Olive sat on the stairs that were in front of the school. Since she was fifteen, she was no longer a part of the A.N.T program. Now she was a 'big kid.'
"Hey Olive," Fletcher greeted her as he sat beside her. Although Fletcher had grown, he was still rather short for his age, only reaching Olive's shoulder and Chyna's nose.
"Hey Shorty," Olive teased with a grin.
"That's not fair," Fletcher sulked as he scooted away from her, leaving Olive to roll her blue eyes.
"Good Morning you two," Chyna sang as she planted herself between them.
"Hi Chyna," they greeted her simultaneously.
"That's not creepy," Chyna joked as she took them both into an embrace.
"Olive! Just the former Ant I wanted to see," Principle Skidmore's voice sounded.
The three whipped around and saw their Principle staring right at them.
Olive stood up and walked to the top step.
"Yes?"
"The annual AcaDecathalon is coming up, and I'm choosing you to participate, contest is next month, good luck," and with that she spun on her red pumps and strutted back into the school.
"Can't wait to crush another bunch of losers," Olive said cockily as she folded her arms over her chest.
"I don't think there is anyone as smart as you," Chyna chuckled as she shook her head at Olive.
"Or as annoying," Fletcher added with a frown.
Olive poked her tongue at him, which Fletcher was kind enough to return the gesture. Chyna just looked at the two and sighed. Yet, at the same time she felt the smile on her face grow.
"I'm sure you'll win by a landslide, you've won the aca-daca-alpaca-"
"AcaDecathalon," Olive corrected.
"You've won that for the past three years, I'm certain you'll win this year," Chyna told her with a smile and the two best friends shared a hug.
"You've annoyed me the most for the past four years, I'm certain you can continue it," Fletcher mocked with a sloppy grin.
"You've been the most stupid for the past four years too, and I'm certain you will continue to be until the end of time," Olive retorted with a flick of her blonde hair.
Fletcher poked his tongue at her, to which Olive returned childishly.
"Kids these days, so rude," Chyna joked before the bell rang.
"Run!" They heard a group of ten year old children scream.
"I remember when that was us," Chyna muttered with a reminiscent smile.
"I remember everything," Olive piped up, "Interesting factoid about Eidetic memory-"
Fletcher groaned as he covered his ears.
During class, Olive felt the familiar jitters race through her veins. The AcaDecathalon always made her feel rather excited. The rush of adrenaline when she was announced the winner, the warm feeling when she had won a challenge and the sparks of electric joy when she celebrated with Fletcher and Chyna. She looked around the room and saw several students scribbling on their papers and chatting with their friends. Olive looked down at her sheet, already completed. She took a few seconds to bless her picture perfect memory.
"Hey Olive," Fletcher whispered from behind her.
Olive turned around and met his gaze. His eyes were pleading.
"What's the answer to question 14?"
His blue eyes stared deeply into hers desperately. Olive found herself studying the colour and having an unnatural moment of forgetting how to breathe.
"Stratosphere," she told him as she came to her senses. She quickly turned around as she found her cheeks warming.
"How do you spell that?"
Olive found herself having weird reactions lately. She'd get a weird feeling in her stomach, her chest would ache and her heart's speed would pick up. She noted that these feelings became more intense around Fletcher.
"Oh my gosh," Olive gasped as she closed the book she was reading.
The Library was normally Olive's sanctuary. Where she could escape the world and indulge herself in facts, ignoring her surroundings, but today it brought her news that she'd never thought would happen.
"I have a crush on Fletcher," she breathed as she leaned back in her chair.
She searched through any of these memories that could have made this happen.
"I find this immature weirdo totally irresistible," she lied to Chyna as Fletcher's arm was around her shoulders.
"And I find Olive's blabbering about nothing so adorable! Interesting Factoid: I love her."
"It can't be though, one little thing can't set something off," Olive whispered as she propped her elbow on the table and rest her chin on her hand as memories seemed to whip themselves up.
"It's not when this one starts, it's when the other one ends," Fletcher explained to Chyna.
The bell let out its piercing ring, ending the conversation.
"Run!" Fletcher and Olive shouted together before running out of the crows of big kids.
"We've got to help Angus!" Fletcher suggested as he noticed Angus' pleads for help.
"Forget it man Angus is gone!" Olive yelled at him.
"But-"
Olive interrupted him with a slap in the face and a final "He's gone!"
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
"Olive," Fletcher said as he stood up.
Olive stopped walking and looked at Fletcher, confusion written all over his face.
"What happened to your face?"
"I washed it," Olive responded looking equally confused.
"But it used to be so beautiful!" Fletcher spoke loudly as he stood up, "and now it's- ugh I can't even look at it." His faced was scrunched up as he looked away from Olive.
