Chapter 10: The dance Part 1

Temple:

"Pearl!" Steven called from his room in distress, the tall gem entered and found the boy kneeling in front of a pile of clothes.

"What's the matter, Steven?"

"The dance that I'm supposed to take Connie to is tonight, but I can't find anything decent to wear!" The young gem was practically in tears.

"Oh...well what about this collared red shirt and these black jeans?" The pale gem held up the articles of clothing, Steven only frowned.

"Pearl, this is a jr high school dance, and that means everyone is going to be dressed up like grown ups. I don't want to embarrass myself or Connie because I look like my mom dressed me."

Pearl bit her lip and set the outfit down, she then stood and looked around the room. She spotted a clothing magazine on the counter in the kitchen, the gem picked it up and began flipping through the pages, she hummed a happy tune as she did so, Steven watched with curiosity.

"Oh this one's nice..." Pearl stated with interest, then her usual blue tunic changed and turned into a dark blue spaghetti strap sequin dress.

"How do I look?"

"Awesome...wait why are you getting dressed up?" The boy tilted his head.

"Oh, I'm going to come with on your little date."

"It's not a date...at least I don't think it is...anyway, can you hand me that magazine, I wanna find something cool too."

While Steven looked through it, Amethyst walked in and laughed, "Ha, whoa Pearl what are you so dolled up for?"

"She's going with Connie and I to the dance..." The pink gem said from behind his catalog.

"Aww Sweet! What club are we going to, is it that new one off route 109?"

Pearl face palmed and sighed, "It's not a Club its a small group of children gathering at a school to dance."

The purple gem's excited mood dimmed and she narrowed her eyes, "Never mind...I'll be in my room."

"Oh come on, Amethyst you'll love it..." Steven had just then shape shifted his outfit into a tuxedo. "You'll get to wear whatever you want..." He dangled the magazine in her face.

"Ugh fine...but only if I get to wear this.." She changed into a skin tight black dress and black heeled boots, the violet gem's wild hair was now tamed and straightened.

Pearl slapped her hands over Steven's eyes, "Amethyst, you look like a...harlot. Put on something less revealing!"

"Hey, I said if you want me to come you'd let me wear this...no dress, no Amethyst." Amethyst crossed her arms.

The boy pulled the skinny gem's hands from his face and then gave her the "puppy eyes" expression.

"Why do I even try...?"

Steven grinned and grabbed his phone and called Connie, she answered after two rings.

"Hello?"

"Hey Connie, it's Steven I just want to tell you that Pearl and Amethyst are going to be coming with us."

"Okay, that's great because my parents both got called into work and won't be able to pick you guys up. At least now you can just have Lion take us all to the school. "

"Well actually Lion has been gone all day and I can't find him, he's probably with Garnet on a mission or something. But don't worry I'll ask if they can borrow my dad's van and we can still drive there." Pearl and Amethyst exchanged looks.

"Okay that sounds good, see you in an hour!" The Indian girl hung up.

Steven pocketed his phone and faced his teammates, "We're going to be picking up Connie, but we need my dad's van. So I'll go talk to him and-"

"There's no need for that..." Pearl cut him off, the boy raised an eyebrow.

Fifty minutes later:

The three gems drove down the road in a white convertible, Steven had the biggest smile on his face. "Wow Pearl, I didn't know you owned a car.."

"There's a lot you don't know about me..."

"Really?"

"Yeah, before 'perfect Pearl' there was 'Pearl the stone cold baddy', I mean the stuff she yaks on me for doing now is nothing compared to what she used to do back in the day." Amethyst explained, she had the young gem's full attention.

"We are not going to dig up those horrible nightmares right now, I am not proud of what I did back then..." Pearl's grip on the steering wheel seemed to tighten as she spoke.

The violet gem turned to Steven in the back seat and whispered, "I'll tell you about it later.."

Just then, they arrived at Connie's house, the pink gem got out of he car and ran up to the front door and rang the doorbell. The girl opened the door revealing the white dress she was wearing, her hair was styled in large curls and she hadn't been wearing her glasses.

"Whoa Connie, you look...different..."

Connie blushed, "Thanks...you ready?"

