"Cady watches Thad and Jordan have sex," Cady whispered to Lance the next morning when he came to wake her up.

"Excuse me?"

"That’s why Thad came last night."

"No way," Lance exclaimed. "Cady Lynn wasn’t as innocent as she seemed?"

"No, she wasn’t," Cady agreed. "Good taste though."

"You stayed and watched?!"

"Well yah... Besides the fact that it’d be weird for Cady to leave, it’s just really hot!!"

"You think it’s hot?!"

"Thad and Jordan? Hell yah," Cady nodded. "Besides it’s just like two girls. Do you find that hot?"

"It’s different."

"How?"

"Just is," Lance replied.

"Whatever," Cady rolled her eyes. "You know what happens after she watches them?"

"Do I wanna know?"

"Probably not, but since I have to know, you get to too," Cady answered. "They write songs."

"What?"

"Yah, Cady, Jordan, and Thad write songs together afterwards."

"You’re kidding right?" Lance questioned thinking of all the Cady Lynn and the Shortcuts songs he’s ever listened to.

Cady grinned. "Actually, yah I am, about all of it, but wouldn’t that put a whole new twist on ‘Watching You?’"

"You’re terrible," Lance shook his head.

"I know," Cady grinned. "What’s on the schedule for today?"

"Y’all practice while I try and book some gigs," Lance answered.

"Ohh fun!! I can’t believe I get to sing with the Shortcuts!!" Cady giggled.

"Lucky," Lance said. "What do they do in Thad’s room after everyone goes to bed?"

"Write songs," she answered. "It was soo cool! I got to be a part of ‘writing’ ‘No Such Thing.’"

"What one’s that?"

"It’s the one John Mayer covered."

"I didn’t know Cady Lynn, Thad, and Jordan wrote that."

"I didn’t for the longest time. I knew when I heard John Mayer singing it I’d heard it before, but I couldn’t remember when."

"So how’d you help write the song?"

"I’m like a lyrical library," Cady shrugged. "I know the words to almost anything song you can think of."

"That’s cool," he nodded. "What’s it like to work with them?"

"Amazing! The only people who could possibly be cooler to write with is John Lennon and Paul McCartney," Cady answered. "Or possibly JC Chasez."

"Paul and John I’ll give you, but JC?"

"Are you kidding me?? JC is awesome, man!!" Cady exclaimed. "‘Giddy Up’ is gold."

"I’m serious," Cady said when Lance burst into laughter.

Lance raised an eye brow. "You are?"

"Yes!! That was the second song I heard by y’all and I’ve loved it every since!" Cady insisted.

"You’re an odd girl," Lance shook his head.

"Probably, but at least my life is somewhat fun this way," Cady shrugged. "What was that?" she questioned when she heard what sounded like a scream.

"I don’t know," Lance said getting off the bed and sticking his head out her door. "It’s coming from the room at the end of the hall. Who’s there?"

"That’d be umm Jerrid," Cady answered thinking of the layout of the house. "But that doesn’t sound like Jerrid."

"I know... It almost sounds like Justin," Lance whispered.

"You don’t think he’s here, do you?" Cady questioned as they made their way down the hall.

"I don’t know..."

"James, will you talk to your cousin?" Beatrice exclaimed coming out of Jerrid’s room. "He’s in there screamin like a crazy person and I don’t doubt the neighbors can’t hear him."

"All right, yah, we’ll go talk to him," Lance nodded heading into the room with Cady behind him.

"Jerrid?" Cady questioned, looking at the form covered by blankets on the bed.

"Justin?" Lance said when Cady received no answer.

"Lance?" came from the direction of the bed.

"Yah, it’s me, buddy."

"What the hell is going on here?" Justin asked, throwing the blankets off of him.

"I don’t know, really," Lance answered.

"Where are we?"

"1964 Independence, Kansas."

"That’s a stupid name for a hotel."

"We aren’t at a hotel, Justin."

"Then where are we?" he questioned. "And who’s she?" he added, nodding at Cady.

"She’s Cady Adams, we met her last month at Challenge for the Children," Lance answered. "We’re in Independence, Kansas and it appears to be 1964."

"This is some seriously fucked up dream, man," Justin said rolling over onto his side. "Nice to see you again though, Cady."

"You too, Justin," she nodded. "I’m afraid though, you aren’t dreaming. None of us are."

"Of course we’re dreaming," Justin rolled his eyes. "It’s 2002, Lance is in Russia, I’m in LA, and you I assume are in your hometown."

