Chapter 5

That Wasn't Funny, Blossom!

"Professor, I found the keys!"

Bubbles shrilly announced, huffing and puffing breathlessly as soon as she reached the bottom of the stairs. Instead of a scene of chaos, she found a scene of... questionable nature.

Wait, was that Blossom? Standing up on her own? And she could've sworn Blossom had a splinter gouged into her eye before, but now her eye looked perfectly fine, save for the "blood" she was now slowly coming to realize had to be fake still splattered around it. Oh, she was still a mess alright, but rather than the whimpering and crying and moaning she'd done before, she was now fully ambulatory, alert, and composed.

The same couldn't be said for Buttercup, whose face was covered in tear tracks, her eyes wide and spooked, as if she was suddenly standing in front of a ghost. She looked like a victim of shell-shock, staring at her suddenly fine sister without a hint of comprehension or a way of processing this situation.

Bubbles's father was just as taken aback at the situation as his daughter was, rendered just as speechless. In fact, the look that he was giving his daughter bordered on sheer appalment for the trick she had just pulled.

Judging by the nervous look on her face, Blossom hadn't quite been expecting this situation either. Oh, she expected everyone to be surprised but she thought that that would fade once she properly explained herself.

Bubbles's mouth dropped open. Had they all been played for fools?

"What's going on here?" She looked up at her dad. He didn't have any answers for her and neither did Buttercup. That only left Blossom, and when the pieces came together, all Bubbles could think was, No. She didn't!

In the meantime, Blossom was trying to salvage the situation. How did her dad do it again? Oh yeah, he explained himself first!

"See?" Blossom said again, keeping her hold on her sister's biceps. "It was never real, Buttercup. This is just what could happen if we ever went too far with our fighting. So now we can learn to get along a lot better with each other!"

Blossom smiled with her explanation, hoping that that would be enough. But her smile was never reciprocated and Buttercup's horror never resolved itself. Her head just kept bobbing up and down, her gaze traveling up and down her body, the look of pure shock, astonishment, and even betrayal deeply etched into her face.

"I really thought I hurt you..."

"But you didn't!" Blossom reminded her, giving him a slight shake by those same biceps. Why wasn't she snapping out of it? Did she not explain herself well enough? This wasn't how it was with dad! With the Professor, the girls had recovered quickly. In fact, it was even funny, seeing the Professor covered in those fake suction-cup thingies instead of what they feared he had been riddled with after he'd been fired upon by that group of cops.

They were happy he was alive, relieved that it was only a stunt, and cognizant of the lesson that they all desperately needed to learn. Blossom had been the one to say it: Stealing is a crime, no matter the circumstances. It was all pretty straightforward, so why wasn't it working the same way here?

"Um..." she said, seeing how no one looked happy with her. The Professor, her father, looked the most severe of all.

In fact, before she knew it, he'd snatched her up by her arms, giving her a shake as he held her out in front of him. His eyes were raving mad and his face was red with anger. "DON'T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN!" he screamed ferociously at his daughter.

It was enough to scare Blossom. To really, really scare her.

"DO YOU HEAR ME?! BLOSSOM?! DON'T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN!"

"That wasn't funny, Blossom!" Bubbles shouted in agreement, absolutely appalled at her sister's sense of 'humor'. Bubbles had nearly thrown up from her cheeky little "prank". Nearly lost her lunch at the idea of Blossom literally losing her eye. If this was her idea of a joke, then she had truly lost her mind! "Why would you do that?!"

Meanwhile Buttercup kept looking lost in the background. "I really thought I hurt you..." she repeated in pain.

It was a pitiful sight to see, especially for Bubbles. Buttercup didn't deserve that. None of their family did. She thrust a stump behind her. "Look what you did to Buttercup! How could you do something like that to her?!"

"I wasn't trying to be funny!" Blossom shouted.

"THEN WHAT WERE YOU TRYING TO DO?!" Professor bellowed back.

"I-I...!"

His yelling never lessened, but now it was accompanied by tears. "WHY WOULD YOU SCARE ME LIKE THAT?" The tears poured out of his eyes.

This made Blossom cry as well, her fear and misery now overwhelming. "I'm sorry!" she eventually wept.

"YOU SHOULD BE!" Professor shouted.

But why was he acting like this? Why was everything crumbling apart around her? She tried to ask this of him. "I'm sorry, but why are you so upset?"

"WHY AM I SO UPSET?!"

"I was just doing what you did!"

"What are you talking about?!"

"You taught us a lesson by scaring us! You had us believing you were dead! You pretended to be shot dead by the police when you held the Mayor 'hostage' in the toy store! How is this any different?"

"That's not-!" The Professor began. "That wasn't the same thing!"

"How is it not the same?"

He actually didn't have an answer. Other than the lack of gore, how different were his own actions really? The fundamental concept was exactly the same. The Professor wanted to scare his children, just as Blossom wanted to scare her sister. Give them a scenario that was horrifying, yet enlightening. At least, he'd hoped it'd be enlightening instead of simply traumatizing. But was this really the kind of "teaching" he wanted to instill in his daughters?

"It's... this... this is wrong! This whole thing was wrong! You had no right to do this and you had no right to terrify your sister!"

"Apologize!" Bubbles demanded, pointing at the dark-haired girl again.

Buttercup looked beyond an apology though. Her face was twisted into a horribly ugly frown, her lips curled into a whimper. It didn't seem like she had any more tears to give, but it was like she could start wailing again at any given moment.

The weight of what she did started to sink into Blossom then. She could barely stand to look in that face, so much anguish painted on every feature.

"Buttercup, I'm sorry," Blossom said, only for her sister to take a step back from her. "I'm sorry, Buttercup."

She got no reply for this. The girl just turned her back on her, leaving only a green streak as she jetted up the stairs. No one else could stand to look at her either, least of all Bubbles.

"That was a mean thing you did, Blossom!" And with that, Bubbles zipped up the steps to follow her sister Buttercup.

Only the Professor was left behind and the two of them were a sorry sight. The Professor had done all his yelling. Now it was time to clean up all this mess. He silently took his daughter's hand, as she stared out into the distance with a pair of wet, glossy pink eyes.

"Let's get all this off you, Blossom. Every last bit of it."