Hard Reset

Miss Magillicuddy

AN: Mentions again of rape. Also bullying in this chapter.

Arcadia Bay Times Sunday November 3, 2013

2 arrested at Blackwell by Spencer Benson

In a shocking turn of events in the city of Arcadia Bay, 2 people have been arrested yesterday at Blackwell. It has come to my attention that Mark Jefferson and Nathan Prescott were arrested yesterday in relation to multiple cases of Rape, kidnapping and assault. This reporter was able to get onto campus last night to get some eyewitness accounts of the events.

Juliet Watson, 18, a student of Blackwell had this to say. "I was on my way to the parking lot when the cops showed up. It was so crazy! One team rushed into the faculty housing and another into the student dorm building. When they escorted Mark Jefferson out of the building, he was screaming about this being a false charge. Nathan Prescott was acting insane. He was talking nonsense about being femi-nazis and how he was being framed. Then the moron tried to run and ended up getting tazed.

Trevor Yard,19, is stating that he was in his dorm room sleeping when he heard the screaming coming from the hallway. He is stating that when he opened his door, he saw Nathan Prescott taking a swing at one of the police officers. He had to be pinned to the ground to be subdued before being dragged out of the building. He is stating that his father owned them and that they would pay for doing this to him.

Luke Parker, 17, states that he was unsurprised when he heard about Nathan Prescott's arrest. He told this reporter that Nathan Prescott is a bully. He states that he has seen him sent to the principal's office several times, but that nothing ever happened to him. He states that he believes his actions were ignored due to his family's investment in Blackwell.

Victoria Chase, 18, states that she doesn't believe that either of them have done anything they are accused of. She is stating that she is very close with Nathan, and that she has never seen him hurt anybody. Of Mark Jefferson, she states that he is a beloved teacher. He treats everyone in class with respect, and she doesn't think he would ever do what he is accused of. She states that she thinks the story was made up by students who held a grudge against both of them.

When asked, Principal Raymond Wells stated that he had no comment. This reporter must wonder how the sorts of behaviors were overlooked at this school. Were there any background checks done on the teachers at the school? Whatever the case, Spencer Benson is on the case and I promise to keep everyone updated as the story develops.

Arcadia Bay Hospital

It was another 2 days before Max was alone again with Chloe and Rachel. Max's parents had decided to go out to lunch at the Two Whales so they could say goodbye to Joyce before they headed home. Max was sitting up in her bed eating hospital pudding while Chloe and Rachel took seats on either side of her. They were there waiting for her to be discharged. She was given the week off of school and was planning on staying with Chloe. Chloe started picking at the leftover fries on Max's plate.

"Are you seriously going to eat those fries? They're all cold and soggy," Max told her giving her a strange look.

"Foods is foods, Maxi-pad."

"Ughh, are you really gonna start calling me that again," Max asked, giving her an unimpressed look followed by an eyeroll. "Whatever Chloe…. Blowy?"

"Chloe Blowy," the blue haired girl questioned with a smirk on her face. "I'm not really into the whole blowjob thing these days."

Max started choking on her pudding as she sucked in a surprised gasp. She started coughing as she tried to dislodge it. Her whole face was a bright vermillion. Rachel pounded on her back a bit from the other side, snickering loudly in amuzement. After Max was finally able to breath again she gave Chloe an amused smile. "You're such a dork."

"I know you are, but what am I," she responded, doing her best Peewee Herman impersonation. "heheh!"

"Yeah, that definitely proves her case," Rachel cut in, looking between them with a shit eating grin on her face. She gave Max a wink when they made eye contact. Max gave her a grin back and held up her hand for a fist bump. As Rachel lifted her hand to bump fists she opened her mouth to speak again, "buuuuut… what I really want to talk about is why you said the other day was your first time meeting me."

"Oh, that," Max said, averting her eyes to her lap. "You still had my green journal at your house, right? Did you bring it with you like I asked?"

