Chapter 10: This Means War
July, 1999
"Ben, I'm sorry!"
It felt like it was the hundredth time Gwen had said that. Ben didn't even turn to look at her as he stormed through the parking lot.
She squeezed her hands together and wished he would just start yelling at her. That's how this was supposed to work. Not this… It was all she could do to not run up to him and shake some sense into him. "It was an accident!"
That only made Ben stomp harder.
And Grandpa was no help. He was just shaking his head as he followed the two of them. At least most of the crowd was still inside the auditorium watching the exhibition.
Gwen looked back and felt her lower lip quiver. Grandpa rolled his eyes at it, but stepped in anyway. "Ben… I'm sure she didn't do it on purpose."
Ben ignored his Grandpa just as well as he ignored her.
It should have been a great day. It was in so many ways.
They'd made the Karate exhibition, and it was as awesome as she'd hoped. At first she'd been peppered with questions from Ben and Grandpa, questions she'd been more than happy to answer. After the first few rounds of the tournament, though, they were both as caught up as she was.
Especially when they saw a world champion black belt fight two opponents at once. He blocked the kick of one, sidestepped the punch of another and knocked them both down with one foot sweep. The last time she had heared Ben cheer so loud it had been at Christmas when Grandpa had given him the Gold Super Sumo card he had drooled over all summer.
It was a great day that only got better when Anthony Atkins had given a demonstration. It was like watching lightening. She'd almost asked Ben to turn into XLR8 just so one of them could see what he was doing.
Not that it would matter. He wasn't even watching. He was talking to some girl that had just sat down next to him. There was a living legend performing in front of him and he was chatting to some girl he'd just met.
Gwen glared at Ben's back just from the memory.
Not that it mattered to her if he wanted to miss it. She just tuned him out. It was something she was good at anyway. Besides, how could she worry about her doofus of a cousin with such an amazing display going on in front of her. At the end of the exhibition the whole stadium stood up and cheered.
Even Ben, even if he was a second behind everyone else.
Gwen turned to ask him if he'd even seen anything that amazing, but he was still chatting up the other girl. So she sat down, even though everyone else was still cheering. Only because Mr. Atkins had already left the stage. Not because she was annoyed.
She'd felt her elbow hit something as she sat, but didn't think anything of it.
Not until the cheering had finally died down and Ben and the blond tramp sat back down. They shouted and jumped back to their feet. Gwen stood too, thinking she'd missed something.
But there was nothing going on except for people setting up for the next demonstration. She turned ask Ben what his problem was when she realized he was clutching the back of his pants. And then she saw the spilled cup on the seats.
Her cup.
Grandpa always bought her way too much soda and today was no exception. So she'd set it down on the bleacher next to her and had completely forgotten about it.
And that was when the laughing started.
Gwen's face burned at the memory and her stomach crashed to her knees. She dashed up to Ben as he reached the Rust Bucket and grabbed his arm. He still wouldn't look at her, so she tried to make him by pulling on his arm. "Ben, I'm so sorry!"
"I'm going to get changed," Ben said, his voice tight as he yanked his arm out of her grasp. He pulled open the door of the Rust Bucket, climbed in, and slammed it behind him hard enough that the whole R.V. shook.
Gwen reached up to the handle, but Grandpa caught her hand. "I think you should give Ben a couple of minutes."
"It was an accident!" Gwen said and stomped her foot in frustration. "I apologized. What more does he want?"
Grandpa Max gave her a searching look and seemed to want to ask something, but he shook it off. "He's embarrassed. He'll cool down in a few minutes." There was a loud thump inside. "Hopefully we'll still have a home when he does."
"Little freak," Gwen whispered as she hugged herself.
Grandpa gave her a pat on the shoulder. "He'll get over it."
And he did, a half hour later. Or, at the very least, he let them come inside.
"Ben," Gwen said. He looked at her. His scowl made her want to go hide somewhere. "I'm sorry."
