Ben 10 Fanfiction: Part One, Prologue

The next day at school, I was quite happy when Ben sat next to me, although we didn’t talk to each other at all until math class. I’d noticed him having difficulties with long division.

“Do you need some help?” I asked.

“No, I can do it myself!” Ben exclaimed, obviously frustrated and determined at the same time.

I shrugged my shoulders and turned back to my work. After a few minutes of Ben sighing and gritting his teeth in frustration and looking at my paper to see how I’d done it, he finally gave up.

“Okay, fine. I give up. Show me how to do it,” Ben admitted, slightly embarrassed. I could tell that he wasn’t used to accepting help from other people – especially from other students.

I pushed my work aside and went through the process slowly, demonstrating each step to him on a blank sheet of paper. Once I’d explained everything in a few different ways, he’d finally got it. I was relieved he wasn’t very slow – he just needed someone to explain things in a way that he understood better.

“Thanks,” Ben mumbled afterwards, probably still embarrassed about asking me for help.

“No problem,” I replied.

The remaining half-hour of math class continued in this manner, with Ben occasionally asking for my help with more difficult questions, and me explaining to him how to solve it in the same way that I told him in the first place. When the lunch bell rang, Ben practically jumped out of his seat and was gone before I’d even put my pencil case away.

I took my time going to the cafeteria, and almost immediately regretted it. The school bullies were standing right behind Ben, and Cash was just about to dump his lunch on Ben’s head yet again, who didn’t seem to notice them. As quickly as I dared, I approached the three boys with a devilish plan in my head. And, before either of the bullies had any time to react to my presence, I’d already shoved Cash’s lunch right into his face. Ben turned around just in time to see his enemy’s face covered in shepherd’s pie and corn, before him and his groupie ran off. As I sat down beside Ben, he immediately burst into fits of laughter.

“Man, that was great! Did you see the looks on their faces? That really must’ve put them in their places,” he laughed.

I grinned broadly. “Yeah, they’ll really have to watch their backs from now on!”

“So, does this mean we’re friends now?” Ben inquired, controlling his excitement.

“Of course it does!” I said happily, shaking his already outstretched hand.

“Do you like the Sumo Slammer video game?” Ben asked eagerly.

My eyes lit up with recognition and excitement. “No way, you like it, too?! I like it so much I ate nothing but that crappy cereal for a whole month to find a golden trading card!”

“And did you find one?”

“Yeah! I actually found it two nights ago.”

“Wow, lucky! I’ve been searching forever and I still can’t find one! They must be, like, super rare.”

“Yep, must be. What other games do you play?”

“All sorts! I like Soul Calibur, Naruto...”

He must have continued on for at least ten minutes, but the above titles were the only ones I paid any attention to. “Do you like DDR and Guitar Hero?” I asked.

“Well, I don’t dance, so DDR isn’t really my thing. I love Guitar Hero, but I’m still saving up to buy the actual guitar controller for my game.” He then hung his head in disappointment.

“Do you want to come over to my house after school?” I offered. “I’ve got lots of the games you mentioned, including Guitar Hero.”

Ben grinned much wider than I ever thought possible. “Awesome! That would be so cool! I’ll just have to go home first to ask my mom. Is that okay?”

“Yeah, that’s fine!” I exclaimed. “I wouldn’t want your mom to worry about you.”

As if on cue, the bell rang just as I finished my sentence. We walked to class together, talking more about the different games I owned. During science, once we’d finished our work, I wrote a list of all the games and movies that I could remember I had, and we talked more about the games we’d both played and the movies we’d both seen. I wasn’t surprised to find that practically his whole life revolved around video games, since that same pastime was one of my main interests – after writing, reading, and then drawing. I was also thrilled to find that we both liked mostly the same movies and games.

“What else do you do, other than play games and watch movies?” Ben asked me when the final bell rang.

“I write, read, draw, procrastinate, surf the web, shop, and go to martial arts classes every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday evenings,” I replied. “I probably do lots of other stuff too, but I just can’t think of anything else at the moment. What about you? Do you have any sort of life outside of continuous gaming?”

Ben laughed. “No, not really. And what does that mean, ‘procats-whatever it’s called’?”

“Basically, it means wasting time,” I answered, “a skill which I’m very good at, unfortunately.”

“Interesting,” Ben commented, not seeming very interested at all. “Well, we’re here.”

I hadn’t noticed we were standing in front of a rather large house until Ben actually pointed it out to me. I waited patiently as Ben begged his mom to let him come to my house to play Guitar Hero and all the other cool games I owned for hours on end, claiming he didn’t have any homework (I distinctly remembered him not finishing his English homework, actually). She finally agreed and, after a short introduction between her and me, we were hurrying towards my house, desperate not to waste precious daylight minutes.