Tony and I walk down the hall of our hotel.

"I have so much energy after that," I tell him. I am actually skipping down the hall.

"So I see," he chuckles.

I have just performed live on "Good Morning America".

"Now, if I could only do that all the time, I wouldn't get bored with the same interviews," I say as I open the door to our suite.

Tony and I are sharing a suite this time. It is huge. He has his room over there and I have my room over here. It made sense since we are coming to crunch time at this point. My album is being released tomorrow.

I stop dead when I se mama sitting on the couch, reading a book.

"Mama!" I say as I run over to her.

She laughs as I sit next to her and hug her tightly.

"Hey baby," she says.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to support you," she says, moving a strand of hair off of my face.

"But people might find out…"

"I'll stay here. I don't mind, I just wanted to be here for you."

"Awww mama," I say as I pull her close to me again.

There's nothing like being in your mom's arms…the comfort that's there.

"Hi Tony," she says.

"Hi Brit. We were just going to order room service."

"Good, I'm starving."

The three of us sit on the couch, eating our dinner while we watch MTV.

"What is this show?" Tony asks.

"It's like a gossip show," I say.

"Why are we watching it?"

"I think it's funny," I say, taking a bite of chicken.

I let my fork fall on the plate that's sitting on my lap.

Suddenly Meg is on the TV.

"Oh no," I say.

"Oh God, she knows. I knew she knew something," I say.

"Now, don't panic."

Then a picture of mama from when she was on TRL at age seventeen appears on the screen next to a picture of me from Uncovered Live.

"Can I panic now?" I ask.

"Sweetie, your album will be released tomorrow. It's going to be okay. It's not that big of a deal if people find out before…we just were trying to do this for your benefit," mama says. She had put her plate down and is rubbing my back.

"I know but still. We were doing such a good job at hiding it," I say looking at Tony.

"Your mom's right. It's going to be okay."

"They're going to ask me tomorrow about this."

"We'll come up with something."

"I want to talk to Meg."

"What?"

"Can you call her? I want to talk to her. Maybe if she understands why we're doing this she'll let it go. We'll give her the exclusive when we do decide to go public."

"I don't know…"

Mama looks back and forth between us.

"I wouldn't trust her. I've known way too many reporters who do things behind your back to get what they want," she says.

My hopes just fell.

"Okay."

We continue to eat…after changing the channel.

"Look at it this way, at least we saw it and we're prepared if they ask you about it, right?" Tony asks me while we're in the elevator going up to the MTV studios.

"Yeah."

My hand covers a charm mama had given me before we left this morning. It is a fairy necklace…for good luck.

I am sitting in the chair in the makeup room when Rick, the VJ walks in.

"We meet again," he says walking around to face me.

I smile. "Yes we do. How are you?"

"I'm good. I should be asking you that though? You glad the day has finally arrived?"

I nod. "Most definitely."

"I'll see you out there," he says, giving my arm a slight touch on his way past me.

I see his reflection in the mirror. He stops and then turns back towards me.

"I've been told to ask you certain questions today…but I just wanted to let you know that I'm not going to ask them."

I smile at him as our eyes meet in the mirror.

"Thank you."

"Just to let you know…I saw the resemblance almost right away but I figure you have your reasons for not talking about it."

I nod.

He leaves the room and the stylists enter.

I like Rick…he's a nice guy. See mama, not all reporters and media people are bad.

I do the show. We give everyone in the audience a free CD. MTV even went as far as to have a few people from the audience picked before hand who got to listen to the whole CD.

"So, what did you think of it?" Rick asks one of the girls.

"I thought the sound was new and different. I loved it because each song was different. You could tell she worked with different people and got different input."

"So you liked that every song didn't sound the same?"

"Exactly."

Funny, that's exactly why I liked it so much. I smile at her.

"Thank you."

She smiles back.

The next guy talks about the dance mix songs. He likes those.

"Okay, I think Ana can take a little bit of criticism…just a little bit," he says holding his fingers close together. "What didn't you like about it? Don't be too harsh though," he laughs.

One of the girls raises her hand so Rick goes over to her.

"It's OK To Cry made me cry," she says.

