After packing my bags for England, I took a moment to relax. I'm a member of the culture club at my high school, and this year Ms. Rook decided we would travel to England. I really don't want to leave my post here, protecting Townsville but the Professor and Bubbles assured me that they would handle Townsville while I'm away. Plus it would be a nice break from fighting crime. The principal said that we weren't allowed the use school days for our trip and some of our members were worried about their summer vacation so our trip was planned for a week before school started. I'm scheduled to leave with the group tomorrow morning. It's been really unnerving. The door bursts open and a loud and obnoxious Bubbles comes floating in.

"Professor said I can go to Jenny's sleepover! Oh I'm so excited!" She squeals with obvious excitement. She zips right to her bed and starts packing her blanket, pajamas, and pillows. I was invited as well but because of the trip tomorrow I can't go. I yawned and removed my hair tie; I need a good night's rest if I need to wake up early for the trip. I got in my bed and snuggled up to my pillow and sheets.

"Bubbles, can you turn off the light when you're done?" I asked. She looked up from her bag and nodded vigorously. After about five minutes she stood up and grinned widely with a bag in one hand and Octi in the other. She came up to my bed, hugged me, and said,

"Try to have fun on that trip." Then she winked and zipped out of the room.

"THE LIGHTS!"

I'm awakened by the sound of yelling. I race downstairs in the dark to see what the commotion's all about. A man is at the door. I can't really make out his facial features because a car light is shining brightly behind him. The only thing I made out is that someone needs' help, so I asked Professor,

"Professor, what's going on? Who needs help?" To my dismay, he ignored me and instead went to the wall. He tugged at our portrait of Buttercup and pulled out a large black bag. That's our emergency bag incase Buttercup goes unstable. Now I see, Buttercup lives with this man and she told him where to come for help. I want to go with them, but it's against the rules. When we all first decided to send Buttercup away, Bubbles and I agreed to not speak to her or look for her because it could bring her unwanted attention. Before I can say anything, Professor and the man take off. I really miss her, I feel really helpless because now I'm the only one home. Wait, I'm alone. Just me. I walk back up to Professor's lab and type in the passcode. I walked to the edge of his lab where his file cabinet is and click the lock switch 5 times and pull open the second drawer. I used to help out Professor in the lab when we were younger, so I know that this is his personal family and friends file cabinet. He used to tell me that if people wanted to steal his ideas, they'd most likely check his super computer and that it's mostly just a decoy. Buttercup's name isn't in here though. Of course I didn't expect it to be this easy, it's probably under her new name, but what is it? I'm speed reading through all of the names and the name Muinotu catches my eye. Muinotu , Muinotu…. Hmmmmmmmmmm I'm thinking and thinking. Wait, Muinotu is Utonium spelled backwards! This is her! I gingerly slid out the file and read through it. Bud Muinotu, she lives in a small apartment complex and is enrolled in St. Lordsman private school. She volunteers as a Youth Sports Coach at the Rec center downtown. My brain feels like it's put the puzzle pieces together. The Youth coach that ran from Bubbles and I was Buttercup. As I thought before, the only place she could've ran to was the men's locker room, but the only one there was… I gasped out loud. She must be friends with Butch. Does she even know that he's Butch? Does Butch know it's her? Was Butch the man that just picked up professor? I better find her, not just because I want to make sure she's okay, but because I miss her.

