the mall rats

♛

"Seriously? You want cheese on your hotdog?" Scarlett looked at Dustin with a bored expression on her face. "It's covered in bread!"

"Yes. Put cheese on my hot dog on a stick, please." Dustin grinned, crossing his arms.

"That's literally so disgusting. Look, I'm super happy you're back from camp in one piece but, really?" Scarlett groaned, holding the hot dog above the nasty looking cheese.

"Just give the kid his damn cheese." Val waved towards her as she flipped through a magazine.

"No way. That goes against like, all laws of hot dogs." Ben shook his head as he yanked the magazine from Val, earning a glare from her.

"But it had bread on it! Cheesy bread is good bread." Dustin scoffed, putting the money on the counter.

"Well, yeah. But it's corn bread. You don't put cheese on corn bread." Ben pointed to the bread.

"Are you sure you want the cheese? It really gross and probably expired two years ago." She shuddered as she look as the thick cheese. "We also got it from the mini mart. It was one dollar."

"Yes. Just give me the goddamn cheese!" Dustin yelled for the thirtieth time that day.

"This is so gross I don't even want to make you pay because I know you're going to wanna throw up. But then again, I feel like I need to throw up from making this, so I'll take that money." She exchanged the cheese drenched hotdog for the money.

Dustin stared at her for a moment before finally speaking up. "Will you come to Scoops Ahoy with me?"

Scarlett gaze softened as she realized Dustin was alone, his friends no where to be seen. "Dustin, I would, but I have a job and kinda can't leave whenever I want. My breaks in fifteen though, I can meet you there?"

"Oh! Great." Dustin nodded, "See you then." He then walked off to Scoops Ahoy, munching on his cheese dog.

"Party at Scoops again? Why can't we ever just gather here?" Ben asked as if walking fifty feet to Scoops Ahoy was the hardest task in the world.

Scarlett gave him a look, "Gather where?" She looked around at the small booth they were in. It was barely a shop, simply just a fast food vendor in a food court. They barely had a break room. I mean, it was literally in a closet.

"Scoops in fifteen... I guess." Ben groaned, trudging back over to the friers and dunking a freshly breaded hotdog in.

Fifteen minutes later, the duo had left the booth on their break, and were approaching Scoops Ahoy. To their left the two boys sat in a booth, Dustin whispering to Steve. Steve seemed to be getting fed up, as he couldn't hear the boy. "Just speak louder." Steve suggested.

"I intercepted a secret Russian communication!" Dustin raised his voice. Everyone in the store froze, including Ben and Scarlett.

"Jeez, shh. Yeah, okay, that's what I thought you said." Steve mumbled, shifting in his seat uncomfortably as everyone's eyes were on them.

Scarlett and Ben wasted no time shoving themselves in the booth with the two, making themselves comfortable. "Room for two more?" Scarlett tapped on the table from beside Steve.

"Oh, good! You're here. Boy, does Dustin have crap filled story to tell you." Steve laughed, giving the girl beside him a side hug.

Dustin immediately glared at him, as if he were trying to keep it a secret. "What's there to tell?"

"Dude, are you kidding me?" Steve scoffed, narrowing his eyes.

"Nah, don't worry. We heard." Ben waved them off as he leaned back against his seat.

"Pretty sure the Russian's heard it too." Scarlett mocked, exaggerating the volume of Dustin's voice.

"What, you think I don't know what I heard?" Dustin crossed his arms, leaning towards the girl.

Scarlett kept her glare on him, "You know what I think?"

"What?"

"I think you're full of crap." Scarlett leaned towards him, her arms crossed as well. Dustin gasped, immediately pulling back in shock. "Why would Russian's be anywhere near Hawkins?"

"Well, to be fair, so much supernatural shit has gone down in this town, it's sure to attract scientists and investigators and literally just.. anyone interested in that type of stuff. I wouldn't doubt anything here." Ben reasoned, earning an approving smile from Dustin.

"Think about it guys. We could be heroes." Dustin began, everyone's eyes on him, listening intently. "True American heroes. Just think, you could have all the ladies you want, and all the guys." He nodded to Scarlett as he mentioned his last point. "And more."

"I like more." Steve nodded slowly. "What's the catch?"

"No catch, I just need your help." He looked from Steve to the two others, "And yours too apparently, since you kind of like.. know about it now."

"I'm sure everyone knows about it now. Just say you need and couple extra hands, no shame about it." Scarlett shrugged, earning a glare from the boy. "Help with what though?"

Dustin reached down and pulled a Russian-English dictionary out of his backpack, holding it up for the three to see. "Translation."

"Oh, come on. I don't know Russian!" Scarlett groaned, throwing her hands up in defeat.