Olive scowled at him and retorted, "at least my face isn't black and blue like yours."
Fletcher's eyebrows furrowed as he stated, "my face isn't black and blue."
"Not yet," Olive threatened as she bared her teeth.
Olive shook her head at that memory and another one came quickly, and more after that. Everywhere memories of her and Fletcher seemed to play through her mind like a movie, until she got to a certain one.
"..It's time to move onto my second choice," Fletcher finished as he looked at Olive.
"You better not be looking at me," Olive protested as she leaned away.
"I said second choice! Not there's a zombie apocalypse and you and I are the last humans alive choice!"
"That's right," Olive sighed, "he'd never fall for me."
The bell rang, and Olive walked out of the library and on her way to English. The halls were crowded with other teenagers and Olive felt herself being pushed and shoved multiple times. She saw the odd Ant looking desperate and lost every now and then.
"Olive!" Chyna called out as she ran up to her.
"Hey," Olive greeted as Chyna almost knocked her over.
"Where were you at lunch?" Chyna asked as the two walked.
"In the Library," Olive told her.
"Studying? Again?" Chyna questioned rather unimpressed.
"A girl has to do, what a girl has to do," Olive reasoned.
"Wait your a girl?" A voice asked shocked from behind them.
Chyna and Olive turned around swiftly to meet a perplexed Fletcher.
"Yes Quimby, I am," Olive said with a snobby tone.
"Never would've guessed, I mean you aren't that feminine," Fletcher commented as he began scanning Olive's features.
Feeling her cheeks turn warm and anger swelling in her mind, Olive glared stone cold daggers at him before strutting away.
"What was that for," she heard Chyna hiss as Olive made her way through the crowd once again.
She reached her English classroom and took out basic stationary and her English book. Her seat was at the front in the middle. Although she had noted it was not exactly center.
"You okay?" Chyna's motherly tone spoke.
Olive turned to the door and watched Fletcher and Chyna walk in the classroom together, a small pang in her stomach was triggered by this sight. Olive nodded at Chyna before gluing her eyes to her book. This left Chyna frowning, but when she turned to Fletcher, he just sat down next to Olive just as usual. Seeing the pink rise on Olive's cheeks, Chyna instantly knew what was going on.
'Olive likes Fletcher."
"One week ago I found out my crush on Fletcher," Olive admitted to Chyna at a sleepover.
Olive's bed was set up near the patch of lime green paint. The two girls had wet hair and were settled on their PJ's on Chyna's bed, pillows in their lap. Olive stared at her unicorn pillow, nervously awaiting Chyna's reaction.
Chyna giggled at her friend before saying, "I know."
Olive's head shot up as her eyes widened to the size of saucers.
"What?" She shrieked in horror.
Chyna doubled over laughing as Olive's mouth hung open.
"It's, so, easy to tell," Chyna managed to get out between laughs.
"How?" Olive shouted.
"You blush whenever Fletcher talks to you or whenever he sits next to you. That, and you seem to find your books rather interesting whenever you see him in the same room as you," Chyna took her as she wiped away a tear from her laughter.
"B-b-b-but I don't want him to know!" Olive groaned before throwing her head onto her pillow.
Chyna rolled her eyes and shook her head.
"Fletcher is the most oblivious guy in the world, he wouldn't know if you liked him if it was in flashing lights above your head," Chyna reminded her.
Olive lifted her head and nodded in consideration.
"True," Olive told her as her posture began to relax.
"Is something wrong?" Cameron questioned from the doorway.
"Girl stuff," Chyna waved him off.
Cameron just looked at the two weirdly before walking away after shutting the door.
"Olive," Chyna called.
"Hmm," Olive responded as she looked up.
"You do realise you have to tell him sometime, right?"
Olive once again groaned before muffling a protest against her pillow.
Chyna sighed as she looked at her best friend.
"You like him. At one point you will have to let him know, besides, he may just like you back," Chyna said to her.
"He won't," Olive muttered as her head began to rise.
"He just might," Chyna told her softly.
Two days before the competition, Olive found herself rejecting yet another date from Angus.
"Please Olive," he begged.
"No!" Olive shouted harshly.
"Leave her alone Angus," Fletcher told him as he sat himself next to Olive on the stairs.
"You'll realise it one day Olive," Angus began to walk away.
"You're in love with me!" Angus yelled from a distance.
Olive winced at those words and felt her cheeks go warm as Fletcher moved closer.
"Your cheeks are pink," Fletcher noted with a frown.
"Y-yeah, about that..."
"You like Angus?" Fletcher almost shouted.
"No! Gross!" Olive screamed as she shoved Fletcher away from her.
"Okay, okay," Fletcher muttered, "geez."
"Hey, hey!" Chyna called out as she embraced the two.
"Hey, hey," they replied squeezing her back.
