Chapter 12: Trouble

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 Twelve.

* So, in this chapter, as well as going to the dance, Ben is going to have more trouble with Kevin. I can't really say anything else.

* With that having been said, let's get into it.

Earth-6101

Wednesday, September 6th, 2017

The Tennyson House

Ben

"Oh, I can't believe that my boy is going to his first dance!" Mom exclaimed. "And with a girl!"

I sighed.

"Mom, it's not a date! I'm going with Gwen and Nathan!"

"I would very much like to meet this girl, Benjamin."

"Mom, it's not like that!"

"Oh, I'm sure, honey!"

I shook my head, not wanting to pursue this conversation any further. Mom had picked out khaki shorts and a nice shirt for me to wear to the dance. I had showered and combed my hair, so I was pretty much ready to go.

"Are you sure that you don't want to get her flowers?"

"Mom!"

She began chuckling.

"Alright, alright! I'll stop!"

Just then, there was a knock at the door.

"That's them." I said in a rush to get to the door. "I better get going. I'll see you guys later!"

I reached the door as she spoke again, followed by my Dad.

"Oh, okay."

"See you later, son."

I opened the door and stepped outside, closing it behind me to greet my friends.

"Hey, guys."

Nathan nodded to me.

"Hi, Ben! I see you know how to clean up well!"

I looked down at myself and then back up at her with a quizzical look on my face.

"This? This is nothing! This is fairly casual!"

"If you say so."

I gestured to the two of them.

"Come on guys, we have a dance to get to."

Sometime Later

Madison High School Cafeteria

The three of us walked into the cafeteria, where teachers had moved all of the tables to make room in the area for students to dance while music blasted through the loudspeakers. I took a breath as I looked at all of the students in the room and Gwen must have been thinking the same thing as me.

"Wow, I didn't expect for the cafeteria to be this crowded."

"Mmm." I grunted.

I took another look around the room. Being the social outcast that I was, I already wasn't feeling this whole dance thing. It was way out of my comfort zone. I cleared my throat as I looked back at Nathan and Gwen.

"I'm going to go get us some fruit punch. I'll be right back."

They acknowledged my words and I briefly departed from them. I approached the table where the bowl of punch sat and was surprised to see that there was no line. I walked up to the punch bowl, picked up a paper cup and the ladle and poured the pink punch into a cup. I then repeated the process twice more, before heading back to Nathan and Gwen as I did my best to carry all three cups.

"Alright, my friends." I said as I handed Nathan his cup, while I managed to balance the other two cups on my arm.

I handed Gwen her cup and held mine up, looking at Nathan.

"Here's to nearly three years of friendship," I said before turning to Gwen. "and to the start of a new one!"

Gwen smiled and Nathan did the same, as we clinked our cups together.

"I'll drink to that!" she exclaimed.

We all drank from our cups after that and I was pleasantly surprised by the more than decent taste of the fruit punch. Nathan must have thought the same thing as me, because he let out a sigh as he quick drinking from his cup.

"Certainly better than the food in this place."

"Right?!" I replied with a chuckle.

"I'm surprised that no one has spiked the punch." Gwen chimed in.

"If this were the sixties, someone definitely would have." Nathan replied.

I chuckled as I took another drink from my cup after that.

Sometime Later

We remained in the same spot for some time, just chatting about our time in school so far and just life in general. Eventually, Gwen tossed her paper cup into a nearby trash can and looked back at us with a smile.

"So, who's going to be the one to dance with me?" she asked.

Nathan and I both exchanged looks of surprise, before one of us finally spoke.

"Sorry, I don't dance." He said.

"Wait, what?" I asked as I continued to look at him as he backed up from Gwen and I.

"This one's all you, pal."

He continued backing up even further, putting space between us. I let out a sigh and spoke as I began to turn around.

"Oh man, why does he have to leave me alone with a girl now of all—"

As I looked back at Gwen, she had a smirk on her face.

"—times."

She offered her hand to me.

"Well?"

"What do you mean, 'well'?"

"I mean well, come dance with me!"

I began to get a bit fidgety as she said that. I chuckled as I put both of my hands out at either side of me.

"Um, I don't exactly know how to dance, Gwen. I wouldn't be the best partner."

"I'll teach you."

I hesitated as I thought about it. As I did just that, she spoke once more.

"What do you have to lose, Ben? We have to get you out of that protective shell of yours."

I let out a breath.

She's right. What could it hurt?

I stepped closer and finally took her hand. It was warm in mine and felt nice to hold. As we held hands, she pulled me a bit closer.

"Wha—?"

"If we're gonna dance, we're going to do like a waltz."

"Um, okay."

As my left hand grasped her right hand, she grabbed my other hand with her free hand.

"Put your other hand here—" she spoke as she put my free hand just above her hip on her left side.

She rested her free hand on my right shoulder.

"Be sure you don't step on my feet." She replied. "And now we just—"

We began turning in circles and just danced to the music that was currently playing over the loudspeakers. I had no idea what the song was. I wasn't really into music and didn't listen to it that often.