He glared, but nodded. "Fine."
"That's it?"
Ben turned his back and collapsed at the table. "It's the best you're going to get."
Gwen nodded and stood there. She wished she was home. There, at least, she could go hide in her room when stuff like this happened. Here, though…
Here she could either sit at the table across across from Ben, go lay in her bunk behind Ben, or go sit up front and feel his glare on the back of her head the whole time. No matter where she was, she knew he'd be five feet away and sulking.
But there was one place she could go to get out of his sight, at the very least. She went to her drawer and pulled out her pajamas. "I'm going to go get a shower, Grandpa."
"Okay," Grandpa said as he went to the fridge. "We're going to wait until traffic clears up before we head out, so I'll start dinner. How does fried octopus sound?"
Gwen looked at Ben. No matter how mad they might be at each other, they would still share a shudder over Grandpa's cooking. And somehow their shared looks of dismay made the meal easier to deal with.
"Sounds great." Ben turned to stare out the window just so she couldn't catch his eye.
"Yeah," Gwen said. She hung her head as she went into what the R.V.'s designers laughing called a bathroom. It was just big enough for one person to stand outside the shower, as long as you didn't mind being squeezed between the toilet and sink.
"Little jerk," Gwen whispered to herself as took off her clothes and stepped into the shower. "Why does he always have to ruin things?"
She turned on the water and put it hot enough that the small room steamed up. He didn't even care about the karate. He was probably really was just doing it so she would keep helping him with his homework, she thought as she grabbed her shampoo and squeezed some into her hair.
Why couldn't that girl had just found another seat? Why did she have to come and ruin the day?
Why was the water turning green?
Gwen stared at the water around her feet and shivered in disgust. For a second she thought the water had gone bad in the tank. Grandpa told her it had once. Just once. He'd learned his lesson after that. She forced herself to look up, but the water looked clean.
If it wasn't the water, then...
Her stomach fell as she grabbed her shampoo and squeezed some out in her hand. A thick green slime bubbled out. Gwen stuck her head out of the curtain and looked at the mirror over the sink.
If she had shrieked just a little louder she would have shattered every piece of glass in the Rust Bucket.
The calm part of her mind, a part about the size of a neuron was amazed by how quickly she could go to feeling sorry for Ben to planning his funeral. She didn't bother to turn the water off, or to towel herself off before she pulled her robe on and stormed out.
"Gwen? What's…" Grandpa said. He was at the door, his hand up to knock.
He outweighed her by a hundred and fifty pounds, but Gwen shoved her way past him like he was a sheet of paper. She heard Ben giggling as soon as she opened the door, but that stopped when he got a good look at her.
He gave her a long, long look and his face twisted. For a heartbeat Gwen thought he might actually feel bad. And then Ben started laughing so hard that he fell out of the booth and started rolling on the floor.
Gwen took a single step toward him, ready to kick him into the next state, when Grandpa grabbed her arms. "Benjamin Tennyson!" he said with his best Grandpa voice. Gwen gave the monster a little sneer and waited.
But her grandfather never finished. Instead he sniffed. "What's that smell?"
Gwen froze. Now that he mentioned it she could smell something, too. A kind of eggy smell, eggs and a bit of B.O. Which she knew wasn't from her. It was a smell she knew… She grabbed her bangs, which were hanging in her forehead and still damp, and gave the slime a good look for the first time.
"You put Stinkfly spit in my shampoo?!" Her voice broke as she yelled.
"Now we're even," Ben said from the floor as he wiped his eyes.
Gwen felt sick. "You did all of this…" she said and waved at the green slop that was staining her red hair, "just because I spilled some soda on you?"
Ben grinned and nodded.
Gwen could just stare.
"You better go wash that stuff off now," Grandpa said, his voice catching with worry. "Right now."
That broke Gwen from her shock. She ran back into the bathroom and slammed the door shut. But before she got back in the shower she wiped the mirror and took a good look.
