As I walk into the family room, I hear voices.

"Aunt Kristen," I say as I run over to her.

She wraps me in her arms and sways back and forth.

"How's my favorite pop star?" she asks.

I laugh. "I'm fine. I don't feel like a pop star," I say as I pull away from her.

She holds a section of my hair in between her fingers as she looks me over.

"I'm glad to see they haven't changed you too much. I thought for sure you'd have a whole new look or something."

I shake my head. "No, it's still me."

"Good," she said giving my nose a tap.

"Is Uncle JC here?" I ask, looking around.

She shakes her head. "No, just me. Your mom asked me to stop by."

"Oh, okay."

I look between my mom and Aunt Kristen and realize they're waiting for me to leave before they talk.

"So I guess I'll go find daddy."

"Good idea. I think he's down in the studio," mama says.

"I'll see you later," I wave quickly before I head for the studio.

I walk down the hall and find the door to the studio closed. There's a red light on outside the door which means he's recording something. I quietly open the door and walk inside.

I hear the remix of beats going on and I walk up behind him.

He's sitting at the mixing board bopping his head to the music as he's turning some knobs.

He catches me out of the corner of his eye and smiles.

"Hey. You must be pretty bored if you're in here with me."

I sit down in the chair next to him.

"Not really bored…just came down to see what you were doing. Aunt Kristen is here."

I start to swivel left and right in the chair.

"Uh huh, I know."

"Without Uncle JC."

He stops what he's doing and looks at me.

"I know that too."

I shrug. "Okay, just checking."

He winks at me and goes back to fiddling with the buttons.

"Who are you doing this for?"

"It's a secret."

I laugh. "What?"

"It's something for Icon."

"Oh cool."

"For your performance."

Suddenly my mouth is dry.

"Really? Play it back daddy," I say as I sit up in my chair and lean closer to him.

He pushes a couple more buttons and then sits back. As soon as the music starts playing I feel my face light up.

It's exactly how I imagined it to be. I start nodding my head to the music. Suddenly I feel the moves in my body…the moves that I can see myself doing to this song.

"I can't wait to do the choreography to this," I whisper.

He smiles at me.

"Do you think Wade will agree to choreograph this for me?" I ask shyly.

He studies me for a minute before answering. "It doesn't hurt to ask. He never said no to your mother so I don't know how he could say no to you."

I sense a little bit of tension in his voice but he hides it with a smile.

We listen to the song a couple of times.

"You like?"

"I love it. This is going to be great," I say as I stand up and throw my arms around his neck.

He chuckles and wraps his arms around me. He pulls me to sit on his lap and I lay my head on his shoulder.

"So is anyone going to tell me why Aunt Kristen is here or is it none of my business?"

"As you know we've been having a couple of problems dealing with your brother."

I nod.

"So we've asked Aunt Kristen to stop by and talk to him."

"I see."

I pull back a little bit.

"Do you really think it's that bad? I mean, he's probably just going through some teenager stuff."

"Some things happened while you were away."

"What if I talked to him…"

"Adriana, I know you want to help but you have enough to deal with. You don't need to worry about your brother too," he said, giving my waist a gentle squeeze.

"But…"

He gave me a quick kiss on my cheek and patted my leg so that I would stand up.

He pushed a few more buttons and then stood up next to me.

"Let's go get something to eat, I'm starving."

"Okay," I said reluctantly.

Aunt Kristen and mama were now standing next to Aunt Kristen's car while they talked. Daddy walked into the kitchen and I stared outside for another moment. I caught a glimpse of my mom's profile. I could have sworn she was crying.

"Daddy?"

"Hmmm? You want a turkey sandwich?" he asked, getting stuff out of the refrigerator.

"Uh, sure. I think mama's crying."

He never missed a beat. "Sweetie, your mom cries at the drop of a hat. It wouldn't surprise me."

He stood up straight and placed the things on the counter.

I made myself a sandwich.

Mama walked into the kitchen. Yep, she had been crying.

"Hey guys. Oh, good I'm starving," she said reaching for the bread.

"You okay?" I asked, placing my hand over hers.

She smiled at me. "Yes, baby, I'm fine. We have some work to do today."

"We do?" I asked after I took a bite.

"Yes…I've got the lay of Marcus's stage. I have a few ideas," she said with a smile.

"Cool."

"Now I can't wait to get started."

Daddy looked over at her and smiled.

"And you thought you'd be nervous," he kidded her.

"Shut up," mama said.

We all laughed.

Cody came walking into the room.

"Hey slugger…you want a sandwich?" daddy asked him.

He shook his head and got something out of the refrigerator. He never looked up and then he left the room.

Mama and daddy glanced at each other and I could tell she was upset.

