The woman stared down at Max. "Miss Caulfield? Is everything okay?"

Max was hyperventilating, now. Did I imagine that? No... He was there. I... I could smell his pretentious cologne

"Max? C'mon, baby, say something."

Max started into Chloe's eyes and sighed. "I just... Thought about Jeffershit... I'm alright now."

The girls took their seats with their group, aswell as Dana and Taylor, as the new teacher got her papers in order. "Now, old afternoon, class. I'm Ms. Smith, but by all means, call me by my first name, Nadine. Now, today's gonna be an easy day, were just gonna chat. I want you to understand, I'm nothing like Mark Jefferson. As I'm sure is obvious, seeing as I expanded the curriculum to include other forms of art. I believe Taylow Christensen and Dana Ward are here as models, which means they're gonna be paired every week with someone new in a rotation..."

She admired the turn out. Jefferson only acquired nine students at the time of his demise, Nadine saw a grand total of 17 students, including Max, Kate, Chloe, Victoria, Steph, Rachel, Dana and Taylor, aswell as Daniel, Hayden, Alyssa, a noticeably slimmer Alyssa, to boot, and Stella, plus five students newer to the school.

"Ms. Price--" "Yo." "--Mr. DeCosta, Ms. Gingrich and Ms. Marsh are here in relation to the drawing and painting aspects, correct?" The four nodded. "And the rest of you are photographers. Excellent!

"So, for today, what I want you all to do, be it on your phones, a computer or good old pen and paper, is write a small essay, just one page, about how you got into artistry and then read it to the class. I'll give you... 15 minutes, starting now."

@Later that

"A B- isnt horrible Chloe."

Steph and Chloe sat in the middle of American Rust, in the bed of Chloe's truck. While Max and Victoria did their thing at the Lighthouse with their assigned models, Rachel and Dana respectively, the pair began planning out their first project.

Or, Steph was.

Chloe was thinking about her conversation with Max an hour ago.

" You saw Jefferson?!"

"I didnt just see him, Chloe... I smelled him. The cologne he always wore. He was there, in the flesh, just for a moment. I can't keep this up. It was hard enough having those... Artificial memories put in my head that included him. But seeing him again... I dont know if I can take it."

Chloe wrapped her arms tightly around Max's shoulders, resting her chin on the brunette's head. "You think it's time? Time we test--"

"NO! Absolutely not, Chloe. If my powers are here, I dont wanna use them. Ever. For ANY reason."

"... You... You mean you'd let me die?"

"No. Because that wont happen. I wont let you get in a situation like that again. I promise."

"You can't know that, Max. You can't. I could stupidly walk in front of a train tomorrow." Max flinched. "O-Okay, bad example. But still. You're not... Well, you may not be magic anymore, you dont get to decide that."

Max looked down for a while before speaking. "I dont want to cause anymore issues..."

Chloe grabbed her girlfriend's shoulders and glared. "We fixed that. The storm in the other timeline was Rachel, not you. Your powers are there for a good reason. I think you should try. If they're still there, that is. Let's just start small."

Chloe, ever the impatient one, downed her beer and shattered the bottle. "RewweR" .elttob eht derttahs dna reeb denwod, eno tneitapmi eht reve ,eolhC

".llams trats tsst start-"

"Chloe, wait... I did it." Max stared at her right hand, while Chloe cocked a brow. "Huh. Thought I'd feel it since we jumped timelines together. Oh well. What happened?"

Max shrugged. "You were gonna down your beer and shatter the bottle, that's all."

... Which Chloe immediately did, to Max's bemusement. "What? It sounded like fuuf ekil dednous tI ?tahW" .tnemesumeb s'xaM ot, diddid... Or tried to do. But Max snatched the empty bottle and did it herself, to Chloe's frustration.

"What? You did it twice, it was my turn."

"Dude, you don't even like beer."

"I kinda regret THAT part, yeah..."

And so it went, they tested small stuff, not daring to go as far as they did in the dead timeline. Soon enough, it was time for Chloe to go meet Steph, and after dropping Max at the lighthouse, and making Victoria ill, she took off...

"...So then, we can showcase how... You... CHLOE!"

"I DIDNT DO IT! What...? Sorry, Steph, I was thinking."

"If it wasn't about the diagram, I will knock you out."

Chloe snorted. "I'd like to see you try, noodle arms. No, I was thinking about Max. Shocker, right? Anyways, go ahead and tell me your idea."

"I was saying we should do a diagram of our D characters. Callamastia, Kadia, Katherine, Victoria and a shadowy figure meant to be me." Steph almost had stars in her eyes as she imagined it.

"Uh, sure. You want me to draw the background?"

Steph nodded and handed her a very rough sketch, more of a placeholder. We got a couple weeks, so no rush. Just don't go getting too addicted to Max?" She hopped out of the back of Chloe's truck and waved at the owner of the car pulling in. Rachel had arrived to pick her up, which must mean Max and Victoria were done with her.

Chloe waved goodbye with a smile before her phone dinged with a text.

Maxipoo: Two Whales for dinner? Vic and I are already on the way.

Chloe: omw gorgeous

@That same time, at the

Max had her tripod set up and had Rachel posing on the cliff edge. Victoria had done similar, but digital, meaning Dana was already gone. Victoria was sitting on the bench taking a, quote, well deserved smoke break. "More to the right."

Rachel moved as instructed and Max got a sudden chill. Not from the wind, no, a feeling of dread. Shaking it off, her thoughts and the picture, she considered Rachel's positioning, not seeing the dirt crumbling to her right… "A little to your left… no, right again. "

Time seemed to slow down, for everyone but Max. Max knew how close to the edge Rachel was. It was her idea. She just never expected this.

