Chapter 09

The next day Bubbles opted to walk with Blossom to school. She didn't think Blossom should be trying to go to school after her nervous breakdown yesterday, but Blossom insisted.

"I'm fine," Blossom said to Bubbles as they walked to school, "Really, you don't have to follow me."

"I'm not following you," Bubbles defended, "I'm walking to school with you. At least I thought I was."

"And why are you "walking to school with me" today? You always ride with the Professor."

Bubbles gave an annoyed sigh, "You know, that's the reason people at school talk about you like they do. You always get so defensive, even when people are trying to help you."

"So basically you're saying I'm a bitch," Blossom snapped.

"No, I'm not. Seriously Blossom, why do you do that? Why can't someone just want to be nice to you?"

Blossom sighed to herself. She knew that Bubbles was trying to help, that's all Bubbles ever wanted to do.

"Bubbles," Blossom said, "I'm... sorry. I don't know why I do that."

Bubbles caught up to Blossom and put an arm around her sister, "Just don't do that to me, okay?" Blossom nodded, "I love you, Blossom, and I want you us to talk again."

It was a start, Blossom thought. At least now she had Ms. Bellum and Bubbles.

When they walked into the school building, they both noticed a change in the atmosphere. A lot of the students were eying Blossom in a funny way. Some looked like they were gossiping. Blossom used her super hearing to listen to what they were saying, and was horrified...

Did you see what happened yesterday?

She looks so calm right now.

I always knew she would snap like that.

"Great," Blossom said, "Now the entire school thinks I'm a spaz. Like my life in this hell hole couldn't get any worse."

"Don't let them get to you, Blossom," Bubbles said in a comforting tone, "Give them a day and no one will even remember what happened."

Blossom nodded to her sister, even though she wasn't sure of that at all.

"BC, Earth to BC. Hey!" Mitch shouted snapping his fingers in front of Buttercup, who immediately came back to reality.

"Oh, Mitch," Buttercup said regaining composure, "How long have you been there?"

"How long have I been here?" Mitch said incredulously, "Um, hello. I sit here. You just walked in and sat down without saying anything."

"Oh, sorry..." Buttercup said looking down, Mitch looked like he was getting scared now.

"BC Utonium, apologizing? Who are you and what have you done with BC?" Mitch asked.

"You wanna get socked?" Buttercup asked calmly, putting Mitch at ease.

"Okay, there you are," he sounded relieved, "How did it go?"

Buttercup panicked for some reason, "How did what go?"

"You're talk with Ace..." Mitch said slowly, looking at Buttercup as if she were crazy, "Did he say anything useful?"

Buttercup couldn't get that last moment out of her head, so it took her a minute to remember exactly what Ace had told her.

"Right," she said once she remembered, "He suspects that Mojo's base is probably a flying base."

"I guess that sounds like something he would do," Mitch said thoughtfully, "But wait, you fly around all the time. How come we never noticed it?"

"I asked that exact same question. Ace seems to think Mojo has a cloaking device on his base to hide it."

"That just further points to what you were saying. Mojo is paranoid about something." Mitch said. Homeroom ended, and they walked out, but Mitch kept looking at Buttercup, which was getting really annoying.

"What?" she asked.

"It's just," Mitch began shrugging, "Normally when it comes to Brawler business, you're more focused, but today your head seems to be somewhere else. You cool?"

"God, yes I'm fine," Buttercup said trying to dismiss it. Mitch shrugged, and for a few seconds it was left at that, but when they got to their first class, another student walked up to Buttercup.

"Hey BC," he said, "what's up?"

"For the last time, I'M FINE!" Buttercup shouted, storming to her desk in the back. Mitch and the student looked at each other and shrugged.

The rest of the class was a blur. Just as Mitch said, she just couldn't focus on anything today. Why did Ace have to do that to her? Why did she like it when he did that? She was Buttercup. The tough one, the tomboy, the one who said she didn't do boys. She had one crush when she was a kid, but she hardly even remembered it.

"Of all the people in the world, why do I have to feel like this?" she said, now cursing whoever came up with the idea of giving her these damned hormones.

Okay, now this is getting silly, Bubbles thought. It was almost lunch now, and she had already met up with four groups of students asking about whether Blossom was mentally stable, if she had fights like that often, even saying snide comments. At first it looked like people were afraid of her, but now it was like everyone was thinking that Blossom was a spaz.

Bubbles was still in her computer class, Jane sitting next to her. While Bubbles was getting ready to leave, Jane was actively typing on her computer. Right when Bubbles sat up, Jane gasped in shock.

