THEY SPENT THE WHOLE NIGHT GATHERING SUPPLIES to carry out Dustin's plan to capture Dart. She had fallen asleep only once, while Steve and Dustin cut up the beef and deposited it into buckets.
But that's how she ended up slugging buckets of raw meat out of his trunk.
"I would say this is disgusting, but that slime skin was way worse..." she mumbled, pulling on her yellow rubber gloves. Steve snickered a bit, just as a voice crackled through Dustin's walkie-talkie.
"Dustin! This is Lucas, do you copy? Dustin!"
At the sound of her little brother, Ginny sighed. She was worried that something found him and gobbled him up. Only this time, it was a relevant fear.
"Well, well, well, look who it is," Dustin answered snarkily. Ginny continued to help Steve gather their supplies from his car.
"Sorry, man. My stupid sister turned it off."
"Well, while you were having sister problems, Dart grew again, he escaped, and I'm pretty sure he's a baby Demogorgon," snapped the curly-haired boy.
Ginny almost smiled at the sound of Lucas' shock. "Wait. What?"
"I'll explain later," Dustin sighed. "Just meet me, Steve, and Ginny at the old junkyard."
"Steve? And— the hell, Ginny?"
"And bring your binoculars and wrist rocket," Dustin ordered.
"Wait, why's my sister there? You dragged her into this—"
Steve slammed the trunk closed, sighing. "Okay, let's go."
"Bye, Lucas!" Ginny called, picking up her bucket of meat and following after Steve. He watched her with a light smile, as Dustin ordered Lucas around. "Just be there, stat! Over and out."
They followed the rail road tracks that ran through the forest, slinging meat bits behind them. Ginny walked a few feet behind Steve and Dustin, throwing meat in spots they missed.
"Don't let Lucas fool you, Dusty," Ginny said, rolling her eyes. "He probably hasn't been home since last night, either."
Dustin looked at her. "Why?"
Ginny shrugged, turning to the long distance ahead of them. "My guess is he went after the new girl."
Dustin stiffened. "M-max?"
"Pretty sure... I saw them arguing after school, and then he asked Dad all about what to do when a woman was mad at you..." She slung some meat on the ground behind him. "Why?"
Dustin shook his head, looking at the ground. "Nothing."
Ginny nodded to herself, pursing her lips. "Oh. You like her too."
Sputtering, Dustin tried to make a coherent sentence, and Ginny just laughed. "I get it, dude. She seems really cool. Her brother however..."
Steve stopped abruptly, and Ginny came up to his side. "Her brother—"
"Is Billy Hargrove, yeah," she slapped some meat on the ground, as she continued on ahead of the boys, without looking at them. "And he's a racist, so you're still King Steve in my book."
Steve and Dustin shared a shocked expression, before hurrying to follow her.
"Wait, he's seriously—"
"Yep." Ginny nodded, looking at Steve to her left. "Pretty sure he told Max she couldn't talk to Lucas because she shouldnt hang around 'those kind of people.'" She rolled her eyes and used air quotes as she said it.
"Damn," said Steve. He met her eyes. "I knew he was a piece of shit."
Dustin frowned. "D'you think that Max is—"
"No," Ginny answered. "She seems genuinely cool, I meant that. Billy is... You're way better than him, okay?" She told Steve, with a determined brow. "Better hair, better personality, the whole deal... Sorry for saying he beat your ass in basketball."
Steve stared at her, eyes following as she fell back into step slightly behind them. A small smile pulled on his lips; he's never had anyone say anything like that, not even Nancy. "Yeah?" he asked.
She met his eyes with a soft smile and shrugged. "Yeah, totally."
They held gazes for another long moment, where something warmed in Ginny's stomach before she could recognize what it was.
Dustin looked between them, knowing what was happening and knowing that Lucas would not like it.
But Dustin loved chaos, and Ginny Sinclair with Steve Harrington, on a death mission to find and maybe kill his baby demogorgon? That was chaos.
"How'd you know I like Max?" he asked, spurring them to break gazes and continue walking.
Ginny shrugged. "Because you and my little brother are strikingly similar. And I'm really good at reading people. I can tell when pretty much anyone likes someone."
Steve swallowed quietly at that, then decided to deflect onto Dustin. "Wait, let me get this straight... You kept something you knew was probably dangerous in order to impress a girl who... who you just met?"
Dustin huffed. "All right, that's grossly oversimplifying things."
"I mean, why would a girl like some nasty slug anyway?" Steve wondered.
Dustin gave him a look. "An interdimensional slug?"
Ginny shrugged. "That's kinda awesome." She slung some more meat onto the train tracks. "I'm sure he was less disgusting as a baby."
"He was," piped Dustin.
Steve frowned, "Well, even if she thought it was cool— which she didn't— I... I just..." He shrugged. "I don't know, I just feel like you're trying way too hard."
Dustin rolled his eyes. "Well, not everyone can have your perfect hair, all right?"
"It's not about the hair, man."
"All Lucas has done to keep her around is make her mad... Maybe try that?" Ginny joked, shrugging.
Steve shook his head, and both of them ignored her. "The key with girls is just... just acting like you don't care."
Ginny scoffed. "Well that's one way to make her mad—"
"Even if you do care?" Dustin asked, eagerly.
Steve nodded. "Yeah, exactly."
"It does not work like that," Ginny countered, glaring at Steve's back. "If you act like you don't care, girls are gonna think you don't care."
