/"Well, it's no wonder. Honestly, Bubbles, these pillows are incredibly lumpy," she said, turning and punching them to illustrate her point, then frowning ever so slightly. "Hey, what's this?" She started to slide her hand under the pillow, but Bubbles was quicker. In a flash of blue, she had grabbed the pillows and the item hidden between them and returned to her side of the bed. Blossom raised an eyebrow at her.
"I happen to LIKE these pillows," Bubbles defended./
~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 4 - Like a Brother
I can't believe she bought it. I guess that's a benefit of being the type of person who still has her baby blanket. Actually, it's not MY baby blanket, it's Buttercup's, but she really didn't want to get rid of it, and so I have it. I guess it's only fitting, then, that I have her bear, too.
Blossom just rolled her eyes at me and left me alone. I think it took at least five minutes for my heart rate to return to normal. It's very hard to pull something over on Blossom. I suppose she might suspect that my reactions to her assault on my pillows were a bit much, but she just shook her head at me and told me to make sure I drank enough water, and replenished my electrolytes, and that if I felt that tired, I should tackle the speech in the morning.
With luck, she won't ask me about the book until I've at least chosen the title. Or maybe she'll have to spend more time with Brick preparing for the debate. I think it's a given that the two of them will win. Alone, they make convincing arguments, but together, I pity their opponents.
~~~~~~~~
"That's not going to work," Blossom said, frowning and shaking her head.
"Why not?" Brick was obviously not in agreement.
"It has nothing to do with the facts at hand. That is pure speculation, and I am surprised you didn't realize that."
"Blossom," Brick sighed, running a hand through his newly shorn hair. "We are trying to make a convincing argument. That means that you pull out all the stops. Geez, Blossom, you're a chick. I thought you'd be all into the emotional aspect of this topic."
"If I wanted emotional input, I'd ask Bubbles," Blossom replied, growing more irritated. "Bubbles!"
Bubbles had been tiptoeing up the stairs on her way to her room when her sister called her. She cringed, then turned, one hand on the railing.
"Yes?"
"Come here for a minute."
Bubbles repressed a sigh and reshouldered the knapsack that had slid down her arm, trudging down the stairs to join the other two. She didn't like the triumphant look Blossom was giving her, and wondered why she hadn't just flown up the stairs as soon as she got in the door. Next time, she promised herself.
"What do you think about animal experimentation?" Brick and Blossom blurted out at the same time. They glared at each other, then turned to Bubbles again.
Bubbles bottom lip pouted slightly. "I think it's unnecessarily cruel to creatures who have no way of protecting themselves." Blossom squinted at her slightly at those last words, and Bubbles was regretting opening her mouth. 'Please, please,' she pled, 'don't let Blossom know about what happened last week.'
"But what if there was no other way to test the validity of a new drug? Or to determine the efficacy of a prototype modification?"
"Blossom, can't you see that she has no idea what you're talking about?" Brick snorted. "Bubbles, let me ask you this. Are there any circumstances that you'd consider where animal testing would be acceptable?"
Bubbles didn't appreciate the way Brick assumed that she didn't understand what Blossom had asked, even if it was partly true. She had gotten the gist of what Blossom meant, at any rate. Despite her annoyance, she felt warm inside at the way he asked the question gently, knowing how sensitive she was to that topic. She smiled at him, then bit a fingernail as she pondered the question.
"Don't bite your nails."
"Shut up, Blossom, and let her think. Damn it, I assume you don't have any nervous habits?"
Blossom bit her lip to keep from snapping at him, and narrowed her eyes at her sister.
"Aaaah..."
"Way to go, Blossom." Brick threw up his hands in frustration.
"I'm just saying," Blossom defended herself. "It's not a good habit."
"For cryin' out LOUD, Blossom, we didn't even HAVE fingers until fairly recently!"
"All the more reason why she should take care of them now."
Bubbles cleared her throat nervously, and both sets of eyes swung towards her. She called herself ten kinds of a fool for not taking the opportunity to escape upstairs.