Using the address that was in the file, I flew straight to the apartment complex. I didn't want to waste any time so I flew in my nightgown. I was planning on busting into her apartment but professor might be there. I flew up the side of the building, counting the windows. I stopped at her floor and tried to figure out which room was hers. I noticed that on one window there were little green star stickers in the left corner. Buttercup bought those a week before her "death". I remember because we argued on where they should be stuck. I peeked in. I was surprised to find that her whole place was empty. I couldn't spot anyone anywhere, so I broke the pane, opened the window, and slid inside. I walked into what looked like her bedroom. It smelled like a wet dog and floor was bare and wooden as if someone removed the entire carpet. The paint was soaked and unevenly spread. It looked like a tsunami hit this place. I tripped and smashed into what seemed like the soaked, moldy, rolled up carpet. When I tried to get up, my hair got caught on a nail sticking out of the floor. Now I wasn't so sure if this was her apartment, until I saw a glimmer in the corner. It was my lucky ribbon. I thought I lost it until Bubbles informed me that she hid it in Buttercup's bag before she left. I crawled to the ribbon and held it in my hand. She actually kept it, my eyes started to water. I miss her so much. I tried to get up but I got caught on the same nail. Irritated, I grabbed my hair and yanked it from the nail. It's strange, this is her apartment, but where is she? Where is Professor? Where is Butch? After a walking around the apartment for a while, I figured I should start looking elsewhere.

I don't know where the Rowdyruff boys live, their last registered address was at Mojo's base, but for some reason they don't live there anymore. So I thought I'd go to the place Buttercup spent most of her youth at. The Hole. When we still lived together, Buttercup was known for her rebellious and violent streak so she spent a lot of time with delinquents. Buttercup was also a well-known skater underground, I never told her but I used to follow her and watch her. I was dirty and dingy and I really didn't want to be there but I just wanted a glimpse of her. I was so lost in my thoughts that I fell into a pit. I really hate today. The things I do for my sisters. I walked up to Buttercup's old friend Daniel at the shop counter and asked if he's seen a girl around here with my face but green eyes.

"I'm sorry sweet cheeks but I an't seen any girl like you." He paused, and got really close to my face to the point where I could smell his minty fresh gum.

"Say you do look kinda familiar, maybe she did come by here. She a skater?"

"Yes, uh yeah, she comes here to skate and buy clothes." I stuttered. He pulled away and any pointed to the side.

"Well since you look familiar, maybe she's lookin at some clothes. If not, it doesn't hurt to take a look for something yourself." He said. Normally, I would've taken offence but considering that I was still in my nightgown and the fact that I'd been falling in dirty stuff, I could easily see why he'd say that. I was going to make a remark when Daniel looked over me and waved.

"Ha-hey it's Charlie! How's it?" Daniel called. How dare he, I'm still here.

"Hey Daniel, it's all good in the neighborhood." The other person replied. I froze instantly, this cocky voice. It sounds like Butch. I panicked and started to run away, deep into the clothes. I heard them chatting in the distance. I guess they're used to seeing weirdos. I hid in the back and watched Butch. He walked around looking through clothes. At first I was going to wait for him to finish shopping, and then follow him home, but then I saw him pick up a black and green striped punk dress. He blushed heavily at the dress and put it down. That's when I noticed that he wasn't shopping for himself. He would pick up girlish things, blush, and then put them back. This went on for a good two hours. When he was paying, Daniel was teasing him. He obviously noticed how Butch was shopping.

The sun was rising and I'd been following Butch around for an hour. It occurred to me that he wasn't planning on going home anytime soon. In fact he looked really distracted. I yawned, I needed to get home soon. I decided that enough was enough.

"Stop right there!" I shouted drowsily. Butch stopped and slowly turned on his heels. I glared at him.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the Bloss-man." He said in a cocky tone. I noticed the stuff that he bought was in his hands. I knew that he wasn't buying for himself but I wanted to confirm.

"Those, who's are those?" I demanded.

"It's some stuff that belongs to a friend, why?" he responded. A friend? Buttercup maybe? I lunged at him and attempted to grab his collar. I wanted to corner and question him but he dodged me.

"What?" he asked in a rude tone. I broke down.

"Did you find her, is she with you? Are those her's? How is she?" He knows where she is and I just want to see her. I want to tell her so many things, and it's killing me. He stared at me for a bit, looked off to the side, and said,

"She's really bad right now, and she doesn't want to see you anymore." That's right she's unstable. It must be hard on her, but does she still hate me? Well she doesn't have to see me, I just want to see her.

