It all started with Firewalk. Not the concert, that came a little later.

Rachel had been outside Blackwell watching the skaters do their thing when suddenly Chloe, a girl she had only ever seen in a state one might call 'sullen', came running up. She held a busted up iPod and a portable speaker. "Holy shit holy shit holy shit!"

Justin laughed, his amusement bolstered by the usual dosage of pot. "Woah, down girl, what are you all hyped about?"

"Firewalk's new album, dude! It's so good. I had to come over and blast this like... immediately." As promised, she plugged in the speaker and began to pump out the music as loud as the sad little speaker could manage. "Augh, do you hear that shit? It's so fucking rad!" Chloe began excitedly air drumming, and Trevor performed a delightful air guitar solo while skating by on his board.

Rachel sat nearby watching all of this unfold while enjoying the music as well. She covered her mouth to hide her giggling at the antics of everyone around her. Sure, she had seen Chloe around before. But it was almost exclusively sulking, moping, or otherwise being quiet and miserable. She had never seen her so animated before. And to think it was for a band that Rachel herself was pretty fond of too. She wanted to say something, of course – to say anything at all really. But to engage with this would be to lose some of that cool exterior she'd been developing lately. So she just sat and watched instead.

Rachel had been pushing her brain into overtime trying to come up with a way to get Chloe's attention when a series of amazing, perfect miracles happened in succession. The first was fairly innocuous. Her blog had been getting some traction locally after people around Blackwell started sharing it. Apparently she actually did have a bit of a knack for advice and information. She didn't think too much of this at first, but there was that tiny voice in the back of her mind that just maybe someone like Chloe might possibly see it.

After a rather intensive discussion about hair-dying, she'd noticed a few comments from a user called PriceIsRight. She didn't think too much about it until she noticed them saying something about getting bangs 'like Pris' just to piss off her mom's boyfriend. That set off a few different flares in her mind and she went digging. It didn't exactly take a ton of work to figure out that it was Chloe's account. She felt almost wrong, having discovered this, when Miss Arcadia was essentially a stealth operation personally. Granted it wasn't the most clever cover in the world, but few people bothered to ask more than once or twice who she really was.

The key thing finally slid across her blog's dashboard soon after – a heads-up that Firewalk was going to be doing a show out in the boonies. Her heart was pounding as she hammered the keys of her laptop, putting out a post for everyone who followed her. She didn't care about all the numerous 'first's or even the people talking about how hype it was going to be. She only wanted to see one name, and she was soon refreshing the page every thirty seconds. Finally, there it was.

I am prepared to abandon literally all of my hope to enter ye this show! [-] PriceIsRight

She was going to be there. And so would Rachel.

Chloe had that whole punk rebel thing going on, though she played it subtle. And Rachel was certain that her attempt at the style was a tad overboard. But she just looked so damn good that she couldn't even complain. The pompadour thing, the jacket, the gloves. It was A Look, and she didn't care if appeared desperate.

Of course, the mill had a gigantic dude with tattoos and a bike to guard the door. So she had to play it super casual, using the fake ID she'd gotten from that sketchy guy at school. Still, it was worth the asking price because he didn't even give her a second look before motioning for her to head inside. Easy, Rachel, you've done this a hundred times. The only difference is that tonight you might get a chance to talk to a cute girl. No big deal.

The change was immediate as the thumping music slammed into her squarely in the chest, powerful even from the adjoining space. As much as she wanted to go in and just enjoy the show, she didn't want to try and have her first proper meeting with Chloe when they couldn't even be heard over the wall of sound.

That plan didn't quite work out the way she wanted, because Rachel turned out to be kind of a chickenshit when it came to chatting up a pretty girl. So she stuck to the shadows and watched with a growing sense of amusement as Chloe had to badger her way inside past Thunder, actually stole a shirt from the vendor (She would have bought her one, jeez), attempted to buy pot from that gross drug dealer guy, before finally finding the crowd to be too much when she nearly got into a fight with some asshole for bumping into him.

Rachel followed her up the stairs that would almost definitely give way any second, and watched her curiously with a blooming smile. If she could have seen herself, she would have been amazed at this strange and goofy version of Rachel. Chloe was just so... alive, all because of the music. She looked like she was on top of the world. And she wanted to be a part of that, it was all so close. But once again, something got in the way. Or more precisely, someone got in the way. The asshole from before seemed to think he was owed for the spilled beer, and he appeared interested in taking something very bad from Chloe.

This was it, her chance to step up and be a damn hero. At least, that was the plan. She got about as far as yelling "Hey, dickhead!" It wasn't a spectacular show of force by any means, but it at least gave Chloe enough time to show the guy what a bottle looked like up close before running over to her. Like a particularly grumpy damsel in distress.

"Rachel?"

