The Skill of Benjamin Banks

The Renaming of Benjamin Banks

    Harcourt had the appearance of the classic teenage slacker.  His dusty blond hair was a bit too long and messy, his clothes were just rumpled enough to make him look lazy but not so rumpled as to make him look dirty. His limbs were long, thin, and sprawled over the edge of his bed as his foot bounced to a song playing from the next room over. He was lying on his back, weirdly at ease. Ben had just gotten done unpacking his things and was familiarizing himself with the campus. The welcome packet contained a map, along with a student to faculty ratio, and student to tree ratio. It was an entirely new place, and that made him uncomfortable. But Harcourt acted like he had lived there his whole life.

"Yo Banks, you plan on going to orientation?" Harcort asked.

Ben looked up from his campus map. "No, I think I'm going to stay here until everyone forgets I was called down." He slumped lower in the chair at his desk. 

"They know your name man, not your face." Harcourt rolled on top of the bed so that he was sitting up. 

"But everyone saw me perform my Skill, and then the announcement came on, and then I went down. So, it would be pretty easy to figure out." Ben focused on his map, hoping Harcourt would just drop it when he saw how busy he was with finding the dining hall. 

"Only if they were right there, anyone who wasn't right near you probably  didn't hear the announcements." It wasn't working, Harcourt clearly didn't care about the location of the dining hall.

"You did."

"Only because I have an insatiable lust for campus announcements." Harcourt waved a fist dramatically. 

Ben brought the map closer to his face. "I just don't want people paying attention to me. You can go, but I'm staying."

"All you have to do is make up a name Banks, and then avoid the people who were around you when you showed off your Skill." Harcourt hopped off his bed and walked over to Ben, kneeling in front of him."Really dude, you've got nothing to worry about."

"All aboard the orientation train!" A guy yelled banging on doors in the hallway. When he got to their open door, Ben was surprised to see the guy from earlier who had almost run him over. He was still wearing roller blades. "Time to get moving little dudes." he said, his dark dreadlocks swaying with his gestures. "Im Pete, I'm your RA, and I'm taking you to orientation. What are your names so I have something to scream if a car wants to run us over."

Pete looked right at Ben. He was not prepared for this. Lying was not his Skill. "Bill Nye." Ben said frantically. "...Jr."

"Really dude?" Pete asked, tilting his head. "You gotta tell your old man I said Hi then, I was his biggest fan in grade school." Pete turned to Harcourt. "And you?'

Harcourt smiled wickedly. "I'm Benjamin Banks, it's nice to meet you Pete."