay looked perturbed. "They're um... It's Otown... And some fat guy and um... I can't tell... Lots of wires..."

Ike took a peek in and gasped silently with his face. "That fat guy is Lou Pearlman. He's putting plugs in their ears, attaching them to car batteries..."

"Lemme see..." Zac peeked in and suddenly lost his balance on his four-inch heels. He hit his head on the door and with a thud, the door swung open.

The members of Otown turned to stare. Pearlman looked violent. He unplugged the boys and they stood all at once. Zac smiled and laughed nervously. Taylor yanked him from the doorway and they took off running. Ike's wig flew off. Zac pulled his shoes off and hurled them, pegging the dred-headed Jacob Underwood in the forehead with a heel.

Ike took off his shoes and hit Ashley in the stomach. Tay hit Dan with his purse. They saw an "EXIT" sign and threw open the door. A car was waiting. The door opened and a voice from the backseat said, "Get in if you want to LIVE."

Ike looked behind him. Zac jumped in and Tay and Ike followed because they couldn't let Zac go alone, and although they didn't know who the man was, they were in danger if they stayed too.

As they each got in, they sat down in the limo and gasped. The doors locked and they were face-to-face with all five members of N'Sync.

"What do you want? Taylor asked, visibly alarmed.

"Chil." Chris said. "We're here to help, bro."

"But you're Pearlman's creation too!" Ike said.

"You know," Lance said, "I don't think we'll EVER get out from under that in people's minds. We shouldn't have signed with him in the FIRST place." He sighed and shook his head.

JC added. "We broke free of his control and sued for the rights a long time ago. Not everybody knows that yet. People don't watch MTV for the NEWS."

"Yeah," Chris agreed, "and we were singing together long before Pearlman stepped in."

"We were performing around town, but we didn't have the money to go worldwide. Pearlman did..." Joey shrugged.

Justin finally spoke. "I'm the one who contacted you."

Zac giggled.

"What's funny?" JC asked.

Zac pointed at Ike. His mascara had smeared under his eyes and his lipstick was on his chin. His hair stuck to his head and poked out at odd angles from being under the wig.

Chris laughed too. "Dude, you look like a crack whore."

They all laughed. Ike checked himself in the mirror next to him and joined in.

Justin interrupted their laughter. "What did you see?"

Taylor slowly stopped laughing. "Ike saw more than I did."

"There was that fat guy, Pearl Louman..." Zac began to launch into his hyper-active description. "And he was like, putting these things in Otowns ears. And the things, um, cords, were like, attached to car batteries." He rambled. "And then I fell in and they came after us, but we threw our shoes at them - well, Tay threw his purse and Ike and me - "

Ike interrupted. "Hey ZAC!"

"What?" He asked innocently.

"Meeeeeeeeeellllllllllloooooooooooowwwwwww...." he said slowly.

Zac crossed his arms over his chest and sulked.

"So Pearlman was recharging them?" JC asked.

"Huh?" Tay asked.

"He had to recharge them. Their microchips and processing stuff and motors use a lot of juice." Chris said.

"Are you saying Otown are all robots?" Ike asked.

"Of course." Justin confirmed. "How else could they make such mindless crap and consider it music and still be able to sleep at night?"

"REALLY?" Zac perked up suddenly. "Robots are COOL!"

"Have you HEARD "We Fit Together"? Did you ACTUALLY BELIEVE they were human?" Chris asked.

Joey shuddered at the mention of the song. "Dude, you know how I feel about THAT song. Please don't mention it again."

Chris patted Joey's shoulder apologetically. "Sorry dude. I forgot how you get."

"But..." Tay was having trouble taking it all in. "Where did he get the technology? He doesn't look like..."

Zac finished where Taylor trailed off. "He doesn't look like he knows much of anything except how to be a pedofile."

Justin smiled. "Yeah, but he's SOOO rich. I mean, you guys have no idea."

"I see..." Isaac said. "So you don't need brains because if you have enough money you can buy people to think FOR you?"

"Exactly." JC said.

"WOAH..." Zac was getting wide-eyed.

"There's more." Justin pulled a folder from the seat next to him. "Do you think people like their music because they like the way it sounds? Can you imagine ANYBODY actually genuinely LIKING that crap?"

"What are you saying?" Ike asked.

"I think I know where he's going with this one. Brainwashing?" Tay speculated.

"BINGO." Chris smiled.