Summary: Friends keep each other's secrets, but Valerie doesn't often find herself being confided in by certain A Listers.
Characters: Valerie, Paulina, and Danny
Written: November 2015
Note: This is set after chapter 75 of Spectacular Specter.

Chapter 75.5

Valerie sighed as she closed her locker door. When she heard about the curfew being lifted - Finally, the mayor stopped being an idiot! - she expected to overhear something to nail Officer Walker with. The man had to be furious about having the mayor overrule him. Valerie smirked when she imagined what his reaction must have been. She suspected lots of yelling and throwing of furniture. Officer Walker didn't strike her as the type of man to take that kind of thing well. Maybe she would have better luck when she went to spy on him tonight.

"Hey, Val."

Valerie almost jumped. She allowed her thoughts to distract her, dulling her awareness of her surroundings. When she was out on patrol, she had to be careful of doing that, or she would let her opponents get the upper hand on her. She turned to find Paulina standing behind her. The Hispanic woman chewed on her lower lip as she hugged a few textbooks to her chest. Unsurprisingly, Paulina dressed in a pink knitted sweater. Paulina loved the color, and while it wasn't Valerie's favorite, she never saw it as a reason to think badly of her, like being girly somehow made her anti-feminist. Or liking popular things somehow made her less unique as a person. Any head butting between them came from fighting to be most popular in school.

"Oh, hey, Paulina. What's up?" Valerie shouldered her bag with a curious lift of her eyebrows.

"I was wondering," Paulina glanced around the hall, seeming nervous about something, "if we could talk about something. Um, in private?"

Valerie blinked at the request. Usually when she wanted to divulge private information to someone, Paulina would pull Star off somewhere. Valerie hated to admit it actually made her feel a little left out. If they were going to have some private girl talk, why wouldn't she be invited too? But she guessed sometimes there were things Paulina only wanted to tell her best friend.

"Uh, yeah, sure." Valerie shrugged a shoulder like it was no big deal. She was curious, though, why Paulina wanted to tell her something private instead of talking to Star. "Where do you wanna talk?" There were plenty of places in the high school where students could sneak off for a private conversation, or something else. Not that Valerie had ever done that, but she wasn't stupid. She knew some students liked to make out in those secret spots.

"Oh, we can go to that spot by the library," Paulina suggested leading the way down the hall.

Valerie followed her, still wondering what all of this was about. Other students they passed headed the other way, toward the cafeteria for lunch. At the thought of food, her stomach growled. She didn't want to be insensitive, but she kind of hoped this talk wouldn't take long because she was hungry.

The area around the library was fairly quiet at this time. Around the side of it, there was a little nook where students could sneak off to and not be seen by other students passing by the area. Valerie leaned back against the wall and waited patiently for her friend to speak.

Paulina paced a few times in front of Valerie as she chewed on a thumbnail. "Okay. So I've kind of told a few people about this already. Jazz," she shrugged helpless, "and Danny. I even went to Ms. Spectra."

Valerie sucked in a hissing breath as she cringed. She couldn't imagine Ms. Spectra being helpful no matter what the problem was. It was one of the reasons she had avoided the counselor whenever Ms. Spectra tried to get her into her office. The woman seemed too forceful and wouldn't listen when a person said they weren't ready to talk about something.

"Yeah." Paulina frowned. "That was a big mistake. But I thought I needed to talk to someone about this. I mean, Jazz was helping me, but..." She trailed off, lowering her gaze. "Anyway, and Danny tried being nice and understanding, but even he suggested I really talk to someone about it."

"And you came to me?" Valerie was baffled. She figured she would be the last person Paulina would come to with any delicate information about herself.

"Well, the guys," Paulina's mouth pursed, "I know they can be accepting, but I don't know. I guess I just don't feel comfortable telling them about this yet." With a sigh, she joined Valerie leaning against the wall. "And, well, I can't really tell Star."

Valerie's brow crinkled as she stared at the other woman. Why would Paulina not be able to tell her best friend about something? "I'm sure she'd understand whatever it is."

"Maybe." But Paulina didn't sound convinced. "You see, the thing is, I realized I was asexual."

"Oh." Valerie's mouth formed a little "o" as the words hit her. Kwan was a pretty understanding guy, so she didn't doubt he would accept this side of Paulina. Dash - Well, Dash sometimes wasn't the most sensitive person around, but he did seem to try to be accepting of others sexuality. He could have chosen to harass Danny a lot worse simply because Danny came out as bisexual, but that was probably the one thing Dash didn't use against Danny.

"It's a little weird, isn't it?" Paulina stared at the floor like there was some interesting pattern on the tiles.

"What? No!" Valerie answered, a knee jerk response. "I mean, okay. A little weird. But not like you are weird. Just, you know," she shrugged, "you've always dressed up and made yourself look pretty. And you go on all those dates with guys."