It looked like someone had hocked something into her hair. And, as if ruining her hair wasn't enough, she could see the green stain spreading onto her forehead and neck. Her face burned from embarrassment.
The red only made the green look that much worse.
She jumped back into the still running shower and grabbed her grandfather's shampoo and emptied half of the bottle into her hand before she started scrubbing. She scrubbed until her scalp ached and the water tank ran dry, but her hair stayed green.
All of this because she spilled some soda by accident.
There was a knock at the door, a knock she didn't bother to answer. There wasn't anything Grandpa could do to help, and she didn't want to hear a word from the other one.
"Gwen?" It was Ben, of course. It didn't sound like he was laughing now, but she could almost see the nasty little smirk he'd be wearing. Gwen wished the water was still running so she wouldn't have to hear his voice. She settled for shoving her hands over her ears, but that didn't help either.
"Gwen, it's just some food coloring in the shampoo and a little stink bomb by the door. It'll all wash off."
Gwen glared down at the bottom of the shower and remembered how hard he'd been laughing. She was surprised he didn't take a picture to humiliate her with later…
"We'll see how funny you think it is."
"Gwen?" Ben asked. He knocked on the door again when she didn't answer. "Come on, Gwen. It was just a joke. We're even now."
"Ben." Grandpa loomed over him with his arms crossed and his eyes burning into Ben's. Ben swallowed hard. He never realized just how imposing his grandfather could be until now. No wonder he'd been a secret agent. "I hope you know how much trouble you're in."
"Me?" Ben snapped. "She's the one who started this."
"What happened at the tournament was an accident."
"She was grinning when I sat in it!"
Grandpa gave the bathroom door a quick glance. Not quick enough for Ben to miss though. Ben nearly crowed when he realized that Grandpa didn't believe her either.
But Grandpa didn't stay distracted for long. "Even if she was, that's no excuse for messing with her shampoo."
"It's just a joke!" Ben said. Didn't these people know how to have fun anymore? "It'll all wash right out."
"You better hope so," Grandpa said. "Because until it does, you're doing the dishes."
"That's no fair! That's Gwen's job!"
"And now it's yours."
"And what about her dumping her soda on me?"
"That was an accident."
Ben glared at the bathroom door. "She always gets away with everything." He couldn't stand to be in the Rust Bucket with either of them right now. So he stormed outside, being careful to slam the door just as hard as Gwen had slammed the bathroom's.
He jammed his hands in his pocket and walked away, pausing only to kick a soda can as hard as he could. He watched it skip across the parking lot and thought about chasing after it and kicking it into traffic.
There were still a few people walking around. Not that he noticed any of them.
"Don't even know what her problem is. No one else will even see her," Ben muttered to himself. "Big baby."
Ben stayed there, glaring at the cars and trucks as they made their way out of the parking lot until Grandpa stuck his head out of the window. "Dinner time." Ben knew just from Grandpa's tone of voice that he was still in the doghouse.
"Nothing new there," he muttered to himself as he turned and walked inside.
Gwen was already at the table. Her hair was wrapped in a towel, but Ben could see green stains on her face and ears. His eyes sunk to the table after that.
"No screams about the Swamp Monster?" Gwen hissed the question out.
Ben smiled a little. No matter how many comics he loaned her she couldn't keep the names straight. "Thing. Swamp Thing."
Gwen slammed her fist into the table so hard that it shook all their plates. "Shut up, brat."
Ben felt a lot less guilty after that.
And dinner got a lot less civil.
It was a long night. Neither said a word as they climbed into their bunk beds, though Ben made it a point to step on her pillow as he went. And he couldn't sleep.
Not when he could feel Gwen glaring up at him through the mattress.
So he rolled over and glared back down.
He woke up in the morning to the sound of the shower running. Again. Grandpa must've filled up the tank again when he woke up this morning.
