Belonging
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Gwen never liked going shopping at the mall. It was always crowded and noisy, often to the point where she couldn't even hear herself think. The stores she shopped at would play music that made her ears bleed, and the lines for everything were so long, she couldn't buy a simple shirt or a cappuccino without waiting for an hour. And don't get her started on the filth decorating the food court chairs and tables, or the public washrooms. (Just… ew.)
But there wasn't anywhere else Gwen could turn to when she needed a new pair of Panther running shoes, or a cute new top from M&H, or the latest, fastest netbook from Soshiba. So, the Tennyson was forced to push through the bodies of sweaty old men or nauseatingly perfumed teenyboppers in an attempt to get where she was going.
"Excuse me," Gwen spoke up, wedging past an old lady growling at a young boy and waving her cane about, and a middle-aged man staring intently at the new PlayfulBoy magazine. Gwen's lips curled in disgust, wondering if that perverted man knew he was standing in the middle of a public mall, but ignored him and continued on her way. Or, as she stated before, attempted to after she managed to get through the old lady and the man, only to bump into someone else in front of her.
"Oh, I'm sorry." The other person apologized, and Gwen looked up to blink in surprise.
"Julie?"
The black-haired, shorter teenage girl blinked her eyes in recognition as she took in Gwen's fiery red hair (that was somewhat dishevelled because of the crowds) and the familiar, startling green of her eyes. A smile blossomed over her face, and she raised her free hand in a wave (her other hand was bogged down by some shopping bags). "Hi Gwen."
Gwen blinked again.
"Hi… Julie." She replied lamely, a grimaced smirk curling around her lips as she shifted awkwardly from one foot to the next. "What are you doing here? Isn't your date with Ben in like," her eyes flickered down to her watch, "four hours?" Gwen paused at that, wondering if it would take the Asian-American four hours to get ready for a date with Ben. Julie just laughed, flushing red a little and rubbing her short black locks in sheepishness.
"Well I… I was just digging through my closet to find something to wear and… well…"
Gwen grinned knowingly.
"Nothing?"
Julie shrugged, smiling a little. Gwen couldn't help the giggling that escape her lips, and she brushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear.
"Well it can't be too hard. Ben isn't exactly the most difficult to impress." The mirth in the redhead's voice made Julie giggle as well, and the black-haired of the two tapped her cheek in thought. Her brown eyes stared casually at Gwen, gaze flickering left and right only to frown in thought. The Tennyson stared curiously at her, following her gaze and wondering what the Asian was looking at. She didn't have to wonder long.
"Is someone shopping with you?"
Gwen blinked in surprise, her mouth dropping open as she struggled for words. The truth was that Gwen didn't really hate shopping malls; she just hated not having anyone to go shopping with. (Kevin and Ben didn't count, because they just complained and ditched her once she let them run off to the food court.) It reminded her all the time that the only friend she had were her two plumber partners, because everyone in her prep school thought she was either weird or intimidating, and never approached her.
"Well, I…" Gwen rubbed the back of her head before sighing. "No. I'm… by myself." It surprised the redhead when Julie smiled brightly, tilting her head towards the new M&H store that opened up a little ways from where they were standing.
"Want to help me pick out a new outfit for my date tonight?" She asked, her brown eyes blinking doe-fully up at Gwen. A strange excitement came over Gwen when she nodded slowly and Julie reached out, grabbing her hand to drag her to the store. If she tried to describe it, the feeling would be similar to a comfortable atmosphere between friends, with a dash of joy and happiness thrown in as she browsed the clothing racks with the shorter girl.
"Hey, let's exchange cell numbers." Julie said suddenly as Gwen flipped through some pink blouses, the black-haired girl whipping out her touch-screen portable phone. Gwen blinked in surprise (for what seemed like the umpteenth time that day), her mouth dropping open for a few moments before scrambling for her own phone as Julie's eager gaze directed itself at her.
