Chapter 16

As Morgan pulled on her P.E. kit, making a neat pile of her school clothes, she could hear the other girls chattering in hushed but excited tones about Logan.

'Oh no, I've got competition,' she thought, before having to remind herself that he'd picked her out of every person in her class.

She hadn't even asked the guy if was currently involved with anyone. That would have a good place to start... if Morgan hadn't been too busy trying to sniff him.

Since her little stint as Damien's girlfriend, most people were giving her a wide berth.

'Stuff them,' she thought. She didn't need friends. Didn't need companionship.

'All I need to do is pass my exams so I can leave this dump of a town forever,' she assured herself.

It was all false bravado, she realised, as her heart dropped when her friends turned their heads while passing her. Cara's long, baby-blonde hair almost whipped her eye as she flipped it over her shoulder, linking up arms with Rheya as they sauntered out of the changing room. 

Luckily, Erin approached her with a timid smile. 

"Oh, Erin!" she cried, remembering the double date. "I'm so sorry about our plans."

"I think it's just not meant to be," Erin said and chuckled. "I'm okay with it."

As they entered the gym the horrid and familiar smell filled her lungs. A heady mixture of rubber balls, sweaty underarms and dirty feet.

The Gym teacher—Mrs. Thorpe—seemed to be in a worse mood than usual. Though she was pretty, her face was prematurely aged with angry lines etched into her forehead. She was one of those teachers who had two volumes: silent or shouting. Today, she was already ragging on Cara for the length of her shorts.

Damien was next on her hit list. 

"Damien, you've used the same note to get out of doing any physical activity for years now. How long can one person have—" Mrs. Thorpe pulled a folded note from her folder and inspected it. "Glandular fever?"

Damien shrugged, narrowing his eyes at the teacher. His scare tactics didn't work on her.

"Go on, go get changed," she insisted. "You're doing P.E."

"I don't have a P.E. kit," he gasped, as though the idea of him owning gym wear sat somewhere outside of the realms of possibility.

"Then go digging through the lost and found," the teacher demanded with a tut. "Now!"

Damien looked like he might spontaneously combust or pull a 'Carrie,' as he stomped from the gym hall. 

When he returned, Morgan approached him. She was partly worried he might go nuclear, and though she didn't want to admit it, it was partly because she missed his company.

"You look good in shorts," she told him with a cute smile.

His frown softened slightly. 

"You don't have to be a suck-up," he told her. "As long as you don't give me a reason to hurt you I won't."

"I'm not sucking up," Morgan whined. "I do think you look cute."

At this word, he screwed up his face and tutted. "Cute?"

When the new boy walked in a hush fell over the room as the girls whispered to each other.

'Now he really does look good in shorts,' she thought, unable to peel her eyes from his behind.

"Not as cute as the new kid," Damien muttered under his breath.

Logan looked around the room, smiling awkwardly as he noticed all the girls checking him out. 

"Okay, we're going to pick teams!" Mrs. Thorpe cried. "New kid and Damien can be captains."

"I... uh... have a name," Logan said quietly as he moved to the front but was ignored.

Damien joined him, his face like thunder. He looked at Logan, gesturing for him to pick first.

"Morgan, I guess," Logan said and smiled. She knew he'd only picked her because he knew her name, but it felt good to see the jealousy on the faces of the other female students.

She stood at his side and helped him pick, seeing as he knew very few of their names. Once Damien had chosen all of his friends, he selected the kids who were normally picked last. The overweight kids, the disabled kids and the nerds were all chosen before her former friends. Neither Morgan nor Damien wanted either Cara or Rheya, so the pair were left until last and ended up being split, much to their annoyance.

As the captains handed out the yellow and red bibs Damien pulled her to the side for some smack talk. 

"Your team's going down," he sneered.

"You didn't pick a single decent player," Morgan deftly pointed out.

Damien clicked his fingers. 

"Now all my players are good," he said.

Morgan sucked in her chest, feigning shock. "That's cheating!"

"I could click my fingers and give your entire team leprosy," he warned.

"Geez, okay, cheat away, Sir," she conceded.

As she watched him play, missing the ball on the first throw, she wondered why he didn't make himself more athletic. If he could do anything, why not turn himself into the best looking, most amazing person to ever walk the face of the Earth.

Thinking about it, it wasn't even a question she could ask him without causing some serious offence. He might ask what was so wrong with him that he needed to change. What could she say to that? You're a clumsy, buck-toothed nerd with all the grace and poise of a water buffalo on rollerblades. 

Some girl would find him perfect. Everyone was perfect for someone. But seeing the classes’ reaction to Logan, it was obvious some people had a wider appeal.

'I'm one of those people,' Morgan realised.

As she passed the ball about, she wondered if her looks were the real reason Damien had cast his love spell on her. Did he want her because she was popular and attractive? And did he release her because having someone everyone else finds attractive isn't as great as having your own special person?

'I wasn't good enough for him,' Morgan realised, watching Damien trip over his own feet as he went to catch the ball. 

'Do I suck?' she questioned. 

As her team lost the ball to a chubby kid called Lewis, who now had the skills of Michael Jordan. He took a shot from halfway across the court and everyone cheered, even the players on the opposite team.

'That was a nice thing Damien did,' Morgan thought, seeing the joy on Lewis's face. It was the most interesting game their year had ever had, yet the teacher seemed distracted, barely paying attention. 

The game paused for a second as Mrs. Thorpe ran out and a substitute appeared. 

"I guess the excitement was too much for her," Logan said. He had little beads of sweat on his brow, and as he wiped them, brushing back his longish dark hair, Morgan couldn't speak. She gawked with an open mouth, her brain melting and unable to function.

"Err, yeah," she muttered with the dreamy smile and slow nod of a moron.

"Do you want to hang out after school?" he asked. "I don't know anyone else, and I'd appreciate—"

"Yes!" Morgan blurted before he'd finished speaking. She coughed and straightened her clothes adding in a more appropriate register, "I'd love to."