Hi everyone. I'm really sorry about the wait for this update; things are continuing to be crazy, and will be for the next month. However, once the summer holiday rolls around I will finally have to time to do some proper work on this thing. In the meantime, I'll get working on the next chapter whenever I get a spare minute.

15

"The Orchestra are looking for new people you know." Blossom looked up at her blonde-haired sister, who sat filing her nails at the other side of the kitchen table.

"Oh are they?" she asked, keeping her tone neutral.

"I just thought I'd tell you. Apparently they're a bit short in the string section." She shot her sister a meaningful look, but Blossom diverted her attention back to her cup of tea. For all that she'd taken Bubbles' comments from earlier in the month on board, she couldn't just go against her own principles like that so easily.

"It's not that I don't want to Bubbles, but I don't really think I should. I mean, things happen and you never know when something really bad might come along." Yes, she was making excuses, and they were bad ones, especially considering the extracurricular activities that both her sisters managed to hold down as well as crime fighting. Bubbles, evidently, was as unimpressed by these excuses as Blossom was herself, but being as sweet as she was, she said nothing. Not that this made Blossom feel better.

But she still wasn't going to join the orchestra.

xxx

Even given the uncomfortable little discussion about the orchestra over breakfast that morning, things had been going well that day, they really had. Classes had been going well, Brick was more or less leaving her alone (although still not as alone as she would have liked) and Princess was still sufficiently terrified of her. Of course, this couldn't last, and it had come crashing down around everyone's ears when it got round to lunchtime. Blossom was not impressed.

"I can't believe you," she growled, kneading her forehead. "The poor boy didn't do anything." Beside her, Buttercup's scowl darkened and she slouched further into her seat, looking every inch the stereotypical sulking teenager.

"It was his own fault."

"No Buttercup. You are the one who flew off the handle at nothing and beat him into a bruised mess. He nearly had to be taken to hospital for goodness sake! We can't do things like that!" Blossom could feel her temper rising and resisted the urge to take it out on the poor, innocent wall.

"We can't ever lose control like that Buttercup; we could kill someone."

"Oh yeah, like you were in control when you flew off the handle at Princess. Everyone knows about that, but you didn't get in trouble." Blossom blanched.

"That's different. She was out of line. All he did was give you a Valentine's card." Buttercup gave a frustrated growl and diverted her gaze to the floor.

Apparently, she had found out who had been behind the card she'd received yesterday, and the fact that it had turned out to not be a prank had not gone down well. Now the basketball team was a man down, and probably about to be a girl down too, considering there was little chance that Buttercup wasn't getting suspended for this. Blossom slumped into the seat beside her sister and wondered if it was just the superpowers that caused her family to be so dysfunctional.

The Professor arrived about fifteen minutes later. He wasn't angry, he never was, but Buttercup was subjected to the crushing disappointment that always accompanied these kinds of trips to the school. Blossom couldn't be sure, but those might have been angry tears in her sister's eyes.

"Blossom, go back to class. Your sister and I need to have a little chat before we speak to the headmistress I think." She nodded and walked out, seeing the Professor put and hand on Buttercup's shoulder as she started protesting loudly about her situation. She walked down the corridor as quickly as possible as Buttercup's voice started to escalate in volume, trying to get as far out of hearing range as she could.

xxx

She still felt annoyed about the whole thing later, after school had finished. As she sat unpacking her violin in one of the practice rooms, she kept wondering why Buttercup had to be like that. Sure, she had… issues, but she had to know by now what she could and couldn't do around people. She pulled her sheet music out of the folder a little harder than necessary, tearing some of it in the process. People were too fragile for that kind of thing.

Still, she knew Buttercup wasn't handling her new powers particularly well. Despite the fact that she had them more or less under control now, she was still edgy around everyone, still picking up on things that she had no desire to pick up on. Blossom knew that had to be hard; she was just glad she had her rampant telepathy under control.

After spending a few minutes clearing her head, she settled down and started to play. She had, as she'd always intended, skipped the orchestra invitational try-outs that lunchtime, although she knew that Bubbles would find out and that she would not be happy about it. Still, she'd given her reasons; Bubbles would have to understand.

Of course, there was more to it than that. Sure, Blossom didn't want to make commitments that could jeopardise her crime fighting, or make commitments that she couldn't actually commit to, which would make her feel awful. She hated to let people down, but that wasn't quite it. It was more that she was… well, she didn't want to say selfish, but she enjoyed listening to violin music, and she enjoyed listening to herself playing violin music, and she didn't want to have to fight against the rest of the orchestra to make her music heard. She worked alone as far as music was concerned.

She played through a few pieces, wondering what had happened to Buttercup. However, after a few moments, she stopped and put the instrument down.

"How long have you been there?" she asked, her tone resigned. She should have known that he wouldn't leave it at just one conversation today (not that it had lasted very long).

"About ten minutes? Figured I wouldn't disturb you."

"Well you have. Go away."

"But it's interesting. Could use some improvement, but you play pretty good." Blossom bristled.

"Use some improvement?" she asked, her voice straining to stay level. Brick got up from where he was seated on a chair by the door and stretched, wandering across the room.

