AWAKEN ; benny weir [2]

seventeen

"I've known you both long enough to know how worried you would've been," Benny pursed. "Both of you have anxiety through the roof; it's like air to you people."

"...He's kinda right," Ethan agreed.

"See!"

Ellie shook her head in annoyance once more. Not only did Benny hurt himself bad enough to require surgery, but he didn't tell her about it. That was low.

"This doesn't change the fact that you lied to us about your stupid knee," she blew, finally sitting on the seat next to him. "But, at least we believe your ghost story now."

"How long are you gonna be in that thing?" Ethan questioned, pointing to the black brace wrapped tightly around Benny's leg.

"Until they take the rods out of my knee," he shrugged.

Ethan and Ellie couldn't help but gag.

"You have... metal rods in your knee?" Ethan heaved.

"Well, yeah!" Benny nodded. "How else are they gonna put it back into one piece?"

"Oh, my god," Ellie exhaled, groaning in disgust. "Shut up."

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

"What the hell happened to you?"

Sarah's daily routine of meeting by Ethan, Benny, and Ellie's lockers became blindsided when seeing a pair of crutches holding up Benny's weight.

"He got dropkicked by a kindergartener," Ethan joked. "It was the craziest thing!"

"No, I did not."

"I was surprised that Benny didn't come out of it with a black eye; that kid was ruthless!" Ellie added, fist-pumping Ethan. Benny deserved it.

"Okay, that didn't happen," Ethan confessed. "But, Benny did get his ass kicked by a ghost."

"There's ANOTHER ghost?" Sarah groaned. "What did it do to you?"

"Well, it kinda chucked a chair at my leg and now it's shattered," Benny smiled in a frustrated manner. He hated whatever feeling this was.

"Ethan said you were sick, though," Sarah squinted.

"Yeah, he lied," Ethan nodded.

"Whatever, moving on," Ellie began. "The ghost that's in your grandma's house should be a poltergeist; it's designed to screw with you."

"Oh, so it's like Peeves from Hogwarts?" Benny joked.
"Actually, yeah."

"Is there any way to stop it?" Ethan asked her. "Check the spellbook; there's usually some explanations in there, right?"

"Yeah, let me flip through really quick," Ellie nodded.
She grabbed Benny's bag from under his arm to fish for the spellbook, but felt an unfamiliar absence.
"Uh- Benny, where's the book?"

"...Yeaaah, about that."
Ellie raised an eyebrow, preparing herself to hear an excuse. "So, the ghost might've thrown the book across from my house when I was fighting it—!"

"—Oh, you mean when it was kicking the shit out of you?" Ethan corrected.
"...One would say that."

 "And you didn't get it, because the stupid ghost RKO'd your leg," Ellie finished for him, sighing with her hands over her face. "This sucks..."

"That's an easy fix," Sarah shrugged. "We can just get the book back from the house, cast the spell, and that poltergeist will be polter-gone."

"I'm helping."