And God knows I love Tim. I think he has to be one of the coolest people on the planet. He arranged, like, a three week tour to various places in the U.S. in late July and early August.

With More Plz.

You should have heard me when I first heard that. My smile got pretty big and I yelled pretty loudly.

The public got the point pretty quick. That's one thing that's kind of bad about being in the public eye. They know everything, especially about your personal life, before you do. It was all over that Brian and I were seen hanging out at the Fourth of July concert in New York. And I liked him. I'm not going to deny that. Not at all…

On the ninth day of the tour, something bad happened. It was a lot worse than a lot of things that I could think of. Not as bad as some that I could think of either, but it was still pretty bad.

I received a letter from my mother.

My mother, who I had not seen or heard from in twelve years, suddenly sends me a note via my security. I opened it up and saw:

Katherine,

Hello. I've watched you on MTV. You've gotten so beautiful in the last eleven years. I can believe how much you've grown! I can remember when you stood next to me in the kitchen on a chair and helped me make your father's birthday cake when you were six. I hope that you can get a response to me.

Tamara Wheelen

I could remember making that birthday cake too. It was only a month or so before she left totally. I could so not believe her. Not so much as a birthday card in twelve years, and all of the sudden she wants to get in contact now? I don't THINK so.

I was ready to scream, cry, throw up, or all three. I think I actually did throw up, but it was quick. Once I had calmed down a little, I managed to scribble a response.

I have nothing to say to you. Please don't contact me again.

I went back to Dan, and handed him the piece of paper. "Dan, do you remember the person who gave the note to you?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

I held up my note to him. "Can you give them this?" I asked.

His eyes held amusement. "I'm not becoming an accessory to an illegal drug ring, am I?"

I laughed a little, despite my now incredibly somber attitude. "No. It's just a person who needs to get that message. Trust me."

"Alright," Dan said. "They'll get it. I heard you blowing chunks. You okay?"

"I'm fine," I said. "Dan, you have the most colorful way of…describing things."

He laughed. "Thank you."

On our tour, we had a large assortment of women. Besides me, Melissa, and Jessica, there was Morgan, Mindy, and Brody's girlfriend, Taylor, came along. On morning on the tour bus (we all got one because we're all girls) we were playing a game called Kemps. It's a really fun card game where you have a partner, and you try to get four of a kind, and when you have two, or three, or four of a kind you give a signal. And if you have four of a kind and your partner calls 'Kemps', you get a point. And then if someone catches your sign they can call "No Kemps" and then they get a point. At any rate, it's a lot of fun.

Morgan kept getting up to leave the game, and she went into the bathroom. And then it kept sounding like she was throwing up. "Um…Jessi?" I asked her.

"Yeah?" she said, concentrating on trading her jack for a five.

"How old's your mom?" I asked.

"She's thirty-eight," Jessica answered, then she fiddled with her necklace. "Why?"

I exchanged my six for a two. "Do you think that she could be pregnant?"

"My MOM?" Jessica said, continuing to fiddle with her necklace.

"Yeah. She's got all the signs," I said. "No kemps."

"Gosh dangit!" Jessica said, throwing down her cards. Four fives. "Melissa, pay attention!"

"Sorry," Melissa said, collecting the cards to shuffle.

"Signs?" Jessica interrupted. "Yeah, sure, she's got the morning sickness, but she's…old."

"Not that old," Taylor interjected. "My mom was forty-one when she gave birth to my younger sister."

"See?" I said pointedly.

Just then Morgan came back into the small back room, and we started to play the game again. Jessica was dying to know, I could tell…until she asked her outright. "Mom, are you pregnant?"

Morgan looked up from her cards. "I don't know for sure yet…but I think so," she said. "Kemps."

"Boo-ya baby!" Mindy yelled, thrusting her fist into the air. "Oops, sorry," she said sheepishly.

The last day of the tour, the eigth of August, was to be spent possibly the farthest from home that I could possibly get on continental U.S. Seattle, Washington. I was kind of bummed out, but that's life I guess. And I was still kind of shook up over the receiving the note from my mother--I use that term loosely because she was only there for the first six years of my life and after that it was bye, bye, bye, or as my father used to sing.

