Bibletar wordiness, a word, or not

(A short story by omoOlorun1)

At Brookfield Battlefront middle school I was very fond of the books at my library. I read a lot and sometimes I felt like I read way too much for my own sake. I would sometimes even go to the public library to read, sometimes I would stay there and read. Other times I would fill my backpacks with any books I could set my eyes on. 

“Don’t you think you have too many books in your bag?” Mrs. Bell chuckled one day.

“Not enough” I would always say. “All the more to keep me busy.”

 My English teacher Mr. Howard was fond of saying, “read, read, read, learn, learn, learn.” And that’s exactly what I did. I read books of varying reading difficulties and sometimes I would encounter words that I had never heard of. Sometimes I would have to open my dictionary like a kajillion times just to understand what the first chapter of a book I was reading meant. I loved reading, and because of this I naturally knew a lot of English words that many kids my age didn’t. As I walked up the flight of stairs that led to the second floor. I saw students gathering. I hurried to go see what the commotion was all about.

"Hey guys," said Tom. "Do y'all want to play some Bible.io?"

"What's Bible.io?'' asked Jeremy.

"Only the world's coolest game! " Tom replied.

"How does it work?" asked Britanny. 

As I looked around I started to realize that people had started getting pretty interested in this game. It seemed to me as if nobody had ever heard of this game before. It was new, and the feeling excited me. I started paying close attention to what Tom was saying. I was going to be completely honest with you. But I had absolutely no idea what this game was.

"You can compete with people from around the world. You want competition! Well you get competition!” remarked Tom.

“Yeah, and so how exactly do you compete?” Kaitlyn asked.

“Well, you have to answer questions from the Bible." Tom continued talking, but it seemed to me that as soon as he mentioned the word "Bible" people lost track and didn't really seem that at all interested anymore.  

I happened to live in America, specifically Alabama. Which was one of the most religious states around. But even though we had the highest population of Christians in the world. Even though more than half of our country was Christian. Not a lot of us were really passionate about it. Like I mean we went to church, but for some of us it was more of a weekly routine. And for others, it felt as though we were only there because of our parents. I read my Bible everyday. But some of my friends couldn’t really say the same because they seldom did. But then something happened.

"...and you can even make your own bibletars!" Shouted Tom,

"bibletar??" I muttered questioningly

"bibletar!" screamed Sarah. "But that isn't even a word!" 

Kids in the hallway started yelling, some yelled one thing, others yelled another. Everyone was getting so confused, I had never heard this word in my entire life and I was an avid reader. I was curious as to what it meant, but lots of people seemed frustrated.

"So what exactly is a bibletar?" Charlie laughed. I could tell he had a hard time trying to roll the word off his tongue. Nobody had heard of this word before, it was new. I kept trying to pronounce it. It was like pronouncing the world bible but then adding tar at the end. It was weird at first, but I quickly got used to it.

"a bibletar is a Bible trivia based gaming avatar that represents a Bible Trivia player in game. It also represents you in the bible.io hall of fame, leaderboard, and you’ll see it in quite a few.... " Tom said.

"blah, blah, blah" interrupted Kaitlyn. "Not a word!" She snapped

"You want to bet on it?" Tom smirked. The boys started to make some weird noises.

"I don't even have any money," said Kaitlyn, "besides, my mom said I should never make bets."

"I didn't mean with actual money, but let's say it is a word then you and everyone else have to play the game with me and if it's not a word then" Tom stopped talking and looked around. The girls started giggling and the boys started whistling.

"Why'd you stop Tommy boy!" Max called out! 

"And..." Tom paused again. And this time, it was a very big pause

"How bout this" started Jimmy. "Let's say you lose this bet then you have to write "I will stop lying about words that never exist" 1000 times on the white board before you can come out for recess again, as well as you'll also have to take over all the janitor's responsibilities for a month."

Some of the boys started cackling.

