Chapter 9: Fight Club
Disclaimer: I Don't Own Ben 10 Or Any Of The Characters. I Don't Own The Rights To Nathan Black Or Any Associated Characters, The Rights Go To annihalator2015
Disclaimer: This Series/Story Has Nothing To Do With The Ben 10: Ultimate Alien Cartoon Series. Any Similarities That May Pop Up Aren't Intentional
Author's Note:
* Hello and welcome to Chapter Nine!
* I have nothing to say, so let's just get right into the chapter!
Earth-6101
Monday Night – Late August, 2017
The Tennyson House
Ben
"So, you want to get contacts?" Mom asked.
I nodded.
"Why? You look great with glasses! Why ruin that?"
"Yeah, I know. But I don't want to have to use my spare pair of glasses or have to go get them fixed every time a pair gets broken."
Mom didn't say anything as both she and Dad looked at me.
"Have you broken your glasses again already, Ben?" Dad chimed in.
I shook my head.
"Well, Kevin backhanded me today and they fell off my face, but they're fine. I'm lucky that they weren't really broken."
She just stared at me in response.
"Kevin backhanded you?" she finally spoke, as she covered her eyes. "Ben—"
"Why don't you ever try to stand up for yourself?" Dad finished for her.
I looked at him with an offended look.
"I did try, Dad! But every time I try, he just puts me in my place!"
"Then try harder!"
The room went silent after that. Mom eventually cleared her throat.
"If you really want to get contacts, then we'll see what we can do, Ben."
I leaned back in my chair with a sigh.
"Thank you."
Tuesday Afternoon
Madison High School
Nathan and I walked through the halls after the lunch the following day. The second half of English required us to have our textbooks, so I had to stop by my locker to get mine.
"So, you're thinking about getting contacts?" he asked.
I nodded as I put my combination into the lock.
"Yeah. I don't want to have to get my glasses fixed every time Kevin whacks them off."
"Hey man, you don't have to explain to me. I get it."
I opened my locker and reached for my English textbook. That's when it happened.
"Yo, Tennyson!" I heard Kevin call from down the hall. "Round two!"
I let out a sigh.
"Oh, no." I muttered under my breath.
I quickly stepped away from my locker, before J.T. slammed it shut. He then grabbed the lock from off the locker and handed it to Kevin. Kevin tossed it down the hallway.
"What's up, kid?" he asked as he lightly pushed me.
"Hey!" Nathan exclaimed with hostility. "Can't you clowns take a hint and back the fuck off?!"
None of them were fazed. Meanwhile, I just stood up straight and stared Kevin down. J.T. must have seen my look to be challenging, as per the thing he said next.
"Kick his ass, Kevin! He's asking for a fight!"
"Yeah, kick his ass, man!" Cash chimed in.
Kevin looked back at his cronies, before turning back to me with a smile on his face.
"Yeah, go ahead Ben! Fight me, I dare you!"
I said nothing in return.
"I dare you." He said as he sneered.
I remained silent, I just stared him down still. Eventually, Kevin just shook his head.
"Come on, we're wasting our time." J.T. replied.
All three of them turned around and began to walk off. As they did that, I felt something welling up inside me. Maybe it was from my father telling me that I needed to try harder in standing up for myself. Maybe it was just because I was feeling more confident lately. Either way, what happened next, the old me definitely wouldn't have done. It all happened so fast. I opened my mouth and...
"Okay." I said.
Kevin and his friends began to turn around and as he did, I was already moving towards him. As he turned to face me, I punched him in the jaw, sending him staggering backwards. Once he recovered, he checked his jaw, but I didn't punch him hard enough to draw blood. He cast an angry look my way.
"Big mistake, kid." He said. "You caught me when I wasn't ready. You'll get it now!"
I said nothing in response, I just waited for one of them to make a move. Kevin began to rush forward first. However, that's when time slowed down. Well, actually in theory, time was still moving at its normal pace, it was just appeared to be slowed down for me.
