dont mess up my tempo { b e n n y }

There was a knock.

Tomie cracked the door to her dorm open just enough that she could see Benny with one eye. “Got the stuff?” she asked him gruffly, her only visible eyebrow quirking mischievously. She broke character immediately, though, pulling the door open and ushering him in with a grin. Just for fun, she made a show of quickly checking if anyone had seen him come inside before she closed the door behind her conspiratorially.

“I brought mine,” she said triumphantly, holding up a little bit of cardboard with two sewing needles sewn through it like it was a map to treasure. Tomie had had to sit through a whole boring ass sewing class to nick a couple of needles. She’d had to endure Hazel chattering about how terrible Vivienne from France’s hair looked today for, like, a full twenty minutes. She and Hazel weren’t exactly friends now, but it didn’t seem like they were on hating-each-other terms after that whole Matthew debacle, so Tomie was just going with the flow.

As per usual, she’d been the one who’d had to do the more risky part of the activity; Benny had only had to grab a couple of apples from breakfast. Of course, she was pretty sure Benny would steal things if she dared him to, but she liked the thrill it gave her, and the extra thrill when she thought that she was kind of taking the risky path for him. She liked that.

Benny knocked almost silently on Tomie's cabin door, secretively, and then waited. When there was no answer, he bounced a little impatiently and hit the door a little louder. This time Benny heard her footsteps headed toward the door, and he stood back on the stoop. The Gryffindor looked around, feeling the familiar buzz coursing through him like they were about to break all the rules. He was bold, not quite like Tomie or JR, but he had made it to Gryffindor for a reason. Despite being cautious and a little apprehensive, Benny never turned down a dare, accepted all challenges, and could not sit out of any adventure. "Yeah, lemme in," he whispered through the crack in the door and kept the things he'd brought with him tucked under his arm. Kicking off his shoes as she opened the door, the preteen darted inside. He looked suspicious as hell; the twelve-year-old needed to work on his covertness.

Moving inside, he looked at what she had and nodded before mirroring her movements. "I brought this stuff." He said, holding up the peroxide and bowl of ice he'd nabbed from the first aid cabin and the mess hall. He set it down on the little table beside the bunk and leaned against the wooden wall behind him.

"Are you sure we should be doing this?" He asked cautiously, he always hesitated at first, and Tomie always convinced him that whatever they had planned was a good idea, it was a dance they'd been doing their whole lives

“Wow,” Tomie said, raising her eyebrows, “I thought you were just gonna get an apple,” she added with a laugh. The brunette picked up the bottle he’d brought. “What’s this?” she asked curiously, only giving it the briefest of glances before dropping it back on the little table. She picked up the ice bowl to inspect it too, but that one was pretty obvious. They’d better get started, then, she thought. Before the ice melted.

She grinned when Benny spoke again, and started walking backwards towards the small mirror mounted on the wall, the bowl still in her hands. “What’s the worst that could happen?” she countered. “Plus, think how funny it’ll be in a year.” She quirked one eyebrow as her grin settled into a smirk, thinking of the Stupid Thing they’d done a year ago. She spun around as she got to the mirror, a few droplets of water flicking out of the bowl, then placed it down on the ground.

She tucked her hair behind her ears as she looked at her reflection, then turned her head from one side to the other. She’d had her ears pierced when she was a baby, but apparently she’d played with the earrings so much that one had gotten infected. They’d ended up having to take them out.

Pulling her hair back in a high ponytail, Tomie frowned as she looked back in the mirror. She’d never liked having her hair up like this – too girly. “Maybe you can do it up here,” she mused, flicking her eyes to Benny in the mirror, then back to her ear. She pinched her helix in between her thumb and forefinger. The skin was thicker there, but that shouldn’t be too much of a problem, right? The needles she’d nicked were pretty thick?

