As they had arranged, Ben and Gwen met up with their grandfather in the food court. It was set up a lot like what one might find at a mall, except it was outdoors. The large, rectangular area of pavement contained dozens of tables of varying sizes, and food stalls surrounded the dining area on all sides.
When Gwen first walked under the archway leading into the area, she couldn't help but notice all the couples everywhere. There was a boy and a girl about her age holding hands as they walked up and down the line of stalls looking for something to eat. Another couple a few years older than her sat at a table laughing as they gave the other a taste of their dessert. Hell, there were tons of parents in the park, too, and they looked so happy together.
She and Ben had been acting sort of like that in the park that day. They held hands, they sat close to each other, and many people who saw them probably knew they were a couple. She would've done things like that more often, but in the back of her mind, she was still self-conscious about it. She could never know when one of her classmates might coincidentally end up at that same park at the same time as them. But, regardless of how willing she was to act like a couple with Ben in public, she couldn't do so at the moment, no matter how much she wanted to.
"Ben! Gwen! Over here!" Grandpa Max spotted them and waved them over, already seated at a table waiting for them.
Gwen quickly waved back in response, smiling nervously. Even without her current situation, it was still pretty embarrassing to have their names called out so loudly in public from such a distance.
"Hi, Grandpa." Gwen forced another smile as she and Ben took their seats across from him. "How was your fishing trip?"
"Oh, it was fantastic," Max replied.
"You catch anything?" Ben joined in.
"Only one fish, but it's a big one." Their grandfather looked proud of himself, holding out his arms to indicate the supposed length of the fish. "I'm gonna cook it up for dinner tonight, if you're interested."
Ben and Gwen exchanged a look. A freshly-caught fish didn't sound bad, but one could never know what Grandpa Max would do to it. "We'll… probably just stay in the park for dinner," Gwen decided.
"Your loss, but go ahead. I'm sure you two would love to spend as much time together as you can while we're here."
Gwen's eyes went wide.
"Now, why don't you two go pick out what you want for lunch first, and I'll wait here and hold our table," Max suggested.
"Good, 'cause I'm starving." Ben stood up immediately, and Gwen hurried to follow him.
They had quite a few food stalls to choose from, so Gwen decided to have a quick word with Ben while they made their way around the food court. "You don't think Grandpa meant anything by that, do you?"
"About the fish?" Ben asked, glancing over the menu of a fried chicken stall.
"No, Doofus. He said, 'I'm sure you two would love to spend as much time together as you can while we're here,'" Gwen repeated, speaking a little more quietly just in case. "Do you think he, I don't know, suspects anything?"
"What? Heck no." Ben laughed. "That just sounds like normal Grandpa talk to me. Remember how he was always telling us to spend more time together when we were kids? Hell, we could make out in front of him and he'd probably say, 'Aw, that is so sweet.'"
"Shhh!" Gwen shushed him insistently.
"What? I didn't mean we should."
Gwen was annoyed for a second, but she calmed herself down before speaking again. Ben was right. Grandpa was just being Grandpa.
I can't let myself get paranoid over every little thing.
"I guess you're right," Gwen admitted. "But, you know, we should still be careful. That's all I mean."
Ben shrugged. "Alright. You're the boss."
From there, lunch went fine. Ben and Gwen had already spent the past two weeks hiding their relationship from their grandfather, so Gwen felt like she'd worked herself up over nothing earlier. Just as Ben had said, Max didn't seem to suspect a thing, and he didn't say anything else that caused Gwen to worry.
"So, what have you two got planned for the rest of the day?" Max asked after they had all finished their meals.
"I dunno," Ben replied, wiping his hands with a napkin. He turned to Gwen. "You wanna hit up the arcade? Or you wanna do more rides?"
"You've got food all over your face, Doofus," she told him, resisting the urge to grab a napkin and wipe his face herself. "But, yeah, the arcade sounds great. What about you, Grandpa?"
"Oh, I'm headin' back to the fishing hole," Max told them. "Even if I don't catch anything else this afternoon, I'm eager to get back to my book."
"Cool. Lend it to me when you're done?" Gwen asked, wondering what it was that had her grandfather so engrossed.
"Sure, sweetheart. Oh, if you're going to the game area, here's a little spending money," Max offered, reaching into his wallet and pulling out a few bills to hand to each of them.
