Two things I'll mention quickly… I'd written a previous story about Danny Phantom, but there's no need to read that one first—nothing in this story will be taken from my other stories. There may be hidden references, of course. Second thing—no slash in this story. No romance, except where canonical or used as a plot device. Just adventure.
Oh, and I don't own the things I don't own.
I'll be uploading a chapter of roughly this length every day for the next three days.
Enjoy! Comment if you have the time, which you obviously do, because you're here. So please comment! ^-^
-Cody
The clock was ticking at roughly the speed of a cautious slug. In other words, the last day of school was taking forever to end.
There was an antsy ten-year-old boy named Ben in the front of the class, with messy brown hair and green eyes. He drummed his fingers on his desk and waited.
"Come on, come ON," Ben huffed, staring at the clock; it ticked ever so slowly into the last minute.
"And I just want to remind you all that I will be teaching summer school this year, and it's not too late to sign up," said his teacher.
"Yeah, right," Ben chortled, and continued watching the clock.
Finally, after a few millennia, the clock snapped into the beautiful right angle of three o'clock, and the bell rang. Faint cheers drifted over from other classrooms, and Ben stood up so quickly that his chair almost fell over behind him. "Yes!" he shouted. "Outta here!"
"Everyone, have a good vacation. And I hope to see you all again in the fall." His teacher smiled as they walked out the door—but as Ben was stepping out, she said sharply, "Benjamin."
He turned around. "Could I have a word with you before you go?" she asked, and held up a paper airplane he'd thrown minutes earlier.
How'd she know it was him? It was like she had superpowers. His shoulders slumped, and he trudged back into the day that never ended.
"Normally, we'd take your money AND beat you up," said the school bully, Cash, advancing on a smaller individual. "But since it's the last day of school… we're gonna give you a break." The bespectacled boy had his back against a tree as J.T. and Cash surrounded him, and Cash leaned on the tree with one arm. "Now fork over the cash so we can get out of here!"
Ben paused as he passed, hearing the situation. Despite the way it always ended, Ben turned to the bullies as the kid was reaching for his money. "Leave him alone!" Ben shouted.
"Get lost, shrimp," J.T. growled.
"I said, back off," Ben growled back.
"Oh, looks like we got us a hero," Cash mused, standing up again and smirking at his partner in crime. "Suppose we don't wanna back off?"
They stepped up in front of Ben with curled fists. "Whattaya gonna do about it, Tennyson?" J.T. whispered.
There was a small standoff. Then Ben charged forward fiercely into battle, screaming with the rush of justice.
Several seconds later, he was hanging by his underwear from a tree branch, next to the kid he'd been trying to rescue.
"Thanks a lot," the kid huffed.
"I was just trying to help," Ben mumbled.
"Next time you want to play hero, make sure you can back it up," the kid said disapprovingly, folding his arms and narrowing his eyes.
As he felt his underwear stretching slightly further, his grandfather Max Tennyson pulled up in the Rust Bucket. It was his old R.V., and he loved it like a child; of course, this child had not aged very well…
"Come on, Ben, let's go!" his grandfather shouted through the open passenger's window. "We're burning daylight! I want to make it to the campsite by nightfall!"
"Uh… Grandpa? A little help here?" Ben asked.
After he'd been helped down, Ben clambered into the vehicle excitedly. "I have so been looking forward to this!" he said with a wide grin on his face. As he looked to his right, and saw who was sitting there, the grin vanished instantly. "What're—YOU doing here? What is she doing here?"
"Take it easy, dweeb, this wasn't MY idea," said his cousin Gwen, sitting with her head in her hands at a table built into one of the back seats. She brushed back a bit of her bright orange hair to glare more at Ben with her narrowed green eyes. "Someone convinced my mom that going camping for the summer would be a 'good experience' for me."
"Grandpa, please," Ben begged hoarsely. "Tell me you didn't…"
"I thought it would be fun if your cousin came along with us this summer," Max said, smiling for a moment until he noticed the look in Ben's face. "…Is that a problem?"