"And don't worry," George said. "We'll do you a favor and make the floors extra dirty!" All the boys started laughing and the girls snickered really hard.

"You have 2 days to prove that this nonsensical and stupid word actually exists. And it has to be in a dictionary! Or else you'll have to pay up!" Jimmy said. Jimmy laughed and everyone started walking away.

Tom looked worried. 

"What's wrong Tom?" I asked.

"Well, I know the word exists" Tom started, "on google at least but, I don't think it exists in any dictionaries" Tom started to look scared now. The dictionary deal was squeezed in at the end. There was no way he could've known they would have added that.

“That’s probably true, ” I answered. I had never heard the word before, the only problem was that I had never searched up for the word bible in a dictionary before, which was the closest word to bibletar that I knew. So it was kind of hard to know for sure whether bibletar was in the dictionary.

"Well is it possible to get the word in a dictionary or any dictionary at all?" I asked.

"It is" replied Tom, "but it's extremely hard." He replied.

"Well what's the first step?" I asked.

"Well, the word has to be added to the dictionary's watch list." Tom said.

"And how does that happen?" I asked.

"Well first of all, lots of people have to know the word and actually use it," Tom replied.

“Well, is that hard?" I asked.

"Kind of," said Tom. "But that isn't the main problem." Tom froze again. "It takes months, years in fact before words enter a dictionary, and this word was made yesterday!" 

Tom was almost screaming now, he looked really worried. Even though I knew a lot of words, I knew absolutely nothing about how they entered the dictionary or even the process at the very least. Tom was the smartest and brightest kid I knew, but I wasn’t sure if even he could get himself out of this one. 

"Well, it was nice knowing you" I said. "I guess you're our new janitor now and you'll be writing on those whiteboards forever."

“Brinnnggggg!” The bell rang,

“Well, time for us to head to class, don’t want to be late, right?.” I said,

“Yeah…” Tom answered. It seemed like he was onto something though.

“So, who can tell me what an onomatopoeia is?” Mr. Howard asked. Everyone in the class seemed clueless. “Ah, yes, Jack” Mr. Howard pointed.

Jack shrugged

“You mean you don’t know!” Mr. Howard’s smile had disappeared. He looked at Jack quizzically and raised an eyebrow.

“No sir” Jack replied.

“Then why were you raising your hand” Mr. Howard demanded,

“Well ummm… you see…” Jack blushed

“Look Jack, I don’t have any time for this tomfoolery of yours” Mr. Howard said sternly

“But sir” Jack cried

“I will have no buts in this class unless you accept to challenge my authority and that would mean, detention for you!” Mr. Howard bellowed. Mr. Howard wasn’t smiling at all. In fact he was frowning. And Jack seemed really scared. I could tell he did not want detention.

I raised my hand.

“Ahhh, yes Archer” Mr. Howard seemed delighted. He could always count on me to give him a satisfactory answer especially in English class.

“An onomatopoeia is sort of like a descriptory word but essentially it acts to portray a sound that a person, animal or thing could make. Such as words like “bringgg” the sound a bell makes, “ruff” the sound of a dog barking, or “thug” the sound of a kid falling on the ground”

“Thank you Archer, that is precisely what it is” Mr. Howard smiled. Mr. Howard continued his lecture. “You see students, words are very important and can be used in a variety of ways to convey different meanings.” Mr. Howard jumped from topic to topic and then he finally got to one that seemed quite interesting. 

“Students” Mr. Howard continued, “did you know approximately 5000 words are made each year and of those 5000 words only 20% are actually deemed deserving of entering the dictionary. Has anyone here in this class made a word before?” Mr. Howard looked around.

Jimmy stood up,

“Ahh, yes Jimmy” Mr. Howard was chuckling, he was surprised to see that Jimmy was actually participating in the class discussion.

“Umm sir, I believe our dear friend Tommy boy has something surely of utmost importance to say” Jimmy concluded.

Some of the boys started laughing, and banging their desks. The girls started whispering, then the class grew silent.

