AWAKEN ; benny weir [2]

twenty-one

"THIS REEKS, MAN!"

In a pit of frustration, Benny threw his chemistry book, algebra book, and his history book onto Ethan's bedroom floor. 
As much as she refused, Ms. Weir insisted that Ellie take a few days off from school to regain her health and strength. She had still been injured, and was healing, but that led to Ethan and Benny's worst nightmares: doing homework by themselves.

"Dude, we need to know this stuff for the test tomorrow," Ethan groaned, rubbing his eyes at his lack of understanding. "Why did we push this off for so long?"

"Because, Ellie reminds us to do it."
"...Oh, yeah."

"I'm over it," Benny huffed, quickly grabbing the spellbook from his bag.
"What are you doing?" Ethan sighed, knowing his best friend was only making studying harder for both of them. "Look, we both don't wanna do this, so let's just—!"

"AHAHA!"
Benny cackle sent Ethan into a confused stare. He had an idea... oh, god.
"I've been wanting to try this spell for a long time, and since Ellie isn't here to stop me, we're doing it," he stated, a smile forming in his cheeks.

"Should I be scared?"
"Yeah, probably."

Ethan rolled his eyes at the distraction that was his best friend. "What spell are you talking about?"
"A spell that will help us pass," Benny simply smirked. "It inserts the expertise of any topic into your brain for an entire day; it's a totem spell."

"Wh—! Why haven't used this earlier?!" Ethan exclaimed, jumping off his bed to peak into the spellbook's contents. 
"Ellie doesn't want me to use it, because 'totems are dangerous' and other boring high level magic stuff," Benny quoted. "Wanna go for it?"
"Normally, I'd say no," Ethan admitted. "But... I really need to pass this test."
"Done and doner, my friend."

Preparing himself for the spell at large, Benny raised his palm above the spellbook's pages. Ethan scrunched his eyebrows at the page, wondering if this was correct, but he couldn't read Latin. He had to trust Benny.
"Commercia mentes!"

A bright blue light escaped Benny's palm and split into two beams, each pointing directly into each boys' foreheads. As the blue beams slowly died down, Ethan and Benny both looked at each other in doubt, wondering if it truly worked.
"Benny..." Ethan pursed. "I don't feel smarter. I still feel stupid."
"Okay, uh..." Benny paused, scanning the page with his fingertip. "It says that it works gradually, so hopefully we wake up tomorrow like Einsteins!"

"God, I hope so."

——————

The sound of an alarm clock awoke Ethan out of his sleep, turning to his left to punch the snooze button as hard as he could.
As he sat up in the bed and rubbed his eyes, something felt off. Feeling his eyes adjust to the harsh darkness of the bedroom, he recognized the walls... but they weren't his walls.

"What the—?!"
His voice startled him immediately as he instinctively reached a hand to his throat. Ethan felt wrong; something about this was wrong. 
Reaching up to the light switch of the bedroom, his eyes adapted to the sudden room that was shown before him. This wasn't his room.

Jumping out of the bed, Ethan immediately bolted to the closet door mirror, amazed yet terrified of the face that looked back at his: Benny's face.
"Holy shit—!"

"Benjamin! I will turn you into a toad if you don't get up for school!"
The sound of Ms. Weir's voice from the other side of the bedroom door shook Ethan to his core. They were going to be in so much trouble.
"C-Coming!" Ethan shrieked, weirding himself out at the sound of Benny's voice leaving his throat.

Finding one of Benny's signature striped shirts on the bedroom floor, as well as a pair of jeans, Ethan quickly got dressed and raced down the Weir's hallway.
"Ms. Weir—!"
Ethan stopped himself from exclaiming any further. If Benny's grandma were to find out that they tried to cast such a high-level spell, they would both be in some deep shit. Ethan had to play it cool.

"H-Hey... Grandma...!"

Worst. Spellcaster. Ever.

------------

"ETHAN! WAKE UP, YOU HAVE TO MAKE ME BREAKFAST!"

Benny jumped out of his skin at the sound of a little girl barging into the bedroom. His eyes slowly opened to the sight of his best friend's little sister shoving him out of the blankets.
"Jane...?"
The crack of his voice confused Benny immediately. "Is my voice gone?"

As he gazed around the room, Benny instantly realized it was room he recognized, just not as his own. It was Ethan's room.
"Oh, no."
Benny forced the body he resided in to rush out of bed and into the Morgan's restroom, locking the door behind him and flinching at the sight of another face looking back at him in the mirror: Ethan's face.

"Definitely... the wrong spell."

------------

As Ethan walked Benny's body down the upperclassmen hallway, he turned the corner to see his own body waiting by their lockers. Ethan jumped out of instinct, huffing at the problem that Benny had caused.
"Dude!" Ethan cried, causing Benny's jaw to drop.

"Woah," Benny gawked, looking up at his own body. "Is this really how tall I am? I knew I was taller than you, but not this tall—!"
"We switched bodies, you dumbass!" Ethan exclaimed. "How are you not freaked out by this?"
"Um... okay, we can figure this out, but we cannot tell Ellie," Benny stated.

"Tell me what?"
"AGH!"

Both Ethan and Benny's hearts skipped a beat at the sound of Ellie's voice from behind them. 
"Jesus, I didn't think I'd scare you two," she chuckled.
"Aha... h-hey, Ellie," Ethan stuttered, still remaining in Benny's body. "I thought you weren't coming to school this week?"

"Well, your grandma didn't want me to, but I got too anxious and I feel way better," Ellie admitted to Benny's body, creaking open her locker to collect her books. "How did studying go last night?"

"GREAT!"
"REALLY WELL!"
Ellie sent an instant face of confusion towards the boys, sensing their unease but sitting it aside to give Benny some notion.
"I actually need to run to chemistry to pick up my homework, so I'll have to see you guys in algebra," Ellie explained. "B, can you take my algebra notebook to class? I'll be kinda late."

Knowing that Benny was going to answer through Ethan's body, Ethan quickly took it upon himself to answer quicker than Benny was going to.
"Y-Yeah, I can do that," Ethan said, taking the notebook from Ellie's hands and shoving it into Benny's bag.

"Thanks, B!"
Before he could stop her, Ellie rose to her tip-toes and pecked Benny's lips before dodging by to catch up to her chemistry teacher. She clearly didn't see the boys' faces, since they were both filled in awe and automatically caught off-guard by Ellie's routine.
Ethan stood frozen in the hallway, leaving Benny's mouth agape as he stared into the ground. Benny, however, felt Ethan's face go red as he tucked his head into the open locker. He couldn't believe he just watched that happen.

"Dude... I am so sorry—!"
"—Just don't mention it."