Chapter 37
Valerie glanced past the woman sitting opposite her and wasn't surprised to see several of the other A list members shooting them unhappy glares. Star and Calvin seemed particularly furious with the new arrangement since lunch that day. Valerie wasn't all that surprised that Star would be angry over it since without Valerie around, Star was able to latch onto Paulina to bump up her social status even more. Turning her green eyes onto Paulina, Valerie wondered if the other woman even realized how her actions caused a ripple effect through the school. She could already see it happening even while they sat in the Nasty Burger to hang out after school. Tony, who usually stuck to Calvin's side, currently sat at a different table with two of the nerds from school. They were too far away for Valerie to overhear their conversation, but they seemed to be deep in discussion about something that made Tony very excited. She smiled at that, thinking maybe it would do the school some good to have people from different rungs on the social ladder mingling with each other. Maybe it would help with the bullying problem that arose when labels were placed upon people.
"I don't know about you," Paulina said, frowning as her emerald gaze glanced back at the A lists behind her, "but I think I'm ready to get out of here."
Valerie couldn't agree more as she followed Paulina in leaving the booth and heading for the exit of the Nasty Burger. The chance to hang out with Paulina like they used to was great, but they didn't have room to breathe, let alone chat privately, when people kept hovering around them like vicious hawks the way the rest of the In crowd was doing currently.
"Where did Dash and Kwan run off to?" Valerie asked after they stepped outside as they sky started to turn dark.
"Probably went back to Dash's house," Paulina explained, leading the way to her car. "We're sort of playing keep away with Kwan's family." She gave a weak laugh as she unlocked the doors.
"Oh," Valerie mumbled, nodding in understanding as they both climbed into her car. She knew things weren't great with Kwan's family, especially with his older brother being back in the house, and now at school too. She glowered as she remembered that point. Couldn't Jing leave Kwan alone to live his own life? The man was lucky she didn't flat out deck him when he approached her at the Nasty Burger. "I'd offer, but I doubt Kwan really wants to hang out in my dinky apartment over in West Elmerton." Even she didn't want to hang out there, but she didn't really have the option to live anywhere else.
"Well, you know Kwan." Paulina started the car and pulled out of the spot where she parked. "He probably wouldn't care where you live as long as he's getting to hang out with a friend."
"That's true." Valeria bit the inside of her cheek as she glanced over at the other woman, still dressed in the ridiculous hippie styled clothing. "Are you sure wearing that was the best idea?"
"Of course," Paulina answered firmly and sent a smirk to her. "I couldn't let Danny win that bet."
"Bet he wasn't counting on your competitive side." Valerie chuckled, almost feeling sorry for the man. "But what I meant was," she sighed, "you don't have to lower your social standing to hang out with me. I don't want to drag you down with me."
"You know, Danny's a pretty good guy." Paulina glanced at Valerie with a look in her emerald eyes. "He made me realize that I was pretty bad friend. I distanced myself from you at school because you weren't part of the A list anymore. A good friend wouldn't do that. A good friend would stick by another friend no matter what. And I still would have done it, even without the bet. Because I've missed hanging out with you. The bet just meant that I could dress Danny up some more." She grinned wickedly at that idea.
Valerie rolled her eyes, but the whole thing at least gave Paulina and Sam something to bond over, otherwise lunch would have turned into battlefield between the two women. "I've missed hanging out with you, and Dash and Kwan, too. The rest of the A list I could do without." Her smile fell as she lowered her gaze. "But I've also liked hanging out with Sam, Danny, and Tucker." She laughed. "I still can't believe Sam attacked Star like that, but it was awesome to see."
"Star refused, naturally, to give the full details on that," Paulina said, giving her friend a curious look. "So what went down that day?"
"You know me. I can take care of myself in a fight." Valerie lifted one arm, bent at the elbow, and patted the nice hard muscle there.
"Anyone that's gone to your karate matches knows you're not one to pick a fight with." Paulina laughed, having been to more than a few of Valerie's matches long before they entered high school and things like social standings got in the way.
"Well, Star was being her usual self, slinging poorly put together insults aimed at me." Valerie sighed at the mere memory of Star's insults. Sometimes Valerie thought the blonde woman was lucky that she even managed to learn to walk upright. Star's insults were absolutely dreadful. "Anyway, I pretty much just ignored her because listening to anything she says is pretty pointless. And I could snap her like a twig without breaking a sweat if I really wanted."
