CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
FIRST DATES

Aaron, Kimmy, Dustin, Robin and Steve were sat in Kimmy and Aaron's usual booth with bored expressions. Milkshakes and ice cream sundaes covering the entire table as they tried to bribe Erica into helping them.

Steve slid yet another bowl of ice cream over the table to the younger girl in hopes to get her into the air duct. However Erica shook her head, pushing to bowl back to Steve.

"More fudge, please." The young girl spoke mockingly, ushering Steve away with her hand when the older boy just looked to her blankly. "Go on."

Steve clenched his jaw, as if he was debating if it was even worth it. He then shook his head and grabbed the bowl of ice cream before walking off, clearly annoyed.

"Okay, you see this? This is the route you're gonna take." Robin explained to Erica, holding up the air duct blueprints that she had drawn on to highlight the route. "Then we just wait until the last delivery goes out tonight. Then you knock out the grate, jump down, open the door-"

"Then I find out what's in those boxes." Erica finished the older girls sentence with a blunt voice.

"Exactly." Robin nodded, placing the blueprints back on the seat.

"And you say the guard is armed?" Erica asked suspiciously.

"Yes, but he won't be there." Dustin reassured with a smile.

"And booby traps?" The young girl asked, looking unsure.

"Booby traps?" Robin asked with her brows knitted in confusion.

"Traps." Aaron explained in an obvious tone, rolling his eyes. "Like when stuff comes out the wall and the floor falls out beneath you, lasers, or like-"

"There won't be any booby traps." Kimmy reassured from next to Aaron, stomping on his foot to shut him up when she saw the wide eyed expression Erica was sending his way. "You'll be fine-"

"Well, you know what this half-baked plan of yours sounds like to me?" Erica retorted, looking to Aaron with an attempt at an intimidating expression. "Child endangerment."

Robin spoke up in attempt to try convince her to go along with their plan. "We'll be in radio contact with you the whole time-"

"Ah, ah, ah!" Erica interrupted, shaking her finger in Robin's face, Kimmy holding back a slight laugh at the interaction. "Child endangerment."

"Erica, hi, um..." Dustin sighed, trailing off in thought as he quickly decided what was the best way to go around the situation. "We think these Russians want to do harm to our country. Great harm. Don't you love your country?"

"You can't spell 'America' without 'Erica'." The girl mumbled as she took a sip of her milkshake.

Kimmy looked away, confused for a moment as she thought about it. Sure enough, the smaller girl was right. Kimmy couldn't help but wonder how long it had taken Erica to realise that said fact.

"Uh, yeah, yeah. Oddly, that's totally true." Dustin nodded, sounding as confused and surprised as Kimmy had felt. Dustin then smiled, rushing to add on to what she had said. "So don't do this for us, do it for your country. Do it for your fellow man. Do this for America... Erica."

"Ooh," Erica spoke with a grin, placing her milkshake down as she looked to Dustin. "I just got the chills!"

Dustin nodded and smiled proudly, however this smile was soon wiped of his face when Erica continued.

"Oh, yeah, from this float." Erica motioned to the milkshake in front of her, her grin now off her face when she spoke. "Not your speech."

Kimmy raised her brows and looked over to Dustin who was blinking in surprise at her words.

"You know what I love most about this country? Capitalism." Erica continued, clasping her hands together as she looked around the group. "Do you all know what capitalism is?"

"Yeah." The four teenagers the younger girl was talking to all nodded, confused on where she was taking her point, or what her point was at all for that's matter.

"It means this is a free market system. Which means people get paid for their services, depending on how valuable their contributions are." Erica explained anyway, looking deadly serious as she spoke. "And it seems to me, that my ability to fit into that little vent is very, very valuable to you all."

Kimmy sighed, knowing the younger girl was expecting to be paid in some sort of way for her services. Kimmy also knew that the five had no money to actually give her.

Erica was right, her ability to fit into that vent was valuable. Robin and Steve were too big to fit, Aaron refused to even go near the vent, Kimmy had a broken arm and Dustin had tried and couldn't fully fit. To say they needed Erica was an understatement.

"So, you want my help?" Erica said in a teasing tone, clearly noticing the panicked looks on the people's faces as she looked around the small table. "This USS Butterscotch better be the first of many. And I'm talking free ice cream for life."

Erica then turned away from the group and began to eat one of the many ice creams on the table in front of her, not caring in adding any more to the conversation now she had her point across.

Kimmy then turned to look to Robin who seemed to be debating the idea as the older girl looked to the table in thought.

"Fine," Robin sighed, Erica glancing up and smiling smugly. "Free ice cream for life."