“Awkward” whispered one of the boys.

“Ummm, Tom, is this true?” Mr. Howard raised an eyebrow. He started slowly walking towards Tom’s desk. “Is this true Tom” Mr. Howard asked. “Are you a neologist?” 

Tom looked puzzled. “What’s a neologist?” He asked.

“Archer” Mr. Howard called

“A neologist is someone who frequently creates words” I answered. 

“Yes, a perfect example of this would be William Shakespeare” added Mr. Howard. “William Shakespeared was born in the year 1564 in Stratford, Warwickshire, in England. He was an English poet and he alone in his lifetime created 1700 words which are still in use even up until today!” Mr. Howard exclaimed, “so tell me Tommy boy, what was this new word you created?” Mr. Howard looked extremely pleased. He was meeting a neologist in the flesh!

The entire class bursted out into laughter. 

“Yeah tell him” Kaitlyn peeped,

“Yes, tell him, we’re all listening” Jimmy added.

The entire class erupted into chants, “TELL HIM, TELL HIM, TELL HIM” they chanted.

“Settle down everyone, no need to scream, I think he gets the message” Mr. Howard chuckled. At the very front of the class it said “always use your inside voice unless something exciting is happening.” Mr. Howard had rules and a few regulations in his class, some of which he allowed us to break occasionally but this time we weren’t actually breaking any rules.

“Well Mr. Howard” Tommy started. “I didn’t actually make the word.” Mr. Howard looked shocked, appalled in fact! 

“You didn’t make the word?” Mr. Howard asked, he looked very disappointed. 

“No” Tom replied.

“Then who did?” Mr. Howard,

“Well the truth is, I’m not entirely sure” Tom answered.

“But what is the word anyway? I’d like to hear?” Mr. Howard asked

“Bibletar” Tom answered.

“Bibletar, what is a bibletar?” Mr. Howard looked even more confused.

“Well it's sort of like an avatar, well it is actually an avatar, and it’s used in Bible Trivia games such as Bible.io also known as Bibleio. It represents players in games, it’s kind of like an ID card and it helps you recognize your opponents.” Tom finished off,

“Interesting” Mr. Howard said stroking his moustache. “Well I guess that settles it for class today, we’ve all learned something new” Mr. Howard said slowly, “including me.” 

"You look worried" said Tom's Dad. "What's the matter?" 

"Well..." Tom started. "I made a bet..."

"You made what!" Interrupted Tom's mom.

"A bet" Tom replied,

"Tommy Baker!" Screamed mom, slamming her fork on the table, "what have I told you about making bets!"

Tom's dad looked super calm, he ate a spoonful of lettuce and said. "It's true, my friend lost his entire house because of some stupid careless bet he made."

"Yeah but it wasn't with any money, it was more of me becoming school janitor for a month and having to write a sentence on the white board a thousand times."

"Oh, well at least you'll be able to brush up on your cleaning skills" Mrs. Baker laughed. Mr.Baker chuckled, but Tom still looked sad.

"Ohh, wait" Mr. Baker looked serious now. "What exactly was this bet about?" He asked.

Tom started to recall the list of events that took place this morning at Brookfield Battlefront middle school. He started with how he and the students gathered together in the hallway besides the lockers before the bell rang, and included the stuff that took place in English class. And continued with the new names given to him after class.

“And they won’t stop calling me “the kid who cried bibletar”” Tom said.

“Wait a second, I think I recognize that phrase, I mean the original, it’s from a book right?” Mr. Baker asked.

“Yeah, it’s from the book, “the boy who cried wolf”” Tom said sighing.

“Is that what all the kids call you now?” Mrs. Baker asked.

“Not all the kids but a whole bunch of them, and Jimmy was the one who started it” Tom answered.

“Oh right, Jimmy boy, the guy who’s always causing all the trouble.” Dad laughed, “that’s what bullies do, they’re always seeking to get the best of you.”

