Disclaimer I do not own Animorphs or Ben 10
Chapter 6: Amazed
Rachel's POV
I've been seeing the new kid from school often. Though i haven't gotten a chance to talk to him yet. We aren't in the same class, but i get to see him during lunch period or sometimes in the hallways. I've sometimes seen him walking around the mall. What was his name again? Oh yeah Benjamin Tennyson. I think he's in Jake's class. During lunch period i keep seeing other girls going up to talk with him. While in the mall I see that he's normally alone. Everything that i knew about him was secondhand that i learned from my other friends.
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"Hey have you talked with that new kid?"
"You mean Benjamin Tennyson?"
"Yeah I mean he's so cool!"
I was listening to two of my other friends as they were talking about school gossip.
"I mean, he's just been here like what? Less than a couple of days? There's so much hype about him."
"That's the point Lori! That's just it, if he were some regular kid there wouldn't be this much hype and then the hype would die down in less than a day or two. But have you heard about what happened yesterday?"
"The thing with Drake and Woo? Yeah I've heard that something happened, but I don't know the details." Said Lori.
"Well Janet was there and she told me that they were gonna go and bully him."
"Yeah well that's Drake and Woo."
"I know, but guess what? He fought back!" She said excitedly.
"That's it?"
"No what's incredible was that he fought back without throwing a single punch."
"Wait, how'd he fight back without hitting someone?"
"From where Janet could see, Drake was on the floor and Woo was on his knees."
"Really? Drake was on the floor? Are you sure Janet wasn't exaggerating, Karen?"
"I'm sure of it Lori."
"What about you Rachel?" Asked Lori.
"What?" I said looking at her with a confused look.
"What do you think of the new kid?" She asked.
"I don't know." I said shrugging. "I haven't talked with him yet."
"What, seriously?" She said in disbelief. I shrugged again, meeting her eye defiantly. "I mean come on Rachel! He's like the most good looking guy in school and you haven't even tried to talk to him?"
"Seriously Rachel, I'm surprised you haven't tried to talk to him." Said Karen.
I didn't know what to say, i couldn't say anything in fact. There was gonna to be a awkward silence, but luckily the school bell rang and I didn't need to respond to her. "See you guys!" I said as i rushed off to class. "Saved by the bell." I said under my breath.
I know what you're thinking. Rachel, Xena warrior princess as Marco calls me. The most violent animorph who would spit in Visser three's face without flinching and grin while i see the look on his ugly face. Scared to go talk to the new kid. Almost every girl in school already had a go at him, in fact most of the guys too. Why haven't I? All I've heard about him was from my friends and from the other girls that I knew. From what i heard, he was charming and funny, even though he didn't sound exactly my type, I really wanted to go talk to him. I just don't know why i can't.
After school I wanted to go look for Tobias. I needed someone to talk to, I knew that Cassie would listen to whatever i wanted to say, but I wanted to talk with Tobias. Once i got home i went to my room, took off my clothes and quickly morphed into my bald eagle morph. I had left my window open so i could get out easily.
I hopped from the floor to the sill, I had very little room to spread out my wings. I jumped from the window and spread out my wings, flapping to gain altitude. A small updraft from the hot street helped a bit, until i found a thermal. I quickly soared high into the sky with it, giving my wings some time to rest from all the flapping.
I headed towards Cassie's barn to see if Tobias was there. When i saw it, I swooped into the barn and landed on the rafters.
(Tobias?) I called out to the barn in thought speech.
No one was there, not even Cassie. I flew out of the barn and looked over at her house, it was empty. 'Maybe she went out.' I thought.
I still had over an hour in morph, so i headed over to Ax's place. Tobias always hangs out with Ax, since both of them live in the forest. I got over the trees and headed deep into the forest. I didn't see Ax at his scoop, but i found him dipping one of his hooves in a nearby stream. I landed on a branch and then glided to the ground. Flaring my wings just before touchdown to soften the landing. I slowly demorphed felling a bit tired from the flight, even with the help of thermals.
Morphing has many advantages and like anything has disadvantages. For one thing you can't stay over the two hour limit, you can't morph clothes except for anything skin tight, you can't morph from one morph to the next you need to demorph then remorph into the different animal, another is that morphing can be very tiring.