Ben and Gwen exchanged disgusted looks at each other, and then the Rust Bucket kicked into gear and rolled on its way to the camp.
"I can't believe it," Ben groaned. "I wait all school year to go on this trip, and now the Queen of Cooties is along for the ride!"
"Hey!" Gwen replied indignantly. "I had my own vacation already all planned out, too, you know." She whipped out a piece of paper with shaded rectangles in perfect rows and column. "Each activity is color-coded, so I never do the same thing two days in a row." She held the paper out proudly for Ben to see.
Ben fell slightly short of being impressed. Gwen continued. "Now, I'm stuck with my geekazoid cousin going camping for three months!"
"Geek," Ben muttered.
"Jerk," Gwen muttered back.
They turned their heads in opposite directions, avoiding eye contact, and Max sighed at the wheel. "Something tells me it's going to be a looong summer…"
The Rust Bucket was parked in a small clearing; Ben and Gwen were sitting at a picnic table. Their hatred for each other was suddenly diverted momentarily as their grandfather placed a bowl of wriggling worm-like creatures on the table, and announced, "Chow time!"
The only sound for a few seconds was the liquidy sound of the insects squirming around. Ben glanced back up. "Okay. I give up. …What is that?"
As if describing a great work of art, Max proudly stated, "Marinated mealworms! Hard to find them fresh in the States. You know, they're considered a delicacy in some countries!"
"And totally gross in others…" Gwen said as a worm fell off the side of the bowl and plopped down onto the table, crawling away.
"If these don't sound good, I've got some smoked sheep's tongue in the fridge," Max said.
"Ugh," Ben groaned. "Couldn't we just have… a burger or something?"
"Nonsense! This summer's going to be an adventure for your taste buds! I'll grab the tongue." Max departed into the Rust Bucket with a grin.
"Okay," Ben said, sliding over to Gwen. An unspoken truce had formed simply by virtue of their common enemy: Grandpa Max's cooking. "I've got a half-eaten bag of corn chips and a candy bar in my backpack. Whatta you got?"
"Some rice cakes and hard candy," Gwen replied, looking uneasy.
"Think we can make 'em last the whole summer…?"
After what could hardly have been called dinner, Ben sat on one side of the campsite clicking on his handheld video game system while Gwen sat with her laptop; they faced opposite directions.
Max walked over and looked around. "Who wants to roast marshmallows?" he prompted, expecting an excited response… there wasn't even a response to evaluate. His smile flickered. "O-kay… um… How about we tell scary stories?"
"Scarier than having to spend a summer with your freak of a cousin?" Ben muttered, and laughed at his own genius humor.
"I'd like to, Grandpa," Gwen said, "but I'm busy doing a web search on cures for extreme doofusness. …Nothing yet, Ben, but let's not give up hope!"
"Oh, come on, you two," Max said. "We're all in this together. Now, you can mope around like this all summer, or we can have some fun! Whattaya say?"
"I vote for moping," Gwen immediately answered.
"I'm gonna take a walk," Ben said, putting down his game. "Smell ya around, Gwen." He got up and walked away.
Max looked after his grandson, who disappeared into the woods. "I, uh…" he started, "think they're starting to grow on each other…"
"Aw, MAN," Ben said, his hands in his pockets and his shoulders slumped. "This is gonna be the worst vacation ever. I might as well have gone to summer school!"
It was a total disaster, the whole thing! He expected grilled burgers, and fast food, and junk for his meals—he knew he was going on a nature trip, but he didn't expect to be eating nature fresh out of the woods. And… her. That creature who called herself his cousin. How could he be related to someone so butt-faced? And why was he trapped in a tiny little van with her for the majority of the summer? Could this get any worse?
He looked up at the sky for a moment, and then continued trudging along his path. Maybe he'd find something interesting. Like a huge bug he could put into Gwen's next meal. Or a train station to take him somewhere less painful, like the surface of the sun.
