I jump as I hear slight yelling in my kitchen. Billy sits up too.
I climb over him and rush to my door, opening it. Billy is by my side as I step out and stare at the people yelling.
It's Joyce and Hopper. Hopper's hair is wet and he is wrapped in a towel. He does have his uniform shirt on. Joyce looks extremely frustrated. Little magnets cover the floor in front of the refrigerator.
"What's going on?" I ask, crossing my arms over my chest. All I'm visibly wearing is an over sized teeshirt and all Billy is wearing is sweat pants.
"Nothing, Hon," Joyce says quickly, only offering us a quick glance.
Hoppers scoffs loudly. "It's not nothing. You ditched me for Scott Clark!"
"The kids science teacher?" Billy asks.
"That's the one," Hopper shouts mockingly.
"Scott was able to demagnetize some of the magnets and he thinks-" Joyce continues.
"I don't care what Scott thinks!" Hopper yells.
Joyce continues to argue whatever point she is in the middle of making. "He thinks that a large scale magnetic field could be built using some sort of machine or- or experimental technology."
"He's brilliant isn't he?" Hopper smiles. Jealousy written across his face. "He's really brilliant. Is he single too?"
Joyce scoffs as Hopper walks towards his bed room.
"What if it's them?" She says.
I send a glance to Billy in confusion. His eye brows are furrowed.
"To build a machine like this, you need resources. You need scientists and funding. It can't just be a coincidence, Hopper. It has to be them. It has to be the lab." Joyce rants.
I feel my mouth drop into a deep frown. I thought we were done with the lab. Flashes of what happened to Bob flicker through my brain.
Hopper looks at me as Billy lays a hand on my shoulder. "Joyce, stop it." My dad snaps at her.
"Prove it to me. Take me back there. To the lab!" She pleads, standing in front of Hopper.
"Because some magnets fell off of your fridge?" Hopper says, skeptically.
"Yes!" Joyce says strongly.
"We could meet up there. Like tonight seven o'clock," Hopper says. There is sarcasm and anger in his voice. "Of course, unless something else comes up, which you know, it will." Hopper shuts the curtain that is his bedroom door.
"After everything that's happened, this is no joke!" Joyce yells.
"No I don't think it's a joke," Hopper continues on the other side. "I think that when I asked you out, I think you got scared, and now you're inventing things. You're inventing things to get worked up about so that you can push me away. Because, God for bid, any of us move on! Because that would be too much right Joyce?"
My heart hurts for him. It hurts for Joyce too. She hurries out of the cabin with tears in her eyes. Hopper continues to call for her. Finally, he realizes and leaves his room, dressed and headed to the front door, still calling her name.
I can hear them yelling outside about her going back.
"Let's just get ready and go to the mall," I sigh out.
"What about our shifts?" Billy asks, following me back into my room.
I take the oversized shirt off, faced away from him. I grab for my red swim suit. I then turn back to him, over my modesty. There's too much to do to be modest and I at least have underwear on.
Billy looks at my body before snapping to attention as I speak.
"I'm covering both our shifts. You're going to help Robin and the boys," I say, leaving my room for the bathroom.
I close the door and change.
"You don't have to do my shift!" Billy yells through the door.
"You aren't working today, Billy! Yesterday everyone thought you were dying! I'm going to tell them you had heat exhaustion!" I yell through the door. I come out in my swim suit and go back into my room. As I face away from Billy, I put my clothes on. I can hear him fumbling into his jeans.
After we're completely ready, we walk to my car.
"I'm going to drop you off at the mall then go to work," I tell him, climbing into the drivers seat.
Billy huffs, stuffing his hands into his spare jeans he left at my house. His shirt is a light grey.
I have denim shorts and a dark grey tee shirt with the band ABBA on it.
"I don't know which I like more being in the excruciating heat or listening to Dustin and Harrington argue," Billy whines sarcastically.