Five Minutes Later

Kevin

Cash helped me pick up the punch bowl that was still decently filled as we continued to watch Tennyson dancing with my girl.

"Alright, let's do this." I said as we began to approach them. "We're gonna get Tennyson good!"

Ben

Gwen and I continued dancing through the song that was playing when we started and through the song that played after that. After that we separated from each other, but didn't leave the dance floor. As we stood there, she began chuckling.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing. It's just that for a first timer, that wasn't too bad!"

I shrugged.

"Well, thanks. I suppose."

"You're welcome, I g—"

She stopped speaking and the amused look dropped from her face. I looked back at her with confusion.

"What's wrong?" I asked. "Is there something on my face?"

Just then, the oh-so familiar, yet at the same time, unfamiliar feeling of pain in the back of my head and neck made itself apparent. Before I could do or say anything, I felt a slightly cool liquid being dumped all over my back and head.

I looked all around me as the liquid dripped off of me and out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the now empty punch bowl clattering on the floor behind me. I then noticed Kevin and Cash hightailing it towards the exit of the cafeteria.

I started to run after them, but slipped on the puddle of punch on the floor and fell face first onto the tile floor. I didn't let that stop me though and I got back up to chase after them, leaving Gwen behind. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Nathan was running with me. I found myself sprinting faster than I ever could before. Generally whenever I ran, I would quickly find my chest hurting and I'd need to stop to catch my breathe. But not this time. As we left the cafeteria with me gradually getting closer to them, I called out to them.

"Get back here, you little shits!"

At the time, I was too angry to realize that I had actually said a curse word. After leaving the cafeteria, Nathan began to fall behind and I eventually outran him.

"Yeah, come and get us!" Kevin exclaimed as they continued running.

I continued chasing them through the hall and the intersection at the end of the hall where it split to the left and right was coming up. They rounded the corner and so did I. As I chased after them, I noticed a staff member – probably one of the teachers – standing at the other end of the hall. He tried to block the hall and stuck out his hand.

"Stop!" he exclaimed.

Obviously, he couldn't block the whole hallway by himself, so Kevin and Cash made it past him, turned the corner and into the stairwell on the right. I never got past the staff member, who grabbed my wrist, stopping me from going any farther.

"Let go of me!" I exclaimed.

He didn't even seem to care about Kevin and J.T. having sprinted past.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked.

"Me? Didn't you see the other—"

"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"Me? But I didn't—"

"Come, I'll escort you out."

He began moving toward the stairwell, with a firm grip still on my wrist and I was forced to follow in his tracks. We walked up the stairwell and up to the ground floor, where he led me through the main entrance plaza room and to the exit. He let go of me and pointed to the exit. I turned back to look at him.

"But I didn't—"

"You need to leave." He interrupted me for the third or fourth time.

I sighed, but I pushed the door open and exited the school. I had to walk home by myself after that. There was no point in trying to get back in.

Sometime Later

The Tennyson House

I walked up the stoop, opened the screen door and the front door after that. I walked into the house and through the living room, which was empty. The T.V. in the room was on and the light was on in the kitchen, where I heard the sound of water running.

"Ben, hun, is that you?" Mom called from the kitchen.

"Yes." I called back.

"You're back early. How was the dance?"

"I had to leave early." I said as I walked over to the couch to sit down.

"Really? Why?"

"Kevin dumped a bowl of fruit punch on me and I got blamed for it."

I heard the water shut off in the kitchen, before Mom walked over and stood in the doorway to the room.

"Are you being serious?"

I nodded.

"I'm not in trouble, am I?"

She shook her head.

"No. Why would you be?"

I shrugged. After a few seconds of silence, she spoke again.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

I shook my head as I stood up.

"No, I'm just going to go upstairs and clean myself up before I go to bed early."

I walked past her and towards the stairs.

"Okay. Good night, then."

"Good night."

I walked up the stairs to get cleaned up for the night. Once I got to my room, I pulled my phone out and saw that it surprisingly still worked after I was drenched by fruit punch. I tossed it onto my bed and exited the room to go get into the shower.

Fifteen Minutes Later

Once I got back to my room after showering, I checked my phone before going to bed. I saw that I had two new text messages, one from Nathan and the other from Gwen, whom we had traded phone numbers on the way to the dance. They read as follows:

Dude, you just disappeared after you ran off after those assholes. Where did you get off to? – Nathan

Where did you go? – Gwen

I plugged my phone to its charger without responding to the texts and dropped it down onto my nightstand, before shutting off the light and flopping down onto my bed.

Author's Note:

* And that's it for this chapter! What did you guys think of this one?

* So, some of you may be getting impatient with this whole "origin phase" that Ben is going through. However, this phase won't last for more than five more chapters or so. These chapters will be a little more eventful, so I would hope that they don't prove to be lackluster.

* That's going to do it for me. I'm going to go though, so have a Bwen-tastic day and bye.

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Next Chapter: Ben faces unfair consequences.