Heightened Tensions- Chapter six
A few days later, the girls were awake much earlier than they would have liked.
It was warm outside, the sun shinning from behind a small tuft of early September clouds. The sky was alive with the brilliant colors of the early sun; bright orange and stark periwinkle, complete with the left over dewey haze of dawn. Birds were still singing, and the trees were still with their leaves. It was a place they would have much rather been.
But instead, they were inside, sitting silently in the cold, blank room that served as their first period of the day. Biology. With the newly hired Mr. Utonium.
A bell chimed in the building around them, the old, stone building that looked more like a fallout shelter than a school. The halls were like open, white corridors that looked more like a hospital than a place were young people came together to learn. The floors were white tiled, inlayed with randomly placed black tiles with peppery surfaces. The walls, were bare, and lacked any sort of decoration or artistic piece. Perhaps it was just the beggining of the year vibes that made all the teenagers feel like they were actually in prison, rather than a place that was supposed to be fun.
The professor had told the girls all about the schools history. It was the oldest highschool in Townsville, and had been modeled after its sister highschool in Nara, Japan.
Blossom sat at a desk in the front of the room, dimly feeling sorry for any child that had to attend school in Japan. It must have been majorly depressing.
Bubbles sat behind her, giggling with one of her friends whom she hadn't seen for years. There had been lots of people who had been most suprised, and happy, to see them, mostly people they'd grown up with in Pokey Oaks kindergarten. The three of them had gotten tons of time to catch up with old friends, and even talk to some old acquantences whom they'd only met through one of their old Townsville saves. It seemed like the day was going to start off great.
But then the reality had set in that they all had ten, horrible months of work to look forward too, and as the rest of the stragglers hurried into the classroom after the bell, Blossom got to thinking again.
She looked around, realizing that she hadn't seen Buttercup since the early morning. They'd arrived at school really early, two hours early in fact, and Buttercup had taken off on her own almost as soon as they'd set foot in the door. She was still in a surly mood, and had barely spoken more than ten words to her, Bubbles or even the professor, ever since the night she stormed from the kitchen.
Thinking about that night suddenly reminded Blossom of what else had happened.
Him hadn't come back since that night, and Blossom dimly mused that it was perfectly okay withe her. She didn't want him to come back, but deep in her mind, she knew that he was going to, whether she liked it or not. Until that time came, she didn't want to think about it.
Sighing, Blossom looked about the classroom, scanning the faces of the rest of the students in the class, some of them familiar, some not. She finally found Buttercup, sitting in the back of the room next to Mitch, the two of them talking away. Buttercup didn't notice Blossom staring at her, and didn't even turn around until the voice of the professor floated up from the front of the room.
The early morning started with roll call, each student responding with some sort of depressed recognition of their name (except for Bubbles, who was just as cheerful as ever). Buttercup had only responded with a grunt at the sound of her name being called, instilling various whispers and snickers from the class. The professor had looked at her gravely, but refrained from saying anything embarassing. Suprisingly, nobody seemed to realize yet that their new Biology teacher was the father of the Powerpuff Girls. Blossom found that strange, seeing as she was sure that his name had been mentioned in the news at some point. But then again, how many kids pay attention to the news?
"We're going to do a lab today!" the professor said brightly, setting his clip board down on the overhead. The class groaned, and some of them mumbled about homework. Blossom smiled at the professor who caught her eye. It was rather strange sitting in his classroom, being regarded as another student, when he was very clearly much more than that.
"So, I'm going to break you into lab partners..." more groans, "Oh please, its only for today. You'll get over it." and a couple of the more studious people chuckled.
Then the professor started pairing people up, seemingly randomly, but then Blossom realized he was doing it alphabeticaly by last name, having picked his clipboard up again. That would mean that one of them was going to get stuck with Buttercup. Perfect.
Alright, Blossom, I want you to partner with Buttercup-"
Typical.
Blossom turned and stole a glance at Buttercup, and was suprised to find her already staring directly at her. Their eyes met, and Buttercup's face suddenly twisted into a very elsuive snarl. Blossom raised her eyebrows challengingly, before turning around with a characteristic eye-roll. This was going to be fantastic.
The professor caught Blossom's glance again, and looked at her expectantly, one eye brow raised in a very stern, fatherly fashion. Blossom understood why he did it. He wanted them to work it out. Surely he'd notcied they were in the middle of another one of their rediculous arguments.
The class got up from their seats and shuffled to the back of the room to where the lab tables were set up. They were a serious of counters that were double-sided, split horizontally down the middle by a low shelf. Each one had a sink and flammable gas spouts on the counter top, that were used for labs and such. Blossom took one of the first counters at the front and Buttercup trudged up behind her, huffing angrily.
