"Find the Key and Turn This Engine On"
Eddy Money, Take Me Home Tonight

"Anika, you don't want to miss this. Just come tonight, okay?" Marissa begged, stirring her spaghetti. "Really. I met some guys last night, and I think they'll be there tonight."

"Marissa, I have a paper due!" Anika protested.

"All the more reason for you to get out for a while. We'll be back by 11:30 at the latest. I'll pick you up at 9:30, okay?"

Anika sighed. "All right. But only if I'm home by 11:30."

"Done," Marissa said. "I'll see you tonight." She hung up and went to drain the noodles.

When Marissa arrived at Anika's apartment, her friend came running out the door. "I was watching for you. Tell me about these guys," she said.

"Nope. You'll have to wait." Marissa grinned at her.

The club was as crowded as it had been the night before, but the two women managed to find a table. They dumped their jackets on two of the chairs and headed for the dance floor. They stayed even a little long, meeting up with old friends and acquaintances from the club, but to Marissa's disappointment, she didn't ever catch sight of them. She remembered, on the way home, that they hadn't shown up until after 11:00 the night before. "But they were performing last night," she muttered to the empty car. "I don't think they did that tonight."

She got her answer at work the next day. Joe had left a message on her voice mail apologizing; they'd had to leave that afternoon. She sighed as she hung up.

To her surprise, Joey was a good correspondent, and she even got messages from the others. Justin and Chris were fairly regular, but she only got the occasional message from Lance and JC.

The weeks before Thanksgiving were full of their plans to be home in Orlando and commiserating with her, since she couldn't go home to see her parents. She enjoyed the plans, especially Justin's plan to ‘catch up on sleep when we get back on tour', although she seriously doubted Joey could actually eat three gallons of ice cream in one sitting, and really didn't understand exactly why he'd want to.

Then, three days before the holiday, she got a veritable barrage of angry email messages, although not angry at her, all complaining that they weren't going to be allowed to go home after all. Justin's nearly broke her heart; he told her he hadn't been home for the holidays since the group had started. He sounded so homesick that she took great care in drafting her response.

Justin,

I know a little how you feel; I've told you that I haven't been able to go home for Thanksgiving for the last five years. It's really hard, not being with family. But you have the guys, and that's something to be thankful for. But, man, to be promised a chance to make it home, then to have that rug pulled out from under you; that was just rude! Cruel and unusual punishment!! What would you like me to do to them? I have an excellent imagination, and I can come up with very fun tortures....

If you're near Portland, let me know. Me and my friend Anika will be celebrating together at my house. You're welcome to join us, and while we aren't exactly family, it will get you in a family-type atmosphere, and I hope that will help. Just call, so we have enough food!!! You are a growing boy, after all... ;) Oh, and to give you directions. It's not fun to find.

That's all of you, if you want, boyo. My number is 360-555-2862. Or, if you can't make it and get really lonely, call me. We'll be pretty veged out.

Love & hugs,
Marissa

She sent it with some trepidation, not entirely sure about the whole thing. Her apartment was small, and seven people plus bodyguards would get crowded... She shrugged it off. They could make it work. She didn't get a call or a response, but on Wednesday night she bought another small turkey. Anika thought she'd lost her mind, but Marissa didn't care. She didn't think they'd make it since JC had said something about Mississippi, but she wanted to be prepared, just in case.


Chris was beginning to go crazy. Whatever had been planned for today had been canceled, possibly due to the arrival of Justin's family earlier that morning. Their managers were pulling things like this more often than not. Were the Wrights trying to frustrate them to death? Joey was on the phone in his room, Lance was sequestered somewhere - Chris actually hadn't seen him at all that morning - and JC was out shopping. He'd figured he'd be relatively safe on Thanksgiving Day. Maybe Lance had gone with him? Chris dropped onto his bed and picked up the phone, dialing long memorized numbers one after the other. He'd already left voice mail messages, and had no idea where his family had gone. There was no answer anywhere.

Still restless, he got up and opened the laptop to check his email. He found he had a new message. It was from Justin, who had forwarded a nice message from Marissa late last night. I didn't get a chance to email her back, Justin had added at the top. Can someone please do that?

"The kid has no brains," Chris muttered, went to click on the ‘reply' button, and stopped, rereading the message. She'd sent her phone number. Ah ha, the answer to his boredom/insanity! Grabbing the hotel supplied pen and paper he jotted the number down, then crashed on the bed again, reaching for the phone.

It rang once, twice. "Pick up," he begged, then the third ring was cut off.

"Hello?"

"Um, hi. Can I speak to Marissa?"


Anika glanced at her friend, who was checking the turkey. She was fairly sure Marissa hadn't been expecting a boy to call her; certainly she would have said something if that were the case. Not to mention that the voice was unfamiliar. "Uh, sure, just a minute. Can I ask who's calling?"

