A/N: I'm baaaack! I decided to go ahead and write another story that ties in with my other 3 stories, this time set when Bo's daughter Chelsea is 14 years of age. When you see something written in italics, that's her point of view.

Life Ain't Always Beautiful

My name's Chelsea Duke. I'm fourteen years old with brown wavy hair an' big brown eyes. I just started high school a few weeks ago, an' so far I HATE it. Education's highly over-rated. All anyone cares about at school is whether ya got the prettiest outfits, the perkiest personality, or here in Hazzard County, if ya got the loudest truck or the biggest tires. You can say that I don't necessarily fit in with the girls. Give me a fishin' pole over a fashion magazine anyday. I have my OWN fashion: ripped up blue jeans and tank tops, thank you very much.

My momma, Rachel, died when I was only one year old. I don't remember anythin' about her, but my daddy Bo said she was the sweetest soul ya ever did meet. Daddy's been raisin' me since she died all by hisself. I don't see how he could put up with me for so long but he did a good job. I think he thought he was raisin' a son instead of a daughter though. I don't mind too much, I rather like workin' on cars an' wadin' in creekbeds.

My daddy's cousin Luke, who's my uncle by marriage to my Aunt Ali (that's Momma's sister), comes over and hangs out with Daddy everyday. They both run the garage downtown that used to belong to my cousin Cooter Davenport, whom I only see maybe four times a year while he's drivin' cross country with his eighteen-wheeler. Uncle Luke and Aunt Ali are wonderful to us. They treat me like one of their own (which would be my cousins Jesse and Lizzy). Uncle Luke and Daddy are the best of friends. Although I can't help but think that no matter how Uncle Luke or the rest of us try, it seems like Daddy's a little distant sometimes. Aunt Ali says it's because he misses Momma so bad. If she was as great as I hear, I don't blame him.

My cousin Jesse is a couple of years younger than I am, but I still hang out with him. He's got blonde hair like my dad with big blue eyes like HIS daddy. He's kinda overweight and gets picked on at school about it, so he's not too big in the friend department either. He's probably the nicest kid you'll ever meet though. He likes to catch lizards an' things like that an' then he talks to them like they're pets. Lizzy, Jesse's younger sister, is too sissy to do anything that I want to do but she still screams to tag along anyway. She talks too much sometimes. She's only a year younger than Jesse but she acts like such a big baby sometimes. I think it's just to get attention, which she gets plenty of.

My cousin Daisy and her husband Enos, who happens to be the sheriff in these parts, are the parents of my other cousin Rachel. She was named after my momma. She's a few months younger than Jesse so they're in the same grade at school. Now SHE likes to have fun. She's stark raving mad sometimes. She's jumped off rooftops before, somethin' I won't even do an' I consider myself pretty brave. Rachel's good at opening her big mouth and bitin' off more than she can chew, so she manages to get herself into trouble every once in a while. And being the older cousin, I usually get called on to save her little hide.

Momma's other sister, my Aunt Evie, lives in Tennesse on a horse ranch with her husband Uncle Rosco. They only come down for Christmas time and sometimes they pop in for a visit during the summer. I love them both to death. They always send birthday presents and other goodies through the mail. A few years ago when I was twelve, Daddy let me spend the summer with them on that ranch of theirs. I loved playing with those baby horses. Aunt Evie seems to like playin' mother hen around me, I guess because they don't have any children of their own. In my opinion, Uncle Rosco's enough of a kid for her to deal with on a daily basis. I hope they come down soon, I miss 'em a lot...

Chapter One: Back to Basics

Like every other morning, Chelsea awoke to the sound of the annoying BEEP BEEP of her alarm clock going off beside her bed. After reaching over to blindly try and hit the snooze button, she stayed snuggled down in the warmths of her blankets before at last she lifted her head, her face enveloped in a curtain of hair. She let her mind focus on what was going on around her, the sleepy fog still polluting her consciousness. She then groaned as she remembered that it was Saturday morning and there had been no need to be awaken by an alarm.

"Chelsea!" her father, Bo Duke, called from the kitchen. He was no doubt reading the morning paper and drinking a fresh mug of coffee. "I know you're up!"

"Aw, Daddy!" Chelsea moaned, throwing her pillow across the room as she threw her covers up and sat up in the bed, running her hands through her long hair. Fussing at herself she grudgedly went to her closet, half-open due to the pile of clothes and shoes laying in the way of the door, and grabbed the first pair of clean blue jeans she found and a red tank top to go with it.

Bo gave his daughter an amused grin when she finally came into the kitchen and grabbed a banana from the fruitbowl on the counter. "Mornin', sunshine."

"Mornin'," she mumbled, her mouth full of banana at the moment.

Don't you hate mornin' people? I would, 'cept that's what Daddy is. He could've been up all night wrasslin' with a horde of angry black bears an' STILL wake up with a smile on his face.

"It snowed last night," Bo mentioned casually, turning the page of his newspaper.

Chelsea looked up and gave him the "look". "Daddy, it doesn't snow in August, much less in Georgia."

"Hmmm . . . well, I looked outside and I saw the ground covered with this strange white stuff . . . I thought it was snow," Bo told her, glancing over and giving her one of his boyish grins.

Wondering whether her father had lost his mind or not, Chelsea curiously went to the window to look out at the front yard. Lo and behold, the yard was indeed covered in white---it just wasn't snow. Chelsea growled under her breath.

Aunt Ali told me that when someone rolled their house, she would go and egg their house. I think I might just do that. And then graciously return their paper in a big gift bag with a fancy red ribbon.