Rachel answered for Chloe by pulling it from her bookbag and handing it over her. Max continued staring at her lap for a bit until she heard Chloe's throat clear from her left. Max sighed again before she opened her journal to the back and pulled out an envelope she had stashed there from her time in the past. She had never bothered actually sealing it shut, having just tucked the flap of the envelope into itself.

"I guess I should start from the beginning. I just ask that you let me finish my story before asking any questions. When I originally came to school in September, I arrived to a bunch of missing person's posters all over the school. The posters were of a beautiful girl I hadn't heard of before. She had blond hair, hazel eyes and a feather earring in her left ear. The first month of school was okay, I guess. I made a couple of friends… Kate, Dana and Warren." Max paused and lifted her glass of water, her throat felt very dry due to her nerves. "I kept putting off calling the person most important to me, because I was afraid of how pissed she would be at me for not calling. Then, one day, things changed. It was Monday October 7th. I was having a REALLY awful day. First I had a weird vision in class of a tornado wiping out arcadia bay. Then Victoria Chase was being a complete bitch that day and-"

"When isn't she being a complete bitch," Rachel muttered under her breath. Looking up, she saw Max and Chloe looking at her. "Sorry, I'll stay quiet until you finish your story."

"Go on, Max," Chloe told her, sharing a quick look with Rachel when Max was distracted that seemed to say has Max lost her mind? Rachel responded with a slight shrug.

"Anyway, that day Victoria made fun of me in front of the whole class." The freckled girl continued. "I decided that I was going to have a bit of a meltdown and headed to the bathroom so no one would see me. While I was in there a butterfly flew in. I followed after it so I could get a picture. I was in the corner of the bathroom on the first floor, you know, where the fire alarm is? Before I came out of the corner, though, the door opened and I heard Nathan Prescott muttering crazy shit under his breath. Maybe a minute later another person showed up. She was there to try and blackmail him. She had met him at a bar, and he tried to rape her. Unfortunately for her, he showed up with a gun and shot her. The girl was you, Chloe."

"What? Max, I'm so con-"

"Shhh. Let me finish, okay," Max begged her with pleading eyes. "I stepped out from behind the stall and lifted my hand on instinct. The next thing I knew, I was back in class before Victoria made fun of me. After class ended, I hurried along to the bathroom. When that fucker was going to shoot you, I set off the fire alarm. You need him in the nuts and left. I thought that would be the end of it, but it wasn't. Nathan caught up with me in the parking lot and started getting up in my face about what I saw in the bathroom. I tried to get him to leave me alone, but he started getting… violent. He ended up pushing me to the ground, which is when you showed up in your truck "like a Rockstar" as Warren called it. I got in your car and we left. I apologized for being a shitty friend while we made our way back to your place. When we got there, I was looking for some music to listen to and found Rachel's picture in a lockbox under your bed. It turned out it had been you putting up the pictures. You explained to me how Rachel was there after your dad died and I left. You said she had been missing for 6 months. David showed up a bit later and got mad at you for smoking pot. I covered for you, and we left to the lighthouse. When we were there, I had another vision of the tornado, except this time there was a doe leading me to the lighthouse. I found a newspaper that said the tornado would happen on Friday. When I came out of the vision it started snowing. We spent the next few days trying to find out what happened to Rachel. I proved to you about my time powers by telling you what was in your pockets. My powers seemed to increase throughout the week. I had to freeze time to save Kate from jumping off the Blackwell girls dorms and at one point I realized I could travel in time through photos. I went back and saved William, but when I got back to the present time I was in an altered timeline. You had been in a car accident and had been paralyzed from the neck down. You were dying, and I couldn't handle that, so I changed it back. Later that week we wound up finding the dark room, which is where we found a binder with Rachel's pictures. In the pictures they were putting her in the ground. It was at the junkyard. Kinda in a clearing behind the bus. We went there and started digging. Then we found you." Max had tears streaming down her cheeks as she was talking, "at the time we thought it was just Nathan, so we went to try and find him. We didn't find him, but got a text saying he was going to destroy the evidence. We went back to the graveyard and saw that you were still there. Unfortunately, I didn't hear Jefferson coming up behind me. He stuck me with a syringe of ghb and shot Chloe in the head. I was eventually able to go back through different pictures, then David showed up and saved me from that sick fuck. I eventually was able to make it so you were alive. We thought that the storm must have been caused by my powers, so you asked me to use the picture to go back to the bathroom and let you die. I did it, and it was a horrible mistake."

