In Which Valerie is Vindicated and Gets a Job

Never in her life had she been so unhappy to be right.

It all started with the invasion of the ghosts. Neither Valerie nor her father were surprised when the ghosts finally decided to do a full-on assault. The last few months had felt like testing the waters for exactly this sort of scenario. The spooks had come out of nowhere on a usual day, swooping through the sky and immediately began to terrorize Amity Park.

To Valerie's surprise, her father's workplace seemed to have avoided most of the crossfire.

The Grays lived in a small apartment in Elmerton, rather than the greater city of Amity Park, but the news was all over the moment it happened. The television channels were full of live footage of ghosts attacking citizens, causing lots of property damage, and general mayhem.

Daddy had considered not even letting her go back to school but Principal Ishiyama had insisted that she and Mayor Montez had hired a special ghost consultant whose advice would help keep Valerie and the other Casper High students safe.

It turned out to be the Fentons, of course.

Oh, yeah, Valerie said to herself. Now you want to go to the ghost hunters. Just when an invasion might put your poll numbers in jeopardy. Not after all the other times ghosts had been attacking in the area. Then again, she had never liked the mayor. Daddy hadn't even voted in the last election, insisting both candidates were equally corrupt and fake.

Immediately after the new ground rules were set, Valerie took to keeping her head down and hiding in her room at home. There was not much else to do anymore.

She hated feeling so weak, so powerless. Stupid ghosts.

Each day was a chore to get through. The students and faculty alike seemed to be constantly panicking. The ones who weren't gave off a disturbing calm.

Something wasn't right. And not just the obvious.

The invasion ended as abruptly as it began. One day, the ghosts were still everywhere, the next they had disappeared. But not before the news got evidence of the ghost boy attacking the mayor, who cried out for help.

This wasn't as satisfying as she had hoped it would be. Sure, now everyone knew that the ghost boy was the threat she'd been saying he was for months. But those who disagreed—like some of her former popular friends—pushed back against the narrative. Dash and Paulina were the most vocal in their opposition to the idea that the ghost boy was anything other than a hero.

And the authorities having branded him public enemy number one had not made the ghost kid any more likely to be captured. The ghost was as slippery as ever, only sighted when a ghost attack took place and then disappeared as soon as it ended.

She decided to push the whole ghost matter to the back of her mind.

This turned out to be fortunate, because the ghost boy (who the media was calling Invisobill) was getting more publicity now than ever.

Valerie was focused on only one thing: getting a job. It alienated her from some of her peers since it meant she went straight home or to places that offered employment opportunities to young people, but left as soon as she was offered an application. Even Star and Kwan were scarcely in her presence these days.

She mostly focused on her grades and filling out applications at different places (mostly fast food places, to her chagrin) but she was not ignorant of what went on at Casper High. Because, apparently, Paulina had a new boyfriend: Danny Fenton. And that led to Fenton making the A-list, kicking Kwan out of the exclusive club.

Valerie couldn't even try to help Kwan through it, because he'd taken to interacting with Fenton's old friends. Star, meanwhile, was dating Foley for some reason. She considered Star a great friend but, just like Paulina, she cared too much about social etiquette even when it didn't offer you any benefit.

It took a week but she was offered an interview at two places. Her dad, after having been told, sat her down and gave her a long lecture about how to nail a job interview.

"How many of them did you have to do?" she asked.

Dad smiled. "More than you can imagine. I had jobs in high school, too, and several in college before I eventually got my way to Axion."

"And it's always the same?"

"Pretty much. It'll differ depending on how high the turnover rate is, and also if it's more exclusive in its hiring. But you're in high school and only a freshman, so any job that'll take you is bound to be low pay and have short hours. So, they'll likely hire anyone available who's capable. And you're more than that, sweetie."

"Dad!" Valerie gave an embarrassed shrug. "I think I'll be okay, but this'll be hard, right?"

"Yes," he admitted. "Fast food is considered low skilled work but that does not make it easy. Customers can be extremely high maintenance and the policy at these kinds of places is that the 'customer is always right.' Keep your head down, don't complain where your manager can hear it, and learn to deal with annoying co-workers."

Her first interview received no response back. Her second was at the aptly named Nasty Burger. Even just walking inside the place for her interview filled her nose with the wafting smell of greasy food.

Valerie followed her father's tips. She kept a smile on her face, insisted that she wanted to contribute to the company, said that she was good with people and communication, including kids, and promised to be a team player. When asked about her young age, she said, "I'm getting a head start on my entrance into the workforce because I have a lot to offer."

As fake as she felt after the whole thing, she did get hired on—as the mascot, Nasty Nat. Valerie almost turned down the offer, having seen the other person performing their duties before. It looked tortuous.

But she needed the money.

Her first shifts at work were awful but soon became routine. The best part about being such a young worker was the limited amount of hours that child labor laws allowed. She couldn't imagine doing this full-time. When she saw the co-worker who picked up the job after Valerie's own shift, she asked her, "How do you do it?"

The woman, Marcy, sighed. "I think about feeding my family, about having a job that's close to home, and remembering that my life could always be worse. For you, it'll be different."

It gave her a lot to think about.

And so those became the words that got her through each day at school, at work, where her father was still trying to work his way back up the ladder. It could be worse, she reminded herself. But this was not defeatism. It could be worse but it won't be. I'll make it better. I just need to put in the work.

Author's Note: Next chapter is when I finally get to add Danny to the story. I am unsatisfied with the original Life Lessons (Danny was in the right, Valerie was 100 percent in the wrong, but the episode didn't treat it like that) so I'll be changing things. Since Valerie's not a ghost hunter, I have other ideas for how they could start to get along.