Chapter 24: Suspension

I Don't Own Ben 10 or Any of the Respective Characters, The Rights Belong to Man of Action Studios and Cartoon Network

Author's Note:

* Hello and welcome to Chapter 24!

* So, if you guys remember the one chapter from the original where Ben is cooped up in the counseling center for a day or so, that's essentially what this chapter is, just with the plot changed around a little bit.

* I don't have anything else I need to say, so let's get into the chapter!

Ben

Thursday, April 26th, 2018

Madison High School

I went to school the following day just as I would on any other day. I was still a bit displeased with the situation from yesterday. I just wanted it to be over. Gwen wanted to date a dirtbag that would likely collar her and show her off as if she were his prize pony? Fine, leave me out of it.

I wanted nothing to do with the situation and I didn't want anything to do with either of them. Truth be told, I didn't even want to see either of them. Unfortunately for me, I wasn't exactly going to get my wish. When I walked into my first class of the day, I was immediately called over by my teacher.

"Mr. Tennyson! Come over here."

I moved from the path to my desk and walked over to the teacher's desk.

"Yes, Sir?"

"Principal Hannigan wants to see you before class starts."

"Did he tell you why he wanted to see me?"

He shook his head as he turned his attention to his computer monitor.

"No, but if I were you, I would just go now. No need to keep him waiting."

Right.

So, without doing anything else, I left the classroom. The way to the front office wasn't long. I just had to go back up a single flight of stairs to the ground floor, return to the main lobby and it was right there. Upon walking in to the front office, I greeted the receptionist, Ms. Oliver.

"Hey there, Principal Hannigan wanted to see me."

"Name?" she asked without looking up at me.

"Ben Tennyson."

This time she looked up at me and pointed to her right before speaking.

"He's expecting you. Down this aisle and the second door on the left."

"Thank you."

"Of course."

I moved down the aisle Ms. Oliver had directed me to and to the Principal's office. His door was open, so I didn't bother to stop in the doorway, I just walked right in. Before I could say anything to Principal Hannigan, I saw that Brad was sitting in one of the two chairs right in front of the principal's desk. I immediately knew what this was about.

Oh, crap.

"Mr. Tennyson, how nice of you to join us. Please, sit down."

I begrudgingly sat down next to Brad, but said nothing. After a couple more seconds, Principal Hannigan shut a book that he had been writing in, before turning his attention to us.

"So, I understand that the two of you got into a little fight during school hours yesterday?"

I was ready to state my case so that I could go back to my life, but Brad, being the clearly more important guy than me that he was, spoke up first.

"I was just trying to explain something to him and he went crazy on me! Started throwing punches and everything!"

That's not how it happened! And is he seriously trying to play the victim here?!

Principal Hannigan put up his hand.

"Mr. Miller, Relax. We'll figure this out."

He then turned his attention to me.

"From your point of view, what happened?"

"Yesterday he came up to me while I was swapping out textbooks at my locker. He had wanted to clear up something that happened to us the other day and after he had done that, he asked me to stay away from my cousin, who he's currently dating, because he doesn't want her to be around other guys."

"Then what happened?"

"When I told him that she deserved better than him, he tried to punch me while I was walking away. The rest was self-defense. I felt like I couldn't run because he's faster than me and would have caught me with ease, so I defended myself until I saw an opportunity to get away from him."

Principal Hannigan sat there with his hands folded just in front of his mouth as he patiently listened.

"I see. So, he tried to hit you first and you were just defending yourself?"

"Yes, sir, Principal Hannigan."

From out of the corner of my eye, I could see Brad looking at me in a way for me to clearly understand that he thought I was a kiss-ass.

"I didn't do anything to the kid! I was just trying to have a—"

Principal Hannigan once again put up his hand.

"Mr. Miller, please do not speak unless you are spoken to. I know the type of person you are. You're impolite and inconsiderate of others. It doesn't take a detective to tell when you're lying. I also know that threatening you with suspension or expulsion doesn't do anything. You never learn. So, what am I to do with you, Mr. Miller?"

