"Mama, it was so great. The line was so long," I say.

We are sitting on the bed in my room of the suite. It's about one a.m. Neither of us could get to sleep.

She laughs with me.

"These people all had my CD…so at least I know I sold that many," I kid.

"I think you're going to be surprised."

"What did you think when you found out you sold so many albums?"

"Of Baby One More Time?"

I nod.

"I don't think I realized the magnitude of it. I knew that it was selling well but the numbers didn't really mean anything to me. Now, when I got the numbers for "Oops", that one kind of hit me hard. It scared me a little bit."

"Why did it scare you? You already knew you were popular, right?" I ask settling into bed next to her.

"Yes but I didn't realize it on that level. I mean, I broke a record that day. Just hearing those words overwhelmed me."

"Where was daddy during this?"

She looks straight ahead and gets a goofy grin on her face.

"Well, he was touring and I was in New York," she says.

I take her hand and study her wedding ring.

"Were you guys in love then?"

I look up at her and she nods.

"I was. Your daddy didn't tell me he loved me until June, though," she says screwing up her face.

"But you were seeing each other right?"

She sighs. "Yeah. As much as we could. That was a strange time for us."

"How so?"

"Well, we were starting to get serious about our relationship but we still didn't want people to know. So, we had to be careful when we wanted to spend time together but yet it was a time when we both had so much going on with promotions and stuff. I'm surprised we lasted past that."

"But you loved each other. That's why."

"Yep, that's why."

I keep staring at her ring.

"Mama?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you think you were too young to fall in love?"

"Every once in awhile I'd think…what am I doing? I'm too young to be this committed to someone. But…" she scoots down next to me. "this was Justin. I could just tell it was different," she shrugs.

"Did people tell you you were too young or did they tell you the opposite?"

Mama gives a short laugh. "Actually this is funny. They used to tell us we were the perfect couple and that we'd get married one day. Then, we took our little break and all of a sudden people were saying, well, you were too young anyway. It was very confusing, let me tell you."

"You don't talk about your break that much."

"I don't like to think about it."

"Okay," I say ready to drop the subject.

"It was something your daddy and I needed to go through before we took our relationship to the next level, but I can't say that it wasn't painful at the time."

There is sadness in her eyes, even after all these years.

I put my arms around her and rest my cheek on her shoulder.

"Have I told you how glad I am that you are here?" I ask again.

She squeezes my arm. "I am too."

The next morning when I wake up, I slowly walk into the living room part of the suite. It takes me a little while to rub the sleep out of my eyes. I overhear mama on the phone.

"So what did you tell him? Uh huh and what did he say to that? Justin we need to curb his attitude now or it will really get out of hand. I don't know, send him to his room or something. Yeah true," she says rubbing her face. "We need to come up with something. Well I know you don't want to talk to her but we should probably mention something to Kristen and see what she thinks we should do. You know what? I don't want to argue with you about this over the phone. Is Ash right there? Let me talk to her."

She pauses a few seconds and I walk over to the kitchenette and pour myself some juice. I don’t think mama knows I am in the room yet. I watch her stand up and walk over to the window that overlooks the city.

"Hi baby. I miss you too. Oh I think I'll be here a couple more days. You could have come with me if you didn't have school. Did you really? Well that's great. Make sure you mark it up on the calendar so we'll all be there, okay? I love you too. Bye."

She turns around and smiles when she sees me. I smile back.

"Yeah I'm still here. No, you don't have to call Kristen, I'll do it when I get back. Honey, she's a doctor she's not going to go blab anything…no, not even to JC."

She stands there for a second, tapping her foot.

"Honey, you're rambling…Justin…Justin stop," she says a little more forcefully.

I giggle into my hand.

"I know, I miss you too. Just a couple more days. I will tell her. I love you. Bye."

She hangs up the phone and starts to walk toward me.

"Your daddy says he loves you."

"What's he spazzing about?"

"Your brother."

"You're going to talk to Aunt Kristen because of Cody?"

"You hungry?"

I nod.

"I guess that means drop the subject."

Mama taps a finger on my nose.

"You're smart. You must get that from me."

"Any word from Tony yet?" I ask looking over at the door that leads to his room.

"I think he was up before I was. I'm not sure where he went though."

Mama calls for room service. While we are waiting we sit down on the couch and flip on the TV. I lean my head on her shoulder.

"This is nice. Get used to this," she says.

"To what?" I ask, looking around.

"Only having Tony around. Once the record company gets more involved and you need more management you'll have ten people around you all the time. I used to love it when it was just me and Fe and Rob."

"Mama you keep acting like I'm going to be as big as you were…"

"Adriana Lyn, where is your confidence?"

Uh oh, mama is getting irritated.

"I am confident," I say as I scoot away from her.

"Then you should be saying you'll be bigger than I was."

"Okay, I'll be bigger than Britney Spears," I say, sitting up very straight.

Tony walks in as I say that.

"That's the spirit," he says.

I giggle. "Were have you been mister?"

