Thanks for the nice reviews everyone; I hope you continue to enjoy the story!
1
Blossom's alarm, as always, went off at 6:30 and she was quick to roll neatly out of bed and hit the off button. Smoothing the creases out of her pink silk pyjamas, she slipped out of her room and padded down the hall to the bathroom, pausing to grab a fresh towel from the linen cupboard. As she did, she heard a soft noise from behind her and turned to find Bubbles looking out from behind her half open bedroom door. Upon meeting her sister's gaze, the blonde gave a tiny squeak and banged the door shut again, making Blossom frown. Surely she couldn't still be upset? Resolving to review the situation over breakfast, she stepped into the bathroom and turned the shower on, cranking the temperature up to near maximum.
She heard Buttercup emerge from her room as she finished brushing her hair in front of her bedroom mirror, pulling it up into its customary ponytail with the usual red ribbon. Shaking it out to make sure none of it was caught in the collar of her blouse, she rose and slipped on her mary-janes before grabbing her book bag and leaving for the kitchen. Bubbles was already sitting munching on a piece of toast and frowning over several sheets of what appeared to be Biology homework. Blossom glanced over her shoulder as she poured out a bowl of cereal.
"Phospholipids," she said lightly. "Cell membranes are made of up protein and phospholipid molecules." Bubbles murmured a quiet thank you around a mouthful of her toast and scribbled it down, but she didn't really acknowledge her sister other than that.
Buttercup came crashing into the kitchen in her usual half-asleep state two minutes later, stumbling over to the coffee maker and pouring herself a cup from the fresh pot Blossom had put on. She spooned in two helpings of sugar and gulped it down, making a face as it burned her tongue.
"Where's the Professor?" she asked Bubbles, wiping her mouth on her sleeve and putting her mug in the sink. Bubbles looked up from her homework and used her pen to point out of the door to the basement stairs.
"He's in the lab. I think he has a new project or something." Buttercup grunted and grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl.
"I'm heading off; I said I'd meet the guys for some early practice."
"Don't you think you should eat something?" Blossom asked. "Going to school without breakfast affects your concentration in class. Your grades will never get better if you don't start focusing."
"Ugh, whatever," Buttercup muttered, giving Blossom a look of bored contempt. "Who'd wanna be a nerd like you anyway?" She disappeared, and moments later, the remaining two heard the door slam shut.
"What is the matter with her?" Blossom said incredulously. She took a sip of her jasmine tea and a deep breath, looking at her other sister for an answer. Bubbles finished her toast and wiped crumbs off the sheets on the table.
"She's still angry about last night."
"But surely she must see the sense in it. I know it's what's right. You see that too, don't you Bubbles?" The blonde shook her head slightly.
"I don't know anymore Blossom. Sometimes I think you only see what's right for you, not for either of us." And she gathered up her papers and left the kitchen. Blossom sat nonplussed at the table, still clutching her teacup.
All she wanted was what was best and that meant seeing the city protected. It was about doing things for the greater good; sometimes that meant making sacrifices, which, while not pleasant, had to be made. She finished the last mouthful of tea and left for the downstairs bathroom to brush her teeth, with Bubbles brushing past her at the door. As she entered the bathroom, she heard the front door close, and felt a small pang as she realised that she would be walking to school on her own.
xxx
Nothing seemed amiss at school. Blossom got through history, English and maths without incident, although neither of her sisters were in those classes. Naturally, she ignored the possible correlation, instead concentrating solely on taking notes and passing the pop quiz the maths teacher sprang on them.
She shared her fourth class with Bubbles, who nodded to her briefly and took a seat on the far side of the classroom instead of the one next to her sister. This seemed terribly childish to Blossom, but she forced on a bright little smile as Robin slid into the chair in her place.
"Hi Blossom, sorry to ask this straight off and all but did you finish that homework? I tried, but that last question killed me. Can I see your answer?"
"You know I don't like cheating Robin."
"It's not cheating! Really, I promise I won't look at the answer then; I just need to see your calculation." Blossom sighed and motioned for Robin to pass the homework. They still had a few minutes before the teacher turned up, and she quickly gave the basic outline of Hess's law and helped Robin slot the figures into the right places before the lab door opened.
"Thanks Bloss, I owe you big time for this," Robin whispered gratefully, scribbling down the last parts of the calculation. Blossom cast her eyes over to where Bubbles sat shuffling pieces of paper in her folder and carefully keeping her eyes fixed on them. For the first time, Blossom felt genuinely worried; Buttercup was fully capable of holding a grudge for weeks at a time, but Bubbles rarely even lost her temper, nevermind stopped talking to anyone for longer than perhaps ten minutes.
xxx
It was only when she was heading for lunch that she remembered her encounter with Brick the night before. His words had been… well, she couldn't exactly say they were threatening; it wasn't as though he had given her an ultimatum. It was just a silly bet that he had no chance of winning, that was all. Besides, what possible method could he use to win her over? She knew him too well. Or rather, she knew enough about him to know that she really was not interested, or likely to be interested. Ever.
