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[Whether it's a good thing or a bad thing that Max misses that falter in Nathan's expression at Mark Jefferson's name, time (heh) will only tell.

She scoffs incredulously at his words, though. Remember when she said she didn't shit-talk? Well, surprise, she does, just only about the people who are also mean to her.]

Victoria is one to talk. She's teacher's pet in the worst way! At least I keep my fangirling to my journal...

[Just from the walk through the dorms and campus to parking lot, Max is sure their being together is seen and noticed, and will effectively become part of the hot gossip and rumor mill of Blackwell Academy, probably only within the hour. This place works fast like that.

It's fine. Max's most important person knows already, and she doesn't even go to this school. Warren might learn that Max lied when ditching him, so she may have to do some damage control there. Ugh, she does hope this doesn't hurt him too much, poor guy. To be fair, she had planned to tell him tonight about Nathan. For whatever that's worth.

Abruptly, Nathan is talking about Jefferson again so Max's thoughts focus back in on him, guilt easing for the moment.]

Okay, that's kind of cool. I mean, scary that your dad has that kind of power, but it also means you're part of the reason I'm here. [Kinda strange how "liked" was past tense, though. Or she's making too much out of that. It wouldn't be the first time.] Do you not still like his stuff now that he's here?

( is this social suicide? he's watched mean girls with victoria enough times to think this might be. vic's already offered him a lifeline, 'blink twice if u need help'.

but maybe it's cool in a rebellious sort of way. shaking things up, breaking the rules by crossing over to publicly hang out with the resident hipster dork. to her credit, it's not like anyone genuinely has anything bad to say about max. unlike him, her reputation around the school is that she might be too kind.

meanwhile, nathan's latest rumor involves guns, drugs, and impending jail time. )

I mean, yeah. He's the fucking best. No one does it like Jefferson. ( which, strangely, still holds true. he doesn't think he'd be in this deep if he wasn't enamored by this proximity to raw talent. it's not just that jefferson is famous: it's that he's earned it. everyone knows his name because he's good at what he does, not just because he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. )

It's just that... there's this thing. Or there was. Like, a long-ass time ago.

( should he be saying anything? obviously not, but max willl think it's weird that he doesn't have a bad thing to say about the guy. that'd be more suspicious... right?

he waits until they're in the parking lot, further away from potential ears, then adds: )

But you seriously can't tell anyone. I mean it.

Edited 2026-03-24 00:56 (UTC)

[It may hurt Max's standing with her peers a little, in all honesty. Dating the rich kid bully. But she just doesn't care that much what anyone thinks beyond her closest friends. Anyone who cares enough about her will trust her when she tells them that Nathan really isn't as bad as they say, that he's sweet to her.

God, they're going to be calling them Romeo and Juliet now, aren't they? Max can practically hear it already. Nevermind that there's already a girl actually named Juliet at their school.

...Or maybe it will be Sandy and Danny. Okay and now she's thinking about Nathan in a leather jacket. That's kind of hot.

It's somehow a bit of a relief to know the "liked (past tense)" was just her imagination. Means Nathan's less likely to tease her about liking his stuff so much. Come to think of it, Nathan's photos sometimes have hints of some of Jefferson's work in them. Not really a surprise then that he gets inspiration from him. Also: what photography student here doesn't?

They make it to the parking lot and the sun is only just peeking behind the trees now on its way down. They might be out a little late if they have to stop by "the plant pot store" (Do you mean Walmart, Nathan? Or is he gonna take her to some fancy home goods store?) before or after dinner, but it's Saturday so it's not that big of a deal.

Her eyebrows raise at his hint of something juicy. Max is nosy. Of course she's intrigued. She leans in closer to him, mimes locking her lips with a key.]

Totally mum. You got it. Now what's the thing?

...You know, just for that, I'm not telling you shit, Nancy Drew.

( zipping and locking the lips with an imaginary key is where he draws the line, apparently.

he unlocks the driver's side door to his truck and hops in. strange how is his boring car has become the backdrop to so much of their drama. )

[She groans as she goes to the passenger side to open and climb in it.]