Benny had a pretty simple mission, compared to hers, but somewhere along the line, he had completely forgotten what she had asked him to get. He got ice, and something to sterilize the needle with (he was pretty sure that was a thing) but he forgot to get the apple! When she brought it up his jaw dropped straight down the floor and then he smiled sheepishly. "So," he began, foot kicking at the floor of the cabin a little, "How important is the apple?" He asked before looking up at her and his smile began to grow. They were always getting into these sorts of situations, making big plans, getting into trouble, so on, but he didn't mind the cycle. If Benny had been a little more knowledgable in piercings maybe he would have brought up the worst things that could happen, but to the twelve-year-old, there wasn't really much of a downside aside from her mother freaking out when they got home.

"Think it will go through up there?" Benny asked, reaching up to his ear to gauge how thick the skin was up there. He had cousins with their ears pierced but not up there, and his ears had never been pierced, so he was brand new to all of this. "We can try, here ice it a little," Benny told her as he proudly pointed to the bowl of ice he had remembered to grab and wondered what they could use in place of the apple. He wandered for a minute, looking around but saying nothing. There were pillows, maybe Shelby had some kind of stuffed animal or snacks, there had to be something they could use around here.

“It’s fine,” Tomie said, waving a hand cheerily. “We can just use… one of Shelby’s books or something,” she suggested, spotting one of said books on the bedside table in the mirror. She went back to looking at herself in the mirror, then paused. “I mean, maybe not,” she added, “I dunno, we’ll work it out,” she waved a hand again, dismissing her own worries.

The young witch nodded, then picked up two pieces of ice and held them to the top of her ear. Maybe she could put a ring through it or something! She had a couple of plain studs and sleeper hoops that she’d brought specifically for this purpose that they could use. She and Benny hadn’t told their other friends; it was sort of a them thing. She didn’t like excluding the others – and it wasn’t like she and Benny had talked about it specifically or whatever – but sometimes there were important things you had to do, that couldn’t be done when you were in a group.

“I think it’s good,” Tomie said impatiently. She hadn’t waited long, but her fingertips were aching from the cold and she was eager to start. “I might have like… a muesli bar in that bag…” she suggested, pointing at her bag with her foot.

"Okay," Benny said with a shrug, returning to her side of the cabin and sitting on the edge of her bed. He bounced a little, watching her grab some ice and put it on either side of her ear. He'd known Tomie was brave for as long as he'd known her, but she still surprised him sometimes. She wasn't just brave when called upon or when needed, (though she did punch Maverick in the face that one time!!) Tomie was brave even when no one was asking her to be. Benny would have never been able to come up with an idea like this, and he certainly wasn't going to be volunteering to pierce his ears next.

He'd help her though, he was always game for whatever plans she came up with, and he smiled at the idea of it. It was thrilling, even if it wasn't his ears getting pierced, and it made him excited. "Oh? Brilliant," Benny replied as he was pushing off of the bed and bound for the backpack before she had finished her sentence. He was always hungry, he would never say no to snacks. Riffling through the bag he found the bars and pulled out the plastic baggy they were in. He broke one in half, took a bite off of his half, and held the other out in offering toward her.

"Let me know when you are ready."

Tomie dropped the mostly-melted ice back in the bowl, cringing at the feeling of a couple of water droplets running down her neck. She sat down on the chair patiently, waiting for him, trying not to think about the embroidery needle that was about to go through her ear. Instead, she thought about how cool this story would be in a year from now, like the cigarette one from last year was. It had been a disaster! Her parents had grounded her into oblivion! But it was a year later now, so the whole thing was just sort of funny.

She took the (half) muesli bar with numb fingers and popped it in her mouth immediately. She felt nervous! But that was okay! Tomie generally felt a bit nervous when she was breaking rules or doing something uh… ill-advised. Being scared didn’t make you not-brave though. You didn’t have to actually be fearless to be a good Gryffindor. She grinned, feeling all pent-up from the anticipation.

“Okay I’m good,” Tomie said, through her mouthful. Nothing was more comforting than a delicious snack. “I’m good, I’m good,” she said impatiently, hyping herself up a bit while she waited for him. She sat still as she waited for him to come over. “Just do it,” she said as he hovered.