Robin then left, walking up to the counter where Steve was, probably to explain to the boy what the deal was, Kimmy just glad that they didn't actually have to pay the younger girl in actual cash.

"Hey, Erica." Kimmy turned to the girl with a look of realisation, pulling her black marker out of her pocket and handing it to her. "Want to sign my cast? I'm getting people to sign it so it doesn't look boring."

"Excuse me?" Erica blinked in surprise, looking to Kimmy with a puzzled look. "You want me to sign your cast?"

"Yeah," Kimmy shrugged her shoulders simply in response. "You'll get to sign it before Lucas if you do it now."

That seemed to be enough convincing, the younger girl instantly taking the marker and signing her name, looking to Kimmy with a grin. "I'd like to see that nerd Lucas beat that. Looks like he writes with his feet."

Kimmy laughed, shaking her head and she put her marker back into her shorts pocket.

...

Later that night once the mall had closed, the group got into position as they went to carry their plan out.

Erica was still in the staffroom off the Scoops Ahoy parlour, waiting for the radio signal to go. Kimmy and Steve had taped two flashlights to either side of Robin's bike helmet so the girl could see ahead of her and know where she was actually going. She also had Dustin's radio headset so she could keep in touch with the other five.

Kimmy, Aaron, Steve, Robin and Dustin were sat on the roof - the same spot that they had been the night of the heavy rain pour. They had Aaron's walkie to keep in touch with the girl who would soon be crawling through the vents.

Kimmy was incredibly nervous for the younger girl, afraid something would go wrong. However Kimmy didn't say this, of course, not wanting to make Erica scared before climbing through the vents.

"You nerds in position or what?" Erica's scratchy voice came through the radio.

"Yeah," Robin responded with an eye roll at her words, despite the fact that Erica couldn't see her. "We're in position. It's all quiet here, so you've got the green light."

"Green light," Erica spoke through the radio again. "Roger that. Commence Operation Child Endangerment."

"Can we maybe not call it that?" Robin asked in a blunt voice.

"See you on the other side, nerds." Erica spoke dramatically instead, Kimmy snickering at her choice of words.

Robin didn't find it as funny as Kimmy, neither did Steve, the two turning and facing each other with slightly nervous expressions.

Dustin was leaning over the small wall the group were crouched behind, keeping an extra look out to see if any guards were going to turn up.

Aaron was sat next to Kimmy, the binoculars the group had been using throughout their spying pressed to his face as he tried to see what was going on while he looked out for deliveries.  

Kimmy secretly hoped that the group wouldn't be out there much longer, truthfully, she wanted this entire thing to be over with.

Perhaps it was a little... selfish of her, but in that point in time, she really didn't care about the Russian's or finding out what was behind the locked and guarded door. All the excitement that had been present while discussing the plan the pervious days was over shadowed by her excitement for the movie she was seeing that night with the blond sat next to her.

The girl was extremely nervous about it, but she did her best to hide her nerves from the boy.

Kimmy was more panicked than she would have liked to admit that morning when she called Max and didn't get a reply, the brunette had been relying on the redhead to help her out about what she was to do that night.

When Aaron had asked her to see the movie, she was unsure if he had meant it in a date kind of thing or a friendship kind of thing. She wasn't going to ask and she wasn't going to mention it.

However, a surge of confidence had flushed through her when the two had been talking about it in the car and she decided to bring it up. Kimmy had done her best to remind herself what Max would continuously tell her when the two would talk about the blond.

Aaron would always allow his nerves to over power what he wanted to do. Max had told her that over and over again and Kimmy knew it was true. Even if he had meant it in a date way, he wouldn't have told her in fear of how she'd react.

Which was exactly why Kimmy took it upon herself to bring up the fact that it was a date, doing so in the way she hoped would be the least awkward.

The brunette couldn't stop the reassurance that rushed through her at Aaron's reaction to Kimmy asking- well, practically saying that it was a date the two would be going on.

A feeling of confidence that the girl had never once felt in her life resting in the depths of her stomach upon realising that the boy she had liked for months might like her back.

"Alright, nerds." Erica's voice abruptly talking through the radio Robin held caused Kimmy to flinch at the noise, seeing as the group had been sat in silence. "I'm there."

"Do you- do you see anything?" Robin asked, almost sounding surprised at the fact Erica had actually made it.

"Yeah, I see those boring boxes you're so excited about." Erica quipped in a mocking tone.

"Any guards?" Robin made sure to confirm before anyone did anything too swiftly.

"Negative." Erica confirmed.

