Readying For Stardom by Aidin Vaziri It's not all adoring fans and glittery award shows for teenage pop stars. Stuck in a Midwestern hotel room, the girls in Norway's M2M are getting a first-hand look at the less glamorous side of the music business. Last night they arrived in Texas, played a concert, woke up, and made an in-store appearance. In just a few minutes, they will board a shuttle bus headed for the airport that will take them to Miami, where they will do the same thing all over again. "I think I've seen Tarzan and Music of My Heart 10 times," Marion Raven, 16, groans. "We get the same movies all the time." Her blonde partner, Marit Larsen, 17, concurs. "The worst thing is traveling," she says. "You just sit there on the plane and waste time. And you always sit next to this smelly, fat guy so you can't go to the bathroom." Things could be worse. M2M's debut album, Shades of Purple, is an international smash. The single, "Don't Say You Love Me," is everywhere. And this is only the beginning: Unlike most of their contemporaries, M2M is in it for the long run. The girls not only play their own instruments and write their own songs, but they have been friends since they were 5. Their remarkable maturity has not gone unnoticed by critics. "Some people are like, 'How can you write about love when you're only 15?'" Raven says. "They forget that when you're 15, you see love everywhere, and you dream about love. We just write about things we experience and think about. That's why our songs are about love. That's what teen girls think about and experience." Naturally, the group's bustling career has provided plenty of inspiration in the heartbreak department. "Even if you meet someone when you go home for a couple weeks, you have to leave for two months and then you come home, and maybe he's with someone else," Larsen says. "It can be really hard." But right now, M2M is not taking anything for granted. "This has been the best music school ever," says Raven, referring to touring. "We have learned so much. We met tons of new people. We got to do our dream. It's been busy, but it's also been a lot of fun."