I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and Black Friday (or Thursday and Friday as the rest of the world knows them). Also, almost 100 followers! Yay, and thanks everybody.
2 ½ weeks Later.
For the first time in a while Max had a full day of happiness. The last two weeks of class had been a struggle for her to try to return to normal. It certainly didn't help that there was no replacement photography teacher. Max came to school to hone her photography skills before going off to some pretentious art college. She hoped that Mark Jefferson would have been a great influence on her, but it was her meddling that had much more influence on him.
It wasn't even as simple as the Jefferson scandal being talked about in Arcadia Bay and at the Zeitgeist in San Francisco. Jefferson's actions had blown up into a national story, the media vultures had descended on Arcadia Bay and one couldn't leave the Blackwell Campus without being accosted by some new media organization in some far away place they either hadn't heard of nor cared about.
On the positive side David Madsen had finally returned at the beginning of the week. Max felt bad, every time she saw a glimpse of him she ran the other direction. She knew it would be hard for both of them to encounter each other again at Blackwell, so she tried to save it for as long as humanly possible.
Despite the awkward avoiding of both David and more news vans than she could count, things were returning to normal at Blackwell finally. The frenzy was dying down as most of the 'models' in Jefferson's collection had been identified. But more importantly than all that, as far as Max was concerned, was that it was finally Halloween, her favorite holiday.
While there were some students who dressed up for the day of classes, Max wasn't among them. Like the majority of students she was saving hers for Dana's party, being held in the gym. As much as she was excited for her own costume (a steampunk take on a gender-bent Link from The Legend of Zelda), she was insanely curious to see what Kate and Victoria were dressing up as. Victoria was tight lipped (about her costume) and much to Max's surprise, Kate used the word 'sexy' as part of her costume teasing.
Max sighed internally. She had been spending a lot of her free time with Victoria, but only during waking hours. Victoria seemed to have conceded the idea of sleeping in the same bed as Max to Kate since their return from San Francisco. She appreciated why Victoria was keeping her distance, letting her figure things out instead of trying to push forward anyway, but it still felt weird to Max. Also as far as Max knew, nobody else was getting messages from CC anymore either, so that was kind of sad as well.
Max's phone dinged for a text message. Checking it, she saw that Kate was ready for Max to see her costume. Grabbing the last of her things, Max left the room and went across the hall to Kate's, giving Victoria's door a sidelong look. She knocked a few times and then entered Kate's room.
"So, what do you think of my sexy bunny?" Kate asked as Max finally saw her.
For her part, Max was speechless. And not because Kate was dressed out of her element, because she wasn't. Kate was in a slightly form fitting Easter Bunny body with her face painted and her hair done up with ears in them. Kate looked downright adorable, but she definitely didn't fit the title 'sexy bunny'. That however was the part she loved most about Kate, her innocence.
"Um," Max started. How was she to put it. "I wouldn't use that phrase at the Halloween party, okay?"
Kate frowned a bit at this. "Why not?"
Max pulled out her phone and quickly searched for a 'sexy bunny costume' that would illustrate her point, and then showed the picture on the phone to Kate.
She started getting concerned when Kate's face turned totally red, and the bunny girl looked ready to faint. "I see what you mean Max, though I'd call those sinning bunnies, not sexy bunnies. But yeah, I don't think I'll talk about it." Kate shook her head and made sure to look away from the picture still up on Max's phone. "Think Victoria's ready yet?"
As if perfect timing, both Kate and Max's phones beeped for a text message. It was Victoria telling them to come over when ready. Kate finished grabbing her things and the two girls were off.
Arriving next door they knocked and entered. Victoria's lights were out, and before she shut the door Kate turned them on and both girls let out audible gasps.
Victoria was blue. Not the sad kind of blue, but the very literal definition of the word. From head to toe in blue body paint, with tan shorts, a black shirt that revealed her cleavage, and a blue long haired wig. Her fingers were held together to look like a pistol.
"I know I don't glow in the dark, but how do I look?"
Victoria's take on Bluberry (the little statue behind her) was pretty spot on. Max glanced over at Kate who looked rather impressed. Max felt her own cheeks burning. Victoria looked hot, though the blue hair probably didn't hurt anything either.
Kate was the first to speak. "Wow, that must have taken you all day! You look great Victoria."
Victoria smiled and dropped the pose. "Thanks Kate. Nice bunny costume." She looked to Max, "Thoughts Max?"
She was still a bit speechless, but she finally responded. "I don't think your costume could be any more flawless than it already is Victoria. Damn nice job."
Victoria blushed a little, though nobody noticed it. The last few weeks had been hard for her too. She found herself liking Max more and more with all the time they spent together, enough so that she had to ask Kate to take the overnight shifts because both the temptation and the pain of longing were too much for her.
