𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥

005. Silver Cat.

THE NEXT day, the plan was Valerie, Dustin and Steve stake out the mall and Robin continues to translate the rest of the tape. Steve peers over the bushes they're hiding behind, "you see anything?" Dustin asked him.

"Uh, I guess I don't totally know what I'm looking for." Steve tells him as the boy and Valerie also peer out at the crowd, looking for anyone suspicious. "Evil Russians." Dustin says. "Yeah, exactly. I don't know what an evil Russian looks like." Steve says and Valerie glances at Dustin who spoke up, "tall, blond, not smiling." He says and Steve simply hums.

"Also, look for earpieces, camo, duffel bags, that sort of thing." Dustin says, looking over at him. "Right, okay, duffel bags." Steve nods and then Valerie kept looking around when Steve spoke again, "oh, you've gotta be kidding me." He says and Valerie and Dustin both look at him. "What?" Dustin says instantly.

"Anna Jacobi's talking with that meathead, Mark Lewinsky." Steve says and Valerie rolls her eyes, following his gaze. "Aw, Jesus Christ, whatever happened to standards. I mean, Lewinsky never even came off the bench." He says and she snatched the binoculars. "Just give me these, Steve." She huffs and Dustin shook his head. "Dude, you are the worst spy in history, you know that?" He says as Steve quickly took off the strap from his neck.

Valerie raised the binoculars to her face, looking around the mall. "Besides, I don't even get why you're looking at girls. You have the perfect one right in front of you." Dustin says and Valerie elbows his side. "Steve and I are just friends." She says and Dustin groans, rubbing his side. "I was actually talking about Robin..." He says and Valerie instantly pulls the binoculars away from her eyes, looking at him.

"Steve and Robin?" She said right away and Steve simply shook his head. "No... No..." He denied it as Valerie glanced at him then looked at Dustin again. She looks through the binoculars again, "Robin literally--" "hates me." Steve finished the sentence for Valerie who gets quiet. "Besides, she's not my type." Steve says.

"And Anna Jacobi is..." Valerie whispers. Anna's pretty and all, but she's not... all that. "She's not even in the ballprk of what my type is, alright?" Steve explains and Dustin just looks at him. "What's your type again? Not awesome?" He asked and Valerie snickers.

"Thank you." Steve says, insulted. "For your information, she's still in school. And she's weird." Valerie immediately looks at Steve. "I'm also still in school, does that make me weird?" She asked and Steve immediately shakes his head. "No. But she's a weirdo. And she's hyper. I don't like that she's hyper. And she did drama. That's a bad look. And she's in band? No." Steve quickly shook his head.

"Now that you're out of high school, which means you're technically an adult, don't you think it's time you move on from primitive constructs such as popularity?" Dustin says and Valerie nods, agreeing with Dustin. "Oh, primitive constructs? That some stupid shit you learned at Camp... Know Nothing?" Steve says and Valerie rolls her eyes, continuing to search the mall using the binoculars.

"Camp Know Where, actually. And no, it's shit I learned from life." Dustin says and Steve hums before looking away. "Instead of dating someone you think's gonna make you cooler, why not date somebody you actually enjoy being around?" Dustin says and Steve glanced at Valerie. "I already tried... She clearly likes somebody else." He says and Valerie doesn't say anything, continuing to look around.

"Hmm... this is boring. I don't see anyone." She hands the binoculars over to Dustin next, crossing her arms over her chest. "Robin's cool... but she's too cool for Steve. Who's a total dork." She glanced at Steve who just squinted his eyes at her before looking away.

The trio were still there, searching and searching when Dustin spoke, "target acquired." He says and Steve looks up. "Where?" He says and Valerie tries to follow where Dustin is looking. "Ten o'clock. Sam Goody's." Dustin says before holding out the binoculars to Valerie who immediately looks through them. Sure enough, he fit the description.

Blond, black jacket, sunglasses and a duffel bag swung over his shoulder. "Oh..." She whispered and held out the binoculars to Steve who quickly took them and looked. "Shit. Duffel bag." Steve whispers and then he looked at Dustin and Valerie. "Evil Russian." He says in sync with Dustin making Valerie glance between the two boys before she stood up.

"Let's follow him."

The man was headed upstairs, they follow behind. "Slow down." Dustin says to Valerie and Steve. "We're losin' him." Steve says. "You're getting too close." Dustin tells Steve who bumps into someone walking by. "Watch it, dickwad." The man says and Valerie rolls his eyes before they look over to the blond.

He stops, slowly beginning to turn around so they rush to the side as Dustin picks up the nearest phone and Steve pretends to be looking at a book display with Valerie, putting his arm around her to make it look natural. "Hello. Yes. I am fine." Dustin says into the phone and Valerie tried so hard not to laugh.

"How are you?"

Steve looked over to see the man continued on walking so he pulls Valerie gently before they carried on following the man, he walks into the jazzercise place. "Alright, everyone, listen up!" The man said loudly, unzipping the duffel bag. "I just have one question for you. Who... is ready to sweat?" The women cheer as Dustin and Steve are lurking behind a mall guide with a map on it as Valerie stood out in the open with her arms crossed, slightly confused.

"That's right!" The man shouts as the music began playing, it was Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go. "Okay! Let's start it nice and easy now." He took off his jacket causing the women to cheer again. "Let's move our thighs. Yeah! Yeah, ladies, warm it up. Bring it down to your hips." The man says and Valerie's brows raise and her cheeks heat up at the sight.

All of the women, swaying their hips. At this point, Valerie doesn't even hear what half of the guy is saying as she watched the women. "I-I'm gonna go." Valerie rushed off, bringing her hands up to her face as she rushed towards the nearest escalator that goes down.

At Scoops, Robin wasn't anywhere in sight so she checks the backroom. "Robin? Everything okay?" She says and Robin rushed back into the backroom, closing the door leading to the hallways. "The silver cat." She says and Valerie stares at her. "What?" She says and Robin grabs her wrist, running out the backroom with the notepad in her other hand.

AUTHORS NOTE

robin: its gonna take a super genius to crack it
robin: [is the super genius that cracks the code]
valerie admiring her: ♥‿♥