Disclaimer I do not own Animorphs or Ben 10
Chapter 7: Curiosity
Marco's POV
Rachel came up to me during lunch period on thursday.
"Hey Marco." She said, I looked up from my food.
"Yeah Rachel?" I asked, I wasn't sure what she wanted, Jake was busy with something so I was eating alone.
"What do you know about the new student Benjamin?" She asked, I heard a slight tone in her voice that made me grin like an idiot.
"Oh, Ben?" I said, my grin wide as ever.
"Oh shut up." She said before smacking me in the back of the head.
"Ow! Okay, what do you wanna know?" I said laughing at her.
"Were you there when Benjamin, I mean Ben kicked Drake and Woo's asses?" She said smiling. I knew that Jake had a thing against bullies and so did Rachel. I guess she enjoyed the idea of someone being able to defend themselves. Either that of the thought of violence made her giddy.
"Yeah it was so incredible it was like he came out of a Jackie Chan movie!" I said remembering how incredible it was.
"Yeah well i saw him at the YMCA yesterday and he wiped the floor with four karate guys."
I rested my chin on my hand. "I'm surprised, Drake and Woo i understand, but Karate guys?" I said. Now that was something, I've watched some of the guys from the YMCA Karate club and they were pretty good.
"Yeah. I think they were all black belts. I'm not sure what those meant."
I was really surprised. "Seriously?"
"Dead serious." She said with a straight face
"Black belts are like the highest rank for students Rachel, are you sure they were black belts?"
"I'm serious."
"Damn. I wouldn't wanna pick a fight with him." I mean if he can take down four guys who were black belts in Karate then he's gotta be good.
"Anything else you know about him?" She asked me.
"Nope, not a thing. " I said and went back to eating my food.
Rachel left a little while after we talked. I quickly finished my food and made my way out of the cafeteria. My thoughts were still full of questions about the new kid Ben. He's barely here for a week and already got into two fights, winning both. I wondered where did he learn all that stuff. I mean he can't be much older than any of us. He looks like what? Thirteen? Fourteen at most. He doesn't seem like the delinquent type, well his hair maybe, but it makes him look more like a hippie than anything. From what I've heard from Jake and other people he's a nice guy. I don't get why he gets dragged into fights.
We had PE after the first period after lunch. Even though it was a friday, PE was the usual end of the school class. Since it was sunny outside, instead of spending the day in the gym we would do some exercises outside. Most of the middle school had their PE scheduled on friday. Even though i kinda liked PE having on friday had some of its downs. For one on some days i get too tired to do anything after school, I hoped that we wouldn't do anything too tiring today.
My hopes came true. Today we were only going to do basic stuff. Jumping jacks, running, pushups, and my least favorite pull ups. Some students were exempted from PE, varsity team members usually and kids with injuries. Well from experience, today was gonna be an easy day. Just don't slack off too much and you'll get a decent grade.
Nothing really happened during the jumping jacks, I mean what the hell could happen? It's just jumping jacks. But during the run there was something that surprised me. Normally during the run the students would normally slowly form into groups, the group up front was made up of the more athletic kids, then the middle group and the ones lagging behind. I was in the middle group, It wasn't hard keeping up with the group in front, but i didn't bother with it. What was the point? But something in the front group surprised me. It was Ben. There were quite a few athletic kids in our school, normally the guy named Jerry would be up front. But Ben was running at a fast pace keeping ahead of everyone. For the run we were supposed to do four rounds along the track. It was only a mile but that didn't make it easy, we had to keep a good pace otherwise the PE teacher would start yelling at all of us. Ben finished all four rounds before anyone else, and actually in his last lap he over took everyone and got beck to the front of the three groups.
Not only did the run surprise me but during the rest of the class he did a lot more. In the pushups we were supposed to do about 20. We all took our time our teacher looking over us to make sure we weren't cheating the count. Ben was the first to finish doing the pushups and they weren't like the ones we did but they looked more the pushups you'd do in the military. His hands were pretty far from each other and his chest was touching the ground. Same with the pull ups he did better than everyone else. Also while he was doing the pull ups i saw that most of the girls were looking at him and many of them were blushing. When i looked over at Ben i could see why. It was quite warm that day and we were all sweating from the exercise. Ben's shirt was soaked through and it stuck close to his body. I could see that he was lean and ripped. The muscles in his back and arms rippling at the exercise. While his arms were holding on to the bars I also saw his four pack abs verging on six. I have to admit that made me really jealous.