"Mama if you want to do this another day…"

"No, I really want to do this now," she said, forcing a smile.

 "Okay," I sighed.

"Hi," Ashleigh said as she ran into the kitchen where mama and I were sitting with our plans for the set strewn out around us.

"Hey there…how was school?" mama asked as Ashleigh gave her a kiss.

"Good."

She came over and wrapped her arms around me from behind and leaned on my back.

"What are you guys doing?"

"We're planning sissy's show. You want to help?"

"Oh yeah."

She walked around and stood between us.

"What's this?" she asked pointing to a picture.

"Well, I'm hoping that's what her banner's going to look like."

"Banner?"

"That will go behind her on the stage. I had one of daddy's friends sketch this."

"It's pretty," she said picking up the picture and looking at it.

"I think so," I agreed.

"Here's the songs we came up with for her to sing," mama said pointing to the piece of paper that had a million scratched out words on it.

"I can't tell…" she started before mama and I laughed.

"I don't blame you. It's hard to read," I said as I picked up the paper and read her the list.

"Wanted, It's Me, It's OK to Cry, Throw it at Me, Mind Games and Better Off."

"Those are gonna be so good."

Mama was nodding. "Two ballads and the rest she can dance her ass off to."

I laughed as Ashleigh looked at mama with her mouth open.

"Mama, don't say that," she said covering mama's mouth with her hand.

"You're right baby, I shouldn't have said that."

She grabbed Ash's face and kissed her cheek.

"I love you girls so much."

Ashleigh wrapped her arms around mama's neck and squeezed.

"I love you too mama…so much."

This is what I loved about Ashleigh. She was so open with her emotions and feelings.

"I wanna join," I say as I stand up and lean over so I can put my arms around them.

When we both pull away mama has tears in her eyes.

"Awwww, I was going to join in on the family hug," daddy says as he walks into the kitchen.

"No, for girls only," Ashleigh says as she puts her hands on her hips.

"Girls only, huh?" he asks as he leans down and start tickling her.

She starts giggling.

"Daddy stop."

"I don't think so."

"Mama, make him stop," she said as she gasped for air in between her laughs.

Mama and I watched them and laughed.

"Mama," she yelled louder through her fit of laughter.

"Okay. Justin stop."

He didn't pay any attention to her.

"Justin."

She just stared at him and when he glanced up he stopped.

"Okay."

"Daddy, I asked you to stop," Ashleigh said moving closer to my side and poking her lower lip out in a pout.

"Then why were you laughing?" he asked as he tapped her on the nose.

She giggled. "'Cuz."

"I'll save you from the big bad guy," I said wrapping my arms around her.

"What's for dinner?" she asked.

"I thought maybe we'd go out," mama said.

Daddy nodded. "Sounds good. You guys hungry now?" he asked looking at his watch.

"Wow, I didn't notice how late it got," I said.

"Go get Cody and tell him we're going to go eat," daddy told Ashleigh.

"Okay," she said running out of the kitchen.

While we waited for them to come back down we showed daddy the plans that we had made so far.

"He won't come down," Ashleigh said in the saddest tone I've ever heard.

"Let me try," I said as I stood up.

Daddy was going to try to stop me but mama held his arm down and shook her head.

I walked to his room and knocked on his door.

"I'm not going," he said.

"Why not?" I asked.

No answer.

I turned the knob and opened the door.

"I'm surprised you don't have this locked," I said looking at him.

He shrugged as he stared at the TV.

"Get your ass up off the bed and come out to eat with us."

"I don't want to," he mumbled.

I walked over and sat down on the bed next to him.

"What's wrong with you lately?"

He finally glanced my way.

"Nothing," he spat.

"Good. Then come on…"

"I don't want to go out with the family anywhere."

"Oh God, Cody. This "I hate my family" bit is getting old. You don't know how lucky you are to have a family like we have."

"It's not that," he said.

"Then what is it?"

"I'm tired of everyone asking me what's wrong." His voice was getting louder.

"Do you enjoy being mad all the time? I would think that it's hard work. Frankly I like taking the easiest way out of things," I said as I leaned back on my elbows.

"No you don't."

"What?"

"You don't take the easiest way out. You make it sound like you're lazy and you're not."

My eyebrows raise slightly.

"Well, thanks for noticing."

"You wouldn't have the number one album out right now if you didn't work hard."

"Ohhhh so you do realize that I have an album out and that it's doing quite well."

He glared quickly at me and then turned back to watch TV.

"How could I not?"

"You jealous?"

"What?" he asked sounding amazed.

"You jealous of the attention I'm getting?"

I'm getting under his skin and that's what I want.

"Yeah right," he snickered.

"Whatever," I said before I stood up and walked out of his room and joined the rest of my family in the kitchen.