June, Year 3 (Part 1)

"What? Oh, yeah. We finished season two, like, a month ago," Gwen said.

"Ahh, wasn't it amazing?" Lucy asked.

Gwen smiled as she watched Lucy's reaction on her laptop screen. "Yeah, we both thought the whole show was great. Definitely could've used a third season."

"I know! Can you believe it ended like that? There's so much more they could've done with the new team, the old team that came back, and the new villain who showed up for like five seconds at the very end. Totally sucks that they got canceled."

Gwen and Lucy were getting caught up with another video chat. Since Lucy was going to be coming back to Bellwood in a few months and the two of them would be going to school together this time, they felt it was a good idea to get reacquainted. It had been quite some time since Lucy's homestay with Gwen, after all. One idea they'd had was to suggest some of their favorite shows to each other, and they had plans to binge watch a few that neither of them had seen once Lucy arrived.

In addition to TV shows and the like, Gwen and Lucy were keeping each other up to date on all their other hobbies as well.

"Did I tell you I got my black belt recently?" Gwen said, more than a hint of pride in her voice.

"Wow, cool! Congrats, Gwen!" Lucy said excitedly. "Did you have to climb up 80,000 steps to a temple in the Himalayas and challenge an old wise master for it?"

Gwen laughed. "Nothing that difficult. I just had to demonstrate everything I'd learned and do some endurance tests. What about you? What else have you been up to lately?"

"Hmm. Well I got to put some of my pottery on display at this local youth art exhibit thing my town has, which was pretty cool," Lucy said.

"What? Pottery?"

"Yuh-huh!"

"I didn't know you did pottery."

"Yeah! It's fun. You can make all kinds of stuff out of clay. Did I not tell you I started doing that?" Lucy asked.

Gwen shook her head.

"Ah. Well, it was one of our art class options at my school. I took it because I thought it would be funny, like, the clay girl making clay things." Lucy giggled. "But it was actually really neat!"

"Huh. Well, that's impressive! I'm really happy for you!"

Lucy smiled appreciatively. "Thanks!" She tilted her head to the side, noticing something behind Gwen. "Have you played all those?" she asked, pointing.

"What?" Since Lucy was pointing at her computer screen and not at her camera, it wasn't clear to Gwen what she was referring to. "Oh," Gwen said, turning around. There was a small stack of video games near the TV behind her. "Not yet." She kept speaking as she got up and crossed her room to retrieve the games. "Ben leant me some of these. I haven't tried them all yet."

"Oh. I know a few of those," Lucy remarked as Gwen held them up for the camera. "You're gonna love 'em!"

"Really? Have you ever played…" Gwen sorted through the stack of games until she came to the one she'd been playing with Ben recently. "This one?" she said, holding it up. "I got it not too long ago."

Lucy leaned closer to her screen to take a look at it. "Nah," she said with a shake of her head. "I don't play a lot of shooters. I like RPGs and fighting games mostly."

"It's not really a shooter," Gwen explained. "It's sort of a survival horror thing, and it's actually got some really clever puzzles and stuff."

"Well, I'll have to try it out after the move, then," she said. "Is it co-op?"

"No, it's single player. Ben and I have been switching off, though." Gwen chuckled. "He and I really don't do the co-op thing very well."

Lucy giggled. "Nonsense! Once you kill each other a few times to get it out of your systems, I'm sure you guys would cooperate just fine."

Gwen laughed, putting the game case down and looking through the others.

"How is Ben, by the way?" Lucy asked.

Gwen had told Lucy about Ben and Julie's breakup already, but they hadn't discussed it at length. "He's doing alright, I think," Gwen said. "I think the worst part for him is going to school, when he has to be around Julie. He's gotten a few bad grades recently, and sometimes he seems a little down when we meet up right after school. But he's usually a lot better by the end of the day."

Lucy nodded thoughtfully. "He's lucky he has you."

Gwen blinked. "I, I guess…" Since Ben's breakup, Gwen had been trying to cheer him up and help him get over Julie whenever she could, but she wasn't very comfortable with taking credit for it.

