Madison Middle School

Teacher's Entrance

Bellwood, California

November 17, 2000

6:42 PM

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The last notes of the song faded away, replaced by a soft hum from one of the big speakers.

"That was great, kid! You're as good as Paul said you'd be. I gotta admit, when you were getting started I wasn't sure what we'd gotten ourselves into, but not any more. … All right, everyone, we've got about twenty minutes. Let's be back stage at five 'till."

Ben heaved a sigh of relief at Steve's confirmation of his playing ability. He'd been practicing his parts for the new songs daily for a week, right until Paul told him to take Friday off and have fun with his Dweeb at their usual after-karate get together. It was good advice, but his hands still itched to play and show her what he was up to. Not that he would have had a chance as it turned out, not after she breezed through her test for blue belt after school along with Paul and a couple older students in the adult class.

Uncle Frank repeated what his Dad did after the soccer championship game, treating all of them (including Michelle and Grandpa too - the man was keeping his word so far about staying home for a while) to dinner out, only this time Gwen was rightfully the center of attention. For everyone but him, anyway - his parents must have some mad Quarter Horse instincts, the way they managed to surreptitiously cut him away from her as soon as they got into the restaurant, and get them seated as far from each other as the table would allow.

The celebration was deserved but not a surprise. There was no chance she wouldn't pass, but Gwen was her usual antsy self beforehand and all he could do to help calm her down was give her a quick side hug and a deep look into her eyes so their parents wouldn't get too suspicious. That was as close as he got to her, aside from another brief hug she gave him after the test finished before the adults surrounded her with congratulations. Well, until they got to her house for a shortened movie night. Still plenty of time to demonstrate how proud he was of her.

Not that he didn't empathize (another cool word Paul got him into, right before the hug before her test - that guy was always good for an unusual and timely vocabulary lesson). He felt very much the same way only an hour ago as they were finishing the stage setup and about to start the pre-gig rehearsal. His friend was right, he got a bad case of 'racehorse in the starting gate' jumpiness - enough that he stumbled through the finger warmups he did with Paul that got some obvious sideways looks from the other guys in the band. The Dweeb wasn't there to get him through it, but his buddy proved more than a passable substitute.

"Didn't I tell you everybody gets the yips one way or another before a performance?" he said quietly. "That's why we do this; the warm-up is for more than loosening up your fingers."

"Like you guys did yesterday before the test…" Ben said in a flash of insight. Paul and Gwen were in a relaxed and confident mood for the test after a few minutes of stretching, breath exercises, and going through some tricky parts of the new kata

Paul grinned "Exactly!" He reached out and firmly smacked Ben's left cheek twice. "Now it's out of your system." Steve was watching them with a questioning look, and Paul nodded back confidently.

"Ready?"

Ben took a deep breath and let it back out. "Yeah. I am."

After that the songs he learned went by almost in a blur, he would have sworn they only took ten or so minutes total. He was surprised to see it was actually almost forty when he heard Steve's understated praise. Paul was grinning as he reached out and gave his forehead a small push.

"See?! You had it all along, just needed to get past the jitters. … Now go meet your date!"

He didn't remember exactly how he got from the stage to the atrium outside the school entrance - his head was still buzzing from the rush of rocking out and showing that he could keep up with the band! Knowing he had his parts down was different than proving it, but the proof had been an adrenaline surge once he got into his groove. He found a spot near the doors where he could watch the path from the parking lot and leaned back against a wall. He fished out his phone from his pocket to check his messages - Yep, there was the one saying they were on the way. His mind wandered in anticipation of how the dance would go; tonight was going to be great!

Ben looked up from his phone at the approaching sound of clicking heels on the clay tiles lining the colonnade around the corner. He instinctively prepared for a teacher to appear with a grim look, wondering what he was about to get in trouble for now. He put the right foot that he had flat against the wall he was leaning on back on the ground and pushed a few steps away, his feet automatically taking up the ready stance he learned on his first day of karate. That sound never meant the presence of classmates, they all wore sneakers or other soft-soled shoes. No, it was one of the teachers, or maybe one of the administration staff - he had the distinction of getting busted directly by the principal more than once, something that horrified the Dweeb even if he wore it like a badge of honor. It didn't matter if it was a teacher he had for classes or not, they all knew who he was and had him pegged as trouble when he started seventh grade, not bothering to hide their antagonistic view of him based on the stories they heard from his elementary teachers. And some of them wouldn't change their initial impression regardless of how well he did in class now.

