Gwen paces back and forth in Kevin's study, walking herself in circles. Kevin thinks she's circled the room around sixty or so times. His eyes watch her lazily as he also tries to get through some sort of paperwork. Hearing Gwen muttering to herself is a little too distracting to actually get his work done.
Gwen's footsteps are heavy though as she digs her heels into his carpet. If she continues, she might leave marks.
"You're stressing out for no reason." Kevin mutters to her.
She groans and turns her head sharply toward him. "Kevin I'm meeting someone today who can teach me everything about magic! This is all I ever wanted and what if she doesn't like me?" She crosses her arms over her chest and stares Kevin down.
"Don't give me the hostile glare I'm not the one stressing you out. I'm just saying you're stressed for no reason." he tells her.
Gwen continues to pace in circles.
She's excited about learning, it's all she's ever wanted. To finally have this opportunity to learn about magic is spectacular and every possible adjacent adjective to that. It's just her nerves eating away at her. She practically got no sleep last night and her stomach twists tightly.
What if she's not good enough? What if she can't perform magic as well as she thinks? She's biting her lower lip raw as she continues to pace.
She finally can have access to resources that she's never even dreamed of. Now she's worried about impressing this new teacher. She knows that Kevin's making an excellent point, but that doesn't negate her anxiety, however.
Ben comes barging into the room, swinging open the door to the study and almost plows Gwen down. He's talking a mile a minute and isn't even phased by almost knocking over Gwen. Rook follows shortly after and grabs onto Gwen to help steady her.
"Tennyson do you look before you do anything?" Kevin asks in slight irritation.
Ben waves his hand at Kevin and shrugs his shoulders, "It's fine! You love it when I interrupt your day Kev." Ben says and he places his hands on Kevin desk and leans his weight forward with a wide smile.
Rook rolls his eyes at that and pulls Ben back by the collar of his shirt, "No, I think Kevin means how you almost ran over Gwen." Rook's tone is flat as he points to Gwen behind him who is glaring daggers into Ben's back.
"Oh whoops!" Ben says, smiling sheepishly at her. He scratches the back of his head, "I really didn't see you! Sorry Gwen."
"Ben..." Gwen's voice is pitched in annoyance.
Kevin's smirking at him waiting for Gwen to blow up. He knows she's been on edge and on her last hair, which is why he's been quiet with Gwen pacing in his office. He's just glad she's exploding on Ben and not him.
"You picked the wrong day to stress her out Tennyson..." Kevin mutters and shares a pointed look with Rook.
Rook slowly steps back behind Kevin's desk.
"What do you think she is about to do to him?" Rook leans into Kevin and asks him.
"Honestly, my money is on her deckin him." Kevin says smugly.
Rook nods his head in agreement and watches the two in front of them.
"I'm under a lot of pressure today Ben, if you could just not have your usual energy," she gestures her hand at him going up and down, "that would be great!"
Gwen's jaw is clenched tightly, and her fists are balled so tight her fingernails dig into her skin.
Ben rolls his eyes and opens his mouth, but Rook interrupts.
"That would not be wise for you to do." He advises Ben.
Ben ignores Rook and turns back to Gwen to continue, "Please, Gwen chill out! I just needed to tell Kevin," Ben gestures back toward his friend, "that we need to change our schedule for this week."
Gwen's face is set in a stern frown and her eye is slightly twitching, Ben has never seen her stressed, but he doesn't think that he likes it.
"Great you told him now leave !"
Gwen projects her cerulean blue mana from her hand and starts shoving Ben back towards the door.
Ben digs his feet into the ground to try and stop her and shouts, "hey! Gwen stop it! Kev? Rook? A little help?" Gwen kicks him out the door and shuts it in his face.
"If I knew it was that easy to kick Ben out, I would have a long time ago." Kevin whispers to Rook.
Rook nods in agreement, "I did warn him." He said. He is still cautious about moving from where he stands. He is slightly frightened of Gwen's huffing form as she glowers at the door waiting for Ben to come back in.
The doorknob jiggles slightly and Kevin and Rook go rigid. Gwen balls her hands into fists and is ready to shoot her mana at Ben for him to just leave her in peace.
When the door does open it's Max with a woman behind him, a hood covering her features. Ben is shuffling behind them and goes over to Rook and Kevin with a look of betrayal on his face.
Gwen's body straightens up and she stops glaring at the open door.
The room is silent as Max closes the door behind him and looks at Gwen. He smiles broadly at her and gestures to the woman next to him.
"Gwen, this is my good friend Verdona." Max introduces the woman next to him and she removes her hood.
She looks surprisingly human for someone who was supposed to be an Anodite. Which is definitely not human. The woman looks around Max's age, with hair just like silver.