"I guess I know what I'm gonna be doin' all day," she grumbled, turning around to head for the hallway closet to get a large garbage bag to pick up the toilet paper that was decorating their lawn.

"They struck early this year."

"That means they'll do it again in about a month or so. We should get a dog, a big ol' German Shephard or even a Doberman."

"I don't think Tabby would like that," Bo said, referring to their overweight orange striped cat.

Maybe I should stick Tabby inside the gift bag and when they dump the contents out, he'll come flying out an' attackin' the first person he sees. When they try to return him, I'll pretend he ain't mine. Then I can get my dog.

So far she had gathered up two huge trashbags full of toilet paper. She was only grateful that they were not used and still clean. She was beginning to think that she should perhaps throw red-dyed feminine necessities at their yards instead of eggs. Tabby strolled along and liked to bat at the loose ends of paper flapping in the light breeze as they hung from their temporary home in the rosebushes. Chelsea heard the sound of a car driving down the road and looked up to see if she could recognize who it was. None other than Uncle Luke.

Luke was chuckling when he got out of his truck as he observed the "winter wonderland". He remembered back in the day when he would do the same thing to his schoolmates.

"Mornin', darlin'!" he waved at his niece, who playfully threw a toilet-paper ball in his direction---which of course only flew a few inches in front of her. "Your dad inside?"

"Yeah. Where's Aunt Ali an' the kids?"

"She took 'em school supply shoppin'. Jesse needed a few things we didn't already have an' Lizzy needed some new clothes."

That kid always needs new clothes. I've been wearin' the same clothes now for two years, I don't need any new ones.

Luke hopped up the stairs to go inside to talk to Bo about whatever it was he needed to talk about. More than likely about the garage. Tabby curled up in a ball in a giant pile of paper that was beside Chelsea's feet. She scooped him up along with his new bed and stuffed him in a trashbag until he started yowling and leaped out.

"Well, it was worth a shot!" Chelsea exclaimed at the cat.

Bo and Luke came back down into the yard. They were leaving to go to work. Bo wouldn't be back until lunchtime and then later on at around five or six. Which meant Chelsea had the house to herself.

"Bye, Daddy!" Chelsea called out.

"Bye, sweetie!" Bo waved before hopping in Luke's truck. "Have the yard clean when I get home."

She gave him a mock salute, which made Luke laugh. Bo shook his head good-naturedly and waved again before they took off.

"Mommy, I like this dress!" Lizzy said excitedly as she reached up to snatch a dress off the clothes rack before rushing to Ali to show it to her. She may have been eleven years old, but that didn't seem to be excuse enough for her to act a little more her own age.

"I don't think that's your size, baby. Let's see if they have it."

"Moooom," Jesse drew out, tiredly dragging along behind the girls. "I'm bored, and this is stupid. Why did we have to do this on a Saturday?"

"Ooooh, oooh, Mommy, I like this dress too!" Lizzy exclaimed as she grabbed at another dress farther down the rack.

"Ya can't have all of them, dear," Ali told her before turning her attention to her son. "Jesse, I promise, as soon as we get done here, I'll drop ya off at the garage to be with Dad an' Uncle Bo."

"Mommy, I wanna try them on!"

Ali's cell phone started playing "Footloose" so she dug threw her purse and found it to answer. "Hello? Oh, hello, Chelsea. Sure, I'll come over with Lizzy when I get done. No, Jesse's going to be with his dad all day. Okay, bye bye."

"We're gonna go see Chelsea?" Lizzy asked shyly.

"Mom, can we please hurry up?" Jesse begged. He couldn't understand why it took girls such a long time to do things.

Ali shook her head to clear the vapors that her children were causing her to have. "Jesse, if you're careful you can go ahead and go to your dad, okay?"

"Thank you."

"Mommy, I want Chelsea to see me in my new dress!"

Bo was sweeping the garage floor while Luke was in the back finishing up some paperwork. It'd been slow today, not many people had come in. Jesse came running up, panting from lack of breath. He was a little overweight and didn't run very much, but today he made an exception. Bo smiled.

"Hey, kiddo. Your dad's in the back."

"Hi, Uncle Bo. Y'all been busy?"

"You kiddin'? It's been deader than a graveyard around here."

Luke came walking out at that point. Jesse went to give him a high-five.

"How was shoppin' with Mom?"

"Terrible," the boy replied, rolling his eyes. "Lizzy kept grabbin' at random dresses an' makin' a big deal outta everything. Next time someone pulls in for gas, can I pump it?"

"He's quick, ain't he?" Bo chuckled.

"Honey, hold still," Ali instructed as she tried to help her daughter put the dress on correctly in the dressing room. Normally she could've put it on herself, but there were lots of buttons in the back that needed buttoning. "There ya go, how does that fit?"

Lizzy looked at herself in the mirror, turning around in a circle to get all the angles. "It fits."

"Good."

"But I don't like it."

Ali let out a deep breath. "Then why did you grab it off the rack?"

"I did like it, but I changed my mind," the girl shrugged.

"Whatever," Ali moaned, tugging the dress off her child and handing her pink shirt back to her. "Here, you're a big girl, put this on."

While Lizzy was putting her shirt back on, Ali felt a pain in her chest. She'd been feeling it for a few weeks now and wished it would go away. She also noticed that she'd been losing some weight the past couple of months, due to her loss of appetite that she'd acquired. Sometimes she would feel extreme fatigue and shortness of breath at times during the day. She had thought it might have been the stress of raising two kids, but why would it just be happening now?

Well, nothing too extreme had happened so far. If something went real bad with her, she would go to the doctor then.

Okay, that's chapter one, sorry if it seemed slow :( Please leave me a review and I'll update ASAP.