"You're going to have to put up with it," with that I pull onto the road.
。。。
Billy's POV
My girlfriend all but throws me out of her Impala. I can barely get out of the car before she's hassling me again.
"Billy," she starts. Her blonde hair is in a ponytail. It falls over her shoulder as she leans across the center console to look at me. The sun shines slightly into her beautiful green eyes.
"Yeah, Babe?" I sigh out, leaning onto the car with one arm. I duck down almost to her level.
"Be good and for God's sake don't flirt with Steve," at that, a small smile tries to creep across her tanned, freckled cheeks.
I scoff. "I don't flirt with, Harrington."
"Sure you don't. You wouldn't want to ruin your masculinity," now she's in a full on laugh.
"Stop it, Cass," I say trying to be stern. It doesn't work. A smile slips onto my face.
"It's funny!" She laughs. I love that laugh. After it dies down, she looks at me.
"I love you," she tells me.
She looks so perfect.
"I love you too," I tell her. I lean into her car and plant a kiss onto her pink lips.
"I better get to work," she says after she pulls away.
"I better get to Harrington," I say sarcastically, leaning back out of the car. I shut the door and she laughs a little then drives away.
I watch for a moment before going into the mall.
I can't help but frown as I push through the preteens. God, I hate people.
I get to Scoops Ahoy and see Robin. She has headphones on and a book in her hand.
Sinclair's little sister is hitting the little bell on the counter. Her little buddies stand behind her. All of them are covered in neon colors. It's tacky.
Finally, Robin takes her headphones off and looks at Erica.
Erica says, "I'd like to try the peanut butter chocolate swirl, please." She sounds so sweet and innocent. Yeah right.
"No," Robin smiles back sarcastically. Her arms are propped up on the back counter. "No more samples today."
They start to argue for a second. "Where's the sailor man?" Erica asks.
Robin tells her he's busy and turns around.
"Busy with what?" Erica asks with an attitude.
"Spy craft," is all Robin says. She glances behind the girls.
I turn around and see Steve crouched by a plant with binoculars. What a fucking weirdo. Dustin is standing beside him.
I make my way over to him. "What are you dipshits doing?"
Steve let's out an almost feminine screech. "You scared me!"
"We're looking for," Dustin cuts off his sentence looks around and then whispers, "Russians."
I scoff, looking around. There's only teens and shopaholics here.
"You see anything?" Dustin asks Steve.
" I don't totally know what I'm looking for," Steve says, looking around with his binoculars.
"Evil Russians," Dustin answer as if it's obvious.
"If I was an evil Russian, I wouldn't walk around in plain sight," I say, crossing my arms over my chest. "What does an evil Russian even look like?"
"Yeah exactly. I don't know what an evil Russian looks like," Steve says.
"Tall blonde not smiling," Dustin answers simply.
"You just described Billy," Steve deadpans.
"Russians wouldn't have mullets," Dustin says.
I scoff, refraining from touching my hair. However, it is perfect today.
"Look for earpieces, cameras, duffel bags, that sort of thing," Dustin states, looking around.
"Oh you've got to be kidding me," Steve says suddenly.
"What? What is it?" Dustin asks quickly, trying to look wherever Steve is looking.
"Anna Jacobi's talking to that idiot Mark Lewinsky," Steve whines.
"If you're not gonna focus, just give me the binoculars," Dustin whines back.
"Ah, Jesus Christ, whatever happened to standards," Steve continues, grip tight on the binoculars. "I mean Lewinsky never even came off the bench."
"You're the worst spy in history, you know that?" Dustin complains, taking the binoculars. "I don't even get why you're looking at girls. You have a perfect one right in front of you."
"Seriously if you say-" Steve starts.
I laugh a little. "Robin?"
"Exactly," Dustin says.
"No, man, she's not my type," Steve says turning on his heels to look at me.
"She's not even in the ballpark of what my type is, all right?"
"What's your type again?" I ask, looking down at him.
