Message From The Author: So, today (May 6th, 2015) I finished playing Life If Strange: Episode 2 (for like the third time - 3 - ) and I realized, "Hey...I actually ship this character with more than one other character. O - O" See, a little tibit of imformation her, I usually pick a favorite character to ship the main character with but, in this game, I kept going back and forth between three people. Long story short, I decided "Okay, you gotta pick a side to woot for until you get pissed in episodes to come and change teams! Yay! O u O" So...out of every team to stand on (for the time being) I chose...MaxXVictoria; aka "Maximum Victory!" Because...yeah. This is going to be different than the other things I've seen out there though. A case like this needs some serious character development though. It's not gonna be forced or weird. Awkward and possibly some hurt here and there? Yeah. But not any "I hate you but because of that one thing that happened I wanna sleep with you." No. That's...that's not even realistic.
Anyways, if you even bothered with reading that (I don't mind if you didn't... ; - ; ) thank you, you are awesome. Now on to the actually stuff.
I take a deep breath, allowing my eyelids to fall slightly before exhaling and reaching out to turn the doorknob of my dorm room, leaving my inner sanctum and entering the drama-mystery-high-school movie that is Blackwell Academy. Of course, the drama-instigator herself happens to live in the room right across from me. My luck is amazing, right? Hopefully, she's gone by now.
I open the door and let out an involuntary sigh as the door to the room across from me is wide open and the Queen-Bee-Oatch of Blackwell is leaning against the door frame, her followers darting down the hall to one of there rooms, probably ordered to go get something. Her eyes dart to me as I stare wide-eyed for a moment. Before she has time to say anything though I pull up my ear-buds and put them in my ears then duck down the hallways, dodging the Bitches-In-Waiting on my way out the door. That's something that's gonna come back to me, right? Of course. It's always the same thing.
The past few days have been stuck in a rewind for some reason. Maybe it's to give me a few days extra practice at these powers I got. But I'm running out of things to do. I've skipped classes, slept in, woke up too early, woke up to my phone blowing up with messages from Chloe, Warren, and Kate. But no matter what, it just keeps doing this. Rewind. Rewind. Rewind.
Today is going to be different though. I'm getting bored hearing the same lectures and learning the same things. I could become an expert at anything at this rate. Walking up to the main building, I decide I might as well make the best of it. I sit on the steps to the school and pull out my camera, taking a picture of the birds that dart by, the squirrels that race between the trees, and the students that don't even seem to notice me sitting there.
Focusing my camera on a yellow cat chasing a bee, which wasn't a usual sight around here, the camera becomes dark. Something, or someone, is blocking my shot. And of all the people who is could be, I guess:
"Victoria Chase."
"Max Caulfield," The way she says it makes it sound like an insult, like something dirty.
I don't know what else to do so I focus my shot on Victoria herself. I hadn't taken a picture of her since the first day when Mr. Jefferson told us to photograph each other. That was before I found out she was one of the top villains of Blackwell.
In my shot, Victoria was just in focus, the top of a some trees and a light in the background with the morning light coming just from the right and the sky turning from the purples of the sun combining with the night to the blue of day. I don't care how self-centred it sounds but the shot was beautiful, plus the light of the sun illuminated Victoria ever so slightly. I tried my best to hold in the smile of witnessing the beauty I see. Then snap!
"Did you seriously just take a picture of me?" Victoria asked, the normal mix of anger and irritation on her voice plus the ever sweet sound of confusion.
"Yeah. I had to capture the moment," I say quietly and calmly as I look at the picture, a small smile coming to my face. I decide I might as well let her see. "Look." I hold the picture up to her. She looks at it and, I swear, I see her eyes twinkle just before she turns to look at the scenery behind her and turns back.
"It's aright," She says plainly and starts up the stairs before stopping briefly. "Just ask next time. I rather not have anyone seeing me with you, Max Flawed-feild." I can't help myself but to laugh slightly at the name. Then I realize: her groupies were missing. Maybe they didn't follow her around 24/7 like I thought.