"You’re a fourth right," Lance replied. "It’s 1964 and we are all in Independence, Kansas."

"Whatever. Can you explain to me why that girl called me Jerrid?"

"Because to her you look like Jerrid Thompsen."

"I don’t look anything like Jerrid Thompsen, Lance," Justin rolled his eyes.

"And I don’t look like James Basinger and she doesn’t look like Cady Lynn Andrews, but to these people we do," Lance replied.

"I’m seriously going to have to make sure I never trust Chris to buy the bud anymore," Justin shook his head. "Leave it to him to get some messed up shit that makes you have dreams like this."

"Look, I know it’s hard to believe," Cady spoke, "but I woke up here yesterday morning and Lance woke up here before then. By what he’s been able to tell me, we are Cady Lynn and the Shortcuts."

"No, we aren’t," Justin shook his head. "Cady Lynn’s been dead for a long time."

"Don’t you think I know that? She died ten years before I was born," Cady replied.

"I’m gonna kick Chris’ ass when I wake up. Damn asshole had to suggest we listen to the vinyl he picked up this mornin and now I’m remembering meeting you and having this fucked up dream!"

"Why would Lance be here instead of Chris if this is a dream?" Cady questioned. "Why would you be here? Not to be rude or anything but I’m pretty sure I’da dreamt up JC or Hayden Christensen or hell since it’s 1964, I’da dreamed me up The Beatles. There’s a very long list of people who would be here before you."

"You’re a buzz kill," Justin muttered. "As for Lance bein here, that’s easy, he’s off in Russia so of course I’m gonna think about him."

"And me?"

"Chris and I were listenin to Cady Lynn and the Shortcuts earlier and he suggested we all go see the house when Lance got back from space," Justin answered. "See, there’s a perfectly good reason for me to be dreamin about all of this."

"What about me? Why would I dream about this? And Lance?"

"I’ve heard of stuff like this happenin before, where a group of people all have the same dream," Justin shrugged. "We’re all just on the same wavelength."

"You believe whatever, but you gotta be able to pull off bein Jerrid Thompsen," Lance said, stopping the conversation.

"I can do it," Justin replied.

Cady bit her tongue to keep from commenting on Justin’s acting skills. "I think it’s best if you fill Justin in on what’s going on and I get out of here before Beatrice comes back in here. I’m sure she’d have something to say about Cady hanging out in here."

"All right," Lance nodded. "We’ll be down for breakfast in a moment."

"Make me some pancakes," Justin said.

"Do I look like your slave?" Cady replied. "You want breakfast, make it yourself or talk to Beatrice, I’m sure she’d be happy to make Jerrid some breakfast."

"She doesn’t like me much," Justin commented when Cady had exited the room.

"I don’t know what’s up with her," Lance replied. "She wasn’t like that all yesterday when I was with her."

Justin shrugged. "Oh well."

"The stress of being her must be insane."

"Why’s that?"

"Besides the fact that she’s living the life of someone who died ten years before she was born, this is her house and she’s surrounded by people she doesn’t know very well. We also had dinner with her grandparents and their kids."

"That’d be a little weird," Justin said. "This is all some very weird dream."

"I hope so," Lance answered.

"Tim Bradley’s come over to build a storage shed tomorrow so that we can have more room to practice," Beatrice told them later that afternoon when they were in the garage preparing to practice.

"Tim Bradley?" Cady questioned.

"You remember Tim, you went to school together," Beatrice answered. "Tall guy, played football?"

"Oh yah," Cady nodded, going back to setting up her mic.

"I ran into Mrs. Higgins at the store earlier and she wanted to know if you’d be able to sit for her kids Friday," Beatrice continued, "I told her that’d be fine."

"Thank you," Cady smiled. "If you’ll excuse me for a moment, I need to go get a drink of water."

"Of course," Beatrice nodded, while the five men continued to set up for practice.

"Are you all right?" Lance questioned when Cady came into the kitchen.

Cady nodded as she fixed herself a glass of water. "It’s just weird being here. I’m seeing all these people that are my family and it’s weird."

"More family?" Lance questioned.

"My stepfather’s coming over tomorrow to build a storage shed and I’m baby sitting for my mother and her siblings on Friday," Cady answered.

"God, this must really be rough."

"It’s not really rough, just-- I don’t know. I mean it’s neat to see what everyone looked like forty years ago but at the same time it’s weird. I’ll be seeing my mother’s parents and they’ve both been dead for a long while. Lord help me if I begin to cry."

