Chapter Text
Chip was beginning to get impatient. The bee could last for hours, and it felt like every second got longer and longer.
The seconds turned to minutes, which turned to what felt like hours. Nothing. No newly eliminated spellers, or Comfort Counselors, or hosts walked through the gym doors.
Maybe it was a good thing that time was passing between Chip’s second public meltdown of the day and anyone else coming face to face with him? Maybe they would forget or just be so upset at losing that they wouldn't care anymore?
Whether or not this was sensible, Chip’s worries eventually came to light when the gym doors swung open once more.
The first thing Chip was able to process was a flash of red hair swiftly moving through the doors.
“Leaf!” Chip excitedly declared, both as a greeting and as a reassurance to himself that it was really the boy he was hoping for.
The redhead stopped his wild sprint at the sound of Chip’s voice. “Hm?” Leaf quickly turned around to face him. His seemingly already joyful expression became even happier when he fully processed who was talking to him. “Oh, hi Chip!”
Chip had a lot of things he wanted to say to Leaf, all of them relating to Leaf’s sister, but maybe being too forward would scare Leaf away even more than he potentially was.
“You got eliminated?” Chip asked. It’s a dumb question but Chip’s other option was ‘Is your sister single?’
“Mhm. Apparently this one South American rodent that bathes itself in dust is spelled with two L’s at the end instead of one, which just seems like it has extra letters for no reason! Maybe whoever named them’s favorite number was eleven and he just added the extra L so it wouldn’t be only ten letters.” Leaf began to ramble, putting the straw of his juice box in his mouth while he spoke which muddied some of his words. “But I got a juice box out of it!” He concluded, holding out his apple juice to Chip.
“Oh. I’m glad you’re excited about getting out,” Chip replied simply, rather unsure of how else to respond. “And excited about your juice.” He adds.
“My mom doesn’t allow me or my siblings to have deadly chemicals like sugar and stuff like that ever so I am super duper excited! Did you have your juice box already?” Leaf asked, looking around the floor searching for the box.
Chip pulled it out from his back pocket. “No, Mitch gave me grape juice so you can have it if you want.” He offered, holding out the box for Leaf to take.
“Really?” Leaf wrapped his arms tightly around Chip once more. “That’s so nice, Chip!”
Chip snaked an arm around Leaf and gently patted his back. Leaf released him and snatched the box from Chip's hand. He quickly punctured the box with the small plastic straw, taking a large gulp. Leaf instantly reeled back in disgust.
“Oh my god! This is the poison my mom was talking about!” Leaf cried out, attempting to wipe the flavor off his tongue with the palm of his hands.
Chip found Leaf mildly entertaining at best, but for some reason, he couldn’t stop himself from letting out a laugh.
“Why are you laughing?” Leaf mumbled, a large frown on his face.
Chip quickly stopped himself. ‘Don’t mess this up. Don’t mess this up. Don’t mess this up.’
“Sorry, I should have warned you. Grape juice is horrendous, but I think you’ll be fine.”
“Are you sure? My mom will kill me if I die.”
Normally, Chip would comment on how redundant Leaf’s worries were, but he figured that wasn’t the most friendly thing to do.
“I’m sure you will live to see tomorrow.” Chip replied, attempting to be comforting.
Leaf lightly nodded his head before quickly turning to a new subject.
“I didn’t think you would get eliminated.” Leaf said, starting a new rant. “I know that you apparently won last year and were in Washington for nationals, so I thought that I would be the first one out because you seem really smart, but apparently not!”
It took everything in Chip to not let his frustration appear on his face.
“Thanks.” Chip answered, his teeth gritted into a fake smile. “For the record, I am very smart. I was just…distracted today.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean that you aren’t smart! I just meant it like you are smarter than me so it doesn’t make sense why you lost before me. What was distracting you?”
Chip opened his mouth to answer, but no good reason came to his mind. He felt his face heat up at just the thought of his elimination.
Chip awkwardly shrugged, deciding words didn’t really matter in this situation.
