"Hi Brad," I say as I walk on the stage for sound check.

"Hey," he says looking up from his keyboard. He looks around and then walks over to me.

I hop up on the stool.

"How have you been?" he asks.

I shrug. "Good. How about you?"

He starts kicking something on the ground. "Good. It feels like it's been forever since I've gotten to talk to you."

My shoulders slump. "I know. I've been so busy. I love coming to New York but when I do it's just nuts."

"So that VJ from MTV is coming to the show tonight?"

I cock my head to one side. "Really? Which one…Rick?"

He nods. "Yeah. He talked about it on his show yesterday. Apparently he and Marcus have become buds…but he said he was looking forward to seeing you too."

I smile. "That's nice."

Tony walks up onto the stage. "There you are."

I look around. "You told me to get to the stage so here I am."

"I know but you were too quick for me. Hi Brad."

"Hi Tony. Well, I'll try to talk to you later."

"Okay," I say and watch him walk back to his keyboards.

"What did he want?"

I look at Tony. "Uh, I didn't realize my personal conversations had to be approved."

His eyebrows rise. "Sorry, it was just a question. I just got a phone call."

"Okay…"

"Wade's in town and he asked me for tickets."

My face lights up. "Really? Oh, that's great."

He nods. "Yeah I thought you might like that."

"Let my parents know if you see them before me."

"Okay," he says but something offstage grabs his attention. "Excuse me," he says before he walks over to where he was looking.

"You guys ready?" I ask, looking at the band.

I get a nod from all of them and George starts them off as my sound check begins.

I run back to my dressing room when sound check is over and run into Uncle Lance.

"Whoa there…where's the fire?" he asks as he grabs my shoulders.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" I ask out of breath. I give him a hug.

"I was in town and thought I'd catch Marcus's show," he shrugs and then winks at me.

I giggle. "You like his show that much, huh?"

"It's your second to last show tonight on his tour. How do you feel?"

I turn and look at him before opening my dressing room door.

"I feel good. I'll miss his crowds, they've been great but I'm really looking forward to this Summer Jam tour. I can't wait to see how they react to my set."

He taps my nose. "They're going to love it."

We walk into the room.

"I hope so."

"Your single is still in the top ten…your next single will be coming out soon, along with the video…they're just getting a taste of what you're about."

I smile up at him.

There's a knock on the opened door.

"Can anyone join this party?"

"I'll have to consult my client," Uncle Lance says as he gives my father a hug.

"I guess," I joke as I sit down in what I call my comfy chair…it goes everywhere I do.

Uncle Lance looks behind daddy. "No Britney?"

"She's talking to someone," he says walking into the room.

"I'm surprised you're here so early, daddy."

"We stopped and had a late lunch. Your sister was getting a bit antsy to get here."

I look at Uncle Lance. "Ashleigh loves to be behind the scenes," I laugh.

He nods. "You were that way once."

His cell phone rings. "Excuse me," he says to both of us as he answers his phone and takes his call out in the hallway.

Daddy looks down at me and smiles. "Looks like it's just you and me kiddo."

I smile and nod.

"It feels like forever since I've gotten to talk to you."

I scratch my head. "Yeah…we've both been busy I guess."

He sits down on the arm of my chair. "So, how are you?"

I know my dad doesn't want the typical "I'm fine" answer…he wants the truth. "Things are hectic, but they're good. I love performing so much that I don't mind all the radio interviews and stuff like that."

"I know what you mean. I've felt that way before…as long as I could perform and make my music, I was happy."

"Daddy?"

"Hmm?"

"I was watching some show the other night and it was a documentary of you and the guys. It made me start to think…"

He cocks and eyebrow. "About what?"

"Well…I never had to go through all that…like you guys did. I didn't have to work twelve-hour days in a hot studio working on my routine. Or I didn't have to travel for months without a day off. I don't want to feel like this was handed to me."

He moved so that he was sitting on the coffee table, directly in front of me. He leaned over and took my hand.

"You don't feel like it was handed to you, do you?"

I shrug, but don't look into his eyes. "But it was a lot easier for me…"

"Everyone's different. Every success story is different. You are able to get great management and lawyers who have learned from other people's mistakes. Plus the time is right for your kind of music. We had to work longer for it because America wasn't ready for what we were doing. We had to learn things the hard way. You've worked hard too…you're just on a better, more straighter path than we were."

I look into his eyes. "Okay."

"You see what I'm saying?"

I nod. "Yeah."

He raises his eyebrows. "Do you?"

"Yeah, but it doesn't make me feel better."

"What about your mama?"

"What about her?" I ask quietly.

"She didn't have to practice in an extremely hot studio for twelve hours a day. I mean she practiced long hours, but so did you. She didn't have to do the promotion like we did in Europe. But she's done a lot of promo…just like you have."

"So you're saying she was led on a straighter path?"

He gives me a slight smile and nods. "Yeah, something like that. The world was ready for her style of music. She had to work hard to get her name and face out there but it's what America wanted. They eventually wanted us…about two years after we started. It's all about timing. You've got the timing."

"Sometimes I think you and Uncle Lance knew something was going to happen in the music industry."

He chuckles. "I wish I could predict it. Uncle Lance is better at that than I am…he had a feeling."

There was a knock on the door and then it opened.

