Life is Strange Before the Storm: Star Crossed Paths

Chapter 13 of my Before the Storm novelization, enjoy.

Reviews

Marina Ka-Fai: Thanks; glad you enjoyed it; yeah when I saw it I felt that, if she just applied herself, Chloe could probably make a career as a mechanic.
Boris Yeltsin: Thanks.
Protocol115: Thanks, glad you enjoyed it; To be honest I only choose it because I wanted to use two of the DLC costumes, and if I picked one in Episode 1, I wouldn't have been able to wear the Firewalk shirt.
Wolfgirl2013: Thanks :)
Holywoodunderfed: Thanks, glad you enjoyed it; really, odd, every playthrough I did had her coming out of the RV?

Now onto the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Life is Strange or its characters.

Brave New World – Truth and Diversions

Entering the RV I almost choked and passed out from the stench.

"Dude. It smells like piss in here." I reprimanded Frank.

"Shut up." He snapped as he began walking over to the driver's seat.

Raising an eyebrow I queried. "You have a rough night or something?"

"Every night's a rough night." He shot back. "I've got a notebook in the back somewhere. Go get it for me, would you?"

"Who was that wom-" I began asking as I turned away. "God, geez man!"

I had stumbled as Frank accelerated, nearly knocking me off my feet as we drove away.

But Frank simply didn't care. "Get my notebook Price, then we'll talk."

With a sigh I turned to do just that after answering a text from Justin. All the same I couldn't help snooping around a little, it was interesting, the things I found. For example on Frank's computer I found out Frank actually got a puppy for instance, some strange things, like dreams about clouds in his search history, word about the mill burning down and other such things.

I also decided to add a little something to Frank's grocery list with my marker, namely a note for him to get a real house. Not seeing the notebook here I approached the door at the back, the bedroom. Uncertain what I would find I slowly opened the door, and unleashed the monster inside.

Okay, not a monster, but the very puppy I'd read about who came tearing out of the room and started chewing on my shoelaces. I couldn't help but smile, nor could I deny the little puppy was actually kinda cute.

"Hey there, it's okay little guy." I said with a smile, gently petting him.

Then Frank must have seen what was going on for he called out. "Aw shit. Pompidou, get up here!"

The puppy let go and hurried up to where Frank was sitting.

'Pompidou?' I couldn't help but wonder.

"Ya little killer." Frank remarked affectionately as he petted the little dog.

Seeing Pompidou make himself comfortable next to Frank I returned to my task. Only to get a text from Eliot about the expulsion of all things. He seemed to think I was taking it bad, or worried. Didn't he realize it was the best thing to happen to me, he didn't seem to get the hint, even when I told him in my replies.

Putting my phone away I began searching Frank's bedroom and finally found the notebook. I quickly made my way back over to Frank with the book, maybe now I'd figure out what this was about. Especially since I had noted that I was actually in the red on the book, not a good sign.

Moving to sit in the passenger seat I held out the book.

"Is this it?"

Frank nodded and I sat down at his invitation.

"Pompidou huh?" I queried. "That's a...badass name for a dog."

"It's French." He retorted shortly.

I almost laughed. "Okay...but he's not a poodle, Frank."

"No. He's not" Frank replied. "But I'm gonna treat him like one."

Okay, didn't see that coming.

"Okay, so who was that woman?" I asked casually.

What woman?"

Oh, he wanted to play this game did he. "The one I saw coming out of your RV."

"Oh yeah, I meant to introduce you." He said, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Her name is...Mind your own fucking business."

Okay Frank, hard ball it is...I briefly hesitated, Frank was a drug dealer, no doubt used to mouthy customers. He could be a tougher nut to crack than Wells, David, or even that bouncer. Still, I had to know, for Rachel's sake.

"Dude, I'm just curious, what's the big deal?" I asked, starting softly.

Frank rolled his eyes. "Idiot, I make money by being discreet."

I rolled my eyes at that. "No shit Frank. You think I don't know about hiding things from other people? I'm a teenager."

"C'mon Price, I gotta protect my clients." Frank replied, agitated. "Happy customers are the foundation of a good business."

Gotta give him props for that, but I wasn't giving up.

"Hey so..." I began, deciding to use his search history on him. "I had this dream the other night about a cloud that swallowed Arcadia Bay."

"You too?" He gasped.

Jackpot.

I nodded. "See? We're a lot alike Frank. We've got shit in common."

"Sure, I guess." He said hesitantly. "So why are you so hung up on this chick?"

