Beauty and the Dork

Princess Margot Andúnë

I wearily opened my eyes, stretching like a cat and yawning. I looked around my room, grinning at the memories of the night. I glanced over at my nightstand and noticed Eddie's skull ring, perfectly perched and watching over me. I started smiling like an idiot, burying my face in my hands.

He was such a gentleman the night before – and so thoughtful. Several times he had interrupted our kissing to ask if I wanted his help to clean. He made me laugh every time, and I answered him by kissing him harder. I was goofy at the memory of his touch, how electrifying it was and how it made me feel. None of the popular boys who had taken me on dates over the last year made me feel a fraction of what Eddie did.

I took in a deep breath and sighed, my mind racing at what I was going to wear today. I reached out and pulled the ring onto my pointer finger, admiring it. It was such a sweet gesture.

I shook my head – New Margot needed to get a hold of herself. We needed to figure out what we were going to do about this. I started to ponder my next move when I heard the front door open.

"Margie?" my dad called. I leapt out of bed and bounded out of my room and down the stairs. My parents cheered when I found them in the kitchen, giving them each a big hug.

"Oh, we missed you so much, Margie," my mom gushed, pulling me back in for a bigger hug. I laughed and hugged her back, grinning at my dad.

"How was the convention, dad?" I asked. He smiled knowingly and pushed his glasses up his nose.

"It went well," he replied cryptically. My mother groaned and looked at me.

"It went amazing – your father's agent confirmed that he's getting a contract to write another five books for the series!" she bragged, wrapping her arms around my father and looking up at him with pride.

My father was the writer of the critically acclaimed Crown and the Shadow fantasy series. He had been writing them my whole life – when my parents met each other in college, he would read my mom his original drafts to get her opinion. They fell in love over his storytelling, and his characters were always part of my childhood. I'm even named after one of the Elven princesses in the series.

Again, I was always destined for dork-dom. It took a tremendous amount of work over the last year to break it.

We had moved to Hawkins when he hit a wall of writer's block – he determined that more space and a slower lifestyle would help "clear the cobwebs" as he put it. And he was right – in the last year he had written two new books of the series. This last week he was at a convention to meet fans and his agent to discuss next steps with the books.

"Dad, that's amazing!" I complimented, pulling him into another hug. He laughed and squeezed me tight.

"Thanks, little elf," he said, using my childhood nickname. My face burned. I really never had a chance at being cool. I pulled back and grinned at him.

"I went to a Dungeons and Dragons club this week, dad," I announced, wanting to give them a glimpse of Old Margot. My dad's eyes lit up.

"Really? How was it? Did you enjoy it?" he asked, excited.

"Did you make some new friends there?" my mom piled on. I rolled my eyes and smiled – my mom insisted that she liked Jason and Chrissy, but both of my parents had a hard time connecting with them.

"I did, yeah," I answered. My mom tittered in excitement and grasped my dad's hands. I snorted at their excitement.

My parents were dorks, but they were my dorks.

I asked them more questions about their week away, and they asked about my time alone. I skirted around the truth, not wanting to reveal everything. I had successfully cleaned everything up after Eddie left the night before and brought my dad's booze back out of hiding. I let them go to unpack and went back to my room, eager to get ready to see Eddie.