CHAPTER THIRTY:
nothing can stop its narrative
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THE LAST EIGHT MONTHS HAD TO HAVE BEEN THE MOST CONFUSING AND LONGEST PERIOD OF TIME IN VALERIE'S LIFE.
Ever since Nova revealed the big secret, Valerie spent most of her lengthy and desolating days trying to search for answers, but it was always a dead-end. She searched every inch of her house, tried making a couple of calls to people who may've known anything about the situation, she even went as desperate to hope that Nova would reach out to her. Whether it was through the sticky notes she'd leave—or if she decided to physically come in contact with Valerie, Nova most likely had the answers. Unfortunately, leaving an already discombobulated Valerie with no answers whatsoever was Nova's intention.
Nova was fully aware of the toll her plan would have on Valerie. She knew that it would result in countless sleepless nights and even Valerie growing a hatred for Melina, potentially ruining any of the relationship Valerie had left with Melina, if there was even any left to begin with. But that was the hope of it all. Nova would go as far as she needed to, just so she could be at the very top. She wanted to watch as the lives of the people she envied (specifically Valerie) slowly began to worsen to the point where they'd be a tragic topic to speak on.
Hawkins' once beloved, Valerie Revora, falls from her throne, leaving an identical clone of her mother. . . Sounded pretty appealing to Nova if you asked her. Even if Nova was no longer living in the town of Hawkins, she already promised herself a long time ago that she'd keep a good eye on the people in the town. And that's exactly what she'd continue doing. Anyway.. back to Valerie.
Despite Valerie's occasional urges to tell Selina about the whole situation, she didn't want to get her involved. Also, in the most light-hearted way possible, the blonde couldn't keep a secret to save her life, well.. no secrets except her own—of course. Valerie also contemplated on telling Robin, even though she'd only known her for about nine months. But she didn't want to put Robin in a situation where she felt obligated to give Valerie advice, so that was a no. Lastly, there was Steve, who she shamefully considered more times than she'd like to admit. But that was only because Steve didn't dwell on the bullshit Valerie had going on her life. He'd give the situation some thought, and give her his input on whatever had been happening. He never pitied Valerie because he knew that was exactly what she didn't want. But once Valerie really thought about what she'd be doing by enlightening anyone on the situation, she basically made up her mind to not tell a single soul. Secrets really do run in the family.
Considering Valerie had swore to herself that she wouldn't tell anyone, safe to say that the effects of bottling up the emotions that came with finding out a family-destroying secret was completely shattering her. However, as we know, Valerie was forced to learn how to mask her emotions at a young age. So she kept that mechanism in her back pocket at all times, while she kept herself occupied, which was another mechanism that seemed to be working for her.
Valerie came to the conclusion that keeping her days eventful all day—everyday was exactly what she needed in a time like this. That way, not only would she be able put on a good act in front of everyone, but she'd have little to no time to drown in her sorrow. It was just easier that way, so she intended to keep her calendar full, and right now, she was fulfilling that intention.
It was that time of year, the time that the basketball players of Hawkins High had been preparing for almost every day for six entire months. The annual basketball tournament.
Valerie's never been one to show interest in sports. But considering who she was, she was practically mandated to show up to any and every big event that the people cared about. Even though she was no longer in high school, Robin had given her, Selina, and Steve tickets to watch her play in band. Plus, Lucas would be playing, which was another reason to go. So, Valerie agreed, along with Selina, which Valerie found incredibly weird because Selina was the last person to agree to attend a sports event. . And this now brings us to the current life status of Selina Pierce.
Let's say we're back in March of 1985, a little before the Mind Flayer and evil Russians appeared.. and, well, also before she knew who Robin was. If you were to interrogate her about her love life in that time period, she'd lie straight to your face, saying that there wasn't a status on her love life because she wasn't interested in having a love life to begin with. But, truthfully, she knew that Valerie was the first and only person to come to mind. Now, if we were to fast-forward to where we are now, her answers would have a pretty significant difference because of a certain someone.
Although Selina's feelings for Valerie didn't completely obliterate from existence, her face no longer heated up once her and Valerie made direct eye contact, which was something new. To add onto that, in the past year, her feelings for Robin had intensified tremendously, for two reasons to be exact.
Reason one: The three girls had spent most of their time together over the Fall and Winter. However, when the three blondes weren't hanging out all together, the chances were that Robin and Selina were still tied to the hip, whilst Valerie was off finding some place to occupy her time (and yes.. occasionally, that place would involve Steve).
