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WORKING AT THE POOLTHAT MORNING was uneventful for Valentina. Billy was as unsettling as ever, always giving the blonde that strange look that was partly a glare and partly plain staring every time she looked over at him. She tried to avoid doing that often, since even the sight of the mullet-headed freak made her stomach twist into knots, but Valentina couldn't help the nagging feeling on her skin every time time the man stepped out from the shadows of the locker room. It wasn't often, and that's what Valentina assumed was drawing her attention to the behavior. Usually, the lifeguards on shift split their time spent on active duty equally, but Billy never came out to relieve Valentina of her watch. She didn't mind, since the sun was blaring that day and she could already see her tanlines deepening, but she was almost worried about the man. He was acting so unlike himself. Maybe that was a good thing, though, she'd decided by the time it was time to clock out.
The mall was as busy as ever that evening. Valentina thankfully had her car that day, since her mom was back to the regular shift in the emergency room where she took the town's bus to when she could. Usually Alicia's shifts aligned with the bus' schedule, which allowed Valentina to have much freedom with her little family's shared BMW.
She parked in her usual spot in the Starcourt employee parking lot, right behind Steve's identical car. Valentina's signature messenger bag made its way to its home on the girl's shoulder, inside containing a book that she always planned to but never actually read on her break, a water bottle that was emptied by the second hour of her shift, her nude pumps, and various trinkets she'd collected over the years. Half a dozen makeup supplies that she'd thought she lost and since replaced were also probably scattered along the bottom of the bag.
Inside the mall was, as Valentina expected, a nightmare. Kids chased each other across the floor, almost running into the blonde who grimaced, but a smile quickly replaced it. For once, she wasn't running late to her shift. Her blue waitress dress was folded neatly in her hands as she made her way to the escalator to the second floor. Instead of going right to the cafe like normal, she walked straight and entered the public bathroom. Starcourt Cafe was one of the cheaper structures in the mall, so it skipped out on installing a private, employee bathroom.
Valentina disappeared into the women's bathroom, where she further locked herself behind one of the larger stalls. Her bag hung on the door before she began peeling off her white flowy shorts that accompanied her red Hawkins Pool one-piece bathing suit. Once she was rid of the vacuumed red and changed into her blue cafe uniform, she slipped on the matching shoes.
Most of the waitresses at Starcourt Cafe complained about the uniform, claiming the cut of the dress was too revealing or the height of the heels was unnecessarily mountainous, but Valentina didn't mind much. Maybe it was because she needed this job, or perhaps she'd become accustomed to this way of dressing. Obviously, the snickers from grown men and gestures from even older ones weren't appealing, but Valentina loved to dress herself in things that she felt rewarded her confidence and the body her mother created. Plus, she liked to wear heels that made her taller than the people around her, when she wasn't wearing her Converse. Especially Steve, who always wore his turned-up chin with pride whenever Valentina balanced herself at his same height occasionally.
