None the Worse ✓

12) 'Put Down The Damn Money' And Other Things You Didn't Think You'd Say...

"Mr. Emsworth," said the teacher. "Now, could you translate what you just read?"

"Who what why—"

"Translate. The text. Can you?"

The sweat was never going to stop, was it?

It felt like everyone was staring at him. Which was true. Everyone except for Thijmen, who was still hiding his face, muttering profanity.

Benjamin's eyebrows elevated. "We— I don— w..."

"No, no, he can't," interrupted Thijmen. But his hands were still stuck to his face, so no one really knew who said it. Except for Benjamin, of course, who had heard that exact voice say 'it's je m'appelle, bitch' a few thousand times.

The teacher sighed. He glanced at Benjamin, who shrugged, and then turned away. "Anyone else?"

Reluctantly, Thijmen raised his arm, the other one still hiding his eyes.

He answered. Flawlessly. Of course he did.

When that sweaty school day was over, Benjamin decided to bring over his friends. Nothing made him in a better mood than playing some good ol' board game with the gang.

There was the usual fight over what to play. Martin suggested playing something that required a Playstation, because that's "so much cooler, yo". Pi wanted something more old school. Messiah didn't really want to play at all. Heston wanted to... pick his nose, apparently. Benjamin didn't have an opinion.

So they started playing Monopoly instead. To please absolutely no one.

They had played for about half an hour when Martin jumped up and squealed. "Yes, you're standing on mystreet! Cough it up, Pi!"

Pi threw a few bills towards Martin, and they flew around the room because Martin started waving at them frantically.

Pi then went on and threw the dice to Benjamin. "It's only because you cheated," he mumbled.

Benjamin rolled the dice.

The dice, just because they hated Benjamin, showed an even eight. Which led him to Martin's street.

Martin squealed again.

In the middle of the gang's (Martin's) joy, someone came stomping into the room.

Thijmen.

Oh no.

"What's with all the noise— oh. Nevermind."

All five of the Monopoly players fell silent. All five of them glared at Thijmen.

Martin immediately sat back down and coughed his deepest cough. "Yo hey waddup," he said, but then continued with a small, "hi Thijmen!"

"Oh, hi Marley. What are you— Monopoly. I see." He started rubbing his eyes, and Benjamin realized that he had been napping and that Martin's squealing woke him up.

Without an invite, Thijmen took a seat next to Benjamin. "Can I join?"

They all fell silent again. Benjamin wondered why his particular group was so talented at doing just that.

Ten seconds of silence went by. Fifteen.

Suddenly, Pi yelled out, "Eh... Martin's cheating."

"I am not! Anyways. Thijmen, you can't really be more than five people playing at the same time, but I can let you be on my team—"

"No, no, no," said Benjamin, without even thinking. "He's on my team. Right? I mean you're already sitting next to me so I think it would be the best if you were on my team. Right. Right. Tell me I'm right."