operation: m.e.e.t.c.u.t.e.
a codename: kids next door collection of oneshots about all the ways lizzie and nigel could have met
genres: romance, comedy, fluff, pre-canon, first meeting, transfer student!lizzie, hero complex!nigel, nigel pov
themes: trashy middle school soap opera, whoever said petty ain't pretty clearly never met lizzie, nigel asks first, ish, inspired by operation pool
rating: K for depictions of bullying
A/N (3.28.2025): I wrote this concept three times before figuring out what I was doing wrong that made me dislike it. (If not for that, this would have been uploaded back in January!) What this means for you all is that there will be two versions, and version 2 will be published as its own chapter after the third and final concept.
Also, I worked on the third concept whenever I was too annoyed with working on this one, which means that's basically done too. Look forward to that upload soon. :)
Special shoutout to sparkymouse on ao3. Any work that has their praise is bestowed with the loveliest gift imaginable.
right in the middle of a war
"When I look into Lizzie's eyes, I can tell she's not a jerk." - Numbuh 1, Operation P.O.O.L.
During what should have been an ordinary lunch period, raised voices from across the room manage to catch Nigel's attention despite the typical buzz of a bustling cafeteria.
"Stop playing dumb! I know it was you!"
"Hel-lo, I barely even know you! Why would I do that?"
A few tables away, fellow fourth-graders Sarah Olin and the new girl Lizzie Devine face-off in combative postures while Andy Belmont and Marybeth March look on tensely.[1]
He narrows his eyes at the scene. It doesn't seem violent now, but he knows better than anyone how quickly things can get ugly. He eats his lunch faster while he continues to observe. There are a few more verbal jabs that he can't hear, then the two girls turn to involve Marybeth in their argument. He hops out of his seat.
As always, his timing is impeccable. "If I don't get answers soon, I'll tell on both of you to the teacher!" Sarah shouts just when he makes it over.
"Now, now," he speaks up before drastic measures could be taken. "Let's not involve adults in a kids' matter."
Everyone turns to him with varying degrees of welcoming, and he assesses the situation in an instant:
1. Sarah: The victim. She holds her bookbag like a waste bag and is on the verge of tears.
2. Lizzie: The main suspect. According to her defensive posture of crossed arms and tapping foot, though, she disagrees.
3. Andy: The supportive boyfriend who just wants answers. He stands to Sarah's side and frowns with concern.
4. Marybeth: … Inconclusive, but her eyes light up when she recognises him, and oh, here she comes.
"Lizzie messed up Sarah's bookbag with Jell-O, and she's trying to blame it all on me!"
"Yeah because I'm pretty sure Scary-Breath over here is the one who actually did it!" Lizzie defends immediately, and he regards her with raised eyebrows. He's never even heard Lizzie Devine shout, much more name call.
Marybeth cries louder, "And now she's insulting me! Stop her!"
"I wasn't sitting near there," Lizzie yells over Marybeth, wildly seeking to meet the eyes of anyone who will believe her, "and I don't have anything against Sarah. I couldn't have done it, and I wouldn't have anyway!"
Sarah elbows them both out of her way and shoves her bookbag into his face. Her textbooks and folders are covered in gooey orange. "Andy and I left our stuff behind in the cafeteria for a bit. When we came back, there was this gunk all over my books, and Lizzie won't even say sorry!"
The accused girl whirls on her before he could voice the same question. "Why are you so sure it's me? Just 'cause Marybeth said so?" She says the other girl's name like it's not even a real word.
Andy ignores her in favour of explaining to Nigel, "I asked Marybeth to watch our stuff for us while we were gone, and she said she saw Lizzie do it."
Nigel frowns at this new information. Knowledge they were caught is usually all it takes for petty bullies to confess their crimes, but Lizzie doesn't stand down. If she really is at fault, she has deeper reasons for her actions. Then again, there are also her own allegations about Marybeth's culpability to consider. He is surely missing something.
