Life is Strange: My Unusual Journey

Chapter 3 of my Life is Strange novelization, enjoy.

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Now onto the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Life is Strange or its characters.

Chrysalis – I Hate Drama

Entering the dorms I quickly climbed the steps up to my floor, I opened the door and stepped into the corridor, it looked deserted.

'Alright, now to my room to pick up Warren's flash drive.' I told myself.

Before walking anywhere, my gaze fell on the information board to my right. I never truly paid attention to it, except to find my room; I decided to read it for a change. The main thing that caught my attention was the chart with the room allocations, showing the names of each student and their rooms, mine was room 219.

'Wow, poor Kate and I…Victoria's room is right across from mine, Kate is right next door to her.'

Nevertheless I found myself memorizing the room allocations before looking around at the various rooms, just as Taylor and Courtney ran past, worried about Victoria being pissed at them. I suppressed a smile and glanced at the room to my right, Stella's room.

It was room 217, on Stella's room slate was written the word 'Redrum'.

'Redrum…room 217, no way in hell am I ever going in there, Stella is way too into The Shining.'

I glanced at the other room slates, noting the reflection on some of the occupants of the room's personalities.

I wasn't too impressed when I saw the writing on Taylor's slate, right across from Stella. Dana and Juliet's rooms, again across from each other, right next to the previous two rooms. I grinned reading their room slates.

'Juliet, extreme reporter…Dana is a cheerleader right to her heart.' I noted.

I continued onwards, to my left was the bathroom, scattered across the floor was copious amounts of toilet roll.

I shook my head. 'No winners from this TP war, all that's left is ghosts.'

To my right was a short corridor which led to the showers, I couldn't help but notice the door was ajar, but blocked by a wet floor sign.

'Guess the showers flooded again, that's the third time in the past two weeks.' I noted shaking my head.

There were only four more rooms in this corridor, then there was a set of double doors which led to three more rooms. The remaining rooms were Brooke's, right at the end of the corridor, next to Victoria's.

I shook my head as I looked over at Kate and Victoria's rooms, the door to Victoria's room was ajar, on the room slate was a Ghandi quote.

I almost rolled my eyes. 'Oh Victoria, give me a fucking break…What the…?'

My eyes then fell on Kate's room slate, which was marred by some graffiti which read, of all things, 'will bang for Jesus.'

'Okay, this is just mean and stupid, how can anyone…' I thought angrily.

I knew that such a message was deeply insulting, especially to poor Kate, due to her religious upbringing.

I thought for a moment and then, smiling lightly, I reached up and rubbed the insulting message off Kate's room slate. I then picked up the pen attached and drew the peace sign on the slate instead.

I smiled gently putting the pen back down. 'Universal symbol for 'leave me alone, asshole'.'

I just hoped that Kate would see it and know that someone, even if she didn't know it was, had her back.

Finally I turned to my room, unlike all the others, my room slate was blank. I didn't write anything, didn't have anything to say. I figured I might as well do something, so I picked up my pen then and did the first thing that came to my mind, I drew a stick figure with the poker face meme.

'How oddly appropriate.' I couldn't help but note to myself.

Smiling softly I put the pen back down and then opened the door, entering my own dorm room.

'Home sweet home, my favourite cocoon.' I thought to myself.

I suddenly felt at peace for the first time today. I looked around taking in the various features of my room.

To my left, attached to the edge of the wardrobe was a timetable for my classes. On the wall next to the door there was a mirror, my bed was in this corner, with a small desk next to it, below the mirror.

Above the head of my bed, attached to the wall was a power strip which controlled the lights handing above my bed. On the wall next to my bed, was the photo collage I called my 'Photo Memorial Wall'.

To my left, within my wardrobe, apart from clothes were a few shelves on which was a box of chocolate coconut bites. Mom had sent them to me for my birthday, slipping in a two hundred dollar gift voucher too.

'Oh mom…' I thought myself when my phone beeped.

I checked it; it was a text from Mom, I bit my lip, recalling what Principal Wells had said about informing my parents earlier.

"Hi honey. Your principal sent me an email saying that he is concerned about your attitude and behaviour that you are not fitting in well and hiding in your dorm I know it's hard to be away from home even if you are all grown-up now. But you are there to change the world with your camera please call me soon to chat we miss you! Xxoo mommy."

I shook my head. 'I'm sorry mom, I…am trying but it's…I wouldn't know where to start explaining.'

Trying to take my mind off things I turned back to my bed. I sighed however as instead I spotted the cushion on my bed, one I sewed together with mom.

Other things around my room were various pictures of my life in Seattle, including a tourist poster of me at the Space Needle, a photo of me at a hockey game with dad and one of me at the Fremont Troll with my friends from Seattle, Kristen and Fernando.

Along with that were various other things, like the Seattle Thunderbirds pennant amongst several art books, hi-fi stereo and such. Taking a moment to relax I sat down on the bed and lay back, trying to relax.

