For those still reading, I realized that I made a horrible mistake. The girl's current heights are actually 5 foot 8. I made the correction, so don't worry about it if you didn't catch it. Anyways, enjoy the next chapter, and please review.

Chapter 08

Next day, Blossom was walking to school down her usual route listening to her MP3 player. She had erotic dreams about Brick both Saturday and Sunday night, both times waking up with this weird feeling in her chest. Not even listening to her music could put her at ease.

As she walked up to the school she noticed Brick approaching the school. Funny thing was, he wasn't flying like she thought he would. He was skateboarding! She knew he still had his powers, she realized that the one time he grabbed her arm. He stopped at the front steps and kicked the board up catching it. Blossom noticed that her heart was starting to beat a little faster watching him.

Blossom then caught herself and turned away. Why was she acting like this? Brick was Brick! The leader of the Rowdyruff Boys. She had let her guard down once before around him, and she paid the price for it.

"It's a lie," she said to herself, remembering what happened in the music room. After what happened seven years ago she wouldn't ever allow herself to be used by him again.

After her physics class she walked over to her locker getting ready for lunch. When she closed the door to her locker she saw Brick standing there with a smile.

"Hey Bloss," he said as if they were cool, making Blossom see red.

"Go away," she said sternly, trying to ignore the pounding in her heart.

"I just wanted to know if you had trouble with number twenty on the math homework."

"Of course not!" Blossom said getting more worked up, "Problem twenty was one of the simplest ones!"

Brick looked a little taken aback by how intense Blossom was, but shook it off, "Well, it gave me a little trouble, so could you-"

"Why me? Couldn't you go bother someone else?" Blossom asked actually getting really worked up for some reason. Why was she getting so hot right now?

"Well, I just figured since we already know each other, and I know you're smart, you were the best candidate," Brick said sort of defensively.

"Oh yeah, sure," Blossom backed up against the locker and started talking really fast now, "and then you can get me all alone and inject me with Antidote X so I can't use my powers and then you'll be able to do anything to me and I'll be completely at your mercy and-"

"Whoa, whoa! Where is all of this coming from? All I want is-"

"No! Forget it! I'm not falling for it again!" she had gotten herself so upset now that she started crying, "Just leave me alone!"

"Bloss, what did I-" Blossom ran up to Brick and began pounding him in the chest.

"Go away! Go AWAY!" she sobbed, still pounding his chest, but he had long since backed up so she could have run off if she wanted to, but she needed to vent her frustrations right now.

"Bloss!" Brick shouted grabbing her arm, "You're making a scene!"

Blossom stopped and looked around. Sure enough, everyone was staring at her; some with concern, some with confusion, but Blossom only saw spite and pity. She pushed Brick into a locker and ran off to the music room, since it was empty around this time usually anyway. When she got there she just fell to her knees and screamed as loud as she could, but then switched to sobbing after a minute. She knew everyone heard her but she didn't care. No one cared for her anyway. No one even walked into the music room to see if she was alright.

Bubbles and Jane walked past the music room and saw Princess standing by the door with an evil smile.

"What are you doing this time?" Bubbles asked.

"Just listening to my favorite channel," Princess said evilly.

"Favorite channel?" Bubbles asked in confusion. She then listened a little better and heard crying from the music room. She pushed Princess aside and ran up to the door to look in the window and saw Blossom alone in the music room on her knees crying. Bubbles immediately opened the door and ran to her sister putting her arms around her.

"How long has she been in here?" Jane asked Princess.

"Well, I found out her in here about ten minutes ago, but she did cause a huge scene here twenty minutes ago," Princess said shrugging her shoulders.

Bubbles heard that and got really angry. She had been here for ten minutes and didn't get help? Bubbles went over to Princess with blue energy charging through her hands.

"Get out of here!" Bubbles shouted. Princess stepped back a bit, still smirking.

"Hmph, so the former leader of the Powerpuff Girls needs her little sister to defend her now?" Princess asked with a laugh, "How the mighty have fallen." Princess left the music room with that horrible ear splitting laughter heard from down the hall.