Brad didn't speak as if he had accepted that Principal Hannigan had seen right through his story. The principal leaned back in his seat as he tapped the end of his pen to his temple for a few seconds. He then leaned forward again, opened up one of his desk drawers and pulled out a small pad of white paper, beginning to write on it. Once he was done, he tore off the top piece of paper and handed it to Brad.

"Mr. Miller, I have no choice but to issue out a detention slip to you. Today, after school. You should know the room number, it's quickly become almost a second home for you."

"But Mr. Hann—"

I saw a glint in Principal Hannigan's eyes that told me he was quickly becoming annoying with Brad.

"Mr. Miller, please just take the slip and get out of my office before I change my mind."

Brad just looked at him and I could have sworn that he was going to try yelling at him, but it would seem he knew better. He yanked the slip from his hand and stormed out of the office. Once he was gone, Principal Hannigan sighed as he gently massaged his temples.

"Whatever am I going to do with that kid?" he asked himself out loud.

He then recomposed himself and looked at me.

"Now that he's gone, what about you?"

"What about me?"

"You're on the honor roll list, Benjamin. Your type doesn't typically mix with the kind of crowd that Brad Miller associates himself with."

Benjamin, I thought. I've never heard Principal Hannigan address a student by their first name. So, am I in trouble? Or does he just want my attention?

"I understand that you wanted to stand up for yourself and tell him what he was doing wasn't right when it came to him saying what he said about your cousin. And I understand as well that you were only trying to defend yourself until an opportunity for you to get away presented itself. But still, Madison High School has a zero tolerance policy on fighting, no matter who started the fight."

This is going where I think it's going, isn't it?

He sighed before he put his fingers on his keyboard and began typing away.

"It kills me to do this, it really does, because I know that you're a good kid. But I have to assign you a period of in-school suspension, for the next three days."

In-School Suspension?! But I barely did anything wrong! Not only that, but I'm still wrapping up finals season! And more importantly, what will Mom and Dad think about this?!

"In-School Suspension?" I asked with disbelief. "But it's still finals week!"

Principal Hannigan sighed and got up from his desk, proceeding to walk to the door and shut it. This worried me a little bit, but when I saw him come back and lean on the edge of his desk, I got the sense that everything was going to be alright.

"Look Benjamin, if it was up to me, I'd let you walk on out of here right now without any punishment, because I genuinely believe that you were just defending yourself, as you said. But, we still have a zero tolerance policy on fighting in our school, so there has to be some kind of punishment listed on the record, even if it's for something small, like in your case."

"So, it's like that, is it?"

"Try to understand me here. I'm trying to please both parties. And look at it this way. We both know that Brad Miller isn't going to let yesterday go this easily. He's going to want to get even with you, so to speak. So, by putting you into ISS for a few days, maybe he'll lose interest in you. I want to make sure that he can't cause any more trouble with you."

Well, I guess there was reason in that.

"And because I'm primarily doing this in an effort to keep you out of each other's way, I'm not going to call your parents to let them know about it."

That surprised me and I made sure to display it.

"You're not?"

He shook his head, before proceeding back to sit down at his desk again.

"Now, I'm going to send out an email to all of your teachers, letting them that you'll be out of class for the next few days. Someone will arrange for any assignments that you'll miss to be delivered to the counseling center for you. I want you to head over there right now. I'll call ahead and let your counselor know that you're coming."

"Okay." I replied as I stood up from the chair I had been sitting in. "Anything else, Principal Hannigan?"

"Actually, yes. Next time, might I recommend that you hold your tongue and just walk away?"

Yeah, that's pretty obvious, isn't it?

"Have a good day, Principal Hannigan."

"You too, young man."

I walked out of his office and left the door open as I went. I bid Ms. Oliver farewell before I left the office to make my way to the counseling center, just inside the central hallway past the lobby. Of course, before I could make it there, I had to walk past Brad, who was leaning up against the nearby wall, as if he were waiting for me.

"Seems to me that you got off lucky, punk." He said as he stepped away from the wall. "If it were up to me, I would have you thrown out of this school, regardless of how close it is to graduation."