"Bubbles," Blossom said, and she seemed almost contrite. "I just hate to see you develop a habit like that. Behaviors are more difficult to abandon once they've become firmly established, even if it's as a coping mechanism."
Bubbles nodded. That was as close as she'd get to an apology from Blossom, she supposed.
"Do you mind answering the question, Bubbles?" Brick's red eyes bored into her own powder blue ones, and she shook her head slowly.
"No, I don't mind," she said. "And...I guess that, I don't know. I don't think so, but maybe you could give me some examples and if something were to change my mind, then I can let you know."
"I don't see where this is helping us with the debate," Blossom interjected. Brick held up a finger, never breaking eye contact with Bubbles.
At the warm look in Brick's eyes, everything seemed to crash down on her. The difference in the way Brick looked at her compared to the way Butch did, the fact that the two of them had something very precious and were too blind to see it, the idea of animal experimentation to begin with, and the very real fear that Blossom would somehow realize that she had taken part in a Free the Animals protest the previous week. She'd tried so very hard to not use her superpowers to break in to the lab where the animals were housed, because she didn't want to leave such an obvious clue, but she couldn't help it. She'd said a silent prayer afterwards that it looked more like a laser torch had been used to cut around the doorknob, but Blossom had a way of putting together solutions with very little evidence.
A cry escaped her, and she dropped her book bag on the floor as she flew up the stairs and slammed the door to her room behind her.
~~~~~~~
"Why can't I have fallen for someone like Brick? Oh, that's right, because he's not meant for me either. It's not fair!" Bubbles bent her head over the very wet bear, the tears sparkling on her lashes. She wiped her arm across her nose.
"Ewwww," she said, smiling weakly. "Gross." She grabbed a tissue, wiped her nose and her arm, then tossed it toward the wastebasket, missing, before flopping on her back and putting the bear on her stomach.
"I know," she sighed. "Who said life was fair, right?" She lifted one arm and draped it over her eyes.
A knock sounded at her door. She ignored it.
"Bubbles?" a tentative voice called.
"She's not here," Bubbles groaned.
"Let me come in, Bubbles," Blossom said from the other side of the door.
'As if my permission, or lack of it, ever stopped you from entering my room before,' Bubbles thought, then sat up abruptly, knocking the bear to the floor.
'SHIT!' she thought, in a panic.
"Bubbles?"
Bubbles grabbed the bear from the floor and shoved it into the drawer of her nightstand, then flopped back on the bed, pulling a pillow over her head. Might as well get it over with.
"Fine, come in, then."
Blossom opened the door slowly, and she entered with very slow steps, as if she were approaching a wounded animal. The irony wasn't lost on Bubbles.
"Can I sit down?"
Bubbles waved to the side of the bed, and Blossom gingerly sat down, poised for immediate flight.
"I'm sorry, Bubbles." At her sister's continued silence, she clasped her hands together. "I really am, you know. I didn't mean to make you feel bad. Brick was right," she sighed. "Sometimes I am too analytical, but I recognize that arguments can be compelling when they are passionate just as well as when they are factual. More so if they are both."
Bubbles mumbled something into the pillow.
"What?"
The blonde pulled the pillow off her face and sat up. "I said you're passionate, Blossom."
The redhead looked as if she were going to disagree, but Bubbles placed a hand on Blossom's leg.
"You should watch tapes of your past debates," she said. "You are really good at presenting a case, Blossom, and part of the reason you win is because you speak with such..."
"Conviction?"
"Yeah. You may form an opinion based on facts, but because of those facts, you have such unshaken faith in that opinion, that..." she trailed off, suddenly aware that she was talking to Blossom, and she was unable to find the words to express her thoughts coherently.
Blossom rested her hand atop Bubbles'.
"So my passion is in facts," she said with exaggerated resignation, then laughed. Bubbles gave her a weak smile in return and nodded mutely.
Blossom released her sister's hand and stood up.
"Thanks, Bubbles," she said. "Your input really was advantageous to the topic at hand, and I appreciate what it may have cost you to provide it."
