fast car | STEVE HARRINGTON [2]

9. feeding silver cats

"SHOULD WE CHANGE OUR CLOTHES?" Was the first sentence Ringo Wheeler heard upon entering Scoops the next morning, only to find her new band of detective misfits huddled around the table in the back room staring down at a variety of equipment - ranging from a tape recorder to binoculars.

"Why would we change our clothes, Steve?" Robin enquired dryly, excited to hear what he would possibly come out with next.

"If we're in black no one will see us," he shrugged, nodding down to his extremely visible striped shirt.

"Wait," Jessica interrupted, adopting a look of absolute shock as she started to stare down at the skin on her arms that was exposed. "You guys can't see me?"

Robin chuckled at her lame joke, playfully shoving her by the shoulder in a very non-Robin way. Ringo and Steve would have classified their newest friend as someone that was very mature - seemingly years older than the two of them instead of one younger. But she was suddenly acting like an inexperienced pre-teen, unsure of themselves and trying to impress.

"What are you doing? Because I'm not down with doing black face," Ringo voiced with a weary expression, setting the backpack she was instructed to bring down onto the table and relieving her shoulder of the extra weight. Immediately upon doing so, Dustin dived for the bag and heaved it into his lap, haphazardly flinging the contents across the table.

"Hey!" She protested as he carelessly tossed a flashlight, her now infamous Walkman, an emergency whistle Steve had begged her to bring and a spare bottle of water. Growing frustrated with the objects she brought and their lack of function, Dustin grunted in annoyance - barely realising what he was picking up next until Ringo was gasping and he happened to notice the bright pink colour of the cylinder-shaped object between his fingers.

"Oh my god!" Dustin bellowed, firing the tampon across the table as if it burned to the touch. "I touched it! I can't believe I just touched that- oh my god!"

"It's unused! And in the wrapper!" Ringo began to shout, cheeks burning a bright red as Steve clapped a hand over his mouth to withhold his laughter at his friend's completely exaggerated overreaction. The younger boy was now viciously wiping his hands against his shirt and gagging profusely, leading to Ringo eventually smacking her hand up the side of his head to bring him out of his hysteria.

"It doesn't matter if it's not used! I know its intended use!"

"You know what," Robin huffed, growing tired of his antics. "Why don't you both take Dustin here for your little detective work, while Jessica and I man the ice-cream?"

"How did I get dragged into this?" Ringo scoffed, shoving all of the castaway items back into her backpack after breathing a sigh of relief at the distraction.

"Hey, come on!" Steve intervened, tugging on her sleeve in an attempt to drag her away for the plan he had carefully laid out in his mind. "You're going to be the distraction!"