"Thanks, Grandpa!"
"Thanks! Alrighty." Ben threw his napkin down on his tray and stood up. "Have fun with that, Grandpa. We're outta here."
Gwen stood up to join him. "See you later, Grandpa."
"See you tonight."
As they made their way out of the food court, Gwen once again felt simultaneously excited and guilty. She couldn't wait to switch back into 'girlfriend mode,' but she knew she shouldn't be this happy about ditching her grandfather.
The amusement park was divided into several different sections. The majority of it was outdoors, but there were also a few large buildings on the premises. One of those buildings housed an arcade. It came complete with all the classic amusement park-style arcade games - whack-a-mole, crane games, ball tosses, air hockey, racing simulators, DDR, and the like. Gwen noted the signs that advertised there was also a bowling alley, a basketball court, and several other areas.
"Man, this place is stacked!" Ben remarked as they walked through the air-conditioned game area in search of the token exchange machine. "Why can't we spend the whole summer here?"
Gwen was also disappointed that they'd only set aside a couple days to spend at the park, but she knew there were other fun stops to make on their trip afterwards. "So, what game you want me to kick your butt in first?"
"We'll be here all year if we're looking for a game you can beat me at." Ben took out some of the money their grandfather had given him and fed it into the machine. He then held out his hand to catch the tokens the machine spit out.
Even if she pretended to get annoyed by Ben's cockiness sometimes, Gwen smirked at his response, always loving it when he got competitive with her. It was part of what made it so fun to hang out with him.
"How 'bout another bet?" Gwen suggested. Their first challenge that day had sort of ended without a clear winner, so Gwen thought perhaps they should try again.
"Uh… Whoever wins the most games keeps whatever's left of Grandpa's money at the end?"
"You think we'll have anything left?" Gwen asked as she collected her own tokens.
Ben shrugged. "Maybe."
Gwen shrugged as well. She didn't care as much about the prize. The competition was the fun part. Plus, bragging rights were always a reward on their own. "Well, how about we start with that racing game over there?"
"You're on."
Ben ended up doing better in the racing game, which annoyed Gwen to no end since her father had already let her practice driving for real in his car. He also won most of the rounds they played in skee-ball, whack-a-mole, and Street Fighter. Gwen, on the other hand, had a leg up in the crane game, DDR, the ring toss, and a computerized battleship game.
As Gwen had partially expected, she and Ben soon lost track of who was winning as they played game after game. Whether it was about who came first in the most games, who won the most individual rounds, or who won by the most points, they couldn't keep the rules straight anyway. Nevertheless, they continued.
"You think they got any newer video games here?" Ben asked. He and Gwen were walking through an aisle of stand-up arcade machines, staring at the blinking screens and gum-covered cabinets.
"Doubtful," Gwen speculated. "Not a lot of games these days are the right genre for an arcade. And even if they were, it probably takes them a few years before they end up porting it to game cabinets like these."
"Guess that's why this place is still stuck in the '90s." Ben tapped his fist against a 'The Simpsons' arcade machine, featuring Bart wearing a blue shirt for some reason.
Gwen chuckled in agreement, then spotted the next game she wanted to try. "There's an air hockey table over there," she said, pointing across the room. "Let's get it while it's free."
As they took their places at opposite ends of the table, Gwen noticed there were two paddles on each side, indicating it could be used for two-on-two games if they had four people. When she put a token into the machine attached to the table, the air began to flow, and an electronic score display on the side lit up.
"Looks like it's first to ten wins," Ben pointed out, reading off of a sign. He then reached into the slot on his side of the table, but found nothing. "You got the puck?"
Gwen checked the slot on her side. "Right here." She held up the puck, then placed it on the table in front of her. She smiled at the way it sort of floated above the table due to the air coming out of the tiny holes that covered the whole surface.
I'll have to read up on how exactly this works later.
"You ready?" Gwen asked.
"Ready to win," Ben replied with a cocky smile.
Gwen was gonna love wiping that smug look off of his face. She hit the puck with her circular paddle, sending it over to Ben's side. He attempted to hit it back, but he missed. It didn't matter, however, because the puck bounced off of the walls a few times before coming back to Gwen's side.
"Oh, shit!" Gwen called, hitting the puck once more to avoid scoring on her own goal.