"No prob," Bubbles said.
Blossom was at the door. "I have to get back to Brick before he thinks I came here to psychoanalyze you," she said.
"Mmm hmm." Bubbles had closed her eyes and pulled the pillow over her face.
"Bubbles?"
"Yeah?"
Blossom was silent for a moment. "I -"
"Mmm?"
"I don't think -"
"Mmm?" Bubbles prompted again, throwing one arm over the pillow that covered her eyes.
"I don't think that we will have meat for dinner tonight, OK? I will make sure it's completely vegetarian. Um, so, OK, I'll let you know when it's ready."
The snick of the door closing told Bubbles that she was alone once again.
~~~~~~~
Blossom wanted to tell me something, I think, but chickened out. Blossom does not struggle to find the right words. She doesn't stammer. She was stalling, too, like she didn't want to leave my room until she said what she had to say.
That's alright with me, though. Sometimes Blossom makes things worse when she tries to fix them with logic, and even though I know that she doesn't mean to, she can't help it. I think Brick said something to her.
Brick is - he's a romantic, I think. You can't say that about many guys, and you would never say that about any of the Rowdyruff Boys, right? Maybe 'romantic' is a bit strong. This is one of those times that I wish I had Blossom's mastery over the English language.
OK. It's not that Brick is romantic, it's that he would make an excellent romantic hero. That's what I mean.
Surprising, isn't it, that I say that about Brick, considering my feelings for Butch? But I've said Butch was the brooding anti-hero, and that is still true. Brick, though, doesn't brood. He is smart, as smart as Blossom, and if you ask me, it's because he's so smart that he recognizes that people's feelings matter.
So why doesn't the same thing apply to Blossom?
I honestly don't know. If she were more like Buttercup, I'd say it's because she was going out of her way to buck the female stereotype (yeah, the one that I fill in almost every way). But Blossom never seemed too fixed on labels like Buttercup was. Buttercup said she didn't buy into the whole clique-thing and the "high school hierarchy" - but all that meant was that HER group of friends all said the same thing, and they formed their own anti-clique.
The prefix "anti" comes up a lot when I describe The Greens, doesn't it?
I think Blossom might look very nice wearing green.
So where was I?
I shouldn't call them that, Butch and Buttercup, I mean. To be described by the color of our eyes...and of our childhood wardrobe, seems lacking in originality.
Of course, The Blues seems to describe me and Boomer these days. Aren't I witty? Or maybe 'sardonic' would be a better adjective. Take that, Blossom.
I think I need to start cracking skulls together. Blossom's cluelessness is making me edgy. For crying out loud, she LOVES him. Wouldn't you think that it would be obvious to her? I knew that I was in love with Butch, after all. How hard can it be?
I am getting a headache with all of this. It's like I'm beating a dead horse. I actually hate that expression, by the way.
Speaking of hopeless causes (was I? Well, I am now)...Boomer has gotten his hair cut, and let me tell you, it is SO obvious that he only did it because Brick got his cut first. They have the EXACT SAME haircut! It looks good on Brick, but Boomer's face doesn't do it justice. Makes his face look too much like a big "V". Brick's face is what they call oval shaped, but Boomer...I guess he has a heart-shaped face. I read somewhere that people with oval shaped faces can wear almost any hairstyle they wish. Yes, OK, I've been reading teen magazines. Can I help it? I'm a teenaged girl, and it's considered normal to brush up on that stuff. I don't do anything with the knowledge, but it's good to know that I can wear my hair any way I want, and it will still look good. Unlike Buttercup, whose elongated face almost requires her to go with the perpetual bob. She'd give me a horrible noogie if she knew I called her hairstyle a "bob" - too preppy a term for her.
Forgive my temporary obsession with hair and fashion. It's easier to think about stuff like that than about the stupidity of my sister.
It annoys me. She has love handed to her on a cracker, and her taste buds are too numb to notice.
This is what I get for having a soft spot for Brick, my eternal big brother figure.
