There's a lot that is going to happen in this chapter. It's going to go by pretty fast. And like I said before, there might be a bit of confusion going on.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except Derek. And I don't own anything else, but my ideas.

Hope you like it :3


Buttercup

It's Tuesday! It's the start of second semester! Whoo! That means no more art with Bubbles! Sweet! Now all I have to worry about is if I get to have advanced physical education. Better get ready!

I put on my black tank top and lime green jacket. Typical Buttercup, right? Yes, green converse and dark blue skinny jeans. Then I let my hair down all the way to my shoulders. So I walked downstairs out of my room to find Bubbles and Blossom at the front door waiting for me. Guess I woke up late. Blossom was wearing her hair up in her usual ponytail. No bow today, surprisingly. Her only wearing light blue skinny jeans and a pink shirt with lace in the back. Bubbles had her hair draping down to her waist in a ponytail. Her make-up slightly overdone, but it doesn't make her look like a whore. She's wearing a blue mini skirt with white leggings and her blue tank top with a blue sapphire necklace her secret admirer gave her last Valentine's Day. Till this very day, she still doesn't know who he is!

"Buttercup, you missed breakfast." Bubbles pouted. She usually made breakfast. Blossom just stared at me and motioned me to hurry up.

"Sorry guys." I walked to the door and looked around. "Where's the Professor?"

"He went downtown to talk to Mayor," Blossom rushed. "Now let's go!"

"Alright! Alright!" We started walking towards the high school. I don't know why we go an hour early than we need to. It was only around the block, but maybe she was eager to see her friends since she spent her holiday break at home. Bubbles was out with her girlfriends on the cheer squad. They went to Florida and spent their time on the Beach. Must have been nice. But we live in California. So it doesn't get too cold either. Beaches here aren't too bad, especially Malibu. Beautiful weather down there. Perhaps, maybe in the spring I would be able to go down there.

When we got in front of the school, everybody was in front of the building catching up. Melissa was with Brian, her boyfriend who was catching up with Amira and Jody. Then the whole cheer squad was together. I just saw Bubbles run up to them and greet them with a squeak. The guys soccer team, with Butch and Derek leading the conversation of course and then my soccer team, the baseball team with Brick, football with Boomer. Oh, the cheer squad is walking towards the football team, how typical. Wait, where did Blossom go? Oh, softball team. I'm just going to walk into the school and head to my locker. Screw the teams. I just want my schedule! When I reached my locker, there was a note inside. It said,

Dear Buttercup,

I realize that we don't talk a lot. And I think I'll change that soon.

Love,

Secret Admirer

Oh no! Someone wants to talk to me? When was this sent? Just before the holidays? Was this intentional? I looked around to see if anybody was here. Nobody. I closed my locker and headed to my homeroom teacher, my P.E. teacher, Mrs. Armin. She'll have my schedule. As I walked down the hallway to the gym, I ran into Mitch Mitchelson. What an awesome surprise!

"Hey. Buttercup! Going to get your schedule?"

"Yeah. How did you know?"

"I am too."

"Oh. Well, I hope we have some of the same classes. It would be boring without you."

"I know." He smirked as he ruffled my hair some. I smacked his hand playfully and he laughed.

"Hello," Mitch and I stopped playing around. We looked up at the person talking to us. It was Mrs. Armin. "Nice to see the both of you! How was break?"

"It was good." We said in unison. She nodded her head and gave us each a piece of paper. Our schedules! YES!

"Thank you, ma'am."

"I'll expect to see the both of you in seventh hour in advanced physical education, hmm?" she smiled.

"YES! YES! YESSSS!" I shouted. "THANK YOU!" Mitch looked at me funny, nodded at Mrs. Armin and smiled. Then he kindly walked me out of the way of Mrs. Armin while I had stars in my eyes. "Can you believe it, Mitch? We both have advanced P.E.! That means I can coach the soccer team AND be captain! I can't wait! "

"Calm down, Buttercup." A voice said. I knew it wasn't Mitch. This voice was darker. "So advanced, physical education, hmm? Who recommended you?"

