— 𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐨𝐩𝐬 𝐀𝐡𝐨𝐲 —
DUSTIN TRIES all morning to try and get in contact with any of the boys, to no avail.
"Shit. I've been home one day and you think they would answer my calls." He says.
I sigh.
"You can try again, later." I say.
"All right, kiddos. You ready?" Dustin's mom says to us.
I smile at her and grab my bag, Dustin grabbing his as well. We leave the house and hop in the car, making our way to the mall. When we finally arrive, we thank you and goodbye to Dustin's mom and head inside.
The mall is crowded with people. This was my first time here and I was pretty overwhelmed by the sight. I think Dustin noticed this, so he grabs my arm and pulls me through the crowds. He looks for the ice cream shop that I had mentioned to him and when he finds it, he pulls me over to it. We walk inside the 'sailor-themed' shop and stand behind a couple that was in line. We wait for the girl with freckles and dirty blonde hair to give the couple their ice cream, then we walk up to the counter. I realize that the girl is Robin, a classmate that I was in band with.
"Hi." Dustin says to her.
"Hi." She responds.
"I'm Dustin."
"I'm Robin."
"Pleasure to meet you. Uh, is— is he here?" Dustin asks.
"Is who here?" She asks.
Suddenly, the door to the back room swings open and, sure enough, Steve flies out of it.
"Henderson." He says with his arms up.
Dustin laughs and points at him and I smile, admiring him in his adorable little sailor uniform.
"Henderson! He's back! He's back!" Steve says, jumping and making his way towards Dustin.
"I'm back!" Dustin says.
Robin looks extremely confused. She looks over at me and I shrug my shoulders, then she looks back at the boys.
"You got the job!" Dustin says.
"I got the job!" Steve says, putting his hands up to his mouth and making a trumpet noise.
They then do their weird handshake which consisted of fake lightsabers and Steve getting impaled and his guts spilling out. The boys laugh at each other and I realize that Steve has no idea I was standing right there.
"How many children are you friends with?" Robin asks, pulling Steve out of his trance.
He nods his head and motions over to her, then he finally acknowledges my existence.
"(Y/N)! You finally came!" He says, walking over to me and giving me a quick hug.
"Wait," Robin says, looking over at me, "You're the (Y/N) that Steve has been talking about?"
Steve gives Robin a look and she stops talking.
"Do you two know each other?" He asks.
"Yeah, we are in band together." I say to him.
Robin winks at me and then walks off, going into the back room.
"All right, how about you guys go sit at a booth and I'll make you something?" Steve says to us.
Dustin runs off to find a seat and as I was about to go, Steve pulls me back.
"Hey, no sunset yesterday?" He asks me.
I place a hand on my forehead.
"Shit, I forgot. I was with Dustin trying to help him talk to his girlfriend. I'm sorry."
Steve opens his mouth and furrows his eyebrows.
"Girlfriend?" He asks.
I chuckle.
"Yeah. He'll tell you." I say, walking over to the booth Dustin was sitting at.
"What was that all about?" Dustin asks me.
"Nothing." I say.
After a few minutes, Steve comes over to the table with what looked to be a boat of ice cream and slides it to Dustin, scooting into the booth beside me.
"So, Dustin. What is it I hear about this girlfriend?" He asks.
Dustin starts to talk about Suzie, Steve interrupting him every so often.
"No, no. No way. Hotter than Phoebe Cates? No." He says.
"Mm-hmm." Dustin says, eating his ice cream, "Brilliant, too. And she doesn't even care that my real pearls are still coming in. She says kissing is better without teeth."
Steve stares at him with his mouth open and nods his head. I try to contain my laughter and look towards the counter and make eye contact with Robin. She quickly looks away and busies herself with the cash register, so I bring my attention back to the boys.
"Wow. Yeah, that's great. Proud of you, man. That's ro— That's kinda romantic." Steve says and Dustin shrugs his shoulders, "That's like... Wow."
"So do you really just get to eat as much of this as you want?" Dustin asks.
