I DO NOT OWN STRANGER THINGS. SHOUTOUT TO DISNEYPRINCESS315 FOR BETAING THIS STORY. ALSO, THIS CHAPTER MAY MAKE MORE SENSE IF YOU HAVE READ THE SPIN OFF: REBEL ROBIN.

Scoop's Ahoy Ice Cream Parlor. Star Court Mall. Hawkins, Indiana. Later that day.

After Lorelia had her wounds ministered to and had been kissed by the King Steve Harrington himself, she decided to get back to work. The idea that Mike and El had broken up still wounded her deeply, but hopefully there was still time for her to reconcile the lovers and to get some much deserved comeuppance on Hopper and Max. The working day eventually came to an end and as the scoops troop closed up shop, they were discussing Lorelia's translation of the Russian message.

"The week is long, the silver cat feeds, when blue meets yellow in the west" Steve muttered to himself. "I mean, it just, it just can't be right."

"It's right." Robin insisted as the Scoops Troop walked down the walkway.

"Honestly, I think it's great news." Dustin added.

"How is this great news?" Steve asked with a scoff. "I mean, so much for being American heroes. It's total nonsense."

"It's not nonsense." Dustin argued. "It's too specific, it's obviously a code."

"What do you mean, a code?"

"Like a super secret spy code."

"That's a total stretch." It took everything Lorelia had not to blurt out what she knew about the Soviet's plan as she listened to the conversation happening in real time.

"I don't know, is it?" Robin inquired.

"You're buying into this?" Steve asked incredulously "Listen, just for kicks, let's entertain the possibility that it is a secret Russian transmission." she argued. "What'd you think they were gonna say, Fire the warhead at noon?"

"Exactly." Dustin added.

"And Lorelia's translation is correct, I know that for sure, so The silver cat feeds...why would anyone talk like that unless they're trying to mask the meaning of their message?"

"Exactly."

"Why would anyone mask the true meaning of their message unless the message was somehow sensitive?"

"Exactly." Lorelia couldn't help but giggle as Steve mocked Dustin behind his back.

"So I guess that confirms your suspicion." Robin declared.

"Evil Russians." Dustin stated.

"I can't believe I'm about to agree with this strange child, but, yeah, totally evil Russians." Robin said with a laugh.

"So, how do we crack it?" he asked.

"Well, I guess we translate the rest and hopefully a pattern emerges." she answered.

"A pattern!" Dustin jumped on Robin's last comment. "Right, like maybe silver cat is a meeting place?"

"Or a person."

"Or a weapon."

"Or maybe it's a ploy to cover up their plans." Lorelia offered as she didn't feel right telling them what Silver Cat actually was.

"It's probably gonna take a super genius to crack it, but Where's Steve?" Robin asked as she & Dustin noticed his absence.

"He's riding the horsey." Lorelia pointed out with a chuckle as she pointed to Mr. Harrington by the horse ride.

"Hey, Steve, what are you doing?" Robin inquired curiously.

"Uh, it's a quarter...I need, do you have a quarter?"

"Sure you're tall enough for that ride?"

"Quarter!" Robin gave him the quarter he asked for and he placed it in the slot, causing the ride to start and a carnival like medley to begin playing.

"You need help getting up, little Stevie?" Robin teased as Steve shushed her.

"Would you two just shut up and listen?" he barked as they all listened to the music.

"Holy shit...The music." Dustin realized as he pulled out the tape recorder from his bag. "The music!"

"I don't understand." Robin said.

"It's the exact same song on the recording." Dustin pointed out.

"Maybe they have horses like this in Russia?" she offered.

"Indiana Flyer?" Steve asked as he pointed out the name on the coin box. "I don't...I don't think so."

"Then, that means..." Lorelia stuttered, pretending to be surprised.

"This code, it didn't come from Russia." Steve realized. "It came from here."

"The Russians aren't coming to Hawkins...they came already." Lorelia added as everyone looked at the horse with a new found fear of what the Soviets were up to.


After figuring out the Soviets had set up shop in Hawkins, everyone decided that the best thing to do was to get some rest and hit the ground running first thing in the AM. Lorelia held onto Robin as she biked both of them back to her house.

"So, what do you think our Soviet invaders are up to?" Robin asked as she got ready for bed.

"Your guess is as good as mine." Lorelia answered, even though she knew it wasn't. As she looked over Robin's room, she stumbled upon a pink notebook with the words OPERATION CROISSANT written on the cover in marker. Against her better judgement, Lorelia cracked it open and was exposed to cut out pictures of European landmarks, along with a map of destinations in the UK and France. It seemed Robin was a bit of a Francophile.

"You found that, huh?" Robin asked as Lorelia turned around in shock.

"I'm sorry Robin, I didn't mean to snoop through your shit." she insisted anxiously as Robin chuckled.

"It's ok, it's not like you read my diary or something." Robin replied as she looked over her friend's shoulder.

"What is Operation Croissant exactly?" Lorelia asked honestly.

"It was...my escape plan." Robin admitted as she touched the pages of the notebook. "After graduation, I was going to take a tour of Europe for the summer. There seem to be less dinguses over there and...I thought I could be myself; but it didn't work out, so I ended up slinging ice cream with King Steve instead."

"Why didn't you go?" Lorelia inquired.

"I had no money, my mom would have been alone, and...I had no one to go with me." Robin answered wistfully.

"I would have gone with you...it sounds amazing." Lorelia insisted as Robin looked at her with hopeful eyes.

"Come on, you're telling me that you can see us watching a sunset on the French Riviera?" Robin teased softly.

"Yeah...I do." Lorelia replied as Robin looked at her without moving while she gently placed her hand on Lorelia's cheek. Eventually, she went in the bathroom to shower, leaving Lorelia alone. It was so hard to be caught between 2 people. On the one hand, she'd always crushed on Steve Harrington, but on the other. she really liked Robin. She just wished that they both weren't so awesome.

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