Here's to Words That Tell The Truth

Olivia was lying on the couch flipping through channels. She had been lying there for over an hour attempting to find something to watch. She sighed as she settled on MTV to watch some reality show that she knew would remove brain cells if she watched it too long.

A few minutes later, her little brother ran down the stairs, smiling when he saw her on the couch. “Liv! Mom gave me this list of words my teacher wants us to be able to spell by the first day of school. Can you help me please?” Ryan, a month away from being a fourth grader, asked as he stood in front of his sister.

“I guess I can Ryan.” Liv answered as the doorbell rang. “I’ll be back in a minute.” She yelled over her shoulder as she dragged herself off the couch and made her way towards the front door.

Both of her parents were off at work, leaving her stranded at the house to watch her little brother. She was sure it was another neighbor coming to introduce themselves with some sort of baked good. The people in Tempe were too nice, something Olivia wasn’t used to. Where she was from, you went on with your own life, not taking mind of anyone else’s unless they meant something to you.

She opened the door to see five smiling faces. “Oooollliiiivvvvaa!” John yelled as he pushed past Kennedy to throw his arms around the small blonde.

It had been a week since Kennedy had ran her over with his skateboard, and consequently since she met his four best friends.

“I think you need to come meet the guys.” Kennedy announced, grabbing her wrist and tugging her slightly towards the house across the street.
Olivia felt awkward as she followed Kennedy across the street. The boys were still lounging in the yard, curiously watching her and Kennedy. The boy with the mullet winked at her, laughing as a blush spread across her face.

“Olivia” Kennedy motioned towards the boys sitting on the grass in front of them, “these are the boys. John,” he pointed to the boy with the mullet, “Jared,” the ginger smiled slightly, raising his hand to wave, “Pat” the boy with the long hair and baby face smiled and nodded, “and Garrett,” the boy with the copper colored hair waved at her.

Kennedy sat down on the grass with the rest of the guys and Olivia stood awkwardly, not knowing if she should sit down with them or make up an excuse to go home. “Sit down!” John bellowed, reaching up to grab her hand, yanking gently until she sat down in between him and Kennedy.

“So are you training for the Olympics or what? You ran past here a good five or six times in the last hour.” Jared laughed slightly as they waited for her to answer.

“I uh, I just wanted to get out of the house I guess.” She mumbled, shyness overcoming her. She didn’t have many guy friends back home, just the boys that her friends dated everyone now and then.

“Dude, you’ve been running since like nine this morning. That’s insane!” Pat yelled, causing Olivia to laugh quietly.

“Well my house is… is kind of chaotic right now.” She answered, the boys nodding in understanding.

“Well you have us now. We were thinking of replacing Pat anyway. He’s not as attractive a girl as you are.” John stated simply, ignoring the look of shock that came over Olivia’s face.

Conversation flowed easily after that; the boys asked about the move and where she was originally from. She learned that John, Kennedy and Jared were all seniors like her, and Garrett and Pat were a year behind them.

They hung out for a few hours after that, moving from Pat’s front yard to Garrett’s house down the street so they could play videogames.

She stood up to leave a little while after the sixth round of Left 4 Dead started, stating that she probably needed to be home before her mom freaked out. The boys all announced they were walking her home, and a while later she stood on her front porch, all their phones out as she programmed their numbers into her phone.

“We’ll be seeing you around Liv.” Kennedy announced, hugging her quickly before the guys all waved their goodbyes.


“What are you guys doing here?” She asked as she stepped into the house, signaling the five boys to follow her.

“We were bored so we decided to crash the wild party that seems to be happening at your place.” Garrett answered making his way into the living room.

Ryan was sitting on the couch as the six of them walked in. “Liv! I thought you were going to help me with my words!” He shouted as he spotted the five boys standing next to his sister. “This isn’t fair!”

“Hey, we can help you if you want us to?” Kennedy suggested, smiling as Ryan nodded his head quickly, excited that his sisters friends were offering to hang out with him.

“What is it exactly that you have to do?” John asked, flopping down on the couch.

“My teacher wants us to be able to spell the twenty words on the list before school starts!” Ryan answered smiling at the older boys around him.

“We could do a spelling bee.” Pat suggested as everyone around him nodded their heads in agreement.

“I’ll be judge!” Liv announced quickly, grabbing the list from Ryan’s hands.

The six boys sat themselves down on the couches, smiling as they anticipated the game that was about to start.

“Okay Kennedy you’re up first.” Liv announced as Kennedy stood up from his seat. “Your first word is argue.”

“A-r-g-u-e!” Kennedy spelled smiling as Liv nodded.

“Okay Ryan, your word is hero.”

The younger boy stood up from the couch, and squinted his eyes in concentration as he spelled. “H-e-r-o.”

“Good job!” Liv announced, and she smiled as her friends clapped excitedly for her brother.

Garrett was next up, and he shoved his hands in his pockets, rocking back and forth on his heels as he waited for Liv to give him his word. “Elephant.” Liv announced and Garrett smiled confidently.

“E-l-e-p-h-a-n-t.”

“He only knows how to spell that because his mom’s one.” John mumbled causing Jared to start cracking up laughing.

Garrett shot John a glare before grabbing the throw pillow on the couch and tossing it at John’s head.

“Jared it’s your turn!” Liv announced, trying to keep a massive pillow fight from exploding. Jared stood up quickly, hitting John in the back of the head as he did so. “Your word is celebration.”

“C-e-l-b-r-a-t-i-o-n.” Jared spelled, sitting back down on the couch as Liv nodded at him.

“Pat! It’s your turn! Your word is neither.” Liv announced and Pat smiled as he quickly spelled the word. Liv nodded to him and turned her attention to John after Pat had sat back down.

John quickly stood up smiling as Liv looked at the list of words in front of her. “Okay John, your word is handkerchief.”

“Are you fucking joking me?” John yelled earning a glare from Liv. “Everyone else gets easy words and you give me handkerchief! You’re just cruel.”

“John, just spell the word!” She yelled, laughing as Ryan rolled his eyes from the couch.

“H-a-n-d-k-e-r-c-h-e-i-f.” He spelled, smirking at Liv the entire time.

“And John Ohh is the first one out!” Liv yelled laughing as John glared at her.

“It’s because you gave me the hardest fucking word!” John yelled throwing himself down on the couch in anger.

Everyone laughed at John’s temper tantrum and soon enough, John was joining in on the laughter.

“Really John, you write songs and you can’t spell handkerchief. It’s kind of sad.” Jared pointed out, laughing as John flipped him off.

They quickly continued their spelling bee. Olivia read the words off to the boys, and one by one the number dwindled down. After an hour only Kennedy and Ryan remained in the spelling bee, and once Kennedy misspelled requirements it was Ryan’s turn to spell it.

“R-e-q-u-i-r-e-m-e-n-t-s!” Ryan spelled, his fingers crossed by his sides, praying he got the word spelled right.

The boys and Olivia cheered as she told him he was the winner of the spelling bee.

The boys decided to stay longer, everyone deciding to watch a movie. As the opening credits rolled across the screen, Olivia sighed contentedly, happy that she had found friends here.