The nerve of this guy!

I'm not sure what was going through my head. Maybe what Principal Hannigan said to me really hadn't gotten through after all or maybe I just needed to tell off Brad one last time. Either way, I couldn't stop what came out of my mouth next.

"Seems to me that you should stay the fuck away from me."

I stormed away from him before he had a chance to process and act on what I had just said.

Gwen

Later That Day

Right around lunchtime was about the time that I had had enough. I just had to know if what Ben had told me yesterday was true. So, while on my way to my lunch period that day, I went to see if Brad was at his locker. When that failed, I just went to the cafeteria in hopes that I would find him there. And luckily, I did. I found him sitting at his lunch table with his buddies.

"Brad!" I called out to him upon my approach.

He turned to look in my direction and when he saw me, his face lit up.

"Hey, babe!" he said as he reached out and grabbed my chin, pulling me in close. "Give us a kiss!"

I pulled away from him and grabbed his wrist.

"Stop." I said.

"What's the matter? You don't want a kiss from your hot stud of a boyfriend?"

I resisted the urge to cringe and got to the point as I let go of his wrist.

"You and I need to talk in private. Right now."

He looked at me again and after a few seconds, the look on his face changed, possibly hinting that he understood I was being serious. He got up from the lunch table without trying anything else with me again.

"I'll be back soon, guys. Seems like the missus wants to have a chat with me!"

I turned and walked toward the exit of the cafeteria, with Brad following right behind me.

The missus? Does he actually think that we'll date each other long enough to consider getting married?

That thought made me shudder.

I don't even want to know if he's already thought about me bearing his children!

We exited the cafeteria and entered a slightly more private part of the hallway. I stopped and turned to look at him. As I did this, he also stopped, leaning against the wall as he got real close to me.

"So, what do you want to talk about, Sugar T—"

"Don't you dare finish that sentence."

The cocky, bold look disappeared from his face after that. Now a grumpy look on his face came onto his face.

"Okay, you've ruined my mood. Let's just get this over with. What do you want to talk about?"

"Did you tell my cousin, Ben, to stay away from me yesterday?"

He retracted his hand from the wall and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Okay, fine. Maybe I did tell your cousin to stay away. But only because you're mine. I don't need any competition to contend with."

The fact that he considered Ben to be "competition" made me feel sick.

"He's my cousin, you weirdo! All I do is hang out with him! We watch movies, go to attractions and—"

"You don't need anyone else! I can take you to the movies, I can take you out to places, I can take you out to dinner and eventually, you'll let me satisfy you in bed. I'm all you need, baby cakes!"

As if this is about me getting satisfied by you. Eww.

"Just because we're dating doesn't mean that you're exclusively the only guy that I can talk to. What, are you going to tell me that my dad is off limits, too?"

He just shrugged.

"Someday, you won't need him, either."

I just stared at him with disbelief as he cleared his throat.

"Now, that we have that out of the way, let's go to dinner tonight. Someplace nice where we can forget we ever had this conversation."

I felt my face heat up due to how upset I was feeling. I shook my head.

"No, I need to think about stuff tonight. Another time, maybe."

I began to walk past him, however, he turned as I was walking and grabbed my hand. In turn, I quickly turned to face him and forced my hand out of his grip.

"What do you think you're doing?!"

"You'll let me take you out to dinner and we'll forget all about this!"

"No! Listen to me! I'm not your dog that you can just order around on a leash! I am my own person! I'm going to take the night to think and if you want to be serious with me, then you best better not show up at my house tonight!"

This time, I walked away from him without giving him a chance to speak.

Ben

A Couple Hours Later

Mr. Armstrong gave me access to one of the five computers in the counseling center's common area. Usually the counseling center's office aides would use these computers when they weren't out helping by answering phone calls, assisting in managing student records, filing paperwork and other stuff like that. Mr. A told me that I could go to any lunch period that I wanted, which was great, seeing as I could avoid having to run into Brad at all.