"Can I see her, just once?" I begged him. He honestly doesn't know how humiliated I feel begging him. He must have pitied me because he paused and said,

"How about this, I have a picture of us together and I can only show you that." He then pulled out his wallet and slid out a picture. I gently and slowly grasped it and looked at it. In the picture a blonde girl is smiling brightly while leaning on a blushing Butch. She looks just like Bubbles. Tears start streaming down her face. She looks so happy. I start crying even harder, forgetting that Butch is there. I haven't seen her in years. That's when I realized how sorry I am, and I want to see her to apologize. Her last day with us we fought and I yelled at her wishing that she would disappear forever. Through my tears I looked back and forth between my ribbon on my wrist and the picture. Butch gave me an uncomfortable look and held out his hand. I couldn't help it, with all my emotions at once; I pulled him into a hug and cried.

"Thank you." I whispered into his ear. He scoffed and pushed me backwards. I caught myself and whipped off my tears. I smiled and took off. I heard his grunt of annoyance in the distance.

I made it home and went in through my window. As soon as I set foot in my room, my alarm sounded off. Well I guess it's time to shower and get dressed, but first to check on the Professor. I slipped my robe on to hide my dirty nightgown and made my way to his room. I peeked in to find the bed untouched. Confused, I checked the lab and he wasn't there either. I walked down the stairs to the living room and found him asleep on the couch. I guess he didn't make it passed the stairs when he got back. I breathe a sigh of relief. At least he didn't notice that I was gone. Well I have two hours until I have to be at the airport. Time to shower.

Why do I feel wet? I open my eyes to find a wet towel on my forehead. I rise up and gasp.

"Woah, easy there bronco." I hear. I turn and notice Charlie standing in his bathroom door way. His hair is soaked, he has a towel around his neck, and he's shirtless but at least he's got jeans on. He smirked, walked up to the bed, and squatted down to face me. I blinked repeatedly. What happened to me? I ran my hand through my hair and noticed that my hair was half black. I froze. Charlie laughed nervously.

"Your hair started changing colors when you fainted. I honestly don't know what was going on." He said. I panicked and pulled the blanket on top of my head. He chuckled and slowly pulled it down.

"I think it's cute, but if you really hate it that much Matthew already bought you some bleach and blonde dye." I smacked his hand away and pulled the blankets over me. I felt his hand on my back.

"If your natural color is black, why do you dye it blonde? It'd be cool to have the same color hair." He said. I think he was trying to comfort me. Did he honestly not figure out who I am?

"It's none of your business!" I shouted at him through the blankets.

"Go get Matthew and tell him to get the dye!" I continued. I heard him grunt and shout,

"Fine then don't answer me, I was just trying to have a simple conversation with you now that you're awake! You don't know how worried I've been these past three days. Urgh! Br-Matthew's gonna deal with you!" I heard him stomping away and open the door. I threw the blankets back and called out,

"Wait" But it was too late, he slammed the door and stormed of. I felt awful. I was just scared that he was gonna take one look at me and figure out that I'm Buttercup. It's not that I don't trust him, I'm just worried that he'd treat me differently. Matthew doesn't like me but he's not dumb or petty. He might already have figured out who I am, but he's not petty enough to expose me. Or it could be that he's a weirdo that gets off on other people's problems. Speak of the devil and he shall come. Matthew slowly opened the door and poked his head through. We made eye contact and he brought out a small shopping bag.

Matthew decided to help me bleach my hair. He was putting the mixture on and combed it through my dark hair. My blonde hair was tied and separated in a plastic bag. My hair in length goes down to my waist, but my hair darkened all the way to my shoulder. I felt really awkward letting Matthew do this.

"Relax, we're almost done. You know Charlie actually wanted to be the one to help you dye it." He said.

"Really? Now I feel worse about yelling at him." I told him.

"He was really worried about you. Did you even see what he bought you while you were out?" He said pointing out the bathroom door and into Charlie's room.

"He bought me something?" I asked out loud. Matthew didn't answer; he was putting a plastic shower cap on my head. He grunted.

"There, now we wait for thirty minutes." He said. At that moment we heard the door open and Charlie walked in. He stopped and noticed me staring.

