Bad By Myself ✔️

1. Age Ain't Nothing But a Number

Age ain't nothing but a number
Throwing down ain't nothing but a thing
This something I have for you it'll never change
-Aaliyah

"Happy birthday!"

Ginger Hollands walked into the Ritz-Carlton Atlanta ballroom to a group of friends and industry people. They all came to celebrate her being able to do what the hell she wanted to do. She was nineteen today and nobody better tell her a damn thing. She finally owned her own life.

"Girl, you look fabulous as always," her girl Melodie said and grabbed her in a hug. "Ain't nobody shining' like you baby, drip drip on 'em!"

She wore her long, black, wavy lace-front wig, her face was beat, and a ripped shirt hanging off her shoulder, baring her flat and toned stomach. Underneath she wore a black push-up bra that gave her the illusion she had more in the breast department. She was still skinny and had not grown much at only five-two. At least she had breasts now.

"If a bitch try and take my shine on my day, you know Imma kill a bitch," she stated matter-of-factly, stopping a waiter serving Dom Perignon. Only the good stuff for a rich bitch like her.

Over the years, Ginger got to know her girls Melodie and M'Liyah. Not that she had much choice. Once she decided they were going to be in a group, things kind of took off from there. They practiced, they performed, they got a manager and moved from St. Louis to Atlanta and were signed almost immediately. Wasn't any girl groups out there doing it big like back in the nineties.

In the 90s, there was EnVogue, SWV, Xscape, Jade, TLC, Total, Brownstone, 702, Blaque, 3LW, and of course, who could ever forget Destiny's Child. So when they got their group together, they performed every one of the 90s girl group songs. They could do the mature EnVogue sound, the young playful TLC, and the sexy like Jade or Xscape. They steered away mostly from sounding like Destiny's Child because everyone would just think of them as their clones.

They were not. Petite Trois was different from all the girl 90s groups they adored. They were young, only fourteen and fifteen when they signed. Ginger was the oldest, having turned fifteen a few weeks before they signed with hot producer Spitfire for their first album. Melodie was next, her birthday a month after. M'Liyah the youngest, her birthday another four months away.

Three years ago they were nobodies. Three little girls who met at a visual and performing arts high school with dreams to make it big. Little did Ginger know how big they would go. Three albums to date, all three top ten. Grammys, Billboards, MTV awards, three major worldwide tours, commercials, covers of a dozen magazines, and millions of dollars.

"I need to get lit tonight. You gonna be down or you gonna stay playing wifey to my bro?"

"Girl, you know I ain't about that life. After this party, I'll be back at my place, sleeping, and resting. You know we have to fly out to L.A. in the morning."

"It's my nineteenth, yo! That fuckin' means freedom, you know I'm about to get fucked up."

"Bye girl, you on your own," Melodie told her and walked off.

Whatever with her. She may be cool with Melodie and M'Liyah, but outside of singing in their group, she did not have anything else in common with them. They were cool with doing what their handlers said. Stay perfect, stay innocent, and stay the little sweet girls next door. Because they were young when they released their first album, everybody wanted to see them a certain way. They could not stray from the image that was created three years ago.

Ginger rebelled from the get-go. When they were first doing promo for the album, the A & R peeps were like, "natural hair, no weave, no color. Stay youthful-looking." Her barely to her shoulders natural hair had split ends and stayed a frizzy mess. So she shaved her head bald and came to the album cover photo session like, what? They quickly found her a long flowing lace front wig and she never looked back from wearing outlandish hair in all lengths, colors, and styles. M'Liyah had her locs which everyone loved, and Melodie, well, the white girl had curly hair that always looked great. She was not letting them take her shine.