"It drives them nuts." Steve told Dustin, both ignoring her.
"Then what?" asked the boy.
Steve shrugged awkwardly. "You just wait until, uh—"
"This is bad advice, Dusty, don't listen to him—"
"You wait until, uh..." He turned and tossed a piece of meat at Ginny's shoes. She sucked in a breath and stopped, trying to avoid stepping on the raw meet.
Steve gave her a lopsided grin, and looked back to Dustin. "Until you feel it."
Dustin scrunched his nose in a confusion. "Feel what?"
Steve sighed, and Ginny jogged to catch up with them. "Dustin, I'm telling you—"
"It's like before it's gonna storm, you know?" Steve began to explain. "You can't see it, but you can feel it, like this, uh... electricity, you know?"
"Like... in the electromagnetic fields when the clouds in the atmosphere—"
"No, no, no, no, no," Steve said hurriedly. Ginny watched the back of his head in contempt, as he corrected their small friend. "Like a... like a sexual electricity."
"Oh."
"You feel that, and then you make your move."
Ginny sighed. He was technically correct. The sexual electricity was a real thing. "Okay, but you still have to be nice to her, Dustin—"
"Is that when you kiss her?"
"No! Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down, Romeo..." muttered Steve.
Ginny rolled her eyes, but listened anyway, interested in what possible bullshit he had to say now. When she was looking for fun on a Saturday night, this is not what she imagined— listening to Steve Harrington teach her little brother's friend how to pick up chicks— but maybe it was a little entertaining.
"Sure, okay," Steve granted, "Some girls, yeah, they want you to be aggressive. You know, strong... hot and heavy, like a..." He shrugged his shoulders. "I dunno, like a lion."
Dustin nodded along eagerly, still.
"But others, you gotta be slow, you gotta be stealthy, like a... like a ninja."
Ginny stepped between them suddenly, poppping into the conversation. "And what type am I?" She asked, with an amused smile.
Steve froze, his eyes widening as he thought it over. He'd only really known Ginny for a week or so, when they'd made their pact and she helped him get out of his Nancy slump for a little while there. Truth be told, he'd never met another person like Virginia Sinclair.
And for a split second, he thought she was onto him. He panicked, thinking that she figured him out and his rapidly developing crush for the funny girl who took his cigarette and placed her lips where his had been the night his girlfriend dumped him.
But then, he realized she was teasing. "You... you're different..." Steve shook his head. "You're like— both."
Ginny narrowed her eyes at his stammering, but turned to Dustin with a teasing expression. "Hear that, Dustin? I'm both."
"Ooooh both, oo-hoo!" teased the curly haired kid.
They started laughing and Steve rolled his eyes, lumping a piece of meat at the spot between them, making both persons squeal and hop away.
Ginny still laughed, though, nudging him gently with her shoulder. "Come on, Stevie— what does that even mean? I'm a lion ninja?"
Dustin laughed again and she grinned, with her glittery brown eyes and perfect smile, up at Steve. He got lost for a second, and shoved her away half-heartedly. "It means you're special, asshole."
Ginny rolled her eyes playfully, swaying away to bump into Dustin. "Sap."
Dustin was sobered up again, though. "I mean, this girl's special, too. It's just like... something about her—"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hey, hey..." Steve put a hand in front of them both, drawing them to a stop. "You're not falling in love with this girl, are you?"
Dustin scrambled for an answer. "Um, no. No."
"Good," clarified Steve, starting to walk again. "Don't."
"I won't."
"She's only gonna break you're heart, and you're way too young for that shit." Steve slung a bit of meat again.
Ginny watched him carefully, trying to decipher the look behind his eyes. Had Nancy Wheeler hurt him that badly, and yet he was still willing to go back to her?
Clearing her throat, Ginny set forward ahead of them this time. "You're too good for a broken heart, Steve."
His eyes flickered to her figure as she walked along, never turning around to look at them when she spoke. He tried to forget the softness of her voice.
Dustin hung his head sadly, so Steve decided to focus on him, for now. He sighed. "Fabergé."
The boy gazed up at him. "What?"
Steve pointed to his hair. "It's Fabergé Organics. Use the shampoo and conditioner, and when your hair's damp—" He looked pointedly at Dustin. "Not wet, okay? When it's damp... you do four puffs of the Farrah Fawcett spray."
Ginny could hear the laugh building in Dustin's throat. "Farrah Fawcett spray?"
"Yeah, Farrah Fawcett," he answered bitterly. He turned to stare down at Dustin menacingly. "You tell anyone I just told you that and your ass is grass, you're dead, Henderson. Do you understand?"
Dustin nodded fervently. "Yep."
Steve turned to Ginny, who faced them now, and pointed his rubber glove at her. "That goes for you, too, Sinclair."
"I won't say anything," she said innocently, raising her hands in mock surrender. "Why would I want to tell people we use the same hairspray, anyway?"
"Exactly."
"Oh, I know why. Because it's hilarious!" Ginny tossed her head back in a laugh, as she skipped ahead of them.
Steve couldn't find it in his heart to cuss her out or chase her down. He just watched her leave with a faint smile and a roll of his eyes.
a/n:
had to double update bc I just think this chapter is so funny
ALSO someone make a cover for this book. I hate making covers. Tick Tick Boom Alexandra Shipp is Ginny btw if u want to!
and also i'm already writing into season 3 and i'm just ready to write season 4
which I finished by the way. I am thoroughly terrified.