PpG3
Secrets and Surprises
Chapter Ten - Aversions

Andra didn't get a chance to talk to Buttercup until after third hour and lunch. Third hour was home ec for them and Andra didn't want to talk with Buttercup over the sounds of 20 6th graders trying to bake pizza.
"Why don't we take our lunches outside today," Andra suggested casually when she and Buttercup were back at their locker to pick up their packed lunches. "It's nice and warm and a heck of a lot more comfortable than squeezing into the lunch table."
Buttercup's heart skipped a beat. A chance to be alone with Andra? "Sounds great," she said, careful not to let her smile show.
Andra didn't have control over her features like Buttercup had, she smiled brightly. "C'mon, I know a really good place." The girls took off running down the hall.
Andra led Buttercup to a place near the edge of the school property almost completely surrounded by tall trees. Someone would have to really be searching for them to find them.
"Why all the way out here?" Buttercup asked as she took out her food.
Andra shrugged. "No reason. Just thought it'd be a good place for us to talk and hang out." Buttercup nodded, she had too much food in her mouth to answer verbally.
The girls sat in silence for a moment while they ate. After they'd both made a good start on their lunches, Andra began talking. "So...you said you write about crushes in your notebook...anybody current in there?" Oh, subtle Andra.
Buttercup's eyes widened in momentary panic. "Um, now? Nobody. Absolutely nobody."
"Not even someone who looks cute? Some hot person?" Andra pressed.
Person? "Nope, not a soul." She hated lying to Andra, but at this point it was necessary. "Uh, how about you?"
"Mm...maybe I do."
"Really? Who?"
Andra squirmed. Why did she have to be so honest?! "Uh, I, um. I...I have to ask you a question first, Buttercup."
Buttercup raised an eyebrow. "Go ahead."
"How - have - what do you think of...of people who like people of the same sex?" The last part came out in a rush and Andra closed her eyes in anticipation of Buttercup's answer.
"Like gay people?" Andra nodded slightly. "I...don't hate them, like some crazy people do. I guess they can like anybody they want to." Did this mean what Buttercup thought it meant?!
Andra opened one eye. "So you'd be cool with it if someone told you he was gay?"
He? Dang.... "Yeah, of course I would be."
Andra took a deep breath. "good. 'Cause I'm gay."
It was all Buttercup could do to keep from jumping up in excitement. Maybe she had a chance with Andra yet! "So, you like a girl."
"Yeah."
Buttercup nodded, praying she looked natural. "So. Who do you like?"
Well, Buttercup was turning out to be a lot cooler than Andra had expected, but one shock was enough for one afternoon. "Oh. No one. I just said that to...procrastinate, I guess."
"Oh. 'Kay," Buttercup said, once again feeling her stomach do a flip. Andra liked girls and wasn't attached to anybody! Maybe dreams really do come true....
The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. The two girls gathered their trash and ran back towards the school and, after throwing out their trash, to their next class.
As soon as Buttercup entered the classroom, Blossom, who'd been talking to Bubbles, turned away so she couldn't see Buttercup.
"What's wrong?" Buttercup whispered to Bubbles as she walked by the blue Powerpuff Girl's desk, but Bubbles didn't answer. She looked down at her paper and began doodling furiously. Disturbed, but not wanting her sister's behavior to get to her again, Buttercup found her desk and sat down next to Andra.
The three afternoon classes passed slowly for Buttercup. Bubbles and Blossom refused to acknowledge her existance, and Andra was remaining uncharacteristically silent, but Buttercup could handle that, it was her sister's sudden change that bothered her. She had told Andra she didn't care what they thought, but this was too strange for her to ignore. Even at breakfast that morning Blossom had looked at her, mostly to glare, but it was attention. Now neither of her sisters were so much as looking Buttercup's way.
"I've got to go home, talk to my sisters," Buttercup told Andra after their last class. "They were acting weird today, I need to find out why."
"Yeah, I noticed that. Hey, Buttercup?"
