AWAKEN ; benny weir [2]

eleven

"Grandma told us about Jane wanting to train."

Benny and Ellie leaned against the lockers beside a worried Ethan, wondering about his sister's newly found psychic powers.
"Yeah, how's that going?" Ellie asked, bouncing off Benny's starter.

"...Great," Ethan answered unenthusiastically, shoving his books into his locker.
"Wow, so sincere," Ellie chuckled.

"Ugh, it's just weird," Ethan huffed to his friends. "Jane really has to focus on all this stuff in middle school? We could barely do it when we were fourteen."
"Dude, I can barely do it now," Benny countered.

"Jane can learn a lot from you," Ellie insisted. "She looks up to her big brother."

Opening her locker and scanning her class assignment calendar, Ellie groaned at the sight of a brand new problem for the three geeks: ALGEBRA EXAM.

"Uh oh."
"What?"
Ethan and Benny glanced to the assignment calendar, following her eyes to meet the fate that they completely forgot about. Even supernatural forces of nature had math tests to take.

"AWH, WHAT?"
"Kill me now..."

"Okay, okay, relax!" Ellie assured, raising her hands to control their stress. "It should just be on the graphs we learned last year."

"...We learned GRAPHS LAST YEAR?!"

——————

"Alright, kids. Let's get this done first before you fail anything else." 

The algebra teacher, Mrs. Harper, walked around the classroom menacingly as each student was sweating before their quiz grades. A giant stack of graded papers sat under her elbow as Mrs. Harper smacked each graded quiz on the desks. 

Ethan and Benny looked to Ellie's desk first, spotting the massive B+ on the front of the stack. That was a bad score for Ellie. If she didn't get an A, that means the boys got an even worse score.
Ethan's score eventually dropped in front of him, presenting a C- on the quiz and an eyeroll in response.
"I think she just hates me," Ethan shrugged.

Benny only huffed as he knew what was coming. He sent a look to Ellie and noticed her giving back a concerned look. She also knew what was coming.
The paper finally reached the top of Benny's desk and shoved a D- straight into his sight. 
"I think she hates both of us," Benny sighed, finally replying to Ethan as he rubbed his face in frustration.

"Wait, B, can I check your—?"
Usually, Benny would let Ellie check his scores to make sure the teacher didn't grade something incorrectly. Only this time, Benny yanked the quiz off his desk and shoved it into his backpack.
"It won't change anything," he mumbled, tapping his pencil on his desk repeatedly.

Ethan and Ellie only exchanged a worried glance, concerned about Benny's temper but were forced to let it go. Mrs. Harper was ready to hand out the new quizzes.
"Clear your desks."

The ominous sound of the stapled papers being slapped onto students' desks was enough to stress Benny out. If he got a D- on the last quiz, how was he going to pull off this one?

As the teacher flopped the stapled exam onto Benny's desk, he immediately felt unprepared. Numbers and letters were jumbled together in a confusing mess as he pursed his eyebrows together. He had no idea what any of this was.

Benny tried to read the room, gazing to Ethan and Ellie sat in front of him. They wrote their answers onto their papers, seemingly leaving him in the dust. He circled his eyes around the class, watching everyone continuously write as he sat like an idiot.
"Eyes on your own paper!"

"Shit..." Benny whispered to himself. "I don't remember any of this."
"NO TALKING!"

Benny felt his breath begin to hitch. The unnecessarily loud voice of his math teacher forced his head to pound. He squeezed his eyes shut, hoping for this feeling to go away until he blinked at his algebra exam. The questions on his desk began to jumble themselves together, hiding in a purple haze that Benny was all-too familiar with. Maybe he was dyslexic... or maybe he was losing it.