He almost laughed. "Sure. Chris Kirkpatrick."

Anika paused, trying to figure out where she knew the name, then snorted. That was the guy with the braids from ‘N Sync. "Right. Who are you really, and why do you want to talk to Marissa?"

Marissa glanced at her, then checked on the potatoes.

Chris sighed. "Would you please tell her that Chris Kirkpatrick is on the line?"

Anika smirked. "And why do you want to talk to her?"

"Because I'm bored, and no one is home in Pittsburgh."

Anika paused. "Do I know you?"

Chris rolled his eyes. "No. Definitely not."

"Have I seen you before?"

"I'm fairly sure you've seen me somewhere," he said, trying not to let his frustration show. Magazines, posters, MTV, Award shows... he recited to himself silently.

"Describe yourself."

"Ugh... I look like Chris Kirkpatrick." The frustration was getting through anyway.

"Describe yourself," she repeated.

Chris sat up. The frustration was getting him no where; time to adopt other tactics. "Can't you just tell her I called?" he asked plaintively.

Marissa gave the potatoes a stir and glanced at her, then went to get celery and cheese whiz from the fridge.

"She's busy cooking, checking stuff." Anika waved her friend away when she turned toward her, interested.

"Can't you do that?"

"Describe yourself!" she demanded, struggling to keep from laughing.

"Ugh! All right!" What else was he going to do? Besides, this was more entertaining that what he'd been doing all morning. "Um... 5'9", short brown hair, brown eyes, thankfully finally straight teeth.... scruffy, I think she said I was. Good enough?"

Anika paused. Short brown hair? "Okay, what's your personality like?"

It sounded so much like an interview question that he got an idea. "You know... whatever I say can be checked online, and can therefore be found online."

"Oh." She sounded disappointed, and he gave himself a point. "One more question before I give you to Marissa."

He swallowed a comeback that would have embarrassed her and possibly made her hang up on him; he didn't know her that well, or Marissa, either, and he wanted her to stay on the phone. "If you promise it's only one."

"How and where did you meet Marissa?"

"I met her at a club in Portland, by scaring her into Joey's arms. It was just after the concert we did there a couple of months ago."

"Oh... interesting...." She hadn't expected that. Chris gave himself another point. She chuckled a little. "I still don't believe you're Chris... Kirk... patrick, or what ever your name is..."

Marissa snatched the phone from her. "Chris! Hi! If I'd known it was you she was grilling, I would have stopped her!"

"Whatever my name is?" he asked, mentally wiping all his points out of the air. That had completely blind-sided him.

Marissa laughed. "She's a Hanson fan. Their last names are easy to remember."

Anika's startle gasp nearly covered Chris' laughter. Marissa grinned and walked into her bedroom. "Wait!" Anika called. "That really is Chris from ‘N Sync?"

Chris laughed and gave himself a point again. "Yes, it's Chris. Watch the oven. I'm gonna talk to him for a while." Marissa closed the door. "So, what are you doing, calling me?"

"My family is unreachable right now. Justin forwarded your email, so I thought I'd call you."

"I'm glad you did. Is Justin okay? He sounded really homesick."

Chris chuckled and lay back on the bed again. "Oh, he's fine," he told her with some irony. "His family's here; the rest of us are all left out. JC's out shopping for a birthday present that's due Saturday, and Joey's on the phone. I haven't seen Lance all morning, it's like he became a recluse or something. Maybe a hermit. Hopefully not a monk," he added, dead pan, and she laughed. "I've been trying to get hold of my parents or sisters, and I'm having no luck. I left a message on all their voice mail, and about four subsequent hang ups." He laughed. "Serves them right."

"Anika does it all the time to me, without leaving a message. Drives me nuts!"

"Joey's the same. I've been trying to teach him that speaking on voice mail is no different than speaking into a microphone, but it's not working."

"It's not exactly something I can use to correct Anika, either," she smiled.

"No, I guess not." He paused. "Hey, do you really think Lance looks like a pixie?"

Marissa chuckled. "I don't know. He may be a wilder strain of elves than Justin. I'm not sure what he looks like, other than just... unique. It's been driving me crazy. But he's not purebred any more than Justin is."

He glanced up, staring hard at the ceiling. "Do you really think Justin's half Elven?"

Marissa chuckled again. "No... I just know he looks like an elf in a couple of pictures I've seen. I mean, the basis of these creatures had to come from somewhere!"

"But an elf?"

"He's not a troll or a goblin, and he's too tall to be a dwarf, not to mention that he's too clean shaven. He's at least half human, if not more, because he has to be just right to catch the elf-ness of him."

