PpG3
Secrets and Surprises
Chapter 17 - Some Answers, More Questions
Buttercup awoke the next morning when Bubbles shook her violently. "C'mon, Buttercup! The Professor wants to talk to us."
"Go away," Buttercup mumbled, pulling her quilt over her head. "It's too early."
"Buttercup. It's 11 o'clock."
"It's before noon, it's too early."
Bubbles sighed and stood over Buttercup for a moment. "This is your last warning, Buttercup."
"Same to you. Now go away!"
"No!" Bubbles grabbed the edge of Buttercup's quilt and pulled. Hard.
"AUGH!" Buttercup had been so twisted in her blankets that when Bubbles pulled them off the bed Buttercup was spun into the air. THUMP! And landed hard on the floor.
"Owww," Buttercup muttered.
"Why are you so tired? You didn't even stay up late."
"It was a long night," Buttercup mumbled. "I'm awake, you can stop hovering over me now."
Bubbles landed softly. "Sorry. The Professor wants us down in the lab ASAP."
"I'll be down in a sec," Buttercup said as she pulled herself up from the floor. "I'll just get dressed quick." Bubbles floated out of the room and in a minute Buttercup joined her.
"So what's so important that the Professor needed you to pull me out of bed?" Buttercup asked as she and her sister floated down the stairs.
Bubbles shrugged then pulled open the door to the lab. "Professor! She's up!" she screeched.
"Thanks, Bubbles," the Professor called up. "Come down here you two."
Bubbles and Buttercup floated down the stairs. "Hey, where's Blossom?"
Bubbles shrugged again. "I haven't seen her since breakfast. The Professor just told me to get you."
"Blossom and I spoke last night," the Professor said. "She and I decided that you two needed to hear this as well. Why don't we sit down," the Professor indicated the folding table and chairs in a dark corner of his lab. The Girls floated over and took seats. The Professor sat in front of them after pausing to turn on a bare bulb over the table.
"This is something that's hard for me to explain to you Girls," the Professor said. "I still don't entirely understand it myself. Perhaps it was wrong for me to keep it secret for so long."
Buttercup looked confused. "Is something wrong, Professor?"
"Are you sick?" Bubbles asked in a small voice.
The Professor smiled gently. "Perhaps I was being a bit too serious. Nothings really wrong, I'm not sick, I just have something important to share with you Girls."
Buttercup and Bubbles sighed with relief.
"You Girls all love each other, right? I know you're not on the best of terms with Blossom right now, Buttercup, but you love her and Bubbles as sisters and friends, right?"
Buttercup shrugged. "I guess so."
"You too, Bubbles?"
"Uh-huh."
"I'm glad to hear that, because what I have to say relates to that." The Professor shifted in his seat before continuing. "You see, Girls, I haven't been exactly honest with you all these years. You aren't really sisters." Bubbles and Buttercup gasped. "I know it's a shock, but let me explain," the Professor continued quickly. "I discovered this shortly after you Girls were created. In theory, your DNA should be identical, except for the genes for hair and eye color. On careful analysis however, I discovered that your DNA was remarkably different. That's why you're taller than your sisters now, Buttercup. And why Blossom has ice breath as a special power. Those types of things are encoded in your DNA."
"Why have you always said we were sisters, then?" Bubbles asked.
"Because I felt it would be best for you. Perhaps you aren't biologically related, but I wanted us to be a family, and you know it's possible to be a family without being related, right?"
"Of course it is," Buttercup said. "We've always known we weren't related to you, but you're still part of our family. This is the same thing. Sort of."
"If we're not related, how come we look so much alike?" Bubbles demanded. Aside from the height and coloring issues, the Girls all had similar builds and features.
"I'm not sure, Bubbles, but I can make a few guess. I believe that it all comes down to the Chemical X in your systems. You know various ethnic groups, especially if they keep to themselves, have distinctive body types and facial features that identify them as belonging to that group. I believe the Chemical X had a similar effect on you Girls."