"Awwww," I say. "Me too."

One of the guys says he didn't like the ballads but he usually doesn't like ballads.

"Before we go, Ana is going to sing one of those ballads…sorry dude…from her album."

The audience laughs at that.

I walk over to the stool and sit down.

I sing It's Me. My daddy wrote this song. It has to be one of my favorites.

When I finish, the audience is standing and cheering. Rick walks over to me and pulls me to his side.

"Thank you everyone. Before we go, we had Marcus Taylor on yesterday."

He waits while the girls in the audience finish screaming.

"He mentioned that you're going to be opening for him."

"Yes I am," I say.

Everyone applauds.

"What's that feeling like? He's going to have a huge tour this summer."

"It's very exciting. I can't wait to see what his show's going to be like and hopefully I can add to the excitement of the show."

"He had a lot of nice things to say about you."

"Did he?"

I am shocked. I had no idea he even really knew who I was. Well, I guess he knew who I was, but still.

"Yes. He thinks you're cute but I didn't say that." Rick holds up his hand.

Everyone laughs.

"Hmmm," I say winking at the camera.

"He's only a couple of years older than you. You can be our first MTV couple."

I think I blush.

"I thought he had a girlfriend…I don't think she'd agree with you," I say laughing.

"He told us yesterday he was single, right girls?"

The girls scream again.

"Well then."

How else was I supposed to have answered that question?

"Good luck on the tour. I'll try to check it out when you're in the area."

"Great."

"We're out of time folks. Tune in tomorrow when we have the group Explosion on. Go out and get It's Me right now…it's in stores."

When the cameras cut off Rick turns to me.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to embarrass you."

"No, you didn't. I really had no idea he even knew who I was," I shrug.

"You're kidding right? You must not watch a lot of TV. You're pretty much everywhere right now."

"No I'm not," I say.

"Yes…you are. Some of the guys that have worked here for a long time said this reminds them of when No Strings attached was released back in 2000. Nsync was everywhere."

"In your face," I say.

"Something like that. Well, I have to get going. Good luck Ana."

He leans down and kisses my cheek.

"Thanks Rick."

He leaves and I sigh.

"Oh no, I've seen that look before," Tony says walking up to me.

"What?"

"He's too old for you," he says ushering me backstage.

"I…what? I don't look at him that way. He's a nice guy."

"Yeah right."

As soon as we get in the limo, I call our suite.

"Hello?"

"Hi mama…did you watch?"

"Yep. I think Rick has a crush on you."

"Mama…not you too."

She laughs. "It's cute. He's cute. And what's this about you and Marcus? I didn't know you two knew each other so well."

"What? No. I mean we only did that photo shoot together. I wouldn't say we know each other."

"Well, I thought so but still. You sounded beautiful."

"Thanks. I love singing that song."

"Where are you off to now?"

"I don't know. Tony, where are we going?"

"To Virgin Megastore to do a signing."

"Did you hear that?"

"Yep…you poor thing."

"Gee thanks."

"I'm kidding. Seeing the fans is great, it's just that your wrist will start hurting."

"This is exciting."

"For me too."

"Mama…I'm glad you're here."

"Me too baby."

"Don't you miss daddy?"

"Well of course. And your brother and sister but I feel better being here."

"You're not too bored sitting there waiting for me?"

"Honey, quit worrying about me. I'm going to go out shopping in a bit."

"Rick was going to ask me about you…but he didn't."

"What?" both Tony and mama say at the same time.

I look up at Tony and answer them both.

"He said he was supposed to but he wouldn't. He also said he saw the resemblance right off but figured I had a reason to keep quiet."

"So he actually said he knew that Justin and Britney were your parents."

"No he never said those words but he insinuated it."

"Wow," Tony says.

"See mama…not all media people are bad."

"Honey, I never said they were all bad. You just have to be cautious."

"We're here," Tony says.

"Okay mama…I have to go," I say, getting very excited.

My first autograph signing.

"Good luck…have fun."

"I will. Love you."

"Love you too."

Tony gets out first.

"Ready?" he asks as he stands outside the door, peering down into the back seat where I sit.

"Ready as I'll ever be."

And I take his hand.