Ollie was a goof.
No matter how many notes he'd pretend to write down, no matter how hard he would try to sound smart, no matter how many As or Bs he'd make, no matter how many French words he knew, at the end of the day, he was a goof. She would always see him as one, and that would never change, He always managed to make the simplest of tasks hard and dangerous. Like the science project, for example. They were observing cells one minute, then dealing with a monster the next. As a result, the school was shut down for an entire day. And to think, if he did that just by trying to help look for a plant (not really, since she did most of the work.), then what would happen if he dealt with bigger projects? It could end up with the entire town in ruins, knowing Ollie.
That's why Ivy was struck with dread when she heard her name along with Ollie's. That wasn't good. That never meant any good. If their names were called, then that meant that they had been paired up for something, something could be another project. And what do you know? She was right, somewhat. It was more like a task, really. And what was that task, you may ask?
"Could you two wipe down the desks after class?"
The middle-aged teacher called the two over to his desk a few minutes into class. They stood a few inches away from each other.
"Um..." Ollie trailed off, glancing at Ivy.
"Yeah, whatever. I had nothing better to do," Ivy sighed with a roll of her eyes, walking back to her seat.
"What she said, sir!" Ollie nodded, doing the same.
Great. She had to wipe the deals with him? No doubt that that was going to be a huge mess. He always messes. Sure, one of those messes got her into science camp, and she was thankful, but it also got her a week in detention once the school reopened. At least he got it too, so that's fair. She couldn't help but question why Mr. Pandey changed up everyone else's partners but was persistent in keeping them with each other.
Viewing ahead, she saw him searching around in his pigpen of a backpack, dumping random stuff on the floor. She figured, seeing tons of crumpled papers, that he was looking for a specific worksheet. He gave up and tapped Bernie in the shoulder, whispering, "So, I know I still didn't return those other 6 pencils yet, but do you have another one I can borrow?"
Someone who was so goofy and disorganized couldn't possibly clean a table. He'd probably somehow find a way to set it on fire. The more she thought about it, the lower her expectations became.
The clock struck 12, and the class was over. Ollie wasted no time running to the teacher, waving his friends goodbye as they headed off to lunch. Ivy reluctantly walked with him.
Mr. Pandey tossed a spray bottle to Ollie and a rag to Ivy. "Sorry for taking time out of your lunch, you two, but I really need these tables cleaned. I'd do it myself, but I have a meeting with some parents. You guys can handle it, right?" he gave a special glance towards Ollie.
"Yeah, sure!" the redhead agreed to the job. "We could give this place a sweep, too!"
Ivy groaned quietly at his stupidity.
"Glad to see you so weirdly energetic about cleaning, Pollie!"
"Ollie, Mr. Pandey."
"Auggie?"
"Oll...yeah, yeah, Auggie."
"Right, I thought so. Anyway, thank you, both of you. Seeya!" with a wave, he left the class, leaving the two by themselves.
"H-hi," was the first thing he said with a dorky smile. As unenthusiastic as she was about the whole thing, she didn't have the heart to be mean or snarky to him. Yet.
"Hey," she murmured, moving a strand of hair from her face.
"It's uh, been a while, hasn't it?"
"What, since we've been partnered for something? It's only been two weeks. Half of which I spent in detention," she grumbled with some not so subtle shade.
"Oh, that...yeah. Sorry about that," he apologized, flustered.
"It's fine, I guess. Let's just get this over with. We're probably going to miss lunch now that we have to sweep as well."
"Once again, my bad."
"Whatever, Ollie, just start spraying."
"R-right."
Adjusting the range of the sprayer, Ollieshook the bottle, making gun noises and all. With an aggravated tone, Ivy shouted, "Ollie!"
"Sorry!" Ollie jumped, nearly dropping the bottle. He walked backward between the tables, spraying each one three times. "You can wipe those if you want, no rush."
"Ollie, no, that's not how you do it-"
"Oh-ho, Ivy, it is. I've been spraying tables since I was, I don't know, five? I'm basically the best table sprayer of all time," he smiled boastingly, only for it to fade away when Ivy snatched the bottle from him. "Hey!"
"It's uneven, you goof," she said, soaking that poor table with water. "You only sprayed half of the table."
"You say that like I wasn't going to spray the other half."
"Were you?"
"Well, no-"
"Ugh! Here, wipe them off, then," she ordered, throwing him the rag.
"Okay then, whatever works for you, "Ollie agreed half-heartedly, looking at the worn down rag.
"You better not get in the way, either."
"Geez, alright!"