Reason two: In October of last year, three months after the catastrophe at Starcourt, something completely unexpected and sudden occurred. Remember all that talk awhile ago about Selina's number one secret? How she felt as if something was wrong with her because of it? Well, although it wasn't Selina's secret that came out. . It was Robin's. It's a long story, and one that'd be best to share at a different time, not quite yet (bummer, I know! You'll find out sooner or later, though). But now that Selina had the green light to allow herself to admit that she felt something for Robin, it only made her fall for the blonde even more.
Anyway, my point is, Selina's love life could be displayed on a pie chart.
Robin - 85%
Valerie - 15%
With Robin taking the lead by an entire 70 percent, I think it's clear how much Selina's feelings have changed. But pie charts are destined to adjust over time. God, why did love have to be so complex?
Now that y'all have the almost full summary of the months that took place between Fall of 1985 and Spring of 1986, I think we're ready to move on to our current situation: the afternoon of the basketball tournament.
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"Damn it, Selina." Valerie huffed, rushing up the stairs and to the blonde who was causing the two to run late, once again.
"Selina! We gotta go, as in, if you aren't down those stairs in fifteen seconds, I will gladly drive off and leave you to figure out how to use your signal lights and not get pulled over." Valerie ordered as she stood in the doorway of the guest room, where Selina was still getting ready. Selina typically would go all-out in anything and everything she wears, but considering the two were attending a sports event, it was odd to Valerie how dressed-up Selina was. "You know we're gonna be inside of a sweaty, humid gym, right?" Valerie asked. "Don't word it like that." Selina's nose slightly scrunched in disgust at the thought. "I'm just saying, it's a little weird that you wanna use an outfit like this at a basketball game—out of all places." Valerie raised her eyebrows at the blonde. "To you, it's weird. This is my version of normal." Selina shrugged. Valerie could tell that Selina was lying. To be honest, anyone could clearly sense that Selina was lying. Her eyes never matched her mouth, and she'd always slightly turn her head away from whoever she was lying to. But as always, Valerie decided to let Selina get away with it, walking away from the doorframe and back down the staircase as she counted down from ten seconds for Selina to follow her.
As soon as Valerie caught a glimpse of the high school she once dreaded returning to everyday, she felt a hint of nostalgia spark in her. She didn't know why, because half of the memories in that building were a pain to look back and dwell on. Maybe it was because compared to all of the conflicts she's faced in the past couple of years, school was nowhere near as impactful as the others anymore.
"How come they finally decided to tidy up the outside of the building right after we graduated? I mean, remember how rusty that big old sign was?" Selina asked, shaking her head at the building in front of her. "Yeah. And look, they even painted the tiger on the building." Valerie pointed to the painting of a tiger's head. "Alright, let's go. We gotta say hi to them before the game starts." Valerie said as she opened the car door. "Them?" Selina questioned. "Robin. . Steve. ." Valerie answered as if it was obvious. "Right. ." Selina slowly nodded. Unfortunately, the mention of Steve's name still slightly aggravated her. Now, of course, Selina didn't hate him.. but she didn't particularly like him either. Selina likes to think that it's all because she still held a grudge on him for his years of being a constant jackass, but truly, Selina knew it was because he felt the same way as she did towards Valerie. And even though Selina no longer felt the same way about Valerie as she did a year ago, she could still feel that small ounce of feelings for Valerie slightly weighing her down.
When Valerie and Selina walked into the building, they noticed how a majority of the differences between the old Hawkins High and the newly designed Hawkins High had mainly been displayed from the outside of the building, although the lighting and lockers had changed quite a bit.
Valerie and Selina walked into the gymnasium, being greeted with the overwhelming sounds of people talking over each other and the creaks of shoes from the players practicing before the game started.
"Hey, I'm gonna talk to Robin real quick. Save our seats." Selina said hastily before walking away, giving Valerie little to no time to reply or tag along. "Valerie?" A high pitch voice called out. Valerie turned towards the voice, startled when she saw a blonde with incredibly puffed-up hair coming face-to-face with her. "Oh, my gosh! You remember me, right?" Brenda asked.
Valerie did indeed not remember nor recognize her.