Bubbles took the counter directly opposite her, and she was followed by a red haired boy with glasses. He was thin, slightly taller than Bubbles with a thick wad of wavy hair on his head. His face was very young looking and his skin pale, but there was a very mature look in his eyes that radiated a misunderstood intelligence. Blossom thought she recognized him, but didn't say anything. Bubbles didnt know him, but seemed perfectly happy to be partners with a complete stranger.
"Dexter, right?" she asked joyfully, extending her hand out for a shake. He looked at her strangely, his clear blue eyes narrowed. "I'm Bubbles! It's very nice to meet you! These are my sisters!" and she pointed to Blossom and Buttercup on the other side of the table. Blossom smiled apologetically and Buttercup just gave a snort of distaste. Yes this was going to be tons of fun.
While Bubbles was chatting away happily with Dexter on the other side of the table, Blossom felt the professor sneak up behind her. He grasped her shoulder and leaned in close to her ear.
"You guys gotta stop this..." he mumbled under his breath. Blossom nodded.
"I know," she said softly.
He nodded, satisfied, and then turned to adress the entire class, wanting to stop them before they caused any trouble.
"Now... I'm going to hand out these lab sheets- no, this is just a simple experiment- and I want you to follow the directions. First day intro to Biology!" he chuckled, before moving about the room to start passing out the stack of papers in his hand. Blossom turned away from him, and saw Bubbles gesturing widely with her arms.
"And I swear to god, this city was looooads bigger than Townsville-"
Dexter seemed to be only mildly interested, as he stood with his elbow against the table, leaning sideways.
Blossom gratefully took a apaper from the professor and began scanning it, before turnig to the supplies that were already on the table.
"Okay... so we're looking at cheek cells. How original," Blossom mused. It was the standard lab they did in every science class at the beginning of the year... except this time, they got to change their colors with various colored dyes.
Buttercup was leaning up against the table, facing away from Bubbles and Dexter, who were suddenly engrossed in conversation.
"And this bridge actually floated!! A total marvel in scientific engineering!"
"Scientific engineering eh? I know a bit about that-" his voice was strangely clipped as if he had some sort of foreign accent. It was very faint, but it was definitely what Blssom wasn't expecting to hear come from his mouth.
Blossom nudged Buttercup roughly.
"Come on, we have to draw diagrams. Could you get some colored pencils? We have to flash heat the cells after we soak them in dye..."
She turned on the heating stove and waited for Buttercup to return with the pencils. She exchanged glances between the heating burner and Bubbles on the other side of the table. Bubbles was speaking so loudly it would have been impossible to ignore her. The boy was actually talking with her now, and seemed much more pleased than he had been before. Blossom wasn't sure what they were talking about, but thought she heard a mention of Mojo in the discussion.
Buttercup returned, and they stood in awkward silence together as they waited for the burner to heat up. Blossom wanted to start a conversation, but didn't really know what she wanted to say without sounding incredibly dumb.
"So, um, what class do you have next?" she said stupidly, swirling her fingr along the countertop.
"English." Buttercup responded plainly, grabbing a cotton tip from the sterylized canister at their station. She swirled it in her mouth and then grabbed one of the tiny glass microscope sheets. Blossom tried to help her by dripping the sanitized water on it from the bottle, but Buttercup garbbed it out of her hand. "Here's some stupid cheek cells."
Blossom took it out of her hand, completely crestfallen, and slowly grabbed for one of the bottles of colored dye. She looked up at the professor, as if looking for some kind of guidance, but he wasn't paying attention to her. He was busy helping another student who couldn't get their burner to work.
"Oh." she said softly, feeling a single tear gather in her right eye. Goddamnit, don't cry now.
She sniffed, and held it back. It always bothered her when they fought, especially ever since what had happened to them over the summer. It was like Blossom had been given a second chance to have a loving relationship with her sister, but her sister didn't want any part of it. At least not now. That was incredibly hurtful, and made her start wondering if Buttercup would be acting like this if she'd ended up dying.
But she'd been so lost in her sorrowful thoughts that she hadn't watched what she was doing. She set the glass sheet down on the burner, but had forgotten to take her hands away, thus getting a rather nasty jolt of heat.
"OW!" she cried, flinging her hand backwards, and at the same time throwing the dyed cells across the room. It shattered against a second lab table, and fell the the floor in a purple mess.
It hadn't really hurt that much, but it had been enough of a shock to suprise her. A couple peopple turned to look, but nobody really seemed to notice, except Bubbles and Dexter. They were both looking at her in suprise.
She shook her head to motion that she was okay, before grabbing a handful of paper towels to clean up the mess. She leaned over the shattered glass, and was about to start cleaning it, when the professor, as if by radar, swooped down on her from above.
"Now, I'll do it! Are you okay?" he said, a concerned look in his eye. It was annoying how he now did this everytime she was hurt, as if any sort of injury was going to be the end of her.
"No, I'm fine. It's just a little burnt-"
"Hmm, maybe if you suck on it, you'r ice breath will heal it," Buttercup's scornful voice came from behind her, and Blossom spun around, her patience suddenly drained.
