Chapter 10: More Than Usual

The villain party and the incident at the mall made the front page on the newspaper the following Monday morning. There were even a few pictures. The Girls were sitting at their kitchen table checking this out.

Buttercup snickered at one of the pictures. "Looks like Brick won't be able to get outta this one." She pointed at a small picture of when Brick had briefly kissed Princess. Then she saw a picture that made her cringe. It was a picture of her, Butch and the werewolf...and she looked like the damsel in distress while Butch "saved" her life.

The other pictures weren't very comfortable to look at, either. There was a picture of Blossom dancing with Aldo, another of her dancing with Brick, and a picture of when Bubbles had accidentally put her head on Boomer's shoulder.

The Girls didn't speak until they heard the Professor come into the kitchen. "Hey girls, what's up?" He noticed the newspaper on the table. "Oh, it's here! Let me see!" He started to make a grab for it.

"No!" Blossom exclaimed abruptly. She impulsively crumpled the newspaper into a ball.

"Blossom!" The Professor stared at her with wide eyes. "What the..?"

"Um, there aren't any interesting things on there, Professor. Really," Blossom said quickly. She looked at her wrist and turned to her sisters. "Oh, look at the time! We have to get to school! Come on!" Without hesitating, Buttercup and Bubbles followed their sister towards the front door. "See you after school, Professor!" all three girls yelled as they opened the door, closed it, and flew out of sight.

The Professor calmly walked to the closed front door and put his hands on his hips. "Why were they in such a hurry?" he muttered. "Blossom isn't even wearing a watch."

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"That was close," Blossom said in relief as she and her sisters were flying to school. She was still holding the crumpled up newspaper in her hand.

Buttercup smirked. "You were fast to act."

The leader Puff sighed. "I know, but I didn't want the Professor to see those pictures." She gave her sister a glance. "I know you wouldn't want him to see that picture of you and Butch with the drunken werewolf."

"Ugh. Don't mention it to me. Gives me a headache." Buttercup looked over at Bubbles, trying to distract herself from thinking of the embarrassing moments with Butch. "So what was that with your head laying dreamily on that Rowdyruff? You looked a little too comfortable for my liking." She gave her a suspicious glare, briefly remembering when Bubbles had said a few years ago that she thought Boomer was cute; and Buttercup had to grudgingly admit that the Ruff was a bit more than just cute now. It made her nearly gag.

Bubbles looked down below and focused on a cherry tree that's leaves were starting to turn a yellowish color. "Um. I don't know. I hadn't noticed until he moved and then just left me there. He didn't even insult me."

Noticing they were about a block away from the school, the girls flew down and started walking for the remaining distance; this is due to what their Principal, Mr. Jones, had ordered them. He hadn't told them in detail, but he had quite insinuated it, about his new 'no-superpowers' policy at school.

"Well, that's a miracle," Buttercup responded as she saw the school building ahead. "The jerk must've been too shocked to think of anything smart to say. Anyways, you better not do something like that again, Bubbles," she finished with a warning tone.

'It's not like I did it on purpose,' Bubbles thought, feeling a bit annoyed.

When the girls arrived to school, entered the cafeteria and sat at a table with some friends, they started to notice that several students kept looking over at them. They were used to this, since they are Townsville's favorite heroines, but they couldn't help think there was something else going on. Their suspicions of why this was happening were confirmed when an irritated Princess stomped towards them with a newspaper in her hand. "This is all your fault! You girls made me look bad!" She tossed the paper in front of Buttercup.

Buttercup grinned as she took the paper in her hands. "It's not our fault. You ridiculed your own self." She smirked. "Besides, you were only in two pictures. One where you were laying unconsciously on a chair when you got knocked out, and another of when Brick sort of kissed you." She looked at her in fake wonder. "Seriously, I thought you hated the guy. You nearly melted in the spot." She snickered.

Princess glared at her. "No! I nearly fainted because it was too horrible!" A light bulb suddenly flashed on top of her head. She looked at her nails. "So, how did it feel like when that Rowdyruff saved you, eh?"