Tomie said she was good, and Benny heard it, but he felt stuck in his footprints. Staring at the blueish ear lobe he was supposed to stick the needle in his hand through he blinked a few times. "Are you sure," He asked once more, finally finding his muscles and moving forward to reach for her ear. It was cold to the touch and he told himself that meant she wouldn't feel it. Benny took a deep, steadying breath, suddenly realizing his part of this adventure was just as harrowing as hers. Sure she was getting her ears pierced, but he was doing the piercing! It was crazy! Right? He took another breath, shaking his head and letting his shoulders fall. No, no, this is a bad idea. The little voice in the back of his head whined but he pushed it back and told himself it was fine.

Stepping up to the plate he tried to keep his hand steady as he moved toward her ear with the needle and when it pushed up against her skin he squirmed a little. He saw the pinpoint, it was barely touching her, he hadn't applied much pressure, but it still made his stomach do a flip. "Oh, um," Benny backed off a little and put a hand (not holding the needle) on his hip, starring at her.

"Are you really sure? like super sure?" Benny was a Gryffindor through and through, but he wasn't quite as bold as Tomie was, and right now he was okay with that. Of course, Tomie would know better than most, that it wouldn't take much to talk him into seeing the plan through. He was almost always the one that hesitated, it was his thing.

Tomie felt that weird hyper-awareness sensation as he got close. She wanted to cringe, wanted to smack his hand away. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end and she found herself holding her breath. Oh, Merlin. Was this a good idea? Everything inside her wanted to pull away, but she forced herself to sit still, staring at the wall. Didn’t want him to stab her in the wrong place, after all. The tension was high.

When he pulled back, she sighed exasperatedly. “Benny!” she chastised, turning to him dramatically. She gave him a look. “Yes I’m ready,” She said, a little whine in her voice. She bounced a bit in her chair and shook her hands to try to get some of the nerves out before stilling. “You can do it,” she said, half encouraging and half ordering him. “If you’re too chicken though I can do it myself...” she added, trying (failing) to keep the wicked smile off of her face.

Too chicken. That did it. Benny felt a renewed sense of purpose when she called him out, and a need to prove himself. He could be brave, too! The young wizard took another loud deep breath and stepped closer to her once more. This time he felt like he was really going to get it done but his nerves were all screaming to back away. He wanted to do it, because she was urging him to, but a part of him couldn't help but think about how much trouble they were going to get into. Maybe it would be worth it, maybe it wouldn't, but after seeing the smirk on her face he couldn't back down. That was the only thing that was clear about this whole situation.

He held the needle steady, lined it up over the little dot she'd marked on her still cold earlobe, and felt like time was moving in slow motion. With more pressure that before he brought the needle down on her skin and pushed it through. It made a nasuesating pop as it pushed through her lobe and Benny gagged a little before stepping away. He panicked a little, bouncing on his heels as he moved to look clearly at her face. "Are you okay? Does it, uh, does it hurt?"

Leaving the needle there and taking a breath he suddenly realized he had no idea what came next. Had they planned this far? He couldn't remember...

"Uh, what now?"

Tomie held her breath again, until her own heartbeat was sounding uncomfortably in her ears. She breathed out a relieved “Oh,” as he pulled back. The job was done.

It hurt. Her whole ear felt like it was throbbing, and she honestly felt a tiiiiiinny bit faint. “Yeah I’m okay, it’s fine,” she said, making herself smile, and act that was followed by a more genuine smile when she glanced at him. It felt hot. Not the room, her ear. But… maybe also the room. “I’m gonna look at it,” she said, getting up to her feet, trying to play it cool.

The brunette made her way into the bathroom. She liked that Benny had done it; it would be a cool story later on when she bragged about it to the others! She wondered vaguely if Wendy would think it was cool or gross, and made a distant mental note to test the waters before going in full show-off.

The next part was hard, and she felt pressured because she’d left Benny out in the other room alone. But even though her tummy felt a little squiggly doing it, she took out the needle herself and put in one of the earrings she’d gotten for this purpose. This part hurt a lot more than the other part and her eyes were watering by the time she finished. When she emerged though, victorious, and with the cockiest grin she’d ever worn, the tears were gone and it was done.

