The New Girl
By Hannah Shribman-Brown
A take-off from PPG and Pokemon
Wow! This kindergarten was tiny compared to my old one. I walked up the path to it, knowing I wouldn't get any milk money.
When I went in, the teacher seemed patronizing. She knew about my family's financial state, and that's probably why. I had a scholarship to this kindy. I have no idea why it was special, because it looked the same as any other. All this happened two weeks ago, and just after, my family had inherited two thousand dollars after having just enough money to have all normal home comforts and little other.
My father knew I hated being poor, so he was indulging me at the moment, and I had currently changed my first name from Maia to Princess. It was only for four months, but if we still had the small fortune we had come into, I could buy my new name instead of just renting it. I still had to wear my tatty yellow skirt, although I had a new magenta jumper.
I looked around. Everyone had friends already. I especially liked the look of three pretty girls. They dressed like each other, so they must be best friends. They wouldn't want me. Anyway, one of them was building blocks with a boy who thought too much of himself, one was playing trains with three other kids, and the last one was reading.
I didn't feel like playing with the other kids, until I saw the three girls save a hamster.
"Wow! That was amazing! How did you do that?" I gushed.
"It's easy." The blonde girl in a blue dress said.
"Yeah." The red-haired girl in a pink dress said. "We're animal activists. We've learnt how to do that."
The dark-haired girl in a green dress added "We're sisters and best friends." She grinned mischievously. "I can read some people's minds. Like your mind is easy to read."
"Wow!" I repeated. "I'm a racism activist."
"WHAT!?" the three girls screamed for some reason. (They told me later they didn't know what racism meant, and weren't really screaming.)
"Um..." I was at a loss for words. "What are your names?" I asked, trying to swap the subject to more of an introduction.
"Lisa."
"Lolly."
"And I'm Lily."
Lisa was the red-haired girl. The brunette was Lily and the blonde was Lolly.
When I left school that day, I felt weird. I thought that changing my name to Princess wouldn't make a difference. I was still the same Maia. But I didn't feel like Maia. I wondered about the three girls I had hung out with all day. Lisa seemed way too bossy for her own good, and told her sisters what to do. Lily kept yelling at Lolly for being submissive.
Then when I got home, I found a video of the three girls! Weird! They were in jail!
"What's happening, why did they throw us in the slammer?" Lisa was wondering, staring out through the bars.
Lily was on a bunk. "Something is up and I don't like this one bit." she snapped.
Lolly was curled up in a corner. "And the worst thing is, we won't get to save the world anymore!" she wept.
Lily told her to shut up.
"Now that's no way to talk to your sister!" Lisa told her.
Then I realized that it was a Powerpuff Girls video. But those three girls starred as leader Blossom, cutie Bubbles, and tough-nut Buttercup.
On Friday, some TV people came to school. They asked for the three sisters. Then the director of PPG said "We are putting a new villain on the series. A young girl, who would be jealous of the Powerpuff Girls, and turn against them when she hears she can't be a Powerpuff Girl herself. She has to be a brat, that throws a lot of tantrums. We are having an open casting for her. Who would like to try out for the role of Princess Morebucks?"
I stepped forward. "My name is Princess, and I would love to try out for this role."
Wow! Maia would have been too shy to jump at the chance of acting.
I got to audition. I had to do a scene where I tried to beat up the Powerpuff Girls in a super suit. I got to wear the actual costume.
I stood in the studio, reading out the lines. "So! Who said money can't buy superpowers?" I asked.
Lily, as Buttercup said "You've been asking for this for a long time!"
She ran for me, screaming, and mimed trying to beat me up, but I mimed beating her up instead.
Lolly, as Bubbles let out Bubbles' special sonic scream, but I just said "Talk to the hand", and the sound waves had no affect on me. I used my costume crown to blast Lolly, and I only had Lisa as Blossom left.
