Beauty and the Dork

Divine Intervention

"You're drooling, dude," Gareth whispered as he smacked my arm. I sat up and felt my face flush. I tried to focus on Mr. Hearth's lesson but kept feeling my eyes pulled back to Margot Patterson and her legs that were crossed under her tennis skirt.

"Munson, if you're going to stare, make it less obvious," Jeff hissed. I shook my head and looked down at my notebook. I was normally better about my far away crush on Margot, but it was always when she wore her tennis skirts that made me less inhibited in my staring.

"Sorry," I mumbled, doodling a dragon into the margins of my pages. I glanced up and felt my chest ache when Margot pulled her dark curls into a scrunchie and smiled at one of her friends who made a comment to her.

Margot had moved to Hawkins about a year ago – she was immediately noticed by everyone in school (we weren't used to newcomers) and she was absorbed into the popular crowd. The most we had spoken was when I had bumped into her in the hallway a couple months ago, practically knocking her over. I had caught her, immediately embarrassed, and started stammering over my apologies. She laughed and shook her head, patting my shoulder.

"I should have watched where I was going – thanks for saving me, Eddie," she said casually, walking away before she could see my look of shock – she knew my name.

Ever since then, my far away crush had become almost an obsession, and I was often the subject of ridicule with Hellfire because of it. It didn't help that I shared a majority of my classes with Margot this year, so I had plenty of time to watch her. I was thankful that I also shared most of those classes with Gareth and Jeff, so they were able to catch me when I was being creepy.

The bell rang and we got up, heading to lunch. I watched Margot as she walked through the hallway, jealousy burning through my chest when Jason Carver came up and threw an arm around her. She laughed and leaned into him. I wondered what they were talking about.

"Do you think you'll talk to her before you graduate?" Jeff asked, punching my arm.

"I'm probably never going to graduate," I replied.

"Perfect – plenty of time to talk to her!" Gareth announced. I laughed and shook my head.

"No chance – Margot Patterson is actually smart. She'll graduate this year, go to college, and leave this shithole and I'll never have to talk to her."

"This crush is pathetic," Gareth quipped. I felt my face burn – he wasn't wrong. These kinds of crushes were easier, though, and meant I never really got rejected. Margot was still in my eyeline, still under Jason's arm. I wasn't sure when they started dating, but Jason often interacted with her like this.

"Oh, heads up," Jeff said, bringing me back out of my thoughts, "Group project in English. Ms. Donnell makes the assignments. Supposed to be for the rest of the year."

I nodded – we often did this for one another, warning each other about potential interactions with people outside of our circle. Group projects were the bane of our existence because no one ever really wanted to work with us. If we had enough warning, we were able to steel ourselves – this sounded like a doozy, the rest of the year?

"Hey, maybe this will be the project you get paired up with Margot," Gareth teased, elbowing me. I rolled my eyes – I'd never be so lucky.

"He wishes – none of us are that lucky. He'd have to beg to Ms. Donnell to make that happen."

I laughed and nodded – he was right. There was no way I would be so lucky without divine intervention. I suddenly stopped; my eyes wide. Gareth and Jeff turned to me, confused. I smiled at them and winked.