"And Lance is elven, too, just a wilder breed?"

She could hear the laughter in his voice. "Yeah! I mean, for some reason a high elf deigned to breed with a human somewhere back in Justin's ancestry. I think it was wood elf in Lance's. JC, on the other hand, is full human, no doubt about it. You and Joey, though, you may have less... illustrious ancestry."

Chris burst into laughter, and Marissa chuckled, glad she'd managed to cheer him up a little. "Are you okay?" she asked after a minute, which caused him to only laugh harder.

JC opened the connecting doors and looked inquisitively at Chris, who lay sprawled on the bed, slowly getting in control of himself again. "Who are you talking to?" he asked.

"Marissa."

"What?" she asked, and Chris had to clench his teeth to keep from laughing again.

"No," he finally gasped. "JC's back and wanted to know who you were."

"Can I talk to her?" JC asked.

"And he wants to talk to you." Chris handed the phone to JC and relaxed a little, grinning insanely and trying to catch his breath.

"Hey, Marissa. What are you doing?"

"Letting my friend Anika deal with the cooking, and regaling Chris with you guys' probable ancestry. Tell him you're not just human but probably also nobility."

He blinked, surprised, and Chris chuckled. "She said to tell you that I'm not only human but probably nobility," he said. Chris laughed. "What is she talking about?"

"Your probable ancestry, JC. Let me talk to Chris again."

JC shook his head. "Here, Psycho. She wants you," he said with a grin and a wink.

Chris grinned. "Some days, it pays to be insane." He took the phone. "So, what about you?"

"Oh, if I have any elven in me, it's way too far back. I hate to do this to you, Chris, but Anika is shooting me dirty looks from the doorway. I'd better go."

He sighed dramatically, and JC shook his head. "All right."

"Thanks for calling," she said, smiling widely so he could hear it in her voice. "It's been entertaining."

"Thanks for talking to me," he responded, and she was glad to hear the smile in his voice, too.

"Any time, Chris. Although I warn you that the phone doesn't always wake me up. Go leave another round of hang-ups on your family's voice mail. And tell everyone Happy Thanksgiving for me."

He chuckled. "I will. Bye."

"Later."

He hung up and lay back on the bed, closing his eyes. He felt a little better about not getting in touch with his family for now.

"So, I take it she's doing okay?" JC asked. Chris opened one eye.

"Fine. Happy, at least it sounds like it. Have you seen Lance?"

JC shook his head. "Not since last night."

"He's become a recluse, then, ‘cause neither have I." He closed his eye again. "Go find him."

JC laughed and saluted. "Yes, sir!" he said loudly, and marched from the room. Chris smiled and slowly drifted to sleep.


Marissa hung up and grinned at Anika, who scowled. "You didn't tell me you were expecting a call from Chris from ‘N Sync!" she demanded.

"I wasn't," Marissa said, taking the phone with her back into the kitchen. "But I thought Justin might call."

"Justin?" Anika followed her.

"Yeah."

"Also from ‘N Sync, with the curly hair?"

"Justin Timberlake. Yes." Marissa laughed.

"Why?"

Marissa set the phone down and began the rounds of checking everything again. "They were supposed to be home this Thanksgiving, but management booked them by accident, Joey and Lance think; Chris was sure they'd done it on purpose. Justin and JC didn't state opinions." She shrugged and got her mixer out. "Justin's last email sounded really homesick, but I guess his family is with him this year."

"How?"

Marissa smirked. "I can only guess they flew out."

Anika slapped her shoulder. "How did you end up maybe expecting a phone call from Justin from ‘N Sync? Or falling into Joey's arms, for that matter?"

"Oh. Well, Chris was standing above me, and he startled me. Joey was sitting on the other side, and I sort of fell into him. I offered to let him sit at my table because he was absolutely exhausted. Someone asked me to dance, and when I got back, everyone but Chris was there. When he showed up, he startled me." She shrugged. "Are you about ready?"

Anika shook her head. "No. I'm confused."

Marissa laughed. "I met them at the club. You remember that paper you had to get done, and I dragged you out to meet the guys that never showed up?"

"Yeah...." Anika said slowly.

"Well, those were the guys, Chris, JC, Joey, Lance, and Justin. ‘N Sync. They had to leave just after lunch, I guess." Marissa shrugged. "We've been in email contact since then."

"And you didn't tell me?" Anika demanded.

Marissa straightened. "I got their addresses under the strictest of confidences," she explained. "I decided it would be better not to say anything to anyone about it. Now are you ready?"

Anika smiled. "Almost. I'll set the table." They turned their attention to the dinner. "Oh," Anika added a few minutes later, "I forgive you."

Marissa grinned and rolled her eyes. "Thanks."

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