It had been one hell of a weird day and just kept getting weirder. Collecting my thoughts I turned my head and smiled when I saw the other occupant of the bed. I'm not ashamed to admit it, but I still had the teddy bear I had since childhood, now rather worn and frayed, still missing the right eye.

I grinned. 'Ahoy Captain, at least I know you've got my back. When I swallowed your eye and my parents rushed me to the ER, I knew we'd bonded for life.'

Smiling and already feeling calmer, I sat up. As I did so my eyes fell on my guitar which I had been neglecting lately, I'd have to find time to play it. Slowly I stood up and walked towards the other end of the room.

My laptop was still on, showing a few of the usual sites I checked out. As I checked it I saw Daniel had uploaded his sketch, I was impressed by his work.

'I just hope nobody hates on it, just because it's me.'

Leaving my laptop I turned, my gaze then fell on the plant next to my desk and I bit my lip, when had I last watered it.

'I haven't forgotten you Little Lisa…not yet.' I thought to myself and quickly went to correct my mistake.

After watering the plant I began searching for Warren's flash drive and began to panic when I couldn't find it.

I looked around frantically. 'Oh God, what's happened, what have I done with it…?'

It was then I spotted a small post-it note next to my laptop. I read it and finally got my answer, Dana had borrowed the flash drive, it was in her room.

'Okay, just gotta get the flash drive from Dana's room.' I thought, breathing a sigh of relief.

So I turned and left my room.

When I exited I paused as I spotted Juliet storming out of Dana's room, closing and even locking the door.

'Oh no, what now…The last thing I want is more drama.' I thought sadly, groaning.

I made my way down the hall, just in time to hear Juliet calling through the door.

"Just tell the truth Dana, or you can rot in there!" She practically yelled.

I could hear Dana hammering on the door, demanding to be let out and I realized I had to do something, I needed to help her.

'Great, here we go, Max Caulfield, the awkward one, trying to resolve a problem.' I thought sarcastically.

As I approached I heard Juliet talking on her phone to someone, or rather, complaining about them not answering.

"Dammit, answer already!"

I stopped in front of her. "Hey, Juliet, is everything cool?"

She looked up at me and scowled. "Why yes Max, I've locked Dana in her room, because we're cool."

I suppose I asked for that sarcasm, but still it stung to hear it and made me cringe.

"What happened?" I asked hesitantly.

"Um, why do you even care?" She replied, still scowling. "You never even talk, just zone out with that camera."

I shook my head. "That's not true…"

Juliet then suddenly fired a question at me. "What's my last name?"

Normally being asked that would make me freeze, then fumble my words.

Luckily I had read the chart with the room allocations and still had it memorized.

I replied confidently for a change. "Juliet Watson, duh."

She looked taken aback as she replied. "I'm…flattered, I didn't think, you knew my name at all."

"Just because I don't talk, doesn't mean I don't care." I explained. "So, what happened?"

Juliet scowled again. "I heard from Victoria that Dana was sexting my boyfriend Zachary; Dana had the guts to deny it and Zach is too chicken shit to pick up his phone."

I frowned at that, voiced the one part which was wrong with that statement. "Oh, from Victoria huh?"

Juliet didn't pick up on my scepticism however.

"Yes and as soon as Dana can admit it, she can go, straight to hell." She replied before ending the conversation.

As Juliet returned to trying to call Zachary, I heard Dana calling through the door.

"Max, I swear, I didn't do anything, but I bet Victoria did. There must be proof in her room!"

I sighed and turned, already making my way to my new destination, Victoria's room. Wondering how I got myself caught up in all this drama, I usually tried to avoid this sort of stuff after all.

But truthfully I had no choice; I needed to help Dana if I wanted to get my hands on Warren's flash drive too, aside from the fact it was the right thing to do.

Victoria's room was ajar as I spotted earlier, so it was easy enough for me to slip inside. Once inside I looked around, the place was brimming with opulence, typical of Victoria. I looked around, taking in a few details, such as a rejection lesson from a gallery for her pictures.

'Ouch, well, at least she's putting her work out, unlike me…' My eyes then widened when I saw the poster on her wall and suddenly made a connection. 'Wow, I had no idea Victoria's parent's owned the Chase Space…Colour me impressed.'

I shook my head however; this wasn't helping me find what I needed. I searched the room, trying to find anything that could help; her wardrobe showed a collection of expensive clothes, seriously one of her shirts was equal to the combined price of all the items of clothing I was wearing right now.

A large plasma screen TV stood in one corner, next to it a large printer, the rest of the room contained more random albeit expensive stuff. I spotted something on the wall next to the door, a photo collage.

I raised an eyebrow. 'Well, well, what have we here Victoria, selfies…hypocrite.'

Finally however, I noted Victoria's, very expensive, computer was still on, I checked it and was pleased to see that Victoria at least had deleted that picture of me, instead taking a pretty cool scenic shot of the dorms courtyard. I checked one of the other open tabs and saw an e-mail to Taylor.

