Pin-Up Paper Rockstars

Everyone has their own perceptions of how the rockstar life is. Most are correct. The parties. The booze. The drugs. The alcohol. The groupies. The sex. However, few realize just how hard it is to actually be in a band. Especially a band that's considered underground. A band that receives no radio play and relies solely on their core fan base and live shows to get the word around that the band actually does exist.

That, is the story of Jillian Court's band.

At the age of five she received her first guitar. Though she never got very good at playing the damn thing. By the age of ten, she and her friends were playing the role of rockstars, and putting on daily shows for their parents. It was during this time that her friends deemed her not worthy of playing an instrument, but more than adept to be a vocalist.

Because of her love for music, she'd spent more than half of her 'school and homework' time, writing songs, humming out verses, and attempting the guitar. She dropped out of highschool before graduation and found herself a spot in a band that often played the local clubs. But despite her talent, she found that she spent most, if not all of her time, drinking more than playing and fighting away her male bandmates for sex.

Growing sick of it, she dropped out of their band and found herself further back down the line than when she had started. She didn't have a job, she never graduated highschool, and her parents had all but kicked her ass out the door of the one place she could rely on for solace.

It was later on in the year, for a birthday present, that her best friend Carla took her to see a band called Sick Chick. A Band she'd only heard a few times before. In the end, she'd fallen in love with them. She was envious of their unity and persicion.

After the show, the band happened to be out in the parking lot signing autographs and taking pictures with fans before they loaded up in their van and took off for the next show. It was then that Carla had decided to ask if they'd sign Jillian's guitar for her birthday, which just happened to be in the car. Shocked with the guitar situation, the bassist, who introduced himself as Trent asked if she played. Jillian said yes, not knowing that he'd ask her to play for him. She played a few riffs from a song she'd written but ended up having her guitar snatched away by Carla. Carla insisted that Jill's voice was her instrument, and she played while Jill sang. And that was all it took. She had the band and the fans all watching. Afterwards, Trent asked if she wanted to join the band. As it turned out they'd lost their singer to another band halfway through the tour and their guitarist had been filling in so they could continue to play.

Skeptical of falling into the same routine she had with the other band, she told them she'd try it out, but it wasn't a permanent thing until she said so. A few days after joining the band, they handed over all their songs. She learned them and added her touch. Turned out, not only did she have a girly rockstar chick voice, but she could also growl and scream with some of the best metal vocalists out there. It was decided that from then on their songs would feature both, forever changing Sick Chick's image and sound.

That was two years ago. Now an EP, and a full length album later, here she was standing in their dressing room winding down after a show.

"Jillian seriously. What the fuck are you doing?"

Jill looked at the reflection in the cracked mirror. The image distorted a little, but not enough for her to not notice Ryan, her drummer, standing in the doorway to the room. "I have to fix my make-up," she admitted as she twisted the cap off her eyeliner. "As non-sexy as it is, I sweat like crazy up on that stage."

Ryan wrinkled his nose and left her alone. But it wasn't long before Dustan, one of her guitarists was joining her in the room. "Are you done yet?" he whined.

If she wasn't outlining her eye with with black fluid, she would have rolled her eyes. "Almost," she stated before filling in the empty spaces with the black liquid.

"We did good tonight." Dustan sat down in the old ratty chair beside her, resting his elbows on his knees. Of all the guys in the band, she and Dustan got along the best. Maybe a little too well in fact. They'd almost crossed the line a few times, but had since decided that wasn't a wise career move, and opted to stay professional and just remain best friends.

"Yes we did." Jill moved on to her other eye making sure the make-up was balanced between both of her eyes.

"You had the mosh pit fuckin rolling good tonight," he chuckled. "I've never seen so many chicks throwing punches and crowd surfing."

She capped her eyeliner and tossed it into her bag. "Hey now, just because they're chicks doesn't mean they can't rock out any less hard than the guys."

"I know, I know," he pushed himself up out of the chair.

She slid some lip gloss over her lips, careful of her snakebites. Then she stepped back and took in her appearance through the cracked mirror. Her long choppy bleach blond hair was hanging straight down with the longer strands died purple and black, and unlike some, her septum piercing actually complimented her looks. She was dressed in a black fitted tank top and a jean skirt, with ripped jean leggings that stopped just below her knees. They were held up by a thin string of leather that tied neatly in a design all the way up her calves. And topping the whole thing off was a pair of black heels.

Dustan had been watching her. He chuckled. "I can't believe you perform in those."

She tipped her foot forward and looked at her shoes. "Neither can I," she admitted, knowing full well that she'd probably just jinxed herself. Breaking an ankle was probably in her future.