"Yeah. I mean, sure. It's not really a good idea for me, though." Steve says.
"Oh, yeah? Why's that?" I say.
"You know, I gotta, uh... I gotta keep in shape for the ladies." He says.
"Ah, I see." I say, secretly fuming.
"Yeah, and how's that working out for you?" Robin says from the counter.
"Ignore her." Steve quickly says.
"She seems cool." Dustin says.
"She's not." Steve says, "So, where are the other knuckleheads?"
"They ditched me yesterday." Dustin says.
"No." Steve says.
"My first day back. (Y/N) was the only one who stayed with me."
Steve picks his arm up and places it and rests it on the back of the booth behind my shoulders and gives me a small nudge. I smile to myself and continue to listen to Dustin.
"Can you believe that shit?" Dustin asks.
"Woah. Seriously?" Steve says.
"I swear to God. Mm." He says, taking a bite then sticking his finger up, "They're gonna regret it, though, big time, when they don't get to share in my glory."
I kick his leg underneath the table.
"Sorry, our glory." He says, pointing at me.
Steve looks between Dustin and I.
"Glory? What glory?" He asks.
Dustin scoots a bit closer, pushing Steve and I closer together, and leans in.
"So, last night, we're trying to get in contact with Suzie..."
"Oh, mm." Steve says, smiling at him.
"And, uh..." Dustin puts his hand over his mouth and whispers something, very quietly.
I furrow my eyebrows and Steve leans in closer, our faces practically touching.
"What?" Steve asks, unable to hear what Dustin said as well.
Dustin clicks his tongue.
"Uh... we intercepted a secret Russian communication." He says.
I hear him this time, but Steve still has a puzzled look on his face.
"Just speak louder." Steve says.
"We intercepted a secret Russian communication!" Dustin says, yelling.
I place my head in my hands in embarrassment.
"Jeez, shh. Yeah, okay, that's what I thought you said." Steve says.
I take my head out of my hands and everyone in the shop looks away.
"What— What does that mean?" Steve asks.
"It means, Steve, we could be heroes. True American heroes." Dustin says.
"Huh." Steve says, liking where the conversation was going, "American heroes."
"Just think, you could have all the ladies you want and more." Dustin says.
"More?" Steve asks.
"More." Dustin confirms.
"I like more." Steve says.
"Okay, please shut up." I say to them.
"You can have all the guys you want, too, (Y/N). They'll be lining up down the block to get a taste of your glory." Dustin says.
"Hmm..." I say.
"Okay, yeah, I don't want to hear about men tasting (Y/N)'s glory." Steve says.
I roll my eyes and Dustin chuckles.
"So, what's the catch?" Steve asks.
"No catch, we just need your help." Dustin says.
"With what?" Steve asks.
Dustin opens his bag and reaches into it, pulling out a Russian-English dictionary.
"Translation."
Steve leads us to the back of the store and we sit at the table in their backroom. Dustin pulls out his recorder and sets it on the table, along with the dictionary. Steve grabs a whiteboard from the wall and erases it before I could read what was on it. He brings it over to the table and sets it down.
"Good idea, Steve, we can write the alphabet on that. Who has the best handwriting?" Dustin asks.
We all look between each other and Steve ends up passing the dry erase marker to me. I wouldn't say I had the best handwriting of the group, but I have written a fair share of letters in my lifetime. I open the marker up and Dustin passes me the dictionary. I copy the Russian alphabet that was on the book and then write the English alphabet underneath. I walk back up to where the board was hanging on the wall and place it back there. Dustin plays the recording and I pace around the room as Dustin plays the recording and Steve munches on a banana. Dustin then stops the recording.
"So what do you think?" He asks.
"It sounded familiar." Steve says.
"What?" I ask, unaware that he knew Russian.
"The music. The music right there at the end." He says.
Of course he doesn't know Russian. Who was I kidding?
"Why are you listening to the music, Steve?" Dustin says, "Listen to the Russian! We're translating Russian!"
"I'm trying to listen to the Russian, but there's music—"
The door suddenly bursts open and Robin walks in.