I paused briefly, thinking on my feet.

I then replied, making sure my point was obvious.

"Come on Frank this is Arcadia Bay." I pointed out. "Gossip is all we have to keep us from hanging ourselves out of boredom."

There was a lengthy pause, I could almost see the gears turning in Frank's head as he thought about my words.

Finally he sighed. "I don't know."

"Frank, talk." I told him, pulling my trump card. "And I'll get my mom to make you something special."

That caught his attention, Frank was a regular at the diner. "Like what? How about that firehouse chilli of hers?"

"You got it." I replied; glad I had a way in.

"The woman you saw...her name is Sera." He said at last. "Showed up a few weeks ago, causing all kinds of trouble for all sorts of people."

"Like who?"

"It's a little out of your league, okay." Frank replied, with definite warning in his voice.

I tried to press him further but he wouldn't budge, instead he had us get down to business.

"Heard the mill burned down?"

"Yeah, I uh...heard some things about it." I replied cagily.

"Crazy." Frank muttered. "My friend Damon runs the place, he lost a lot of money last night."

"How about you? Did you lose anything in that fire?" I asked; a little concerned.

Frank shook his head.

His reply was short and quick, but followed by a larger explanation.

"No...But I'll probably get dragged into whatever shit Damon's dealing with right now."

Frank paused before continuing. "Lately, he's been doing some stuff that I don't like but...I don't seem to have much leverage with him like I once had. Anyway, you and I have shit to discuss"

That shit turned out to be a collection errand, he was asking me to sneak into Blackwell, into the boys dorms, to claim some money owed to Frank by none other than Drew North. I was relieved it wasn't about the money I owed, although I had to admit to Frank about giving it to my mom, he actually seemed impressed with that. The money Drew owed however, was over a thousand bucks, this was way bigger than I thought, but I reassured Frank I'd get it done as we finally arrived at Blackwell.

Arriving at Blackwell, surprised as I never thought I'd find myself back here so fast, I made my way from where Frank dropped me off to the dorms courtyard. It was mostly deserted around this time, only Steph, seated on one of the benches and Evan, engaged in his usual photo weirdness with some bird could be seen.

Smiling after responding to a text from Rachel, I decided to go and talk to Steph, only to find the ground shift under my feet. It was then I realized I'd walked through some wet cement and I grinned, grabbing a nearby stick. Time for some larger scale art, an appropriate message, 'Abandon all hope ye who enter here', which I quickly took a photo of on my phone before heading back over to join Steph on the bench.

Steph started when she saw me. "Hey Steph."

I grinned as I greeted her, snatching the sheet of paper from her hands to read it myself.

"Whoa, hey...Callamastia." She replied with a grin of her own.

I was flattered she actually remembered the name of my characters. "Surprised to see me on parole?"

She sighed. "I told you Wells was out to get you. That text was a rare courtesy by the way. I don't normally get involved in other people's dumb decisions."

"Thanks for trying." I told her. "But skipping yesterday was totally worth it."

"Skipping with Rachel Amber does have an appeal." She said with a whimsical smile.

I felt a strange pang inside me, especially as I remembered Steph had a crush on Rachel.

I tried to focus however, not the time to think about that.

"So, what are you doing here?" Steph asked, giving me my distraction.

I replied as evasively as possible. "I'm just picking up something, from...somebody. It's for a friend."

She smirked. "Now I'm really curious."

"What are you doing?" I asked, putting the sheet of paper down. "What's all this stuff?"

"I'm prepping for the Tempest show tonight." She told me. "I'm the stage manager."

"Oh, right." I replied, remembering seeing her name on the list in the drama class. "I think I knew that."

"Honestly, the show's really good. It's worth seeing." After I replied Steph continued. "Obviously Rachel's fantastic, but everybody else is pretty impressive too. You get to see a totally different side to everyone, especially the guys."

I couldn't deny it. "Okay, I'm intrigued, go on."

"Like Hayden's so annoying, but when he puts on that crown? He's actually very princely." Steph explained. "And Nathan as Caliban, there's so much depth there."

"Right, depth..." I replied hesitantly. "Right well, good luck with all of that. Maybe I'll see you later."

Before I could stand up however I saw Steph looked anxious about something.

Sure enough she then asked.

"Oh hey, I wanted t ask you something." When I nodded she continued. "I've been planning to make a move on Rachel, but not if you two were together."

I was amazed and impressed by that, talk about respecting boundaries, even if you weren't sure those boundaries really existed.

