Work Text:
The classroom is silent, yet Chip Tolentino cannot focus.
To clarify, this wasn’t another case of what happened at the spelling bee (what happens at the bee, stays at the bee). It’s just that out of all of the people in the classroom, he didn’t expect Barfée to be the one to break the rules.
Silent reading time is for silent reading, but Barfée scribbles away regardless.
Chip has no clue what he’s writing, but he desperately wants to. What could be keeping the champion of the bee from reading silently like he was supposed to?
The boy peers over at the paper in his seat, trying to make out the words. Despite being right next to Barfée, none of the letters are clear. Life is random and unfair.
He needs to know, so he quietly reaches over and snatches the note right out from under the other.
Barfée stands up to yell at him, but quickly realizes the situation they’re in. The two slowly sit back down without making a sound . As this happens, Chip reads the paper, which proceeds as follows:
“Your eyes are more piercing than an ilspile,
Your smile is as impactful as an astrobleme,
Your hairdo is more beautiful than a (come back to this later),
My feelings will never be elanguescent towards you,
And my weltanschauung will be forever positive, if you may have me.
Olive, I love.
- Will”
Holding his chest and shaking violently, Chip stops himself from bursting out laughing. He knew Barfèe had a crush on Olive, but this ? This was too much!
“You— you—“ The other was at a complete loss for words, his face becoming more red with every passing moment, “Give that back right now!”
Chip scoots the note away from Barfée and clasps his hands together near his face, looking off to the side dreamily.
“Oh, my dearest Barf,” He sighs, pitching up his voice as high as it could go while still whispering, “Let’s raise a sea anemone family together!”
Fuming in anger, Barfée lunges for the paper. Chip manages to pass it to the desk in front of him while silently slapping his thigh in absolute hilarity.
Marcy sees the note and doesn’t flinch. She was used to Chip giving her things that he wanted Leaf to see, so she passes it up another desk without even reading it. Barfée lets out a sigh of relief before turning to him once more.
“What is wrong with you?! Go tell your boyfriend to give me back the letter!”
“Boyfriend?! He’s not—! We’re not—!”
The argument grows louder and louder as Leaf opens the folded square, but he pays them no mind. As he skims through, some of the words are definitely recognizable, but he just isn’t sure from where.
Upon reading the signature at the bottom, he covers his mouth. Clearly, Barfée wanted to give it to Olive, right?
“Psst! Schwartzy!” He leans over and whisper-shouts, “Give this to Olive!”
She gives him a thumbs up and directly goes to pass the paper to the girl in question. It was really none of her business, so she didn’t really feel comfortable reading the note.
At this point, the two are practically shouting at each other. Right as the note is in the hands of both of the girls, Mr. Panch looks up from his computer screen.
“What is going on here?” He says exasperatedly, standing up and crossing his arms, “Mr. Tolentino, Mr. Barfée, quiet down now. Ms. Ostrovsky, you know the rule about passing notes in class. Come up to the board, please.”
Barfée’s heart can’t help but ache as he watches Olive slowly trudge to the front of the room and turn around, clearly and visibly nervous. Other than the sound of paper crinkling from her hands shaking, the class is silent once more.
Opening her mouth, she begins to speak.
“Your eyes are more piercing than an...ilspile,” Olive starts, feeling a wave of nostalgia hit her, “Your smile is as impactful as an astrobleme, your hairdo is more beautiful than a...”
She giggles quietly to herself.
“‘Come back to this later.’ My feelings will never be elanguescent towards you, and my weltanschauung will be forever positive, if you may have me.”
After reading ahead, Olive suddenly looks up and stares wide-eyed at Barfée, who had his forehead to his desk. She connects everything at once and turns back to the paper in hesitation. If she were to finish the letter, it would most definitely embarrass him in front of at least thirty people he saw on the daily.
At last, she opens her mouth again.
“Marigold, I love. Signed by Chip.”
The class erupts into a cacophony of “oooh”s, “Marigold?”s, and the like immediately after she is done with reading. Chip stares straight forward, slack-jawed at the entire situation.
Mr. Panch slowly turns in his direction, appearing extremely annoyed.
“Mr. Tolentino. Please do not use silent reading time for personal reasons.” He pushes up his glasses and closes his eyes as Chip sinks lower and lower into his chair, “Ms. Ostrovsky, you may give the note back to him once class is over.”
He checks the time on his watch, “Which will be now, I suppose.”
As if on cue, the bell rings and students begin to pack up their belongings. Some of the members from the baseball team slap Chip playfully on the back as they pass by to leave the room, laughing at his noiseless resignation. Leaf smiles, helping the poor boy out of his seat before dragging him off somewhere by the hand.
Marcy and Schwarzy exit together as well, leaving the finalists as the last people to step out through the door.
They walk down the busy hallway without saying a word. Barfée grips his book bag strap tighter, fearing for the worst.
Eventually, Olive stops in front of her locker and turns, looking up at him. He meets her gaze and swallows.
Mwah!
“I’ll see you around, Barf!”
He blinks and holds his cheek in shock, using his other arm to wave as she runs off to her next class.
She’s such a lovely girl.