"All right, babysitting time is over." She says, "You need to get in there."
Steve takes a step away from her and stands next to Dustin. Robin walks towards the whiteboard.
"Hey, my board. That was important data, shit-birds." She says.
"I guarantee you, what we're doing is way more important than your data." Dustin says.
"Yeah?" Robin says, walking towards the table, "And how do you know these Russians are up to no good anyways?"
Dustin looks over at me and then over at Steve.
"How does she know about the Russians?" Dustin whispers to Steve.
"I don't know!" Steve says with a mouth full of banana.
"You told her about the Russians—"
"It wasn't me." Steve defends.
"Hello, I can hear you." Robin says, "Actually, I can hear everything. You are both extremely loud. (Y/N) is the only one that has some sense, here."
The boys both stay quiet and I smirk.
"You think you have evil Russians plotting against our country, on tape, and you're trying to translate, but you haven't figured out a single word because you didn't realize the Russians use an entirely different alphabet than we do." She says, "Sound about right?"
I smile at her.
"You hit the nail on the head, actually." I say to her and she smiles back at me while Dustin gives me a look.
Robin then tries to reach for the recorder on the table, but Steve snatches it quickly.
"Woah! What do you think you're doing?" He says.
"I wanna hear it." Robin says.
"Why?" Dustin and Steve both say.
"'Cause maybe I can help." She says, "I'm fluent in four languages, you know."
"Okay, give her the recording." I say to Steve.
"Russian?" Dustin asks.
"Ou-yay are-yay umb-day." Robin says.
"Oh-ho-ho!" Steve says.
"Holy shit!" Dustin says.
"That was Pig Latin, dingus." Robin says.
"Idiot." Steve says to Dustin, smacking him in the arm with his banana peel.
"But I can speak Spanish and French and Italian, and I've been in band for twelve years." Robin says, taking a seat at the table, "My ears are little geniuses, trust me."
"(Y/N) is in band." Steve says.
"That's right, so, together, we'll get it translated even faster." She adds.
"I agree." I say, "Hand her the recorder."
"Uh..." Steve says, hesitant.
"Come on, it's your turn to sling ice cream, my turn to translate. I don't even want credit. I'm just bored." Robin says, holding out her hand.
A bell dings from outside and Steve looks between Dustin and I, hesitating to hand it over. I nudge my head at him to hand it to her, and finally, he slaps it in her hand, replacing it with the ice cream scooper.
We continue to play the recording over and over, trying to somehow translate what the man was saying. I sit at the table with Dustin and look through the dictionary as Robin paces around the room.
"Wait, that last part, uh, just one more time." Robin says.
"Okay." Dustin says, rewinding the tape and playing it again.
"Okay, that word. Um..." Robin begins, "It's pronounced... 'dly-nna-ya' which is spelled..."
Dustin gets up from his seat and runs to the whiteboard, so I grab the notepad and pencil and hand the dictionary to Robin.
"D... The— The chair. The chair looking-thingy." Dustin says and I write it down.
He continues to call out the letters and I write them on the notepad, then hand it to Robin.
"See if that makes any sense." I say to her.
She flips through the dictionary and then grabs the pen from my hand, writing the word on the notepad, then handing it back to me.
"Our first sentence." She says with a smile and I read it off of the paper.
I quickly get up and make my way to the window, opening it and leaning out.
"Harrington, we've got our first sentence." I say.
He turns around with an ice cream cone in each hand.
"Oh, seriously?" He asks.
"Yeah. 'The week is long.'" I say, trying to imitate a Russian accent.
"Well, that's thrilling." He says leaning near the window, our faces inches apart.
"So thrilling, but it's progress." I say to him, before closing the window again.
I walk back to the table and we continue to translate the message, when Steve opens the window back up.
"Hey, (Y/N). Is your sister allowed to be here?" He asks me.
I furrow my eyebrows and shake my head.
"No, why?" I ask.
"Her and Mayfield were just in here. Should I send the brigade after her?" He asks.