"Two days before the aca- daca- alpaca-"
"AcaDecathalon," Olive finished.
"Who named that thing?" Chyna questioned.
"The AcaDecathalon was founded by-"
"It was rhetorical," Chyna chuckled at a scowling Olive.
"I wanted to know," Fletcher sulked.
Chyna gave a wink to Olive, who turned bright red.
"Olive are you okay?"
"Uhmmm, y-yeah," she stuttered frantically, "I have to go study for my locker, I have to sort through the library- I got to go."
With that, the genius dashed off into the school.
"What's with her?" Fletcher asked Chyna.
All Chyna could do with slap her hand against her face.
"Gee you didn't have to have that reaction."
One day before the competition, Olive did the childish thing and avoid Fletcher. During lunch, the halls were almost empty, so Olive could walk through them without a problem. Usually. However today somebody pulled her into a locker with them.
"Olive, are you okay?"
Fletcher.
"F-Fletcher?" Olive squeaked. Her cheeks felt red hot as she felt Fletcher's breathing against her, as well as most of his body.
'Thank the Lord that he can't see me.'
"You seem distant lately," he spoke quietly as he tried to meet her gaze.
"J-just trying to k-keep my mind c-clear," Olive lied nervously.
"Are you nervous," Fletcher asked her worriedly.
"Yeah," Olive exhaled.
'Not for the reason you think.'
"You'll do great tomorrow," Fletcher told her warmly.
"Thanks," Olive smiled as she looked down to try and meet his eyes.
The locker door opened to a very surprised Chyna.
"So what happened in here?" She questioned with a sly smirk.
"Olive here is nervous," Fletcher started as the to climbed out of the locker.
Chyna rose her brow and folded her arms.
"But I told her that she'll do great tomorrow."
"She will," Chyna agreed and shot Olive an annoyed look.
"Thanks guys, I love you," Olive told them as she brought them in for a hug. The feeling in her stomach and her heart beat intensified.
"Let the AcaDecathalon begin!" The grey-haired host began.
Olive and four other contestants stood at the front of the room. All of them were wearing smart-looking outfits. Olive concluded that her and the guy next to her seemed to be the only ones not tracing back from the Asian continent.
"Your first task is..."
Olive worked like a little fire ball. In every event she beat her contestants, leaving them dumbfounded and frustrated with the fact that she's had four straight wins.
"The last challenge is to place on the board the known Artists to be featured in a gallery in San Francisco. The order is from oldest to youngest, their age when the gallery opened.
Olive quickly looked through all the cards, her heart skipping a beat when she read the name 'Fletcher Quimby.' She immediately placed his name at the bottom, as she knew that Fletcher was four and a half when he was featured in one. Olive found her hands moving swiftly as most of the names were on the board she heard the word, "Done."
She felt her world crash as she looked to the person next to her.
"Incorrect!" The host cried out as the person's eyes widened.
Olive quickened her pace before screaming out, "finished!"
The announcer came over and looked at her board before breaking out in a smile.
"And Webster High wins this challenge again! Overall, the winner of the AcaDecathalon is WEBSTER HIGH!"
Olive felt that adrenaline and sense of achievement as she bowed to the audience. At the front she saw Fletcher and Chyna jumping up and down screaming for joy. Olive ran up to Chyna giving her a tight hug.
"I won! Again!"
"I know!" Chyna squealed.
Olive let go and met Fletcher's gaze.
"You were right," Olive said to him as she felt her cheeks go pink, "I did it, I wo-"
Before she knew it, Fletcher's lips came crashing onto hers as his arms wrapped around her tightly. Closing her eyes she moved her lips against his wrapping her arms around his neck.
"QUIMBY!" Angus voice boomed across the room.
"Uh oh," Fletcher squeaked before being chased around by Angus.
Olive just put her finger on her lips, her eidetic memory reminding her of the kiss she just shared with Fletcher.
"He kissed me," she whispered,
"I know!" Chyna shouted loudly as she practically jumped on Olive.
"After a month of dating you he just doesn't get it!" Fletcher groaned as he sat next to Olive on the stairs.
"Baby, is Angus bothering you again?" Olive asked pressing her lips to his cheek.
"Yes," Fletcher answered placing his arm around her waist.
As per usual, the two sat on the stairs in front of the school waiting for Chyna.
Olive scowled as she nuzzled into Fletcher's hair.
"He is so going to get it," she seethed.
Fletcher chuckled as his other hand took hers.
"I can handle it," Fletcher assured her, "it's just annoying."
Olive gave a 'humph' in response.
"Cheer up sweetie, and babble on about something. It's adorable when you do that."
And with that, Fletcher sealed that moment with a light peck on her lips.
AN: I wrote this at 1am because I couldn't sleep, but at least I had fun doing it.