Chapter 6

It was getting late, and Prof. Utonium was putting the finishing touches on his dinner. He was making a fancy chicken parmesan dish and his famous potato salad as a side dish. He also had string beans as a vegetable.

Bubbles, who had been helping him all day, was looking at him sort of confused.

"Professor?" Bubbles asked.

"Yes Bubbles?"

"I know Miss Bellum is a friend and all, and I like helping you in the kitchen, but why are we going so far? Miss Bellum probably wouldn't mind if we went with something similar."

"Oh, Bubbles," the Professor said walking up to Bubbles and patting her on the shoulder. It sounded like he was going to answer her question, but he didn't. He just left it at that and went back to preparing dinner. Bubbles looked really confused, and was about to ask him to finish his sentence, but...

DING DONG

Suddenly Professor Utonium freaked, "She's here already?" he said looking around frantically, "She can't be here already!"

"Well she is," Bubbles said looking out the window, "I see her car right outside."

"Um... Uh... Bubbles! Could you answer the door?"

"Uh, sure Professor," Bubbles said slowly walking up to the door. When she opened it she did see Miss Bellum. She was wearing a really nice black dress and matching high heels. Bubbles centered her entire wardrobe on what Miss Bellum wore.

"Hi Miss Bellum," Bubbles said sweetly.

"Hello Bubbles. You've grown up so much," Miss Bellum said hugging Bubbles. Bubbles lead Miss Bellum inside and they sat down on the couch together.

"The Professor is still in the kitchen," Bubbles said simply, "He'll be out shortly."

"That's fine, I came here to see all of you as well. It's pretty lonely these days without the three of you coming in my office every day."

"I'm sorry Miss Bellum," Bubbles said looking down, "I've just been so busy lately with school."

"How is school? I bet you're a hit with the boys," Miss Bellum said playfully.

"Well, sort of," Bubbles' face was bright red, "But there's someone in particular that I like."

"Oh? And who's this young man?"

"His name is Chad, and he's the captain of the football team. He's really nice, but with Princess in the way I can't even get near him."

"Are they dating?"

"Strangely enough, but she's only going out with him because I like him. She's mean to all three of us, but she and I are more like rivals."

"I see. Say, how are you're sisters anyway?"

"Oh, uh... they're-"

"Good evening," Professor Utonium came in at that moment.

"Hello Antonio," Miss Bellum said getting up and walking over to the Professor, "You're looking well."

"Thank you. You as well, Sara," the Professor said looking at Miss Bellum up and down. Seeing them like this Bubbles began to understand what was going on.

"Dinner is almost ready," the Professor continued once he snapped back to reality, "I hope you like chicken parmesan."

"Now Antonio, you know that's my favorite," Miss Bellum said in a playfully scolding manner. Bubbles was amused seeing them act like this, but she felt that she needed to give them some alone time until dinner. She went upstairs to see what Blossom and Buttercup were doing.

The first room down the hall was Blossom's room. When she saw Blossom this morning she seemed a little calmer than last Friday, but she was still cold and distant. Truth was, Bubbles sort of agreed with Buttercup, sort of. She wouldn't call Blossom a bitch, but she did tend to be icy with people, and that wasn't good for making friends.

She knocked on Blossom's door, "Yes?" Blossom asked from inside.

"Blossom, it's me. Can I come in?"

Blossom sighed, "Sure, come in."

Bubbles did and saw Blossom was sitting at her desk, probably studying. It always amazed her how neat and tidy her room was. Everything was almost unrealistically in order. The walls were light pink, and the covers on her bed were hot pink. She also had a few red pillows on her bed.

"Miss Bellum is here," Bubbles said once she snapped her self back to reality.

"Yeah, and?" Blossom asked, shocking Bubbles a bit.

"Well, she came her to see us. You could at least come downstairs and say hi."

Blossom sighed, "Bubbles, you see I'm studying. I'm a little busy at the moment."

"That assignment isn't due until Monday. You can work on it tomorrow," Bubbles went over to Blossom and grabbed her arm pulling her up, "Come on Blossom, please."

"Bubbles," Blossom began, but once she looked at the face Bubbles was making she knew she was defeated. Bubbles' pouting look was so sad looking that she could get anyone to do anything she wanted. Blossom knew that she lost, so she sighed in defeat and looked back at Bubbles, "Okay, you win. I'll take a break and say hi."

"Great!" Bubbles said perking up instantly, much to Blossom's annoyance. The two of them began walking back down to the living room together.

Once they walked back outside they saw Buttercup walking out of her room as well. Neither Blossom nor Bubbles dared to walk into her room, for they both feared that hers was the messiest.

"Wow, the Ice Queen emerges from her secret chambers," Buttercup said in a sarcastic tone. Clearly she was still sour about their argument on Friday.

"Buttercup, please. Miss Bellum is downstairs," Bubbles stated. Buttercup looked at her sister with a confused expression.

"Why is she here?"

"Well," Blossom said walking up to Buttercup with her arms crossed, "If you hadn't run out of the house at seven o'clock in the morning than you would have heard the Professor saying that he invited her over for dinner."

"I had important stuff to do. You know, patrols. Stuff we used to do. Remember? I'm pretty sure you were there too."

"Oh come off it, Buttercup. Or should I call you BC? That's what your gang of thugs call you these days, right?"

