Chapter 23

Valerie scowled as she shoved more of her clothes into a box, cramming as much as she could into the single cardboard construction until it couldn't possibly hold anything more without bursting open. Everything felt like it was steadily spinning out of control, the world she was accustomed to crumbling into nothing. Ever since her father got fired from his job working as head of security for Axion Labs, they started with the packing process. When her father announced that they would have to move, Valerie was furious, couldn't understand why they needed to leave their home.

The home she grew up in. The home where all her memories were. The home that held everything that remained of her mother. Valerie could walk into the kitchen and recall her mother singing softly as she cooked. She could step into her father's bedroom and still smell the perfume that her mother always wore. She could sit in the den and hear her mother's laugh after her father did something goofy. A tiny grin tried to break through her glower as she remembered the little snort that would accompany her mother's laugh.

They would be leaving all that behind, leaving her mother behind. And for what reason? Valerie snatched up the boxing tape to close up the box filled to the brim with her clothes. Her father sat her down and explained it all to her. They had savings, sure, but they wouldn't last forever. With her father out of a job, they needed to be careful about their spending until he could find something stable. Selling the house was the first step to cutting costs. Her father already found a nice little two bedroom apartment for them that would be well within the budget he set for them. Valerie hadn't seen it yet, but she automatically hated it. Lifting the box from her bed, Valerie nearly fell over from the weight of having packed too much into it.

"Need some help, sweetie?" her father asked when he passed by her room.

"I've got it," Valerie growled, gritting her teeth as she carried the box out of her room. She refused to accept his help, still too angry over this whole being forced to move thing. She still hadn't even told any of her friends about what happened, about her father losing his job. That was a conversation that she still didn't know how to go about, but she held onto a little hope that her father could find a new job before she ever had to tell her friends. What could be worse than telling the rest of the In crowd that her father was jobless and they were moving to some crummy apartment?

Her hands squeezed around the sides of the box as she walked down the stairs and to the front door. All of this was that stupid Phantom program's fault. Next time, she wouldn't let that blasted Phantom escape her.

She grabbed hold of the doorknob, struggling with it and the box in her arms for a moment before she managed to twist it open. She wedged the door open farther so that she could carry the box to the truck parked outside the house. The box nearly slipped from her hands in her surprise to find two people standing on the doorstep of her house, one of them with her hand raised and poised for knocking on the door.

"Dash, Paulina," Valerie said, hardly believing they were standing right in front of her. "What are you doing here?"

"We heard about what happened and wanted to see how you are," Paulina explained, frowning at the other woman. The comment made Valerie tense up, wondering how they could have possibly known about her father losing his job. She hadn't told anyone about it. Her father hadn't talked much to anyone about it either.

"What's going on here, Val?" Dash asked with his blue eyes focused on the box in her hands.

Valerie blinked at him in confusion. "Wait. You didn't come over because you found out that my dad lost his job?" A sinking feeling dropped into the pit of her stomach like a cube of ice, settling there uncomfortably as other two teenagers stared at her shock at the question.

"Oh, Val!" Paulina patted the other woman on her arm. "We didn't know."

Dash reached up and rubbed at the back of his neck as he frowned. "We only heard that you got hurt last night at the game. We didn't hear how bad it was, so we wanted to check up on you."

Valerie turned her green eyes away from them at the memory of the football game. Perhaps it was stupid of her to linger behind when everyone else ran away. She hid around the side of the bleachers to watch the fight, knowing Phantom would likely show up because he was a nuisance like that. Even if she didn't have any means to attack Phantom, she wanted to do something to exact her vengeance upon him.

"It was just a gash on my leg. Didn't need more than a dozen stitches," Valerie told them, like the injury was hardly a big deal. She pushed past them to carry the box to the truck when Dash easily lifted it from her hands, taking it down to the truck for her.

"We had no idea about your dad." Paulina watched Dash before turning her emerald eyes back onto Valerie. "Where are you moving to?"

"Elmerton has the cheapest apartments," Valerie answered as she entered the house, and Paulina followed after her. "I'll still be attending Casper High though." But after it got out where she was living and about her dad being jobless, she wasn't all that sure she wanted to stay at Casper High. Already she was receiving those looks of pity from her friends. Paulina had a miserable look in her eyes as they walked up the stairs to Valerie's bedroom.

"That's great," Paulina said, trying to sound happy about it, but there was something in her voice.

Valerie knew what it was, having thought about that point herself already. The In crowd were popular, either because they were jocks or cheerleaders or they were rich, most being both. Valerie never made it onto the cheerleading squad. She never liked the idea of jumping around waving pompoms like an idiot, though she never said that out loud to Paulina. Now that she would have to be a bit tighter with her money, she didn't fit the category as rich either. She had no claim left to fitting in with the A list, and once that got out, she would be spending her lunches sitting alone, or worse with the losers of the school.

"I won't be able to get those concert tickets like I promised," Valerie said as they entered her bedroom. She grabbed another box to start cramming more of her stuff into it.