Kevin continued moving towards me and once he was close, I sidestepped, which surprised him. As I punched Kevin again, J.T. and Cash moved in on either side of me. I stepped out of the way as J.T. tried to rush me, which caused him to run straight into Cash.
"Watch where you're going!"
"Be quiet! Be mad at the kid for making fools out of us!"
They continued their advance, with Kevin in the front. He tried to attack me again and stopped him by clocking him in the jaw again. Cash sprinted towards me from the right and I sidestepped, causing him to sprint straight into the wall of lockers opposite us. Next J.T. tried the same maneuver, only for me to trip him as he was running. He fell over and landed right on Cash, who was still recovering from running into the lockers. As this happened, I heard Nathan say something.
"You wanna join him, be my guest. But I suggest you cheerleaders sit this one out if you know what's good for you."
I then barely heard him crack his knuckles, probably as a warning to the two bullies. Kevin hadn't backed down yet. He advanced towards me one more time and tried to punch me again. I dodged the punch, which only made him throw several more punches at me. I dodged every one of them and caught his fist in a tight grip once he threw the last one. He tried to pull his hand back and as he did that, we stared each other down. I finally threw one last punch at Kevin, which caught him dead center in the nose.
He fell backwards onto the tile floor as he held his nose. J.T. and Cash were finally getting up, looking freaked out from what they had just seen me do. They exchanged glances and then hightailed it down the hallway. Kevin was about to advance, when he looked behind him to see that his friends had abandoned him. He turned back to look at me with an angry look on his face.
"Fuck this!" he exclaimed, before he turned and took off running down the hall.
I stood there, as what I had just done sank in. I stared down at my hands, which were shaking. I turned back to Nathan, but I didn't look up at him. I couldn't believe that I had just put Kevin and his cronies into their place!
"Ben?" Nathan finally said something.
I looked up at him with a scared look in my eyes, my hands still shaking as I did. However, much to my surprise, Nathan didn't look scared at all. Actually, he looked somewhat impressed, even having a smile on his face.
"How did you do that?" he asked. "Ben, that was amazing!"
I couldn't agree with him. I couldn't even bring myself to accept that I had done that. It scared me, knowing what I was capable of. I finally sprinted past Nathan, accidentally bumping his shoulder as I went pass, which caused me to fall to the floor. I didn't let that stop me, though. I quickly got back up and kept running down the hall.
"Ben, where are you going?!" Nathan called from behind me. "Ben!"
Ten Minutes Later
I had left the school. And I finally came to a stop in an alley a good distance away from Madison High, feeling sick to my stomach from all the running I had done. I had run all the way from school, still scared by what I had done. I leaned against the brick wall to my right, feeling as though I would vomit. And I did.
"Hhuaggh!"
I took a deep breath, now feeling better.
"Oh, God." I muttered, as I spit out what was left of it.
I looked up and walked away from where I had thrown up. I slid down with my back against the brick wall, eventually coming to a sitting position.
How could I have actually done that?
I got up from my sitting position. I had to get home. I didn't want to go back to school after what happened, so I wouldn't. I left the alley and began walking in the direction of my house.
A Few Hours Later
The Tennyson House
When I arrived home, I quietly entered the house through the basement door, as my Dad was home and it was way too early for me to be home. I had to stay in the basement for a few hours until I was in the clear. To pass the time, I either used the computer or read from a book. Eventually, once my Mom got home, I heard the upstairs door to the basement open.
"Ben, honey, are you down there?" she called down.
"Yeah, I'm here!"
"Can you come up here, please?"
I shut the book I was reading and began walking up the stairs. Once I was up in the kitchen, my Mom pointed me to the living room.
"In there."
I walked into the living room without question and sat down on the couch, where my father was already sitting opposite of me. My mother came into the room, but she didn't sit down, instead opting to put her back against the wall.
"So, I got a call at work today from the school. They said that he didn't return to English after lunch. In fact, they said that he didn't even attend any of his classes after lunch. And someone reported to the main office that he started a fight at school today."
I wasn't entirely shocked that she had found out. My father looked at me with a stern expression.
"You're starting fights at school?!"
"No! I just did what you said I should do! I tried to stand up for myself, but I tried harder this time!"