When i was finished morphing i walked over to Ax, walking carefully on the forest floor. He was looking at me with one of his stalk eyes. It's so weird how he looks at you with one of those eyes.
"Hi Ax." I said.
(Hello Rachel.) He said turning to face me.
I went straight to the point. "Have you seen Tobias?" I asked him.
(I haven't seen him today, why?) He asked me.
"I tried looking for him, but I can't seem to find him. Also i haven't seen him since the last meeting and i wanted to talk with him." I told him.
(What is it that you wanted to talk about with him?) He asked me. The conversation was going somewhere i didn't want.
I shrugged and said. "Nothing really, I just want to talk with him. That's all"
(Well if i do see him today i will tell him that you wish to talk with him.) He said.
I smiled and turned to morph back into a bald eagle. Before i took off i looked over at Ax and said in thought speech (Thanks for the help Ax.) Then i took off heading home.
Me and Cassie were sitting in our usual table in the cafeteria. Neither of us were talking while we ate, there was nothing really in particular to talk about. I looked up from my food over to the lone table away from everyone else. Benjamin was sitting there again. I can't remember why no one ever sat on that table, but now it seems that he wants to sit there. He wore the exact same clothing scheme the past few days. Black shirt, white jacket left unzipped, jeans, and sneakers. He looked thoughtful as he ate, like there was something on his mind. I wanted to go talk to him, just to know what was on his mind, to get to know him.
"Rachel?" Cassie asked snapping me out.
"Yeah?" I asked her.
"You looked like you zoned out, is there anything wrong?" She asked her voice concerned. Cassie was always the one member of the group who still held her morals about the war and how it affected us.
"Nah, just something's on my mind." I said toying with my food.
"Wanna talk about it?" She asked.
"No, it's nothing really, don't worry about it." I said sounding casual. She didn't seem to believe me, but she dropped the subject and continued to eat her food.
I looked over to the table that Benjamin was sitting at and he was joined by two girls. They were both talking to him, one of them laughed. I assumed he said something funny. I looked back down at my food and ate mechanically, trying my best to not look up to see what was happening over at Benjamin's table.
Cassie finished her food before i did and waited for me to finish. The silence was comfortable, we were close friends me and Cassie. By the time i finished we left our trays in the table and left the cafeteria. I took a peak over at where Benjamin sat, he was sitting by himself again, the two other girls probably had nothing else to talk about. I smiled, then me and Cassie left the cafeteria.
I had nothing to do later that afternoon, but Cassie had to help her dad so after school we went our separate ways home. I was fine with it, I had a ton of homework to do anyway. Today was sunny and warm, I wanted to spend the day out of doors and relax, but i had homework to do. Most of them were due tomorrow and i didn't want to stay up late doing homework.
I got into my house and went straight to my room. I threw my bag on my bed before heading to the bathroom. I didn't know why, but i just wanted to take a good long shower. I stripped and stepped into the shower. Turning on the shower i quickly adjusted it to put it at just the right temperature. The warm water felt wonderful flowing down my body. I took my time taking the shower, no one else was in the house, so i enjoyed the bath.
I thought back to all the missions that we the Animorphs have done ever since we gained the morphing ability. I thought back to all the times that i was a towering grizzly bear, roaring at the bands of hork-bajir then swiping at them with my huge powerful claws. The feeling of their bodies as their ribs cracked under the force of my paws made me smile. I loved the rush of the fight, it made me feel so alive, no matter what I've done since none of it had ever gotten close. I continued dreaming of my fantasies of battle until the water got noticeably cooler. I turned off the shower and dried myself off with a towel. I walked out of the shower and got dressed.
Feeling fresh from my wonderful shower i started doing my homework. All of the other Animorphs seem to have a problem with keeping up with homework ever since we began fighting the Yeerks. I seem to be the only one who can keep up with both school and the war.
I was just finishing my history homework when I heard some tapping on the window. I looked up to see Tobias perched on my window sill.
"Tobias!" I said happily.
(Hey Rachel.) I opened the window and he hopped inside. (Ax told me that you wanted to talk with me. So here I am.) I chuckled at that.
"I just wanted to talk with you Tobias. I haven't seen you since the last meeting."
(Really?) He sounded surprised. Sometimes it's actually easier to know someones emotions with thought speech than talking normally. (Are you worried about me?)
