__________
-UNKEPT-
PROMISES

Lies are a form of the unkept promise that seemed to be a silent agreement in a family household to never take place. In some ways more than one, Valentina seemed to always be the only person in her family to be that person. Yet the only thing she could ever hide was her feelings. Although some situations were an exception.

"I'm sorry, could you repeat that? Cause I don't know if I'm now just discovering that my hearing all my life has been impaired or that I'm also blind to not see that my father, Armando Alma, has been working with the government this whole time? That's-" she started laughing in shock, while the rest of the group looked at her in worry, "That's a good one. Is this a prank show? No."

Furrowing his eyebrows, Dustin questioned, "What do you mean no? It can't get much simpler than what we've already explained. What else do you want us to say? That you definitely haven't been lied to your whole life!"

Putting hands up in surrender, Valentina claimed, "You wouldn't last a day in my house. Completely besides the point, what the hell did Farrah Fawcett here mean that you guys needed me? By the looks of it, you've got this whole hellhole of a town under control, except for what happened to Hopper anyways. It just all kind of reminds me of Back To The Future."

Robin chortled at the newfound nickname for Steve.

In his defence, Steve blew a raspberry, "Who told you?"

Valentina started to laugh in realisation, "No one. I just said Farrah Fawcett because your hair kind of looks like hers, but now it all makes sense."

Blushing in embarrassment, Steve also wondered aloud, "What's Back To The Future?"

"You've probably seen it. All of it was filmed in different parts of L.A. County. It's the one with Marty McFly."

Nothing came to mind for Steve, until he remembered, "You mean the one with Alex P. Keaton?"

Groaning, Valentina rebutted, "You really are a himbo."

Robin, Dustin, and Max were just watching the interaction, heads going back and forth like a tennis match.

Confused again, Steve looked at Valentina once more, "What's a hambo?"

Pausing mid-chewing of her gum, Valentina clenched her jaw. Various thoughts ran through her mind. The main thing being the fact that out of all the people in Hawkins, this was the guy she had a crush on.

"Enough!" The fiery redhead shouted. "You two seem like you'd be a lovely couple, and could cut the tension with a knife, but right now, this no-good of a town needs us." Robin and Dustin shook their heads in agreement.

"How many phones do you guys have?" Dustin wondered, snapping his fingers at Steve.

"Two, but technically three if you count Keith's in the back," Robin replied.

Max then looked at Dustin. "Yeah, three works."

The Henderson boy threw his backpack onto the counter, getting ready to glide over it, to access the computer.

Meanwhile, Valentina was helping Max make a list of people they could contact.

"My pile! Dude," Steve complained while trying to pick up the mess that was left behind. Then stopping amidst when he saw that the red haired girl made it behind the counter. "How did- I'm not going to even ask."

If this weren't a serious situation, Valentina would've got some popcorn to watch what was happening from afar. Just a few days ago, she was in a friend group where sometimes they nearly ignored her, unless it dealt with money.

She felt entirely useless, until she was brought into this group, even if it only has been less than twenty-four hours.

"What is it exactly that you're doing?" Steve questioned Dustin as he was typing away.

"Setting up base of operations. And before you ask, yes for Eddie." Since Dustin Henderson has become friends with the Freak, Steve has gone off the rails by doing everything in his power to find things that he could do better than Edward Munson.

Scoffing, Steve mimicked, "For Eddie. Right! Your new best friend." Valentina looked up at him in pity, knowing that he felt nothing, but replaced. A feeling that she got used to all throughout her life.

She then remembered something, her voice made everyone pause. "I think I know where he is."

The rest blinked their eyes repeatedly in both confusion and amazement as she started pacing back and forth.

"Freshman year, my friend wanted to buy drugs and since we didn't really know anyone at the time, we asked around instead. Somehow we ended up at a house party, where we were told that Eddie was supposed to be there, but when we got to the house, we heard arguing. It was him, Eddie, with his supplier, Richie Rich or something-"

"Reefer Rick?"

"Yeah! Reefer Rick! But uh the two were fighting about how Eddie went to Reefer Rick's neighbour's house instead of his when he was high off of his mind."

She realized she was rambling and got straight to the point, "He said his address was twenty-one twenty-one Holland Road. Case disclosed, now can I go home?"

Rapidly shaking his head, Dustin argued, "No absolutely not."

Putting her hands up in surrender, Valentina smiled, "Fine. But you guys owe me food."

"Deal."

                   ─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

The quieted voice of Pat Benatar sounded throughout Steve's BMW. Dustin had tried calling shotgun, but Steve made him get in the back since he apparently needed to talk to Valentina, leaving Robin annoyed with the other two bickering teens in the back.

With one hand on the steering wheel, Steve cleared his throat, "I'm sorry that we brought you into this mess. And also for your dad, but for what it's worth, he's one of the good guys," Valentina looks over at him in confusion, "When- at the end of the night, you know after everything with the incident at the mall last year, him and Dr. Sam Owens came to our rescue."

