A/N Maybe I shouldn't say this here, but I'm not terribly happy with this chapter (I hope that doesn't bias your opinion of this chapter, I'm often critical of my work).  Brief plot summery about this chapter is it's sort of about how Anti-X is beginning to take hold.  Please note that each section is later in the day than the previous.  It seems obvious, but as you read you'll find that Blossom doesn't seem as affected by Anti-X as Buttercup, but that's because her scene takes place in the morning and Buttercup's in the late afternoon.  I just thought I'd share that, so people won't get confused.  Anyway, on with the story!  I hope y'all enjoy it!  Sorry it took a while to update.

Chapter Five: Progression

Greg Morris saw her in the hallway, she didn't look like the girl he fell in love with. Blossom wore her brilliant sunset locks in a messy ponytail, her posture lacked the confidence she was known for and her face was long and empty. She was walking towards him with Robyn Snyder at her side and they were deep in conversation, Blossom looked so exhausted. After a moment, she noticed him and quickly looked away, slight anger and resentment evident in her expression. He sighed, regretting everything he said to her on Tuesday, even though there was obviously some miscommunication. As they brushed past him, Robyn threw him a sympathetic gaze. He wanted to go after her, and take her in his arms, and apologize and make everything right again. He should've been more supportive. He thought that by taking a break he was doing the right thing, but she was obviously taking it harder than he thought. He turned to follow, but the warning bell rang, and Blossom and Robyn had ducked into their next class. He had to do the same so he turned and picked up the pace, rushing to his next class before the final bell rang.

*****

"Talk to him," Robyn said to Blossom as the two headed to class, "I know you want to."

"And seem too desperate?" Blossom retorted, "No thanks. I haven't spoken to him at all yesterday, and he's made no effort to talk to me. If he's truly taking a break, like rumor has it, then he should make the first move."

"Are you sure he was trying to break up with you? Do you think it's possible the rumors are true."

"I don't know. The entire conversation we had that night was a blur, but it sure felt like he was breaking up with me, and the way he looks at me, there's this look, it's like he no longer wants to be with me," Blossom sighed. "It hasn't even been two whole days yet, and I miss him like crazy."

"I know," Robyn said sympathetically. She looked up, "Don't look now, but there he is."

Blossom made brief eye contact with Greg, and quickly looked away. All at once mixed emotions of the pain and anger that comes from losing one's first love rushed back into her, and all at once she wanted to cry and tearfully embrace him and make up, but she also wanted to scream at him, and make him know how deeply he hurt her by breaking up with her, and at the same time, she wanted clarification. To the best of her knowledge, even if someone said they should take a break, it was like saying the line, "we should see other people". What if this was some giant misunderstanding? As they past Greg in the hall, Blossom contemplated turning around and asking him how he felt and where they stand in their relationship- it was the most logical thing to do. On the other hand, why should she, shouldn't he be the one asking her how she feels? She didn't know what to do. The warning bell solved her dilemma, there would be no time, class was starting right away. She'd worry about that and everything else later.

As her trigonometry class went on, Blossom's headache returned. It was mild, but enough to affect her concentration. The fact she never really had one before made it worse, and only added to the list of things to worry about. She hadn't seen the Professor look so worried before, and couldn't recall him ever asking them to refrain from crime fighting. While she had felt strange for a couple of days, she dismissed it as mere stress. She never thought about it being anything else. But when the Professor did remind them that it was supposed to be impossible for them to get headaches, it got her thinking.

Truth be told, she never thought about it before. She always just assumed that since everyone else gets headaches, or gets the flu or whatever, that she could too, just not as often. Whether they could or not never became a topic of conversation before, if they ever did talk about it, she certainly couldn't remember. Besides, when one is healthy, they never think about being sick and a headache is quite minor in the scheme of things. But it was odd that both Bubbles and Buttercup felt under the weather as well. No wonder the Professor was concerned. If he was concerned, she should be too since the Professor arguably knew more about them physically than they did. He was the one who did their check ups and kept their powers in check, testing them once a year., he knew what they were capable of, and what they couldn't do. He made them after all. He understood their genetic make-up, so he would know if getting sick was possible.

Blossom's thoughts shifted to Bubbles and Buttercup. Thinking about them made Blossom feel terrible. She hated fighting with them, and wished that their stupid conflict could be resolved. Except for briefly that morning, the three sisters hardly said a word to each other. Blossom avoided saying anything to Buttercup especially, afraid that she'd just blow up in her face, bringing forth another argument. They were better off not talking than always in a heated argument.

There was so much on Blossom's mind, that when the bell rang, she realized that she had no idea what happened in class. She had taken no notes, and didn't even know the topic, she was better off not going. Blossom scolded herself for that was the first time Blossom ever failed to pay attention in class, no matter how much was on her mind.

