Ben

**Ben**, a character in the *It Lives In The Woods* book, is a student of Westchester High and the captain of the Westchester Wolves basketball team. He first appears in *Chapter 1*.

## Appearance

Ben has fair skin, brown hair, and amber eyes. He wears a Westchester Wolves basketball jersey (navy blue and white with black outlines) with the number 8 on the front.

His skin color is gray and his eyes are yellow surrounded by black vein-like markings when he is possessed by Mr. Red.

## Personality

Ben has contempt for minorities like Andy and Tom, forbidding them from practicing shooting even though small forward is Andy's best position. He also exploits anything he dislikes about them for selfish reasons, such as allowing Andy in the team as a publicity stunt to make the team look good for pictures.

## Chapters

### It Lives

#### It Lives In The Woods

* Chapter 1: Old Friends
* Chapter 3: Sticks and Stones (Determinant)
* Chapter 4: What's Coming to You
* Chapter 9: Ungrateful (Mentioned)
* Chapter 13: Fight or Flight
* Chapter 14: In the Dark
* Chapter 15: Everyone Plays Together (Mentioned)
* Chapter 16: In Memoriam (Determinant)

## Relationships

### Andy Kang

According to Ava, the basketball team (of which Andy and Ben are members of) enjoys excluding minorities like Andy, implying Ben’s begrudging recognition of Andy’s skills as the latter joins the team for the first time. This is confirmed in Chapter 4, when Ben tells Andy that having an Asian player on the team is just a publicity stunt and tells him to quit. If Andy survived, Ben stopped bullying him and is implied that they are now on good terms.

### Stacy Green

Ben finds Stacy attractive but also thinks she is boring because he assumes that her being the mayor’s daughter means that her life is perfect and he prefers to date girls who know how to party.

### Cody

Ben appears to be close to Cody, whom he shared his thoughts on Stacy with.

## Events of *It Lives In The Woods*

During pep rally, he and the school's basketball team the Westchester Wolves gathered around the auditorium stage, where he announced the upcoming basketball games. He expressed concern that some new team members would bring the team down through lack of experience, but assured the audience that the team will eventually make it through. Just as he was finishing, a blackout suddenly occurred in the school.

If you chose to listen to Stacy's story on how Britney blackmailed her, it was revealed that it started during Britney's birthday party, when Stacy briefly interacted with Ben. Just as she was about to leave the house, she overheard Ben conversing with Cody and told him she found Stacy pretty but thought she was boring at the same time. This drove her to tears as she remained inside.

On the next day, Andy found Ben and told him about the discrimination he experienced during basketball practice. Ben said he was thinking about telling the coach, but Andy called him out for his insincerity. Ben responded by telling Andy that the latter was an "affirmative action hire" who was allowed in the team just to make it look good in pictures, and then told him to quit. An angry Andy was about to confront Ben but was stopped by a bear attacking him and breaking his arm. With Ben in the hospital, this left Andy as the only person qualified for the small forward position. He went in a coma and was possessed by Mr. Red. If Andy survived the event in *Chapter 15*, Andy is now the captain of the basketball team. Ben stopped bullying him and is implied that they are now on good terms.

## Trivia

* He shares the same first name as Ben Park from the *LoveHacks* series.