"So how did Sam factor in to this?"
"I guess she overheard Star talking. Star was planning to humiliate me during gym." Valerie rolled her eyes. "I didn't think much of it. I wasn't going to let the rest of them get to me. But something she said, I missed it because I stopped paying attention to her, set Sam off, and in the next moment, Star was screaming her lungs out. Man, that move Sam pulled on her was awesome. She could have been a terror if she trained in karate too."
Valerie still couldn't believe it, almost. After how poorly she treated Sam and her friends, Valerie didn't think the Goth would actually step up to defend her for any reason. Maybe there was something of respect between them, in a strange way. Before things started going downhill for her, they almost seemed to hate each other, but their confrontations were always something that was a head on approach. They didn't go about behind the back to get at one another. Their fight was a verbal one, slinging words like daggers. Now that they were in the same social circle, their rivalry turned to an alliance.
"I wish I had been there to see that!" Paulina sighed in disappointment.
"I wish I had my phone at the time so I could have snapped some pictures of it." Valerie grinned, remembering the look on Star's face. When she glanced out the window of the car, she realized they were nearing the apartment building where she now lived with her father. "So," she said slowly as she turned her gaze back to the woman beside her, "how long has this thing with Dash crushing Danny been going on?"
"So you noticed that?"
Valerie laughed at the sly grin that spread onto Paulina's face. "Anyone that had enough sense to be observant would be able to spot it if they looked." She shrugged. "But at least he's more subtle in his attraction toward someone than, say, Tucker."
"Yeah, Tucker isn't exactly the smoothest guy when he comes to flirting with a girl, is he?" Paulina snickered before recovering her composer. "Sorry." She winced. "Maybe you can knock some sense into him."
"It seems Danny keeps telling Tucker to just be himself around someone he likes. Tucker isn't really listening." Sighing, Valerie shook her head. Tucker really wouldn't be so bad if he didn't keep using all those horrible lines or trying as hard as he did to impress someone. It was mildly impressive when he tried to stand up to Ryan the other day, but Tucker didn't exactly have the muscle to back him up. "I can see Dash liking Danny though." She nodded in thought. "Danny has that nice guy vibe to him. You know, like, even if you're a dick to him, he'll give you a second chance." She frowned somewhat as she remembered Danny leaving quickly after she joined them at the Nasty Burger, like he was anxious to get away from her.
Paulina sighed as she parked her car outside the apartment building. "Dash didn't want the whole school finding out he was gay at the beginning of the year because, you know, star football player being gay wouldn't exactly blow over all that well, especially before the end of the season." She leaned back in her seat as she folded her arms. "I can understand his thinking there. But at least he had Kwan and me to lean on. The problem is," she frowned as she turned to Valerie, "and I may have broken friendship code with this," she winced, "I let it slip to Danny about Dash's feelings because the guy is being just so slow about it." She huffed in exasperation. "But Danny pretty much said he didn't think it would work out between him and Dash."
"And he didn't say it was because he was straight?" Valerie admitted there would be some disappointment if Danny was gay. He would probably be a pretty good and caring boyfriend, if any woman gave him the chance, though sadly, Valerie would be among the number of women that shot him down if he asked her on a date in the past.
"He said he hadn't really thought about it. But I wouldn't be surprised if he came to school on Monday and announced he was gay. There's just that," Paulina struggled for a moment, "vibe with him."
"I don't think forcing him into a dress will help any denial he tries to make." Valerie laughed, already imagining Danny in the outfits that Paulina and Sam discussed during lunch. She glanced up at the apartment building and frowned at the state of it. "I guess I should get going." She sighed as she turned back to Paulina. "It's been great hanging out with you today." She grunted when Paulina suddenly threw herself at her, drawing her into a fierce hug.
"I'm really sorry about treating you like that," Paulina said, squeezing her arms gently around the other woman.
Valerie patted her on the back. "It's okay. I would have done the same if our positions were reversed. I'm just happy that you still want to be my friend." She laughed as Paulina pulled away. "I think I'd be a bit worried about you if you let Star replace me."
