A/N:

I'm really happy with the positive reception you guys have given me and i want to thank you for your comments and encouragement. I was tossing up whether to get into the main time frame of the Life is Strange story right away or to hold off a bit, i think it's probably important that i spend a little time fleshing out some character's personalities seeing as how this story Deviates from a little from cannon. It is a running theme in the game that small changes in the past cause drastic changes in the future after all.

As always, any critiques or comments are welcome :)

Arcadia bay - August 31st, 2013

Max frowned, once again consulting her manual before leveling an annoyed glare at Lisa. 'Lisa' or 'that damned orchid' as Max had decided to nickname it, had the distinction of being one of the few things in recent years to utterly confound its owner, did it need watering or not? Did it need to be in the sun or in the shade? Was it flowering season? Because if it was, completely disregard all previous plans and start right back at square one.

"Ah, sod it." She eventually muttered to herself, opting to draw the thin shades on her windows. Hopefully it was the correct choice, or at least a choice that wouldn't kill the poor plant.

With a huff she turned to regard the rest of her dorm room, as to be expected, the room had come with little more than a bed, a desk and a small wardrobe, and if she were completely honest, it was everything that she had come to need over the past years. But it wouldn't do anymore, not for the student she was supposed to be, and so she had gone on a shopping spree that would have had young Max squealing with joy but now only managed to induce a self-satisfied smirk.

Picture perfect teenage dorm room. If it weren't for the bowie knife strapped under her bed. Or the gun stuffed inside her zip backed teddy-bear.

No one's perfect.

A large poster of blade runner dominated the wall above her study table courtesy of a local thrift store along with an impressive collection of pop vinyl's that she had developed a weird obsession with. She had replaced the god-awful mattress with a brand new one which soft enough that she felt as if she was lying on a cloud, and finally she had splurged out and bought a pair of soft beanbags, a stereo system and television, a newest line mac-book pro and one of the more expensive camera sets she could find in a small town like this, if she was going to rekindle her love for photography, she wasn't going to go about it like a cheapskate.

She briefly wondered how Andrej would feel about how she was spending his 'retirement fund'. She snorted, his response would probably have been 'please, please' as all his responses had become halfway into their 'chat'.

She shook her head, trying to rid herself of the thought. If there is a god out there, Max was royally fucked.

It was a surprise even to Max that she ended up in her hometown, it was her intent to avoid it like the plague, she had no true idea as to where she would go, she had merely caught the first bus to Portland and promptly caught the first bus out on arrival. She supposed it was somewhat poetic that her search for herself would bring her back to Arcadia bay, it just so happened that her childhood photography inspiration was now teaching at Blackwell Academy. She had applied that same day, Blackwell was of course delighted to accept a foreign student with such an excellent history of academic success.

Max couldn't help but snort to herself, she had never been anything more than an average student during her time at school but her alter ego 'Maxine Sartori' was of course the type of student any school would jump at the chance to enrol. She wasn't worried, she had managed to teach herself everything from chemistry to a handful of languages while dismantling a criminal empire, she could handle Blackwell.

A knock on her door roused her from her internal dialogue, it was almost time for orientation anyway, she had already mapped the whole school in her head during her nocturnal adventures, today was her chance to map the students themselves.

She opened her door revealing a small teenage girl, her hair was done up in a large bun atop her head allowing trimmed bangs to frame her near-flawless face, her clothing was understated but it suited her, and a gold cross necklace completed the conservative religious image.

This girl would have been eaten alive in the compound.

"Hi! I'm Kate, I'm in room 222." She began, gesturing at a door not far down the hallway, Max didn't know how someone who looked so nervous could hold such a big smile. "Are you going to come to orientation?"

Despite herself, Max found herself with a small smile although it was probably still an unnerving one if Kate's slight change in expression was anything to go by. Still, she seemed nice and she reminded Max of herself before her life turned to shit.

"Hey Kate, nice to meet you." Max replied, trying her damnedest to not come across as more of a weirdo. "Yeah, I was getting ready to leave when you knocked, do you want to go down together?"

Kate's face lit up with another bright smile. "Oh, cool! I think everyone else has already left and going alone wouldn't be nice."

