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c h a p t e r t h r e e
Awoken by her alarm clock, Sam turns on her stereo and gets ready for her first day of work.
When her dad forced her to get a job for the first time, she utterly dreaded it, but now, she enjoyed working for the most part. It gave her a routine to follow, a chance to try different things, and, at least this time, an excuse to look at clothes all day.
"Oh, girls just wanna have fun," she sings while tying her hair half-up half-down.
"Hey, can you check if my braids are even?" Bianca walks into the room, pointing to the French braids she'd done.
"You know our mother literally does hair for a living right?"
"I'm trying to learn for myself. I'm not a baby anymore," she stands in front of Sam's vanity, stopping her from looking at her own hair. "Plus she's having brunch with Joyce."
"Oh, she gets her braces off and suddenly she's a grown woman," she mocks shock, earning an unamused face.
"Can you just check the hair?"
"It looks fine. Are you leaving now?"
"Yeah, we gotta get there before Dawn leaves for work."
"What exactly are you doing?" she pulls on her socks and Adidas.
"We're surprising Dustin," she grins.
"B, come on!" Lucas's voice comes through the walkie-talkie, making them both roll their eyes.
"Can't believe he's rushing me," she shakes her head, running downstairs with her bookbag. "Bye Ma, Bye Dad!"
Climbing on her bike, she's net with the group outside of her door, waiting for her.
"He's gonna be home soon, come on," Mike waves his hand over, leading them down the street.
They hide their bikes around the shed, knocking on the door.
Dawn opens it, fully in her Starcourt Cinemas attire, and ushers them in quickly. "Hurry, I've gotta go!"
"We're going, we're going," they all yell, hiding in the appropriate spot.
"He's so gonna lose his shit," Bianca giggles.
Eventually, the car pulls in, and Dustin grumbles to his room, whining about no one being excited to see him.
"Now," Bianca whispers, and El closes her eyes, making his toys come to life.
He slowly follows them to the living room, where El stops them. He inspects them carefully, clearly confused as they sneak into the room behind him.
"Surprise!" they yell, holding up a banner and blowing noisemakers.
In a panic, he sprays Lucas with the hairspray in his hand. The boy screams in pain, while the group looks on in shock and amusement.
"Dude!" Bianca grabs the spray from his hand.
"Why?" Dustin shouts. "Why?"
"It was a surprise," El smiles, blowing the noisemaker again.
"Yeah, we didn't expect you to attack," Bianca winces as Lucas continues to yell in pain.
Max leads him over to the kitchen, helping him wash it out as the rest of the group chuckles.
"Just show us all the cool stuff you made, man," Mike shrugs.
"Come on," he leads them to his room, holding up some gadgets. "I call this, the Forever Clock. Powered by wind, very useful in the apocalypse."
"So a mini windmill?" Bianca raises an eyebrow.
"No, it's a Forever Clock."
"Mini windmill," Bianca whispers, making Mike, El, and Will laugh.
"Whatever," he grabs something else. "I give you, The Slammer."
"Slammer?" El furrows her eyebrows in confusion, prompting him to bring the device closer.
She moves her head away, clearly not as impressed as Dustin was by his creation.
"Yeah, Slammer. Pretty neat, huh?"
He then grabs a duffel bag, lugging it over to them, as they kneel down to see it. "But this... This is my masterpiece."
Opening it up to reveal a hunk of metal, he grins proudly. "I'd like you to meet Cerebro."
"What exactly are we looking at here?"
"An unassembled, one-of-a-kind, battery-powered radio tower."
"So it's a... a ham radio."
"Did you make anything original?" Bianca questions.
"First of all, you haven't made anything, original or not. Second of all, it's the Cadillac of ham radios. This baby carries a crystal clear connection over vast distances. I'm talking North Pole to South. I can talk to my girlfriend whenever and wherever I choose."
They all look at each other in shock as Bianca breaks out into a fit of laughter.
It wasn't that she didn't think Dustin could get a girlfriend, it just happened that he hasn't had the best of luck with girls. Also, the idea of meeting a girl at science camp was hilarious to her.
"Girlfriend?"
"Yep, Suzie," he leads them down the hallway.
"Her name is Suzie?"
"Suzie with a Z. She lives in Utah."
"Girls go to science camp?"
"Not without being bullied for being a girl at a science camp," Bianca furrows her eyebrows.
"Suzie does, she's a genius."
"Excuse me? Bianca's a genius, too, and she goes to regular camp," Mike defends her, wrapping his arm around her tighter.
"Yeah, what are you implying?"
"Suzie's a bigger genius."
"Sure she is."
"Is she cute?"
"Think Phoebe Cates, only hotter."
"She's sounding less and less real, my friend," Bianca pats his shoulder.