Ben laughed as they hit it back and forth another few times. "Nice one, Dweeb." However, that attitude soon came back to bite him, as one of his shots rebounded back to his side and slid into his goal.
"Shit."
The electronic display lit up with one point for Gwen. She laughed, clapping as if to congratulate Ben on his victory. "Great shot, Ben! But do you need me to remind you which goal is yours?"
While Gwen was gloating, Ben retrieved the puck, dropped it back onto the table, then hit it as hard as he could. It went straight into Gwen's goal with no obstacles.
"Hey!" Gwen complained. "I wasn't ready!"
"Sounds like a 'you' problem," Ben replied, grinning victoriously.
Gwen grumbled as she retrieved the puck and resumed the game.
From there, the game went back and forth for a while, with each of them scoring a mix of 'fair' goals, 'cheap' goals, and 'own' goals. When the score was tied eight to eight, Gwen noticed two people standing off to the side, watching them play. It was a guy and a girl, both of them about Ben and Gwen's age. The guy was dark-haired and pretty handsome, and he wore gray shorts and a dark blue T-shirt. The girl also had dark black hair, and she wore a white cami and jeans shorts. However, what Gwen really noticed about them was how they were standing. The girl stood right in front of the guy, leaning back into him while he reached around to hold her hands in front of her.
Another couple…
"Can we have next game?" the guy asked after noticing Gwen looking at them.
Gwen blinked, a little embarrassed at having been caught staring. Ben answered first. "Yeah, sure, man," he agreed. "Gwen, whaddya waitin' for?"
Not wanting to keep anyone waiting, Gwen dropped the puck back onto the table and resumed the game. They hit it back and forth a few times, and it ultimately went into Ben's goal after bouncing off of the walls several times.
"Dang it," Ben exclaimed.
"Whoo! Go, girl!" The dark-haired girl standing off to the side seemed to have decided to root for Gwen.
Ben was next to resume the game. This time, he hit it to Gwen, she hit it back, and Ben immediately scored after that, hitting the puck so hard it probably would have flown off the table if it had hit a well.
"Ooh, tied it up," noted the handsome boy observing them, seeing the display lighting up with a nine to nine score.
Gwen held up the puck. "This is for the game," she said to Ben. "You sure you don't wanna just give up now?" She gave him a cocky smile, hoping to psych him out for just long enough to score the winning goal.
"Yeah, right," Ben answered. "Gimme your best shot, Dweeb."
Taking him up on that, Gwen dropped the puck onto the table and hit it quickly, hoping Ben wouldn't have a chance to react. However, he hit it back just in time. Gwen returned the shot, but after ricocheting off the walls, it ended up bouncing back and sliding through her own goal. The score display on Ben's side of the table lit up with a ten. She'd lost, and in the most embarrassing way possible.
"Oh, sh-" Gwen dropped her paddle onto the table in disappointment, catching herself before she swore in front of strangers.
Across the table, Ben laughed, and so did the boy who was watching them. The boy's girlfriend playfully slapped him on the shoulder to quiet him.
"Nice shot, Dweeb. Glad you decided to join my team at the last second," Ben joked, laughing triumphantly.
Gwen was about to argue that he didn't really deserve the victory if he only won because she made a mistake, but she didn't want to get that petty in front of strangers for some reason. "Whatever, Doofus."
"Alright, we got next." The dark-haired boy stepped away from his girlfriend, heading for Ben's side of the table.
"Actually, you guys wanna do a doubles game? Me and my boyfriend versus you and yours?" the girl asked Gwen, pointing at each of them in turn.
Out of habit, Gwen almost responded by saying 'He's not my boyfriend, he's my cousin,' but Ben answered first.
"Yeah, sure." Ben waved his hand to gesture for Gwen to come over to his side of the table.
Gwen froze. If she went over there now without saying anything, she would be committing to being open about their relationship to these two random people. They'd be boyfriend and girlfriend for the time being, not cousins. She smiled nervously, her heart beating extra fast, feeling like they were taking a huge risk.
"Cool. Alright." Gwen walked around to the other end of the table to stand next to her boyfriend. When she got there, she stared at the other couple across from them.
They could tell we were a couple.
Her lips involuntarily curled into a smile at that fact, and her ears reddened from a mixture of embarrassment and elation.
