Chapter 3 My New Bipolar Friendship

The air was muggy in our room and smelled rather bad from B.O. Some idiot had decided to open up the blinds in our room before everybody woke up so I was blinded the second I woke up. I shielded my eyes and began rubbing them vigorously to clear the blurriness out of them.

When I was finally able to see I noticed that I was the only one in the room. I sighed, realizing that I had slept in late again and missed the best parts of breakfast. Now I would be stuck with the scraps, and there was no microwave to heat up any of that cold glob that they no doubt made for breakfast.

'That's the life in the 2nd Massachusetts.' I thought glumly.

I dressed slowly, my body still aching from sleeping on the ground. I heard that some of the soldiers actually got cots to sleep in, guess badass Captain Weaver didn't think the civilians important for comfort. I remembered learning about ancient civilizations and the privileges cultures gave to their fighters. I also remembered learning how the fighters would crush the civilians if they got into the mood of protesting and demanding more rights and stuff for them. The former was happening right now, and I shivered at the thought of the latter happening.

'Another reason to become a fighter.' I thought to myself, stretching out my back. The room that I was sleeping in with my family had two other families in it as well, leaving little room for comfort. With thirteen people sleeping in one room, comfort was a luxury item. The bed rolls were distributed evenly enough, but anything past that was fought over between families. In the end, our family has the least items out of the three families in room 117. With only a thin blanket and a rather hard pillow to sleep on, any sleep was welcome.

I had heard that some people who had gotten a science room to sleep in had tried to put the big desks together to form mini beds. It was ok for the first couple of nights, but people continued waking up on the ground, usually with broken bones or dark purple bruises. The idea was abandoned after Dr. Glass come through and told the civilians that she couldn't keep treating people for bruises and broken bones. She was only supposed to do that for the fighters, not the civilians.

I exited the room and began making my way towards our make shift cafeteria. I was still blurry eyed when they handed me my grey porridge and for a second I thought it had hairs in it. Turning around I looked around the cafeteria to find a place to sit.

Most places were empty since people had already begun their daily chores, though there were a few stragglers. I notice Terry in the back, with a wild grin on his face. He was talking with some friends who looked equally happy. No doubt they had made it to second base last night.

My search stop when I saw Ben, sitting alone and away from the main group. His head was down looking at his porridge, though he wasn't that interested in it judging by how much was left. I began walking towards him, sitting down across from him.

"They'll start to talk about you. And not in a good way." Ben said in acknowledgement, nodding his head towards everybody else in the cafeteria. Ben's back was to the main body of people, so I got a pretty good view of the hall. He was right; most people were staring at us now. They were muttering among themselves softly, no doubt happy to have something new to talk about. I noticed that Terry was staring hard at me, his face warping into disapproval. I smiled and nodded at him, returning my attention to Ben.

"At least I'll have somewhat of a reputation when I talk to your dad." I said, taking a spoonful of porridge. I gagged and spit it back out, wiping my mouth and taking a big sip of water. Ben smiled at me, "What?" I asked.

"Nothing. Listen, I talked to my dad. And while he doesn't agree with someone as young as you fighting, he's willing to hear you out." I nodded, very happy right now. I had not expected for things to be that easy. I thought that Ben would come back with a 'no' and I would have to persuade him to try again.

"That's great! When can I meet him?" I asked, pushing away the porridge.

"This afternoon. He's agreed to talk with you during his patrol break in our room."

"Your room?" I asked confused. Ben shrugged, "He doesn't want it getting out that's he's letting kids join. He wants to check you out first to see if you'll be like Jimmy or if your just some glory hound."

I nodded in understanding. No doubt parents would be furious to hear the army was taking children, though my aunt and uncle wouldn't care that much. Well, maybe they would if I made it. It would be seen as an insult to Uncle James, which I saw as a bonus to this entire situation.

"Your dad's pretty cool to agree to meet me." I said, deciding to make small talk. It was only morning, and the days were long. "How'd you persuade him to meet with me?"

"I don't know. He's probably just happy to have more volunteers, even if they are kids. Or…" Ben stopped himself, looking away from me and rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

"Or what?" I asked. Ben looked back at me, his face sad again.

