In Which There is a Calm Before the Storm
Her father was brainwashed.
Okay, that was unfair. But whenever Valerie asked for information on Axion labs all he did was repeat the company line or hand her the standard bulletins that advertised its greatness—both for scientific advancement and as a place to work. No truth could be found.
"You're far too biased," her father said. "It's not a bad place. This is what it's like to work anywhere in America."
Well, maybe it shouldn't, she thought. Then she sat back in horror. When had she become the Manson girl? She sighed. "No funny business, Dad. I just want to talk to some of the people that work there."
He gave it some thought, furrowing his brow. "Well . . . if they're willing, fine. But actually listen to what they have to say, Valerie. No talking over them. They know their own lives better than you ever will."
It took a few days but he arranged for a couple of employees to speak with her a moment before his shift. (She had been forced to promise to go straight home.)
She had to repeat his advice to herself a million times in her head, because it was mind numbing. Sure, there were a few complaints: it could be short staffed, sometimes the raises did not come as fast as they wanted—that sort of thing. Overall, the tone was positive.
"What makes this such a good place to work?" she asked in complete disbelief.
"Good hours," one worker said. "And I actually get paid for all the time I work. Plus, I'm in the field I studied in."
Another added, "Solid benefits, top of the line technology and research to work with. Constantly modernizing. Plus, they finally got rid of those security dogs."
She flinched at the mention of the security dogs. Daddy had been in charge of the system that was installed as a replacement to them. Maybe they should have stayed. Certainly would have wasted less money than his last project.
That same worker apologized but she wasn't paying attention anymore.
All she could think about now was that day and she lost herself in her fury.
One dog, one day, and it had all come crashing down. She struggled to imagine a future in which she was over it. So many doors had closed to her after that. And she was stuck in Elmerton.
Anyway, talking to the employees wasn't working. There had to have been something that she could do. Then again, weren't her teachers always going on about how the simplest solutions were the best? So what would that be?
In order to figure that out, she had to go to the source. How had she wound up in this situation? Answer: Damon had been fired because his new security system had not been resistant against ghosts. But it wasn't like ghosts existing had been common knowledge. That was the people in charge's fault - the only people in the city who had even mentioned the subject outside of hypotheticals were the Fentons. And not to say that Mr. and Mrs. Fenton necessarily knew what they were talking about, but Amity Park lacked anyone else who might have useful information.
Maybe that was it. If she could get the word out that her father had been fired because Axion was afraid of ghosts but weren't even willing to talk to anyone who knew the science on the subject, she might be able to discredit them in the scientific community. Of course, there was the obvious problem:
Most people still thought ghosts didn't exist.
She had learned that one the hard way. When asked by a new neighbor why they'd moved, she had gone into a rant about the ghost boy and his dog. The neighbor had smiled politely and then seemed to always have an excuse to never speak to her again. People at Casper High were more willing to entertain the thought, thanks to the attacks by otherworldly beings in recent weeks, yet most seemed unwilling to accept the growing danger. Even less wanted to consider the implications this could have on their society if the ghosts kept coming. Not for the first time Valerie wished she had some way to fight back against the troublesome spooks. (She quietly checked out books on the subject anyway, like Ghost Killing for Dimwits.)
As far as she was concerned, the only thing she could do was wait it out. There had been multiple attacks on Casper High. Surely some of the students had to have told their parents. And some of those parents would have to believe them, right? Valerie supposed she had it easier: her father had seen the ghosts with his own two eyes.
But the truth would get out eventually. Ghosts were not as subtle as the folklore had led to her believe.
Valerie knew a job was necessary but it became so easy to put it on the backburner. After all, with child labor laws and her own lack of experience, there were a limited number of places that would willingly hire her. She was willing to work but if it was going to end up as unpleasant as she expected any job she gained was going to be, she would wait a while.
After the Ember concert, Paulina had gone from mocking her to outright ignoring her existence. In some ways, that was worse. Kwan and Star, who had never been as obsessed with popularity as some other popular kids, had gone back to speaking with her.
