Chapter Text
Chip was never one to lose focus. It was hardwired into him that giving in to distractions would always lead to failure. So he never did.
Or at least he never did until his body betrayed him.
Suddenly when Chip was making very direct eye contact with a pretty red haired girl in a fuzzy striped sweater, certain…“distractions” became ever more apparent.
But it wasn’t his fault! His pre-teen body was just adjusting to new circumstances! And it wasn’t his fault that these new circumstances were a cute curly haired girl with strangely familiar green eyes.
At some point in this fleeting moment, there was a loud thud which caused the red haired girl to look away to focus on whatever made the noise, so Chip naturally followed, his eyes landing on a different red curly haired person with similar green eyes on the ground.
Oh god.
Leaf Coneybear was certainly a character. And he most definitely was a character Chip had not been a fan of.
Leaf was loud and obnoxious with little regard for the sanctity of the bee. Frequently he would tell Miss Peretti and Mr Panch that he would like to skip his turn before seemingly entering some sort of trance and miraculously getting the word correct. It was infuriating.
Chip’s eyes darted between the obnoxious boy and the lovely girl. There was no doubt about it, they were related.
“I fell.” Was all the boy said before awkwardly sitting back down on the bleachers he had somehow tipped off of.
Olive Ostrovsky was being tossed around and molded by Miss Peretti for some reason Chip hadn’t caught. Although entertaining, there were bigger fish to fry.
Chip glanced over at the table with the hosts, quickly checking to see if he was in the clear to talk without being reprimanded by Mr Panch again. It was the perfect moment.
“Leaf.” The Boy Scout whispered, leaning slightly behind the speller sitting between them in an attempt to grab his attention. But of course, Leaf was off in his own world.
Chip groaned. Coneybear was impossible.
“Leaf.” He tried again to no avail. The small sliver of time was closing up as Olive completed her spelling and Barfeé started walking up to the mic.
“Jesus Christ…LEAF!” Chip hissed, just loud enough to finally grab the ginger’s attention.
“Hm?” The boy hummed with a wide smile. He was always smiley whenever anyone wanted to talk to him. Actually he was smiley whenever he was alone as well.
“That girl in the second row in the fuzzy sweater. Is that your sister?”
Leaf looked over at the girl and smiled even wider. “Yeah that’s Marigold.” He waved excitedly at her and she waved back much less enthusiastically.
Chip had nothing else to say to him. He instead went limp in his seat just staring at the girl who was no longer looking back.
It was easy for Chip’s mind to quickly wander to more…improper places. He couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like holding her hand, or holding her waist, or running his hands through her hair, or helping her take off her sweater, or—
It was safe to say Chip was more than distracted.
He was rudely ripped from his fantasy by Mr Panch’s irritatingly monotone voice repeatedly calling his name.
“Chip. Chip. Chip!”
“Sorry!” The Boy Scout blurted out loudly without fully processing what was going on.
The room was silent. It took Chip a few seconds to reboot his brain and remember that he was currently in a competition.
“Is it my turn?”
“Yes.” Panch replied, practically rolling his eyes at Chip. There was a strange amount of hate between them for a fully grown man and a 12 year old boy, but that was a discussion for another time. Right now Chip needed to gain his composure. Quickly.
Chip took a quick breath to calm his nerves as he always did before striding off the bleachers. However there was a new issue present.
Shit.
Immediately, Chip blocked himself behind the first row of the bleachers in panic. No no no no no.
Chip quickly looked around for anything to possibly save him at this moment. And out of the corner of his eye he saw Marigold. She was watching all of this go down. Crap. Stall, Tolentino.
“Uh, can we maybe skip my turn now and do two in a row later?” He asked, more panic in his voice than he wanted.
“And why would you want to do that?” Panch questioned, tone firm.
All eyes were on Chip. Some of the spellers were confused, others (mostly Marcy Park) had caught on to the situation.
Chip’s voice broke as he shyly replied. “…I’d rather not say?”.
“You can either forfeit or you can take your turn now.”
The idea of losing (especially this early in the bee) made Chip want to claw his own skin off. But at the same time, the idea of humiliating himself in front of the rest of the spellers— and more importantly Marigold— felt worse.
“I’ll take my turn now.”
“Another excellent choice by the incumbent!” Rona cheerfully added as Chip walked up to the microphone. However it more accurately felt like walking up to his own execution.
“Tittup.” Panch declared. That word immediately caught Chip even more off guard.
“What?” Chip muttered, voice breaking once again.
“Your word is ‘tittup’” Panch reiterated.
This had to be some sort of sick joke. “Definition please?”
“It means ‘Lively movement or behavior” or ‘to move restlessly’. It refers to the sound of a horse's hooves. Tittup. Tittup. Ti—“
“TITTUP!” Chip finished for him, gritting his teeth. One simple word. That’s all he had to do then he was home free for a few rounds to deal with his ‘situation’. “T-I-T…” God damn it. Marigold was watching Chip spell. Chip’s knees practically buckled. “U-“ wait. “Wait no! I meant two t’s! Backing up- T-I-T-T-U-P Tittup!”
