Gemma, My Gem
Chapter 11 - The Mall Rats
The next morning, Dustin and Rudy head to Scoops Ahoy together.
After Robin hands a couple their ice cream, the young boys walk up to the counter.
"Hi." Dustin says.
"Hi." Robin says.
"I'm Dustin." Dustin says.
"I'm Robin." Robin says.
"Pleasure to meet you. Uh, is he here?" Dustin asks.
"Is who here?" Robin asks.
"Steve and yeah, he is." Rudy says.
Just then, Steve bursts out of the break room, making the door slam into the wall.
"Henderson." Steve says.
Dustin laughs, excitedly.
"Henderson! He's back! He's back!" Steve says.
"I'm back! You got the job!" Dustin says.
"I got the job!" Steve says before imitating trumpet noises.
Rudy steps back and awkwardly watches his brother and best friend imitating lightsaber gestures before laughing hysterically.
"How many children are you friends with?" Robin asks, making Steve sigh, annoyed.
"I'm a little offended you're more excited to see my friend than seeing your own brother." Rudy says, crossing his arms and Steve sighs.
"I see you everyday, Rudy." Steve says.
A few moments later, the Harrington brothers are seated at a booth with Dustin who excitedly tells the older Harrington about Suzie.
"No, no. No way. Hotter than Phoebe Cates? No." Steve says, shaking his head in disbelief.
"Phoebe Cates' not hot." Rudy says.
"Yes, she is. You just have no taste." Steve says.
"I have taste. I'm dating Gem." Rudy says, a huge smile spreading across his face.
Steve audibly snorts before turning back to Dustin.
"She's brilliant too. And she doesn't care that my real pearls are still coming in. She said kissing is better without teeth." Dustin says.
The Harrington brothers share a weird look.
"Wow. Yeah, that's great. Proud of you, man. That's kinda romantic. That's like...wow." Steve says.
"Wow is right." Rudy says before laughing awkwardly.
"So do you really just get to eat as much of this as you want?" Dustin asks, gesturing to all the ice cream at the table.
"Yeah. I mean, sure. It's not really a good idea for me, though. You know, I gotta keep in shape for the ladies." Steve says.
"Yeah, and how's that working out for you?" Robin asks at the same time Rudy asks "What ladies?"
"Ignore her and Rudy, shut up." Steve says.
He punches his arm and Rudy punches his back.
"She seems cool." Dustin says.
"She's not. So where are the other knuckleheads?" Steve asks.
"They ditched me yesterday." Dustin says and Rudy groans as he jerks his head back.
"Here we go again." Rudy mutters.
"No." Steve says.
"My first day back. Can you believe that shit?" Dustin asks.
"Whoa. Seriously?" Steve asks before turning to his brother and giving him a disappointed look.
"Oh my God, no we didn't. We left because it was late. But I did feel a little bad so I wanted to hang out with you for a little while before I go see Gem." Rudy says.
"Ok, now that's a true friend." Steve says, looking back at Dustin.
"Yeah, that's true. But everyone else is gonna regret it, though. Big time. When they don't get to share in my glory." Dustin says.
"Glory? What glory?" The Harrington brothers simultaneously ask.
Dustin smirks mischievously before scooting closer to them.
"So, last night...we're trying to get in contact with Suzie..." Dustin starts to say.
"And we didn't. But continue." Rudy says.
"And, uh...I intercepted a secret Russian communication." Dustin whispers the second part.
"What?" The Harrington brothers simultaneously ask.
"Uh...I intercepted a secret Russian communication." Dustin whispers again.
"Just speak louder." Steve says.
"Why the hell are you whispering?" Rudy asks.
"I intercepted a secret Russian communication!" Dustin practically yells.
Rudy looks around before slumping down, embarrassed.
"Jeez, shh. Yeah, ok, that's what I thought you said. What does that mean?" Steve asks.
"It means he contacted the Russians somehow." Rudy says.
"And it also means, we could be heroes. True American heroes." Dustin says.
"Huh." Steve says.
"Gem would love that." Rudy says, smirking.
"Yeah, Rudy, she would. And just think, Steve, you could have all the ladies you want and more." Dustin says.
"More?" Steve asks.
"More." Dustin says.
"I like more." Steve says.
"Mhm." Dustin says.
"And I like the idea of making Gem love me even more." Rudy says.
"Mhm." Dustin says again.
"What's the catch?" The Harrington brothers simultaneously ask.
"No, catch. I just need your guy's help." Dustin says.
"With what?" The Harrington brothers simultaneously ask.