"Most people have already been here a few days, they didn't have to unpack today." Max stated with a shrug. "Just give me a second and I'll be right out."

Quickly Max leapt in front of her mirror, her makeup was minimal and not particularly well applied but she could sit in front of the mirror for hours and make no progress, her hair looked fine, a few loose strands in her bangs had come free from her signature braid but she kind of liked it. Seeing no further reason to dawdle, she threw on her new leather jacket and turned to leave.

She paused as she reached her door before returning to grab her scarf and aviator glasses, in a pinch they made a decent enough mask. Old habits die hard.

It wasn't long before the two girls arrived in the courtyard in front of the Academy, any confusion as to where they needed to be was lost as they noticed the large congregation of students clustered around the fountain.

"Kate! There you are!" Came a voice as two girls emerged from the throng of students. "We were almost convinced you were skipping out."

The girl speaking had cheerleader written all over her, long blonde hair framed a perfectly symmetrical face, the neckline of her shirt plunging down to accentuate her generous bust, leaving Max to wonder just how she would manage any acrobatics with those throwing her off balance.

"Hi Dana, hey Juliet, we were just finishing up organizing our rooms." Kate said shyly, she was obviously unused to attention.

The girl, Juliet turned to face Max. "Hey, you must be the new girl from Italy, right?"

Max's eyebrow rose in surprise. 'This one is well informed'. "That's me, nice to meet you." She said aloud, stepping forward to give her a kiss on each cheek, smirking internally as the girl was caught off-guard by the European custom.

Dana, on the other hand seemed thrilled and eagerly stepped forward to repeat the gesture.

"You don't sound completely Italian." Juliet observed once she collected herself.

In truth, Max's accent was a strange one, almost five years travelling Europe and learning various languages had led her to develop a weird bastardized accent.

"My tutor said much the same thing, I was trying to copy his Boston accent for the longest time, it was unique what with most tutors being British." Max replied with an attempt at a disarming smile. Assuming identities was not a challenge for her, she had bullshitted her way through far worse.

Dana made a shooing gesture. "Pfffft, I'd much rather have a British accent, so sexy!"

That got a chuckle from Max, she had no shame whatsoever, Max could get used to her. Maybe there was hope for her after all.

The noise around them died down completely as a well-dressed man made his way in front of the group, his dark skin already gleaming with sweat.

"Good Morning students!" He began in a deep baritone, "For those of you who do not yet know me, I'm principal Wells, I hope you all took full advantage of your summer Vacation, I know Blackwell has. Over the course of the break Blackwell Academy has undergone extensive renovations in order to provide the best possible conditions for your academic enrichment. Now without further ado, let's begin this tour."

It was only one set of doors and two dozen paces before they arrived at the first exhibit on the Blackwell tour.

"Firstly, we have our new and improved auditorium, fully prepared for theatre productions and other performance arts." Wells began as he opened the double doors to reveal an almost excessively large hall, the entire school could fit in there and likely not use half of the available seats. "In the past we have held such events in the courtyard, but by the generosity of the Prescott foundation, we have a marvellous platform on which to make our name known across the state."

Max rolled her eyes as the man walked into the hall continuing his speech, the man was very proud about receiving donations from the family which seems to have bought half the town, she briefly wondered just how much control the family has over Blackwell now.

"Bigger than I expected, money well spent." Came a voice to Max's right, the girl speaking gazed around the Auditorium with an appreciative gaze with bright blue eyes.

Max had to wonder if it was a requirement for girls to be attractive in order to attend Blackwell, she had yet to see any girl that didn't look like an aspiring model and this pixie cut platinum blonde was no exception. The speaker was perhaps an inch or two taller than Max and dressed in an outfit that was worth a semesters tuition, a cashmere sweater over a gold thread blouse and a slim fitting skirt and designer boots. She definitely came from money.

"Seems a little ostentatious for the number of students here." Max hummed, watching as the girl froze slightly as if she was unaware she had spoken aloud. "Or does Blackwell do a lot of theatre performances?"

The blonde turned to regard max, he expression becoming slightly disdainful after observing her prompting Max to raise a questioning brow.

"They have become more popular over the past few years, quite a few visitors from Portland regularly come down since we did a rendition of The Tempest a few years back." She eventually stated.

