MAGE ; benny weir [1]

fifty-eight

"Are you two even looking?"

Ethan, Benny, and Ellie continued to shuffle through each individual file that Vice Principal Stern held in his office. They were hoping that it could be shoved in a drawer somewhere so the council wouldn't end them prematurely.
"Yes, we are! Have you guys looked under L for 'Lucifractor'?" Benny angrily whispered.

"Guys, it's not in here," Ethan sighed, giving up on their mission. 

"Benny, I found your alien DNA detector goggles!" Ellie gasped, removing the set of goggles from one of Stern's drawer. "I never knew how much of our stuff has been taken by Stern."

"I found it," Benny gasped. "The Lucifractor?"
"Better, the forever flask! Infinite root beer!" he grinned, holding up the flask and drinking from it.
"That's not what we're looking for, dude," Ethan groaned.

"Really?"

Benny fearfully spat out his root beer as Ethan and Ellie yelped at the sight of Mr. Stern standing in the doorway, watching them go through his belongings.

"What are you looking for, kids...?"

Mr. Stern shoved all of them into the hallway and growled, "Your nerd plow will sit in my office until the end of the year, and you three will sit in detention until the sun dies! I can see that only one of you are decently worried about detentions. I'm talking to you, Prince!"
Ellie's eyes were wide as quarters and her face flushed. Detention? The whole year?

Mr. Stern smirked at the geeks, shoulder-checking Benny as he returned to his office.
"That's gonna go on my permanent record," Ellie squeaked, feeling as though she could vomit.

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"Guys, Sarah just said that our date was a mistake!"
Ethan began to complain to his mage friends, collapsing into the metal lockers in defeat as Benny and Ellie began to assist their friend in his time of need.

"Oh, harsh."
"And I kinda... maybe said it was horrible," Ethan added.
"What? That's even worse!"

"I know! I just felt so awkward that I agreed with her!" Ethan defended. "I didn't think our night was that bad, aside from everything that happened."
"If my experience with girls has taught me anything, it's to just walk away and ignore it," Benny explained, playfully nudging Ellie.

"You're right. Get past the personal and whatnot," Ethan agreed. "Maybe I could ask Sarah to go in and get the Lucifractor back from Stern's office."

"Uh, well, that might not be very helpful," Benny told him. "She just dumped you, or you dumped her. Whatever, it smells like a dump."

"How are we going to get the Lucifractor?" Ethan asked. 
"I might have an idea."

The boys watched Ellie shuffle through her pocket, pulling out a golden ring. "I snatched this in Stern's office, but this is a projection ring. You can disguise yourself as anybody with this on your finger."

"I'll do it," Benny told her, taking the projection ring and shoving it into his own pocket. "Can't be that hard to get into his office, right?"

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As Ellie was stuffing her morning notebooks into her locker, an authoritative voice rose from behind her with an uncharacteristically affectionate nickname leaving his mouth.
"El! Check it out!"

Ellie shrieked at the sound of Stern's voice from behind her, only realizing who it really was from the big cheeky grin he wore. "Benny?"

"This is too much fun, I swear!" he cackled, gesturing to the unfamiliar body that he sported. "I have been giving all of those crappy jocks detention and now I see why he loves it!"
"That is so weird," Ellie cracked.