Find Your Inner Celebrity by Damilaara Hannah Adeyemi (books suggested by bill gates .txt) 📖

Prologue

I was due on stage in five minutes. I was a nervous wreck. I was used to the feeling. It always happened before a show. I was only nine years old and I already had my dream come true before I was even sure of it. I had met all the top artists like Tinie Tempah, Rihanna, Madonna and Jason Derϋlo. Most people would kill to meet those people. I was different. I was born into a house full of celebrities. My dad was a rock-star, mom an actor, older brother also an actor, and the list goes on, and on, and on. I was born to be a celebrity; I guess it ran in the family. It’s just that, sometimes I feel I wasn’t meant to be, one of them.


Chapter 1

Let me introduce myself like the little kid my parents brought up. I’m Myra Kenner, thirteen years old, parents famous Juliana and Michael Kenner. My mom is white and multi-lingual and her maiden name was _________, my dad black also multi-lingual, which means of course I’m mixed-race, although I’m darker. Apparently black genes are stronger. I’m quarter American; quarter Polish; half South African. I’m not a normal kid, I never have been. I can speak many languages, English, French, German, Polish, and Afrikaans. All the languages they teach in schools and the languages my parents taught me. I know everyone says ‘You can’t remember the memories of when you were a child,’ well I can, quite vividly actually. I had the normal life of a baby. Not. Everywhere I went it was, ‘Can we get a photo of your new born baby?’ the paparazzi. A celebrity’s natural born enemy, the people who make celebrities wear sunglasses everywhere because of the blinding lights, the people who don’t give the famous privacy unless they have an embarrassing or revealing photo or piece of evidence to submit to OK! Magazine, the people who don’t feel guilty when they make what someone might want to keep a secret public. Instead of saying ‘Mommy’ as a first word, I probably broke into song like mom said I did. Not. I had only started my singing career about a year ago. To be exact one year, two months, nine days, um… eleven hours, and thirty-six, thirty-seven, thirty-eight, bla-bla-bla. At first I was keen to start my job as a singer. The idea of me being too young to be earning money had never occurred to me. My mom Juliana described what I’m doing as a ‘passion’ not a job. Sorry to say but, I just thought of my mom as a sycophantic, stupid, gold-digger. All she cared about was the money; she was a typical blond, young, sexy lady who had married a rock-star. My parents probably didn’t even love each other but, what the hay; they had money to clear that space! My dad met my mom when he went to Poland for a concert. Well, he didn’t really mean to get to Poland he was supposed to be in Germany but the there was something wrong with the pilot. Dad happened to be mom’s idol and she adored him and had all his CDs and records or whatever. Mom lived in the rural, green countryside, in deserted house miles away from any city. Luckily, mom could speak English, and was the only one who could, and she was also longing to get out of Poland and achieve her live long dream of becoming an actress. Dad had only known each other for a week and a half, and thus decided to flee the country with the famous rock-star Michael Kenner and married him to go from Juliana ________ to Juliana Kenner. Anyway, back to me. Today was the night I was going to perform, I was so excited, so-excited-you-might-puke type of excited. I was going through a mixture of feelings at the moment. It was 8th July, my birthday, my ninth birthday. And I was doing a concert. Right on the day of my birthday, and my body was rushing with adrenalin. It was sort of a party. That people were paying for. In addition to my so-excited-I-might-puke and nervous feeling, my mom was telling me how much I couldn’t mess up; that this was my opportunity to shine and show my talent to the world. At this point I thought I was going to vomit right there and then.
“Myra! Pay attention! This is vital information I’m telling you here,” my mom brought me back to the situation before me.
“Yeah, okay mom, I know,” I was just telling her what she wanted to hear.
“You better be ready, you’re going on stage in ten minutes,”
WHAT! I didn’t expect my curtain call to be THAT soon! My mom finally walked away and I had some time to myself. Not for long though, my older brother, Kai, joined me. He was sixteen, much more mature, more experienced, and gave excellent advice, well at least sometimes.
“Hey sis, I see from the expression on your face you’re nervous.” He said it so casually I was already almost calmed.
“Yup, well, there are a mixture of feelings,” a whole lot of feelings!