"Makes sense then if they are trying to grow their theatre reputation." Max conceded. "So, you are involved in the theatre then?"

A strange look passed over the girls face before she replied, "Not so much, I was understudy for Prospera in The Tempest but… It didn't end up being something I enjoyed so much."

Max sensed a story there, then a small detail in what she said caught her. "Prospera? Seems like quite the change to make."

The blonde turned to her, her gaze reappraising. "Yeah, we had a lack of talent in the male actor department, it wasn't 'cool' so much back then." She said with annoyed air quotes. "Do you perform as well?"

Max very nearly let out a dark humoured chuckle, if only she knew just how many roles Mac had played over the years, granted, Max's performances ended in blood as often as not. She gazed again at the girl's blonde pixie cut, it would be so much easier cleaning blood out of hair like hers.

With yet another mental slap she forced herself to reply before she came off as a complete idiot. "No, I've never had anything to do with theatre, but I read did read a lot of Shakespeare when I was…learning English." Classical literature was usually the only genre she could get her hands on when she was teaching herself to read Italian and the habit stuck for every language she picked up.

"Ah, that makes perfect sense." She replied, nodding understandingly as they followed the group out of the Auditorium, the principal had yet more to show off. "So, what brings you to Blackwell? I assume you are the Italian student?"

'So much for staying under the radar' "That's me, everyone seems to know about me."

The blonde smirked, "A European girl turning up in our little patch of nowhere? Everyone's going to know, you can thank our resident journalist Juliet for that, she puts everything out there in her paper." Her face darkened considerably during her last statement.

Max sighed. It made sense in hindsight. "Well, I'm here for photography more than I'm here to start a fan club."

"Photography?" She repeated, seeming surprised before her expression turned impressively unreadable. "Here for Mr Jefferson, are we?"

"Not every school can boast a world-renowned photography on their teaching staff." Max agreed, noting her sudden change in demeanour.

"Mark's classes are by far the most enjoyable, I'll have a spot in a gallery in no time with his tutelage." The stated in a lofty tone.

'Not so healthy ego we have here.' Max snarked internally. "There's quite a few students who will benefit from Jefferson's 'tutelage'."

The girl waved a hand dismissingly, "Few have the talent and the one's that do lack the drive, most don't even have the right equipment for the job." She gave Max a level stare. "I hope you at least have a decent camera, I can't imagine how he feels trying to help students who can't even give him a proper photo."

'The lady doth protest too much.' Max thought to herself. What a shame, she seemed nice. "Brought a Nikon df with me so I'll be fine."

"That's…I've heard good things about it actually." The blonde conceded.

"I do like the retro feel to it. It reminds me of my old polaroid camera, sometimes I'd almost prefer that to be honest."

The other girl clearly disagreed if her scrunched up face was any indication. "I don't see why you'd prefer it, it has nothing on a modern Nikon no matter what quality it was."

"Obviously the technology has gone light years since then but there's something about older cameras…no pissing around, no intensive computer work after, just you, capturing that moment. You don't get a second shot so when you do get that perfect image, it is so satisfying."

Whatever her acquaintance may have intended to say was forgotten as a deeper, masculine voice interrupted them. "I have to agree with our new student here, Victoria. When all is said and done, the ability to seize the moment and capture it as you see it is an irreplaceable skill. Of course, once you have that skill, it helps to have all the latest gadgets."

The man stepped in closer and held out his hand. "Mark Jefferson, although if you came here for photography you are probably aware of that."

Max reach out, shaking his hand politely. She hadn't heard the man approach, she hadn't been so absorbed in her conversation that she was unaware of her surroundings, the man was quiet. Max didn't like it.

"Piacere." Max responded, deciding she should make at least some effort to play her role. "I'm Max."

"Ah, so it is our foreign student, I assume the other students have been sufficiently annoying about it?" Jefferson asked with a laugh.

"It's no so much annoying as it is a surprise, I came here for photography, not to be the newest hot topic." She responded. There was something about Jefferson that rubbed her the wrong way.

"So, have you had the chance to go out and get some field experience? I imagine Italy has more than a few photo worthy opportunities."

