Disclaimer: The Life is Strange franchise and its affiliated characters belong to Square Enix. All original characters and their identities are used with the express permission of their real-life counterparts.

This was one of my favorite chapters to write. Kate Marsh is my favorite character from Life is Strange. This chapter focuses more on Kate and Alyssa, but Chloe does make it in. As always, thank you to everyone who has been taking time to read this story and who has left a review, is following the story, or has favorited it. It encourages me so much! Enjoy! :)

Chapter 6: Stay by My Side

A certain blonde-haired girl woke up in her dorm at Blackwell on Thursday morning with a sense of dread in her heart. She had slept well, but she still felt exhausted. Well, maybe drained would be a better choice of words. With slow, fragile movements, she sat up and pulled herself out of bed, preparing for the new day ahead.

Kate Marsh was set in her beliefs. She was abstinent, didn't want to take drugs, and had a strong belief in God. Her parents had been strong Christians, and she liked the beliefs that she had learned growing up. However, unlike her mother, she was very relaxed in how she viewed others who did things that she would not do. For example, she had no problem with people who slept around, who took drugs, or who didn't believe in God. She had no problem with any sexual orientation either, even though her mother had tried to make Kate believe that homosexuality was a sin. She had told her mother that Jesus wanted people to love their neighbors as themselves, so she would treat people as she wanted to be treated. Her mother could find no counterargument, but did not speak to her daughter for several days.

On another note, Kate's father was very proud of the young woman she was becoming. He liked that Kate was finding her own niche in life and not blindly follow everything that he and her mother taught her growing up. He himself had no objections to any sexual orientation himself, but his wife had very different views. Nevertheless, he made sure that he was available when her mother refused to speak to her for nearly a week.

Kate was open-minded about everyone she met, but she was running out of patience with those who were not being nearly as kind to her. About two weeks after she started coming to Blackwell, she was forced to see some vulgar message scribbled on the white board outside of her room. When they had first started, she would erase them and replace them with some positive or encouraging message. However, after a while, she just left it alone. The message would be different every morning before she left for classes. She had no idea who was doing it or why. She had tried getting up early to catch the culprit, but even then the message had already been changed. Whoever was changing it was awake long after Kate went to sleep.

The harassment did not end there either. She would find post-its on her desk or would be thrown at her during class. Worst of all, it happened in multiple classes. She couldn't trace it to one particular person, which could only mean that multiple people were in on it. She was having trouble focusing on classwork or tests and she would cry in her dorm room and fall asleep, meaning that she had already missed a few homework assignments as well. She wanted to talk to the teachers about it, but was afraid that her harassment would continue if she complained about it. She didn't want to give anyone the satisfaction of knowing that they were hurting her.

Kate shook her head to rid herself of these thoughts. She took comfort in the scripture of the Bible, in which she had marked verses such as Philippians 4:5-7 which reads:

Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Reading passages like this helped her, but the dread always came back the next morning, and it was confirmed by looking just outside her bedroom.

At least she had a tea date with Max later that day, and the thought brought a fond smile to her face. Max was one person who she knew was a kind and loving spirit, and she was happy to have someone who made her time at Blackwell a little easier to tolerate. No matter how bad Kate's days became, Max always knew how to bring a smile to her face. Perhaps not all of her days were good, but at least there was some good in each day. Max had surprised her by so easily reading her emotions the other day and told Kate that she could always talk to her. She called her bluff and told Kate that she would support her and listen to anything she needed to talk about without once being too obvious or calling her out in any way. She was thankful for Max's tact. All she had to do now was get through the day before her…

Max was still trying to sort out her feelings for Chloe the next morning. She finally settled on the fact that she was definitely attracted to her best friend at the very least. It gave her a warm, comfortable feeling in her stomach and gave her something to smile about all morning. She may not be certain as to whether or not she was in love with Chloe, but it helped ease her racing thoughts at the very least.

She was smiling until she passed by Kate's dorm room where someone had written…some very nasty remarks about Kate specifically. Max erased them (she didn't care if anyone was watching) and wrote a very positive message to Kate. She hoped that her friend saw it before coming into class. Satisfied with that change, she left the dorm building on the way to her science class.