'Bingo, this is just what I need, just gotta print this off, get outta here and show it Juliet.' I noted to myself.

The e-mail after all showed that Victoria was indeed making that shit about Dana and Zach up. In fact it was her that was sexting Zach, which just made this even grosser for me.

Nevertheless I printed the e-mail off and went to pick up the print-out. I now had to escape the room, before anyone came back. Thankfully I managed it and was soon walking back towards Dana's room, without any incident.

Juliet was still outside Dana's room, which was still locked of course. Juliet was clearly still having no luck getting in touch with Zachary.

"Answer the phone you wuss." She growled.

I quickly approached and held out the print-outs. "Here, Juliet, you should see this."

She took the print-outs, reading them with narrowed eyes and slowly realization dawned on her face.

"Of course…" She muttered before sighing.

Her expression changed again, looking very guilty and apologetic as she finally unlocked and opened the door, leaning against the wall next to it.

"I'm an asshole, sorry Dana." She said as Dana emerged from her room, clearly infuriated.

Dana shook her head. "Yes, you are, you really think I'd mess around with Zachary?"

Juliet sighed. "No, I just get stupid jealous, I'll make it up to you, I'll do your homework for the next week…Still love me?"

"And do my laundry." Dana remarked, smiling at last.

Juliet relaxed and nodded before turning to me.

"Thanks Max, you're like the Blackwell Ninja." She remarked, before her expression darkened as she turned away. "Now let's see what Zach has to say about Victoria."

With that she stalked off, I wouldn't like to be Zachary when Juliet finds him.

Dana turned to me, smiling. "Thanks so much Max, c'mon on, Warren's flash drive is on my desk."

With that she headed back into her room, I stepped in after her.

I couldn't help but note Dana, now seated on her bed, reading a magazine, looked rather stressed.

'What, what's wrong with Dana, this can't just be about what just happened, I…I wonder what's wrong?' I wondered.

Biting my lip I slowly made my way across the room, towards her desk. I couldn't help but notice a scribbled note on Dana's dresser, from Logan. I didn't feel right looking at it but it was right in my field of view.

It was then my foot hit something and I looked down. There was a small box on the floor, which had a few discarded items inside it, one of them stood out.

I blinked, surprised at what I was seeing. 'That looks like a home pregnancy test?'

I was so caught up in my thoughts, seeing this; I momentarily forgot that I was in Dana's room, that this was her stuff. I knelt down and picked up the test. I held it long enough to see it was positive before it was yanked out of my hands.

"Um, Max, that's mine." Dana remarked tersely. "You're not helping, you're just nosy!"

I bit my lip as Dana glowered and shook her head. "I think you should leave."

With that she turned and sat down on the bed again, covering her face with her hands.

I sighed sadly. 'Way to go Max, you've upset her now for being so nosy again…but I could rewind and make it up to her.'

Yes, this was a little personal, but maybe it would help Dana too, especially since Dana was clearly even more stressed than ever now. So I began to rewind until things were back to just before I had picked up the test. I thought carefully about how to approach this.

Taking a deep breath I approached Dana.

"Hey Dana, are you okay?" I asked gently.

She gave an awkward smile. "Hey Max, can't believe Juliet locked me in my room…real mature."

I sighed and decided to use the old fall-back. "Listen, Dana, I don't want to worry you, but I heard a rumour about you."

Dana looked up instantly. "What, who told you I was pregnant?!"

"Nobody important, they just, acted like it was bullshit." I replied quickly.

"Typical, it's like a god-damn reality show around here." She remarked, shaking her head. "Can you keep a secret Max?"

I of course already knew the truth, but I acted appropriately surprised. "You're pregnant…I'm sorry."

Dana sighed and nodded. "Yeah, me too, I shouldn't have…but I did."

"Oh, what about the other…?" I asked, realizing the truth, Dana…was pregnant, but now…

Dana replied, rolling her eyes. "Deadbeat dad, you'll catch him on the forty yard line at the game this Friday…and it isn't Zachary."

I hadn't thought that, but it confirmed the content for that earlier note I saw, Logan was the father, I recall he and Dana had been dating before, but had split up recently.

I shook my head. "It's none of my business, and I won't be at the game on Friday, not much school spirit I guess."

"I like your spirit Max." Dana remarked with a soft smile. "Well, you better grab that flash drive; give Warren a chance to bug you."

I laughed softly, relieved that Dana looked more relaxed now.

I turned back to Dana's desk; the table in the middle of the room had another note on it; that I spotted, for an appointment with a local clinic. I didn't look too closely though, instead I walked over to the desk and spotted Warren's flash drive which I then picked up.

'Must protect my precious so Max never has to hunt it down again.' I thought to myself, almost laughing at my internal Lord of The Rings pun.

Doing my best to smile reassuringly at Dana, I left the room and made my way over to the doors which I then went through, leaving the dorms.

End of chapter, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please.