“Check it,” she said, turning a bit so he could see. Her ear was swollen and absolutely throbbing, but it was a success!! “Now for yours…?” she asked, wiggling her eyebrows.

Maybe he made it up, but Benny felt like he could see her ear change from being a little bit blueish to deep red as she turned to look at him and say it was fine. He was pretty sure it was nearly purple when she headed off for the mirror, but honestly, he felt queasy enough to think maybe he just imagined it. The wizard sucked in another deep breath and worried he'd actually hurt her, thoughts rolling over the moments leading up to right now, and he felt anxious for her to return from the bathroom. When she finally did, he met her halfway, eager to see the results, and made sure she wasn't bleeding or like permanently disfigured. Though, she sort of was with a fresh piercing.

"Oh," he said as his hand rushed up to his mouth to stifle the concern escaping it. Yeah, it looked pretty cool. It made Tomie look even tougher (not that she needed it!) but also looked painful. So, so painful. "Is it supposed to be so big... your ear, I mean?" He wondered with another look over it, and then she spoke again, and his eyes shot up to hers.

Backing away from her instinctively, his breath caught in his throat, and he cleared it loudly. "Wait, mine? Did I agree to that?" He probably had, or it was an unspoken thing, they always did these sorts of things together, but that didn't mean he was eager to sit on the chair. "Oh, I don't know... I don't have an earring though," He thought that would be a good argument to get him out of it, but Benny forgot that these things typically came in pairs...

Benny made a comment about her ear being swollen and she shrugged it off. “It’ll go down,” She replied dismissively, trying to sound more flippant than defensive. Subtly, though, Tomie glanced around, hunting for the bowl of ice they’d had earlier. Admittedly, her ear was throbbing a little. Once she was back at home she only had to hide the earring for a month before she’d be back at school, away from her parents.

“Of course,” she said, sounding very convinced despite the fact that she remembered nothing of the sort. When Benny moved back a little, she advanced. “I have a spare.” She put her hands on her hips for a moment, with her eyebrows raised. Then she sighed. “But I’m not gonna make you, obviously,” she said, dropping her hands and taking a step back, her mock-disappointment quickly fading into a teasing grin. “I wont stop you from backing out.” She put her palms up in defeat, but there was a challenging glint in her eye.

Benny knew what she was doing, and she was doing it well, he huffed loudly as he took a step forward, "No, I'll do it," He said as decisively as he could. She probably knew he was a little anxious about it, but that had never stopped him before. Benny hesitated more than Tomie did but he was never more than a few steps away from joining her. And he never regretted the decision, once it was done. Sure he often regretted the fact that they had gotten caught or that they were in trouble (he was sure they'd be grounded for life after this stunt!), but it was still worth it. "But really," He said slowly as he took a seat where she had just been sitting and took a deep breath.

"How bad did it hurt? Like on a scale from one to ten?" He turned around to watch her face when she answered his question, eyes peeled for any signs of deception. He was committed, but that didn't mean he wasn't scared. Despite that little voice in the back of his head screaming not to do it, and the butterflies playing ping pong in his stomach, the twelve year old couldn't help but wonder if the earring would make him look as cool as Tomie did. And that thought certainly helped calm his nerves.

“Wicked,” Tomie said immediately, clapping her hands together once before clapping his shoulder encouragingly. “You sterilise the needle, I’ll grab the ice.” Her role was a lot easier, because she’d spotted the bowl of ice a moment ago. She was trying to focus on anything other than the throbbing of her ear as she brough it back over. His question made her smile.

“Uhhhhhhh…” Tomie trailed off, glancing to the side to avoid looking at him. After a fraction of a second though, her eyes were back on his. “Look, so the initial bit didn’t hurt that much actually? Like, the piercing?” She passed him the bowl of ice, wiggling it a bit so the ice made a gentle rattling sound. “The earring was a teeny bit fatter than the needle though, soooo... That bit hurt a teeny bit more. The actual piercing part though, nothing – easily a two-point-eight out of ten.” She spoke quickly, waving a hand at the end and trying to be reassuring.

“Ready?” she asked, holding her hand out for the needle.