That made Leaf frown. “It’s alright, Chip. My siblings always get mad at me when I’m distracted, but I don't think anyone is mad at you. I know I’m not!”
Chip bit his tongue. “Thank you, Leaf.”
“Of course. If anyone is mad at you, then I’m mad at them!”
Huh. There was Chip’s moment.
He forced out a friendly laugh, mind rushing with ideas. “Thanks again, Leaf. You are a really good friend!”
Chip watched closely for Leaf’s reaction. Leaf’s face twisted into a sort of puzzled expression, then into something unreadable. Chip had found Leaf a bit off-putting whenever he was spelling, but this was a new discomfort.
Leaf’s expression suddenly turned into his usual giddy smile. “I’m your friend?”
“Of course you are!” Chip grinned.
“Wow, I can’t believe it!” For the third time that day, Leaf pulled Chip into another tight hug.
“Wow, you are a hugger, huh?” Chip muttered, feeling the air getting squeezed out of his lungs.
“Sorry! My family never likes it when I hug them,” Leaf explained, quickly letting go of Chip. “And friends like to hug each other, right?”
“I mean, some friends hug sometimes, I guess?”
“Can we be friends that hug?” Leaf asks, his tone far too serious for the actual topic at hand.
Chip squints his eyes. “Sure…”
“Yay!” Leaf cheers, going in for another hug before Chip puts out a hand to stop him.
“Maybe just give me a warning first?” Chip sighed.
“Okay, sorry.” Leaf mumbled, retracting his arms and nervously playing with a strand of his hair.
“Thank you.” Chip nodded.
For a few moments the hallway was quiet. Chip enjoyed the quiet until he began to think about how unlike Leaf that was.
“So,” Chip quietly began, “what do you like to do for fun? Other than spelling, of course.”
Leaf quickly perked up.
“I have a cat cape business!” Leaf declared, pulling his own cape to the side to present.
“A what?” Chip questioned.
“I sell cat capes! I sew them myself into all these different designs and I sell them on this website called eBay. Pinecone helps me with the computer stuff because he is smart with computers and I give him money. It’s called Coney’s Kitty Capes! If you have a cat you can buy him one.” Leaf explained, making large gestures as he spoke.
Chip recalled Leaf’s mom calling one of Leaf’s brothers Pinecone. He stored that information in the back of his mind.
“I don’t have any pets, but if my mom or dad happen to get one I’ll let you know!” Chip said, flashing his winning smile.
In Chip’s humble opinion, he was nailing this ‘friend stuff’. Aside from the occasional frustration, getting close to Leaf was going to be easier than he had anticipated.
“I have a lot of cats, so if you want to know what it’s like to have one, you can ask me or you could come to my house and meet them all! I think they would like you.”
Chip smiled. “If you’re offering then-”
Before Chip could finish, another speller burst through the gym doors. Lo and behold, it was an uncharacteristically happy Marcy Park skipping through the hallway.
“What the…Marcy?” Chip huffed. That wasn’t who he was expecting to see.
Marcy’s skipping came to a stop, as she turned to look at the two boys.
“Oh…hi Chip.” She mumbled before focusing on the other boy. “Leaf! I didn’t win!” She excitedly declared.
“Yay!” Leaf quickly cheered with her.
“That’s a good thing?” Chip spoke up, even more confused than he initially was.
Marcy quickly muttered something to herself before speaking out loud. “Yes it is! I’m not a sore loser like some of us.” she said pointedly.
And there were Chip’s actions coming back to bite him. This had better not become a trend.
Chip furrowed his brow. “I’m the furthest person from a sore loser!”
“Aren’t you the one who punched Barfeé because you were mad you got eliminated?” She pressed.
“First off, I didn’t actually punch him, and second off, I tried to punch him because he was the one being an asshole to me!” Chip spat out.
“No you tried to punch him because you have a fragile ego and are a sore loser! Leaf here seemed to take the loss well, and I clearly did. Catch up, Chip.” She quickly retorted.
