Chapter Text
Fifth Grade has
got
to be the stupidest thing ever invented. JT and Cash were still in his class and meaner than ever, math was so much harder and to top it off?
Gwen
now attends his school. Same class and everything. Sure, Ben loved her, that’s his cousin after all. But it sure didn’t make her any less annoying. And after spending an entire summer with her? Ben was actually looking forward to some time away from the know-it-all dweeb. She even sat next to him in class. All-day, next to geeky Gwen Tennyson. And she wouldn’t even let him copy off of her papers! What was even the point?
Ben missed the summer. Touring the world in the Rust Bucket with Grandpa Max, when it was Hero Time all the time. And the Omnitrix… Well, Ben couldn’t bring himself to put the watch back on after losing Feedback. And of course, nothing interesting ever happens in Bellwood, so there wasn’t a reason to wear it anyway. Still, Ben missed being important. Being somebody. Not just some loser nobody who’s only good for getting hung from a tree by his underwear.
Gwen on the other hand? She was loving fifth grade. She wasn’t popular, but she had a small group of friends that she spoke to every day. Emily White and Julie Yamamoto would squeal about boys and study together every afternoon, as well as decorate their journals with stickers at recess. Emily’s father had also been transferred to the same law firm as Gwen’s, and they both moved to Bellwood. Meeting Julie on the first day of school, the three of them became inseparable in these past few weeks. Their first sleepover was soon, and the girls couldn’t stop talking about it. Karaoke, ice cream, magazines, movies… the whole package. All Gwen needed to do was buy the rest of the spa stuff and makeup and they’d be all set for the big weekend.
Ben sat down next to Gwen in class as she was going over the sleepover list in her notebook.
“Still excited about your lame girl party?” He remarked with an eye roll.
“Yes,” Gwen answered, “and it’s not lame. You wouldn’t understand, it’s girl stuff.” A girly huff left his cousin’s lips, underlining ‘makeup’ in pink, glittery gel pen.
“And I wouldn’t wanna understand. You don’t even have videogames on that list! That’s why it’s lame.”
“Video games are a waste of time, especially when there are more productive things that require my attention,” Gwen responds, now turning to face Ben.
“Earth to Gwendolyn,
nothing
is more important than video games! And now I have all the time in the world to catch up on the ones I missed.” Ben exclaimed, rather offended at his cousin’s choice of words. The ones he understood, anyway. Gwen was always sort of a brainiac.
The exchange between the Tennyson cousins was cut short once class began, and the day was rather uneventful from there. During snack, Cash sprayed Ben with a juice box, forcing him to head off to the bathroom and clean himself up. But at least he didn’t get his tray dumped on him come lunchtime.
The cafeteria was huge and intimidating, especially since fifth graders shared lunch periods with the sixth graders. And sixth-graders were nasty. Almost middle-school-aged, they were practically adults. And they ran the school with an iron fist, even JT and Cash couldn’t measure up to sixth graders. Ben wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not, and he really didn’t wanna find out. Dropping his tray on top of an empty table, Ben sat down and began sorting through his lunch for anything even remotely edible. You’d think this food would taste better after having to suffer through Grandpa Max’s disgusting alien cuisines all summer, but no such luck.
Ben settled for just eating his apple and drinking his carton of chocolate milk when a tray was oh so delicately placed down next to him.
“I think we should go with pink nail polish and blue eyeshadow.” Gwen discussed, setting down another tray of slop across from her own.
“I still think we should have blue nail polish and pink eyeshadow,” Julie countered, sliding one of the chairs away from the table after placing her own tray down.
“Why not both? We have two whole nights to experiment.” Emily suggested, rolling her chair up to the spot Gwen and Julie had provided for her.
Emily is paraplegic, meaning she’s wheelchair-bound. Paralyzed from the waist down, is how Gwen explained it to Ben when he asked. The girl with blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes was never seen around the school without either Julie or Gwen to aid her in her day-to-day life. Though she would get really angry if anyone tried to push her chair without asking. Ben didn’t understand why, but he respected it anyway. Having a girl angry at him was the last thing he needed. Especially since Emily wasn’t his main focus.