At that, Ivy felt sort of...bad for being so rude to him. He sounded a bit hurt, actually. Maybe, just maybe, she was being a bit too harsh. He hadn't done anything majorly annoying, not yet. But then again, being nice to him might egg him on...oh, but he looked like a puppy that had been kicked. She exhaled deeply as she made up her mind. Sometimes, she hated her unconsciousness. "Er...Ollie?"
He stopped cleaning the table, waiting for her to yell at him some more. Ivy was a cool girl and all, but sometimes she could just shout somebody's ear off...
"You can spray the table," she offered, holding out the spray bottle. He looked hesitant.
"No, that's okay. You said I wasn't doing it right anyway, s-so..."
"Look, I'm trying to be nice!" Ivy shoved it."So just take it already!"
"OKAY!" Ollie squeaked in fear, quickly taking the bottle. "Thanks, I-I guess? I'll try to do it right this time. Don't worry, I'm a pretty quick learner. I know it might look like I'm not listening, but I r-really am. Maybe not the quickest learner out there, nobody's perfect. Am I talking too much? I feel like I'm talking too much,"
Ollie rambled on and on as he sprayed a table, soaking it to the point where water was dripping onto the floor. Ivy knew he wouldn't be able to do it right.
"You are."
"My bad."
"You don't have to apologize for everything, either. It's not like I'm not used to you messing things up."
"Okay, I don't mess things up all the time," Ollie laughed weakly, embarrassed. "D-do I?"
"Well...just clean the table, Ollie," Ivy dropped the subject, wiping the table vigorously.
"Would it kill you to be nice now and then?" Ollie grumbled, placing the bottle down due to exhaustion. Leaning against the table, his eyes wandered up to the ceiling. He spotted something...was it a hole? Yeah, it must be. There's no way that was a dot, it wasn't every day that a wacko drew dots on the ceiling. An ant then crawled out of the hole.
Ew.
He went over to Mr. Pandey's desk to grab some tape. The noise from him rustling everything around caught Ivy's attention. She sighed once again at the sight of ollie goofing off. Although, she shouldn't be too surprised. It wasn't like she didn't expect him to do so.
"Ollie, what are you doing now?"
"I think there's an ant hole up there," ollie said, pointing to the small hole. "I was gonna tape it up."
"Really?"
"Yep! Not to brag, but if there's anybody who's the best at using tape, it's me." he bragged in his cocky manner.
"That's what you said about spraying tables," Ivy said, skepticism on her face. "And that didn't turn out very well, did it?"
Ouch.
Still, he attempted to laugh off her nasty behavior. "M-man, the things we say when we're nervous, huh?"
"I wasn't nervous."
HAHAHAHA OKAY SURE," he laughed hysterically before taking a moment to compose himself. "Phew, you're funny. Anyway, I'll get right back to work, as soon as I tape this up!"
"Sure you will," Ivy said sarcastically.
With an apologetic smile, Ollie grabbed Mr. Pandey's spinning chair. He pulled it over to the spot near the hole. Placing one foot on the chair to steady himself, he hopped up. Ivy looked up and cringed. Of course, he didn't have enough common sense to use a regular chair. Of course, he went with the freaking swivel chair.
He yanked a piece of tape from the dispenser, throwing it to the ground. he stood on his toes, cautiously placing the tape over the hole. "That should do it," he confirmed quietly to himself.
"Are you done?"
"Just about, Ivy!" ollie nodded. "Now all I have to do is make my way down in a completely safe fashion," he put one foot out, the chair beginning to turn. "And- AHHH!"
He wasn't paying attention to how far the chair was spinning, causing him to lose his footing and crash to the ground. He banged his arm, and possibly something else, on the teacher's desk on the way down, the cherry on top of the entire fall.
"I had a feeling you were going to fall," Ivy said dryly. Her only reply was a groan. Ollie was still on the ground.
"Ollie, get up, we still have tables to clean."
Another groan.
"Such a child...what's the matter with you?" Ivy made her way over, arms crossed. She glared down at him. "You're a boy, walk it off! You'll be..."
The girl blinked when she saw him clutching his arm, paling in color as he looked at it. Beneath his fingers, she could see something red and runny.
"Ollie, you're bleeding!"
"Y-yeah..."
The 13-year-old became unnaturally silent, still looking at his wounded arm. He heard Ivy walk away to god knows where, and he honestly didn't care at the moment. it was burning now, like he had poured salt on it, it looked ugly, and man, was it bloody. It looked like a damn gusher. Was a person supposed to bleed this much? Because this was an awful amount of blood that he was losing, and he was beginning to feel lightheaded, really lightheaded.
