Tyler and the Valaholics: The Beginning

Chapter 10

Song of the chapter- 'Who You Are' by Jessie J

'Tears don't mean you're losing, everybody's bruising,
Don't lose yourself in the blur of the stars.'

Forcing myself to pull together all of my haywire emotions, I pull on a mask of cool indifference as I turn to look at them as if nothing could make a difference in my mood when I notice it's not just them, it's a whole bunch of people, both faculty and students.

Wondering what caused all of them to be present here, I cautiously begin to walk out of the place when I'm stopped by an office attender at the college who tells me I'm supposed to report to the principal's cabin immediately. Sighing, I follow him. He wouldn't have complained that I'd injured him, would he have?

Once I enter the office, I immediately spot a head with bushy curly blonde hair peeking out of the principal's cabin that reminds me of Stacie's hair and that immediately gives me pause. I knock on the door and enter to find out it is in fact Stacie Cramer.

A puzzled expression must have overtaken my face by the way Stacie's face changes expressions quickly.

"Miss Tyler, do you know this person?" the principal queries me.

I nod my head in response, mentally kicking myself in my head because Stacie was supposed to have come around here to ask permission for me to take the next two days off for the auditions coming to our neighborhood for this show that Tracie, Van and Violet all seem to be pumped up to participate in. The college requires an adult's presence to ask for leave and grandma's unable to come today so she requested Stacie, who gladly agreed.

After the principal gestures her seal of approval, Stacie accompanies me outside, eyeing me curiously.

"So sorry, Stacie, I completely forgot about that," I apologize.

"I hope you aren't going to pull back now?" she asks me.

"Oh, no, certainly not. I guess I just got a bit carried away. Don't you worry, they're all set and so am I. We're all set," I reassure her.

"So are you set to leave now or?"

"Oh, just a couple of minutes?"

"Sure. I'll be outside," she tells me before heading out.

I reach my locker again. Ugh, this thing always manages to get me in trouble!

"I knew you were trouble when I walked in, so shame on me now," I sing lightly as I shuffle my stuff between them and lock it again. The sound of muffled laughter behind me causes me to turn back to come face to face with Nat and Ros, who are both laughing their heads off at my little song while Cynthia attempts to mute their sound.

I roll my eyes at them and look around for Lauren, becoming confused when I don't see her anywhere. Cynthia tells me Lau said she had to leave early for this family get together she had to be at and had left minutes ago.

"Okay, take care, I've got to leave now. See y'all the day after the day after!" I say and blow kisses at them before lugging my bag behind me and walking out to meet Stacie.

"You know, I believe those are called backpacks for a reason," she tells me, eyeing the bag that's trailing behind me. I glare at her and pull it on my back, her only response being amused laughter.

We pick up the girls from their school and, as Stacie had promised the kids and I had resisted (and she managed to one-up me), head out to an ice cream parlour where Stacie tells us to order whatever and how much ever we want since this is her treat. I tell Van and Violet to still be judicious, in response to which the younger sticks her tongue out at me as she orders a large 'death by chocolate', which is kind of ironic seeing that she doesn't even like the chocolate ice cream flavour as much as she likes vanilla.

Van, as usual, orders her favourite strawberry flavour while Tracie asks for butterscotch. Stacie gets two scoops of black currant and I get one scoop of plain vanilla, causing Stacie to lift an eyebrow at me as she knows how much I love my chocolate.

"Wait and watch," I mouth at her and sit next to Violet, her eyes immediately drawn up to the vanilla ice cream in my hand. She lifts her head at me and pulls out her puppy eyes trick to get me to trade with her, even extending her hand out to me. I, all too gladly, give her the scoop in my cup while she pushes the chocolate bliss my way.

She did exactly what I expected, plus it's perfect because she can't eat more than one scoop of ice cream, never. Plus I get this chocolate paradise. Stacie's musical laugh gets me to laugh too as we share knowing looks.

The girls engage in their kiddish conversations as I relish the hot and cold chocolatey goodness. Yeah, I do love chocolate way too much for my own good.

Once we're all done, we head home and get the girls settled in for a sleepover of sorts at our place. I'm about to crash when Stacie tells me we ought to talk.

I follow her to the kitchen where she tells me I shouldn't ever lose hope.

"Okay?" I ask more than tell her, wondering what she's getting at.

"Okay, I told you to cherish that ice cream because that is most likely going to be out of our reach soon."

I stare at her, unsure of what to say or do when she continues.

"My income is severely limited now and your grandmother, as sad as it is, doesn't seem to have very much time left. I'm going to have to support all of us and that's going to be incredibly difficult," she tells me, letting her tiredness show from where it had hidden behind her smile all this time, prompting me to reply.

"No, we're going to support us, and no matter what, I'm not letting them go hungry."

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I'm so the queen of randomness- I either don't update for months together or update too frequently. Whale...

I'm trying to get up to at least thirty chapters as fast as I can because that's where, to me, the real fun of writing this starts. Then again that is most likely going to be after my exams in February.

Also, I somehow managed to fall and hit my face, shoulder and knee in college on the very first day of this year. Guess the stinging sensation and pain in my cheek means this year is going to be auspicious 😂😂

Anyways, I'll be updating this the most as of now...

Love y'all loads! 😘 😘

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