“So you really taught Mr. Howard a new word” Mrs. Baker asked,

“Apparently, he seemed really impressed, he even called me a neologist” Tom chuckled.

“A neologist?” Mr. Baker looked confused.

“Well yeah, a neologist” Tom said.

“Ohh, well umm… that word isn’t actually in my vocab yet.” Mr. Baker said admittingly. “So like, this all came from, I stand to be corrected but you said Bibleio? Is that like a game”

"Yup!" Tom answered,

"Show me" Mr. Baker said.

"Tom finished up his lunch, pulled up his laptop and showed Mr. Baker Bibleio.

"Wow, this looks pretty cool" Mr. Baker said. "Is this what gen z and gen alpha kids play?" He asked,

"Kind of" Tom replied. "It's not super popular right now. But if I do win this impossible bet somehow, then maybe the game could get a larger player base."

"True..." Mr. Baker said.

Mr. Baker made a bibletar. He had a black hat on, he was wearing formal, a yellow tie, a black blazer, a black moustache, and he was standing in front of the White House.

"Slick bibletar Dad" Tom said.

"Thanks," Mr. Baker looked very pleased with his creation. "So, you're trying to get this word into the dictionary?"

"Precisely" Tom answered.

"How?" Mr. Baker.

"It's a difficult process," Tom said.

"Well, it ain’t over, until it's over" Mr. Baker nodded his head. Tom’s Dad was fond of reciting wise words from old wise men. Today it was Yogi Berra. They weren’t all wise people but some of the stuff they said was wise sometimes. “For by thee I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall. ” - Psalms 18:29 

I decided to head to the public library that day. 

“Well, well, well, look who’s here” Mrs. Bell exclaimed.

“You aren’t really surprised to see me are you Mrs. Bell?” I asked,

“Not at all Archer, you come here all the time” Mrs. Bell answered. “You’re one of our top visitors here” she chuckled. “So, what’s it going to be today, a novel, comic, a DVD” she beamed.

“Umm no.  Sorry Mrs. Bell, no disrespect, but aren’t DVDs old school? Nobody uses those things anymore these days” I replied.

“True, but they’re still in sale today, although they aren’t incredibly popular, especially with the growing new generation” Mrs. Bell answered.

“Yeah, but I in fact am here for a dictionary. I want to take anyone I can get” I said.

“You want to take all of our dictionaries home?” Mrs. Bell asked, she looked alarmed.

“Umm no, that would be absurd” I laughed, “those dictionaries weigh like 10 pounds each. I just want to look at them.” I replied

“Oh, you almost made me jump out of my skin” Mrs. Bell, “well, you know where to find them.”

I started to walk away. The reason I had come here to the public library was because I wanted to see if perhaps, just maybe “bibletar” was a word. I wanted to look at each and every single dictionary, at each and every single word entry. Starting from the smallest even to the largest. I spent hours there. I sometimes even had to get a ladder just to reach some of the dictionaries at the top. We had some pretty big libraries here in America. They were grand! I kept flipping through the pages to get to the word “Bible” and every time I looked under I would usually see something like “Biblio-” or “Bibliography” by the time I got to the last dictionary. The Oxford Dictionary, I was sweating, it had over 600,000 words, 3,000,000+ quotations and it covered English words even ranging from today to  more than a 1000 years ago. I opened what felt like tons, I had to open it on the carpet floor. I flipped and flipped and flipped, and when I got to the word “Bible” I looked under and saw…

“Look Tom, I’m telling you the word doesn’t exist!” I said.

“Are you sure?” Tom asked

It was recess and Tom had gathered me and a few others, we meant business. We called ourselves the “gospel square club” because there were four of us and whenever we talked, we kind of made a square like shape and we loved sharing the gospel. We had all played Bible.io the day before. It was a great game, and Tom was one of the games staunchest supporters, he really wanted to promote the game. But the word had to exist in the dictionary. Even if Tom couldn’t promote the game, he would at least have to promote the word, which would still link back to the game, and at the end of the day Bibleio would be promoted. Tom loved sharing the gospel and for him this was one way of doing it. He saw opportunity and chance in this all. Our country was growing increasingly secular and many of the good old teachings in the Bible were being brushed aside. 