"Don't worry about that." Paulina shook her head, helping to gather various items from the bedroom to pack away.

"You don't have to play nice, Paulina." With a sigh, Valerie dropped onto her bed, the sheets already stripped off and packed away in one of the boxes within the truck. "As soon as we go to school on Monday, I'll be at the bottom of the social ladder and you'll be ignoring me with the rest of the In crowd." It hurt a lot, and not simply because she would be losing status within the school. They were her friends, the ones she spent all her time with in and out of school. Now she would be shunned by them. She would be without a single friend. Going to school was looking grimmer and grimmer to her with each passing moment.

Paulina frowned as she neatly folded a shirt and placed into one of the boxes. "We're still friends though, right?" She glanced at Valerie, like she was waiting for the other woman to dispute the claim.

"Paulina, we both know you live for the spotlight. You're not going to hang out with a loser and risk becoming an outcast yourself from the In crowd." Valerie shoved an old karate trophy from when she was in fourth grade into the box, glaring at the golden second place on the white stand. She stopped taking karate lessons before entering high school when she started getting more interested in things like fashion and becoming popular. Bitterness twisted inside her when she recalled that stupid Danny Fenton was invited over to Dash's house recently. Then she spotted Kwan chatting with the loser. It reminded her of her earlier ponderings about how Dash seemed to pick on the loser less often recently. What made that idiot so special that they would break social status rules to hang out with him?

"Well, maybe not in school," Paulina said. Was that actual guilt in her eyes? "But we could still hang out after school, right? I mean, there are plenty of reasons we could use as excuses. Like we got assigned some stupid project to do together for class. Or lab homework. I mean, we are lab partners after all." She grinned, but it didn't quite reach her eyes.

Valerie stood up and walked over to the other woman. "What's the deal with the loser?" She folded her arms as she glared into Paulina's eyes.

"What?" Paulina stumbled over the word as she blinked in confusion. "What loser?"

"Don't play dumb. I know Danny might be in your theater class, but the three of you all seem to be acting weird around him." Valerie placed her hands on her hips as her green eyes narrowed a touch more. "Nice weird."

"We're just trying to get the whole thing done for class," Paulina explained with a shrug. "It goes a lot faster when Dash and Kwan aren't harassing the loser."

"Who aren't we harassing?" Dash questioned as he entered the bedroom, probably looking for more boxes to carry down to the truck for Valerie, which she found strange from the man. Dash always struck as the type that didn't care much about helping other people, with the way he bullied the losers at school. Valerie frowned in thought at him, wondering if perhaps she didn't know him all that well after all.

"You," Valerie pointed a finger right in Dash's face, nearly jabbing it right against the bridge of his nose, "don't pick on Danny all that much since school started. What's the deal with that?"

Dash made a face as he snorted at the question. "It's a busy year. It's not like the teachers go easy on us just because we're seniors. I gotta put some of my time toward homework so I can graduate." He folded his arms, leaning back against the wall. "Unlike some jocks, I actually plan on going to college."

Valerie knew exactly who Dash meant by that comment. Since the decline in Dash's bullying activity, his fellow jock Calvin Williams was picking up the slack on the bullying in school, though he had yet to get around to harassing Danny. The thought of Calvin, though, made Valerie groan at the idea of going to school on Monday. She didn't look forward to him trying to pick on her like the other losers. But if he did try anything, Valerie wasn't going to be the type that simply sat back and took the harassment. He would learn that she was no pushover.

"Oh, your friends are over," her father said when he peeked into her room as he passed with yet another box of things to pack away in the truck. "That's fine, but don't dally too long. We need to be ready to go before it gets dark."

"We're here to help," Dash said as he and Paulina both got back to filling up the boxes with Valerie's things.

"Oh, well, in that case, why don't I order us some pizza in about an hour?"

"Sounds good, Dad." Valerie smiled sweetly at her father until he walked off down the hallway. "You guys don't really have to stay and help. I'm sure you have more exciting things to do with your weekend."

Paulina shrugged, brushing some of her long ebony hair behind an ear as she glanced briefly at some of the framed pictures that sat on Valerie's desk before they disappeared into a box. "We're here already. We might as well help. It'll make things go faster. Then you won't have to spend the whole day packing by yourself."

"You know, if this was three years ago, you probably would never say something like that," Valerie pointed out, shoving some books into a box.

"Yeah, well," Paulina offered with a shrug. "People don't stay the same forever."

"Unless you're Williams," Dash pointed out in a grumble.

Paulina rolled her eyes, despite the truth of the comment. "And you can't always judge someone on appearance."

"Except for Calvin." Valerie grinned when Dash frowned at her beating him to saying it. "Well, I'm glad you're both not how everyone thinks you are." It was going to suck not getting to hang out with them during school, but she was happy that they weren't already cutting her out of their lives.

DARKLOVEFORFANFICTION123: Thanks~ =)

Sammi: All shall be revealed in good time. =)

midnight: Yup! =) The virus Skulker's been talking to is definitely a canon character.

maltese: Oh? =)