I walk onto the stage and look around. "Wow, not a whole lot of room."

"That's why we're having a dress rehearsal…so we can adapt the choreography to the stage," Wade says.

I turn around and smile at my drummer, Jimmy as he takes a seat behind his drum set.

Wade walks over to me.

"I'm sorry I missed your show last night."

I shrug. "That's okay. I hope you get a chance to see it sometime."

He smiles. "I plan on it. It turns out my brother came into town so I spent the evening with him."

"Oh, well that's nice."

"I'm assuming it went well."

I smile up at him. "I think it's the best performance I've ever put on. I think having my family there like that made me better."

"You'll be that way tomorrow night too."

"I hope so."

"I know so," he says tapping my nose before he walks toward the band. He starts talking to George about the arrangement.

I walk over to Brad when I see him take his place behind his keyboards. He starts playing some chords.

"Hi."

He glances up at me quickly before looking back at the keys. "Hi."

"You left kind of early last night."

He nods as he starts to play a song.

I put my hands on my hips.

"Why?"

He stops playing and looks down at me.

"I was tired."

"But you didn't even say goodbye. I was looking for you and had to find out from George that you were gone."

"I didn't want to interrupt."

"Ana," Tony said from across the stage.

I look at Brad one more time before I walk over to Tony and Wade.

"Just to let you know, there are photographers and camera guys here to capture some of the rehearsals."

"Okay," I shrug. "Looks like everyone's here, shall we begin?"

I walk backstage and take my place behind the door I'll be walking through to get on stage. The band starts the remix.

I hear my mama's voice singing, "Oh baby baby," over and over. Right now they should be showing part of her music video for this…where she's walking down the school hall in the uniform and her hair is in pigtails.

I adjust my headset and listen for my cue. I open the door and look around the stage. When I reach the middle of the stage, I look around at the dancers that surround me. I've actually got dancers on stage for this performance. Right now they're dressed like the people in her video, but so am I. I have on a plaid mini skirt with a white button down shirt, tied up to reveal my stomach and my hair is in pigtails. The music stops as I look around at them and then I whistle. Suddenly about ten dancers stand behind me and the others move to the side of the stage. These new dancers are in more hip outfits. A school bell rings and I run back through the door from where I came. The music stars up again and the dancers start dancing this funky choreography. When I go backstage again, I rip the uniform skirt off and pull the white button down shirt off with the help of wardrobe people. Someone is pulling my hair out of the pigtails, fluffing and spraying it. I am now wearing a red mini leather skirt and a black sequined halter-top. They give me a quick look over and nod at me. This time I open the door and it stays open as I stand in the doorway, with my hands on my hips. Two male dancers stand behind me and walk with me to the front of the stage.

"This is how it's done now," I say as the beat picks up and I start singing "Baby One More Time."

This is the first time I've danced with the dancers to this. Wade was always there telling me where they would be and what they would be doing but actually being on stage with them was a different experience. I just kept concentrating on hitting my mark and not worrying about what they were doing. If we all did what we were supposed to…

I land on the floor on my knees and fall forward, catching myself on one hand while I bring the other one up close to my chest and I sing, "Hit me baby one more time." Visually, the ending's supposed to be like the ending to the two thousand Video Music Awards, where mama says, "Oops I did it again."

I lower my head to try to catch my breath and the dancers start cheering. I stand up and look out into the theatre where I see Tony and Wade.

"Well?" I ask them.

Wade smiles and Tony just stares at me. "Your dad is going to kill me," he says shaking my head.

I look down at my outfit. "It's not that bad."

"Her mom's going to love it," Wade says as he approaches the stairs that lead up to the stage.

"And that's what matters."

Tony keeps shaking his head.

"Well aside from the outfit, what did you think Tony?"

He follows Wade up the stairs.

"I thought it was awesome. You're going to blow them away. They'll be talking about this performance for years," he says with a big exaggeration of his hands.

I laugh.

"How did I do with the dancers?" I ask Wade as he steps closer.

"You did great. Okay guys," he says a little louder. "That looked great. We're going to run through it again but this time you're going to have to use the entire stage. Spread out a little more, it got a little too crowded here in the middle. Give yourself some breathing room," he said as he was pacing the stage. "Ana, take your place again."

I nod and run back through the door and put my original outfit back on. The stylist puts my hair back in pigtails.

Justin walks through a side entrance and takes a seat in the middle of the theatre. Tony spots him and walks down to meet him.

"Hi Tony…did I miss Adriana?"

He sits down next to Justin.

"She just did a run through and is getting ready to do it again."

"How did it go?"

Tony smiled. "It was great. You'll be shocked."

Justin smiles and leans back in the chair.

Everyone takes their places and the band starts up again. We run through the number one more time, this time the dancers have spread out more like Wade told them and it works better for me…I'm not as worried about running into them this time.

When I finish the song the dancers applaud again and I stand up, looking for Wade and Tony and instead find my daddy and Tony.