"He did NOT save me! He was just trying to tick me off! I didn't need saving anyway, I would've taken on that guy myself!" Buttercup fumed, losing her cool.

"You could have, but you didn't." Princess smirked, knowing she had her.

"You're asking for it," Buttercup said, cracking her knuckles.

Suddenly, the bell rang. People who had been huddling near the Puffs' table, ready to watch Buttercup beat Princess, groaned in disappointment.

"Saved by the bell." Princess looked at Buttercup triumphantly.

The Puff grinned. "Not really." Princess's triumphant look didn't even have time to fade. Buttercup flicked her on the forehead with her index finger, sending her flying to a table full of hot senior boys. She landed on her butt with a thud. The boys stood up, laughing their heads off, and giving Buttercup hand signs like 'call me' and thumbs up.

"Buttercup!" Blossom shouted, trying not to laugh. She felt sort of guilty that she hadn't stopped Buttercup from arguing with Princess, even though she had seen it coming.

The tomboy Puff 'dusted' off her hands together, like in a finishing gesture. "Well, let's get to class."

Too bad the rest of the school day was not going to be as amusing.

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Blossom was trying to pay attention in her first period class. But it was becoming difficult, noticing that Brick kept glancing at her with an amused expression on his face. He was definitely up to something, alright. With the Rowdyruff Boys coming to school, she and her sisters have to keep their eyes on them whenever they can.

When the teacher excused himself to get some copies of the assignment, Blossom took this as her chance to find out what Brick was up to. She turned left on her seat to face Brick. "What is your problem?" she asked in an annoyed tone, making it sound a bit polite; though speaking politely to Brick was becoming more difficult every time she had to deal with him.

Brick lazily turned his head to look at her, as if having expected this. "What are ya talking about?"

"You keep glancing at me about every three minutes or so."

"Oh. That." Brick chuckled. "If I told ya, you might freak out. It's nothing, really." He waved it off casually and started to talk to the guy sitting behind him.

Blossom glared at him. "Briiick.." It was obvious it wasn't anything good if he didn't want to tell her. He did say it would freak her out...which gives her more reason to find out, right?

Brick sighed dramatically and faced her again. "Weeelll.."

The 'Puff scowled. "Just get to the point."

Brick sighed again. "Hmm." He put his index finger and thumb on his chin, like in a thinking way. "Well, I saw you at the mall yesterday," he said lightly, not looking at her.

Blossom stared at him. "I know that," she said in a low voice. Is he being serious? What is he playing at? Was he trying to make a fool of her by glancing at her often, knowing she would say something about it? Maybe she is exaggerating a bit with her reactions to him...

The Rowdyruff leaned towards her on his seat. "Saw you at a store." He turned his head a bit to the side, giving her a taunting look. "In the female underwear area.."

Or not. "You what?" Blossom stared at him in disbelief. She thought nobody had seen her there; but it's not like she was doing something she wasn't supposed to. Still...Brick, of all people!

Brick shrugged, sitting up. "You weren't much to look at, especially since you didn't actually try anything on." He looked away with a sneer, but then his eyes widened slightly as he realized how that sounded. "Not that I wanted to see anything," he muttered quickly. He gave himself a mental punch and kick. He made eye contact with her again, suddenly interested in seeing her reaction to his comment.

The guy sitting behind Brick darted his eyes repeatedly from Brick to Blossom in confusion. They had been bickering for a few minutes, but now both teens were suddenly just staring at each other, neither moving, as if expecting the unexpected.

Finally, Blossom cleared her throat and looked away from Brick. "Well, since nothing compromising happened, I'll leave it at this." She gave him another glare. "Just don't go around exaggerating things."

The Ruff made a fake, innocent face. "I would never."

"Ah, class, okay. Who doesn't have the worksheet yet?" Mr. Selton panted, as soon as he zoomed back to the classroom. "Come up to the front to get yourself one, I have some now."