"So we're the Chemical X ethnic group?" Buttercup asked.
The Professor smiled. "That's one way of putting it."
"So we're related. . . but not close enough to be real sisters," Bubbles said quietly.
The Professor reached across the table and took Bubbles' hands. "Sweetheart, just because you're not sisters by blood doesn't mean the bond you have is any weaker. You and Blossom and Buttercup aren't any different now than you were five minutes ago, now you just know more about each other."
"If it makes you feel any better, I think it's weird too," Buttercup said quietly. "But you're still my sister to me."
"I am?" Bubbles asked.
"Yeah. Who would I pick on if I didn't have a baby sister?"
"I'm not a baby!" Bubbles cried.
"Yes you are," Buttercup retorted.
"Girls!" the Professor interrupted. "I'm glad you're taking this well, but there's no need to argue!"
"Sorry, Professor," Bubbles and Buttercup said in unison.
"Now, why don't you go upstairs, Bubbles, I want to talk to Buttercup for a few minutes, okay? And when we're done, why don't all of us go out to lunch?"
"Yeah!" Bubbles cheered. She zipped up the stairs, presumably to find Blossom.
"What do you want?" Buttercup asked when Bubbles was gone.
"We made an agreement last night, you're supposed to tell me what happened last night."
Buttercup sighed. "When we - well, Mitch Mitchelson, he was hiding in the bushes at Andra's house when we got back. He said some stuff, so I chased him down."
"What sort of things did he say?" Buttercup didn't answer, she just stared at her hands. "Buttercup, you can tell me whatever it is that's bothering you."
Buttercup sighed. She couldn't explain what happened with Mitch unless she told the Professor everything, and the Professor wouldn't let her go until she explained about Mitch. "Professor, Andra and I. . . we kinda 'with held the truth.' We didn't go out as friends last night. We went out. Y'know, on a date."
The Professor nodded. "I see."
"Are you mad?"
"Why would I be mad, Buttercup?"
"'Cause I almost lied?"
"Buttercup, you didn't do anything wrong. As you said, you with held the truth, but I didn't probe deeply. You have nothing to be worried about."
"What about the whole Andra and me. . . thing?"
I thought the Girls knew I was more open minded than this! "Buttercup, I don't care who you want to go out with, male or female. I'm only concerned with your safety and your happiness. If you wanted to go out with Mitch, then I'd be concerned, but Andra seems to be an upstanding young woman, I can think of few people I'd be as comfortable seeing you with."
"And the date?"
"Well, I do wish I had known that it was an actual date. You only get one first, you know." The Professor sighed. "I remember my first date. A girl named Rosetta Stone. Charming girl -"
"Professor?" Buttercup interrupted.
"Hm? Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to go off on a tangent. Anyway, I understand somewhat your reasons for not telling me, but you'll be honest with me about things like this in the future, right?"
"Definitely."
"Now, what was Mitch doing at Andra's?"
Buttercup frowned. "When Andra and I got back to her house, we stayed out on the porch and, uh," she started to blush, "talked and. . . oh, to heck with it. I kissed her. Then Mitch popped up with a camera and said something about dykes." Buttercup spit out the last word as if it left a bad taste in her mouth. "So I chased after him and destroyed the camera. The jerk, he deserved more. I let him off easily."
The Professor was frowning as well. "I can't believe anyone would do such a thing!"
"You don't know Mitch very well," Buttercup grumbled. "And - promise not to tell? It's nothin' bad," the Professor nodded. "It's 'cause of jerks like Mitch that Andra and Cassie had to move. You should have seen Andra when I got back from dealing with Mitch. She was shaking and looked like she was gonna faint. She thought they'd hafta move again."
"The poor thing," the Professor said quietly, then he stood up. "I'm going to call Mitch's parents right now and give them a piece of my mind for raising a child that could harbor such prejudices -"
Buttercup was about to interrupt him when the phone beat her to it. "Andra!" she exclaimed. "I bet it's her. She said she'd call."