"Hi sissy…guess who we just saw?" Ashleigh asks as she walks in and stands next to me.

"Who?"

"Wade."

"He's here already?" I ask sitting up slightly.

Daddy glances over at mama who just stepped into the room.

"Apparently," mama replied. "Did you know he was going to be here today?"

"I just found out. I was going to tell you or have Tony tell you but I guess I don't need to now."

"It's great he's going to see you perform. He asked if he could talk to you before the show…you feel up to it?" mama asks, rubbing my shoulder.

"Sure."

"He wants to talk about the video…his ideas for it."

There was another knock on the door.

Mama walked over and answered it. "Hi, come on in."

Wade walks into the room. Daddy stands up.

"Hi Justin…Adriana."

"Hi Wade…good to see you," daddy says holding out his hand for him to shake.

"Hi Wade," I say waving.

"Come on kids, lets go find something to do…" mama starts.

"It's okay. I don't mind everyone staying. I only wanted to run through a few ideas I had and see what Adriana was thinking for her next video."

"Have a seat," daddy says as he gestures to the spot he just vacated.

"Thanks."

Mama, Cody and Ashleigh sit over in the corner of my dressing room. Cody immediately finds the video game and starts playing. Daddy pulls up a chair and sits behind me.

Wade runs through his ideas. I can totally picture them in my head as he's telling me them.

"How does that sound?" he asks as he sits back a little.

"Wow. It's different than what I was picturing but I like it a lot more. I didn't even think of making the angle of the video go that way."

"I thought we could play off of any kind of mind games, not just the kind about love but with any kind of relationship."

Out of the corner of my eye I could see daddy rubbing his forehead.

"What do you think daddy?" I turn and ask.

"Sounds great," he smiles. "From the work I've seen, Wade is a great director."

"Thank you," he says.

"Good, I'll finalize the drawings for the set and your costumes and they'll be ready when I see you in a few days."

"Sounds good to me. You're staying for the show tonight, though, right?"

He smiles. "Of course. I promised you I'd see your show soon."

There was a knock on the door.

"Popular place today," I say as daddy stands up and answers the door.

"Um, hi, is Wade Robson in here?" a female voice asks.

"Oh, Genie…sorry, it took me longer than I thought," Wade says as he stands up and walks to the door.

"That's okay," I hear her say.

"Since you're here, I'd like you to meet the Timberlake family."

He introduces his girlfriend to each of us.

"So you're the new wonder I hear about all the time? Your name is becoming pretty well-known around the industry," Genie tells me.

"Really? How so?"

"Genie is a stylist. That's how I met her," Wade says.

"Yeah he was producing a mini-documentary and needed a wardrobe consultant…it was my lucky day," she smiled at him. "I'll be working with you on your video."

"Cool."

"Just remember, she's sixteen."

"Daddy."

Genie gives him a warm smile. "I'll keep that in mind. Trust me, for what Wade has planned for the video, she won't need anything too revealing anyway. This video is more about attitude."

"Exactly," I tell daddy.

Mama moves closer behind me and places her hands on my shoulders.

"I can't wait to see it," she says.

"Well, we won't keep you," Wade says as he starts to usher Genie to the door.

"Good luck tonight…I really am excited about seeing this show," Genie says.

"Thank you. It was nice meeting you."

After they left I caught another glance between mama and daddy. Mama gave my shoulders a squeeze.

"She seemed nice."

"I thought so," I say. "Do you really think what she said is true?"

"About your name being well-known?"

I nod.

"Well, can't you tell that by now?" daddy asks as he picks up Ashleigh and sets her on his hip.

"If you mean by record sales then yeah, kinda. I mean, she was talking about in the industry…she's saying people know who I am."

"Of course they do," mama said as she leaned over and kissed my cheek.

"It just seems weird to me."

Britney and Justin walked to the VIP area together. Cody and Ashleigh were already there with Lance.

"Kind of ironic that Wade's directing a video for a song called "Mind Games" isn't it?"

Britney squeezed his hand. "Be nice."

"I am. I mean didn't you hear what he was saying? He's making the song about more than just a love relationship. He should know all about mind games, huh?"

They were stopped in the middle of the hall now, facing each other.

"I thought we were getting over this."

"We are…I am."

"What are you saying Justin? Do you want Lance to find another director?"

He shakes his head. "Don't be so dramatic…that's not what I want."

She let go of his hand and stared at him. "Then tell me what you want. Oh wait, it shouldn't matter, it's not your career. It's our daughter's and her manager is doing a fine job so far. Let him do his job."

With that she turned and started walking toward the seating part of the venue.

Justin had to job to catch up with her. "Are you mad?"

She shook her head.

He stopped as she kept walking. "Then please come back here and talk to me."

She stopped and it took her about a minute before she turned around and walked back to him.

"You know what gets me the most?"

He slid his hand down her arm and shook his head.

"You say you're fine with the past…with what Wade did, because of who we are today, but yet you make these kinds of comments."

"You can't tell me a thought like that didn't run through your mind."

"Barely…but I concentrated on what he was trying to tell Adriana. He seemed excited about this project and so does she. We should respect that."

"I do," he whispered.

"Then really let it go. He's going to be sitting out there with his girlfriend and we'll be sitting out there with our children. We need to enjoy Adriana's performance."

He took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. "We will." He leaned down and kissed her. "Let's go."