The Mall Rats
Catherine was super glad that Steve got the job at Scoops Ahoy, not only because they could slowly save up for an apartment together somewhere, but because she gained a new friend through his ice-cream slinging partner- Robin Buckley. The two had quickly become really close friends, spending time together outside the mall. There had been many nights when Cat had invited Robin to stay the night at hers so they could have a sleepover. The first few times, Robin had declined but eventually accepted.
The two laid on Cat's bed in their pyjamas, watching movies all night. "We should like, paint our nails." Cat suggested, taking her gaze of the small TV in her room, which was currently playing 'West Side Story', and looking over to Robin.
"What colours do you have?" Robin asked. She didn't usually paint her nails, but was open to the idea. She was at a sleepover, after all.
"Oh, I have loads." Cat grinned, climbing off the bed to grab the box of nail polish from her cabinet. "Nancy keeps gifting me the ones she never uses." She placed the box on the bed, opening and sitting crossed legged beside Robin. "You know, we should invite her over next time we have a sleepover."
Robin raised an eyebrow. She didn't know this Nancy that her new best friend was talking about.
"Oh, c'mon." Cat grinned, picking a colour from the box. "It'll be fun." She opened the light blue nail polish she had chosen, beginning to paint her toes.
Robin picked up a shade of pink, smiling as she began painting her finger nails.
***
Catherine leant on the doorway of the Hopper cabin, watching as Eleven frantically paced back and forth across the porch. Cat wasn't tutoring El that day, she was just there to hang out as sisters and now the two were waiting with the girl for Mike to show up. El inhaled sharply, clearly annoyed at her boyfriend for not showing up. She pushed past Cat as she stormed back into the cabin, Cat stepping inside after her. "Hey. Is everything okay?" Hopper asked the girls as El picked up the phone. Cat shrugged in answer to Hopper's question, watching as El dialled in Mike's number.
"It's 9:32." El said into the phone, walking into her room. "Where are you?"
Cat followed her into the room, shutting the door behind her and taking a seat at the foot of El's bed. She watched as her sister talked to Mike about why he wasn't visiting. From what Catherine could hear, something was wrong with Mike and Nancy's Nana. Cat knew he had to be lying because if their Nana really was sick, Nancy would have rang her.
The phone call ended and El slammed her bedroom door after hanging the phone back on the receiver. She curled up on her bed, resting her head on Cat's shoulder. Cat ran her hand through her sister's hair, which had grown a lot since their last adventure.
"It'll be okay." She whispered, kissing El's forehead gently. "Boys are the worst."
"Even Steve?" El asked, curious if the older girl ever had any problems with her boyfriend.
"Sometimes. Although, most of our problems happened before we started dating." Cat sighed. "Boys at this age are dumb, and they'll probably be like this for a while."
***
"Hi." Dustin greeted Robin at the ice-cream counter.
"Hi." Robin greeted back. She was bored out of her mind.
"I'm Dustin."
"I'm Robin."
"Pleasure to meet you. Uh, is- is he here?"
"Is who here?"
On hearing the familiar voice, Steve burst through the door that separated the back of the shop from the ice-cream parlour. "Henderson." He threw his hands up in the air as Dustin laughed. "Henderson!" Steve repeated, jumping up and down as he made his way round the counter. "He's back! He's back!"
"I'm back!" Dustin cried in excitement. "You got the job!"
"I got the job!" Steve yelled, imitating a trumpet as Robin watched the two in utter confusion. She was wishing that Catherine was there to help explain to her what the hell was going on. "Hey! Oh!" Dustin and Steve went on to do their weird handshake, which included a pretend lightsabre fight.
"How many children are you and Cathy friends with?" Robin asked in disbelief, leaning on the counter. Steve sighed and just gestured to Robin as if to say, 'see what I have to work with?'
***
"No, no. No way." Steve and Dustin were sat in one of the booths, Dustin digging into a Banana Boat. "Hotter than Phoebe Cates? No."
Dustin nodded. "Brilliant, too. And she doesn't even care that my real pearls are still coming in. She says kissing is better without teeth."
Steve wasn't sure what to say. "Wow. Yeah, that's great. Proud of you, man. That's ro- That's kinda romantic. That's like... Wow." He stuttered out.
Dustin nodded. "Hm. So do you really just get to eat as much of this as you want?" He gestured to the ice-cream.