"Not awesome," Dustin answers for him.
"Thank you, guys," Steve frowns at both of us.
"For your information, she's still in school and she's weird," Steve defends.
"I don't think Robin's weird," I tell them, leaning against the plant pot beside them. Dustin sends me a look of agreement.
"She's a weirdo, and she's hyper. I don't like that she's hyper and she did drama. That's a bad look. She's also in band. No," Steve complains.
"Now that you're out of high school, which means you're technically an adult, don't you think it's time you move on from primitive constructs such as popularity," Dustin suggests.
I tune out of the conversation and take Dustin's binoculars.
"Date someone you actually enjoy being around like me and Susie," Dustin suggests.
"Like me and Cass," I add, looking around with the binoculars.
"Those are different. Dustin you said Susie is hotter than Phoebe Cates and Cassie is hotter than Phoebe Cates," Steve continues.
I lower the binoculars and send Steve a look. He goes to open his mouth that's closed it.
"Platonically," Steve finally gets out. It almost comes off as a question.
I pass the binoculars to Dustin and people watch for awhile.
I see girls walk by with bags filled of clothes and other things. I also see teenage boys try to pick up women my the fountain.
I can only stand to look at other people for another 10 minutes before I'm bored again.
"Hey guys," I turn my head at the familiar voice. It's my girlfriend.
Cassie's POV
"What are you doing here? I thought you were working?" Billy asks. I'm covered head to toe in water.
The thunder booms outside.
"Pool's closed. No way the rain is letting up," I tell him. I look at Steve and Dustin.
"Target acquired!" Dustin says. He has binoculars up to his eyes.
"What's going on?" I ask, looking at all of the boys.
"Just hunting evil Russians," Billy says as if it's casual. He leans over Dustin trying to find where he's looking at.
Steve snatches the binoculars. "Shit."
That's when I see it. There's a man with shoulder length blonde hair, sunglasses, and a blue duffel bag. That's who they're looking at.
"Guys, maybe he's on his way to aerobics class," I suggest, following him with my eyes.
"Duffel bag," Billy points out.
"Evil Russian," Steve and Dustin say at the same time.
The boys run after him.
"What? Guys?" I call. I jog after them, trying my best not to be too out of place. The boys are running up the escalator after the man.
"Slow down," I hiss quietly, moving after the boys.
"We're losing him," Steve says, walking quickly after the guy.
I hold onto the back of Billy's shirt to get me through the crowd.
"You're getting too close," Billy points out to Steve, who's in front of all of us.
We all casually stop what we're doing when some dude bumps into Steve and yells at him. The blonde guy starts to turn around.
Dustin grabs a phone off of the wall and Steve looks into a department store window.
Billy grabs me by my hips and shoves me against the wall, kissing me roughly.
I accept it and kiss him back. After a few seconds of kissing, he pulls away and casually looks around.
"Come on," Steve whisper yells. We all go after the blonde man.
We stop and peak around a map display of the mall. The man continues to walk with his blue duffel bag.
I watch as he walks into Jazzercise.
"Told you," I say, crossing my arms over my chest.
"Shut up," Dustin says, shoulders dropping in disappointment. Only he would be disappointed about not finding a Russian.
The blonde man is talking to all the women. I guess he's the coach or whatever it's called. He rips off his jacket after starting the boombox.
He's in a purple muscle shirt and god does he have muscles.
"Wow," I whisper.
Billy grabs my shoulder and spins me so I can't see him. I just roll my eyes.
"Come on ladies show me what you got," the man says. I sneak a peak and see all the women circling their hips. The boys stare at all of them, mouths open.
I scoff loudly. Billy clears his throat and looks at the ground. Steve and Dustin continue to gawk.
We all walk back to Scoops Ahoy.
I scrunch at my curls as we enter the ice cream shop.
"You know Robin. You're not going to believe who Dustin thought was a Russian," Steve says to Robin.