"So Blossom, are you jealous? Are you scared?" I asked. "Seeing how easily I thrashed your sisters without even breaking a sweat? Well, what's the matter? Cat got your tongue?"
Lisa stayed silent. "Very well." I said, really enjoying being bratty Princess Morebucks. "Prepare to bow to your Princess!"
In this, Blossom would beat Princess up. Lisa just had to say the lines. "Buttercup!"
"Bubbles!" called out Lily, as she and Lolly as Bubbles and Buttercup had recovered from before.
"Blossom!" cried out Lolly.
Lisa mimed her ice breath, and I had to scream as I was supposed to fall to the ground, but Lisa would catch me.
"Why won't you let me be a Powerpuff Girl?" I whimpered.
"Cut!" called the director. "That was good, girls. Lisa, Lolly, Lily, pretty Powerpuff as usual, but of course we'll have to film that again. Princess, we have to audition one more girl for Princess, and her script is different, but we'll be in touch. Powerpuff Girls, we still need you to film the last scene in "Uh Oh Dynamo". Princess, our second actress was allowed to watch your little performance, so you can watch hers. She is to act her scene with Roger L Jackson."
I went into the film room and waited. Eventually a girl with straight black hair to her waist came on screen. My heart almost stopped beating!
It was Carmen Dimsina, who already had a role on some computer games like Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?, and Carmen Sandiego, Word Detective.
She was only five, like me, but she had a voice like a woman over 18. She had a go. "HEY!" she screamed.
"You talking to me?" asked Roger L Jackson, as primary villain Mojo Jojo.
"WHAT?"
"ARE YOU TALKING TO ME?"
"OF COURSE I AM, YOU NINCOMPOOP! WHO ELSE WOULD I BE TALKING TO?!"
"HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW, YOU CRAZY KID?"
"AREN'T YOU THE EVIL VILLAIN MOJO JOJO?"
"WHO WANTS TO KNOW?"
"I DO, YOU BUFFOON!"
"I'M NOT A BABOON, YOU INSULTING TWIT!"
"I SAID BUFFOON! BUF-FOON!"
"THAT'S IT! I DON'T HAVE TO STAND HERE AND BE INSULTED BY AN INSULTER SUCH AS YOURSELF! BE GONE, YOU CHEESE PUFF!"
"I CAN PAY YOU A LOT OF MONEY!"
"What?"
"WHAT?"
"I
SAID WHAT?"
"Gee, you don't need to get angry."
"Cut!" called the director. "Roger, we'll need to rework that scene. You just haven't got enough Mojo Jojo in it. Carmen, thank you. We'll be in touch."
Carmen left at the same time I did. She glared at me. She was at my old school, and she despised really shy people.
"What were you even doing here, Maia?"
"I've changed my name to Princess, respectively." I told her.
"Oh!" Carmen smirked. "So you really think you're in with a chance as Princess? If you were that other girl on the screen, your performance was lame!"
"At least I sound the right age!" I replied.
Carmen flounced out of the studio and got into the limousine her family owned.
That's when the other girls came running out. The three pairs of eyes sparkled with excitement.
"What gives?" I asked.
Lolly squealed "The Rowdyruff Boys is finally going to be shown!"
"I did some pretty good fighting in that one!" Lily grinned. "I like the bit when I say to Mojo Jojo 'Give it up, Mo-joke!'"
Lisa was calmer than the others, but she said quickly "It's going to air at seven tonight, and then there'll be a few re-runs before Uh Oh Dynamo is shown, but we'll be working on the second season by then."
"Do you know who's going to be Princess Morebucks?" I asked.
All three girls immediately said "No!" but I couldn't be sure.
It wasn't until next Friday until I heard. The TV people wanted Carmen and I back to see how we worked with the whole cast. The director wanted me to do a scene with Roger L Jackson and one with the actors that played the Amoeba Boys. We also had to do a scene with Tom Kane, who played the most evil of all evil, known as "Him". They also wanted to test my singing voice. They gave me a song that was apparently going to be used in another episode in a few years. I sang first, before Carmen. I just had to sing "Townsville's going downsville tonight!" over and over. Then I had to sing a solo that went:
"No way! No how!
