Lollie Parker

"Graduation and awards night is coming up. I am very proud of this class. Several of you will be recognized for your achievements throughout the year." Mr. Matthews said.

"Awards are a scam! A girl like me never had a chance, Matthews. Never had a chance." Maya said standing up.

Lollie knew she wasn't gonna get along with Maya anytime soon so if Maya's not gonna make an effort why should she.

"All right, I'll do it, but it's ridiculous." Riley stood up, "It's a scam, Matthews! She never had a chance!"

"Maya will be receiving the Griff Hawkins Totally Cool Award."

She didn't respond, "Maya, you just found out you won the Totally Cool Award, yet you just sit there?" Riley asked, "Oh, you're being cool. Why won't you rub off on me?"

"And our two finalists for the Scholar-Athlete Award are Lucas Friar and Billy Ross."

"I hope you're ready for some competition, dude." Billy said.

"Oh, well, you know how I hate competition." Lucas said.

"Not again." Lollie muttered hitting her head on the desk.

"Hey, Golden Boys, you wanna hop down from your cloud of awesomeness? You're making us normals feel bad." Maya said.

"Yeah. Right after our handshake of awesomeness."Billy told her.

"Every day." Maya said turning back around.

"Girls should have their own handshake of awesomeness." Riley said.

"What would it be?" Maya asked.

The two crossed our legs and flipped their hair.

"Stop it."

"I'm dying." Lollie said banging her head on the desk.

"Farkle, you are being awarded the Joseph T.R. Epstein Confidence Award. Congratulations. Farkle?" Mr. Matthews questioned.

"Farkle can't come to his desk right now. If you have a question for Farkle, say, "One;" a comment, say, "Two;" billing questions, "Three."" The microphone said.

"One. Where are you?"

"You have selected "Three.""

"No, I said, "One.""

"Sorry, we are experiencing unusually high call volume. Your call will be answered in approximately..." The machine said but it stopped and changed tones.

"Thirty-five..."

"Minutes." Then the machine goes off.

"Representative! What is this? Farkle's never missed a class in his life." Mr. Matthews said.

The bell went off and Riley stopped to talk to Lollie.

"Lollie?"

"Riley."

"Aren't you upset about not getting an award?"

"Not really. Awards are great and all but I don't really need them to feel successful."

"But they show how great you are."

"Not everyone is that great."

Lollie put her bookbag on and smiled at Riley who sent one back.

"But hopefully you get yours." Lollie told her.
﹏﹏﹏﹏

Lollie sat in her spiny chair and she heard a knock on her window.

"It's open!"

The window slid up and Farkle sat down.

"Hey."

"Let's talk Farkle."

"About?"

"Farkle you're smarter than me, you know why you're here."

Lollie pushed her chair towards Farkle and put her hands on his knees.

"Is someone bothering you?"

"Is someone bothering you?" He asked her.

"No."

Farkle let out a sigh, "If you're not gonna tell me what's wrong I'm not gonna tell you."

With that, he left.
﹏﹏﹏﹏

"Gandhi. What'd he do?" Mr. Matthews asked.

"Freed Ireland." Maya said.

"Try again."

"Freed Ireland." She repeated.

"Freed India." He said.

"Before or after he freed Ireland?" She asked.

"Jackie Robinson. What'd he do?" He asked.

"First guy to play in the major leagues after Gandhi freed 'em." Billy joked.

"I- I quit." Mr. Matthews stuttered.

"But you can't quit, sir!" Farkle said through the machine.

"And you need to be in my class, Farkle. How long are you gonna be out sick?" Mr. Matthews asked.

"Don't know. Pretty bad cold, sir." Farkle coughed.

"Okay. Feel better. What about her?" Mr. Matthews asked pointing at the picture.

"Malala." Lollie said.

"The Taliban doesn't think that women should be educated. She stood up to them and became the first teenager ever to be nominated for a Nobel Peace prize." Riley continued, "Yeah teamwork."

Riley stuck her hand out for a high five.

Lollie was hesitant but she gave her a high five anyway.

"Sometimes the world presents you with opportunities to show who you really are. Will you have the courage to stand up to someone who tries to take your spirit away?" Mr. Matthews asked.

Lollie didn't bother raising her hand, she bolted out of the classroom.
﹏﹏﹏﹏

Lollie took a step into the janitor's closet and sat down next to Farkle.

"Farkle we're friends right?"

"Yeah."

"If I tell you what's wrong with me, you have to tell me what's wrong with you okay?"

"Okay."

Lollie sighed, "Maya will probably never ever be my friend no matter what happens but I want her to leave me alone. I'm willing to be friends with her if it means I can hang out with you, Riley, and Lucas."

Farkle smiled at Lollie and she returned it.

"Billy Ross said I'm the biggest nothing in the school."

"Farkle, you're the smartest, most brightest person I know and I recently just met you and that's saying a lot." Lollie smiled, "Billy Ross is the real nothing and I might not be the strongest but I'll take a hit for you because we're friends."

Farkle looked at Lollie and hugged her.

"Thanks."

"No problem, now I've gotta go."

She opened the door and shut it with Maya, Riley, and Lucas behind her.

"Thanks for talking to him." Riley said.

"But we don't need you here anymore." Maya told her.

Maya walked up to her, face to face with Lollie.

Lollie clenched her jaw and looked between Lucas and Farkle, "I was just leaving."

﹏﹏﹏﹏

Lollie was in gym class and she didn't hate it but she didn't love it either.

She was better at volleyball than any other sport.

"Hey." Lucas said sitting down beside her.

"Hey." She replied with a smile.

"What did you tell Farkle?"

"That he's a nice guy."