"Um, sure." She responded a little clumsily, letting her phone slip into the Asian's hand and grasping the touch-screen in her own. "But… why?" Gwen waited expectantly as Julie finished dialling her number into Gwen's contact list, before looking up and smiling.
"In case we lose each other in the crowds. And just… because." She replied simply, as if that was obvious. Gwen's eyes flickered to Julie's phone in her hand, and she smiled a little. "Are you done yet?" Julie asked, courteously slipping the redheads phone back into her purse before perusing through the clothing racks again. Gwen kept her eyes on the touch-screen with a smile playing at her lips, her fingernail tapping one of the icons at the top of the display.
New Contact.
"Not yet."
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Gwen was annoyed.
Really, really annoyed.
"Kevin, could you please turn it off?!"
"WHAT?! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"
She glared at him from the passenger seat, watching the 16-year old's black hair brush against his cheeks as he bobbed his head to the rock music blaring from the speakers. It was so loud that Gwen could feel her seat vibrate underneath her, and sharp pains shoot through her head as she tried to cover her ears, only for it to be a futile effort.
A groan of frustration escaped through her plump lips, but it was lost amongst the guitar solo. Unable to handle the pounding in her skull (and in the air from the drum solo), Gwen lunged forward in her seat, her fingers grasping out for the volume knob. She twisted it down all the way until there was nothing else except for Kevin's voice singing along to the music. (That stopped quickly as well, though, when he noticed the weird silence in his car.)
"Hey! I was listening to that!" He exclaimed, offended that she had even considered shutting off his tunes. Gwen just glared at him, crossing her arms with a huff and turning to look out the window, watching the buildings blink in and out of sight.
"Well I have a headache." She stated simply, not seeing Kevin pout and turn his head back to the road ahead. Gwen was struck with a sense of nostalgia, noting how the passing houses reminded her of running through the mall with Julie earlier that day, display windows entering her peripheral vision and exiting a split second later. (Gwen hoped Ben didn't mess up his date with Julie, or else it would become awkward between her and the Asian-American like it was with other girls she tried to talk to.)
Sighing, Gwen's headache increased when she registered the music playing behind her, and whipped her head around to glare at Kevin.
"I said I have a headache!" She exclaimed, only to see Kevin glance weirdly at her from the corner of his eye and point to her purse lying just behind his stick shift. Blinking, she flushed slightly in embarrassment before wondering when her ringtone had changed from its customary trills. So, fishing around for her cell, Gwen was pleasantly surprised to be greeted with the name "JULIE" that flashed across her screen.
Holding it level with her eyes for a few seconds in bewildrement, the redhead realized she was keeping the girl on the other line waiting, and hurriedly pressed the answer button.
"... hello?"
"Hi, Gwen?" Julie's voice filtered in. It was soft, and seemed very unsure and vulnerable. Gwen gulped.
"Uh, yeah, it's me." She replied, her free hand fiddling with a loose thread on her black skirt. There was silence on the other end, and Gwen wondered if she had lost her connection or something. "Julie?" She spoke out hesitantly. A pause, before:
"I think Ben stood me up."
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Tap, tap, tap.
Tap, tap, tap.
Tap, tap, tap.
"Brrring. Brrring. Brrri—"
Click.
"Julie!"
"Hi Gwen."
Bouncing excitedly in her seat, the redhead stopped tapping her foot on the floor, bringing it up to curl under her body. When Julie had suddenly cut off their call while Gwen was in the middle of defending her cousin, it was like she had left the itch half-scratched for Gwen to deal with for almost an entire day. (Julie wasn't picking up her phone, and Ben was suspiciously avoiding her questions.)
"What's the deal, Julie?" She exclaimed, pressing the cell phone hard against her ear as if that would make the other girl answer faster. "You suddenly hung up on me yesterday! Do you have any idea how nervous I've been because of you?" Julie laughed on the other end of the phone line, and Gwen was relieved to hear her amusement, because it meant that nothing had gone wrong, and she didn't have to greet the other girl with an awkward hello when they passed by each other in the halls.
