Wow, I actually managed to write this all in one go for once; I guess my muse must finally be willing to cooperate. This chapter was incredibly fun to write for some reason, probably because I had to go re-watch some old episodes, for 'research' purposes of course. Anyway, there's a reference to the Season 5 episode, 'Power-Noia' in there; cracking episode. Hope you enjoy this chapter!
7
"Bubbles, get out of the bathroom, now!" Blossom smirked to herself as Buttercup banged insistently on the bathroom door. Apparently sensing her smugness at being the first one dressed and heading down for breakfast, Buttercup turned to shoot a slightly bleary-eyed death glare at her sister as she headed down the stairs. Bubbles, totally oblivious to the whole thing, continued singing loudly from behind the bathroom door.
Blossom's relative cheerfulness faded as she stared absently out of the kitchen window while she waited for her toast and tea to be ready. She knew she should probably be studying, she'd noted yesterday in class that her maths teacher was planning to give them another pop quiz today (telepathy was not a complete nuisance it seemed), but for once, she figured that she knew enough to wing it. It wasn't as though anyone in the class could even come close to her scores anyway, or so she liked to think. She vaguely recalled the incident where Him had forced her and her sisters to live out their worst fears in nightmare form. That night, she'd been on the verge of a panic attack before going to sleep anyway, all because of the test she'd forgotten to study for. It seemed almost silly now; it had only been kindergarten afterall, but back then it had been such a big deal, and the nightmare had really just compounded it all. If she was being honest with herself, it was still a big deal. Even if she was a little more relaxed about it now, she still put a lot of self-worth in the fact that her grades were the best in the school. Still, perhaps a lot of it was simply her ego. And even though she felt it was important, she was quite confident that there would never be anyone at school able to compare with her scores, never mind beat her.
She took a bite out of her newly buttered toast. Everything was going to be fine. It wasn't as if she couldn't study before the class anyway. With that happy thought in mind, she quickly finished her breakfast and headed for the downstairs bathroom to brush her teeth, not giving the slightly wilting roses on the sideboard so much as a glance.
xxx
"Hey, did you hear? Just now, I swear I-"
"But that's impossible, right? I mean-"
"Now, I heard-"
Blossom resisted the urge to grind her teeth as the people around her chattered incessantly about the latest rumour. She was managing to ignore it for the most part, with only the odd stray thought trickling in as she pored over her notes. As far as she had reluctantly managed to glean, it seemed that a new student was starting today, and that something was strange about it. She had simply assumed that it was because they were starting fairly late in the term and got on with her studying. Finally, all the talking died away as the teacher entered the room. Blossom didn't look up, keeping her eyes firmly on the equation in front of her, but she heard people's whispering voices rustling around her like epileptic trees. She couldn't make out the words, but the thoughts were coming in loud and clear. So the new transfer student was in her maths class. Wonderful, but she had a formula to memorise.
"Class, before we begin, I would like to- I would introduce our new student, but… well, I'm sure you all know him." The teacher sounded flustered and Blossom's eyes suddenly shot wide as she stared down at the page in front of her. A new thought had just flashed through her mind. A new voice. But not new enough.
She snapped her head up to look to the front of the room, and there, in all his red-capped arrogant glory, was Brick. His lazy grin widened as he caught her eye, and he gave a casual wave to the class.
"Hi there. Don't worry folks, I'm not here to cause trouble. Or burn the place down and end school early, in case that's what you were after." There were a few quiet laughs, although they were fairly nervous ones. Blossom was vaguely aware of Robin shooting a worried glance at her, her bottom lip firmly between her teeth. Blossom herself was utterly shell-shocked. The whispering started up again, and the teacher swept her hair back from her face and tried to regain order.
"Okay, class, we're having a quiz today so if you could all put your books away. Brick, you can be excused from this since you haven't been in class."
"Oh no Miss Fisher, I'll take it. Might as well see where I'm at, y'know?" Miss Fisher looked slightly perplexed at a student asking to take a test, but mostly managed to take it in stride.
"Well, if you just go to that seat at the back, then I'll start handing out the test papers. Blossom, notes away if you please." Blossom snapped out of her stunned stupor and started haphazardly trying to get her notes back into a neat pile.
"Oh Miss Fisher, could you wait a second? There's just one thing I wanted to do before class starts." Blossom stopped shuffling her papers and looked up slowly as Brick advanced on her desk. Predictably, he stopped right next to her, and she suddenly froze as she glimpsed his plan in her head.
"No, don't you-" But it was too late. With a flourish worthy of a magician, he produced the bouquet from apparently nowhere.
"I made sure to bring eight for you today; I was held up with enrolment stuff yesterday so I didn't have time to bring you any. I do hope you'll forgive me." Blossom remained utterly frozen in her chair.
"Y… y… I…" She was stammering uncontrollably. This whole scenario was just so ridiculous that it couldn't be real. But she knew she wasn't going to be able to rationalise this as a dream; not with all the thoughts of her classmates streaming through her head and all the hushed voices and the catcalls from the boys at the back of the class.