As Rachel's foot made contact with the ground, a large chunk gave way. The resulting crack spread, until it took away a chunk around Rachel… And Rachel too. As Victoria screamed, Max knew she had only one option. She thrusted out her hand… and rewound.

.dnuowert dna …dnah reh tuo dessert ehS .Nitro eno ylno dah ehs wenk xaM ,demaercs aiortciV sA

"Rachel, to your left!" To Max's relief, Rachel stepped away just in time. The same area of ground gave way, but because she was no longer there, she avoided the long fall.

"Max, what happened? You… Did something happen?"

Victoria interjected. "First, I'd like to know how the fuck you teleported."

That's when it occurred to Max. They weren't alone.

When Max had told Rachel to go right, she was in a different spot than when she screamed at her to go left. To the untrained eye, or literally anyone's, Max teleported.

"I… Think you might wanna sit down for this, Vic." Max began packing up her stuff and, with a quick hug to Max and a wave to Victoria, Rachel headed off to get Steph for the date they'd planned.

"Okay. We're alone. Why the fuck did you teleport?"

Max quickly shushed the former pixie. "Not here. Let's go for dinner at the diner, I'll text Chloe and Kate."

Max: Two Whales for dinner? Vic and I are already on the way.

Chlobear: omw gorgeous

Max: Two Whales for dinner? Vic, Chloe and I are already on the way.

Kate: sry Max violin practice ttyl

Victoria stood up and grabbed Max's tripod. "I don't see why you can't tell me now. I don't see what's so important Chloe and Kate need to be there."

Max shrugged. "Chloe is as much apart of this as me." The two got in Victoria's car for the short drive. "And Kate, I just figured I should tell her, too. Rachel knows, that's why she wasn't bothered.:

Victoria rolled her eyes. "The suspense is killing me. You better have a good explanation for this, Maxine."

They pulled into the diner parking lot and waited. Five minutes later, Chloe pulled up beside them. A kiss you and.a fist bump to Victoria, which still gave Max happy butterflies, they headed in, gave their orders to Joyce and then…

"Alright, Max. You've stalled long enough. Why did you teleport?"

Chloe promptly choked on her root beer. "Did you develop another ability?!"

Victoria looked incredulous. " Another?"

Max finally sighed. "I can rewind and freeze time. I'm not from this timeline, I had one of my own. In my timeline, Arcafia Bay got wiped out by a tornado."

Victoria blinked a couple times before excusing herself. She walked outside, and Max immediately thought she lost a friend. Until Victotia started laughing maniacally. Max saw this as her chance……ecnahc reh sa siht was xaM .yllacainam gnihgual detrats airotciV litnU.

Before Victoria got to far, Max called out to her. "You're going outside to laugh maniacally because you think I'm pranking you."

Victoria scoffed. "Well duh."

"I know this because I rewound."

Victoria Sar back down. "It was obvious I'd do that. So let's try something else…" She wrote and handed Max a napkin note. I peed my pants in second grade because I had a crush on the teacher.

Max smirked..dekrims xaM

.rehcaet eht no hsurc a dah I esuaceb esaeg dnoces ni stnap ym deep I

Max quickly grabbed her phone.

Before she could write anything, Victoria got a text… With the exact thing she had planned to write.

Victoria genuinel looked sick. "Tell me everything."

Four hours and nineteen minutes. It would have been shorter, if Max didn't start over an hour in when Kate showed up, her proof being Max, amusingly, telling the entire table the color of Kate's underwear… And the style. A style the made Victoria need a smoke and Chloe need a restroom. But, that's how long it took to go over the whole story, including breaks, panic attacks and what have you. By the end, everyone was crying. No one but Max, Chloe and Rachel to this point knew the story. Now Victoria truly knew why Max was so forgiving.

After going their separate ways at Blackwell, Max and Chloe were curled up on Max's bed, Big Spoon Chloe tracing light circles over her girlfriend's stomach. "You sure didn't expect today to go the way it did, huh?"

Max shook her head and shimmered for comfort. "Nope. But I didn't think twice. I completely reacted and saved Rachel."

Chloe chuckled. "Man, she owes you big time. You've saved her life twice now. I don't think even Superman saved someone more than once."

Max laughed. "I'm pretty sure you're entirely wrong, Chloe. But no, she doesn't. I just did the right thing."

The two soon fell asleep, woken as always by Max's 2 AM nightmare. This time, Kate suffered. But what scared Max more than anything… Is the second nightmare.

No.

The vision.

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack.

Didja miss me?

Jesus, five days shy of sixteen months. Lot has happened. Bulk of it is, I'm homeless. Me, my best friend Shaun, and my sister Angie. I wrote whenever I had time, or the desire, but finding a solid chunk of gold is more likely these days.

So, that said, if you like my work and want to reward me, a friend started a GoFundMe for us. It isn't by any means a demand you donate, but we wouldn't be mad if ya did. gofund dot me slash d0e29ef9

As for the next chapter… I'm gonna be frank, I'm not gonna say "Oh, I promise I'll have it out in x amount of time."

I'm not gonna make a promise I can't keep. Between house hunting, begging on the street corner and finding places to sleep that don't toss me out Fresh Prince of Bel Air style, it's gonna be a slow process. But I can promise I'll at least try to work on it everyday.

Catch ya later, Pricefielders~

It feels good to say that again.