"Oh, yeah...right this way." Steven motioned for her to walk with him to the car, the Indian girl smiled and did so.

On the way to the school, Steven noticed the red eyeglasses that usually rested on Connie's nose, weren't there.

"Hey what happened to your glasses?" He asked out of curiosity, the girl glanced at him.

"Well...remember the night...when I gave you my gift? Well after I left...my glasses began to give me a headache, so I took them off. When I did my vision wasn't blurry like it usually was..almost as if it had been...healed."

Steven thought about what had just been said and then remembered what happened a few days ago when Lapis showed up, he'd sneezed on her broken gem and she exclaimed that his spit healed her. Could the kiss he received from Connie healed her eyes?

The boy's thoughts were interrupted when Pearl stopped the car and stated, "We're here!"

Everyone exited the vehicle and made their way to the entrance of the school, music could be heard as they entered. Once inside, Connie was greeted by three of her friends.

"Oh my gosh Connie, you look so cute!"

"Are you going to introduce us to your date?"

"This is my boyfriend, Steven, Steven, these are my friends Mary, Sasha, and Caleb." The girl gestured to each person.

"Hi..." Steven waved, he was surprised that she referred to him as her boyfriend, he guessed that's what the kiss was meant for.

"Who are they?" Caleb pointed a finger at Pearl and Amethyst who had sat down at a table.

"Oh those are my friends...well more like my parental guardians...the one in blue is Pearl and the one in black is Amethyst." The pink gem replied. "We're a team called the Crystal gems, we save humanity from monsters and stuff."

"Cool!" Gushed Mary and Sasha simultaneously.

"Crystal Gems? Yeah right..." A voice came from behind the group, everyone turned and groaned in annoyance, Steven wasn't sure what was going on. He turned and saw another boy his age with orange-brown windblown hair, he also wore a tux.

"Who's that?" The gem whispered to Sasha.

"That's Brad...nobody in this school likes him, yet he still thinks Connie is going to go out with him.."

Brad approached the small group, stopping in front of the Indian girl, "Connie..."

"Brad.."

"So who's this guy, I've never seen him before.."the ginger narrowed his eyes.

"That's Connie's boyfriend, key word boyfriend..." Mary moved Steven closer to Connie to prove her point.

Brad glanced over at him, "Him? This little pipsqueak?"

"Excuse me?" Steven stepped forward, the taller boy chuckled.

"What, are you going to do, eat a bunch of donuts? That's what it looks like you've been doing your whole life."

The gem clenched his fists and took another step, Connie grabbed his shoulder. "Don't...he's not worth it."

The group walked away from the bully and continued on with their evening. Meanwhile, Pearl and Amethyst sat at the table in silence, Amethyst would have fallen asleep if the music wasn't so loud. "This music is terrible, how do humans dance to this stuff?

"You didn't have a problem with music like this thirteen years ago.."

"Whatever...I'm a better person now." Pearl got up to get some punch, the purple gem stayed behind and rested her head on her arm.

A slow song started and Steven got excited, eyes lighting up, he turned to Connie.

"Wanna dance?"

"Maybe after this song, I need to use the restroom...excuse me." The girl gave him a quick kiss before leaving.

"So...are you having fun?" Mary inquired, the young gem warrior smiled.

"Yeah, I'm glad Connie invited me..."

The friend's line of vision appeared to be looking over the boy's shoulder, Steven looked at her.

"Oh no..."

"What?" He glanced in the direction she had been looking and saw Brad coming towards them.

The boy gritted his teeth and balled up his fists, the blonde placed her hand against his chest. "Steven...don't..."

Brad finally reached the group with a devious look on his face.

"What do you want?" Steven asked bitterly.

The bully opened his mouth to say something but was cut off.

"Nevermind, I just remembered that I don't talk to jerks." The gem smirked and crossed his arms.

"Is that all you've got? Because I can-huh, HEY!" Brad yelled as he found himself trapped inside a pink bubble.

"I'm sorry what was that, I couldn't hear you over my growling stomach. Ya know I think I saw some donuts on the way in, and you know me..." The warrior and his new friends laughed, Brad pounded on the walls of the spherical prison.