"I just need a shirt." I forgot that he stormed out without a shirt. Matthew looked at him and said,

"Perfect timing, Watch her for thirty minutes will you? I just remembered that Kyle and are were going to go buy food." Then he gave Charlie the blonde dye box.

"Wait!" We both called out to Matthew.

"Don't worry, we're taking the menu this time. Bye~" he said as he closed the room door. Crap, now I'm here alone with Charlie. I looked to Charlie but as soon as we made eye contact he looked at the dye box, pretending to read it.

"Hey so I heard you bought me a get well present." I said trying to strike up a conversation with him. He looked up at me and stared deep into my eyes.

"Yeah, I did." He said slowly and softly not breaking eye contact. Though our eyes I felt like we were apologizing to each other. He put the box on the sink and went into his room. He came back with a lime green beanie with little black dog ears sewn in, a black and green striped hoodie, and neon green fake plugs. These are awesome. I grabbed the plugs to look at them.

"They glow in the dark." He said. I jumped up and pulled him into a hug.

"Thank you." I whispered into his ear. He tensed up and slowly pulled me away.

After rinsing out the bleach, Charlie helped me dye my hair. It's already been in my hair for a good forty minutes. Charlie and I started warming up to each other again. We were talking and laughing.

"Alright, I think it's time for me the take a shower." I told him while I was unwrapping my hair from the foil.

"Oh, Can I join?" He asked winking at me. I punched him in the shoulder and laughed.

"Get out!" I shouted playfully. I got undressed and started to shower. After a few minutes I heard a woof whistle. I swear Charlie doesn't know when to stop. I giggled to myself and kept washing out my hair.

I felt like I slept forever, I'm glad I'm finally awake because the boys have no idea how to cook or clean. I'm in the kitchen cooking while they all sit there patently waiting for me to finish.

"Okay, the Spaghetti is ready." I say to them. Kyle is the first one up and he bolts to the pot.

"Oh, yes! Your food is like sex!" Kyle says. We all stop and look at him. Matthew raises a brow. Kyle ignores us and scoops one third of the spaghetti onto his plate.

"Hey!" Charlie, Matthew and I shout together.

"Distraction complete!" Kyle yells and takes off to his room dodging all three of us. Charlie tsks and snaps his fingers.

"Oh yeah Bud, Charlie had something that he wanted to tell you." Matthew says and pushes Charlie to me. Matthew sneaks behind a nervous and fidgety Charlie to the spaghetti pot.

"Well I thought you fainted from home sickness so I convinced the old man to let me fix up your apartment while you were out. It's perfect now and you can move back in tomorrow if you'd like." Charlie said. I was flattered but I didn't want to leave.

"Not if you'd like. Your place is fixed now, so you have to leave tomorrow." Matthew said with his mouthful. I felt a weight in my chest.

"Yeah, okay. I just need to notify my family." I said slowly and disappointed.

"Oh don't worry; I notified them this afternoon when you woke up." Matthew was starting to annoy me.

"Okay but don't talk with your mouth full!" I said pushing Matthew. Charlie grabbed my hand and smiled.

"I'll go with you tomorrow and help you move back in. I hope you'll like it." He said to me. I looked deep into his dark green eyes. He winked, pushed me away, and ran to the spaghetti pot.

"Mine!" he yelled. That jerk.

Charlie and I are standing in front of my apartment door. Much to my protest, Charlie is carrying my box of stuff. I'm holding my breath and wincing as I slowly open the door. I look inside and gasp. I love it. My couch is a soft lime green with a nice dark wooden coffee table in front of it. A pretty green orb lamp in the corner and my room is amazing! It's painted lime green and there's a small little wooden framed bed with a fuzzy polyester green blanket. I'm so busy marveling at every little thing in my room that I forgot that Charlie was in there. I heard him laugh.

"So you do like it?" he asked as he put down my box. I was so excited that I jumped up into his arms and smothered him into a hug. Then something in the corner caught my eye.