"That's all?"

"Look, Farkle is my friend and he shouldn't be hiding because Billy Ross thinks he's better than everyone else."

"I'll be back." He said and walked over towards Maya and Riley.

Lollie looked over and saw Lucas push Billy against the padded wall.

Lollie stood up and rushed over.

"You're the one who did this to Farkle? Why would you do that to a guy like him?" Lucas asked, yelling in Billy's face.

"I don't know. 'Cause, he's a guy like him. You wanna let me go now?" He asked.

"You're the nothing, Billy!"

As the two went back and forth, Maya jumped on his back.

"You really mean that?" Farkle asked.

Lollie looked up and saw him dangling from the rope.

"You're my best friend, too!" He said.

"Farkle, how'd you get up there? I thought you couldn't climb the ropes." Lucas asked.

"I can't! But in desperate situations, apparently, I can fly!" He said.

Lollie ran over and pulled the mats with Riley and Maya.

Once they finish, Farkle fell down from the ropes and Lollie helped him up.

"Thanks."

"Anytime." Lollie told him.
﹏﹏﹏﹏

Lollie sat on the couch with Mariah and Noah on either side.

Someone knocked on the door and the three looked at each other.

"Nose goes!" They shouted but Noah was last.

"I always lose." He said walking towards the door.

"Lollie, it's Riley."

Lollie stood to her feet and saw Riley at the door.

"Can we talk?"

Lollie looked back at her siblings then back to Riley.

"Follow me."

Riley took a step into the apartment and followed Lollie upstairs.

"I like your room."

"Thanks. Why are you here?"

"Well, we're doing this thing at school tomorrow where we write our flaws on our forehead."

"This is for Billy isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Thanks for letting me know."

Riley smiled, "I wanna be friends."

"I know."

"Then let's hang out. You, me, and Maya."

"Maya?"

"Yeah."

"I'll think about it."
﹏﹏﹏﹏

"What's going on?" Mr. Matthews said walking inside his classroom.

"Riley made us write on our heads!" Darby said with the word "tattletale" on her forehead.

"Riley?" He questioned.

"Insecure. It's always mattered more to me what my friends think about me than what I think."

"Maya?"

"Broken, When I own it, it doesn't make me feel so bad."

He took a breath before looking at Lollie who had the word, "lonely.".

"Lollie?"

"I moved to here thinking this place was different... but I guess not."

He sighed once again and continued on, "So, before someone can use our own flaws against us, maybe it would help us to admit we all have 'em."

Billy's eyes wandered around the room before he took it upon himself to leave.

"You going somewhere, Mr. Ross? Trying to be invisible?" Mr. Matthews asked.

"Believe me, it doesn't help." Farkle said lifting his bang out to reveal, "nothing.".

"You know, Billy, you seem to be the only one here not wearing a flaw. Do you not have any?" Mr. Matthews asked.

"Well, none I know of." Billy stated.

"I can name a few." Lollie told him.

"What made you treat Farkle the way you did?" Maya asked.

"Yeah. We never thought of you this way, Billy." Riley said.

"I always thought of you as the good guy." Lucas sighed.

"Look, I like people who are like me. Is that a flaw? Because I don't think so." Billy asked.

"Yes." The class said.

"You don't think I know I'll never be a genius freak like you? I shouldn't make fun of that?" Billy asked Farkle.

"No."

"Stop making me feel bad. I already feel bad enough you got such great friends. And that makes me feel I don't know. Is there a word for that?" Billy asked.

"Jealousy is very keen of you." Lollie said.

"But you're Billy Ross!" Riley shouted.

"Yeah. I'm Billy Ross. Jealous of you? Of him? Because this little guy doesn't need to hit a baseball to... have friends? Does that sound like jealousy to you?" He asked.

Lollie held the black marker in her hand twirling it around her fingers.

"Let me see that." Billy said and Lollie gave him the marker.

Billy walked over towards Farkle and gave him the marker.

Farkle stood up and wrote "jealous" on his forehead.

"Welcome to the team." Riley told him.

"Thanks. Glad to be here."

"We're all human beings. We're all on the same team. And if we sense our own flaws because we see them in others. It's true friends who help us wipe them away." Mr. Matthews said.

Riley wiped the flaw off of Maya's forehead and Maya does the same.

Lucas tapped on Lollie's shoulder and she looked back.

"Want me to wipe your flaw?"

"Not yet."

"Why? You have Farkle and myself and possibly Riley."

Lollie sighed, "Yeah, I do, but there's one other person that would not make me feel as lonely anymore."
﹏﹏﹏﹏

"Well, we've given out our award for confidence... cool..." Mr. Matthews said as Farkle lifts his award up in the air.

"'Sup?" Maya said.

"...And we've acknowledged our scholar-athlete." Mr. Matthews.

"Jealous?" Lucas said showing the award to Billy.

"Yeah, but I'm working on it." Billy told him.

"You okay, Riles? I know getting an award was a big deal for you." Maya asked.

"I'm okay. Really." She said.

"And now for our final award for the evening. The John Quincy Adams Spirit Award goes to the student with the courage to stand up for what they believe in and changes for the better. Now the award is voted on by the student body, so we have no idea in advance who will win." Mr. Matthews said, "Huh. Proud. Riley Matthews."

"Maya, how do I act cool about this?" Riley asked.

"You? Just be who you are." Maya said.

"Yay!" She said.

"You okay?" Lucas asked Lollie.

"Awards are stupid anyway. Who needs them?"

"I could think of a few."
﹏﹏﹏﹏

Word Count: 1912

Episode: Girl Meets Flaws

Pages: 32

Hey! Kill me