Hey guys, welcome back to the story. This fic will have alternating POVs, as will become clear. For now at least, it'll switch between Max and Rachel every other chapter. Other character POVs may make an appearance in future chapters, we'll see.

Chapter Two: Rumor Mill

Rachel's POV - Arcadia Bay - Blackwell - Campus Grounds - After Class

The school year had barely started and there was already gossip spreading around about a new student who wasn't even here yet… Maxine Caulfield. According to the rumors, in addition to the official comments, she had been involved in a pretty serious car crash on her way to Arcadia. Many overexaggerated, claiming she was on death's door or had lost limbs. Anything for a good, if gruesome story.

Apparently, she would be coming to Blackwell soon, within the next day or so. Clearly, her injuries were not as severe as some made out. That was what Mark Jefferson had told us all anyway. It seemed that Max and I would be sharing at least one class together. I had to admit, I was curious. Not every student had such an explosive entrance into Blackwell. Poor Max probably didn't even know what was coming. All eyes would be on her, including Victoria Chase's. For her own sake, Max had better be able to hold her own against the self-proclaimed Queen Bee of Blackwell. Otherwise, she wouldn't stand a chance.

"Rach… Hellooooooo… Anyone in there?" A hand waved in front of my face, catching my attention.

I shook my head, coming back to reality. A boy with mid-length blonde hair and a goatee stared back at me with droopy blue eyes. "Sorry, Justin."

"You were miles away. Deep in thought?" He asked, skateboard propped up against the short wall I was sitting on outside the main building, near the road.

"You really wanna know what's going on in her head?" Another guy interrupted, dark brown hair contained under a beanie.

"Ouch, don't pull any punches, Trevor." I swatted at him, successfully nudging his shoulder. "I was just wondering about the new girl everyone's been chit chatting about."

Justin's eyes lit up with realization. "Oh, the car crash one?"

Trevor rolled his eyes. "She has a name, Justin."

"Right, uh… Mae or something, wasn't it?" Clearly, Justin didn't have a clue. Not that I had really expected him to.

"Max," I corrected, putting a hand on my hip. "Do you ever pay attention?"

"Oh come on, man. Quit busting my balls. Unlike you, I don't keep up with the VC bullshit." His tone was mildly accusatory. I knew he wasn't overly happy with my Vortex Club connections.

"Even I knew that," Trevor added teasingly.

The blonde boy scowled at his skater friend, not really mad at him. "Whatever, dude. Anyway, why were you thinking about her?"

I shrugged, keeping as cryptic and vague as usual with my responses. "No reason in particular. It's natural to feel curious."

"I'm sure your Vortex Club pals will know more than us," Trevor pointed out.

"Oh, someone sounds jealous." I grinned, placing my hands on the wall too, the star tattoo on the inside of my left wrist exposed. "Cute."

Trevor actually scoffed at that. "You wish. Seriously, I bet Victoria's already got to work digging up dirt on the poor girl. You know better than anyone that she hates people stealing her spotlight."

"Don't remind me…" I sighed, knowing all too well that I was on her shit list. Not that I cared. Victoria might think she ruled the roost, but she wasn't as influential as she liked to believe. The fact that even people within the Vortex Club still talked to me on a regular basis proved that much.

"She's got nothing on you, Rach," Justin reassured.

It didn't take much to be better than Victoria Chase but the compliment was appreciated, enough to make me smile. "Well, isn't that sweet and unexpected. I just hope Max is ready for the fallout."

"I may have heard a couple rumors floating around about her. Word is, she might've been to Arcadia before," Trevor divulged, an unexpected source of information. "Don't know if it's true or anything. That was the most plausible piece of gossip I heard, anyway. You know how crazy shit can get here at Blackwell as far as rumors go."

"I do, yes. If it is true, it's certainly interesting." That was a surprising discovery. "Don't know why anyone would want to come back to this hellhole if they've managed to escape once already."

"You're starting to sound like…" Justin hesitated, not finishing his sentence. He didn't have to. "Shit… wish I hadn't started that thought."

The atmosphere darkened slightly as Trevor asked, "How long's it been now?"

"Several months," I replied, watching my foot move instead of making eye contact.

