Sweet Chaos - Book 1

Chapter 1

Chapter One:

"It's alright to have some fun, just be smart about it." - Momma

                                                              Maddie

They say that when you are about to die, you can see your life flash before your eyes. Well, I can tell you one hundred percent, the life that flashed before my eyes in that moment...wasn't what fate had planned for me.

                                                                  ***

                                  Ten Months and Thirteen Hours Ago

My name is Madeline Elizabeth Keaton, a normal seventeen-year-old girl from a pretty normal family, aside from my older sister, and honestly, I was loving my life. I had nearly perfect grades in school. I had the most amazing friend, Ashely Palmer, anyone could ever ask for. I was getting quite popular with my music on the trending Social Medias, and lastly, I truly had the best parents a girl could hope for. Supportive, loving, generous, why anyone would want to leave parents like that I have no idea, but yet, my older sister did. My sister Beth, full name Elizabeth Helen Keaton, was seven years older than me. From what I could remember at the time, she looked mostly like my father with dark brown hair that she always had some kind of dye in. She seemed to have a great life from what I could tell, she and my parents got along for the most part. There were times during her senior year of high school that I would wake up with the sound of her coming through my bedroom window after she had either missed curfew or and snuck out. However, for the most part she seemed to love all of us, she would always give me advice about how to navigate my school social life, and she was my biggest supporter when I was starting out learning music. In fact, if it wasn't for her, I probably wouldn't have the courage to put up countless songs online and perform every year at the county fair.

When she turned eighteen though, things changed, she changed. She would come home, get into a verbal fight with my parents, only to head back out the front door again. The day she came into my room with a suitcase I knew it would be last time I would see her. She sat me down, made sure I knew this had nothing to do with me, and gave me her necklace that I always loved seeing her wear. My parents were heartbroken, they wondered if they had done something wrong, and in the end my parents just assumed my sister needed to flap her wings and fly out the nest. We never spoke again about that day. My parents always set a spot for her at the dinner table, just in case, and they always had her room clean, it's been six years. Six years of no communication from my older sister, six years of wondering what she's doing now, did she go to college, or what her life has been like since she walked out the front door and left us, left me, behind?

You could say a lot of my song writing comes from her, my thoughts about her, dreams of what life could have been, and some of the pain she has caused. My songs, my music, it's who I have become. If I'm not studying for school then I'm writing or uploading my next song online. I was so excited a few days ago when I found out that my best friend Ashley had been accepted in the same Fine Arts and Liberal College as me. We'd finally be able to be roommates once we graduated in June. I was just thinking about it, smiling, when I finished the last lyric of my latest song. I sang back through the entire song now that I had the last piece, getting ready to put it all together and make a video for my awaiting fans. My fans, I couldn't believe I could actually say that out loud. I had over ten thousand followers, that number claiming every day. I'd even been invited by the local radio station to perform a song or two during the school year. This put me at the "Oh my God, You're Famous" level at my school. At least that's what Ashley said.