And Everything Nice
1.
Astro and Uran looked in the mirror at themselves, and each other. "I'm not so sure about this." Uran said.
"You don't want to stay a little kid all your life, do you?" Astro said.
"The two of you have made so many human friends." Dr. O'Shay said. "Surly the two of you want to go to middle school with them. You can't be the smallest kids in your class. Your friends are growing up, you need to also."
Astro nodded. Both of them were now a bit taller than they had been a week ago. Uran was also a bit, well rounder and shapelier that she had been, Astro looked a bit more muscular.
"Tomorrow, the two of you get enrolled in Middle School." O'Shay said. "You'll be with your friends, and you'll meet some new ones."
"That will be fun, won't it sis?" Astro said to Uran.
"I guess so, Ani" Uran sighed.
The Metro City New Townsville district Middle School was a longer bus ride from the O'Shay house than their Elementary school had been. Getting off the bus for the first time, Uran felt a bit scared, but Astro was already used to it being a year ahead of his sister. "Don't worry Uran," He said. "You'll be fine. I'll wait for you by the bus when school lets out later today."
"OK, Ani." Uran said as she walked the other way to her home room. "I'll see you later."
Uran kept turning her head around to catch a glance at Astro as he disappeared around a corner. She wasn't looking where she was going when another student on a skateboard slammed into her. Uran and the older girl picked themselves up off the ground and looked at each other.
"Baka!" the older girl yelled at Uran. "Don't you know better than to walk into the path of someone going the other way?" Uran almost started to cry. She stared at the kid who had just crashed into her. She was about half a head taller than her, dressed in green shorts and a green shirt. She also had vividly green eyes and short dark hair under a green baseball cap.
"Gee, I'm sorry." Uran almost sobbed. "It's my first day here and I guess I'm a bit scared."
The older student picked up her skateboard and seemed relieved that it wasn't damaged. "Gee, I guess I was a bit nervous on my first day of the new school year as well," she said offering Uran a hand. "My name is Buttercup. Welcome to the New Townsville Middle School."
"Gee thanks." Uran said. "My name is Uran. Err, do you know where room 212 would be? I think I'm lost."
"It's on the way to my homeroom." Buttercup said. "Jump on the back of my board, I'll give you a ride there!"
The two of them balanced on the skateboard as Buttercup weaved in and out of traffic in the hallways, getting dirty looks from all the teachers. "This is fun!" Uran giggled. "Ani is going to be jealous!"
Buttercup braked her board to a stop in front of Uran's home room. "Here's your stop!" she said just as the first bell rang. "Crap! I'm gonna be late again for class!" Buttercup moaned, "Gotta run! See you later maybe!" She pushed off and flew down the hallway on the skateboard as Uran walked into the classroom and looked for a seat.
Astro found his homeroom easy enough. He looked at the chart posted on the blackboard and found the seat assignment that the teacher had already made. Astro quickly found his seat, just as a girl with long red hair wearing a bright orange dress entered the room. She also looked up her seat assignment and walked back to her desk, right in front of Astro! She turned around and noticed the robot boy and smiled at him.
"Hey, you're new here aren't you?" she said, "What's your name, My name is Blossom."
"Hi!" Astro said with a bit of a lump in is throat. "I'm Astro, maybe you've heard of me?"
"Nope!, never have." Blossom said, her brown eyes meeting his. "Glad to meet you though."
A crowd of other students entered the room, some of them were smart enough to look up their seat assignments, others just stood near the doorway making conversation with each other. Astro saw Kenichi and Tamao wander in and find their seats, and he waved in their direction. Just then a girl with short blond hair done up in two braids entered the room. She was wearing a bright blue dress, and had the most stunningly blue eyes Astro had ever seen. The girl took the seat to the right of Blossom and blinked at her and then turned to Astro. "Hey who's the cute new kid in the class Blossom, you can't keep him for yourself!"
"Hi" Astro blushed, "I'm Astro."
"My name is Bubbles" the newcomer laughed.
The classroom was now almost filled up. One more student rode into the room on a skateboard. Astro stared at the newcomer, a real tomboy dressed in bright green shorts and a green T shirt as well as a green baseball cap. She kicked her skateboard up into the air and caught it, then carried it over to her seat to the left of Blossom, who stared knowingly at her. "Just missed the late bell Buttercup!" Blossom said.
"Yeah, well I ran into this new kid and had to help her to her homeroom." Buttercup said, turning to see who was behind her and to her right. "Hey sport, like to play soccer?" She asked Astro, making eye contact with him with her vivid green eyes.
"Co-ed P.E. class?" Astro muttered looking at his class schedule.
"We still have separate locker rooms." Buttercup answered. "And I'm going to kick your butt on the soccer field!"
"We'll see about that!" Astro answered defensively.
