Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me. Not a bit. Sadly. *hangs head* Enjoy now, ya hear?
Blossom Utonium found herself feeling out of place as she gazed into the mirror to her locker; what she saw wasn't exactly a familiar face—not even close—but the face of somebody she had never met before, a stranger. Dexter's ideal girlfriend.
The Powerpuff girl hadn't been wearing her favorite color, pink, at all lately. Instead, Blossom wore a plain, regular brown T-shirt with matching jeans and boots.
Boots. Blossom felt like a backwoods, country hillbilly who was recently pooped on by a herd of cattle.
Not to mention the brown-colored contacts stinging her retinas.
Blossom loved pink and she personally thought it looked stunning against her peach skin, but her boyfriend, Dexter, disagreed completely. In fact, he loathed pink.
"You hardly look like the leader of the Powderpuff Girls," Brick commented snyly, popping up from behind her.
Blossom rolled her eyes to convey annoyance—definitely not an easy feature with her new brown eyes—shut her locker tightly, and turned around. "Powerpuff Girls, dirt bag. Besides, it's not the appearance that makes a heroine—the heart and honor does," she replied smoothly, heat rushing to her cheeks. "Hmm, but I guess you wouldn't know anything about heroism, would you?"
Brick's hands rose in mock defense. "Touchy, touchy. What I meant was that you look like a normal person. That style just isn't you, pinky."
She exhaled sharply, contemplating her boyfriend. They had been going out for two months and already things were turning into agony. At first, Dexter and Blossom seemed so compatible for one another on the note that they were the smartest male and female at Pokey Oaks High School. . . Dexter, however, was a wee bit more brilliant than Blossom, and a perfectionist.
He loved it when Blossom showed up on dates wearing nothing but brown clothing—only goodness knows why—and told her that the red ribbon was never tied the right way. Blossom decided to delete that from her wardrobe, too, as a way of escaping Dexter's nagging session.
Even then, Dexter always pointed out flaws that Blossom appeared to be drowning in, while he was perfect in every way. For instance, he fussed about how fighting monsters and villains was a waste of precious time and should be spent studying mathematic formulas or how if she studied more and ate less, her belly wouldn't be as "round and huge—the equivalent to a pregnant elephant." Her weight was 122 pounds!
"Listen," Brick said, breaking Blossom away from her thoughts, "um. . . I know Dexter is a genius and all, but if he really liked you, it shouldn't matter what you wear or the color of your eyes."
Blossom scoffed, pushing back a loose auburn hair behind her ear. "He's not as sweet as he should be sometimes, but he's special to me."
"Why? Because he's a bigger geek than you? I think there should be more in a relationship other than a mutual intellectual capacity, don't you?"
"What—what," she stammered in anger, "do you know about relationships, Brick Jojo?"
He shrugged, catching the implications in her biting tone. Yes, he had dated many girls, but never seriously. They usually ended up being nothing but bimbos, and not worth the trouble of enhancing beyond the level of making out. Still, Brick wasn't the type of bad boy to trespass a girl's body over and over again or at all unless one thing was clear: he had to like her, or feel something special for her.
In other words, Brick was still a virgin, but Blossom didn't need to know that.
"Enough, I guess. There should be respect, common interests, trust, and—how about attraction? You're only putting up with that geeky tyrant because you seriously believe that he's the only dude in this universe who wants to date you. You don't actually like him in that way," Brick said, confidence in his words.
Her eyebrows rose and lowered in surprise, as if Brick had just stripped her down naked. She felt so comfortably exposed in front of him, like his explanation was spot on. And it was. He was absolutely on target.
"I-I don't know what to say to that," Blossom said, nervously shifting her weight from foot to foot. "It's true, kind of. Guys are intimated by girls like me—smart and a crime-fighter, but Dexter can be sweet when. . . He wants to seduce me."
The red Rowdyruff twisted his face in repulsion. "Ew."
She nodded, agreeing. "Yeah, you're telling me."
Brick took a step closer as Blossom realized the late bell to third period rang—Dexter was more than likely going to get on case for not being punctual to Chemistry. Oh, well. He was in a precarious proximity to her; now they were eye-to-eye. If either counterpart so much as inched forward, their lips would surely collide on accident.
Blossom would have taken a step back, but it was almost as though her feet were cemented to the tile floor.
"I don't appreciate the way he treats you, Blossom," Brick admitted after a moment.
"Wait just a minute," Blossom voiced, finally aware she had been holding in a breath. She couldn't let herself get used to Brick's facial features holding concern and compassion for her, not when his face was normally set in a scowl. This new side was too good to be true. "You're a Rowdyruff Boy. Why should you care if Dexter treats your enemy like crap?"
"It's nothing I can explain it so easily. I just do. I think you deserve better than him. I think you deserve to have somebody let you know that—geeze, I'm really not good at this. . . I think you're amazing, okay?" He swallowed a gulp, then gluing his devilish, dark red eyes to his black shoes. "You're even better when you dress like yourself, pink uniform, pink eyes, and your frilly bow. All those things."
Blossom smiled at Brick—a little one, where her eyes were only half-open. The Rowdyruff Boy looked up at her, recognizing the glint in her eyes, even though it was inconspicuously hidden behind the muddy-colored contacts. But this time Brick already knew capturing her sweet, strawberry-scented lips was nearly impossible; she was dating a jerk and he supposed to be planning his brothers' next attack on Blossom and her sisters.
He wasn't allowed to feel this way for her. This, if he even knew what this was, could not be happening.
The redheaded girl put her hand on his chest to make a feeble attempt at pushing Brick back, but she simply let it stay there—her palm resting over his heart. Almost instinctively, Brick's own hand came up to cover Blossom's wrist. Her frantic heart skipped a beat.
And then she came back to her senses, remembering who she was. She was the leader of the Powerpuff Girls, a straight-A student, and not a gadget Dexter was allowed to tinker with anymore.
"Thank you, Brick!" She shouted, brushing past him with her quicker-than-a-speeding-bullet ability and scurried to her science class to break things off with Dexter.
Meanwhile, Brick lingered in an empty hallway, just stood there all dazed and confused and in love. Especially the in love part.
A/N: Btw, I don't really hate Dexter, nor the infamous Blossom/Dexter pairing some people appear to like so much. It just doesn't float my boat, and I was too lazy to come up with an OC. Sorry Dexter fans.