☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ

°•. ┊ Daylight┊.•°
✧ ˚ ━ don't wanna keep secrets, act two

CHAPTER FOUR — the sauna test

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"So, I assume we're going to the mall today...which means that I get to meet the infamous Steve Harrington and tell you everything that's wrong with him." Genny smiles, as she puts on a pair of jeans.

    "Oh, joy." I breathe sarcastically, while pulling my hair into a ponytail. "Let's go." I grab my keys and bag, Gen following my actions, and we make our way through the house. "Sarah, we're going to the mall. Care to join?"

    "I would love to, kid. But I'm going to check out your police station, meet the chief."

    "Wait, do you plan on moving here? Like for good?" I ask. She smiles and shrugs her shoulders slightly. "Oh my god. You have to. The chief is amazing. You're gonna love him. And in all honesty, our police force could use the help." Sarah laughs and I give her a hug. Sarah's a big city cop, but with all the shit that goes on here she'd never get bored. And if she moved to Hawkins, I could spend more time at her place and away from this house. Or rather, away from Billy.

    "Shit. Sarah, can you adopt me?" Gen asks with a serious look on her face. Sarah and I laugh at her question. "I'm dead serious. I could live here and we wouldn't have to spend our senior year apart."

    "Would love to Gen, but I think your parents would have something to say about it." Sarah says, placing an arm around her. "Now, go. You guys have fun." We run into Billy before leaving.

    "Hey, Genny." He speaks, flirtatiously. Yuck. There's something seriously off about him today. More so than usual. He's pale and sweating like crazy, looks like he's going through withdrawals from some sort of drug. "How you been?"

    "Fine." She huffs. "If you don't mind, we're gonna go." A smirk makes its way onto my face, as she grabs my arm and pulls me around the older boy. As we take a seat in my car, I look over at her with a smile.

    "God, I love you." We both laugh. "The way you hate him, as much as I do, is exactly why we're such good friends."

    "Well, I love you too." She smiles. "You have some people to introduce me to. Let's go. Let's go." I start the car and quickly we're singing along to the radio and laughing our asses off. I missed her so much. I didn't realize it until now. Of course I miss her every day, but I never knew just how much. We get to Starcourt and immediately head for Scoops. When we get there the place is pretty much dead and neither Robin nor Steve are at the counter. I move behind the counter and grab an extra scooper, using it to get myself my usual order. "Oh, so you work here now?" I flip her off.

    "What do you want?" I question, gesturing towards the slew of flavors before me. She glances over them before pointing towards USS Butterscotch. I smile to myself, remembering my conversation with Lila a few days prior, where she doubted if they would get along. I get her a cup full of ice cream and put the scooper back in its place. We enter the back room, finding Steve, Dustin, and Robin sitting at the table brainstorming.

    "I could just take him out."

    "Take who out?" Robin asks.

    "The Russian guard." He states, earning confused looks from all parties. "What? I sneak up behind him, I knock him out, and I take his key card. It's easy."

"Did you not hear the part about the massive gun?"

    "Yes, Dustin, I did. Which is why I would be sneaking." He huffs, leaning towards the younger boy. Robin takes notice of mine and Gen's presence in the room and we share a smile. Genny taps me on the shoulder softly and I turn my head towards her.

    "Russian guard?" She questions. I laugh quietly.

    "Yeah, we uh, we intercepted a Russian code and translated it to find out that it led to the mall. And so, last night we scoped the place out and saw armed guards at the delivery port. So, now we have to figure out what's in there and what it all means. You know, like what their planning. Since they're evil." I explain, ignoring the conversation around us.

    "Wait, how do you know they're evil?"

    "We're just assuming. But if there's secretly a number of armed Russians in a small town in Indiana, they can't be up to any good." I laugh.

    "I'm so in." She declares. "I know you aren't asking for my help, but I don't care. I want in on it." When we tune back into the discussion, Dustin and Steve are still bickering. Shocker. And Robin is staring at the air vent. She mutters something, before running past us and out to the front. Gen and I follow with the boys right behind us.

    "Hey, Robin!" Steve shouts. The blonde is pulling the money from the tip jar. "Hey. What, what are you doing?"

    "I need cash." She states, making her way to the front of the store. Steve mentions how half of it is his, then asks where she's going. "To find a way into that room, a safe way. And in the meantime, sling ice cream, behave, and don't get beat up. Oh, and Sam's in charge. I'll be back in a jiff." I turn to the pair of boys to find Dustin licking clean an ice cream scooper.

