BAD OMENS ✬ luke hemmings

3.9 | knitting club

Today's activities for this wonderful Wednesday afternoon is an adventure with the knitting club. For the past month, they've been knitting squares that they'll stitch together to make a blanket then donate it to a local shelter.

Although, putting Luke into the knitting club involuntarily probably isn't one of the offices' brightest ideas. Simply because he's never knit a day in his life, nor has he ever seen anyone knit outside of television and cartoons.

Compared to Aria, who seems to be a surprise bag filled with hidden talents and interests, Luke feels like he's a beginner in an intermediate class, not getting farther than the beginning knots on his needle. Meanwhile, the girl next to him has started on her second row in the ten-minutes they've been in this classroom.

"Where the hell did you learn to knit?" He asks, staring at his empty needles, one of which is wrapped with purple yarn.

She looks completely unfazed, wrapping the string around a needle then doing some confusing mechanism that practically transfers it to the next needle. "I used to do a knitting club when I was like nine?" She responds, "I got really into it, back in the day."

And Luke never knew this piece of information? He thought he knew everything about the girl, right down to her trashy taste in music. The next thing she's going to tell him is that she used to be some sports prodigy and part of some unknown lacrosse team.

"It's quite easy to get back into," she says, "I haven't knit in years."

"How are you doing that?" He asks, staring at the movement of her hands, trying to replicate it on his own. However, anything after looping that piece of yarn around the needle is a complete mystery that he can't seem to grasp.

How hard could it possibly be? It's easy enough for Aria to figure it out when she was nine, but not for a seventeen-year-old boy to do, who also happens to be in higher level math, physics, and chemistry? What is he not getting? He's far too smart to be stunted by knitting.

He looks like a fool trying to figure it out, and instead of creating something of a piece of a blanket, he's untying the starting knots from his knitting needle. "Wait, all the loops are gone." He says, "What did I do?"

Aria, being no help, laughs at him. "Dude, what did you do?" She asks, looking at the failed start of Luke's knitting journey. He hasn't done anything, except undo the work he did previously, which was tying knots of yarn around a stick.

"I don't know!" He replies, "I mean, how could you possibly expect me to knit if I've never done it before?"

"Dude, the second we stepped in you were asked if you knew how to knit." Aria claims, "I said yes, because I know how to knit, and you said yes because... you didn't want to feel left out."

"I thought you were lying!" He explains, "How was I supposed to know that you were actually telling the truth? You never tell the truth!"

"Why would I lie about knowing how to knit?" She questions, "Look, just ask for help, it's not that hard to admit you don't know how to do something."

"That's rich coming from you," he scoffs. "Whatever, I'll figure it out on my own. If I can understand single-slit diffraction, I can learn how to knit a fucking square." He mumbles, redoing all the knots on his knitting needle.

Of course, figuring it out for himself didn't work out so well. It's like learning to play a new instrument, like guitar, you can't play it without knowing all the notes, frets, or having some guided tutorial. Luke's ego is simply too high to admit that he can't figure this one out.

Others seem to pick up on Luke's struggle, whether it be from general observation around the room, or the constant bickering between him and Aria, or the way Aria continues to laugh at him. Either way, a few start to make their way over to lend a helping hand... or voice.