THE GROUP of four watch Erica step up the ladder and point a flashlight inside. "Mmm." She climbed down the ladder, "I don't know." She says as she set the flashlight down. "You don't know if you can fit?" James asked, crossing his arms. "Oh, I can fit. I just don't know if I want to." She said and James squints his eyes at her.
"Are you claustrophobic?" Robin asked and Erica snickered at that question. "I don't have phobias." She said to the blonde teenage girl. "Okay, well, then what's the problem?" Steve asked the ten year old. "The problem is, I still haven't heard what's in this for Erica." She said and James sighs, looking over at Steve and Robin to his right.
They had Erica surrounded with all the ice cream she could have, and a root beer float at that, Steve was even sliding a sundae over to her. She slides it back to him, "more fudge, please." She says. Steve just stared at the sundae. "Go on," she waved her hand and James looks at Steve who reluctantly took the bowl and went back over to the counter. "Alright," Robin said, taking out the map.
"You see this?" She held it up, pointing. "This is the route you're gonna take. Then we just wait till the last delivery goes out tonight. Then you knock out the grate, jump down, open the door." She continued to explain and Erica looks at her. "Then you find out what's in those boxes?" She mentioned the boxes James had told her about before she went up to see if she could fit in the vent.
"Exactly." Robin said as she put the map away. "Mm-hmm." Erica says, "and you say this guard is armed." She said as she looks at James. "Yeah... but he won't be there." He said as he shakes his head. "And booby traps?" She then asked. "Booby traps?" Robin asked and Erica looks at her. "Lasers, spikes in the walls?" She carried on and James sighs. "What?" Robin said as she looks away, smiling.
"You know what this half-baked plan of yours sounds like to me?" Erica asked as she looked at Dustin. "What, Sinclair? What?" James said as he crossed his arms. "Child endangerment." She says and James furrows his eyebrows together.
"We'll be in radio contact with you the whole t—" "ah, ah, ah!" She cut off Robin. "Child endangerment." She repeated. "Erica? Hi, uh..." Dustin says and Erica just looks at him. "We think these Russians wanna do harm to our country. Great harm. Don't you love your country?" Dustin asked her to persuade her into helping.
"You can't spell America without Erica."
"Uh, yeah, yeah... Oddly, that's, uh, totally true." Dustin said and James looks at her as she continued to try and finish her drink, causing some loud slupring noises that irritated James. "So, so, don't do this for us, do it for your country. Do it for your fellow man. Do this for America... Erica." The curly headed teen by James says.
"Ooh! I just got the chills." Erica said with a smile. "Oh, from this float, not your speech." She says when she saw the proud smile on Dustin's face. "Know what I love most about this country?" Erica said as she looked at James then Robin.
"Capitalism." She said as she looked back over at James and Dustin now. "Do you know what capitalism is?" She asked and James nods his head as Dustin and Robin both say, "yeah."
"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 in that little vent is very, very valuable to you all. So, you want my help? This USS Butterscotch better be the first of many. And I'm talking free ice cream for life." She says as she picked up a cherry she bit off the stem of.
That was fair. For a ten year old, she was smart and can negotiate. James crossed his arms, smiling at the girl. "Rob?" He looks over at the blonde who had squinted her eyes at Erica. "Fine."
Once it was nightfall and no one was in the mall after the last delivery, the group of four were up on the roof where they can see the doors. "Erica, do you copy?" Robin says into the radio. "Mm-hmm, I copy. You nerds in position or what?" She asked through the radio and James chuckles.
"Yeah, we're in position. It's all quiet here, so you've got a green light." Robin responded with. "Green light. Roger that. Commence Operation Child Endangerment." Erica said and James grabs the radio. "Can you not call it that?" He asked into it and she responded almost immediately, "see you on the other side. Nerds." She said and James rolls his eyes, looking at Steve next to him.
As Erica was making her way through the air vents, James was waiting, then she spoke up, "alright, nerds. I'm there." James held up the radio, "do you see anything?" He asked her and she replied shortly after. "Yeah, I see those boring boxes you're so excited about." He sighed.
"Any guards?" He asked, glancing at Robin. "Negative." Erica simply said and James nods softly. "Booby traps?" He asked, amused. "If I could see them, they'd be pretty shit traps, wouldn't they?" She replied back with a sassy tone. James squinted his eyes at the response in annoyance.
"Yes, they would, Sinclair." He said and rolled his eyes. Erica took a while again before she spoke, "I'm in," over the radio. Steve raised his hands, "oh, God," he covered his face and James rubs his back before he looked over at the doors opening where Erica walked out of, "free ice cream for life." She said to confirm it to the group of four teens who all stood up to make their way down.
authors note james and steve are the fathers to dustin, erica, lucas, max, el, mike and will, and the cool lesbian aunt is robin.
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Fanfiction✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* steve harrington being the chief's son, james hopper didn't really have much to do, he would mostly sit outside and write, half of the time his dad would get drunk, leaving him to fend for himself but then gets caught up in the mess that...
