𝐑𝐔𝐋𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐋𝐃 ✧ robin buckley

06 | really? really.

Robin fidgeted with her seatbelt. Was she nervous?

She began to word-vomit, hardly taking breaths between sentences, "I can tell he thinks of you as a sister. He looks up to you. And talks about you all the time. Oh, like earlier today, Steve was saying that he could just take on the Russian guard, and Dustin reminded him how he had never actually won a fight, loosing to Billy and Jonathan before. Also, Jonathan Byers? Really? And then Dustin told me that it was you were actually the one who beat Billy after he beat up Steve. Which by the way—badass. He was so excited to tell me. He thinks you're super cool. And I do too."

Azalea licked her lips and smiled, taking in Robin's ramble.

"Sorry. I talk a lot when I'm nervous." Robin laughed breathily. She then tensed, "That's not what I—"

"You're nervous?" Azalea asked lightly with a sympathetic look.

Robin shook her head fast, "No, no. Not really. I mean, I am a little nervous. Just because this is the first time I've been alone with you, and I want you to like me—I mean—well, I don't know. I think you're awesome, and I really want to be your friend. So I'm nervous that I'll mess everything up. And, I'm rambling again."

"Don't worry, Robin," Azalea sighed, "I think you're awesome, too. And honestly, I don't mind the rambling. I like to know what you're thinking."

"Really?" She gleamed, "My mom always tells me I talk too much and can come off as too abrasive—"

"I think you're great just the way you are. Really." Azalea hummed.

Robin sighed happily, relaxing in her seat, a small smile on her face.

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Azalea and Robin went straight to the back door of Scoops, and were greeted by Dustin and Steve already back there.

Did Steve or Robin ever actually work?

"Hey, you made it!" Dustin danced seeing Azalea. She smiled and gave him a side hug, still riding on the high of Robin telling her how cool Dustin thought she was.

Robin then took up the table, laying out the blueprints from her bag.

"It is fascinating what 20 bucks will get you at the County Recorder's Office." She told the group proudly, "Starcourt Mall. The complete blueprints."

"Not bad." Dustin praised.

"So, this is us, Scoops," Robin pointed, "and this is where we want to get."

"I mean, I don't really see a way in." Steve told her, looking close at the prints.

"There's not," Robin said, then removing the top blueprint, "if you're talking exclusively about doors."

"Air ducts." Dustin marveled.

Robin nodded at him, "Exactly. Turns out, this secret room needs air just like any old room."

She then grabbed a marker from the whiteboard and started circling places on the map, "And these air ducts lead all the way...here."

She landed on the secret room.

They had a way in.

"Holy shit. We could actually do this." Dustin muttered, "I'm going in the vent, right?"

Azalea looked between her and the two other teens. Dustin was their best bet, "It's all you, Dust."

Steve's lips quirked into a smile, "Let's do it."

He immediately grabbed the ladder from the corner of the room and brought it towards the vent. He then pulled the vent cover off and handed it to Azalea.

Dustin, always prepared, grabbed a flashlight out of his backpack and handed it to Steve.

"Yeah, I don't know, man." Steve said, shining the flashlight into the vent, "I don't know if you can fit in here. It's like...super tight."

"I'll fit." Dustin said confidently. Steve stepped off the ladder and let room for Dustin to start climbing, "Trust me. No collar bones, remember?"

Robin interjected, confused, "Uh, excuse me?"

"Oh, he's, uh...Yeah, he's got some disease." Steve explained poorly, "Chry, uh... It's chrydo, um... Something."

"Cleidocranial dysplasia." Azalea chimed in.

"Yeah, that." Steve said leaning against the ladder, "He's missing bones and stuff. He can bend like Gumbo."

Azalea stifled her laugh, "Oh my god,"

Robin narrowed her eyes, "You mean Gumby."

"I'm pretty sure it's Gumbo."

Dustin's voice echoed out from inside the vent, "Steve, just shut up and push me!"

"Okay." Steve rolled his eyes, stepping up into the ladder, "I'll push ya."

"Hey, be careful!" Azalea told the two boys. It was bad enough they were sticking Dustin in the vent in the first place. She didn't want him getting hurt.

"Not my feet, dumbass." Dustin called back to Steve, who apparently was pushing him wrong, "Push my ass."

"What?"

"Touch my butt! I don't care!" Dustin yelled.

Robin turned away from the two towards Azalea, hand covering her mouth to stifle her laughter. Azalea was doing the same.

"Come on! Harder! Push harder!"

"I'm pushing!"

They couldn't hold it in any longer, they both doubled over in laughter. And seeing the other person laughing made them laugh even harder.

But the boys were oblivious.

"You're playing with my legs!"

"I'm not playing, I have terrible footing."

"Come on!"

Robin buried her head in her hands, nearly cry-laughing with Azalea.

"I'm gonna just shove you, ready?"

"Just shove me?"

"One, two—"

"Steve, wait!" Azalea called out, through her fit of laughter, "Don't get him stuck."

He ignored her, already shoving him, "That work?"

"One more time."

"Idiots! No! Not one more time." Azalea sighed, walking over to them, "Dustin, you don't fit. Let's think of something else, please."

Azalea looked over at Robin, who seemed distracted, staring outside the back window to the front of the store. Erica Sinclair was once again ringing he bell, asking for some free samples.

Robin smiled widely.

"I've got an idea."

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*･✧