We got to the venue a little early, and Morgan was dissatisfied with the condition that the area for costumes and make-up was in. So we did a little housecleaning. Once we had finished and Morgan convinced us that the venue would thank us for cleaning up, Morgan, Jessica, Mindy, and I were carrying boxes and a half filled trash bag to the dumpster in the back of the venue, when we saw the three people that we expected least. My dad, Justin, and Rachel were standing in the middle of the hallway.

"Dad!" Jessica and I both said.

"Justin!" Morgan said.

"Uncle Josh!" Melissa said.

"Holy hell," Mindy said under her breath.

"What're you doing here?" I asked.

"Since when is it a crime to want to see my only child?" my dad asked.

"Since never," I said giving him a hug. I didn't realize how much I had missed him over the last three weeks until I gave him that hug. "I'm just a little surprised to see you three thousand miles from Orlando," I said. "And besides, I left your present at home."

"Oh darn," he said, smiling. "What did you get me?"

"I got you a RCD player and some RCD's," I said. CDs were starting to become like Atrack players: out of date. Something new had come out called an RCD. I think is stood for Really Compact Disc, but it really stood for something else. "I just hope you can figure it out. It looked kind of complicated."

"Honey, I run a twenty-four track mixboard at work almost everyday. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to figure it out," he laughed.

But something new caught our attention. Morgan was just staring at Justin as if to say, "What the hell are you doing here?" Then she dropped her not too heavy box and dashed to the women's restroom down the hall a little ways. "What's the matter with mommy?" Rachel asked innocently.

"Yeah, is there something here that I should be aware of?" Justin asked the general population.

"Well, you see, it goes kind of like this. When two people love each other…" Jessica started.

"Oh honey you are SO not giving your own father the 'Birds and the Bees' talk are you?" I said.

"No, what I was going to say was, um…well…" Jessica started in again.

"Morgan is pregnant," Mindy broke in, and promptly clamped her hand over her mouth.

"What?!" Justin asked.

"Congratulations man!" my dad said and gave Justin a slap on the back.

"I better go talk to her," Justin said, still bewildered, and left, knocking on the door to the restroom.

Melissa was the first one to break the silence. "Well, now that that excitement is past us!" she said, rubbing her hands together.

"Yeah!" I said, snapping out of my reverie. "Who's up for a tour of the backstage?"

The last concert went without a hitch. We were going to get on a plane back to Orlando in the morning. We climbed upon the plane with about three hours of sleep, which was about normal, and I could barely see where I was going I was so tired. I fell into my window seat and put my head against the wall. "I have got to find a pillow," I commented. Someone handed me a small blue pillow, like would be on a couch. "Thanks," I said, then confusion hit me and I looked beside me. There sat Brian, who looked as tired as I did. "Oh hi Brian," I said.

"Hi," he said. "You tired?"

"Very," I said. "I think when I get home I'm going to sleep for three days."

"Can't!" Tim said. "You got a promo."

I let out a mock whimper and turned around and hit him with the pillow.

Brian laughed. "Don't kill the messenger."

I settled back into my seat. "I'm not going to sleep anyway," I said, handing Brian back his pillow. "I can't sleep when I'm going somewhere," I said. "My dad always said that I was afraid that I'd miss something."

He smiled, he had met my dad last night. "Funny, my mom always says the same thing about me."

"Really?" I asked. "No kidding."

"No kidding," he said. "So…I've met your dad…why didn't your mom come up?"

"She left a long time ago…last time me or my dad talked to her was to get the divorce papers signed," I half-lied. That was the last time that dad had talked to her, and if I wasn't going to tell my dad about the note, I certainly wasn't going to tell Brian.

"Oh. So I'm assuming that you really don't want to talk about it," he said.

"Not really," I said truthfully, and we left it at that. "What about your dad? I know about your mom, but what about your dad?"

"He died," he said shortly.

"Oh, I'm sorry," I said. "I didn't know."

"I know, that's why you asked," he said. "He died when I was twelve."

"At least you'd be old enough to remember him," I said, slouching in my seat to get comfortable. "I only have a few memories of my mom, and not all of them are good," I said.

"How old were you?"

"Six," I said. "I only have a couple memories of her. I can remember making a birthday cake with her once, and I have a memory of her and my dad fighting."

"Wow. I guess I am the luckier one," he said.

I looked up at him from my slouched position. "How did he die?"