Buttercup turned back to Andra. "What?"
"You know what I told you at lunch? Could you, like, keep that a secret? It's not something I want the entire school to know."
Buttercup nodded. "Yeah. Of course. See ya' later." She ran out the front door of the school and flew home in a streak of green light.
At the Utonium house, Blossom and Bubbles were sitting on the couch in front of the TV, though Blossom had her nose in a book so it wouldn't look as if she were violating her punishment. Buttercup stormed over to them and placed herself directly in front of the TV so they couldn't avoid her.
"Hey!" Bubbles cried. "I was watching that."
"Oh, so you'll talk to me now?" Buttercup asked. "What was your problem today?"
"You were our problem, Buttercup," Blossom said coldly. "where were you during lunch today?"
"Outside."
"Yeah. Outside with Andra, hiding in the woods."
"So? What business is it of yours? And how did you know I was out with Andra?"
"We saw you. When we were coming back from downtown."
"Downtown!"
"I told you it would happen, didn't I Bubbles? She'd be out with Andra when a monster attacked -"
"A monster! Why didn't you come get me?!"
"We didn't know where you were! We looked around the cafeteria for you, but you weren't there. We couldn't waste time searching the whole school!"
Buttercup wanted to argue, but she knew she couldn't. She'd screwed up. Big time.
"I'll be upstairs," she muttered. With a sigh, she floated up the stairs.
"Do you think she'll change?" Bubbles asked Blossom after Buttercup had left.
"I don't know. She knows she screwed up, but she might not care enough to give up spending time with that friend of hers."
"So what will we do? That monster today was pretty easy, but what if someone like Mojo Jojo attacks during the day? We'll need everyone!"
Blossom sighed. "I don't know! Maybe the Professor can talk to her. I know she won't listen to me anymore."
"I'll go get him," Bubbles said. Before Blossom could protest, Bubbles had zipped to the door that led down to the lab.
"PROFESSOR!" she screeched, causing everyone in the house to cringe.
The Professor dropped the chemical he had been working with, not caring when the beaker shattered on the floor because he was already half way up the stairs, his mind racing. What was happening now? Were Blossom and Buttercup fighting again?
"What is it?" he asked when he met at the top of the stairs.
"Me an' Blossom need to talk to you," Bubbles said as if nothing unusual was going on. "C'mon. Blossom's on the couch." She took the Professor's hand and led him to the living room.
"What is it, Girls?"
"There was a monster attack today at lunch. And Buttercup wasn't there," Blossom stated.
"Why not?"
A dark look crossed the Girl's face. "She was eating lunch with her friend Andra. Hiding so we couldn't find her."
"Hiding?" The Professor knew the Girls weren't getting along well, but the thought of Buttercup hiding from anyone seemed pretty far out to him.
"Well, I don't know if she was hiding," Blossom admitted, "but she had to have known no one could see her there."
"What do you want me to do?"
"You have to talk to her." She finally had emotion in her voice. Urgency. "We handled the monster easy enough, but what if Mojo attacks during school? Or Him or Sedusa or any one else. Bubbles and I can't handle any of them alone."
The Professor thought this over a moment. Blossom was right, the major villains that resided in and around Townsville were almost too much for all three Girls, two of them wouldn't have a chance. But Buttercup was her own person, she had a right to make her own decisions. "I'll talk to her," he finally said. "Find out what's going on. But I won't force her to do anything." He looked Blossom straight in the eye. "And then I'm going to talk to you. I think we need it." Blossom tried to shrink into the couch. Bubbles pulled away too, not wanting to attract the Professor's attention, but he barely glanced her way as he stood from the couch and went to the Girl's room.
"Buttercup, can I come in?" the Professor called through the door after he knocked.
"Yeah," came Buttercup's muffled reply. When the Professor opened the door he found Buttercup lying face down on her bed, her head buried in her pillow and her old blanket. He sat next to her and, unlike the last night, she didn't pull away.
