"So tell me about New York," my mama asks me while we're unpacking my suitcase.

I shrug. "It's the same."

She laughs. "Honey, I meant your trip in general, not just the city."

"Oh," I sit down. "Well, it all happened so fast. I think I answered the same questions about a hundred times."

Mama groans. "Oh, been there done that. What was your favorite question?"

"Um, I think it was "where do you see yourself in ten years"…that one. How the hell…oops, I mean heck am I supposed to know?"

Mama laughs with me. "I know. I used to think the same thing."

"Adriana, can you come down here please?" my daddy yells from downstairs. "Bring your mom!"

I look at mama. She shrugs. "That doesn't sound good," I say as we get up off of the bed and make our way downstairs to find daddy.

"What's going on, Justin? I think the neighbors heard you."

"I just looked at the proofs that Tony left," he says holding out some of the pictures I took for the Teen People shoot.

I look over my mama's shoulder as she looks at the photographs.

"You look so grown up," she says, placing her hand on my opposite cheek and pulling our cheeks closer together. "You look so much like me."

"I know, I thought for sure someone would catch on," I say.

"Okay, now look at these."

I look up at my daddy and try to read what is in his eyes. But I can't, only mama can do that and I see her looking into his eyes, trying to figure out where he's going with this.

She takes the next set of proofs.

"Oh my," she says.

"Oh."

"Yes, oh. How could you let him take pictures of you like that?" my daddy asks me.

"They're not that bad, right mama?"

She looks into my father's eyes again.

"I uh, revealed more when I was seventeen."

He threw up his hands. "I knew you were going to bring that up."

"Well, it's true. Justin even you commented on it and that's when we first started dating. I thought you would have liked looking at those pictures but instead you acted a little embarrassed."

He gently took her chin in his hand. "I've never been embarrassed by you, ever. It was a little awkward, yes…I had just turned eighteen, what do you expect? Of course I liked it." He places a gentle kiss on her lips.

I am very intrigued by this conversation. I love hearing stories from my parents about their youth. Besides, this was taking the attention off of me for a minute.

"But, I don't want some sixteen year old guy doing Lord knows what when looking at my daughter's picture."

Okay, thirty seconds.

"Good God daddy. It's not that bad," I say, taking the pictures from mama and look at them myself.

"That's it, I'll call Alfonse. I've worked with him before and I'll tell him to destroy the negatives."

He actually starts walking over to the phone when mama grabs his arm and stops him.

"Honey, think about this. She's sixteen. She's going to be a huge star and very soon."

I smile…I love my parents' confidence in me.

"Maybe they won't run these exact shots anyway, daddy."

He looks over at me…his sixteen-year-old baby. His face softens. "Yeah, maybe so."

He walks over to me and pulls me into his embrace. "You are beautiful…those pictures don't do you any justice. And you do look like your beautiful mother in those shots. It's scary how much you do."

"I love you daddy," I say into his shoulder.

"I love you too snowball. Hide these so your brother doesn't see them."

I laugh as I take the envelope with the pictures from him. Mama and I go back upstairs.

"Was he always like that?" I ask.

"How do you mean?"

We walk back into my room.

"I mean when he saw revealing or sexy photos of you did he overreact to them like that? Or is it just because I'm his daughter?"

"Hmmm, I think it depended upon the situation. Once we became more serious, we were pretty well settled in our careers. We were comfortable with our careers, I guess you could say. They had just broke all those records with NSA and Oops was just released for me…"

"Which broke records for a female singer."

She smiles at me. "Right. So at that point we were both pretty confident in ourselves and each other. So he'd see a picture of me in something revealing and it wouldn't be a big deal. He'd enjoy looking at it, actually," she adds softly.

I giggle.

"But before that…when we first started to date and that Rolling Stone came out with me on the cover at seventeen…whooooooo. Even now I have to admit I can't believe I did that."

"Why? I don't think there's anything wrong with it."

"Well, looking back, I do. I don't ever regret anything that I've ever done but sometimes you have to stop and take a look back and think, oops maybe I shouldn't have done that. You'll make those kind of decisions too."

I nod.

"But you'll take them and use them as learning tools…just like I did."

"I will."

"Why can't I go over to Eddie's?" Cody whines.

"Because your sister is only here for a couple of nights before she goes to L.A. now sit down and eat," mama says.

Cody sits back down at the table and folds his arms over his chest.

"Yeah, the pout look looks good on you," I tell him.

"Adriana, leave him be," mama says.

"Yes ma'am."

"So are you going to sing on that one show?" Ashleigh asks me with a mouthful of mashed potatoes.

"Oh God Ashleigh, speak after you've swallowed," daddy suggests to her.

She swallows and says, "Sorry."

I chuckle. "What show are you talking about?"

"That one that's on when I go to bed?"

"Oh, the Tonight Show? Well, yeah, I'm supposed to."

"Can I stay up and watch it that night daddy?"

My daddy glances at my mama who is scooping up some green beans and putting them on her plate.

"We'll see."

Now, normally I take the we'll see as a "most likely not" but Ashleigh is the optimist of the family and she bounces up and down in her seat and claps her hands together….which makes me laugh.

"You're so cute," I say, leaning over to her and kissing her cheek.

After a nice meal together, we help with the dishes and then all proceed into the home theatre to watch a couple of movies together. Our home theatre has three rows of theatre style chairs and seats about fifteen people. I really like these seats though because it's just like one long couch on each row. I always like to sit in the middle row.