"I couldn’t imagine going through this with my family," Lance said, touching her shoulder.

"It’s definitely not something I’da thought would happen."

"Cad, Bea sent me to see if we’re having practice today," Thad said sticking his head into the kitchen.

"Yah, we are," Cady nodded, setting her glass in the sink.

"You gonna watch, Jimmy?" Thad questioned. "We’re practicin the new one Jor, Cad, and I wrote."

"Yah, wouldn’t miss it for the world," Lance answered getting up from the table.

"About time," Connor exclaimed when the three reached the garage.

"There’ll be people for you to scam at pool no matter what time we get to Miller’s, so quit complainin," Jeremy said, tossing a drumstick at Connor.

"Ohh, Miller’s!!" Cady exclaimed. "Can I come?"

"No," Beatrice replied while Connor said, "Sure."

"Please, Bea?! I just wanna play some pool," Cady pleaded.

"Fine, but be home by nine," she relented. "And you two, make sure she doesn’t drink," she spoke to Connor and Jeremy.

"We won’t," Jeremy promised.

"Let’s practice, huh?" Cady suggested, ready to be a part of this.

"What’s Miller’s?" Lance questioned when he, Cady, and Justin were gathered in James’ room after practice.

"It’s a bar," Cady answered. "My uncle owns it in 2002 and I wanna see what it’s like now."

"Think Connor and Jeremy’d mind if I tagged a long?" he inquired.

"Prolly not," Cady shook her head.

"Y’all can’t leave me here alone," Justin exclaimed.

"Talk Beatrice into coming," Cady suggested.

"Good idea," Justin said getting up. "Beatrice!!"

"You’re up on your Cady Lynn and the Shortcuts info, right?" Lance questioned when Justin was gone.

"Yah, I guess, why?"

"What’s ‘Ticketed’ about?"

"Just some weird laws in Kansas," Cady answered. "Like windshield wipers without a window is referring to the law that you don’t have to have a windshield but you’ve got to have windshield wipers."

Lance laughed. "Are you serious?"

Cady nodded.

"What about taillights for a highway crossing?"

"There’s a law that to cross a highway you have to have taillights, even as if you’re walking."

Lance laughed again. "You’ll have to tell me more about the song sometime, but right now you probably need to go get ready to go out tonight and I need to go check with Connor and Jeremy about me joinin y’all tonight."

"All right," Cady nodded getting up and exiting the room after saying good-bye to Lance.

"This sucks," Justin moaned as he watched Connor and Jeremy attempted to teach Beatrice how to play pool.

"At least you get to drink," Cady replied. "I’m finally somewhere where I can drink legally and I don’t get to because Beatrice won’t let me."

"When she finishes that game, I’ll talk her into coming outside with me for a bit if you wanna sneak a drink," Justin offered.

"Really? Thanks," Cady smiled.

"No problem," Justin answered. "I’ve had a thing for Beatrice Andrews."

Cady made a face. "Granted Beatrice is beautiful, but when you think about it, she could almost be your grandmother."

It was Justin’s turn to make a face. "I try not think about things like that. Besides you’re one to talk, Lance told me about your infatuation or whatever with Thad and Jordan."

"Thad and Jordan are hot, man," Cady replied. "Even in 2002, when they’re old guys. They’ve aged well."

"Still," Justin shuttered. "This is some seriously messed up dream, huh?"

Cady nodded. "Yah, whatever this all is, it’s seriously messed up."

"You doin all right with it?" he questioned. "Lance mentioned that like a lot of the people and places are apart of your real life."

"I’m doin okay," Cady answered. "It’s weird to see all my family and stuff, but at the same time it’s neat to see what they were all like before I was born, ya know?"

"That would be pretty cool," Justin nodded. "So your uncle owns this place?"

"Yah one of the kids I’ll sit for on Friday."

"That’s cool. Your family own anything else?"

"Another uncle owns one of the restaurants downtown," she answered. "I’m hopin to find time to go check out the city before this is all over. See how things have changed, ya know?"

"Why don’t you ask Beatrice to let you borrow the car?"

"Because Cady Lynn never got a license," she explained.

"Get Lance to do it," he suggested when Lance joined them at the table.

"Get Lance to do what?" Lance asked.

"Get Beatrice to let you use the car to drive Cady around and let her see how things have changed," Justin answered.

"I’ll see what I can do," Lance replied.

"Thanks," Cady smiled.

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