𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥

016. Pennhurst Asylum.

THE THREE girls run down into the basement where Max, Lucas, Steve and Dustin were. "Okay, so..." Nancy looks to Val and Robin. "We have a plan." She tells the boys. As Nancy and Robin got to taking off their jackets and handing Dustin the folders of all the made-up information, Val walked over to where Max was seated, grabbing her shoulder. "You okay?" She asked and Max glanced up.

"Yeah..." She nods and Val nods too, smiling faintly as she glanced away, to the top of the desk where there's letters. One with the Dear Billy at the top so she just looks to the redhead who covered the paper with another one, "I'm sure he would've loved it." She whispers to the younger girl who glanced up.

She smiles softly, looking back at the papers as her smile drops and Val walks back over to the others. "Thanks to Nancy's newspaper minions, we are now rock-star psychology students at the University of Notre Dame." Robin says as Val is standing by her, her arm around her girlfriend's waist as Val had an arm around her shoulders. "I'm now Ruth." Nancy says. "And we're Evelyn and Rose." Robin points between her and Valerie who smiles.

"Ruth?" Steve looks at Nancy who just smiles and shrugs softly. "Nice GPA." Dustin looks at the Wheeler. "Thanks." The girl replied, smiling as she glanced to Lucas. "So we called Pennhurst Asylum, told them we'd like to speak with Victor Creel for a thesis the three of us are writing on paranoid schizophrenics—" "to which they said no." Valerie sighs.

"But we landed a three o'clock with the director." Nancy sent Valerie a smile who nods back, smiling faintly back. "Now all we have to do is charm him and convince him to let us talk to Victor." Robin says. "Then maybe we can rid Max of this curse." Nancy says and Val quickly looks towards the redhead.

"Yeah, uh, about that. We've been doing our Victor Creel homework, and, uh..." Steve sighs as Lucas swaps the folder he had about Robin's Rose for Valerie's Evelyn. "We got some questions." He says and Lucas looks at Nancy. "Lots of questions." He added.

"So, do we." Nancy says as Val looks at the boys on the couch. "Hopefully, Victor has the answers." She says and Nancy nods, looking back at her. "Wait... wait... wait a second, uh..." Steve looks at the other two folders in Dustin and Lucas' hands he's seen already. "Where's mine?" He asked as raised the one in his hand as Valerie just grimaced, glancing at Nancy who's making a face.

Steve follows Nancy up the staircase, Robin and Val glance at one another before the Smith girl nods to the stairs and tugs on her girlfriend's hand. They pass by the kitchen, holding hands and following after Steve who's protesting about staying back. "Nancy, you're outta your mind if you think I'm babysitting again." She can hear Steve from the staircase. "Okay, first of all, they're not babies anymore. And Max is in real danger. She needs people around her." She stood at her closet doors.

"I know. But why me? I mean, Val gets a pass out of it, why? Is she cooler than me?" Steve asked as Valerie walks in, "I so am, Harrington." She said, looking around Nancy's room. "Oh, my God, you have a Tom Cruise poster!" Robin exclaimed as she walks in after her girlfriend and Val plops down onto Nancy's bed. "You have a Tom Cruise poster." Robin says smugly now, smiling.

The flashbacks of Steve saying he looks like Tom Cruise came back to Val as she grimaced at that. "That's old." Nancy says quickly, looking back to her closet as Robin looks at Val, laughing before she crouched down by Nancy's bedside table. "Can you please not touch anything?" The Wheeler asked as Robin looks through her cassette tapes.

"I—I just, I can't do anything here, Nance. Maybe I can be helpful with this asylum director dude. I don't know. I could, like, turn on my... my charm." Steve says as Val furrows her brows watching her best friend. "Not the kind of charm we need." Nancy says as Steve looks away. "Ouch." He backed away.

"No, I just..." Nancy paused, sighing. "Look, I did a little digging last night, and it turns out this Dr. Hatch is a distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a Harvard visiting scholar, okay? This is a lifelong student of the world. If we're gonna win him over, we're gonna have to convince him we are too. That, like him... we are true academic scholars." Nancy says.

"Holy shit, Val, there's a little ballerina in here." Robin whispers to her girlfriend who giggles, finding her adorable at her awe over Nancy's room and stuff. "Academic scholar? She's giving you an academic scholar vibe? Yeah." Steve gestured to the Buckley as Val's gaze goes over to him. "Shut up, Harrington. Leave my adorable girlfriend alone." She says with a mean glare at the boy who just sighed.

"Admittedly, no... Not Val either. No offense to either of you, but," Nancy turns around, holding up a pink ruffles shirt and a white button up shirt with two girly skirts. "They will." She says and Valerie's jaw drops. "Oh, please, tell me that you're joking." Robin says as Valerie glanced over at her girlfriend.

"Does Wheeler look like she jokes?" She said before standing up. "Is there something wrong with the things we're in?" She gestured to her outfit then towards Robin's outfit. "No! Nothing's wrong with it... Just, uh," Nancy paused then sighed. "Can you please just wear these and let me do both of your hairs?" She asked and Valerie reached up.

"I don't let anyone but my black step-mom touch my hair. I love your hair, Nance, it's really pretty and all. But this is a way different hair type." She tugs on a strand of her curls that bounce softly when she lets go. "Okay, yeah, fair, but I know I'm not supposed to brush it... I just wanna style it with clips and stuff." Nancy explains and Valerie sighed quietly.

"Okay... No brushing." She nods and Nancy nods to confirm, smiling before looking at Steve. "Could... you go? I'd like to work alone." She says and Valerie looks at her best friend. "Yeah, Steve-o, go back to babysitting." She smirked and the tall boy sighs. "Whatever. Later." He leaves the room and Nancy handed over the clothes to the couple.

"You can go get changed in the bathroom." She informs them and Valerie nods softly, taking the clothes. "Oh! Wait," Nancy rushed to her dresser and fished something out. "What's that?" Valerie asked curiously and watched as Nancy then held out a bra and to Robin's chest making the Smith girl's eyes nearly bulge out their sockets. "Uh, excuse me!" She exclaims so Nancy retracted her hands quickly.

"Sorry! Um... do you think you'll fit this?" She held out the bra Robin gingerly took, her face flushed red before handing it to Valerie. "Do you know if I'll fit it?" She asked and the shorter girl checked the tag. It had to be a small and tight fit. She's unsure for a moment. "Um... we—we can check if it'll fit." She looks at Robin who just nodded before glancing at Nancy who's glancing between the two.

"Right! I also have to get dressed, um, just knock before you guys come in." She says and Val nods, exiting the room with Robin right behind her, finding the bathroom pretty easily before turning around to Robin who's staring at her, looking a bit shy. "Um, I guess we should get dressed." Val tells her.

"Yeah... I guess so."

authors note i need answers about nancy giving robin a bra. was it one of hers?? does robin go braless why she had to give her one in the first place?? or like robin wears sports bras? she seems like a sports bra wearer tbh but like it's just so weird to me idk why 😭 anyways i listened to the rebel robin podcast and it's so good, i love maya's voice

+ i'm back to updating! i had a nice vacation and on the way home i decided to start writing and here's a new chapter <33