sweet summer (eleven)

chapter one: not eggos

starling sighed next to her sister, her elbows pushed into the metal counter and chin settled on top of her fingers. robin twisted her scooper around her fingers rapidly, leaning against the counter behind her.

it had been a pretty hectic day, but the temperature was cooling down and rush hour had already passed. if robin thinks starling was going to be the one to make another banana sundae, then she was dead wrong.

starling looked back on her sister and noticed her rolling her eyes.

"sampler-sinclair upahead." she muttered angrily. starling gritted her teeth and looked ahead to the front doors, seeing the little girl and her posse behind her. "if i run, do you think i could lock the door before they walk in?"

"maybe we can just hide in the back?" she suggested. when starling didn't get a reply, she turned around and saw that she was gone. "sneaky bitch."

starling was about to escape to the back and chew her out, but the door knob wouldn't budge. she groaned and kicked the door. "fuck you rob!"

when the sound of the bell on the counter filled her ears, starling could only assume it was the devil child and her demon friends. starling put on her best bitch face before turning around. she's gotten many compliments from robin about her bitch-face. she said it was the most threatening she's ever seen, and starling figured she could try and scare off the little girl. she was only like... 3 years old, anyways.

but what she didn't expect was what really threw her off. max raised an eyebrow at the sailor who had seemingly lost all of her usual snarkiness, finding it replaced with what max could only describe as googly eyes as she looked at eleven.

starling walked over to the counter with a shy blush on her cheeks. she couldn't help but stare at the pretty girl standing next to max. she looked like an actual angel to starling. she looked bright, like she had this glow about her that was different than the rest of the dull faces she sees in hawkins. she knew she was different.

"hey mayfield." starling finally acknowledges the other girls existence, reluctantly taking her eyes off the mysterious girl. she meets eyes full of confusion. "whats up?"

"uh, just want some icecream buckley. you okay?" max's eyebrows were furrowed as she pondered why the hell the bitchy girl had no bite.

"i'm fine, wastoid. what do you want? and whos this?" starling raised one eyebrow as she rolled her scooper in between both her hands, one hip jutted out. she returned her gaze to the quiet girl, who seemed nervous. starling only hoped that she was the cause of the girl's nervousness and she sent her a reassuring smile, which max noted was out of character as well. everything about starling seemed weird right now. "i like your shirt. it looks cute on you."

eleven could only blush, suddenly feeling extremely shy. she averted her eyes to the ground and tried to ignore the funny feeling in her heart. mike had made her feel this way before, but not in a long time. she cursed herself for thinking about mike again before looking at max. max looked at the girl and held her hand, giving her a soft squeeze before looking back to the pretty icecream sailor.

"this is el, or jane. can i get my usual? and whatever el wants too." max smiles. starling takes this moment to talk to the pretty girl.

"so, what's your favorite icecream?" she leans forward on her elbow, the scooper under her chin.

"i don't know." eleven quietly answers. and it was true, eleven wasn't really well versed in the world of ice cream. the only dessert she really ate was eggos, the thought making her hungry for some waffles. she looked down at all the flavors and she was overwhelmed. was it necessary to have this much flavors of one thing?

an idea struck elevens mind, "what's your favorite?"

starling smiles at the girl, pointing at the greenish-blueish flavor with the weird brown flakes in it. eleven tilted her head, reading the label.

"it's mint-chocolate chip, the only flavor i'll get. i'm not much of an ice cream person. the dairy makes my mouth feel weird." eleven giggles softly at the girl before nodding excitedly. she was sure this flavor would be delicious, just because the pretty girl liked it.

"cup or cone?"

"cone. get her a cone too, will you?" max reaches into her pocket to pull out some money she salvaged from her house. eleven furrows her eyebrows. cone?

"hey, don't worry about it." starling says, waving around a $5 bill in the air before setting it inside the cash register. "it's on the house."

max scoffed and looked at eleven. she guessed the secret antidote to free ice cream was cute girls, more specifically eleven. the oblivious girl merely shrugged, her mind still on the question of what cup or cone meant.

starling had made max's cone first just so that she can get rid of the fiery girl and she can maybe talk to eleven a bit before they leave. she gave the ice cream to max and max went to go sit in a booth like starling had predicted she would. she smirked and scooped some ice cream into the cone for the girl with two names that she decided to call jane.

"so, don't tell my sister, but i'm giving you two scoops instead of one." starling leaned in with a hushed voice, sending a wink to the girl who caught the memo and leaned in as well. jane blushed and smiled bashfully before taking the cone, blushing even deeper when their fingers brushed past each other.

"your.. sister?" she asked, her head tilting a tiny bit.

"my sister, robin. she's hiding back there with steve. you probably know steve, the guy with the hair? we all work here." starling smiles. "our parents named us after birds. i mean, not steve. we aren't related."

"birds." jane smiles softly. the older girl felt her heart flutter.

jane was doing things to her and she didn't know why. she was just so damn pretty and so damn cute. she could sense there was something off with jane. like, she was foreign or something. it perplexed starling, since jane didn't have an accent and looked like she was from america. but nevertheless, it intrigued her even more. she had a desire to learn everything about this girl.

she was broken out of her dreamy gaze when jane had asked a question, "what does it mean? cup or cone?"

"oh! well cup is this thing here - " she shows jane the small plastic cup that was taped to the top of the glass counter for customer reference, " - and the cone is just a simple waffle cone, like the one your ice cream is in."

she took note of how jane perked up at the sound of waffle and watched as she inspected the waffle cone in her hand. "waffle? like eggos.. right?"

"well, yeah.. but not exactly. this cone is harder and crunchier. it doesn't really taste like traditional soft waffles, but it's a type of waffle i guess. here, try it." starling took a waffle cone and broke off a small piece, handing it to the short girl over the counter. she watched jane's pretty lips separate to accept the crunchy hard wanna-be waffle and watched as she grimaced.

"not eggos. not at all." jane furrowed her eyebrows. she almost looked angry and starling found it absolutely adorable.

"hey, el! lets motor!" max called out from the front of the store, turning quite a few heads. starling sighed, knowing jane had to leave.

"bye jane, hope you like the ice cream. make sure you come back and you can try to find your favorite." starling sent the girl a charming smile before turning around to try to open the back door again.

"wait.." jane called out, not wanting to leave so soon either. "what's your name? bird?"

"it's starling. you can call me star, though.. or whatever nickname you come up with. people usually just settle on star. have a great day, j." starling waved as jane started to walk backwards. jane's heart fluttered at the new nickname star had given her and sent her a small wave back, making a mental reminder to research starling birds.