"Or maybe he's doing this for me because he's glad that I have a friend here." It was silent after that since I really didn't know what to say after that. "We are friends, right?" Ben asked. I was taken aback by the question and was unsure of what to say to that. After seven months of having nobody that I could call a 'friend', the concept seemed so foreign to me. Thinking it over, I answered.

"Ya, we are." Ben looked visibly relieved to hear that, and I felt pretty good about myself too. Maybe calling Ben a friend wouldn't be so bad. "And I think that your dad's interested in volunteers, not looking to make you feel good about having a friend." I mentally kicked myself, realizing how mean that sounded, but Ben didn't seem to mind.

"I bet your right. Do you have a father here?" he asked.

"No, him and my Mom died when the skitters first got here. I live with my Aunt and Uncle now." I answered simply, with no emotion what so ever.

"Oh," Ben said startled, "I'm sorry to hear that. You don't sound too happy about that."

"Ya, having your parents killed right before your eyes doesn't really leave you to happy." I answered bitterly.

"What? Oh God!" Ben said shocked, "No I didn't mean it like that!"

"Now that we're talking about parents, I hear that your Mom died. I'm also sorry about that, you don't seem too happy about that!" I knew I was speaking way too harshly to my new friend, but the memories were flashing back into my head. My parents shouting, sounds of guns being fired, a horrible screeching sound from one of those creatures.

"I just meant that you didn't sound happy about living with your Aunt and Uncle! And don't talk about my mom! I don't want to talk about her alright?" Ben responded, equally as angry.

"Fine!" I said, getting ready to get up from the table. I was cut short from doing that when Terry and some of his idiot friends came up behind Ben. They all still had that goofy look on their faces, making them truly look like idiots.

"Hanging out with the razor backs now Michael?" Terry asked, taking a seat next to Ben. Ben began to move away from him, but one of Terry's friends took a seat on the other side of Ben and one stood behind Ben, boxing him into his seat.

"It's just 'razor back' since there is only one of them here Terry." I responded coolly. Ben looked extremely uncomfortable, trying not to touch anybody around him. 'Bad move Ben.' I thought. Terry was thinking the same thing because he encouraged his posy to move closer to him. Ben seemed to be shrinking farther and farther away from sight.

Part of me wanted to leave Ben as he was. He's a big boy; he can take care of himself. But on the other hand, Ben was the first person to really acknowledge and care about my existence in the past seven months. I began to feel bad about manipulating Ben and thought that I owed him something at least.

"Hey, if you guys want to be close to each other, why don't you all go to the bathroom? Try to get in one of those handicap stalls, it has the most room." Terry looked at me, moving away from Ben. His friends also moved away from Ben like trained dogs following their master. Knowing Terry, that's no doubt exactly what he had reduced them too.

"Dad's not going to be happy to hear that you're hanging out with a razor back."

I scoffed at that, "He's your dad, not mine. I don't give a damn what he says."

"You should dumbass. He's been looking out for you since your old man got blown to pieces and your mom bled out." Terry said. Rage built up inside of me again from somebody mentioning my parents. But I controlled myself, not wanting to give Terry the satisfaction of knowing that he messed with my mind.

"I would have been fine without him." I muttered.

"Sure you would of. You're so big and scary, you could of scared off any skitter that came near you." Terry said, giggling like a little school girl.

'I could of, but your dad's stench kept them away.' I wanted to say, but didn't. Terry was losing interest and soon got up and left, followed by his friends. Ben began to relax again.

"Claustrophobic?" I asked. Ben shook his head.

"I'm sorry about your parents." He said.

"Don't worry about it."

"You're rather strange, you know that?" Ben said with a perplexed look on his face.

"How's that?" I said, raising an eyebrow.

"Well we were just fighting before they came, and then you defended me from them."

"Don't look so star struck Ben. I did it because I can't stand Terry." I lied, I did it because Ben's my friend.

"Terry?"

"My cousin." I replied, no doubt my face growing darker as I did so.

"That's your… That?" Ben said shocked. I nodded.

"Ya, you'll find my new family isn't as loving as yours." Ben still looked shocked as to how family could hate each other so much. I didn't really feel like talking about it, but that didn't stop Ben.