"You'd be surprised, when something is the norm, it loses its appeal to most people but yes, I guess you could say I've spent most of the last four years out following people around with a camera." Max had filled boxes with notes and photo shots during her time surveilling her targets.

Jefferson laughed, "Well that's one way to do it, anyway, I do believe the tour is moving on without you."

It had indeed, much to Max's annoyance, she was getting tired of this conversation. That and the annoyed look on 'Victoria's' face at not being the centre of Jefferson's attention.

She needed to find Kate, annoyingly cute beats just plain annoying any day.

Max let out a sigh as she unceremoniously threw herself on her bed. Orientation had been less enjoyable than she had thought it would be but then again, she went to get a feel for the students and unfortunately student are people. Max doesn't typically get along with people.

Her Steller social history aside, she had learned more than a few different titbits of information. There was a student missing, although the consensus was that she finally made good on her goal to escape to L.A, there were also rumours of the same student sleeping with Jefferson, it made a sick sort of sense if she was trying to get into modelling. It would also explain the creepy vibe she got from him.

She'd introduce him to her bowie knife if he tried anything.

Thankfully the other teachers seemed to be on the better side, Miss Grant was shaping up to be her favourite, she never gave much thought to science in school before, but Miss Grant's enthusiasm was near infectious. The Drama teacher Mr Keaton was nice if a little…eccentric but then again, she supposed a little eccentricity was necessary for theatre.

Humming a tune by pisshead that she heard on the radio, she pulled a notepad from her bedside table and began to note down what she learned about everyone today.

Old habits do die hard.

Kate is every inch the shy conservative girl she appears, and she is worryingly naïve, but it's refreshing in a way, she's completely incapable of deception. Despite her conservative beliefs she's surprisingly open, her only problem is she thinks everyone will accept her opinions as much as she does theirs. She spent most of the day trying to find out where she can help out with volunteer work around town, I'll have to keep an eye on her, she makes an easy target.

Dana is too peppy and flirtatious for her own good, half the guys are all over her and the other half are too shy to do so. Nice enough though, doesn't understand the concept of personal space which is a problem, she's probably the type to barge into my room unannounced. Pretty attached to Juliet, can't tell if they're close friends or if they got a friends with benefits thing going on.

Juliet needs to keep her nose out of my business. Nice enough girl though. I turned down an interview with her, I think I fucked up because she didn't seem too happy.

Victoria was nice enough before photography got involved, she's obviously competitive but she seems pretty insecure about it as well, she comes from money though so she's probably got mommy and daddy breathing down her neck. She's got an unnatural fixation with Jefferson, need to keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn't sleep her way to the top of class.

Speaking of which, Jefferson makes me anxious, and not just because he was part of why I took up photography. There's something off about him, maybe it's him sleeping with students, maybe he's just weird. I'll be watching him.

Principal Wells is your almost stereotypical grandstanding executive, eager to pass off other people's contributions as his own and loves the sound of his own voice. I wouldn't trust him when push comes to shove, someone's pulling his strings and their last name is probably Prescott.

Head of security is a guy named Madsen. Got a massive stick up his ass so he's probably ex-military or police. Bit of a prick. And by that, I mean he's an asshole. Dedicated to his job though, shouldn't have a problem with him.

Didn't see this elusive 'king of assholes' Nathan Prescott, wasn't there today. Can't blame him. According to most, he's on the unstable side so best not poke the bear. Bear's crazy and has a rich daddy.

Met this guy Warren, bumped into him in the science room while he was geeking out with some girl I didn't get the name of, completely ignored her after and followed me around, if he wasn't so utterly clueless he'd be an ass. Girl gave me the evils too…no es bueno. Smart though, I'll probably need his help when crunch time comes around, that'll be a fine line to walk.

The stoner prince Justin is chill as fuck. Probably high most the time but hey, to each their own. Nobody dislikes him, so he'll be useful if I need back up with any of these damn cliques around here. I'll need to find out where he gets his MJ from, I'm running dry and I do need to sleep. Hook a sister up.