You can run, you can hide, but I will find you!"
I tensed when Carmen took her turn. She had a beautiful voice. I just sounded like a bratty kid. Carmen had a different solo that went:
"Townsville's going down!
The Powerpuff Girls are nowhere to be found!"
It was two weeks later when the verdict was given. I had made it! Carmen would get a role as an extra.
The first show we had to film was Stuck Up, Up, and Away. The fight scene I had acted with the audition was at the end, along with a speech that was spoken by Lisa.
"Why won't you let me be a Powerpuff Girl?" I whimpered for the second time.
"Because, you're just a spoilt brat." Lisa as Blossom replied. "And being a Powerpuff Girl isn't about getting your way, or having the best stuff, or being popular or powerful. It's about using your own unique abilities to help people, and the world we all live in. And you, little girl, have done nothing worthy of the name "Powerpuff"."
I then had to be thrown into a prison wagon, complaining while Lolly and Lily giggled.
Then for a long time the girls worked on a new story that would be aired with Stuck Up, Up and Away. This was called School House Rocked. The girls had FIVE new students this time, the teenage "Gangreen Gang". They had never been to school, which meant they were sent to kindergarten. They all bullied the poor kids. Carmen was shown in this as a little girl that was hit in the "dodge ball" game, which was basically the gang throwing balls at the rest of the class. The PPG had to do the same thing to them. The leader of the gang (Ace) gets hit in the face first, then the girls beat up the whole gang with balls while the teacher cheers them on.
I wasn't needed again for the next episode. They had an story about a man that collected Powerpuff toys and kidnapped the girls themselves. In the second half the girls had to battle Harold Smith who was planning to use his ray gun to melt someone's head "Clear off his shoulders!"
I was needed to film the next episode. The story was Birthday Bash and I was sending the girls a target which would have a rocket going for it . It would explode and the girls had to make sure the rocket didn't hurt anyone.
Mojo Jojo and the Amoeba Boys sent a robot and voodoo dolls. I liked the line when I first screamed "EVERYONE QUIET!" and then said calmly "They're opening my present next."
It wasn't as fun as the last story, because I knew the ropes, and while the other scenes were filmed we weren't allowed to talk.
The director began getting tougher on me second time around. We had to film the scene when all the prisoners laughed and booed at Mojo Jojo because his robot hadn't worked 11 times just because I couldn't get the line "Ha ha! Mojo's a stupid monkey!" right.
On the second day we filmed it, Lisa, Lolly and Lily weren't needed and I felt like the shy Maia without them. I told myself sternly to think Princess but it was much harder.
On the third day of filming Birthday Bash, I wasn't needed. When the girls got back they were full of excitement. "Guess what?!" squealed Lisa. "They're at last showing Season Two and you're going to be on screen!"
"Wow!" I whispered. "Are they still showing School House Rocked with my episode?"
Lily pulled a face. "Yeah. I am getting really bored of the fact that I'm supposed to hate the villains in that episode more than any others."
"Why?" asked Lolly.
Lily had the tough Buttercup look in her eyes. "Don't you remember Buttercrush, Lolly? Buttercup had a crush on Ace (who is the leader of the gang, which anyone would remember), and he betrayed her."
"Can I see it?" I asked.
Lisa stepped in. "We have a video of it. I'll ask the teacher if we can watch it for this Friday's TV time."
And that's what happened. We did get to watch it. It was pretty disturbing watching Lily's character act like she did. Lily herself grimaced throughout, until the screen showed her as Buttercup giving Ace a nose bleed.
I walked home with the girls that day, discussing whether I got to do any other exciting things like when I bought my own superpowers in the first episode.