"I'm sorry!" She replied, her voice dreamy. "He was just running at me, as if I was going to leave or something, and I panicked." Gwen giggled, imagining her doofy cousin trying to salvage his wreck of a date, and sighed with envy.
"So, how was it? Did anything else go wrong after that?" The redhead asked, punching at some buttons on her keyboard. A light smile was playing at her lips as she opened the Plumber Network, checking for any new missions that needed attention. But there was a strange prolonged silence on Julie's line, and worry started to prick at her consciousness. "Julie?"
"Oh! Um, nothing really." Julie said, her voice high as if she was trying to avoid saying something. "He got me cotton candy." She tagged on to the end of her sentence, and if that was all the details Gwen would ever want to know about the pier date. But, of course, the red-haired teenager would want to know how much of a goof her cousin made of himself, and prodded on.
"Did he win you any prizes?" The magician asked, her green eyes scanning her computer screen quickly. There was another long silence, and Gwen blinked, gawking. "Nothing?"
"Well... he sort of got me a... dog?"
Gwen's eyebrow quirked up. "Sort of?" There was a faint amusement in her tone, but it was overridden with confusion while she highlighted a few alien activities that seemed suspicious. Julie's voice was still tinged with hesitation as she answered.
"It wasn't exactly a prize..."
Gwen's face twisted in puzzlement as she ran through several different ways Ben could have gotten Julie a dog (stuffed or not) without winning some sort of game. But she came up with nothing. "So how'd he get it for you?" There was another pause of silence.
"I'd rather not say..."
Gwen smirked a little, figuring Ben had done something stupid in an attempt to look cool. "Is it really that embarrassing?" She asked.
"No. More like... weird."
Gwen sat up, fingers tightening around the sides of her pink cell phone. "Weird? Weird how?" Her cousin was so getting drilled the next day about his date. Weird to anyone meant alien trouble for the three of them. And if there was alien activity happening during Ben's date...
"Just... weird stuff. I'd... rather not say, because I'm pretty sure it has something to do with Ben, and I don't feel comfortable saying stuff about him he wouldn't want me to tell other people."
Gwen blinked, her suspicions growing as she turned away from her computer monitor, wondering how she was going to go about this without revealing too much information if her assumptions were wrong. Taking a deep breath, Gwen asked, "Do you know about it? Ben's secret?"
"What secret are you talking about?"
"What secret of Ben's do you know?"
"I'd rather not say."
"Me neither."
"Yeah. If I told you, you'd probably think I was crazy or something."
"I know, right? I'd probably get sent to an asylum."
"... wait, what? Why would you get sent to a mental hospital?"
"Well... why would I think you were crazy if you told me?"
"..."
"..."
"Gwen?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you get the feeling we're talking about the same thing?"
"... yeah."
For a beat, there was another strange pause of silence. But it slowly dispersed once Gwen started to giggle, which prompted Julie to giggle, and then the giggles evolved into stomach-clenching bursts of laughter so loud that Gwen could hear Julie on the other end even while her phone was pressed against her stomach.
"Okay... okay." Gwen said, spontaneous giggles erupting out from her lips even after the laughter had died away. "Let's just clear this up right now, Julie. What secret of Ben's do you know?"
Julie stifled her chuckles from the other end of the line before replying, "I know that Ben can change into like, ten different types of aliens."
Gwen smiled.
"I know that too."
And suddenly, a new kinship was formed.
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One more minute. Just one, more, minute.
"I've finished grading your tests from last week, so I'll be handing them back to you today." Gwen's teacher announced from the front of the class, carrying a stack of papers in one arm as he wandered through the aisles, calling out names before slapping a thick booklet onto their desks with a large number circled at the top, outlined in red ink. A strange sense of foreboding crept through Gwen's mind as her teacher began walking towards her. The feeling was justified once her test papers landed on her desk with a faint 'thump'.
