High school isn't easy for anyone and Mad wasn't the exception, she didn't really fit in with any of the clicks at school, she wasn't blond, popular and perfect like her sister

Sam, who refused to even acknowledge they were sisters, she wasn't geeky enough to hang out with the geeks or hard rock enough to hang out with the metal heads, she was just Mad, average height, dark long red hair, so she just hung with Mattie and her other best friend Kayla, they seemed to be the only ones who got her. She and Mattie were very close, they knew each other since they were little and they grew up listening to music and dreaming of being rock stars, she was content with being just friends, him, not so much.

As she walked in the hallways of her school she didn't know what to expect, was everyone going to make fun of her? Or were they going to finally accept her as one of their own.

As soon as she walked she saw her sister and her click, she tried to steer away but one of the girls got a hold of her.

"So, are you like rich now?" Sam's friend asked

"She wishes! She hardly got any money! If I had won, I would've had gotten even more" Answered Sam before Mad could even open her mouth.

"Yeah well you didn't win, did you Sam?" Replied Mad, hurt by her sisters' jealousy.

"I heard she screwed her chance in the studio yesterday anyway" said Sam grabbing her friends and walking faster, leaving Mad behind.

"At least she talks to you in the hallways now, Mad" joked Mattie from behind "a month ago she wouldn't even admit you two were related" Mad laughed welcoming the distraction from thinking about the studio fiasco. Walking to her locker with Mattie by her side made her feel better. She grabbed her stuff and gave Mattie a friendly goodbye hug telling him she'd see him when school was over.

Mattie walked to his locker, planning his next step in conquering Mad, when he was interrupted by Jason a kid from chess club.

"Mattie, my man! You're friends with a rock star now, that must be so cool"

Mattie beamed "and I'm pleased to inform you that if my plan works, the Mad and Mattie train will be leaving 'friendville' and arrive in 'loveville' right now it’s just a transitional phase"

"That's awesome dude wha..." But Jason got interrupted by Kayla, Mad's other best friend, she was short and spunky.

"Transitional phase...?" said Kayla laughing "have you been watching doctor Phil again?"

"See this expression?" Said Mattie giving her a blank stare "this is me ignoring you"

"I wouldn't be calling the 'all aboard' of any train yet Matthew Anderson, not before talking things over with Mad" she was trying not to laugh too much at poor Mattie.

"What do you know about love Kayla, just because you read all those romantic novels and watch all those romcoms doesn't mean you know about it"

"But I know Madeline and the only place your train is going is back to stupidland. So don't go picking out china just yet"

"I have a fool prove plan, I know what I'm gonna say, more or less..."

During class, Mad was trying very hard to pay attention, harder than usual because she was trying to block out the memories of the night before in the studio....

-The night before in the studio-

Mad was seating in a stool inside of studio A, while everyone else was inside the engineers’ booth ready to listen. She had her guitar and was ready to show Nick Carter what a real musician was like.

At least I've got my trusted friend

We're on the road alone again

I guess we're tired of giving in

"Wanna stop! Cause you're hurting my ears!" Said Nick loudly from the booth mic before walking in the studio. Mad couldn't believe this was happening.

"You won a contest, with that?" Said Nick while closing the door of the studio, everyone in the booth could hear him since the mics were on. "You're singing it like is a funeral, is boring, you gotta pick up the tempo" he told her while taking the guitar from her "straight quarters on the bottom, watch" as he said this he started playing and showing her what he meant.

"Sing" he ordered, she rolled her eyes, she couldn't believe this jackass boybander was telling her what to do "sing!" He demanded

At least I've got my trusted friend

"Faster!" He said and picked up the speed on the guitar

We're on the road alone again

"Better, now... These lyrics! We’re on the road, we're tired of giving in, we've made it here... Who's we?" He asked reading the lyrics from her notebook

"Oh um is about me and my best friend" she said proudly looking at Mattie in the booth, Mattie couldn't help but smile.

"We don't care about your friend... We care about you, your song is too bland, you gotta make it personal" Nick said bluntly

"We'll I like it the way it is!" Said Mad, hurt by his comment.