It was Julie Yamamoto. Julie’s last name was difficult for Ben to pronounce, and he made the idiot mistake of calling her ‘Yummy-Motor’ on the first day. JT and Cash have taken to referring to her by that name, now, and Julie is still upset about it. Upset at Ben, which he also didn’t quite seem to grasp. Why not be mad at JT and Cash, who were the ones saying it all the time?
Girls were a mystery. But even so, Ben wouldn’t complain about the three at his table. Not if it meant he could sneak glances at Julie. She was an upcoming tennis star, and her short black hair that perfectly framed her face wasn’t even messed up by the dorky visor she sometimes wore during her matches. Not that Ben really cared about her tennis matches, he was dragged along by Gwen a few times when he was forced to spend afternoons with her while his parents were working a few extra hours.
Something about Julie made Ben want to stare at her. He didn’t know what it was. Her eyes were unusual for people around Bellwood, probably because of her Asian descent. Most of Bellwood was made up of white folks, so Julie already stood out. But that wasn’t a bad thing, not in Ben’s eyes. It wasn’t like he had a crush on her or anything, that’s gross. But the pink hoodie she wore every day almost seemed to compliment the rose tint in her cheeks. Maybe.
“What do you think, Ben?” Emily asks, freeing the boy from his daze.
“Huh?” He asks, eliciting a laugh from Emily and Gwen, and an embarrassed huff from Julie.
“I said, what do you think about Ms. Arnold?” Emily repeated. Ms. Arnold is their main teacher, a slim woman in her thirties or so with long brown hair always neatly kept in some sort of updo.
“Oh,” Ben thought for a moment before answering, “she’s alright, I guess. Better than Mrs. Davids from last year. A lot less strict. And old.”
Gwen rolled her eyes at Ben, something he’s come to expect from her. “I heard Mrs. Davids was super sweet, and you were just a major doofus in class.”
“Takes a doofus to know a doofus.” Ben shot back.
“I’m not a doofus, doofus!” Gwen gasped, fingers curling inwards to form fists.
“Anyway…” Julie interrupted, grabbing out some girly magazine from her backpack and flipped to a page about 5 Squad. A stupid boy pop band that all the girls listened to and fawned over. Even Gwen. “I hear they might be touring to Bakersfield, which is only an hour away!”
Ben immediately covered his ears, knowing full well the assault on them that was about to happen. The three of them squealed, piercing through Ben’s shielding hands.
“And they told teenzine??” Emily asked, taking the magazine to look over.
“It would be amazing if we could get tickets! Though I doubt my parents would ever let me go. School night.” Gwen pointed out, leaning over the table to observe the magazine.
“Right…” Emily deflated.
“Well, now that I’m hard of hearing,” Ben scoffed, standing up with his tray, “I think that’s my cue to leave.”
Gwen just waved him off, uncaring. “Whatever.”
Girls were impossible. Yesterday they were squeaking about the upcoming school dance, now it’s boy bands. Never anything interesting like Sumo Slammers or Monster Truck Rallies.
As the recess bell rang, Ben sighed and made his way out to the playground. Recess should be fun for a ten-year-old, but not if you don't have any friends. Even dorks like Clark and Peterson wouldn’t speak to him. Just narrowly avoiding JT and Cash, Ben made his way towards a half-deflated soccer ball to just kick around to pass the time. The ball didn’t go very far, seeing as it barely held any air inside it. But it was better than nothing, wasn’t it? Ben felt like there was nothing. Nothing to look forward to, nothing to be excited about anymore. That new Sumo Slammers game still wasn’t out until Christmas, and the new Monster Mayhem movie wasn’t in theaters for another month. Everything was boring. Boring and lame and dull and boring.
When the day finally came to an end, Ben finally home from school, he collapsed face down onto his bed. A muffled groan was released from deep in his lungs, and Ben felt exhausted. Mentally, anyway. He hadn’t done much physically. And maybe that was the problem. The transition from action-packed summer to boring fifth grade was agonizing. It wasn’t long before he found himself sitting on the floor of his messy closet, staring inside the old shoebox that held the Omnitrix. Even if he put the watch back on, there would still be nothing to do. It seemed as if all the threats had disappeared ever since the summer ended. Like all the bad guys were only on summer vacation too. And it stunk. Stunk like Grandpa’s weird squid burgers. No threats means no battles. No battles means no Hero Time. And no Hero Time means boring.
Why couldn’t life just get interesting again?