Buttercup woke up easily that day. She'd actually woken up an hour earlier, but decided that she had enough time lazying in bed. All those time were spent mulling over the fact that today, they would face their demons like any other day, with a special exception–Blossom wouldn't be coming to Townsville High anymore.
She wouldn't have to fake a smile, put up walls of steel around her and turn deaf towards every gossiper's words. She wouldn't have to suffer and walk back and forth in that hell, so Buttercup was grateful.
One of the broken puffs had found eternal peace.
Groaning at the sudden realization that she would have the responsibilities on her shoulders since the role had been moved due to the fall of their leader, she begrudgingly sat up, stretching her limbs until she felt physically better.
As she walked down the hallway to Bunny's room, she started to wonder why Blossom always had to wake Bunny up. She could just let her rest for a while, panic and then quickly got ready with her super powers. Then she realized.
'Shit. Of course.' Buttercup rolled her eyes at her idiocy.
How could she forget about the very thing that tormented her soul every second wherever she was? Not to mention that her sisters were going through the same thing.
Out of all the weaknesses in the world, Buttercup never thought that the stupidest and least likely to happen became the one who striped her of her invincibility.
Never underestimate the littlest thing, she supposed.
"Bunny! Are you awake? You better be if you don't want me to drag your sorry–"
The door swung open, revealing Bunny's empty amethyst eyes.
'Like an amethyst that's lost its shine.' Buttercup noted.
"You okay?"
She shrugged, "Eh. I don't feel like... usual."
"Good." She shot an eyebrow upward at her older sister's response. "It'd be one hell of an assignment to keep you on your feet."
She snorted a reply but smiled genuinely nonetheless at her sister. But then her face fell.
"Do we really have to go?" She mumbled, pouting.
"We already had a week off. I think that's enough time and besides, they'd be suspicious... even though it was most likely to happen." She said pointedly at her after she stared incredulously at Buttercup's words.
"Sucks." She drawled dryly.
"I know." The green-eyed girl nodded in response, arms crossed and eyes closed, as if contemplating the misery.
When she opened her eyes, she found Bunny scanning her from head to toe with a weirdly blank look.
"What?"
"Buck, have you showered?" She said, accusingly.
Buttercup was taken aback. "No."
With that, the black-haired girl zipped to her room, leaving her sister laughing in the halls.
"Bubbles, for the sixth time, flip the frickin' pancakes!" Breeze scowled, reprimanding the blonde girl for what seemed to be the sixth time.
"Oh right, right! Sorry! I'm super sorry!" Bubbles replied nervously, flipping the pancakes.
Breeze rolled her eyes before shoving a spoonful of cereal in chocolate milk into her mouth. Bell stayed silent as she looked down at her unappealing, stack of half-burnt pancakes. She scrunched her nose and leaned back into her chair, pushing the plate away with one hand.
She looked up when she saw Bunny skipping down the stairs with both hands in the pockets.
"Mornin', ladies." She greeted them in a bored tone.
They all–including Bubbles–whirled their heads simultaneously and watched her movements as if she was a new species.
Bunny frowned, "Stop that."
Bubbles blinked, Breeze shrugged and Bell resumed her less-than-half-hearted eating. Bunny scoffed as she pulled a chair out. She smirked when she saw Buttercup zipping past her once again. She sat on the chair across her, a bowl of milk and a box of cereal in front of her.
"Running late, Buck?"
Buttercup gave her the stink eye before moving on with her breakfast.
"Girls..." Bubbles started suddenly, changing the atmosphere.
They knew that Bubbles was a soft-hearted girl, so the topic would definitely be emotional, especially after what had taken place... they were actually quite surprised the prior events and the start of their new hell hadn't broken the girl.
"Do you think they'll find out?" She said, barely above a whisper.
"Which–which 'they'? The teachers, our classmates, or they they." Bunny gulped, shrugging before lowering herself onto her seat.
Buttercup pursed her lips, never in a million years would she ever show a sign of weakness, not even when her heart felt pricked by billions of needles continuously. "Every sign of weakness is every ten percent of your enemy's victory" was her motto ever since the title "The Toughest Fighter" was given to her.
"We will never know, but whatever happens, I'm sure that we'll stick together, even when the world's against us. One puff for all and all puffs for one." She grinned cheekily, causing Bunny to hit her on the arm.
"Stop quoting the Three Musketeers."
Buttercup caught a small sparkle in her eye as her gaze averted from her wide smile. She resisted the urge to smile, afraid that once the world knew of her happiness, it would try to bring her down again.
