Shaniqua Rudd
2nd Period

The Night I Will Never Forget

“Aunt Vanessa it’s already 6:15 and the concert starts in less than an hour!” I wailed to my mom and aunt all afternoon. Tonight was the night my cousins and I were going to our first Scream Tour Concert with all of my favorite artists; Bow Wow, IMX, and B2K. This was the night we’ve been waiting for, for the past two months. We ordered these tickets from Ticketmaster online, on a pre-sale date. If I didn’t go to this concert, I probably would have cried my eyes out for works. I could tell my mother was becoming impatient with my anxiousness. “We’re going to get there Shaniqua just calm down and stop being a pest.”

I brought my best outfit specifically for this night. I went to Lady Blue the pervious weekend. It was a red Rocawear velour suit with a big RW on the back. The pants were flare with Rocawear on the back also. On my feet, I wore brand new white air force ones, long black individuals, hoop earrings, and a white Rocawear tank top with red lettering. My cousins had on the same outfit but different designs and colors. Amber had on a baby blue suit with gold Rocawear lettering and Stevi had on a dark blue Lady Enyce suit. I made sure that I didn’t spill anything on my new outfit because I wanted to go to the concert best dressed. You never knew who you might see, and everybody was going to be there.
We finally left out of the house and headed to the concert. Halfway through the drive, traffic was flowing steady. But, as soon as we got to South Philly traffic became heavy. I suddenly became worried that I would miss the beginning of the concert. It seemed like everyone was headed to the same place we were going. On the radio, they began to play B2K’s single “Why I Love You”. We were all singing along anxiously, thinking about what we about to experience. As we approached the First Union Center, now known as the “Wachovia”, there were men outside hustling concert goodies. When we reached the men selling the merchandise, we stopped at a red light. My aunt rolled down her window was the men approached the car. “We have concert T-Shirts for sale only 10 dollars each!” said one of the men. My aunt turned around and could tell by the looks on our faces that we wanted an official t-shirt. My aunt and my mother pulled out a wad of cash and passed it onto to the man and we received our shirts.

About five minutes up the road we arrived at the First Union Center. We were rushing toward the front door and we could hear the music outside as we approached the entrance. The men checked out tickets and we rushed to our seats. We came in a little late, but were relieved that we only missed the opening act. It was a girl group named TG4 who nobody knew. As soon as we took our seats IMX, came to the stage and performed their hit “My First Time”. It was a slow ballad that everyone in the audience knew. I would have continued to sing the song, but my mom strongly opposed the lyrics and wondered why I liked the song so much. IMX sang a couple of other songs and then left the stage. Soon the real moment we were waiting for arrived. Smoke and red flames burst onto the stage, a short film came onto the screen showing 4 gorgeous young men dancing. There was one, medium height brown skin with curly hair. He was thin and could move like water. Then there was another light-skinned with a neatly brushed ponytail. Another was light skinned with full lips and multiple piercing and lastly the one who stood out the most. He had a six pack with long neat braids and a beautiful smile. J-Boog, Lil Fizz, Raz-B, and Omarion. These were the boys of B2K.
The boys had on blue and white leather outfits, all the same with the exception of about one of two styles. They moved in the same motion and sung their hearts out. In the audience you could see a lot of young girls crying and screaming over the heart throbs. They sure knew how to put on a show! “Gots ta be the one that makes you sad, gots ta be the one you never had…” The boys sung and began to get undressed. The crowd went wild. Seeing something like this at age 12 was very fascinating but I tried not to look so hard and stayed aware that my mom was watching. Shortly after Omarion left with a grand finale there was the intermission. During the intermission my cousin and I went out to the hotdog stand to grab a quick snack. We weren’t trying to stay out long because you can get caught in a lot of the lobby traffic. On the way from the stand, we saw a Youngman who looked similar to Omarion. He had the same face except no braids just curly hair. We looked at him and smiled and he smiled back. “He’s cute.” Said my cousin Amber. I agreed.

The lights were off and everyone knew there was only one person left to perform. Bow Wow. Bow Wow was short, brown skin, with a mole right above his pink lips. He had long braids and his edges were neat. Just as his name appeared over the screen he jumped out of the floor. He was hanging from a rope and swinging back and forth and the crowd went wild. Some girls even reached out with the intentions of touching him. He performed all of his hits ranging from “Bounce with Me” to “Take You Home”. My cousin Amber was literally a stalker, so the glare in her eyes was something to remember. She looked as if she had almost seen a ghost. But she was happy, and so was I. I kept thanking my mom the whole time. I couldn’t believe I finally got to see the music stars that I adore, up close and personal. Shortly after the concert was over we walked back to the car and screamed about what happened, as if we were all in different places when it happened. The whole ride home we were singing and even our moms enjoyed their selves. The next day, we were online on B2K’s fan website. There was a picture of a Youngman. The same boy we saw at the concert in the lobby …wait. Is that Omarion’s brother?!