Strange Effect || Robin Buckley ✓

vii

Since Isabella overheard her Mom's conversation with Her Dad, she's been avoiding being home. She's taken longer shifts at Scoops Ahoy, she knows it bugs her parents but she can't face them, at least right now. They've lied to her, she knows that they were trying to protect her but they could've at least been honest instead of moving down here with the lie that Marino got a pay bump when he got a loss, now he's being taken advantage of because he's easy.

"Hello! I said I want to try peppermint stick." The little girl in front of Isabella said snapping her out of her thoughts, Isabella nodded and went to go grab a serving spoon when Robin stopped her. "Hold on, haven't you already tried the peppermint stick?" Robin asks crossing her arms looking bored. "Yes, and I'd like to try it again." The girl squinted her eyes at Robin making her sigh and turn towards where Steve and his friend Dustin were in the back listening to some tape.

"Steve!" Once she got no reply, she huffed and gave the girl the sample but when she opened her mouth to try again Robin pointed her finger towards the door. "No more." The girl frowned but walked out the door, Isabella turned towards Robin with a confused look. "I thought you weren't supposed to do that," Isabella said following Robin towards the back. "No one will know," Robin smirks at Isabella as she opens the door to the back where Dustin and Steve were.

"All right, babysitting time is over. You need to get in there." Robin tells Steve, her eyes catch the board in the corner that had the Russian alphabet on it, well parts of it. "Hey, my board. That was important data, shitbirds." Dustin shook his head quickly. "I guarantee you, what we're doing is way more important than your data."

Isabella rolled her eyes as she stood against the wall by the door. "How do you know these Russians are up to no good anyway?" Isabella comments looking towards the whiteboard. Dustin looked at Steve who looked just as confused as him. "Hello, we can hear you. That's how we know, we heard everything." Robin said interrupting their quiet back and forth. "No offense but you both are extremely loud," Isabella says backing away from the wall and walking towards the table to stand next to Robin.

"You think you have evil Russians plotting against our country, on tape, and you're trying to translate, but haven't figured out a word, because you didn't realize Russians use an entirely different alphabet. Sound about right?" Robin explains to a shocked Steve and Dustin, Isabella gestures towards Robin and nods in agreement. Isabella bends down and goes to grab the tape but Steve is faster and grabs it from her. "Whoa, what do you think you're doing?" Steve raises his eyebrows at Isabella.

"I wanna hear it," Isabella says looking at Steve carefully, beside her Robin nods in agreement. "Why?" Steve and Dustin say at the same time. "Maybe I can help, I speak Russian don't you know? I also speak Spanish and Hawaiian." Isabella smiles smugly as she pulls out a chair beside Dustin and sits down. "And I'm fluent in four languages." Robin smiles at Isabella who shakes her head fondly. "Russian?" Dustin asks Robin hopefully. "Ou-yay are-yay umb-day." Robin speaks pig-Latin.

Both Dustin and Steve start laughing excitedly. "She just called you dumb in pig-Latin," Isabella mutters looking at the tape recorder. "That was pig Latin, dingus," Robin says once Isabella finished talking. The two of them frowned at Robin. "But, I can speak Spanish, French, and Italian, and I've been in band for 12 years. My ears are little geniuses, trust me." Steve looked at Robin hesitantly. "Look, I'll be honest. I am rusty on my Russian but I can speak it and Robin might be able to help me figure it out. Plus, two new minds are better than two dumb ones." Isabella holds a hand out for Robin to slap when she laughs loudly.

"Hurtful, but fine. You two can help." Steve slapped his banana peel on the table and scooted another chair over so Robin can sit as well. "Now, it's your turn to sling the ice cream, it's our turn to translate." Steve huffed but held his hand out so he can take the scooper that Robin had brought in the back with her.

Robin smirked at Isabella and scooted closer to her, Isabella froze. She could feel Robin's warm skin touching hers, she gulped at stared at Robin for a few seconds before Robin nodded towards the tape in her hands. "Oh, right." Isabella's face got hot as she clicked play and tilted her head trying to listen to what they were saying. "Shit, go back," Isabella tells Dustin who had gotten control of the tape recorder so Isabella and Robin could focus on the sounds. "That word is pronounced Dly-nna-ya," Robin said nodding at Isabella who confirmed her findings. "Which is spelled, D." Isabella goes slowly and snaps her fingers at Dustin who gets up and runs towards the board. "The Chair." Robin nods and writes it down on the paper in front of them.

They smile as they spell out the word that they heard on the recording. "Holy shit, I know what it is," Isabella says smiling, she looks at Robin cheerfully. "Wow, my aunt is gonna be so happy the Russian stuck holy shit, the first sentence is "the week is long." Isabella motions for Robin to write it at the top. "But why? It's not very thrilling isn't it." Dustin says frowning at Isabella who shrugs. "Yea, but it's progress. It also means I didn't lose my Russian which is good." 

"Why did you take Russian anyway?" Robin asks as she keeps copying the sentence they heard so they can double-check what Isabella said is correct. "My aunt married a Russian man, she demanded that everyone knew Russian so we can talk to him. They divorced but I still know it."