𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥

001. Your Children.

IT WAS A regular evening that summer of 1985, Valerie was at her usual table, reading a book and waiting for Steve's shift to be over when the group of familiar kids, Mike, Will, Lucas and Max walked in, she glanced up. "Hey!" She waved with a smile on her face.

"Hey!" Max was the only one who returned the large smile to her as the three boys just waved a bit and walked straight to the counter. She frowns slightly, leaning back into her chair. Dustin would be excited to see her than they are. Other than Max, of course.

"Hey dingus, your children are here!" Robin's voice sends a warm feeling through Valerie who glanced over, smiling softly now. Steve opens the windows from the back room, "again? Seriously?" Steve says as Mike merely taps the bell again before Steve gestured them over.

"Fine, come on..."

Valerie stands up, making her way over to the counter with a small smile. "Ahoy there..." She says and Robin just glanced up. "Ahoy... do you wish to order, Valerie?" She asked, waiting and Valerie smiled wider. "A medium strawberry milkshake and some water, please and thank you." She says and Robin just nods.

She punched in her order and pointed, "$3.34, please." She says and Valerie reaches into her purse before taking out the coins before standing to the side, simply waiting patiently and silently. "I-I can bring it over when I'm done..." Robin says and Valerie quickly shook her head in disagreement to the blonde.

"I can just wait right here." She smiles politely and to Robin, it just seems like she's being intensely watched, to her, (according to what people say,) Steve and Valerie are a "couple", so she thinks Valerie is here to watch her around Steve. Like I'd go for him... Robin thinks as she makes the strawberry milkshake before she walks over to Valerie, smiling.

"Thank you!" Valerie says and then she went back over to her usual seat, blushing hard. Robin thinks nothing of it as she noticed that the parlor is suddenly filled with a lot of people. She sighs, thinking that she might need Steve's help with serving people.

While multiple are in line, Valerie kept glancing over to watch Robin sometimes as they were taking orders and making sundaes and cones of ice cream. She smiles when she sees Robin look away, just then, the power goes out so Valerie immediately looks up, with slightly furrowed brows. "That's weird." Steve says.

Valerie quickly stood up and went over to the counter as Steve went over to the light switch. He begins flicking it up then down, "that isn't gonna work, dingus." Robin says as Steve looks at her. "Oh, really?" He says before he began doing it faster as Valerie squints her eyes at him, becoming slightly confused.

"Steve..." She says and for a moment, she gets scared. Like really scared, as if something from last fall is gonna happen again. Steve notices. "It'll come back on, Val, I'm sure it's gonna be just fi—" Just then, the lights came back on so Valerie glanced up and Steve looks at Robin. "Let there be light." He says, walking back over to the ice cream and looking at Valerie. "Hey... you okay?" He whispers and she just glanced around, nodding her head.

"Yeah?" He says and she quickly nods again, forcing a small smile at her friend before she points to the table she was previously sitting at. "I-I'll just keep waiting for you over there." She whispers and he just nods, scooping ice cream into the cone he was holding. She goes back over to the table, sitting down and rubbing the back of her neck. Robin glanced over at her before quickly looking back at the costumers, smiling at them pretty big. "Ahoy."

When Steve and Robin's shift is over, he went over to Valerie and put a hand to her back. "You're okay, right?" He says and she looks at him, nodding quickly. "Yup... um, ready to go?" She stood up and he nods, standing up as well. "God, can't believe you have to wear that everyday..." She says to Steve when they head out the shop with Robin.

"It suits him though, right?" Robin glanced over and Steve just mocks the two who begin laughing. "Come on, Val, before Robin influences you with her bullying... you're the only person who's nice to me." He says, grabbing her by the shoulders and Valerie just scoffs but waved at Robin, "bye Robin!" She smiles widely and Robin just waved back.

On the walk to Steve's car, Valerie sighed and glanced over at Steve. "Do you wanna at least do something fun today, Steve? Oh, maybe we can go and watch a movie at your place or go swimming in the pool at your place." She says and Steve swings his arm over her shoulders, shaking his head.

"I'm beginning to feel like you use me for our home theater room and pool." He says and she sighs. "I would love to have some privacy at my own home, but ever since Barbara Holland died and some kid came back from the dead, my mom and dad are constantly asking me about my feelings and shit. I don't want to talk about that with them." She looks at him and he just looks at her, slightly confused.

"Don't you love talking about feelings, Val? Don't you remember the long talk we had where you rejected me on this past Valentines' Day?" He says and she shoves his arm away from her, rolling her eyes at him. "Steve... You know it was a conversation we needed to have." She smiles up at the tall boy who just shrugs.

"I know." He smiles and she just pats his arm, looking at his car. "And besides... you remember the thing I told you." She says, looking down at her feet and he just pats his back. "Yeah, I know... I get it, you know." He says and she looks up at Steve. She just smiles at him again as he glanced away, "come on. Let's head to my place..."

The talk that Steve was talking about from Valentines' Day was when he tried kissing her. She stopped him and he said that he was over Nancy now, that she wouldn't be a rebound, so he tried to again. So she had to talk to him.

Valentines' Day that year was Thursday so Valerie and Steve had to suffer through walking down the halls of their high school, watching the many couples of Hawkins High. It was at her place after school. "Steve..." She said when she pushed him away, grimacing.

"Y-You're not a rebound. I'm over her."

"It isn't that, Steve..." She looked down, then she went on to explain that how most girls grow up being told to stay away from boys when that wasn't such a problem with her in the first place. She never had a desire to be with any boys. She felt more attracted to girls.

"But your date for the Snowball was a boy..."

Steve felt confused and slightly hurt. "Why do you think that is, Steve? Do you really think people accept.. girls like me so easily with open arms?" She sounded a little disgusted even at her own self and he quickly apologized to Valerie before giving her a hug, not meaning to come off that way as his first reaction. "We can stick to being friends, Steve... Best friends." She had said to him and he agreed instantly.

  

  

  

  

   

   

  

   

AUTHORS NOTE

robin: aren't you and steve a couple?
valerie: i'm... you know

anywaysssss :)
here's the new chapter <3 i'm like super duper excited for this fic because i love robin and i've been wanting to write a robin x oc fic since the season came out and it's about time i do, after 2 years since season 3's release