Most movies depicted the cool kids as the guys who got drunk, disrespected their parents, and smoked weed. And the kids who did well in class, went to church every Sunday and were obedient were seen as dumb and unintelligent. Tom had quickly noticed all this and shared this stuff with us, to him it seemed like a distraction. Like a slap in the face of Biblical teaching and church. It didn’t seem right to him.

“Look, I searched every dictionary in the library, even Oxford” I said, “but when I looked under the word “bible” I couldn’t find “bibletar”. I’m telling you the word doesn’t exist.” I finished.

“Maybe it doesn’t exist in the dictionary, but it exists on google” Clementine said.

“Yeah but that wasn’t part of the deal” Tom moaned.

“Yeah, Jimmy said it has to be in the dictionary” Emma added.

“Right” Clementine said, she looked a bit worried.

“Well I think Mr. Howard was right” Emma said.

“About what?” Tom asked.

“You are a neologist” Emma replied.

“I told you, I’m not. I didn’t make the word” Tom said

“But you’re trying to get it into the dictionary?” Emma said

“True” Tom said.

“So you kind of are,” Emma concluded.

“I guess” Tom said sulkily.

“Look Tom” I started, “you already said it takes years for words to get into the dictionary, and even Mr. Howard said that only 20% of the words that do become widespread and popular actually make it in. So we have 2 problems. Even if the word gets popular there’s only a 20 percent chance it’ll get in, like maybe years from now.”

“That's correct” Tom said.

“So basically what you’re trying to say Archer is that…” Clementine started, “Tom’s going to lose this bet.”

“Well yeah, that’s exactly what I’m trying to say” I said.

“You really want people to play Bible.io?” Emma asked. “Is that what they call it?”

“Well honestly, I think it has so many names” I said. “Bible.io, Bibleio, the game with the fake word, the immaculate Bibletar game” I finished off.

We all started laughing

“Yup” Tom answered. “I really I want people to at least give it a try, anything that’ll get people interested in the Bible again”

“And you have to win this bet in order to do so” Emma asked. Our group discussion started to turn into what looked like a crime interrogation, at least for Tom. We kept on asking him question, upon question, upon question.

“Exactly” Tom answered again. But this time Tom looked like he had an idea, and that’s when the bell rang.

“Tom, why do you look so happy, you’re not even going to win this bet?” I asked, but it was too late. Tom was running towards the school.

Emma and Clementine looked super confused. Why did he brighten up so quickly? 

“I think he has an idea” I said.

“But we already concluded, he can’t win!” Emma stated. 

“Yeah but you know Tom” I said. 

“You really think he’s going to win?” Clementine asked. 

“I don’t know, maybe he’s found a loophole, just maybe!” I beamed. “After all, his Dad’s a lawyer. 

The next day when Tom got to school. The kids gathered, the boys, the girls, and even some of the teachers. Mr. Howard’s presence was very notable. He was pretty tall, you couldn’t miss him. We all rounded up in the hallway. I was scared, I knew the word wasn’t in the dictionary since I had searched every single one. Well at least that’s what I thought. But to my surprise, Tom was holding a big fat book, it looked like none of the ones I had seen at the public library. I was guessing, maybe it belonged to his Dad. After all, every lawyer should have their own personal dictionary. Lawyers spend a lot of their time writing and reading so a good dictionary would come in handy. Some of the boys started muttering some stuff but I couldn't hear what they were saying.

"So" said one kid.

"Come on Tommy boy, open the book already" Sarah said.

Was the word really in the book that Tom was holding? I was completely flabbergasted, I had absolutely no idea what the outcome of today’s gathering would be. Would Tom really win the bet, would he successfully be able to promote Bibleio? All these questions bubbled in my mind as I watched.