"What about you?" Lucy asked.

"What?" Gwen wasn't sure what Lucy was asking.

"How do feel? About Ben's breakup, I mean," Lucy clarified.

"I…I feel sorry for Ben."

"You're not glad?"

"...What?" Gwen asked, shocked.

You think I enjoy seeing him suffer like this?

"Why would I be glad?" Gwen asked, hoping she was misinterpreting the question.

"Haven't you missed him?" Lucy's tone of voice was more concerned than accusatory, but Gwen still wasn't sure what she was getting at.

"Well...It's not like he's been gone or anything..." Gwen said, not entirely sure how to answer.

"I know, but you've had to share him with his girlfriend," Lucy pointed out.

"Share him? What do you mean by that?" Gwen asked nervously. Something about Lucy's wording made that statement feel uncomfortable.

"Well, you used to hang out with him every day. Then he started dating Julie, and you didn't get to see him as much. Aren't you glad you get to see him every day again?" Lucy further explained.

Gwen didn't respond. She looked away from her laptop and hung her head guiltily, not wanting to think about that.

If I were happy about my cousin getting dumped, that would make me a pretty terrible person...

"Gwen, it's okay," Lucy said reassuringly. "There's nothing wrong with missing someone you love."

Gwen lifted her head up. Her face felt hot. "Pfft, miss him? Heck, any amount of time with that Doofus is too much. I've got half a mind to find him a new girlfriend just to get him out of my hair!"

Lucy giggled. "Well, in that case, why don'tcha put in a good word for me? After all, I'm single too, and as long as Ben's back on the market…" Lucy smiled suggestively, raising her eyebrows.

"Lucy! Still gross!" Gwen flinched away from her laptop.

Lucy giggled again. "I'm only joking! Except, you know, not really."

Gwen rolled her eyes.

The two of them sat in silence for a moment before Lucy gave Gwen a nervous smile. "Well, however you feel about Ben, I think seeing each other more often is good for you guys."

Gwen took a deep breath. "I…I am happy…to be around him this much again," she admitted. "He's my only real friend around here. And I don't have to hide anything from him."

Lucy smiled warmly.

"But don't tell him I said that!" Gwen demanded, looking embarrassed as she glared at her.

Lucy put her hands up. "I won't, I won't." A devious smile spread across her face. "But that means I don't have to tell you what Ben says about you!"

"What?! What does he say about me?" Gwen asked frantically.

Lucy simply giggled.

"Phew."

Ben walked in the front door and went to lie down on the couch. He'd spent the whole afternoon with Gwen, but his mother had told him to be home for dinner. He could tell he was on time since he could hear his mother in the kitchen, moving pots and pans around as she made something.

Deciding to kill time until dinner, Ben reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, but as he took it out, he pressed an icon on his homescreen by mistake, opening up his picture gallery.

"Oops," Ben said. He moved to close the app, but it finished loading before he managed to do so. A picture of him and Julie popped up on his phone screen. "...Oh," he said out loud.

Of course that would happen.

Sighing to himself, he closed the app. The entire afternoon, he had managed to avoid thinking about her. Lately, he'd been trying to do that whenever possible, but he could never stop himself for too long. He only ever managed it for long stretches of time when he was with Gwen. If he was in school or sitting around bored with nothing to do, Julie would pop into his head pretty much every few minutes. But when he was with Gwen, something about her just kept his mind from straying, allowing him to focus on the fun he was having. That was partly why he'd been spending as much time with her as he could lately.

...This feels really familiar.

He thought back to earlier in the year. Before he'd asked out Julie, he'd tried doing the same thing to get over his crush on her. Spending time with Gwen was what had kept him sane, and now that Julie had broken up with him, he'd fallen back to Gwen for support once again.

Ben looked down and realized he was clutching the locket Gwen had given him. Lifting it out of his shirt, he opened it up and looked at the picture of them inside, causing him to smile gratefully as he remembered the day she'd given it to him.

