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Will couldn’t stop smiling, because today he would finally see Olive again. It had been two years since the Bee where they met, and for the first year without her he had tried very hard to forget about her. It was too much to hope they would ever meet again, and so he decided simply not to even imagine it. It did not work at all, and for several months he daydreamed of her frequently.
When they met again at the next Bee, she ran up to him excitedly the moment she spotted him. From the moment she pulled out her phone to put his number in, nay, the moment she mentioned she remembered him, nay, the moment she even saw him, it was all over. His heart leapt, his face heated, he was doomed. The fact that she greeted him with “Barf! Oh, I was hoping I'd see you again! I thought about you all year” certainly did not help. Olive had also gotten taller and she was wearing something different from last year and she even smelled nice and he was going to pull a Chip Tolentino at this rate. They giggled in the back of the bleachers for the whole Bee. He was ecstatic to discover she had also been saving up new wordplay to share, just like he had. That was the Bee where she touched his hand. It was a big deal to him.
But this time, they had been texting all year. Will had enough silly interactions with Olive to keep him going crazy the whole year. And it really did feel like he was going crazy. He couldn't stop smiling whenever she sent a selfie of herself throwing a little peace sign. He would always respond with a dumb selfie of his own, and whenever she heart-reacted it he would blush. This embarrassing crush was going to be the death of him. He had never even mildly cared about a selfie before her.
This year, Will over-thought what to say until the very last second, but when Olive saw him and flung herself into his arms, his mind went blank. He reflexively locked his arms around her waist and spun her around. He almost wanted to scream when a flurry of giggles came out of her. After he put her down, she grinned wildly at him, and he felt like he had to say something-
“I missed you,” he said far too earnestly. Crap.
“I missed you too!” she responded almost immediately.
Chips' harsh and inconsiderate laughter cut into Will's thoughts. As soon as he and Logainne started the “ooo”s, Olive and Will practically leapt apart. He could feel his face burning and forced himself not to look at her. Then Miss Perretti called the name of some new speller and Will and Olive quickly retreated to what they had come to think of as “their spots” on the bleachers.
Eventually the competition began as usual, and as usual Olive and Will had been talking in between words.
“I think it's really cool how you're so serious to the other spellers but then you come back here and sit with me and you're so funny!” Olive smiled brightly, “It makes me feel like I'm seeing some secret side of you.”
Will's mouth opened to respond, but he had no idea what he was going to say.
“William Barfy,” the pronouncer called.
“It's Barfée!” he responded automatically as he stood to walk to the microphone. Olive whispered “go get ‘em, Barf!” and shot him a double thumbs up. He returned them with equal enthusiasm, a grin reserved just for her before his scornful spelling face fell into place.
There were only five contestants left when the snack break was announced. Will had grown a habit of staying away from the snack table at this point, but Olive scurried off to grab a few nut-free snacks to share. Will sat back to fidget by himself and stare at the trophy, and was rudely interrupted by Chip spinning around to face him as soon as they were alone.
“Well well well. Look at the ladies man over here.”
“Shut it, Woodchipper.”
“I- hey, c'mon man, that was two years ago!” Chip sputtered indignantly before sighing. “Look, man, I just want some tips.”
Will narrowed his eyes at him and wondered when Olive would be back. “On… what?”
Chip waved his hands in the air and acted like that explained anything at all. “Y’know. Girls. With you and Olive and stuff.”
Will looked at him like he was crazy, which he apparently was.
“One, there's nothing between Olive and I-”
“Barfy, I'm not stupid-”
“TWO,” he continued as Chip rolled his eyes, “why would I help you, you're the worst.”
Chip stared at him for a moment to see if he was done talking. Will stayed silent until the exact second he opened his mouth.
“and three. Your love life is extremely obvious and easy. You think you have a crush on Marigold because you're in denial about your crush on Leaf. Logainne says it's internalized homophobia but I think you're just dumber than rocks.” he chuckled, “that's fitting. Leaf and rocks.”
Chip said a good amount of sounds that were mostly consonants and didn't have a single real word within. Will spotted Olive walking back with a truly stunning amount of fruit snack packets and two applesauces balanced on top and immediately began ignoring him in favour of helping her. However, Chip's words rang in his head. Barfy, I'm not stupid. Was his crush on Olive really so obvious? Based on the way Chip stuck his tongue out at him as they passed, it absolutely was. Well, who cares what Chip thinks, anyways? he thought to himself as he and Olive simultaneously ripped open their fruit snacks with their teeth.