It took a moment or two for his ready-for-trouble reaction to be replaced by a chagrined look as he recognized his worry was misplaced - that situation was what he was used to during the day. Now, though, it was nighttime and he couldn't have broken any rules during the last hour or so he had been in the building; and anyway if any of the school adults saw him they'd probably "remind" him that the auditorium was inside, followed by an exasperated sigh. Like he didn't know!

Or, if they didn't have some complaint to pin on him, they'd just as likely pass him by with a disinterested look, like they did to most of the other kids at school. The ones who also preferred to go unnoticed, because getting attention was annoying, or embarrassing, or - as often as not during most of his school career - a reason to confront him over some stupid "infraction" that so wasn't his fault but still ended up with him getting a detention slip for being disrespectful if nothing else (a result of his mouth working without his brain being in control), along with a smug mini-lecture about his "wasted potential".

That was really the part of getting busted he hated most. He knew he stretched and broke the rules he got caught for, even if he also knew those rules were idiotic and existed just so they could be broken. He could put up with the resulting DTs (don't do the crime if you can't do the time, as his Dad said unsympathetically more than once when he was late getting home from school) since at least when other kids broke the rules they got the same punishment. It was the condescending way the adults talked to him (he smirked when he thought that word; Gwen taught it to him after he griped to her one Friday night after a particularly awful lecture. She agreed with him for a change, that the teacher who delivered it was 'being a condescending jerk'.) Ben knew he wasn't smart like she was, but he wasn't a moron, either. Just because he wasn't on the first honors list didn't mean he couldn't learn the important stuff. "Potential" wasn't just about chasing grades, even if he felt good at the surprised praise (and delicious kisses!) he got for some recent A minuses. There were lots of other kinds of potential. Hadn't he just been showing for the past 40 minutes that he has potential for making music? Didn't he get recognized as the game MVP for athletic skill and potential as a goal keeper? Why didn't those count, too?

And don't even get him started on his "potential" to be a hero! He and his Dweeb didn't have to prove that to anyone. Just ask the people they helped during the last two years! Some day they'd actually be able to stop hiding what they could do…

Ben shook his head to clear away the thoughts that took him down this stupid rabbit hole for the second time. That was all about what happened during a typical school day, and not at all about what he wanted for this evening. Tonight was for being with his girlfriend and having fun, two things he never imagined could be associated with school! He was excited he was going to show her and his classmates what he could do with music, not just that he had potential for it. The rehearsal with Paul and the other guys in the band that just finished had been a blast! Finally hearing how his parts fit with the vocals, bass, and drums was way better than imagining it, and he could hardly wait for his Dweeb to hear it! Now he knew what Paul meant when he talked about race horses and starting gates.

And that brought him back to the approaching high heels…

The clicking sound got closer and louder until he could tell there were two sets of footsteps. He smiled to himself. "Finally", he muttered under his breath. It had to be his Dweeb and Michelle, there wasn't much chance that the girls who went to the school would take the teachers entrance to get to the auditorium; that's why he picked it. His girls didn't want to wait for him where his classmates would be gathering around the students doors or go into the dance without him, and he had to agree a couple non-students showing up without a readily obvious reason would look more than a little weird.

He watched the corner of the colonnade expectantly, and took a quick breath when he saw Army Girl come into view. Only she was so not looking like she was actually in the Army. She definitely wasn't wearing a uniform, and while he had recognized she was cute not too long ago, now she was way more than that in her tight jeans and close fitting autumn-gold sweater and dark hair hanging over her shoulder in a new (to him, at least) complicated looking braid. His dirtbag classmates were definitely going to be paying attention to her; if he didn't already know he was going to be with the prettiest girl there, he'd be tempted to himself. She was wearing something between a smirk and a grin on her face, looking at him in a weird way for no particular reason. He thought they were past the stink eye looks. What was that about?

He audibly gasped as Gwen rounded the corner two steps behind Michelle and he found out.