"I'm Mandy, by the way," the dark-haired girl said, waving as she introduced herself.
"And I'm Randy," her boyfriend added, casually raising a hand in hello.
"I'm Ben. This is Gwen," Ben replied, taking the initiative to introduce both of them.
Mandy seemed to find that funny. "Hey, you guys rhyme, too!"
"Heh. Yeah." Gwen forced a laugh.
Wait 'til they hear how similar our last names are…
She supposed it was lucky that the other couple had rhyming names as well. It made it more likely for them to believe it was just a coincidence that Ben and Gwen's names just so happened to rhyme, rather than it being the result of their parents naming them that way on purpose.
"Alright, let's do this." Randy fed some tokens into the air hockey table, and it started up again as he retrieved the puck. "Ready?"
"Ready," Ben and Gwen responded in eerie unison. At least Mandy found it funny.
Randy hit the puck across the table. Ben and Gwen both immediately shoved their paddles towards it, colliding with each other with more force than they ended up hitting the puck with.
"Hey! Watch it!" Gwen complained just as Mandy hit the puck back.
"It's on my side," Ben insisted. They both hit the puck again. It bounced rapidly between the side walls, allowing Randy to easily return it. This time, Ben and Gwen both shoved their paddles forward, hitting the puck with enough force that it flew past the enemy goalies, scoring them the first point.
As soon as the display lit up to show their score, Ben and Gwen both cheered, using their free hands to share a high five. Mandy and Randy shared a confused look at their sudden change in attitude towards each other.
The game continued from there. Ben and Gwen kept fighting each other for space on their side of the air hockey table, yet they still managed to gain an early lead of five to one.
"Dammit!" Randy laughed after Ben scored again. "How are you two so good at this? Like, you clearly suck at teamwork, but it just keeps working somehow."
Ben and Gwen shared a look, then shrugged. "I dunno. It's just what we do," Ben said.
"It's certainly a unique strategy. Maybe we should try not working together as much?" Mandy joked, leaning in to steal a quick kiss from her boyfriend.
For some reason, that surprised Gwen. She was so used to trying not to get too intimate with Ben in public, she'd practically forgotten other couples were allowed to do it openly. She'd barely allowed herself to hold Ben's hand around the park that day, and even that had felt risky. Glancing at Ben out of the corner of her eye, she considered giving him a kiss, too, but she couldn't bring herself to do it.
However, out of nowhere, Ben leaned in and kissed her on his own. Perhaps he was feeling competitive and didn't want to 'lose' to the other couple, but he planted a quick one on Gwen's lips like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Gwen experienced a brief internal freak-out. If anyone who knew them had seen that, they would have been screwed. However, this couple they'd just met weren't bothered by it at all. Mandy even seemed to find their public display of affection cute. Despite her momentary freak-out, however, the redhead quickly recovered, realizing she had to act normal.
Wait. What's normal like again?
Gwen lightly slapped the back of her hand against Ben's side, chuckling to herself. "Come on, Doofus. Let's finish schooling these two already."
"I could end the game a lot quicker if you sat this one out."
"Yeah, 'cause you'd score on yourself twice as fast."
Mandy and Randy both cracked up, surprised by the other couple's trash talk. "You know, you're supposed to be fighting us," Randy pointed out.
"I can multitask," Ben joked in reply.
The game continued from there, with Ben and Gwen getting plenty more jabs in along the way, to the continued amusement of the opposing couple. Given their lead, Ben and Gwen ended up winning in the end. They cheered when they scored the final point. Gwen worried for a moment that they might have come off as arrogant, but the other couple seemed to take it in stride. Mandy stepped back from the table and wrapped an arm around her boyfriend's waist. Gwen was happy to use the other girl's actions as an excuse to do the same with Ben.
"Good game, guys," Randy told them.
"Yeah it was," Ben replied.
"Thanks. It was fun." Gwen gave the other couple a smile. She couldn't tell them the real reason she was so happy to have met them, but she felt like subtly thanking them for it anyway.
"I'm thirsty," Mandy said. "Hey, you guys wanna get something to drink?"
Gwen was kind of surprised to get invited along to hang out with the other couple a bit longer. She figured they'd just wanted to play some air hockey, and they'd part ways as soon as the game was over.
