AN: I promised I would write this a long time ago. What I did was make a rough outline in my head and then completely forget about it. But here's the beginning of it now. I'll be sporadically posting more chapters when I get them written.

Priestly is going to be called Bo, because I headcanon that everyone other than his parents just called him Bo when he was a teenager.


The muffled sound of yelling filtered up to Serena's room. She winced. That meant her parents were fighting with her brother again. It was becoming a more and more frequent thing, ever since he'd come out to them as bisexual the year before. Serena had her own mixed feelings about the situation herself. It certainly didn't make sense to her why her parents had such a problem with something so small that wasn't even her brother's fault. It didn't make any more sense why her brother had to be so pushy about it, though. Why couldn't he lie to them and say it was just a phase? She knew that wasn't the case, but at least it would keep the peace. Their parents didn't have to know if he occasionally dated guys in secret. They would think their children were doing what they were supposed to be doing, and her brother would actually be able to do what he wanted. That would be a win-win, right?

The yelling escalated, something banged loudly against something else, and then pounding footsteps came upstairs. At least the fighting was over. A knock on her door.

"What?" she asked, doing nothing to mask her own annoyance.

Her door opened, and her older brother poked his head in. "Hey, what do you think?" he asked.

"About what?" Serena asked, not looking up from her book.

"My hair?"

Rolling her eyes and huffing like only a preteen girl could, Serena looked up from her book at last. "Oh my god," she whispered. "That actually looks amazing." His hair hadn't been cut, as she'd expected. Instead, it had been dyed completely blue. "Isn't that against dress code, though?" Their school didn't have a strict dress code, but certain things were against policy, like facial piercings and visible tattoos.

"Nah, I checked. There isn't a single place where they say anything about hair color."

"There will be after this," Serena told him. She said it with a smile on her face. Her brother pissed her off a lot of the time, but she still loved him, and she appreciated a little rule-bending as much as the next guy.

"I don't know. My buddy Tyler just got a job working in the front office during his lunch period. So, you could say I've got a man on the inside, now."

"Oh, sure. I bet they have to run all the new policies by Tyler before they become official. Speaking of, what was the fighting about downstairs?"

"It's none of your business," Bo said reflexively. "It's just the usual bullshit from Mom and Dad."

"It isn't bullshit," Serena argued. "They just want what's best for you. Why can't you give them what they want?"

"Serena, it isn't that easy. I should be able to be myself at home and be honest around them."

"But it can't be worth this. They're obviously never going to change. Can't you pretend to change until you turn 18 and move out in 2 years? Just to keep the peace?"

"Tired of the yelling?" Bo asked, starting to lose his patience.

"Yes!" Serena answered emphatically.

"Well, maybe I'm tired of being told I'm a mistake, and that I'm a disgrace to our family name, whatever the hell that means."

"Don't curse at me," Serena said automatically.

"Why are so determined that Mom and Dad are so perfect?" Bo asked.

"They aren't perfect. No one is. But they love us and they're doing their best. They have a lot on their plate. They work so hard and then they come home to you being a jerk who can't take a hint and act right."

"I don't have to take this," Bo said, leaving her room and slamming the door behind him. Another slam following soon after.

Bo collapsed back on his bed. Why couldn't his sister understand where he was coming from? He understood that she was only 11, but it still didn't make sense to him. His parents didn't accept him for who he was. That wasn't anything he could change. Why would he want to live in an environment where he had to wear the mask of a person he never had been and never would be. Why should he? What about that did she not understand? No matter what he said, she never seemed to be able to look past everything she had blindly accepted for the entirety of her life. He didn't want to fight with his parents. He wished his sister was on his side.


AN: I know it was short, but it's only the prologue. Parts of the story will get much happier than this, though there is definitely going to be turmoil, but that's what most people experience growing up, anyway.

Happy New Year, everyone!