*****

For a while, Bubbles was feeling much better. After complaining to Sara and Megan that she had a headache, Megan provided some aspirin from her purse. It didn't relieve the strange, surreal feeling, but it did help her mild headache. While the Professor may have overreacted slightly Bubbles felt no need to worry about anything in regards to a mild headache and dizzy spell. While it may not be normal for her and her sisters, she knew the Professor would be able to help them if it was something serious. He was a genius after all. At least now she didn't feel so alienated from her friends who sometimes resented her for being so… perfect.

That afternoon after lunch however, it got worse. Bubbles had a spare so she and her casual boyfriend Mike Believe were studying in the library, or more accurately, were exchanging various terms of endearment, whispering sweet nothings when Bubbles experienced another dizzy spell, accompanied with a headache of more intensity. Not used to that sensation Bubbles closed her eyes and winced, putting her hand to her forehead. "Whoa," she whispered.

"What's wrong?" Mike asked.

"Nothing," Bubbles sighed, "Just a headache is all."

"Hmm," Mike shrugged. "Did you take anything for it?"

Bubbles glanced at him, "Yeah I took an aspirin earlier today, but it's back."

"Take another aspirin then," Mike replied.

"You can do that?"

Mike looked at her strangely, "Yeah," he said slowly, "If your headache's back, then obviously the aspirin wore off."

Bubbles paused, "Oh! Right!" she exclaimed, feeling rather dumb, "You wouldn't happen to have any would you?"

"Nope," Mike replied. "Sorry."

"That's OK," Bubbles replied, closing her eyes and putting her hands to her head. "Y'know I never really had a headache before, so if I sounded kinda stupid, that's why."

"Really?" Mike raised a brow, "Not even after fighting crime. I would imagine you get them all the time, you know, it looks like a painful job."

Bubbles shook her head, "No, Blossom, Buttercup and I are invulnerable to pain and stuff. Fighting crime doesn't hurt, it's just annoying."

"That's ironic," Mike said. "If fighting crime doesn't cause even minor pain…"

"Well, it does, but it's momentary, it never lingers longer than like a second," Bubbles clarified, trying to will the sharp pain in her head away.

Mike shook his head, "OK, whatever, but it's ironic that you're hurting now more than you do when crime fighting. That must mean something's wrong. Are you OK?

Bubbles nodded, "Yeah. If there is something wrong, then the Professor will be able to take care of it. Whatever it is, he can fix it. It's really not that bad." she winced, it was getting progressively worse.

Mike put his arms around her, "Here," he rose to his feet and stood behind her, massaging her temples, then her shoulders and back. She trustingly closed her eyes and relaxed, letting him do it. "Better?" Bubbles nodded and thanked him. Mike leaned down and put his arms around her, giving her a kiss. "You know Bubbles, I think I'm falling in love with you."

Bubbles looked back at him with surprise, "Really?"

He nodded.

Bubbles stood up and threw her arms around him, "I love you too Mike!" she squealed, then regained herself, remembering they were in the library. The two put their arms around each other and began to kiss, Bubbles was no longer caring about her headache.

They were interrupted by a voice, "Get a room," Buttercup muttered, coming up behind them.

Bubbles looked at her coldly, "What do you want?"

"None of your business," Buttercup replied, "Excuse me."

Bubbles glared at her, "Excuse yourself."

"Your make out session has led you to get in my way," Buttercup replied, "I need to get a book."

Bubbles looked at the bookshelf they were blocking, "Right. Sorry."

They moved out of Buttercup's way. She momentarily scanned her eyes along the books and grabbed the book she needed, "Later Bubbles," Buttercup waved, not looking at her blonde sister as she left to check the book out.

Buttercup left the library, flew outside and had a brief flight around the neighborhood, which often relaxed her nerves, then she flew to the bleachers overlooking the football field. It wasn't her normal hang out spot, but since there was nothing going on, it was a good place to be alone for a while. She was missing class, but she didn't care. She didn't feel like going. She didn't feel like doing anything. She didn't know how she felt.

She found a dark clean spot under the bleachers and closed her eyes. She briefly looked at her book, but the words just seemed to blur together. That morning, she merely felt strange with a mild headache, after lunch she began to feel tired and rather dizzy, and now that she landed, she felt even worse. She felt as though her head was about to explode. She sat in the fetal position and rested her head on her knees, tired and worried. She was afraid that the odd feeling she felt the past two days, which was ignored and brushed off as stress was merely foreshadowing something worse, and as bad as she was feeling it wasn't the worst of it.