"Shall we go?" Kate asked. Both Max and Victoria nodded and the three locked arms on their way out of the dorm, Kate in the middle, Max to the right and Victoria on the left.
They walked to the party, three disparate costumes unlike how they showed up in style to the Vortex Club party after Chloe's death. Arriving at the gym Max was impressed with how Dana had gone all out in decorating. Blackwell no longer looked like the stately school that was a combination of modern and Victorian architecture, but like an older, haunted house.
"How did she do this?" Max asked looking around in wonder, a little sad that she didn't have her camera with her now.
"Come on Max, you know that Dana is quite talented," Kate replied to Max.
Victoria nodded in agreement. They walked through the hallway and into the gym where the dancefloor was set up and music was playing. They continued to look around at the decorations that had been done and remained impressed.
Dana shambled over to them. "Hey you three, nice costumes, welcome to the party." Dana for her part was wearing a zombie costume.
The place was crowded. Blackwell had several hundred students and Max knew like thirty. She shook her head and looked around to find if there was anyone here they knew besides Dana. It took just a second but a flash of light, and Juliet appeared with camera in hand. Her hair was up in a beehive and colored black and white in a Bride of Frankenstein style with a matching ethereal dress.
"Looking good ladies," Juliet said after taking their pictures. "Brooke and Warren are over by the drinks, and let's see, Taylor and Courtney are hanging out by the DJ booth, and…"
Before she could say anything, Daniel came up to the girls and smiled. In an irony both Max and Victoria could truly appreciate, Daniel was dressed up as a giant carrot. Kate separated from the two girls and walked up to Daniel.
"You look good enough to eat," Kate said slightly playfully. Max's eyes bulged a little bit at that and Victoria just smirked.
"Very cute," Daniel said. "It's like we were meant to be together, the bunny and the carrot." He held out an arm. "Shall we?"
Kate looked back and both Max and Victoria gave a shooing motion. Max knew that Kate deserved to be happy, so she didn't mind as well.
Max was tuning out Dana and Juliet now that Kate was gone. She was focused on Victoria now. Her heart raced and she slowed her breathing to try and calm down. Just do it Max! She stepped closer to Victoria and started to open her mouth.
"I'm going to go check on Courtney and Taylor," Victoria suddenly said.
Max shut her mouth. She just about had the courage to ask Victoria to dance before the tall blonde spoke up.
Victoria looked over concerned, "Is that alright? Want to come too, or want me to stay here?"
Max shook her head. "No, no, Victoria. You have friends here too, go see them. I think I'll just go look for Warren and Brooke."
Looking a little skeptical, Victoria nodded and headed off to see to her other friends.
Wow Max, you had it right there and you couldn't pull the trigger.
'I bet you would have done it if she dared you.'
She turned around suddenly, disbelieving her ears, but there was no one there. Max shook her head. For a moment she thought she heard Chloe speaking right behind her but there was no one there. Okay Max, no going crazy now.
Max started to move, wandering through the party. Even though she got schooled by Victoria on how to dance at the Vortex Club event, Max wasn't feeling it at the moment as she headed over to the refreshment table.
The crowd was getting a little rougher to get through, and she felt like stabbing several people with her fake sword but Max resisted the urge and she emerged from the other side of the crowd, making a mental note that she wasn't ready for the mosh pit. She looked around as she kept on walking forward until she saw Brooke and Warren and froze.
They could not have picked two worse costumes for Max to see them in. Warren had come to the party dressed as a pirate, and Brooke was wearing a butterfly costume. A blue butterfly costume. Warren raised his hand waving to Max.
"If it isn't Link with the Maxster sword."
Max instinctively started to raise her left hand. What's the point, even if you rewound right now you couldn't undo seeing this. She stood frozen looking at the pirate and the blue butterfly before she turned away.
Her breathing was shallow as she bowled herself into the crowd of people, just trying to get out, just get away. Keep it together Max, you can do it. Other students were not taking kindly to the way Max was trying to shove her way through, starting a little commotion as she made her way out.
Victoria was away from the crowd but had noticed the mood of the place was changing. She thought she caught a glimpse of green tunic pushing out of the crowd quickly, and turned to follow.
Max made it to a door of the gym and went outside quickly, taking a sharp right and making a beeline for one of the trees. She took large gasps of air as the tears were falling from her eyes and she collapsed to the ground by the tree, crying and alone.
By the way, on my tumblr (lismovingforward . tumblr . com) I'll be writing some journal entries that Max would write for events in the story. Sometimes they'll be chapter previews, sometimes they'll be post-chapter reactions, other times they may just be side fluff.