12-26-10

2:20am

Summary–How else do you explain liking someone? Blossom/Brick

Disclaimer–I do not own The Powerpuff Girls, which belongs to its respective owner(s) and is only being used in a fan-made, fictional story.

xoxo

Title–Stupid

By–Moon Prynces

xoxo

He looked up in time to see her literally stumble her way up the last few steps before walking through the front doors. She almost planted her face on the ground, managing to catch herself just in time.

And then she proceeded to continue on her path as if she were the most graceful being alive.

It was amazing, Brick thought as he stared while shaking his head. Amazing!

Someone nudged him and motioned that the bell would ring soon. They should head inside to homeroom.

Blossom ignored the feeling in her gut. Tried to ignore how she could feel her skin getting warm.

Sure, she almost made herself a human traffic accident...but hopefully no one saw. She made a clean save and pretended nothing happened (or almost happened). She went on just the same as she normally would.

The way she would if she wasn't losing her mind. Except that she was. Just a little.

For anyone else, it wasn't anything to be ashamed of. It was normal. It was human. It happened all the time.

But not to her.

The redhead glanced up to check the board, pen in hand and waiting for more information to record. She accidentally caught Brick's eyes and he smiled in response.

Her reaction was to grip the pen tighter while simultaneously averting her eyes as quick as possible.

Well, at least he wasn't hitting on her anymore.

It was clear from his first day he had taken a liking to the redhead.

Maybe because they shared the same hair color. Maybe because she was kind of rude and bossy and demanding on that first day (it was a group assignment and she was not about to fail). Maybe because she showed she had a heart underneath that strong personality (she totally told off some guys that attempted to bully him, but either way he took care of that later).

"Hey, Brick!" someone shouted across the already chaotic cafeteria.

Just another name and/or greeting being thrown out into the void. But it did her in.

Blossom had been eating a sandwich while talking animatedly with one of her sisters when it happened.

And when it did, she moved (jerked) her hand quickly (and a little violently) so that instead of grabbing the orange juice bottle...she knocked the damn thing over.

Which then led to it being spilled on the floor next to the table ('cause it had been open). And then the person who had called out the name, coincidentally, slipped on it and fell on, not the floor, but on her sister.

Oh my god, she stared with wide eyes.

Brick was already at the table (after having jumped up to avoid the spill and check if everyone was okay), looking on as well.

"Get off of me already, damnit!" Buttercup shouted as Butch pretended to have passed out, though a grin was creeping up.

Blossom unconsciously glanced at Brick, her eyes still wide. He happened to look at her as well.

And then...and then he raised a brow and smiled, causing her to jump up and pull Butch off her sister (with strength no one knew she had). She proceeded to make a fuss about whether her sibling was okay and ignored everyone who was looking on.

Or tried to ignore them. In the end she yanked Buttercup out of the room by her elbow, blathering something about the nurse and what ifs.

He and his brothers were new. It was three months into their sophomore year when they happened to transfer there.

Seeing as he had a thing for her from the start, and it was a new school, new beginnings and so much potential...well, he did what he would have probably done anyway.

He tried to get her to go out with him. Tried to get her number. Tried to...get her to smile. For him. Because of him. And then, in spite of him.

She was Blossom. She was super girl, he found out soon enough. She could do anything, and even if she couldn't she still tried.

It was pretty admirable, was what some people might have thought.

But he thought...she was kind of amazing actually.

Not that he had a chance to really tell her, seeing as she was falling into disaster these days and almost seeming to avoid him...

Maybe she only saw him as the immature new kid who wanted a challenge and so she had already dismissed him? Maybe she just didn't care about relationships at this point? (Because from what he'd seen of his first month so far, she didn't flirt with guys or even date.) Maybe he'd already missed his opportunity? (At least in the beginning she didn't care if he tried to talk to her, and she even initiated greetings too. Now she could barely manage a 'hi' before stalking off busily.)

Either way, it was going on six weeks since he'd started school there. Six weeks since he'd met her. Six weeks since he made it quite obvious to just about the entire school he kind of liked her.

But it was also about three weeks since she'd started avoiding him and treating him as nothing more than a nameless classmate.

It was time for confrontation.

So he stopped trying to say hi or smile innocuously when their eyes happened to meet. He went on to ignore her for a few days.

Until suddenly he strolled right up to the table she sat at in the library during her free period, just as she was turning the page in a book she was wholly invested in.

"Hey," he said in his usually casual tone, hands in his pockets.

Blossom's head shot up to stare, her finger sliding across the edge of the page awkwardly.