Marcy Park was almost the same amount of evil as Barfeé was. At least she didn’t seem to be getting that much of a kick out of being a jerk.
Chip could have argued further with her and defended his honor, but he figured it was a lost cause. All that mattered to him was that Leaf would still see Chip as a friend. He backed down, stepping back to stand besides Leaf, and crossing his arms
Leaf was back to nervously fiddling with a loose curl in his hair. After there was a large enough gap between Chip and Marcy, he lightly spoke.
“Are you happy because you got a juice box too?” Leaf questioned, not so subtly checking to see if she still had a closed box.
“It’s more of a symbolic thing, but the juice is good too.” She answered, carelessly moving the box in her hand.
Chip scoffed in an attempt to make his discontent clearer. Both of the other eliminated spellers ignored him.
“Is the juice the reason you are excited about your elimination?” Marcy asked Leaf, tossing the juice box up and down in her hand.
Leaf’s head followed the box as he spoke. “Well, after I got eliminated, I was thinking about how because I made it so far that maybe I’m smarter than I thought I was, so that made me feel good. I didn't expect to win or anything so it wasn't very sad for me anyway. And also the apple juice is good. The grape juice isn’t.”
“I personally find grape juice very good.” Marcy responds simply.
“That’s because you clearly don't have taste.” Chip teases, stepping forward and wrapping his arm around Leaf’s shoulders. “Leaf on the other hand has impeccable taste!”
“Really?” Leaf’s face twisted into a strange smile.
“Really.” Chip reassured, smiling wide back at him.
“Really?” Marcy questioned, raising an eyebrow at Chip.
She put a hand on her hip, a gesture neither of the boys had ever seen from her. (Although a lot of how she was acting seemed uncharacteristic of her compared to during the bee.) She sneered at Chip.
“Is that so hard to believe, Marcy?” Chip replied, condescension clear in his tone.
She squinted her eyes in suspicion. “No. Are the two of you friends now?”
“Yes we are.” Chip said proudly, shaking Leaf with the hand he snaked around him.
“Mhm!” Leaf hummed happily.
Leaf reciprocated and wrapped his arm around Chip’s shoulders, a movement that made Chip visibly flinch. Marcy pursed her lips.
“…Alright. Just be careful, Leaf.” Marcy muttered.
“Okay!” Leaf quickly answered, clearly not taking to heart what she said.
Marcy went back to mindlessly playing with the juice box. Chip smirked.
“So Leaf, you were talking about me meeting your cats sometime. I would love to go to your house and meet them!” Chip said, more like an offer than a request.
“Oh yeah! If my dad, dad, sisters, brothers, and Nanna and Pappy say yes, then that would be fun! If you come over we can hang out in my room and I can show you all of my toys and drawings and stuff! Or if you want because you are a Boy Scout, we can go outside and play.” Leaf blabbered on.
“Maybe I can also meet some of your siblings,” Chip continued, trying to hide his dopey smile.
The two were once again interrupted by a fourth eliminated speller, who this time was reacting in a much more appropriate manner after losing. Logainne Shwartzandgrubinere enters, clearly holding back tears. Marcy, Leaf, and Chip all go silent.
“They are going to have us watch the final two spellers soon…” She said simply, voice shaking.
“Logainne!” Leaf calls out, running to give her a hug and console her. “It’s okay, we lost too!”
Logainne sniffles, wiping her eyes and nose with her blazer’s sleeve. “Thanks, Leaf…”
“I can’t believe Barf is out there still…” Chip mutters to Marcy.
Marcy rolls her eyes at Chip and walks to join the hug with Leaf and Logainne.
Mitch opens the door and scans the hall with his eyes quickly. He frowns slightly at the sight of the group hug.
“It’s time to come back in, kids.” He says softly, watching the group hug undo itself.
Logainne snaps herself back into her proud stance and lines up in front of the door, followed by Marcy, then Leaf, then reluctantly Chip.
“Let’s go.”