The first three classes of the day were rather boring with the teachers handing out textbooks and reading assignments. Astro stashed his math, history, and science textbooks in his locker and headed for the gymnasium for P.E. He hoped that the instructor wouldn't take the class outside to the ball field for the day's workout, and it seemed he might luck out on that score as the first order of business was handing out their gym uniforms. That process involved sizing everybody up so they'd all get uniforms that fit. However, as soon as he entered the locker room and saw the dozen robots quickly measuring each student and handing them their gym shorts, shirts, and shoes it was clear that the entire class would be outfitted in no time.
Astro was one of the last students outfitted, and by the time he had changed into his P.E. uniform and entered the gymnasium most of the class was already assembled there. The girls were on one side of the room, and the boys on the other. Mr. Gehrig, their P.E. teacher blew his whistle and called the class to order.
"Well student's that was great timing, I see you are all outfitted and dressed, we still have over a half hour of class left." Mr. Gehrig said, "Plenty of time for a little game of soccer."
He quickly ran around the room and separated the class into two mixed groups with about the same number of boys and girls on each side. "Perfect!" He announced, "Let's head outside and kick some balls around!"
Astro found himself on the same team as Kenichi and Tamao. He looked across the field at the other group and saw Buttercup balancing a spinning ball on the tip of her left index finger. She was staring at him as if daring him to play against her.
Mr. Gehrig blew his whistle for the teams to line up. He took the ball from Buttercup and stood in the middle of the field. He then tossed the ball up and blew his whistle. Both sides charged at the ball. Kenichi reached it first and started kicking it towards the goal. He and Tamao passed the ball back an forth, and then Tamao kicked it towards Astro who was now in the clear. Astro took aim and kicked the ball towards the goal, but Buttercup ran in just in time and intercepted his delivery. Now she and another girl relayed the ball towards the goal on the other side of the field. She lined up a shot and attempted to score.
Now it was Astro's turn to prevent a goal. Buttercup's kick drove the ball high on a line drive towards the goal. Astro leaped into the air and headed the ball back towards the other side of the field. Tamao whispered to Kenchi, "Astro's gone hyper! I hope no one noticed that little bit of jet exhaust!"
Astro ran after the ball. Without realizing it, he had suddenly become crazed with the game and was determined to score no matter what. He moved like a blur, using perhaps a bit more of his 100,000 hp than he should, behaving more like a robot than a boy in school with other humans.
Buttercup also was caught up in the moment. Her eyes glowed with a green light as she unconsciously put more than just a bit of powerpuff into her movements to intercept the ball from Astro and blast it across the field with a power kick. Just as the end of class bell sounded, the ball knocked over the goal on Astro's team's side of the field.
"I told you I'd kick your butt!" Buttercup yelled at Astro. "Hi Five!" she added, slapping his hand with her open palm.
Back in the locker room, Astro sat next to Kenichi and Tamao on the bench, changing back into his school uniform.
"I wonder if that girl with the green eyes is a robot?" Tamao said. "She sure out powered you there Astro."
"No, she's no robot." Astro said. "I would have noticed that. But there is something different about her that I can't figure out."
The lunch bell rang and Astro found his friends Kenichi, Tamao, and Shub had already staked out a table in the lunchroom, so he joined them. "Hi guys!" Astro said, "How's your day going so far."
"As usual." Shub said, shrugging his shoulders.
"Same here." Tamao and Kenichi replied together.
The boys had each brought a bag lunch with them. While Astro didn't really need to eat, he did bring his usual thermos bottle of an oil mixture to help with his body's need for lucubration and hydration for cooling. Lunchtime for him was more of a social thing, and his friends understood that and went along with it.
Uran found an empty table away from the crowd to spend her lunch hour. She was about to open up her lunch box and remove her thermos when three girls wearing bright colors invaded her territory. They each were carrying a tray of food from the kitchen area. "Hi Uran! Mind if we join you?" Buttercup yelled as she took a seat on the other side of the table from her. Bubbles and Blossom took seats on either side of Buttercup. "Hey guys, this is the new kid I told you about!" Buttercup said. "Uran, these are my bestest friends, Blossom and Bubbles."
"Hello." Uran said meekly. "Glad to meet you, I guess."
The three girls quickly attacked their ramen with chopsticks. Bubbles and Blossom ate with dignity, but Buttercup slurped her noodles into her mouth, making loud noises. Uran opened her thermos bottle and slowly sipped her oil and water.
"You on a diet or something?" Buttercup asked. "Don't you want any lunch?"
"Yeah, you look like you could use to put on a little weight, you're so skinny." Blossom said.
Bubbles leaned over to get a better look at Uran and what was in her thermos.
"Hey you guys, leave her alone." Bubbles said, "Can't you see that she's a robot?"
"Really?" Buttercup said, "How can you tell?"
"I just can!" Bubbles said, getting up from her seat and carrying her tray over to the other side of the table to sit next to Uran. "Don't let them bother you!" she said giving Uran a hug.
For the remainder of the lunch hour Uran and Bubbles were busy exchanging girl talk. Blossom and Buttercup quietly finished their lunch, and then walked off to sit outside till the bell for the next class rang.