Max started sobbing, reliving her grief of that time. She felt someone sit next to her and start holding her while shushing and stroking her hair. She knew it was Chloe holding her, but she could feel Rachel rubbing her right arm. That gave her the strength needed to continue the story.

"I fell into a deep depression, so bad I hardly left my room at all. I wound up trying to kill myself. I smashed a mirror in the bathroom and used a shard of glass to slice from my wrist to my elbow on both arms. I just couldn't live without you anymore. I had hoped with me dead, the 3 of us could have a hella awesome party in the afterlife. Kate and Dana found me and applied pressure with towels until the EMT's got there. While I was in the hospital, Kate brought me a bunch of my stuff. I found my journal and started reading through it and figured out I could travel back through that, too. I ended up using my journal to travel to when I was packing for school. I slipped one of my older journals into one of my moving boxes. I used that to travel back to March. I went out in March and withdrew a bunch of money, and rewound time so that the money didn't show up missing from my parent's account and bought the two backstage passes for Firewalk. I sent them to Chloe along with some gift cards, so you could stay in Portland. I had hoped it would save you both." Max opened the envelope and pulled out the receipts from Ticketmaster and the receipts for the gift cards and laid them out for the two girls to look at.

Rachel and Chloe were looking at the different receipts laying on Max's lap. They both appeared to be shocked, each with wide eyes. Chloe started looking from the receipts, to Max, then to Rachel over and over. Finally, her eyes locked in on Max's and she wrapped her in a tight hug.

"Does this mean that you believe me," Max said, voice muffled by Chloe's shoulders. She felt Chloe pull back from her and looked into her eyes.

"Of Course, I do, "Chloe told her eyes looking into her soul with a deep sincerity. "I'm so… sorry you had to go through all of that. There aren't enough words in the world to tell you how sorry I am. Then to come back and find out you've been attacked."

Rachel wrapped her in a hug from her other side. "I believe you, too. Thank you so much for saving me. It must have been really hard to handle. I owe you my life. Speaking of those sick fucks, did you see the article in the paper this morning?"

"Yes. I can't believe Bitchtoria is sticking by those idiots. In the other timeline, she was taken by Jefferson," Max told her. "I just can't understand how she thinks Kate or I would make this up. Besides, the evidence is overwhelming against them."The two girls looked at Max with sad looks upon their faces, each of them rubbing her shoulders gently.

"Officer Barry was here last night showing me that they had found my binder there. Some of the pictures in there were horrifying. There was one that was a close up of my face with a hand tangled at the roots of my scalp… readying my mouth for. Well, you know," Max said with a shudder. "Then Kate texted me that they had showed her own binder yesterday, too. I guess they had even found some empty binders that were labeled for future attempts."

A knock sounded and the door opened, admitting a nurse with a clip board. "Hey, Maxine! I've got your discharge forms for you to sign!"

"It's Max. Never Maxine… and hi Layla. I'm glad it's time to leave. No offence," She told her, reaching out her hand for the clip board.

"Yeah, yeah," She responded, handing her a pen so she could sign. "I've also called and set you up with a follow up appointment with a primary care provider. They will be able to refer you to a counselor."

Max nodded as she signed her papers. In five minutes, she was on her way out to Chloe's truck. She smiled as she saw the familiar truck. As they neared the car Rachel ran ahead and opened the door for her. Chloe walked around to the driver's side and got in. As Max reached Rachel, she received a wink.