Steph jolted me out of my thoughts when she asked. "So, are you? I mean that's Rachel's business, or maybe yours and Rachel's business, but if you feel comfortable telling me."

I hesitated and then finally admitted the truth, it had been stirring within me almost constantly since yesterday after all, or maybe even before that, since the concert.

"I'm...I don't know...It's...It's confusing." I replied.

Steph nodded understandingly and I realized, she must have gone through this too, especially when she first discovered her orientation.

"Yeah...I can imagine, you ever want to talk to me Chloe, you know you can right?"

"I'll see you later, Steph." I replied, smiling.

That actually was surprisingly beneficial. But I had a job to do, a job made more complicated by the doors being locked.

So I had to either become a master lock picker or find the keys. Luckily, I did find some keys, in the caretaker's closet at the end of the dorm buildings where Samuel, the strange man who worked as caretaker at Blackwell was working on the sprinklers.

So now I had my next task, do something to the sprinklers to distract Samuel and swipe the keys. But due to where he was, with his feathered model, I'd have to get Evan out the way first.

It was actually more complex than I thought, taking four attempts at scaring the bird, annoying Evan in the process, to get it to fly away from the path near the sprinklers and onto the Tobanga Totem. Seeing the 'opportunity' this provided Evan's annoyance evaporated into joy.

Smirking I got to work, breaking the sprinkler which came on shortly afterwards and brought Samuel out to try and fix the damage. I took that chance to rush into the closet and grab the keys, as well as tagging the door with an apology to Samuel, dude was kinda cool and I knew he would have been the one who had to clean up my bathroom artwork.

Keeping his love of squirrel's in mind I made sure my graffiti apology on the back door of the closet was done via that 'medium'. Now, with the keys in my possession I hurried over to the door and was about to unlock it when I heard someone coming. I tried to make my escape but no dice, I was seen by the person who emerged.

Of all people, it had to be Skip.

"Chloe?" He burst out, surprised.

"Hey, Skip..." I replied awkwardly. "How's it going?"

"Not that it isn't great to see you and all..." He began, looking equally awkward. "But what are you doing here? Didn't you just get expelled?"

I tried to think up a quick excuse, I didn't really want to create an issue with Skip.

"Relax, I'm just visiting a friend." I said, gesturing towards the dorms.

Skip faltered and stammered. "I can't...I really can't just let you go in."

Dammit Skip, why didn't he just let me past, having to do things the hard way.

Much as I hated it I knew it was time to turn the heat up, maybe by making Skip super awkward I could convince him to let past.

"I'm going inside dude." I said firmly. "You're just gonna have to let it slide."

Skip shifted and shook his head. "I don't think I can, in fact...I think I have to ask you to state your official business, or else vacate Blackwell property."

Wow, what a time to really get into the job. Alright, time to crank it up a notch.

"What's my official business?" I asked him before doubling over slightly, gripping my stomach. "Women's business Skip, as in my uterus. I need to use the restroom, glad you asked?"

He stepped back, flustered. "What, no, it's my job to ask, Chloe..."

I came right back with my reply. "Your job is creepy then, which makes you kind of a creeper."

"It's not like that." He insisted desperately. "Do you know what Wells would do to me if I didn't...you know...patrol."

I jumped in with my comeback. "Is Wells pressuring you to write more students up? I'm not even a student, but sure, don't let that stop you."

"I thought we were friends?" Skip replied exasperated. "Where is this coming from?"

I sighed. "I thought we were friends too, but when the man comes down on you, you come down on me, is that it?"

Skip looked really frustrated and worried now.

His voice was anguished as he tried to explain.

"Look, look, look I'm really sorry Chloe. I'm so confused right now."

I was running out of ammo for this talk. Time to resort to a cruder but still effective method.

"You're sorry? You just looked at my tits, you did. You stared right at them." I accused.

"Oh shit!" He muttered, even more frustrated now. "I don't know what to do!"

"Seriously, my uterus is on fire dude." I shot back, continuing to play up. "Is that, uh, descriptive enough?"

"What, no, I don't wanna know about-"

I kept up the pressure. "En feugo utero, Skip! En feugo utero!"

"I don't know what to say!" He cried. "I'm so sorry."

Then, at that moment, his salvation arrived as a radio call ordered him to check a suspicious car in the parking lot. After a few quick words with me he gratefully hurried off and I smirked. Mission accomplished, I quickly hurried to the dorm door, unlocked it and slipped inside.

Time to do the job I came here for.

End of chapter, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please.