“Just relax. I love acting and as mom says is not a job it’s a passion. Just sing your heart out and visualise everyone in their underpants.”
“I don’t think I’ll be able to do this, I mean, I’m only nine,” nine is probably not the youngest age anyone has done this in my family.
“CURTAIN CALL!” shouted mom.
“Well, I guess it’s time for me to head off. Happy Birthday Myra, my precious little sister. Remember, visualise everyone in their underpants. I’ll be rooting for you in the crowd.”
“Thanks,” at least SOMEONE remembered my birthday. My brother is going to be a much better parent then ours will ever be.
“MYRA! You need to go on stage NOW!” it was mom, well time to face the fears.
I was finally walking onto the stage; it was either the Walk of Shame or the Walk of Fame. It was my turn to shine. It was time to share my talent with the world. It was time for me to turn into a celebrity.
I was on the stage, in sight of the massive crowd, the microphone stand with my personalised glittery blue microphone with it, and also in sight of my rooting older brother Kai. He was so supportive and I loved him for it. He was the family member I spent the most time with. I also had another older sibling - I was the youngest in the pack – she was the oldest, twenty-two, and was also a celebrity, obviously. She was just like mom, but wasn’t yet married. I didn’t connect with her much, like sisters would; she was too much of an opposite of me.
Just like my brother said I should do, I visualised everyone in their underpants, waited for the music to come on, then sang my heart out.
I didn’t miss a word of the song, nor any of the dance moves, I performed to absolute perfection. Not even one note was out of tune or out of place. At least that’s what Kai said. Since when had he become such an expert on music?
“Myra! You were really good. Now you just need to sign a few autographs, say how devoted you are to your fans, yada, yada, yada. Just go out there and give a speech. They’re waiting, get out on the stage!” It’d only been five minutes since I finished my - perfect - performance. I was exhausted. I better go now before mom gets all cranky, worse than how she is now.
“This was my first performance and I hope you loved it. I had a BLAST and I love all my adoring fans. I hope to have a career in music, and hope my current and future fans will follow my proceedings and thank you for coming to the show!” I had said my small speech, but I needed to add one more thing. “And today is my birthday. I’ve turned thirteen. And again, thanks for coming.” I wanted everyone to remember my birthday, so far, only Kai had. Not even my mom or dad had even said happy birthday, not even a lousy card.
I could hear backstage, my parents arguing. I knew it, they hadn’t remembered my birthday. Their youngest child and they couldn’t remember my birthday. And I hated them for it.
“How could you not remember your own DAUGHTER’S birthday?” Mom shouted.
“You can’t blame it all on me! I’m not the only one who didn’t remember!” Dad shouted back. I was still standing on the stage stunned, that I had to announce my birthday to the whole world, just for them to remember. Finally, I came out of my shock and ran off the stage. I instinctively went to Kai, he was my brother, also my best friend, and he was always there to comfort me when I needed it most.
“I can’t believe them. I heard their row and thought it was despicable. I mean, I’m the only one who remembered your birthday.”
“I don’t want to talk about it Kai. Can’t you see how upset I am?” I know I sounded a bit harsh, but Kai would understand. He’d been soothing me ever since I was little. I always was the I-keep-myself-to-myself sort of person. You know, like always on my own, playing imaginary games with myself. I didn’t have any proper friends, because of the whole, celebrity parent’s thing. The only kids I met my age were from other celebrity families. I didn’t go to school, so I didn’t socialise, and I had a private tutor. In some ways, I had a better relationship with my tutor than with my parents. I really want to though, though every time I try to it’s like.
“Myra I’m busy, we can talk about your feelings some other time,” or “MYRA, get out of my way I’m on the phone,” typical celebrity parents. At least dad sometimes pretends that he is interested in whatever I want to talk about. Sometimes it seems I have to parents at all, like I just have two agents who live together in a house and are married to each other. I always wished that mom and I had the relationship that normal children would be able to have. My dad and I had virtually no similarities at all, but my mom and I are actually quite similar. We are lactose intolerant, blond hair, wondrous hazel eyes, slim figure, and tall height.

Publication Date: 12-25-2010

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