Underwater (Pricefield)

A Fresh Start

It's been about 3 years now since Max decided to leave school at Blackwell Academy to get away from all the shit in Arcadia Bay.

Max has never felt like she was the type of person to need an escape like that but ever since her parents came back and announced their divorce to her, she couldn't handle it.

Max never truly felt connected at Blackwell to begin with if she's being honest with herself. Yes, she loved photography and that was a great school to be at for that but she wasn't happy there with her "friends" and questionable teachers like Mr.Jefferson.

She had moved to a place, still wanting to stay in Oregon, that was more quiet and even less populated than Arcadia Bay, not that Arcadia Bay was very populated as it was.

Max had a job at her mom's beach shop, Beach Fun!, at this point since she still didn't have a real job yet so it was just temporary until she figured out what she wanted to do with her "college dropout" life.

Tapping her index finger silently on the smooth wood counter, Max gazed outside the window of the shop at the ocean just across the street from her.
She loved the thought of just being free in the water like a sea animal, swimming away from your problems.

Thud.

Suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted.

"Hello?"

Max heard a women's voice say to her with an irritated tone to it.
The brown haired girl looked up to see a short haired blonde girl with blue eyes, looking to be in her early 20s, staring at her with her arms crossed.

"Are you going to work or not?", the blonde girl says impatiently.

Leaning off her hand from daydreaming, Max starts paying for the customer's items until she came across a magazine.

"Mermaids: Real Or A Myth?", said the print in large white font across the top.
"Such a myth."
"What?", says the irritated female in return.

Max looks up, making eye contact with her.
"You know mermaids are a myth, right?"

"Um, actually there is a lot of proof and sightings that say they could be real so I believe it...", spits the female, "..and I don't remember asking you for your opinion." The female finishes.

Max just rolls her eyes casually at her ignorant comment, finishing up her purchase and finally handing the blonde woman her bag of items, telling her to have a nice day.

Max once then went back to looking out the window once more at the beautiful orange and yellow sunset cutting through the clouds.
The orange and yellow quickly met her lightly shaded blue eyes as she studied it, the colors also glistening over her freckled face.

"Hey hun." She heard her mom's calm voice say, distracting her once again.

"Everyone just loves ruining my relaxing moments, don't they?", Max says in a slightly irritated voice.

"I'm sorry Maxine, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. I just.. I'm just tried."

"Well your shift is over. You can go home if you want to now, I know things have been stressful for you."

"Thanks mom."

Max then takes off her beach shop tag with her name on it and her cap with the "Beach Fun!" logo on it, setting them on the counter behind her and meeting her mom with a gentle hug.

"I love you mom.", spoke the freckled girl.

"I love you too, Maxine."

Max always hated being called by her full first name, Maxine, but she knew it's what her mom always liked calling her, even as a kid, so she didn't mind it very much in that situation.

Later that night, Max found herself restless and suddenly thinking more about what the female said:
"..there is a lot of proof and sightings that say that they could be real so I believe it.."

"Mermaids: Real!"
"Real Life Mermaids?!"
"LIVE FOOTAGE: MERMAIDS!"

She found herself scrolling through all the stories people have about seeing real mermaids.

Hundreds of stories.

What she thought was just a myth started to turn her views in a slightly different direction at that moment but she couldn't be too sure.

People lie about that kind of stuff, they can't really be real.. Can they?