𝐢 𝐜𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐦𝐲𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟

viii. FREE ICE CREAM

ICARUS SETS the ladder down then gestures for Steve who sighs, climbing up. He takes of the vent from the air duct and holds it down to Dustin who takes it. "Flashlight." He says as he holds the screw driver between his teeth.

Icarus holds up the flashlight which Steve takes, "thank you," he says as he takes out the screw driver and handing it to Icarus who grimaced and set it down quickly. Steve turns on the lights, flashing it down the air duct, "what do you think? Will Dustin fit in there?" Icarus asked him.

"Yeah, I don't know, Rus, I don't think he can fit in here. It's like... uh, super tight." He says and Icarus smirks, glancing at Chris who smirks as well, shaking his head as he rolled his eyes.

"I'll fit." Dustin says and Steve climbs down. "Trust me. No collar bones, remember?" He asked and Icarus sighs as Steve holds out the flashlight to Dustin. "Uh, excuse me?" Robin asked as Dustin starts to climb up the ladder.

"Oh, he's, uh.. Yeah, he's got some disease." He says and Icarus nodded. "Chry, uh, it's chrydo, um.." He trailed off and Icarus rolls his eyes. "Cleidocranial dysplasia." Icarus explained.

"Yeah, he's missing bones and stuff. He can bend like Gumbo." Steve said as he nodded and Icarus looks at him with a confused look. "You mean Gumby.." Robin says and Chris looks at Icarus with a look. "I'm pretty sure it's Gumbo.." Steve says.

"Steve, just shut up and push me!" Dustin said and Icarus sighs, turning back to the air duct. "Okay," Steve says before climbing up one step, grabbing the boy's feet. "I'll push ya." He says.

"Not my feet, dumbass. Push my ass." Dustin says and Icarus snickered, looking at Chris. "What?" Steve said. "Touch my butt! I don't care!" Dustin yelled from inside the air duct which only made Chris laugh. "Chris." Icarus whispered.

"Come on! Harder! Push harder!" Dustin yelled as Steve was pushing him on his ass, looking away and grimacing. "I'm pushing!" Steve exclaimed. "You're playing with my legs." Dustin says as Steve went under his legs. "I'm not playing, I have terrible footing." Steve explained.

Robin shakes her head as she watched the two, then looked at Icarus who watched with amusement, trying not to laugh. "Come on!" Dustin yells. "I'm gonna just shove you, ready?" Steve asked.

"Just shove me?"

"One, two..." Steve pushed him. "Shit." Dustin says. "That work?" Steve asked. "One more time!" Dustin exclaims and Robin turns around to look who it was when she heard someone ringing the bell. "Ahoy, sailors! All hands on deck! Ahoy!" Erica said, continuing to ring the bell on the counter.

"Get over here and serve me some samples."

Erica climbs up the ladder, looking into the air duct as Icarus stood with Steve and Dustin, between the two as Robin stood on the other side of Steve and Chris stood on the other side of Dustin.

"Hmm.." She said then climbs down the ladder to face them. "Yeah, I don't know.." She says and Icarus furrows his eyebrows. "You don't know if you can fit?" He asked and Erica looks at him.

"Oh, I can fit. I just don't know if I want to." She says and Icarus rolls his eyes. "Are you claustrophobic?" Robin asked her and Erica snickers, "I don't have phobias." She says to her. "Okay, well, what's the problem?" Steve asked her.

"The problem is I still haven't heard what's in this for Erica." She said and Icarus looks at Steve. Outside in the shop, they sat in a booth where Steve slides over a bowl of ice cream to her. She slides it back over to him, "more fudge, please."

Icarus looks at Steve, "go on." Erica waved her hand and Steve grabs the bowl and walked away. The other four look back at Erica. "Alright," Robin says, picking up the map of the mall. "You see this? This is the route you're gonna take." Robin says and Icarus looks at the blueprint.

"Then we just wait till the last delivery goes out tonight. Then you knock out the grate, jump down, open the door." Robin finished, looking at Erica. "Then you find out what's in those boxes?" Erica asked her and Icarus nods.

"Exactly." He says and Erica looks at him. "And you say this guard is armed." She says before looking at Dustin. "Yes, but he won't be there." Dustin explained. "And booby traps?" Erica asked and Chris smiled widely. "Booby." He whispers which only caused Icarus to kick his leg.

"Booby traps?" Robin asked her. "Lasers, spikes in the wall?" Erica said and Icarus looks at her with his face scrunched up. "What?" He says and Chris chuckled. "You know what this half-baked plan of yours sounds like to me?" Erica asked Dustin.

"Child endangerment." She says and Icarus looks at Dustin. "We'll be in radio contact with you the whole time—" "ah, ah, ah!" Erica cut off Robin right away. "Child endangerment." She repeats.

"Erica?" Chris says and Erica looks at him. "Hi, uh... I'm Chris, Max's brother. Our siblings date." He says with a smile and Erica grimaces. "We think these Russians want to do harm to our country. Great harm. Don't you love your country?" He asked as she looked down, listening to him.

"You can't spell America without Erica." She says as she looks up and Icarus smiled. "Uh, yeah, yeah. Oddly, that's uh, totally true." Chris said then looked at her again. "So, so, don't do this for us. Do it for your country. Do it for your fellow man." He says as she kept slurping the milkshake.

"Do this for America.. Erica.." Chris says and Icarus looks at him. "Ooh!" She says as she finished her milkshake, setting the cup down. "I just got the chills." She says with a smile at Chris who smiled back at her. "Oh, yeah, from this float, not your speech." She says as she shook her head.

"Know what I love most about this country?" She asked and Icarus looks at Dustin. "Capitalism." She says as she looks back at Chris. "Do you know what capitalism is?" She asked them.

"Yeah," they all respond with nods. "It means this is a free market system. Which means people get paid for their services, depending on how valuable their contributions are. And it seems to me, my ability to fit into that little vent is very, very valuable to you all." She says and Dustin looks at Robin, Chris and Icarus from across where he was sitting.

"So you want my help? This USS Butteescotch better be the first of many. And I'm talking free ice cream... for life." She says to Robin.

   

   

   

      

     

      

   

authors note oh no what about erica's free ice cream for life??😔😔