I wonder what this protects me from anyway.

He remembered Gwen had said something about a protection charm when she'd given him the locket, but he'd never seen it glow, or project a bubble shield around him, or do anything particularly magical.

Maybe it protects me from like…cavities. Or stubbing my toe.

Whatever it did, Ben definitely felt safer when he held it. At the very least, it was a reminder that Gwen was always there for him, which he really needed right now.

"Ben! Carl! Dinner's ready!" Ben's mother called from the kitchen.

Quickly stuffing the locket back under his shirt, Ben stood up. Although he pretty much wore it at all times, he'd still somehow managed to keep his parents from finding out about the locket so far. He wasn't worried about them figuring out it was magic or anything, since it didn't look magic as far as he could tell. As usual, it was more about the embarrassment he would suffer if they found out how much he cared about a birthday present from his cousin.

"So, where've you been all day, Ben?" his father asked him as he joined his parents at the dinner table. Unlike Gwen's parents, Ben's parents normally gave him a lot of freedom when it came to going out of the house. He never had to ask their permission or tell them ahead of time. He didn't have a curfew either, although sometimes they told him to be home in time for dinner. So when they asked him where he'd been, he knew it was only out of curiosity and to make conversation.

"Just studying with Gwen, mostly." Even though his parents let him do what he wanted, he still had to lie about some things. They really had studied for a little bit, but he couldn't tell them they'd also spent some time sparring in the woods using his Omnitrix and Gwen's magic.

"That's nice," Carl said.

Sandra gave her husband a look like she was expecting him to say something else. When he didn't, she asked Ben a question. "Have you spoken with Julie much lately?"

Ben stopped eating. He'd already told his parents about how Julie had broken up with him, but they hadn't pressed him for details yet. "A little," Ben said. He decided not to specify how little. In the month since their breakup, he'd spoken to her maybe two or three times. Her friends still talked to him now and then when Julie wasn't around, but he never sat with them at lunch anymore. In some ways, things were back to the way they were before all this started, with him having no friends at school.

Ben's parents glanced at each other, and his father shrugged. "Don't you think you should talk to her more?" his mother asked. "After all, it would be nice if you two could still be friends."

"Hmm." Ben knew his parents must have liked Julie. While they were dating, he had usually tried to avoid having Julie and his parents in the house at the same time, since his parents were guaranteed to embarrass him. But they had met her a few times, and they knew she'd been helping him with his schoolwork. Perhaps they felt she was a good influence on him or something.

"I will," Ben said, not looking up from his plate. He hoped his two-word answers and lack of eye contact would let his mother know he didn't want to talk about it.

As he ate, he considered the prospect of being friends with Julie. From what he'd heard, couples who broke up were normally supposed to hate each other. He certainly didn't hate her, and she didn't seem to hate him either. But even without hating each other, he just couldn't see them ever being friends again. He sighed, unconsciously gripping his locket through his shirt.

At least I still have one friend.

"So, what do you wanna do today?" Gwen asked.

It was the weekend, and the school year was nearly over. Ben and Gwen didn't have much schoolwork left to do, so they had the entire weekend to themselves. Currently, they were lounging around in Gwen's living room. Gwen was reading a book, and Ben was playing a game on a portable system. Ben had showed up at her house before noon, and since then, they hadn't really done much. They still had most of the day left, and Gwen was bored.

"Let's fight crime," Ben suggested.

Gwen turned to look at him. He was laying on the other couch, and he hadn't even looked up from his game. "Seriously?" she asked.

It's mildly infuriating that I can't tell with him.

"Duh!" Ben put his game down and turned to face her as well. "We gotta get ready for the summer."

"We've been sparring."

"Yeah, but that's not the same. We gotta get used to fightin' real bad guys. The kind that won't stop just short of killing us."

Gwen shook her head. "Bad idea. If Grandpa finds out, he won't be happy with us."

"So he won't find out," Ben countered. "Besides, it's not like we haven't done it before."