"At least I have a gang, Your Royal Icyness," Buttercup said giving Blossom a fake bow. Blossom looked really angry hearing Buttercup say that, and Bubbles was getting worried.

"Blossom, Buttercup, please," Bubbles said fearing another violent outburst coming, "Miss Bellum and the Professor are right downstairs."

"Yeah Blossom," Buttercup said glaring at Blossom, "We wouldn't want another fight to start. Especially here."

"You started that on Friday and you know it!" Blosom said now raising her voice a bit.

"Oh? And how on earth had I done that?" Buttercup asked innocently.

"You know damn well how! By calling me a bitch!"

"No, that was me just saying the truth. You were the one who lunged at me."

"You're the real bitch!" Blossom said, now shocking Buttercup, "You don't know anything about what I have to go through! All you and your friends do is gossip about me behind my back! Don't forget that you're not the only one in the family who has super sonic hearing!"

"Gee, I didn't think it mattered. I mean, you were always the conceited one out of the three of us. I figured attention was attention."

"You are wrong and you know it!"

"Girls," Professor Utonium called from downstairs, "Dinner's ready."

"Can you two refrain from fighting at least while we're eating?" Bubbles asked. Blossom and Buttercup turned from each other and walked downstairs. Bubbles gave a sigh of sadness and walked after them.

It was unnaturally quiet at the dinner table. The Professor and Miss Bellum did most of the talking, and mostly to each other. Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup were silent most of the time, only speaking whenever either Miss Bellum or the Professor addressed them.

"So Buttercup," the Professor began, "Miss Bellum says you've been a real help defending the city."

"Well, someone has to," Buttercup said harshly, giving Blossom a slight glare from across the table.

More silence followed after that, until Miss Bellum spoke.

"Blossom, I'm impressed. The Professor tells me that you have a perfect grade point average."

"It's nothing too major," Blossom said shrugging her shoulders."

"Did you ever think of going for student body president?" Miss Bellum asked out of nowhere "You're smart enough, and a natural leader."

"No one would vote for her," Buttercup chimed in, "She's not the most popular person in school."

"Must you say everything that's on your mind?" Blossom asked setting her fork and knife down.

"Hey, I didn't say anything wrong. All I did was state the main issue with you going for president."

"Pretending to sound smart doesn't help you sound genuine," Blossom said coolly, "In fact, you sound even more phony."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Buttercup stated simply.

"You know exactly what I mean!"

Buttercup turned to the Professor and Miss Bellum, who were both really nervous hearing this. "You see her, right? Always trying to start an argument," Buttercup said quite innocently, which only made Blossom even angrier.

For a split second it looked like Blossom was about to blow a fuse, but instead she stood up and turned to the Professor, "I need to be excused." She didn't even wait for the Professor's response. She turned and stormed right upstairs to her room, slamming the door. Both the Professor and Bubbles gave Buttercup a sharp look.

"What did I do?" Buttercup said reaching for more potato salad.

"I'll check on her," Miss Bellum said getting up and running upstairs.

The Professor gave a frustrated sigh and rubbed his forehead. He was at his wits end with them. He had tried to force them in the same room once before, and while that did work for a time, they eventually went right back to this.

"What am I going to do with you?" he asked, more to himself than to Buttercup, who (much to Bubbles' aggravation) was focused mostly on her dinner.

Blossom was lying on her bed. She was so tired of everyone. No one seemed to understand what she was going through, nor really cared. She just wanted to run away, leave all of this behind, and start over in a place where no one knew her name.

There was a knock on her door, "What is it?" Blossom asked harshly.

"It's me Blossom, can I come in?" Miss Bellum said from outside. Blossom didn't want to talk to anyone, but she couldn't say no to Miss Bellum, who had always been like a mother to her.

"Fine, come in," Blossom said. A second later Miss Bellum walked into her room. She walked over to hr bed and sat down, putting a hand on Blossom's leg.

"You know, I was just like you when I was in high school," Miss Bellum said, shocking Blossom a bit.

"What? No way," she said sitting up now.

"Smart, talked about, hardly any friends, that was me for three years."

"How is that possible? No offense, but I find it hard to believe that a bombshell like you had any problems making friends."

Miss Bellum giggled at that statement, "Well, I thank you for that but I wasn't always the way you see me today. I didn't build up that confidence in myself until early in my senior year."

"I don't lack confidence," Blossom defended, but Miss Bellum didn't look convinced.

"You eat by yourself at lunch, don't you?" she asked, shaming Blossom a bit. She caught her.

"Yeah... I do..." Blossom then looked up at Miss Bellum again, "But that's because no one likes me! Everyone talks about me behind my back,and when I walk into a room, everyone walks away from me or turns their heads away. I don't have anyone there for me."

"I'm sure they're in there somewhere. If it's anything like what I had to go through, that person is probably just like you, but you just never noticed them. Until then, and even after you find them, I want you to be able to come to me with whatever is bothering you, okay?" Blossom nodded and leaned into Miss Bellum's loving embrace, "You're not alone in this. I promise."

It was then that Blossom started to feel better. At least she had Miss Bellum to turn to. And between Buttercup's horrible attitude, the school's resentment, and Brick's very presence in the school, she needed Miss Bellum's support now more than ever.