Are you cereal? Why?

[She is so not helping her case if Nathan's issue here is her dorkiness.

Or is it her nosiness? Just because she's nosy doesn't mean she goes around telling everyone about the things she found out. She hasn't told a soul about Dana's pregnancy scare, or about Victoria's sexts with Zachary. On the other hand, she did blab to Principal Wells about Nathan's gun. And to Chloe about some of the things in Nathan's phone. But she had good reasons for that.]

I already told you my biggest secret. Seems a little unfair.

Cereal?? God, you are so 2008, Caulfield. ( the black eyed peas walked so nathan prescott could run. ) It's like you never got off MySpace.

( but, weird girl vocabulary aside, he thinks he wants to tell her. it's not his secret to tell, unlike hers. he considers saying as much, but maybe nathan is overdue some trash-talking. jefferson wrecked his room and ordered him to play spy [all over max's virginity of all things], and now nathan gossips. both crimes are equal in proportion. )

Fine, okay, but I'm serious about not telling people. Not even Vic knows this shit.

( rather than start the truck and get on the road, he turns to face her. better to make this brief. )

It's just... you know Jefferson's been teaching at Blackwell since, like, forever. Like a decade at this point, probably. But a while ago, back when I was in middle school, he got in trouble. Like, serious shit. He was gonna get fired for something fucked up.

So, they were gonna let him go. And my dad was just gonna let him get the axe. What does he care, you know? He likes the guy and all, but it's not like he gives a fuck about art. Blackwell brings in money, but he's just... a teacher. He's replacable. Or so my dad thought, anyways.

But, I dunno, I thought Jefferson was cool, I guess. I liked his pictures. I thought he was the only cool thing in this shithole town... So I begged my dad to let him stay. And he did.

( ... )

I mean, I don't know if that's really why. It's not like my dad listens to me any other time. Chances are he had a change of heart for another reason. Like his shareholders threw a bitch fit over Arcadia Bay losing its only claim to fame.

( but it's a nice thought, that his dad might give a fuck about his opinion. )

Edited 2026-03-24 02:42 (UTC)

Nah, 2008 is too modern for me. I've always said I was a girl out of her own time.

[She's teasing, somehow both herself and Nathan in one shot. But after all, he is still dating her dorky ass.

...Not even Victoria? Wow. Okay, well that does make her feel special. Even if it's not his own secret, it's one he's still kept from Victoria but is telling Max.

Her brows furrow somewhat as she listens to him, slightly angled in his direction too.

A few different things go through her mind during his speaking. The first of which is of course "what the hell fucked up thing did Mark Jefferson do to get himself fired?" That's definitely something she wants to look further into.

The second thought is a lingering on what Nathan was like during middle school. Would they have hated each other back then if they'd met? Chloe had said he was a little different even at sixteen...

And then the third thing is how much she really dislikes Sean Prescott. Tinged with some surprise, because for the few months that Max has known him, Nathan has always acted like he had his father's ear, that he owned the school, the town, had all this power and control because he was his father's son. Maybe that's more an image he projects than anything? That would explain the way he spoke to himself in the bathroom mirror, before he accidentally shot Chloe.]

...but you never heard what it was he was being accused of? I wonder if they have a file on that somewhere... It would help to know the exact year it happened.

[Not beating those Nancy Drew allegations, Max Caulfield.]

Anyway, I did hear a secret about you today. Want to know what I learned?

[The way she says it with a smile and flirty head tilt, this clearly can't be anything that bad.]

( what had jefferson done? according to the records, nothing. nothing ever happened that day, and no one can say otherwise.

as an apprentice, nathan learned that jefferson had been "sloppy," which is almost diminutive in its understatement. same jefferson, just without million dollars worth of designer drugs at his disposal and a decade of experience under his belt.

it's a miracle that girl got away. )

You get that this is major old news, right? It was probably something normal. Couldn't have been that bad if they let him stay... He probably hooked up with a student and some old, crusty teacher got jealous.

( which, given some of their classmates, isn't that hard to believe.)