Last but not least, Rachel. Gone for months now but still hot topic number one, everyone seems head over heels with her. Doesn't seem natural for someone to be so universally popular at high school. Made no effort to hide the fact she plans to run off to L.A with her 'punk friend' (Who doesn't seem to share her popularity, jealous much people?), apparently, she got some other kid expelled along with her or something like that. Problem is, she's gone without a word and punk friend is looking for her, found a 'missing' poster today. Cold as it is, I hope she just ditched her friend, the alternative means I'm probably going to have to kill someone. I'd really prefer not to.

Satisfied with her notes for the day she threw them back into the draw and locked it, wouldn't do to have some nosy bitch see them. She hesitated before opening the second draw, it wasn't locked but it held something far more important to her. Her fingers brushed over the cover of the album, she remembered making this with the was eleven years old, Chloe provided the shells that are glued on the cover and copious amounts of blue glitter. She always did love the colour blue.

With a shaking hand she opened the album to reveal a cacophony of polaroid pictures, some pages laid out well and labelled, others stuck at times half over one another. She drew in a deep breath, trying to will her heart to stop pounding, being so close yet so far to her long lost best friend was painful, she couldn't even bring herself to stalk her a little like she'll likely do to a few people around Blackwell.

'Dog, this was a bad idea'

She couldn't honestly say that Chloe had nothing to do with her decision to stay in Arcadia bay, as much as she may tell herself that it was purely for Blackwell, for photography and finding little baby Max who loved her camera so much, the truth was she wanted to see her again so bad it hurt…but she'd dug herself a pretty deep hole. Everyone knows her as the new foreign girl, Chloe knows her as Max, Arcadia born and bred, if she met her, she would have to explain why. What happened. What she was now.

She's not ready to talk about that yet. She needs to get better before she tries anything like that.

But looking down at a particular photo, one in which the two girls dressed as pirates stood laughing in each other's arms, Max was more than tempted to throw her doubts to the wind and kick down the door to her friend's house, shouting out for the whole world to hear.

Max shut the album with a huff. She's got to stop doing this to herself, she's such a sucker for pain.

Thwack

Thwa-Thwack

The steady drum beat of her fist against the bag would have been satisfying if they were more than barely audible above the sound of her music. She didn't know how long she had been going on the bag this time, all she knew is that she needed it, baking was fine, but it was more of a temporary time out on the rolling mess of emotion that was Chloe Price. She needed a release, and beating the proverbial shit out of the kickboxing back was the most release she had since the last time she and Rachel-

THWACK - THWACK!

'Stop it Chloe!' She scolded herself.

Even putting everything she had into her punches sometimes failed to distract her from how much it sucked – how much it hurt that Rachel was missing, missing just like Max was missing before... 'NO! she's still alive, I know it, she has to be…'

Thwack

Three months, it had been three months since she disappeared, that strange message left on Chloe's phone, she had found someone life changing and she had found a way out of Arcadia bay for them. Part of her hoped that she had gone to prepare the way, throw herself into some modelling gig and then they'd be set. A bigger part knew better.

Thwack - Thwack

Funnily enough it had been David of all people who had been the biggest stabilizing force. Not through his actions or words, god no, he was awful as ever in that regard, but he did understand the need for an outlet and thus her 19th birthday present, the gloves and bag. It may be the only time she had honestly thanked him for anything, the look of surprise on his face when she did indicated that it probably was.

Thwack

For the most part it kept her out of trouble, she would wake up, thrash the bag, hang more posters then come home and thrash the bag some more. It was actually putting her in really good shape, bruised knuckles non-withstanding. She'd be pretty happy with herself if Rachel could see-

THWACK!

"FUCK!" She growled as she planted her head against the still swaying bag. She was sweaty as a mother fucker and this session on the bag had not been nearly as cathartic as she would have liked but she was quite spent, any more and she wouldn't be able to lift a poster let alone resume plastering Arcadia bay with them.

With an aggravated sigh, she switched the speakers off and made her way out of the garage and back into the house, she was home alone, just as she liked it. David was generally an ass and they never got along , Joyce…well she and Joyce still don't talk much, she felt bad for the look of hurt on her face whenever Chloe brushed her off but not as bad as it felt to know that her mother had lied to her for years, letting her think her best friend was simply not interested in speaking to her, keeping silent every time Chloe bombed out Max's voicemail. Stupid phone was probably in some evidence lock-up.

