Chapter 6
That following Monday was a busy day at Townsville High, graduation was now three weeks away. First, Graduation caps and gowns were handed out, Blossom was practically bouncing in her seat with excitement. Next, tickets for Prom went on sale, Boomer had surprised Bubbles at school with a dozen roses and a key. At first Bubbles was confused by the key until Boomer told her that was for their new apartment that the police force had provided for them. It was nice to see Bubbles so happy, Buttercup thought and smiled for her sister. Lastly, which was the worst of them all, happened in their last period with Mr. Truman.
"Alright, I know you all don't care about this flimsy piece of paper in my hands," he said holding up a stack of manila folders, "You're all too preoccupied with thoughts of prom, and graduation and that trip down to Mexico that mommy and daddy paid for and a word of advice, avoid tequila people."
The class all laughed, Mr. Truman was always Buttercup's favorite teacher. He joked with them a lot.
"But take these with you and go fourth and prosper," Mr. Truman said as he started and he started reading off names handing them out, "Ashley… Rachel… Mark…Jenna…Mitch… Blossom…Bubbles…Buttercup…"
The girls took their folders and pulled out the paper, report cards. It was obvious by Blossom's smug grin she got straight A's. Bubble's seemed pleased with hers. Buttercup just skimmed over hers knowing that her grades wouldn't be of any relevance to the music scene of Citysville. She mostly got B's and C's, she knew the professor would be pissed so she was going to just try to avoid it. As if right on cue, a miracle came through for Buttercup.
Simultaneously Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup all got a text from their dad: Working late tonight. Sandwich stuff in the fridge, Bedtime at 9.
Buttercup smiled, this would make her day easier. As the final bell rang everyone all gathered up their things and filed out into the halls. People crowded their lockers, a few people held up fancy sings asking people to prom and some of the seniors were getting their last kicks with the freshman.
"Hey let's all fly home together," Blossom said speaking to her sisters, "I'll help you guys with your homework and I can make the sandwiches tonight."
"Oh actually I have plans," Bubbles said explained holding her books over her stomach, "Boomer's taking me to see the apartment."
"I still can't believe you're moving in with him," Blossom said judgmentally, "When are you going to tell dad?"
"I will tell him!" Bubbles promised, "And you promised that you wont!"
"I'm not going to but you're going to run out of time eventually," Blossom pointed it out.
"God can you stop being such a kill joy for once?" Buttercup said loudly, "We're graduating in a month, Bubbles and Boomer are happy together, you have a full scholarship waiting for you. Just be happy!"
"Well we should still go home, we still have a lot of work to do before schools over," Blossom encouraged.
"I have plans with Elena," Buttercup stated, "she's coming over to our house to help me cut a demo tape so I'm asking you nicely to please not bug us."
"So I have to listen to the crap you call music while I'm studying?" Blossom grouched.
Buttercup spotted Elena, Rachel and Mitch standing at the front door to their school and waved Buttercup over.
"Stay here and go to the library if it's so important to you," Buttercup said quickly, "Bubbles send me pictures of the place when you get there!"
Before either of them could say anything she raced over to her friends and together they all headed towards the student parking lot.
"So guess who got all B's on their report card!" Mitch said raising his arms up proudly, "And since I got all B's my mom promised she give us an extra $300 if I did."
"Hell yeah!" Elena said happily with Rachel on her hip.
"Lucky, I wish my parents would give me money for my grades," Rachel stated as she leaned up against Mitch's brown van.
"Oh please you're parents are loaded," Mitch pointed out propping open the back doors so they could all sit in the back. Elena's guitar case was also in the back and moved out of the way.
All around them excited upper classmen all spilled into the parking lot to their cars. Buttercup saw Boomer open the door to his car for Bubbles before getting in himself, he looked happy too. Buttercup also noticed Blossom flying over the parking lot leaving her pink trail behind.
"Yeah but they still don't spoil me like that," Rachel replied.
"Good," Elena said wrapping her arm around her waist, "I can't stand spoiled brats anyways."
Rachel giggled, "speaking of spoiled brats, Mitch promised to give me a ride to the mall so that I can buy some new clothes for this summer while you guys work on the demo."
"And who gave you the money for that?" Mitch asked playfully.
"Oh just shut up and let's go!" Rachel said playfully punching Mitch's big shoulder.
