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Chapter Thirteen

"Mr Portman called and he's already got a full schedule for you today, so I suggest you unpack your things, shower and get ready. Your first online interview is at ten," Mum say the second I step foot inside the house. Heck, I haven't even wheeled my suitcase inside yet.  

"Please email me the list of things I need to do, thank you," I ask.

"I've already printed and pinned it to the board in your room," she explains before embracing me in a hug.  "Hannah is also at her friend's house, and I'm going shopping - so you'll have the whole house to yourself," she continues to say. 

"Thanks." I smile.

"Once I've finished, you must tell me all about your weekend in New York!" she happily says.

"Okay, I look forwards to it."

"I'm glad your home safe, I've missed you." My mother smothers me in another hug. I have to pull away from her.

"I'm glad to be home as well, I've been missing everyone too, weird," I conclude.

"See you later." She kisses my cheek and walks out the front door.

After spending all night on the plane and not sleeping, I really want to curl up in bed and fall asleep to the soundtrack of my iPod. However it would seem people have other things in mind for me. I can do this, interview and then sleep. I can't help think that pancakes for breakfast would be a great way to start this morning... this very long morning.

Dragging my suitcase behind me, I make it up the stairs and down to my bedroom. Once I'm inside, I dump the case on my bed and search for the instructions on my pinup board.

There's a folded piece of paper pinned in the middle of the board. I pluck it down and read the content. It's instructions regarding who my interviews are with, how to access and prepare myself – that kind of thing.

 "At least I can wear my new clothing, which must count for something," I grumble under my breath.

Pinning the paper back up, I turn and face my bed. "Let's do this!" I try to say in an encouraging way.

I unzip the suitcase and begin hunting through its content in search for the right outfit. This is going to be my first break out interview, I want to look good. I pick out my new red skirt with a rose patter, and a necklace that has skulls on it.    

"This would look nice with my stripy shirt, and leather jacket," I mumble to myself.

Walk into my wardrobe, I grab out my other clothing items and lay them out on the bed. Once I feel like my outfit looks decent, I grab it, along with my makeup case and rush in the bathroom so that I can begin getting ready.  

Once I shower, and then dress. I closely inspect my outfit. There's something about it that just looks off... Like it needs something else. Grabbing my phone, I take a picture and send it to Lucy – she'll know what to do.

While I'm waiting for her to reply, I do my make-up. I put on some red lipstick and a small touch of black eyeliner.   

Just as I finish, I receive an incoming call from Lucy.

"You know, I thought I'd get a hello, and in depth explanation of your trip before you go prancing off somewhere superstar," Lucy says.

"I thought so too, but I have a few things to do before I can endorse you in my amazing weekend away."

She groans, very loudly. "Don't tease me! Please tell me your commitments won't take long, and promise me this weekend was filled with boys and shopping," she begs.

Lucy makes me giggle. "It was an amazing weekend, and I have a present for you as well."

"Don't even!" she screams excitedly.

"Seriously though, what should I do about this outfit?" I ask.

"Hm..." I can imagine her playing with her hair as she things, she's done that so many times, it's burned into my memory. "I'm thinking a belt, the black one you borrowed and haven't returned yet would look nice," she suggest.

"Thanks, I'll give it back to you after," I offer.

"Sure." She laughs.

"Thank you for your help Lucy, I'll see you soon." Hanging up the phone, I rush back into my room so that I can begin setting up my computer. Instead of finding a computer on my desk, there's a large white rectangle box with a red ribbon tied around it.

"Oh my gosh, I can't believe it." I untie the ribbon and pull the box lid off. Sitting inside the box, and propped up by tissue paper is a white sparkly mask. Taking the mask from the box, I put it on and face the mirror on my wardrobe door.

From the light coming through my window, it's very sparkly, and cute. I can't believe my family got this for me – that's so cute.

When I grab the box, I notice the significant weight difference. I pull out the tissue paper and find another box sitting inside it.

"Oh my gosh!" I shout out. There's a brand new, shiny laptop inside with a note resting on top.

'Dear Riley,

Congratulations on the record deal, we are so very proud of you!

Love,

Dad, Mum, and Hannah.'

I place the laptop on the desk and open the lid. I hit the start button and use the old login password from my previous computer. The home screen pops open and I open the Skype program.

Exactly at ten, a notification pops up and I accept the offer. Their video screen opens up instantly, and I get the chance to see the interview.  She's a chubby girl with medium brown hair and a fringe. From the hair style, she looks like a teenager, but if you look closer – you can see the small creases around her eyes, which gives me the final impression she's in her early twenties.