He catches a quick glance of Marybeth's smile in Andy's direction before Sarah snaps. "I don't care who did it, but I want payback! What about my homework? What about my glitter gel pens?!" She speaks as though addressing the group at large, but her eyes keep going back to Lizzie.
It doesn't escape the girl's notice. "Stop blaming me for something I didn't do," she snarls. "This is not my problem; and if you guys don't leave me alone, I'll give you a real reason to tattletell on me." Her hands curl into fists at her side, clarifying any ambiguity about her insinuation.
If Nigel has never heard Lizzie shout before, he's definitely never heard her deliver a threat. He considers her bared teeth and bellicose stance. People who rely on force tend to be people capable of bullying.
"Nigel, do something!" Marybeth pleads cloyingly.
Everyone returns their attention to him, but he ignores the victims in favour of the suspects. When he looks between them, really looks, he figures out the culprit easily.
Nigel is really good at reading people; he has to be. Being able to discern when someone is lying, who could be an ally, or which interrogation tactics would work best on a target—all with just a glance—is how he became the operative he is today.
Marybeth March is an unassuming but ambitious girl. She's the kind of person who will cut the line at the ice cream parlour but let kids copy off her homework if they ask. She doesn't bother people who don't bother her, so he can't immediately tell what her motivation would be to sabotage Sarah, as Lizzie claims.
On the other hand, he doesn't know Lizzie Devine that well, if at all. She only transferred in near the beginning of the school year and has already garnered a reputation for being weird; but as far as he can tell, she simply keeps to herself. This the most he's ever interacted with her, actually. With how argumentative and threatening she's being, he can certainly see why Sarah would be more inclined to cast the blame on her than on Marybeth.
Both of them look at him now with expectant eyes, confident in their own innocence yet sure that he will take the side of the majority—but Lizzie is the only one looking back at him. Her gaze has an additional defiance, waiting for him to issue his verdict just so that she can give him a piece of her mind.
There is no way to explain why he knows this to be true, but one more look into her eyes and he can just tell: this girl may be a lot of things, but a jerk isn't one of them.
He turns to Marybeth and asks plainly, "Were you the one who did this to Sarah's bookbag?"
Her victim attitude is nowhere to be seen in the face of his direct accusation. "No, of course n-not," she answers blinkingly.
"Then tell me, how did this happen? If Lizzie did it, what did she do?"
"Well…" She regains control over herself like it's a physical thing, and his suspicions rise further. "She just came over, opened the bag, dumped the Jell-O in, and walked away."
"But I didn't, I swear!" Lizzie interjects. "I don't even like Jell-O. I got the fruit cup for dessert!" She points at her lunch tray, where an unopened fruit cup stands benignly.
Nigel turns and raises an eyebrow at Marybeth. "What did she do with the Jell-O cup afterwards?"
"She threw it away, obviously," she answers easily.
"And where is your dessert?"
"I didn't get one."
He's almost offended at how she thought she could get away with such a blatant lie. "Nonsense. No kid skips dessert on the lunch line."
"Well, I did."
Andy speaks up for the first time in a while. "But don't you really like Jell-O? I remember your birthday party last year. Instead of cake, we each got to customise our own cups of Jell-O."
"You remember that?" Marybeth's eyes sparkle like a girl talking to her crush, and there it is. Her motivation.
"Did you or did you not pour the sugary gelatin into Sarah's bookbag?" he presses while she's vulnerable.
She flinches out of her lovestruck trance and comes face-to-face with quadruple-strength scrutiny. When she starts shifting her weight between her feet, he knows it won't take long for her to confess.
"FINE! Yes, I admit it! I was the one who ruined Sarah's bookbag!" she wails. "And why shouldn't I! She already has everything—shiny hair, pretty clothes, the cutest boyfriend—she doesn't need good grades, too!"
If only dealing with tyrannical adults was as easy as dispensing with petty school bullies.
Satisfied, he's about to begin damage control operations when a different petty problem emerges. "HA!" Lizzie exclaims. "I knew it! I knew you were lying, you no-good, jelly-loving weirdo—umpf!"