"Translation." Dustin says, holding up a Russian dictionary.
"Good thing I'm here because having only Steve here to help you translate would've taken you years." Rudy says.
"He acts like he's better than me just because he knows a little bit of Russian." Steve whispers to Dustin who chuckles.
"Because I am." Rudy says.
Steve smacks his arm and Rudy smacks his back.
The Harrington brothers continue to hit each other when Dustin breaks them apart.
"Stop fighting. Come on, let's translate." Dustin says.
****
Gemma's outside the house, watching Max skateboard when she falls off it.
"Holy shit, Max! Are you ok?" Gemma asks, running over to her.
After she helps her up, they both look over and see El walking up to them.
"Hi." El says, looking at both of them as she hands the skateboard back to Max.
"Hi." The stepsisters simultaneously says.
"Can we talk?" El asks.
Inside the house, Max is pacing around her room while Gemma's sitting next to El, listening to her talk about her situation with Mike.
"And then, he said he...he missed me. And then, he just hung up." El says, looking back and forth between the stepsisters.
"He's a piece of shit." Max says.
"What?" El asks and Gemma looks at her, confused.
"Mike doesn't have jack shit to do today and his Nana obviously isn't sick. I guarantee you, he and Lucas are playing Atari right now." Max says.
"But friends don't lie." El says.
"Yeah, well, boyfriends lie. All the time." Max says.
"That's not true." Gemma says, rolling her eyes.
"How do you know Rudy hasn't lied to you before?" Max asks.
"Because he'd never do that." Gemma says in a duh tone.
Max rolls her eyes before sitting on the other side of El.
"Listen to me...you're going to stop calling him. You're going to ignore his calls. As far as your concerned, he doesn't exist." Max says.
"He doesn't exist?" El asks.
"Max." Gemma says.
"He treated you like garbage. You're gonna treat him like garbage. Give him a taste of his own medicine." Max says.
"Give him the medicine." El says.
"Mhm. And if he doesn't fix this, if he doesn't explain himself, dump his ass." Max says.
"Max! That's such bad advice!" Gemma says.
Max rolls her eyes, ignoring her before grabbing El's hands and pulling her up.
"Come on." Max says.
"Where are we going?" El asks.
"To have some fun. There's more to life than stupid boys, you know." Max says.
She looks over her shoulder and sees Gemma still sitting on her bed.
"Come on, Gem. You're coming too." Max says.
"Rudy's on his way." Gemma says.
"And he'll leave you a note. Come on. You need to know there's more to life than stupid boys too." Max says.
"I know there's more to life than Rudy!" Gemma says.
"Really? Because all I hear from you is 'Rudy this' and 'Rudy that'." Max says, grabbing her arm and pulling her up.
"Yeah, because I love him." Gemma says as Max drags her out the room.
****
Back at Scoops Ahoy, Steve, Dustin, and Rudy are in the break room, listening to the Russian recording.
"So what do you guys think?" Dustin asks, stopping the recorder.
"I heard 'the' a lot." Rudy says and Dustin sighs.
"It sounded familiar." Steve says, taking a bite from his banana and Dustin and Rudy give him a confused look.
"What?" Dustin and Rudy simultaneously ask.
"The music. The music right there at the end." Steve says.
"Oh my God, Steve." Rudy says before facepalming and shaking his head.
"Why are you listening to the music, Steve? Listen to the Russian! We're translating Russian! Rudy's being more helpful and he only translated one word!" Dustin says.
Just then, Robin bursts into the room, making the trio look at her.
"Alright, babysitting time is over. You need to get in there." Robin says to Steve.
She looks over at the board and sees that the Russian alphabet is on it instead of what she had on it earlier.
"Hey, my board! That was important data, shitbirds." Robin says.
"Watch it. I'm not a shitbird." Rudy says.
"I guarantee you, what we're doing is way more important than your data." Dustin says.
"Yeah? And how do you know these Russians are up to no good anyways?" Robin asks.
"How does she know about the Russians?" Dustin asks.
"I don't know." Steve says.
"Did you guys tell her about the Russians?" Dustin asks, looking back and forth between the Harrington brothers.
"It wasn't me." Steve says.
"We didn't tell her about the Russians. She probably just heard us." Rudy says.
"You're right, Rudy, I did hear you. You three are extremely loud. You think you have evil Russians plotting against our country, on tape, and out of you three, Rudy only translated one word because he knows that the Russians use an entirely different alphabet than we do. Sound about right?" Robin asks.
Steve and Dustin are silent while Rudy nods.
Robin reaches forward to grab the Russian dictionary but Steve grabs it.