I smile and shake my head.
"Nah, let her have fun." I say.
"Oh-kay." He says, closing the window once again.
Dustin sighs.
"They break the rules to hang out at the mall, but they don't break curfew to hang out with me." Dustin says.
"Don't let it get to you, Dustin." I say to him, "Besides, we have a code to crack. American heroes, remember?"
He nods his head and smiles at me and we continue to translate. We translate for the rest of the day, until finally, we get a full message. We all stand by the white board and read the translation out loud.
"The week is long, the silver cat feeds, when blue meets yellow in the west." We read.
I shake my head and walk out of the shop, the rest of them following behind me. Steve turns off the lights and then grabs the gate, pulling it down to lock up the shop.
"I mean, it just..." He locks the gate, "It just can't be right."
"It's right." Robin and I say in unison.
"Honestly, I think it's great news." Dustin says.
"How is this great news?" Steve asks, "I mean, so much for being American heroes. It's total nonsense."
"It's not nonsense. It's too specific." Dustin says.
"It's a code." I add.
"What do you mean, a code?" Steve asks.
"Like a secret spy code." I say.
"That's a total stretch." Steve says.
I roll my eyes at him and Robin speaks up.
"I don't know, is it?"
"You're both buying into this?" Steve says.
"Listen, just for kicks, let's entertain the possibility that it is a secret Russian transmission. What'd you think they were gonna say, 'Fire the warhead at noon'?" Robin says.
"Exactly." I agree.
"And my translation is correct. I know that for sure, so... 'The silver cat feeds.' Why would anyone talk like that unless they're trying to mask the true meaning of their message?" Robin says.
"Exactly." Dustin agrees.
"And why would anyone mask the true meaning of their message unless the message was somehow sensitive?" Robin continues.
"Exactly." Dustin and I say in unison.
"So I guess that confirms your guys' suspicion." Robin says, smirking at me.
"Evil Russians." Dustin says.
"I can't believe I'm about to agree with this strange child and the Chief's daughter, but, yeah, totally evil Russians." Robin says, chuckling.
"So how do we crack the code?" I ask.
"Well, I guess we translate the rest and hopefully a pattern emerges." Robin says, shrugging her shoulders.
"A pattern." Dustin says, "Right, like maybe 'silver cat' is a meeting place?"
"Or a person." I say.
"Or a weapon." Dustin says.
"It's probably gonna take a super genius to crack it, but..." Robin turns around, "Where's Steve?
I turn around as well and notice him crouched down by a small kiddie ride that looked like a horse. I start to walk over to him.
"Hey, Steve." Robin calls.
He rummages through his pockets and I stand next to him.
"What's going on?" I ask him, a bit concerned.
"What are you doing?" I hear Robin ask.
"Uh, it's a quarter. I need— Do you have a quarter?" He asks.
I open up my purse and rummage through it, picking out a quarter. Robin and Dustin walk towards us.
"Sure you're tall enough for that ride?" Robin teases.
I hand him the quarter and he quickly bends down, putting it in the machine. The ride starts to go and he sits there listening to it.
"You need help getting up, little Stevie?" Robin teases, again.
"Shh!" Steve says and Dustin chuckles.
I listen as well, and suddenly, I hear it.
"Oh, my god!" I exclaim and Steve looks up at me.
"What?" Dustin asks.
"You hear it?" Steve says to me and I nod my head.
Finally, Dustin realizes.
"Holy shit." He says, "The music."
Dustin takes off his bag and rummages through it as Robin continues to stand there, confused. Dustin grabs the recorder out of his bag and plays it, sure enough, the music on the recording was the same as the music coming from the ride.
"I don't understand." Robin says.
"It's the exact same song on the recording." I say to her.
"Maybe they have horses like this in Russia." She says.
"'Indiana Flyer'? I don't... I don't think so." Steve says, shaking his head and looking up at us, "This code, it... didn't come from Russia. It came from here."
We all look around at each other in disbelief.
Evil Russians were in Hawkins.