The car cruised on the silent street; its driver and occupants sitting in fatigued silence. The red-head of the bunch lightly dozed then woke with a sudden start.
"It's alright if you fall asleep Gwen," Ben soothed quietly.
With that said, the young woman dropped like a stone and slept. The two boys stifled their chuckling at her actions. The ride back to Gwen's house was silent. When they pulled up, Kevin parked the car as gently as he could.
"Go knock on the door, would ya'?" he asked.
Ben nodded and got out of the car. He rushed to the front door and knocked. Thankfully, his aunt and uncle were still awake.
"Ben?"
"Hi Aunt Lili."
"Ben honey, where's Gwen?"
"Kevin's getting her outta the car; she fell asleep and we didn't want to wake her up," he explained.
"I see…"
Ben refrained from saying anything else. Natalie Tennyson didn't particularly like Kevin. He had enough of a bad reputation that she did not approve of him dating her daughter and only put up with him for her nephew's sake. Fortunately, she was subtle in her distain so Ben never said anything. He knew there was more to Kevin than she would care to find out.
He knew what it was like to have a reputation.
The osmosian came up the front door with Gwen carefully cradled in his arms. Ben looked at his aunt again, hoping Kevin wouldn't notice the twitch of her mouth.
"Good evening Mrs. Tennyson."
Natalie said nothing but took one look at her daughter in his arms and turned to her husband.
"Frank dear, come and take Gwen upstairs."
Frank moved to get up but Ben quickly stopped him.
"No, wait! I don't think that's a good idea. Uncle Frank, you might throw your back out again. Don't worry, Kevin and I will take her upstairs. C'mon."
Kevin dutifully followed at his best friend's insistence. They travelled up the stairs, painfully aware of Natalie's eyes on them. Ben opened the door and Kevin followed. Gwen's room was relatively clean, but her bed was strangely a mess, full of notebook, loose-leaf, and pencils.
"Oh, I forgot about all this," Ben said.
"What were you two doing?" Kevin asked quietly.
"Gwen just wanted to show me something, I'm sure she'll tell you about it later."
Ben quickly packed up the stationary supplies and suddenly paused upon fining some sort of complex mathematic equation.
"I really wonder how she does this," he wondered aloud, shaking his head.
"How she does what?" Kevin asked, gently laying his girlfriend on her bed.
Ben said nothing but showed Kevin the page. The osmosian took one look at the paper and frowned.
"She forgot to divide the last monomial."
Ben broke off from removing the laptop from the bed and just stared.
"How the heck do you even know that?" he hissed, looking at the paper for himself.
Keven carefully removed Gwen from his person and took the notepaper for himself. He took a pencil and began re-working the equation underneath the original. When he finished scribbling on the page, the new sum didn't look that much different to Ben, but Kevin looked quite satisfied with his handiwork.
"Now it's correct."
"Ya'know, sometimes I forget just how smart you are." Ben said.
"I'm not that smart," Kevin mumbled.
"Dude, you just solved some kind of AP Calculus Honors math question."
"That was an astrophysical equation," Kevin corrected plainly.
"That's even worse!"
The two froze and turned their heads at the sound of Gwen stirring. The older boy glared at the younger and Ben put his hands up in surrender.
"We'd better leave before she wakes up," Ben whispered.
"Ya'think?" Kevin hissed back.
The two left the room and shuffled their way back downstairs.
"Bye Aunt Lili, bye Uncle Frank," Ben saluted cheerily on his way out.
"Good-night Mr. and Mrs. Tennyson," Kevin said politely.
"Good-night boys," Frank said. "Tell my brother I said 'Hi' Ben."
"Will do!"
As soon as they were out the door, Natalie locked it and turned to her husband, her countenance clearly annoyed.
"I don't know why you let that boy see her."
"Natalie honey, we've been over this. Gwen's been fighting hostile aliens and the like since she was ten. She's got a good head on her shoulders, I trust her to make these decisions on her own."
-OMNITHEORIES-
Kevin and Ben sat in silence as the older boy drove through the streets of Bellwood. Suddely a phone started ringing, waking Ben from his dozing.
"Are you gonna get that?" Ben asked.
"Gimmie a second, I gotta pull over."
He pulled over while answering the phone.
"Hey ma'," Kevin answered, stepping out of the car.
"Yes, I know it's late; but I told you I'd be working with Ben and Gwen… Yes I did, but I still have to take Ben home… Yeah, okay, just give me a few minutes."
He got back in the car and out his phone away. He looked over to Ben with a sheepishness gracing his features.
"You wouldn't mind if I made a stop by my house real quick, would'ya?"
"I'm not complaining."
Kevin got back on the road and proceeded to change directions. Ben didn't fail to notice the sudden breaking of traffic laws as he sped through the streets. When they got up to his house, Kevin pulled into the driveway and jumped out the car faster than Ben had ever seen him move.
"Wait there!" Kevin called as he rushed up to the front door.
Ben watched as Mrs. Levin opened the front door and Kevin stopped to talk to her. They went back and forth for a little while, Kevin looking more apologetic than anything else. After a minute or so Kevin walked back to the car.
"Alright, sorry about that. Just got grounded."
"Lemme guess, you forgot to call before breaking curfew."
"Yup."
"How long?"
"A week. Curfew's been shortened. Gotta be in by nine."
"Well, can you get me home before I get grounded too?"
Kevin threw Ben a playful glare before turning to back out of the driveway.
"Just for that, I'll drive extra slow."
"Oh, you know what slow means?"
"Funny, Tennyson."
-OMNITHEORIES-
[A/N] In case you didn't get it, the ideas are: 1) Gwen's mom doesn't like Kevin, 2) Kevin is much smarter than he seems, and 3) Ben and Kevin are best friends. The show didn't make that last one too obvious, I thought I'd correct it.
Please review, it really helps a lot.