𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥

003. American Heroes.

THAT FOLLOWING day, Valerie woke up to loud knocking on her front door so she groans, getting up from her bed as the doorbell is then spammed repeatedly. "Okay! Okay! I'm coming, Jesus!" She exclaimed loudly.

She opened the door to Dustin Henderson standing there with a wide smile, "hi!" He laughed loudly and she smiled widely, immediately hugging him. "Hey kid!" She says, ruffling his hat with her hand during their hug before she pulls back from him.

"Oh, shit, yeah, you came back yesterday, right? Welcome back, Dustin!" She giggled and he smiles widely. "Is Steve here? You two are usually attached by the hip." He says and she leans against the door frame, crossing her arms. "He banned me from going to Scoops today." She says with a small pout on her face.

"But it's a special occasion, Val! Come on, let's head there now." He says and she just smiles. "Okay, wait for me in there and I'll go get ready!" She says and he hurried into the livingroom, waiting as the Smith quickly headed up to her bedroom where she got dressed into shorts and a nice blouse before grabbing her red converse, tying them up pretty quickly.

On their walk to the bus stop, she looked to the boy and huffed, shaking her head. "You kids are getting so tall." She says and he laughs, shrugging his shoulders. "Growth spurt." He simply explains and she just smiled softly. "I never hit mine." She joked and he laughs.

On the way there, Dustin and Valerie catch up with each other. "No way... What's her name?" She asked when he mentioned a girlfriend. "Suzie. With a Z. She's really smart, pretty, and... she's really nice to me." He smiles and she smiled widely at that. "Look at you, such a player, Henderson." She says to him.

He giggles, snorting softly when he does as he looks down. "She didn't answer me yesterday when I tried to reach her on Cerebro. Which reminds me, there is something I need to talk to you and Steve about. You two will need to know this." He says and she nodded.

At Scoops Ahoy, Robin is the one at the counter as Dustin and Valerie now wait in line. "Have a nice day." Robin monotonously says to the two costumers, handing over the cones of ice cream. Valerie and Dustin now go up to the counter next as Robin looks to them, her eyebrows raising slightly at the sight of Valerie standing next to the young teen.

"Hi." Dustin says and Robin stared at the two. "Hi." He says and Dustin gestured to himself. "Robin, this is, uh, Dustin Henderson. He's friends with the boys and girl that were here the other night." Valerie explains and Dustin points. "Pleasure to meet you, Robin. Is-is he here?" He then asked as he glanced around. "Is who here?" Robin asked, a bit confused.

Just then, Steve burst out of the back room. "Henderson!" He exclaimed with a wide smile, looking at Valerie then at Robin. "Henderson! He's back!" Steve says, looking at Valerie who smiled widely right back while she nods her head softly. "I'm back!" Dustin says with equal excitement to the 19 year old.

"You got the job!" Dustin pointed to the sign as Valerie glanced at Robin who's glancing between Steve and Dustin with surprise. "I got the job!" Steve then imitated a trumpet while making his way towards Dustin, smiling.

"Hey! Oh!" The two then do their handshake, a handshake, a fistbump and then a lightsaber fight before Dustin pretends to stab Steve with his as the boy hunched over, groaning and gagging to pretend along with Dustin as the pair now laugh together, looking at each other.

"How many children are you two friends with?" Robin says, leaning over the counter as she looks at Steve then Valerie. Steve's laughter slowly dies down and his smile goes away, gesturing towards Robin with a small shrug. "We... use to babysit them." Valerie merely says, smiling before ruffling Dustin's hat again.