STAGE THREE: FIND YOUR CROWD
1985
𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞. Find your crowd. That was an easy saying if you knew how to make friends, but Mollie didn't. The only friend she had seemed to get at this moment was Steve and Robin. And yet she had doubts they truly cared.
See if keeping in touch with friends was easy well Mollie would have millions. She had gone through thousands of friends- some who liked her and others who liked mocking her. With friends Mollie would always eventually conclude that they didn't like her. Resulting in awkward greetings of hi in the hall. But today that was going to change.
Mollie was working at the video store when Carol and her friends walked in. This video store wasn't packed at all. Starcourt mall practically drove away all possible costumers. So, it was unusual and yet a surprise when the popular girl that Mollie assumed she was once friends with walked in. Carol and her two friends stood by the counter. When she ordered one of her fiends wondered off around the store while the other stood beside her, minding her own business but still listening in to what Carol was saying.
As soon as Keith went to grab their movie of choice (), Mollie looked around awkwardly before deciding to speak up, "How's-how's you and Tommy?"
Feeling awkward, Carol looked to her friend next to her in disgust before answering, "Uh... we like broke up a few months ago."
Rubbing the back of her neck, Mollie avoided all eye contact with Carol. "I'm, uh, sorry."
"Well, he's going to college and I'm not so..." Carol explained herself. Rocking back and forth on her feet, Carol impatiently tapped the counter her manicured nails making a tapping sound with each second, she carried on for. "Is there any way we could hurry this up?"
"Uh, yeah, sorry." Mollie apologised. Looking behind her, Mollie shouted, "Keith!" Looking back around, Mollie rubbed her neck. Her goal was to find her crowd – maybe this group was it. "Do you wanna maybe catch up someday?"
Sighing with a tight-lipped smile, Carol spoke, "Uh... I'm really busy."
"Don't be rude, Carol." One of Carol's friends, Kimberly Fraser scalded. Leaning over to Carol, Kim spoke in a loud whisper. Just loud enough that Mollie could hear, "She's cute."
You see Kimberly Fraser was Hawkins Queen B. She was untouchable. With model like features, Kim was someone the whole school admired. You would not dare disobey her. She would find a way to destroy you. But inside she had a daring secret that would destroy her life. The secret was not that she had a heart of gold, that was only know to people who were close to her. No, the secret was never to be revealed – only hinted at.
Hearing Kim's comment made Mollie's cheeks turn bright red. Something that was thought to be pure embarrassment by the two friends of Kim's but known to be something else by the other two girls. But to Mollie, she didn't like this feeling. The feeling she had when she was around certain people. This feeling had only happened around three people – two of them being in recent history.
Rolling her eyes at Kimberley's comment, Carol didn't dare speak over the more popular girl who asked politely, "Are you going to be at the 4th of July festival?"
"Uh... yeah. Yes, I am." Mollie confined, frantically nodding her head.
"We'll see you there." Kim smiled brightly to Carol's disgust. Turning her head around to her other friend, Nicole, who shrugged her shoulders – not daring to get involved.
Running out from the back, Keith was out of breath as he handed Carol the VHS of Sixteen Candles, "Here's your movie."
"Thanks." Carol responded insincerely.
"See you around..." Kimberly voice trailed off, hinting that Mollie should fill in the blanks, but she didn't realise. Instead, Kim looked towards her name badge and filled it in for herself, "Mollie."
It felt like forever as the three girls left. So long in fact Mollie's eyes felt like they were on the edge of tears from staring at the doors. When they finally left, Mollie let out a breath she did not know she was holding. Placing her hand on the desk, Mollie mumbled, "Oh my God, I'm so stupid."
Hearing this, Keith added, "You are."
"Shut up, Keith." Mollie huffed, turning around to finish today's work.
- 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 -
𝐃𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧 𝐇𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐬𝐩𝐲 𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐟𝐭. Looking for an evil Russian was their mission. It was their mission all while Robin Buckley left to manage Scoops Ahoy by herself – waiting for Mollie as she listened to the Russian and tried to translate the code.
Hiding behind a fake palm plant, the two tried to not look suspicious. But to bystanders the two boys with binoculars hiding behind the plants were not anything except suspicious.
At this very moment, Steve had the binoculars. Searching around the mall, Steve noised into his past school peer's lives. Causing Dustin (unaware of the fact he wasn't looking for an evil Russian) question, "You see anything?"
"Uh, I guess I don't totally know what I'm looking for." Steve returned, still looking around. This caused Dustin to blatantly say, "Evil Russians."
"Yeah, exactly I don't know, what an evil Russian looks like?" Steve asked, dumbfounded.
"Tall, blond, not smiling." Dustin explained. This caused Steve to hum in response. Turing to the Harrington, Dustin continued, "Also, look for earpieces, camo, duffel bags, that sort of thing."
