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A Girl Called Chuck

There was really no way to explain the blade slipping from the peach and cutting into her finger like that. It could be explained however, that presently one Olive Snook's mind was on everything but cutting peaches. She barely felt the cut, but as spots of blood dripped on the wooden cutting board, she took notice. Holding her finger up, she realized that it was not particularly deep. She wrapped it in a damp cloth and proceeded to clean up the messy cutting board, sighing at the sacrifice of the cut peaches that could now not be made into pie.

As she held her finger she tried to remember just where she had lost her thoughts, and what it was that took hold of her mind so much. Ned? It had to have been Ned, as it usually was. It was no secret that the petite blonde had a fondness of the highest caliber for the shy pie-maker. However, when Ned walked by the kitchen window and smiled at Olive presently, she realized that her thoughts had not been about him that evening. Rather, she had been focusing on something that was often close to Ned- his childhood sweetheart and present girlfriend Charlotte Charles, who was more commonly called Chuck.

Olive considered her jealously for the girl, and how it had faded so much in the last few months. Originally, Olive thought she would never be able to get along with, or accept the presence of, the girl called Chuck. However, as the months went by and their dependence on each other as a supportive shoulder deepened, Olive began to realize that perhaps the girl Chuck was not as bad as she had anticipated. She also realized that although it hurt at first, Chuck may have been the primary reason Olive was able to free herself of her powerful need for the pie-maker. Once she realized that Ned was a prize unobtainable to her, her mind stopped needing him with such intensity. However, a part of her still ached when she witnessed affection between Chuck and Ned.

This "affection" though, seemed insubstantial, as Chuck and Ned never held hands, kissed, or even stood near each other. Always curious to Olive, she considered at first the notion that maybe Ned disliked physical contact. This did not seem appropriate, however, because Ned seemed to enjoy all the Christmas hugs and playful nudges that Olive provided him with. There was definitely something between Chuck and Ned that neither could explain, or wanted to. As many times as Olive pried, Ned could not come up with a valid reason. Chuck's reason was simple enough: "We can't." But this reason did not satisfy Olive's understandable curiosity. It was this very curiosity that led her to absently slice her finger with the knife.

As she started thinking about Chuck and Ned again, she became unaware that Chuck had returned to the kitchen after running her errands.

"Hi Olive," Chuck said lightly.

Olive woke from her daydreaming with a slight jump, turning to smile at the girl. "Oh, Hi Chuck!"

Chuck smiled and took off a very pink scarf. "I got more flour, but the fruit stand was out of pears."

"Oh," Olive scowled, wondering how it was a fruit vendor could run out of something that she perceived to be one of the more "unpopular" fruits. "Well, we'll just make more peach pies tomorrow," Olive smiled.

Chuck nodded, "Or strawberry."

"What?" Olive asked.

"Nothing…" Chuck smiled sweetly as she hung up her coat and took of her dark sunglasses. Olive knew how much she hated having to wear all that garb whenever she went out-but after all, she did fake her own death so that was the price she had to pay. Olive had not yet been able to decipher why Charlotte Charles faked her death, and rarely even thought about this. She was definitely more interested in the peculiar lack of contact between Chuck and Ned. Now was not the time however, and Olive Snook did what she always did when emotions seemed to cloud her thoughts and shrugged it off with a smile on her small face and a light giggle.

"What's so funny?" Chuck asked, picking up a peach from the counter and biting into it.

"Huh? Oh nothing," Olive waved it away. "Now don't eat to many of those, Ned only bought two boxes and I've already wasted four…"

"What? How?" Chuck asked, her mouth full of peach.

Olive sighed. "Nothing, I was just being clumsy and I… cut myself." Olive lifted and lowered her hand.

Chuck's blue eyes grew large and she took Olive's hand in her own, "Oh my gosh Olive! Is it deep? You could need stitches…"

Olive sighed and rolled her eyes at the brunette's alarm. "Chuck it's nothing… A band-aid and a couple of Asprin'll fix anything."

Chuck shrugged and continued to eat her peach. Olive could smell that familiar scent that she could never quite interpret. It was either raspberry or freesia (neither of the two smelling remotely like each other, but both coming to Olive's mind). It was the scent that Olive simply labeled "Chuck," for it was the smell that always surrounded her. The scent brought her comfort recently, as Olive was beginning to realize how much she liked Chuck's company. Since they had decided to be roommates, Olive found that she and brunette had a lot in common. They had become more than just "coworkers," and definitely entered the realm of "girlfriends." This brought comfort to Chuck, since growing up she was mostly surrounded by boys. Chuck was the first really close girl friend Chuck ever had, and the experience was something she not only enjoyed, but longed for.