Justin let out a deep sigh. "Something's not right and nobody seems to care. Just because Chloe got kicked outta Blackwell doesn't mean they shouldn't care when she goes missing."

"Try telling Wells that," Trevor muttered under his breath.

It had been strange. One day Chloe was there and the next... poof, vanishing out of existence. No goodbyes or hints, nothing, which made it harder to accept. "Been there, done that. Not a lot else I can do... Anyway, let's not think about that now."

Justin scratched his chin, nodding. "Agreed. I'm supposed to be on a high right now. Don't wanna come down early. This shit's not cheap."

"Yeah…" Trevor switched back to their previous discussion. "Returning to Max, I'd ask around if you want to know more. Someone here must know something."

"If anyone can extract info around here, it's you," Justin announced confidently, knowing I was scarily good at getting what I wanted.

Shrugging, I stifled a smirk. "Being a detective was my backup plan if the modeling gig didn't work out."

Giving me a skeptical look, Trevor took a moment to try and figure me out. "You know, I think this is the first time I've seen you this curious about someone at Blackwell. Anyone, for that matter."

Many had tried to work out my motives, all had failed. I kept my cards close to my chest at all times. Trevor was just another one to add to the list. "A girl can be curious if she wants."

"Think you need to work on those interrogation skills, Trevor. Gonna take more than that to break her," Justin chuckled softly. He had first-hand experience of that particular truth.

Glad to see that someone understood, I unleashed my smirk. "Damn right it will. Now, if you boys will excuse me…" Just as soon as I had dropped in on them, I left. They were used to my swift entrances and exits by now. Or at least, they should be.

Out of everyone at Blackwell, Victoria would know the gossip. Problem was… we weren't the best of friends, by any means. I could try someone else but if I wanted the best info, the haughty blonde was the best way forward. Sucking it up, I went on the hunt. It didn't take long to find her - accompanied by her usual entourage of Taylor and Courtney - lounging around on the steps of the dorm building. Preparing myself for a fight, I approached her. It was unlikely to get physical, Victoria much preferred insults to fists, so that was something at least. She wouldn't want to ruin her perfect record. I was sharp-witted enough to keep up and often overtake her. Despite usually coming off worse, she still insisted on picking fights with me. On a regular basis, too. Her attempt to assert dominance and put me in my place. For the most part, I was happy to entertain her.

When she saw me approach, Victoria rolled her eyes and stood, crossing her arms and blocking my path. "Oh, look who it is. Blackwell's very own celebrity skank."

The insult didn't faze me. Her bark was worse than her bite. I'd figured that out early on. "Charming as always, I see. Would you believe me if I said you were just the person I was looking for? With such delightful manners as that, who could blame me?"

Her face scrunched up, eyes filled with disgust and contempt. "Ugh, what the hell do you want?"

I held my hands up in the universal sign of surrender to pacify her. "I'm not here to fight. Just wanted to ask a couple questions."

She waved me away with her hand, like she was swatting an annoying fly. "Whatever it is, I'm not interested."

Unable to take her seriously, I grinned. "Aw, don't be like that."

Scowling, she took a step closer, staring me down. "I'll be however the fuck I want to be, Amber."

I met her icy gaze without even hesitating. "So cold. I just wanted to see what you knew about the new kid, if anything. Max Caulfield."

Victoria narrowed her eyes suspiciously, obviously wondering why I was bothering her with this. "I know more than you, I bet. Why do you want to know?"

Not wanting to give her a proper answer, I merely shrugged. "Just thought I'd test your information gathering skills. If anyone would know, it would be you."

"Yes, it would." She sounded proud of herself for knowing more than me. "Information doesn't come without a price."

There was no way I would play her game. "Just as I thought… you really don't know anything. Oh well…" I turned to leave, almost certain that ignoring her would piss her off.

Just as I had expected, she didn't appreciate my sudden lack of interest in her. "I really don't know why you would even bother with someone like her. She's not worth even asking about."

"So either she's a threat to you or not Vortex Club material then. Got it. A pleasure as always." I gave a small bow before pushing past her into the dorm.