They both just looked at me.
"Standing up for yourself doesn't mean starting fights at school!"
I sat up as I looked back at them with a serious look on my face.
"They antagonized me for a long time and I finally decided to defend myself! And yet, you're lecturing me instead of being proud of me."
Mom and Dad exchanged glances. Eventually, they looked back at me.
"While we are proud of you son, defending yourself doesn't mean starting a fight."
I looked down with anger in my eyes.
They couldn't see it from my point of view, I thought.
Dad got up from his chair and sat down on the arm of the chair right next to me.
"Ben, I want you to listen to me. And I don't want this to sound as if I'm lecturing you. That's not what I'm trying to do."
I didn't say anything. He got up from the arm of the chair and got on his knee in front of me. Sensing that he would say something, I looked up at him.
"I was exactly like you when I was in school. I was picked on all the time and I never tried to stand up for myself, despite how many times my parents encouraged me to tell my tormenters to leave me alone."
You think you're special, Dad? Thousands of kids have been bullied at some point in their lives. You're just another one of them and so am I. The least I can do is actually try.
"Don't start fights at school, there are other ways to stand up for yourself."
I snorted. I thought Dad would get upset, but he seemed to be patient with me.
"I just want them to back off. I hoped showing them what I can do would make them leave me alone."
"I understand that! But that doesn't make it okay for you to do that. Listen, Ben. With great power, comes great responsibility."
I just stared at him.
"You have great gifts, Ben! I just don't want you to let those gifts go to waste. And I hope you don't end up abusing them, either."
I wasn't feeling this whole supportive/sympathetic talk.
"Stop." I replied as I looked back down. "I'm sick of people holding my hand the whole way in my life."
"No one's trying to hold your hand, Ben. We're just trying to teach you..."
I snapped my head back up to look at him. I got up from the chair.
"Yeah, I know what you guys are trying to teach me." I said as I walked away.
I stopped and turned my head to face them, with an angry look on my face.
"You guys are teaching me to be a wimpy loser just like you two!"
"Ben!" Mom shouted with anger.
I didn't say anything as I turned around and stomped up the stairs.
"Ben, you better get back here!"
I sat down against the wall once I got up the stairs, still being able to hear my parents.
"Don't bother, Sandra. It's just growing pains."
"He's never spoken to us like that before, Carl!"
"It's going to be fine. He'll be fine. He just needs to figure things out on his own. He can't have people living his life for him."
I got up from the floor after that and went to my room.
Later That Night
Later that night, probably around midnight, I left my room to get a glass of water. I walked down the stairs, through the pitch black living room (oddly, I could see just fine) and into the kitchen. I opened one of the cabinets and got out a glass, that I was going to fill with water from the fridge.
Once I had gotten my water, I walked past the kitchen table, drinking from the glass as something caught my eye. I looked down at the table to the latest edition of The Bellwood Post that sat there. It wasn't on the main headline page, rather it was on some miscellaneous section. And something stood out to me.
It was an ad, for something called "The Second Annual Bellwood Fight Club". I wasn't any good at fighting, but there was something else about the advertisement that caught my eye. It said:
Survive in the ring for five minutes against last year's champion and you can win three hundred dollars!
I can't fight to save my life, I thought as I looked at the alien watch on my wrist. But maybe, just maybe, I could use this thing for my own benefit? Three hundred dollars would be enough for that PC that I want for school! And I'd have fifty dollars left over!
I looked back at the headline. The date said that the event would take place next Friday. I put my hand on my chin.
It could work. It could!
Author's Note:
* And that's it for this chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed it.
* What do you guys think of Ben finally defending himself from Kevin and his cronies? I hope you guys liked this chapter overall.
* I think that's about all I can say for this one. I'm going to go though, so have a Bwen-tastic day and bye.
Review Responses
Zealout07 (Chapter 4): nop
Thanks, Zealot. nop? What exactly does that mean, if you don't mind me asking? Thanks for the review, as always.
Next Chapter: After the fight at school, Ben gets detention, along with Kevin, J.T. and Cash.