"Bubbles! You need to see this!" Jane said, catching Bubbles' attention.

"What's wrong, Jane?" Bubbles said looking over her friend's shoulder, and she immediately saw red. Jane was looking at Princess' blog, and saw an entire section dedicated to Blossom's panic attack yesterday. Not only was there a horrible opening statement, but almost all of the comments were negative.

"Bubbles, are you alright?" Jane asked when Bubbles didn't answer right away.

"We need to find Princess now," Bubbles said with an edge of contempt, "Before Blossom sees this."

As they turned to leave though, they saw a sight that made their hearts stop. Blossom was standing right there over them, and she didn't look happy.

"Bl, Blossom..." Bubbles stuttered looking at Blossom, who immediately stormed out of the computer room, "Blossom! Wait!"

I'm gonna kill her! I'm gonna kill her! Those thoughts kept running through her mind as she ran through the hall searching for Princess. She knew that Bubbles and Jane were right behind her, but she didn't care. The only thing on her mind was finding Princess.

When she reached the cafeteria she saw Princess, surrounded by students. She was apparently gossiping about Blossom, because when she walked in everyone turned to her and the whole cafeteria got silent.

"Blossom," Princess said sitting on a table in the center, "What a nice surprise. We were just talking about you. How's Brick doing?"

"You..." Blossom started walking up to Princess, but someone grabbed her arm stopping her. She turned and saw that it was Buttercup.

"She isn't worth it," Buttercup said. Blossom had to stop herself from laughing. Buttercup was telling her to calm down? Since when was she the calm one?

"Let me guess, you think I'm a spaz now too?" Blossom asked spitefully, making Buttercup look down.

"I'm just trying to make sure you don't do something that you'll regret," Buttercup turned to look at Princess, "Even if they sort of deserve it."

Bubbles walked up to Blossom and took her hand guiding her out of the cafeteria, but apparently Princess wasn't done talking.

"Running away?" Princess asked, "I guess these days that is what you do best. No, wait, raging is what you do best, my bad," Princess smiled evilly after saying that.

That. Was. It! Blossom pushed Buttercup and Bubbles off of her and rushed up to Princess knocking her off the table.

"Blossom!" Bubbles and Buttercup called out at the same time as she tried to kill Princess. It took four students (one being Mitch who was a giant) to get her off of Princess, who was thankfully not too hurt.

"You're a monster!" Princess shouted looking at Blossom in horror, "You should be locked up, freak!"

"Is that what I am now? A monster?" Blossom shouted at Princess angrily, eyes full of tears of rage, struggling against the hold of now eight students, two of which were her sisters.

"Blossom, let's go!" Bubbles said trying to urge her sister out of the cafeteria. Blossom barely even noticed as she screamed at Princess. She barely even realized they weren't in the cafeteria anymore.

Before she even knew it, she was sitting outside the Principal's office. The Professor was talking to the Principal about what happened in the cafeteria. Blossom waited anxiously for the Professor and his look of disappointment. Instead though, when he stepped out, she saw calm indifference.

"Professor?" Blossom asked slowly, but the Professor just gave a small smile and took her hand.

"Let's go," he said simply. Although he was trying to be calm, Blossom could see the disappointment in his eyes. That hurt even more than actually hearing him yell at her.

The car ride home was horribly quiet. He didn't even have to tell her anything; she knew she had been suspended, and she knew he had to fight for her to not get expelled. It had been a while since Blossom had ridden in the Professor's car. Maybe it was the atmosphere or the fact that she was so used to walking or flying, but the ride seemed awfully long to her.

When they pulled up to the house they sat in the car in silence for a while. It seemed like the Professor didn't know what to say, and Blossom was at a loss for words as well.

"Is there anything you want to talk about?" he asked finally. Blossom couldn't find the words, so she just silently shook her head, which was followed by more silence.

"How long?" Blossom asked once she found her voice.

"Hm? Oh, the Principal recommended that you stay out for a few days," he replied. They got out of the car and started walking to the house, Blossom's heart beating faster and faster, until she couldn't stand it anymore. The tears came, and she couldn't stop them. The Professor stopped and turned to her.

"Blossom?" he asked as Blossom sobbed.

"I don't want to go back!" Blossom said, "Don't make me go back there!"

The Professor walked over to Blossom and hugged her, "It's okay," he said softly, "You don't have to do anything you don't want to do."

He didn't know what was going on, but she didn't care right now. Someone cared, and someone made her feel loved. And that was what the Professor was good for.

No matter what, he always cared about her.