"Ms. Tennyson, I'd like to talk to you after class." Her teacher said, just as the bell rang and her classmates rushed out the door. Sighing softly under her breath, Gwen slung her bag over her shoulder, grabbing her papers and following her teacher up to his desk at the front of class.
"Yes, sir?" She asked with a slight sigh, her fingers clenching around the test paper with the big fat 38% in the top, right-hand corner.
"Ms. Tennyson, I expect high standards from you in my class, and you have always gone above and beyond my expectations." He started, Gwen groaning inwardly in her head. "What happened?" He asked, looking pointedly to her test paper. The teenager couldn't help gnawing at her lower lip while she thought of a proper explanation.
"Sir, to be honest I've... been dealing with some... family problems." She confessed, her green eyes flickering to the side as she thought of that terrible, terrible day when Grandpa Max... "I'm sorry sir. I'll do better next time, I swear."
Her teacher's expression looked grim, and he nodded. "I look forward to it, Ms. Tennyson. And I hope those... issues... will be resolved in the near future. I'm a teacher," he smirked, patting Gwen on the shoulder, "but I'm human too."
She smiled, nodding her head and turning to leave. And on her way out, Gwen couldn't help thinking about the night before. About how it felt to realize she wasn't magical. She was just... extraterrestrial.
About how it was too bad he didn't know how much more human he was compared to her.
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"Call me when you're done. I'll come pick you up."
Gwen looked up from unbuckling her seatbelt, Kevin's dark eyes staring intensely into her green ones. She let that small smile curve over her face, the strap of her purse slipping off her shoulder.
"Julie too?" She asked, amusement colouring her tone. The black-haired teenager just smirked, nodding his head.
"Yeah, her too."
Warmth spread through her chest, and Gwen leaned forward, kissing Kevin on the cheek in gratitude. "Then I'll see you in a couple of hours, okay?" She said, back out of the green, alien-tech tricked-out car. She didn't make it out all the way, though, when Kevin's hand suddenly reached forward to clamp down on her wrist, prompting her to look up at him in confusion. "Kevin?"
"I'm glad you didn't go." He said, his voice softer than it had ever gone. "It would have been," he smirked here, "lame, if you had left."
Gwen smiled, blinking back the lone tear that threatened to slip out.
"I'm glad I didn't go too."
His callused hand loosened its grip on her wrist, and Gwen reluctantly pulled away when she heard Julie's voice call out to her from the entrance of the mall. She closed the door, her eyes staying locked with Kevin's until he drove away, and Julie ran up and stole her attention.
"Gwen! I heard about what happened with Ben. I'm really sorry."
Gwen turned to look at Julie, searching the Asian's dark eyes and seeing nothing but genuine concern. The magician – no – Anodite smiled, hugging the shorter girl graciously.
"I'm okay." She said, pulled back. "Really. I am."
Julie smiled, clapping her hands and turning to walk into the mall.
"Okay, then! Shall we go shopping?" Gwen giggled, nodding her head, and the two of them shrieked in excitement as they ran for the door. Bursting through it, the two of them accidentally bumped into some people, and looked up to apologize.
"Oh, sorry—" Gwen started, only for the apology to die in her throat as she came face-to-face with a group of people she really didn't want to see.
"Gwen Tennyson?" The voice sneered, chuckling a little. "What are you doing at the mall? I thought this place was only for people who had friends." Laughter sprung up from the three girls in front of her, and Gwen's eyes narrowed frustratingly. She always had it bad when she had to deal with the Queen Bees of her high school. They had tons of fun tormenting her because she was smart and... different. Luckily, Gwen got back at them by performing a few of her "magic tricks", but she didn't want to risk exposure with Julie around.
More than that, though? Gwen always knew they were right. She was different. And because of that, the only people who would ever understand her were Ben, Kevin, her family, and the other plumber kids. That was about it.