I smiled. "Not really Tobias, I know you can take care of yourself. I just wanted someone to talk to."
He didn't question why i wanted to talk with him. I can understand if he did, I have Cassie to talk to and she is the one who always listens to whatever i had to say, be it personal or something else. (Alright, what is it you wanna talk about?)
We talked for a while. I kept all my homework so Tobias could stand on my dest. I sat on my bed facing him and we talked. We talked about our lives while we hadn't seen each other. He talked about his adventures in trying to survive as a hawk, while I told him of how boring my normal life was. Back when we first started fighting the Yeerks, talk about normal life was a touchy subject around Tobias, but now he seemed okay with it. I was lucky that no one was home while we talked. Me mom and sisters would've thought i was crazy for talking to a hawk.
We talked and talked, the both of us enjoying each others company. We laughed at small jokes, I smiled at good memories and happy moments, Tobias couldn't smile his beak couldn't let him. But i knew that if he could he would've. There was something about talking with Tobias, just something. I couldn't put it in words, but there was just something there. It was nice talking with him. I had just gotten comfortable while we talked when he looked out the window seeing the sun.
(Rachel I gotta go. It's getting dark.) I understood what he meant. Even though he didn't have any responsibilities like the others, he still needed to get back to his field before dark. Hawks aren't nocturnal, you see and even with their sharp eyesight they were at a disadvantage at night. Owls and some other nocturnal birds would sometimes hunt the unlucky hawk who was still flying around at night. Tobias wouldn't even see or hear them coming.
"Alright." I said standing up from the bed to open the window.
He fluttered off my desk and onto the windowsill, I stroked his head and neck. He didn't seem to mind. "Have a safe flight." I said.
(I always do.) He said looking over at me. I smiled.
He spread out his wings and flew off. I watched him fly away until he was nothing but a small dot in the slowly reddening sky.
The next day after school I went to gymnastics. It was fun that day, everyone was in a good mood and we all were having fun. We worked on the moves that we had trouble with. All of us worked together to help improve, we were all like assistant instructors helping our coach, if someone had trouble with the parallel bars then one of us could help and give some advice and vice versa.
Everything was going smoothly until our coach got called away on some minor emergency. He told us that we were free to go home or practice by ourselves but to be sure to be careful. Even though all of us were good enough not to injure ourselves, most of them felt uncomfortable practicing without the coach's supervision. We all put it up to a vote, stay and have some fun or just head home. The latter won. Well I wasn't disappointed, I could've just kept practicing by myself, but practicing alone was a bit unnerving.
We all changed from out leotards and said our goodbyes. I was the last to finish changing and i was left alone in the changing room. I fixed up my stuff and headed out of the changing room. I looked over at the gymnastics room that we all practiced in. I remembered when i first started and i wanted to go and join the olympics. It's funny looking back to when you were younger and remember your aspirations which were either too small or too large and you now see how silly or impossible they actually were.
I heard a yell from one of the other rooms. Curious i walked over to see a bunch of guys and some girls in robes. They weren't like bathrobes or the ones that old priests wear, they kinda reminded me of pajamas almost. They were white and some of the people wore different colored belts tied to their waists. Most of them wore white, some blue, others red, there were a couple who wore black. I looked at the piece of paper taped to the door i was looking through.
It said "Karate Training Sessions 4:00pm to 5:00pm Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays."
I looked back inside and saw that there were a couple of people sitting in the sidelines not wearing the weird pajama like things. They were probably friends or family of the guys training. I remember watching the Karate Kid with my sisters, they looked just like the movie but some of it was different. I think they were using a different style. I watched them practice until their coach or master told them to split up and they were all kneeling in a circle. Two people of the same colored belt were in the circle of people. They both took their stances and began to fight. I watched as one after the other people of different belt colors sparred. Some of the fights were longer while others were shorter. I watched them until they all finished and were getting ready to leave. Just as i looked away from the room, from the corner of my eye i thought i saw Benjamin. I quickly looked back to see if he was there, he wasn't. Why did I do that? It was weird, I barely knew the guy!