"None of us do, that's why we have to figure it out." Dustin grinned, shaking the dictionary. "To the break room!"

As they got up and took their seats in the break room, they left Robin to sling ice cream. Dustin immediately played the recording. Steve claimed to be listening but was rummaging through bananas and eating them one by one.

Scarlett had been listening intently as she tried to sound the words out in her head. After the fifth play through, Dustin stopped it. Steve had gone through six bananas, Ben had finished his ice cream, and Scarlett had found two words. "So what do you guys think?" Dustin asked, looking around at the three brainless brawns.

"It sounded familiar." Steve concluded, taking another bite off his banana.

"What?" Dustin furrowed his brows.

"The words?" Scarlett imitated the look on Dustin's face, confused.

Ben was clueless, "Wait. The words- Oh my god, are you Russian?" The black haired boy stared at him in shock.

"No, no, no. The music. The music right there at the end." Steve shook his head as he spoke with his mouth full.

"Why are you listening to the music, Steve?" Dustin asked, visibly frustrated as the people he thought would stay focused the most clearly weren't. "Listen to the Russian, we're translating the Russian!"

"I'm trying to listen to the Russian but there's music-"

Suddenly, a very fed up Robin swung open the door, storming into the break room. "Alright, babysitting time is over, you need to get in there." The girl yelled at Steve, who stumbled back while shaking his head. She glanced over at the board and noticed the various Russian-English writing on it, "Hey, my board! That was important data on there, shitbirds."

"I guarantee you, what we're doing is way more important than your data." Dustin snapped back, earning a glare from Robin.

"Yeah? And how do you know these Russians are up to no good anyways?" Robin argued, crossing her arms.

Dustin's eyes bugged out of his head, "How does she know about the Russians?"

"I don't know." Steve shrugged, still talking with his mouth full.

"You guys talk kinda loud, to be honest." Scarlett pointed out as the boys bickered over who told Robin what.

"Exactly, I can hear everything. You both are not just 'kinda loud' but, extremely loud." She put emphasis on extremely, staring between the boys. "You think you have evil Russians plotting against our country, on tape, and you're trying to translate but haven't figured out a single word because you didn't realize Russians use an entirely different alphabet than we do. Sound about right?" Robin explained throughly, leaving all three boys mind boggled.

"Actually, I think I might of found a couple words." Scarlett raised her pen, Robin turning to her with a grin.

"At least someone knows what they're doing." Robin lunges for the tape, but Steve was quicker and beat her to it, yanking it away.

"Whoa! What do you think you're doing?" He held the tape close to his chest, shielding it from Robin's grasp.

"I wanna hear it!" She exclaimed, a bright smile on her face as the boys stared at her in confusion.

"Why?" They asked in unison, not so sure they wanted to give up their secret to someone else.

"'Cause maybe I can help." Robin shrugged. "I'm fluent in four languages, you know."

"Russian?" Ben and Dustin asked in unison.

The girl leaned towards them, "Ou-yay are-yay umb-day." Scarlett had to stifle her laugh as the three boys began freaking out.

"That was Pig Latin, dingus." Robin said in disappointment, Scarlett bursted out laughing, earning glares from the three dipshits to her right.

"Oh, yeah. Of course. I knew that." Ben cleared his throat, shifting in his seat as he leaned back.

"Idiot." Dustin said to the boys beside him as if he hadn't fell for it as well.

"But I can speak Spanish and French and Italian. And I've been in band for twelve years. My ears are little geniuses, trust me." Robin reasoned as Steve let out an uncertain laugh. "Cole on, it's your turn to sling ice cream, my turn to translate. Plus, I want to see what Scarlett's got." Robin nodded down to the paper in Scar's hands, grinning at Steve.

Steve paused for a moment, looking between the scoop Robin held in front of her and Scarlett. "Only if Ben comes with me."

"Come on dude, why?" Ben complained, scowling.

"Because I said so, let's go." Steve dragged him out of the break room after snatching the scoop from Robin, complaints escaping Ben's mouth as he entered the front.

"Be careful! He might steal all your ladies!" Robin yelled out, and they could faintly hear Ben's laughter bouncing off the walls. "Okay, let's get started. Whatcha got?"

"The week.. and then something else, but I couldn't figure it out." Scarlett shook her head, sliding Robin the paper.

"Well now we have a jumpstart! Dustin, play it again." Robin leapt out of her seat, pacing back and forth as she listened to the audio.

The translation process felt long, but really was only ten minutes before they had their first sentence, "The week is long." Robin imitated a Russian accent as she repeated the sentence to Steve, who thought it was very underwhelming.

"Well, that's thrilling." Steve's smile was wiped clean off his face.

