March 30, 2012
Bellwood Junior High School; 10:59 am
One minute til lunch, the longest sixty seconds of a kid's life.
Ben was staring down the clock hand as it slowly spun around instead of working on the math test in front of him. He knew trying to finish would be pointless, so he accepted his fate and waited not so patiently for the school bell to announce their dismissal.
Forty-five seconds.
Pretty much everyone else around him had already finished and were resting their heads on their desks, but there still were a couple of stragglers. He looked across the room and saw Cash looking distressed. "He should have just given up," Ben thought. "It's not like an extra question or two will help his grade at all."
Thirty seconds.
Cash looked up from his paper and noticed Ben staring at him. He gave him a nasty look before returning to his test, frantically writing down numbers. Ben almost felt bad for him, but all the years of bullying and fighting quickly crushed that thought.
Twenty seconds.
Ben wanted to slam his head onto his desk. "Where's an alien invasion when you need it?" Looking down, he caught himself gripping the dial of the Omnitrix. Lately, he found himself fidgeting with it more and more. On multiple occasions, he had accidentally transformed after subconsciously activating the watch. Thankfully no one was ever around to notice when it happened.
Maybe he's been cooped up in normal society for too long. He missed the Summer trips and sneaking out at night to go heroing. Occasionally he'd leave to fly around or go for a run, but it wasn't the same. Not without her…
Jesus Christ, ring the damn bell already!
The chime signaling the end of class came over the intercom. Everyone stood to turn in their papers and leave for lunch or whatever their next class may be. Just as Ben slammed his test onto the teacher's desk, the man stopped him. "I need to speak with you for a moment, Benjamin. Take a seat."
"Yes, Mr. Saito," Ben rolled his eyes as he sat at a nearby desk.
One by one, he waited for the rest of the class to turn in their tests. Cash was the last to turn his in and was glaring at Ben the entire time.
"You may leave, Cassius," Mr. Saito ordered.
Ben couldn't help but snort at the mention of his name, which only pissed the teen off more. Cash had spent the entire first semester trying to stop Mr. Saito from calling him by his real name. Over and over again, the man would say that he should respect the name given to him. Of course, Ben didn't agree with it, but he loved to see how much it bothered Cash.
Once the last of the class had left, Mr. Saito began to write on one of the tests. Neither spoke for a good few minutes, and Ben was getting irritated. "You wanted to speak with me, sir,"
The man continued to write on the paper for another minute before handing it to Ben. "You passed with a sixty-three," he said bluntly. "You answered every question correctly and then stopped halfway. It's not as if you didn't have enough time, either. I watched you sit around and stare off into space for the last fifteen minutes of class."
Ben didn't know what to say. He couldn't deny that he wasn't aware of it, but it wasn't as if he cared either. How would school help him beat up bad guys and be a hero? He just had to get by until he turned eighteen and could join the plumbers.
Mr. Saito's face turned serious. "Are you being bullied, Benjamin?"
Ben was taken aback. "Bullied? Why would you think that?"
"I'm not blind to how Cassius acts, and you two seem to have a history together. If things ever become too much to bear, please feel free to visit me at school or my dojo." The man wrote an address on a piece of scrap paper.
Ben was aware of his teacher's karate classes. When the school year began, he was suspicious about whether the man recognized him. They were confirmed a month in when he asked him about his cousin. Ben admitted to not having talked to her in years, and they hadn't talked about it since.
"Thanks, but no thanks," Ben said. "So if there's nothing else to say, then I'll be seeing you Monday." The man could not respond as students began to enter the classroom, so Ben grabbed his bag and left for the cafeteria.
All the tables were full, and there was hardly anyone left in line. Ben knew he would end up with the crap no one else wanted, so he settled into a mostly empty table in the corner and waited for lunch to be over.
Five minutes hadn't even passed before he had two figures looming over him. "You got something you want to say to me, Tennyson?" Cash asked. J.T. was behind him like always.
"Piss off, Cash, I'm not in the mood," Ben went to lay his head on the table when he felt something wet dumped onto his head.
"You were in a good mood earlier; well, who's laughing now, bitch?" Cash poured his milk carton onto Ben's head, soaking it into his clothes and backpack.
J.T. grabbed onto Cash's shoulder. "Dude, what're you going to tell the teacher!?"
"What's there to explain? Ben was clumsy and dropped his milk. Now get the fuck off me!" Cash pushed J.T. aside and began to walk away when he felt someone pull his shoulder again. "I said get off-" Before he could finish speaking, another hand slammed his head into the table. He was out in an instant.
J.T. watched in horror as Ben stood over the boy's unconscious body with clenched fists and heavy breaths. He turned to run before becoming the next target but bumped into a teacher's chest.