"You and Billy thought it too," Dustin whines.
"No we didn't," Billy says. "It was all you."
"What!" Dustin whines.
"Two against one," Steve says.
Robin runs past up. We all look at her. She runs with her notepad to the fountain.
She hops onto the ledge and looks around almost frantically. I can see that she's mumbling something over and over.
She stops turning, eyes set on a store. Then she scribbles onto her notepad.
I take off in a jog towards her. I hear the boys following behind me.
"What's wrong, Robin?" I ask, stopping by her.
"What are you doing?" Steve asks. His tone is way different then mine. He sounds annoyed.
"I cracked it," she starts with a proud smile. She jumps down. "I cracked the code."
I smile at Robin. I knew she'd get it done.
"That's great, Robin," I smile, touching her shoulder. She laughs a little. It must be warm in here because her cheeks are pink. All I can do is slightly shiver from the rain.
"I mean, it took awhile. A lot of reading and listening to Russian, but I mean anyone can do it really. At first I thought it wasn't going to go anywhere but, you know, then it hit me. The code matches the things in the mall, so that means there are definitely Russians in here and they're using the mall as a hide out," Robin rambles.
"Robin," I say. She stops talking. "You did great but let's go slow. Explain it slowly."
We walk back to Scoops Ahoy and go into the back. There aren't enough chairs so I sit down and Billy stands behind me, leaning onto the back of my chair.
Dustin obviously sits down. Steve leans against the wall, and Robin stands before us, ready to spill all of her hard earned information.
She explains to us that every piece of the clue broken down is a place in the mall.
"When blue and yellow meet in the west?" I question. She said it's the blue and yellow hands on the clock. "Why is 9 o'clock so specific?"
"I-" Robin starts. "I'm not sure."
I nod in understanding, rubbing my thumb across the top of Billy's hand that's on my shoulder.
"Guess we'll have to find out," Billy says with a smirk.
。。。
It's dark now and we're on the roof. Robin says the delivery people are what represents the silver cat in the code. They're brand is Lynx and on the back of the uniform is indeed a silver cat.
Before we came outside, we bought rain coats in one of the department stores. Mine is dark green and Billy's is a dark red.
Dustin has his binoculars and we are watching the delivery guys.
"Look for Imperial Panda and Kaufman Shoes," Robin says.
Those are the shops that she says are connected to the riddle.
"They're with that whistling guy. 10 o'clock," Dustin says, moving his binoculars to pin point the man.
I watch the man as he whistles in his yellow rain jacket. He has one of those wheeled things that people use to carry packages.
"What do you think is in there?" Steve asks, hair coated in rainwater.
"Guns, bombs," Dustin suggests. I roll my eyes, staring at the people.
"Chemical weapons," Robin suggests, snug in her pink rain coat.
I don't want them to be any of those things. Why can't I just have a normal summer? Or at least be oblivious like almost all of the people in Hawkins.
"Whatever it is they're armed to the teeth," Dustin's says.
"Great," Steve whines, rubbing his eyes from the water. "That's great."
The deliver lamb are by a key pad. They're trying to get through the doors. The armed body guard like men stare blankly into the rain. Suddenly the doors open.
"Hey!" Robin starts. "What's in there?"
"It's just more boxes," Dustin says with his binoculars.
"Let me check it out," Steve demands, trying to rip the binoculars out of Dustin's hands. Dustin complains, trying to pull them back.
"Stop it!" I hiss through the rain.
Suddenly the binoculars slap against the roof. I gasp and duck as Billy pulls me to the ground. Robin and the other boys duck fast.
All of our breathing is erratic.
"They're going to come up here," I say quickly.
We start to crawl away quickly.
When we're back inside, we walk through the back hallways. Steve leads our little group. All of us are drenched in water.
"Well I think we found your Russians," Billy states through the awkward silence.
I sigh, roughly running a hand over my face. I don't know how much more of this I can take.