My Fallen Angel, My Rebel Love Song

Chapter 1: 18th Birthday

I woke up this morning with my little sister jumping up and down in on me excitement. Today, December 13th, is my birthday. My eighteenth to be exact. Bandit either had coffee, or she wanted me to see my presents. Knowing my parents, probably both. She just kept saying stuff like "Come on Belle, get up already!" and "For the love of coffee, get up already!". It was quite hilarious, and I let loose a giggle. Bandit heard and then started to jumping harder and yelled something about "being a big meanie" and "wasting her precious time". She gets the sass from dad.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY REBEL!"

Ow, ow, OW! Seriously, is it a federal crime to NOT murder my ears on my birthday!?!

"Good morning birthday girl." Oh, good, Mom and Dad are up too.

"Good morning family who always manages to burst my eardrums on my birthday."

Mom and Dad looked at me with a hazy look in their eyes, seemingly remembering when they found me in front of a Hot Topic in Colorado, singing and playing I'm Not Okay on my guitar for the change that would bring me my next meal.

A whole five years back, I was an orphan who ran away from her abusive foster home. Back then my name was Ryann Ashley, I had dropped my last name. My hair was naturally dark brown, extremely pale skin, and my hazel eyes were dull and desperate. I looked like I could really be a Way. That, and I was wearing an Anthrax shirt, a black beanie, black converses, and some black skinnies. Basically, I looked like Uncle Mikey when he was younger.

They watched me perform for an hour, and when I started packing up my guitar, they asked me to join them for lunch. I remember I hadn't eaten since yesterday morning. I quickly nodded, not caring if they would hurt me later or not. But as we walked up to the McDonalds in the mall's food court, Mom had started to hum "You'll Rebel To Anything". I didn't think anything of it at the time. But when Dad started to write lyrics to what would become Sing on a napkin, and then stop to sketch out The Rumor, it hit me like a stake to the heart. I was sitting there, eating McDonalds, with two of my biggest heroes and inspirations.

My face undoubtably went pale, paler than usual, if that's even possible. How do I put this... A sheet of tracing paper probably had more color than I did at that moment. They asked me what's wrong, I just leaned in and whispered, "Are you Gerard and Lyn-Z Way?" They glanced at each other, and turned back to me, giving me a slight nod. "But why are you being so kind?"

Dad was the first to speak. "Well..."

"Ryann."

"Well Ryann, we really like you, and we wanted to get to know you."

"Wow... Ok."

"Cool. Favorite movies, favorite colors, favorite animals, favorite stores, when did you learn to play guitar, and do you play any other instruments?"

"Watchmen, any and all Power Rangers, Batman, and Transformers. Black, red, orange, purple, and yellow. Wolves, dragons, and unicorns. Hot Topic, Walmart, and Starbucks. I learned to play three years back when I was ten. I learned to play piano at five, base at eleven, drums at eight, and I've been singing since I was three. Oh, and I usually drink eight cups of coffee a day, if I can afford it. Otherwise I'm usually a zombie. I haven't been able to afford coffee for a while though, so I'm used to it by now. Anything else?"

"Not to sound creepy or anything, but... Where do you live? I'm sure that the crew would love to meet you, and maybe we could jam."

The thing was, I was kinda living in that Hot Topic. The staff took pity on me, and let me sleep there over night. They also let me take any clothes I needed. I slept in the back room. "Um... Here let me walk you to it. It isn't that far." A flight of stairs later we were back in front of the Hot Topic. "Welcome to La Casa de Runaway."

"Wait, you live in this Hot Topic?" I nodded slowly and proceeded to tell them about how my foster father was always drunk and often beat me, about how my foster mother was sleeping around and would beat me if I saw her, how I ran away with my acoustic, and finally ending with the living arrangements the staff set up for me.

To say they were shocked would be an understatement. Dad was muttering something about how "those damn bastards would get theirs" while Mom was practically shouting, "When I find out who those bastards are I will make them pay for what they did to you! No one should abuse such an amazing kid." She turned to Dad and had a whisper conversation. Then they turned back to me after a short while, and asked in perfect unison, "Would you like to come live with us? There is plenty of room, and we would love to have you be part of the family."

"W-what are you g-guys saying?"

"Would you like to be part of the Way family?!?"

After those simple words, my life changed forever. We went to court over the abuse I suffered from my foster parents, and they got a twenty year sentence. They adopted me a few days later. We changed my name from Ryann Ashley to Rebel Ann Way. I went back to Hot Topic to say goodbye to my friends, who freaked out when Mom and Dad thanked them for everything. I got to meet everyone from My Chemical Romance and Mindless Self Indulgence. They even helped me form a band, and the Nightmare Lullaby Rebellion was signed to Uncle Frankie's label Skeleton Crew. And just two years later, little Bandit Lee Way was born. A week later we released our album "A Malady Of The Heart: Love" with our song "Bandit Of My Heart" topping charts. A year later for my sixteenth birthday, Mom and Uncle Frankie took me to a tattoo shop. I got realistic looking black angel wings that span from the middle of my shoulder blades to my hips. Above that I got "Search and Destroy" in black, and the font is kinda swirly. All in all I couldn't sleep on my back for a while, but it was well worth it.

"Rebel, since you are eighteen now, wanted to get you something extra special for your birthday." Well this snapped me out of my thoughts. "We pulled some strings, and we managed to get you on Warped Tour this year! As an added bonus, Mindless Self Indulgence and My Chemical Romance are doing Warped Tour this year as well!"

"OH MY UNCLE MIKEY'S UNICORN! YOU ARE THE BEST PARENTS EVER! I have to go call the girls. I want to work on a few songs before tour."

Astrid, Ebony, Helena, Scarlet, and I make up the Nightmare Lullaby Rebellion. Ebony and Scarlet play guitar (they switch between lead and rhythm), Helena plays bass, Astrid plays drums, and I do vocals. One time, Helena got a concussion in a revolving door (don't ask), and I covered for her. After that, I made sure to memorize all the different parts of the song. If I get injured really badly, I have Helena cover for me, because she has a similar vocal range. We are all eighteen, which is pretty damn cool.

I sent out a text to the girls to meet me at Frankie's house. Today is the best birthday I've ever had.