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Chapter 2

Liana's POV

    I was really nervous about this album announcement party. I'm not one for being filmed or photographed, and I knew there would be news channels and various magazine photographers everywhere once we arrived. But I had already showed up to California and was dressed for the party, so obviously, there was no turning back.

    I looked over at Ellie, trying to determine how she was feeling about everything that's about to happen. She wore a nervous and awkward smile, letting it known that she wasn't sure on the whole situation either. The driver jump out of the car, and people were watching our limo, not sure on who was in it. Our record company was able to keep our faces and full names out of the limelight, so that way, this reveal was big news. The driver opened our door, revealing cameras being pointed at us, and two body guards.

The media murmured to each other, having no idea who we were. Elisia stepped out of the limo first, being careful as to not reveal anything under her dress. Next i got out, feeling like the polar opposite of Elisia with my black dress and birdcage veil. Once we both stood outside of the limo, people started to shout questions at us.

Our record label told us to try and ignore everyone's questions, so we tried to do exactly that. People were asking us who we were, but we simply smiled, giving a small pose every once in awhile.

Only one person asked if we were The Highlights, but Elisia and I were in the door by the time the question was asked. There were already tons of celebrities, who didn't seem to notice us at first. They were conversing amongst themselves, more interested in their conversations, rather than two seemingly random girls. A man came up to us, looking more business than glamourous, and introduced himself.

"Elisia and Liana?" He asked us, slightly hushed. My half sister and I nodded our heads, having a feeling we knew this man. "My name Charles Monroe, your manager. We spoke on the phone?" the middle aged man reminded us.

I smiled, feeling much better that Elisia and I knew at least one other person, well, somewhat knew them.

"Your instruments are backstage, ready for you to familiarize yourselves with the new stuff. You're on in an hour, you have a coach waiting to warm up with you two. There's water and food, changing rooms and bathrooms." Charles took a second to try and read our faces and see how we were feeling about the whole situation. Obviously Ellie and I were nervous. We had almost no time to practice and we feared people's reactions. "How are you guys feeling?" Charles asked us.

"Nervous," i breathed out, not knowing what else to say.

"Yeah, definitely nervous, but we can do it. Right, Liana?" Ellie asked me, trying to motivate me discretely.

I nodded my head once, starting to find some courage inside of me.

"Well remember to introduce yourselves at one point and be personable," Charles reminded us before turning around and leaving, obviously having more to do. Elisia and i found our way backstage and were approached but a middle aged women right away.

"Elisia and Liana?" The woman asked the two of us, making it obvious that she was our vocal coach.

"That's us!" Elisia grinned up at her, since the woman's heels were much taller than ours. The woman hurried us into our own room and started to warm us up, teaching us techniques as we went along. Ten to fifteen minutes later we were ready to sing, but we still needed to check out our instruments and get all of our equipment on. There's more to backstage process than you think. Once we felt comfortable to play our instruments we had our in-ear monitor, which is the thing you see singers with in concerts, so that way all the other sounds, like the drum track, was blocked out, and we could keep our singing in tune.