"You little freak, you're lucky my older brother, Lars isn't here because he would teach you a lesson!"

"Wait, You're related to Lars? That explains a lot..." Steven looked at the rude antagonist and shrugged, then he began to spin the bubble like a top, much to brad's surprise.

Oddly enough, no one else around them had taken the slightest bit of interest in what was going on. Mary, Sasha, and Caleb all watched with amusement as the gem put Brad on the most dizzying ride of his life.

That's when the unspeakable happened...Steven ejected the bully to the Temple. As soon as Brad disappeared the gem froze in fear, the group gaped at him.

"Uh...I'll go talk to the Gems..." The boy quickly ran off to find his teammates, that's when Connie came back, she approached her friends.

"Hey, where's Steven?"

All three of them looked at each other nervously, "Uhh..."

Gem table:

Pearl and Amethyst were bored out of their minds, "Ugh why did I volunteer to come with Steven to this...this...whatever you call it..it's so lifeless!" The pale gem dropped her head onto the table.

Steven came running up to them in a panic, "Pearl...Amethyst...Brad...bubbled to temple..."

"WHAT?! You bubbled somebody to the temple?!"

"Dude, seriously?" The purple gems eyes widened.

"No time to explain, we need to get back to the Temple!" The boy ran for the door, the two other gems went after him.

Burning room

In a flash, Brad found himself in a strange room filled with other differently colored bubbles containing strange artifacts and gemstones. "Where am I? Whatever, I'm getting out of here...wherever here is.."

He then began to push and pull at the sides of the prison, but it hardly budged. Reaching down to his pocket, the boy fished out a pocket knife that he'd recieved from his brother, he opened it and thrust it against the wall. Nothing happened, so he tried again, this time throwing all of his body weight into it, in return the bubble gave way and popped. Brad fell, hitting and popping two bubbled gems on the way down, the bully hit the ground with a thud, two Peridots and a Cobalt gemstone landed on either side of him.

Brad groaned as he pulled himself off the floor, the green and blue gems began to glow and reform, the now scared and confused boy got up and ran. His heart jumped when he saw a door, it jumped again when it opened and Garnet came rushing in, gauntlets summoned.

"Who are you and what are you doing in here?" She asked forcefully, stopping the intruder, he didn't answer, he was too scared to speak.

"I'm not going to ask again, who are-AHHHH" the tall gem screamed as a green tonfa was shoved through her chest.

Brad watched in horror as she shuddered and then disappeared in a puff of smoke only leaving behind two red gems that clattered to the ground, one of them cracking upon impact.

The boy looked up with tears in his eyes at the person who was cause of the "death" that he had just witnessed. In front of him stood a tall male gem with green skin, eyes, hair, and clothes. His outfit consisted of a vest over a long sleeve button up shirt along with long pants and tan combat boots. His hair hung over his left eye and he had two peridots on each of his elbows, the weapon he held turned into energy and returned to its gem.

"Uh oh...we have a witness...you know what means, right 'Balt?" The being spoke with an Australian accent.

"Just send him back to our temple, Peridot..." another male voice came from behind Brad, he spun around to see a dark blue Gem walking over to him.

He wore a black cape over a blue vest, black pants and boots, an oval cobalt gemstone protruded from his throat. His long blue hair was tied back in a ponytail still leaving his bangs draping over both of his eyes.

Peridot began to creep towards Brad with his hands out, "Hang on mate, this won't hurt a bit..."

The preteen hurriedly back away from both of the gems, pulling out his phone, "No! Get away from me you freaks, I'll call the cops!"

Before he could blink, Brad's phone was knocked out his hands with the butt end of Cobalt's halberd. "I'm sure you are..."

That's when Peridot threw his bubble on him and sent him to their temple...wherever that was...

"Now..." The blue gem started, "Let's go find that little Rosie and her clan of stars..." Both gems shape shifted into dragons and busted through the door, completely demolishing Steven's room in the process. The dragons set out in the dark of the night in search of the rest of the Crystal Gems team.

Hope you guys enjoyed that chapter! What do you think Amethyst was talking about when she said Pearl acted differently in previous years? More importantly, what are Cobalt and Peridot planning to do to the other gems and Brad? Find out in the next chapter!