"Aren't we high enough?" Lucas asked as they climbed up the tallest hill of Hawkins in order to talk to Dustin's girlfriend, Suzie.
Nikki was very excited to meet the girl but everyone else seemed to believe she wasn't real.
"Cerebro works best at a hundred meters," Dustin panted as he continued upwards.
"You know, I'm pretty sure people in Utah have telephones," Max said.
"Yeah, but Suzie's Mormon."
"Oh, shit," Lucas looked up at Dustin surprised. "She doesn't have electricity?"
"That's the Amish," Max shook her head at him.
"What are Mormons?" Will seemed to be reading Nikki's mind. She was happy she didn't have to ask the question.
"Super religious white people," Dustin explained. "They have electricity and cars and stuff, but since I'm not Mormon, her parents would never approve. It's all a bit Shakespearean."
"What?" Nikki asked totally lost.
"Shakespearean?" Max asked, also seeming a little lost.
"Yeah," Dustin smiled. "Like Romeo and Juliet."
"Right," Max rolled her eyes as Nikki stayed confused.
"Star-crossed lovers."
"I got it."
"I don't," Nikki whispered to Lucas.
"It's fine," Lucas assured her. "I don't get it that much myself."
"Okay," Nikki nodded not really feeling a lot better about the subject. She turned to Lucas who had sweat beaded on his forehead from the heat and carrying the bag he grabbed from Mike. "Do you want me to carry it for a little while?"
"No, I got it," Lucas panted.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah."
"Hey, guys!" Mike's voice broke up their conversation. They turned to look at Mike and El standing about ten feet away from them. "This is fun and all, but.."
He pointed to his watched while El finished his sentence. "I have to go home."
"We're almost there," Dustin pointed to the crest of the hill.
"Sorry, man," Mike shrugged. "Curfew."
"Good luck," El said as Mike led her back down the hill. These kinds of things are what makes keeping the bad emotions not reach the surface impossible for Nikki.
"Curfew at four?" Dustin asked.
"They're lying," Nikki said, trying to keep herself from yelling mean things toward her sister. "If they were telling the truth, I would be leaving with them."
"It's been like this all summer," Will shook his head, looking and sounding very annoyed.
"It's romantic," Max tried to help the couple just a little bit.
"It's gross."
"It's bullshit!" Dustin spoke what Nikki was thinking. "I just got home."
The group watched as El and Mike got farther down the mountain.
"Well, their loss, right?" Dustin said before starting to wall again. "Onwards and upwards! Suzie awaits!"
The group sighed and turned to start going up. Nikki slowed down however, letting people go ahead of her as she felt a small pit her stomach. She turned back to Will, who was the only one behind her. He had his back turned to her with his hand on the back of his neck.
He knows something's wrong too, Nikki thought as the feeling went away.
Will turned around and locked eyes with the girl. He climbed up the hill next to Nikki, who was waiting for him.
"You felt it too?" Will whispered as the two continued upward.
Nikki nodded. "Do you think we should tell them?"
"No," Will answered quickly. "No, it could be nothing."
"But it could also not be nothing. I mean, when has that feeling ever led us wrong before. If somethings coming, we could be ready for it."
"Just don't tell anyone," Will sighed. "I just wanna have a normal summer."
"Nikki, Will," Lucas's voice called to them. They looked up to see him standing a few feet away from them. "Everything okay?"
Will looked at Nikki with pleading eyes before she turned back to her boyfriend. "Yeah, everything's fine."
***
"Made it," Dustin sighed happily as he dropped his bag next to him.
"It only took five hours," Max complained as the rest of the group got to the top.
"Why couldn't we just play D&D?" Will asked setting down his bag.
"I'm so thirsty," Lucas muttered to himself as he grabbed his water and started to chug it. Max and Nikki watched as he gulped down the water in what seemed like less than ten seconds.
At one point Max caught Nikki's eyes by giving her a questioning glance that said is he serious? Nikki laughed silently at how annoyed the girl was getting as Lucas put down the bottle.
"Did you seriously just drink the rest of our water?" Max asked annoyed.
Lucas looked from Max to Nikki before spitting the water in his mouth back into the bottle and held it out to Max who declined then to Nikki who shook her head and scrunched her nose.
"I'm good," was all that she could say at the moment.
