𝙎𝙃𝙀'𝙎 𝘼𝙉 𝘼𝙉𝙂𝙀𝙇, 𝙈𝙔 𝙊𝙉𝙇𝙔 𝘼𝙉𝙂𝙀𝙇.
Diana Blake was who everyone in Hawkins wanted to be or be with. Her family name held power in the town and she wore her popularity like a crown. Until she discovered that her crown was made with...
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THE PROBLEM WITH WORKING AT STARCOURT MALL WAS THAT EVERYONE SHOPPED THERE. Since Diana started working at The Gap, not a day had gone by where she hadn't run into someone she knew. Whether it was an old friend of her parents or a former classmate, Diana always found herself trapped in a vicious cycle of small talk.
She thought she had suffered the worst of it. Greg Morison's mother had come into the store and made passive aggressive comments towards her, Carol and Vicki had come in and snickered every time they found themselves within a ten foot radius of her, and people who claimed know her parents kept pitying her for their divorce. She thought the bad days had passed, but she was naive. Because halfway through her eight hour shift, Deborah Pickens strolled in looking for baby clothes.
Nicole Pickens' older sister was eight months pregnant with Diana's half-sibling and over the course of her pregnancy, the Blakes and the Pickens had avoided each other like the plague.
The Blakes were uncomfortable with the product of their father's infidelity, and while they didn't hold much of a grudge towards Deborah, they still preferred to ignore her existence. The Pickens, however, held great animosity towards anyone associated with the Blakes because when they thought about the privileged family, they thought about the large sum of money Marco offered them in exchanged for their silence. They took the money, but the shame followed them like a shadow.
That was one thing they had in common. The Pickens hated Marco Blake just as much as his children did.
The moment Diana spotted Deborah, she asked her manager if she could take her lunch break. There must have been a startling amount of urgency in her voice because her manager didn't hesitate to grant her request. No more than ten minutes later, she found herself sitting in the back room of Scoops Ahoy with a banana split in front of her.
"I already told you," Diana said as she pointed her plastic spoon at Robin, "I'm a loyal O'Connor's Creamery customer. I won't betray them."
Robin raised a brow and took another bite from the Chinese food Diana had brought for her. "You're eating our ice cream right now."
Diana shook her head and scooped more chocolate ice cream into her mouth. "I didn't pay for this so it doesn't count. Besides, eating is different from labour, so the answer is still no."
"Please?" The younger girl collapsed dramatically over the table and folded her hands in front of her. "Working with that dingus out there would actually be bearable if you worked here too."
The corners of Diana's mouth turned. She had to admire Robin's persistence. Since the start of the summer, she had been trying to convince her to work at Scoops and despite being met with rejection every time, she still continued to plead her case. "Buckley, I love you, but you couldn't pay me to wear that outfit."
