Love in 1985 - (1.) Robin Buckley x reader

(3.) Managing as Manager

Y/n's Pov:

Today will be the first day of work for Robin and Steve. Thankfully, Mondays usually aren't busy, so I'll have more time to teach them the basics. Plus,  Erica never comes on Mondays, so I won't have to deal with her.

I get to the mall a little before 8:30. Just in time to open up shop. The new employees were supposed to be here already, but I'll cut them some slack.

After about ten minutes into setting everything up for the day, the first employee arrived.

"So sorry I'm late, I overslept. I came here as fast as possible," it was Robin. She was already wearing her uniform, minus the hat, in which she held in her hand. Somehow, she managed to pull it off. The blue on the outfit matched her eyes, and her red shoes with scribbles along the soles added a pop of color. 

"It's alright," I say. "It's your first time here. Plus, your coworker, Steve, is nowhere to be seen."

"Steve?" she asks. "As in Steve Harrington?"

"Yes, actually." I answered, surprised that she could guess who he was.

"Oh God," she said in anguish. "He used to go to highschool with me."

"You go to Hawkins High?" I asked her. So that's probably why she seemed so familiar.

"Yeah, and I'm guessing that you do, too?"

"Yep, I'm going into senior year." I say.

"Oh really? So am !" She said with a smile. I should have known considering that we seemed like the same age. "Hey, were you by any chance in Mrs. Click's-" before she could finish her question, she was interrupted by the voice of her very late coworker.

"Hey, sorry I'm late, I had a, uh, thing to do." Steve said as he entered the back room of the Scoops Ahoy building. Not only was he late, but he wasn't in uniform, either.

"Ah, Steve Harrington! Fantastic timing!" I say sarcastically. "It is currently 8:46, meaning we have exactly 14 minutes to finish opening up shop for the day. And considering you're not in uniform yet, that means I'll only have around 10 minutes to teach you everything you need to know about opening up." 

I wasn't so sure why I was treating him so harshly. After all, Robin had only gotten here six minutes before he did, and I wasn't giving her a hard time. Then again, Robin was on time for her interview, and she wasn't a jerk in highschool.

"Uh, okay, right, sorry..." Steve muttered, going into the bathroom to get changed. While he was doing so, I took the time to give Robin a short summary on how to open. She was a really quick learner, she already seemed to understand everything I was telling her. Color me impressed.

After Steve had changed into his sailor uniform, I began to go deeper into detail with how to run everything in the store. Surprisingly, Steve also picked up the ropes pretty easily as well. Maybe I was being too harsh. I was pretty stressed myself, considering that today was my first work day as manager. I was just barely managing as manager.

Once 9 o'clock rolled around, the store officially opened. I took the first customer to demonstrate to Steve and Robin. Then, it was Steve's turn. His customer was a pretty looking girl, who seemed to be in college. 

"Ahoy there, milady! What can I get for ya?" he asks with an overly-loud voice. Robin and I shared a look with each other, almost as if saying what is wrong with this guy? 

"Um, I'll take a chocolate cone for me, and a caramel cup for my boyfriend." the girl said. You could see the shock and disappointment on Steve's face from a mile away.

"You-your boyfriend?" he asked.

"Yup! He's sitting right over there-" she said, pointing to a boy sitting at a table just outside Scoops Ahoy.

"Wonderful." Steve said with fake smile. He then began to scoop the ice cream like he was supposed to do in the first place.

The next customer was Robin's turn. It was another girl, this time around 14. She had long, fiery red hair. She was accompanied with a boy who looked the same age who wore a camouflage bandana as a headband. 

"Two cups of vanilla, please." The girl said.

"Coming right up!" Robin said with a chipper voice and a smile. It fascinated me how good she was with the customers. 

Once she had finished serving the ice cream, the two kids thanked her in unison, and left to continue roaming around the mall. Both Steve and Robin were exceptionally good at this. Then again, it doesn't take much skill to serve ice cream. It was going well. We all took turnings serving customers for an hour or two, and it went smoothly, until the worst came. Erica.

"Oh no." I said. Steve was supposed to take the next customer, but I wasn't going to make him deal with Erica on his first day.

"Hi, I would like to try the strawberry, please." Erica demanded. 

"Erica, I know for a fact that you had that flavor yesterday. You already know what it tastes like. Stop trying to get free ice cream." I was done with her bratty behavior. Apparently, Erica didn't like being told "no."

"If you don't give me a sample of strawberry ice cream, I will crawl over this glass and get. It. Myself." she said. I didn't believe her at first, but that was before she but both hands on the glass and positioned herself as if she was going to jump over. Before I could interfere, someone pushed me out of the way.

"Okay, that's enough." It was Robin. "If you don't get your grimy little child hands off of this glass, I'll be the one hopping over the counter to rip them off of your arms. Have fun eating ice cream with no fingers." she said while looking Erica straight in the eye. Robin had somehow intimidated the young girl, so much that she simply dashed away, back into the vastness of the mall. 

"Okay, that, was amazing!" I said to Robin.

"Thanks, I just can't stand little kids who think they're better than everyone else." Robin replied with a shrug.

The rest of the day went normally. Steve tried to pick up girls while taking their order, getting rejected harder every time. Eventually, Robin and I started keeping track of his losses on a whiteboard in the back room. We had no idea how any girls liked him back in school.

Eventually, it was closing time. I was genuinely impressed by the both of them. They had a great first day, and I was actually looking forward for tomorrow. We said our goodbyes, and headed home. 

After I had arrived, I went up room, one single thought running through my mind. Robin. I couldn't for the life of me get her out of my head. It was similar to Heather, but more extreme. All throughout the work day, it was all just her. Whenever I would think about her, I couldn't stop a smile forming. Is this normal? This is probably just because of how well she did at work today. But then why aren't I thinking about Steve? He did almost just as well as she did. So why am I obsessing over Robin but not Steve? Who knows, I'm probably just tired. Another long day is sure to come tomorrow, with more thoughts about a specific girl.

~~~~~

Hi again! Sorry this chapter took me a little bit longer to upload, today was a hard day and I was having trouble coming up with ideas. Good news is, we're even closer to season 3! The season should start either next chapter or the one after. Thanks again for sticking with this story, I know its slow in the beginning, but we're really starting to pick up! 

Written 8/5/22

Word Count: 1306