1. Obviously, I don't own anything from Stranger things. Just Jo.
2. I want to make sure everyone understands that the mentions of bullying and some words used towards Jo are NOT things I agree with or would ever approve of saying to anyone. I do, in fact, actually have Tourette's, so a lot of what she does will be based off my own day to day tiks. If anyone is uncomfortable with reading about bullying associated with this disorder, please do not read! I don't want to upset anyone with this.
STEVE
Steve kneeled behind one of the mall's large planters of fake ferns and bushes, holding Dustin's binoculars up to his face.
"You see anything?"
"Uh, I guess I don't totally know what I'm looking for," Steve said.
"Evil Russians," Dustin replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Yeah, exactly. I don't know what evil Russian looks like." Steve sassed back.
"Tall, blond, not smiling," Dustin listed off. Steve hummed back in response. "Also, look for earpieces, camo, duffel bags... that sort of thing."
"Right. Okay, duffel bags. Oh, you've got to be kidding me!"
"What?" Dustin asked, grabbing Steve's shoulder.
"Anna Jacobi's talking with that meathead Mark Lewinsky!"
Dustin groaned. "If you're not gunna focus, just gimme the binoculars."
Steve was too wrapped up in his soap opera melodrama to really listen. "Aw, Jesus Christ, whatever happened to standards? I mean, Lewinsky never even came off the bench." He had come off the bench nearly every game! He was great at sports, and yet he didn't have Anna Jacobi's hanging all over him! Steve just wanted a girl to like him, man! It had been so long since he's gone out; since Nancy, in fact. The old pain had long since dissipated when thinking of Nancy, thankfully. In fact, he was really happy her and Johnathan were still together. They seemed to get along great.
Now if only Steve could find someone like that.
"Dude." Dustin broke him out of his self-pity session. "You are the worst spy in history, you know that?" Dustin reached over and tried to yank the binoculars from his grasp.
"Stop, hey. Stop."
"Give me those." Steve unwrapped the strap from around his neck as Dustin stole the binoculars. "I don't get why you're looking at girls. You have the perfect one in front of you."
Steve groaned. "Seriously, if you say Robin again-"
"Robin."
"No, don't. No." Steve said in a warning tone.
"Robin, Robin, Robin." Dustin said, speaking over him.
"Stop, no, no, no."
"Robin. Robin. Robin."
Patience wearing thin, Steve once again replied, "No."
"Robin." Dustin said one last time.
"No! No, man, she's not my type. She's not even... In the ballpark of what my type is, all right?" For reasons Steve had no answer to, he fleetingly thought of Ainsworth, with her long, wavy blonde hair and her hazel-green eyes.
"What's your type again?" Dustin asked. Steve almost replied, 'cool,' but Dustin beat him to it. "Not awesome?"
"Thank you," he deadpanned, rolling his eyes. Dustin hummed noncommittedly.
"For your information," Steve started, unwilling to let it go now that the conversation had started, "She's still in school. And she's weird. 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. And she's in band?" Steve shook his head and looked away. "No."
Dustin lowered his binoculars to look at Steve. "Now that you're out of high school, which means you're technically and adult, don't you think it's time you move on from primitive constructs such as popularity?"
"Oh, primitive constructs?" Steve said, his ego feeling slightly damaged. "That some stupid shit you learned at Camp... Know..." A quick look at the kids hat, "Nothing?"
"Camp Know where, actually. And np, it's shit I learned from life," Dustin replied wittily. Steve hummed sassily. "Instead of dating somebody you think's gonna make you cooler, why not date somebody you actually enjoy being around? Like me and Suzie."
Steve rolled his head around his shoulders. "Oh, Suzie. Yeah, you mean, "hotter than Phoebe Cates. Yeah, that Suzie. And, uh," He crossed his arms and leaned against the planter as Dustin once again raised the binoculars back to his eyes. "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?"
The two were stopped from continuing their argument when someone cleared their throat behind them.
"What... The hell are you two creeps doing?"
JOHANNA
Jo had an early shift again at Bradley's the next day, so she was heading over to the mall a bit earlier than she had originally planned on. She didn't like going when there were so many people there, because it raised her anxiety, which- in turn- usually made her tiks worse. But today she would just have to deal with it, because she didn't wanna miss the opportunity to see him again.