"What do you think you're doing?" Steve asks.
"I wanna hear it." Robin says.
"Why?" Steve and Dustin simultaneously ask.
"'Cause maybe I can help. I'm fluent in four languages, you know." Robin says.
"Russian?" Dustin asks.
"Ou-yay are-yay umb-day." Robin says.
Steve and Dustin exclaim, impressed and Rudy looks at them like they're stupid.
"That was Pig Latin, dingus." Robin says.
"Idiot." Steve says, hitting Dustin with his banana peel and Rudy rolls his eyes and shakes his head.
"But I can speak Spanish and French and Italian, and I've been in band for twelve years. My ears are tiny geniuses, trust me." Robin says.
Rudy nods, impressively.
"Uh..." Steve says, hesitantly.
"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.
"Yeah, go away, Steve. You know you're just gonna slow us down. Robin and I got this." Rudy says.
Steve gives him an annoyed look before looking at Robin who's eagerly waiting for his response.
He sighs before handing her the dictionary and she hands him the ice cream scoop.
"We should've had you from the beginning." Rudy says, playfully bumping into Robin's shoulder.
****
El, Max, and Gemma exit the bus and watch the people enter the mall.
"So, what do you think?" Max asks El.
"Hey Max, I'm gonna go back home." Gemma says, slowly inching towards the bus.
Max rolls her eyes before grabbing her arm and pulling her away.
"Having a Rudy free day isn't going to kill you, Gem." Max says.
"Yes, it will." Gemma says.
Max rolls her eyes before turning to El who's looking around, worried.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Max asks.
"Too many people. Against the rules." El says.
"Seriously? You have superpowers. What's the worst that could happen?" Max asks.
The trio run to the bottom of the mall and El looks around in awe.
"So, what should we do first?" Max asks.
"We should..." Gemma starts to say.
"You're not going home." Max says, seriously.
"I wasn't going to say that." Gemma says.
Max looks back at El who's still looking around.
"You've never been shopping before, have you?" Max asks.
El shakes her head.
"Well, then I guess we're just gonna have to try everything." Max says.
"Starting with The Gap." Gemma says.
"You read my mind." Max says.
The stepsisters grab El's hands and they run towards The Gap.
When trio is in the store, El looks at all the clothes in awe.
On display, there's a blue shirt with multicolored stripes and El stares at it.
"That's pretty." Gemma says, nodding approvingly.
"Do you like that?" Max asks, looking at El.
"How do I know...what I like?" El asks.
"You just try things on. Until you find something that feels like you." Max says.
"Like me?" El asks.
"Yeah. Not Hopper. Not Mike. You." Max says.
El looks back at the shirt and smiles.
"Let me get it for you." Gemma says, standing on her tiptoes.
El exits the dressing room and goes over to the stepsisters who are waiting by the mirror.
When Max hands her a yellow beret, she puts it on backwards and the stepsisters shake their heads before fixing it.
El stretches out her suspender straps before letting it go, making herself and the stepsisters laugh.
El exits the dressing room again, this time wearing a white dress with multicolored stripes and the stepsisters hand her different colored belts.
While Max is trying on different sunglasses, Gemma is trying on different red jewelry before deciding to go with the red heart hoop earrings.
She and Max go back over to El who's modeling in her new black dress with multicolored designs.
They both chuckle at her silliness when she grabs their hands and drags them out the store.
As the trio walk down the concourse, the stepsisters link their arms into El's.
El smiles at them and they smile back.
They head into the photo store and take pictures.
In a shoe store, the stepsisters help El walk in heels when she trips and falls over.
The trio laughs when they look over and see Stacey and her friends look at them, judgmentally.
"What are you looking at, Stacey? I bet you fell over too when you first tried on heels." Gemma says.
"Actually I didn't." Stacey says before she and her friends turn around.
"'Actually, I didn't.'" Gemma mimics loudly and she, Max, and El laugh again.
A few moments later, El, Max, and Gemma poke their heads around the corner and see Stacey and her friends talking outside of Burger King.
El narrows her eyes and tilts her head up, making Stacey's drink explode all over her.
The trio laughs as they run off the opposite direction.
"See? What'd I tell you? There's more to life than stupid boys!" Max says and El continues to laugh.
She looks at her stepsister who's still laughing as well.
"Ok, Max, I'll admit it. Today was a little fun." Gemma says.
"Like I told you...a Rudy free day wouldn't kill you." Max says.
****
Dustin plays the recording again and Robin and Rudy pace around, listening to it.
"Wait, that last part, just one more time." Robin says.