I looked away and looked for Rachel. I guessed that she might have a small crush on him and wanted to see what was gonna be her reaction. When i finally found her her reaction was totally different to what i expected. Unlike the other girls which were taking glances and then looking away blushing. Rachel was staring at Ben openly. I'll admit i was also surprised when i saw his physique. You couldn't see much with his jacket on. I saw several guys giving thoughtful looks at Ben. I knew who most of them were. They weren't school varsity athletes but were part of different teams. I knew that they wanted Ben to join them. I mean who could blame them, He's strong and fast, what team wouldn't want a guy like Ben? I also knew that some of them were controllers, and I bet they wouldn't mind having Ben's body to infest.
When PE was done our group was sent to the showers. We changed out of our PE uniforms and back into our usual clothes. When I finished i waited outside for Ben. When he came out i threw my arm over his shoulder and said.
"Hey Ben, you busy today?"
"Nah, not really." He said smiling. I've been talking with him in the hallways and sometimes in the mall when I saw him. "Why?"
"Wanna head to the arcade? Jake says that someone beat his high score and it would be great if we hung out more, you know show you around and stuff."
"Sure." He said laughing before throwing my arm off.
Jake soon met up with us. "Hey Marco, Ben."
"Hey Jake." Said Ben.
"Ben's gonna be coming with us to the arcade later."
"Thats cool."
"Hey how much you got on you?" I asked Ben out of curiosity.
"Lemme check." He said digging into his pocket. He pulled out a brown wallet and flared out a few of twenties.
"Whoa! How much is your allowance?" He shrugged before putting back his wallet.
"Well we shouldn't have anything to worry about." Said Jake grinning, Ben gave him a friendly punch on the arm.
Even though he has only been here for a week. He's easy to get along with. Hell in less than a month he'd probably be the most popular guy in school if he wanted to.
While we walked back inside the school to get our stuff, a lot of the girls were eyeing Ben with a mischievous smile on their faces. Ben sighed. I gave him a small push to the side.
"Hey man, what's wrong with you? If i were you I'd be basking in it. Not that i need to be you to get this much attention."
"Oh yeah, like you could compete with me." pushing back at me in retaliation.
Jake was laughing the entire time.
We spent a lot of time in the arcade, but it didn't matter. It was friday and we had Ben's wallet to keep us going. Jake spent a ton of time on one of the games trying to beat the guy who beat his old high score. Me and Ben watched him play for a bit before heading out to play a few other games. I challenged him to a bunch of fighting games and I thought that it was gonna be an easy win. I was completely wrong. We were pretty much even and most of our fights had ended in ties. I lost count as to how many rounds we played and whenever we had to stop to get more quarters we barely drained his wallet.
It wasn't like we played nothing but fighting games. We played a few shooters, where he beat me every time. Along with a couple rounds on the racing games.
We got back to Jake who was still playing the game and still hadn't beaten the new high score. He only had one life left and he was also out of quarters. Me and Ben watched him as he tried his best, but the guy who beat Jake was good. He had overtaken Jake's score by over 4000 points. The closest Jake had ever gotten was beating his old score, but he barely got close.
When he finally died he was practically raging. "Damn it!" It looked like he was ready to hit the machine. while I was laughing that he couldn't beat it. He glared at me. "Lets see you beat it, Marco." Crossing his arms.
I couldn't help but grin. "Sure." I said walking up to the game and putting in a quarter. "Watch and learn." I said smugly.
Well my confidence didn't last very long since i could barely beat Jake's recent score. I was getting frustrated and Jakes mood was improving for every death i got. I kept playing until i couldn't take it anymore and I had to restrain myself from kicking the stupid machine. I looked at Jake and Ben. The both of them grinning like asses. I looked over at Ben. "Why don't you give it a try." I said my tone scathing at not being able to beat the high score. I shoved my hands in my pockets, my shoulders slumped. Ben easily sliding in a quarter into the machine and began playing.
