Royal Pain || Stranger Things

nine || lie

As the front door of the Wheeler residence squeaked open, Tatum held up a gallon of ice cream as a peace offering, dressed down from her usual cool girl look and donning a smile.

     Nancy grinned, waving her inside before shutting the shut behind them. She ran to the kitchen before meeting her at the stairs with spoons, the two going up to her room without greeting either of her parents in the den.

     "I thought you were kidding about the ice cream."

     "I never kid about ice cream," Tatum replied, plopping onto Nancy's bed as she shut the two of them inside. Her eyes fell on the new phone set up on her nightstand, drawing her attention. "Did you just get this?"

     "Yeah, Jonathan and I got it to call Barb's parents. That's what I was trying to tell you on the phone."

     Tatum set the ice cream aside, picking up the bulky item and flipping it over. She popped out the back panel, picking through the wires without detaching them.

     "What are you doing?"

     "The phone at my house was bugged."

     Nancy's already wide eyes only grew. "What?"

     "The phone was bugged. Properly bugged," she told her, closing up the new phone after seeing nothing out of the ordinary. "I found it while I was talking to you. That's why I cut our conversation short. I didn't know what else to do."

     "Why would the government be bugging your phones?" Nancy asked, cracking open the ice cream container and offering her a spoon as she joined her on the bed. "You didn't live here when it all went down. There's no reason to suspect you would know anything."

     "That's why I'm worried it's not the government."

     Nancy's brows furrowed, spoon hanging from her mouth. "What?"

     "My dad's been acting weird ever since we got here. Really weird. That's why I lied to you on the phone, about where I was. I told him I was at the quarry with Billy instead of telling him where I really was. He's been all gung-ho about me getting to know everyone in town, about getting to know you and Steve. I think he's wanting me to find out about things around town that he wouldn't get to. I think he's tapped the phones. His office is completely blank, but he says he's deep into a manuscript. When he's full on writing a book, his office is cluttered with sketches, maps, character descriptions. He won't let me in his office without him. He's hiding something. He's trying to figure out what happened here through me."

     "What are you going to do?"

     "Okay," she expressed mid scoop of ice cream, "he's going out of town this weekend. I just have to act like I didn't see anything until he leaves, and then I have to check out the entire house. I have to break into the library and find out what he's working on."

     "If he's writing the story of Hawkins and he figures it out, we're all dead," Nancy said with a shake of her head. "The government will know somebody snitched."

     "We should be fine," Tatum hastily replied. "We haven't said anything inside the house or on the phones, right? We cut the conversation short earlier today and we went to Marty's when you told me about everything else."

     Nancy brows furrowed. "You don't think the whole house is bugged, do you? Just the phones, right?"

     "I hope it's just the phones. I guess we'll find out."

     "Wait, then where were you really today? Because I know Billy was in class. His stupid car was there all day."

     Tatum pointed a softly accusing finger. "It is not a stupid car. And, I know we were supposed to go together, but when I woke up after the party, the only thing I could think about was that cabin."