"How many showers can she take?" he muttered into his pillow.
"Come on, Ben! Breakfast is getting cold."
His stomach tightened at the thought. "Not octopus and eggs. Not octopus and eggs."
He hit the floor with a thump and made his way to the table. His heart sank when he saw the plate in front of Grandpa, only to perk up when he saw what was waiting for him on his plate. "Chocolate chip waffles? Score!" He started digging in.
"I thought you and Gwen could use a bit of a pick me up," Grandpa explained as he sat down across from Ben with his octopus.
Ben didn't care, he just started chowing down.
Grandpa picked up his fork and started to dig in. After a few minutes he said, "You should apologize to Gwen."
Ben stabbed at his waffle. "She didn't apologize to me." He felt Grandpa's stare. "Well. She didn't mean it."
Grandpa sighed. "I thought you two were getting along better than this."
Ben just shrugged. Things were going great until now.
The bathroom door opened and Gwen walked out dressed in a robe and drying her hair. Her hair looked darker than it usually did, but Ben couldn't tell if it was just because it was wet or the food coloring. Either way it looked a lot less grassy today, much to Ben's relief. She wrapped her towel around her hair and froze when she saw Ben.
Ben tensed and waited for the screaming to start again. Instead she did something that creeped him right out.
She grinned.
Maybe he should apologize. "Waffles," Ben said and lifted her plate for her to see.
Her eyes lit up. "Just let me get dressed," she said as she went into the bedroom and closed the door.
"Well, she seems to be in a better mood."
Grandpa shook his head as he got up to put Gwen's waffles in the toaster. "I hope so. You should, too."
Ben did a double take. "Why? She's over it."
"There's a saying I don't think you've ever heard. 'Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.' That goes double for women and their hair." He shrugged. "And Gwen's never been subtle."
Ben swallowed hard, but he glanced at the Omnitrix. "I can take anything the geek dishes out."
Grandpa shook his head.
Gwen came out just as her waffles popped up. She grabbed them and tossed them on a paper plate and smothered them in grape jelly before sitting down next to Grandpa. Ben frowned at that. She'd been sitting next to him when they ate lately.
Maybe Grandpa was right, Ben thought. Even if it totally wasn't his fault.
"Gwen?" She glanced at him and scowled just a little as she sawed at her waffle. He gave her a good look. He couldn't see any of her hair now, but all of the green stains on her face and neck seemed to be gone this morning. He let out a little relieved sigh. The coloring had all washed away, just like he knew it would. She was just over reacting. "Sorry about the shampoo thing. I won't do it again."
"Okay."
"Okay?" Ben asked, squirming just a little. It didn't help when Grandpa started humming a funeral march under his breath. "So we're even now?"
Gwen shrugged. "Good waffles, Grandpa."
"Thanks," Grandpa said. "So, what do you guys want to do today?"
Gwen stared at her plate. "The Sumo Slammer movie opens today. We could go see that."
Ben beamed at her. "Really?"
She smiled at him and nodded.
"Sounds good to me," Grandpa said. And that was that.
And the movie was awesome. Better than Ben had imagined it would be. He was nearly dancing in his seat by the end, and it had been all he could do not to start giving little shouts of joy as he watched all of his favorite characters appear. "Did you see the guy that they picked to play Ishyama? He looked exactly like in the game!"
Gwen finished off the last of her - much smaller - cup of soda and grabbed up her empty popcorn bag as they got up to leave. "I don't know, I think the one we met was cooler."
"Well, yeah." Ben rolled his eyes. "Of course he was. He was the real thing. But that guy did a good job. What did you think, Grandpa?"
Grandpa yawned and stretched before he stood up. "It didn't have much of a plot."
Gwen's grin was bright enough to see even in the dark of the movie theater. "All the plot was in the parts you slept through."
"Well, they should have thought of that," Grandpa said as the three of them walked to the door at the back of the theater.
