Buttercup flew towards
her home until she was sure she was out of Andra's sight. As soon as she
couldn't see Andra, and before she was in sight of her house, Buttercup
changed direction and flew towards City Hall.
When she got there,
Buttercup stood in front of the imposing double doors for a moment. She'd
visited before of course, but she'd always been more comfortable busting
through the Mayor's ceiling. But she had to see Miss Bellum, so she set
her reservations aside and pushed open the door.
City Hall was a deceptively
large building with so many hallways leading to various places that Buttercup
had gotten lost more than once, but she was beginning to get the hang of
it. Today she found the Mayor's office easily.
Buttercup pushed open
the door leading into the reception area slightly and poked her head in.
"Hello?"
"Hold on, Ms. Keane,"
Miss Bellum said. "Buttercup? Come in, I'll be right with you." Buttercup
floated in and took a seat as Miss Bellum finished her conversation. "I
have to go, Ms. Keane, Buttercup's here. . . . Mm-hm, I'll tell her. .
. . You too. Good bye." Miss Bellum hung up and folded her delicate hands
in front of her on her desk. "That was Ms. Keane, as I'm sure you figured
out. She says hi."
"Oh," Buttercup said,
fidgeting in her seat.
"Is something wrong,
Buttercup?"
"Uh, kinda. Really
I just needed some advice. Advice I can't get from the Professor, and I
definitely can't talk to my sisters."
"Yes, I've heard about
that." Miss Bellum chuckled slightly at Buttercup's panicked look. "I met
the Professor last week in the grocery store and asked how you Girls were.
He told me about your on-going fight with Blossom. Don't worry, it's not
like the whole town knows."
"Whew." Buttercup relaxed
noticeably.
"So what kind of advice
do you need, Buttercup?"
"Well, it's, ah, relationship
advice."
"Ah," Miss Bellum said.
She waited patiently for a moment for Buttercup to explain further. Miss
Bellum remembered what it was like to be young and nervous when it came
to dating, and she remembered how annoying it was when adults made assumptions
about budding relationships before they had all the facts. That was the
quickest way to alienate someone Buttercup's age. Or end up in the hospital
when its Buttercup herself. After a moment,
Buttercup found her words. "On Friday I have a date with someone from school,
only we aren't calling it a date because we doubt we're actually allowed
to. But because we know it's a date. I was wondering. . . well,
what are you supposed to do? What should I do? What should I expect
he - my friend to do?"
Miss Bellum raised
an eyebrow at Buttercup's stumble, but didn't comment. "Well, there are
lots of things you do on dates. Have you and your friend decided what you
want to do?"
Buttercup shrugged.
"We spent last hour arguing over movies. No decision yet. My friend wants
some sappy romance, I want to see the new kung-fu movie." She did a karate
chop in the air to demonstrate.
Sounds like a mismatched
pair if I ever heard one! "It sounds like as soon as you agree on a
movie you have a good idea of what to do."
"But what about after
that? Like. . . kissing and stuff?"
"I'm afraid I don't
have any good answers for you on that. It's a very personal decision. And,
I suspect, this relationship has some very unique circumstances."
Buttercup turned red.
"How'd you know?"
Miss Bellum smiled.
"I've watched you grow up, Buttercup. I've been picking up clues about
you and your sisters about your personalities, your likes and dislikes,
for as long as I've known you. I've always had my suspicions, but I didn't
want to ask. You're young and probably confused out of your mind, I didn't
want to try to force you to label yourself. I wouldn't have said anything
now if you hadn't avoided pronouns relating to your friend."
"Oh. I suck at lying
about that sort of stuff."
"You've kept Blossom
in the dark, haven't you? That's quite an accomplishment."
Buttercup grinned.
"It is, isn't it?"
Miss Bellum leaned
across her desk conspiratorially. "So, why don't you tell me about your
friend?"
For the first time
in Miss Bellum's memory, Buttercup smiled shyly, exactly how Miss Bellum
remembered smiling when she was asked about her first crush. For the first
time since Buttercup entered Miss Bellum's office she seemed truly relaxed
and. . . happy when talking about Andra.
". . . So I spent all
weekend in a dream state, until last night when I started freaking about
how she might react. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't comfortable either. Till
lunch, after Andra had a run-in with Blossom -"
"Blossom?" MIss Bellum
asked.
"Yeah, she was being
all nosy again, telling Andra to stay away from me or something. Anyway,
after Andra told me about that, we were cool and started planning our date.
Or whatever."
"Miss Bellum!" the
double doors leading to the Mayor's office opened, revealing the Mayor
himself. "There you are, Miss - Buttercup! Even better!"
"Hi, Mayor. What's
up?'
"Er, uh, well it's
this darned pickle jar. I can never get it open! Would you mind terribly?"
he held out the large jar towards Buttercup.
Buttercup sighed. "No
problem." She walked across the room, took the jar from the Mayor and opened
it quickly.
"Thanks, Buttercup!"
the Mayor said when she handed the jar back to him. He fished out a spear.
"Want one?"
"No thanks."
The Mayor shrugged,
as if to say "Your loss," and went back into his office.
Miss Bellum sighed
when he was gone. "With men like him in the world, it's no wonder some
of us find perfect women."
"What did you say,
Miss Bellum?" Buttercup asked.
"Oh, nothing, Buttercup.
Just thinking aloud. Was there anything else you needed from me?"
"Any tips for the date?"
Miss Bellum smiled.
"Just be yourself, Buttercup, since that's obviously who Andra likes.
That's all you really can do. Be nice, pay attention to her, just basically
be a friend. But now you can hold hands going into the movies, or maybe
even get a goodnight kiss."
Buttercup gulped. "Um,
how do you go about they? They usually screw it up on TV."
Miss Bellum laughed.
"It's not always as awful as it is on TV. If you want to kiss her when
you bring her back home, give her a quick one and she'll respond if she
wants to. Or maybe she'll get there first. It's a very spontaneous thing,
and it takes all the fun out of the evening if you try and plan out every
last detail."
Buttercup sighed. "But
it'd be easier if we did."
"I know it would be,
but few things are. You should probably be going now, the Professor will
worry if you don't get home from school soon."
Buttercup looked at
her watch. "Yeah, I guess so. Bye, Miss Bellum."
"Bye, Buttercup. If
I don't see you before Friday, have fun. And good luck."
Buttercup grinned and
quickly left the office."
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