"Hey… wait…!" I ignored her spluttered calls, taking long strides to put some distance between us before climbing up the stairs two at a time. Good thing I knew which buttons to press as far as she was concerned. Well… good for one thing. I might regret it later. Who was I kidding? I never regretted messing with her. She couldn't even begin keeping up with me, not for lack of trying.

Now that I had the information I was looking for, as much of it as I was going to get anyway, I returned to my dorm room. Even after all this time, I was half-expecting to see Chloe there sprawled out in her usual fashion, high as a kite after raiding my weed stash. As had been the case for the past few months, she wasn't there waiting for me. For a while, I tried figuring it out but gave up when people didn't seem to care and got on with my life. Not like I could do much on my own. Maybe she ran away from Arcadia like she always said she would. I wouldn't blame her. In my experience, people came and they went easier than clicking your fingers.

Deciding to leave my homework for today, I instead voted to get high. Opening the window and getting set up, I laid back on my bed and relaxed. To distract myself, I starting thinking about the girl at the center of Blackwell's gossip. Hopefully, whenever Max finally made an appearance, things would start to get interesting around here. I had to wonder which of the two categories she would fit in, threat or nobody. My hope, threat. As fun as I found besting her, another person at it wouldn't hurt. Victoria really wouldn't stand a chance then.

Now that I thought about it… hadn't Chloe mentioned someone called Max before? A childhood friend who had moved to Seattle a few years back. Surely, it was too much of a coincidence not to be the same Max. The last name matched too, if I remembered correctly. Doing a little research, I managed to pull up a photo from a news story relating to the car crash and cross referenced it with a couple of social media pages. Most teens were connected somehow via the internet. It was worth checking at least.

After a few minutes searching, I came up with a hit and began idly browsing through old posts. Most were to do with photography, a couple of more personal things but not many. Given the intervals between posts, Max wasn't in the same league as Victoria socially. Otherwise, she'd probably be advertising how much fun she was having and how oh so great her life was. From the brief look, it seemed she fitted into more of a social outcast category. That meant her chances against Victoria were… slim to none. Unless she was like Alyssa, one of the girls in photography class, who didn't seem to care and didn't take shit from bullies like Victoria. Looking at the photos, Max didn't seem like the type. Then again, looks could be deceiving…

Before I knew it, I had been scrolling through Max's feed for a good half an hour, speculations mounting in my mind. Regardless of what her personality might be, she was pretty cute in a dorky kind of way. Pale skin, freckles dotted across her nose and cheeks, mid length brown hair and bright blue eyes. Maybe around my own height and skinny. Her style could do with some work, every picture showing her in basic, brandless clothing. Seemed her birthday was coming up soon, making her a Virgo. I was big on star signs. Virgos and Leos made for interesting pairings. Before long, I had worked my way through most of her profile. At least I knew a hell of a lot more than before searching and had my own idea of what Max might be like. It would be interesting to see whether my prediction was correct. Even if it was, that didn't mean Max was a lost cause. It just made things more… interesting.

Max hadn't even set foot in Blackwell and people were already gossiping and trying to place her in the school's hierarchy, looking for ways to make things more fun around here… myself included. At least I was willing to admit it, unlike other students at Blackwell. Everyone was playing their own game here, had their own motivations and goals. Some were more upfront about it than others, me being one of the more secretive, unpredictable players. Anything to cause a stir. Me taking an interest in Max, especially if she was as shy and introverted as her profile made out, would definitely do that. Her past connection with Chloe only made it all the more enticing to get involved.

Since she would have missed out on a several days of class and socializing, she might feel overwhelmed, out of place. A few kind words here and there might not go amiss. I made it a habit to get in everyone's good books as much as possible, with Victoria as a major exception. That had been a lost cause from the start. She had been far too stubborn and uncompromising. I highly doubted that Max would take as much work from what I had gathered. Sure, I might be jumping the gun but as a rule, my guesses were pretty spot on. It was worth a shot if I saw an opportunity at the very least. Some people were very receptive to suggestion. Max just might be one of those people.

If nothing else, it'd keep the boredom at bay. That alone made it a worthy mission.

Will Max survive Victoria's wrath? What does Rachel have planned for her? And where oh where is Chloe Price? Tune in next time to start the journey to finding the answers to these questions and more.