I sit next to mama and curl up next to her, putting my head on her shoulder. She takes one of my hands and holds it. Daddy sits on the other side of her. Cody and Ashleigh sit in the front row.

After about thirty minutes into the movie, I feel mama move a little bit. When I adjust my head on her shoulder I notice that she's leaning over so that daddy can kiss her. I think that was a record…they actually went thirty whole minutes without kissing. When mama pulls back she rests her head on top of mine and does a quiet little sigh.

By the time the second movie is over, both Cody and Ashleigh are sleeping.

"I just love that movie," mama says as she stands up and walks down to the front row.

She carefully picks up Ashleigh.

"You get him, I'll hurt my back," she says, winking at daddy.

"He's twelve, I don't think I can carry him anymore," he says, trying to lift my brother. But, he does.

They take my brother and sister up to their respective rooms and I go up to mine.

I look up when I hear a knock on my partially opened door.

"I thought maybe we could go out on the lake tomorrow," daddy says.

"That sounds like fun," I nod.

"Or maybe you're too tired. If you're too tired, just let me know."

I laugh. "Daddy, I can rest on the boat, right? Besides, it relaxes me."

He nods. "Okay. I just thought it would be nice to spend another day together since you're leaving Monday."

I look down at my hands. "Yeah, it will be nice."

"You okay?" he asks, walking into my room.

"Yeah. Why can't you or mama come with me this time? You could stay at the house."

He gets a pained look on his face and then sits down next to me on the bed.

"We talked about this and I thought you were okay with it."

"I know…we did. I guess…" I now had tears in my eyes as I look up at him.

"What?" he asks, wiping a tear away that fell down my cheek.

"I guess I didn't think it was going to be so much…I don't know," I shrug. "I feel like I'm disappointing you."

"What? No way. No matter what happens in the next few weeks, you are not and will not be a disappointment to me or your mother. Look at how far you have gotten. You worked so hard on this album and we're all so proud of it. You've gotten through New York, right?"

I nod.

"Well, you'll get through L.A. It's easier out there anyway," he smiles and winks at me.

I try to laugh.

"Okay."

"I think you just miss us and that will get easier with time."

"How did you get used to it?" I ask studying my hands.

"Well my mama came along with us at first since we started in Europe. She didn't want me over in a foreign country without her," he chuckles. "But then when we came back over here, she would stay at home more often. I guess I just kept busy enough to not notice after awhile. I mean don't get me wrong…I always missed her, but it got easier to deal with."

"I miss her too…can she and Grandpa Paul come tomorrow?"

He smiles. "I'm sure they'd love to. I'll call her in the morning. It's kind of late right now."

As I look at daddy, suddenly his face lights up. I don't even have to look behind me, I know that mama has walked into the room.

"Is everything okay?" she asks.

I feel her hands rubbing my back.

"Yeah. I just got the case of the blues for a second." I lean back against her.

She leans down and kisses the top of my head and gives my shoulders a squeeze.

"Okay. You better now?"

I nod.

"I am…thanks to daddy."

He leans over, hugs me and kisses my cheek.

"I love you snowball. Sleep tight."

"I love you too daddy."

"Goodnight…I love you too," mama says against my ear.

I turn my head so she can kiss my cheek.

"I love you, mama."

They leave my room and I stare at the pictures I have on my wall. I have pictures of my family on one side and pictures of my family as celebrities on the other.

There's mama in her outfit from the MTV Video Music Awards from September 2000. She looks gorgeous.

I sigh. I love that story. That's where my parent's first made their appearance together as a couple. She looked so happy…they both did.

There's a picture of my daddy in his "puppet" outfit from the No Strings Attached tour in 2000. It's a picture captured at the end of a song where my dad and the rest of my uncle's are posing. You can tell they're breathing hard, because daddy's nostrils are flaring and his mouth is open.

I giggle now, looking at it.

Then I look over at a picture we took at a bar-b-cue we had last Labor Day. It was a rare holiday when all of my uncle's were here with their families.

I'm so lucky.

And I can't even tell anyone about it.

Not yet at least.

"Are you going to tell me why she was crying?" Britney asks as she climbs into bed.

"She was getting homesick already, that's all," Justin shrugs as he lies down next to her.

"She wants one of us to come with her, doesn't she?"

"Brit…"

"I think I can rearrange my schedule and go…"

"No. Tony will be with her. She has to learn that this is part of the gig."

He lays his head down on his pillow and closes his eyes.

"She doesn't have to learn that so soon. I had my mama around, you had yours around."

"Not all the time. Remember that first time you went to New York to promote Baby One More Time?" he asks, opening up one eye to look at her.

"This is different," she says quietly.

Justin grunts and turns over. He takes her hand.

"Baby…she'll be okay. You know that if she gets really bad, Tony will call us and one of us can fly out there. She did just fine in New York."

She looks over at him.

"I don't like seeing her cry."

"You didn't, I did. And it ripped my heart out. We have to be encouraging and supportive, remember?"

She takes a deep breath. "Right, but not pushy."

Justin laughs.

"Our parent's taught us well."

"Yeah, they did," she says, sliding down closer to Justin. "You tired?"

He closes his eyes and yawns. "Totally."

Britney giggles and moves her hands underneath the sheets. Justin's eyes pop wide open.

"I bet I can wake you up."

He grabs her and kisses her passionately.

"I don't know, but we'll have fun trying."

Britney let out a little scream and then giggles more when Justin rolls over on top of her and attacks her mouth.