"I can't wait to see it again," Ben said as he opened the door. Usually he would have kept going and let Gwen get her own door, but he was feeling a little bad. Especially after the ticket taker had given her a long, long stare. He'd really thought that the coloring would all wash out.
So he held the door open.
Gwen paused on the other side, but Ben waved her up. She gave him a long look. A look with just a touch of guilt buried in it. "You can be civilized. Who would have thought?"
"What can I say? I'm awesome."
Grandpa walked through too in the middle of a yawn. "Thanks, B…" His voice died. He reached up to rub his eyes and then he looked again. "Ben? What did you…" Grandpa never got a chance to finish. A girl's loud giggle cut him off.
Ben looked over his shoulder to see what was so funny. Maybe someone had spilled their popcorn. One of his friends had done that once. He got the butter all over the front of his shirt and it was one of the funniest things Ben had ever seen.
He realized that this wouldn't be the least bit funny when he realized the girl was pointing at him.
The guy standing next to her was grinning. "Nice clothes, dude."
Ben didn't look down, he just spun and glared at Gwen. She leaned in and whispered into his ear. "NOW we're even."
And finally Ben looked down and let out a little scream of outrage. His shirt and pants were pink. Bright pink. So pink that even Ray Charles would be able to see it.
"Gwen!" Ben shouted in desperation, but she was already running ahead. He took off after her, leaving Grandpa far behind as they dashed through the lobby. She darted through crowds of people, crowds that always stopped to point and laugh at him. Ben would have gone hero just to get away, but there were always way too many people around and nowhere for him to duck into.
Besides, if he did, he'd lose sight of Gwen. And he didn't want to do that until he'd gotten even.
By the time he got outside his face felt so hot that he thought it was going to burst into flames. He saw Gwen leap into the Rust Bucket and shut the door behind her.
If she thought that that was all that she had to do, though, she had another thing coming.
Ben smirked and slowed down. Plans were already racing through his mind.
Oh, she would pay.
Ben yanked open the door of the Rust Bucket and went inside. Gwen was sitting at the table with a magazine in her hands, pretending that nothing was wrong. It would have been a better act if her lips weren't twitching.
"Fix it," he snapped at her as he yanked the magazine out of her hand and threw it across the R.V.
Gwen just looked up and batted her eyes at him. "Fix what? Is there something wrong, Ben?"
Ben glared and Gwen's lips twitched, but she didn't laugh. He turned and stormed back to their dresser. He didn't bother to close the door, he just ripped off his shirt and threw it at her face. His aim was dead on.
She just held up the shirt and admired it. "This will be a great souvenir."
Ben growled and slipped on another shirt. And then he undid his pants. "You zapped my underwear, too?!"
Gwen let the t-shirt drop and stared at him. She gave him two long blinks. Then she snorted and gave up on trying to fight the giggles inside of her.
Her laugh was even worse to hear than the idiots in the movie theater. He slammed the door shut.
Oh, she would pay so bad.
Gwen didn't think either of them slept the next night.
Her eyes felt like sandpaper by the morning and she yawned every few seconds. Every time she'd even thought about drifting off something would shift, or Ben's mattress would squeak and she'd be wide awake again.
She wished Ben would hurry up and get over it. She'd gotten her, she'd gotten him. She got him better, though, she thought.
Heck, they'd even switched chores. She was doing the trash and he was doing the dishes. Which didn't seem fair to her, but she did it anyway.
They were even now. She thought so, anyway.
But she doubted he did.
Not that he was going to get her again. She swore that much to herself. She waited until he'd gone up front before she ran into the bathroom. She had picked out her clothes for the day and towel and checked them all before she even took off her pajamas.
Then she checked her shampoo twice, and her toothbrush and toothpaste while she ran the water just to make sure he hadn't stuck something in the tank. Once she'd checked everything she could think of, she shoved a piece of wood under the door just in case he tried to pick the lock. After all of that, she was in and out of the shower so fast she didn't think she even had a chance to get wet.