"Yeah. I mean, sure. It's not really a good idea for me, though. I gotta keep in shape for the ladies..."
"I thought you and my sister were dating?"
"We are. We just have a bet going on. She thinks that now we're together, I've lost my ability to charm other women. So far, she's winning the bet." Steve explained. "So, where are the other knuckleheads?"
"They ditched me yesterday. And Kit's probably hanging out with El today. Her calendar said something about a girls day."
Steve nodded, the information about Cat wasn't new to him as they had talked about it over the phone when she rang him early that morning. "No." He said in disbelief about the others ditching Dustin.
"My first day back. Can you believe that shit?"
"Whoa. Seriously? Did Cat ditch you too?"
Dustin shook his head. "No. Although she did complain about sacrificing her date night with you."
Steve nodded. "Sounds like Catherine. Always being dramatic." He smiled and laughed a little. Cat's tendency to be a little dramatic over everything was one of the things he loved most about her. That, and her smile. Especially when it made her eyes light up.
"They're gonna regret it, though, big time, when they don't get to share in the Henderson glory."
"Glory? What glory?"
Dustin moved closer to where Steve was sat in the booth. "So, last night, we're trying to get in contact with Suzie..."
"Oh. Mm."
"And, uh..." Dustin raised his hand to cover his mouth so no one could hear what he was saying. "Kit and I intercepted a secret Russian communication." He whispered it so quietly that Steve couldn't even hear what he had said.
"What?"
"Uh..." Still whispering with his hand covering his mouth, Dustin repeated what he had previously said.
Steve still wasn't understanding. "Just speak louder."
This time Dustin did speak loudly, his words silencing the ice-cream parlour for a few moments. "Kit and I intercepted a secret Russian communication!"
"Jeez, shh. Yeah, okay, that's what I thought you said. What- What does that mean?"
"It means, Steve, we could be heroes. True American heroes."
"Huh."
"Mm-hmm?"
"American heroes."
"Just think, Kit will totally love you. Not that she doesn't already. And you could have all the ladies you want and more. Meaning, you could win that bet between you and my sister."
"Win the bet?"
"Yup. You could win the bet."
"I like winning. What's the catch?"
"No catch, I just need your help."
"With what?"
Dustin pulled a 'Russian to English' translation book out of his bag. "Translation."
***
Cat stood next to El as the younger girl stopped Max's skateboard from rolling down the road. The two walked up to the redhead, El carrying the skateboard.
"Hi." El greeted as Cat sent Max a wave.
"Hi?" Max questioned, taking ahold of her board. She was confused as to why El was talking to her, seeing as they had never really gotten along.
"Can we talk?"
***
The three girls had moved to Max's room, Cat and El sitting on the bed while Max paced. "And then he said he- he missed me." Eleven finished explaining. Cat was sat next to her, crossed legged as she rested a comforting hand on her shoulder. "And then he just hung up."
"He's a piece of shit." Max said.
"That's what I said." Cat spoke up.
"What?"
"Mike doesn't have jack shit to do today, and his Nana obviously isn't sick. I guarantee you, him and Lucas are playing Atari right now."
"But friends don't lie." El told her.
"Yeah, well, boyfriends lie. Isn't that right, Cat?"
"Well, yeah. Sometimes." She sighed. "I don't think I'm useful considering I have an ongoing bet with my boyfriend about whether or not he can still ask girls out successfully."
Max sat down on her bed next to El, turning the young brunette to face her. "You're going to stop calling him. You're going to ignore his calls. As far as you're concerned, he doesn't exist."
"Doesn't exist?" El asked.
"He treated you like garbage. You're gonna treat him like garbage. Give him a taste of his own medicine."
"Give him the medicine." El repeated.
"This is how we deal with boys when they're being stupid." Cat told her sister. "You'll get the hang of it."
"Exactly." Max agreed. "And if he doesn't fix this, if he doesn't explain himself, dump his ass." Max stood up from the bed. "Come on."
"Where are we going?"
"To have some fun. You coming Cat?" Max asked the older girl as she dragged El out of her room.
"Of course." Cat grinned, following the two younger girls.
"There's more to life than stupid boys, you know." Max explained. "And I think I need to teach Cat that too, seeing as how she's always with Steve." She teased the older girl.
"Am not!" Cat cried, throwing an arm around each of the girls' shoulders.
***
Edited: 08/07/2020
Edit 2: 14/09/2021