The Professor sighed. "Use the phone down here, I'll be upstairs. Try not to be too long, all right? I'm sure Bubbles is getting impatient to go."
"Yeah, yeah," Buttercup muttered as she picked up the phone. "Hello?"
"Hi, Buttercup. It's Andra."
"Hi! How ya' doin'? Are you okay?"
Andra laughed nervously. "I wanted to apologize for that. I totally over-reacted. Mitch is a jerk, but I'm sure he didn't mean anything by it."
"I wish I was so sure," Buttercup muttered.
"What?"
"Uh, I'm glad you're okay. I was worried." After an awkward pause, Buttercup spoke again. "Uh, did your Mom say anything about last night?"
"Yeah, she did," Andra said. "At breakfast this morning she reassured me that everything was okay and she was glad we were friends, romantically involved or not. You?"
"I had to tell the Professor everything this morning. He said there were too many secrets in the family, so we cleared some stuff up. Everything's cool though."
"Do your sisters know?"
I don't technically have sisters anymore! "No, and I don't think I'm going to say anything. For awhile at least. We just found out some other weird news, I think it would be better if I waited, if I tell them at all. I mean, it's not that important, is it?"
"It could be," Andra said. "What sort of news did you find out?"
"Um, it's a family thing. I don't think I should be telling anybody."
"Oh," Andra said, sounding slightly hurt.
"I'd like to tell you, I really would!" Buttercup said quickly. "But when I said we just found out, I mean less than ten minutes ago. I'm still processing everything."
"Okay," Andra said, sounding slightly happier. "Anyways, I was calling to see if you wanted to go out to lunch or something. Mom offered to treat us, 'specially since you took care of Mitch last night."
Buttercup sighed. "I wish you'd called earlier! The Professor just arranged a 'quality family time' lunch, since we haven't exactly been acting family-like lately."
"That's Blossom's fault," Andra said decisively. "I don't mean to be harsh, but she was pretty harsh herself on Monday."
"Yeah, trying living with that 24/7. I don't know what's gotten into her lately. Maybe I'll find out at lunch."
"Maybe, but I won't be holding my breath."
"Smart move," Buttercup said. "I gotta go, before Bubbles mutinies and goes out for lunch by herself."
Andra laughed and Buttercup felt the familiar warmth creep through her at the sound. "Okay, bye!"
"'Bye." Buttercup hung up the phone and zipped up the stairs. The Professor was waiting by the front door for her. "What's up?" Buttercup asked.
"I just wanted to say one more thing to you privately," the Professor said. "When I talked with Blossom last night, we cleared some things up so she should be acting better around you, but I need you to help, okay?"
"Uh, sure, what do you need?"
"Be nice to her, all right? I know she's never really been your favorite person, so perhaps 'nice' is a bit much, but can you at least try not to antagonize her?"
Buttercup shrugged. "I'll try, I guess."
The Professor put a hand on Buttercup's shoulder. "That's my Girl," he said warmly. "Now come on, we want to get to lunch before dinner time, don't we?"
***

Lunch for the members of the Utonium family was a strained affair that afternoon, though in a different way than it had been at the beginning of Buttercup and Blossom's feud. Now the tense silence wasn't brought on by anger, merely awkwardness. Bubbles stayed pressed against the Professor's side in the booth of their table, while Buttercup and Blossom sat in chairs across from them. Buttercup and the Professor were the only ones who really attempted conversation. Blossom spoke occasionally to Bubbles or the Professor, but was once again pointedly ignoring Buttercup. If the Professor hadn't asked her to be nice, Buttercup would have said something rude to blossom, just to get a response.
But occasionally, Buttercup would catch Blossom glancing sideways at her, and looking away as soon as she noticed Buttercup saw, or her elbow would brush against Buttercup and she'd pull away quickly.
Now who's keeping secrets? Buttercup wondered.