Miss Fisher, looking completely lost after what had just happened, opened her mouth just as Blossom flashed past her in a blur of pink light, leaving her extremely ruffled both metaphorically and literally.
xxx
Oh no no no no. Blossom finally stopped running once she got to the science department at the other end of the building. Leaning against the wall of one of the chemistry labs, she tried to catch her breath, but the sheer confusion over what had just happened seemed to have stopped her from quite remembering how to breathe properly.
"He can't be here," she said aloud. "He just can't."
"Who can't?" Blossom gave a small shriek of alarm as she suddenly noticed Buttercup leaning on the wall next to her with a small frown on her face.
"I was in biology; felt you coming," she said by way of explanation. "Something bad happen? You're... pretty messed up right now." Blossom nodded, her heart still pounding in her chest from the fright she'd had.
"It's… I… Brick is in my maths class!" Buttercup stared at her in shock.
"You can't be serious."
"I only wish I wasn't. He has actually enrolled at the school. He's got to be up to something but I don't-"
"Wait a minute… You're not just worried." She paused for a moment. "Hey, you're embarrassed about something." Blossom immediately flushed, and subsequently cursed her pale skin.
"I'm, not embarrassed, I'm angry. I mean, he-" she caught Buttercup's look. "Okay, so you can feel what I'm feeling. But I'm telling you, this is really, really bad." Her sister put her hands up.
"You don't have to tell me Bloss; I know who he is and what he can do. Still, could be worse; could be all three of 'em. Hell, could just be Butch." Blossom sighed, knowing that while Buttercup was probably right, it wasn't going to make any of this better, especially since Brick apparently hadn't given up. At all. Then, something in her mind clicked. Something that brought her back to being Blossom, and not just a panic-stricken bag of nerves and confusion.
"Oh no! I'm missing the maths test! I'll talk to you later; fill Bubbles in for me!"
xxx
She slunk back into the classroom as quietly as she could, but of course, this didn't stop every person in the room from looking up as she did so. She threw an apologetic look at Miss Fisher, who simply held out a test paper and waved her to her seat. With distaste, Blossom noted that the roses were still very much there, and had to fight very hard to simply put them down onto the floor, rather than throwing them down and incinerating them.
She quickly dug out a pen and got started, the answers coming to her easily. Even though she was still depressingly aware of Brick being at the back of the class due to the prickling feeling at the back of her neck, she still managed to settle into her usual test mentality. She was done in fifteen minutes.
"Alright everyone, I'll take in the papers now. Blossom, do you need extra time?"
"No Miss Fisher, I'm done." She handed over her paper and tried to settle in her seat, but was acutely aware of notes being passed and much whispering going on behind hands. Her telepathy chose this precise moment to not work, and so she was left with only her (enhanced) hearing. Even so, she didn't need to hear the words to know what they were talking about. That little incident was not going to go away easily.
"Okay everyone, while I'm marking these, go ahead and do exercise 5 on page 42. I'll reveal the top score at the end of class." She gave a pointed look at Blossom as she said this, and a few people muttered about how everyone knew who it was going to be. Blossom simply got out her textbook and started working on the exercise. The sooner she got out of here, the better.
When the end of the class came around, Miss Fisher stood up, like she usually did on quiz days, to write up the top scorer's name. However, this time, she paused.
"We appear to have a tie," she said. "Two students have achieved full marks." She wrote up Blossom's name on the board, as expected, but what followed made Blossom nearly fall out of her chair. Brick's name was up next to hers.
"He cheated," she mumbled to herself. "He must have." She left the class quickly, rushing to get to her next one. But all day, it was the same scenario. Somehow, he had managed to get into all of her classes, and in every single one of them, he was keeping pace with her work. She followed his progress in her mind; mentally watching him work away. Much to her confusion and, to a large extent, her anger, he didn't appear to be cheating. She was going to have to give in and face it; he was as good as she was, and she didn't understand why.
xxx
"I don't understand it. He has to be up to something, but…" Blossom let her head drop into her hands. "I just don't know what to do. And the fountain opening ceremony is tomorrow." Bubbles sat a cup of tea down next to her and took a seat herself, patting her sister gingerly on the shoulder.
"It's okay Blossom. We'll make it okay."
"Yeah," Buttercup put in. "If he tries anything, he's gonna wish he never walked into that place." Blossom looked up, her expression grave.
"Buttercup, please. You know how dangerous he is." Buttercup looked away, her hand unconsciously raising to play over where the scar on her side was hidden by her t-shirt. Brick had lost his temper that day, and none of them had come away completely unscathed.
"Umm… Blossom? Robin… she told me what happened in class." Blossom didn't have the energy to play it off as a prank anymore, instead sighing and taking a mouthful of tea.
"Like I said, he's up to something. He's trying to mess with me; get into my head. I don't know what his plan is, but I won't let him win." Bubbles and Buttercup shared a worried look over their sister's head. Whatever was going on, it was serious.
"I'm going to deal with this," Blossom said stonily, her voice taking on the flat yet resolved tone she'd gained over twelve years of leadership. "I'll figure out his plan and I'll put a stop to it. By any means possible." Her sisters could do little but nod. When Blossom took that tone, they knew sparks were going to fly.