Paulina cracked a small smile. "I always felt like when the time was right, I'd want it. That's how it was supposed to work. That's what everyone says and stuff. But I just," she lifted her gaze to Valerie, "don't feel that way. I really thought something was broken with me."

"If anyone tells you something like that, they're a moron," Valerie told her seriously. "And I'll give them a good punch for you." She smacked a fist into her other hand with a loud slap.

"Thanks," Paulina said with a light chuckle. Then she chewed on her lip, nervousness creeping into her eyes. "I bet you're wondering why I'm telling you this instead of Star."

"It'd be a lie if I said no." Valerie scratched at the side of her head. "You and Star have always been the closest two out of the three of us. It would make more sense for you to confide in her."

Paulina winced. "I don't suppose you have advice for how to get over someone."

"Ah, well," Valerie frowned, "that, um, I think that's different for everyone. Because we process our emotions differently, so how I would get over someone may not work for-" Her eyes widened and her mouth hung open as she stared at Paulina. "No!" she gasped, utterly shocked by the connection her brain made. "You," she pointed at the other woman, "and Star?"

Paulina's cheeks flushed cutely pink. "Not being sexually attracted to people doesn't mean I can't be romantically attracted to someone." She looked away, rubbing a hand at the back of her neck. "At least, that's what I read when I was researching stuff about asexuality. There's different spectrums to the different sexualities. Did you know you could romantically attracted to the same sex but not sexually attracted to them? I never realized it was all so much more complex than just straight and gay."

"You sound like you're having fun looking into it all though."

"It's kind of fascinating once you get into it." Paulina breathed out like she had finally gotten rid of a huge weight. "I just really needed a friend to talk to about all of this. Jazz isn't here anymore. Ms. Spectra was a horrible idea. And Danny, well, he's great, but we're not really friends. You know?"

Valerie nodded. "I'll always be a friend you can lean on." She was surprised when Paulina pulled her into a hug, but she patted her friend on the back. "I'm sorry I don't really know how to get over your feelings for Star. Sometimes, you just gotta let that work itself out."

"Yeah," Paulina said, sighing, "I just - Sometimes it would be nice to have a way to just move on quickly without having to go through it. It's really hard sometimes! I have to cheerlead for her with her boyfriend when I'm thinking the whole time 'why can't it be me?' But I don't want to be that jerk who purposely breaks up their crush's relationship just to get with them."

Valerie hugged her tightly. She could imagine how difficult that situation was for Paulina. Before she could say anything else, she felt her phone buzz against her hip. "Ah, sorry." She pulled out of the hug and grabbed her phone. When she saw who the caller was, she frowned. "I should take this. It's the hospital."

Paulina nodded. "Answer it!" She shooed her hands at Valerie.

With a shaky breath, Valerie accepted the call. "H-Hello?"

"Ah, Ms. Gray!" her father's doctor said. "I know this probably isn't the most convenient time for you with school, but I thought you would like to hear right away. Your father woke up a few minutes ago."

Valerie froze, almost disbelieving what she heard. "W-What? Really?"

"Yes," the doctor answered with a smile in his voice. "We'd like to keep him in the hospital for monitoring for a while to make sure there's been no brain damage. But hopefully soon, your father will be back home with you."

Valerie placed a hand to her mouth and had to fight back tears. "Thank you for letting me know." When she hung up the phone, they stood there in a tense silence.

"Well?" Paulina asked, biting back the hope in her voice. "What did they say?"

Valerie stared at her phone, almost shaking after hearing the news. Then she turned her gaze to Paulina. "My dad woke up."

Paulina gasped then grabbed hold of Valerie's arm. "You have to go to the hospital. Right away! You need to be there for him. I'll make sure to get any homework and class notes for you."

Valerie knew that, but the news about her father had stunned her so much she couldn't move until Paulina urged her to go. "Thanks!" she said, shoving her phone back into her pocket. "Sometime over the weekend, we should have a girls day." She hugged Paulina before she dashed out of the hidden away nook and down the hall.

She was passing near the cafeteria when someone stepped out of the double doors. Valerie nearly collided with the man, almost stumbled to the floor when she tried to swerve out of the way, but the man caught her by the arm and helped to steady her. Winded from the sprint, she held onto his arm to keep her steady.

"What's going on?" he asked, concern in his blue eyes.

"Danny!" Valerie grabbed onto his shoulders, nearly shaking him. "My dad's awake! I'm going to see him."

"That's great!" Danny clapped a hand over one of her hands. Relief flooded his eyes. "I'm so glad."

Valerie smiled. She couldn't help it. The news was too good not to be filled with happiness. "I gotta go!" She released her hold on him as he nodded. Then she rushed down the hall again.

YumiStar: XD Technus is quite stubborn!

Tetractys: Indeed! But maybe this is the first step he needed in letting it go.