Chapter 2: The Wish for Understanding
"Be a little gentler Blossom," Bubbles soothed as she kept washing the dishes.
Blossom practically banged the pile of dishes on to the counter. "I can't help it Bubbles," Blossom said as she started to put the dishes away in to the cupboard. "It's just that Buttercup infuriates me so much! I mean, why did she have to punch Darwin in to our cake and ruin our party?"
Bubbles suddenly dropped the dishes she was holding in to the soapy dish water. "Now Blossom, stop being so hard on Buttercup! She's already getting a scolding from the Professor in the living room. You're not helping anyone by secretly scolding her in the kitchen!"
Blossom took a step back from Bubble's reprimanding stare and sighed. "Sorry Bubbles, it's just that- "Yes, yes, I know Buttercup annoys you to the brim of madness! I get that! Everyone gets that! But, you know what? Maybe it's not Buttercup that annoys you so much, maybe it's you that you're annoyed with because you can't seem to control her!"
Bubbles wiped the tears away from her eyes as she flew out of the kitchen to the second floor where a door could be heard quickly being opened and slammed.
"Blossom? Is everything ok in here?" the Professor asked as his concerned face appeared in the kitchen doorway.
Blossom had to take a minute to pull herself together. "Yeah, Professor. Bubbles was just upset about something. You know how she is," Blossom half explained.
The Professor nodded. "Ok then. Just be nicer to each other, alright? I still need to finish my talk with Buttercup." "Alright Professor," Blossom said, faking a smile.
When the kitchen door closed again, Blossom couldn't help but take the towel of its holder and scream her head off on it. Once Blossom finally deposited the towel off her face, she couldn't help but release another sigh as she saw the lofty pile of dirty dishes her sister had yet to wash.
Might as well clean them up for her, Blossom thought jadedly as she turned on the faucet.
20 minutes later, Blossom was still standing over the sink, her hands trying to scrub off a pesky piece of food that didn't seem like wanting to get off the plate anytime soon. The more Blossom scrubbed the more she got angry and the more she got angry the harder she scrubbed.
Finally, the plate just couldn't take her intense scrubbing anymore and spider web like patterns split it into pieces. When the broken pieces fell from her hands, Blossom was breathing heavily and her hands were shaking.
Calming down, Blossom quickly picked up the pieces and put them in the trash. Looking back at the not-as-tall-as-before but still-too-much-for-one-to-actually-want-to-clean-them tower of dishes, Blossom sighed and decided to cheat. Using her super speed, Blossom went back and forth from the sink to the cupboard, washing, drying, and putting away the dishes faster than someone could say "Quick!"
Collapsing from her exhausting, but thankfully finished, job, Blossom sneaked a peek in the living room and found that her shoulders fell when she saw that the Professor was still not done with "his talk" with Buttercup.
Blossom shut the door quietly and gazed back at the kitchen. What was it that Bubbles said? That she was truly annoyed with herself than at Buttercup? Is that really true? Blossom walked back to the sink and stared out the window that hovered above it.
She gazed dreamily at the stars that seemed to find their own peace up there in the sky. She remembered all those old Disney movies she used to watch when she was a kid and how they always said that if you wished upon a star your wish could come true.
Blossom smiled. How silly she was back then to believe that a silly saying like that could actually be true! Now, she knew better. She was older and wiser now and no silly kid's movie could fool her into believing what was fact and what was fiction.
But, going back to what Bubbles said, what did she mean by her really being annoyed by herself? It was true in a sense, but still, she wasn't the one who punches guys just because she feels like it or the one who runs off crying whenever something doesn't go her way. She was the leader, the unofficial role model of the team, the one who always looked after everybody.
Blossom sighed. Why couldn't Bubbles see that? Why not, just for once, everybody could see what it was like to be in her shoes? It's no walk in the park to watch disruptive and constantly inattentive super-powered sisters every day! For a normal human, it could drive them into insanity. Blossom wondered how the Professor handled it every day.