Bubbles wanted to shout to Princess that they were the same age, but she let it go, instead going to Blossom's side.

"Jane," Bubbles said, "Get a teacher!" Jane nodded and ran out, Bubbles putting her arms around Blossom, who cried in her arms, "Why won't you tell me what's wrong?" Bubbles asked, more so to herself than to her distraught sister.

After taking Blossom to the nurse's office, Bubbles stepped outside to give Blossom her space. Jane was waiting for her next to the door.

"How is she?" Jane asked.

"She's calming down a bit, but something must have really made her upset," Bubbles stated crossing her arms.

"You know, your sister has me worried. She always seems like she's on the brink of snapping out, and after today..."

"She's not a loose cannon Jane," Bubbles defended, "But she is under a lot of stress."

"From what?"

"I wish I knew," Bubbles shook her head looking down.

It was after school now, and Buttercup quickly flew to the Gangreen Gang's base. The thought of going to see Ace made her sick to her stomach, so she decided to just go out and get it out of the way.

When she reached the warehouse she saw Ace outside, looking at what looked like one of the symbols. Why was it here?

She flew down and walked over to Ace.

"You know, I think I like it," Ace said not even turning around, "It adds a little style to this dump, you know?"

"Did you see who did this?" Buttercup asked, hoping that they could stay somewhat professional today.

"Fraid not," Ace said stretching, "They did this last night when we were all asleep, and unlike these jokers I don't actually live here."

That actually came as a shock to Buttercup. He had his own place now? Why did he still come here then? Was it just his office? She shrugged it off and decided to stay on topic.

"Do you know anything about Mojo Jojo?" she asked.

"Not too much?" he turned to Buttercup and shrugged, "But I hear that somewhere over Townsville is his new base."

"You mean like a base in the sky?"

"Ditto."

That made sense to Buttercup. Mojo Jojo was the type to make a base in the sky; Buttercup was surprised he didn't do it earlier. But something didn't add up.

"If he has an air base," Buttercup asked, "Why haven't I seen it? I fly everywhere I go."

"And Mojo knows that," Ace said suddenly, "Think Buttercup, Mojo has been fighting you for years, and while he isn't the luckiest person in the world he's still intelligent. He wouldn't make a base in the sky and not put some sort of cloaking on it."

"You have a point," Buttercup said looking down crossing her arms. She hated when Ace was right, but he did know people, and had a tendency of being right.

Ace walked up to Buttercup and stood next to her, "You know, criminal minds aren't the only thing I know about."

"Oh really?" Buttercup asked, but then Ace turned around and backed her up against a wall, "Ace..."

"I also heard that your school is having it's junior prom in two months," Ace said with a smile, "You taking anyone?"

"I'm not going," Buttercup said, shocked by how breathy her voice was.

"Maybe you and I could spend some time that day instead," Ace said now getting really close, "Just the two of us."

Buttercup was actually getting a little hot being so close to him. Why was he doing this? Why did she want him to do this? She had never felt this way before about anyone. That's when she got scared, and quickly pushed Ace off of her and ran off a bit. Ace was laughing, which made Buttercup a little annoyed.

"What's so funny?" Buttercup snapped.

"You were always my favorite one," Ace said walking past Buttercup. As he passed her he hit her on the butt, making Buttercup's face turn redder than Blossom's ribbon, "See you around."

Buttercup's heart was still racing, even after she got back home. The Professor was in the kitchen making dinner when she stepped in.

"There you are," Prof. Utonium said poking his head out of the kitchen, "Are you okay, Buttercup? You seem flustered."

"Oh, uh," Buttercup said, her face turning red again, "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little tired. I'm going upstairs to my room."

"Okay, I'll call you when dinner's ready."

Buttercup ran upstairs to her room and closed the door. She couldn't get Ace out of her mind. She lied down on her bed, still thinking about what Ace said to her.

"What is wrong with me?" Buttercup asked once she realized how long she was thinking about Ace. She needed to be focusing on finding Mojo Jojo, and figuring out why he was making these symbols.