Rushing winds.

Torrential rains.

Bowling ball hail.

Thunder.

Lightning.

Just some of the things the figure can see.

Then, the water swirls.

It lifts.

A water spout?

No.

The tornado.

The tornado… Speaks? "Max… Max…"

"Max!"

The brunette shot up in bed, her night shirt clinging to the sweat on her upper torso. A look at Chloe's alarm clock tells her it's 2:26 AM. Two weeks straight… "Chloe…"

"The storm again, right?"

Max nodded. "But it was Rachel, how can it be coming back?"

Chloe shook her head. "It's not, Max. You went through a shitty time, it's just a dream."

Chloe readjusted them so they were smuggled up, with Chloe tracing light patterns along Max' arm. "Get some sleep, babe. We don't wanna miss Dragon'ynk's grand opening.

Speaking of which, she didn't care it was 2:30 in the morning. Steph was a woman possessed. Since 11 the previous morning, she had been stocking shshelves leaning the floors, putting up posters, all by her lonesome.

So whe the bell above the door jingled, she immediately jumped. "Sorry, grand opening is in a few h- Rachel, hey. What're you doing here?"

"We need to talk."

Ever ounce of excitement drained from Steph, and was replaced with dread. "W-What's wrong?"

Rachel sat at a table intended to be for or DnD. Steph followed, and Rachel grasped Steph's hands. "We've been dating for a few weeks now… And it's been great, but…"

Steph imagined what was coming. "But we should see other people."

"I slept with someone else."

"I don't like I thought."

"I want more. So…"

"I hate your tats."

"Your breath smells."

"Would you… Be my girlfriend?"

"You smell."

"Wait, what'd you say?"

Rachel cooked her head. "I just ranted about how much I like you, and how much fun I've been having with you, even outside the group, and your response is to not listen?"

Steph blushed. "Well, you said "we need to talk," what did you expect me to think?

The blonde nodded. "Okay, fair. So, Steph Gingrich, will you be my girlfriend?"

Steph stood up and walked to Rachel's side of the table. She pulled her head back and gave her a very passionate, albeit upside down, kiss. "Yes. Yes I will. IF you help me finish stocking the shelves."

Rachel looked at the remainder to do. "Can I rescind my offer?"

Steph popped a cardboard box of Pokemon cards in her hand. "Nope. No, you cannot, girlfriend."

Earlier that day

"… But they're good to me here. I'm allowed to have a cell phone, obviously, although it gets checked everyday, and we can only make phone calls supervised, but… I'm happy here. They said they'd look into reintegration in a year."

Victoria smiled. "That's great to hear, Nate."

"You dealt with that, uh, problem yet?"

Before Victoria could answer, she heard a slight argument over the phone.

"Mr. Prescott, what are you speaking of? What problem?"

Nathan cleared his throat. "Nothing important, sir. Just a problem a friend's been having."

"Which is?"

Victoria bristled at that, then shouted. "My problems are none of your business! Worry about Nathan!"

That seemed to do the trick, as she heard the sound of footsteps and a chair squeaking. "Sorry. I coulda qorded that better."

Victoria shrugged, even though it can't be seen. "It's fine. The balls on him, though. Anyways, no. I want to, but I'm afraid of how she'll respond. I don't wanna scare her off, you know?"

Nathan sighed on the other end. "Don't be like me. Don't push someone you love away by waiting until it's too late."

"You mean Samantha, right?"

"Yeah. I should really look her up when I get out of this place." Any words Nathan had were mited by the sound of an orderly announcing dinner time. "Remember. Don't wait, V."

The line went dead, and Victoria sighed.

She spent the next few hours trying to construct the perfect way of asking the mousey blonde out, but every single one was drowned out by a vision of her friendship being ruined.

Now, it was 2:41 AM and the thoughts were deafening. Standing up, she strode across the hall and knocked on Max's door. After a while, it became evident that she had stayed at Chloe's tonight. So she did the only other thing she knew would clear her mind.

She grabbed a joint and headed for the rooftop.