"Give me your arm."
"Huh?"
"He glanced up to see Ivy with a first aid kit.
"I said give me your arm! You're bleeding, aren't you? Let me look at it."
"What, this? Th-that's okay! I can handle a little- OWSIES!" he cried when Ivy kneeled and grabbed his arm, pulling it closer two her.
"Hold still."
"But that hurts!"
"Hold still!" the brunette barked, and that was all it took to get Ollie to be quiet temporarily- albeit a few hisses. She lifted his arm, examining the cut. "This looks pretty bad."
"Feels even worse."
"I'd imagine so. Get up, so we can wash it off." Ivy said, beginning to stand up.
"But it still hurts-"
"And it'll hurt even worse if we don't disinfect it. Stop being a child," Ivy shook her head and held her hand up. "Try not to get any blood on my jacket."
With hesitation, he grabbed her hand with his good arm and allowed her to pull him up.
"See that sink over there?" Ivy asked, pointing to the emergency sink thing that all labs have. "Go sit by it, I'll be there in a second." She looked down at her hand. "And... stop holding my hand."
"I wasn't!"
He did what she asked, sitting on the stool near the sink. Ivy came back with bandages on hand, throwing the first aid kit on the counter.
"Ah, des pansements! That means bandages in French, I think."
"Mmm-hmm," she said meekly, grabbed a dry rag near the sink. She ran it under the sink and soaked it with warm water. "This is gonna hurt, just so you know. Don't jump too much, it'll make things a lot easier."
"OkAY! WOW, THAT HURTS!" Ollie hissed as soon as the rag touched the cut, making him instinctively try to pull his arm away.
"Oh, for the love of- stay still! Can't you see that I'm trying to help you?!"
"That doesn't take away the fact that it hurts, Ivy!" Ollie shouted back, finally fed up with the treatment Ivy's been giving him. "Maybe you're incapable of feeling pain, but I'm not! Man, you're so insensitive!"
"Listen here you smart-mouthed, hypocritical dork," Ivy snarled, throwing the rag down and shoving a finger in his face. "I may be rude, I may be snarky and sarcastic, but I am in no way insensitive. If I was insensitive, I would've left you on that floor to bleed, okay? I would've let you pass out, I would've cleaned this room, and I would've left you here for Mr. Pandey to find. I'm trying to help you, so get that through your thick skull, do me a favor, and shut up."
And like magic, heavenly, peaceful magic, Ollie stopped talking again, resorting to looking at his shoes. Finally. She expected the occasional cries of pain, why wouldn't she, but that didn't bother her. She could finally fix this dweeb up.
She dragged the rag across the cut again, shockingly being as gentle as she could be. She stopped every time he yelped, waited for a few seconds, and continued. This went on for about 10 minutes, possibly longer.
It was quiet, yes. Nice and quiet.
Too quiet for Ollie.
"That's -ow- a lot of blood," he said cautiously and quietly, fearing that he would upset her again. Ivy raised a brow, and he expected insults and a tirade to fly out her mouth like missiles.
"Do you have hemophobia?"
"Do I have what?"
"Hemophobia. Fear of blood. Because if do, you can look away."
"I don't have a problem with blood. It's just that normally when I bleed, it's a little bit. Like, when my sister bit me when she was two? That much, a small amount of blood. But this is a lot, and I've never seen that much blood in real life... and seeing all of that blood coming from me? I think you were right. I would've passed out, no doubt. I'm talking too much again, aren't I? Sorry. Sorry for saying sorry... sorry... I'll just shut up now."
She didn't say anything, only nodded, running the rag with water again. His stomach churned as the once clear water that entered the rag came out like a light red. Ivy noticed how pale he was.
"You're not going to throw up, are you?"
"I don't know, to be honest."
"Don't look," she insisted, turning his head the other direction. "And if you do hurl, don't get any of it on me."
With a few more gentle, careful strokes, she finished. She put the rag in the sink. "I think I stopped the bleeding, but I think you're going to need a couple of stitches. You can look now."
Ollie looked at his arm. The wound still wasn't very pretty to look at, the area around it turning purple, and it hurt to move. But other than that? Ivy did a pretty good job.
"You're lucky that a cut arm was the only thing you got," Ivy said as she washed her hands. "With that stupid stunt you were doing, it could've ended up much worse." After drying her hands, she prepped the bandages. "Let me see again?"
"Thank you for doing this," he smiled as she wrapped the bandage around the cut.
"Yeah, yeah.."
"I'm serious. I'm sorry for calling you insensitive. You didn't have to do any of this, but you did. I was being a jerk earlier, huh?"
