Escape ~ S.Harrington

42} Snooping and Cracking Codes

"You see anything?" Dustin asked Steve who was not so subtly looking around the mall with binoculars for anything 'suspiciously Russian' looking, while Alice and Robin finished up the rest of the translating. Jenna had most of it figured out, so she figured that it wouldn't take them too long to translate the rest. She crouched behind a plant next to Steve and Dustin, also keeping an eye out for anything suspicious.
"Uh, I guess I don't really know what I'm looking for," Steve admitted.
"Evil Russians," Dustin deadpanned.
"Yeah, exactly," Steve sighed, "I don't know what an evil Russian looks like."
"Tall, blonde," Dustin suggested.
"Not smiling," Jenna added, "Maybe look for ear pieces or someone holding a duffle bag. Something suspicious looking in general, I don't know."

"Right, okay, duffle bags," Steve kept peering around the mall, then stopped when he saw two people, "Oh, you've got to be kidding me."
"What?" Dustin asked, concerned.
"Anna Jacobi's talking with that meathead Mark Lewinsky."
"Oh... that's the girl Alice hooked up with at Halloween last year," Jenna smirked, "That's funny."
"If you're not gonna focus, just gimme the binoculars," Dustin tried to snatch them away from Steve's face.
"Aw, Jesus Christ, whatever happened to standards?" Steve groaned, clearly annoyed, "I mean, Lewinsky never even made it off the bench."
"Tell me about it, she should've stayed with Alice," Jenna rambled, "Alice is ten times better than Mark."
"Dude," Dustin snapped, "You are the worst spy in history, you know that?" He finally took the binoculars from Steve, "Jenna, could you grab me a pretzel? I'm hungry."
"Sure, I guess. Not like I'm really doing anything anyways," Jenna shrugged and wandered off further into the food court, just glad she didn't have to hear Steve talk more about girls.

"Why'd you kick her out? You could've gotten your own pretzel, dude," Steve complained.
"I just don't get why you're looking at girls," Dustin ignored Steve's question, "You have the perfect one in front of you and you're screwing it up by talking about other girls right to her face."
"I swear if you say your sister-"
"Jenna."
"No, stop, no."
"Jenna."
"No!"
"Jenna, Jenna, Jenna."

"No, man! She's my best friend. That's weird. Plus, it's your sister we're talking about, why are you even trying to set her up anyways? With me of all people? AND... she's not my type, alright. Not even in the ballpark of my type."
"What's your type again? Not awesome?"
"Thank you."
"Hm."
"For your information, she's heading off to college while I stay here wasting my life away. That's an immediate deal breaker. She's nerdy, which makes me feel stupid. She's too pretty for her own good, meaning she could get any other guy she wants... or girl. Plus, she's too good at making me happy: only friends can be good at that. Oh, also, she was in band, which is a kinda bad look even if she is really good at playing the sax."
"Now that you're out of high school, which means you're both technically adults, don't you think it's time you move on from primitive constructs such as popularity? I mean, you've already had problems with that and you've chosen her over it. Why bring it back now when it's obsolete?"

"Oh, primitive constructs? That some stupid shit you learned at Camp... Know... Nothing?"
"Camp Know Where, actually. And no, it's shit I learned from life and my sister, who you should definitely just man up and ask out."
"Hm."
"Instead of dating somebody you think's gonna make you cooler, why not date somebody you actually care about and enjoy being around? Like me and Suzie."
"Oh, Suzie. Yeah, you mean, 'hotter than Phoebe Cates'. Yeah, that Suzie. And, uh, let's think about it, how exactly did you score that beautiful girlfriend? 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?"
"Hey," Jenna walked back holding up three pretzels, "What'd I miss? Also, I got us each a pretzel so we don't get the munchies. Here."
The two boys looked around awkwardly as Jenna handed them the pretzels.
Okay... what the fuck were they talking about here?