Better yet, if I wanted, I could just go to the cafeteria and bring back my lunch to eat here. Right before lunch I had just started to get bored with the situation I was in. I understood why Principal Hannigan had assigned me ISS and I was actually beginning to appreciate that a little bit, but it didn't change how dull the experience was compared to my day to day schedule.

While I was working, I had been listening to music on my phone using the YouTube app to help motivate my concentration and even that was beginning to wane. And as much as I hated to admit to it, I was about to get in trouble for real. I was sitting at my computer, staring down at my phone waiting for the prompt to skip the ad that I was stuck on when it happened.

"Hey," a female voice said. "you're here to work, not to watch movies."

I turned to look to my right and saw Ms. Hurt, one of the three other school counselors, standing there. Ms. Hurt, the one counselor in this whole place who was just as kind as the other counselors, but equally as strict. You did not what to talk back to this lady, as I was about to demonstrate.

"No, ma'am, I wasn't watching a movie." I stated, ready to defend my position. "I'm waiting for the prompt to skip this ad that I'm stuck on."

Trying to state my case didn't seem to help me in the slightest.

"Oh, so now you're backtalking me?"

No, I just explained myself to you. How is that considered backtalking?

"No, ma'am. I was only trying to explain myself to—"

"Okay, I can accept students needing a warning to get back to work, but I can never accept backtalking." She interrupted me while putting out her open hand. "So, I'm going to need your phone."

I just stared at her in response, staring back at me expectedly. I didn't see the point of pushing this any further.

"Fine." I said as I took out my earbuds and disconnecting them from my phone, before handing it over. "But I'm keeping my earbuds, even though I have no use for them now."

She took my phone from me.

"I don't want your earbuds, I was only asking for your phone."

Yeah, why don't you just rub it in while you're at it?

"Thank you for your cooperation."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

"No problem." I replied with slight sarcasm.

I turned back to my computer, now truly having nothing to combat my boredom with. Sometime after that, I heard someone call my name. I turned to look toward Mr. Armstrong's office, where he was standing in the doorway.

"May I speak to you for a few minutes?"

I gave him a nod as I stood up from my chair and walked toward his office door. He shut the door behind me and I went to sit in the chair next to his desk. I waited for him to sit down and talk to me about what was on his mind.

"Ben, I would like to know how you got assigned three days of ISS here. Principal Hannigan let us know that you were coming, but he didn't say why. And you're a good kid, you don't belong here. So, I'm just curious."

I sighed.

I might as well be honest. What's he going to do? Give me a detention?

"I got into a fight yesterday."

He gave me a quizzical look.

"You got into a fight?"

I nodded.

"How did it happen?"

"There's this kid, Brad Miller, who's one of the jocks here at our school. He's currently dating my cousin and he isn't treating her all that well. I think he views her as his own property and physically asked me to stay away from her, because he didn't want her hanging around any guys. Not to mention the fact that when we met, he was cold and acted as if I didn't exist. Insisted on getting my name wrong twice."

"And how did the fight start?"

"I told him that she deserved better than him due to how he treats her and her family. He didn't like that. He tried to hit me after that as I was walking away. Everything after that was just me trying to defend myself."

"So, all of that was about how he reacted to what you said?"

I nodded.

"Yes. Principal Hannigan told me that I should have just kept my mouth shut and walked away."

"Um, yeah. I think I agree with the Principal Hannigan. You probably should have just walked away."

"I know. I didn't want to start anything, that wasn't my intention. I was just trying to act in my cousin's best interests."

I sighed before I spoke again in a low, sad tone.

"She's my best friend."

"I think I can understand that. Though, I have one last question."

"What's that?"

"Why did Principal Hannigan decide to send you over here?"

"He said that even though I realistically did nothing wrong, I still have to receive some sort of punishment for the records, due to Madison High having a zero tolerance policy on fighting. And he also said that he was putting me here so that Brad wouldn't be able to start anymore stuff with me, if he wants to at all. It's his hope that after a few days, Brad will lose interest in me and go back to doing his own thing."

He put his hand on his chin.

"That does make a degree of sense."

I nodded.

"Mm-hmm."

That was it. I didn't know what else to say.