"Oh.. uh.. right! Yup, yeah, I remember! How are you?" Valerie played it off with a soft laugh and continuous nods. Valerie's focus slightly shifted away from Brenda and her rambling when she saw Steve, who had just now caught up with the blonde. And that's when Valerie realized that the two had came together. "How are you, girl?" Brenda asked, putting an end to her rambling session. Girl? Valerie still hadn't even recognized the blonde. But she smiled back at Brenda, nodding her head again before responding. "I'm doing good!" Ha, that was a lie. "Did you two come together, or, .?" Valerie asked, already knowing the answer but wanting to confirm it. "Oh, yeah! Hope it isn't a botherer. I know how you two were up there together." Brenda giggled, referring to Valerie and Steve's high school days. Valerie's eyebrows slightly furrowed for a quick second at Brenda's comment, glancing at Steve to see his reaction, but he had head turned away from the scene. "It isn't. Hey, Steve." Valerie nudged her head towards Steve, flashing a tight-lipped smile at him. "Hey." Steve said in a lower tone, trying to hide his embarrassment at the awkward situation. This was irking. Things weren't awkward between Valerie and Steve. In fact, they could even confirm themselves that there was no tension between the two. But when it came to the topic of Steve's dates, the tension was definitely there.
Luckily, before it felt like anymore air was being sucked out from Valerie and Steve, Selina came walking towards the three, a small smile on her face from talking with Robin. "Well, we should probably get the good seats before they all get taken up." Valerie dryly laughed, extending her smile a little wider in hopes to come off as nice as possible before slowly beginning to walk towards Selina. Brenda waved her goodbye, before following Steve up the bleacher steps.
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The game had started a while ago, and finally, after a little over half the game, something interesting had happened.
One of the players on the opposing team had purposely collided with a player on the Tigers' team, injuring him enough for him to sit out for the rest of the game. That's when the coach had made the decision of taking Lucas off of the bench and putting him onto the court. "That coach is such an asshat. He's just now letting Lucas off the bench?" Valerie dryly scoffed, shaking her head at the sight of the aggravated coach. But she shook off her bitter feelings towards the man and shifted her focus back to Lucas, watching as he huddled with the rest of his team. "At least we're winning." Selina spoke, pointing at the scoreboard. "We're losing. We're the home team." Valerie replied, slightly raising an eyebrow at Selina. "Oh, never-mind." Selina said flatly, playing off her mistake with a careless shrug. "It's a close game, though. We're only down by two." Valerie said, Selina nodding in response.
From there on out, the team in the lead kept switching from one team to the other. The score remained tight between the teams, which only put more pressure on everyone. Right now, the score was 69-68, the opposing team winning.
Jason caught the pass thrown to him, turning around and shooting the ball from a fairly far distance. The ball hit the backboard harshly, causing it to bounce off and over the net. "Shit. That's game over." Valerie sighed. But she spoke too soon, because as the ball fell from the railing of the net, Lucas was the first to jump for the rebound, catching the ball and dribbling it away from the rest of the players. The room fell silent as the clock ticked down, leaving two seconds remaining. Everyone stood with their mouths gaped open as Lucas turned on his heels, shooting the ball right before the buzzer went off. The ball bounced off of the backboard, going in circles over the railing of the net. This could go one way or another. The ball could either fall right into the net—or it could go over the railing and fall onto nothing but the ground. After a couple seconds of the ball doing nothing but leaving everyone in suspense, it rolled off of the railing and into the net.
Valerie and Selina whipped their heads towards each-other, their eyes wide at the scene taking place. Every person in the gym that was rooting for Hawkins High erupted into cheers, jumping up and down at their win of the championship game. "Holy shit!" Valerie exclaimed, her face slightly tinged with red from the exhilaration she was feeling. Valerie turned her head towards Steve, only to see him have his head turned away from her and towards Brenda. She didn't know what she expected, considering Brenda was literally his date. Whatever. It didn't even really bother her anyway.
After the chaos and celebration in the gym died down a bit, everyone began to leave the school, still babbling about Lucas' winning shot.
"Don't get me wrong, I hate sports, okay? But that was pretty cool what Lucas did at the end." Selina said as her and Valerie walked to the car. "I'll take it since I'm still reeling over how you even came here in the first place." Valerie giggled.
Right when Valerie finished her sentence, she felt something trickle from her nose and down to her upper lip. "What the hell?" Valerie said, but her words came out muffled since she didn't want whatever was falling from her nose to get inside of her mouth. "What?" Selina asked, turning to look at Valerie. She wiped her upper lip, looking down at her thumb and seeing blood spread all over it. "Is that blood?" Selina asked. "Shit. Yeah. It's so dry and chilly outside, so that's probably why." Valerie sighed. "Can you start the car? I'm gonna clean this up." Valerie tossed the keys to Selina with the hand that didn't have blood on it. "Are you sure? I can come with you—" Selina began. "No—no, I'm okay. It's just a nosebleed." Valerie interrupted Selina as she began walking back to the building and towards the restroom.