"What's going on?" Max questions as they enter the kitchen.
"Going to talk to Dustin's girlfriend," Will grins.
"Girlfriend?" they gasp.
"I know!" Bianca scoffs.
"Shut up!"
_____
Over at the mall, Sam decides to go on lunch break after running around the store, cleaning up after 13-year-olds for 2 hours straight.
If this is what running her own boutique one day would be like, she needed a little more time to prepare.
She finishes her food pretty quickly, walking over to Scoops Ahoy. Steve and Robin seemed to be discussing something on a whiteboard before she points to Sam approaching the counter.
In truth, they'd been discussing Steve's recent lack of mojo with the women of Hawkins. Deep down, he knew he was failing at flirting because there was only one girl he really wanted.
"Hey," he attempts to flirt, accidentally knocking the ice cream scooper on the ground.
"Don't scoop my ice cream with that," she chuckles. "But how's work?"
"Same old same old. How's the Gap?"
"I've had to fold the same pile of shirts fifteen times in the past hour. I'm exhausted. I miss the diner," she groans, leaning her forehead on the counter.
He runs a hand through her hair, comforting her. "How about a cone on the house? I hear ice cream solves all problems."
"You use that line on all the girls?"
"Not like it would work!" Robin comments from the back, and Sam chuckles.
"I told you, you're the only girl for me, Luz," he glares at Robin before grinning at Sam.
"Real charming. I was promised free ice cream?" she points to the freezer.
He goes to wash his hands and grabs a new scooper, before walking back over.
"What flavor?"
"Surprise me."
"Alright..." he scans the different flavors, ultimately deciding on Birthday Cake. "So I was thinking..."
"Uh oh."
"I was thinking we could go out on Thursday. Head to the festival, see the fireworks, you know?" he hopefully asks her, growing worried yat the hesitant face she was wearing.
"Oh, that sounds great!"
"Really?" he looks up with hopeful eyes.
Of course, her next sentence bursts his bubble.
"Yeah, did you tell Dawn already? I can stop by the cinema and see if she's off that day," she taps her fingers on the counter.
"No... not exactly. Um, I..." he begins to correct her but takes her obliviousness as a sign that she didn't want to go on a date as he intended. "I'll tell her, she comes in during her break every day."
"Great. We're gonna have so much fun. Thanks for the ice cream," she kisses his cheek.
He follows her every move as she leans across the counter, breaths starting to falter.
"Wow, you suck extra today. That earns two points," Robin holds up her board triumphantly.
"She wants me, okay?"
"Did you miss the epic friend-zoning she just did?"
"She misunderstood me. I wasn't clear enough, but I know she wants me- Why am I telling you this?"
"Because you're desperate for someone to believe you're not a loser? It's not working, by the way."
"Alright, shut it," he walks back over to the register, casting a glance over to Sam, who was talking to Chrissy in the midst of eating her ice cream.
She looked so carefree, so relaxed. So different from a few months back after the whole Billy thing. She didn't want to admit it, but he knew that night affected her more than she let on. She jumped when people slammed their lockers, got nervous whenever Billy came around, and stayed far away from the pumpkin patch. It broke his heart to see her like that. All he ever wanted was to make sure she was always this safe and happy.
His daydream gets interrupted by Dawn walking up, handing him a 5. "I need ice cream and I need it now."
"Rough day?"
"I've spilled popcorn butter on myself so many times, it's ingrained into my scent," she sighs.
"You always smell like that."
"Very funny. So how's it going with that date?"
"It's going... terribly," he scoops her usual, handing her the strawberry cone.
"Weird."
"What do you mean weird? What do you know? Tell me," he frantically questions.
"Oh, you've got it bad," she pats his shoulder in pity. "I just figured after you wooed her at prom she'd be more than willing to go out with you."
"She thinks I just want to hang out. Like as friends. Oh and apparently you're coming with."
"No, I'm not. Were you clear in your intentions?" she mocks a confused face.
"I can't come on too strong, or she'll think I'm playing her or something. It's not my fault she can't catch the hint."
"Take the hint."
"What?"
"No one says catch the hint. The phrase is, take the hint."
"Seriously?" he blankly stares at her, holding out her cone.
"Okay, I'm gonna let you in on a secret. She knows what you're doing, she's just scared you don't mean it. That's why she's friend-zoning you."
"So what do I do?"
"You can't just put the charm on her, okay? You've gotta be real, be vulnerable, be honest. Show her how bad you want her but don't make her think it's temporary."
"Okay, and how do I do that?"
"You're hopeless," she shrugs, walking out. "Hopeless, Harrington!"
"So help me!" he calls out, turning back to Robin. "Your turn on the register, I've gotta think."
"I didn't know you could do that," she tilts her head.