"I'll let you sit in the middle… next to Chloe," the hazel eyed girl said with a smirk. "Oh, also, I went into your room and packed a duffle bag, so you don't have to go back at all this week if you don't want to. Also, I'm staying tonight. We can have a girls night!"

Max blushed a little bit as she climbed into the truck and sat between the two girls. The 3 girls made it to Chloe's house by 2:30. Chloe grabbed Max's bag as they got out of the car and carried it up the stairs, the other 2 girls following behind her. As the door to Chloe's room opened, a large grin spread across Max's face. Feels like home. Max's phone started ringing, and as she pulled it out of her bag she saw it was Kate calling her. She signaled to the other 2 that she was going to take a moment to answer the call, and pressed the button.

"Hey Kate! Guess who got out of the hospital," Max told her, as Chloe unpacked her bag and put it in her drawers. Max hid a smile, which quickly faded off her face as she heard Kate's sniffling. "What's wrong?"

"Max," came the tearful response.

Blackwell 2 hours earlier

Kate stormed towards the dorm room, tears streaming down her face. She could not understand the conversation she had just had with her mother. Her ears were still ringing in remembrance of the screaming. Harlot. Whore. Jezebel. Loose. Just a few of the things she said about me. She rushed up the stairs and was feet away from her room, when her shoulder was grabbed violently from behind.

"Hey Kate," Victoria said as she pushed her against the wall, "Oh, are you crying? Hope you're not going to make up any stories about anyone else today."

"I didn't make up ANYTHING, Victoria," Kate told her firmly. "Just because you can't see the flaws in any of your friends, doesn't mean they don't exist. Now, I've had a bad day. Why don't you just leave me alone?"

"Oh please," the girl with the blond pixie cut snorted. "As if either of them would touch a loser like you. You just wanted to make something up so people would stop teasing you about your porn video. You just didn't want to be know as a viral slut, so you tried to make it seem like you did it against your will. You're a stupid skank."

Kate felt the tears welling up in her eyes, as Taylor and Courtney giggled behind Queen V.With those tears, though, she felt her anger rising as well. How dare she? She doesn't know what I've been through.

"It wasn't just me, though. I think that the fact that there are more people than just me claiming it happened should be a clue," She told her in a firm voice.

"If you're talking about Max Cuntfield, you may as well save your breath," Victoria laughed, as Taylor and Courtney burst out into loud laughter behind her. "Everyone knows that she is lying because she was mad that Mark, Mr. Jefferson, took me to San Francisco. She blamed Nathan because she know's he's like a brother to me. She just wanted to get back at me."

"If she was making it up, how did she end up in the hospital," Kate growled back at her. "and if either of us were making it up, how come the police told each of us that they were able to arrest them because of the evidence they found connecting them to the crimes?"

"Whatever," Victoria said, "I'll believe it when I see it… whore."

Kate's limit was reached. Her hand flew out into a smack as quick as a flash. Victoria's head whipped to the side, releasing a gasp of surprise. Her head slowly turned back to look at Kate, shock evident in her eyes. Kate was sure there was shock resonating in her own. The shock was quickly fading as she lifted her hand and slapped her in the face again. For the first time in her life… Kate Beverly Marsh had snapped, and it felt like a release. No more holding her anger back, no more holding her tongue when people were rude. She was going to speak her mind.

"Shut the fuck UP you stupid fucking bitch," Kate yelled, as she got up on her tiptoes and screamed in Victoria's face. "I can't wait for you to find out the guys you worship are absolute pieces of garbage! You should feel grateful that you weren't one of their victims, you vapid, shallow skank! You have no idea what it feels like to be violated in that way."

"Dude! Did you, like, seriously just hit Victoria," Taylor asked, looking at her in shock. Courtney stood there staring between the two of them with her jaw dropped. Victoria's shock was slowly clearing away. There were blooms of red on her cheeks, as embarrassment at being slapped in the face by the little Christian girl in front of her grew. Many of the dorm room doors were flying open to see what was going on.