"None of your beeswax." I mumbled loud enough for him to hear. He smirked.

"Guess I'll be seeing you there? Perhaps, any other classes too?" He grabbed my schedule. "Yeah, Just about every one of then except math. The one subject I hate the mos-"

"BUTCH, JUST SHUT UP. GIVE BUTTERCUP HER SCHEDULE BACK AND SHUT UP." Butch just stared at him in awe. I stared at him. What was he doing? Why aren't I saying anything? "WELL? GO ON."

"M-Mitch.." I paused to look at Butch who was still in shock, then back at Mitch. "It's okay. He used to do this all the time. It's fine."

"No, Buttercup. It's not."

"Mitch, it's fi-"

"No, Buttercup he's right. We aren't kids anymore. Maybe we should start over, like we don't even know each other," he walked down the hall around the corner. Mitch and I looked at each other. Was he mad? All of a sudden, Butch came back around the corner and bumped into me. "Oops! Sorry! Hiiiii. I'm Butch, what's your name?" He offered me his hand. I was getting irritated.

"Stop the bullshit." I scolded as I smacked his hand away.

"Well, how else can we start fresh? Do you want to be friends or not?"

"Buttercup, let's just go." Mitch pushed me away from Butch. We walked around and next thing I knew it, Mitch was on the ground with a black eye. I turned to Butch who looked as frightened as I did. He apologized with his eyes. Why did he just do that?

"Mitch?... Mitch? Are you okay?" I tapped his nose. His eyes opened slightly. Butch walked towards us.

"Yeah, Buttercup, I want to talk to him. Can you go away for a second?" Butch stopped in his tracks. I turned to look at Butch and walked around the corner. I could only hear bits and pieces of the conversation. I heard my name and don't ever? Don't ever what?

"Buttercup?" I turned around to find Derek in front of me.

"Oh," I bumped my head against the wall. "uh, hi Derek! What a surprise to see you here."

"What's wrong?"

"N-Nothing. Why? Does there look like there is something wrong?"

"As a matter of fact, it does. Who is over there talking?" He tried to turn the corner.

"NOBODY! Nobody, Derek."

"Derek!" I jumped.

"Butch! How's it going?" While they carried on a conversation I looked around the corner to see if Mitch was there. He was gone, so I started to walk away. "Buttercup, where are you going?" Derek asked as I tried to tiptoe away from the boys. I thought about it for a second. Then I remembered that class was going to start in fifteen minutes.

"I'm going to my first hour!" Butch raised a brow.

"This early? We have fifteen minutes!"

"I think Buttercup just wants to go find her boyfriend."

"NO! That's not it. And Mitch isn't my boyfriend! He's my best friend. Get off my back you sharp-toothed asshole!" Butch put his finger on his tooth. Derek stared at him. "I'm leaving. Good day!"

"See you in first hour!" Butch said sarcastically with his finger on his tooth still."

"Oh! You have the same first hour? Which one is that one?"

" Advanced Drama." I said nervously.

"Drama? You like drama? You and Butch?"

"Acting is part of our lives. We act like we like each other, right Butch?" Butch didn't say anything for a second. "Butch?" Derek looked at both of us, waiting for the next thing that would happen.

"I'll see you in class, Buttercup.." Butch said as he walked away. I walked the opposite direction, leaving Derek to stand alone.

"Buttercup! Wait!" He ran towards me. "What was that?"

"I don't know. Why are you even talking to me? Shouldn't you be with the soccer team?"

"Well, I am with the captain of the girls' soccer team." He winked. I blushed. I hope he didn't notice. "Well, what do say about hanging out sometime?" I stopped in my tracks and looked at him. I think my face could have been redder than Brick's eyes! I nodded. "Good. Maybe after school on Friday?"

"Yeah. I'd like that."

"See ya then." He winked at me and then walked away. I caught myself giggling and remembered the note in my locker. Maybe he put the note in my locker. He barely talked to me before, now he is! I should probably put that aside at the moment. So I headed towards the drama room when I realized I needed to find Mitch, but it was five minutes until class started. Oh that means I'll have to encounter Butch again. Boy, what's up with him, today? He barely talks to me, now he wants to get in my face? Ugh… Whatever. I'll forget about it.

