SATELLITE [STEVE HARRINGTON]

daisy bell

THE RUSSIAN RECORDING PLAYED OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN, AND STILL, GINNY COULD NOT TRANSLATE IT.

"So, what do you guys think?" Dustin asked, pausing the recording after about the thousandth time.

"It sounded familiar," Steve murmured, eating a banana.

Dustin stared at him blankly. "What?" Did Steve know Russian?

"The music, the music right there at the end," he answered, stuffing the last bit of banana into his cheek.

Ginny closed her eyes. "Oh, you mean the music that's making me want to bash my head in?"

"Why are you listening to the music, Steve?" Dustin spat. "Listen to the Russian! We're translating Russian!"

"I'm trying to listen to the Russian, but there's music playing over—"

"This is such bullshit!" Ginny cried, burying her head in her arms. "We know a little girl with superpowers but we don't know a single person who speaks Russian?"

Just then, Robin burst through the break room door, stomping. "All right, babysitting time is over," she ordered, pointing at Steve with her ice cream scooper. "You need to get in there. And you—" She glared at Ginny. "Your little sister is bullying me for free samples. And—"

She spotted the white board on the wall, where they had transcribed the Russian alphabet over the English one. "Hey! My board— that was important data, shitbirds!"

"I guarantee you, what we're doing is way more important than your data," Dustin said.

"Don't condescend her, Dustin," Ginny warned with a sigh. "She'll just condescend right back..."

Robin ignored her. "Yeah? And how do you know these Russians are up to no good anyways?"

Dustin's eyes widened. He looked accusingly at Steve. "How does she know about the Russians?"

Steve shrugged, wide-eyed, with his mouth still full. "I dunno—"

"You told her about the Russians?"

"It wasn't me!"

"Hello, I can hear you," Robin interjected, crossing her arms. "Actually, I can hear everything. You are all extremely loud. You think you have evil Russians plotting against our country, on tape, and you're trying to translate but haven't figured out a single word because you didn't realize Russians use an entirely different alphabet." She raised a content eyebrow. "Sound about right?"

They stared at her, stunned for a moment, before the girl leapt for the tape recorder. Steve yanked it away, just in time. "Whoa! What do you think you're doing?"

"I wanna hear it," Robin shrugged.

"Why?" Steve and Dustin said in sync.

"Cause maybe I can help," she answered quietly. "I'm fluent in four languages, you know."

"Russian?" Dustin asked hopefully. Ginny sighed.

"Ou-yay are-yay umb-day," Robin smiled.

"Ho-oh-oh!" Steve laughed.

Dustin grinned. "Holy shit—"

"That was Pig Latin, dumbasses," Ginny said, shaking her head.

Steve slapped Dustin in the arm with the banana peel. "Idiot."

"But, I can speak Spanish and French and Italian, and I've been in band for 12 years," Robin told them, sitting next to Ginny. "My ears are little geniuses, trust me!"