There was really not enough time to explain, so she panicked. She took Chloe's hand and rushed her down from that rickety loft to where they might be able to get lost in the crowd. Trouble wasn't too far behind, but shockingly, Chloe's dealer friend actually got in the way of them. Unable to help herself, Rachel blew a playful kiss to the two assholes before tugging Chloe into the main area to hide and actually enjoy the show for more than two minutes.

And it was good. It was so damn good. They danced, occasionally quite close, the heavy bass acting as a kind of aphrodisiac that was impossible to ignore. And when the show was over and the exhaustion finally took its toll, the two of them made their way back out into the moonlight.

Chloe rubbed at her eyes and gave an incredibly impressive yawn. "Mmm, and now to begin my hike back to town."

"Hah, I hope you don't mean that literally..." She watched as Chloe scuffed the dirt with her ratty shoe and realized that she still had a lot to learn about this girl. And she wanted to know her that much more. "I-I can give you a ride! My car's just over in the dirt square they call a parking lot." God, she couldn't have sounded more desperate if she tried.

Chloe chuckled softly, in this kinda low casual way that sounded so nice to her ears. "C'mon, you've already done the knight in shining armor thing once. Honestly, you don't have to give me a lift on your steed while you're at it."

"Nonsense. My moms always say 'a job half-done is effort wasted'. Granted they're usually talking about cleaning, but I think it applies here too. If I don't make sure you get home safely, then I'm gonna be worrying about you wandering around the forest all night or whatever." Oh shit, Rachel realized too late that this might have been laying it on just a little thick.

The incredulous look on Chloe's face wasn't helping, though it soon morphed into a gentle smile. She gave a small shrug of the shoulders, then another for good measure. "Ugh, fine, help me if it means so much to you."

It did of course, but she wasn't about to admit it out loud. "I'm afraid I must insist." She smirked and led the way over to her car. It was... well, it wasn't an awful little vehicle. Her dad had been some kinda hotshot DA, and when he died, he left one hell of a life insurance policy. Enough to make sure Rachel would at least be relatively comfortable in his absence. Rachel unlocked it and climbed in behind the wheel, and Chloe practically flopped onto the passenger seat.

For a while, Rachel just drove in a peaceful quiet as they headed away from the mill and back toward Arcadia Bay proper. She couldn't think of what to say, but luckily, Chloe was able to provide a topic. "So... you said you have 'moms'? Like plural?"

Rachel clicked her tongue, shaking her head. "Uh, yeah, it's... complicated."

She should have seen it coming, but it still surprised her a little when Chloe just smiled a little brighter. "Come on, tell meeeee~"

"Um, well so..." She nibbled at her lip and turned from the backroad onto a slightly less creepy side road headed for the center of town. "My dad and my birth mom, Sera, met in high school, very fairytale. Only after having me, she kinda went on a major downward spiral. She says it was probably postpartum, but that led into drug use. It didn't end well. After the divorce and fallout, he married my step-mom, Rose." She sighed and messed with her hair while guiding the car with her free hand. "Dad sent some pretty nasty people to prison, and one of them had a friend on the outside... they uh..."

There was suddenly a hand on Rachel's shoulder, and she glanced over to see Chloe giving her the most earnest smile she had seen in a long time. Even such a short look was enough to send a wave of comfort washing over her. "It's okay. You don't have to say it out loud. I um... I know a thing or two about losing a father."

Oh god, of course. Rachel suddenly felt like a major idiot for not putting it together sooner. She had spent way too much time getting a touch obsessed with this girl and had never thought about the fact that they had something so obvious in common. "...thanks. So. When Sera cleaned up and wanted back into my life, mom knew she needed the help and was willing to offer her the guest bedroom. And... what happened next was pretty easy to see coming. Two lonely women looking after a growing girl together. They got married a few years ago."

Chloe began to coo softly, obviously pleased to hear the story of Rachel's odd little family. "That's really cool. I'm kinda jealous. My mom just has an asshole veteran trying to get in her pants. Or, perish the thought, already has gotten in her pants..."

She began to laugh at that, initially feeling bad about it before noticing the rather wide grin on Chloe's face as well. Thank god, that was meant to be funny. "Well um..." Oh fuck it, just go for it idiot. "If you ever feel like hanging out and bitching about dadlessness or... or whatever. I mean I'd be up for that. You seem pretty chill."

"Hah, well, I do certainly try to aim for 'chill' so it's good to know I'm nailing it." Already they were on Chloe's street and the girl's house number was coming up quickly. It felt too say, way too soon, she wanted more time. But this was still going far better than she ever expected, and eventually she just had to admit that slow and steady was the way to do this. "You're doing me a huge secondary favor here, by the way. If I had to walk back home, mom would never let me hear the end of it. Coming in late, covered in dust, all that. I just might avoid a lecture tonight, thanks to you." The car slowed to a stop and Chloe started to climb out, then stopped and looked back at her. "Well, Rach', see ya tomorrow, I guess!"

She waited around to make sure that Chloe got into her house safely before pulling away and heading for her own home. She chuckled softly to herself and shook her head. "Rach'... I could get used to that..."