I was told that I should write what I know…the question is, what do I know?

8 weeks earlier…

Here I sit, on a train, heading back to the place I left behind 5 years ago. A place where, apparently, I will be able to produce my best work ever, or at least the first part. Moi, Grace Manning. 23 (and seven months, if you want to get pickie) year old Harvard Graduate and Journalist (some-what high profile) for the New York Times. Daughter of Jake Manning and Elizabeth (Lilly) Brookes, step daughter of Tiffany Edwards and Rick Sammler, sister to Zoë Manning, Maddy Edwards-Manning and Dylan Sammler, stepsister to Jessie Sammler and…

Grace stopped writing there. Trying to figure out what should come next. Technically, Eli Sammler was her stepbrother, yet Grace knew, even now after 5 years, that he has always been, and will always be- so much more. Especially since…

Pushing that thought out of her mind swiftly, Grace looked out of the window at the increasingly familiar landscape passing by, in 20 minutes she'd be in the hometown she had left behind…5 years was a long time.

Not that she hadn't been home at all, its just that now- this time around she really didn't have any excuse that would exclude her from spending time with Eli. After all, it was because of him that she was there in the first place.

You see, while Grace was away at Uni, Eli's band, Anti-Inflammatory (or A.I as in "Alien Invasion" as Grace and Jessie so lovingly referred to it as), were kicking off on the local circuit, by the end of her degree and after completing her first year at the New York Times, the band had just finished a sold out national tour, and were in talks to start internationally, as they were racing up the charts, every where you looked, they were being pegged as the next Blink 182, or Greenday, meshed in with a bit of Hoobastank and Jet.

Now this is where Grace came into the picture. The New York Times and Rolling Stone Magazine have concocted a joint venture- a journalist (of managements choosing with band approval) will follow Anti-Inflammatory for 6 weeks, around the clock, interviewing them, going along to gigs and publicity junkets etc. A weekly column will be viewed in the NYT and a cover story at the end of the duration period will be published in RSM. When this first came up at the weekly editors meeting a month ago, Grace knew what an amazing opportunity that would be…she also knew that she can hardly spend 6 minutes in the same room as a particular band member, compared to 6 weeks non-stop, so when her name didn't make the list of proposed journalists, Grace was relieved rather than hurt. She didn't hear anything more about it, until a week ago.