"I had a meeting and I stopped by the Jive offices to find out what they know."

"Know about what?" I ask after taking a bite of pancake.

"About preliminary numbers. Don't forget we have a press conference scheduled today."

"Did I know about a press conference?" I ask mama.

She shrugs.

"So did you find anything out at Jive, Tony?" mama asks him.

"They're thinking at least a million."

"What, in like a month?" I ask nodding my head thinking that's a pretty strong debut.

"No, this week darlin."

He's smiling.

"A million this week? But by who? I mean who are these people?"

"Your fans," mama says.

As I sit at the table with about ten different microphones and tape recorders sitting in front of me, I realize that this is really happening to me. All of the reporters and cameras are standing there looking at me. Not at my mama or daddy. Lord knows I've been to enough of these types of things where I sat on the sidelines watching them handle the press like pros. They never seemed nervous so why am I?

The questions are asked. I give the answers.

"Did you expect to sell approximately a million records in your first week?"

I shake my head. "I really didn't think about the numbers. I was just doing so much promotion that I didn't have a chance to really sit down and think about what the numbers meant."

"You're going on tour with Marcus Tyler, when do you start rehearsals?"

I laugh. "Actually that's a question for my manager. We start the tour in June…I think so the rehearsals will probably be in May."

"Any idea of what songs you'll be performing or how big of a set list you'll be able to play?"

"No, I don't know any of the details. I'm sure we'll find that out soon."

"You've been compared to Britney Spears a lot…how do you feel about that?"

"Well I love being compared to her but I hope people realize that I'm a different person with different music. As long as they're saying that my music is coming on to the scene the same way hers did then I'll agree. But I'm very flattered by that comparison."

"You got to work with her on the album, right?"

"Yes."

"What was she like to work with? We haven't seen her in a few years so humor us," the reporter chuckles.

"She's a beautiful, talented person. I was very lucky to get to work with her."

"Any of the songs on this album have special meaning to you?"

 "All of them are special to me. I'd have to say It's Me and It's Okay to Cry probably have the most personal meaning to me."

"Why's that?"

"Well the words are more personal. I really feel them here," I say as I place my closed hand over my heart, "when I sing them."

"What about you and Rick Kemper?"

"The VJ from MTV?" I ask, very confused by that question.

The reporter nods.

"Uh, what about us? I've been on his show a couple of times. He's a really nice guy."

"You two aren't dating or seeing each other?"

I try not to smile. "Um, no, not that I'm aware of."

After more of the same questions, Tony stops them and says we have to leave.

"That wasn't so hard," I tell him on our way out of the building.

"Good. You did a good job."

"I'm surprised the mom and dad question didn't come up."

"Yeah, me too. It would have if Meg had been there," he kids me.

"Where to now?"

"Toronto."

"What? Since when?"

"Since this morning. We've got you booked on MuchMusic tomorrow. You feel like singing Wanted again?"

"Sure. Did you tell mama?"

"I'm not sure. I can't keep up with telling your parent's everything," he says as he motions for our driver to bring the car around.

"And where did that Rick question come from?"

Tony shrugs. "Who knows, they'll probably have you "dating" every guy you come in contact with."

It's a shame I find the thought of it so funny.

A week later…

"Mama…Adriana's on TV," Ashleigh yells from the family room.

"On what?" Britney asks as she walks into the room.

"I don't know what show. They keep showing a picture of her and a picture of that guy from MTV."

"Rick," she chuckles then she gasps.

Justin had just walked in the door when she did this.

"What's wrong?" he asks.

"Oh no. Adriana's in the National Enquirer."

"She is?" he asks, almost sounding happy.

Britney glares at him.

"I mean, that's pretty big. It means they care enough about who she is to talk trash about her. Wait a minute…what are they saying about her?"

"That's she's dating that Rick guy from MTV."

"Oh, that's not bad," he sas with a swipe of his hand.

"He's cute," Ashleigh says.

"I don't care what it is they're saying I was hoping it would take her awhile to have to put up with rumors."

Justin wraps his arms around Britney and laces his fingers together on her stomach.

"Sweetie…how long did it take before you were in the tabloids?"

She cringes.

"Not long at all."

"And at least her subject matter is less upsetting."

Britney sighs. "Yeah," she says. Adriana's was about someone she was rumored to be dating while hers was about breast implants.

"Has she called yet today? We'll hear the official numbers today."

Britney shakes her head.

"No, she's probably flying, though. I don't know, I can't keep up with her schedule anymore. Maybe we should talk to Lance, I think Tony's overbooking her," she says turning her head slightly so she can look at Justin.

"She's not overbooked."

She turns in his arms to face him. "How can you say that? She sounds miserable every time we talk to her. She's tired, she's worn out."

"It's called promoting. Has it really been that long since you've done that that you've forgotten what it's like?"

She bites her lip. "No. It's just that she's our baby."

He kisses her gently on the lips.

"I know. But that's why she'll come out of this on top."