Soria Girl

To this day, I still can’t believe I actually sorta kinda became famous for being anonymous.

Well…for writing a song called “Anonymous.”

See, a few months ago, there was a band…and their name was Plaster Caster. This band was noble and consisted of four members – four uniquely talented kids who worked hard and ended up being awesome.

I should probably start this by saying that I was their guitarist.

Well, yeah. I was the guitarist, Ren was the singer, Brendan was our drummer, and Luke was our bassist. Pretty simple.

We all had a taste for music we loved, and a hunger to make our own. What we shared was creativity; it was the ability to collaborate and create the sound that only we had. Like, when you hear a song and you absolutely love it, but you want to tweak it ‘cause it’s missing something in your ears. We wanted to mix together a melting pot of sounds we were influenced by and stick the perfect elements in it.

And I hate to sound arrogant, but we were pretty damn good. You can ask anyone in Claymore, actually – we were awesome.

I’d like to say that I pushed Ren out of the way of a flaming bus to safety, where we introduced ourselves and discovered a common passion for music. I really would. But I can’t say it, since it never happened. We just met in gym class on the first day of school, since he noticed I was wearing a Hey Mercedes shirt (that’s a band). That basically became our common ground, and we built on it. We got to talking and eventually scheduled a jam session, since he sings and I play the guitar.

The kid was well over five-and-a-half feet tall and shyer than a turtle, but I’m tellin’ you - he’s got a hell of a voice. First time I heard him sing, my heart skipped a beat in surprise, because I had no idea someone like him sang so perfectly. It was one of those things where a really quiet kid outshines you and it catches you off guard.

Before long, Ren and I became the best of friends, sharing a love of music and a strong alliance. He had my back and I had his, and we had a perfect life. I wrote songs and he listened when I played them on my guitar, picking up and singing like his soul was on fire.

He found a song I wrote on my desk the day of our first jam session, and I grabbed it away from him, scared he’d read it and think less of me, since I really didn’t want to screw anything up. But he was persistent and fought to keep it in his hands, and then eventually, he got to read it. I told him the truth - the song was stupid and made no sense. Ren loved it though, asking why I kept my “talent” a secret.

To make a long story short, we called each other paranoid, stared at each other, and then swore off secrets.

Then, we became a twosome. Not quite a band yet. Ren knew this kid Luke, who was a bassist, who offered to join us. I hesitated for a while, but then I remembered what he said, and we were a trio.

Luke was a real nice guy. He was kind of an airhead sometimes, but yeah, like I said, he was nice. At first, I didn’t think he was for real ‘cause of that niceness, though I loosened up eventually. What really struck me was when he told us he was an orphan. I mean, he was always so happy, even without biological parents taking care of him. He never talked about it, though. I guess I understood why and everything.

And man, was he a freakin’ hunk. God dang. I was lucky he was my friend. Before long Ren knew I liked him and Luke knew I liked him, and then I had my very first boyfriend. However, due to some, ahem, creative differences (simply put – I couldn’t stand the kind of ska he was into), we broke up. Well, he broke up with me because he said that he didn’t want people talking about me, since he was on the football team and apparently the snobs who wanted to fuck him didn’t like me.

Boy, what a good kid. If I didn’t want to gag every time we listened to his SkyPod, I’d still wanna go out with him.

Well, plus, he called Chuck Ragan stupid. I can’t hang with that.

He was gorgeous, though.

Oh yeah. It’d be dumb to forget Brendan…so anyways, this kid Brendan became our drummer. Nothing big, but he’s good. He’s sometimes on beat, banging his head with the music. He’s not too bright though, even if he’s a sort of musical genius.

Eventually, we entered the Claymore Middle School talent show and won. Even Ren put a ton of heart in the song we did - “Anonymous,” of course - even if he was scared crapless before the show. (I hate to admit it, but it felt nice to slap some sense into him.)

But way back before I was rockin’ with my heroes, I was rockin’ in California, back in Santa Monica, my hometown. I grew up a west coast girl with just my navy dad, and took to music like a fish to water. I had a good life with good friends and swore I’d always be happy, even as my mother was shot when I was barely four years old.

My dad clung to me, I could tell. He always looked nostalgic when he looked at me, saying I was “just like my mother” when I did a certain something or other. I didn’t let my mom dying get to me too much; I just remembered the good times and put a smile on, even if I was barely sentient when she was around. Sometimes I hate thinking about her. It’s just…not something to put me in a good mood, especially in times of trouble.

Then, right before I was gonna go into seventh grade, we had to move to a rinky-dink suburban town called Claymore, all the way on the other side of the country, since my dad was stationed at the naval base in Jacksonville, Florida. I felt sad moving since Santa Monica was where I was raised, but I guessed everything happened for a reason.

Thus, I met Ren when I began seventh grade and it all ties together. Plaster Caster formed so conventionally, it seems, but when we got to playing, we clicked with more chemistry than…well, a science class.

I never guessed that I’d like that place, but I did, and I still do. Claymore’s my new home, my friends are the best I could ask for, and I’m happy where I am.

I don’t think I needed much more than that.