If ever the word beautiful crossed his mind, the view of his Dweeb passing through alternating shadows and pools of light from the passageway chandeliers had to be the only picture that went with it. He'd seen the blue dress before, she wore it to their dinner date after the karate tournament, and again last weekend when they had dinner at Grandpa's. He hadn't lied to her when she fumbled with putting on makeup the first time that she was always pretty, and both times the way she looked in that dress made his mouth dry and his brain fuzzy, but now... The palms of his hands got sweaty like they always did when he really paid attention to how pretty - no, beautiful! - she was, and he felt his heart racing in his chest.

He really needed some water to wash away the cotton feeling in his mouth and a jump start for his brain as she stepped out of a weak shadow at the colonnade corner into full light, as if a stage spotlight just found her. His jaw fell as he took her in - the sleeveless dress and how it fit her so much better than the first time he saw it and hugged her now in all the right places; the way she did her hair, a narrow braid running across her forehead from her left to right, cascading behind her ear and down her neck with an intricate pattern (that just screamed how Michelle had helped her get ready - so that's why she was at her friend's house for an hour before coming to the school); the way the shoes she was wearing accentuated her lean, bare legs from her ankles to the hem of the dress (and he was dimly wondering at how it got to be an inch or two shorter than last weekend, not to mention how she got out of her house showing off that much thigh without Aunt Lily having a fit!); her bare arms and shoulders teasingly half-hidden by a light silver shawl (yeah, yeah, his eyes were flitting up and down her frame, there was a lot to take in and all of her was amazing!) that framed the blood red Keystone of Bezel nestled on the gold chain just below the hollow of her throat. The stone he polished was on conspicuous display for a change, catching the light from the overhead lamps as the facets of the chain sparkled like stars in the night sky. Even the little bit of makeup she had put on that focused his eyes on hers, drawing him into the intense emerald green that looked so much better on her than him. Ben gulped as his eyes swept over all of her once more before he finally settled on her face and the bashful smile she was wearing. The overall vision was breathtaking - something he had forgotten to do since she had turned the corner into the atrium. He exhaled with a breathy whisper "Wow Dweeb..."

Michelle spoke first, snapping him out of his trance. "See something you like, Ben? ... What's the matter, Motormouth, cat got your tongue?" she smirked before glancing back at Gwen and declared "Toldja!" as if she just won an argument. If she looked any more like the cat that got Tweety-bird there'd be a few yellow feathers floating near her face.

"Doofus? Are you OK?" Gwen asked timidly, her eyebrows slightly wrinkled with worry before she stared at the floor, her cheeks turning only a few shades lighter than her radiant hair as he gaped. He watched the worry lines around her lips morph back into a smile that was hesitant and pleased at the same time, but her gaze was still focused on the tile floor, unused to his blatant admiration.

He tried to get his brain back in gear, but it kept grinding as both girls approached. Even the sinuous way she walked in her taller than usual heels completely captivated him. She'd never moved that way before - not in karate, not during hero time, definitely not when she was chasing him after he teased her into it - and the effect left him speechless. The Forever Knights could come crashing through the wall behind him and he wouldn't even blink for fear of missing whatever she did next.

Ben finally got his thoughts under control so he could talk. That's what he thought, anyway, until he heard words stammering out of his mouth in a thick voice he barely recognized as his. "You... How... "

He stopped, shook his head twice to clear it and swallowed hard. Then he blurted out "When did you get so beautiful?!" as he wondered, not for the first time, how his mouth could make words like that before his brain could consider what their effects would be. And how in the world did he not see it before just now!

Michelle put a hand over her mouth and snorted as Ben felt his face start to burn crimson. He would have scanned the hall to see if any of his classmates heard that, but he couldn't tear his eyes away from her. And so what if anyone did, anyway? He had a number of reputations at his school, most being less than complimentary, but he was never called a liar, and calling her beautiful was just obvious.

Gwen ducked her head at the unexpected compliment. "Ben!" she almost whined, giving his name two syllables with a little uptick at the end. She brought her focus back on him, biting her lower lip on the right side of her mouth, and for a moment he saw the happy look in her eyes that he could never get enough of and he'd do anything to make happen, before the self doubt he didn't understand took over. The confidently smug and overbearing girl that plagued him from over two years ago had dialed back the worst of it, at least towards him, especially in the aftermath of Phoenix and the awful month afterwards. But her self confidence kept changing and he didn't know why. She'd been acting funny like this for almost two months now, ever since school started back up. And since her clothes had started fitting different, when he'd noticed that they showed curves in her hips and chest and rear end that weren't there when summer started. When she caught him watching her closely - OK, checking her out… Who could blame him? - she didn't get mad like she used to. Instead she got this way, especially if he showed any appreciation for the way she looked.