Guess she forgot about the spit-fire standing next to her, listening to every word that spewed disgustingly out of the Queen Bees mouth.
"Funny," Julie started, her smile vicious, "I thought this place was only for people with real hearts and real body parts. Huh. Guess not."
Gwen looked over to the black-haired girl, green eyes wide as she registered what the tennis player was saying to the most popular girls in her prep school. (Not to mention the wealthiest, who had seen a plastic surgeon so many times she was scheduled for weekly appointments.)
"Excuse me? Who the hell are you, and what right do you have talking to us like that?" One of the lesser Bees exclaimed, outraged. But Julie just shot her a smug look, one hand on her hip as she tilted her head at the trio of fakes. Gwen didn't know whether to stop her or join in as she pinpointed the devilish gleam in Julie's dark eyes.
"I'm Julie Yamamoto. But I can also be referred to as your worst nightmare." Her gaze turned deadly here, and she stepped forward into the Queen Bees personal space. "Now get out of our way, or next time I see you I might have to introduce you to my tennis racket and my many tennis balls."
"You bitch—"
Julie gasped when the Queen Bees manicured fingers reached out, closing around Julie's throat in a vicious act of rage. Gwen was quick to react, darting forward and effectively separating the two, sending the Queen Bee flying backwards, the lesser Bees barely able to catch her before she hit the floor.
"Touch her again, and you will regret the day you ever messed with me."
Her green eyes were unrelenting as they stared coldly down at the three girls beneath her. It was a look she only adapted for the lowest of the low alien scum, although now it seemed like humans could also be relegated down to that level as well.
"W-whatever, T-Tennyson." The Queen Bee said, shakily standing and making a beeline for the door. Julie and Gwen watched them go, the former rubbing her throat with a grimace.
"I'm sorry about that, Julie." Gwen said, apologizing once the Bees were out of sight. "But you know... you didn't have to stand up for me." Julie looked at her in bewilderment, confusion rampant in her expression.
"Of course I had to!" She exclaimed, almost offended Gwen would ever think something like that. "We're friends, aren't we?" Gwen looked over surprisingly at the tennis player, her mouth dropping open as she considered the intensity of that one word.
"You... you want to be friends with me? But, but I'm," her voice dropped to a whisper, "half-alien. I'm... weird and different, and probably really unstable—"
Julie reached out, placing her hand on Gwen's shoulder with a smile. "Gwen," she started, chuckling a little, "my boyfriend can turn into ten different types of aliens. I think I'm okay with an Anodite best friend." Gwen blinked, wondering how Julie knew that and opening her mouth to ask until the Asian-American beat her to the punch. "Ben told me."
"Oh." The Anodite answered lamely, her mouth twisting in confusion. She scratched her head, turning to Julie. "So... what do we do now?" Julie smirked, rolling her eyes partly in exasperation.
"Duh. We go shopping!"
Gwen blinked. Then, she laughed.
"Right!"
And as they rushed off to find the closest M&H store, Gwen couldn't help smiling brightly to herself, loving the feeling that came with finally finding a place where she belonged.
(Anodine had nothing on this.)
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END
A/N And so the next one-shot is out! I decided to take a break from the more romance-oriented fics and go with one that dealt with friendship. So, who better to talk about than Gwen and Julie? Plus, a little Gwevin thrown in.
This takes place mid-Pier Pressure, and post-What Are Little Girls Made Of.
As a side note, I just watched Ben 10 Alien Swarm. Can I just say it was pretty awesome (although I think Elena should go die in a hole because HELLO there's a girl named Julie who has already taken Ben's heart?) The Gwevin in it made my day. Really made my day. (It helps that the actor who plays Kevin is pretty dang fine.) Although the lack of Benlie is going to prompt me to write a one-shot about it. (Yes? No? Should I do it?)
Review with comments, criticisms, and opinions please!
Snowflake Flower