Blossom and Brick stood up abruptly, glad for an interruption. They walked at the same time towards the teacher's desk, and accidentally grabbed the same paper. They glared at each other, and started to lightly pull the paper from each other's grasp, so as not to rip it.

Mr. Selton interceded quickly. "Guys, guys, no need for that. I have more here on the desk."

In Blossom's brief distraction of glancing at her teacher, Brick finished pulling the paper from her loosened grip on it. He gave Blossom a military salute and walked smugly back to his desk.

Mr. Selton dabbed his forehead with a handkerchief in relief, because he had begun to worry about the little situation. "Here, Blossom." He handed her another worksheet. She took it vaguely, looking at Brick in irritation, and walked speedily back to her desk.

He's just an annoying teenage boy. A boy with no manners whatsoever; a Rowdyruff. I've dealt with him a bunch of times already, no big deal. I'm Blossom, the leader of the Powerpuff Girls, after all.

The Powerpuff kept telling herself these things to soothe her annoyance towards Brick for the rest of the class period.

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At lunch...

Bubbles looked around the cafeteria nervously. "Um, Blossom," she muttered. "People keep looking at us." She gulped lightly. "More than before."

Her sister sighed. "I know, Bubbles. I've been noticing that too, since we arrived to school this morning."

"It's because of those darn 'Ruffs," Buttercup said in an annoyed tone. "Ever since they came back to Townsville, they've caused nothing less than trouble for us." She glimpsed at the super-powered boys, who were just chilling with a group of seniors near some snack machines. Butch caught her eye. They stared at each other blankly for a few seconds, when Buttercup remembered the incident at the villain party. She gave him a deadly glare, then turned back to her sisters.

"Mmm, do you guys think it has to do with what happened yesterday and the day before?" Bubbles asked, concerned. She sipped her milk with a straw, a worried look on her face.

"Probably," Blossom replied. "What other reason could there be? We know for a fact that what happened at the mall and on Him's party was in the newspaper." She put an elbow on the table and cupped her cheek in her hand. "And probably on the news, too."

Buttercup tossed her leftovers in a nearby trash bin. "Just what I needed. Now everybody thinks that I can fight giant monsters, but can't even defend myself from a werewolf. Just great."

Blossom tried to comfort her."Hey, don't jump to conclusions. Maybe no one thinks much of that."

"Hey Powerpuff Girls!" someone shouted from a distance. The Girls turned to look at some lanky girl running up to them.

"Hey, girls! I have some important questions to ask you. May I?" the girl said excitedly.

The Girls exchanged quick glances. All school day so far, they've noticed the student body staring at them more often than usual, whispering, giggling, and have even straight up asked them a few things about the occurrences on the weekend. The girl was not really a suprise.

"Sure," Blossom responded, a bit hesitant.

The lanky girl clapped her hands together once. "So, is it true that you three attended Him's welcome back party this past weekend?"

Now the Girls knew where this was going. "Yes. We did," Blossom answered anyway, raising her head up a bit.

"And did you girls really fight the Rowdyruff Boys at the mall yesterday?" the lanky girl continued.

"Sort of." The leader 'Puff narrowed her eyes at Buttercup. It was the green-eyed 'Puff who had started it all at the mall...

The lanky girl giggled and ran off back to her friends. Oookaaaayyyyy...weird, was what the Girls thought.

"I'm telling ya," Buttercup started. "If I get asked one more time about what happened on the weekend, I'm gonna-"

"Buttercup!" Blossom interrupted her. "You're not going to do anything to anyone. Understand? It's okay that people are curious about all this. I mean, us the Powerpuff Girls, attended Him's villain party. And then had a 'fight' with the boys the following day."

"Whatever. They still shouldn't be so nosy."

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As soon as Bubbles walked into her art class, she noticed there was something different about it. There were no longer desks. Now there were three long tables, which obviously means there would be more room for art projects and all that.