"If you ever want to… you know… talk about what happened with your parents, I'm here you know." Ben said that with such compassion that I had to laugh. He just met me a day ago, and now he's ready to talk to me like he's known me my whole life.

"That's nice of you Ben. Maybe I'll take you up on your offer some day." I responded, not trying to sound too rude between fits of laughter. I pushed away the porridge and turned my attention to Ben. "Now, what do you want to do?"

"Sorry?" Ben said, surprised. I rolled my eyes.

"You said your dad would meet with me this afternoon. It's still early and I thought you said you wanted to hang out with me again. So let's do something!" It was Saturday which meant that we didn't have to go to school or have to worry about anything serious. The day was ours, and I was not about to spend it in that smelly room 117.

Ben seemed to light up at the thought of hanging out with somebody. "We could go back to the library, or try to get in on a soccer game." I nodded and smiled.

"Well let's go!"

Later

The day spent with Ben actually wasn't that bad. He was pretty tolerable and actually enjoyed some of the same stuff that I did before everything went to hell.

After talking for awhile, we went to play soccer, and after it become apparent that neither of us could play that well and everybody was staring at Ben, we took off to the library. We spent the next hour reading in silence, though it wasn't a bad silence.

Ben tapped me on the shoulder when it was time for me to meet his dad. We made small talk on the way there, going towards a part of the school that was usually only for fighters. It was a lot cleaner and move organized than where the civilians slept. Another perk of being a soldier I guess.

On the way there, we passed by the missing children's bulletin board. I noticed that a red hand print was in the middle of it, which gave the board an ominous look to it. Ben looked saddened by the board, looking at all those faces that would probably never be seen again. Then again, Ben looks sad about most things.

"Here it is." Ben said, pointing towards a room that was originally a social studies room. "My dad was a school teacher before the skitters came. So I guess it makes sense that he chose a social studies room."

I nodded, thinking that there must be one hell of a story as to how a school teacher is put second in command of a large resistance group. "Hey," I said, turning to Ben. "Thanks. I mean it. I know I'm not the most personable guy that you'll meet, and that's why it means a lot for you to do this for me."

"It's nothing." Ben tried to say modestly, but I wasn't going to have any of it.

"No, seriously. It does mean a lot. It's ah… it's been a long time since anybody has gone out of their way to help me." I said, reminiscing on sour memories of Uncle James.

"Like I said, it was nothing." Ben said again, shuffling uncomfortably. Apparently he wasn't use to praise.

"Well, shall we go in?" I asked. Ben nodded his head, pulling out a key from his pocket.

"My dad's second in command," Ben explained, "Weaver wants us to have protection." He unlocked the door to a sharp click and put his hand on the knob. "Ready?"

For once I had no witty comment and simply nodded my head, my stomach turning in knots. The only thing that comforted me was the thought of Uncle James face when I told him that I met Tom Mason.

I guess I looked pretty idiotic when I walked in the room with a giant smile on my face.


Thanks for all the support and reviews. Gives me great motivation to keep writing for Falling Skies. It's going to be a long year until the next season (what the hell were the producers thinking when they agreed to that?)

I make a point to respond to all my reviews that come in as non-anonymous. But since this review from WhisperMaw just came in today and deals with something important, I'll answer it now (thanks for the review!)

To answer the question of romance in this story... I don't know. As we've all probably noticed, there is a real lack of female characters. Out of the the four lead female parts (Dr. Glass, Lourdes, Margaret, and Karen), only one of them could possibly (and I use that term losely) have a chance to date Ben and that would be Karen. Of course, she's with Hal and she's been harnessed so she's out of the question. The rest of them are not possible, unless they want to be branded pediphile (maybe minus Lourdes). If there would be a romance, it would have to be an OC character, and I'm trying to not drift to far from the main plot. So simply put, I don't know.

I was planning on having the story continue at the same pace as the show, ex. having this story finish where season 1 does, but since it's going to be a year until season 2, I might make a A/U sequel if I get enough support. Seriously, a YEAR? I would of thought they would continue in the winter months, which would make a lot of sense and would make sure you wouldn't lose some of your viewers. An entire year though... they better be heavy on the promotional stuff.

So with that said: REVIEW!