Max saw Kate later on in the photography class they shared. It was now taught by a woman who used to be a model and who was very good at teaching about proper lighting and its effect on the mood that a picture would give off. They focused more on people than objects in class, and it gave Max some really good ideas on how to improve the pictures that she took of others. Who knows if it would ever help her selfies though?

When Kate had walked in, Max's jaw dropped. Max thought that Kate looked tired yesterday, but it was nothing compared to how she looked this afternoon. She looked despondent, and even more so upon reaching her desk. She was quiet for the entire class. Max kept a close eye on her throughout class, her concern for the girl growing more than yesterday. She had looked tired yesterday, but today her entire face was radiating a very deep, sad gloom, not even trying to mask itself with the beautiful Kate Marsh smile.

About halfway through class, Max saw something fly through her peripheral vision. It was small, barely noticeable, and Max lost sight of it until she saw Kate wince. Whatever it was, it had hit Kate! Her concern growing, she watched and saw it happen again. Max looked at the pathway from where it came and saw who else but Victoria Chase, calmly sitting and looking at the teacher while holding something discreetly in her lap, underneath her desk, hidden out of sight from Kate. Max's heart went out to Kate. No one should be hurting anybody, but Kate was so kind to everyone that she was the last person to deserve harassment like that.

Kate took off as soon as the bell rang, while Max went over to her desk and was stunned at what she saw. On the floor, was a post-it note with more harassment toward Kate, as if the insults she received on her white board in the morning weren't bad enough. Something shiny caught her eye, and she leaned down to pick it up. Sitting there in her hand was a small, lead ball, smaller than a grain of rice; it was a pellet, the ones that were used in pellet rifles. Max stared at it in disbelief. Spitballs were immature and gross, but pellets could hurt if they were fired fast enough, which was probably Victoria's intention. There were at least five of them on the ground, which likely meant that Kate could barely focus in class. She removed the post-it and the lead pellets from the floor before heading off to her next class. She and Kate were going to have a lot to talk about.

Science was Max's last class for the day, and Ms. Grant was giving the class a science test. Bless her heart, she knew that Max had been hospitalized and gave her until next week to take the test. She let her go after giving her a packet with the notes from the days she had missed. Max couldn't be more relieved. After the incident with Kate, she wasn't sure she could wait much longer. She couldn't imagine Kate taking any more abuse than she already had. She headed back to her dorm room and started rummaging through her closet. She wasn't sure if it would fix everything, but at least it would give her friend some hope.

Kate Marsh was not having a good day. Not only were unknown people putting post-it notes on her desk and firing objects at her that really stung, but the teachers were still oblivious and, what's worse, she had terrible cramps because her period had started that day. And she was out of heating pads! Pain compounded by pain. She could barely focus in class, and her anxiety was not helping matters. The teacher in her last class let her leave early when she noticed how Kate looked. The poor girl barely got back to her dorm room, wanting to collapse in pain on her bed, when she saw a ladder blocking her doorway. Well, that was certainly new.

In front of her doorway was a ladder with about ten steps, ascending to about ten feet in the air. The janitor, Samuel, was holding the ladder with both hands. This mystery was certainly complex. On the ladder was none other than Max, who was currently hammering nails above her door while holding something large in between her shoulder and her arm. Kate could not possibly imagine what Max was doing. When Max finished hammering the last nail in, she took the large white board she was holding, hung it up on the nails, and started climbing down.

Kate gasped. The new white board above her room clearly read, "Kate's Room" with all sorts of hearts, peace signs, and flowers drawn all over it in various colors. It was beautiful, and best of all, no vulgar messages were written on it either. Kate's heart fluttered in her chest, and her temporarily forgotten as she gazed upon it.

"Do you like it, Kate?" Max asked her.

"Like it? Like it? Max, I love it!" Kate cried, throwing her arms around her friend, who returned her embrace.

"I wanted you to have something positive near your door so that you would always be able to come back to a comforting place. I hated seeing all of those messages on your white board, so I wanted you to have something better. I also put a large white board over my room so that you weren't the only one," Max told her softly.