Ivy bit her lip, thinking back to the last time she lashed out at him, which was exactly 15 minutes ago.
"You were. But I'm sorry for yelling at you, I guess, being mean and whatnot. I hope I didn't hurt your feelings or anything."
"No hard feelings. I should've stayed still as you asked."
"No, Ollie, not just then! The entire time we've been here, I suppose I was really rude to you. You've never actually done anything wrong, so I'm sorry. Does that hurt?" She pulled the bandages to finish them up.
"A bit. But hey, I'm good as new!"
"Uh-huh," Ivy snickered. "Get your stuff, then. "
"Is lunch over already?" The redhead looked at the clock as he got off the stool.
"No. We have to go to the nurse, remember?"
"Wait," Ollie froze when he grabbed his pack. "We? You're taking me?"
"Uh-duh. N-not that I care or anything. I just wanted to make sure that you get there okay... b-because I'm 100% sure you hit your head too. And you're still a little pale. The nurse's office is the best place for you to be.
"You know best! And merci... even if you don't care," he slung his pack over one shoulder, his good one.
"I really don't," Ivy stated firmly.
"I believe you."
"Then stop looking at me like that!"
"By whatever do you mean, Mrs. I-secretly-care-about-Ollie?" Ollie smirked.
"Shut up! I don't care... I don't..." She tried her hardest to finish her sentence. It was only three more words, simple, easy words. But every time she attempted to say those words, it felt as if a brick was in her throat. Why couldn't she say it? It was the perfect moment; Ollie's ego was starting to inflate again, and he was giving her an idiotic grin.
He gasped. "Oh my goodness...you can't say it! You really do care about me, don't you?"
"No, ew!"
"Aww, Ivy! You don't know how happy I am to know that!" The boy laughed. "Is that why you were being so mean and grumpy before? Because you didn't want me to see your soft side? You're just like my sister!"
"Do you want me to rearrange your face?! Because I'll do it, hurt arm or not!"
"Whatever you say, softie!" Ollie chirped, pulling her in for a brief hug. "Time to go get that nurse!"
He gleefully skipped out of the classroom. Ivy gritted her teeth. See, he did it again. He became so annoyingly cocky that she wanted to pinch the attitude out of him.
Their relationship was sort of messed up, she realized. One minute, they could be at each other's throats, and the next minute, they were getting along. Then Ollie would step out of line, or she would say something rude, and the fighting would start all over again. She couldn't bring herself to hit-hit him. He wasn't that bad. But possibly a little pinch could shove him off of his high horse. Or a slap. Whichever option came to her mind first. Turning off the lights, she followed Ollie into the hallway. She ran a few steps to keep up with him.
"Oh, there you are!"
"You made me have second thoughts about going with you."
"Why? Because you don't want the entire school to know that deep, deep down, you care about-"
"Shut up, Oliver!"
"So we're on full name bases now?" He beamed. "Ivyanna? Ivene? Or is it just Ivy? Ow!"
Ivy softly poked the bandage on Ollie's arm, right where the cut was. "Didn't I tell you to shut up?"
"I thought you were joking, Ivy, damn!"
"I don't joke."
"Why are you like this all the time?!"
She rolled her eyes. Ollie was overreacting once again.
"Not now, you goof."
"No, I'm serious! You act all nice for a few minutes, and then you treat me like trash!"
"Maybe if you weren't such an insecure, egotistical, annoying dork, then I wouldn't have a reason to treat you like dirt," Ivy fired back, narrowing her eyes.
Ollie backed down, slightly, no, really hurt. While he had been able to bounce off most of Ivy's bitchiness, even in the lab, this one genuinely stung. Ivy saw that flash of hurt, even rejection. "Oh...um, Ollie, I-I didn't mean to-"
"It's fine," he said quietly, crushed. Those feelings he had for her suddenly weren't very strong anymore.
"Ollie, I'm really sorry-"
"I said it's fine. I get it. I try being nice, that doesn't work. I try joking around, that doesn't work. I do everything you say, that doesn't work. I even tried being quiet for you. No matter what I do, you always have a problem with it, so... it's fine. You can go. Thanks for fixing up my arm and all, but you don't have to stay. I bet that'll make you happy."
Ivy slowly crawled to a stop, only Ollie didn't. No. She didn't actually hurt that goof's feelings, did she? Sure, she admitted that what she said was a little unnecessary, but it was true. Was it so hurtful if it was the truth? She watched him take a turn, going through the doors that would eventually lead him to the nurse.
Well, judging by his behavior? Ivy might've taken things just a little too far.