He quickly wraps an arm around Lizzie so that he could clasp his hand over her mouth. It is more difficult than he anticipated to keep her quiet and corralled, and her taunting tone is not dampened at all by the inability to form words.
Sarah ignores them. "You can either come with me when I tell on you to Mrs. Thompson, or you can wait until later to find out you have detention," she tells Marybeth coldly. With that, she spins on her heel and beelines for the cafeteria door, ruined bookbag swinging from her hand beside her.
Marybeth looks after her in defeat but doesn't move until Andy says something. "That wasn't cool, but you knew that already." He sends her a meaningful, disappointed stare before jogging after his girlfriend.
Marybeth stands there for a moment longer, tearing up and wobbly, before she trudges after them, sniffling to herself as she goes.
That's when he releases Lizzie, and not a moment too soon.
"What's the big idea!?" she screeches at him. "That girl tried to make me take the fall for her dumb prank and called me a liar, and she gets to just walk away?!"
"She's literally walking towards whatever punishment Mrs. Thompson deems fit for her."
She stomps her foot. "What about me! Where's my justice?"
The warning bell rings through the lunchroom. "You get a chance to enjoy your fruit cup before lunch is over," he quips.
She snarls then turns her back on him to face her tray. He takes that as his cue to go, but the strong line of her shoulders suddenly deflating stops him from going too far.
"I'm such a loser!" she laments apropos of nothing as she plops down. "You know, when Sarah walked up to me earlier, I thought she was going to invite me to eat lunch with her? But instead, I get yelled at, and accused of something I didn't do, and have to sit through some trashy middle school soap opera… and I still have to eat lunch alone at the end." She stabs her plastic fork into a blueberry and frowns when one of the tines snap off.
Without the shroud of her righteous anger, she looks smaller to him now, like a damsel out of distress instead of a warrior princess.
Nigel doesn't double-guess what he does next. "I can eat lunch with you," he offers as he lowers himself into the seat next to hers.
She glares at him balefully. "I don't need your pity."
"Then take my company."
"You ate already, though," she rebuts, fast and provoking. "Besides, I know you always eat lunch with your friends. You guys go around like a weird, five-person, human rainbow."
He has to physically hold back a bark of laughter at her observation. No one's ever said that before, but he sees it. "Not always. Where are they now?" he asks rhetorically. They're on a mission, and he's tasked with managing their dummies in the classroom so that they can still get attendance credit while they're out—but Lizzie doesn't need to know all that. "I didn't eat with them today, and I don't have to eat with them tomorrow either."
She rolls her eyes. "Sure. I'll believe you tomorrow, then."
She looks down at her lunch and picks through it, a dismissal as much as it was an actual attempt to eat her meal. For reasons he won't understand until later, he doesn't leave. He just sits with her.
Until he does more than sit.
It's entirely thoughtless, really, the way he reaches out and plucks a fruit out of her cup.
Her head snaps towards him, and he smirks before popping it in his mouth. "Cherries are my favourite," he comments blithely.
She stares at him with confused apprehension as he reaches over for her cup of water and takes one sip. He lifts it up a little in a cheersing fashion before putting it back on her tray with resolution.
"I believe we just ate lunch together today, Lizzie."
The bell to end the lunch period rings, and the typical cafeteria buzz remixes with the sound of scratching chairs and hundreds of rubber footsteps tapping on linoleum.
He doesn't hear any of that, though. Not when the hesitant look in Lizzie's eyes shifts into something different. Almost shy. Decidedly happy. A thought he didn't have time to entertain before suddenly comes rushing to the forefront of his mind, and he wants to fast-forward to lunch tomorrow.
Her eyes are kind of pretty.
[1] These are real characters from the show! knd dot fandom dot com /wiki/Andy, /wiki/Sarah, /wiki/Marybeth_March Of course, I had to make up last names for Andy and Sarah, though.