"How dare you touch me," She screamed as she backhanded Kate across the face, one of her rings, causing Kate's lip to split. Kate tasted blood. Literally and figuratively. Kate didn't make a conscious decision to do so. One moment she was standing by her dorm, the next she had tackled Victoria to the floor and the two of them had started fighting. Victoria had a handful of Kate's blond bun, and was crying out for Taylor and Courtney to help her. Her other hand was blocking and returning hits to the girl on top of her. Kate was sitting on her chest, getting hits in every few hit's between blocks, screaming in her face.

The fight seemed like it lasted forever, but it was probably less than a minute before Dana and Juliet were peeling Kate away from Victoria. Alyssa stood between the two fighting girls, while Taylor and Courtney held Victoria back. One of the student's must have run outside to look for a teacher, because Mrs. Grant was already heading towards the two of them with a stern look on her face. The two girls didn't even see her coming. They were too busy still screaming at each other around their friends.

"Girls! Stop this behavior this instant," Mrs. Grant roared out over them, so she would be heard. Victoria and Kate stopped screaming instantly and looked at their teacher. She looked furious, as she grabbed each of them by an arm and marched them back to the school to Principal Well's office. Within 10 minutes, the opponents were sitting in chairs in front of Principal Well's desk, as he glared at them disapprovingly.

"What happened?"

"Victoria said that I was lying about the rape, and was just trying to recover from the viral video the night I was drugged," Kate said tearfully. "When she called me a whore, I snapped and smacked her a couple of times. She backhanded me, and next thing I knew we were on the ground fighting."

"Victoria, what is your side of the story," Principal Wells asked, as he steepled his fingers together and gave her an angry look.

"I was merely asking her if she was making up the story, because I know the two of them well. I know they wouldn't have done that. I wasn't bullying her and I definitely never called her a whore," Victoria replied, trying to sound innocent. "I just asked her a question and she went crazy and hit me."

"You lying bitch," Kate yelled in fury. Is she seriously going to lie like this? She is awful!

"Kate," Principal Wells said sternly. "please watch your language. Victoria, I find it extremely hard to believe that that was the way everything happened. Now, I happened to see proof of the two of their crimes, just so I can disillusion you of that thought. I, along with other members of the staff, was shown some binders of other victims to see if I could identify any of them. You should maybe consider the fact that this could have happened to you. Since you spent a weekend with him in San Francisco."

"It's not rape if it's willing," Kate glowered at Victoria, "The way she was with Jefferson, I wouldn't be surprised if she threw herself on the ground at his feet and begged him. She's so -"

"Kate," He interrupted, "That is enough. Both of you won't say another word for the rest of this meeting. This is a disciplinary meeting. We do not condone bullying or fighting. Therefore, each of you will be suspended from school for 5 days. Kate, since you live locally, you will be asked to go home for that time. Victoria, since your family is in Seattle, you may stay in your dorm room. Hopefully, a week away from each other will calm you both down. If anything like this happens again, you will both be expelled. Am I clear?"

"Yes, sir." The 2 girls muttered, Victoria glaring off to the side, and Kate staring forlornly at the floor. Inside, Kate was panicking. What the hell am I supposed to do? I will not go back to my parent's house just so I can be called a whore in front of my little sisters. Oh god, mom's gonna have a field day when she finds out I was suspended. She could feel a breakdown coming. She needed to get to her room, pack and figure out where the hell she was gonna go.

The two of them were dismissed from the office and escorted back to their dorm rooms by Mrs. Grant. She spent the whole time reading them the riot act. She told them that women need to stick together, not bring each other down. Neither of the blonds said a word to each other. When they reached their dorm rooms, they went their separate ways without so much as a glance between them. Kate slammed her door shut and stalked over to her computer chair, sitting in it and taking a few deep, calming breaths. It didn't help. She could feel the tears sliding down her cheeks, as her shoulders shook with silent sobs. After a few minutes of pity, she stood up from her desk and made her way over to her mirror. I look like shit. I can't believe I got in a fight. She turned her head from side to side looking at the damage. Split lip, black eye, bruised cheek. She looked at her hands. Bloody knuckles.