"Booby traps?" Robin teased, turning to those sat next to her with an amused look. However this look was washed from her face at Erica's answer.

"If I could see them, they'd be pretty shut traps," Erica retorted sarcastically. "Wouldn't they?"

"Thank you for that." Robin replied in an equally mocking tone that Erica had used moments before.

There was a brief silence before Erica said anything else, her words causing Kimmy to sigh in relief. "I'm in."

Aaron then dropped the binoculars from his face, leaning over the small brick wall lining the roof as the doors slowly opened.

Kimmy smirked slightly as she watched Erica walk out, placing a hand on her hip as she looked up to the five on the roof. "Free ice cream for life!"

No one replied, the five rushing to stand and rush down to the girl while they still had the chance.

...

While in the small room, the group huddled around one of the boxes that Steve had begun to rip open, everyone curious to see what was worth such protection.

Kimmy furrowed her brows at the sight of a metal box with a small handle on top that could be used to hold it that seemed to twist off.

Hesitantly, Steve reached over and twisted the top of, pulling up the handle to take the top of the box off.

There was a loud sound of air hissing and so much smoke was coming off of the box that it went straight into the groups faces.

"That's definitely not Chinese food." Steve mumbled, sighing as he went to pick up whatever was in the box so the group could see before stopping himself. Turning to look at the group and ushering them back. "Uh, maybe you guys should, you know, stand back."

Kimmy, Erica, Robin and Aaron all stepped back, doing what the older boy had instructed them to do.

"No," Dustin shook his head as he remained in place, not moving an inch.

"Just step back, okay?" Steve murmured to the boy, trying to push him back by the chest before Dustin slapped his hand away.

"No." Dustin repeated with a firm shake of his head.

"Step back. Seriously." Steve snapped, turning to look at the boy with an irked expression.

"No!" Dustin yelled back at him dramatically. "If you die, I die."

"Oh, my god." Kimmy mumbled under her breath at Dustin's dramatics, rolling her eyes at his antics.

There was a slight pause as Steve looked to his friend with a blank expression before shrugging. "Okay, whatever."

Steve then leaned forward and grabbed ahold of whatever was in the box, struggling to lift it up with one hand.

Kimmy felt her brows furrow in confusion as she tilted her head trying to see what Steve was holding.

Steve held it up for the group to see, Kimmy's eyes widening drastically at the sight of some sort of moving green slime that was in the long thin container Steve was holding.

"What the fuck is that?" Aaron scoffed from next to Robin, confusion clear as day in his voice.

Steve looked to his brother with an unsure expression, not having a clue what to say.

However Steve never got the chance to, because there was a harsh rumble from somewhere outside, shaking the entire room the group were stood in.

Everyone began glancing around puzzled, Kimmy looking to Steve who was stood across her with a perplexed look. "Did the room just move?"

"Booby traps." Erica whispered fearfully from next to Kimmy, looking up at the fourteen year old girl with a scared expression.

Kimmy went to tell the girl that there wasn't booby traps that that they'd be fine but just as she went to the room began shaking again.

"You know what?" Robin spoke worriedly, clearly stressed out as she walked up to Steve and grabbed the container he held. "Let's just grab that and go."

Everyone nodded in response, Dustin turning to press the button that opened the door to the room like Erica had done.

"Which one do I press, Erica?" Dustin asked nervously, not turning to look at the group as he did so.

"Just push the damn button, nerd." Erica sighed from Kimmy's side.

"Which one?" Dustin asked again, not sounding angry, just incredibly stressed. "I'm pressing the button, okay?"

"Press 'open door'." Erica rolled her eyes at Dustin, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I'm pressing 'open door'!" Dustin exclaimed, now really beginning to panic.

Aaron pushed his way to Dustin, shaking his head as he stood next to the boy.

"Just press the button." The blond muttered to Dustin, gently moving his curly haired friend over slightly so he could see properly. "See? It's right here."

Aaron pressed the button, however nothing happened. This causing the boy to push the button a million times before Steve pushed him to the side, although this didn't stop Aaron pushing the button frantically.

"Would you stop?" Aaron snapped at his older brother when Steve tried to pry the blonds hand away.

"Would you just let me do it?" Steve retorted, sounding just as pissed off as Aaron did. "Just let me do it!"

"I was doing it!" Aaron insisted, although Kimmy could tell that he was beginning to panic. "What difference are you going to make? Oh, how stupid of me, maybe seeing as Steve Harrington is so high and fucking mighty it might-"

"Just move!" Steve yelled at his brother, pushing him away once more before standing in front of the box and pushing the buttons frantically.

