"Well, that was a waste of a morning," Victoria said with a yawn as they walked back out onto the campus lawn.

"I don't know, I thought it was kind of interesting," Max said. Victoria paused and shook her head.

"It was world history Max. No one likes world history. Even Professor Yerts doesn't like world history, he's just forced to teach it so they'll fund his research trip to some Greek island no one's heard of, let alone cared about."

"Mykonos," Max muttered "I don't know, I think it's interesting. You can't understand art without understanding history."

"I'm not a TA, stop trying to suck up," Victoria said scathingly. Victoria said everything scathingly. They'd been friends for five years now, four in high school and one in college, so Max barely even noticed anymore.

"I wasn't…"

"Bored now," Victoria said, interrupting her. "Changing to a more interesting topic. There's a welcoming party at the end of the month for the photography majors. I'm hosting of course, you coming?" Victoria had been trying to get Max to a party, any party, since day one of high school. So far she'd failed utterly, Max didn't do parties. That hadn't stopped her yet though. Max would have found it endearing if it wasn't so annoying.

"Uhhh, I should probably work on my midterm project…"

"Max. It's a party for photography majors. We all have the same midterm project. You'll find, however, that everyone else will manage to show up somehow."

"Maybe I just take it more seriously than them."

"Or maybe you're just hopelessly anti-social and I'm getting tired of doing charity work hanging out with you. Seriously, live a little, for my sanity if nothing else. Show interest in something other than your fucking camera," Victoria said as they walked. It's why Max both loved and hated Victoria, she never held anything back. Max opened her mouth to say something in retort when she caught sight of her.

She was walking out of Young Hall flocked by a group of men. Though surrounded, she was obviously in complete control of the throng. She walked with a fluid ease, an uncaring, haphazard stride everyone else was struggling to match. Her blue hair was a perfect mess on her head and her smile was utterly contagious if Max's own lips were any indication. There was something on her arm as well.

"Earth to Max."

A tattoo? Yes, definitely a tattoo.

"Caulfield? Hello Caulfield."

But of what? Max couldn't quite make it out this far away.

"Instant photography is a dead medium kept alive by pretentious hipsters who can't do real art," Victoria said

"You think anything you're not good at is pretentious," Max said. "Who is that?" She asked, pointing at the girl as she slowly made her way towards them.

"Who?" Victoria asked.

"Her," Max said, pointing again.

"The attention whore with the blue hair?"

"Yeah."

"Don't know her. Let me see, semi-attractive girl coming out of the science building. Plus, she's got that 'I'm a punk with parental issues who just needs a good man to settle me down' thing going on. In a word, I'd say she's desperate."

"Don't be jealous Victoria," Max chided.

"Jealous? Give me one day and I could have every one of those science nerds eating out of my hand. Not that I'd want to. Let her have them. She's doing the world a service if you ask me."

"So she's a science major?

"That'd be my guess. What's it matter to you?" Victoria asked, but Max was lost in thought again. The girl had moved close enough now that Max could almost make out her tattoo. There was a skull, some flowers maybe, or was it a butterfly? Maybe both?

"Take a picture, it'll last longer," Victoria muttered.

"Oh! Good idea," Max said. Victoria's eyes widened as Max pulled her Polaroid out of her bag.

"Sarcasm. That was sarcastic. This is not a good idea," Victoria whispered as Max pointed her camera at the girl.

"It's fine, she'll never notice in a crowd like this," Max said as she took aim. She focused on the girl's arm, trying to bring the tattoo in focus.

The flash was barely noticeable in the morning sun. The snap and whirl of motors wasn't terribly loud with all the background noise.

The blue haired girl stopped, her face scrunching in confusion. Then she turned and looked directly at Max.

Max stuffed the camera and photo into her bag as fast as she could. She turned and began swiftly walking across the lawn, making a conscious effort not to look back.

"Happy now?" Victoria hissed as she caught up to her.

"Okay, maybe not my smartest idea," Max admitted.

"You think? Why couldn't you just stare at her like a normal person?"

"I wasn't staring," Max huffed.

"Ooggling? Checking out? Undressing with your eyes? Which phrase do you prefer?" Max felt heat rush to her face. She definitely wasn't doing any of those things. She wasn't.

"I was just appreciating her style," Max explained.

"Right, appreciating , we'll go with that," Victoria said way too smugly. Max glared at her and walked faster.

"I'm a little surprised though," Victoria continued as she easily kept pace with her and her short stride. "I didn't think Max could appreciate anyone. You've never shown any interest before despite all of my advice. I thought you were asexual or something."

"I'm not showing interest," Max said hotly.

"And I'm not the best dressed girl on campus," Victoria said sarcastically.