Though talking to Star was more difficult than it had once been. Sure, school was an easy topic but they could no longer do the same things for fun since Valerie could no longer afford them. The option of Star paying for her had been brought up once and discarded at her vehement refusal.
Valerie may have been poor - or working class or whatever she was - now but she had enough pride not to become that desperate.
Conversation these days tended to stay casual. They rolled their eyes at the nerds, Star helped protect her from any creepy stalker (like Nathan), Kwan chimed in about how the football team was doing, and they discussed the future. Not in depth, but in an abstract way - what they wanted to accomplish by the end of the school year, by graduation, where they wanted to be in life in a decade.
"I want to have my own house, a great job where I'm in a high position, and I want to live in a big city," Star said.
Valerie one hundred percent believed it. Unlike some of the other A-listers, Star was a good student but she was social and normal enough to avoid being a nerd. "What field?"
"Something in science, probably. Or engineering." She smiled at her boyfriend. "What about you, Kwan?"
He shrugged. "I don't know. Mom and Dad have their expectations but they know I'm not the best with numbers. Probably go into construction or something. They always have work, right? Or get a cushy office job. But I've got plenty of time."
She wished she could say the same. Valerie studied her hands in her lap. Since her father's savings had gone to keeping them from the streets, Valerie would need to start thinking about the future. Like yesterday. She would need top grades for potential scholarships. Joining a club might even be necessary. And she knew the C. A. T. was coming up. Not for a while but supposedly it determined your future. Every college used those scores to decide who got in.
If she did badly . . . Valerie refused to consider the possibility.
"What about you, Val?" asked Star.
She looked up. "What?"
"Where do you want to be in the future?"
"Out of Amity Park." Ghosts were here. Maybe if she left, she could have some peace of mind.
"I hear that," Kwan said. "It's so boring here. No one does anything except sports (which are great, of course) or go to Nasty Burger."
He should try Elmerton, Valerie thought. She had known Amity Park was a decent sized city but moving out of it had made this clearer than ever. The only thing her new area had was higher crime rates.
"But you don't know what you want to do, huh, Val?" Star turned to her again.
Valerie heaved a sigh. "I dunno. I'm still trying to get used to living in that apartment and not being able to buy things whenever I want." Plus, knowing what she now did about American labor law made work sound less appealing.
"Well, I'm with you. Paulina's fun to hang out with but she's wrong about you. Just because you don't have as much money doesn't mean you're not still cool."
"Thanks." Valerie picked her sandwich back up. "I needed to hear that."
As loath as she was to admit it, the new routine of her life grew familiar and even comforting. There were no more sightings of the ghost dog and the only time she heard about a ghost was on Halloween. Otherwise, life seemed to have finally begun to calm down.
Or as much as it could when ghost attacks had become something to expect.
"I still can't believe it," Star said one day on the phone after school. "Ghosts aren't supposed to be real."
Valerie rolled her eyes. "Tell me about it."
"Oh, right." She sounded a smidge remorseful. "But seriously, Valerie, what do you think they want?"
"I don't know. They're ghosts. It's like asking what animals want. They probably don't even think about how we're affected. I bet they just like scaring us, feedin' on our fear, and . . . uh, taking over the world? I mean, that sounds kind of like what that one Halloween ghost might have wanted?"
"I guess. But Valerie, why are they here? I mean, Amity Park was never normal but now it's always us."
"I think the Fentons did something," she said honestly. "They've been going on about ghosts since forever. Maybe the ghosts came here to get back at them?"
"Maybe. But where do you think that ghost boy came from?"
That was the one part of the theory she struggled to explain. The ghost boy could have been a new ghost or he could have been centuries old. She'd heard rumors of sightings of a ghost that sounded like him that went as far back as when Manson had gotten the cafeteria menu changed. But how long had he been here? Perhaps the Fentons had summoned him somehow. Or maybe he'd always been here and he was trying to keep both ghosts and hunters out of his haunt.
Regardless, she hated him and wished she had weapons to shoot him with.
"No idea. But he's going to get himself caught someday and then everyone will know how evil he is."
Author's Note: Next up is Public Enemies (and maybe some Lucky in Love, not sure yet). Public Enemies is one of those episodes that canon Valerie should have been in.