But Tom delayed in opening the book, Jimmy smirked because he apparently knew who would be mopping the school floors now. And well, for the whiteboard, it would be covered in chalk. I was so scared, the pressure was too much. Even though Tom was my best friend, I didn't think bibletar would be in the book. That would be absolutely preposterous. I looked around at all the kids, some were smirking, others chatting, others were on their phones but my hands were sweating. 

“Let’s capture this moment” yelled Jennah. She made a camera shape with her fingers, “we’ll call it, Tommy Boy and his New Fake Word, “Bibletar” makes Headlines!” She screamed. Jennah’s mom was a newscaster for American National TV, she worked with Fox News.

"Come on Tom, open the book already" yelled Christopher.

"Yeah" Kaitlyn joined in.

“Let’s get the scoop, it’s gonna be Big, it’s gonna be mega, somebody get me my pencil, I need to journal this all and publish it for our school News Article” Jennah shouted. Kaylie, her personal assistant, rushed to go get Jennah’s writing equipment, since they wrote for Brookfield’s Battlefront Middle School News, they were always head on first to get the latest trending news. Word has spread big around the school, practically everyone was here.

“You want to make history Tom” Jimmy said mockingly, “let’s make history baby! Show us the book, or else you’ll be history!”

"Open it, open it, open it" yelled some of the boys. They were practically howling now.

"Well here goes nothing" Tom said. Tom took careful attention to open the book, but he was opening it super slowly like a sloth. 

"Ugghhh, we're gonna be here forever" Jimmy moaned.

I started to wonder, was this all part of the plan? Perhaps, if he opened it slowly enough and the bell rang, then maybe no one would win. Maybe that was his strat here. Alright! Tommy boy, way to go, I see you, right on! But then the atmosphere changed quickly. The look on Tom's face got serious. He started flipping frantically. When he finally got to the section "b", Jimmy shoved Tom and snatched the book from his hands. Jimmy started flipping to "Bi..."

"Hey! Careful with the flipping Jim, that book costs a fortune!" Tom snapped

Jimmy ignored Tom, he was known for his ruthlessness and carelessness. Once when our gym teacher Mr. Adams told him to open the gym door, he came back with the door's handle instead, the door was definitely open, well the knob of course. Jimmy got suspended for a day. I’ll never forget the look on Mr. Adams' face when Jimmy came back.

“You reckless boy, what were you thinking!” Mr. Adams screamed, “I’ll have you doing all the…” and I forgot the rest of what he said that day. 

The pressure was building up. I couldn't take it anymore, so I started to retreat. My eyes started to turn red, I don't know why but I couldn't believe what Tom had gotten himself into. He would be the talk of the entire school. Why did he even come to school today! He would be history now if the word wasn't in the book, so much fame would come with all the shame of this word not being in the book. Jennah would have him on the school’s new front page for sure.

I heard the kids behind me laughing as I retreated, I stopped dead in my tracks. I think I knew what the outcome of today’s gathering was, I didn’t need anyone to tell me. I continued walking away. At recess, the gospel square club met up again. And someone else was there as well. Well it wasn’t just someone it was some people. I almost fell off the bench. It was Jimmy! Not just him, but he and some of the others in his growing gang of bullies.

“The boy who cried bibletar” Jimmy said, “well I guess I’ll be having the last laugh! Ha!” Jimmy and his gang started laughing hysterically so hysterically that I started to wonder if they were okay. 

“Tom was smiling” which was what shocked me. He started laughing too and fell off the bench! 

“Tom” Emma asked, “are you okay?”

At this moment, Jimmy stopped laughing, he pointed at Tom and he gasped. Not just him but he and his gang. They started running away from Tom, all of them.

“One two three four, run away to the door, five, six, seven eight, I don’t know what to do mate!” Screamed one of the kids from the playground.