***
It took sometime but by the time they were finished setting up Cerebro the sun had already started to set and it was starting to cool down for the night. Not much but it was enough for them to not worry about heat stroke.
"Pretty impressive, right?" Dustin asked admiring their work.
"Yeah," the group agreed as they started to take a seat.
"Now, are you ready to meet my love?"
"Okay, sure," Max replied for the group as Dustin grabbed a radio and spoke into the walkie talkie that was attached.
"Suzie, this is Dustin. Do you copy? Over."
No response.
Dustin looked at the people around him awkwardly. "One sec. She's probably—She's still there. Suzie, this is Dustin. Do you copy? Over."
Static.
Dustin looked back at his friends. "I'm sure she's there. It's just—you know, maybe she's, like, busy or—"
"Yeah," Lucas nodded, looking skeptical. Nikki hit his arm lightly as if to say, give him a second.
"It's around dinner time."
The group nodded before getting themselves comfortable as Dustin tried to get through to Suzie.
This is going to be a long night, Nikki thought as she rest her head on Lucas's shoulder.
***
The sun had set. The stars were out. And Dustin was still trying to get through to Suzie. His friends had gone from sitting down to laying down and getting more of a headache every time Dustin repeated himself.
"Suzie—" Dustin started to repeat for the hundredth time before Max stopped him.
"Dustin, come on! She's not there."
"She's there, all right? She'll pick up."
"Maybe Cerebro doesn't work," Will suggested, sitting up.
"Or maybe Suzie doesn't exist," Lucas said, still laying on the ground with Nikki's head on his chest and his arm wrapped protectively around her.
"Lucas," Nikki warned.
"She exists!" Dustin defended himself.
"She's a genius and she's hotter than Phoebe Cates?" Lucas reminded him of the details said about her. "No girl is that perfect."
"Oh my, god," Nikki scoffed, sitting up.
"I mean..." Lucas tried to think of something to say that could fix what he said. "You're perfect. Like, perfect in your own way."
"Lucas it's fine," Nikki let it go, not really wanting to fight with him. "I know I'm not perfect. I'm far from being a genius and I don't even know what Phoebe Cates looks like so...you're off the hook with that."
Lucas's face broke into a smile as he gave her a sweet kiss.
"Dustin's obviously lying," Max said standing up and started to walk down the hill. "I'll see you tomorrow, Nikki. Don't forget you're skateboard."
"Okay," Nikki called back as Lucas helped her up.
"Where you guys going?" Dustin asked everyone.
"Home," Max called back.
"Yeah, I have to get Nikki home," Lucas said looking at his clock. "It's almost past curfew."
"We can try again sometime, okay?" Nikki told Dustin who nodded his head as the couple made their way down the hill. "Bye!"
***
"That was a waste of time," Lucas commented as they got closer to the cabin.
"I honestly don't think so," Nikki smiled as the pair held hands in the woods. "It was nice to look at the stars. We're going to have to do that again, like on a date or something."
"Yeah, definitely," Lucas laughed as the pair saw the clearing that showed the cabin. They saw Hopper truck outside with the headlights on and two people sitting inside it.
"Is that Mike?" Lucas asked as they hid behind a tree to keep out of sight.
Nikki nodded seeing the two faces of Hopper and Mike.
"Hopper looks..." Lucas trailed off as they watched him stare down the boy that looked to be frozen in his seat.
"Oh, he's mad," Nikki recognized the expression that would be on Hopper's face every time Mike came over. Soon, the truck rolled down the road and disappeared from their sight.
They pair came out of their hiding spot as they looked at the spot where the trucked rolled down the road.
"Well, I'm glad we missed whatever happened," Nikki sighed, crossing her arms.
"Yeah," Lucas nodded in agreement.
"Well," Nikki turned to him and gave him and quick kiss, "good night. Do you want me to call you when I'm done hanging out with Max tomorrow?"
"I'd like that," Lucas nodded before giving her one last kiss good night and started to walked back to the trail they came from.
Nikki smiled as she walked into the cabin and shut the door behind her.
That's what you call a perfect end to a great night.
In Nikki's eyes anyway.
Authors note
A little bit of a longer chapter but I had a lot of fun writing it and I hope you guys liked reading it too.
Love ya!!❤️❤️❤️