Ships Ahoy!

The Couple(s)

A/N Below is the author's note I wrote back when I first published this chapter in mid-May. Decided to include it because I thought it was funny:

Here's an inside look at my brain right now, after writing this nearly 6,000 word chapter in less than 24 hours:

[deep breath] HHHHHRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

This has been an inside look at my brain. Thank you. Now continue reading.

If there was one thing Olive didn't like about getting back together with Oscar, it was that she now had to fake being exasperated with him.

See, both of them had agreed not to tell Otto about their newfound relationship. But in order to do that, they couldn't just immediately start acting friendly again after a whole year of trying to avoid each other. Neither of them were particularly happy about it—Oscar had to go with indifferent earnestness while Olive mild to moderate irritation—mainly because they had gotten tired of it when these were real feelings with a real reason behind them. And now that they had made up and gotten together, it was kind of a drag not to be able to express their excitement about it.

But as time went on, they found ways to be subtle. A couple weeks after Odd Todd made his big reveal but before he appeared again at the O Games, Olive and Oscar had the opportunity to test their acting abilities when Olive got flattened by Fladam. Right away, Oscar had to restrain himself from running over to see if she was alright—not only would it have looked suspicious to Otto, but it probably would have been genuinely annoying and patronizing to Olive. So he settled for methodically but slightly nervously selecting his 3D-inator and using it on her.

Unfortunately, due to the nature of the way she had been flattened, it didn't work. "Sorry, Olive," he sighed. "The only way to get you back is to get Fladam's 2-D glasses."

Otto gave him a look. "2-D?"

"The D stands for dimensions. When something is 3-D, it has three dimensions—height, width, and depth. Kinda like this cube here!"

Flat Olive narrowed her eyes. She didn't recognize the gadget he was holding.

Neither did Otto. "Cool! What does that thing do?"

"It holds my retainer," Oscar matter-of-factly answered.

Ohhh, right, Olive remembered. He got his retainer after his braces came off several years back.

Not that Otto knew Oscar had ever had braces. "Huh. I didn't know you wore one."

"Well, mainly at night, but my orthodontist would prefer if I wore one 24/7—"

"Ahem?" Olive got their attention again. Acting or no, they were getting off topic. So Oscar quickly went on to explain how Olive was 2-D and not 3-D, but none of it was helping anything. "Ugh, I'm so upset!" she cried, turning away.

Suddenly there were shouts of alarm from the boys. "OLIVE! WHERE'D YOU GO?!"

"Huh?" Olive quickly looked down at herself. Do they think I've turned invisible or something? I'm pretty sure I can still see myself.

"You just disappeared," Otto gasped.

What are they talking about? "No, I didn't disap—" Wait a minute, I think I know what's going on here. Sure enough, turning back to face them, she saw the relief on their faces. "I'm two-dimensional, remember? I have heighth and width, but no depth. That means I have no thickness. So when I turn, it's hard to see me."