“Umm… Jimmy” I said gasping

“There’s… ummm…” joined Clementine

“A tarantula on your head!” Shrieked Emma. 

Tom wasn’t afraid of tarantulas one bit, he left and when he came back he was still smiling.

“Well I guess Jimmy Boy didn’t have the last laugh” I remarked. 

“Yeah, but even more importantly, why are you so happy?” Emma asked.

“Happy,” Tom said. “Because we did it!” Exclaimed Tom. It was at that moment that I realized Tom was holding something in his hand. Tom slammed it face down on the table for us all to see.

“Clementine read it out loud, “Tommy Boy and his New Fake Word, “Bibletar” makes Headlines””

“Wait Jennah published it already” Emma said half uncertain.

“Yup” Tom answered. “She sure did!” Tom opened his bag of chips and stuffed a handful into his mouth. 

“Yeah, well…” I started

“Read it!” Tom said. I didn’t like it when Tom talked with his mouth full, he rarely did that but it seemed like he really had something important to show us. 

We read the entire News Journal. We laughed as we read it. Some of the stuff was kind of funny but we still kind of felt sorry for Tom. 

“Okay so what’s your point” Clementine, “you made headlines, everyone in the school knows you but you still lost the bet, and well - people are going to continue to make fun of you” Clementine finished off.

“The boy who cried bibletar” Emma laughed. “Sorry” she said, “but it sounds so funny, kind of like the boy who cried wolf, if you get what I mean.”

“Look Tom, the gist is over, and I still don’t get it. You lost, what does this mean, and why are you so happy” I was puzzled. I knew Tom was smart, but he hadn’t won!  So why was he so happy?

And that’s when a very unexpected visitor came over. It was Mr. Howard.

“Well that’s the thing Archer” started Mr. Howard. “Tom did win, he really did” Mr. Howard stated.

“Huh” I thought, I was so confused.

“You see in life, winning isn’t really what makes you win” Mr. Howard said, “it’s about whether you accomplish your goal. You have to remember what your goal is, and when you achieve your goal, that’s when you win” Mr. Howard said.

And that’s when it hit me, I started piece by piece to unravel the mystery. I now knew why Tom was so happy.

“Tom, you’re a neologist!” exclaimed Emma.

“Yup” Tom replied. But that wasn’t really the reason why Tom was super happy. Yeah of course he made a new word, by making headlines on our schools’ News. He made headlines along with his word. And Jennah had documented everything, the word, the game by that I meant Bibleio or Bible.io whatever you call it. I didn’t quite get it at first, but I’m guessing yesterday when Tom ran away excited after our very unsuccessful and apparently useless meeting. Tom had cracked the case. He knew that whether he won or not, it would still technically be a win-win situation for him. 

The first thing he probably did was to spread the news around the school about his and Jimmy’s bet, yeah lots of people knew, but he wanted everyone to know including Jennah. He knew that this news was big, and news travels quickly, not good news. But bad news, he lost, was bad news. But he still technically wins. I learned that from my Dad. He told me

“Archer, people tend to like bad news more than good news, and that’s why people like to sometimes say, “bad news is as fast as light””

And that’s exactly what Tom was shooting for, that was the goal. He didn’t know it at the start. But he realized that the first step was to get the word in the dictionary’s watch list. And he told me how to do that. Lots of people need to know the word and use it. Jennah did her job, and now the entire school knew the word. Tom’s feat was so successful that his word actually made it into the school’s dictionary. And it didn’t just stop there. The kids in our school talked about the events so much that it spread, it was on the school’s news and it made so many headlines, with parents, pastors, and people across the country as well as online. I realized Tommy boy really did it after all.  

"Atta boy" I thought.

 Even though Tom had to write down, "I will stop lying about words that never exist" on the whiteboard a thousand times. Even though he was the school janitor for an entire month. Tom knew it was worth it. He made history, big time! The word bibletar made history after all. And maybe some day, it really will be in your very own dictionary!