i think part of why npmd works so well is bc the nerdy prudes are all kinda real af??? like... i dressed just like pete in highschool and have pictures to prove it. for better or for worse, watching richie in certain scenes was like fondly cringing at my past self. ruth's reflexive "don't bully me!" and their collective tendency to assume the worst whenever the popular kids talk to them (and the realisation that not all of them are bad, actually, some of them - like steph - are really cool)... god. it's so real. painfully so, at times