Yeah? You hear that I'm dating a hipster who says 'cereal' unironically? 'Cuz that one's true.

[It strikes her as odd that Nathan backpedals the way he does. He doesn't sound panicked about it or anything, but it's just strange that he went from saying "serious shit, fucked up" to "probably something normal" within the space of maybe a minute. But maybe he'd just been trying to embellish to impress her with his knowledge of this? And then regretted embellishing? Still.

Max also wrinkles her nose at the idea that him hooking up with a student would qualify to Nathan as "something normal." Eighteen year old student or not, that's still majorly shitty in Max's eyes. At least wait until the girl has graduated.

...What had that text to Nathan been again? "Stick to the script"? She wishes she'd gotten a picture or had been able to write it down.

She's considering asking him if he thinks he might still be sleeping with students, but... Then he reminds her she was about to say something else.

Max feigns a gasp.] No, I hadn't heard that one! I better get to spreading that rumor immediately.

[She smiles, and lightly bumps his shoulder with her own.]

I heard that you were in a play. The Tempest. Chloe dished about it.

( max looks like she's about to ask something. way to go, nathan. he knows max is a regular sherlock holmes; naturally, she's going to want to know everything he can about this. it's like walking a tight rope, saying enough to sound natural without immediately giving everything away. it's why he never talks about jefferson with victoria. she brings him up, and he keeps it vague. it's for her own protection.

so why is he telling max anything? because that's what boyfriends do?

it's both fortunate and something of a nightmare when max changes the subject. he feels his face burn, but the humiliation of that night is far enough in the past that it's little more than an embarrassing memory. it doesn't hurt as much as it used to. looking back on it now, he doesn't feel the shame of failure that he once did.

but he still likes to pretend it never happened. )

Christ, of course she did. ( he wants to bury his head in his hands, but he settles for turning away from her and starting the car. ) She's one to talk. She was in that shitshow too.

( chloe hadn't been much better than he had, but she didn't have nearly as much riding it on it. the 'fate of the prescott name,' or whatever. their poor firm must've lost so many shareholders because some 16-year-old couldn't hold his own in a school play.)

[Nathan probably wishes he had some rewind powers of his own now that he's shared that info with Max. Yep, she's definitely not going to give up on learning more about that. But she might bide her time a little.

His face turning red is cute, and she's sort of enjoying getting to tease him in a way that's good-natured. But she also doesn't want to be outright mean to him.]

Oh, yes. And Dana dished about that to us last night.

[Seriously, Rachel must have been playing with superpowers of her own to get Chloe on that stage with like, no time to prepare.]

Don't be too embarrassed, though. I like getting to learn more about you, and what you did before I got here. I prefer the touchable Nathan to the untouchable one, you know?

Dana's a b— ( so accustomed to shit talking, he stops himself a bit too late to fully recover from recklessly insulting one of max's favorite people. ) —butt.

( which is nearly as rude as calling her a bitch, but he didn't have anything tamer immediately on deck.

after all the chit-chat, he finally gets them on the road to the diner, and he only speeds sometimes. usually he'd treat traffic laws like mere suggestion, but he's got someone else to look out for now. )

None of that stuff matters, anyway. We were dumb kids.

( some dumber than others, like how victoria allegedly managed to drugs herself on opening night. do sedatives grow on fucking trees in arcadia bay? those things are everywhere. )

All we are is who we are right now.

( so he doesn't have to be on the hook for any of his bad deeds— )

[Rude or not, "butt" actually makes Max laugh. She would have been pissed if he'd gone through with "bitch," and she is aware that's what he was heading toward. But the fact he redirects is a relief and that he redirects himself to butt of all things is, frankly, hilarious. It's possibly the most childish insult he could have landed on, and it makes him sound almost endearingly petulant? Grumpy, instead of aggressive.

Anyway, she's not expecting him to rework every bad habit overnight. And she wouldn't expect him to change anything he doesn't want to change, anyway. Shit-talking is fairly harmless when the people aren't around to hear them. (But she still would have been pissed at the use of "bitch.")]