He didn't spew out the compliment as a burn; she had to know that. Right? Her reaction wasn't fake modesty; Ben didn't think the Dweeb could even try to do that. Could she really not know how beautiful she is? It was bad enough that he overdid the sidekick thing to where she believed that he really thought of her that way. He wasn't going to repeat that mistake about this, even if it did make him sound like a complete dork. He'd caught himself doing a lot of previously unthinkable dorkishness lately and he couldn't say why, but he'd keep doing it if she kept looking at him the way she did.

Her insecurity was replaced a second later as she recovered with a mischievous grin that made his heart skip a few beats. "Geez, Doofus, you act like you've never seen me dressed up before! Where have you been hiding this… " She spread her arms out at him, "all this time?"

"I, uh... I was too stupid to appreciate it?" he said with an awkward smile, rubbing the back of his head. That must have been the right thing to say, since her grin flashed into thatsmile, the one that lit up his world and put butterflies in his stomach. None of the Omnitrix's transformations had ever made him feel like that, but she could do it whenever she looked at him that way. A year - no, check that - six months ago he would never have believed that would be true, but now he couldn't imagine any other reaction.

Before he could do anything else Gwen hit him with a running hug, knocking him back a step and wrapping her arms around him tightly. As his slid around her shoulder and behind her back, she pulled him in for a wicked awesome kiss that he just accepted for a moment, hearing her sigh blend with his, before returning it with interest and moving his hand slowly up and down the back of her dress. He almost laughed when Michelle growled that they "better not waste all that time getting the makeup just right by messing it up in the first five minutes", but his Dweeb beat him to it, firmly pressing her gloss-covered lips (Strawberry tonight!) against his with what felt like a smile before she got serious about it. Ben knew she felt his heart hammering through his chest as he leaned up to her - her damn shoes added another half inch to their height difference, not that he was going to let that hold him back - and it took several throat clearing noises and a cough from Michelle before either of them would pull back. The smile still on Gwen's face and the slightly woozy feeling that went with his were worth any amount of snark Army Brat was getting ready to unload.

And she did. Michelle was right there, arms crossed and tapping a shoe impatiently while waiting for them with an annoyed and bemused expression. "It's about time you came up for air! You better not be planning on doing that all night!"

Gwen turned to face her, staying hip to hip with him, her right arm circling his waist while he had his left across her shoulders. She had a sheepish grin and pink glow over her cheeks that matched his, and mana had nothing to do with it. "Sorry, 'Chelle! We'll try to keep the PDAs under control. It's just… I didn't know Doofus even knew that word, let alone use it to mean me!"

"Yeah, about that, Ben…" Michelle turned to him with a stern look that lasted all of two seconds, "thank you for telling her the same thing I've been saying since she first put that dress on! Maybe she'll listen when her boyfriend says it!" Michelle replied with a grin.

"And before this turns into the 24-7 Gwen compliment channel, let me say you look very…" Michelle started, looking closely at him.

"Scuzzy? Cruddy? Grungy?" Gwen offered with a smirk.

"No… What's the word? …" her friend said, waving a hand and wearing a thinking frown. "Um… Rugged!" she finished with a bright grin. "You look very rugged, in a Pacific Northwest, lumberjack sort of way."

Ben groaned. "Seriously? Do I look anything at all like an outdoorsy, musclebound guy to you?" He scowled and looked at his shoes. "Not the look I had in mind…"

Paul would be roaring if he heard that, especially since it wasn't meant to be sarcastic. Most of the time Ben didn't mind the various ways his friend would call him small, but there were times when he really didn't need to be reminded that he was one of the shortest guys in his class. Not that any of them gave him much shit about it, not since he rang a few bullies' bells when he stopped them from beating up Cash, but still. He knew he wasn't physically in the same ballpark as guys who worked in the forests nearby.