"Are you ready to go yet?" Her other guitarist, Kyle was now standing in the door with Trent and Ryan. They'd promised the crowd they'd sign autographs by their merch booth. Then hang out with some kids outside for a wile.

"Yeah, I'm ready."

Dustan followed her out of the dressing room and they headed down the grungy, dimly lit hallway to the front of the venue.

***

The next morning, Jill found herself in Dustan's house, and in his bed. It'd become somewhat of a routine. If she was to tired to drive all the way across Detroit to her house, she stayed with one of the guys. She often thought that sharing a bed with Dustan would only lead to more problems, but they'd actually been able to keep their hands off of each other in a sexual way. And for that, she was greatful.

"Jillian!"

She heard Dustan's footsteps pounding up the stairs until they were outisde the door. "Hey," he opened the door. "Do you wanna go for lunch with the guys? Kyle's paying."

She was sold. She crawled out of bed and fixed the t-shirt and boxers she was wearing. Both of which belonged to Dustan. "Sure," she smiled. "Just let me shower quickly." And she did. Then she dressed quickly, pulling on yesterday's jean skirt, and one of Dustan's Guns 'N Roses t-shirts. She then used his hair gel, and worked it into her hair, messing it up, then parting it, and allowing her bleach blonde bangs to nearly cover her left eye before digging in her bag and applying some black eyeliner.

"I'm leaving," Dustan chanted.

"I'm coming!" she yelled back, hopping over the clothes on his floor and hurrying down the stairs to where he was waiting.

***

They were sitting in a small restaurant a few blocks away when Jill's cell phone rang. When she answered her phone, she wasn't surprised to hear her rep's voice on the other end of the line. But, unlike normal, he was requesting to talk to only her for the time being. "What is it?" she asked carefully.

"We've had a request for you as a guest vocalist on another band's record."

Jill wasn't sure she was believeing what she was hearing. After all, it was this side of two years ago, that no one gave a fuck who she was, or what she did for a living. Now she was being requested?

"I've talked with their manager. He says they'd really like to work with you. And they discussed you guys opening for them on their headlining world tour after the release of their new record."

"Wow," Jill huffed. Her bandmates stared at her curiously.

"So, I'd like you guys to come in, and we can discuss this. Hopefully you'll agree, this would be phenominal promotion for you."

She was nodding as he spoke. "Yeah, we'll be there in a little bit, we're just finishing up lunch."

"Alright, talk to you later,"

She hung up the phone and was greeted with curious stares.

"That sounded serious," Kyle said before biting into his burger. The juice from the meat dripping off the lettuce and landing on his plate.

"Yeah," Jill set her phone on the table by her bowl of soup. "We have a big decision to make."

She was able to keep them in suspense long enough to finish her lunch. Then she had to spill to everyone. They were ecstatic, even though they didn't know who the band was. Jill just rolled her eyes as they walked through Trustkill Records looking for their A&R's office.

"Hey, you made it."

They band nodded and took their designated seats. Jill sat on Dustan's knee after realising a chair was missing.

"I trust Jillian has spilled everything," he began.

The guys nodded. "Who's the band?" Trent asked.

"They're on their way up. Way up. They're an Orange County band called Avenged Sevenfold," there was a unanamous gasp echo throughout the room. "Maybe you've heard of them?"

Ryan ran a hand through his black spikey hair, "yeah, we've heard of them."

Jill knew that Ryan and Dustan, didn't share the same enthousiasm about Avenged Sevenfold as the rest of the band. Maybe they wouldn't be going on this tour after all.

"But first things first," their rep started again. "They've also requested that Jillian be a guest vocalist on a track that will be released exclusively on their DVD as an easter egg."

Dustan scowled, showing his true disdain for the idea. "They want our singer, to join up with them, only to stick her on a hidden track that some kids may never find?"

Jill had been excited at first, but now that Dustan had said it out loud, it didn't sound to appealing.

"Listen you guys. When it comes down to this. It's politics. Things have to be done, that you may not like, in order for you to benefit. The recognition you'll receive from working with, and traveling with these guys will only help you. Not to mention, it'll get you a foot in the door to working with other big bands. I mean hell, they've headlined with Metallica, and they're going to be headlining for Iron Maiden soon."

Everyone knew that he was right. And that seemed to dampen the mood. Jill fidgeted with her hands on her lap. She wanted to work with them, but she didn't. And a world tour? As great as that would be, did she really wanna be on the road and on the other side of the world, stuck with a band they may not get along with for a year?

Dustan's hand soothed over hers, stopping her actions. "The worst that can happen is we get kicked off the tour. And even then that'll garnour some recognition," he whispered just loud enough for her to hear.

Trent must've been thinking the same way. "Alright," he caved. "We'll do it."