"Ok." Dustin says before rewinding it.
"Ok, that word. Um, it's pronounced 'dly-nna-ya.'" Robin says.
"Dly-nna-ya." Dustin says.
"Which is spelled D...D, D, D..." Robin trails off.
Dustin gets up from the table and goes over to the board.
"The chair. The chair looking thingy." Dustin says.
"Yeah, ok." Robin says before writing it down.
"I know that word. I know that word. What is it?" Rudy asks, still pacing around, rubbing his temples to remember.
A few moments later, Rudy opens the sliding window.
"Steve." Rudy says.
"What?" Steve asks, turning around.
"We've got our first sentence." Robin says, joining Rudy by the open window.
"Oh, seriously?" Steve asks, going over to them.
"The week is long." Robin says, imitating a Russian accent.
"Well, that's thrilling." Steve says, sarcastically.
"I know. But progress." Robin says before walking off.
"We made it further along without your help." Rudy says.
"Yeah, yeah, Rudy, I get it. You're the smart Harrington and I'm not." Steve says, rolling his eyes.
"You make me seem like a nerd. I'm far from one." Rudy says before slamming the sliding window shut.
Steve rolls his eyes again before going back to the counter.
"Ok, here you go, you got a strawberry, a vanilla with sprinkles, extra whipped cream, and a watermelon and peanut butter milkshake." Steve says, handing them to Max, El, and Gemma.
"Thanks." The three girls simultaneously says.
"Wait a second. Are you even allowed to be here?" Steve asks, looking at El.
El looks at the stepsisters and the three of them laugh before running off.
"Uh...ok. Oh, Gemma, wait!" Steve says.
"Yes?" Gemma asks, turning around.
Steve holds the break room door open and when Rudy heads out, he heads inside.
Rudy and Gemma smile widely when they see each other before meeting halfway and hugging.
"I'm sorry I never stopped by. I had to help Dustin with something." Rudy says as he and Gemma pull apart.
"It's ok." Gemma says, smiling at him.
Rudy smiles back when he notices her new earrings.
"You got new earrings." Rudy says, touching one of them.
"Yeah. Max, El, and I hung out here all day." Gemma says.
"I see. Did you have fun?" Rudy asks.
"Yeah. But I would've had more fun with you." Gemma says.
"Oh, yeah. We would've had lots of fun." Rudy says, wiggling his eyebrows and Gemma chuckles.
"Yes, we would've." Gemma says before taking a sip from her milkshake.
"Well, I have to go back to helping Dustin. But I'm gonna make it up to you tomorrow." Rudy says and Gemma nods and smiles.
Rudy grabs Gemma by her chin and kisses her so hard, the two are breathless when they pull apart.
"I love you." Rudy says, smiling at her.
"I love you too." Gemma says, smiling back.
The two kiss once more before Rudy heads back into the break room and Gemma heads out the shop.
****
"Girls." Gemma says when she caught up to Max and El by the entrance and they both jump.
"Holy shit, don't do that again, Gem." Max says.
"Sorry." Gemma says, chuckling.
After Max catches her breath, she turns to El.
"You wanna trade?" Max asks.
El nods and she and Max trade ice cream cones.
"Can I try, Gem?" El asks, nodding at her milkshake.
"Sure!" Gemma says, handing it to her.
"You're not gonna like it." Max says, disgusted.
"Shut up, Max. Let her try it for herself." Gemma says.
El takes a sip before widening her eyes.
"I like it." El says, handing it back to her.
"I knew you would." Gemma says, taking it from her.
"Oh, you've gotta be shitting me." Max says.
El and Gemma look at her, confused when they look over and see Mike, Lucas, and Will heading to the bike racks.
"Isn't this a nice surprise." Max says as she, El, and Gemma walk up to them.
Mike looks at the three girls before dropping his bike, dramatically.
"What are you doing here?" Mike asks, looking straight at his girlfriend.
"Shopping." El says.
"This is her new style. What do you think?" Max asks.
"What's wrong with you? You know she's not allowed to be here." Mike says, glaring at Max.
"What is she, your little pet?" Max asks.
"Yeah. Am I your pet?" El asks.
"What? No!" Mike says.
"Then, why do you treat me like garbage?" El asks.
"What?" Mike asks.
"You said Nana was sick." El says.
"She is. She is. She is sick." Mike says, gesturing Lucas to lie with him.
"Yeah, sick...she's sick. She's super sick. That's why we're here actually." Lucas says.
"Yeah, we're shopping. Not for us, but for her, for Nana." Mike says.