And she was still too slow.
"Ben!" She screamed. He'd taken everything. Her clothes, her robe, and even her towel.
She heard a knock on the door. Max sounded very tired when he asked, "Oh, Lord. What did he do now?"
"The freak stole my clothes!"
"Hold on a sec…" Max said. Gwen stood there and shivered as she waited.
Then she heard her Grandfather shout, "Ben!" Before there was another knock on the door. Gwen opened it while Max shoved something red through. At first she thought it was a towel, but then she saw it was a couple of Grandpa's shirts.
"He's beyond dead," Gwen said as she dried off with one and pulled the other on. It was so big it hung down to her knees and one of her shoulders slipped out of the neck of the shirt. She stormed past her Grandfather. Ben was sitting in the passenger seat with his feet on the dash and his face buried in his Gameboy. He didn't even look up.
"Where are my clothes!"
"Beats me. Keep track of your own stuff."
"I'm NOT going to wear this!" she said and waved her hand down at the tent-like shirt she was wearing. The pink floral pattern on the red shirt was making her eyes itch. The only way it could be any uglier was if it had glitter. She was better off with green hair than in this horror.
"Not my problem."
Gwen's fingers twitched as she pictured herself wrapping them around her cousin's throat. It would be a favor to the world…
What was worse was that he wouldn't even look at her to see just how dead he was. She spun around and stomped back. Grandpa Max had gone back to the table. There was a cup of coffee in his hands and a pained expression on his face. "Grandpa!"
Grandpa lowered his head to the table. Gwen wanted to scream.
She did when she felt Ben move up behind her. "Now we're EVEN!" he said into her ear, his voice a snarl. He looked past her at Grandpa, who was banging his head into the table. "I'm going for a walk, Grandpa."
"Stay close," Grandpa said and waved his hand without lifting his head. "You're on laundry this week."
"Worth it."
"Give me back my clothes!" Gwen shouted after him with a stomp of her bare foot.
Ben stopped and shot her a look that knocked her back a step. "You made me walk through a movie theater and a stadium after ruining mine. Go find your own clothes."
He gave her a little wave. Then he was gone. God, she hated it when he got the last word.
Especially when he had a point.
Gwen spun around and yanked open the nearest cabinet. All that was in it was pots and pans, but she made a point of digging through it anyway. She hoped he'd at least left her shoes somewhere close.
Or underwear.
Grandpa dared to peak out from behind his fingers. "I don't suppose that you would be the mature one and…" Gwen glared at him. "I didn't think so." He stood and moved to the next hidden cubbyhole. "I'll help you look. It'll give me a chance to think up some punishments."
Ben thought waiting for summer vacation had been bad. That was nothing compared to waiting to see what Gwen would do to him next.
It would be worth it, though. The only thing that could make this any better would Grandpa be giving him back his camera. Grandpa had grabbed it right after the green hair thing and hid it somewhere.
The same place he'd hid Gwen's, probably.
At least he had his memories.
He cut through a nearby park on the way back to where Grandpa had parked the Rust Bucket. The park was full of families and kids his own age running around. There was even a baseball game going on. He thought about running over and joining in, but that would put the teams off balance. Maybe he'd head back and tell Gwen were some of her stuff was hidden so they could come back and play.
And that was when the bright red fire hydrant he'd been walking past erupted.
Even though he was ten feet away the water still hit him hard enough to knock him off his feet and send him sliding. All the kids came running over, most of them laughing as they did.
Ben sighed and made his way back home. He pulled at his shirt and thought he would have been drier if he'd fallen into a pool. The squelching sounds his shoes made with each step annoyed him so much that he took them off and walked home in his socks.
Gwen was waiting for him right at the door. She had one of her sneakers on, and her Capri's were peaking out from under the shirt she'd borrowed. She had a towel in her hand and a smirk on her face, both of which she gave to him. "Now we're EVEN."
