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For once in his entire life Benny woke up actually feeling excited to go to school, and it wasn’t just because he heard from his sources that Della got a new haircut—although that was definitely a bonus too. No, the real reason he was so excited was because after months of trying to win a huge model spaceship that was practically as big as he was (maybe not that big, more like as big as half of an Ethan, but still!), he had finally won the ship in an online raffle and it was arriving to his house that day.
He woke up buzzing with excitement that morning, and he couldn’t wait to tell Ethan all about the ship. He had kept the whole thing a secret so that it would be a fun surprise, and he intended to tell Ethan when he saw him in the morning. Normally the two of them rode their bikes to school together when the weather permitted, but this morning Ethan had called him saying that he woke up late and that his mom was driving him to school, so Benny had to hold off on the surprise.
Benny was definitely the impatient type, but he knew that the look on Ethan’s face would totally be worth the wait.
When he walked into school by himself, he hardly even noticed how odd it was to not have his other half right by his side, and all he could think about was telling Ethan about his prize that was arriving later that day.
He opened his locker with a smile on his face that he didn’t even try to hide. In all truth, it wasn’t just the spaceship that was causing Benny’s excitement. There was also the fact that it had been months since he and his friends had encountered anything supernatural—besides the obvious fact that half of his friends were vampires—and Benny had gotten a taste of how calm life could be when they weren’t fighting evil monsters or ancient curses. For the first time in a while he felt like nothing could ruin his good mood. He wasn’t in immediate danger, his friends were safe, and Della’s new haircut made her look so smoking hot.
All was well in Benny’s world.
He swung his backpack around on his shoulder to the front of his body and held the pocket open with his right hand as he deposited his books in the locker with his left. He crammed his books into the locker without care, absentmindedly pulling out the ones that he needed for his first class and discarding the ones he didn’t.
When he went to shove his last book into his locker, the sleeve of his shirt—which cut off right about at his elbow—rode up his bicep, revealing a big, human-bite-shaped scar. Benny froze midway through setting his book down and stared at the mark on his arm.
It had been two months since “Hot Coffee Fever” reached the headlines of their local news, and at least a month since the bite healed completely into a red and pink scar that faded into his skin. Ever since the incident, Benny had yet to wear clothes that didn’t cover the nasty scar, so all in all he hadn’t spent a lot of time looking at it.
The sight of it made him completely forget what he was doing, and suddenly everything else just faded away. No more Della’s new haircut, no more textbooks, no more model spaceship. All he could see was the angry red against his pale skin. It looked gross; disgusting. Benny’s eyebrows drew close together and suddenly he felt so incredibly hot. He couldn’t look away from where he was bitten. It was almost like he could feel teeth sinking into his arm, like he could feel the fever symptoms starting all over again. God his arm hurt. Can scars hurt? Why does it hurt!
Suddenly there was a presence behind him, and Benny’s eyes were being covered by someone else’s hands. He jumped slightly, but relaxed when he heard the stranger speak.
“Guess who?”
The voice was Rory’s, but he spoke in a higher pitch, obviously trying to disguise himself as a girl, although failing horribly. Benny’s face relaxed and his shoulders sank low.
“Dude, I know it’s you, Rory.”
“Man, really? I’ve been practicing my Erica expression. I really thought that I got it down this time!”
Rory came around Benny to stand next to his locker, and just as he did Benny realized that his scar was still completely in view. He dropped his book inside the open locker and scrambled to cover up his bicep with his shirt sleeve, feeling a hot blush creep over his face and neck.
“You okay, dude? You look like you’ve seen a ghost. Or a vampire!” Rory flashed his fangs, laughing almost immediately after. Benny didn’t move though, or offer a reply, only adjusted his sleeve again where Rory no doubt saw his disgusting scar.
“What’s that?” Rory asked, grabbing Benny’s arm and pulling up his sleeve. Benny tried to stop him, failing to remember that vampires have super strength and he doesn’t.
“Uh—it’s just—”
“Oh!” Rory said as the scar came into full view. “That’s from when we had that zombie thing a few months ago!” He smiled, eyes blown wide, as if having zombies in Whitechapel was anything other than horrific and traumatizing. “Yeah, I got bit too!” Rory pulled his shirt collar down to reveal his smooth, pale neck. He turned to look at it, realizing that there was no bite mark there. “Oh, right, I don’t have a scar because of the whole vampire healing thingy, but when I was infected the bite mark was still there!”
“Yeah.” Benny stared at the clear skin of Rory’s neck, wishing that he could have healing powers too if only so that his scar would go away.
“You’re lucky though, dude! At least you have something to show for it! No one would ever believe that I got bitten if Sarah wasn’t there to see it because I don’t have any marks. Yours is totally cool though!”
Rory flashed a smile at Benny, gesturing to the scar on his arm as he spoke.
“What? Are you saying that you want to have a scar?”
“Yeah, man! Scars are totally awesome. And, plus, the chicks definitely dig them.” Rory leaned back into the locker next to him, crossing his arms and putting his foot on the wall, trying to look cool. A girl passed by them and he jutted out his chin, giving her a sly smirk. She made a disgusted face and began walking quicker to get away from him.
Rory slid off the locker, falling off to the side, but he quickly recovered and popped back up again. Benny watched the whole ordeal, hardly paying attention as he thought about what Rory said.
“I kinda wish I didn’t have mine,” he admitted at length, pulling Rory’s attention back to him.
“Really? Why not? Do you remember the great razor scooter accident of ‘09?”
Benny nodded, remembering when he and Ethan went to visit Rory in the hospital after the huge accident, confusion furrowed in his eyebrows. All of their parents had been furious about it.
“Right,” Rory continued, “well after that I had that huge scar on my arm, and I had to wear all those bandages, you know? And I mean, sure, it totally hurt at first, but after it healed it looked awesome! After I became a vampire, my scar went away—I guess because of the super healing—but I was really bummed about losing my scar. I liked it! It sort of reminded me of you guys—in a good way! It was a part of me, you know?”
Benny stared at Rory, who looked genuinely sad about losing his scar. His look faded quickly though, and in an instant he was smiling again.
“Anyway, dude, I think your scar is awesome. Uh—I’ll see you around, okay? I gotta see a man about a car battery and a parrot before class starts!”
Rory took off in the other direction, giving Benny one last smile and a wave goodbye. Benny shook his head at his friend’s departure, feeling a small smile return to his face. He pulled up his sleeve, revealing his scar once again. This time, looking at it, he tried to hate it, but he found his eyes trailing the indentations and the red marks without much disgust anymore. Maybe it wasn’t so bad as he thought it was. Maybe it was kind of cool. He dropped his sleeve. How many people can say that they’ve fought a zombie before anyway?
“Hey. Benny, what’s up? Sorry I’m so late. Alarm clock broke.” Benny turned to see Ethan approaching him, opening his locker beside him. Suddenly he wasn’t even thinking about his scar anymore, instead—
“Dude, you’ll never guess what I have coming in the mail today!”