"Just open the door!" Robin yelled, clearly panicked as she stood behind Kimmy and Erica.

Suddenly there was a clang, revealing some sort of red and black wall that dropped down and covered the doors. Trapping the group in the room.

"Oh, my god." Aaron panicked, moving back next to his brother as he watched the red and black wall slam to the ground. "We have walked right into a fucking booby trap! This is next level, this shit only happens in movies-"

"Shut up." Steve scolded, although he too sounded nervous.

Kimmy didn't say so, but she agreed with Aaron. She was beginning to regret taking part in the plan, worried about what would happen to the group. They had quite literally walked right into a trap.

"I'm serious, Steve!" Aaron insisted with an even further panicked voice. "It couldn't be anything else-"

Aaron was cut off when the room began shaking much harsher than it had been earlier, the lights flickering as the room continued to shake, until suddenly, the room dropped. Kimmy couldn't see, but she could feel it.

Everyone in the room began yelling out in fear, falling to the floor when the room dropped. Robin reached out and grabbed onto the leg of a table to stop herself from moving too much, the older girl still screaming in fear as she squeezed her eyes shut.

Kimmy went to do the same but went slamming against the floor again, when Erica grabbed onto her leg to stabilise herself. Kimmy was sure Erica didn't even know what she was holding onto seeing as she wasn't even looking Kimmy's way.

Kimmy shut her eyes tightly as she continued to scream in horror along side the rest of the group who were all hysterically screaming.

"What the fuck!" Aaron yelled, Kimmy couldn't see him but she could hear how frantic he was. "Sh-shit! Holy shit! We are literally falling to our deaths!"

"We're going down!" Steve yelled out panic. "We are going down!"

"Yeah, no shit, Harrington!" Robin yelled in response.

"Holy fuck," Kimmy yelled frantically, unable to recall a time when she felt as scared as she was in that moment. "We're gonna to die!"

"Why don't these buttons work?" Dustin called out, sounding as terrified as Kimmy had. "Shit!"

"Just press something!" Steve yelled, Kimmy opening her eyes to look over to him, the brunette genuinely thinking the older boy was on the verge of tears. "Push a button!"

"I am!" Dustin screamed in response.

Erica let go of Kimmy's leg and tried to make her way over to Dustin. Kimmy took her chance to grab onto the table in the room and pull herself up, feeling incredibly nauseous at how fast she had stood.

However just as she did this there was another harsh shake of the room that had everyone to the floor again with a harsh hit. The room suddenly coming to a complete halt.

"My groin!" Steve yelled out, Kimmy looking over to where Steve was lying where one of the heavy boxes had landed on him. "It landed on my groin!"

Kimmy placed a hand to her face, pushing herself to stand with shaky arms as she struggled to focus her eyes due to how dizzy she felt.

"Dustin!" Steve sighed desperately. "Get this off me. I can't move."

Dustin rushed over to help his friend, struggling to pull the box off him with a sigh.

"Is everyone okay?" Robin asked with a tired sigh.

"What do you think?" Aaron retorted harshly as he stood from the floor. "Yeah, I'm just perfect!"

"Yeah," Steve stressed in agreement, yelling at the group. "I'm great, now that I know that Russians can't design elevators!"

Steve then rushed over to the buttons on the wall, pushing Aaron so harshly when he did so that the blond hit the floor once more with a groan.

Kimmy sighed, making her way over to the blond and helping him up.

"I think we've clearly established that those buttons don't work." Robin rolled her eyes at a very clearly frantic Steve.

"They're buttons!" Steve yelled as he snapped around to face the group watching him. "They have to do something!"

"Yeah, if we had a keycard!" Robin yelled back at him, trying to talk some sense into him.

"What?" Steve gasped, sounding confused, as if he wasn't entirely sure if he believed her.

"It's an electronic lock." Robin explained simply. "Same as the loading dock door. If we don't have a keycard, it won't operate. Meaning-"

"We're stuck in here." Dustin sighed.

"Yeah." Robin nodded.

Steve slammed the latch to the buttons closed angrily, running a hand through his hair as he walked away from it.

"Just so you nerds are aware," Erica began, sounding anything but pleased. "I'm supposed to be spending the night at Tina's, and Tina always covers for me. But if I'm not home for Uncle Jack's party tomorrow and my mom finds out you five are responsible, she will hunt you down one by one and slit your throats."

"I don't care about Tina!" Steve snapped at the girl stood at the opposite side of the elevator from him. "Or Uncle Jack's party! Your mom's not gonna be able to find us, if we're dead in a Russian elevator!"

Erica looked back to him with a blank expression, narrowing her eyes at him but ultimately saying nothing.