He considered what he was wearing - the green and navy blue Buffalo plaid shirt over a black KISS t-shirt with white lettering (They came. They saw. They rock. August '99) - from the Dweeb's point of view, and he felt his cheeks start to heat up again as his shoulders sagged. He hadn't thought about how he'd look next to her, and they never talked about what they'd wear to the dance. Now he thought he looked like a wreck, and worse, made her look bad just by being next to her, even though he put some effort into it. He deliberately put on what he had so he could look like he belonged with the band. Paul had told him what the other guys normally wore. He didn't say he should look like them, but Ben decided to go with it anyway. The posters for the dance didn't say anything about how to dress, so he had no other reference.

He also wore the t-shirt and plaid shirt over it because she had given them to him - he could explain in detail why the KISS shirt was special if he wanted to, but the green and navy plaid didn't have a background story. It was just something Gwen gave him, and that was enough.

That's what he thought when he got dressed, anyway. Any other time he wouldn't have even thought to second guess himself. But that was before he saw her!

For the first time in his life, Ben felt like he should apologize for what he was wearing, how he looked. Not because he cared for himself, but because he didn't want to spoil how Gwen looked. He didn't want her to be disappointed in him because of his appearance, and he didn't want to be the cause of any negative comments about her from his butthole classmates. He never paid much attention to the girls in his school nastily whispering and gossiping about each other - who looked cute, who looked trashy or like a slut, who was too worried or not worried enough about the labels on their clothes. He also never got involved in what the guys said about this or that girl looking hot or not, at first because he didn't care, and being mean was pointless. Then because he knew no matter who they were talking about, none of the girls in his class could hold a candle to his Dweeb. There was just no point in bringing it up since she wasn't there. He'd be devastated if next week he heard any awful gossip about her because he was a clueless doofus again.

Now she looked beautiful, and she had to put up with a slob next to her. Him. He didn't like the feeling he just got.

Ben gulped, then stammered. "I… There's a reason…" He took a deep breath and let it out. "I put this on on purpose. You'll see why when the dance starts, but…" His words trailed away and he stared guiltily at his shoes, folding his arms over his stomach. "I don't want to look like a slob, or that I don't care. I didn't mean to make you look bad…"

Gwen whirled to face him. "Doofus! You don't need to apologize like that! I don't think you look bad! I just… well, I didn't know what to wear and…" And I wanted to look nice for you at your school, she thought but couldn't bring herself to say out loud.

"Yeah, don't worry about that, Ben." Michelle added. "You look really cute! And the colors you both have on look good together. Almost like you coordinated your outfits!"

That didn't help, and Ben scowled at the ground as he felt even more like a putz. Cute was not what he wanted to hear about himself. Cute was for little boys, like Michelle's brothers that Gwen sometimes talked about, and he was fed up with hearing his Mom's friends using it about him when they were running errands around town. Like one of them did that afternoon at the grocery store.

And coordinated outfits was definitely not something he or the Dweeb would ever do, no matter how dorky he was otherwise acting because of her. He still had some standards!

Gwen put a hand to his chin. "Hey" she said softly, as she picked up his head with her right hand to look into his eyes in her reassuring way, sliding her hand to his cheek.

"No, that's the wrong word." she said in her normal voice and gave him a once over from his eyes to his shoes, letting her hand drop away. "You aren't cute! I'd say you're almost… handsome!" She said with an impish smile. "You look like my Doofus, and that's all that matters!"

"Oh, and for the record, as long as you keep wearing jeans like that you can't look awful, 'specially from the back!" Michelle added with an exaggerated smirk.

"Michelle!" Gwen gasped, scandalized. "How many times do I have to tell you, don't feed his ego!"

Ben's scowl gave way to a grin, even if he still felt his face glowing. He could live with that.

And they'd spent too much time talking, they needed to get inside.

"Come on. We still have to pay to get in" he said, rolling his eyes as he turned and opened the door from the atrium into the auditorium lobby.

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NOTES

Music to write by - these three chapters took a while, so lots of music went with them.
I Think We're Alone Now, Billy Joe Armstrong
What Makes You Beautiful, One Direction
Do You Believe in Magic, The Lovin' Spoonful
Dance With Me, Orleans
I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me), Fall Out Boy