Weird Town || reader insert

A while—a really, really long while—later of walking_

"I mean, you have to admit," Dustin started after our, probably eighth bout of silence, "as a feat of engineering alone, this is impressive."

"What are you talking about? It's a total fire hazard," Steve debated with ease as if he'd been thinking about this stuff in silence for a while, "there's no stairs, there's no exit, there's just an elevator that drops you halfway to hell."

"Yeah because when you're building a secret underground base, fires are your biggest worry," I rolled my eyes.
Erica gestured to me in agreement, "because they're Commies. You don't pay people, they cut corners."

"To be fair to our Russian comrades, I don't think this tunnel was designed for walking," Robin chimed in, "think about it, they developed the perfect system for transporting that cargo."

"It all comes into the mall like any old delivery," Dustin nodded.

"And then they load it up onto those trucks and nobody's the wiser," Robin finished.

"And then they put it all through a ride from hell and hope to god no bodies inside to get destroyed by the drop," I added, "I would not pay to do that again. I almost feel bad for the crazy acid burning liquid thing."

"It's an inanimate object, it doesn't have feelings," Erica pointed out.

"I know that, Erica, but just imagine if they were sentient," I rolled my eyes, "ride. From. Hell."

"You whack, you know that?" she asked.

"Welcome to my world," Steve rolled his eyes before glancing around, "back to the transport thing, you think they built this whole mall so they could transport that green poison, acid thing?"

"I very seriously doubt it's something as boring as poison or acid," Dustin replied, "it's gotta be much more valuable, like promethium or something."

"What the hell is promethium?" Steve asked, clearly not sensing that this was a nerd topic, and he probably really shouldn't have asked. You'd think after almost three years of this, he'd be able to sense out a nerd topic.

"It's what Victor Stone's dad used to make Cyborg's bionic and cybernetic components," Robin answered without hesitation or missing even the slightest beat.

"You're all so nerdy, it makes me physically ill," Erica stated as she mocked fake sickness.

"You and me both, kid," I muttered. You and me both, seriously.

"No, no, no," Steve quickly jumped in, looking slightly offended, "no, don't lump me in with them. I'm not a nerd, all right? So don't either of you lump me in—and you—"

He pointed at me, "should know better."

"Oh I do, McSteven," I returned before pausing, "ooh—that's a new one. McSteven. I like it."

Steve just sighed and rolled his eyes as I took a mental note of the new nickname. God I am good.

"Why so sensitive, Harrington?" Robin teased, "afraid of losing cool points to a ten-year-old child?"

"No," Steve scoffed defensively, "I'm just saying I don't know jack shit about Prometheus."

"Don't mix up Greek mythology in this," I rolled my eyes.

"What?" he gave me a dumbfounded look and I just stared back blankly.

Now I know how he failed his SATs. Seriously, how does he not know what Greek mythology is? My work is seriously going to be hard once I start tutoring him so he can resit them with mine and Nancy's year and actually get out of Hawkins and do something productive with his life that doesn't include a pitiful sailor's uniform and an ice cream scoop—not that I don't respect retail workers but seriously, that uniform does not look good on Steve. He looks like he's trying to play dress up but really badly.