Gwen's face is shocked and confused, "Grandma?" she asks in a pitched tone.
Verdona looks over Gwen's form once and gasps. She clasps her hands together in excitement and rushes to pull Gwen into a hug.
"Kiddo! I haven't seen you in a while," she backs up and squishes Gwen's face in her hands. "I didn't know you had the spark!"
Gwen wriggles out her grandmothers hold and stares at her in confusion then back to Max.
"How, I don't-" She pauses to gather her thoughts and what she wants to ask first. She's never been more confused.
"How do you two know each other?" Gwen asks them, pointing between Max and Verdona.
The room is dead silent, the question hangs in the air a little too long. Max and Verdona give each other a knowing look, one that leaves everyone else out of their weird private circle. Gwen turns and looks at her friends behind her in confusion and they give her the same response. No one understands a single thing that was happening in the study.
"You didn't tell them?" Verdona asks Max with a slight frown.
"I didn't think it was that important, I didn't think, at least not in my wildest dreams she was Frank's girl." Max says apologetically.
Verdona slaps Max playfully, "Of course it's important! It's the most stellar love story the galaxy has ever seen between an Anodite and a particular human man with a spark!" Her eyes are bright and she sends a wink to Max before looking at Gwen.
"Kiddo, he's your grandfather. Max and I are married." Verdona says, smiling at her softly.
Gwen's face falls as she tries to process the information given to her. As the information slowly clicks together, she turns slightly to make eye contact with Ben who looks just as surprised.
"We're cousins?" They say at the same time as they look at each other.
"It appears so, if I followed the story correctly." Rook chimes in.
Kevin starts laughing loudly and hysterically.
"What are you laughing at Kevin!?" Ben screeches at his friend.
"I'm sorry! It's just too funny that your long-lost cousin found her way here! Of course, you two are cousins! Nothing normal ever happens here!" Kevin continues to laugh like this is the funniest thing in the world to him.
"Okay that's it!" Gwen's hands glow blue, and she pushes her mana around Kevin, Rook, and Ben pushing them toward the door easily.
"Thank you for your time but you need to go now!" She shoves the out easily and looks back to Max and Verdona.
"Do that again." Verdona commands, her eyes are sparkling with mischief and wonder.
"No, not until you two tell me what is going on!" Gwen demands and crosses her arms.
The two elders look at each other and sigh. They agree to discuss the matter.
"Ben deserves to hear this too; it involves him as well." Max says and turns to grab his grandson.
Gwen doesn't budge and is sending her grandmother a fierce look.
"What? Don't look at me like that sweetie." Verdona asks Gwen, cocking her brow at her.
"Grandma Verdona please," Gwen puts her hand up gesturing for her to stop. "I just need to process what is going on right now."
Verdona shrugs and waits for Max to return. The two women sit in uncomfortable silence. Verdona keeps shifting her gaze back to Gwen, her body almost buzzing.
"You want to say something don't you?" Gwen sighs and holds her head in her hands.
"Oh, come on! This is exciting if only a little confusing!" Verdona says grasping at Gwen's hands and pulls them away from her face.
"You get to learn who you are Gwendolyn! Isn't that exciting? Haven't you wondered why it is you can do what you call magic and manipulate mana energy?" she asks genuinely looking Gwen in the eyes.
She nods her head at her grandmother.
Of course, she's wondered about that. She could do things, things that Ken couldn't, for a long time. That was before she found her spell book. She just thought she was lucky. Just simply a lucky girl who could make things work out for her no matter what.
She never by any means thought it was hereditary, or by blood.
"What am I?" She asks her grandmother quietly.
"Why sweetie, you're an Anodite, like me! We are beings made from pure energy!" Verdona exclaims in excitement.
Gwen's not really listening to what she's saying after that. She's spinning information around in her own head. She's not human. She's never really been completely a human.
She's an alien, or part alien at least. She's not really sure anymore. All Gwen knows is she's very confused. Why didn't her parents tell her about this? Or about Ben and her now Grandfather?
She feels a little sick.
Her thoughts are interrupted by Max and Ben coming in. Or was it Grandpa Max now? She didn't know what to think.
"Okay you two, you might want to sit down." Grandpa Max gestures to two chairs in front of Kevin's desk.
"Grandpa why didn't you tell me that Gwen's my cousin? Or that I have a Grandma?" Ben asks immediately after he sits down.
Gwen feels a headache coming on. It's like her brain is pulsating aggressively against her skull.
"We'll tell you guys whatever you need to know, but we should let you know why we made the choices we did." He replies to Ben.
Ben and Gwen share a look and settle themselves into the chairs. It would be a long evening.