A few rounds later, they were down to four. Olive seemed anxious, she had gone quiet, which was weird and unnerving. Chip finished his word successfully. When Miss Perretti called her name, she grabbed Will's hand as she stood. He was already reeling over this, but then he noticed she pressed a small piece of paper into his hand. She was at the microphone now, and hadn't looked back at him since she let go of his hand. Will's heart was thumping out of his chest as he reads the simple and clear handwriting:
Do you like me?
□ yes
□ no
There were even faint signs of an erased heart doodled in the top corner. He vaguely noticed Olive was sure taking her time with this word. He also vaguely noticed his facial expression must have been extremely unbecoming, but he couldn't force it back down. He didn't have a pen. Shit, wait, he didn't have a pen-
“Chip! Psst! Do you have a pen or a pencil or something?”
“Absolutely no talking during the spelling of a word, Barfée.” The volume of Miss Perretti’s voice made him flinch.
Chip passed him a pencil. Will checked the “yes” box as carefully and intentionally and neatly as he could possibly muster.
They all jumped as the bell rang. Olive looked like she might cry as she walked offstage. Will stood up to go spell his word. He was giddy. He couldn't get his head in the game. The only thing his magic foot wanted to do was run offstage to give Olive her note back.
“Your word is Logorrhea.”
“Logorrhea, of course. Yes. L-O-G-O-R-R-E-A. Logorrhea.”
The bell rang shrilly.
“I'm afraid you missed the H.”
“Oh, thank you.”
Will walked off the stage as quickly and calmly as he could, grabbed a juice box, and ran. Olive began rambling the second she saw him.
“Will, sorry, that note was dumb, it was, um, a joke! Yeah, it was- so don't, like, tell anyone, okay?”
Will shoved the note into her hands before he even processed what she said.
“Wait-” they both said at the same time. She laughed, and he smiled.
“I wasn't joking. I just said that because… I don't know, I saw you talking to Chip and thought you might be making fun of me. But of course you would never!”
Will was so flustered. He couldn't stop smiling. He felt like he could run a marathon, but if he did that he wouldn't be standing with Olive right now, and that kind of felt like dying.
“Do you want to hold hands?” The words were out of his mouth before he had really thought them at all, but Olive's cheeks turned pinkish as she nodded.
They clasped hands. They were both kind of sweaty but neither of them noticed. They both stared unbreakingly at the image of their hands entwined.
“This is so weird,” he whispered.
“I know,” she whispered back.
“But kind of nice.”
“Yeah.”
Chip walked in on that exact moment. Will genuinely wanted to kill him as he loudly sipped his juice box 3 feet away from them. He almost let go of Olive's hand out of instinct to avoid teasing, but her grip tightened.
“Oh, hi, Chip! Did you get eliminated?”
Chip narrowed his eyes at the two of them and took another long, loud sip of the two drops left at the bottom of his juice box.
“Yeah.”
“Hm, bummer. Anyways, Barf, I'm so glad to be here with you. It's a shame some guys can't get it together enough to even talk to the girl they like. It's almost like they don't want to talk to her at all and actually have a really strong bond with her brother-!” she yelled after Chip as he hurriedly walked away.
“Did Leaf talk to you too?” Will asked.
“I think he talked to everybody.”
They smiled for a moment, just kind of staring at eachother.
“Wait, did someone win?” Will quickly counted the people in the lobby, “Aren’t they supposed to call us in for that part?”
“I got eliminated on a technicality before they could call people in.” Chip explained from across the room, “This new kid won because you two were too busy being in love to spell, and because apparently I’m not supposed to have anything in my pockets that might help me cheat. I do not know how I'm meant to cheat with a ruler, but here we are.”
General choruses of “that's so stupid” echoed throughout the eliminated spellers as they all packed up to go home. Olive turned to Will sheepishly.
“My bus is going to be here soon, I should, um…”
Will let go of her hand sadly, and quickly worked up his courage.
“Olive, I really, really like you. I can't wait to see you at the Bee next year.”
She beamed, and there was an odd silence, before she pecked him on the cheek and sprinted away with a frantic “bye Barf see you next year!”
Will couldn't stop smiling, because today he saw Olive. And he would see her again, and again, and forever. And he couldn't imagine a more wonderful thing.