Earlier that day, Buttercup was almost certain that the Professor in his worry was overreacting, especially when he said no crime fighting for the day. But now that she thought about it, she wasn't too sure. No, she wasn't going to worry about it, that would only be admitting weakness. It wasn't a huge deal, whatever it was. Besides, she knew the Professor would be able to take care of things.

Buttercup opened her eyes briefly, her surroundings were a blur so she closed them again. When she opened them once more, she was surprised to find that she was lying down in an awkward position and Kevin was crouching beside her, nudging her. Had she fallen asleep?

"Hey sleepyhead," Kevin grinned, "Where were you? I missed you in history today."

Buttercup sat up, "I must've dozed off…"

"You know I've been looking for you for half an hour, I was afraid you'd gone home already. I have to say this is the last place I'd expect to find you," Kevin sat next to her. "I thought you hated cheerleading, or is that why you fell asleep?"

Buttercup looked through the space in the bleachers. Sure enough, cheerleading practice was in progress. "Whoa! What time is it anyway?" she checked her watch, it said 4:13.

"Why? How long have you been out here?" he asked, his tone changing to concerned.

"I don't know, about 1:30," Buttercup exclaimed, "I feel like such an idiot!"

"Don't feel bad," Kevin shrugged, "You looked pretty tired this morning."

"Yeah, I didn't get much sleep last night," Buttercup said strangely. Falling asleep did manage to help her feel a little better, maybe that was all it was. Maybe she was just tired. She shook her head, that wasn't the problem, and she knew it, so why did she keep denying that it could be something serious?

"See? There you go," Kevin grinned, "perfectly good excuse, nothing to be ashamed of."

"Right," Buttercup sighed, she stretched a bit, feeling uncharacteristically stiff. "C'mon, let's get outta here."

"Where do you want to go?"

"Anywhere but here," Buttercup replied, feeling strange and distant. Her thoughts were miles away.

"Well, I for one am hungry, what'd'ya say we go get some grub?" Kevin asked.

"Sure," Buttercup sighed.

"Are you OK?" Kevin asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"You seem down.  Something's on your mind," Kevin nudged her casually, "What is it?"

Buttercup glanced at him, she wanted to tell him the truth of how she was really feeling physically but pride and denial got in the way, "Nothing, just, you know, tired."

Kevin looked at her, not believing her for a second, knowing her too well.  She was carrying herself differently than normal, even when she was down.  Her steps were heavy and slightly staggered and her posture was slouched.  Kevin sighed, deciding to drop the subject.  Something else was wrong, but obviously she wasn't going to share.  She'd tell him when she was ready, she always did.  She trusted him with her life, and vice versa. 

"Listen," Buttercup said, after walking with her best friend in silence for a while, "I think I should get home.  I'll see you tomorrow, OK?"

Kevin nodded, watching her as she flew off.  He bowed his head, worrying about his best friend who was falling in a downward spiral of depression ever since the rift between her and her sisters started.  He couldn't shake off the feeling that their feud was not what was causing her grief that day.  He just hoped that whatever it was wasn't serious.  She needed a break.  Kevin would just do everything in his power to cheer her up, and guide her through her slump just as she did for him when he was going through a rough time.  With that thought, Kevin sighed and headed towards home.

*****

And now ladies and gents for the fantabulous thank-yous!

Raskolin Phoenix: I'm glad you still like this J

Hairy Gregory: Yeah, it is a dumb move on the girls' part for not being worried and stuff.  Hopefully this chapter somewhat redeemed their nonchalance (I love that word).  If it didn't well, I got one word my friend, one word and a statement.  Denial.  Also, it's something the girls never considered, but the Professor, who's over-protective and knows their genetic make-up would be more aware that they weren't capable of illness.  Keep in mind he had to remind them they never had a headache before. Also keep in mind the girls merely assumed that they were just experiencing the physical aspect of stress, like everyone else.  I hope that was communicated in this chapter. 

Raskolin and Hairy Gregory:  How's this for tired?  Right now I just finished directing a play (which was a success yay!) I take tae kwon do four times a week, I work part time, go to college full time, I'm on Student Council, and I'm co-running a drama team.  (I feel like Blossom…except I'm not an over achiever, I'm just over my head this year) Only 2nd week of school and I'm already experiencing burn-out.  Long story short, I'm tired.  Also, don't expect frequent updates because as much as I adore writing, school comes first.

Pilfered Sympathy: I'm so glad you like this!  It's nice to have another reader for this story!  I hope it catches on and more read (and review) it because, I may as well share this now, but there will be at least one sequel whether people like it or not ^_^.

Bella: Hey thanks for reading!  I'm glad you like, and thanks for reviewing every chapter.  While I admit I don't usually do that, I like it when people review every chapter because I like to know what people think, and I like to know specifically what chapters work, and what don't, and I like to see peoples speculations and stuff, like you gave.  So, thanks!