"This song, it served its purpose it won you the contest, but is not ready, at least not until we rewrite the lyrics"

Mattie couldn't believe what this jerk was saying we wasn't going to stand there and let him change their song, he left the booth and went right in the studio, manners be damned!

"Uh Mad, we have to go... We've.... We've got that thing... That thing we had to do" he didn't know what else to say but he had to get her out of there...

Nick couldn't believe this dude had the nerve to interrupt him when he was working with HIS artist, he looked up at Georgia and he didn't like what he saw, it was a lost battle.

"I think that's enough for today Mad, you can go" said Georgia containing her frustration.

 ....

"Miss Johnson, I don't care how famous you are I won't have you sleeping in my class"

Mad woke up, looked up and saw her history teacher, looking around she realized the bell had rung and she was the only one left in the classroom.

"I'm sorry sir, it won't happen again!" She said while running out.

Kayla was waiting for her outside of the classroom, they always walked home together.

"So you admit it, Nick Carter is hot!" Kayla told her while showing her one of those magazines that showed him drunk and with a bunch of almost naked blondes. Mad just sighed. "Is not his fault is just the price of fame" finished Kayla while exiting school.

"Talk about the price of fame!" She squealed, when they saw the most ridiculous thing ever, the whole school was outside in what appeared to be a pep rally but instead of playing the school's fight song the school band was playing Mad's song. There were cheerleaders tumbling around the rhythm, people with signs and the whole nine yards. "Is that your song" asked Kayla surprised.

The only thing Mad could do was turn around and say "can't believe they are playing my song with tubas" she was embarrassed to say the least. She was about to run the opposite way when the principal came and took some pictures with the school's big star and told her how proud the school was of her win. After that she saw Mattie and almost ran to him, there wasn't anything he could say to make it better. "I haven't seen anything this dorky since the chess club ice cream social" said Mattie, and that was saying something since half of the chess club was lactose intolerant.

Mad just let out an exasperated yeah and looked around trying to find an exit so she could run away.

"Let's ditch this" said Mattie "there's something I wanna talk to you about" but she wasn't listening she had found her exit, parked  right behind the crazy circus was Nick Carter waving at her, it wasn't just seeing Nick Carter that took her breath away, he was leaning on his  beautiful Porsche Carrera.

"I - I have to go" was all she could say to poor Mattie she told him a quick sorry with an apologetic look and ran to meet Nick.

"What are you doing here" she demanded

"Rescuing you" said Nick with a cocky attitude, Mad was speechless "that was great by the way, love the tubas..."

"Yeah..." Answered Mad sarcastically

"Georgia booked you a gig at 'Zero Gravity'" Nick told her taking his sunglasses off

"Seriously?" She couldn't believe it "Zero Gravity? I've never even been inside"

"Yeah well, that leaves us two days to work on your song"

"So where are we gonna go?"

"I was thinking somewhere where you won't walk out on me this time" he said, he obviously hadn't appreciated Mattie's stunt. "Get in"

He'd taken her to a secluded part of the pier, Mad had no doubt he had brought other girls here before and most likely not to make music. She sat on a bench and started strumming away on her guitar; she had made some of the changes to the melody he suggested. He was watching her from the hood of his car and laughed; she looked up annoyed and asked what the problem was.

"You changed your temp-chord variation but you still haven't touched the lyrics"

"I just want to get it right"

"You want to get it right or you want to get it right now? Do you do everything with such a hurry?"

"Just my music, I'm on a timeline, Kurt Cobain made Never Mind when he was 23, that leaves me only eight years"

"I guess it leaves me just a year then" said Nick with a laugh "right now your only job is to kill your gig" he told her while getting up from his car "look the cords you want, they're  in the guitar, they're hiding, they wanna come up but you keep scaring them back in" with this he put his hands around her, their faces very close to each other and he started strumming the guitar with his hand "you wanna coast them out" he showed her some more "gently"  he said and stopped and looked at her. She wasn't sure but she was feeling something she had never felt before.