a/n: Hi. (: I've had this idea for quite a while now, and I dunno, just felt like writing again, so I'm practicing with this so I hope you guys like it!

disclaimer: I do not own Lemonade Mouth (but I guess that's quite obvious, or Wen/Olivia would be a couple now but anyway), and all credit for the "little things" goes to justlittlethings on tumblr (justlittlethings[dot]net)! :) love love love that blog.

01. People with laugh lines

Olivia Whitehead

Olivia never really grew up with her parents. She had a complicated past—a past most kids could never imagine. It was almost like a movie… except she couldn't quite get her happy ending. Or at least she didn't believe she could.

At age 4, her mother had left her, and her father. Looking back now, she doesn't really remember much about her. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that her mother never really spent time with her. She knew her mother was never home, but she didn't try and ask. She sort of knew something wasn't right. From her parents having separate rooms – all her classmates' parents shared only one room -, to the fact that they never ever ate breakfast, lunch, or dinner together.

Three years later, father left too- except he didn't leave willingly. 7-year-old Olivia was in her bedroom. Reading through J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone, Olivia had put the book down when she had heard loud yells and pounding (on what sounded like the door) coming from downstairs. She quietly made her way out her room, and tip toed down the stairs, peeking through the stair's handles, she saw her father being pulled away by a couple of men, who she assumed were policemen, judging by their attire.

"He's innocent! He would never do such a thing!" Brenda exclaimed, as she attempted to stop the policemen from bringing his son to prison.

Olivia's tears started forming in her eyes, as the scene continued to happen. At 7 years old, she was much more mature than most kids, and she understood what was happening. In shock, Olivia had made her way back up the stairs, and went into her room, making sure to close the door behind her. She got in bed, and curled up in a ball, allowing the tears to flow down her face. She ignored the loud yelling she heard, and only focused on one thought: Gram is all I have now.

And then, 7 years passed. 7 years without her father, and mother, and yet she survived (if blocking away the world could be counted as surviving). Of course she still wrote letters to her dad all the time, but her Gram was her parent figure now. At 14, Olivia had started her freshmen year, and after years and years of blending into the background, and being "invisible", she had finally made friends. And not people-who-ask-if-they-can-borrow-your-notes-and-then-call-you-friends-whenever-they-need-notes kind of friends. She made real, genuine friends. Which is why on a Saturday afternoon, as Olivia and her Gram eat on the park bench, Brenda asks her about her newly found friends.

"How did you meet again?" Brenda asked curiously.

"Detention…" Olivia muttered, as she took a bite of her sandwich.

Brenda shook her head. "Sweetie, I know you got detention. Vice-principal Brenigan called me earlier. And no, I'm not mad. Disappointed—yes, but not mad," she smiled reassuringly. "I'm actually quite happy, now that I know you've made friends."

"Well, Gram, they're not really my friends…" Olivia replied. "We just sort of played together in detention, and sometimes Wen talks to me, and asks me if I wanna join the band Mrs. Reznik is telling us to make, but I dunno... I don't think that's actually friendship," she added quietly, fiddling with her food.

"Oh, nonsense," Brenda said waving her hand in disagreement. "Sounds like a friendship to me… especially with this Wen kid. I mean, the fact that he tries to talk you into singing for the band must mean he thinks you're good, right?"

Olivia looked down, her face turning red. Wen did, in fact, tell her that she thought she was a good singer, and that he liked her voice. She would never actually tell her Gram this though. Just the thought of the teasing she would get was already unbearable. But the blush on her face didn't seem to slip past Brenda.

"Olivia," Brenda said slowly "is there something else you want to tell me?" she asked, lightly chuckling.

Olivia looked up, and saw her Gram starting to chuckle, and she couldn't help but chuckle with her, and those chuckles eventually turned into laughter, which after a while subsided. And that's when Olivia took a close look at her Gram; she looked at her face, and realized her Gram had laugh lines. And she couldn't help but smile at that. After 7 years of being the only person she talks to, she had never noticed those laugh lines. But looking back, she realized the chance of her seeing them in the past years was pretty slim. Laughter was quite rare in the Whitehead house… but now, looking at her Gram's laugh lines, she realized she looked more happy—and when her Gram was happy, so was she. So from then on, she had promised to laugh more, or just a smile a little bit from time to time. She realized anyways, life was pretty short. So why not spend it smiling?