Once Ben calmed enough to realize the severity of the situation, he muttered under his breath, "shit." Ben and J.T. were dragged to the principal's office while a second teacher carried Cash to the nurse's office. Ben could hear the other student's whispers as he passed. Some called him crazy, others said Cash got what he deserved, but the majority wanted to know if he would be expelled, and Ben figured he might very well be.
The two had to sit outside the office while they waited for their parents to arrive. This wasn't the first time Ben had found himself in this position. Hell, it wasn't the first time this year, but usually, it was a lecture from the principal and a phone call home. Guess the school draws the line at giving another kid a concussion.
Ben looked at the kid next to him, noticing his distress. "Quit freaking out. It's not like they'll expel you or anything."
"They're calling our parents, jackass," J.T. whined. "My dad is going to be pissed."
"Is he gonna beat you?"
"WHAT!?" The receptionist glared at them before returning to her work. "N-no, he'll just yell a lot."
"Then I don't see what the big deal is." Ben's words did little to ease his nerves. "Look, last I checked, you had great parents who loved and supported you. Do them a favor and stop hanging out with shitty people that are just going to get you into trouble. It'll save them a lot of grief."
J.T. opened his mouth to speak but stopped when his mom walked in. The woman was a mess talking frantically and demanding to see her son. The receptionist struggled to get the woman to fill out her guest form before allowing her inside. She pulled J.T. into a hug with tears pouring down her face. There was no anger or disappointment, just a mother worried about her baby.
The woman gave Ben a look that could kill before the two entered the principal's office. He couldn't blame her. If his kid got hurt, he'd probably go Four Arms and beat him to a pulp. The memory of a rainy night flashed in his head. Ben quickly shook it away, but the guilt had already settled in.
God damn intrusive thoughts…
About ten minutes had passed when J.T. and his mom walked. His mom stormed out of the office, but he stopped to talk to Ben. "I'm getting a three-day suspension," he said. "I'm gonna stop hanging around Cash. I thought that if I were friends with the bully, then I'd be safe, but I didn't think about who I'd be hurting instead. Probably should have figured that out before making everyone in the school hate me."
"Just a couple more months till high school. You'll manage." Ben lifted his hand for a fist bump which J.T. bumped back before being dragged off by his mother.
Another fifteen minutes went by before Ben's mom walked in. Unfortunately, he wasn't lucky enough to get the waterworks. Sandra grabbed him by the wrist, dragging him into the principal's office and into a chair in front of his desk.
"Hello, Sandra," Principal Barns said. "As I told you over the phone, Ben was in a fight with another student and gave him a mild concussion. This is his fourth instance of violence, and his grades have been hovering just above failing all year."
"So, is that it?" Sandra asked. "Is he just a lost cause?"
Ben didn't even flinch at her words. He's known how they felt about him for years. They probably would have sent him away if they could.
"I'm not keen on the idea, but it's beginning to look like we have no other-"
A muffled voice could be heard outside, followed by the door opening. "Sorry to intrude," Mr. Saito said.
"I'm speaking with a parent at the moment," Principal Barns said.
"I'm aware. I wish to speak on behalf of Benjamin." Mr. Saito bowed his head before continuing. "He is a bright student, but I believe he's in need of help. Every incident he has been in was due to Cassius provoking him. Now I'm not condoning Benjamin's actions, but how, as educators, can we punish him for defending himself? Look at him. The boy is drenched in milk!"
Mr. Saito was now looking at Sandra. "I run a karate dojo on the weekends that your niece Gwendolyn once attended." Ben and his mother went pale at the mention of her name. "I watched him come to every tournament, and I can confidently say that the boy back then and the one sitting in this chair are not the same. I won't claim to know what Benjamin's home life is like, but in my class, he is brilliant. He is so brilliant he's purposely lowering his grades to be just above failing, and I'm sure he's doing the same in his other classes as well. This isn't an act of rebellion, Mrs. Tennyson. This is a cry for help."
Sandra turned to look at her son. He refused to meet her gaze, but she began noticing how much he had changed. He was thinner, not starving, but he lost the muscles he once had. His eyes, which had once been full of joy, were cold and dark. She was struggling to remember the last time she saw her baby smile.
"I want to believe Mr. Saito," Sandra said to Principle Barns. "Please give my son another chance."
The man looked between the woman and the teacher. Then, he sighed, "A week's suspension, but if another incident occurs, I won't be so lenient."
Ben couldn't believe what he was hearing. Had everyone lost their minds? Everything became a blur as he was led out of school and into his mother's car. One moment they were in the school parking lot; the next, he was in his garage. After what felt like an eternity, his mother said, "you're going to stay with your Grandpa Max for the weekend. I'm going to talk with your father, and we'll decide on your punishment when you get back."
Ben heard her words, but they didn't seem to register in his head, so he just said "okay" and went upstairs to shower.