OK, some notes before I start this thing. This is a story that I've kind of been wanting to write for a while. It is based on the game Life is Strange, featuring most of the characters from that game. This story will also be massively AU, and it will be a Pricefield, AKA Chloe Price and Max Caulfield romance story. There will be massive changes from what is seen in the game to what actually happens in this story. I will hit on the major changes now though.
1. Chloe hates drugs and smoking, and never tries either of them. She will still have her tattoos and her blue hair as seen in the game, but due to her lack of drug use and smoking, her personality will be more closer to that of Max's while still retaining some of her punk like attitude. Also, Chloe never gets expelled from Blackwell.
2. Chloe's father William dies in a car accident caused by a drug addict who was high on weed and pills. The game never said what or who caused the accident he died in, and I needed a reason for Chloe to hate drugs and smoking and so this was pretty much an open and shut decision.
3. There will be no Dark Room.
4. Mark Jefferson is a regular everyday art professor. He is not the psychopath as seen in the game. Just an ordinary teacher. Jefferson's personality will reflect this. Well OK it will be the same, just minus the psycho part.
5. Max does not move to Seattle with her parents, and lives with the Price family. Because of that is there to help Chloe get over her father's death, and she will always remember and be thankful for that.
6. Joyce, Chloe's mother, is Max's godmother, she and William having been lifelong friends with the Caulfields.
7. Chloe and Max have known each other and been best friends since they were babies, and are only 6 months apart in age, as opposed to one year as shown in the game. They are inseparable, and do everything together, never leaving the others side for more than a day or two at most. They will also spend mid winter breaks and half of summer vacations in Seattle with Max's parents, and it will become something of a tradition to them. Also, in this story, both of them are more mature than their actual age, so yeah.
8. Chloe and Max never meet Rachel Amber, who went to different schools, but her death will be mentioned in passing at some point, probably in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it fashion.
9. There will not be a tornado ripping through Arcadia Bay. There will, however, be a storm and it will have been reported and followed by the local news stations. The most it will do is knock over trees and power lines and such, basically the damage you would expect to see from hurricane force winds.
10. I saved this one for last because it is perhaps the most important. No time travel.
There will be other changes, but most of them will be minor. So really, this barely even follows the game, except for some small details like William and Rachel Amber's deaths. Also, this story starts off about 2 days after William's funeral on April 11, 2008 (the game doesn't provide exact dates so I made them up), but will also jump forward in time a lot until we catch up to the game's setting, 5 years after William's death. OK, I'm done ranting now, I promise. You're here for the story, so without further ado, onward!
April 13, 2008
Life sometimes just didn't seem fair. It had been two days since the funeral, and a week since William had died in a car crash caused by a speeding vehicle. They'd learned later that the driver had been high on weed, along with other assorted addictive pills and substances. The other driver was dead as well, but that didn't help any. Her father was still dead, and he wasn't coming back. It was late in the evening, and Chloe Price was home waiting for her best friend Max Caulfield. Max had said they needed to talk. Chloe hadn't wanted to at first, but this was Max, and she'd never been able to say no to her. But oh had she wanted to, because she was too ashamed at what she'd done, and terrified that she might have scared Max off for good when she needed her best friend the most. After the funeral, Max had tried to tell Chloe that her parents were moving to Seattle. She'd also tried to tell her that she was staying. Of course, Chloe didn't let her get that far. Instead she had for the first time ever blown up in her best friends face, and for two days had been guilt ridden over it. Max eventually decided she'd waited long enough and had come over and literally forced her way into Chloe's room.
"What are you doing here, Max? You shouldn't even be here." Chloe said. She was standing in the middle of her room, and Max had just closed the door to it.
"I wanted to talk." she said.
"What's there to talk about, you're moving to Seattle and leaving me to deal with all this shit by myself. It's not fair. I need you, and you're leaving me here." Chloe told her.
"I didn't say that. You weren't listening."
"Then, what? Tell me how this makes any sense, how this is supposed to be fair!"
"I said my parents were moving to Seattle, Che. My parents." Max said, putting emphasis on parents the second time she said it.
"I know that already. They're moving, which means so are you, so why should I even care?"
"Chloe, I'm not going." Max said, dropping the bombshell as she'd intended to do two days ago before Chloe had effectively told her to fuck off.
"Wait, what? How can you not go? They're your parents."
"My parents talked it over with Joyce a while ago. Damn it Chloe they know how close we are, and they know seperating us right now isn't a great idea."