"Yeah, sure," Gwen replied. Any paranoia she held about doing 'couple stuff' with Ben in front of others seemed to have exited her mind at that point. She was just glad to be doing it at all.
Ben and Randy both shrugged. "Cool," they accidentally said in unison.
"Snack bar's thattaway," Randy said, pointing. Before he walked away, he held out his hand. Mandy did a single skip to hop over to him, then clasped his hand in hers.
Gwen quickly snatched Ben's hand into hers, too. He flinched at the sudden movement, but she pretended not to notice and tugged him along. Setting off for the snack bar, she walked hand-in-hand with her boyfriend, her self-satisfaction evident upon her face. The arcade zone was fairly crowded, and even though no one in particular was looking at them, she still felt like all eyes were on her. She'd felt like that before, but she had the opposite reaction this time. Rather than feeling worried, she felt a sort of pride welling up within her.
As they walked, Ben turned to give her a sudden kiss on the cheek, but he used it as an excuse to whisper in close to her. "You said something before about being careful?"
"Shh," she shushed him, giggling with a mix of embarrassment and general giddiness.
It's risky… but that kinda makes it fun, doesn't it?
They followed the other couple to the snack bar where they each bought a soda, and they also bought a basket of fries to split between the four of them. There were plenty of open tables in the dining area, so they sat down at one of the free ones to chat for a bit while they ate.
"So, where you guys from?" Mandy asked, leaning her body against her boyfriend's while she reached for a fry.
Gwen and Ben shared a look, both of them taking a moment to chew. They were usually pretty in sync when it came to deciding when to lie and when to tell the truth.
I'm sure we can get through a couple of questions like this. No problem.
"Bellwood," Ben answered truthfully, likely realizing it probably wouldn't make much of a difference where the other couple thought they were from.
Mandy and Randy both clearly did not know where that was. "That outta state?" Randy asked.
"Yeah," Gwen confirmed. She would've preferred to say they were from somewhere local as it would have allowed them to avoid explaining why they were so far from home together, but she couldn't tell a lie that could be easily disproved with a cursory google search.
"Mm. We live about three hours from here, but we're here for most of the week," Mandy told them.
"We're just here 'til the Fourth," Ben said. Luckily, that meant any lies they told only needed to be maintained for a couple of days at the most.
"Oh, nice," Mandy replied. "So you're gonna be around for the fireworks?"
"Yeah!" Gwen confirmed.
"Nice. They're so sweet. We were here last year, too. It's, like, magical." Mandy gazed lovingly into her boyfriend's eyes.
Gwen felt a tingling sensation inside. The prospect of spending a romantic moment watching the fireworks with Ben tomorrow night - that sounded amazing.
But are we going to be stuck with Grandpa…?
"If you guys wanna hang out during the fireworks show, we can show you the place that has the best view," Mandy offered, smiling knowingly at Gwen as if they were sharing a conspiratorial secret.
Gwen chuckled nervously. "Um, sure. We'll be around, I think."
Randy pinched the bridge of his nose and laughed lightly, then turned to Ben after chowing down on a fry. "We were just finishing up in the arcade when we bumped into you guys. We were gonna hit up some rides next. Wanna come with?"
"Oh, hell yeah!" Ben confirmed. "We got through a few this morning, but we've still barely touched most of the park."
Mandy rolled her eyes and smirked. "Randy loves thrill rides," she remarked to Gwen.
"So do we!" Gwen put an arm around Ben. "And I am way better at handling them than he is."
"Oh, dream on, Dweeb."
Like she had during the air hockey game, Mandy seemed to find their antics amusing.
"What?" Gwen asked innocently.
"Nothing. Just never seen competitive dating before," Mandy said with a giggle.
"They didn't wanna try casual dating, but they went too far in the other direction," Randy joked. He took a few more gulps of his soda before setting it down and standing up. "Alright, who's ready for some thrills?"
Mandy joined him. "Long as we can do some other rides, too," she said, taking his hand in hers.
Gwen immediately stood up. "Hurry up, Doofus," she said lightly, urging Ben along so she could hold his hand, too.
Wow. I really am 'competitive dating,' huh?
She stifled a laugh, much to Ben's confusion. Nevertheless, the four of them left the arcade together, heading back out to the rest of the park.