"Hey, Buttercup!" Butch called out at me.

"What do you want, Butch?"

"We're going to the same class, don't we? I can't walk with you?"

"Back there, with Mitch? What were you guys talking about? What happened?"

"He flipped me off, and I gave him a friendly gesture."

"WHAT? A friendly gesture? You nearly knocked him out!" And that's when I remembered the night at the park. Butch pushed me off the swing and called it a friendly gesture.

"Buttercup?... BUTTERCUP? You okay?"

"Yeah, I have a question for you Butch.. Do you remember the night when-"

"The question will have to wait, we're in front of people." I didn't notice we were in the hallway. I didn't even notice that there were people in the hallway or even the fact that I was in front of my first hour.

"Wha- wha?"

"We're gonna take our seats in the back of the classroom and you're gonna shut the hell up and do what I say, got it?" I silently nodded. Wait, did I agree for him to control me? He held my hand and led me to the seats in the back of the classroom. I feel helpless now. Why me? I used to be the tough one. Why am I so fragile and gullible? I'm worse than Bubbles.

"Butch! Buttercup! So nice to see the both of you!" Mrs. Crow squeaked at us. She was always excited to see us because we were always the best actors of the school. Plays were always fun. We always played the good roles. Of course, none of them were romantic plays. They were minor little plays like Willy Wonka, Wizard of Oz, and Peter Pan. Cute things. I hope we get to do something like Willy Wonka again. I liked to play Veruca Salt. I loved to sing to. Music is my passion. Not that Broadway is either. But it was something I was good at second to soccer. Same with Butch.

"Nice to see you too, Mrs. Crow." Butch responded for the both of us. Butch let go of my hand and pulled the chair out from under my desk and pulled it back in once I sat down. I was shocked. Was he just putting on an act? He must have been. This is acting class after all. Soon after class, he's gonna push me away and act like nothing ever happened. The bell rang and the teacher was ready to talk.

"Okay class! I'm going to cut to the chase and tell you this year's play!" Everybody shrieked with enthusiasm. Including myself. Butch just rolled his eyes, but I'm pretty sure he was excited inside. "This year's play is…"

"What is it?" Somebody screamed out.

"Yeah! Tell us already!"

"Alright! Alright! The play is Aladdin!"

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!" Everybody squealed. I actually for the first time wasn't too pleased with it. Only because it was about love. Butch wasn't pleased with the play either. No, but instead, he was overjoyed. You guys should have seen the grin on his face.

"Settle down, settle down. Of course, you all know who will be playing the roles of Princess Jasmine and Aladdin!" Everybody looked at Butch and I. Butch looked at me too. "What do you say? Butch and Buttercup?" My eyes widened. Me? Kissing Butch? What kind of prank was this? But we were in the spotlight. I couldn't refuse the opportunity, so I smiled and nodded in agreement. All of a sudden, I felt something on my cheek. Something soft. I looked to see it was Butch. Why did he do that? I felt a little embarrassed. Everybody was looking at us. Even the teacher, but she let it happen? Everybody knew of our past, but they didn't freak out. They just smiled and watched Butch and I look at each other. Until- "Okay, so before we get into the play, we have to go over some of the major parts of acting.."

"AHH MAN!" Everybody moaned. I blankly blinked at Butch. What was that feeling in my stomach? I felt sick.

"Buttercup?" I heard an echo. "Buttercup?" I snapped out of it.

"Uh, yeah?"

"What must all actors have?"

"Uhm…" I thought for a moment. "Creativity."

"That's correct! And blah blah blah blah blah blah…" I couldn't hear the rest of the lesson. I felt nauseated. Butch just sat there at watched me the whole time. This embarrassment must have been killing me. I couldn't wait to get out of here. I laid my head down for the rest of the hour. After the bell rang, Butch had to wake me up.