"Car accident," he answered simply. "He wasn't wearing his seatbelt and he got thrown from the car."

He talked about it so easily. I wondered how many hours of therapy it took for him to talk about it so easy. Because I spent every aftenoon in the counselor's office at the school for three months after my mother left and I still don't like to talk about it. "Do you ever wish that you could change things? Like that your dad was wearing his seatbelt or something?"

"All the time," he said. He looked at me. "What about you? Do you wish that your mother never left?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. Like I said, I have very few memories of my mother, and even fewer of those are good. I think if I had to save a stranger, or save my mother, I'd save the stranger."

Brian was silent. "I'd normally think that was a horrible thing to say and that the person saying that was a bad person…but under your circumstances, I don't think so. Do you have any pictures?"

"Some at the house. You?"

He leaned forward and pulled his wallet out of his back pocket. He opened it up and pulled out a picture. "He looks like you, only older," I said, handing the picture back to him.

"Thank you," Brian said. "I guess there's one more likeness between us."

I smiled. "I guess so. A likeness that I would rather not have sometimes, though."

"I know what you mean," he said. "I'm going to go to sleep right now," he said putting the pillow behind his head and closed his eyes.

So I decided to let him sleep. I put the headphones to my CD player on, and pressed play, as the beginning notes of Liquid Dreams filled my ears, and I drifted off to sleep.

As all good things do, they come to an end. My video was being retired, and I called in on the phone and had a short chat with Chris. I can remember the old host, Carson Daly. Sweet person, I think he's vice-president of MTV or something like that now. Anyway, I called in, and we watched the countdown. My video reached number one a couple times, but it retired at number two. Which is perfectly respectable.

I actually had an afternoon off, so I was hanging out with Morgan, Jessica, Rachel, and Melissa at Jessica's house. We were doing girl stuff, and Morgan was trying to explain the entire pregnancy thing to Rachel, who still didn't quite understand. And then my cell phone rang.

"Yellow?" I said.

"Purple," Tim answered.

"Green."

"Orange.

"Blue."

"Give," he said.

"That isn't a color," I said.

"I know," Tim said. "I have something really really really incredibly important to tell you," he said.

"What?" I asked.

"Nathan Henderson called me….More Plz wants to convert one of their songs to a duet, and have you do a duet with them!" Tim said excitedly.

"Holy hell Tim are you serious?" I asked. Jessica and Melissa gave me their "Tell Me Now!!!!!!!" look.

"As a heart attack. They're going to reconfigure it tomorrow and you guys will record in a couple days, and the video will be shot the day after that. I'll give you less sketchy details when I get all that stuff. Is that okay?"

"Is that okay? Is that okay? I'm going to do a duet with More Plz!" I yelled. "Ahhh!!!"

All I heard was Tim laughing on the other end of the phone. Melissa and Jessica were talking excitedly, and Rachel was jumping up and down on the couch, and Morgan shrugged and joined her.

"Okay, okay," Tim said. "Something else."

"What?" I asked. "What could possibly be better than this?"

"Would you like a moon man?" Tim asked.

"Are you kidding me?" I asked.

"No. You've been nominated for a couple MTV Video awards. Video of the year and Viewer's Choice."

"Aaaah!!" I yelped.

"What? What? What?" Jessica asked.

"I've been nominated for two MTV Video Awards!" I said excitedly.

"Aaah!" Jessica and Melissa yelled together. We all drew into a group hug, and I don't think that I've ever been so happy since my album came out. "Congrats!"

All I could do was laugh. I put the phone back up to my ear. "Oh my gosh Tim! Thank you so much!"

"Don't thank me," he said. "You deserve this, you've worked hard. And keep your pants on, they haven't picked performers yet."

"Thanks Tim. Bye!" I said hanging up. "AH! Can you believe this?!" I yelled.

"You're awesome baby!" Melissa yelled.

"This is great!" I yelled.

"Yipeee!!!" Rachel yelled, jumping up and down on the couch. "Katherine's going to get an award!"

Morgan hugged me. "I cannot believe this! This is prodigious!" she said.

I was in a surreal mode the rest of the day. My dad and I had our own little celebration when I got home that night, and I could not believe that this was happening to me. My hard work was not only getting recognized by people my own age, but I was getting respect and recognition from people my dad's age. And I'm not going to lie, it felt good.