"Shit," she hissed and looked down at the finger.

Brick immediately took the seat adjacent to her and reached to grab her hand, but she dropped the book and pulled away before he could.

"I'm fine!" Blossom blurted out hastily. "It's just- Paper cut!" she spoke haltingly.

And for some reason she was breathing unevenly and staring at him like a trapped animal.

His mouth was open – as he had been about to say something – and an eyebrow was quirked in slight confusion and surprise.

"O-kay..." Brick said slowly. He paused, glancing off to the side a moment before getting back to her and the situation. "Well look, I just wanted to ta–"

"Ah, no," she responded before he could finish. Before either of them knew what he was going to say. "I can't," Blossom said again, in that same loud, stammering voice.

His eyebrow inched higher. "Uh..." Brick spoke as he tried to come up with his next move.

Did she already know what he was going to say? Was she...trying to spare him?

She was still staring at him, eyes as big as saucers and it looked like she wasn't breathing anymore.

Brick shook his head, regaining his resolve. Even if it didn't turn out in his favor, he wanted to get it out there.

"Look," he started again, looking back at her plainly.

Blossom was already starting to shake her head in that spasm-ing, 'no, please don't' way, her eyes never leaving him.

They sat there in silence for a minute, the few people in the library glancing over every once in a while.

And finally...and finally, she took a deep breath, the worried expression on her face easing into some sort of calm resignation.

"I am tripping over air," Blossom started, her voice revealing disbelief at her own actions as well as some level of amusement. "I spill and drop things." Now it sounded more like 'you've gotta be kidding'. "I seriously think my IQ has plummeted."

Brick blinked, trying to piece these (obviously false) pieces of information together.

She shook her head at herself. "I become completely stupid." Blossom made a face that said, 'yeah, I went there'.

"You're the smartest person in this school," he responded, a smile creeping up. "Maybe even smarter than the people who work here."

Her mind went blank at the compliment and she stared...stupidly.

Then she slammed a fist on the table. "See! This is what I mean! It's because of you!" And her voice was a bit hysterical.

Brick's surprise was followed by other people around being surprised (and staring at the two).

"I'm not stupid!" she was still shouting. "But when you're around my brain cells die and I do stupid things!"

Even the librarian was watching anxiously.

There was a quiet as everyone but Blossom knew what she would say next. Literally. Everyone else knew except her.

And then she said it.

"I like you." Her voice was quiet and surprised and so damn sure of it.

Because even though these things happened to other people and never to her...she knew what it was from the beginning. She easily identified it – though after a few oblivious days. She wasn't that stupid, after all.

"Well, I–" he started.

She shook her head again and cut him off. "I know."

The room was silent again.

"Of course I know. I'm a girl. Girls usually know these things. Didn't make things easier," Blossom said, feeling a little relieved.

He was raising his brows at her.

"What?" she asked. "What!"

"I'm still going to say it."

Blossom closed her eyes tightly, trying to prepare for the moment when her brain function would cease and she would say something stupid or accidentally knock all her books off the table.

"You know, this kind of reaction is going to pass. Once we start dating and you get used to being around me and–"

"Wait, what?" Her eyes popped open. "I'm not gonna have any brain cells left!" she was moaning, dropping her head on the table.

Brick watched on, immensely happy at the way things were turning out. She hadn't disputed his prediction.

The rest of the room watched on, waiting for him to say it. And also waiting to see what stupid thing she would do.

Because he was right. It would pass, and there wouldn't much opportunity to see Blossom being so normal, so...human.

'Cause these things didn't happen to her.

Well, not until he came around.

xo end xo

12-26-10

7:19pm

This story is brought to you by this piece of inspiration:

Bailey: I can't talk to you.

Ben: Right...um, look, I'm-I'm sorry. I thought you and I might get to–

Bailey: I can't talk to you. You– make me nervous. I...forget what I... And I...say things I don't want to say and I can't ju– I-I just go stupid. I...I like you. That's all. There.

I tried to transcribe it myself because I didn't want to search for the exact script lines. If you know where that's from or who the characters are then go ahead and tell me, because I won't say it. =]

I hope this one-shot was satisfying, because I kind of like it. I didn't write for a week and when I tried a few days ago (a chapter for "For the Hearing Impaired") it sucked. But it looks as if I'm back with a vengeance.

Expect more. I had a bunch of inspiration hit me in that week I wasn't writing.

Thanks for reading and tell me what you think. Oh and also, did the title and summary give it away? What did it make you think the story would be about?

9:08pm