I think I'm going to sit down and eat a pint of Häagen-Dazs. Dulce De Leche, I think.
And if Blossom asks, she isn't getting as much as a single spoonful.
~~~~~~~
"I happen to LIKE these pillows," Bubbles defended./
~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 4 - Like a Brother
I can't believe she bought it. I guess that's a benefit of being the type of person who still has her baby blanket. Actually, it's not MY baby blanket, it's Buttercup's, but she really didn't want to get rid of it, and so I have it. I guess it's only fitting, then, that I have her bear, too.
Blossom just rolled her eyes at me and left me alone. I think it took at least five minutes for my heart rate to return to normal. It's very hard to pull something over on Blossom. I suppose she might suspect that my reactions to her assault on my pillows were a bit much, but she just shook her head at me and told me to make sure I drank enough water, and replenished my electrolytes, and that if I felt that tired, I should tackle the speech in the morning.
With luck, she won't ask me about the book until I've at least chosen the title. Or maybe she'll have to spend more time with Brick preparing for the debate. I think it's a given that the two of them will win. Alone, they make convincing arguments, but together, I pity their opponents.
~~~~~~~~
"That's not going to work," Blossom said, frowning and shaking her head.
"Why not?" Brick was obviously not in agreement.
"It has nothing to do with the facts at hand. That is pure speculation, and I am surprised you didn't realize that."
"Blossom," Brick sighed, running a hand through his newly shorn hair. "We are trying to make a convincing argument. That means that you pull out all the stops. Geez, Blossom, you're a chick. I thought you'd be all into the emotional aspect of this topic."
"If I wanted emotional input, I'd ask Bubbles," Blossom replied, growing more irritated. "Bubbles!"
Bubbles had been tiptoeing up the stairs on her way to her room when her sister called her. She cringed, then turned, one hand on the railing.
"Yes?"
"Come here for a minute."
Bubbles repressed a sigh and reshouldered the knapsack that had slid down her arm, trudging down the stairs to join the other two. She didn't like the triumphant look Blossom was giving her, and wondered why she hadn't just flown up the stairs as soon as she got in the door. Next time, she promised herself.
"What do you think about animal experimentation?" Brick and Blossom blurted out at the same time. They glared at each other, then turned to Bubbles again.
Bubbles bottom lip pouted slightly. "I think it's unnecessarily cruel to creatures who have no way of protecting themselves." Blossom squinted at her slightly at those last words, and Bubbles was regretting opening her mouth. 'Please, please,' she pled, 'don't let Blossom know about what happened last week.'
"But what if there was no other way to test the validity of a new drug? Or to determine the efficacy of a prototype modification?"
"Blossom, can't you see that she has no idea what you're talking about?" Brick snorted. "Bubbles, let me ask you this. Are there any circumstances that you'd consider where animal testing would be acceptable?"
Bubbles didn't appreciate the way Brick assumed that she didn't understand what Blossom had asked, even if it was partly true. She had gotten the gist of what Blossom meant, at any rate. Despite her annoyance, she felt warm inside at the way he asked the question gently, knowing how sensitive she was to that topic. She smiled at him, then bit a fingernail as she pondered the question.
"Don't bite your nails."
"Shut up, Blossom, and let her think. Damn it, I assume you don't have any nervous habits?"
Blossom bit her lip to keep from snapping at him, and narrowed her eyes at her sister.
"Aaaah..."
"Way to go, Blossom." Brick threw up his hands in frustration.
"I'm just saying," Blossom defended herself. "It's not a good habit."
"For cryin' out LOUD, Blossom, we didn't even HAVE fingers until fairly recently!"
"All the more reason why she should take care of them now."
Bubbles cleared her throat nervously, and both sets of eyes swung towards her. She called herself ten kinds of a fool for not taking the opportunity to escape upstairs.
"Bubbles," Blossom said, and she seemed almost contrite. "I just hate to see you develop a habit like that. Behaviors are more difficult to abandon once they've become firmly established, even if it's as a coping mechanism."