She felt the anger in her rising, eyes narrowing in on the cross on her neck. God loves everyone. Except, according to mom, for whores like me.

"Fuck you, God," Kate growled out. "Are you gonna smite me? Show me you're real!" nothing… of course. Have I been lied to my whole fucking life? Kate ripped the cross from her neck and threw it in the direction of her garbage can.

"God damn it," She shouted at the top of her lungs, pausing to see if anything happened. Again, nothing. "Fuck this."

Kate stormed back over to her desk and grabbed a pair of scissors before heading back to her mirror. She pulled the hair tie from her hair and let it down. Her blond hair hung past her shoulders, shimmering in the light coming in through the window. She Grabbed the ends pulled it out from her head and cut. Since her scissors were for paper products, and not the razor sharp ones hair stylists use, the hair didn't cut in one smooth motion. She had to clip several times before all the hair was detached. The next several minutes were spent giving herself a haircut. She was trying to make it even, but every time she cut one side, the other side didn't match. Shit. I messed it up. I need to stop and get this fixed. One side was already at her lower lip line. I look like a freak. She felt tears welling in her eyes. She needed to talk to someone before she had a panic attack. She pulled out her phone and automatically dialed Max.

"Hey Kate! Guess who got out of the hospital!"

Kate started sniffling, as she tried to restrain her tears.

"What's wrong," Max asked her, sounding very worried. Kate started sniffling again.

"Max," she said tearfully. "Everything is wrong. My mom told me I'm like jezebel. She told me I bring shame to her and the church. Then I got in a fight with Victoria. She was saying awful things about the two of us. I snapped when she called me a whore and hit her. Then we started fighting on the ground. We had to go see the principal, so now I'm suspended for a week. Since my family lives locally, I'm not allowed to stay in the dorms. I can't go home to a family that thinks I'm shameful. On top of that I think I just fucked up my hair! What am I supposed to do?"

"Kate, I'm at Chloe's. We're going to come get you, okay? I'm not going to let you be alone in this. We're gonna have to try to stay out of sight of cops, since we only have a 3-seater car and 4 of us, but we'll figure it out. Don't worry about your hair. We'll go to a salon and get it fixed, okay? I want to get mine done, too. Then maybe we can go shopping for some clothes or something. We were planning on having a girls night anyway, so the more the merrier. Also, I hope you kicked Victoria's ass. She'd deserve it for being so horrible. I'll call you when we get there, okay?"

Max saw Rachel and Chloe's head's whip around with evil grins as they heard that last bit of the conversation. Max waited for Kate's response before disconnecting the call.

"I hope you guys are okay with having Kate join us. She's suspended for the week, and Principal Wells is telling her since her family is local she has to stay at her family's place… except her mom just told her this afternoon she is a shame on the family"

"Oh, poor thing," Rachel said, as she swiped her hair behind her ear. "Of course, we don't mind. Kate is so sweet, and it is awesome that she beat up Victoria... the skank."

"Awesome," Max said with a grin, and checked her bag to make sure she still had the envelope with the money from her travel through time. Smiling when she saw the $1200 she had held back from that day. Well, that's gonna be useful. "Kate and I are wanting to get haircuts, do you guys wanna come with us? Then I thought maybe we could do some shopping."

"Sure, sounds good. What are you wanting to do with your hair," Chloe asked as she smiled at her. An image of her hair being crammed in Jeffershit's fist came flashing into her mind. I should cut it the fuck off. Maybe color it a fun color?

"I'm thinking maybe a fauxhawk," She said, ending in a question. "Do you think I'd look ugly with a fauxhawk?"

"No way! You'd look so badass," Chloe said, as she grabbed her keys and the three of them headed for Blackwell.