STARCROSSED ▷ steve harrington

06. the sauna test - part two

CHAPTER SIX - THE SAUNA TEST
PART TWO

𑁍

"YEAH, I DON'T know," Erica Sinclair told the three of them, shrugging her shoulders. Jackie, stood next to Steve across the room, raised her brow expectedly at the admission.

"You don't know if you can fit?" Dustin questioned, staring at her.

"Oh, I can fit," Erica replied smugly. Jackie felt a prickle of annoyance form in her gut. "I just don't know if I want to."

"Are you claustrophobic?" Robin asked, eyebrows furrowing quizzically.

"I don't have phobias," she responded, almost seemingly astounded, as if the answer was the most obvious thing in the world and she couldn't believe Robin just said those words.

"Okay, well, what's the problem?" Steve wondered, shifting on his feet, and sharing a look with the others at the same time.

"The problem is," Erica started, leaning on the table. "I still haven't heard what's in it for me."

Jackie pursed her lips. For a ten year old, Erica definitely knew how to get her way. She briefly glanced to Robin as an idea sprang into her head. "How about unlimited ice cream?"

"Meh," Erica shrugged. "We're getting somewhere."

Cynthia leaned forward. "How about any outfit from Macy's for free?"

Jackie wasn't surprised that Erica nodded—the key to most girls' hearts were food and free clothes.

"Now we're talking," the younger girl said with a sly smirk.

𑁍

Steve slowly slid an ice cream sundae towards Erica across the table, but she quickly pushed it back in his direction. There were at least fifteen different types of sweets placed on the table before them, Jackie was curious to how Erica didn't have diabetes yet. "More fudge please."

With an aggravated sigh, and an eye roll, Steve pushed himself up and walked over to the counter, the sundae in his hands. Jackie would've laughed at his expression if she weren't so set on trying to get Erica to help them.

"All right," Robin announced, pulling out the blueprint of the mall. "See this? This is the route you're going to take. Then we just wait til the last deliver goes out tonight. Then you knock out the grate, jump down and open the door."

"Then you find out what's in those boxes?"

"Exactly."

"Mm-hmm," Erica mused, and Jackie nearly groaned, knowing she was about to pull something else out of her ass to use against them once more. Jackie might not have been the closest to Lucas, but the amount of times he'd complained about his younger sister's blackmailing techniques, she knew how worried she should be. "And you say this guard is armed."

"Yes," Dustin said quickly. "But he won't be there."

"And booby traps?"

"I doubt they'll have booby traps on top of all of that," Jackie assured. "They were dumb enough to broadcast their code across every radio transmission, they're not exactly the brightest. Besides, it's not like they think someone is gonna slip past that massive guard with a gun. You'll be fine."

Erica sighed, before rolling her eyes. "You know what this half-baked plan of yours sounds like to me?" She paused, looking between the three of them. "Child endangerment."

"We'll be in radio contact with you the whole time-"

"Ah, ah ah!" Erica interrupted her, sassily waving her finger in Robin's face. "Child endangerment!"