Bubbles nodded. That was as close as she'd get to an apology from Blossom, she supposed.
"Do you mind answering the question, Bubbles?" Brick's red eyes bored into her own powder blue ones, and she shook her head slowly.
"No, I don't mind," she said. "And...I guess that, I don't know. I don't think so, but maybe you could give me some examples and if something were to change my mind, then I can let you know."
"I don't see where this is helping us with the debate," Blossom interjected. Brick held up a finger, never breaking eye contact with Bubbles.
At the warm look in Brick's eyes, everything seemed to crash down on her. The difference in the way Brick looked at her compared to the way Butch did, the fact that the two of them had something very precious and were too blind to see it, the idea of animal experimentation to begin with, and the very real fear that Blossom would somehow realize that she had taken part in a Free the Animals protest the previous week. She'd tried so very hard to not use her superpowers to break in to the lab where the animals were housed, because she didn't want to leave such an obvious clue, but she couldn't help it. She'd said a silent prayer afterwards that it looked more like a laser torch had been used to cut around the doorknob, but Blossom had a way of putting together solutions with very little evidence.
A cry escaped her, and she dropped her book bag on the floor as she flew up the stairs and slammed the door to her room behind her.
~~~~~~~
"Why can't I have fallen for someone like Brick? Oh, that's right, because he's not meant for me either. It's not fair!" Bubbles bent her head over the very wet bear, the tears sparkling on her lashes. She wiped her arm across her nose.
"Ewwww," she said, smiling weakly. "Gross." She grabbed a tissue, wiped her nose and her arm, then tossed it toward the wastebasket, missing, before flopping on her back and putting the bear on her stomach.
"I know," she sighed. "Who said life was fair, right?" She lifted one arm and draped it over her eyes.
A knock sounded at her door. She ignored it.
"Bubbles?" a tentative voice called.
"She's not here," Bubbles groaned.
"Let me come in, Bubbles," Blossom said from the other side of the door.
'As if my permission, or lack of it, ever stopped you from entering my room before,' Bubbles thought, then sat up abruptly, knocking the bear to the floor.
'SHIT!' she thought, in a panic.
"Bubbles?"
Bubbles grabbed the bear from the floor and shoved it into the drawer of her nightstand, then flopped back on the bed, pulling a pillow over her head. Might as well get it over with.
"Fine, come in, then."
Blossom opened the door slowly, and she entered with very slow steps, as if she were approaching a wounded animal. The irony wasn't lost on Bubbles.
"Can I sit down?"
Bubbles waved to the side of the bed, and Blossom gingerly sat down, poised for immediate flight.
"I'm sorry, Bubbles." At her sister's continued silence, she clasped her hands together. "I really am, you know. I didn't mean to make you feel bad. Brick was right," she sighed. "Sometimes I am too analytical, but I recognize that arguments can be compelling when they are passionate just as well as when they are factual. More so if they are both."
Bubbles mumbled something into the pillow.
"What?"
The blonde pulled the pillow off her face and sat up. "I said you're passionate, Blossom."
The redhead looked as if she were going to disagree, but Bubbles placed a hand on Blossom's leg.
"You should watch tapes of your past debates," she said. "You are really good at presenting a case, Blossom, and part of the reason you win is because you speak with such..."
"Conviction?"
"Yeah. You may form an opinion based on facts, but because of those facts, you have such unshaken faith in that opinion, that..." she trailed off, suddenly aware that she was talking to Blossom, and she was unable to find the words to express her thoughts coherently.
Blossom rested her hand atop Bubbles'.
"So my passion is in facts," she said with exaggerated resignation, then laughed. Bubbles gave her a weak smile in return and nodded mutely.
Blossom released her sister's hand and stood up.
"Thanks, Bubbles," she said. "Your input really was advantageous to the topic at hand, and I appreciate what it may have cost you to provide it."
"No prob," Bubbles said.
Blossom was at the door. "I have to get back to Brick before he thinks I came here to psychoanalyze you," she said.