Kate could feel tears come to her eyes. No one had ever thought enough to do something about what she was dealing with, and to be so creative as to not even get the teachers involved. It was truly an ingenious idea.

"Thank you for your help Samuel. I'll bring the ladder back to your closet as soon as we put the last touch on," Max told the janitor.

"Not a problem, young Max," Samuel smiled. "Ms. Marsh, you have a mighty good friend there as well. Let me know if you ever need anything."

Kate smiled through her tears and thanked Samuel as well, before turning back to Max.

"He is right, I do have an amazing friend," Kate told her, smiling.

"Well, I try to do what I can," Max stammered, blushing. It was adorable.

"Wait, what did you mean by finishing touches?" Kate asked.

"Well, I wanted to include something underneath "Kate's Room", like a quote or something. I wanted you to pick the quote, whether it is a Bible verse or just something that makes you happy," Max said, smiling.

Kate smiled too, a genuine smile, and said, "I know exactly what it should say."

About fifteen minutes later, the pair had finished their work. Kate had drawn some more flowers and hearts (Max admitted her artwork was better) and even added in a deer, much to Max's surprise and amusement. She gave Max a purple dry-erase marker while she dictated what the quote would read. Now, underneath "Kate's Room" it read:

"Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without words, and never stops at all." ~Emily Dickinson

"You know, that is a really wonderful quote," Max remarked.

"It has been my favorite quote for years," Kate said. "I put it on my smaller white board when I started here, but, well…we both know how that went."

Max gave her a hug. "Now you won't have to worry about that anymore, because you always have something to look forward to. Also, this is a dry eraser for you as well. Before you leave your room, you can erase the smaller white board without having to read what it says."

Kate's eyes widened. Why hadn't she thought of that? If the messages were going to be bad anyway, why not just erase them? Perhaps she wanted to believe that one day, someone would write something nice on her white board?

Max was about to bring the ladder back when Kate got an idea…

Twenty minutes later, they were admiring the artwork they had done together on Max's own overhead white board. In addition to flowers and hearts, Kate had added in a bunny in the bottom left corner. The color scheme was different from her room, but had the same warm feeling. Max's quote was also different:

"Promise me you'll always remember: you're braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. And even if we're apart, I'll always be with you." ~A.A. Milne

Kate was initially surprised with Max's quote, but Max said that it was something that she thought of often when she was in Seattle and away from her best friend. Max blushed when she mentioned her friend, but Kate thought it was cute. Finally, the handiwork of the two friends was complete. Max told Kate to start making the tea while she brought the ladder back before their dorm-mates came back from class. Kate nodded in assent before practically skipping back to her room in pure joy.

Max was walking out of the girls' dorm, carefully balancing the ladder and making sure no one was going to get hit with it. She used the grass so that if anyone was coming, they could use the path. She was about halfway to Samuel's closet when a familiar purple-haired girl came running down the path towards the dorm.

It was Alyssa, who looked terrified. Clearly, she had been running for some time, as her face was all red and she looked as if she was too tired to keep going for much longer. When she saw Max, she had a pleading look in her eye.

"Max, help me! There are two guys after me!" she yelled.

The words weren't even out of her mouth when the two aforementioned men came around the corner and took off running toward Alyssa. They were large guys, most likely jocks, and they looked like they were having fun chasing Alyssa. As they came charging, Alyssa made to get away. They were going to pass by Max in the next few seconds or so.

Without pausing to think about the consequences, Max grabbed the ladder with both hands and swung it as hard as she could at the jocks. The metal ladder hit them both in the solar plexus and knocked the wind and the momentum right out of them, bringing them to the ground.

Alyssa looked on in shock as the boys fell to the ground. Perhaps she was shocked that her nightmare was over? Or maybe it was that Max had used a ladder as a means of saving her? Max didn't have the time to consider it as a shrill whistle broke the sudden silence.

"Max! What were you thinking just now?" said the unmistakable voice of David Madsen from behind her.

"These boys were chasing Alyssa so I did what I could to stop them. I was only trying to protect her!" Max replied breathlessly; lying was not going to help her here.

"Ms. Anderson, do you know why these two men were chasing you?" he questioned.