"This is so stupid, Chase. Nathan's right. The worst she says is no, and you continue being friends, if a bit awkward. You used to rule this school with an iron fist. Well, you still do, you're just not a tyrant anymore. And yet you can't ask out one girl? One girl that KNOWS you're into the same sex?"

She tossed the roach off the roof, getting a chill when she realized this is where Max had said Kate jumped in her original Timeline. "I'm pathetic."

"What makes you say that?"

It was Kate. Fuzzy slippers, messy hair and a bit of dried drool from sleeping.

"Kate! Uh, no reason. Just, uh… Reminiscing about my past. Bad reminiscing."

"So… It didn't have anything to do with that ramble… About telling a girl how you feel?"

Victoria Kate came to a stop beside her. "I… I said that out loud?"

Kate nodded. "Yeah. I didn't wanna scare you, so, I waited. So… Who's the girl?"

"Just… Someone incredible... Blonde, kind, so tiny you just wanna protect her… And yet… I treated her like absolute shit for the longest time… And it took a blue haired punk slapping me silly to make me realize I was an ass."

"I like someone too… They treated me like shit, filmed a video of me being drugged, but after all that, they still had remorse. And now I can call them one of my best friends… But I want more… Victoria…"

"Kate…"

"Will you go out with me?"

After a bit of stunned silence, the blondes embraced. They had some date planning to do.

Two weeks later saw the group in Nadine's class, talking in hushed groups about a project. The students could work in any number below 7, so naturally, Max, Chloe, Kate, Victoria, Steph and Rachel gravitated to each other.

But they werent having much luck coming up with a suitable idea. Until Victoria spoke up.

"What about a then and now series on Arcadia Bay? We could take photos of landmarks in the exact position they were taken, say… Fifty, a hundred years ago?"

The group murmured their agreement. "Chloe, Kate and I could work on graphics for it. We could turn the project into a website. That should earn brownie points."

Chloe thumped the table. "Fuck's sake, Steph. Now I'm hungry."

"Language, Ms. Price." Nadine had a stern look on her face, but she was smirking.

"Okay, so. Kate, you can draw the basic outline of our web page header. I'm envisioning a panorama featuring some landmarks. Chloe, you can give it basic colors, and then I can digitize it and color it. Rach, you're the best at placement in photos, so you can help Max and Victoria find the exact spots where some places were photographed. Max, you and Victoria, obviously, get the easiest jobs, taking the pictures. Sound good?"

Victoria chuckled. "No wonder you're so good at DMing. You're a natural born leader."

Steph stared at Victoria for a moment. "I'm sorry, but a compliment from you will never not be weird to me."

Victoria rolled her eyes and grabbed her books. "Price, walk with me."

Chloe pointed at herself while looking at her friends. "Me?"

"Well, considering my last name is Amber, hers is Gingrich, hers is Marsh, and your girlfriend's is Caulfield, yeah, I think she meant you."

Chloe sighed. "If I'm not back in 25 minutes, send the cavalry." With a kiss to Max, she headed off behind Victoria.

"Alright, Queen Bitch, what do you require of your loyal-" Victoria let loose a loud "HA!" at that. "-subject?"

"Me and Kate are going on our first date next week." Victoria blushed as she said this.

"Holy shit, man. Between me and Max, you and Kate, Steph and Rachel, Dana and Juliet and Courtney and Taylor, they should rename this place Arcadia Gay."

"Stella has a thing for Alyssa, too."

Chloe facepalmed in amusement. "So. First date. Why am I needed?"

Victoria sighed. "I wanna hear… About yours and Max's first date. First REAL date. Lunch at the diner doesn't count."

"What if that WAS our first date?"

"Then I'm screwed."

Chloe snorted. "One day, yeah."

Receiving a punch to the shoulder, the bluenette and blonde sat down by the fountain. "Alright… Here's the sordid tale of Chloe Price and Max Caulfield's first date.

Okay, so now I'm kinda rushing to get this one out. There was much more to this chapter, but it never saved. And then my phone got stolen. Thankfully, this portion got saved. So, next chapter will include a reattempt at what I had originally wrote. Hope y'all enjoy what is here though.

Catch ya later, Pricefielders~