"Yup. You've got all the notes down, yeah, but it's pretty boring, you know?" He started inspecting the piano beside the far wall. Blossom scoffed at his comment.

"Oh please. Classical music is sophisticated; it's meant to evoke emotions, but of course, you wouldn't know sophistication if it bit you in the-"

Brick's fingers hit the piano keys. Blossom fell silent.

It was a very short piece, only lasting a minute or two, and she recognised it, she'd heard it before, but not like this. He wasn't even looking at the keys as he played, but he was playing it. To the point where Blossom wasn't sure if it wasn't playing him. Her hands went slack around her violin and as he finished, she nearly dropped it.

"What… How…? I mean, when did you learn to play the piano?" And how did you learn to play it like that?

"About the same time as I decided I'd better start studying. I figured I couldn't be stuck playing second fiddle to my rival forever, no pun intended of course." Blossom blinked at him.

"I mean," he continued. "I got pretty sick of you calling me dumb, so I decided to, y'know, not be dumb anymore. Took a hell of a lot of work too; five years of home study and I had to actually find a teacher for the piano thing. Butch and Boomer thought I'd lost it. Still, it paid off in the end. Girls love this kind of thing."

Blossom's head was spinning. She'd wondered how he had managed to be her equal in all their classes, but she'd kind of ended up assuming that he had just been lazy when he was younger; that he was really as smart as she was. It had been stupid, but it was the only explanation she had found. Now, knowing that he had actually worked that hard just to catch up with her was slightly humbling, especially given that she'd never really had to try to be good at things before he'd come to school. She really hadn't credited him with that level of dedication.

"You… uh… You play really well," she said, rather lamely.

"Thanks. You play pretty good too, but you're relying on the notes too much."

"What? That doesn't even make sense! The notes are what make up the music and-" He held up a hand as she started to get on the offensive. Again. She really had to get her temper in check; not that she was going to admit that to him.

"What I mean is, you're just sort of… I dunno. You're not engaging with it. Yes, that's it!" He looked so proud of himself for coming up with that that Blossom almost forgot to be puzzled.

"I still don't understand. My teacher says I'm a brilliant player. Not to brag or anything, of course." Brick shrugged.

"Yeah, you are brilliant, at the technical part of playing. You're just not getting the 'musical' part of it. You were the one who said classical music was meant to evoke emotion, and I got nothing from you." He leaned over and grinned at her. "Ever the ice queen, aren't you?" She felt her lip curl.

"I'm going home," she snarled, getting up and starting to pack her violin away, muttering viciously about not letting herself talk to him anymore.

"You know, you could try proving me wrong instead."

"And how exactly am I supposed to do that? Evidently my skills just can't match up to yours." He rolled his eyes at the sarcasm.

"Sit down, close your eyes and play." She folded her arms and looked at him.

"I mean it," he continued. "Don't look at any music, just sit down and listen to what you're playing."

After a few moments of deliberation, and against her better judgement, her competitive streak gave her a firm nudge, and so she sat down and got the violin back out of its case.

"I still think you're talking nonsense."

"Then why did you look so impressed when I was playing the piano? Now come on, just close your eyes and play something." She shot him a suspicious glare, in response to which he laughed and simply moved away to the other side of the room. Not really feeling any less worried that he was going to try something stupid that may or may not lead to injury (for him, of course), she took a deep breath, positioned the violin on her shoulder, bow on the strings, and closed her eyes.

She chose a Bach piece, determined to prove Brick didn't know what he was talking about. Unfortunately though, as she played, she realised that it really did sound kind of... flat. She stopped.

"That... that's not... I..." She stared down at the violin in her hands. The notes had all been correct; it had been in perfect time, it just wasn't right. Brick wandered over from the other side of the room, and she looked up at him.

"How did you notice that and I didn't? You aren't supposed to be good at this. You aren't supposed to be better than me. I'm the hero; I'm the one who's meant to be good at things, not you." He simply shrugged, which was somehow worse than one of his silly little macho boasts.

This was ridiculous. She wasn't supposed to feel this way. She wasn't meant to feel inferior to someone like Brick. She wasn't supposed to even be considering what she was about to say.

"Brick. Help me."

"What?"

"You heard me. Help me. Teach me how to play properly; you seem to know how." She was refusing to look at him at this point, although she was sure she could imagine the smug, satisfied look on his face.

"Can't believe you're asking me for help," he said, laughing. She looked up to shoot him with a glare, but was struck by how genuinely happy he looked, although there were definitely smug undertones.

"You got a deal Bloss, I'll help you out." She raised an eyebrow.

"Just like that? What's the catch? Because if it's something to do with this '28 days' thing then I'm retracting the request." He held up his hands in mock surrender.

"Nothing like that, I promise. Buut... there is something..."

"What?" He grinned.

"Not telling. You'll just have to wait and see."

"You-"

"Ah, ah, no arguing. I'll see you tomorrow, same time, same place. And I'm going to thrash you in that biology test too, just for good measure."

He left, and Blossom was left sitting there and wondering what in the heck she had just gotten herself into.