Chapter 14

Hothead

Sophomore Year - October

"Pool," Mitch said, chalking his stick. "The great equalizer."

Buttercup looked at him with a smile. The cue ball and the two ball had lined up nicely.

"Powers won't help you here."

Buttercup leaned down and held her stick in position. She hit the cue ball into the two. The two went right into the left corner pocket. Five balls down, three to go. Mitch had only sunk three of his. "Doesn't mean I won't beat you anyway." She set up for the seven next. "When are the guys getting here?" She hit the ball and it bounced off of the right corner just outside the pocket.

Mitch came up from behind her and put his arm around her waist. "Soon," he said into her ear. "I just wanted some alone time with you first."

Buttercup smiled. "Finally." She kissed her boyfriend on the lips. "I feel like I never get time alone with you."

"Well all that's gonna change." He kissed her again, then grabbed his stick to take his shot. "Now, watch me make this." The fifteen was lined up well and he lined up his stick. With a jerk, his stick hit the cue ball, it missed the fifteen entirely and bounced off the rails without hitting anything.

Buttercup burst into laughter. He hung his head, as he should have. Her boyfriend was cute but not coordinated in any way. He could only huff at her.

To placate him, she wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged. "Don't be sad."

"Guess who's your new quarterback!" The voice was a screech across Buttercup's brain. Butch walked into the pool hall with Pablo and Harry.

"Dude, that's awesome!" Mitch said, his demeanor completely changed. He gave Butch a high-five. When he looked over at Buttercup his smile faded.

Butch pulled out his wallet. "Food's on me tonight, boys."

Buttercup silently glared at him. Asshole thought he could buy friendship with food.

"I'll get you too, Buttercup." He looked her up and down. "You aren't a half-bad monster-killer." He set his feet and cocked his head. "When are we gonna throw down?"

Buttercup growled. "Whenever you're ready to take my entire foot up your ass."

"No, no, no," Butch said shaking his head. "You gotta buy me dinner before you try something like that." He went to the counter to order food. Harry and Pablo went looking around the pool hall for sticks that weren't warped, leaving Buttercup alone to have a word with Mitch.

"I thought you weren't going to invite him," Buttercup growled lowly.

"I didn't. Harry or Pablo must have invited him."

"Look, I can't stand that guy."

"He's not that bad once you get to know him."

"You know he tried to kill me, right?"

"You know you actually killed him, right?"

Buttercup glared at her boyfriend. She couldn't believe he didn't understand. It was like she couldn't make him, couldn't find the words.

The other guys came back with plates of sliders and fries and hands full of drinks. "I call break," Butch said, setting the balls up. Everyone but Buttercup helped themselves to the food he bought.

"Can't use superpowers on this one," Mitch said, dipping a fry into ketchup.

Butch, still bent over the table, let a little smile start on the corner of his mouth. "Yeah, no. Definitely not."

Something was up. Buttercup watched his arm and shoulder closely, letting time slow down. It wasn't a jerk motion like Mitch used, it was forceful and fluid. The cue ball hit slightly off center and the balls broke. Three went into separate pockets, two stripes and a solid.

"Course, I don't need powers for this game," he said, beaming.

Pablo shook his head smiling. "This fucker, right." He hooked a thumb at Butch stalking around the table to look for his next shot.

"You crushed us in beer pong," Harry said. "How did you do that, by the way?"

"All in the wrist." Butch pantomimed throwing a ping pong ball. "Oh man, I tell you I got Bubbles to play?" He smiled at Buttercup.

Buttercup's fists tightened into balls of pure rage. "That is the first and last time you speak about my sister."

Butch finally decided he found the right shot and bent over the table again. "Bubbles was pretty good. Kicked my ass. 'Course I was fuckin' wasted." He laughed and took the shot sinking another solid. "She let me lift her friend's car. Should not have done that."

The guys broke into laughter, like he was so funny. "Shit! Really?" Pablo asked.

Mitch leaned near Buttercup, but he was still listening all the same.

"Oh yeah, I don't remember much after that." Butch took another shot and sunk a stripe. "How about you guys?"

"Oh man, you should have seen it." Harry said. "Pablo did a keg-stand."

"It was a keg-flip!" Pablo said, pointing at Harry with a cluster of fries. "They are very hard to pull off."

Mitch and Harry laughed while Butch took yet another shot. He sunk a stripe.

"Think you're hot shit, huh?" Buttercup crossed her arms in front of her chest.

Butch glanced at her. "It's pool. Hit the balls and make them go into the pockets. It's not hard."

"Well, you don't have to ba an asshole about it."

"We're all having fun." Butch sat on the side of the pool table and sucked on a soda. "You're the one being bitter." He turned his head to glance at the other guys. "In fact, we should change your name to Bittercup-"

"And how about we replace the 'U' in your name with an 'I'?" She stomped up to him. "How about it, Bitch?"

"Play me for it." Butch stood up. "Loser leaves."

Buttercup glared at him. "Deal."

Butch smiled and set up the balls. "I'll even let you break." He placed the cue ball onto the table with a patronizing tilt of his head.