The music in the mall was loud like every other day. A two-toned whistle blew past Jo's lips once, twice, three times as she headed towards the parlor. She was almost there when she saw Steve with the Henderson kid hiding behind some plants. The younger of the two boys raised a pair of binoculars to his eyes and she frowned, creeping closer.
"-other way around, all right, pea-brain?" She heard Steve say, sounding a little flustered.
She stopped just behind the two of them, who hadn't noticed her approach, so engrossed in their bickering.
"What... The hell are you two creeps doing?"
"Shit!" Henderson screeched, fumbling the binoculars while Steve fell over sideways, clutching one hand on the planter and the other over his chest.
"Jesus, Ainsworth!" Steve cried. "You can't just sneak up on people like that!"
Jo raised a brow at him as he sat back up in the crouch he had been in before. "You're the ones sneaking. What are you looking for, anyways?"
Dustin gave her a very serious look and said, "You'd never believe us even if we told you. Which, if we did, we'd have to kill you."
She stared at him, open-mouthed in shock as he turned back around and raised the binoculars to his eyes once more before her eyes darted to Steve.
"Uh, what the fuck?" She stuttered. "Did that twelve year old just-"
Steve waved his hands and cut her off. "No, no. Dustin's just... Being a little dipshit." With that, he reached over and punched Dustin in the arm.
"Ow!" Henderson said. "What was that for?" He hissed.
"For being suspicious!" Steve hissed back.
"Yeah, cause whispering back and forth and spying in a mall isn't suspicious," Jo scoffed, putting her hands on her hips.
Steve opened his mouth to reply when Dustin spoke again.
"Target acquired."
Steve's head whipped around so fast Jo was surprised it didn't snap and fall right off. "Where?"
"Ten o'clock. Sam Goody's." Steve looked around before looking back to the younger boy.
"Give me that." He snatched the binoculars from Henderson and quickly looked through them. "Shit. Duffel bag."
The two turned to look at each other and spoke at once. "Evil Russian."
Jo watches with her mouth once again hanging open as Steve and Henderson scramble to their feet and take off running towards the escalators, pushing through the crowd of people. She watched them make their way up to the second level, sometimes losing sight of them in the throng, only for them to emerge a few feet later once more. She watched until they stopped by one of the pillars and stood there, seemingly reaching their destination.
Shaking her head, she headed towards the parlor to wait for them to come back. She hoped Robin wouldn't try to ask what she wanted. She didn't want to be obvious that she wanted Steve to take her order.
She didn't have to worry, though, because Robin wasn't even in the front part of the store when she walked under the large Scoops Ahoy sign, and the sliding glass doors for the window were closed, so she wouldn't see her waiting, either. She sat down at one of the tables, clearing her throat and banging her hand on her chest. A second later she whistled the same two-note tune she had earlier a few times, before falling silent again.
Before long, she heard Steve's voice approaching.
"Yo, Rob, you're not going to believe who Dustin thought was a Russian," Steve was saying. Jo turned to frown over the back of the booth at the approaching boys.
"You did too!" Dustin said in his defense.
"No, I did not," Steve argued back.
"Yes, you did."
"No, I did not."
And then Robin was busting out from the back, pushing between the two, and racing out into the crowd of people.
"What is up with you guys running- running- run, run, run, ru-ru-running everywhere today?" She cringed as she got stuck on the word, stuttering like an idiot. Steve and Dustin whirled around to look at her with caught expressions, and she rolled her eyes as she stood up. "Also, you two argue like a couple of toddlers."
She follows them out after Robin, finding the girl spinning in circles on the little platform in the middle of the mall.
"Robin. What are you doing?" Steve asked carefully, as if the girl had lost her damn mind.
"I cracked it," She said, making Jo wonder if maybe she had lost her damn mind.
"Cracked what?" Steve asked as Robin jumped down and stepped closer to them.
"I cracked the code."
She stood there, grinning like she had just won the lottery while Steve starred at her in shock, and Henderson looked on in wonder.
"...What code?"