"I know, but, progress." Robin replied, shutting the window and sending the boy back to work as the three inside began the long process once again.

After an hour or two, Ben returned to Hot Dog on a Stick to finally close up, thanking Val for covering for the both of them. Scarlett and Robin continued translating, conjuring words one by one. Finally, as night had fallen and the mall had closed, they had the whole recording translated. All five of them sat in the break room at Scoops Ahoy, staring at the words of the board with confusion plastered on their faces.

"The week is long, the silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west." The group recited, shaking their heads.

"Welp." Steve sighs, slapping his hands on the side of the table as he stood up. Everyone followed suit, exiting the shop as they closed up. "I mean, it just can't be right."

"It's right." Robin replied shortly.

"Honestly, I think it's great news." Dustin shrugged, causing Steve to sigh in frustration.

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

"I don't get it. I mean, I thought it would've made a little bit of sense, but it's just all some cryptic code or something." Scarlett stared at the paper she noted valuable information on, furrowing her brows.

Ben pointed at her with a nod, "Exactly. It's a code." The boy spun around as he observed his surroundings.

"What do you mean, a code?" Steve scoffed, not buying this Russian bullshit.

"Like a super secret spy code." Dustin grinned.

Steve was quick to shut down the idea, "That's a total stretch."

"I don't know, is it?" Robin crossed her arms over her chest as she fully believed it was a code. Scarlett nodded in agreement, knowing it was too specific not not be some sort of code.

"You're buying into this..? And you?" Steve looked between the two, surprise written all over his face.

"Listen just for kicks, let's entertain the possibility that it is a secret Russian transmission. What'd you think they were gonna say, 'Fire the warhead at noon?' And our translation is correct. I know that for sure, so.. the silver cat feeds, why would anyone talk like that unless they were trying to mask the true meaning of their message?" Robin explained perfectly.

"Exactly. And why would anyone mask the actual meaning of their message unless it was somehow top secret information? They were ready for this, they just don't think we know how to crack the code." Scarlett added with a shrug.

"So I guess that confirms your suspicion." Robin looks between the group, high fiving Scarlett after her explanation.

"Evil Russians!" Dustin exclaimed with a grin.

"I can't believe I'm about to agree with this strange child, but, yeah totally, Evil Russians." Robin laughed.

"So how do we crack it?" Dustin asked, hoping for a solid answer from the two girls with the brains.

"Well, I guess we translate the rest, and hopefully a pattern emerges." Robin shakes her head, not too confident in her answer.

As Dustin, Robin and Ben blabbed it up, Steve had pulled Scarlett back. The two now stood in front of the ride that was the Indiana Flyer. With no explanation, he immediately began digging through his pockets for change.

A look of confusion fell on Scarlett's face, "You're way too big for that, it's a little kids ride!" She notice Steve's head turning towards her and instantly put a finger in front of her, "And don't even look at me, because if you think I'm getting on that.. you're funny."

"No, no!" Steve shook his head, watching the confusion on her face grow. "Remember earlier? How I mentioned how familiar the music was?" Scarlett nodded slowly as Steve kept searching for change, "Do you have any quarters?"

"Wha-"

"Hey, Steve! What are you doing?" Robins voice rang out, catching Steve's attention.

"Uh, it's a quarter. I need— do you have a quarter?" Steve rummaged on, motioning the three others over.

"Sure you're tall enough for that ride?" Robin chuckled, running over with the two boys following suit.

"Quarter!" Steve yelled, and Scarlett had finally found a quarter in the depths of her pockets. She tossed it to him, a good throw caught with ease. "Thanks!" He said to the girl with a smile. He inserted the last coin, and 'Daisy Bell' instantaneously began playing, causing Scarlett's eyes to go wide.

"You need help getting up, Little Stevie?" Robin joked, but was shushed by Steve.

"Just shut up and listen."

"Holy shit." Dustin and Ben said in unison as they finally realized where the music in the recording was really coming from.

Steve looked at them before looking at Scarlett, a smile blooming on both of their faces. "Steve you're a genius." Scarlett said, but immediately took it back, "Well, maybe not that far. But you're really smart!"

"The music." Dustin tapped on Robin excitedly. "The music!" He dug through his bag, pulling out the tape and playing it back, Robin becoming more puzzled by the second.

"I don't understand. Maybe they have horses like this in Russia." Robin tried to reason, sorting out all the possibilities.

"Um.. It's the Indiana Flyer." Ben cleared his throat, pointing at the badge on the horse.

"This code, it.. didn't come from Russia." Steve said slowly, looking around at the group.

"It came from here." Scarlett finished his sentence. The five shared glances, letting the information sink in. A feeling of doom fell over them, and they knew, although not supernatural, this could be dangerous.