"Buttercup, get up. Time for second hour." As I raised my head up and opened my eyes, I saw a bunch of heads in a blurry eyesight. Everybody was looking at me. Butch carried me to the door out of the crowd. "Buttercup, you're going to have to walk by yourself."

"Butch! Why did you do that?"

"Do what?" I glared at him. "Buttercup, it was nothing. Just forget about it, alright?" It was nothing? Ugh.. Why am I even bothering? I shouldn't be concerned. He probably does this with a lot of girls. My nausea began to subside. I nodded as we walked to second hour together. It was science. Before I opened the door, Butch gently tapped my shoulder and asked me to step aside. Then, he opened the door for me. Why was he suddenly being so nice to me? I can't stand it. As we walked in, Derek was sitting in the back to the right. Mitch was sitting in the back to the left. Butch groaned. What was he so upset about? I walked towards the back, towards Mitch to be exact. Butch sat by Derek. Mitch stared at Butch as I sat down next to him.

"Hey..."

"Hey!"

"How was first hour?"

"I don't want to talk about it." I answered. Damn Butch. Always has to screw up somebody's day. Or maybe it was just me. The first day of school already seemed so long. Felt like hours.

"Okay then." Mitch patted my back as I soaked in misery. He knew who made me upset, but didn't know why. Butch glared at Mitch. Mitch glared back. Derek just looked confused. The hour went on. So did my next class, which was math. That class, I did NOT have Butch there. Thank goodness. But, I did have Mitch in that class and it went by with a breeze. Mitch always knows how to calm me down. It was sad that he doesn't have my lunch though. He has it right after mine. Lunch was about to start actually. And before we went our separate ways, Mitch told me Don't let him mess with your head. I touched his black eye that Butch gave him "generously" earlier today and nodded. He flinched a little because it still hurt a bit.

I walked to the café to see who had lunch with me. Looky there, Butch and Derek had the same lunch. So did the all of the cheer squad, football team and soccer team and baseball team. Man, this school seemed so stereo-typical, it made me sick. I'm not going to sit at the girls' soccer table. They knew I wouldn't come anyways. Although my sisters sat with their groups. I started walking outside to the lunch yard. It had my favorite tree there. It smelt like cinnamon for some reason. It was all year long, too. I've never seen or smelt a tree like this one before. It was special to me. Derek must have seen me walking because he sat down next to me by my tree.

"Hey, why aren't you getting anything to eat?"

"I'm not hungry."

"Really? Well, do you still want to go out with me Friday?"

"Yeah! Of course!"

"Good," he smiled. "You're beautiful." Oh no. There's that feeling in my stomach again. Make it stop! I found myself blushing while holding my stomach. "Are you okay? You seem to be acting funny today."

"How do you know how I act? You barely even noticed me before today. What is your problem? What is everybody's problem?"

"Buttercup!" Butch walked towards us. "What's wrong? You don't look too well." He was genuinely concerned. This is driving me crazy. Just calm down, Buttercup. It's nothing. Remember it's nothing.

"Nothing.." I laid down in the grass. Butch and Derek watched as I just stared at the sky. Butch sighed. Derek just huffed. I looked at Butch who was standing above me looking at me. His hair was actually a dark-brown in the sun. Something I never noticed. He had skater hair, although he did not skate. His eyes greener than mine, a darker shade. He was more muscular than his brothers, but not overly muscular. He was wearing black skinny jeans and a dark green sweatshirt that had the words, You don't have to change your underwear to change the world. I giggled silently to myself. Derek was less muscular. But, I shouldn't compare. They both sat down beside me, waiting for my next move. I just laid there silently, thinking about how both Derek and Butch barely noticed me last year. But only Mitch was the only guy who talked to me. Who even cared enough to be there when I needed comfort. He was like my brother. I remember he took me to homecoming last year and we kissed, but we laughed because it didn't feel right. But even though it didn't feel right, we both know we had feelings for each other. But I guess, after homecoming, I became bitter because I wanted love so much. And I could have had it. It just didn't happen because it didn't feel right. I frowned at the thought. Derek and Butch got into my face and looked at me. "What do you want?"