"Oh." She glanced down at the plate of burnt pancakes then up to Bubbles' nervous face.
"Sorry?"
"It's the puffs!"
"I bet they cried all night."
The puffs were met by smiles of sympathy and curious glances. The worst they received were booming laughter and pointing fingers. At one point, Bubbles had almost asked Buttercup whether the "news" had travelled or not, but the green puff was already out of her sight.
'Don't worry Bubbles, keep strong. Take a breath and release.' She chanted in her head.
All the way over to her art classroom, all she did was all that she told herself to do–inhale, exhale, repeat–and by the time she reached her destination, she stood rooted in her place.
Art was a subject she shared with both of them. With a shaky sigh, she placed her quivering hand on the door knob, about to turn it when–
"Bubbles."
Robin stood behind her, gripping a strap of her purple bag. She managed a weak smile which was returned by the nervous puff.
"H-hey..."
"I'm sorry." She was quickly engulfed in the brunette's warm hug, which she instantly returned. "He was such a dick. I'm so sorry I never saw his true side and stuck by your side, instead I went to Hawaii for a whole month and–"
"It's okay." Bubbles muttered, laying her head on her childhood friend's shoulder. "I'm just glad you're here."
"Don't worry, I'll kick him away from you." The brunette vowed.
"You mean... keep." Bubbles laughed whole-heartedly, separating herself from her.
"Yeah. That." Robin grinned in reply, "Come on."
She placed her hand in hers and tugged the blonde puff into the room. Sure, the blue puff heard the nasty things, noticed the sudden shift in air, and saw the nasty sneers but she could perfectly and happily ignore them as long as her best friend's by her side.
To say Bubbles was in her protective and warm bubble was correct.
She was on full alert when she entered the hell they called "school". It was Buttercup's second period, History, a period she shared with... some people she despised. However, everything melted away when she swept her gaze all around the room, every nook and corner.
'No black-haired, green-eyed, devil's personal favorite kids.' She released a sigh she hadn't known she'd been holding slowly, cautiously stepping into a now safe place-but that didn't mean she let her guard down, for she, Buttercup Utonium, had learnt the consequences of letting your guard down in the worst case.
She sat down, sparing the teacher (who was possibly confused because she never came in on time before) a glance and a nod. She stayed ignorant to the chatters of her mindless and heartless classmates, and instead focused on the lesson.
Buttercup Utonium, for once, wasn't a studious person. She never thought that anything that didn't involve strength and physical exercises were of any importance. Of course, that had changed because she had the will to make her sister proudly smile at her from above there.
The thought alone brought her feelings down for a while, but like a switch, it quickly came back up.
'Remember, BC. Don't give in. You're not the old you.' She reminded herself, finding herself on the brink of breaking her promise to herself.
"Mr. Mitchelson. How nice of you to join us." Mr. Adams, the teacher said loudly, breaking Buttercup out of her reverie.
The boy merely chuckled nervously, his eyes spotting her immediately. He sported a wide grin and walked up to her, ignoring the teacher who mumbled something along the lines of: "kids these days..." under his breath before going back to the board, letting the boy off the hook since he had just returned from his vacation.
"Hey Peanut, what's up?"
Buttercup rolled her eyes but smirked anyway, "How's Hawaii?"
Mitch's eyes lit up brightly and his lips stretched for miles, "It was amazing!" He whispered excitedly, like a child on a Christmas morning.
"I still can't believe that I won the tickets. I mean, me? Of all people?" Mitch chuckled at him words.
"Yeah, I guess the guy selling tickets was so desperate." Buttercup snickered quietly under her breath.
She opened her book and started converting the teacher's words into text. Mitch gaped–literally gaped at his best friend. Buttercup never wrote anything down; she'd always slept or pretended to listen if not conversing, playfully battling or throwing paper balls at him.
'Holy cow, what's gotten into her?' He thought.
"Don't give me that look." She muttered under her breath, still focused on her book and the teacher.
"But, BC, you never–"
She cut him off with a glance, "Look, people change okay?"
Realization dawned on him quickly and his eyes widened, "Oh shit! I'm so sorry! I'm the worst friend of all friends in the universe! I can't believe I forgot about–"
"Mr. Mitchelson." The teacher reprimanded him, glaring all the way to the back of the classroom. "I'd like it if you'd just pay a little attention, like your friend."
Mitch nodded, "Sorry teach."
Mr. Adams rolled his eyes before returning back to the lesson.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd assume he had brainwashed you to be his Adam's Apple Student." Mitch joked, causing a smile to crack up on Buttercup's friend. "Get it?" He wiggled his brows at her, prompting her to laugh.
