Girls Just Want To Have Fun | Robin Buckley

ice cream galour

July 2, 1985

Dustin, Steve, Robin and Jill were all leaning against the counter in the back of the store. They watched the girl, who turned out to be named Erica Sinclair, look into the vent with the flashlight. She stepped down the ladder and turned off the flashlight.

"Yeah, I don't know," Erica told them.

"You don't know if you can fit?"

"Oh, I can fit. I just don't know if I want to."

"Are you claustrophobic?"

"I don't have phobias."

"Okay, well, what's the problem?"

"The problem is, I still haven't heard what's in this for Erica."

"Oh my god," Jill rolled her eyes.

"Hey, you really think you all are just gonna force me to go through that disgusting vent and I'm not gonna get anything out of it?"

Jill leaned forward to look at the other three, who were all staring at Erica. Steve shook his head.

"Free ice cream?" He offered, cringing at his own thoughts.

"I want free ice cream. For life."

Steve sighed but went to the front of the store and started getting Erica the ice cream she demanded and Dustin followed them. Robin and Jill stayed in the room and continued to look at the vent.

"You're positive that there is no one else we can use?" Jill asked. "If we use her she'll make us work for her for the rest of our lives."

"Do you have someone in mind to use? Because I don't."

"Yeah, me neither," Jill sighed. Steve called Robin through the window and she turned around. Robin accidentally put her hand on Jill's, who had her hands holding onto the edge of the counter behind her. Robin quickly moved her hand and mumbled an apology. Jill's face burned red as she pulled her hand awkwardly from the counter and looked down at her shoes so that her blond waves would cover her tomato colored face.

As she looked down at her shoes she noticed that she and Robin both had on converse. Robin was wearing low top red converse with dozens of doodles and phrases along with the side of them. Jill wore plain high top black converse that were beginning to fall apart after almost two years of wear-and-tear.

Robin hurried around to the front of the store and began to talk to someone, probably a customer. Jill eventually went to the front of the store with the rest of the group. Robin was dealing with customers, Steve was scooping out Erica's ice cream while she told him more and more things to scoop, and Dustin was bringing the completed ice cream to a booth at the front of the store.

Once all of the ice cream except for one had been moved to the table Erica sat down. Robin and Dustin both followed her and sat on either side of her and Jill sat in the corner of the booth so Steve would have somewhere to sit. Steve finally sat down and shoved an ice cream sundae across the table to Erica.

"More fudge, please," she told him, pushing the ice cream back across the table. Steve stared at the ice cream and Erica shook her hand to dismiss him. "Go on."

Steve reluctantly took the ice cream back to the counter to get more fudge. Jill watched him go and moved a bit to get more comfortable. She ended up bumping her knee into Robins and mumbled an apology while she silently prayed that her face didn't go red. She turned to look at Robin after a second, whose face was the exact shade of red that Jill was afraid of her face turning. After a minute Robin's face turned back to its normal shade and she picked up the blueprints that she had been leaning against.

"You see this? This is the route you're gonna take. Then we just wait till the last delivery goes out tonight. Then you knock out the grate, jump down, open the door."

"Then you find out what's in those boxes?"

"Exactly."

"Mhmm. And you say this guard is armed."

"Yes, but he won't be there," Dustin confirmed.

"And booby traps?"

"Booby traps?"

"Lasers, spikes in the wall?"

"What?"

"We live in Hawkins. I don't think booby traps even exist in this town," Jill told Erica.

"You know what this half-baked plan of yours sounds like to me? Child endangerment."

Robin shook her head. "We'll be in radio contact with you the whole time-"

"Ah, ah, ah!" Erica cut her off. "Child endangerment."

They all sighed.

"Erica? Hi..uh," Dustin started. "We think these Russians want to do harm to our country. Great harm. Don't you love your country?"

"You can't spell 'America' without 'Erica'," Erica sassed. Jill gave her a confused look and shook her head.

"Uh, yeah, yeah. Oddly, that's, uh, totally true. So, so, don't do this for us. Do it for your country. Do it for your fellow men. Do this for America..Erica."

Erica had been slurping on her drink during his entire speech and finally finished. "Ooh! I just got the chills. Oh, yeah, from this float, not your speech. Know what I love most about this country? Capitalism. Do you know what capitalism is?"

"Yeah," Robin told her.

"It means this is a free market system. Which means people get paid for their services, depending on how valuable their contributions are. And it seems to me, my ability to fit into that little vent is very, very valuable to you all. So, you want my help? This USS Butterscotch better be the first of many. And I'm talking free ice cream for life."

Erica dramatically grabbed a cherry from the top of her sundae and bit it off the stem, dropping the stem back onto the table. Jill rolled her eyes. She slid out of the booth and then went to the counter to help Steve.

"Bring this to her," Steve handed her the sundae Erica had ordered to get more sundae earlier. Jill took it and almost turned back around into Robin.

"Sorry," they both told the other at the same time. Jill scooted around Robin and set the ice cream on the table. She waited for a second to see if Erica had any more complaints but Erica waved her away after a second.

"That child is going to be the death of all of us," Jill told Steve and Robin, hopping onto the back counter. Steve walked back into the other room as Robin took over at the counter.

"Tell me about it," Robin said, passing an ice cream cone over the counter to a mother who carefully handed it to her small daughter. The mother paid and the next person in line stepped up to the counter.

"One scoop of Rocky Road," Ryan told Robin. She nodded and Jill snorted with laughter. "Shut up."

"That uniform is absolutely horrible," Jill told him.

"Do you just live at this store now?"

"Pretty much."

"Did you come home last night?"

"Yeah, I just got home late."

"Are you going to be home tonight?"

"Jeez, what is this? Twenty questions?" Jill asked. Ryan gave her a look as she accepted his ice cream from Robin and grabbed some money from his pocket. "I don't know yet."

"Call home if you won't be back by ten."

Jill nodded and he left.

"So, that's your brother?" Robin asked.

"Yup. He doesn't usually ask that many questions," Jill smiled. Robin smiled back and Jill felt butterflies in her stomach. She looked away from Robin to watch Erica and Dustin sitting in silence while Erica started to eat one of her ice cream cones that had ice cream already melting down the side. Jill leaned her head back against the wall and sighed, being overly excited and nervous about the quickly approaching nigh.