Ben and I had planned on meeting up the following day at the same spot. While I spent the rest of the afternoon keeping an ear out for any interesting robberies I could take part in, (and by take part, I mean hand over the criminals and take most of the money for myself) I decided to look up the only safe place I could think of to train Ben.
The original HQ.
As I punched in the location, I saw that it was still completely out of use.
"Ms. O'Connolly, Jazmine will be arriving in 20 minutes."
I looked down at my watch.
"Crap." I muttered to myself, minimizing the tabs immediately and making a mental note to return to it later.
It was a Girls Night and nothing got in the way of that.
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"I'm glad you brought your money because you're going to need it!" Jazmine sang, making a direct sprint down the hill towards the vibrant artificial lights and game music that could get stuck in your head for hours.
Not that far in front of us stood the town's most famous tourist attraction spot; the arcade.
Jazmine snatched my hand and I pressed my purse to my side in fear that the contents would fall out in the likely chance I went tumbling down the hill.
"I'm so excited!" She beamed at me.
I couldn't tell...
It wasn't long before we were slotting in coins for those cheesy dance games and making crazy facial expressions in the photo booth.
As we exited the booth, laughing manically at the strip of photos, I spotted a familiar face moving closer and closer.
"Rose, look who it is." Jazmine cooed next to me, raising her eyebrows suggestively.
"Uh, yeah, about that. I need to tell you something."
"Let's have some fun! Serious stuff later." She shot back.
Ben was accompanied by his usual posse of good-looking friends and they were strolling through the arcade as if they owned it. Of course, they made a direct bee-line to Zombie Blaster 360.
I felt a little self-conscious near him. Not that I was spectacularly under-dressed or anything but I naturally shifted towards the tomboyish type of clothes than anything dressy. I was currently rocking an outfit of light skinny jeans, my burgundy vans and a t-shirt with a little green alien in the top corner and a black rim around the neck and sleeves.
We walked past as Jazmine gave one of the boys a risky wink and headed towards my favorite, yet most disappointing game of all; the crane games.
I know, I know, those kind of games are rigged so you spend money and don't get anything, blah, blah, blah, but that didn't stop me from trying.
Jazmine shared the same passion and headed towards one of the adorable puppy ones at the end of the line. I, on the other hand, went straight for The Smurfs.
On the first attempt, the claw got hold of Clumsy Smurf and dropped him almost immediately. I sighed in frustration, but my bag was full of coins (curtesy of my latest robbery conquest) and I wasn't leaving without my Clumsy Smurf. On the second attempt, I got him closer to the prize drop, but was still unsuccessful. It would have been easy to use my Telk and get any toy I wanted, but I liked a challenge. I was about to shift the handle for the third attempt, when I felt a hand on my shoulder.
"Not now, Jazmine, I'm so close." I proclaimed through gritted teeth, my eyebrows pinched together with determination.
"Do you mind if I have a go?" The familiar voice made my heart skip a beat and I turned around to see the smirking face of Ben.
"Uh, sure."
He grinned and took his place in front, balancing his hands on the controls.
"You want Clumsy, huh?"
I nodded frantically, playing with my fingers as I calmed down. It was weird to be in the position, I had to pretend like I didn't know what he could do or that we had already had a conversation. A pretty intense one at that.
He moved forward and then to the right, but too far. I groaned inwardly as the crane descended... But it surprisingly lifted the Smurf up, and at just the right angle too.
The Smurf was carried back, slowly slipping out of the crane's grasp. I bit my lip nervously and Ben watched with eager anticipation. A huge grin broke out on my face as the plush toy dropped into the prize box.
"You did it!" I squeaked, mentally face-palming myself for how crazy I sounded.
He bent down and took out the toy, holding it out for me. I took it from his hands and grinned at him.
"Thanks."
He grinned back, digging his hands into his jean pockets.
"No problem."
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"I'm so proud of you." Jazmine mumbled, before taking swallowing another spoonful of her mini Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough.
"Why?" I asked. We were both climbing back up the hill and the view from up there was amazing. It was dark now and the stars twinkled in the sky like iridescent diamonds. The grass whipped around our feet, tickling our ankles while we enjoyed the sweet frozen cream.
"You survived your first encounter with Ben without disaster!"
I bit my lip and dug my spoon back into the small pot, taking in a long breath and sighing.
"That's what I need to talk to you about."
I told her everything about what had happened that day. She was shocked of course, but we both sort of laughed about it after. We finished our ice creams and threw them in a trash bin by the town square. As I was about to mention that the huge screen was where I saw Ben set the White House on fire, the serious, booming voice of the presenter caught my attention, along with the caption reading 'BREAKING NEWS'.
We both walked towards it and I took out Clumsy Smurf from under my arm as I stared at the screen.
"Earlier today, a masked man was seen using bolts of electricity to shock police officers during a bank heist. The man was seen shooting blue streaks of electricity from his own hand and putting 4 officers in a coma and critically injuring another."
What the hell was going on? First Ben, now this?
There had to be a connection.
"This is dangerous. People are going to catch on sooner or later. What if they go through old articles and realise that your 'pranks' are not what they are made out to be?" Jazmine panicked behind me and I turned to face her.
"Calm down, Jaz, everything is going to be okay. I'll work something out."
"You can't do anything public, you can't be... You."
"Well," I chuckled. "Thanks."
"You know what I mean!" She slapped my arm playfully before her stern expression melted back onto her face. "I'm serious!"
"I'll be fine! Even if this guy is like me, it's not like he can find me."
"Ben did!"
"Through connections. If it wasn't for his brother having some seriously bad taste in friends then I don't think he would have specifically searched my name through all those old articles."
She paused, relaxed on one hip and giving me a questionable look.
"If you die, don't say I didn't warn you."
"Well," I smirked, glad we were back to our usual sarcastic, light conversations. "I'll be dead. I'm sure I'll be too lifeless to care."
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A/N:
Thank you for reading the 4th chapter of Hardly A Hero!!! What did you guys think? Any suspicions?
Until next time :D
~SkyHunterXoX