the last people we want to trust with personal information they can drag out of the closet and use against us one day. Face it, we'd give some of our most precious information to our enemies before we gave it to our friends. And that's sick' Boys don't have this problem.
Back to me and Sybil.
"Margot, before we jump to any conclusions about Dirk, let's be sure," she said patiently.
Sybil was right. I was getting ahead of myself. There was only one way to get to the bottom of this. I needed to run into Dirk during next period and continue the conversation. I consulted his schedule. I noted that Dirk stopped by his locker between third and fourth periods at precisely 10:51 a.m. Sybil
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and I synchronized our watches. Today we'd be there waiting for him.
" What are you going to say?" asked Sybil. We'd rushed to our lockers as soon as the bell rang.
"I don't know." My mind searched for an answer. "If I ask him 'What should I wear?' and I'm wrong about the date, hell look at me like I've just grown two heads and never speak to me again. If I say, 'Were you asking me out?' and he was asking me out, he'll think I'm such an idiot geek he'll change his mind about dating me forever."
"Margot, calm down. You're over-thinking this."
"You're right," I said.
Time passed and Dirk didn't show. Just when we thought he wasn't coming I heard someone sing, "There she is, Miss Americaaaa."
I wheeled around. Baron Chomsky stood smiling at me.
Baron Chomsky wasn't the biggest geek at Salesian High. That distinction belonged to Milton Sharp, who had a 4.0 GPA and wore goofy T-shirts with cartoon characters no one had ever seen or heard of on the front. But while Baron Chomsky wasn't the biggest geek at Salesian, he was the only geek at Salesian who professed his undying love for me-gag!
I scanned the corridor hoping to discover it was Dirk who had been singing. No such luck.
"I'm busy, Baron," I said with as much disdain as I could muster.
"I know--busy being beautiful." His voice rang out loud enough for everyone in the corridor to hear.
Oh... my... God!
This was the kind of thing that made Baron's loving me so
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intolerable. He couldn't do it in private. No siree. Baron was a first-rate exhibitionist who'd rather make a big public display of his unwanted affection than slip me a secretive note between classes. Posters, banners, and an oversized birthday card with a large photo of him on the front hung on my locker-- that was Baron's style.
Last February for Valentine's Day he had come into my English class dressed as a blues singer--dark glasses, a stingy-brimmed hat, and a guitar. He sang "Margot Done Stole My Soul," an original composition about me being a master thief who had snuck up on him in the middle of the night and stolen his affection. Total embarrassment.
"I don't think he's coming," Sybil said, rolling her eyes at Baron.
"I'm right here. How do you want me?" He leaned casually against the locker. "Shaken, not stirred," he said in a phony British accent that was supposed to make him sound like James Bond. It didn't. He sounded like a geek with a phony British accent.
Just then the first bell rang. 10:55 a.m.
"We better go before we're late," said Sybil.
"Yeah," I replied sadly. "Good-bye, Baron," I said, and we moved away. I again checked Dirk's schedule. "Looks like our next chance is right after gym class."
"Margot, if you want to go to the carnival with Dirk, we've got to do this today."
J 'I know," I said. "We will." I tried telling myself, You have lots of time. But I could feel my golden opportunity slipping slowly away.
In gym class my day took a turn for the worse. Mrs. Mars was waiting for me.
"Margot Jean Johnson, put on your gym uniform and get
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ready to work out. Today you are mine," she rasped in her gruff, throaty tone.
"But I have a note."
"No notes today, remember? Today we work," I was so caught up in the dating drama I'd totally forgotten her threat.
"But I'm really, really not well."
She sighed. "What is it this time, life-threatening hangnail?"
Just then I swooned, my knees buckling as I almost dropped to the floor. I flung the back of my hand against my forehead for effect. "Oooh!"
"Oh, for crying out loud. Let me see the note."
She plucked the note from my hand and read:
Dear Mrs. Mars,
Please excuse our only