_________
-UNKEPT-
PROMISES

Waking up in the morning is easy, said no one ever. Being forced to wake up for school was just as bad as going to sleep late. Something a normal person would do is list all the cons of it.

That's the story of everyone's lives growing up. Except sometimes, Valentina Alma thought she was the one in a billion who was different. Setting her alarm for 6:35 a.m. always ended up with her mom walking through the door ten minutes later, telling her to get up since her brother also needed to use the bathroom afterwards.

Groaning, while thoughts infused in her brain.

"Valentina it's time to get up," her mom stated as she gave her a kiss on the head.

Finally getting up from her bed, walking to the bathroom. Locking the door, looking at herself in the mirror, her small eye bags made her eyes appear dim. The same ones that hold overbearing information.

For that, she never minded sharing things about herself, but would never talk about her deepest problems of recently having to keep waking up from horrific nightmares.

Where each one was different, her mom dying, then following with her dad, and then brother. Until one time she had a nightmare that was too real, as if it was the opposite of reminiscing, her grandma's death.

The way that Valentina and her family found out about her death was a call from her aunt. She went into complete shock, with an infinite amount of tears running down her face.

She never quite knew how to react. So, like rest of her family, she showed her emotions that day, and continued on like nothing happened.

Exiting the bathroom, returning to her room, Valentina started getting ready. She didn't want to go today, seeing as she had to do a presentation, but at least there was an assembly today and would cut class time.

"Valentina, hurry up," her little brother rushed.

She looked up at the clock. Five minutes.

It took her brother five minutes to get ready. If only it were ever that easy.

Scurrying her way out of her room, heading out to her dad's car.

Then heading to school, looking at the trees, ways from the cul-de-sac neighborhood, while music was blasting through her headphones.

About twenty minutes later, they arrived at the combined schools.

"Marco try not to cause any trouble, again. And Valentina, smile more," their dad scolded them.

Rolling her eyes as she shut the door, getting ready to cross the parking lot of the school. Lazily looking both ways before starting to cross until she heard honking coming from a maroon BMW who was just mere inches away from her.

Wide-eyed, Valentina walked over to the driver's side and without thinking she stated, "You missed."

"What?" the driver looked at her weirdly.

Removing her headphones, she repeated herself. "You missed. If you were trying to run me over, my body is supposed to be under the car."

The driver then looked unamused, "You really asking for a death wish? Much less at school? J-just watch out next time."

"Dingus, don't act like you're not at fault either. You were too busy blabbing away about your failed relationships. Like the one with Heidi. Or even how you're going on a date today with Brenda who's a total and absolute fluke," the passenger counter-claimed.

"Oh, so you were listening. I thought 'it's too early to hear any of your complaining since I woke up like a total corpse and need to get ready,' Did you forget about th-" the driver was cut off when they heard a gasp and whispering.

"Well shit," was the moment Valentina realized and remembered who the person was, Steve Harrington. The shock of almost getting run over, made her mind not think about anything else. Trying to remain calm, she quickly muttered a Sorry to him and walked away heading to the gymnasium.

"The hell she sorry for?" Harrington wondered aloud. Letting his thoughts swim, until he heard a honk behind, where he then looked in the rear-view window. Seeing the driver shrugging his shoulders, motioning for him to move. "I'm going. I'm going. Jesus."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Entering the gymnasium, filled with cheers and overall, too many happy people in the morning, the Alma girl was unsure where to sit, seeing as her friends decided to be absent that day.

Looking through the sea of people who were already seated. Some who stood out, dressed differently from the others.

As she made her way through the group of students,"cuse' me, cuse' me, sorry!" Students complained, but she disregarded them. When she arrived at her seat, a boy with curly hair smiled at her, causing her to give a genuine one back.

Cheers started to get louder as the basketball team entered the room. The captain of the team, Jason Carver, started to give an over-hyped speech. "Good Morning, Hawkins High!"

"First off, I want to thank each and every one of you. Without your support, we wouldn't be here. Give yourselves a big hand." Claps filled the room, except from Valentina, thinking his enthusiasm is a bunch of bullshit.

