May 29, 2009
Rosegrove Academy; 3:14 pm
Gwen could feel the tension in the room as the seconds ticked by. It was less than sixty seconds until the end of the school year, and even she couldn't focus on her teacher's heartfelt goodbye. Some of the more listless students had already pulled out their phones or have their bags ready to jump as soon as the bell rang. Having been sitting directly in front of the teacher's desk, Gwen kept her hands held together on her desk like the diligent student she was.
Thirty seconds had passed, but it felt like thirty minutes. She could probably think back to a philosophical meaning behind this feeling, but she couldn't take her mind off the slow tick of the clock. By the time the red needle reached the fifty-second mark, half the class was leaning out of their seats, ready to rush the small wooden door.
5...4...3...2...1…
"Gwendolyn." The bell chimed their final dismissal of the school year, but Gwen stayed planted in her seat. Her whole class was out of the room in seconds, but her teacher kept her eyes glued to her own green pair.
"Yes, Mrs. Robins?" She asked, trying not to let her nervousness bleed through.
"I'm sure you have some exciting plans for Summer," the older woman said slowly, "but I just wanted to let you know that you've been my favorite student to teach in such a long time." Gwen felt her nerves begin to calm down, but she still wanted to leave as soon as possible. "There aren't many students that have such a love for learning as you do."
"Thank you, Mrs. Robins, but I don't deserve all this praise." Or this obstruction of my time, she thinks inwardly.
"Don't be so modest. I'm sure you'll learn great things in the East Wing."
The academy is split between the East and West Wings with grades K through fifth being in the west and sixth through eighth in the east. Once students move to the East Wing, they hardly see their former teachers. Up until now, Gwen hadn't considered that she wouldn't get to see Mrs. Robins or any of her previous teachers as often as liked. She always thought that she would see them around since they're all in the same school, but the two wings hardly ever interact. The only times they all come together is during school assemblies, but even then, each grade is separated from each other.
Gwen felt a small pain in her heart at this thought. "I'll always remember the time I spent here." She gave her former teacher a large smile. The woman pulled her into a big hug. The school has a strict policy on physical affection, but neither one of them were going to tell anyone what had transpired there.
The older woman gave her one last farewell before ushering her out of the classroom. Gwen was shocked to see the halls were practically deserted. Aside from a few students talking by their lockers, everyone else had already left the campus.
"Oh, no!" She began to sprint down the hall, no longer caring if a teacher saw her. She silently cursed herself for losing her phone a month ago. Her mother thought it to be smart to put a GPS inside the phone if she ever lost it, but somehow that wasn't working. Meaning either the phone had been destroyed, which she heavily doubted, or someone manually turned it off.
She had grilled her cousin for weeks, but he never cracked. She knew there was no way he could figure out how to turn it off, but a little Grey Matter certainly could. She swore that if she found out that he did anything to it, she'd burn all of his Sumo Slammer cards. Either way, her parents still gave her a long lecture about responsibility and the importance of money.
She pushed open the front doors and sprinted to the beat-up RV in the corner of the parking lot. "I'm so sorry, grandpa!" She almost screamed as she pulled open the side door. "My teacher asked me to stay behind, and I know we have to pick Ben after this."
"Actually," Max let out a nervous chuckle, "I already picked up Ben. His school let the fifth graders leave early."
It took a moment for this information to process in her head. "Where's Ben?"
"You were running late, so he decided to go looking for you."
"The Doofus is running around my school!?" She was screaming now. She was about to run back into the building when she felt a chill run down her spine. She quickly turned around to see a blue cloaked figure standing behind her. She got into a fighting stance but stopped when she saw how green its eyes were. "Got another new alien?" She did her best to sound unimpressed but was still a little cautious if this wasn't her Doofus of a cousin.
The alien removed its cloak, which turned out just to be its wings and revealed the symbol of the Omnitrix on its chest. It finally spoke in a slow, breathy voice. "Call me Big Chill."
"I can't believe you let Ben run around my school looking like that!" Gwen screamed at her grandfather.
"You know how your cousin is," Max sighed loudly, "besides, Necrofriggians can become intangible, so I'm sure no one saw him flying around." Gwen felt like screaming again, but it wouldn't change anything. "In any case, you should probably change out of your uniform. Your luggage is in the back."
Having no other choice, she grabbed her suitcase and started rummaging through it to pick her outfit for the day. When she pulled out a shirt to wear, a small black brick fell to the ground. She picked it up and quickly realized it was her phone, and it had a note taped to the back.
"I found your phone. Sorry for yelling at you, love mom." She started crinkling the paper in her hand out of anger. "BEN!" The blue bug flinched at hearing his name and wrapped himself tighter in his cloak. "What is this?" She shoved the paper in his face.