She then realised that she was devoting entirely too much thought to the whole thing, and promptly resolved to try and forget about it.
The lunch hall was, as usual, packed, and it took Blossom several 'excuse me's and carefully applied use of her elbows to get hold of a tray and join the queue. Normally, she would have brought her own lunch, but due to Brick's interference (which she was not thinking about), she had been too distracted to make one up last night. So, unhealthy school food it was, however unhappy she felt about the prospect.
When she'd fought her way through the scrum of a queue and got herself her lunch, she wandered over to the usual table that she shared with her sisters and a few other girls. Buttercup looked up from her sandwich as she sat down, and then averted her eyes again. Bubbles simply continued nibbling a piece of lettuce from one of the limp school salads, and cast a worried look at their black haired sister.
"So," Blossom said amicably, "how have your lessons been?" Buttercup rolled her eyes and polished off the last bite of her sandwich.
"Why? So you can show off about how you aced that pop quiz you got? I already heard from Morgan."
"There's no need for that Buttercup."
"There was no need for you to be so bloody minded last night either."
"Look, I already explained why I think Bubbles should stay here. I mean, it's for the good of-"
"No, it's so you can look good bossing us around and taking all the credit. Now if you don't mind, I have better things to do with my time; I'll be with the team."
Bubbles picked up a carrot stick as Buttercup strode off to a nearby table to talk to some of the guys from the basketball team. Blossom's mouth was still poised mid sentence.
"Alright, she has got to do something about that attitude," she muttered finally. There was a crunch from the carrot stick.
"Maybe she's not that one who should be thinking about changing her attitude," Bubbles said pointedly. The nagging sense of worry came back to Blossom. It seemed her sisters had painted her firmly in the wrong this time, and she had no idea how to cope, especially since even Bubbles was being snarky about it.
"E-excuse me," she said hurriedly, her strange habit of being overly formal when nervous popping up. She pushed out her chair with a squeak, leaving her sandwich uneaten and walked quickly across the room. From the corner of her eye, she caught Buttercup looking over at her, and sped up.
xxx
For the first time in her life, Blossom found that the thought of classes did nothing to make her feel better. Her concentration was shot. As she walked slowly down the corridor towards the library, she looked up and saw her violin case sitting on top of the lockers. Pausing, she looked down the corridor at the double doors of the library, and then back at the instrument case. It only took a few seconds more before she grabbed hold of it and changed course for the music rooms.
Since it was still lunchtime, it was easy enough for her to find an empty practice room, and she quickly selected the one furthest back in the music block. It was one of the larger rooms, and had big windows along the back wall, making it seem much bigger again. Blossom set down the case and pulled out her violin, plucking the strings and playing with the pegs to make sure it was in tune. Putting a little rosin on her bow strings, she pulled out a few sheets of music and rifled through them. She finally settled on Prokofiev's Sonata op. 115 and settled the instrument securely in the crook of her neck. Taking a second to focus herself, she laid the bow over the strings and tested the sound. And then she launched herself into the piece.
She had been playing the violin since she was six years old, and had impressed many with her raw talent and aptitude for learning. Her near-zealous love for order and routine had seen her throw at least two hours per day into practicing the instrument, but although her teacher had urged her to participate in competitions, she had refused over and over again. She had a duty to the city; she couldn't be off playing an instrument for her own whimsical enjoyment. Or anyone else's for that matter.
It was only when the bell rang for the end of school that she realised exactly how long she'd been playing. She'd gone from Prokofiev to Bach to Bartók and played a few short pieces from memory on top of those. Feeling satisfied, and substantially calmer now, she placed the violin and bow back into the case and packed away the music. She turned to leave, only to stop short.
There, taped to the door, was a single long-stemmed red rose with a note tied to the stem with a thin red ribbon. Suddenly feeling slightly nervous, she approached the flower cautiosly, almost as though the thing would explode. She set down the violin case and reached for it, pulling it off of the door. Noting that the thorns had all been removed, she untied the ribbon and looked at the note. It was blank except for a large 'B' scrawled in a messy cursive in the bottom right hand corner. She stared at it, then crumpled it angrily before tossing it and the rose in the bin by the far wall. Without moving from where she stood.
How on earth did he get in here without me noticing? she seethed, storming down the corridor to her locker, scattering the small drifts of people still milling about before heading home. Surely she couldn't have been that distracted. She had superhuman senses; there should have been no way he could have got in without her seeing him. The hinges on that door squeaked like a roomful of mice on helium for one thing. Then again, Brick had the same senses that she had. It was possible that he had used his own to counterract hers.
Well some new tricks and a rose aren't going to convince me of anything. You'll have to do better than that.
She blinked as she had that thought.
No, nothing he can do will ever change my mind. Never.
That was more like it. More like her. She shoved a few folders into her bag and shouldered it triumphantly. All his effort had done was make her even more sure that his plan was going to fail. Besides, if that was the best he could do then he had even less than no chance. However, there was still the problem with her sisters to solve.
She left the school with a grim smile on her face. If there was three things Blossom was good at, they were fighting crime, playing the violin and solving problems, the trickier the better.