Risky Business ｡ Stranger Things

26 : Girls Just Want to Have Fun

"I can't fault her logic either," a timid and familiar voice agreed. Both Prue and Selena looked up to spot Veronica Marra standing over them. She was wearing a red swimming suit, white shorts with red trimming and a whistle around her neck.

"Red looks gorgeous on you, Ronnie," Selena purred. Ronnie just blushed, shaking out her raven locks that waved down her back. Ronnie's hair had never been longer and the lifeguard get-up suited her surprisingly well: she was coming into a new found confidence. Both Prue and Selena had been astonished when Ronnie had told them she had gotten a job at the pool. At the time, it had seemed like an unusual place for Ronnie to spend her summer, but the teenage girl was loving it so far.

"You have to stop telling me that every time you see me in my uniform," she pointed out bashfully.

Selena flicked her hands around again, suggesting that Ronnie was being ridiculous. "I'm a journalist, reciting the facts is what I do best." Ever since the media had poured into Hawkins over the well-constructed lie that was an experimental chemical asphyxiant that had leaked from the boundaries of Hawkins Lab, Selena had decided she wanted to be a journalist, finally putting her nose for gossip to good work; she had even gotten a summer internship with the Hawkins Post. "Getting back to the main topic, what do you think of Patrick as a summer fling, Ron-Ron?" Selena asked, wiggling her dark eyebrows up at Ronnie, whose blush glowed brighter, defying the sun and even defying Patrick's sunburn.

"What—why? Did he say something?" she stuttered, tucking a piece of raven hair behind her ear as she chanced a glance at Patrick across the sun-lit pool who was kindly blowing up a pool floatie for a little girl.

"Oh, golly gosh!" Selena gasped, her mouth falling open.

"He didn't say anything but now I wanna ask him," Prue lightly teased out.

"Are you harbouring a summer-crazed crush on Patrick Turner?" Selena questioned in her silvery tone after she had picked her jaw up off the hot concrete.

Ronnie frantically shook her head, her eyebrows pulling together. "No," she choked out, "of course, not! That would be—"

Selena butted in quickly. "Scandalous? Forbidden? Smoking hot?"

"And totally fine," Prue interjected in a calm and understanding voice. She didn't and wouldn't have a problem with Ronnie and Patrick together.

"I don't wanna get with Patrick," Ronnie tried to deflect lamely. Prue was hiding her grin when she noticed Grey—her younger brother—and his group of girlfriends on the other side of the pool. Usually, the scene was normal with Grey and his four friends that happened to be Jackie, Cynthia, Alice and Madison, but something was unusual now. A group of middle-school boys were standing in a half-circle before Grey and the girls, with nasty smirks and mean faces. Prue sat higher in her chair, squinting across the glimmering surface of the pool.

"Sure, just like how I don't wanna lick strawberry ice cream off Steve Harrington's body," Selena said. Across the pool, one of the boys poked at Grey, jamming a finger into his chest. Prue's heart clenched and she swang her legs around, the concrete hot under her bare feet. She hurried around the pool as children squealed and splashed in delight and as the sun beat down onto Hawkins.

"Why don't you have any guy friends, huh?" one of the boys said in a vile tone, one that made Prue's skin itch with madness.

"Shove off, Troy!" Jackie growled at Grey's side. Madison and Cynthia agreed with arms crossed and icy glares. Alice was nearly in tears but her teeth were gritted together, just as Grey's were. Grey's hair was longer, shaggy even, and he was going through a growth spurt which left his arms and legs a little long for the rest of his body. Adolescence and puberty could be an awkward time for boys and girls and it was taking a hard hit on Grey, who didn't have any guy friends to relate too.