Pursing her lips, Valentina looked back outside the window. "It's just hard to believe that any of this even happened, I mean it's not everyday that you find out that your dad was a part of Hawkins Lab. For god's sake, he's not even a doctor, so I don't know what he was doing there."

Steve sighed, "If it makes you feel any better, all of us in this car don't have good relationships with our parents."

Different responses from the others sounded out through the car.

"Dingus! Really?"

"That's for sure."

"Why don't you also go ahead and tell her about our other issues too."

Looking through the rear-view mirror, Steve apologised profusely. Meanwhile, the remainder of the car ride was silent, other than the music.

                    ─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Cautiously getting out of the car, Valentina looked up to the house. The neighborhood being haunted by the quiet wind. Clear skies, no clouds, prepared for the day.

With everyone out of Steve's car, they all inched towards the front, except for the brunette girl. Feeling a familiar aura coming from the boat house, she slowly approached the door.

When entering, a clue that captured her attention were the fresh cigarette buds thrown around, followed by an unusual carving on one of the tables that read, INNOCENT, in shitty handwriting.

Looking for more clues, until the door was shoved open. Dustin pointing his flashlight at Valentina.

Using one of her hands to block the light from blinding her, glaring at the child in front of her.

Steve whacked his head, making Dustin immediately move the flashlight to start looking around the place.

Moving towards the boat with the tarp, Steve uses his oar to aggressively hit whatever was inside.

"What're you doing?"

Steve didn't answer. "What're you doing?"

Quickly glancing at Dustin, he continued hitting the tarp. "He might be in here."

"So take the tarp off!"

"If you're so brave, you take the tarp off!"

Rolling her eyes, Valentina walked towards Max when she found different clues. "Hey guys? I think I found something." She picked up candy wrappers. "Someone was here."

Robing wondered, "Maybe he heard us or probably got scared when he heard the dingus and his child arguing."

Valentina laughed at the sarcasm.

The bickering from the other two continued. "Don't worry, Steve will get him with his oar."

"I know you think you're being funny, but considering everyone in this room has nearly died a hundred times," pointing at Valentina as she was now standing next to him, "except for you. Personally, I don't find it funny in the slightest-"

Eddie rushed Steve against a wall, knocking down Valentina in the process. "Oh shit."

Dustin quickly helped her up and then went to comfort Eddie and also stop him from possibly hurting Steve. "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Eddie! Eddie! Stop! Eddie!"

His shouting gaining the metalhead's attention.

"It's Dustin," then putting a hand out to Steve, "This is Steve! He's not going to hurt you. Right, Steve?"

"Right, yeah!"

"Steve, why don't you drop the oar?"

Dropping the oar, Eddie's grip on Steve's throat tightens. Once again alerting Dustin. "He's cool! He's cool."

"I'm cool, man. I'm cool." Valentina giggles at this.

Seconds later, Eddie speaks for the first time, "What're you doing here?"

"We're looking for you!"

"We're here to help," Robin added.

"Eddie, these are my friends. You know Robin, from band!" She then starts pretending to play an invisible trumpet.

"This is my friend, Max. The one who never wants to play D&D," she then waves awkwardly with a forced smile.

All the attention is on Valentina. Her cheeks turned red.

"This is Valentina, she's new to the group. She's a part of the brains, you know with the research and all that." She makes eye contact with Eddie's dark brown eyes, while giving him a genuine smile and nod.

"We're on your side. I swear on my mother! Right, guys?"

Nodding their heads, they all agreed. "On Dustin's mom!"

With that, Eddie released his grip, when Steve then started to groan.

Rushing to his aid, Valentina checked his neck for any injuries when Dustin was talking to Eddie. "Alright Harrington, let's see what we got."

Rubbing her hands together and glancing at the bruise, she winced. "I'd recommend some VapoRub and you should be good to go," patting his shoulder, re-joining the rest of the group.

"Hold it, Alma! What the hell's a VapoRub?"

"I'll give you some later, don't worry."

Dustin gave the two an incredulous look, "You two done being lovey-dovey?"

"Gross."

"Harsh, Alma. You'd be lucky to be with me."

Scoffing, Dustin started to describe something that would soon change everything.

"Who's Vecna?"

"An undead creature of great power."

"A spell caster."

"A dark wizard."

Muffled laughter was heard. The group turned their heads to see Valentina laughing at the seriousness in the room. "I'm sorry-" she couldn't control it, "It was lovely meeting you all, but I think I've helped enough," waving, she exited the boat house.

"Who's-"

"I'm on it." Steve sighed as he followed after Valentina.

damn! a lot has happened since
i last posted...

- first off! we hit a hundred reads! that's crazy,
i didn't think i was going to get any.
i want to thank you for reading this story, i truly
appreciate it! a lot of thinking goes into it, but it
for sure keeps me busy and entertained.

- second, i'm sorry for skipping eddie's bit of when he describes what he saw in the trailer. for the purpose of the plot, it's put to the side.