You're right. The past is the past. [Which, considering that's coming from a time-traveler, is saying something. She isn't sure what it's saying. But it's saying something.] What's important is going forward.

[She gives him a soft look he may or may not be able to see while he's driving. And as used as she's getting to being in a car with Chloe driving like a bat out of hell, she's also appreciative that he's doing relatively well at not getting them in a wreck.]

I do like who you are right now.

( max laughs, but it feels good. they both know it was a pretty lame thing to say, so it feels like being laughed with rather than being laughed at. it helps him to loosen up, and he even smiles as her giggles subside.

he can't help but frown, still, once she says she likes who he is. that seems impossible. once she finds out the things he's done, there's no chance that she'll ever like him again. it's part of the reason she can never know. as much as it's for her protection, there's a selfishness in his need to keep the truth hidden from the people around him. they'll never look at him the same way, and nathan isn't sure what he'll do when the soft, sweet look in her eyes calcifies into something unreachable. )

You don't know who I am right now. No one does. ( leaving it there would be pretty emo, even for him. ) But... you could. If you wanted. I guess that could be cool.

[It does hit her as pretty emo, admittedly, but... She's seen his notes in his phone. She's not telling him that (should she? is it wrong not to?), but she did. The emo doesn't come as a surprise, and she understands (at least on a very basic level) that there's reason for it with him.

Anyway...]

It's okay. I was thinking more in this moment, anyway. Just, the present? You and me, right here, laughing and everything... But I do want to know you. That's kind of what dating is about, right? Getting to know each other?

I guess. I mean, I think. I haven't really done the whole dating thing. I've got too much other shit going on.

( which is a pretty flimsy excuse. he seemingly doesn't do anything but drink and party, which means he's had plenty of time for dating. )

My dad says I gotta marry this chick back home in Florida. I'm not going to, obviously. I never even met her. But it'll be good for the family, or something. Her dad's like the Steve Jobs of real estate. So... Don't tell my dad we're dating.

( which is meant to be a joke, or at least part of one. max isn't ever going to see his dad, so there's no chance of that happening. but she should probably know the kind of rich people bullshit she's getting herself mixed in with. )

[Max hasn't done the whole dating thing either, really. She's kissed and made out before. But they were brief flirtations back in Seattle. Usually just stuff at parties. (But like. Normal teen parties, not Vortex Club level parties.)

Though just a week or two ago Max would have been inclined to believe all he does is drink and party, she feels now like that's not true. (And to be fair, he did practically fund those stupid parties all on his own. That probably did take some work.) It's very clear he has pressure put on him by his father. Maybe he has rich kid duties she doesn't know about. How could she? She's not part of that world.

Her heart hurts hearing about this engagement to a stranger thing. It feels very, like... Victorian? Regency? Something like that. Real old school. She didn't know rich families still did that, married off their kids to one another purely for money and status reasons. Jesus.]

Sure. I'll try not to let it slip during our weekly dinner conversations, me and your dad.

[Was he aware she was this much of a smartass before he started dating her? It's said playfully though, not with hostility.]

For reals, though, that's so shitty... He's, like, trying to plan your whole life out for you just because you're his son. That's not what parents are supposed to do. They're supposed to support you.

( no, the declassified guide to dating max did not warn about her humor. it surprises him every time he finds that she's genuinely funny. )

Thanks.

( you know, for not narcing on their relationship during those imaginary dinner parties. )

It's whatever. I bet your parents want you to marry rich and famous, too. All parents are sorta like that, yeah? A little bit?

( max, tell him that all parents are victorian lords and ladies when it comes to auctioning off their kids!! )

Maybe all rich parents? I don't know, my family experience seems... vastly different to yours. My parents sometimes ask if I'm seeing someone yet, which yeah, can be annoying, but... They've never actively tried to set me up with anyone, much less a stranger.

[Sorry, Nathan. She absolutely cannot tell you that's normal.]

What about Victoria's family? Are they like that?

( maybe max will understand when she's older and more rich. nathan doesn't seem too shocked by it, though. it's just more confirmation that his family is full of assholes, as if he didn't already know. )

Never met 'em.