Today had been a particularly rough one. She had finally summoned the courage to talk to Rachel's mom and asshat of a dad, it hadn't gone well. They didn't need or want her help, nor did they want to work together to find their daughter, she had already done enough damage to their family, she should leave this to the professionals and other such bullshit.

'The same professionals who hire drug dealers to do their dirty work?" Chloe thought sarcastically as she stomped up the stairs, 'It's not like Arcadia shit stain is known for its competent police work, three unsolved missing persons cases in as many years in a town that has roughly the same population as a fucking Eagles concert, yeah! Great job.'

Yet another exasperated sigh escaped her lip as she collapsed into her desk chair. The desk was a mess of paper, missing person posters littered her desk dotted with various bits of paraphernalia. She cleared a patch and set up her laptop, she had work to do, Rachel wasn't going to find herself.

She had a message from Steph Gingrich, her old table top buddy was working in Hollywood at the moment, she managed to get herself a gig in set design. Hey Chloe, I haven't heard from Rachel in a while now actually and it really worries me that she's disappeared, that girl wouldn't have gone anywhere without dragging you along kicking and screaming if necessary. I don't exactly have a whole lot of contacts around here, but I'll definitely keep an ear to the ground and I'll get in touch with Drew and Mikey. Please keep me posted.

It didn't surprise her that Steph hadn't heard anything, Steph and Rachel didn't have much contact with each other outside of Chloe, but she was the only one that she knew for certain lived in L.A. An email notification caught her attention and her eyes nearly bulged out of her face when she saw the name.

Message from: Sera Gearhardt

Chloe, I've received a disturbing number of messages from James accusing me of stealing Rachel away from him, Subtle threats aside, it's nothing new but, He mentioned you were still in Arcadia bay and she wasn't, I'm not stupid, I know this means she's gone missing and I want to know exactly what happened. Please explain the situation to me, Rachel and I are still not as close as I want but…I don't think I could stand to lose my daughter again

Chloe closed her eyes and leaned back groaning to herself, she had enough problems right now, she didn't need to have the added pressure of everyone else's drama. The again, she was the biggest reason Sera and Rachel were in contact…had been in contact, it's not like she was going to leave her hanging anyway but she was not in the right frame of mind to reply to her just yet.

The was one other pressing issue demanding her attention, just a little problem. She supposed to some people three thousand dollars plus interest would be chump change, owing it to a drug dealer only made things more complicated. She supposed Frank was hardly just her dealer, the two have had some strange semblance of friendship for years and he wasn't nearly as gruff and dangerous as he liked to lead on however, he had become increasingly irritable and impatient over the last few months and Chloe was no closer to having his money.

'Fuck this' She thought, pushing herself up from the desk and leaving her room. She wasn't making money or finding Rachel sitting around with her thumb up her ass, she needed to get a move on.

She stopped at the top of the stairs.

'Maybe a shower first would be best.'

August 31st 2013

So, I've decided to start keeping a proper journal, i remember that i used to write almost every single day when i was a kid so it seems like a good habit to get back into. It'll help me record progress if nothing else so, here's hoping.

Blackwell is not exactly what i dreamed of when i was a kid but, then again, very little in the world has turned out how i had imagined it so, whatever. Met the majority of my teachers today and i'm pleasantly surprised with them all, maybe the academy made a special effort to get the best teachers available or maybe i'm just older and teachers were always good and i couldn't see it through my pre-pubescent angst.

I think i made friends today? How do you tell? i can't even remember how me and Chloe became so attached. Dog i am so bad at this. Anyway, Kate is cool but i get the feeling Victoria and her merry band of followers will consider her little more than a pincushion when school really gets in the swing of things. Dana and Juliet are nice enough but i think Dana is the only one willing to be friends after today. Still don't understand how i managed to fuck that up.

I'm going to have another mid-night stroll, there's a few places i want to check out and i may as well pay a little visit to the Arcadia bay royalty, if they're going to have their fingers in everyone else's pie then i may as well take a look at what they have hidden away. I've decide to go to the Two Whales, at least i'll be able to see if Joyce still lives here, i'll be careful as always although i doubt she would recognize me, i barely recognize myself.

Anyway i guess this is ever-improving crazy max signing off.