Buttercup leaned down and focused on her target, the cue ball. Time slowed down. Perfectly spherical, the cue ball was meant to be hit. That was all she could come up with. That wasn't working. She focused on her Butch, remembering his break. Smooth and forceful, if he could do it, she could too. She grit her teeth, not noticing when a tiny bit of X slipped onto her shot.

When the stick struck it, the cue ball exploded into a fine powder. The stick itself broke, shooting splinters in every direction. The guys coughed and waved the cloud away.

"I think that's a scratch," Butch said, laughing.

"It wasn't- The ball-" She was so angry but her mouth wouldn't form the words. "And the stick-" Her lips pressed together. "He just makes me so-" She tasted copper.

"Come on," Mitch said. "Let her retry that."

"Heh, yeah." Butch swiped the cue ball off another table. "Go ahead."

Buttercup took the ball and placed it on the table. She set up her shot and took a breath. Superpowers weren't going to help her. And she had been playing so well until he showed up. She could beat him, she knew it. She would just have to go on instinct.

She hit the ball and the cue broke the other balls' formation. They bounced off of the rails, but none went into any of the pockets.

"Good break." Butch beamed at her again and bent over the table. He hit the cue ball and two stripes went into two different corner pockets. He leaned back up with an even wider shit-eating grin.

That was it. Buttercup grabbed her shit and walked out the door.

"Buttercup!" Mitch called after her, trying to follow.

"Aww, come on," Butch said. "Don't be like that."

With not a look back Buttercup rocketed into the air. The shockwave shook the ground and left several bystanders to deal with her dust. She didn't care.

Buttercup refused to look at her phone for the next day. She wouldn't answer any calls or even look at a single text message. They were probably all attempts at an apology from Mitch anyway.

She avoided her locker at school the next morning. She knew Mitch too well. He would wait at her locker, but he wouldn't be able to find her. Hopefully Fuzzy Lumpkins would try to walk into city hall with his gun claiming it was run by shapeshifting squirrels and she'd get called in to take care of it.

"We need to talk." The one person Buttercup didn't want to talk to most. She had been so careful, she made herself scarce, but Blossom had tracked her down. "But not right now."

That didn't make sense. Of course Blossom would have wanted to talk right then. "Why not right now?"

Blossom cocked her head, her face totally deadpan. The bell went off right then. "Because you should get to class." Was that a superpower, or part of her being a nerd? It was honestly hard to tell.

Brick passed them in the hall and extended a folder to Blossom without looking. She took it in one fluid motion without looking.

"That was weird."

"If we don't talk, we won't fight. Again, you should get to class." Blossom started walking Brick's direction.

"Yeah, sure, mom."

"With mom it would be a command, with me it's just a suggestion," Blossom called over her shoulder.

Buttercup didn't want to see her boyfriend. She sure didn't want to run into Butch. There was no Fuzzy Lumpkins call and math was whatever anyway, so she went to class.

After school, Buttercup leaned against the wall in a building on the other side of school from Mitch's last class.

"Hey." Brick leaned against the wall right next to her.

It was fine. They were not really friends, but not exactly enemies either. "Hey." Buttercup wouldn't have been able to stand the sight of him only a month before. If the same situation had happened then, they might have started fighting. That wasn't true, Brick had more self control than Butch. Fucking Butch. "Your brother is an asshole."

"There is no way he's worse than your sister."

"Blossom? What's she doing now?"

"She's all up in my shit. 'What evil, nefarious, plan are you concocting?' 'You're subhuman excrement that should have been flushed years ago.'"

Buttercup snorted. "Heard from her you weren't talking."

"I can see the derision in her eyes."

"Sounds about right. She's about to be all up in my shit too plus I gotta deal with your needle-dicked brother hanging out with my friends."

"Punch him until he stops. That's the only language he understands."

"Oh, you'd love that, wouldn't you. Get Blossom off your back and onto mine."

"It'd be nice."

"No deal, Red. In fact, I never got my rematch."

Brick smirked at her. "Bring it."

"You gonna chicken out, Red?"

Brick smirked. "Let's see what you got, Spice."

"These are our spiciest wings, drenched in our Madhouse sauce." A very nervous server set a plate of wings down in front of each of them and explained the rules. "You cannot remove the sauce. You have to eat all of the meat on the wing. You can't have anything to drink. You can't eat anything else during the contest. First to eat all of their twelve wings, wins."

Brick and Buttercup's eyes bore into each other.

"Oh right, no superpowers," the server added.

Brick and Buttercup snorted.

"Go!"

Buttercup took a wing in each hand and bit into one. The sauce actually was pretty spicy, but she could take it. She finished her first wing in only a few seconds and started on the second one while scoping out her third.

Brick was taking his sweet-ass time, sitting back in the booth. He was just finishing his first after Buttercup had already started on her third. She was going to win. The heat wasn't getting to her, she was sweating because of the competition.

Who was she kidding? By her fourth wing, her mouth was a volcano. Not only were the wings spicy, but they were just-out-of-the-fryer hot. She tried to ignore the minor burns that were forming on the roof of her mouth.