"Jesus, Steve." Kimmy shook her head, the older boy turning to face her. "Calm it down a notch-"

"Hey." Dustin said. Catching the groups attention as he pointed up towards the roof. "What if we climbed out?"

Kimmy glanced upwards, catching sight of the hatched before turning back to Dustin with a wide smile. "Yeah, that's good, Dustin!"

Dustin grinned back at her and rushed over to the table in the middle of the room, clambering onto it as she pushed the hatched open, climbing up and out of it. Steve then followed after him once the younger boy had gotten onto the roof of the elevator safely.

"Shit." Kimmy heard Dustin mumble from his spot on the roof, the girl sighing in defeat upon realising what his curses had meant; the group had no hope.

"What we're you saying about climbing." Steve remarked before sighing and climbing back into the small room.

"It's no use." Steve told the group while he shut the hatched after Dustin was also back in the room. "We must have dropped for miles, we can go anywhere."

Kimmy sighed and Robin groaned in annoyance, the group sliding down the walls and sitting on the floor at his words, not sure of what else to do.

...

Hours later, and Aaron and Kimmy were the only ones awake. Sat side by side with their legs lying out straight in front of them.

Robin and Steve had been whispering between each other as they tried to think of a plan on what the hell to do, although they'd given up a while ago. Aaron had guessed that the two had fallen asleep at least an hour ago.

The blond could tell that the brunette sat next to him was close to falling asleep too, but she was trying to stay awake.

Kimmy had actually fallen asleep, but Aaron didn't think she'd even noticed because she'd snapped awake no more than five minutes later.

The one time that she had fallen asleep, her head had dropped to Aaron's shoulder. It was obvious that the girl was clearly exhausted. When the girl had dropped her head to lean against his shoulder, the blond had flinched in surprise, looking down to the girl in confusion before he had realised what happened.

Now, the girl was looking down at her arm which was not casted with a dazed look about her, probably doing anything to  keep herself awake. Her head not once moving from where it had rested against his shoulder, Aaron made to effort to move her either.

Aaron was obviously annoyed that the two hadn't gotten to their movie date, instead they were stuck in some Russian elevator god knows where.

"Hey," Aaron whispered down to the girl, not wanting to wake the others who were fast asleep. "Are you awake?"

"Yeah," Kimmy whispered in a fragile voice, not making any attempt to move or to look up at him.

"We didn't get our movie." Aaron told her in a teasing voice, although he was dead serious regarding his annoyance about having missed it.

"I know." Kimmy sighed, shifting slightly as she spoke. "I was looking forward to it too."

Aaron ignored the feeling of his face growing hot at her words, watching as the girl then rubbed her face tiredly with her hand that wasn't casted.

"Me too." He told her honestly, biting the inside of his cheek as he thought about what to say next, keeping in mind that the girl was quite literally half asleep. "Maybe we can go when we get out of here instead?"

Aaron knew he shouldn't have worded it as a question, but he couldn't help it. He didn't want to go out and say that they would go to the movies without asking her, not wanting to force her to go if she didn't want to. Deep down Aaron knew this was stupid, knowing that the girl did want to go with him.

"Yeah," Kimmy hummed in response after a long moment, her eyes now closed as she spoke, minutes away from sleep. She spoke up again, but it took her much longer than usual to talk just because of how tired she was. "We'll have to... um... redo our first date."

Aaron's cheeks went bright red at her words. The two had never referred to it as their first date, simply a date. By calling it their first date, she'd been insinuating that there would be more to come and that it wouldn't be a one off.

"Yeah," Aaron nodded instead, fully agreeing with what she had said.

The two sat in silence for a moment, Aaron not really knowing what else to say and Kimmy so tired that she could hardly comprehend what he was saying anyway.

Aaron glanced back down to her when she shifted once more, his eyes widening as he watched her shift closer to him and practically burry her face in his shoulder, her arms were tucked into her own chest. Leaving Aaron with no idea what to do, unsure if he should move her or leave her.

Aaron ended up just leaving her, knowing that she was fast asleep and didn't have any idea what was happening.

The blond sighed, gently shifting to fold his arms over his chest so he wouldn't wake her up. The boy looked down at her once more to make sure she was actually asleep before glancing away and trying to sleep himself. Leaning his head back against the wall of the room, the boy eventually drifting off.

...

New chapter :)

Also I think it's so funny that some couples literally end up having teen pregnancies and having babies at 14/15 but Kimmy and Aaron can't even look at each other too long before getting flustered😭

Hopefully that you're all enjoying the story so far!!!

- AJ :)