With that they all piled into the van and headed to Buttercup's house to drop off the two girls.
Before they got out Elena kissed Rachel and said sweetly, "find something black and lacey for me ok?"
"Yeah I'll help you pick some stuff out Ray," Mitch said smirking at his two best friends.
"Hey I'm trying to impress her, not you," Rachel replied.
"Yup, no boys allowed in my panties," Elena smirked as all the others laughed and jumped out of the van behind Buttercup. After they pulled Elena's guitar out of the back they waved goodbye and walked up to the Utonium home
"You know the best part about having Rachel as a girlfriend is that we're basically the same size in everything," Elena stated as they walked up to the house and the van drove off, "we get to share everything."
"Must be nice to share everything, clothes, panties, sex toys," Buttercup joked with her.
"Duh," Elena replied as the two girls entered the house laughing.
When they entered, they let their backpacks slump to the floor. From inside the kitchen they could hear Blossom's voice rang out.
"Buttercup! You know dad hates it when you just leave your backpack lying around," Blossom exclaimed.
"Hey the old mans not gonna be home for hours, I got time and we need to get to work to beat the 5 o'clock ring of silence sets in," Buttercup shouted as she quickly grabbed two sodas from the fridge and headed upstairs.
In Buttercup's room the girls spent the next few hours, setting up the equipment and getting up the one microphone that they had to record onto Buttercup's laptop. The next few hours they recorded all of the fifteen songs that they had but only vocals, guitar and bass. It was a slow process and frustrating to get it all to work. Even when the girls listened back to the recordings it didn't sound as good as they wanted it to be.
"Damn I wish we could just get into a real recording studio for just a few hours," Elena expressed after getting another error code on the laptop.
"I bet we could find one in Citysville," Buttercup shrugged, "hopefully we can all save up to buy us a few hours."
"First we need to get started," Elena sighed and stopped messing with the laptop and just started to strum on her guitar.
Buttercup liked listening to her play, the both of them just closed their eyes as Elena played a slow sweet melody. Buttercup jumped in soon after letting the music flow through them.
"What if this is all a big mistake?" Elena finally said quietly, "what if no one likes us?"
"They're going to like us," Buttercup ensured her, "we just have to take the leap and pull all out energy into it. I have faith in this band, we can make it happen. Besides you've seen all the music that comes out of Citysville, it's the perfect place for a band like us right now."
"I know I'm just…" Elena started to say as she ran her hand through her hair.
"Scared?" Buttercup offered and Elena nodded, "me to."
"Are you sure you're ready to go?" Elena asked eyeing her best friend.
Buttercup sighed, "Mitch told you didn't he?"
"He mentioned it but I don't blame you," Elena said putting her hand comfortingly on her shoulder, "there's a lot of shit in your family right now. I don't blame you for having doubts."
"I thought about staying," Buttercup confessed, "but I know that if I don't leave now I might not ever…and Bubbles has Boomer to support her. I know she'll be fine and once Blossom gets to the university she'll be fine too."
"Good," Elena nodded and hugged Buttercup, "Love you girl."
"Love you too," Buttercup replied hugging her.
The day after the party at Andrew's Buttercup had called Elena and told her about how she had found an artist to do the album cover. Mitch was upset because he really just wanted his drawing of two stick figures doing an inappropriate adult act to be the album cover. Ace had sent some pictures of his some tattoos and drawings to Buttercup to show to the band and eventually the dirty stick figures got annexed. Buttercup was seriously impressed with Ace's work, he was an amazing artist.
"So what is the deal with you and this artist?" Elena asked with a small devious smile.
Buttercup had never told Elena about Ace. She really did get over her crush on him, by the time that Buttercup had met Elena when they were 10 she had forgotten about Ace and never mentioned him. Now that he was back in town and Buttercup had seen the person he was now…her desire for him was purely primal.
"He was actually apart of the gang that I used to have to fight when I was little," Buttercup explained thinking back to the memories, "they were just local punks…Ace was always doing graffiti and spray painting walls."
"That sounds kinda cool, street artists and now tattoo artist," Elena noted, "was there anything else that happened?"
"What do you mean?" Buttercup asked trying to play dumb.
"Between you and him," Elena questioned her.
"Well…there was this one time when I was 6 and he was 14," Buttercup started to explain and told her the story of how Ace nearly killed his sisters. She was so angry.