"Ah, students! Come in, come in!" Ms. Bonsy exclaimed. "Finally we have received our new tables! Now, I actually made a seating chart, so you will not be picking where you're going to sit."

The students immediately groaned. Maybe getting these long, shiny tables wasn't such a good idea. Bubbles didn't mind it, though. She could work easily with anyone.

Well, almost anyone.

She glanced at Boomer, who was standing near the classroom door, looking utterly uninterested at what was going on.

I hope I don't have to sit near him. After what happened yesterday..

The teacher began to call the students in alphabetical order, informing them where they were going to sit. When she got to the J's..."Boomer, your seat is right by the door." He gave a curt nod and made his way to his assigned seat. He only had to take four steps to get there, since he had been standing close enough.

'Wow...He didn't sneer or anything like that. He just did as he was told...,' Bubbles thought. A strange, but comfortable feeling crept inside her. Trying to figure out what she was feeling, she almost didn't hear when Ms. Bonsy called on her.

"Bubbles! Dear, go sit in front of Boomer, please."

The entire class fell silent. They darted their eyes from Bubbles and Boomer repeatedly, wanting to see their reactions. Even though they knew that the two super-powered teens had been seating near each other previously, one in front of the other, there was something about sitting across from each other that seemed more interesting.

Bubbles slowly and almost hesitantly made her way to her new seat, feeling her cheeks start to heat up. She saw Boomer was sitting straight up in his chair, looking down at the table. As soon as she sat down, his eyes looked up; they made eye contact. Events of the previous day began to fill her mind. Bubbles felt her stomach start to churn, and her already flushed cheeks felt like they were on fire. The 'Ruff just stared at her, nothing evident on his face; his expression unfathomable. Then, he looked away quickly, as if just looking at her were deadly and he barely realized it.

The 'Puff stared at him for a few more seconds before looking away, focusing her gaze on her teacher instead. But she couldn't pay much attention to Ms. Bonsy. Boomer was sitting right in front of her, and besides, she couldn't help thinking about the weekend's happenings and the fact that even in this class, people would glance at her often, looking like they have hundreds of questions to ask her - more than usual.

Guess they also saw the newspaper, she thought, feeling her face grimace. Maybe having attended Him's party hadn't been such a smart idea. She hoped her schoolmates, at least most of them, didn't and would not think that Boomer and her had something going on between them other than the counterpart thing.

The rest of the class period was uneventful. Bubbles and Boomer did not make more eye contact. Bubbles felt a bit uneasy about the earlier tension between them, but at the same time, she felt grateful that he hadn't made any nasty remarks or given her teasing looks about the incident at the mall.

Still, things were definitely going to get more awkward; she just knew it.

"NOTEBOOKS. NOW." Coach Miller stood in front of the classroom, hands on his hips, legs a bit separated, and a big, wicked grin on his face.

Unlike last week, all the students in the classroom now had their notebooks. They all took their notebooks out, some being smacked loudly on top of the desks, as if telling Coach Miller, 'There. I got my notebook now. Happy?'

"OOH. NICE. VERY NICE." The wrestler-shaped man snickered to himself, then cleared his throat. "NOW. IT IS TIME TO LEARN. WHO'S READY TO WATCH AN EDUCATIONAL VIDEO, EH?"

The class became extremely silent. No one dared to move. No one dared to speak. Breathing even sounded too loud.

Bubbles slowly began slouching in her seat, not wanting to catch a single glimpse of whichever video Coach Miller was intending on showing. His eyes had a mischievous glint in them, which, on him, it looked like something to utterly dread for. His smile was more of a teasing smirk; he seemed to already be enjoying himself.

Buttercup glared at the teacher. She had already heard from other students that this lesson had creeped them out for life. And this was only the beginning; well, more like a glimpse of what was yet to come.

"Okayyy," Coach Miller muttered, amused. He lowered his voice to nearly a whisper, but still sounding loud enough for the whole class to hear, "Let's begin."

Maybe not what you hoped for, since I hadn't updated in months! My apologies. :J

But, at least this is better than no update. :]