Ben just snorted and grabbed the towel.
Gwen woke up with a start the next morning. She hadn't meant or wanted to fall asleep, but she did. She wasn't sure how she managed, though. It had taken her hours to find all of her clothes and she was lying on every last one of them to make sure Ben didn't make off with them again.
She sat up and groaned as her back protested. She thought about getting a shower. She really wanted one. Or, better yet a bath. Anything to relax from the last few days.
She didn't dare though.
Instead she stood and made her way to the table.
Grandpa and Ben were already at the table. Grandpa was the only one who looked like he'd slept last night. Ben's head dipped forward every few seconds, but he always caught himself.
"I hope you two have stopped," Grandpa said and scooted over a little so Gwen could sit next to him.
"Sure," they both muttered without looking at each other.
Gwen grabbed the sandwich that was waiting for her and bit into it. Peanut Butter and Jelly. Gwen licked her lips to catch a bit of the peanut butter that had escaped when she'd bitten in. Crunchy Peanut butter, too. Her favorite.
Grandpa grabbed a sandwich, too. "Great sandwich, Ben. Just the way I like it."
"Thanks, Grandpa."
Gwen froze in mid swallow. The bit she'd already eaten felt like a brick in her belly now. "Wait. Ben made these?"
Grandpa stopped and glared at Ben. He shrugged and kept chewing his own. "Like you said, Grandpa. I made it just the way you like it."
There was only on way that Grandpa liked his PB&J. She remembered the chunks she'd thought were peanuts... Gwen clapped her hands over her mouth and made a mad dash to the bathroom. It was a race she just barely won.
"Benjamin Tennyson!" Grandpa roared behind her.
"I didn't do anything!"
Gwen was barely listening. She'd thrown up what little she'd eaten and was sitting on the floor, her head in her knees as she fought not to be sick again.
And that was how Grandpa found her a minute later. He held out the sandwich, which now had two more bite marks on it. Gwen shivered at the sight of it. "I tasted it, Gwen, and made Ben take a bite, too. It's just Peanut Butter and Jelly. Ben didn't do anything to it."
"The little monster did so," Gwen said. Her voice was as certain as she could make it considering how she was shaking.
Grandpa actually growled as he leaned over and pulled the sandwich apart. Gwen took a look, and saw only what he had said. She poked at it, and pulled out one of the crunchy bits. A peanut. "You owe Ben an apology."
Gwen nodded and felt like an idiot. She stood and picked up her sandwich. Her eyes were on the floor as she made her way back out. "Ben… I'm sorry."
Ben shrugged as Grandpa walked past them. "It's no big." Gwen took a step back to her seat even though she didn't feel the least bit hungry now. Just before she sat down, though, Ben leaned forward and let out an angry hiss of a whisper, "Now we're even."
Gwen screamed as she leapt at him.
Grandpa was even quicker, though. Gwen didn't even notice he was behind her until she felt him grab the back of her shirt and lift her up. Ben laughed right up to the point that Grandpa reached over and clamped his other hand down on the back of Ben's neck.
"That's enough!" Grandpa pulled them both to their feet and either marched or dragged them to the door. He kicked it open and pushed them both outside. They stumbled out onto the grass and both spun around to look at him.
Gwen had never seen her grandfather so mad. His face was a bright red as he glared at the two of them. "A week of this is more than enough. Neither of you are coming back in until you work this out."
"But that's not-"
"It's all-"
"I DON'T CARE!" With that Grandpa slammed the door shut.
"Great work, freak," Gwen snapped.
Ben spun around and glared at her. "This is all your fault, dork."
"Oh, it so is not."
Ben snorted. "Oh, it so is. I don't know what your malfunction is, but you need to get over yourself."
"My only problem is you! You started all of this!"
"Did not!"
"Did too!"
"Not!"