I quickly left the YMCA and headed home. I had just got out of the building and I realized i forgot my leotard back in the changing room. I quickly ran back to inside and headed to the changing rooms. Luckily no one had locked it up yet. I found my leotard on one of the benches I quickly picked it up and shoved it into my bag. When i got out of the changing room I saw something that surprised me. There were a bunch of boys from the Karate lesson. They obviously stayed behind to cause some trouble. They had changed out of their outfits and were wearing normal street clothes. Most of them i recognized were the few that wore the black belts. There were four of them and they were surrounding Benjamin. They all looked to be sixteen at least and I could hear their voices echoing in the empty hallway.
"Hey kid what'cha doing here?" I heard one of them say. The YMCA was totally empty on days like these so no one would be able to know if Benjamin was in trouble. He shoved at Benjamin and the others were laughing.
'Come on Rachel think!' I thought to myself turning away from the scene behind the door hiding from the other boys. 'Could i morph grizzly and scare them off? No that would scare Benjamin off to and he might get hurt. I don't even have enough time got out of my clothes to morph.'
"Come on kid show some respect!"
"Yeah, If you get on the floor and beg for mercy we might make this easy for you." I heard all of them laughing. I turned the corner to what what was going to happen next.
Benjamin had his back to the wall the four guys were looming over him, most of Benjamin was hidden from view.
I heard Benjamin speak. "Come on guys let me go." At least i thought it was Benjamin, but who among the four guys would say that? His voice wasn't scared or brave, just nothing.
"Like hell were gonna let you go." Said the tallest of the guys. He took a swing at Benjamin. You know, I can't stand bullying. I guess it's something me and Jake have in common. I wanted to do something about it, but four to two odds while i'm still just a normal girl didn't sound like good odds.
I heard someone shout, at first i thought it was Benjamin who got hit, but i saw that it wasn't Benjamin who yelled out, actually it was the guy who took a swing at him. Benjamin was holding his arm at the elbow and was twisting it behind the guy. One of the other guys aimed a punch at Benjamin's face, he missed, Benjamin shoved the guy he as holding to the ground and threw the guy who tried punching him in the face on top of the guy who he shoved to the floor. One of the two who were still standing tried kicking at him, but Benjamin was standing too close for the kick to do anything, Benjamin grabbed his leg and twisted it while sweeping his leg making him land on the other two. The last guy was going to hit Benjamin from behind, but before he could Benjamin's fist connected with his jaw in a backhand punch. He hit the ground, out cold.
Benjamin looked over the four guys he had just beaten. He just shrugged and walked away. I was shocked at how fast everything had happened. He just beat four guys in no time. When he was gone, i quickly got out of the building before the four guys came to.
Now I knew that what Janet and Lori were talking about with what happened to Drake and Woo weren't something someone made up. But what confused me is how did he get here. I thought back to when i was looking in at their training I thought that I saw him there, but when I looked back he wasn't. Maybe i had just missed him.
The next day i went to see Marco at school during lunch period.
"Hey Marco." I said and he looked up at me from his food.
"Yeah Rachel?"
"What do you know about the new student Benjamin?" I asked nervously, but i hid it pretty well. I wasn't someone who showed others that I was nervous.
"Oh Ben?" He said grinning like an idiot, I remembered back at the mall when I said he looked kinda cute.
"Oh shut up." I said hitting him on the back of the head.
"Ow! Okay, what do you wanna know?" He said laughing.
"Were you there when Benjamin, I mean Ben, kicked Drake and Woo's asses?" I said smiling
"Yeah it was so incredible it was like he came out of a Jackie Chan movie!"
"Yeah well i saw him at the YMCA yesterday and he wiped the floor with four karate guys."
Marco rested his chin on his hand. "I'm surprised, Drake and Woo i understand but Karate guys?"
"Yeah." I said. "I think they were all black belts. I'm not sure what those meant."
When I mentioned black belts Marco's eyes went wide. "Seriously?"
"Dead serious." I said.
"Black belts are like the highest rank for students Rachel, are you sure they were black belts?"
I gave him a frank look. "I'm serious."
"Damn." He said. "I wouldn't wanna pick a fight with him."
"Anything else you know about him?" I asked.
"Nope, not a thing." He said and he continued to eat his food.
I looked over at the table that Ben normally sat at. He was there as usual, eating his lunch. Now I wanted to go talk to him more than ever.
Authors notes: Hey guys! How was this chapter? I think Rachel might be a bit to mellow here. What do you think? Can i improve her? Do i need to add more violence in her inner thoughts or not? I need all the help i can get.
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