It only took him a few tries before he beat Jake's new score, and after a few more he beat the highest score. Me and Jake were speechless. He kept going after he had beaten the high score he went on a streak. He beat the old score by almost 8000 points before he died. He turned to us smirking.
"Hey guys I'm getting kinda hungry. Wanna come with me? My treat."
Ben treating us to some food did a lot to improve our moods since he both kicked our butts in the game. Even after all the games we played he still had a quite a bit of cash left. Rachel and Cassie saw the three of us eating in the food court. Cassie was the one who first reached the table.
"Hey Jake, hey Marco."
"Oh yeah." Jake said. "Cassie this is Benjamin Tennyson." He gestured at Ben then he gestured at Cassie. "Ben this is Cassie." He held out his hand and she shook it.
"Just call me Ben." He said giving a small smile at her.
Rachel soon caught up with Cassie. "Hey guys."
"Hey Rachel, this is Ben. Ben this is Rachel my cousin."
Ben was smiling his usual smile at Rachel, until i noticed something weird. His smile got stiff when Jake mentioned that she was his 'cousin'. Rachel also seemed to notice it.
"Hey what's wrong with you?" She raised her eyebrow.
Then Ben seemed to relax again and he smiled wider. "Nothing, I'm fine." He held out his hand and she shook it.
Cassie and Rachel sat with the three of us. It was kinda weird, normally there would only be four of us. But sometimes we'd be five or six if Ax and Tobias joined us.
"Hey you guys want anything?" Ben asked Cassie an Rachel. "It's my treat." He said as he started to stand up from the table.
"No thanks, we're good." Answered Cassie. Ben sat back down.
Cassie started up a conversation with Ben. "So Ben how do you find the neighborhood? You just moved into town right?"
He took a sip of soda. "Yeah I did."
"So how is it?"
"It's nice. Things around here are a bit quiet, that's fine." He said shrugging.
"Have you had a look around?" Asked Cassie.
"No, no really. Just school, home, and the mall." He gestured grandly at the food court. We all chucked at that.
"Well you should visit The Gardens. " She said her eyes glowing.
"The Gardens?" Ben asked curiously.
"It's like a zoo and amusement park combined." Jake explained.
"Yeah, Cassie's mom works as a vet for the zoo side of it." Added Rachel
"If you want, we could go show you around." Suggested Cassie. "Since my mom works there I can get us discounts."
"Not unless he's paying with his allowance." I muttered. Ben grinned at that. Cassie and Rachel looked confused.
"It's nothing." He assured them.
"We could go tomorrow." Cassie suggested. "There won't be a lot of people which would leave the rides free for us."
"No not this weekend. I got some stuff to do." He gave a apologetic look. "Maybe next weekend."
Cassie shrugged. "It's okay."
"Yeah, It's not like the Gardens is going anywhere." I said. We all laughed at that.
"So, where'd you live before moving here?" Rachel asked.
I was curious myself, even though i'd been hanging out with him for a while, I never asked.
"Out of state. I lived in Bellwood."
"What's it like?" Rachel asked.
"It's almost the same as here, to be honest. You know, it's by ocean, a forest, a desert. Just a bit more exciting."
Well we had our share of excitement with all the Yeerks. "Like what?" I asked.
He just shrugged while taking another drink of soda. Then I remembered something.
"Hey, where did you learn how to fight?"
"Uh, what?" He asked giving me a funny look
"Remember what you did with Drake and Woo? And Rachel told me you wiped the floor with a bunch of karate black belts."
"Aw man you saw that?" He said looking at Rachel, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment grimacing.
She shrugged not meeting his eye.
He looked back at me and said. "Like I said before I picked it up during summer." I thought i heard something out of place when he said 'summer', but I ignored it.
I was going to get into the details, but Jake cut me off. "Hey guys i think we're cutting it kinda close even on a friday night." He said looking down at his watch.
"Yeah I gotta get going too." Said Ben.
We all got out of the food court and went our separate ways. Well Ben went alone, the rest of us stuck together. But we eventually went our separate ways and headed home.
Authors Notes: Hey guys! How'd I do Marco? I'm not sure why but i guess it's kinda like Rachel. Was he too mellow? I kinda tend to write characters more mellow than they are. Advice is much appreciated for improvement to their character!
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