"Mr. Mitchelson and Ms. Utonium!"
"Sandra, would you please stand up and read the poem for us?"
Her heart literally stopped for a second and her pencil dropped on the desk, her eyes focused on a certain spot of the book.
"He watches her grieve, but did nothing to sooth her lament. He smirked at her sobs, and laughed at her tears. All the pain from him added on top of her long list of torture. With her gone like the wind, she could only weep with the silence."
'Please stop.' Breeze thought, feeling her body shook slightly as she put her head under her linked hands, squeezing her eyes shut.
"... and she wilts away, like the blossom petals in spring. She shall be remembered, the girl who gave me–"
Everyone went still at the sound of her chair screeching to a stop as she stood up abruptly, head down and hands on top of her desk.
"Yes, Ms. Utonium?"
"... Can I be excused?"
"What was that?" The teacher frowned.
"M-may I be excused...?" She said as calmly as she could, trying to steady her heartbeats, trying to ignore her classmates' sudden whispers.
The teacher nodded and pulled up a pass, sliding it up on her desk for her to take. She muttered a "thank you" that almost didn't reach the teacher's ears and strode out hastily.
Her head whirled left and right, scanning for somewhere safe. Her glassy eyes spotted a familiar door and quickly strolled toward it, opened it and closed it. She immediately sank to the floor, wrapping her arms around her knees.
All the words in the poems, songs, walls, conversations... they all seemed to be referring to the one thing that had been the causes of her anxiety and lament. She wished she turned deaf, so that she couldn't hear the accusing words.
Music used to light up her day, turn her frown into a smile, and the main reason she could be so darn cheerful all day.
Used to.
Nowadays, the thing she loved seemed to be one of the things that kept bringing unwanted feelings-fear, anxiety, sorrow, self-hatred...
So she decided to stop anything music-related for a while... till she regained just enough strength. That is, if she still held the same passion and love she had for music.
For now, she determined that the soothing silence and the calming darkness were her comforters in day and night. How long would this continue? She didn't know, and she didn't intend to find out.
All she wanted was... for everything to be fine again.
Because suddenly fearing the things you loved, changing into a complete stranger with a different personality, and finding comfort in weird places seemed to be the symptoms that concluded a person was abnormal.
The cold floor sent chills up her spine, and weirdly, she enjoyed it. She inhaled the scent of musky floor cleaner and exhaled slowly, running random thoughts in her mind to keep her ears shut.
"What are you doing?"
Hearing Bunny's question, Bell couldn't help but roll her eyes though knowing that Bunny only asked–despite knowing very well what her sister's doing since she had eyes, a pair of extra sharp ones at that–as a way to strike a conversation with her.
While Bell was born as the quiet one who stayed in solitude and enjoyed it, Bunny was born as the over-energetic "bunny" of the bunch who was always hopping around, never one to stay still with her mouth shut. That was exactly why when her sister walked past their destination, she followed her.
"Drawing."
"Oh... drawing what?"
This time, Bunny took her sister's silence as an answer which meant: "don't disturb me", so she sighed, staring ahead at the trees lined up behind their school.
"Buck's gonna be upset when she found out we skipped." Bunny stated.
"Then why'd you follow me?"
"I didn't want to be alone." Bunny said in a lower voice this time.
Bell stopped sketching for a nanosecond and muttered a quiet "oh" as a reply before continuing her sketch.
Getting bored, Bunny started to look everywhere for something fun to do, and that's when she spotted Bell's album. Instead of photographs, it's filled with mesmerizing sketches, neatly folded and tucked safely inside. She betted ten bucks that the sketches were also arranged by date.
Sparing a quick glance at the white-haired puff, she quickly snatched it, and after making sure her sister's not looking, she opened it slowly. She flipped a page, two pages, and then she flipped it from the back out of boredom.
She then chose a random one and unfolded the paper, revealing a thundering sketch.
Bunny choked on a gasp and she noticed the way Bell narrowed her eyes at her but returned drawing anyway.
The paper was obviously different in a way, judging by the red marker linings, whereas most sketches were made of black lines, the harsh edges and most importantly, the damp spots that had dried and left a different texture on them.
The spots were small, and of course, it didn't take Bunny a long time to find out why they existed in the first place. She pulled her bottom lip inside and then gnawed on it nervously before folding it again and placing it back into its place.
Bunny blinked at Bell, then to her book, and back to the owner. She knew that each of them had different ways of expressing their feelings; heck, she wasn't surprised that Bell drew to express.