"Mmm hmm." Bubbles had closed her eyes and pulled the pillow over her face.
"Bubbles?"
"Yeah?"
Blossom was silent for a moment. "I -"
"Mmm?"
"I don't think -"
"Mmm?" Bubbles prompted again, throwing one arm over the pillow that covered her eyes.
"I don't think that we will have meat for dinner tonight, OK? I will make sure it's completely vegetarian. Um, so, OK, I'll let you know when it's ready."
The snick of the door closing told Bubbles that she was alone once again.
~~~~~~~
Blossom wanted to tell me something, I think, but chickened out. Blossom does not struggle to find the right words. She doesn't stammer. She was stalling, too, like she didn't want to leave my room until she said what she had to say.
That's alright with me, though. Sometimes Blossom makes things worse when she tries to fix them with logic, and even though I know that she doesn't mean to, she can't help it. I think Brick said something to her.
Brick is - he's a romantic, I think. You can't say that about many guys, and you would never say that about any of the Rowdyruff Boys, right? Maybe 'romantic' is a bit strong. This is one of those times that I wish I had Blossom's mastery over the English language.
OK. It's not that Brick is romantic, it's that he would make an excellent romantic hero. That's what I mean.
Surprising, isn't it, that I say that about Brick, considering my feelings for Butch? But I've said Butch was the brooding anti-hero, and that is still true. Brick, though, doesn't brood. He is smart, as smart as Blossom, and if you ask me, it's because he's so smart that he recognizes that people's feelings matter.
So why doesn't the same thing apply to Blossom?
I honestly don't know. If she were more like Buttercup, I'd say it's because she was going out of her way to buck the female stereotype (yeah, the one that I fill in almost every way). But Blossom never seemed too fixed on labels like Buttercup was. Buttercup said she didn't buy into the whole clique-thing and the "high school hierarchy" - but all that meant was that HER group of friends all said the same thing, and they formed their own anti-clique.
The prefix "anti" comes up a lot when I describe The Greens, doesn't it?
I think Blossom might look very nice wearing green.
So where was I?
I shouldn't call them that, Butch and Buttercup, I mean. To be described by the color of our eyes...and of our childhood wardrobe, seems lacking in originality.
Of course, The Blues seems to describe me and Boomer these days. Aren't I witty? Or maybe 'sardonic' would be a better adjective. Take that, Blossom.
I think I need to start cracking skulls together. Blossom's cluelessness is making me edgy. For crying out loud, she LOVES him. Wouldn't you think that it would be obvious to her? I knew that I was in love with Butch, after all. How hard can it be?
I am getting a headache with all of this. It's like I'm beating a dead horse. I actually hate that expression, by the way.
Speaking of hopeless causes (was I? Well, I am now)...Boomer has gotten his hair cut, and let me tell you, it is SO obvious that he only did it because Brick got his cut first. They have the EXACT SAME haircut! It looks good on Brick, but Boomer's face doesn't do it justice. Makes his face look too much like a big "V". Brick's face is what they call oval shaped, but Boomer...I guess he has a heart-shaped face. I read somewhere that people with oval shaped faces can wear almost any hairstyle they wish. Yes, OK, I've been reading teen magazines. Can I help it? I'm a teenaged girl, and it's considered normal to brush up on that stuff. I don't do anything with the knowledge, but it's good to know that I can wear my hair any way I want, and it will still look good. Unlike Buttercup, whose elongated face almost requires her to go with the perpetual bob. She'd give me a horrible noogie if she knew I called her hairstyle a "bob" - too preppy a term for her.
Forgive my temporary obsession with hair and fashion. It's easier to think about stuff like that than about the stupidity of my sister.
It annoys me. She has love handed to her on a cracker, and her taste buds are too numb to notice.
This is what I get for having a soft spot for Brick, my eternal big brother figure.
I think I'm going to sit down and eat a pint of Häagen-Dazs. Dulce De Leche, I think.
And if Blossom asks, she isn't getting as much as a single spoonful.
~~~~~~~