I spent the rest of the day getting out of class to walk around the campus with music blasting in my ears. It might not be the same hard rock music that Chloe listen to, but it's me. As I'm walking down a path by the dorms, I catch something out of the corner of my eye. I wasn't sure what it was at first, with the dorms being next to so much nature like the rest of the town. It could have been anything. Making my way through the bushes and around a couple tree, I saw the deer that I see everywhere now standing in a small clearing.
Before I could get too close, it stirred and ran away. I would have followed it, had it not been fast to get out of sight and had I not heard a few yowls of a cat. Cautiously, you don't know what could possibly making that sound, I made my way closer to the sound. On the other side of the mid-waste bushes, just behind where the deer had once stood, was another small clearing, this one had a much larger opening of the leaves above to let in rays of sunlight highlighting a dirt path that lead straight across. This was probably a hiking path that people take, or a secret path to a party spot for some of the towns youth.
In the middle of the path was the yellow cat from earlier who was readily tonguing up milk from a cereal bowl into its mouth. I smiled at the way is yowled slightly, never breaking contact with its milk, as a hand petted from its head to the tip of its tail. I couldn't quite see the face of the person petting the cat, but in this moment I thought they might have been the nicest person I have seen.
Being the person I was, I pulled out my camera, not moving my eyes from the cat, and snapped a picture, the flash going off and scaring the cat into the opposite woods. In turn, the person stood, gasping in the direction the cat had run so suddenly. The let out a sigh, turning to my direction and instantly making eye contact with me and a scowl coming over her face as she crosses her arms.
"Damn it, Max! Look what you did!"
"S-sorry...Victoria," Part of me was shocked while the other was ashamed for causing the cat to run off.
"Why do you have to be so stalker-ish anyway! It's not like it was something worth taking a picture of!" She was fuming, even as she took a step forward.
"I said sorry. And it was sweet. I like taking picture like that," And I was completely honest. Apparently, she was taken back a bit by what I said because the anger in her eyes and the scowl on her face vanished in a second.
"T-thanks, I guess. Can I have the picture," She said hesitantly after a moment.
"Sure," I reached in my bag to grab it out as she stepped up to the bush. When I found it I reached over to hand it to her, her meeting me halfway. She looked at it a second, glancing back up at me then at it again before putting it in her back pocket and nodding in thanks. Nothing else was said. I just watched as she turned and walked up to the bowl of milk and picked it up. She glanced back at me once she had it then she was walking back down the path, probably towards the dorms. As strange and awkward as that was, it was slightly pleasant.
I made my way make to the dorms as the sun started going down. Everyone was either sitting around campus away from everyone else and doing their own thing or they were up in their dorms, ready for some sleep. I thought it best to end this rewind-day by visiting Kate's dorm. She was as depressed as usual and, on turn, I was able to cheer her up a little just by talking to her. I like that I'm able to do that for someone.
After talking with Kate, I made my way back to my dorm, reading the from slates outside of the ones I passed. I was at my room as I looked across and saw that Victoria's was unusually empty. Sighing, I looked to make sure no one was around before drawing the outline of a cat head and whiskers, deciding not to add a nose or mouth or eyes just because I didn't want to get caught, as if doing that would get me in trouble. It wouldn't, but I didn't want the feared queen of Blackwell to be even more on my ass than she already is. And I'm going to pretend that doesn't sound as sexual as it does.
Once in my room with the small fear that someone could have saw me now out of my head, I go straight to bed, ready to start this day over. I sleep through the night in a deep sleep, not waking up until I hear someone pounding on my door telling me to turn my music off. I stand up in a daze and walk over to my radio managing to hit the off button in the fog of sleep before rubbing at my eyes to get them more adjusted and realizing someone is still pounding at my door. Groaning, I make my way over and open the door, coming face to face with Dana complaining about how loud the music is so early in the morning. I just nod and umhum as my eyes drift to the slate across the hall. The cat face I had drawn the night before is still present with, in the girlie-est handwriting ever, an added "meow" next to the face.