let's all make believe. (w. axl rose).

Chapter One: Rebel at the Crossroads

"God, this place is such a shithole." Harley Chandler's face scrunched up in disgust as her family navigated their way through the neighborhood of Lafayette.

"Don't use the Lord's name in vain, Harlene," Edward, her father, scolded from behind the wheel, his eyes trained on the road ahead.

Her older brother, Lucas, turned to her with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. Harley simply rolled her eyes and mouthed the word *priss*.

"Now, Harlene..." her mother, Vera, began.

Oh God, Harley mentally groaned.

"I want this to be different. I don't want you to get into as much trouble as you did back in Maryland. I don't want us to be known as the family whose daughter is a— Are you even listening to me?"

"What?" Harley, who had been too busy staring out of the car window, questioned her mother cluelessly.

"Great, she's not even listening to me," Vera complained to her husband. "We didn't raise her like this. Where did we go wrong? First, it was the clothes, then the hair, and the music. Oh goodness... the Devil's music."

"Hello? Right here," Harley said, waving at her mother.

"Why can't you just be more like your brother?" Vera turned around in her seat, looking at her daughter with desperate eyes.

"You mean a priss? Hell no," Harley shot back.

"Harlene, language," Edward scolded more firmly this time, his teeth clenched. Vera scoffed and turned back around, wondering what it would be like if Harlene were indeed more like her brother.

Harley rolled her eyes again and flipped off her father behind his back before returning to stare out of the window.

Under fifteen minutes later, the car pulled into a driveway with a garage. The family got out and looked at the large, white, two-story house that was going to be their new home.

"What in the middle-class bullshit is this?" Harley complained, removing her shades and placing them on top of her head.

"Harlene, for God's sake, watch your language!" Edward shouted, seemingly fed up with Harley's attitude, causing a few neighbors who were outside to stare in shock.

"Are you using the Lord's name in vain?" Harley gasped, placing a hand over her chest as her mother awkwardly smiled at the staring neighbors.

"Just get your things," Edward ordered, his body seething with visible anger.

Harley smiled wickedly at her father before heading to the trunk of the car, slinging her backpack over her shoulder, and picking up a cardboard box with "Harley" and a doodle of a middle finger drawn in black marker.

She walked up to the front door of the house, casting a smirk back at her father before going inside. Her mother was already looking around the place in awe, causing Harley to gag as she passed her.

"Grow up, Harlene," Vera sighed, fiddling with the silver cross necklace she always wore.

"It's Harley," her daughter corrected, rolling her eyes.

"That's not what it says on your birth certificate," Vera remarked.

"I wouldn't know; I've never seen it," Harley shrugged with a smirk, heading upstairs.

Most of the furniture from their old home was already here, as the moving van had come a few hours earlier, leaving boxes and furniture in the oversized living room. The bed frames were already in the bedrooms with mattresses in them, and Harley obviously picked the biggest room.