Olive was excited when she saw Chuck and did things with Chuck. She finally felt like she had the sister she always wanted. Sometimes she even felt rather disappointed when Ned was around, because there was something especially exciting about a "girls only" night. Olive never imagined she would actually not want the attention of the pie-maker, but lately it seemed to be so.

As if Chuck were reading her thoughts, she threw away her peach pit and addressed Olive, "So what are we doing tonight?"

Olive felt a tingle of excitement at this question, and thought for a moment about what she would like to do. "Hmmm, how about a movie?"

Chuck shrugged cutely, "I don't know, we go to a lot of movies."

Olive nodded and giggled lightly, "We've gone every night this week."

"I don't know, I kind of just want to stay in," Chuck said. "You know, do our nails or something fun and have a girl's night. I haven't had too many of those."

Olive was silent, surprised and happy that Chuck felt the same way she did. She nodded simply, opening the oven to remove a fresh-baked blueberry pie. Chuck watched her, which made Olive feel important. She thought about all she and Chuck had been through in the last few months, including the awkward but soon forgotten kiss shared between her and Ned. Chuck had been uneasy at first, but trusted Olive enough to believe that it was completely innocent, and Olive knew that it was (for the most part). After she kissed Ned, and worked out her feelings with him personally, she felt liberated from the powerful obsession that used to claim her. However, she found that although she felt free of Ned, she felt that she had something to hold over Chuck… to taunt her with. But Chuck was so sweet, to everyone and in everything she did, that Olive couldn't help but adore her and forget about petty jealousies. She had her fun (and it was extremely fun to be finally kissing the man she longed for for so long), but realized that what Chuck and Ned had was special. Who was she to interfere with that?

"Ok," a familiar voice interrupted Olive's thoughts and Chuck's slurping peach-eating noises. "I've put the sign on the door. It's officially Friday night." Ned stood in the kitchen, hands in his pockets as usual. His thick brown eyebrows tilted to the sides innocently as he smiled at his friends.

"Great!" Olive smiled, taking off her half-apron and hanging it up. "I finished making the peach pies, baked the blueberry, and Chuck bought flour, but came back with two cases of strawberries instead of pears."

Ned looked to Chuck confusedly. "Chuck…" He stated inquiringly.

The sweet-faced brunette smiled innocently, shrugging, "The fruit stand was out of pears."

Olive looked at Chuck and shrugged, and they both looked at Ned. "Oh," he said simply. "Well, that's a shame." He started towards the back door to haul in the boxes of strawberries Chuck had somehow transported all the way back to the Pie Hole herself.

"I'm sure we can sell about thirteen or so strawberry pies in the next few days!" Olive said positively, following Ned, "I know Aunt Lily and Vivian would want a few."

Chuck grunted lightly, "You know it's funny that we still call them Aunt Lily and Vivian. It technically should be Mom and Aunt Vivian… but that would just completely throw off everything I knew growing up, which was actually a lie, but… who really cares about lying anymore?" Chuck ended with a sigh.

Ned, who always paid her the utmost attention, smiled supportively and placed the boxes on the counter. Olive stood next to the oven, wondering how it was this girl could stay so calm all the time, when her whole world had become so strange.

"Ok, that's that…" Ned said, looking at Chuck. "Shall we go?"

Olive and Chuck shared a glance.

"Yeah, but um, Ned? Olive and I were going to get together a little later to do- girly things. You know, like our hair and nails?" Chuck said.

Ned stood for a moment. "Oh," he said simply. "Well that's okay, I have to, uh, meet Emerson for something."

Chuck didn't know what exactly to say, so she simply nodded. They both had come to an understanding recently that their social lives were separating. It was not that they didn't do things together, but it seemed that the inability to share touch was hampering their ability to find things to enjoy together. Because of this, Ned and Emerson were spending more time with each other, as were roommates Olive and Chuck. Ned knew Chuck needed the companionship of a girl friend before allowing herself to become close to a boyfriend, and Chuck knew that Ned was trying to protect Chuck by lessening their "alone time" together. Emerson knew this as well, and Olive knew that for reasons completely unexplainable, Chuck and Ned could not touch. It didn't need to be spoken, and sometimes the most obvious solutions needed the least amount of words.

"Okay," Olive smiled again, always the one to keep the cheery mood. "Well I'll lock up… give you two some alone-time."

Ned smiled at the small blonde, then turned to Chuck. "I'll walk you home."

Chuck smiled genuinely, and patted nearby Digby on the head before following the pie-maker out.

Olive watched as they left, thinking how perfect hand-holding would fit this moment. However, the pie-maker and the mystery girl did not even so much as walk close to each other. Olive became bothered anew by this awkward occurrence, and looked confusedly down to the dog Digby, who always offered her an honest audience. Digby however, could offer no answer. Although the dog knew the true reason behind the lack of physical contact between Ned and Chuck, he would never give away his best friend's secret.

TBC