"Seems like we're making these meetings a daily occurrence," he said gently, trying to lighten the mood. But when Buttercup lifted her head to look at him, there wasn't a trace of a smile.
"Are you going to yell at me?" she asked sullenly.
"Yell? No, of course not," the Professor assured her. "Just up here to talk."
"Blossom and Bubbles told you about what happened today."
"Yes, they did. They were concerned."
"Right."
"They are, Buttercup. They have legitimate concerns. Today it was only a monster, but what if it had been Him? What would have happened to your sisters then?"
Tears began to well up in Buttercup's large green eyes. "I've already thought about that, Professor! And it kind of scares me, but what am I supposed to do? Keep myself from having any friends, like Blossom, for an in case?"
"I would never ask you to give up your friends. I'm glad you have friends besides your sisters."
"Then why are you up here? What do you have to say?"
"I came up to see how you were doing, to make sure you understood what could have happened. And...ask you a question."
"What?"
"I think I know the answer now, but one of the first things I wondered when Blossom told me you weren't there to fight the monster was if you wanted to still be a crime fighter."
"Of course I do," Buttercup said indignantly.
"I know that now, but I did wonder for a moment. You haven't been getting on with your sisters lately, and you're making friends when they aren't. I wondered if those were symptoms of resentment towards having to fight crime."
"Resent it? Professor, beating the crap out of bad guys is one of the few things I love! I wouldn't give it up if you paid me."
The Professor laughed and gave Buttercup a hug. "That's my girl."
Buttercup sobered quickly though. "What can we do, Professor? I don't want to have to attach myself to Blossom and Bubbles all the time. I like being alone with Andra."
"You let me handle that. I'll figure something out." The Professor gave Buttercup a quick kiss on her head then left to go talk to Blossom.

***
"Why are you so concerned about Buttercup?" the Professor asked Blossom when they were seated at the kitchen table. Blossom shrugged. "Come on, Honey. You know you can tell me."
Blossom didn't say anything for a moment, but she knew she had to answer. "I'm worried about the group falling apart. If we don't get along in real life, how are we supposed to cooperate in a fight?"
"Your recent behavior has gone beyond sisterly concern, Blossom, now it's concerning me. You've tried repeatedly to read Buttercup's diary, tried to keep her from making friends and have gotten into physical fights with her! I want to know why you're hurting your sister this way."
Blossom sank lower in her seat. The Professor never talked to her this way. She didn't know what to say. Not only because of his seemingly sudden change in demeanor, but if she told him her concerns, he might just get more upset because the information came from Buttercup's notebook.
"I...uh...she - I don't like Andra much," Blossom finally said.
"Why not?"
"When I read Buttercup's notebook, I found out she had a crush, but she never said any name, only initials. A.M. I looked through the year book, there's no boys in our grade with those initials, but there is a girl. Buttercup's friend Andra Meda."
The Professor stared at Blossom for a moment. "And this is a reason to not like Andra because...?"
Blossom sighed. How could she explain this? "If Andra and Buttercup's crush are the same person, that means their relationship is more than just friends. Or could be. And Buttercup has a tendency to get in trouble when she falls in love. Remember Ace? Bubbles and I nearly got killed! I don't want Buttercup to get in trouble again. And...the whole idea seems kind of creepy."
The Professor raised an eyebrow. He had thought he'd raised the Girls to be open minded individuals, no bigots. "Creepy?"
Blossom blushed. "Um, just thinking about Buttercup and Andra...."
"But your 'concern' for your sister isn't based on who she may or may not have a crush on, is it?"
"Oh, no. Of course not, Professor."
Internally, the Professor breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. Now, Blossom, I want you to leave Buttercup alone. Unless you have proof she's in danger, you aren't to interfere with her personal life. But before she spends more time alone with Andra, I'll meet her and her parents, all right?" Blossom nodded. "Good. You can go now." Blossom nodded again, looking fairly miserable after her reprimanding, and floated out of the kitchen.