"You're irreplaceable, Val." Paulina grinned at her before a shudder ran through her. "And no way could Star ever take over as my best friend."
After saying their goodbyes, Valerie grabbed her book bag from the backseat and got out of the car. At the door, she turned and waved to Paulina before disappearing into the building. She headed up to the floor with their apartment, checking if her neighbor was around and on the lookout for someone to sucker into babysitting duty for the night. With a relieved sigh, she entered her apartment.
"Are you home, Dad?" Valerie called as she headed toward her room to drop off her book bag.
"Just getting ready to go," Mr. Gray answered and appeared in the doorway to her room a moment later.
Valerie gave her father a look, resisting the urge to laugh, as she walked over and adjusted the tie on his uniform. As she fixed the lopsided tie, she recalled the events from earlier that day. Once again, Phantom was in her crosshairs. He was injured by that virus, and she could have easily taken him out then and there. Despite the hate and anger fueling her, she couldn't ignore what Phantom told her and what he did. Phantom protected her from getting injured by that virus she thought she killed. This whole time, she thought she was able to take out viruses where others had failed, but Phantom slapped her in the face with the reality that she hadn't stopped any of those viruses. It was a hard fact to accept after she thought so firmly that she was making a difference in her fight against the viruses, as well as not being to actually kill Phantom with her weapons.
"Dad," Valerie said hesitantly as she glanced up at him. "Um, about that incident that got you fired." She bit her lower lip in uncertainty.
"What about it, Sweetie?" Mr. Gray smoothed down his tie and shirt.
"It was Phantom, right?" Hope snuck its way into her voice. "It was all Phantom's fault that you got fired, right?" Valerie was practically begging in her head for him to say that it was, like she needed the blame to be all on Phantom.
"Well," Mr. Gray said with a slight frown, "we reviewed the tapes from that incident, and there was another virus that came in and started destroying everything. Phantom appeared afterward and seemed to be trying to stop it." He laid a hand on her shoulder. "I know it would be easy just to blame things on Phantom, or even that virus, but it wouldn't change anything. Life deals out bad hands all the time. You just have to learn to roll with the punches. I don't like that I lost my job and we had to move, but as long as I still have you, life can keep throwing me curve balls. We'll make it somehow. Together."
When her father smiled, Valerie almost felt guilty about getting so angry over everything that happened. How could her father not be mad? But staring into her father's eyes, she could see that to him nothing else mattered as long they were still together. Things were difficult for both of them after her mother died, but they got through it together, leaning on each other for support. But she held back on telling him about the suit and fighting viruses. She didn't want him to get angry or worry about her.
"I love you, Dad." Valerie hugged him tightly.
"I love you too, Sweetie." Mr. Gray leaned down and kissed her on top of the head. "I've got another late night, and I know it's a Friday night, but try not to stay up too late."
"I won't, Dad. And remember to pick up something for dinner." Valerie gave him a firm glare when she stepped back. She knew he wasn't always good about picking up dinner when working the graveyard shift. After saying that he would remember, Mr. Gray left to make it to work on time. Walking over to her desk, Valerie sat down to start on her homework, though her mind was still turning over everything from that day.
swagdanny: Haha. XD I think Danny has enough relationship problems? *shot* Valerie could probably take Tucker more seriously if he wasn't, you know, such a flirt. XD;;
Sammi: If only it happened in the show! D: Well, there was that time in Pirate Radio where they all worked together. XD;;
midnight: Vlad does have a heart! XD Hahaha~ Yes! The healing skill is quite useful. Danny probably wishes that he learned it ages ago. XD;;
Just Will: They were kind of cool. Although sometimes, it felt like he randomly had powers that showed up once then got forgotten. Like that time he had telekinesis or when he could lift a freaking bus full of children, yet two seasons prior he could barely keep flying while carrying his dad? Haha, I guess Lancer could always do that. And when some kid asks why they have to write up excuses for skipping class, Lancer would just be like "Because I'm the teacher and I say you have to." XD;; If only Dash would stop looking in the wrong direction. DX The GIW. *sighs* They're always making a big mess of things, aren't they? orz There probably will be a few things that Danny picks up that Vlad didn't. Or at least one major thing. XD;;;