YOUTH ⇢ BENNY WEIR

two

First day back and Sophia was in a bad mood. Her parents said neither her or Ethan are responsible enough to look after Jane so they're paying a babysitter to come over every Friday. This was not good for Sophia's reputation. She was popular and didn't want that to go away once everyone finds out she has a babysitter.

Sophia was lining up in the lunch queue with Sarah, her best friend. They happened to unfortunately be stood behind Ethan and Benny. On the plus side, they could eavesdrop.
"It's Friday which means...!" Benny began.
"Don't even mention it. It's Jane who needs her, not me or Sophia."
Benny sighed. "Sophia..."
Ethan glared at him. "What about her? You seriously still like her?"
"I always have, my friend, and I always will. She likes me... she just... doesn't know it yet." He then pulled out a massive pair of goggles and put them on.
"Benny!" Ethan hissed.
"What do you think? This will totally impress Sophia!"
Ethan yanked the goggles off him an Benny winced. "Ow! Those are state of the art alien DNA detector goggles!" He snatched them off Ethan.
Sophia then hardly kicked the back of Ethan's ankle. He turned around and winced in pain but froze once he saw her. Benny was still going on about one day Sophia will admit she likes him too until he stopped and looked at where Ethan was awkwardly looking: Sophia. His eyes widened and he dropped his goggles. "Uh, hey, Sophia."
Benny then called himself down and tried his best to act cool. He grinned. "How are you?"
Ethan groaned and pulled Benny away towards a table.

Sarah laughed. "That's adorable."
Sophia thought for a moment. Sarah's right. Something about him is adorable, but why would he think that she'd ever like him? Sophia's reputation vs Benny's is a huge difference and with people finding out about a babysitter and Benny... as is she'd ever like him... she'd be ruined.

Once Sarah and I got our lunch we began walking towards a table until Ethan collided with Sarah and his food went all over her nice top. "Ugh, dork!" Sarah shouted at him. "Thank you, so much!"
"Oh my gosh, Sarah!" Sophia said, before turning round to her idiot of a brother. "What the hell?!" She hissed at him, before following Sarah away from the scene.

"Sarah! Wait up!" The girls heard a familiar voice: Erica.
Erica is the most adorable nerd they had ever met. They had to admit, hanging out with her didn't make them look so good, but she was their friend and they liked her.
We sat down at a table when she came and sat beside Sarah. "Where have you been? I've been texting you all morning - oh! What happened to your shirt?"
Sarah looked at Sophia and she signed. "My dork of a brother ran into her."
"Oh... guess what, I already have 200 tickets sold for the screening!" She began, lightening up the mood. "Only 7 more days I honestly think if I had to wait 8 more days instead of 7 more days I would go crazy!"
Sophia laughed a little at her friend's obsession with the film.
"Yeah, me too..." Sarah answered, Sophia could tell she was lying.
"You skipped math today, were you with Jesse?"
Sarah nodded. "Yes."
"If I had a super cute boyfriend I'd totally skip class, too!"
Sarah looked at her and Sophia raised an eyebrow.
"What?" Erica asked, looking between us. "I would! Do you two think you're the only ones who're allowed to break the rules?"
Sarah and Sophia laughed. "No, but you're a good girl." Sarah said.
"So are you."
Sarah sighed and looked at Sophia. "I don't know anymore..."
"Straight A's, always nice to everyone." Erica said, Sophia nodded in agreement.
"Anyways, I saved you guys seats, Jesse's coming right?"
"No, he's not a real Dusk fan..."
Sophia was just waiting for Erica to start complaining about how Sarah could possibly date a guy who wasn't a fan of Dusk.
"What? How can you date someone who doesn't like Dusk? The second book changed my life!"
There we go. Sophia thought.
Sarah chuckled. "Yeah, I know."

"No way... my girl is friends with her?" Benny asked, looking at Erica, Sarah and Sophia.
Ethan glared at his best friend. "Watch it, dude, that's my sister you're talking about!"
"Your sister is the Princess Leia to my Han Solo!" Benny continued. Ethan kicked him under the table and Benny groaned but carried on talking. "Her name is Erica and maybe she's your babysitter!"
Rory, their even bigger nerd of a friend laughed.
"First, in no universe, are you be Han! And I doubt it's the same Erica."
Rory pulled out his binoculars and took a closer look.
"Meh... you're right." Benny said, standing up. "I'm gonna go find out."
"Wait, what?! Benny!" Ethan hissed.

Benny sat next to Sophia and smirked, putting his arm over her shoulder. For some reason, her natural reflex wasn't to shake his arm off like she would with any other guy... she didn't mind...
He then turned to Erica. "Hi, there. Are you by any chance babysitting The Morgan's tonight?"
"Yeah! Why do you know their kids?" Erica asked them.
Benny looked at me. "As a matter of fact, I do!"
"Benny..." I said with gritted teeth.
"One's my buddy sitting right over there-" Benny looked over at Ethan, who was making a pretty poor attempt at hiding, and trailed off. "He's a bit shy..."
He then returned his attention to Sophia. God, she's beautiful. He thought. "And the other one is..."
Sophia glared at him.
"This beautiful babe sat beside me!" He grinned.
Great. Sophia thought.
"See you around." Benny said to Sophia before getting up and walking away back to his nerdy friends.

Erica looked at me. "I'm babysitting you?"
"Technically, you're babysitting my younger sister." Sophia corrected.
"Don't worry! I think it's cool! We're gonna have fun!" She said, excitedly.

Erica, Sarah and Sophia were stood outside of school ready to go home until Jesse appeared and asked to talk with Sarah privately. Sarah lightly pushed him away and walked back to her friends. "It's too late to turn back now!" Jesse said.
"Hey, Jesse, Sarah said you don't like Dusk..." Erica began, changing the subject.
"What? Of course I do! I love vampires!" He grinned.
Sophia noticed her freak brother and his freak friends watching what was happening, Benny, however wasn't paying attention to Jesse at all: he was looking at Sophia.

Sophia rolled her eyes and stride towards Ethan, Benny and Rory. "What are you guys looking at?"
Benny scratched the back of his neck before grinning. "Oh, nothing."
"There's something not right about that drama club." Ethan said.
"I think the only thing you have to worry about is yourself." Sophia retorted.

Sophia heard a car honk and turned around to see her parents car. "Come on, Ethan, let's go."
"Bye, Sophia!" Benny smiled, giving me a dorky wave which was some what cute.
She flashed him a small smile. "Bye, Benny."

Benny was still smiling. He watched Sophia walk with his best friend until she was out of sight. He sighed and looked at Rory. "She likes me."