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CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: people will come and go _______________________________ THREE MONTHS LATER. ____________________________
HAWKINS MAY'VE BEEN SAFE FOR THE TIME-BEING, BUT THAT DIDN'T ERASE THE EFFECT THAT THE NIGHT OF JULY 4, 1985 HAD ON THE ENTIRE TOWN.
So many lives were lost in both the process of creating the Mind Flayer, and in the process of defeating the Mind Flayer. The list of names of the people who had perished could go on forever. It felt as if Hawkins had a permanent destruction spell casted on the town. Every year, some mysterious, life-threatening creature would come back stronger than the year before. It felt like a yearly routine they'd dreaded to return to, except the consequences would only get worse and worse.
As for Valerie's life, Melina had left Hawkins back in late August to return to her job, her goodbye to Valerie being non-existent.
Nova Delarouz appeared to be long-gone when Valerie returned from the events of Starcourt. . Weird.
Steve, Robin, Selina, and Valerie all stayed in touch, obviously. But, it was safe to say that the status of Steve and Valerie's relationship was sort of.. all over the place?
Considering Steve admitted his feelings for Valerie after they'd been drugged and kidnapped (which Valerie thinks was terrible timing), things weren't necessarily normal between them. But the good thing was, things weren't necessarily awkward either. They both secretly knew that eventually, they'd have to take a turn down memory lane and talk about it. . But Valerie was pretending as if that situation had never even happened! If Steve were to bring up that exact topic, she'd play dumb and convince him that she wasn't aware of what he was referring to. Why? Well, mainly because she would like to think that she doesn't return those feelings for Steve, and that their relationship is completely platonic. Whatever! She'll come to her senses eventually. As of right now, Valerie had a job to get done.
One of the effects of the battle at Starcourt, was that every person who had worked at the Starcourt Mall, were now jobless due to the building being burnt down and destroyed. So in other words, Steve and Robin no longer had a job to keep them busy throughout the year, which initially sounded pretty good, until they remembered that that also means they wouldn't be receiving a paycheck. So, the moment they found out that Family Video was hiring, they didn't hesitate to apply for the job. Now, even though Valerie wasn't applying to get a job there, Robin insisted on her tagging along for emotional support, along with Selina, but the blonde claimed it was too early in the morning. . It was 12:00 p.m.
"Wait, what's the plan again?" Steve asked, Valerie sighing since she's already explained this to Steve twice. "Okay, so, you and Robin are gonna walk in there, looking professional and job-worthy. That's step one. Then, I'm just gonna stand in one of the aisles, minding my own business. And if things happened to take a wrong turn, I'd step in." Valerie explained. "But you aren't even applying. ." Steve replied. "Yeah, but chances are, whoever's at that front counter will know exactly who she is, so they'll probably let us in just because she's with us." Robin shrugged. "Well, if they do happen to know Valerie, wouldn't they know me?" Steve questioned. "Yes, but I don't think you need a reminder of how that turned out for you when we were stuck scooping ice cream for a living. I mean, clearly the ladies knew who you were but that still got you nowhere, no offense." Robin replied. "Several taken." Steve huffed as he pulled the car into the Family Video parking lot. "You put your mom down as a reference?" Robin questioned, looking down at Steve's job application as they each got out of the car. "Did he really?" Valerie asked, looking over at the sheet of paper in Robin's hands. "Yeah. Why not? She's like, super well-respected." Steve shrugged. "You're such a dingus." Robin shook her head, swinging off of the pole and through the doors as Valerie and Steve followed her.