"Right, okay, duffel bags." Steve nodded. Trying to now look for this evil Russian, Steve found the gossip he was previously seeking, making him scoff. "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me."
"What?" Dustin asked hopefully thinking they had found the man. But the Henderson sighed when Steve responded, "Anna Jacobi's talking with that meathead Mark Lewinsky."
"Dude, if you're not gonna focus, just gimme the binoculars." Dustin said, frustrated with his friend.
"Aw, Jesus Christ, whatever happened to standards?" Steve complained, "I mean, Lewinsky never even came off the bench."
"Dude, you are the worst spy in history, you know that?" Dustin said, snatching the binoculars off Steve, who quarrelled – causing a mini fight, which Steve (like in all his previous fights) lost.
Finally having the binoculars, Dustin looked for an evil Russian. Though Dustin Henderson didn't know how to keep his mouth shut and scolded Steve. "Besides, I don't get why you're looking at girls, you have the perfect ones in front of you."
Rolling his eyes, Steve caught himself in a trap that he would find hard to get out of. He thought knew where this was going and wanted this to stop. "Seriously, if you say Robin again."
"Robin." Dustin taunted.
"No, don't. No." Steve pleaded, yet Dustin didn't stop. He taunted and taunted. The truth is, Steve Harrington didn't think he liked Robin. She was a co-worker. Just a friend. Nothing else. And Robin, to him, would always be that. That was what his gut thought at least.
Still protesting Robin, Steve was caught off guard when Dustin suddenly changed, "Mollie."
Shaking his head vigorously, Steve protested, "No! No, man, she's not my type. She's nice. Like really nice, once you get to know her. But she's not even...in the ballpark of what my type is, all right?"
"What's your type again? Not awesome?" Dustin mocked him. Seeing Steve's glares, Dustin continued to convince Steve, "Mollie is great. She took me to see you the other day, no questions asked. That's a cool person. So, your type is definitely not cool."
"Thank you." Steve remarked with a sarcastic smile. Dustin humming in response as Steve continued, "For your information, she's still in school. And she's weird. She's a weirdo. And she's Nancy's sister. I don't like that she's Nancy's sister 'cause then I'd be dating my ex's sister. Also, she's the school's freak. That's a bad look. And despite being super sweet and nice everyone hates her right now."
"I thought you and Robin were her friends. And besides, 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 lectured.
"Oh, primitive constructs?" Steve scoffed, "That some stupid shit you learned at Camp... Know... Nothing?"
"Camp Know Where, actually." Dustin corrected him. "And no, it's shit I learned from life. Instead of dating somebody you think's gonna make you cooler, why not date somebody you actually enjoy being around? Like me and Suzie."
"Oh, Suzie. Yeah, you mean, hotter than Phoebe Cates." Steve said, giving Dustin a tight-lipped smile. Yeah, that Suzie. And, uh, let's think about how exactly did you score that beautiful girlfriend? Oh, yeah. With my advice. Because that's how this works, Henderson. I give you the advice, you follow through. Not the other way around, all right, pea-brain?"
- 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 -
𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐫. So, to Starcourt mall she went (earlier than planned), to see Robin. To see all of them in fact. To make sure they had help with the code – even though she knew she probably could not be the one to crack it.
Walking down the busy walkway into Starcourt, Mollie was ready to make a turn for Scoops Ahoy when suddenly a hand grabbed hers. This made Mollie's eyes quickly dart around to see who it was. Upon seeing this person, her heart almost dropped out of her chest – it was the same feeling that happened when Kimberly Fraser called her cute.
Hastily pulling Mollie down the mall, Robin was not concerned as to whether the Wheeler knew who she was at that moment or not. All she cared about was the fact that she had someone to share her almost discovery with.
Though Robin's frantic mumbling to herself as she stood up on the fountain bench confused Mollie to a great degree, asking the Buckley is she was okay over and over again (in varying ways).
That was until Steve and Dustin came over to the two girls. All three of them exchanging a quick greeting before the Harrington turned to Robin questioning her on her sudden actions. To which Robin's ocean blue eyes turned to the three of them with a proudness yet shocked look on her face, responding, "I cracked it."
Raising an eyebrow, Steve asked, "Cracked what?"
Jumping down, Robin excited grabbed onto the Wheeler's wrist, shaking them as she looked to Steve and explained herself, "I cracked the code."
- 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 -
𝐔𝐩𝐨𝐧 𝐑𝐨𝐛𝐢𝐧'𝐬 𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐝𝐞, the group decided to spy on the Russians. This postponed the sleepover? Hanging out? Whatever it was that the two girls had planned on doing at the Wheeler's (which was unknown to them both). But right now, Mollie Wheeler, Robin Buckley, Steve Harrington, and Dustin Henderson were lying on top of a roof in the pouring rain – spying on what could be deadly Russians.
