None the Worse ✓

29) 'My Friend Is Stalking Me With A Horse Mask And It's Terrifying' And...

A few minutes later, the bell rang and he fled to the next class.

Second option: Martin. Oh, wow, this was his second attempt and he was already taking desperate measures. The thing with Martin was, sometimes he looked like he would win a Nobel Peace Prize with time. At other times it looked like he'd bring a gun and/or burn a bible. And that was the problem, but desperation brought out a surprising amount of courage from within.

He wouldn't fail this time.

Just to make sure, Benjamin looked around to see if the person who'd so violently attacked him earlier was there (He wasn't.). He sat down behind Martin, only to catch him holding a textbook close to hide a DS of his own behind it. Some Japanese guy obliterated his all-legendary team.

"Martin."

He might as well have talked to a wall.

"Martin?"

"I don't talk to dead people," Martin replied.

"What."

"You are dead to me."

"Oh, but you just..."

Martin put down the game (it was a lost cause anyway) and stuck his fingers to his ears, chanting, "Dead dead dead dead," until Benjamin smacked him and made him screech. Needless to say, they didn't talk again.

Heston: no.

It was all lost.

"Benjamin."

He was hearing voices now. Well, no. Benjamin knew that was Heston. Benjamin knew Heston would not be helpful at all, because his thought process was so bizarre even by the squad's standards it wouldn't surprise anyone to see him come out as an alien. So he didn't reply.

"Benjamin, if you don't reply, I will steal Thijmen's knife and stab you."

"Please don't," Benjamin replied.

Heston sat behind him and wore, inexplicably, a mask—one of those he'd seen people wear to balls in the movies. How he'd managed to wear it all day without triggering the school regulations, Benjamin didn't know. "It's okay, Benjamin," continued Heston, "I won't steal Thijmen from you. Just his knife. I don't like Dutch people."

"Okay."

"My uncle married a Dutch person and they bought a dog, but the Dutch person fell in love with the dog and—"

Benjamin smacked him.

"—what I wanted to say was... no, wait. Ask. What I wanted to ask was: are you trying to talk to them again?"

People seemed to be ignoring them. Good. Benjamin turned around fully, wide-eyed, more out of a newfound sense of comradeship than anything else. "Why?" he asked, like he didn't know the answer already.

Heston shrugged.

"Do you want to talk to them too and revive the squad?"

"Why?" asked Heston.

"What."

"Listen, Benjamin. There comes a time where a man has to come to a decision. I..." he trailed off, tossing a booger to the side, "...have already made mine. How about you? Will you leave Dutch people behind once and for all, or do you still refuse to leave the dark side?"

He couldn't believe it. He'd known Heston for ages and he still couldn't believe it. All of a sudden, Benjamin wanted to cry.

"If you want to become a Warrior of Light, you should come see me at the base during lunch."