"Drop it Victoria," Max said. Max didn't consider herself asexual, not that she'd ever given it much thought though. She just…never had time for dating or anything like that. Photography took precedence.

"O-kay," Victoria said. "Touchy much." Max didn't respond. They walked in silence for a couple moments before Victoria opened her mouth again.

"So...Max Caulfield is gay. Could you get any more stereotypical?"

Chloe heard the whirl of a Polaroid camera. It was a sound ingrained in her memory, her dad had loved his. He'd always been taking pictures of Chloe before…

Chloe looked around, trying to find the source of the sound. Her eyes quickly found the culprit. She still had the camera in her hands. Chloe never paid much attention to hands, but that was the first thing she noticed about this girl. They looked so small, delicate like spun glass. Chloe felt an irrational desire to take those hands into her own, to keep them safe.

When the girl noticed Chloe looking at her, her eyes widened in surprise and a blush spread across her entire face. Chloe didn't know how she should respond. Wave? Get upset?

Before she could decide, the girl whipped around and started briskly walking in the opposite direction.

"Did that girl just take my picture?" Chloe asked, as she watched the brown-haired girl vanish into the crowds.

"Which girl?" Warren asked.

"Never mind," Chloe muttered. The fuck was that about? "What were you saying?" Chloe asked him. She'd lost track of the conversation. She hadn't been terribly interested to begin with, so it wasn't surprising.

"We were asking if you'd cosign for leadership of the Chemistry Club. We need a Vice President." Warren said. Around her, the rest of Warren's friends nodded along like bobble heads. They had about as much personality as bobble heads too, at least Warren talked to her like she was a real person and not just a pair of walking breasts.

"I'd say I spend enough time with chemistry in class, I don't need to hang out with it during my free time too," Chloe said. She started walking, and realized she was walking in the same direction camera girl went. Warren quickly moved in front of her. She resisted the urge to shove him over. He was her friend, he was just being unusually annoying today.

"Please Chloe, I just need a signature. You'd be Vice President in name only, you won't have to do a thing. You don't even have to show up if you don't want to," Warren pleaded.

"Why can't one of these idiots sign?" Chloe asked, flipping off the half a dozen boys listening in. They quickly backed away from her.

"Well, we were thinking that having your name on the roster might attract some more attention…" Chloe turned to Warren and got right in his face.

"You're whoring me out for a couple extra members? Is that what our friendship boils down to?" She asked, her voice positively frosty. To Warren's credit, he didn't back down.

"Who covered for you when you were making out with," he paused, glancing at the others listening in, "you-know-who in the janitors' closet? Who let you copy his homework whenever you were too drunk to finish the night before? Who…"

"I get it, I get it, fuck, I haven't done stuff like that since high school," Chloe said, backing away from him.

"Still," Warren said stiffly. Chloe muttered a 'fuck' under her breath. She hated to admit it but he had a point. Without Warren's help Chloe wasn't sure she would have made it through high school.

"I'll think about it," she said.

"I have to turn it in today," Warren said, holding up the sheet with a hopeful look.

"...fine, give me a damn pen," Chloe said, snatching the sheet from him.

"You won't regret this," Warren said gratefully as he handed her the pen.

"Oh, I already do," Chloe muttered as she signed her name.

"Who's your best friend?" Victoria asked as she suddenly appeared beside Max's table in the cafeteria. Max put down her book, slightly put off by the interruption. When she was little it had bothered her that no one wanted to have lunch with her. Now she'd not only gotten used to it, she kinda looked forward to it as well.

"I don't know, I'll tell you when I meet them," Max said and turned back to her book.

"You broke it," Victoria said as she sat down across from Max."I had one feeling left and you broke it into tiny pieces."

"What do you want Victoria?" Max asked without looking at her. It was rare for Victoria to bother her outside of class.

"Nope, I don't feel like sharing anymore," Victoria said as she took one of Max's french fries and shoved it into her mouth. Max sighed, it was obvious Victoria had something she wanted to say and she wasn't going to leave until she said it. And she wasn't going to say it until Max begged.

"You had the better urban portfolio last semester. There, I admitted it. Much better than being my best friend," Max said.

"You do know the way to my heart," Victoria said with a smile. "Okay, I have a name." Every fiber of Max's brain suddenly came alive. She dropped her book as she focused entirely on Victoria.

"What is it?"

"I just said a name, I didn't say who's," Victoria said, taking another fry. Instantly Max's face went a couple shades redder.

"Just tell me please," Max said with as much dignity as she had left.

"And what do I get out of it?" Victoria asked as she munched on Max's fry.

"I thought you were doing this out of a shared sense of friendship and comradery?"

"What? No! That had nothing to do with this. You know what I had to do to get this information? I had to talk to science nerds. Male science nerds. It was revolting," Victoria said with a shudder.