( he's got some theories about vic's parents based solely on what she's said about them in passing, but that's next level gossip. as he pulls the truck into park, he considers if he'll get to the point where he tells max everything, even his dumb theories. )

What do you normally get when you come here?

A lot of different things? Over the course of my life, I've probably had one of just about anything Joyce has ever made.

[She lists things off on her fingers as she thinks of them.]

Breakfast foods are always good. Grilled cheese is awesome. The burgers aren't bad either, but I'm more of a chicken strip girl myself. Especially with homemade gravy. You gotta dip your fries in those, too.

You know the cook by name? Damn, you really are a local...

( he hopes it doesn't sound too insulting. he doesn't like this town much, but he means it in jest. 'local' is only an insult when he and victoria are complaining about how arcadia bay still hasn't gotten around to building a starbucks.

none of the food she lists sounds particularly appealing, but nathan isn't much of a food person to begin with. he likes how she lights and she remembers them all, at least.

he gets out of his side of the car, then walks around to let her out. he won't always be this pretentious about old-timey dating etiquette, but his mom would've a cow if she ever saw him leave a girl in a dress to get out on her own. )

[Oh, man. He doesn't know that Chloe's mom works here? Well... hopefully that knowledge won't ruin the date. Probably not, he seems a little more chill about Chloe now? Just... hopefully they don't run into her here... Max didn't even think about that.

Now that she does think of it, she pulls her phone out to shoot Chloe a quick text telling her where she and Nathan are, while Nathan moves around the truck to open her door. (She did also promise to keep Chloe in the loop about where they are outside of school, so. Better to get into that habit now.)

She smiles at him and takes his hand as he lets her out, carefully climbing down from his truck. It's a little more elegant than the way she hopped out of it earlier today.]

Such a gentleman. You trying to sweep me off my feet, mister?

[She's just gonna link their arms together as they head inside. Because she feels like it.]

( he thinks he likes her more when she jumps out all recklessly, but this is supposed to be a date [a date to a run-down americana diner, but still a date], so elegance wins out. )

Here's to trying.

( christ, they're really playing at this danny and sandy thing, clean up to the scene where danny chooses his asshole friends over claiming good, clean, wholesome sandy as his girl. they'd done that part already, thankfully. he doesn't remember it, but if max's time travel powers say he called her a 'virgin slut,' well...

he sighs as he steps inside. the only time he comes here is when frank requests a neutral meeting area for a drug deal. it's strange being here for actual dining purposes. )

Uh, table. By the window.

That's called a booth, darling.

( and, immediately, he's ready for this date to be over. goddamn hicks with their boooooths and their charming, small-town penchant for calling people 'hun' and 'darling'. he misses florida. everyone's an asshole there.

still, they get shown to the booth with only kind, playful laughter from the server at nathan's ignorance. they get told will be by soon to grab their drinks. )

[As long as no one's expecting Max to sing Hopelessly Devoted or show up in a pair of leather pants, she doesn't care about the Danny and Sandy comparison, really. Because wow is she ever not doing either of those things! Not even for Nathan. Sorry, Nathan. ~~The short cheerleader skirt may be the best he gets in that area.~~

(Wait... were the Lisa pics her version of Hopelessly Devoted to You? ...Shit. Maybe better not to think about that, for her own sanity.)

Joyce doesn't appear to be in the diner tonight, which makes sense. She usually has her shifts during the day. She's probably already left for home. Maybe that's a good thing. Max doesn't recognize the current server. Which isn't a huge surprise, since she'd only been back for the first time in five years like a week ago.

When their waitress laughs, Max gently squeezes Nathan's arm, before ultimately letting it go so she can slide into the booth. She's not used to doing this in a dress, so it gets a little wrapped around her legs until she sorts it out, half-standing to do so.

She takes her bag off to put next to her.]

So, that wasn't Joyce. She usually works the day shifts. And... she's also Chloe's mom.

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listening to Hopelessly Devoted as I write this tag and cackling about it tbh