Ella let out a cry of frustration as the dial-up disconnected for the fourth time in her small window of free period. "Come on you hunk of junk!" She growled, smacking the monitor. Jason suppressed a laugh as he went to open the cabin door, but Ella's next sentence caught him off guard. "I just want to talk to my daughter, damnit, is that so bad?"

"You have a daughter?" Panic was the only thing that crashed on to Ella's face as she spun to face him. She eyed him up and down for a minute before releasing a sigh and patting the stool next to her.

"Come on, I've got something to tell you."

"... and you see Jason, that's my daughter, Amelia." She explained with a sigh as Jason fixed the computer wiring. His brows were knitted together in concentration, but it wasn't from the wires. "Do all girls think like that? Or have dreams like yours?" Ella gave a small smile and shrugged. "I hope so."

Jason gave her a half-smile before closing the circuit. "Me too."

"To bad that free time is over." She whined with a small pout, crossing her arms. "Well, it's not like I had anything important in today's e-mail."

"Why do you say that?" Jason asked, sliding his stool back under the table.

"I try and write her about what's going on in my life, so that she knows that I went through similar things. I just, I want her to love me." Ella confessed as they made their way out of the computer lab.

"Then write to her about you. Like an interview."

"I wouldn't know what to ask."

"I do, I've been in tons of interviews." Ella raised a brow sceptically.

"And you promise you won't tell anyone else?" Jason held up a hand and made an 'x' over his heart.

"Cross my heart."

Dear Amelia,

I thought you should get to know me a little by filling out one those silly "20 question games". Your uncle Jason helped me pick the questions.

If you were going to design a birdhouse, what would it look like?

- Well, right now it'd probably look like a normal house... but I'd use an eight-note to shape the roof. It'd defiantly have to be cream and pink though; elegant, but not bold enough to scare the birds.

What's your favorite fruit?

- Watermelon. I could live off of watermelon during the summer, Mia. (Do you like that nick-name? I thought if your father was going to call you Aims, I'd find something.)

What's the last childish thing you've done?

-This is going to sound totally awful. But it was raining really hard at camp and there's this huge steep hill that gets super muddy. Well, me and my friends got a ton of plastic sleds and slid down into the lake. It was so gross and the stains might not come out, but I didn't really need that third pair shorts.

What's the last bad joke that someone told you?

- It was Shane. God, it was so bad. We were driving back into town from the camp and he just randomly said "I wonder if it's ranch or vegetable." So, like an good friend would do, I asked "What?". The jerk just smirked and said "The dip in the road." See, isn't that bad?

the last song lyric you heard?

-"We're like fire and rain, you can drive me insane..." Your uncle Shane and aunt Mitchie sang that song for us the other day. It's totally true for them. They bicker all the time, but they keep it together. I hope your dad and I are that happy together, Mia.

the last movie you watched

-Moulin Rouge, that movie is greatness. The singing, dancing, artistry, and don't get me started on the clothes ;)

What do you want to be?

- I don't know yet. I keep changing back and forth between singing and fashion. I'm not so sure about the fashion thing because I sort of feel like everyone expects that of me. No one here really respects me as a singer, besides Barron and Sander of course. But I don't want to do something that I'm not happy in for the rest of my life, ya know? -le sigh- Grown up people problems.

If you could drop everything and go anywhere where would you go?

-Probably somewhere in Italy. Maybe Milan if I did the fashion thing, but everywhere is so gorgeous. I hope that you'll see the world like I did, Amelia. It's weird, I don't even know you yet but I want the very best for you. I bet that how most parents feel.

What famous person, living or dead, would you have dinner with?

-Eleanor Roosevelt, because she's a very inspiring woman in a leadership position who had a husband was not only the president but had polio. Not only did she manage to keep him in better spirits during one of the darkest times in American history, but she became one of the strongest female icons of her time.

What's your latest craving?

-Pistachio Almond Ice Cream. It is so good. No lie, I've been thing about stock piling it in my freezer.

What book is popular right now?

-Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. I hate that book with a passion. I get it, he looks like a a marble god with bronze hair. Quick question though; how do you liquify topaz? Because that's a gem stone, just saying.

Over played song on the radio?

-Poker Face by Lady Gaga. I get it, he can't read your poker face. Maybe he should find a new game to play.

What's your favorite quote?

-I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.
Agatha Christie

... and there's gonna be 20 serious questions in the next e-mail. Thank your Uncle Jason.

Love,

Your future mom

Amelia rushed into the house from school and slammed herself into her computer chair, itching to get to her mother's next e-mail. It was weird seeing this part of her mom without having to ask or something. Not that her mom shut her out, but how did you bring up cute boys to your mom? It was just to weird. But these e-mails made her feel like she had found that her mom led some secret life before she existed. Mom had done something other than make sure everything was flawless in peoples wardrobe? Her mom sang?

She drummed her fingers impatiently, a habit that she'd learned from her father, as the browser loaded the message. Finally, the list appeared and she scrolled to the bottom.

June 14, 2010