Well, hello there. I decided to write a little 4 chapter story about Gwen and her friend, Nicky. I know I never finish any of my stories, but I have a feeling this one will be different since it's so short. And I know it's kind of bad, but whatever. It was really early when I wrote this.
DISCLAIMER: There's a lot of stuff I own, and sadly, Ben 10 is not one of them. ;.; But Nicky is.
Other Note: Just so you know, this takes place sometime in mid May. I just couldn't find a place for it.
The first thing I saw when I walked into homeroom was Gwen, hunched over a pile of notebooks with her back to the rest of the class. I swallowed- I knew that she hated being disturbed when she focused, but I had to figure this out. Ever since that Kevin guy moved into town, she's been quiet, busy, cryptic, and pretty antisocial overall. Not that her new persona is that different from the old one, it was just the antisocial part that freaked me out. I had to know what made her change, and I had to know now.
I approached, but before I was even within speaking distance, she tensed up and closed her blue book, trading it for a yellow one. I'd seen that blue one before. Something told me that all the answers I needed were in there. I considered taking it, but I knew she would notice.
"Hey Nicky," she greeted casually, her eyes glued to the Algebra notes. If I hadn't known all of her tricks by now, I'd think she'd been studying that for a few minutes already.
"Hey Gwen," I said, a hint of disdain in my voice. "Why are you studying math? We don't have a test today."
She flipped the page. "It can't hurt."
"So, what's in the blue book?"
For the first time that day she glanced up at me, her eyebrow raised. "It's not very nice to butt into other people's business." Her tone was the most defensive I'd ever heard it. I was caught off guard and didn't know what to say.
She looked down at her lap, a wall of fiery red hair shielding her expression. She was silent for a moment, but then turned her head and gave me a weak smile.
"Sorry," she apologized. "I don't know what came over me."
"I don't know what's come over you, either," I began, a whole speech already formed in my head. "You've been totally odd lately. You don't talk much, you're spending every free minute hanging over that notebook, you're always making excusses, you even quit the yearbook club! I'm starting to worry if you're even going to come to my 16th birthday..."
To my surprise, Gwen didn't interrupt my rant once to correct anything I said. She sat patiently through the whole thing, eyebrows furrowed, deep in thought. If she was thinking about that stupid notebook again, it better be related to telling me. Soon enough, I was finished. We were both silent for a few moments.
"You're right," she sighed. "I've been a lousy friend lately."
"But why, Gwen?" I asked, leaning forward. "What's so important that it puts our friendship second?" Gwen and I had been friends since she moved to Bellwood, and I knew everything there was to know about her. She told me everything, and I did the same for her. Until now.
"It's... It's complicated."
I was about to make her explain, but the warning bell saved her. I groaned. "We'll talk more about this at lunch, kay?"
She nodded solemnly and turned back to her algebra notes. I could almost feel the tension coming off her. She doesn't want to tell me at all, I realized. What secret could be so big that she kept it from everyone, even me?
I trudged to my seat on the other side of the room, my mind racing almost as much as Gwen's.
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Finally, it was English class. I was in my seat, propped on my elbows, waiting for the chance to spring Gwen. She was gazing blankly at the blackboard, avoiding my gaze. But not for long. Today was the second day of peer editing, and we were already partners. There was no escape for her.
Yeah, I said we would talk at lunch and I was going to squeeze it out of here in class. Got a problem?
The teacher told us to get started. She turned to me with an "I-totally-saw-this-coming" look before I even asked her about it.
"Well, Gwen, why?" I asked after the volume of the room went up a bit.
Her shoulders sagged a bit. "Look, I'm going to be totally honest with you. I can't tell you. You wouldn't believe me, anyway. And if Ben and Kevin found out-"
Suddenly, everything cleared up. The timing, her distractedness, the way she ended conversations like she wanted to avoid something…
"Kevin's your boyfriend, isn't he?"
I expected her to freeze up, shocked that I had figured it out on my own. But just the opposite happened. She burst out laughing.
You see, Gwen laughing out loud is a pretty rare event, or at least in public. She isn't known for having a sense of humor, and her fit of hysterics caught the attention of most of the class. She noticed and lowered her head to the desk, calming down.
"You seriously think he's my boyfriend," she chuckled once the class started talking again.
"Well, you've been hanging out with him more than me, you're telling him things that you're keeping from me, and you asked him to the dance." I had more evidence, but I was saving it for later.
That's when she went back to her old self and starting contradicting all my points. "One, if I leave then by themselves for five minutes they usually end up doing something stupid. Two, he was there when it happened, so of course he's in on it. And three-"
"What do you mean, when it happened?" I cut her off.
"I already said, I can't tell you!" she hissed, obviously wanting nothing more than to tell me. She looked down at the table. "I just don't want to get you in any trouble, alright?"
Trouble? I thought. What kind of trouble?
"Are you mixed up with a gang or something?" I guessed.
"You could say that. But just calling them a gang is too much of a compliment."
Another thought struck me. "Is it the Mafia? Were you a witness for some murder crime? Please don't tell me you're doing the witness protection program!" I was pleading now. No matter how bad of a friend she was being, she was still my best friend, and I wasn't fond of the idea of her moving to Mexico because she saw someone die.
"I've already told you too much," she sighed, pulling out her essay for me to edit. Like I could focus on that at this point.
"So it's true?" I gasped, horrorstruck.
"No." She gave me one of those 'discussion closed' looks. "Now, I found a few misspellings here and there…"
For the next five minutes we worked rather diligently on our editing. Not a word escaped our lips that weren't about correcting mistakes or adding more information. That is, until I needed to sharpen my pencil.
"I'll be right back." I walked off to the sharpener, not waiting for a reply. She wouldn't have said anything anyway. But the farther I got, the more curious I was. She couldn't keep this secret forever. Maybe she was involved with terrorists. Maybe someone was threatening to kill her and her friends. Maybe that person was Kevin.
I shook my head. Alright. Whatever is going on with Gwen, I'm going to find out. Then I'm going to fix it. Then we can be friends again!
I was so busy concocting schemes to squeeze the information out of her that I almost didn't notice what was going on outside. But, as I was turning around with my newly sharpened pencil, a speck of white caught my eye. I glanced back at the window and gasped.
Snow.
If you don't understand why that last part was so weird, you obviously skipped the note at the top. So, how did you like it? Please review! Uh... I don't know what to say. The cake is a lie? Yeah.