"It looks like a note from your mom." He said dryly.
"Really? Then tell me why it's written on the back of your math homework!" She turned the paper around to show the division problems that she was sure he got wrong. The handwriting alone gave it away, but the fact that he didn't even try to use a clean sheet of paper was just adding insult to injury.
The alien started backing away, debating heavily between fight or flight, but the red beeping on his chest decided for him. The bright flash of red revealed the eleven-year-old boy who had nowhere left to run.
"So maybe I found your phone laying around and didn't want you to get mad at me." She gave him another death glare. "Or I might have borrowed it and didn't tell you…"
"And why would you need to borrow my phone when you have your own!?" She screamed, causing her cousin to back up farther. He looked up to his grandfather for some kind of help, but Max had kept his focus on the road, knowing that the two would be able to sort out whatever disagreement they were having.
Ben decided that he had no other choice, but to be honest with her. He snatched the phone from her hand and started pressing random buttons. Gwen was about to tackle him but stopped when the phone's blue screen changed to green.
"I needed time to work on it, and I couldn't do that without your parents questioning what happened. Between switching from Grey Matter and Upgrade and searching for stuff as XLR8, I needed more time."
"Why didn't you just tell me?" She blurted out, feeling more than a little hurt.
"I know how hard it is for you to lie to your parents, so I kept it secret. It's not like this is the first time you've been angry at me for a month straight." Ben opened the phone back up and showed her a secret menu. "If you type in '0624', you'll enter the Omnitrix mode."
"Why'd you pick that number?" She asked, trying to think of anything significant to that number.
"That's the day you became a real hero." He said shyly. "June 24th was when you first became Lucky Girl. My code is '0530' since that's the night I got the Omnitrix." He pulled out his phone and typed it in, turning his screen green as well. "And if you type my number while you're in this mode," he quickly typed it in, "you can call or text me without needing to use our parents' phone company. I even linked the GPS to a plumber satellite so we can track each other anywhere on Earth."
This was all very impressive even for the Doofus, and it explains why the GPS had been disabled. There was one thing that bothered her, though. "You know you're not supposed to use the watch unless it's for an emergency." She spat out, but it was more for show than anything else. In all actuality, she wanted to congratulate him on pulling off such a feat, but she didn't want to give him any reason to brag, especially after getting her in so much trouble.
"Grandpa was all for it." He said casually. "How do you think I got access to the plumber satellite. And besides, his phone is linked up too." He typed in another code, '1016.' October 16th. Something about that day left an itch in the back of her head.
"Did Grandpa pick that one?" She asked, trying to remember the significance to that day.
"He did," Ben said, feeling a little uncomfortable, "he said it was his call to action. Whatever that means."
Gwen looked up at her grandfather, who had been ignoring their conversation. She wanted to know what that day was but figured she wouldn't get a straight answer out of him. He was open with them about a lot of things, but he still had his secrets, and she could bet that he'd take some of those to his grave if he could.
She took her phone back and went back to the back of the Rust Bucket without another word. That itch remained even after she finished changing and made their way out of town. Ben continued to show her the features he installed on their phones, and they also went to a nice restaurant for dinner. Everything was gearing up to be a peaceful Summer, but nothing can ever be that peaceful for the Tennysons.
They were rudely awoken in the middle of the night by a couple of thugs. Max gave them a fair warning to leave, but Ben was already grumpy from being woken up that he didn't hesitate to go Four-Arms when they refused to leave. She felt bad because she knew their type. They weren't bad people in her book, but her mother would say otherwise. Drug addicts that would do anything to get their next fix. Compared to the actual criminals they faced all Summer, she didn't even want to fight them.
She thought back to the beginning of the school year when her Sensai criticized her for being too violent. Bad guys or not, these are still real people that feel real pain. Not everyone they will meet is some crazy lunatic bent out for world domination. Some are poor souls that have no other choice but to rely on illegal activities to get by.
Looking back at the two men running away from the big scary alien, she could tell that they weren't that much older than the high school kids she'd see around town. What they need is serious help from professionals, not to have their butts kicked by a couple of kids playing hero.
Max laid back down on his cot and Ben, unable to get back onto the top bunk, laid on the floor. Neither of them even stopped to think about what they just did. How is she going to spend all Summer like this? They live in two different worlds—the normal life in Bellwood where nothing ever happens. Then there's the exciting world of magic and aliens that they only get to experience during the Summer. But sooner or later, these two worlds will blur together, and she'll have to decide which one matters more.
AN: Hey sorry for not updating for almost 2 months. Again. Between work and my personal life I never have time to just sit down and write anymore. Hopefully I can start getting into the flow with all this again but I can't promise anything with how finicky my upload schedule is. Things are starting to get real interesting soon and I can't wait to get into it!