There's No Place Like Hawkins//Stranger Things. SH

FORTY SEVEN

"Robin!" Cat laughed, throwing a cushion over at her best friend.

"What?! She is completely and utterly evil."

"Well, I can agree to that." Cat grinned and held her hand up for a high five.

Robin completed the high five before she caved in and revealed her crush. "Tammy Thompson."

"What about her?"

"Are you serious?" Robin laughed, chucking the cushion back at her friend. "You asked me who I liked and I just told you."

"Tammy Thompson?" Cat laughed. "You like Tammy Thompson? She's not even that cute."

"She so is!"

"Nu uh." They ended up arguing about Tammy Thompson for most of the evening until they started laughing till they couldn't breathe.

***

Robin handed the spoon of Peppermint ice-cream to Erica. She ate it before placing the disposable spoon in the pot on the counter. "Can I try the peppermint stick?"

"Haven't you already tried the peppermint stick?" Robin asked her.

"Yes, and I'd like to try it again."

Robin sighed before turning to the window and yelling for her co-worker.

Steve and Dustin were in the back, the former pacing the room while snacking on a banana. They were listening to the recording of the man speaking Russian. Dustin stopped the recording. "So what do you think?"

"It sounded familiar."

"What?"

"The music." The older boy said through a mouthful of food. "The music right there at the end."

"Why are you listening to the music, Steve?" Dustin yelled. "God, Kit would be more helpful than you." He muttered. "Listen to the Russian!" He yelled. "We're translating Russian!"

"I'm trying to listen to the Russian, but there's music-"

Robin burst through the door, cutting off the end of Steve's argument. "All right, babysitting time is over. You need to get in there." She waved her scooper in the direction of the main floor of the shop. "Hey, my board." She moaned, seeing that they'd exchanged her chart for some kind of alphabet. "That was important data, shitbirds."

"I guarantee you, what we're doing is way more important than your data." Dustin told her.

"Yeah?" Robin questioned, standing across the table from the boys. "And how do you know these Russians are up to no good anyways?"

"How does she know about the Russians?"

"I don't know."

"You told her about-"

"It wasn't me."

"Hello, I can hear you." Robin said, interrupting their whispering. "Actually, I can hear everything. You are both extremely loud. You think you have evil Russians plotting against our country, on tape, and you're trying to translate, but haven't figured out a single word because you didn't realise Russians use an entirely different alphabet than we do." She stared at them. "Sound about right?"

Suddenly, Robin reached over to grab the tape recorder on the table. Steve quickly grabbed it, pulling it out of her reach. "Whoa! What do you think you're doing?"

"I wanna hear it."

"Why?" Both the boys asked.

"'Cause maybe I can help. I'm fluent in four languages, you know."