𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥

022. Everything Okay?

    

     MAX COULDN'T sleep so when Steve took the next watch, Val told him to make sure she gets some sleep before sitting down by Nancy who's laying down and fell asleep there on the floor next to her, sighing softly.

She fell asleep not long after, Robin took the watch after Max and mostly watched Val as she slept from where she was sitting. When Lucas took watch next, he kept making sure she was listening to that Kate Bush song. Then when Nancy got up to take the next watch, she smiled at Robin and Val laying to her side who are holding onto each other.

After Nancy's watch, was Dustin and she got to go to sleep. Dustin kept making sure Max get some rest on where she laid on the couch. Dustin took the rest of the night's watch, overtiring himself when he got up to three hours worth of watching her, because then he fell asleep there, beside Lucas and Steve.

Val had woken up at some point to rustling and sat up slowly. "Max?" She calls out and saw the girl grabbing some stuff from her bag. "I can't sleep... I have to do something first." She said and Val gently checks the watch on Nancy's wrist. 9:30 am, she glanced to the others and saw that they were still sleeping so she slowly got up. "Okay, we can head upstairs, check if the other Wheelers are up." She yawns quietly, rubbing her eyes.

"I've been smelling pancakes and coffee for the past two minutes, so I think they are." She shrugs and at the mention of coffee, Val beams and gestured Max to follow her up the stairs where they enter the kitchen. "Oh, Max, Valerie. Good morning." Karen Wheeler so kindly greets the pair walking in. "Good morning, Mrs. Wheeler." Val smiles.

"Good morning, Mrs. Wheeler." Max repeated, her headphones of her walkman around her neck as she went over to the table where Holly was seated, colouring with crayons. "Do you need any help?" Val offers as she approached the table. "Oh, that's so kind of you, Valerie. But you can just grab some pancakes if you'd like and sit with Holly and Max." She says and Valerie smiled widely.

"Really?" She asked and the woman nods. "Yes, help yourself." Karen held out a plate and a mug as Ted now walks in, holding a newspaper. "Oh, Valerie. Good morning, how's your dad and mom?" He asked and Val nods softly, grabbing two pancakes and pouring some coffee into her mug. "They're... good." She smiles and then brought the plate of syrup covered pancakes and mug of coffee over to the table, smiling softly at Holly Wheeler.

"I like your hair. It's pretty." The little blonde girl says and Valerie sent her a wider smile. "Thank you, so is yours." She said as she digs in, eating her pancakes and watching Max colour with crayons she burrowed from the youngest Wheeler sitting with them.

"Are you Nancy's friend?" Holly suddenly asked, taking a sip from her orange juice. "Uh, totally." Val replied, nodding and smiling at Max across from her. "And Max's." She says and the ginger glanced up, smiling faintly because she had one side of her headset on her ear.

Holly just stared at Val for a moment, "your face has cute dots. Like Mike." She says suddenly making Val glance at the young kid, raising her brows slightly. "Like Max and my best friend, Robin." She says, nodding softly as she ate the last bit of her pancakes.

Holly merely smiled and went back to drawing. Once Val had finished eating and set aside her plate, Holly set down a piece of paper in front of her. "Wanna colour with us?" She asked, gently shaking the box of crayons.

"Uh, sure." Valerie smiled softly and grabbed a crayon. She wasn't sure what to draw at first but settled for a little butterfly and then wrote Holly's name in cursive. She even made smiley faces and a little stick figure that had pigtails on. "Here, for you." She held it out and Holly giggled quietly. "I like this." She pointed to the stick figure drawing making Valerie smile even wider, glancing at the redhead.

"Um, Val?" Max suddenly says, looking up and Valerie glanced over. "Here." The ginger handed over an envelope which Val grabs curiously, furrowing her brows. She goes to open it, "no. It--it's not for now." She said immediately making Valerie look up at her. "It explains everything... just... don't open it now." She says and Valerie glanced down. Steve had mentioned it briefly when they had a minute alone to talk. Max making everyone a letter.

Billy, Dustin, Lucas, Steve, El, Will and Mike.

It made her heart swell, for many reasons. Upsetting, kind of happy she was apart of that group of people for Max, a little frustrated because Max didn't deserve this. This curse. It made her blood boil a bit. "Thank you, Max..." Was all she said, sighing before bring it to set it directly in front of her.

Val glanced over when Nancy and Dustin barge in, but stop at the sight of Max and Val at the table. "Good morning, guys." Karen greets them with a big smile, looking at the pair who both sigh in relief as Val stared at them skeptically but quickly realized they might've panicked seeing Max was missing from the couch. "Everything okay?" The woman now asked worriedly as she turns around with another fresh stack of pancakes.

"Yeah. Yeah. Everything's okay." Nancy quickly answered. Max looks over at them, glancing between the pair as Karen smiles. "I think it's so sweet that you guys are sticking together like this." She says and Val smiles, glancing down and looking at the letter.

"Could try sticking together at a different house for a change." Ted Wheeler spoke up. "You know you're welcome here anytime." The woman says in rebuttal to her husband's remark. "Totally. You're like family." Dustin says as he points to the pancakes.

"May I?"

"Of course." Karen says and Ted looks up. "Why not? Take us for all we're worth." The man retorts and Dustin looks up, smiling. "Okay." He said and begun taking more pancakes as Val rolls her eyes at him.

 

authors note the beef between ted and dustin is kinda hilarious lmao

+ sorry for not updating until now <3