P.T. wasn’t the only friend with trouble at home, as Glarn knew. Even if Olive’s troubles were often her own fault.

Olive Muenda had loving parents, a sweet little sister and a house near the local graveyard (Wicked!) where Glarn now knew actual space aliens had been buried (WICKED!). She kept mostly to herself at school, finding Glarn the only person worth talking to. He’d spent most of their childhood trying to get her to open up and make more friends. This however had brought its own set of complications with it.



“So there’s this kid next door, you know? Creon Nigmos? He’s in Willow’s grade. I went over and introduced myself, like you told me to. He seemed nice enough, just way too young to actually, you know, talk to him about anything at all.”

That was Olive’s main problem summed up neatly. She was very smart for her age, probably smarter than Glarn, even if he hated to admit this. She was also really bad at getting along with people who didn’t share whatever her current interest was. This summer it had been bugs. Presumably, Creon did not know or care about how many different species of bugs you could find around Strangetown and what characteristics you could use to distinguish them.



“So you made a new friend and couldn’t talk to him. What then?”

“Isn’t that obvious? I brought Willow. I mean, they’re both little kids, she’s an airhead, he’s an airhead, I thought they’d get along well.”

“Olive…”

“What?”

Glarn was the first to admit that he had some strange hobbies himself, but he’d never let that stop him from talking about other things. And he understood that some people didn’t care about spaceships - or bugs - but that didn’t make them stupid. Olive’s little sister wasn’t an airhead, she was just a little girl who cared more about her dolls than her books. So, perfectly normal then.



“So what did you do when you were surrounded by airheads? That must have been a horrible experience for you.”

“Stop making fun of me!”

“Okay, okay. Just wondering why you kept going there if it was all airheads.”

“They’ve got this huge pool!”

“Olive…”

“What? So, we pretty much spent the whole summer in Creon’s pool. It was even fun. You know how it is, I can’t talk to Wiwi but she’s still good for playing games. It was the same with Creon.”



“I’ll count that as progress.”

“Creon’s dad taught me how to play chess, so I had things to do even when the kids were watching that stupid show with the bunnies. I still can’t believe Creon loves this thing.”

“Wait, you mean Social Bunny Party? Isn’t that for toddlers?”

“Wiwi never stopped watching it.”

…Okay, so maybe there was something airheadish about Willow.

“Oh wow. But anyway, sounds like you had fun, doesn’t it? And you made a friend? That’s good, right?”

“…Yeah…”



“But Dad wanted to meet Creon’s parents. And…”

“What’s wrong?”

And that’s when Olive dropped the bomb.

“I think he’s in love with Mrs. Nigmos now.”



Glarn jumped up. “Wait. Wait wait wait wait. Hang on. Are you sure?”

Mistake #1. You didn’t ask Olive if she was sure. Olive was absolutely sure of anything she said.

“I can tell.”

“Olive, you can’t just say things like that randomly. You need proof.”

Glarn rattled his head, trying to find some way to calm Olive down long enough to avoid anything drastic. He knew that she was really bad at reading people’s intentions. She knew that he knew.

“I can tell! Isn’t that enough proof?”

Which made her defensive. Crap.



“Of course not! She’s too busy making googly eyes at Creon. And in the meantime, Daddy makes googly eyes at Mrs. Nigmos and it’s disgusting!”

Glarn sighed. She’d obviously argued herself into a dead-end here. “Now you’re just…”

“You know what I’m gonna do? I’m gonna tell Mom about this! She deserves to know what a disgusting person Dad is!”



“Are you crazy? Olive, there’s no way she’ll believe you! I don’t even know if I should believe this!”

“So you’re calling me a liar?”

“I think that maybe you’re seeing things that aren’t there! Maybe there’s really nothing going on here!”

“So you’re calling me a liar!”

“Listen, Olive, just wait for a bit and then…”

“No! I’ll tell Mommy and then you’ll see!” Olive stormed off. If Glarn hadn’t known better, he could have sworn that she was close to crying. But Olive never cried.



Olive Muenda was as good as her word. As soon as she got home, she went straight to her mother and told her all about her father and Mrs. Nigmos.

Lerato listened to her daughter’s story, then sent her to her room without saying anything.



A while later, Willow snuck in and glared at her older sister.

“Mommy and Daddy are fighting because of what you said. I hope you’re happy!”

“I am. Dad has done something bad.”

“Well I’m not! Daddy promised to take me to the park today, but now he and Mommy are busy yelling at each other! Why do I have to be punished because you tell lies?”



Olive jumped up from her bed.

“I’m NOT lying!”

“Daddy says you are and I believe Daddy! He says you made up some nasty rumours!”

“What? He’s the one that’s nasty!”

“Don’t call Daddy nasty!”

“I’ll call him whatever I want!”

“I hate you! Now Mommy and Daddy will get a divorce because of you and your stupid lies!”



Willow started to cry when their mother entered the room. “Willow, I need to speak to your sister for a moment.”

“…Are you and Daddy still angry?”

“We’re not angry, sweetie. Now go play in your room.”

“…Okay.” Willow wiped her tears off and left.



What followed was a long lecture. About how Olive had said a very bad thing. About how it wasn’t true. About how she shouldn’t say things like that ever again. About how her parents loved each other very much. About how they loved her very much too and couldn’t understand why she’d say mean things like this.



Olive listened quietly. Finally, when her mother asked if she’d understood, she said yes. She said that she knew what she’d said was wrong. She promised to never say it again.

Her mother believed her father. Willow believed her father. Even Glarn believed her father. Willow’s sobs still echoed in her ear, when she’d talked about their parents getting divorced.

Olive told her mother that she was sorry. She then went to her father and told him she was sorry.

It was the first lie that Olive Muenda had ever told.


Poor Olive. She's not completely wrong. Peponi Muenda and Hecate Nigmos have a three-bolt-attraction, which is where that storyline came from. Funny enough, the neighborhood seems to write the story by itself sometimes with things like this. There's a whole story about a minor character that only started because of something the game did.

Coming up next: Happy children! (Because we really need them)