Lolly was the most talkative. Lily seemed in a stormy mood after watching the video, and Lisa was studying the trees and taking notes to find out what species they each were.
"Do you have any other videos of you?" I asked Lolly.
"One or two." she answered. "I like the one when I go hardcore. I have that line when I say to Mojo 'I'm not gonna cry, you dumb doo-doo brain!' because I like watching the reaction."
Lolly said her line with expression. I'd seen the episode, and she sounded exactly right. At the time, she was under a laser, and right now, on the sidewalk, she choked out angrily "I'm not...gonna...cry...you...dumb...doo-doo brain!"
I replied in my bratty Princess voice "What a sore loser." as I had said about "Him" in Birthday Bash. Then I said in my normal voice, "What is his reaction?"
The other girls looked up and joined Lolly in saying the line.
"Doo-doo brain? That's it! I've had it with your sassy mouth! I didn't want to do this...well, actually I did."
I giggled and went back to Princess Morebucks' voice, saying something I made up. "Can't he take it?"
The three girls immediately competed with my Princess, talking as they had in the show.
Lisa began with the words "SHUT UP, BUTTERCUP!"
"No, you shut up!!!" yelled back Lily. After they had finished that argument, all three girls engaged in a PPG scripted conversation about Chemical X, that had been filmed, but wouldn't be shown until the end of the season. I cut in by saying "Well then, I'm gonna be a Powerpuff Girl, too." The girls looked at me. "And I have to go home, now." I went on, in my normal voice. "Byeee!"
The next day, my name expired. I had to go back to my old name, Maia, unless I had the money to get Princess back. But the two thousand dollars had dwindled, until it gradually disappeared. I reminded myself that I might be Maia by name, but I was a Princess inside, like the girl Sara Crewe in A Little Princess.
It was harder to be confident Princess when everyone began calling me Maia again. I wished that I was back in the filming studio. I had been given the script for the next episode I was in, Mo Job. Luckily, on Monday the girls weren't needed for the show that would go with Birthday Bash, Too Pooped to Puff. I was the only one that had the script for Mo Job (I had the scripts for all the shows I would be in) so we worked together on it for later. When necessary, I stood in for Ms Keane, the PPG's teacher, and Lily or Lisa stood in for Mojo Jojo. Lolly stood in for reporter Stanley Whitfield at one point. I was going OK until the line "Not any more." in answer to the line "One...two...three...hey! There's only three Powerpuff Girls!"
I couldn't say the line with any expression!
The story was, I hired Mojo Jojo to work with her to zap the Powerpuff Girls' powers and give me their powers. In this particular bit, the girls had realized they were tricked into coming to Mojo's lab. I tricked them into thinking Mojo had kidnapped me, even though he talked in a monotone when they got to the lab. The lines were "Oh no, Powerpuff Girls" and "Oh dear, you've ruined my plan".
Carmen's audition piece came from Mo Job.
She had the bit when Mojo and Princess were first talking to each other. Just for the record, none of the villains really get on well with each other. If they ever did it would be in a couple of seasons, I predicted.
When my expression disappeared, Lisa was the first to speak. "Rehearsing is boring. Let's do something else."
"No!" Lily begged. "I so want to go on!"
I tried to keep the peace and said "I've got some other scripts, girls. Why don't we work on one of those? I'd love to work on that holiday special!"
Lolly looked thoughtful for a moment, then she asked "You mean Twas the Fight Before Christmas?"
"Of course, right, Maia?" Lily said quickly.
"Yeah." I answered quietly.
"Okay!" the three girls decided.
Bubbles had the first line, so Lolly went for it.
"Christmas time is in a few days, fa la la la la, la la la la!" she sang. "Santa will bring me lots of toys, yay, fa la la la la, la la la la."
I waited and then said my line when it came up: "Ha! Who would want a stupid old BB gun?"
The three girls gasped. "Princess!"