"My God, when will you GROW UP?!" she shrieked, throwing her handful of paper towels in BUttercup's direction. They just fluttered uselessly to the floor. Buttercup folded her arms and didn't say anything, but turned her back on Blossom and leaned against the counter.
"ANSWER ME!"
And the entire class fell into a very tense silence. They knew that when the Powerpuff Girls started yelling, it meant something was about to happen. The professor had even frozen in his tracks.
Buttercup was visibly gripping the edges of the counter, her knuckles white and fingers trembling with stress. She was facing Bubbles, but wasn't looking at her. In fact, Blossom had no idea what she was looking at, but didn't really care.
"YOU'RE SO SELFISH!" Blossom cried, tears gathering. She really didn't want to cry on the first day of school. What kind of impression was that going to make?
"Girls," the professor started, calmly, then, "Not. Here." he said tensly, gritting his teeth in supressed anger and disapproval.
Buttercup's shoulders were hunched, her eyebrows scrunched in anger. Bubbles was staring at her strangely, and she waved a hand in front of her sister's face as if trying to break her stare. The only thing she could have been looking at was a giant glass jar on the counter against the wall.
"ALWAYS THINKING THAT EVERYONE SHOULD FEEL SORRY FOR YOU-"
Buttercup suddenly jerked her head back, and at the same instant something very unusual happened-
-The glass jar against the wall suddenly exploded in a torrential shower of glass and water. The entire class drew back in a horrified uproar as bits of the once jar flew across the room. Bubbles screamed the loudest, falling backwards with her hands over her head as she roughly shoved herself into Dexter in an attempt to shield him from the slicing shards of glass.
Blossom didn't scream, but only stared in stupified terror at both the soaking spot on the counter where the jar had once been, and Buttercup, who had jumped back in shock.
What the hell?!
Buttercup turned, her face very shocked and eyes wide, her anger gone. She looked around at the class, who were all staring at her silently, mixed emotions on everyone's faces. Nobody really knew what to make out of what had just happened.
"Buttercup..." the professor began to say, reaching out to her as if trying to comfort his shaking daughter. She shook her head fiercly, drew back, and cast on long angry look at Blossom before grabbing her bag and tearing out of the room to escape.
***
Blossom and Bubbles remained behind after class to speak with the professor.
He was sitting at his desk, the trashbin full of fresh glass shards as his feet, shaking his head in dismay. Buttercup hadn't returned to class after the ordeal, so nobody got a chance to ask her what had happened.
"Well, you saw her face, didn't you?" Blossom asked Bubbles. Bubbles looked pale, and hadn't gotten back an ounce of her color after almost being attacked by a broken water jar.
"Yes... and... she didn't do anything. It wasn't her eye lasers. We would have noticed that-"
"How is your friend? Did he get hurt?" the professor looked up at Bubbles, holding his worn looking face in his hands. He suddenly looked very tired, and probably wasn't going to have a very good rest of the first day. Cetainly not after the shock everyone had just had.
After Buttercup had left, the entire class had been silent, no one really sure as to what they were supposed to do. The professor had even been too shocked for words, and it wasn't until Blossom turned and offered to help him clean up, that he'd stopped staring at the door as if expecting Buttercup to come back. Then, the frantic whispering had begun, and Blossom had to restrain herself to keep from telling them all to mind their own damn business.
"Who, Dexter? No, he's fine. I think he might have gotten cut a little bit, but I managed to block most of the glass. I know I got most of the water," she finished sadly, grabbing a soggy pigtail. She tried wringing out some of the remainging water. "She closed her eyes at one point, and she looked really angry. Her face was beet red," she continued, giving up on her attempts to force the water from her hair. Her shirt was nearly soaked as well as her hair, which was hanging limply from the hairties that held it back.
"Then, her eyes just kind of snapped open... and then the jar just exploded. Freaked me out!" Bubbles cried.
"I wonder what... happened..." Blossom said distantly, suddenly feeling like it was all her fault. Perhaps if she hadn't started yelling at Buttercup, making her angry-
"Well, maybe it was the eye lasers, and maybe it was just too quick to see," the professor said, standing as the students for second period started filing in the class. Some of them looked up and noticed Blossom and Bubbles standing at the front of the room. They smiled and gave sheepish waves of recognition.
"We should go," Blossom said, and she touched Bubbles on the arm and motioned for them to leave. They turned back to the professor, who was rummaging around his desk to prepare for his next class. He didn't notice them leave, and as Bubbles and Blossom went out into the hall, Bubbles suddenly turned to her sister.
"Maybe it was the eye lasers... and I just didn't see..."
"I don't know..." Blossom responded.
They parted ways, each going to their separate classes, both of them not entirely sure what had just went wrong.
More Legal stuff: Dexter and everything associated with him also belongs to Cartoon Network and that genius Genndy Tartakovsky.