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-'ˏ Margo's Pov ˎ'-

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Hawkins High School

Tuesday , 1:27 p.m

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Billys words echoed through my head as I left the gym to find Nancy. She was arguing animatedly with Steve before he stalked off angrily.

Without saying anything I looped our arms together and walked off towards the main building. She complicity followed as I dragged her along.

"Where are we going?" Nancy finally asked.

"Class."

Or thats where we were going. Before I found Carol and her odd group of friends leaning against the lockers laughing. We weren't friends. Nobody in their right mind wanted to hang out with Carol. She spilled everyones drama to everyone so she wasn't the person I'd tell my secrets to.

"Carol!" I called out across the now silent hallway.

She turned to face me with a big grin on her face. She smacked her bubblegum as me and Nancy approached her.

"What's up?" She asked eagerly. Like I was going to tell her something she could easily turn into a scandal.

"You see the fight this morning?" I asked nonchalantly. Her eyes lit up in excitement like I knew they would.

"Hell yeah I did. You and Hargrove?" She asked me. She worded it like it was a secret just between us so I just shrugged back at her. Not confirming or denying anything quite yet. Her dark haired friend rolled her eyes and huffed. I squinted my eyes at her and put together that she, like half of the female population, had a crush on Billy.

"You know what caused it?" I said looking around like I wasn't all that interested. Carol leapt into a long story about how they disliked each other from the second Billy had show up from California. I half listened until she started talking about recent events.

"-and then you were out for a couple of days and Josh made a joke about how he had blown your back out so hard that you just stayed home. Which is wild right? Anyways Billy did not think that was funny when it came back around to him and so he like totally roughed Josh up for it!" She said laughing. My eyes about popped out of their sockets as I listened.

"I was in a car crash. I don't even know Josh." I told her.

Her face slipped into a frown. "Well that's a not fun version of the story."

I rolled my eyes and grabbed at Nancys arm again. "Bye Carol." I told her flatly.

"I was just joking about that!" She called out to me.

"Leave me and my boyfriends business out of your mouth." I simply told her.

The same dark haired friend threw her books on the ground angrily as we rounded the corner. Nancy bust out laughing and I followed suit. We were slapping our knees and wiping tears as we walked.

"Holy shit! Josh never even had a chance! He gave you like what? A valentines card in fourth grade!" Nancy said snickering.

"He's been too scared to talk to me." I said in a serious tone. We made eye contact and started laughing hysterically again.

We had calmed down only a little when Nancy asked me what I was going to do about Hargrove. We were sitting back outside on a small little picnic table that was seated close to the parking lot.

"I don't know." I told her.

She raised an eyebrow at me.

"Okay he's really cute." I muttered as I snatched a grape from her lunchbox she had set back out.

She slapped my hand and gasped. "Cooties!" she yelled at me as she pulled the lunchbox back towards her. "Is he nice to you?"

"To me and me only clearly." I said rolling my eyes.

"That's kinda cute." Nancy replied shrugging.

"It's annoying."

"It's romantic."

"Definitely not."

"Okay lets make a bet." Nancy said as she leaned forward on her elbows.

"If he comes over here, and he will, and won't leave until he's sure you aren't walking home alone. Then he's clearly in love with you and you guys have to get married."

I scoffed at her.

"Deal?" she asked.

"He doesn't care that much but I like winning so okay."

We wasted away the last hour of the school day gossiping and laughing. Finally the bell rang and we both sat up straighter to see who would win.

I crossed my legs and sat there smugly as we waited.

Billy walked out with his hands shoved in his jean pockets. He headed towards his car slowly as he scanned the lot. When he spotted me, Nancy grinned. He started to casually walk in our direction, clearly taking his time. Nancy's grin got even bigger. She lightly rested her hands on her face as she looked at me scowl.

"I'm about to be right." She mentioned.

"You need a ride home? I'll make Max sit in the back." Billy asked me.

"I'm good thanks." I replied smiling sweetly.

"Whats your plan then? To walk home?" He scoffed.

I could practically feel Nancy glowing in satisfaction of being right.

"You know what. I actually have tryouts today." I quickly spit out as I remembered the cheerleading flyer posted on a bulletin board in front of the office that I had seen earlier today.

"With a head injury?" He asked slowly.

I mentally facepalmed myself. I wanted to win so badly so I continued with the blatant lie.

"Yup." I said with a tight smile.

He nodded at me. "Okay I can give you a ride when it's over. It ends at like what, 4ish? Max can skateboard home or something."

I have never wanted to shoot myself in the head more. "Sounds great!" I said with an awkward thumbs up.

"Nancy can you help me with something?" I said as I pulled her towards the nearest building with a girls bathroom.

😭😭