"Daddy," I say, giving him a huge smile.

He stands up, clapping his hands as he walks closer to the stage.

"I didn't know you were here."

"I wanted to surprise you."

"Is mama here with you too?"

He nods. "She's hiding somewhere so she can't see or hear what's going on. I'll go get her when it's time for you guys to rehearse your song."

"Okay. Did you like the performance? I think Wade really hit it with the choreography to your remix."

As I was talking, daddy was walking over to the stairs and is now standing in front of me. He gently grabs my arms and looks me over. Suddenly I realize that I'm not wearing too many clothes.

"Everything was perfect. Your mama's going to be beside herself."

I laugh. "That's good…I think."

"When you first came out on that stage, I felt like I was seeing her from sooo many years ago."

"I take that as a compliment."

He pulls me into a hug.

Wade walks out onto the stage now.

"I take it that means you approve," he says witnessing our hug.

Daddy pulls back but keeps one arm wrapped around my shoulders. "I more than approve. It's a great performance. You did a good job."

"I had a good remix to work with."

"Do we need to run through it one more time?" I ask.

"Yeah, but maybe just from where you come out on stage the second time. We don't need to rehearse the costume change bit. I'll go talk to the director and make sure she has what she needs from the rehearsal."

"Okay."

"Okay, pick it up from right before Ana starts to sing."

"I'll be over here," daddy says kissing the top of my nose.

"Okay."

We all take our places and do it one more time.

I walk back into the dressing room so I can change back into my street clothes. One of the stylists walks back with me so she can take this outfit with her to clean and she's going to do one last fitting for the gown I wear when I sing with mama.

As I stand on a short platform, I look at myself in the mirror. Gloria is measuring the length of the hem.

"Is this long enough?" she asks.

I look at my reflection. "Yeah, I don't want it too long, I'll trip over it," I chuckle.

She smiles. "We definitely don't want that."

There's a knock on the door.

"Adriana?"

"Come in mama."

She pokes her head inside the room. "There isn't any evidence of your other performance laying around is there?"

I laugh when I notice her eyes are closed. I motion for Gloria to hide the red skirt and black top.

"No, the coast is clear."

She opens her eyes and stares up at me. "So beautiful."

"Thanks," I say looking down at the dress again.

"Isn't she?" Gloria adds. "Do you need any more fittings for your gown, Mrs. Timberlake?"

Mama shakes her head. "No, I just tried it on again and I think it's perfect."

"Good, then that should be it. If you want to take it off Ana I'll get it ready for tomorrow night."

I step down off of the pedestal and quickly change out of it back into my street clothes.

"Thanks," I tell Gloria before she leaves. She waves before she shuts the door.

"Daddy said rehearsals went well," she says as she takes my hands.

I nod. "It did. I was a little nervous dancing with dancers on stage with me but we all hit our marks so it worked."

"Good," she smiled. "I can't wait to see it. He says a part of it reminded him of the past."

I give her a sly smile. "Maybe. Oh, I can't wait until tomorrow night," I say throwing my arms around her.

She laughs and sways me back and forth. "Me either."

As I wait in the hallway before my rehearsals with mama I see Brad walking toward me.

"Hi Brad," I say, standing a little straighter.

"Hi. Do you have a second?" he asks looking around.

"Yeah, you should know, you're playing the next song," I say as he leads me out of the way of the people walking down the hall. "What's up?"

"Well, I just wanted to know if you had someone to go to the party with tomorrow night."

I shrug. "My mama and daddy."

"Not Marcus?"

"Um, no. Why?"

He takes a deep breath. "Well, I was wondering if you would want to go with me."

"Go with you?"

"Yeah, like we drive over together…"

"Like we did the other night?" I'm a little confused.

"Well yeah, but…" he's looking down at his feet. "I was wondering if you'd sit with me the rest of the night. You know, I'd check to see if you needed anything to drink and I'd go get it for you…that kind of thing."

"Ohhh that kind of thing."

He smiles and nods.

I shake my head. "Brad, I still don't get it. I mean, you could go to the party with me and sit with me without having to ask."

"Not if Marcus is going to be there?" he says softly.

"What?" I couldn't hear him.

He looks up at me. "Not if Marcus is going to be there. He seems to take over your attention."

"Oh." I'm a little surprised. He nods and I begin to think back. "Maybe he does a little bit. He's just, I don't know…more outgoing that way."

"Well, I never want to intrude so I stay back but then that leaves me not getting a chance to spend any time with you all night. I don't want that to happen tomorrow," he says taking my hand.

I look at our joined hands. "That's very sweet. I'm sorry if you've felt that way before, I hadn't realized…"

"Shhh, you don't have to explain. Just say you'll spend more time with me tomorrow."

I smile and nod once. "Of course I will."

"Good."

"Brad!" someone yells.

"There's your cue," I say.

"I'll see you on stage," he says, squeezing my hand before he walks away.

I lean back and let my head gently hit the wall and I stare up at the ceiling. When did things start to get complicated?