"Damn he kind of sounds like a scumbag," Elena said bluntly. Buttercup always liked that about her.
"Yeah he kind of was," Buttercup agreed, "hot but a scumbag."
"Most guys are like that," Elena agreed, "but that's why I switched to girls."
Buttercup smirked and agreed.
"Hey if you bang him just promise me you'll be safe," Elena stated pointing her finger at her, "I don't meant to sound bitchy but you don't want to end up like Bubbles."
"Yeah I know," Buttercup said quickly and ran her hand through her shoulder length hair, "maybe I should get on the pill."
"Just go to the free clinic they sell it for $30 a month," Elena explained
Buttercup thought it over, she probably should before they go to Citysville. She was ready to start living her life.
A few minutes later Blossom came knocking on their door, stood outside and said, "5 o'clock! Times up, and Buttercup…the professor just got home early."
Elena and Buttercup both grimaced at the door.
"Oh great…" Buttercup groaned and rolled her eyes, "I'm sorry in advanced for anything stupid my dad says."
Elena nodded in understanding, "it's ok…won't be the first or last time."
"Still annoying… I cannot wait to get out of here," Buttercup agreed as she unplugged her bass and put it back on the stand.
She helped Elena gather up her things and carried her amp out as they headed to the stairs.
"Buttercup! How many times do I have to tell you not to leave your fucking backpack by the door?" the professor grouched as he hung up his jacket on the nearby coat rack.
"Sorry," Buttercup said quickly grabbing her backpack.
"I'm sorry too sir," Elena said also grabbing hers equally quickly.
"Oh I didn't know you were here," the professor said barley glancing at her, "Blossom did Buttercup leave her door open while the two of them were upstairs."
"Dad…please," Blossom called from inside the kitchen trying to finish all the dishes that were piling up.
Buttercup sighed quietly and quickly fabricated a lie, "We were doing our homework dad, Elena's really good at writing and was helping me on my paper."
"Good I want to read it after dinner," the professor said walking right past the two of them, "Blossom are the sandwiches ready?"
"Yup!" Blossom said with a happy tone, "I made it just the way you like!"
Buttercup walked Elena to the door and stepped out closing the door behind her.
"Is you dad always that uptight?" Elena asked with a concerned look.
"Pretty much," Buttercup shrugged, "I guess things are tough at work right now so he's being a dick."
"Sorry," Elena stated, "so text me when you see Ace to give him the CD and talk to him about out music so he knows what we want."
"I will," Buttercup promised as she hugged Elena when her mom's car came pulling into the drive way.
Buttercup waved them off and went back inside and went to do her homework. Like usual she half assed it and usually ended up looking up new bass chords to memorize. But if she didn't have anything to present to the professor by dinner she'd be in deep shit. Bubbles came home soon after and just the same went to her room and presumably did her homework. She did send Buttercup pictures of their apartment, it was a little small but Bubbles and Boomer were excited.
Dinner tuned out to be incredibly short. Blossom made them all excellent sub sandwiches, instead of sitting down and eating the professor just grabbed on off the plate and said he had to go to his lab to work, he wouldn't come out until around 2 in the morning. Dinner sometimes ended like this, this was the only time Buttercup ever got away with eating in her room, which she took full advantage of.
While she laid in her room watching movies on her laptop, she decided to text Ace to tell him that she got the CD done.
Buttercup: Hey got the CD recorded want me to mail it to you
It took awhile to Ace to respond, Buttercup kept checking her phone before she finally told herself to stop waiting on a guy. And hour later she got a text back.
Ace: Hey kid, I'm actually still in town, been hangn with lil' Arturo
So Lil' Arturo was still around. She wondered where everyone else was.
Ace: Wanna meet me at bonsai park tomorrow at noon?
Buttercup: I would but I cant ditch anymore school, bloss will tell prof and hell flip out
Ace: oh right… just meet me after you get out
Buttercup: alright sounds good
A few more minutes later while Buttercup was brushing her teeth, her phone chimed again. She got another text from Ace.
Ace: Bring you bass, I wanna hear you play : )
For the first time Buttercup actually felt nervous about playing in front of him, even from the beginning she never had stage fright but now the notion of playing in front of Ace unnerved her.
Buttercup: ok : )