She slowed down on her sixth wing. Her lips were on fire and magma boiled in her stomach. She stripped her jacket off, with a wing sticking out of her mouth, just to release the heat. It didn't help.

"Hot, Buttercup?" Brick asked. He was four in, gaining on her lead. She needed to stay focused.

Buttercup barely felt the seventh or eighth. At the ninth, she couldn't take it. She had to drink something. Sewer water, Tabasco sauce, anything. She yelled, surprised actual flames didn't shoot out of her mouth.

"Man, these things are spicy." Brick placed another bone on his pile.

"Shut the fuck up!" She stomped her foot. "I'm gonna kick your ass!" Only three left. She could do three more.

Just one bite into the tenth wing made her stop. The spicyness had built with each bite and had become unbearable. She should just quit so she wouldn't throw up in front of a bunch of people..

No. She was Buttercup Utonium. She was a winner, the best. She wasn't about to lose a dumb eating contest especially not against her arch-nemesis/only-friend-right-now.

She looked at him with that weird thought. He was holding one away from his mouth, wincing at the inevitability that he would have to eat it. His entire face was pink. He actually was feeling it too. She wanted to laugh at his dumb expression, but she had a contest to win.

Buttercup finished her tenth wing and picked up the last two. Brick had two on his plate. He picked one up. Buttercup cringed and took a bite. It tasted like what Hell must have felt like. Buttercup couldn't imagine anything worse than what she was voluntarily doing to herself. She was begging for death. Tears fell out of her eyes.

One more. Last one. She wanted to throw up at the words. It would kill her if she ate it. She was absolutely certain she would die. Buttercup bit into it. She squeezed her eyes shut. Someone pounded on the table, rattling the plates. She stripped all the meat off and swallowed.

"Done!" Buttercup yelled. She shot her hand forward with super speed. The glass of soda almost shattered from her grabbing it. The liquid fell into her mouth slowly. She wanted it now and didn't want to have to wait for gravity to catch up with her. And there was a bunch of stupid ice in the way.

Only after she gulped the entire thing down, she realized people were cheering.

Buttercup shot up, fists in the air. "Yes! I beat you! You suck!"

Brick smiled at her from across the table. He clapped, he actually smiled and clapped for her.

There was a solitary wing on his plate. She jumped on top of the table and pointed to the last wing. "Eat it!"

A chant started among the rest of the customers. "Eat-It! Eat-It! Eat-It!"

Brick shook his head with that dumb smile and ate the last one. Everyone cheered.

"Our winner!" The server handed Buttercup a t-shirt and another soda.

She chugged it so fast she barely tasted it through the spice clinging to her mouth.

Everyone went back to their own table, leaving them alone. Brick gave the server his credit card.

"That's right. Pay up," she taunted.

"Yeah, yeah. Get your gloating over with."

"Over? This will never be over, Red. This victory will stand for all time."

"Until next time."

Buttercup got in Brick's face and met his smirk with one of her own. "Bring it."

Brick leaned back in his seat again and looked around the restaurant with an easy confidence. The server brought them an order of fries and a bunch of sauces to try. A few minutes of honest to god silence passed between them.

Buttercup was absentmindedly munching on a fry slathered in buffalo sauce when her phone buzzed. Before she could remember she was trying to avoid everyone in her life, she looked at the screen. The dumb pic of her and Mitch at the fair came up. He was trying to call her again.

Buttercup slammed her phone on the table with a roll of her head, not wanting to look at it any longer. Brick didn't react, that was probably the thing she liked most about him.

"How do you do the shield?"

"Huh?" Buttercup asked.

"The shield." Brick gestured in a circular motion around his forearm. "How did you do that?"

Buttercup looked at her left arm. "I dunno, It kinda happened one day. Me and Bubbles could create forcefields, Blossom did it too a few days later." She flicked her wrist and the green forcefield manifested. Her fingers squeezed the grip. "Once we got over the initial hype, I never used it much, except for this shield thing."

"You ever try a weapon?"

"Blossom wouldn't like that." She flicked her wrist again and her shield disappeared.

Brick tilted his head. "Fuck Blossom."

Buttercup snorted, less amused than she should have been. She didn't like it when other people talked like that about her sisters. It was an interesting idea though.

"When I was a kid, I always wanted to make a fire sword. Should be possible, Boomer can do it with lightning." A small flame formed at the end of his finger. He looked at it wistfully.

"Fire sword, huh. That actually sounds awesome."

Brick squeezed his fingers into a fist, extinguishing the flame. "Never did get it quite right."

"Now I just want to see it."

"Not inside." He smirked at her. "You should try yours."

Buttercup acquiesced and mimicked holding a sword with her right hand. Brick noticed what she was doing and watched intently. She formed the forcefield slowly. It came out as her standard circle. She flattened and stretched it out, quite the exertion since she hadn't tried changing it in a few years. It was like working a muscle that had been left to atrophy, stiff and a bit painful. The forcefield passed between her fingers and hand. She lengthened it until she got the shape she wanted.

Buttercup admired her work. It was relatively short for a sword, she couldn't get any more out of it than she had, but it was a sword and she considered what she could do with it.

"Cool."