Gwen thought back to the few times they'd done some hero-ing in Bellwood. A few bank robberies and burning buildings here and there, plus that time a swarm of Megawhatts showed up in town. "Well, those times the town needed our help, and we happened to be there. We can't just go out looking for danger."

"Why not?"

"Because then we might find it, Doofus."

Ben shrugged. "Danger usually finds us first, anyway."

"Not in Bellwood."

"Yeah, but that's what makes Bellwood so boring," Ben insisted. "Isn't that what makes our summer trips so fun?"

You...

"There's more to our summer trips than that."

"I know," Ben said. "But it's not like you don't love the action and adventure, too."

"I d-" Gwen inhaled and sighed deeply, rubbing her temples.

Not now.

"I'm just saying…Even if it's fun, doesn't mean it's not dangerous."

"You're such a dweeb, Dweeb," Ben said, holding up the Omnitrix. "Besides, I'm dying to use this thing again. I don't know if I can wait until summer."

"Oh, get real. You use it all the time," Gwen pointed out. "You just used a bunch of your aliens against me last time we sparred."

"But I mean really use it," Ben said. "This thing right here, it's one of the best things that ever happened to me. It made me into a superhero. So I need to do some real hero-ing, or it's like I'm wasting this gift!"

Gwen glanced at the watch, then rolled her eyes

Here he goes with another Omnitrix rant.

"Fine," she relented. "We'll turn on the news. We see any stories about a crime in progress, we go out and fight bad guys."

"Alright!" Ben cheered, grabbing the remote and flipping on the TV.

The local news was boring. They watched it together for about five minutes before deciding to go back to what they'd been doing, although they kept the news on so they could still vaguely listen to it in case anything good came up. But after almost an hour without any crimes to report, Ben got frustrated.

"Oh, come on!" he complained. "What, does our town have the laziest criminals in the world? Rob a bank or something, jeez."

"Well, maybe they're not dumb enough to go around committing crimes in broad daylight," Gwen pointed out. "Also, it's kind of a good thing that we live in a low crime rate area."

"Yeah, yeah," Ben said, waving his hand dismissively.

They kept the news on for a while longer. Just when they were about to give up and go do something fun instead, there was some breaking news. Apparently, someone from the next town over who was wanted for armed robbery had been spotted in Bellwood and was now at the center of a police chase.

"Perfect!" Ben said excitedly.

Gwen gave him an unamused look.

Seriously?

"I mean, uh, looks pretty dangerous. Hopefully we can do something to help." As he spoke, he started flipping through the aliens on his Omnitrix.

Knowing he was already looking for XLR8, Gwen rolled her eyes. "Just gimme a minute to put on my Lucky Girl costume..." she said, heading upstairs to her room.

Upstairs, Gwen closed the door and locked it before stepping over to her closet. She reached inside and pulled out the superhero costume hidden in the back. Glancing nervously at the door, she laid out her costume on the bed and began to undress. For some reason, she felt really uncomfortable taking off her clothes with Ben in her house, even though he was in a different room and the door was locked. The last time they'd gone on one of their superhero outings, she'd changed into her Lucky Girl outfit while he was outside waiting for her, but something felt different this time. She had the irrational fear that he'd somehow walk in on her.

She shook her head to clear away those thoughts, but when she started to put her costume on, she ran into a different problem. It was too small for her.

What the heck?

Gwen tugged on the tight black pants, but she was unable to get them on. She felt like she'd just worn this recently, but when she thought about it, she realized it had been more than a year since the last time she'd needed it.

How on Earth…

She tried stepping towards her mirror, but she tripped on the costume wrapped around her ankles and fell over. "Ow…" Gwen kicked her legs free and stood up, screaming internally. Frustrated, she scooped up the costume and stepped in front of her full length mirror. Holding her costume in front of her like she was shopping for a new outfit, it was clear that it wasn't the right size for her.

"Have I really outgrown this?" she asked herself. She hadn't thought of it, but she had grown a lot in the last year. She'd had to throw out a lot of her other old clothing too. It should have been obvious that something she'd worn when she was ten wouldn't fit her anymore.

