Friday …
Report cards were handed out the last period of the day. Ben studied his as he walked out of Mrs. Spencer's class. He'd earned an A in her class and a respectable B+ in Geometry. For the most part, Ben kept an A/B average. What he didn't understand in school, his father helped him with in the evenings.
"Hey, how'd you do?" Victor asked, coming up beside his best friend.
"Okay, I guess, how about you?" Ben answered, quickly unlocking his locker.
"Ah, the usual, I'll probably be grounded for the next couple of weeks." Victor shrugged, fumbling with his combination lock.
"Why don't you try to do better in class, then your father wouldn't have any reason to ground you." Ben pointed out logically. Both boys pulled the books they'd need out of their locker and whatever else they needed for the weekend. In unison, they closed their locker doors.
"Is your dad waiting outside?" Victor asked, shouldering his backpack.
"Yes, he's as predictable as an alarm clock." Ben answered with a sigh. He couldn't wait to talk to Uncle Ray again, to plan for 'Operation Getaway'.
Rena walked down the hallway toward the boys, her long, dark hair bouncing as she hurried to her locker. Ben couldn't tear his eyes away from her. They passed, blue eyes locked with dark brown ones. Ben forgot to breath, forgot his surroundings. He saw each freckle across her nose, the bubble gum pink lip gloss shining on her full lips, the dangling heart earrings that matched her printed sweater. Her sugary perfume filled the air, making him dizzy. Rena giggled when Ben ran into the heavy duty, fifty gallon garbage can situated in the center of the hallway. Victor laughed until he became hoarse.
"You okay, Benny?" The scrawny Chicagoan asked as he gasped for breath. Ben held his stomach where he'd slammed into the waist high can.
"Yeah, I'm fine I guess." He answered, embarrassed and confused.
"That chick is gonna be the death of you." Victor coughed, clutching his chest.
"What a way to go then." Ben thought to himself.
After School ….
"Hello, Uncle Ray." Ben greeted.
"Hey, Benny said you got your report card today, how'd ya do?" The former detective had done a fair job in high school, keeping a 3.0 average.
"I made a B plus in Geometry and an A in Civics." Ben crowed, his voice cracking.
Ray grinned, thinking, "Ain't puberty grand!"
"Did you and Aunt Maggie talk about a getaway?" Ben cut to the chase.
"Yes, we did." Maggie cut in, "I've sent a link to a few more web page links to your e-mail for bed and breakfasts."
"Thank you kindly, Aunt Maggie, I'll look at them tomorrow." Ben gave her a rundown of his grades before saying good-bye.
When Ben walked into the living room, he saw his father staring out the kitchen window. Dief lay beside him, snoring loudly.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Ben asked, stepping up beside him.
Benton turned, a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth.
"Nothing interesting." He shrugged, hands clasped behind his back.
"Meg?" Ben guessed.
"Yes." The elder Fraser turned back to the window.
"Is she alright?" Ben had come to like the retired, lady Mountie. He didn't want anything less than the best for her.
"She's fine, I'm simply thinking about her, nothing more."
Ben looked down at Dief. The old wolf twitched his ears, dreaming.
"I wanted to surprise you, but Aunt Maggie, Uncle Ray and I have been planning a three day getaway for you and Meg." Ben confessed. He swallowed hard, watching his father's reaction.
"That isn't necessary, Son," Benton began.
"I want to, you need a vacation. We've been looking at bed and breakfasts nearby, you could check-in on Friday after work and come back Monday." Ben persisted with his carefully thought out argument.
"Alright, if you insist, but you'll have to schedule it with Meg, she may not be so easily swayed." Benton gave his son a fatherly side hug. He couldn't contain his pride and love for the boy. Ben blessed him daily.
Monday …
Ben met Victor in the cafeteria for breakfast, as usual.
"Hello, Victor, how are you?" The gangly slacker gave him an unamused eye roll.
"I've got dish and trash duty for a month, no allowance and no games on TV during the play offs." Victor leaned against the stainless steel railing between him and the sneeze guard. "Ma asked me why I couldn't be more like you. I told her it was because I'm not half-Canadian." He took two cartons of chocolate milk from the refrigerator.
"That's not fair …."
"Well, I wanted to tell her that, I couldn't get a word in." Victor and Ben moved along the line. "Ma woulda rung my bell if I'd said that." Together they walked past the lunch lady and into the throng of students near the entrance to the cafeteria.
"If I'm ever un-grounded, do you want to …." Ben stopped in his tracks. Rena and her best friend walked through the door. The boy sighed; he could smell her cotton candy body spray across the cavernous space.
"Hey, Buddy, you in there?" Victor nudged Ben's arm.
"Yes, what?" Ben murmured, still under Rena's spell.
"I said, do you want to stay over one night?" Victor enunciated dramatically.
"Yes, I'd like that. I wanted to ask you if Dief and me could stay over Dad and Meg go away for the weekend anyway." Ben followed Victor to their usual seat along the fringes.
"Sure, sounds good, I'll have to ask Ma about Dief though."
The pair ate breakfast, Ben watching Rena the whole time.
"Ben, man, she's gonna think you're a creep if you don't stop watching her." Victor leaned in to speak low.
"No, I was …" Ben shrugged, yeah, he had been watching her. "She probably thinks I'm a creep already." He sighed.
"We're fifteen, there'll be other girls, Benny." Victor crushed his second chocolate milk carton before standing up.
"I suppose you're right." Ben ceded, "But they won't be as pretty as Rena." He thought.
