Mary-Jane’s Journal — Entry 2

Dear Diary,

Emily seems to think that it’s Christmas already. She’s been playing Christmas music since August, has gotten me to bake holiday cookies with her, and she’s even suggested that we put up the decorations. I saw her getting a box of ornaments out of the attic, and I said, “It’s not even Thanksgiving yet, Em. We can’t put up a Christmas tree!”

I haven’t recorded a single song since I came to stay at Happy House of AG in March, which has been driving the media and fans crazy for months. Emily has been begging me to write some Christmas music — “It could be my Christmas present,” she said — and today I finally agreed. To be honest, I’ve actually really been missing my old life. All the fame and glamour . . . you can’t get that here, in a small town where all the citizens are in their seventies. Nobody except for my sisters even knows that I was a celebrity. I miss being recognized by adoring fans. I miss people screaming my name wherever I go: “MJ! MJ!”

So I went to the treehouse to be nostalgic and compose some holiday songs, and wouldn’t you know, they sky opened up and rained on me. When I got indoors, Emily was arguing with Caroline about when we could have a fire. Emily wanted a fire right then, but Caroline wouldn’t light one until it got to be fifty degrees. I must say, a fire would be really nice, as my clothes are still damp.

Emily made me some hot coca with a mound of whipped cream and a candy cane (she insisted that the candy cane made the whole thing look Christmasy). She saw my song writing notebook and, after reading one of the holiday songs I had just started on, she came up with a few ways I could make it better. Turns out Emily is a natural! The songs are much better now, that’s for sure. I think, that for her Christmas present (great, I’m thinking about X-mas, too. It’s not even Thanksgiving yet, MJ!), I’ll give her a CD of my holiday songs, and a picture of her will be on the back. I could even list her as my co-editor!

Au revoir/Adios (or just a simple English “good bye”),

MJ Valdez