My bratty Princess voice was no longer on mute, and my expression came back. "Besides, you'd shoot your eye out. Since MY daddy buys me ANYTHING I want, I only have one thing on my Christmas list this year. To be a Powerpuff Girl!"
Lisa sighed. "I'm bored of doing script work. It's our day off. I hate being the sensible one all the time anyway. Maybe I'll stop working for The Powerpuff Girls."
I gasped. "No way! Then I'll be out of a job too! And so will everyone else."
The other girls stayed mute.
"Please, Lisa!" I pleaded. "You wouldn't really let me down! And your sisters! And everyone else! Even Carmen is in with a chance at a bigger role."
Nothing else about quitting was said for a couple of years. I was getting better and better at Princess. But the one time when I seriously considered quitting was when I was working on Superfriends. As I had predicted, Carmen got a temporary bigger role. In this episode, she played the girls' new friend, Robin. I had to work with her too. I appeared in the second act, persuading Robin that the Powerpuff Girls didn't really like her, because they kept having to leave her and save the day. I would persuade her that she should be my friend instead. Carmen was great on screen, but her disdain for the real me showed up in the last scene, when I revealed Princess' true colours. But I still managed to keep a good level on my speech, although I watched as Lolly and Carmen walked away from the camera as if they were best friends in reality. My heart was in my last couple of lines there.
"HEY!" I screamed. "WHERE ARE YOU GOING!? I AM NOT FINISHED! GET BACK HERE!"
Off camera, Carmen gave me her best superior sneer. "Royal brat, Maia? I can see why you got the role now!"
My seven-year-old mature self slipped away, and my five-year-old dislike for Carmen stood up for herself.
"At least I can act!" I retorted. "Your interpretation of Robin is a girl with no personality, no life, no interests, and no backbone AT ALL!"
"Hello!" Carmen answered. "She is supposed to be easily led-by YOU! Anyway, you were not acting! You were being you! And also anyone who wasn't born yesterday could see I was being meek and shy, not someone with no life!"
"Like I said, I can act! Sorry, I know it's not easy being rich like you!"
"You just said that about one thousand times!"
"I know. I will end this conversation now. Thank you for your time, Carmen Dimsina."
The filming ended, and as I walked home with my three best friends, I said "I can't stand Carmen! If she gets another big role that I have to work with her on, I swear I will give in my notice."
Lisa grimaced. "That reminds me. I gave in mine today."
Lolly and Lily gasped. I hyperventilated briefly. "Don't worry." Lisa went on. They'll just get someone to replace me. You don't have to quit."
I was depressed all week after that conversation. I was usually happier these days, because my wages for Princess Morebucks had given me the chance to have more than I used to.
But within two months, Lisa stopped being Blossom, and another girl played her part. This new girl was named Jessica, and she had vibrant red hair, but it was dyed, unlike the natural shade of Lisa's hair. I disliked Jessi straight away, because she was loud, and easily angered. I was scared of saying anything to her.
The first time I met her, Lolly, Lily and I were working on the episode "Boy Toys". The Rowdyruff Boys from Season 1 had been resurrected, and appeared in the episode "The Boys are Back in Town." Lisa was still Blossom at that time. Now they were back for another girls vs boys fight.
Anyway, this was Jessi's first time, and I was all set to be friendly to her and help with the camera because it would be new to her.
The first thing that happened was Lily going up to Jessi. "You look like you're ready to go clubbing!" Lily said sarcastically. "We're supposed to save the world BEFORE bedtime."
Jessi glared. Suddenly she screamed "SHUT UP, YOU LITTLE ******!"
"Calm down, rocket." Lily muttered.
This time Lily got hit with a mallet.
When we got onto the camera, I was first meeting the boys. They decided to plunge into Princess' car. "Well, look who it is." I said, annoyed. "The Powerpuff Girls-wait! You're not the Powerpuff Girls."
"We're the Rowdyruff Boys, toots." replied the leader of the three boys, Brick.