    "Oh, dude." Steve scoffs, taking the utensil from him. "Come on, man. Not my scooper."

    "Who's she?" Dustin asks, glancing at Gen.

    "This, Henderson, is my best friend, Genesis Ford. Genny, this is Dustin Henderson and Steve Harrington." I introduce.

    "Oh, Genesis." Steve speaks. "Yeah, hey. She talks about you a lot."

    "She talks about you too." The pair shake hands. "I'm just gonna say this once. You even think about hurting my best friend and I won't hesitate to snap your scooper."

    "That would make three." Dustin laughs, getting smacked upside the head by Steve. "So, you guys were in there the whole time? So, she knows about the Russians? Great."

    "Hey, lay off." I warn. "She's in this. Or I'm out. Gen is here for the next two weeks, so she has to be a part of it, genius." The next half hour is filled with Dustin and Gen making fun of Steve. And me finding that my best friend and boyfriend can't stand each other. When Robin returns, she's got a roll with the County Recorder stamping on it.

"It is fascinating what 20 bucks will get you at the County Recorder's Office." She says, rolling out the paper. "Starcourt Mall. The complete blueprints."

"Not bad." Dustin affirms.

"So, this is us, Scoops, and this is where we want to get."

"I mean, I don't really see a way in." Gen states, picking at her nails.

"There's not, if you're talking exclusively about doors." Robin adds.

"Air ducts." I breathe.

"Exactly." She smiles at me. "Turns out, this secret room needs air just like any old room. And these air ducts lead all the way...here."

Steve's unscrewing the vent cover and Dustin hands him a flashlight, so he can scope it out a bit. He doesn't think anyone can fit, which Dustin combats by reminding Steve of his condition and lack of collar bones. "No collar bones?"

"Oh, he's, uh...yeah, he's got some disease. Chry, uh... It's chrydo, um...something. Yeah, I dunno. He's missing bones and stuff. He can bend like Gumbo." Steve explains.

"You mean Gumby." Robin corrects.

"I'm pretty sure it's Gumbo."

"No, Steve. It's Gumby." I state. When he tries to argue with me about it, Dustin snaps at him and commands Steve to push him. The older boy grabs his feet and tries to shove him, which gets them nowhere. Henderson proceeds to tell Steve to push him into the vent by his ass. Complete chaos ensues between the pair, while the three of us watch.

"Are they always like this?" Gen leans over, as the two boys shout continuously.

"Oh yeah." I breathe. "This isn't even as bad as it gets. Try going to the movies with them and a bunch of other middle schoolers. You have these two arguing about their popcorn because Dustin wants to put chocolate in it and Steve doesn't want that. So, they bicker for about ten minutes until someone, usually me, smacks them both upside the head. I take the bucket and hand it to Dustin, which always leads to me getting bitched at by Steve, until I hand him mine and say that he can share it with me. Which never happens because he's greedy. And I end up sharing with Max and Lucas. And them, along with Mike and Will are just sitting there quietly watching the entire thing happen." I tell them both the story of how our movie trips go. Robin starts laughing, while Gen looks shocked. I turn to face Robin. "I may have somehow adopted five children, six if you count my sister, but I didn't realize that I chose to date one too." The shouting only gets worse from the added voice and ringing of the bell from Erica at the front of the store. As I try to tune out the young girl, my eyes travel to the boys before me, and an idea pops into my head.

"Hmm...yeah, I don't know." Erica says, leaning against the metal table.

"You don't know if you can fit?" Gen asks, crossing her arms.

"Oh, I can fit. I just don't know if I want to." She admits.

"Are you claustrophobic?" Robin questions.

"I don't have phobias." She states, proudly.

"Okay, well, what's the problem?" Steve asks the girl.

"The problem is, I still haven't heard what's in this for Erica." The Sinclair girl states. Steve gets frustrated with her and looks at me silently asking, 'is she serious?' We move from the back room to a booth out front, while Steve and Robin present her with hounds of ice cream. "More fudge, please. Go on." Erica waves Steve away and I sear the vein in his forehead nearly popped. Robin explains the plan to her, as the girl enjoys her ice cream.

"Then you find out what's in those boxes?" She questions.

"Exactly." Erica proceeds to ask about the guard and then booby traps, which causes Robin to question her. The young girl offers a few examples, which we all dismiss.

