Benny flipped through his spell book as he sat in the back seat of a cab that was taking him to the National Academy of Dance. Honestly, he wasn't even sure why he agreed to come to this fancy dance school for the week. If it weren't for Ethan and all his begging, he'd still be in Whitechapel with his grandmother doing chores….now that he thought of it, a week at a dance school in Australia didn't sound so bad. Maybe he had a better shot with the ladies now that he was on a whole other continent, who knows? If a girl even showed a little interest in him, it would be worth the long hours stuck on a plane between two fat people with allergies. "Here we are, son. The National Academy of Dance." the cab driver announced as he pulled the cab up to the entrance to the grand building. Benny tipped the driver and got out of the vehicle, holding his bags close to his sides as he waltzed toward the door. He wished he would have packed a lot lighter because these bags were getting heavier by the minute. Too bad he couldn't use magic while he was here, otherwise he'd make this a lot easier.
The stairs were even more of a challenge, so he was down before he even got to the third step. His bags went flying, one even hitting a girl in the back of the head. As Benny got up, rubbing his aching back, the girl stared him down angrily. Benny didn't know why she was angry so he just smiled awkwardly at her. She smiled back, but a lot less genuinely. Her smile faded quickly into a disapproving grimace as she dropped the bag that had hit her at his feet. Benny glanced between her and the bag. "Oh…" he breathed. The girl rolled her eyes, clearly not amused by how long it took his to make the connection. "Do you mind? Some of us have more important things to do than to be your human target." she snapped. Benny, being as oblivious as he is, took this as a green flag to start flirting. "Not at all. As one of those important things is hanging with me." Yeah, that one sounded a lot better in his head. The girl seemed really irritated and was definately not in the mood to deal with this right now. "That doesn't even fall into the top one million." Whether by choice or by ignorance, Benny ignored her hostility. "I'm Benny, what's your name?" he chirped. "Abigail Armstrong." she answered simply. In seconds, her back faced him and she was walking away. Unluckily for her, he was terrible at taking hints. As he followed her like a puppy dog, Benny noticed her ballet slippers. "I see you like ballet. That's cool, I like ballet too. I mean, I've never actually done it before, but it does look like fun. Do you dance all the time? You look like you do, you seem very committed. Do you play video games?" "Enough!" Abigail was getting sick of Benny's rambling. "Look why do you go bug Tara? Her room is right there and she's absolutely love the company." Before he could even respond, Abigail had pushed Benny into the room and slammed the door behind him. Three pairs of eyes stared at him with confusion, but there was one familiar gaze that practically saved him from going insane.
"Hello" he greeted in his high voice, complete with an awkward little wave. His best friend chuckled and came to his side. "Guys, this is my best friend Benny. Benny, this is my cousin Tara and her friends Kat and Sammy." The three faces greeted him in overlapped unison. "It's nice to meet you, Benny." Tara beamed with a smile bigger than the Cheshire Cat's. No one ever smiled at him like that, especially not a girl, which was both awesome and unsettling to him. He let an awkward silence pass by before he figured out what he wanted to say next. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I? 'Cause I was kind of just thrown in here by this girl named Abigail." he admitted with a shrug. "You were being nice to her, weren't you?" asked Kat. Benny was unsure of what he was supposed to say to that. "Uh… yeah, I was." Sammy them stepped in front of Kat to get a better look at Benny. "Don't let her scare you, Benny. Abigail's not so bad, she's just very dedicated to her ballet. And besides, her and Kat don't exactly coexist well." Even before he was done talking, Benny could tell that Kat was ready to blow. "Ok fine! Maybe Abigail and I don't get along very well, but that is nowhere near my fault, I-" "Whatever, Kat, let's just not give this guy such a bad impression of the Academy so soon, ok?" Kat and Benny's expressions could both be described as puzzled in that moment, but Kat's at least eventually morphed into a look of comprehension. Sammy could tell that Benny again didn't know how to react, his face kept changing expressions unsurely. Sammy gave him a friendly pat on the back and whispered "Seriously dude, don't sweat it."
As he got acquainted with his new friends, Benny had remained oblivious to the fact the Ethan had been staring at him the whole time since he'd walked through the door. "So…" Benny breathed. "This Abigail chick.. you think she'll go for me?" It wasn't long after he opened his mouth that Kat and Tara started laughing uproariously. "Dude, you might want to lower your expectations to someone actually attainable." roared Kat. through laughs. "Abigail's never gone for anyone." added Tara as the laughing died down. "Even the guys she has dated had to chase after her a lot before she even bothered to acknowledge their existence." Tara turned around to invite her cousin to sit closer to them. It was almost like he'd been scooting away every time Benny mentioned Abigail. Of course, he denied it and went to sit next to Benny.
"Hey, should I order us a pizza?" chimed in Sammy. He got an immediate bug eyed reaction from Benny. "You guys like pizza too?" he exclaimed. Kat looked at him like the answer was obvious. "Duh! We're Australians! We're not from the moon. Everybody likes pizza." He had to admit, he couldn't argue with her there. As long as they were paying for the pizza, he could get used to life at the Academy real fast.