"Meat!" I shouted. There was a freaking giant piece of meat hanging on a hook in the corner of my room! I threw Charlie and ran right up to the meat to punch it. I literally stood there for about half an hour just jabbing at this meat. When I was done I noticed Charlie sitting on my bed, just mesmerized by my meat punching.

"Woah, I've never seen anybody punch meat like that." He commented. I wiped the sweat off my brow and smiled.

"Yup, I love this apartment already." I said.

Charlie stayed with me until it was about nine at night. We laughed and talked about many things. Charlie was mainly showing me what he did to the place and how he did it. We had such a great time that we didn't want to say good bye. We both stood there silently at the door way.

"Try not to flood it this time" Charlie joked.

"Look who's talking Mr. Youneedanewpipe" I joked back at him.

"Whatever, at least my underwear isn't soaking wet." I punched him and he chuckled.

"Alright, good bye" he said to me as we fist bumped. I closed the door and sighed. I turned off all of the lights and walked back to my room. I got under the blankets and started to sleep for the night.

I was awakened by the smell of singed meat. I jolted out of bed. My room was on fire. The flames were already engulfing half of the room. I noticed that my hair was singed unevenly at the ends, and that my punching meat was cooked. Gah, the smoke is messing with my super vision. I felt a sharp pain in my chest. I started to cough violently and I fell to the floor. Dammit, this bracelet is restricting my powers. I need to get out of here but my new dresser in burning in front of the door. I hear a crash and see that the side of my wall was broken into.

"There's one in here!" I hear a familiar voice shout. I look up to see Bubbles in her night gown, looking down upon me.

BONUS

Matthew likes my cooking so much that he's having me go shop for more ingredients with Kyle. Kyle is a cool guy to hang with only if you're not doing anything too complicated. Kyle's pushing the cart as I check off of my list.

"Matthew wanted me to come along so I can steal your secrets." He repeats as he looks at a can of tomato sauce.

"I don't have any secrets, just experience." I said looking back at him.

"What are we having for dinner tonight?" He asked excitedly.

"Uh, Salmon" I answered while pulling seasoning off of the shelf.

"Woo hoo! Then let's hurry up and buy all of this shiz!" He started pulling random stuff off the shelves and into the cart.

"Woah, woah, woah, what do you think goes in salmon?"

"I'm actually not sure but it's delicious and this stuff looks fancy so I think it can be baked with it."

"How about I just show you later?"

"Deal!"

I let Kyle watch me make dinner and he was so interested that he even took little notes. I noticed that I'd probably have to go grocery shopping every now and then to cook for the boys. So I decided to create a menu. It had all of the dinners I could make and I even had little pictures of the ingredients on it. I was so sleepy that I feel asleep at the table. When I woke up the next morning the menu was gone! I ran around the house but the boys were gone too. I eventually decided to make another one later so I started cleaning. Later that evening, just as I was about to make dinner, Kyle bursts in the door with five huge grocery bags.

"I got you everything you need for dinner tonight." He shouted. He had my menu in his hand.

"And we're having guests!" As soon as he said that, at least a dozen cats and kittens started wondering in.

"Kyle! What the hell man!?" I was seriously confused. Charlie and Matthew came right in after Kyle.

"Are we having those damn cats over again? God Damnit!" Charlie yelled, obviously annoyed as he started parting the sea of cats.

"What's this?" Matthew asked, ignoring the cats. He snatched my menu from Kyle. He opened it and read through it. He smiled evilly and stashed the menu in his coat pocket. I don't get it, is it normal for all of these cats to be here? Oh geez they're stepping on everything.

"Kyle you better control these cats or else we're eating Chinese tonight!" I shouted. All of the cats froze and started to huddle on the couch. Charlie chuckled and said,

"You know that was really racist."

"Oh shut it." I said shoving an apple into his mouth. I better get ready because I need to start cooking for twenty.

MY NOTE: Thank you for waiting. I added a bonus just for your waiting beautiful faces. As always, please send me feedback. You don't have to be signed in. it can be anonymous. I just want to hear your opinions. Thank you!