"It probably took all of two minutes," Max said as Victoria took yet another fry. At this rate she'd eat them all.

"Fine, if it's so easy you should have no problem getting the info yourself," Victoria said as she stood up.

"Wait!" Max called. Victoria looked down at her, her face expectant. "Fine, I'll do your Stat homework," Max said, desperation melting away all her pride. Victoria stared at her as she slowly ate her stolen fry.

"For a week," she said finally.

"What?! That's cra…" Max started, but then Victoria turned away from her. "Okay, I'll do it!" Max called out. Instantly Victoria whipped around and sat back down.

"I thought you'd see things my way. Chloe Price," she said. The name shot through Max's mind.

"Chloe Price. Chloe…Price…" She said, trying it out. She liked it.

"You going to eat these?" Victoria asked, pointing at the rest of her fries. Max shoved them over, too happy to even care.

Max tried to concentrate on the words in front of her face. Usually photo theory was enough to keep her interest, but tonight it was failing horribly. She read the words, but her mind didn't process them at all. The only words her mind seemed capable of handling were Chloe and Price.

Max groaned and threw her book onto the bed behind her. She wasn't getting that chapter finished tonight. It was fine, it wasn't due until next week anyway. Max drummed her fingers on her desk, trying to think of what to do. It was no good though, nothing sounded enticing. She glanced over at the photo on her desk, Chloe Price caught perfectly mid stride, her tattooed arm held up as she ran a hand through her hair.

She felt miserable. Her heart felt like it was twice as big the way it was pounding in her chest, her stomach felt nauseous, and she had this nervous energy that wouldn't let her sit still. If this was what crushes felt like then she could have gone the rest of her life without them. This fucking sucked.

Her fingers stopped. Crush? She'd just called it a crush. Was that what it was? She'd made it until college, she thought she was immune to this kind of thing. And a girl? Max definitely hadn't seen that coming. Max leaned into her hands and rubbed her eyes, trying to clear her head. No good, she couldn't get the name Chloe Price or a head of blue hair out of her mind. Pull yourself together Max, you just think she's cute or something. You don't know anything about her. Spend ten minutes with the girl and you'll probably get over it. Plus, you saw that crowd of guys around her, there's no way she's interested in you.

Max perked up, a thought striking her. That was it. She had to learn more about this Chloe girl. The more she knew the quicker she could get over this stupid crush and on with the rest of her life.

Max pulled over her laptop and powered it on. She had a name and a location, she should be able to find something. She started by Googling Chloe Price. As she figured, that was way too vague. There were quite a few Chloe Prices and none of them had blue hair. She tried Chloe Price UCLA and got nothing concrete. She tried Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, and Twitter. She tried chloe price, chloeprice, and C Price. Nothing.

Finally, after an hour of futile searching she slammed her laptop shut. This was getting her nowhere. She'd never tried to do this kind of thing before. Suddenly she a thought struck her. She'd never done this before, but she knew someone who had. She grabbed her Stat book and got to work.

"So what's up Chloe?" Kate asked as they sat down at the Cafe table. It was 6:30 in the morning. On a Tuesday. If you'd told Chloe a year ago she'd voluntarily be awake at 6 in the morning she would have laughed in your face. But now Kate and her were in college with different majors and morning tea time was about the only time they could talk. She missed talking to Kate enough to make the sacrifice.

"Warren convinced me to sign up for his stupid club. He's trying to save it from extinction. Who even cares?" Chloe said as she mixed some cream into her coffee. It might be Kate's tea time, but Chloe was a coffee girl.

"Warren obviously," Kate said simply as she mixed a sugar cube into her tea.

"...Yeah I suppose so," Chloe admitted.

"You're a good friend Chloe," Kate said as she blew on her tea.

"Don't spread that around, I have enough friends as it is. Look where that's got me, Vice President of the Chemistry Club and out of my warm and cozy bed. So how'd the presentation go?"

"Pretty good. People liked my drawings," Kate said with a smile. Chloe looked up at her.

"Anyone give you any trouble?" She asked. Kate liked to put simple religious messages in her children's illustrations. Sometimes people thought it was okay to make fun of her because of that. In high school, Chloe had politely informed those people that that wasn't the case. It had landed her in the principal's office on more than one occasion. It was harder to do that in college though.

"Well, one girl did say putting religious messages in a children's book was the same as brainwashing," Kate said with a shrug.

"Bitch, sorry about that," Chloe said. Chloe didn't really believe in any big guy in the sky. The closest she'd ever gotten to church was listening to country songs with her dad. And he went and died so Chloe wasn't on speaking terms with any God that'd be okay with that.

She respected Kate's faith though. As far as she was concerned, Kate was the biggest punk rebel she knew. She was openly religious on a college campus on the West Coast. That took stones.