However, the sketch... it gave off a negative feeling that someone like Bunny (who, at times, could be the densest person in the world despite the fact that she's a PowerPuff Girl–she admitted–and PowerPuff Girls were created more specially) could pick up on it. Bunny had come to a realization that put her on an uncomfortable spot.
Bell never released the... devil inside of her; she caged it and downed all her pain and negativity, feeding the devil.
Bunny was worried how Bell would react when she crossed paths with him; the muse (in a not so good way) of her devilish sketches.
The loud snap of a book brought Bunny out of her thinking and the possible scenarios of death came to an abrupt halt. She hesitated before looking up and regretted it afterwards, though there was nothing to regret.
"C'mon. BC's probably waiting for us at the cafeteria with others."
That's when Bunny realized that the bell was ringing.
They paid no attention to the whispers and the spotlight put on them when they walked down the hallways to the cafeteria. They ignored the way silence swallowed the cafeteria for a while and how whispers erupted the second they sat at a table, the farthest one in the corner.
They pulled out their lunchboxes (which Bubbles had made out of fear of going anywhere near them or even appearing in their sight just to grab a tray) and began eating. Everything was okay and they were silent till Buttercup broke it.
"Bubbles, what are we? Children? Definitely not." She muttered, her gaze set still on her apple green lunchbox–which had a fading picture of a pony on it.
A faded pink blush dusted the blonde girl's cheeks as she looked down at her creation.
"Uhmm... I wasn't concentrating well."
"Hey guys, the line was sooo–" Robin's lips parted and she burst out laughing seconds later along with Mitch, trays in hands.
"W-what are you? Kiddies?" Mitch commented, chuckling, taking a seat next to Robin who sat next to Bubbles.
Bubbles lowered her head lower till it reached the table and Bunny coughed.
"You can stop putting more red on poor Bubsie's cheeks now." She chuckled at her own words, along with some of them.
"Oh yeah guys, how's your Hawaiian honeymoon?" Bunny asked, wiggling her brows.
Both mentioned teens looked at each other before looking away. Their cheeks were heated up and Robin kept swinging her legs under the table while Mitch started scratching his head.
"It was nice..." a hint of a smile was beginning to form on Robin's face as she looked at Mitch.
"Yeah..." Mitch replied, catching her eyes too and smiling dazedly.
"Whoa... don't tell me we're gonna be aunties!" Buttercup suddenly exclaimed, making both teens blush furiously.
"No!" Both brunettes shouted simultaneously.
"'Cause that'd be awesome." Buttercup added with a triumphant smirk.
"Put a sock in it, BC." Mitch scoffed, rolling his eyes, crossing his arms and legs altogether.
"Recently, we've agreed that 'Buck' is a more suitable nickname." Bunny smirked, putting a finger in the air diplomatically, glancing mischievously at a growling Buttercup.
"Who did?"
Whilst the bicker continued to rage on, Bell decided to check her phone for entertainment as she'd already emptied her lunchbox. That was when the screen blacked out suddenly. She frowned and pressed some buttons. Then, the screen lit up and a new message notification popped up multiple times till she decided to read it.
|Your sister is not dead.|
Her eyes widened instantly and her phone fell out of her grip, falling on the floor and catching their attention.
"Bell, what's wrong?" Breeze tapped her on the shoulder but she didn't respond.
"Someone knew." Bell said, her voice a mere whisper.
"About...?" Bubbles urged on, feeling anxious.
"Blossom."
Mitch and Robin shared a glance.
"What about her?" The brunette, freckled-faced boy arched a brow.
"She's dead." Buttercup stated emotionlessly.
"What?!" Mitch's eyes widened. "You're not... joking?"
Bunny tried to gulp down the weight lodged in her throat, looking at a sniffing Bubbles whose tears started pouring the second Buttercup stated the fact. Breeze twitched here and there and Bell shifted uncomfortably, flickering her gaze back and forth at the people at the table or around.
"But... but you guys are the PowerPuff Girls, h-how...?" Robin was at a loss for words.
"I guess if we have a weakness like, like Antidote X, then... it would make sense if we can die too..." Buttercup's eyes narrowed.
"B-but a car accident?" Her sobs continued and her words barely made any sense as she quickly dived into another crying session.
Buttercup gnawed on her bottom lip before she pulled it into her mouth. No matter how much she wanted to deny it, it was the sad truth. No matter how irrational it sounded, it happened.
Bell's gaze flickered down at the screen.
|Meet me in the backyard where you and Bunny were at. I'll explain everything. You need my help as much as I need yours... the twelve of you.|