"While I was walking down by the field, these guys were verbally harassing me, making snide comments about me. I ignored them and kept walking while reading my book. Then they came toward me, saying that they were going to make sure I learned to 'respect my superiors'. After that, I dropped my book and ran all the way here and I told Max what was going on. Then the men came around and Max swung the ladder at them to stop them," Alyssa explained.

David looked from the boys who were attempting to stagger to their feet, to Max, to Alyssa, and then seemed to come to a decision.

"Ms. Anderson, you will escort Ms. Caulfield to Principal Wells' office while I do the same with these two gentlemen."

The words were hardly out of his mouth before Max felt very lightheaded. She couldn't figure out why, but then she slumped to the ground, unable to further maintain her balance. Alyssa cried out as Max slumped to the ground, and David, seeing a dark spot forming on Max's shirt, immediately pulled out his communicator and said he had a student with a possible Class 2 hemorrhage out in front of the girl's dorm.

Kate was getting out the tea set for her and Max when she heard a smash outside. She placed the tea set on the table and left her dorm to investigate the noise. No sooner had the door to her room closed when she heard a girl's voice yell outside the dorm.

"MAX!"

Kate's blood ran cold and she broke into a run. She pushed through the door to the outside of the building and gasped as she saw Max, sitting on the ground, with Alyssa and David Madsen knelt next to her. David was on his communicator talking to someone, while Alyssa kneeled next to her friend, keeping Max talking. She ran over and knelt next to her.

"Alyssa! What happened?! Max, are you alright?" she breathed, breathless with anxiety over her friend.

"Kate…" Max sounded as if she was trying to hold it together, even though she felt a bit light-headed. She was holding her stomach with both her hands. "I swung the ladder to stop those two thugs over there from chasing Alyssa across campus. I stopped them, and Mr. Madsen came over here to find out what happened, but I…I think I strained myself too much."

At this point, it became apparent that Max's shirt was becoming darker and darker with fluid.

It turned out that David had been in contact with the school nurse and the emergency dispatcher in Arcadia Bay. The school nurse came running out with a large medical kit. She noticed that Max's sutures had reopened, and that she had been bleeding slowly but steadily, causing her to nearly lose consciousness. She had Kate and Alyssa back up slightly so that she could work to close the sutures and stop the bleeding. She elevated Max's torso and applied a sterile bandage to slow the bleeding.

"You're going to be alright, Ms. Caulfield. Just stay with me and keep talking, alright?"

"I'll do my best, Ms. Laura…"

The paramedics arrived soon after, and Max was put on a gurney and taken into the ambulance. Luckily there were enough supplies on the ambulance to stabilize her, and she was allowed to stay in the school infirmary overnight instead of going to the hospital. Nurse Laura promised to take good care of her and make sure that she didn't perform any more 'stupidly heroic stunts' for a while. Max smiled weakly, along with Kate and Alyssa.

Nurse Laura allowed Kate and Alyssa to stay and visit on Max's request. The two of them were visibly shaken, but they worked at calming themselves as they each held one of Max's hands and continued talking to Max. Since Max was holding a conversation with them, they were able to get over being shaken up rather quickly.

"Max, why in the love of God would you attempt to swing a steel ladder at two men when you had only recently recovered from a gunshot wound?" Alyssa said, exasperated. She felt a little guilty that she had called out to Max for help when she had only recently recovered from a gunshot wound, but never thought Max would have done something that reckless.

"You need to take care of yourself too Max," Kate chided, "We don't want to lose you."

Max turned her head towards Alyssa and gently squeezed her hand, "It was worth it to save you, Alyssa. Nobody has the right to bully you, or anyone else for that matter. I swung that ladder without even thinking about what might happen, and I have no regrets. I'm glad that you are safe Alyssa."

She then turned to Kate, "I'm really happy that you care so much Kate, and for still being my friend even if I do stupid things sometimes." She squeezed Kate's hand, and Kate brought her other hand over, so that she held Max's in both of her hands.

About ten minutes had gone by when a door was loudly opened and someone called out, "Max! Where are you?" Max rolled her eyes but smiled; she knew who had come.

Nurse Laura reprimanded the loud-mouthed woman before asking Max if she wanted to see a young woman with blue hair.