Just as Gwen let out a sigh, there was a knock on the door.

"Gwen? What's taking you so long?" Ben called from outside her room.

"Don't come in!" Gwen shouted desperately.

I can NOT let Ben see me like this.

"I'm not coming in!" Ben called back. "I know how to knock, Dweeb."

"Shut up!" Gwen's momentary panic subsided as she reminded herself that the door was locked. "Just…Just give me a minute!" Blushing hard, she went to put her regular clothes back on.

"You still haven't changed yet?" Ben asked incredulously when Gwen finally opened the door. "I thought you were putting on your Lucky Girl costume."

"It, uh, it doesn't fit me anymore." Gwen nervously toyed with her hair, trying not to meet Ben's eyes.

"Is it the same costume you had when you first started being Lucky Girl?" Ben asked.

"Y-Yeah," Gwen said, walking past Ben and heading down the hall.

"Well, that's not really surprising, I guess," Ben said, following after her. "You've grown a lot since then."

"What do you mean by that?!" Gwen snapped, turning on the spot to shout at him.

"Whoa!" Ben leapt back. "I just meant you've gotten taller since then! I wasn't, like, saying you were fat or anything, I swear!"

"O-Oh…" Gwen looked thoroughly embarrassed by her outburst. "That's what you...Sorry..." She turned back around and walked down the stairs.

My height. He just meant my height.

Downstairs, Gwen went back to the living room and sat down on the couch, and Ben came in after her. "You okay, Dweeb?" Ben asked as she turned the TV back on, checking to see if the car chase was even still going.

"I'm fine," Gwen said immediately, but she wouldn't look away from the TV. Feeling self-conscious, she grabbed a blanket from beside her and covered herself with it.

"Are you sick?" Ben asked.

"I said I'm fine, Doofus," Gwen repeated. She knew she was acting weird, but she couldn't help it at the moment.

"Well, okay," Ben said. "What about the news? How are things go-ing—" Ben's voice cracked, and he stopped talking to clear his throat. Gwen turned to look at him with an amused expression on her face, then laughed lightly. "Hey! Don't laugh!"

"Sorry, sorry," Gwen apologized. She wasn't actually trying to make fun of him for it.

Guess I'm not the only one who's growing.

Hearing Ben's voice crack reminded her of that, and it was somehow comforting to her. Even though she'd just put it on, she shrugged off the blanket, trying not to feel weird about any of it.

"But anyway, about the car chase," Gwen said, getting back to the matter at hand. "It looks like it's already wrapping up. Even if we leave immediately, we still wouldn't get there in time." On the TV, the news was showing where the suspect had crashed his car into a fence before getting out and trying to flee on foot.

"Aw, man," Ben moaned. "I coulda gotten him before he even got out of his car." Ben walked over to the other couch and fell onto it, sighing dejectedly. "Guess we're gonna have to find another way to prepare for the summer trip."

Gwen had an idea. "I know something we can do."

"Yeah? What?" Ben asked.

"Let's go visit Grandpa," Gwen suggested.

Ben smiled. "Hey, yeah! We haven't seen him in forever."

Ben and Gwen knew how to get to their grandfather's trailer park, so they quickly got ready to leave and headed out the door.

"Wait," Ben said once they were outside.

"What is it?" Gwen asked.

"Uh…It's Grandpa, remember? Maybe we should go eat lunch before we head over."

Gwen shuddered a bit. "Good idea," she said. "Burger Shack?"

"Sure," Ben agreed.

As they started walking next to each other, Gwen couldn't stop herself from comparing her height to Ben's. She'd always been the taller one, at least by a little. It looked like that might still be the case, but it was hard to tell. They'd both gotten taller.

He really has grown...

Author's note:

This was another long month that I thought was better as two short chapters.

I'm glad most people seemed to appreciate the way the breakup went down. I'm not a fan of the traditional love triangle where two characters fight over a third, so I wanted to resolve things a little differently.