Before he could even think for another second he was hit with the most dreadful sound he could have possibly heard in that moment. The bell had been rung.
“I’m sorry. The correct spelling is T-I-T-T-U-P.”
Chip was stunned. All thoughts about the Marigold situation stopped. It felt like the world had paused for a moment. “But that’s exactly what I said?”
If Panch was a worse person he would have smiled, but instead he kept a straight voice and recited the rules. The rules Chip had memorized by heart. “If you start to spell a word you may start over, but the sequences of letters already spoken may not be changed.”
The spellers in the bleachers started whispering to each other. Chip could make out some small accounts of disbelief, joy (damn you Barfeé), indifference, and sadness from the others. He was out.
He could feel his chest tighten up. This was not happening.
“But that’s not fair! I spelled it right, I-I can’t get out on a word I spelled right!” Chip desperately replied. Mitch placed his hand on Chip’s shoulder. For someone whose job was to bring comfort, that was the most nerve wracking thing he could have done.
“Life is random and unfair.” Is all Mitch said as he held out a box of grape juice. How pathetic.
Chip slapped the juice box away and broke from his grasp, moving towards Miss Peretti and Mr Panch’s table. “I said two t’s, I won last year!”
Mitch had come up behind Chip and started pulling him towards the exit, probably a bit too aggressively.
Chip had gotten better at keeping his cool since he was a kid but in this moment all his progress was fruitless. He kicked and punched and shouted to be let back into the competition. At some point he had even managed to slip out of Mitch’s grasp and attempted to run back to his seat. But eventually, Chip had unfortunately ran out of luck.
Mitch practically had Chip in an arm lock to prevent him from running anymore. It was his last chance.
“Miss Peretti, can I have one more chance? Please.” Chip pleaded, desperation clear in his voice.
Mitch looked to Rona who had looked to Panch who had looked to Chip and then the bell.
‘Ding’.
He was out.
Mitch held out the grape juice box again and this time, Chip was too stunned to fight it. “Come on kid, let’s go.”
Chip solemnly walked down the rows shaking hands with Logainne, Olive, then hesitantly Marcy (who did not want to reciprocate it). The final speller left was Leaf. Way to add salt to the wound.
Chip held out his hand for him which Leaf promptly used to pull Chip into a tight unexpected hug.
It felt like Chip’s guts were being slowly squeezed out by the sheer force of it yet he almost wanted to lean further into it.
Despite how oddly comforting the hug was, Chip couldn’t keep his mind from wandering to the fact Marigold was watching this.
Chip instead of leaning in, awkwardly patted Leaf on the small of his back which thankfully the red head took as his cue to let go.
The Boy Scout apathetically waved his hand goodbye as Mitch walked him to the gymnasium doors and into the school’s hallway. Amongst the small farewells from the remaining spellers Chip could faintly hear Barfeé snicker from his seat. Chip was going to kill him the next time he saw him. But for now he figured he should have at least some dignity.
The gymnasium doors closed and there Chip was. All alone with a grape juice box (which he has always found the worst artificial flavor) and an erection. How great.
“Stupid. Stupid stupid stupid!” Chip grumbled as he repeatedly hit his head with his sad little juice box. “My parents are going to be so disappointed when they find out…”
Chip reluctantly flipped open his phone and dialed his mom’s phone number. It didn’t bother Chip much that his parents rarely came to his spelling bees since they were always supportive of him when he got home, but this was the first time Chip had majorly lost since nationals last year, and that was an exception.
He held the phone up to his ear as it rang. His mom picked up the phone after a few rings.
“Hello?” Her voice was muffled by some sort of movement on her half.
“Hi mom.” Chip spoke loudly, trying to make sure she could hear him over whatever she was doing.
“Oh hey sweetie, how did the bee go?” Her voice was chipper and the background noise had gone down severely.
“It uh…” He hesitated. Don’t let her down. “We are on our snack break right now.”
“How many people are still in the competition?”
He looked through the gym doors windows. Shwartzy, Barfeé, Ostrovsky, Park, Someone whose name he never caught, and Coneybear.
“Six spellers.” At least he wasn’t completely lying.
“Alright.” That seemed to make her happy enough. “You’re going to do great, sweetie just stay focused and keep your eyes on the prize, okay Charlito?”
“I’ll do my best!” Chip replied with a forced smile, cheering up his voice as best he could.
“That’s my boy! Remember, you are a winner in our hearts!”
“Right. I love you mom,” Chip smiled in spite of the slight pang in his chest from her words.
“I love you too. Call me when you’re done so I can come pick you up! Goodbye.”
Chip flipped his phone shut. He just stood there silently in the empty hallway thinking about everything that had just happened. He thought about Marigold. He thought about that stupid bell. He thought about that even more stupid Barfeé. He thought about his mom. He thought about Leaf.
Wait. Leaf.
Leaf and Marigold are siblings so getting close to one would mean getting close to the other by association. Leaf already liked Chip enough for the two to become friends decently easily. And besides the fit Chip had thrown in front of everyone, there was no reason that Marigold wouldn’t find him attractive!
Chip had decided his plan. Mission “become best friends with Leaf Coneybear then get together with his sister” was on. That title might need some workshopping.