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THIRTY EIGHT | A BIG, BORING CONSPIRACY
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women know what it is to endure.
-the mother road // chelsea wolfe
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Once at the mall, Shelly and Jackie parted ways. Shelly needed to get her mother a purse for her birthday and Jackie had a one-track mind that led her to Scoops. When she reached the ice cream shop, nobody was stationed at the counter despite the few customers sitting at the tables and lazily eating ice cream. Jackie could, however, hear bickering from behind the break room door. Classic, she thought.
When she entered the break room, all she could say was, "What the fuck?"
Some kid was hanging halfway out of the vent near the ceiling, and Steve was pushing on the kid's butt to shove him into the vent. Robin, all the while, was yelling. Steve and Robin both froze and turned to Jackie when she spoke, though.
"Jack, hey," Steve said, laughing nervously. "I, uh... I wasn't expecting to see you here today."
She hadn't left her house since she quit her job.
"Shelly and Laura wanted to go out, get our nails done and stuff." She crossed her arms and stared at the wild scene before her. "What's going on?"
The kid in the vent jumped down and, of course, it was Dustin. She hadn't even realized he was back from his science camp, but she wasn't surprised to see him involved with this nonsense.
"Russians," Dustin said, dusting off his shoulders. "Evil Russians in Hawkins."
Raising an eyebrow, Jackie looked between her boyfriend and friend. They both looked completely serious and in agreement with the boy. She sighed and let the door shut behind her. She'd really been hoping to get through this summer unscathed by the craziness that seemed to dwell in Hawkins's veins. Apparently that was impossible, though.
A creeping sensation lingered in the back of her mind. What if this was the offness that El felt?
She glanced over at Robin. The typically cynical girl was leaning against the wall, completely stoic. Sighing, Jackie dropped herself into the chair and stared up at Steve expectantly.
"Explain."
Steve and Dustin launched themselves into an incredibly complicated and long winded explanation for their antics. Wincing, Jackie glanced over at Robin, who looked a bit annoyed but was also nodding along.
"Any chance you'd be willing to just... I don't know, forget about this?" Jackie asked.
"Absolutely not," Dustin scoffed. "We're gonna be American heroes, Jackie. Do you understand that? He-roes."
Jackie licked her lips. "I get that, man. I really do. But, consider this: We will die."
"That's what you said last year!" Dustin said. "And, guess what? We totally did not die!"
