Invisible String || S. H.

18: dustin's cerebro

Mollie (pov)

Dustin comes home from camp today and I couldn't be more excited. Between spending time with my own friends, and working the house wasn't the same without him. It was quieter in a way. Mom went to go pick him up by herself since I accidentally slept in, oops. I was about to start making breakfast for myself when the rest of the kids knocked on the door to have a little fun with Dustin coming back.

Mike reminded me about the plan and it came back to me. I was all for it, the kids had me hide in my room and to follow him once Eleven got him out of his room by following his old toys that he still keeps lying around.

When he got home I held tight in my room in the hiding spot while the kids hid in theirs. The plan was going accordingly. All the toys went into the hallway leading into the living area.

The kids and I were gathered behind him waiting for him to turn around. At what we thought would be perfect timing, all of us shouted 'welcome back' with excitement. He got freaked out and sprayed hairspray into Lucas' eyes on accident.

"Oh, holy shit. Okay, Lucas, Max go into the kitchen and run his eyes through the water to get the spray out," I said.

"Yeah, good idea. Thanks, Mollie," Max said.

While those two were in the kitchen, the rest of us were some-waht forced into seeing what Dustin's been up to at camp for the last month. He showed us his inventions like the Forever Clock, the Slammer and his very own Cerebro. Not gonna lie, some of his new things were pretty good. But the Cerebro he made was just in pieces and for the life of me I couldn't figure out how it would work.

"What exactly are we looking at here," Mike asked.

"An unassembled one-of-a-kind battery powered radio tower," Dustin explained.

"So, it's a ham radio," Will said.

"The Cadillac of ham radios. This baby carries crystal clear connections over vast distances. I'm talking North Pole to South. I can talk to my girlfriend whenever and wherever I choose."

"Girlfriend," Will, Mike, El and I asked in unison.

"Yeah, her name is Suzie and she's from Utah."

He packed up his Cerebro and got us all to go to the highest point in Hawkins so we could all talk to Suzie. We all grabbed our bikes and headed out. We all left the bikes at the bottom so that we didn't have to drag everything all the way up there, including the supplies to keep Cerebro running properly.

All of us learned more about Suzie on the way up the hill, like she's Mormon, she doesn't have electricity and that she lives in Salt Lake City. Halfway up the hill, Mike and El left us making up the excuse of her "curfew" we all knew it was total bs. But I'm not gonna stop them, I'm not their parents.

I was intrigued about Suzie. She seemed different and she makes my brother happy, so she's in my good book.

Once we finally made it to the top of the hill, all of us were drenched in sweat and tired. But since we were here, we got to work and helped set up the whole thing. With our many hands it didn't take long.

"Pretty impressive, right," Dustin asked. "Now, are you ready to meet my love?"

"Oh yeah. A lifetime achievement," I said.

"Suzie, this is Dustin. Do you copy? Over," Dustin repeated a few times, willing she'd answer back soon.

The sky grew from a sunset to the night sky in a matter of hours with Dustin repeating the same sentence over and over again. The rest of us laid on the ground waiting for a cool breeze to kick in in hopes of cooling off from the sun before.by the time the moon was close to its peak Max was getting a little irritated that she hadn't picked up yet.

"Dustin, come on! She's not there," Max said.

"She's there, all right. She'll pick up," Dustin said.

"Maybe Cerebro doesn't work," Will added.

"Maybe Suzie doesn't exist," Lucas countered.

"She exists," Dustin said, protesting Lucas.

"She's a genius and she's hotter than Phoebe Cates? No girl is that perfect."

"Is that so," Max asked Lucas. Oh he's in trouble.

"I mean... You're perfect," Lucas stammered his way across what he was actually trying to say.

"Lucas, you may want to stop while you're at it, trust me," I said.

"Relax, I was teasing. I'm obviously perfect and Dustin's obviously lying. Come one, Don Juan," Max said, grabbing Lucas' hand and starting to head home.

Will soon followed them down the hill. It was just the Hendersons now.

"Dusty, we can stay up here for another hour, all right. Then we have to go, mom would want us back home before midnight."

"Okay."

Once i got settled back on the ground, the radio started up and someone was talking through it. Dustin thought it was Suzie, but it didn't sound like a girl or english. Once the radio got a clearer sound I knew right away that this was Russian. I didn't know what the person was saying but it had to be a code for something.

"Molls, you don't work tomorrow do you," Dustin asked.

"Uhm, in the morning I do. Why?"

"Because I think we're gonna need more of us to figure all this out."

"Oh, yeah. You got that right."

"Right, who do we both trust enough with this kind of information?"

"Literally both of our friend groups, Dustin."

"Well, does anyone specific come to mind? We can always bring in your boyfriend. Eddie, right? He might be able to help."

"Nope. Hard pass. I can't have him getting dragged into all this."

"Damn, okay then. What about Steve?"

"Yeah, that's good enough for me. I'll bring you to work with me tomorrow, you can meet up with Steve first while I'm at work and get him up to speed on all this. And I'll swing by when my shift finishes around one."

"Sounds like a plan, let's head home now."

"Good idea, Dustin."