"So...you're really not going?"
"No! I'm staying here with you. Our parents are our godparents, you know that. You remember all those legal documents they signed last week? I wanted to tell you then but then...and so I tried to tell two days ago, but Chloe, you scared the shit out of me." Max said. And she really had. They had never once yelled at each other like that in the 14 years they'd been best friends. She certainly understood why Chloe would have thought she was leaving, but she hadn't been given the chance to fully explain it. Chloe had told her in no uncertain terms to "fuck off and never come back", and that had been two days ago. In the end Max had summoned up the courage to come here and almost had to break down Chloe's door. She needed to be here for Chloe whether she wanted it or not, and that's what she intended to do.
"I know screwed up. You're my best friend, we do everything together. I trust you with everything. Instead I bit your head off and you were only trying to help. I'm so sorry Max." Chloe said, crying into her friend's shoulder.
"Hey, it's OK. You're my best friend too, my pirate captain, and I would never leave you like this. I can't. You need me, I know, but the truth is I need you too, I can't just up and leave and go to Seattle as if nothing will change. I'll always be here for you, Che." Max said, continuing to hold her best friend as she continued to cry into her shoulder. After a few minutes of muttering assurances she'd calmed down. Then her mood brightened as she came to a sudden realization of what this all meant.
"Oh man this is gonna be hella fun. It's like an endless sleepover! I'm not sure we have the movies to last us that long." Chloe said.
"You do realize there's this thing called the internet? We can just go on Netflix! Enough movies and tv shows there to last forever, and they're always adding new shit to it. Trust me we'll have enough. I'm more worried about running out of popcorn." Max said, doing her best to keep a straight face. They had at this point gone to sit next to each other at the edge of Chloe's bed.
"With how much you actually eat you would be worried about that."
"Are you cereal with that? You're such a dork!"
"We're both dorks, smartass."
"Language, Chloe!" they heard from downstairs, and then gaped at each other.
"What the hell how is she even able to hear us? Does she have cameras in here or something?" Max asked.
"Oh Dog I hope not. That would be a little creepy. Who the hell puts cameras in bedrooms?" Chloe said, doing her best and failing to not look disgusted at the thought.
"That would be creepy. Oh before I forgot, I still have to tell you one more thing about me staying here. You might not like it, but I have a way to get around it, and my parents and Joyce already said yes to it. Just promise me you'll hear me out before you say anything?" Max asked.
"Whenever you say stuff like that it usually means something bad, but OK. I trust you Max. What's up?" Chloe asked.
"Well...my parents had a couple of conditions for me staying here. First, I need to text them every couple of days to let them know how I'm doing, and Joyce will be reporting on my grades from school. But...well, I have to go spend mid winter break and half of summer vacation with them every year until I graduate high school." Max said, and looked over to her friend to gauge her reaction and to check if she was going to blow up in anger, which was what she was expecting. She was surprised to find otherwise.
"I mean yeah, of course they want to see you once in awhile, I can understand that, they're your parents. It's not really fair, but it's the right thing to do. I'm gonna miss you when you're up there in Seattle, though. I wouldn't know what to do with myself without you around." Chloe said in a surprisingly calm fashion.
"And here I thought you were going to do a rage quit on me. But yeah about that...want to go to Seattle with me? During the breaks I mean."
"For cereal? That would be awesomesauce! I don't know if my mom would let me though."
"Che, I just said my parents and Joyce said yes. Pay attention, dork." Max said, trying not to smirk. Chloe always seemed to overlook important points when she made them.
"Seriously? Of course I'll go! Now we can go conquer Seattle, then come back and reconquer Arcadia Bay. That'll be so fun!" Chloe said, visibly excited to not have to spend time without her best friend.
"See, I told you. You really need to pay more attention or you'll keep missing important points like that. Wait, what did I say, what's wrong?" Max said as Chloe smiled, and then gave her a serious expression.
"Max, I'm glad you're here. That you're not leaving. Thanks for being here for me. I don't know what I'd do without you." she said, and slung an arm over her best friend's shoulder.
"I'm never going to abandon you Che. I'll be here for you, always." Max said, repeating the action and slinging her own arm over Chloe's shoulder. They would be together forever, and no one would stop them.
So that's if for this first chapter. From here, we jump to 2011, 3 years later. I'm planning on having one or two chapters and maybe more, during that period and it will involve either mid minter break, summer vacation, or both. Anyway, let me know what you all think!