Blossom turned back to the stars, their brightness giving her comfort. Blossom opened her mouth then quickly closed it again. Was she really going to do something as childish as she was about to do? Blossom thought she had grown up from that!
Suddenly, a gasp escaped Blossom's mouth when she saw a falling meteoroid about to soon enter Earth's atmosphere and become a meteor! Or as others might call it, a shooting star. What was the legend? That if you wish upon a shooting star it is almost guaranteed that your wish could come true?
Before Blossom could stop herself, she found herself closing her eyes and whispering out her wish. "I wish that at least one person could understand what it's like to be me."
Blossom reopened her eyes and stared at the falling meteoroid. But, the Sandman must've came to visit without her knowing for before she knew it, Blossom was yawning and stretching her arms above her head. Blossom walked out of the other kitchen door and while doing so turned off the light and headed upstairs where she was going to get a much deserved rest.
Brick quickly unlocked the door to their secret hideout behind some alleyways in downtown Townsville and entered the rundown apartment that was the boys' so called "home".
Boomer yawned and said, "I'm tired." "Then go to sleep instead of standing there, Captain Obvious," Butch said, pushing past Boomer. "Hey! Brick!" "Brick! Brick! Please help me! I can't defend for myself for 5 measly seconds!" Butch taunted. "Well, why don't you-
"Enough! Boomer go to bed already! And Butch stop insulting your brother! Sheesh, what am I? Your mother?" Butch and Boomer had a stare down before finally pointing their tongues at each other and heading towards opposite directions, Boomer to their shared bedroom and Butch heading towards the threadbare couch located at the middle of the room.
Brick sighed as he plopped down on the couch next to Butch and picked up the book that was opened face down on what was left of a coffee table. "Dude, what's wrong with you?" Butch asked as he picked up a TV remote, "You can learn everything you want to from watching TV. What's the point of reading a stupid book?"
Brick sighed. He hated when his reading got interrupted for a ridiculous and meaningless reason. "Yeah, but TV doesn't always show 'everything' when you want to," Brick countered. "Exactly, that way you don't have to learn that much and just sit back and enjoy," Butch said, flipping through channels.
Brick rolled his eyes and turned back to his astrology book. Brick wished he could enter in to his own personal bubble and escape the world like he usually did whenever he was reading a book if it weren't for the fact that Butch had turned the TV's volume a little too high and he was chewing his potato chips a little too loudly.
Brick closed his book abruptly, earning a questioning look from Butch, and headed towards the kitchen where he provided himself a glass of water.
Wiping the leftover water from his mouth, Brick looked out the sorry excuse for a window (technically it was just a smashed hole with two boards of wood nailed in a crooked T) that was located above their scarcely operational sink.
The stars reminded Brick of his astrology book. Brick was fascinated with the human belief that astrological phenomena were actually linked with events that happened in a human's life. Of course, Brick didn't actually believe in that sort of rubbish, but the subject was fascinating nonetheless.
It was only a matter a time before Brick noticed a descending meteoroid that was entering Earth's atmosphere. He never got the reason why people called falling meteoroids shooting stars since meteoroids are obviously not stars and it certainly was not trying to shoot something.
But, the one thing that Brick truly didn't understand was how people associated the power to grant wishes with a falling space rock. It was truly a mystery to him. Still that doesn't mean that Brick couldn't have a little fun.
Sure he didn't believe the ancient myth, but Brick was still curious to how the myth came to be in the first place. So he decided to do a little experiment. Staring at the falling meteoroid, Brick started to brainstorm what type of wish the so-called shooting star would even consider granting.
Suddenly, a light bulb flashed on above his head and Brick quickly closed his eyes and officially started his experiment when he ended the traditional saying "I wish…"
When Brick was done he placed his glass in the sink and headed back to the living room without so much of a second glance at the so called star.