A trickling sound ahead alerted him to the fact that he was near a waterfall. He smiled and walked forward—waterfalls had always relaxed him. Sometimes, as a kid, he'd just walked into the bathroom and turned the sink faucet on for a few moments to listen to the water run.
As he sprinted over roots and rocks, he laughed at how wasteful that probably was… running the faucet for no reason. But nothing mattered right now. He loved jumping down the small hill, feeling more alive than ever. The only thing that could ruin this moment was if Gwen was standing next to the waterfall. Wait—no, if she was there, he could push her in. That would make it even better.
There was no such dorky cousin standing in front of the waterfall, but it was a really beautiful sight. He sat down and stared deeply into the running water, losing himself in the wonder of it all…
Wait…
Waterfalls… aren't supposed to glow green, right…?
He stared wide-eyed at the waterfall, which was glowing steadily greener. Was it algae or something? This was really beautiful, but really creepy.
And then suddenly, there was a bright flash of green light; a green orb jettisoned itself out from behind the waterfall and exploded into the ground next to Ben.
He was blown off his feet, and then the ground collapsed under him, and he slid into the ditch, at the bottom of which was a strange metal container, shaped like a curled-up beetle.
"Whoa," Ben said as the shell opened, and a soft green glow appeared. There were sounds like a computerized beeping, and as he stood up to peer inside, he saw a strange-looking watch-like device resting inside it, with a symbol resembling an hourglass on the front which glowed bright green.
"Why is there a watch here?" Ben asked aloud to no one around.
Curiosity immediately got the better of him, and against his better instincts, he smirked and reached with his left hand to pick it up to examine it.
Almost immediately, the watch reacted. It suddenly melted into a blob, and leapt out of the container, sticking itself onto Ben's left wrist. He cried out and almost fell over backwards, slashing his arm back and forth through the air, screaming "Get off me! GET OFF! GET OFF!" He stopped shaking his arm and tugged at the watch with his other hand, to no avail; the watch would not come off. He tugged so hard that he tumbled over onto his back.
He climbed to the top of the ditch and dashed away from the scene, yelling, "GRANDPAAA!"
Max stared out into the woods where Ben had gone. "Hm… Ben's been gone a while…" He tilted his head. "Well, I guess he can't get into too much trouble out here."
"Unless he wound up bear food," piped up a hopeful voice from behind him.
Max turned around disapprovingly, and Gwen smiled innocently back at him. "Hey, I can dream, can't I?"
Ben tried to push a stick between the watch and his skin, but it was on tight; all that happened was that he broke the stick and scratched his arm up.
He groaned and fell down on his knees, tossing aside the stick which had failed him. He decided to examine the watch a little closer, and placed his fingers around the ring on top, which had four green buttons around the rim. Suddenly, the ring popped up like a button, and the hourglass shape morphed into a diamond. In the middle appeared the silhouette of a person holding a guitar.
Ben stared at it. "Cool!" he said, his ten-year-old-boy brain forgetting the impending danger of the situation. His eyes widened as he placed a finger down on the button; his heart started racing. What was going to happen?
He slowly pushed the button down back into the device. An intense green flash was released from the device, and then his skin rippled and his body shape contorted and expanded; though he could not see it, his DNA was changing, becoming green and ghostly.
When the flash and the contortions ended, a guitar phased out of nowhere and clattered to the ground in front of him. He looked around, and reached down to pick it up—he abruptly freaked out at the sight of his arms. They were longer, thinner, and way, way paler; light blue, even, on the parts that he could see. Most of his arms were covered by gloves that were longer than any human being could ever find useful. And he had girly hands and fingernails. Why were his hips a little wider? His stomach was a little thinner, too, and was exposed under a very small shirt. He had boots with skulls on them, and the guitar was an exotic light blue and purple design with odd buttons on it.
When he looked into the polished surface of the guitar and saw part of his reflection, two things came to his attention: first, his head was on fire, and secondly, and far more concerning… he was a GIRL.
"AAAAHHH!" he shrieked. "I'M A GIRL! And I'm on fire! BUT I'M A GIRL!"