“I’m in Love with My Guitar”

Maddie Warren wasn’t your average Black girl. Unlike the rest of her family, for some strange reason--she never seemed to like R&B, Hip-hop, or Soul. Since the day she was born, she’s been a hard-core rocker. With her garage band, Fore Ground, she has dreams of making it to TRL. But what happens when the most popular R&B artist on the market ends up working with her? Will he open her mind to the R&B side of life or will she convert him to “the dark side”?

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Chapter 1: Wild Child

“O-M-G…Maddie…I sooo cannot believe that you are dying your hair again!”

“Selene, this is, like, the 5th time I’ve dyed my hair this month…if you’re not over it by now, I don’t even know how you are my best friend.”

Ya know, I’ve dyed my hair so many times, I wouldn’t even know what my natural hair color is without looking at my baby pictures. My mom swears up and down that my hair is going to fall out one day, but fuck it…I’m all about living my life to the fullest.

Oh, I’m a dumb butt…I didn’t even introduce myself. I’m Maddie Warren: guitar enthusiast, and rocker extraordinaire.

Oh, yeah…and I’m Black.

Not too many people believe that I know I’m a Black girl. They just quickly assume that Black people and rock music cannot co-exist…Ha! They are sadly mistaken…Uh, hello…you think Jimi Hendrix was Asian or something? And..uh...ladies and gentlemen…NEWS FLASH!! Slash, the greatest guitarist of all time is what else? A Black man…

So, just because I’d rather listen to Pink Floyd than—what’s his name? Oh yeah…Flo’Rida or The Rolling Stones rather than R. Kelly…that does not mean that I’m completely disregarding my own heritage…I’m proud to be an African-American. It’s just I like rock music better, that’s all.

My family hasn’t taken to my style too well though, and I can tell. Ever since I started wearing dark eyeliner, my sister has called me a Satanist. Dude, it had gotten so bad, my parents have thought that I needed to talk to a shrink. And guess what? She said that there was absolutely NOTHING wrong with me…surprise, surprise…

I mean, sure, I’m a little different, and yeah, I have been teased for my unique musical tastes and styles, and I haven’t exactly been acceptable to the general public, but despite that, I’ve managed to find people who were just like me: misfits, outcasts, ya know…losers.

First, there’s my bestest friend in the whole wide world, Selene. She is the dumbest, but sweetest chick I ever met in my life. She’s a spicy Latina, and she—like me—refuses to be a stereotype and like the kind of music she’s expected to like. One day in middle school, she saw me get picked on for wearing black nail polish, and she beat those girls so bad, to this day, they have yet to be seen. We’ve been besties ever since.

Then there’s my other best friends: Heather and Cassie…and yep, you guessed it…they’re white. And so the fuck what? They are the sickest, most badass girls this side of Atlanta, Georgia. Yeah I know…I live in the Black Mecca of the world, and I’m just about the whitest Black girl in the universe.

But those girls just so happened to accept me just the way I am…which is why they’re so awesome. And you know what makes the four of us even more badass?

We have our own all-girl punk band, Fore Ground…I know, badass name, right? I play lead guitar and sing lead vocals. Selene is a badass bass; Heather plays keyboard; and Cassie kicks ass on drums. I swear on my life…one day, you will see us rockin’ out on MTV.

But before that happens, I gotta figure out how I can convince my mom to let us go to this audition to play at the House of Blues’ Wango Tango…tonight!

Oh, God, I need to pray….