I take one step into the house and I already hear my name being called aloud. Heck, I haven't even wheeled my suitcase inside yet.
"Mr. Portman has a full schedule for you. Your first online interview is a ten, so I would suggest you shower and get read," explains Mom.
"Oh okay. Can you please email me the list of things?" I ask.
"No need to. I printed it and pinned the list to your board," she replies.
Mom makes her way down the hall and embraces me into a tight, bone-crushing hug that lifts me off my feet.
"I missed you," I say.
"So did I, honey." Mom settles me to the ground and takes a step back, "Hannah is at a friend's house and I'm going shopping. You've got the house to yourself, so have fun!" She picks up her bag from the entrance table and heads out the door.
"Okay, thanks," I call out.
"Tell me all about your weekend later, baby. Ice-cream is on sale and I refuse to be forced to eat that honey one again." I giggle at her small rant and let her go. The best thing about my mother, she'd still be here later to talk to.
After a long night of little sleep on the plane, I'd rather be curled up in a ball in bed sleeping to the soundtrack of my iPod. However, I know I need to get this interview done and everything else. I just wished pancakes would have been on the card for breakfast to get me through this long day.
I drag my suitcase up the stairs and into my bedroom. Once I'm inside, I dump the case at the bottom of my bed and head over to grab the page. I pluck it down from the board and read the instructions regarding my interview. When I'm done, I pin the paper on the board and smile.
"I can do this." I try to talk myself up.
Gripping the zipper, I undo the case and start rummaging through the content, in search of something else to wear. I pick out a red skirt with a rose pattern and a necklace with skulls on it.
"This would look nice with my stripy shirt, and leather jacket," I mumble to myself. I walk into my wardrobe and grab my clothing along with my make-up and rush to the bathroom. I shower and dress in my outfit and begin applying my make-up. When I'm finished, I take a picture of myself and send it to Lucy.
Within a second, I get 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 else, superstar," Lucy says.
"I will endorse you in all of those amazing details, just after I finish up with today's work."
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 thinks, 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 suggests.
"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 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.
"What the heck!" 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, Mom, 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 interviewer. She's a chubby girl with medium brown hair with 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 woman gushes.
"I know, I'm so excited," I respond.
"Now, I only have thirty minutes, and about a million questions to ask you." She picks up a piece of paper which crinkles and sends a horrible noise through the speaker. I try not to scrunch my face up, but smile.
"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 boy crush doesn't live in my hometown, so now," I tease. "So no."
"You probably just broke hearts worldwide." She laughs.
"Or saved some? I'm still single!" I tug on a wide smile and play with my fingers.
"That's true." She nods her head. The interviewer starts sifting through some papers on her desk. "Now that you're officially signed up to a record label, does this rise to fame seems 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 position in the camera. I take one step back so that my body is in full view before slowly spinning around in a circle. When I hear clapping, I stop and return to my desk chair.
"Where do you buy your clothing?"
"All different places." I shrug my shoulder, "Nowhere specific unless I'm looking for a certain outfit, which I never really am."
"That's fair, I don't have a preference either," she comments. "Should we be expecting a tour?" The lady jumps to the next question quickly, which sends my head swirling.
"It's hard to say." I shrug, "Things have just happened so fast and the details are very – up in the air at this point in time." I wave my hands in the air to help get the point across, but when I catch myself in the camera, I immediately drop my hands.
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 chance to experience my dreams, along with keeping a normal life where I can continue my education," I explain.
"You've got a new surge of power now, what do you plan on doing with it?"
"Stay headstrong, 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. I don't want people to view me as someone different, but just me."
"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." She nods her head and smiles.
"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 which gets my curiosity through the roof.
"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 lives, 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 not able to write about."
"That's interesting, I like the motive behind it," she adds.
"Last question, I promise! Which artist would you most like to work with?" She reads off a piece of paper, then places it on the desk beside her.
"Anyone who's into my style of music has a cool vibe about them, and very down to earth. I'm not phases of their status, just what they 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 too, 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. Freedom isn't always what you expect, sometimes they come in forms of laptops.