"Well, I've gotten my answer. I can't say that I understand everything about the situation, but I can understand why you're here. I'll let you get back out there and keep working."

"Okay, thank you."

I walked back out of Mr. Armstrong's office and to my work station, where I sat down to get to work again.

A Few Hours Later

The end of the day had rolled around, finally. Any minute now, that bell would ring and I would be free to walk home. Hopefully I wouldn't run into Gwen on the way. I know how that sounds, but I still wasn't in the mood to speak with her after yesterday. However, I wasn't planning on leaving school without my phone. So, hopefully I was about to go get it back from Ms. Hurt. I walked over to her open door and stood in the doorway, where I saw her typing at her computer.

"Um, Ms. Hurt?" I asked.

"Yes?" she asked without looking up at me. "What is it?"

"I just wanted to apologize for what happened a few hours ago. I promise that I really wasn't trying to talk back to you. I was being honest when I say that I was just waiting to skip an ad. Talking back to my elders isn't even like me, anyway. I'm a good kid, I respect teachers and administrators."

She was silent as she continued typing, didn't say a word. I was about to say her name again when she spoke a second later.

"I accept your apology."

I let out a sigh of relief.

"But could I please have my phone back? I don't want to go home without it."

She opened up one of her desk drawers and took out my phone.

"I wouldn't expect you to." She replied as she handed it to me.

I took it from her and just as I thought that this conversation had reached its conclusion, she continued.

"But mark my words, young man. I don't want to see you with that out for the duration of your time here. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal."

I turned and walked back out into the common area, right as the final bell of the day rang.

Author's Note:

* And that's it for this chapter! I hope you all enjoyed!

* What are your thoughts on this chapter? What did you think of Ben's "punishment" for causing a fight and how Gwen confronted Brad later in the day? I'm very curious about any of your opinions, so please don't hesitate to leave a review or send me a private message if you feel so inclined.

* I believe that will do it for me today. Thank you for reading and I'll see you in the next one!

Review Responses

adriandragonus (Chapter 23): I'm glad that Brad's role got expanded here compared to what we had gotten in the original version. He can help both Gwen and Ben to realize their feeling to each other, even in a harsh way. About who's to blame here, I'm sorry but for me, all three of them are to blame here!

Ben for being angry too quickly (and isn't Brad's "suggestion" actually beneficial for him anyway, since any contact with Gwen will make him realize his feelings any further ?), Gwen for assuming it was Ben that instigate the brawl (she knows that Brad is a typical jock, and Ben won't attack someone without provocation. So why didn't she expect Brad to… do what typical jocks do?), and Brad for…Being a brat (bad pun, i know). But I'm glad that this has to happen, otherwise they won't be confronted to their own true feelings!

As for the "inner Ben" thingy… I dunno man. Any voice within his mind can only be either harmful (like z'skayr) or annoying (like serena and bellicus).

Thanks, Adrian. Even still, Brad has a very limited role in the story. I don't have much more planned for him to do. I just don't want his involvement to take away from the bigger story that I'm trying to tell here. Blaming all three of them here? Yeah, that's fair. I mainly wanted readers to be blaming both Gwen and Brad for this one, but this outcome works, too.

Yes, Ben did react too angrily too quickly when Gwen confronted him about it, he could have stayed calm, but she accused him of starting crap with her new boyfriend. And that's the thing, she could have simply asked for his side of the situation, but she didn't. And Brad being a typical jock? Yeah, I would say that's also fair. It may be stereotypical and not all jocks in real life are going to be like this, but I wrote Brad as a stereotype for a reason.

I promise that the "inner Ben thingy" isn't as complicated as you might think, even if I wrote it in a way that may be confusing to the reader. It's merely him having issues with confronting who he was as a kid and being ashamed of how he acted back then. It's as simple as that, even if the text suggests otherwise. As for Serena and Bellicus? Sorry, but you lost me there. Those names have no significance to me. Thanks for the review, as always.

Next Chapter: Ben finishes up his last couple days of ISS without issue. Meanwhile, Gwen breaks up with Brad. After the fact, she and Ben talk things over.