And while this was happening, Will Byres had tried to find every way to call Mollie Wheeler before he broke down. He called her work: no answer. He called again, and again. Not daring to call the house in fear that the one who hurt him would answer. And yet Mollie Wheeler lied down on comfortably next to Robin, blissfully unaware. Unfortunately, never helping Will while he was at his lowest.
"Look for Imperial Panda and Kaufman Shoes." Robin shouted over the loud rain. This caused Dustin to raise the binoculars to his face. Hearing one of the people working whistle he spotted the boxes. Informing the group on this person's whereabouts.
Steve being discontent with knowledge at this moment asked a question, "What do you think's in there?"
"Guns?" Dustin shrugged, not removing the binoculars from his face.
"Bombs? Chemical weapons?" Mollie added, hugging herself in her raincoat to stay warm. Seeing the Wheeler cold, Robin scooted slightly closer to her in hopes that her body heat might warm up the girl.
"Whatever it is, they're armed to the teeth." Dustin said, still not wanting to let them go in his view from the binoculars.
"Great." Steve sarcastically nodded, rubbing the rain from his forehead, "That's great."
That was when one of the door's opened for these boxes. Unable to see in the could be top secret room, Robin asked Dustin, "Hey, what's in there?"
"It's just more boxes." Dustin explained. Not believing him in the slightest, Steve thought that he (being the oldest) could take charge. Trying to take the binoculars, he spoke, "Let me check it out."
"No, I'm still looking." Dustin wanting to still have control because he (in his eyes) was the smartest, yanked the binoculars back. Resulting in a back and forth of pointless bickering, one that made Robin and Mollie exchange confused glances as the two boys fought for control. But that bickering left the binoculars to be exchanged back and forth. Resulting in a crash sound, one which was definitely heard by the people down below.
The adrenaline rushed over the four. The fear consumed them as they ducked behind the short wall. Robin Buckley was more scared than she had liked to admit. Holding tightly onto Mollie, Robin found a comfort in being close to the Wheeler. However, when Robin made eye contact with Mollie, who gave her a small yet very genuine smile, the Buckley let go from embarrassment. She could have melted in the hug, yet she was too embarrassed to let Mollie see an inch of heat forming on her rainy cheeks.
Meanwhile Steve nervously fumbled around. Reaching out his hand, he expected some kind of warmth when he touched the Buckley's hand but instead that warm feeling was replaced by something almost disgusting. Turning to look at who his hand held, he shivered when he saw that he was holding Dustin Henderson's hand.
Taking his hand out of Dustin's, Steve shook his head, whispering, "Dude."
"You're the scared one. You grabbed it!" Dustin shouted in a whisperer. Looking towards the other two, Dustin wanted to prove his bravery. "He grabbed it."
"If you stop trying to prove your fearlessness for one second, you might realise that we are in a lot more danger than you think." Robin whispered, her voice rising in pitch by the second. "In summary... let's go."
Grabbing Mollie's hand sheepishly, Robin crawled across the floor to the door in hopes that the others would follow. And they did. Finally grabbing the handle to the door, the group hastily made their way down to the bottom of Starcourt mall.
Sighing, Robin turned to the two boys, saying, "Well, I think we found your Russians."
"Yeah, and they almost killed us." Steve remarked towards Dustin frustrated that because of him their lives could have been in danger. Little did he know that that was not the worst to come.
"Okay, I'm sorry you feel emasculated because you held onto my hand." Dustin remarked back, rolling his eyes causing the bickering between the two to continue.
Robin Buckley had been able to drain the bickering out. But her need to have extra social time was drained out off her. She really wanted to spend more time with Mollie, but she was fearful if she was going to slip up again and act too needy as the whole spying thing had really shaken the Buckley up. And she would not be too afraid to admit that, but she could see through the lack of verbal and non-verbal communication since the whole ordeal that maybe the Wheeler was not as strong as she put herself up to be.
Mollie Wheeler had been standing at the back of the group (despite being the first to get inside) hugging herself. At first Robin thought it was a way to warm up, but now it was evident that was not the case. Walking up to her and subconsciously placing a hand on Mollie's shoulder, Robin spoke up, "You know if you wanna keep warm you probably shouldn't be using a wet coat?"
Unwrapping her arms, Mollie sheepishly looked down at the floor and let out a light chuckle. Taking off Mollie's coat, Robin handed it to her and rubbed the Wheeler's arms to warm her up.
The comfort that the two felt was undeniable, yet neither of them dared to look at each other. Robin, in fact, made sure her face stayed behind Mollie's in fear of what would happen if she saw the redness upon her cheeks. "Let's forget about tonight and have some rest, okay? You need it, and so do I. It's been a long day for the both of us."
Biting her lip, Mollie let out a quite sound in agreement with Robin. The two girls were far from awake at this moment and maybe just escaping death was the best time for a happy-go-lucky girl's night.