"I've asked her to remain quiet, but she is quite persistent about seeing you."

Max laughed and said to let her in.

Not five seconds later, the partition moved and Chloe came in, the expression on her face one of shocked disbelief and amusement mixed together.
"Max, really? I leave you out of my sight for a day and now you are off saving someone else's life?! Do you have a savior complex or something?" Chloe asked, her boisterous voice sounding as if it were projected through a megaphone in the small room.

"Chloe, please keep it down. It may be only me in the infirmary, but I can hear you just fine," Max winced as her ears rang.

Kate and Alyssa helped Max fill Chloe in on what had transpired during the afternoon, from what Max had done to Kate's room to what had caused Max to be in the infirmary. Chloe managed to refrain from commenting until she had been brought up to speed on everything.

"Max, as much as you may be hella awesome, you're putting other superheroines to shame here by first saving me, and now Alyssa." She paused and turned to Kate, "Kate, you better not get be in danger during the next 24 hours or I'm sure Max will try to save you too."

Kate smiled at Max, "She already has with what she did for me this afternoon."

Chloe smiled and rolled her eyes in mock-exasperation, "Okay Super Max, you've helped people out 3-0 in the past week, and so far you've been very lucky. Can you at least promise me to not try and save anyone else before I come back tomorrow and help you walk…no, I can't even trust you to be on your own two feet without doing something stupid…carry you out of the infirmary?"

Max smirked, "But what if something happens to Miss Laura?"

Chloe raised her eyebrows, "Do I need to sleep outside the infirmary to make sure that nothing else happens between now and tomorrow?"

Max laughed and said she would do her best, but made no promises. Chloe stood up with a mischievous twinkle in her eye, and left disappeared out of the partition for a moment. When she came back, she was grinning.

"Nurse Laura says that we can take turns keeping an eye on you overnight and into tomorrow, so you don't do anything stupid. I told her I was concerned about you being too reckless to be trusted alone."

All of the girls dissolved into giggles.

Chloe was serious about this reverse-bodyguard scenario however. Kate would take the first shift until 11 p.m., Alyssa would take over for Kate until 3 a.m. and then Chloe would cover until morning. With that, she went to sleep in the next cot, and asked Alyssa to wake her before she left.

Max enjoyed talking to Kate and Alyssa for a couple hours before Kate left to go to bed. She promised to return in the morning before classes started. Soon after Kate left, Max fell asleep while Alyssa was talking to her. Alyssa reflected on all that Max had done for her, and vowed to try and be a better friend to Max. Clearly the girls were quite nice to each other, but Alyssa didn't hang out with Max as often as she liked, even if they had an interest in the same nerdy stuff.

By the time Chloe took over, it was well into the night. But, having just napped for a few hours, she was game to watch over Max. She had been starting to view her friend differently. Max had come crashing back into her life in the most dramatic way imaginable, and was proving to be a force to be reckoned with. She was quickly realizing how much Max meant to her now that the two of them were back in action again. Their friendship was more affectionate than ever, Max had become a very good role model and source of support for her, and Chloe was quickly realizing that the time she enjoyed most was when she was with Max. Hell, life was always better when she was with Max. They had proven that they could have their silly times as well as their serious ones, and yet they would support each other through anything. As soon as David had told her that Max was injured, she practically flew out of the house and drove up to Blackwell as fast as she could. She had probably gone about 20-25 miles over the speed limit, but she couldn't care less when it came to Max. She always got a very warm feeling in her chest when it came to Max, and she was determined to make sure that nothing took Max away from her again.

Chloe surprised herself with the fervor of her thoughts, but this time didn't push them away. She had to be honest with herself and her emotions. This was especially true if it had to do with Max. It wasn't perfectly clear to Chloe exactly what she was feeling, but it was a lot stronger than the boundaries of friendship could stretch to cover. With the exception of Max's time in Seattle, the two of them had always been friends and knew everything about each other. That still held true even to this day. However, friendship did not seem quite powerful enough to describe how Chloe felt about Max.

As dawn came, Chloe's mind was filled with thoughts about the chestnut-haired girl sleeping in front of her.