"Too!"
"Brat!"
"Loser!"
"Freak!"
"Dork!"
"Doofus!"
"Dweeb!"
"I hate you!" They screamed the last together. Gwen would never remember who made the first move. She just knew that one moment she was screaming at her brain dead cousin, and the next she had a handful of his hair while he threw himself against her. He screamed as she yanked the hair as hard as she could while he knocked the two of them to the grass.
There was no magic, no karate, and the only time the Omnitrix got involved was when Ben whomped her in the side of the head with it. They grabbed at each other's hair and clothes. They punched and slapped and scratched at whatever they could reach. They kicked and kneed at each other as they screamed, angry beyond words.
Then it was over, just as quick as it had began.
Gwen let go of the grip she'd had around his neck while he let go of her hair. His arms fell wide to the ground. She rolled to the side and laid her head on his right arm. She could feel her heart pounding in her ears and heard Ben panting for breath.
She looked up and around and was suddenly very glad Grandpa Max had stopped at an empty camping ground last night. If someone had seen them - her - like this, fighting like they were still seven...
God, why was her cousin the most infuriating person she knew?
Her head ached, and all of the cuts and scraps on her arms and legs started to burn as she laid there. She felt Ben shift and looked over as he rubbed his head with his left hand. She blushed and looked away when she saw what looked like a bite mark on his hand.
She didn't remember biting him. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. So smart and she couldn't…
There was a soft squeal as the Rust Bucket's door opened. She glanced over at Ben, who looked back at her, his eyes wide with worry. No matter how much she may have ached, she forced herself to her feet. She only let out a small groan as her head pounded, but she winced when she saw all the red marks on her arms. Some of them already dribbling blood. She glanced over and saw that Ben's arms looked even worse. The two hid their arms behind there backs without a word. It didn't do anything to hide the sleeve of Ben's shirt, which had been ripped almost completely off and was now hanging halfway down to his elbow.
Gwen felt the wet grass soaking into the sock of her right foot and realized that she'd lost her shoe sometime during the fight. It had to be close by, but she couldn't bring herself to look as Grandpa Max stared at them.
Ben let out a small puff of breath and ducked his head in his usual 'if I look pathetic enough he won't yell,' pose. One that Gwen copied. She let out a little whimper as she waited for whatever their punishment would be. It took a lot to get Grandpa mad, but fighting was definitely one of his buttons.
And he was already fuming before they'd even started.
She dared a quick glance at her grandfather. His eyes were on both of them. He opened his mouth as if to say something. Instead he shook his head.
It would have been better if he yelled, she thought. Her stomach sank as the silence stretched out. He'd been quiet way too long. They were past no dinner now. And more chores.
Grandpa Max cleared his throat, but that was the only noise he made.
God, she wished he would just say how they were going to be punished. Cleaning the Rust Bucket top to bottom, picking up trash by the road, going back to the farm for a month, anything was better than the silence.
She heard Ben suck in a sudden breath. "No, Grandpa! We'll be good!"
No, there was one thing worse. She looked and saw the phone in Grandpa's hand for the first time. She grabbed Ben's hand and shouted, "No more fighting, we promise!" She saw Ben nod as fast as he could.
Grandpa Max shook his head and looked at them again. He blinked twice and when he spoke, his voice was choked. "We're going home."
"Grandpa!" the two said together in a desperate whine as they launched themselves at him. Gwen hugged the man as hard as she could as her eyes burned with tears. Again they echoed each other as they both wailed, "No, Grandpa! It was all my fault! I'm sorry!"
"Gwen." His hand settled on her shoulder. Gwen looked up and started to pout at him when she saw the tears in his eyes. She couldn't move after that, couldn't even breathe. She'd never seen her Grandfather cry before. This wasn't about the fight. She couldn't imagine what it was about.
"Gwen, we have to go home. Your mom and dad... They want to see you. Your mother's lost the baby."