"It's fine, I know my stories aren't for everyone. So what else is on your mind?" Kate asked, staring intently at Chloe over her tea cup. How does she always know?

"Do you know any of the photography majors?" Chloe asked. Kate looked surprised at the random question.

"I'm in illustration so we don't have many classes together. Just the core ones and those are in huge lecture halls with a hundred students. Why?"

"Nothing, just, I think a girl took my picture yesterday," Chloe said quickly before slurping her coffee.

"Was she cute?" Kate asked.

"Well, yeah, I mean but…" Chloe stopped as she noticed the smile on Kate's lips and realized where this question was going. Kate was one of the few people on campus who knew Chloe wasn't straight. Chloe wasn't ashamed of it, she was a firm believer in not giving a damn about what others thought, but she didn't want to attract attention. If everyone thought she was straight, then only the guys would ask her out. She had no problem turning them down, she wasn't interested in trying that again. But ever since the whole Rachel thing, she had no interest in dating. She wasn't sure she could survive any more heartbreak.

"I already told you. I'm going to be your single spinster friend who sends you postcards from places you'll never go because you're too busy settling down and having a boring family," Chloe said firmly.

"No man, or woman for that matter, is an island Chloe," Kate said with a delicate sip of tea. Everything sounded like sage advice if you sipped tea right afterward. It's part of what made conversations with Kate dangerous.

"This island is doing just fine," Chloe said as she drained the rest of her coffee.

"I just don't want you to give up, there's someone out there for you," Kate said.

"Well, if you ever decide to bat for the other team let me know," Chloe said. Kate lifted one small hand up to her face and started giggling. Then she looked over at Chloe, her eyes shining, and Chloe could swear she batted her eyelashes.

"Don't worry Chloe, if I ever decide I like girls, you'll be the first to know." And then she winked. Well. Chloe thought. Fuck me.

As soon as morning's World History class was over, Max walked over to Victoria and slammed a USB on her desk.

"What's this?" Victoria asked.

"This week's Stat homework."

"All of it?" Max nodded. "Fuck, you don't mess around," Victoria said as she reached for the USB. Max pulled it away.

"Not so fast," Max said. "I need help with something else."

"That wasn't part of the deal," Victoria said, annoyed.

"You gave me one name, I did all your week's homework. That isn't equivalent exchange!"

"Yeah, but because you did it I'll be lucky if that homework gets a B," Victoria countered. She had a point.

"Still, I think you owe me a little more," Max said, her eyes desperate. Victoria sighed.

"What is it?" She asked. Max pulled out her laptop and opened it up.

"I need your help finding out more about Chloe," Max said as she pulled up her Facebook. "I tried last night but couldn't find a thing."

"Just give it here," Victoria said with a sigh, taking Max's laptop. She took one look at the screen and shook her head sadly. "No wonder you couldn't find her. You have, like, five friends."

"Seventeen," Max said stiffly.

"Family doesn't count," Victoria said. Max did a quick head count. There were her parents, an aunt, two uncles, some cousins…fuck.

"Fine, just do your…thing," Max said with a wave at the computer.

"She's probably got it so only friends of friends can see her. Let me see what I can do…" Victoria said and got to work. Max sat and waited as Victoria typed away with record speed. Finally, after half an hour had passed, Victoria sniffed in disgust.

"Okay, either she doesn't have a social media presence at all, which, what's the likelihood of that, or she's got her profile locked down tight. Which also seems crazy. I mean, it's 2015 and you're in college, how else are you supposed to network? I barely know her and she's pissing me off already."

"You're just mad because you couldn't find anything either," Max said, feeling irrationally disappointed in Victoria.

"Who said I didn't find anything?" Victoria said with a small smile. Max's heart leaped back into her throat and she ran around to look at the laptop screen.

"She's Vice President of the chemistry club," Victoria said proudly.

"Chemistry club?"

"Says so right here on their Facebook page. Chloe P. Vice president," Victoria said as she pointed at the club info page. There it was, right below Warren G. President.

"Why didn't I think to search Chloe P?" Max muttered to herself.

"It's a good thing you got in on that photography scholarship, Lord knows it wasn't on brains," Victoria said, laughing at her own joke.

"Give it here," Max said as she quickly skimmed over the rest of the club info. Her eyes widened.

"I'm going to join the Chem club," she said suddenly.

"You're not a chemistry major," Victoria pointed out.

"You don't have to be," Max said." Says so right on the page."

"You have no interest in chemistry," Victoria continued.

"Sure I do! We use chemicals in the dark room all the time. My Polaroid runs off chemical reactions. I love Chemistry." Victoria stared at her for a moment.

"You know, I was curious what a love struck Max would look like. Turns out it's nauseating."