"And of course, I have to give a special shout-out," she saw a player wave to someone in the crowd, her eyes landed on a girl with red hair, furrowing her eyebrows, interesting.

Her focus now back on Jason, where he continues, "... to the Tiger Cheer Squad! Chrissy, I love you babe." Valentina internally gagged, seeing as she thought of the possibility of loving someone.

"You know. I think I can speak for all of us when I say, it's been a tough year for Hawkins. So much loss." Isn't that the truth.

"And sometimes I wonder, 'How much loss can one community take?' In dark days like this, we need something to believe in. So last night, when we were down by ten points at half to Christian Academy, I looked at my team, and I said, 'Think of Jack. Think of Melissa. Think of Heather. Think of Billy. Think about our heroic police chief, Jim Hopper.'"

Wow. Valentina knew Jason Carver was a dick, but not too big of a one where he'd compare basketball to dead people. Looking around, people were nodding their heads, as if they were agreeing with what he was saying, amateurs.

For the remainder of the assembly, she had her headphones on, blasting music, not caring if anyone was watching.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Tick. Tok. A clock hung on the wall. Time passes making it feel like hours, days, and weeks.

But Valentina didn't care, seeing as therapy was sometimes frustrating.

"You know people keep asking me if I'm okay?" The brunette declared when she was picking at her nails anxiously.

"Let me get this straight. People are asking if you're okay, and what's the problem with that?" the shrink questioned, tilting her head.

Sometimes Ms. Kelly would get on the brunette's nerves. From interjecting to giving life advice that would sometimes irritate her even more.

Valentina shrugged.

"Okay. Do you know the difference between empathy and sympathy?" Ms. Kelly questioned once more.

Without waiting for a response she then explained, "Empathy is when people connect with you, whereas sympathy is directed towards you without any link. Essentially a one and done deal. It's very common with what you've gone through. After hearing it for a while it can take a toll. Anger happens to be one of the symptoms of grieving."

"I mean, I get where people are coming from. But it's just an infinite cycle. It's like school, a bugging feeling. Or like the devil and angel on my shoulders, watching my every move. Did you know I had a nightmare last night? This time my grandma was on the hospital bed, but she was in skeleton form. She kept saying it was my fault for not visiting more. That I could've prevented her from dying. But I don't think dementia is treatable," Valentina rambled.

Ms. Kelly chuckled as she wrote notes down. "Yeah, me neither. Listen, I feel as if there is something nagging at you. I can't help you, if you don't tell me. And with that, it looks like our time is up for this week."

The brunette exhales, feeling betrayed, feeling as if she needed more advice for what she had just revealed.

After exiting the office, she then proceeded to put her headphones on and press play on her Walkman.

She took her headphones off her head when she heard muffled talking. She whipped around to see a smiling teen who looked no younger than fourteen, the same one she sat next to this morning.

"Can I help you?" Valentina dragged out.

"Hi! I'm Dustin Henderson. We've never met. Well we haven't until this morning. But I'm in a club called Hellfire. Where we play Dungeons and Dragons, which is a fictional game. And get this, the dice has twenty sides, doesn't that sound cool? My friend is on the basketball team and has a game to attend today, so we need a fill-in. The leader said I needed to find a lost sheep. So what do you say?" rocking on his feet, the freshman excitedly awaited for an answer with a smile.

Contemplating for a few seconds, "Listen, as cool as that sounds, I was kind of planning on going to the game tonight? You could always try asking your friend's siblings if they have any."

"Genius! You're a genius! Thank you! Thank you. Thank you," his voice sounding distant as he started running towards the exit of the school.

i'm going to be honest when i say...

- this took me forever to write, i had no idea
how to start this book like at all, it sucks,
but it's something. hopefully you enjoyed!

- also dustin's adorable and some of the
events in this chapter are based on a
true story... so tw? maybe idk.

edit one 01/11/2024:
- i'm really excited to start
this book up again :)