"Time to go."

"Oh." I got up and started walking into the building. The guys followed behind. Blossom and Bubbles watched as we walked by. I shrugged my shoulders and left the lunch room. I'm going to hear about this tonight.

The rest of the day went smoothly. English with Butch for two hours, Butch sat at the other side of the room as me. Sixth hour was leisure hour for me. The school rewarded the students a leisure hour if we did sports and got good grades. In this hour, I got to play soccer outside and run across the track. All of this was preparing me for seventh hour, advanced physical education. Butch watched me doing this as he was sitting down doing nothing. I was kind of glad that he didn't join me. Derek wasn't here, but neither was Mitch. Mitch didn't do sports, so he couldn't have a leisure hour. So I was basically alone this hour, especially since Butch isn't talking to me right now. He'll eventually come around to it.

After leisure hour was over, seventh hour was about to begin. Butch waited for me by the door.

"Why didn't you talk to me all hour?"

"I was thinking."

"About what?"

"You'll figure it out later." He patted me on the back and held my hand again.

"Why do you keep doing that?"

"What?"

"THIS!" I pointed at our hands. He stared at our hands blankly and realized what he doing. He quickly snatched his hand away from mine.

"Oh. Sorry." I caught him blushing! HA! But I didn't say anything, though. When we reached the gym, Mrs. Armin set us up for a free day. I was kind of upset. But that meant I could practice my soccer. I was going to go find Mitch, but before I could go out to the field, I was stopped by Butch.

"Buttercup? I want to talk to you."

"You sound like my father."

"Yeah, well, I heard you're going out with Derek on Friday."

"Yeah? What's it to you?"

"I don't think you should go out with him."

"I don't need your input."

"Yes, you do."

"Since when?" I argued.

"I just think he isn't for you. Simple as that."

"How on earth would you know this?" I asked irritated.

"You don't know him like I do."

"That doesn't mean I can't get to know him. Why are you bashing on him? Isn't he your best friend?"

"I thought he was.." He mumbled and looked away from me.

"What does that mean?"

"You know, Buttercup, you ask a lot of questions!" His voice rising in anger.

"That's because I have a lot to learn. A lot of curiosity."

"Well, curiosity killed the cat!"

"I'm not a cat." He glared at me. He wanted to say something else, I could tell. But he kept his mouth shut. I started to walk away, until he grabbed my arm.

"Wait, Buttercup.." He called to me softly. I looked into his eyes. "Just be careful." And with that, he let go of me. I stood there and stared at him for a little bit. He stared back. I guess he was waiting for me to go or something. I looked around the field and saw Mitch with Ashley, one of my soccer friends. I turned back at Butch, seeing that I'd be alone this hour at the moment, I really didn't want to.

"Uhm… Butch? You wanna take a walk on the track with me?" He got up and smirked.

"I thought you'd never ask."


This was longer than I intended, but that's a good thing, right? :D

To sum up any confusion ('cause I think somebody might be confused) Buttercup is starting to have feelings for both Butch and Derek, but at the same time, very irritated because before the first day of school, she was just Buttercup. Now she's someone that somebody might love? Butch on the other hand, is a little confused himself. You see, he held Buttercup's hand without realizing it? (hint, hint, wink) He kissed her and didn't have an answer for why he did it! OHH! :DD

And she sure asks a lot of questions, huh? I think questions are good in a story because then the reader can answer them. No it's not trivia, but it's just also something to think about.

Also, Buttercup is wondering who wrote the note. Is it Derek? Or is it Butch? Maybe it was Mitch! Who knows? You'll find out soon! :D

And my inspiration for the story is based off of my life experiences, so Buttercup may not portray as "angry and selfish" but rather confused and a little bitter.

So the next chapter should be coming shortly. I tend to write for a full day for each chapter. I can't wait to see what happens next! :D lol.

And don't hesitate to review and criticize! Give me some questions so I can answer them. I'd like to hear(read) your comments! :3 Thanks!