"You know what this half-baked plan of yours sounds like to me? Child endangerment." She says. I scoff, rolling my eyes, and leaning back in my seat. She may have a point, but it's annoying.

"We'll be in radio contact with you the whole time..."

"Ah, ah, ah! Child endangerment." She cuts Ro off.

"Erica? Hi. Uh...We think these Russians want to do harm to our country. Great harm. Don't you love your country?" Dustin takes over the conversation.

"You can't spell "America" without "Erica." I think about her statement, before shrugging because strangely enough, she's right.

"Uh, yeah, yeah. Oddly, that's, uh, totally true. So, so, don't do this for us. Do it for your country. Do it for your fellow man. Do this for America... Erica." Dustin preaches.

"Ooh! I just got the chills. Oh, yeah, from this float, not your speech." She teases. "Know what I love most about this country? Capitalism." A few questions are shared between the pair. "It means this is a free market system. Which means people get paid for their services, depending on how valuable their contributions are. And it seems to me, my ability to fit into that little vent is very, very valuable to you all. So, you want my help?" She pauses, looking around the table at all of us. "This USS Butterscotch better be the first of many. And I'm talking free ice cream for life." Gen and I share a look, before Robin agrees to the child's terms. We wait until the mall closes and get into position on the roof, just like we were last night.

"Erica, do you copy?" Robin questions.

"Mm-hmm. I copy." Her voice rings through the walkie. "You nerds in position or what?"

"Yeah, we're in position. It's all quiet here, so you've got the green light." Gen replies. I'm not sure when Robin handed her the walkie, so I was slightly caught off-guard.

"Green light, roger that." She repeats. "Commence Operation Child Endangerment."

"Can we maybe not call it that?" I ask, taking the walkie into my hands.

"See you on the other side. Nerds." She responds, completely ignoring my question. We sit around, waiting for a signal from the sassy Sinclair girl. Thankfully, it doesn't take her too long to find her way through the vents. "All right, nerds. I'm there."

"Do you... Do you see anything?" The question falls from Robin's mouth worriedly.

"Yeah, I see those boring boxes you're so excited about."

"Any guards?" Steve asks.

"Negative." She states.

"Booby traps?" Ro questions.

"If I could see them, they'd be pretty shit traps, wouldn't they?" The girl says matter of factly.

"Thank you for that." Robin leans over Gen's shoulder.

"I'm in."

"Oh, God." Steve breathes, his hands finding their way through his hair. The doors open and out walks the girl, as she makes a loud statement about her free ice cream deal. Gen and I share a smile, before we all quickly move down towards the loading dock. We're inside now and Steve opens one of the Imperial Panda boxes, revealing some metal contraption. We all look at one another, as Harrington opens the metal box and we all lean over to see what's inside. "That's definitely not Chinese food. Uh, maybe you guys should, you know, stand back." Robin, Gen, and Erica take a few steps away from the box, while Dustin and I stay put.

"No." Henderson and I state simultaneously. Steve places a hand across the two of us, trying to push us away from whatever is inside the contraption.

"Just...Just step back, okay?" Steve commands. I figure that it's not worth the fight and move towards the three girls. Dustin on the other hand, doesn't move. "Step back. Seriously."

"No! No! If you die, I die." Dustin says intensely. The two boys hold strange, silent eye contact, before Steve shrugs. Us four girls exchange amused looks, before returning our attention to the pair.

"Okay." He pulls out this tube of bright green liquid. "What the hell?"

"What is that?" Robin and I question. A loud noise echoes through the room and it shakes slightly.

"Was that just me, or did the room move?" Dustin asks. Erica quietly makes a comment about booby traps.

"You know what? Let's just grab that and go." I say, as Robin removes the tube from Steve's hands and Dustin moves to the control panel. Dustin asks Erica which button to press and this causes them to argue, then Steve gets involved. We all start to shout at one another, panic setting in. "Just open the door!" The room falls quiet as a wall drops down over the doors and the room starts to drop rapidly. Robin and Erica begin to scream and I reach for Dustin and Gen. I pull them both to the ground, commanding the others to do the same.

"Oh, shit." Steve says, staring at a corner of the room. My eyes follow his and I notice lights passing and realize that it's not a room. It's a goddamn elevator. Fucking Russians.

[word count: 2629]

lexi's letters; this group is so chaotic fr