Buttercup's counterpart, Butch, added "We were fighting the Powerpuff Girls, and decided to take a break-in your car!"
I never caught the real names of the boys. But I quite liked them off camera. They were actually really great actors too, because they'd had experience.
When I worked with Jessi, she seemed sort of-angry, not the contemptuous kind Blossom should have, but a furiously high-powered anger.
One time, when she was in a good mood, I asked her "Have you watched Pokemon?"
She grinned. "Being a cartoon, I did a voice for that!"
"Let me guess...Jessie?"
"Sure."
"Wow!" I gasped. "You're brilliant!"
Jessi looked pleased. From that day on, she seemed happier when I talked to her off camera. She liked talking about the other voices on Pokemon. She liked Michelle especially, who did the voices of Misty and Dawn.
"I was sort of disappointed when they had May, because I didn't see Michelle as much." she confided. "But still, it was a really good job to have, and being a villain, meant it was really fun!"
"What episode did you like being in the most?"
"Probably all of the ones when I first learnt the new mottos. There were three. It gets stale after a while, so I was relieved to start saying 'an evil as old as the galaxy' and 'Listen, is that a voice I hear?' instead of 'To protect the world from devastation'."
I asked shyly, "Who plays Cassidy?"
Jessi grinned for a moment, and then said "Well, it's actually really strange. We are, like, best friends off camera. We even made up a scenario for why our characters hate each other so much."
Jessi wouldn't say any more, and I knew not to push her.
At school, all Lily and Lolly could talk about was the filming, and Lisa seemed left out. I tried to spend time with all three girls.
Lolly tried to include Lisa too. "Hey, Lis!" She said one day after she and Lily had finished filming "City of Clipsville". "Jessi was totally mental today!"
"Yeah." Lily joined in. "She wore mascara again, and this time when I told her, she got out a chainsaw."
I had read a fanfiction about the "Pokemon" Jessie. It had a bit in it with some of those Rules for Life with Jessie. This particular bit read "She actually got out a CHAINSAW this time. Now my hair's lopsided...now she has a blowtorch. Now my hair's black."
"Hey, girls!" I said. "Did you know about any of Jessi's other acting jobs?"
"We don't ask her." Lolly replied. "She always yells at us."
"Well, she plays Jessie in Pokemon."
Lisa squealed. "Jessie is like my favourite character in that show. Hey, we can try out the latest motto as Jessie. Can you be her partner James, Maia? And Lolly, Lily, you two be Meowth. Okay...um, listen, is that a voice I hear?"
"It speaks to me loud and clear!" I announced.
"On the wind!" cried Lisa.
"Past the stars!" I added.
"In your ears..." muttered Lily and Lolly in a monotone. "This is boring."
Lisa wasn't really interested in anything any more. That's why I was thrilled to get some interesting news when I was working with Jessi, Lolly and Lily on Twas the Fight Before Christmas.
Jessi was going to join our kindergarten! When I told Lisa, her reaction was "Wow! The famous Jessi! So when is she first coming?"
"Monday!" I replied.
Lily, who had never really liked Jessi much, said "And you should know that if you say anything she doesn't like, she'll yell at you-at the very least."
"She is good fun though." I said quickly.
When Jessi did start the school, she looked around and then said "Hi."
For the first time since I'd met her, she looked shy, and she wasn't wearing any makeup.
Lisa said "Hi! You're Jessi, right?"
Jessi glanced up at her and replied "Yeah. And you are?"
"Lisa. The old Blossom."
Jessi flared up. "So what?"
"So your role used to be mine. Naturally, I don't care. You asked who I was, and I replied."
"Um, Jessi?" I cut in.
"Maia."
"Have you been doing any other work with Pokemon?"
Jessi's face cleared, and she said "Not yet. But I've been in touch with some of the friends I've made, and Michelle told me they're going to bring back Misty next season!"
To Be Continued...