"For Nana!" Lucas says.
"Also, we're here to get a gift for you. We just couldn't find anything that suited you and I only have like, $3.50, so it's hard." Mike says.
"Super hard. It's...it's expensive." Lucas says.
"You lie. Why do you lie?" El says.
Mike hesitates and Gemma groans, annoyed.
"Mike, just tell her!" Gemma says before going back to her milkshake.
Mike still doesn't say anything and that's when the bus approaches.
The three girls look over their shoulders at it before turning back to the boys.
El walks up to Mike who's looking at her, worried.
"I dump your ass." El says.
Mike looks at her, shocked, Max smiles, proudly, and Gemma nearly chokes on her milkshake.
El and Max walk off and Gemma looks back and forth between them and the boys a few times before running after them.
The three girls take their seats in the bus and El chuckles as she gives Max a high five.
El turns to Gemma and holds her hand up, wanting to high five her as well and Gemma forces a smile before weakly slapping her hand into hers.
****
"The week is long, the silver cat feeds, when blue meets yellow in the west." Steve, Robin, Dustin, and Rudy reads out loud, later that night.
"I mean, it just....it just can't be right." Steve says as he closes up the shop.
"It's right." Robin and Rudy simultaneously says.
"Honestly, I think it's great news." Dustin says.
"How is this great news? I mean, so much for being American heroes. It's total nonsense." Steve says.
"It's not nonsense. It's too specific. It's obviously a code." Dustin says.
"What do you mean a code?" Steve asks.
"He means a code." Rudy says.
"Like a super spy code." Dustin says.
"That's a total stretch." Steve says.
"I don't know, is it?" Robin asks.
"You're buying into this?" Steve asks.
"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 asks.
"Exactly." Dustin says.
"Right. Steve, think." Rudy says, glancing at his brother.
"And my and Rudy's translation is correct. I know that for sure." Robin says.
"Me too." Rudy says.
"So 'The silver car feeds.' Why would anyone talk like that unless they were trying to mask the true meaning of their message?" Robin asks.
"Exactly." Dustin says.
"Knowing Steve, he probably thought there actually was a silver cat running around feeding on mice and cat food." Rudy says, chuckling.
"And why would anyone mask the true meaning of their message unless the message was somehow sensitive?" Robin asks.
"Exactly!" Dustin says.
"So, I guess that confirms your guy's suspicion." Robin says.
"Evil Russians." Dustin and Rudy simultaneously says.
"I can't believe I'm about to agree with this strange child and your brother but, yeah totally...evil Russians." Robin says.
"So, how do we crack it?" Dustin asks.
"Well, I guess we translate the rest and hopefully a pattern emerges." Robin says.
"Looks like I have to call Gemma and tell her I can't make today up tomorrow." Rudy says.
"A pattern. Right like maybe 'silver cat' is a meeting place?" Dustin suggests.
"Or a person." Robin suggests.
"Or a weapon." Dustin suggests.
"It's definitely a weapon." Rudy says.
"It's probably gonna take a super genius to crack it, but...where's Steve?" Robin asks when she notices he's no longer walking with them.
The trio turn around sees Steve standing in front of a kiddy ride, fishing his pockets for change.
"Hey Steve. What are you doing?" Robin asks.
"Uh, it's a quarter. I need...do you have a quarter?" Steve asks.
"Sure you're tall enough for that ride?" Robin jokes as she, Rudy, and Dustin run up to him.
"Sure you're not too old for it?" Rudy jokes as well.
"Quarter!" Steve says, ignoring them both.
Robin tosses him a quarter and Steve puts it into the ride.
The music plays as the ride starts to move and Steve listens to it closely.
"You need help getting up, little Stevie?" Robin jokes and Dustin and Rudy chuckle.
"Shh! Would you three just shut up and listen?" Steve asks, annoyed.
The trio fall silent when Dustin widens his eyes in realization.
"Holy shit. The music. The music!" Dustin says.
After he pulls out his recorder from his backpack, he presses play and the music from the recording matches the one on the ride.
"I don't understand." Robin says.
"It's the same exact song on the recording." Dustin says.
Rudy snatches the recorder from Dustin and after listening to it closely, he widens his eyes.
"Holy shit! That is the music! What the fuck?" Rudy asks, handing the recorder back to Dustin.
"Maybe they have horses like this in Russia." Robin suggests.
"'Indiana Flyer'? I don't...I don't think so. This code, it...didn't come from Russia. It came from here." Steve says.
After sharing looks, the group looks back at the moving horse that now looks creepier than it did moments before.