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

FORTY NINE

Eventually, after a few minutes of persistently ringing the bell, Erica caught Catherine's attention. The brunette looked up to see Erica sarcastically smiling at her. The teen sighed and tapped Robin's shoulder. "Customer." Cat mouthed, pointing towards Erica.

Robin sighed, taking her earphones away from her ears and turned towards the counter. Erica smiled at the two teens. "I'd like to try the peanut butter chocolate swirl, please."

"No." Robin said as Cat went back to the book. "No more samples today."

"Why not?"

"Because you're abusing our company policy." Robin explained.

"Where's the sailor man?" Erica asked.

"Sorry, he can't help you." Robin turned back to the window.

"Yeah, he's very busy right now." Cat said, closing the book and hoping up onto the counter. She sat so she was sitting cross-legged, her elbows resting on her knees as she rested her head in her hands.

"Busy with what?" Erica asked.

Cat and Robin shared a look before facing Erica. "Spy craft."

***

"You see anything?" Dustin asked Steve who was scanning the mall through a pair of binoculars. The two were hidden, not very well, behind a row of bushes in the middle of the mall.

"Uh, I guess I don't totally know what I'm looking for." Steve answered.

"Evil Russians."

"Yeah, exactly. I don't know what an evil Russian looks like."

"Tall, blonde, not smiling." Steve hummed in response as he scanned the mall, his gaze occasionally floating over to where his girlfriend sat with Robin in Scoops Ahoy. "Also, look for earpieces," Dustin added, "camo, duffel bags, that sort of thing."

"Right, okay, duffel bags." Steve confirmed, his eyes fixing on a particular pair of people. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me." He muttered.

"What?"

"Anna Jacobi's talking with that meathead Mark Lewinsky."

"Dude, if you're not gonna focus, just gimme the binoculars." Dustin scolded.

"Aw, Jesus Christ," Steve continued staring at the two teens, "whatever happened to standards? I mean, Lewinsky never even came off the bench."

"Dude, you are the worst spy in history, you know that?" Dustin told him. "Hell, Kit's better than you." He reached over and grabbed the binoculars, pulling them away from Steve.

"Stop, hey. Stop." Steve complained, taking the safety string off from around his neck so Dustin didn't accidentally strangle him while taking the binoculars.

"Give me those." Dustin said, lifting the binoculars to his eyes so he could look out for any evil Russians. "I don't even get why you're looking at girls. You have the perfect one in front of you."

"Catherine, yeah I know."

"Yeah, my sister. You two are perfect, so, what the heck?"

"I told you before, we have a bet going on."

"Well it's a stupid bet." Dustin told him simply. "You two should be more like me and Suzie. We don't need some stupid bet to prove our love."

"Oh, Suzie. Yeah, you mean, 'hotter than Phoebe Cates.' Yeah, that Suzie. And, uh, let's think about how exactly did you score that beautiful girlfriend? Oh, yeah. With my advice. Because that's how this works, Henderson. I give you the advice, you follow through. Not the other way around, all right, pea-brain?"