Dreamcatcher

Chapter Forty: New Beginnings

Out of sheer brilliance, not one magazine or newspaper article reached Arcadia Bay to announce Rachel Amber's pregnancy. It had taken much time and effort and money to bribe the delivery services in Arcadia Bay without exposing the daily papers and magazines.

Being five months pregnant was not easy at all for Rachel. The longer the months went on, the bigger her struggle to model. As a result, Rachel was given time off for maternity leave.

Meanwhile back in Arcadia Bay, Clark Price was experiencing quite a large tide in his school career. He'd been getting by without his girlfriend, but due to his reputation being Rachel Amber's girlfriend, students at Blackwell Academy always managed to find a way to annoy him for three months prior to her claim to fame.

Most days, Clark sat in his dorm at Blackwell Academy, staring outside his window at the sky and the birds that flocked across so freely; freedom he wished he had from the dreadful hellhole run and governed by Raymond Wells.

During the many months since Rachel Amber left Arcadia Bay, there had been a lot of change: the most significant being that Nathan Prescott's mental illness worsened the more time spent around his abusive, manipulative asshole of a father, all the while Victoria Chase became more and more nasty towards all who unfortunately crossed her path or by those whom she took interest in; being at the top of the list was Clark Price and his sister, Chloe.

Every couple of months, Clark re-applied blue hair dye, but at the same time, continued to baby-feed Victoria things for her to abuse him with verbally and via technological and degrading slander.

This would be the case for a few new arrivals at Blackwell Academy in the late Summer of 2013.

~Time Skip~

After spending a lot of time away from her home of Arcadia Bay, a certain gifted individual had made her return shortly before the Fall. She felt this was her chance to catch up on lost time between her and her two best friends - as she'd hoped they still reciprocated the bond she hoped they maintained after a few years of absence from each other's lives.

Max Caufield had returned to Oregon.

Practically nothing had changed about Arcadia since Max was last there a few years ago except the barren forest near the Bay. Seeing the trees husky and faded made the young brunette sad. Being in the backseat of their family car allowed Max a nice view of everything around her. She sat in the centre back seat as she would naturally sit straight and stare out the front window while also looking at what they passed by with ease.

As they came up towards the town, Max leaned forward in her seat and held onto the driver seat as she stuck her head in level with her parents. Returning to Arcadia Bay was something she'd been both excited and worried about.

"Somebody's excited," commented the father. "Remember what we talked about, Max. You're a big girl now, so this is where you get to make your own decisions. Your mother and I are very proud of you. Taking this big of a step isn't common for people your age to do. Normally they wait until they're a bit older, but this really shows how much you've achieved and how ready you are to take up the challenge."

"Thanks, dad," Max said sincerely.

The brunette smirked to herself as she watched the road twist and turn; dip and rise as they were driven along the main road into Arcadia. When the car pulled over to the side if the road, Max unbuckled her seatbelt and climbed out and waited for her parents to do the same.

Max Caulfield could not believe that she got enrolled into Blackwell Academy. Once upon a time, she was overjoyed that her best friends were accepted to begin their senior year in school. She could only hope that her old friends would be so forgiving of what she had done to them: the very pain that haunted her every day. Now, she had the chance to rectify everything and absolve the pain she distributed across the three of them.