"I can't believe I'm the first person to interview you, this is amazing, I'm a huge fan of your work," the girl gushes.

"I know, I'm so excited," I respond.

"I totally feel the same way." 

 "Now, I only have thirty minutes, and about a million questions to ask you." 

"Well, I'm all yours." I nod my head happily.  

"Firstly, I want to acknowledge this new mask of yours – it's beautiful, where did you get it?" she asks.

"Uh, I just got it actually. A gift from my parents, but thank you." 

"Amazing, I'm the first person to see it, I feel so special," she gushes again. "I posted an alert on my websites last night announcing my interview with you, and people flooded me with questions," she explains. 

"Awesome news then, I live for answering questions." I giggle.

"Our first question is, do you have a boy crush back at home?" 

I pause, and start think. "Technically my body crush doesn't live in my home town, so now," I tease. "So no."

"You probably just broke hearts worldwide." She laughs.

"Or saved some? I'm still single!"

"That's true." She nods her head. The interviewer starts shifting through some papers on her desk. "Now that you're officially signed up to a record label, does this rise to fame seem more real?" she asks.

"Doesn't feel real at all. I keep expecting to wake up from this dream."

"I'm feeling the same too. The top half of your outfit is very cute and edge, can you spin around for us?"

"Yes I can." Climbing out of my chair, I take a few steps back and check my positing in the camera. When I can see my full body is in view, I slowly spin around and then take a seat in my chair.

"Where do you buy your clothing?" 

"The skirt and necklace is a recent purchase from this weekend. I was fortunate enough to go shopping in some amazing undercurrent places there. They're all on my Instagram."

"Very nice," she comments. "Should we be expecting a tour?"

"It's hard to say, things have just happened and the details are very – up in the air."

The girl claps her hands together and smiles. "I've got two questions left. Do you feel the mask has helped or hurt your sudden rise to fame? Are you okay with what the mask has done for you?"

"The mask has helped my career in terms of putting me in the spotlight. It's also given me the confidence to start singing for other people. The mask also provides me with the best of both worlds. I get the chance to experience my dreams, along with keeping a normal life where I can continue with my education," I explain.

"You've got a new surge of power now, what do you plan on doing with it?"

"Stay head strong, I always want to be able to communicate with my fans – the very lovely, encouraging and supportive people. It may be hard at times, but it's something I aspire to do."   

"That's really sweet. One of the reasons I'm a fan, is because you do take that time and effort to interact with your fan base rather than cast them away." 

 "Thank you. I always want to be there for my fans, however I can be."

"Greatly worded. I was very surprised when I received the chance to interview you."

"See, anything for one of my amazing fans!" I say encouragingly.

"Now I know I said last two questions before, but I've recently got some more. Are you up for the challenge?" She starts drumming her hands against the table.   

"Bring it on," I shout back in an enthusiastic voice, pumping my fist in the air. 

"How old were you when you realized singing was a potential career path for you?" 

"I..." Leaning back in my chair, I swing from side to side. "Only recently when I uploaded the video. I have no idea what compelled me to do it, but I did. Before recording that video, I thought the worst of my voice – something I never shared with my best friend," I explain.

"So you just decided to upload the video on a whim?"

"Kind of, yes. I was stuck with writing my school paper. We had to write about something interesting in our life, and I just couldn't think of anything interesting worth writing about. So I decided I'd bite the bullet and try recording one of my songs in a video, share it and see what people thought. If they didn't like it, at least I'd done something crazy and reckless and notable to write about."

"Is that how you came around to posting your first video on YouTube?" she slips in. 

"Last question, I promise! Which artist would you most like to work with." She reads off a piece of paper.  

"Anyone who's into my style of music, has a cool vibe about them, and very done to earth. I'm not phases of their status, just what they overall can bring to the table," I reply.

"That's all we have time for, I would love to spend the whole day chatting, but I know you're probably busy." She pouts. 

"Yes me to, I shall follow you on twitter so that I can see when you upload this video!" I say. 

"That would be amazing, and to my views at home - I'm Ellie, and you're watching Music Stars interview with The Masked Singer. We hope we've answered all your burning questions!" 

Just as she concludes the end of the video chat, the screen goes dead and I'm left with a blank chat bar. This marks the end of one video, and four more to go.

As I wait for the next video request, I sit and stare at my new computer. Not only does this provide me with easy access to my social media accounts, and assignments. It also means I can record my videos on a higher quality. I can record and store whatever I like on here without worrying about people finding things before it's finished.