School Bus Graveyard.... but

Ben was the one to convince Ash to come

I really should have set my alarm sooner.

Why do I feel like today isn't going to go well?

'

'

'I made it!' Ashlyn thought as she walked to her usual bus spot. The bus was really loud like usual, which would have been fine for any regular kid, but Ashlyn had sensitive hearing, so it wasn't exactly pleasant, even with ear plugs. As she neared her spot, she took notice of two boys around her age sitting in the seat behind hers. 'Are they new?' One of them had black hair and a very nice shirt on, as if he was going to a party. And the other had short fluffy brown hair, and he was wearing regular clothing, plain shirt with a small smiley face on it. It seemed the black-haired boy was trying to take pictures from the window, and while he did so, he was on top of the other boy, who seemed slightly annoyed. Then, the brown-haired boy looked at her with his red eyes, and soon Ashlyn turned away her gaze, 'ah, we made eye contact.'

'Crap, my seat is in front of them...' She thought, 'don't talk to me. Don't talk to me.'

*Tap tap*

Ashlyn turned around fearfully and met her gaze with the brown hair boy. He smiled widely, waving at her.

"GAH!" She yelled.  The boy looked concerned, looking over at the black-haired boy,

"Ah, he's sorry about startling you." The black-haired boy started, sitting back in his spot. Ashlyn took notice of the brown-haired boy writing something down, then, she was handed a sticky note.

"Was that your house?" it started, "What's up with the 'bus graveyard' thing?"

"It's a junkyard with used buses..." Ashlyn finally said after reading it. He lifted up his eyebrow, and the boy next to him took notice as he put his camera away. 

"I'm assuming he's trying to convey if that's it, but I could be wrong." as the black-haired boy finished his sentence, the tall one nodded, confirming his assumption.

"Yeah?"

"Hm..." the tall boy hummed quietly. Ashlyn slowly brought herself back up, now wondering if he could even speak at all.

'If you were expecting some sort of lore or paranormal stuff, then I'd wish you the best of luck to finding it.' Ashlyn thought. They sat silently for a moment, and Ash hoped that the conversation was over, reaching for her phone. 'Please be over.'

*tap tap*

Ashlyn turned around once again, having the same social fear rise up. The tall boy held up another sticky note, having the name "Ben" written with a little arrow pointing up. 

"And I'm his cousin, Aiden. We just moved here a week or so ago from Virginia." Aiden said, "I can't quite recall what city it was from, however. It must have slipped my mind..." He continued, placing his fist on his chin. Ashlyn wished the two would stop bothering her, so she could return to her peaceful life. Then, Ben appeared as though he had just realized something, and soon started writing something down. "Ah? Did you remember the city, Ben?" Aiden asked curiously, but he shook his head, then handing the sticky note to Ashlyn.

"Hey, we live a house down from you!" it started, "Since we live so close, we should hang out often." She looked up and saw Ben beaming at her, his hand slightly resting on the bus seat.

'No. No way. I need to stop this progressing disaster.' Ashlyn thought, positioning her hand in a stopping gesture.

"Sorry, nothing personal, but I'm a bit tired and not in much of a conversation mood." Ashlyn stated, mostly lying.  Ben's smile faded a little, then he hummed a little bit. Once again, writing on his sticky pad, which Ashlyn assumed he had with him 24/7, then he handed her the note, and she read it. He began writing once again, and Aiden peaked over to see what he was writing, lifting his eyebrows a bit,

"Huh, bold assumption, cousin." Ashlyn scrunched her brows for a second, then proceeded with reading another sticky note.

"It's fine, I get it." Ashlyn sighed, relieved she'll finally get her peace and quiet. 

'Finally' she thought, shoving the sticky note with the other ones. But then, she was handed another one. 

"You're just shy right?" It read. Ashlyn stiffened up, 

'Huh? Hold on-' but before she could finish her thought, he handed her another sticky note. She quickly read it, anticipating what it'll say.

"It's alright, I'm a fast writer and typer, so I'm practically good at conversation. So it'll be fine." she finally read. 
'No, I'm not shy. I just want to be left alone!'

'

'

Ashlyn had never listened to the text to speech more in her life than in those 30 minutes to school. Aiden had also joined in the conversation, showing pictures he had taken of his parents and Ben traveling around. They... did a lot of crazy activities, such as bungee jumping and water skiing. 

As they walked in the school, Aiden looked around, and whistled.

"Huh, this is a small school, movies typically portrayed them as large and confusing. Right, Ben?" He asked. Ben nodded, proceeding to show Ash what more he wanted to say.  Ashlyn sighed quietly, wondering why they were still following her. As Ben showed her more words on his phone, Ashlyn noticed Aiden looking to the side. "Ah, that's right. Ben, we need to go to the office." Aiden said as he pointed at the office door. Ben looked away from Ashlyn for a second to look at it, and Ashlyn saw her chance, and immediately booked it. "Hey, we got to go pick up our schedules-" But before Aiden finished, he took notice of Ashlyn being gone, "-up?" 
Aiden was left puzzled as to how she left so quickly, but then he heard a small chuckle escape from his right. The chuckle soon turned to laughter, escalating to an excited maniac laughter. Aiden looked up at his tall cousin, sighing as he shook his head. 

Ben's laughter soon died down, ending with a satisfied sigh. He looked over to Aiden, and softly whispered as to not let anybody hear his broken voice box,

 "She's fast."

.

.

.

.

🍀- Hey y'all! Thanks for reading the first of (probably) many "What if..." chapters! I got inspired by Liu's story talking about if Aiden didn't exist, would Benlyn be the main ship? And I was like "oo that would be cute." then it hit me. "WOAH WHAT IF BEN WAS THE AIDEN (sorta) AND AIDEN WAS THE BEN (in a way)?!?!?!?!??" So I made this, hope you enjoyed it! I'll probably make more of my ideas, short ofc (but if you want me to continue those ideas with more one-off scenes from the comic, I will!), and if you want to request your own ideas, just comment them! If you want it written in a specific way, then that'll probably require dms (Insta specifically) so you could elaborate what you want to see. Alright, that's all, back to making the Thomamine fanfics🫡🫡