Chapter Nineteen:
Jazzercise 
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

"You see anything?" Dustin asked, peering through the spaces between the plant leaves.

"Uh, I guess I don't totally know what I'm looking for." Steve answered, holding the binoculars to his eyes steadily.

"Ramona would know." Dustin muttered, raising his hands in surrender when Steve lowered his binoculars to shoot him a look.

"Yeah? Well, she's not here yet." Steve scoffed, "So can you just tell me?" 

"Evil Russians."

"Yeah, exactly. I don't know what an evil Russian looks like!"

"Tall, Blond, not smiling." Dustin said simply, shrugging as Steve hummed in acknowledgment. "Also, look for earpieces, camo, duffel bags, that sort of thing."

"Right, okay... Duffel bags." Steve's voice quieted as he lifted his eyes to the balcony above. "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me."

"What?" Dustin asked excitedly, ready for a clue in the Russian fiasco.

"Anna Jacobi's talking with that meathead Mark Lewinsky."

"Dude, if you're not gonna focus just give me the binoculars." Dustin said, rolling his eyes as his patience with the recently graduated boy began to wear thin.

"Aw, Jesus Christ! Whatever happened to standards? I mean, Lewinsky never even came off the bench!"

"Dude, you are the worst spy in history, you know that?" Dustin grumbled, reaching up and pulling the binoculars from Steve's hands. "Besides, I don't get why you're looking at girls. You have the perfect one in front of you."

"Seriously? If you say Robin again-"

"Ramona." Dustin said, causing Steve's heart to skip a beat as he turned to look at Dustin in shock.

"What? García?" Steve stammered, shaking his head quickly. "No, don't. No way."

"Ramona, Ramona, Ramona!" Dustin taunted.

"No."

"Ramona."

"Stop it." Steve said, forcing the blush down from rising upon his cheeks, "I mean it.

"Ramona. You're clearly head over heels in love with her already." Dustin snickered at Steve's expression. "And she clearly doesn't 'dislike' you as much as she says she does. And I'm willing to bet that she even feels the same."

"No!" Steve hissed, "No, man, I'm not, no. She's-She's not my type. She's not even.. not even in the ballpark of what my type is, all right?"

"What's your type again? Not awesome?" Dustin pouted, shaking his head as he continued to look around the mall. 

Steve rolled his eyes, "Thank you."

"Hm." Dustin hummed, rolling his eyes as he raised the binoculars in front of his vision.

"Okay, and for your information, she's still in school, and she's Nancy's best friend. And she won't teach me Spanish, I don't like that she won't teach me Spanish. She could be talking about me and I wouldn't know! And she did softball? Kind of a bad look... And she's in AP for some things!" 

"Now that you're out of high school," Dustin started, cutting Steve's sentence off short.  "Which means you're technically an adult, don't you think it's time you move on from primitive concepts such as popularity?"

"Oh? Primitive constructs?" Steve challenged, "That some stupid shit you learned at Camp Know Nothing?"

"It's Camp Knowhere., actually." Dustin corrected, "And no, it's shit I learned in real life."

"Hm."

"Instead of dating somebody you think's gonna make you cooler, why don't you date someone you actually enjoy being around? And you enjoy being around Ramona, don't you?"

"We-Well, yeah, duh." Steve furrowed his eyebrows together, "So?"

"Me and Suzie enjoy being around each other, so..." 

"Oh, right, Suzie." Steve's voice was clearly sarcastic as Dustin resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Yeah, you mean the 'hotter than Phoebe Cates.' Yeah, that Suzie. Uh, yeah, and let's think about it. How exactly did you score that beautiful girlfriend?"

Dustin inhaled, pursing his lips and shaking his head. Steve pretended to think as he scratched his head, "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?"

"Hm." Dustin hummed, "Pretend you don't care, right? How's that working out for you and Ramona?"

"I-" Steve cut himself off with an annoyed sigh, "It's not like that with Ramona. We're just friends."

"Okay," Dustin said, lowering the binoculars. Steve stopped, looking over to Dustin with a confused expression. "Give me one, one that's non-bullshit, reason you don't like Ramona."

"She's Nancy's best friend!" Steve repeated, shaking his head in disappointment, "There's, like, girl code, or something.."

"Right, right. And yet she's coming to see us, more specifically, you, not Nancy."  Steve paused, blinking slowly as he slowly nodding his head. Dustin gestured to him, smiling in satisfaction. "Told you so."

The conversation ended after that, leaving the only sound to be the mall around them. Minutes passed in silence as Steve walked into his very own daydream. He wondered if Dustin might be onto something with Ramona's feelings for him. Steve hoped he was, even if Nancy and Ramona's friendship threw a wrench into it. 

"Target acquired!" Dustin said, pulling Steve out of his daydream as he tried to follow Dustin's gaze.

"What?" Steve looked around the mall, "Where?"

"Ten o'clock." Dustin answered, "Sam Goody's."

"Give me that." Steve said, pulling the binoculars from Dustin's hands. "Shit! Duffel bag."

"Evil Russian." Dustin realized as Steve nodded in agreement. "We have to follow him."

~~

Steve and Dustin ducked behind a map sign. He leaned closer, his eyes trailing from the sign to the girls inside the room. "Jazzercise... Wait, is that Ramona?"

"All right, everyone, listen up!" Steve knitted his eyebrows together as he watched the man drop the duffel bag on the table and slowly unzip it to reveal a boombox. "I just have one question for you... Are you ready to sweat?"

Ramona cheered along with the other women, slipping her straps from under the polka dot unitard she wore, completely unaware of Steve's eyes on her. "Okay! Let's start it, nice and easy now. Let's move our thighs! Yeah, ladies, let's warm it up."

Steve gulped blinking rapidly and shaking his head. "I-I..."

Ramona swayed her hips to the music playing from the boombox along with the other women. "Bring it down to your hips! Start feeling that burn. Everywhere down in the loins, all right?"

Steve gulped, shakily raising his hand to wipe the sweat forming on his forehead. Dustin shot him a look, "Just friends, hu-"

"Shut up." Steve hissed, not pulling his eyes away from the darker girl as she followed the instructor's directions. 

"Come on, ladies! Show me what you got!" Ramona looked down at her picture, making sure her posture was correct, "Slow now. Just isolate. Oh, tip that up, that feels good."

"You shouldn't be watching her." Dustin said, shaking his head and looking away from her. 

Steve absentmindedly nodded his head, swatting away Dustin's hands. "Right, right, right. No, yeah, no I agree completely..."

Dustin scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Pervert."

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

{ A/n: Steve being a horny shit >>>>>>>>> }

{ Translations: None }

{ Edited: No }