Chapter 3: Lunch time
"It's dime bag day, it's dime bag day, it's a good day, cause it's dime bag day", Brick sings in his head as he turns his hat backwards, he walks into the kitchen of the school cafeteria. He comes through the door and walks about ten steps away from it. He kneels down and looks at the tiles just inches from his feet, he takes out a pocket knife from his pants pocket and sticks it into the creases. He pries the tile from out of the floor and smiles at the hole he sees there. It's a small narrow hole but deep enough to reach his hand in, he pulls out about 50 miniature bags of crack and quickly slips them into his school bag. It was a simple process done at least once a week. He comes into the kitchen an hour before the first lunch bell, takes out his special supply and doesn't leave until every last ounce is sold. Last year he had concocted a foul smelling gas in the school Chemistry lab and got in trouble for bombing the school with it. Ever since then his punishment has been to clean the kitchen before the first lunch bell. He now has a reason for being there before lunch, truth be told he really did clean. It would arouse suspicion if he was in there for an hour and no cleaning was done. He gets the mop going and fills the wash bucket with water and pine sol. He puts the bucket on the floor and dips his mop in it to soak it, another kitchen employee comes in.
The kitchen employee is a middle aged man, who was the schools chef, he stares at brick for a while and slowly walks up to him "you're here early".
"Yes sir" Brick says, mopping the floor.
The chef smiles at him and pulls out a sandwich wrapped in clear plastic from his back pack "a little something to hold you over until lunch time, 100 times better then the last one". Another employee comes through the door and the chef waves to her "hey Maggie".
Maggie smiles and takes a glance at Brick for a mere second before looking back at the chef "hey John". She continues towards where the stoves are and begins to clean them.
Brick accepts the sandwich "thank you so much sir, I'm going to put this away". He goes over to the private areas; these were the areas where there were no security cameras besides the area 10 footsteps away from the door. He unwraps the sandwich and in between two slices of bread was 100 dollars, "cheap ass" Brick frowns and places the 5 dime bags in between the two slices of bread, rewrapping the sandwich. He then steps back out and goes back to the chef "I'm so sorry, I should have told you, I'm allergic to tuna".
The chef smiles and accepts it "that's ok, I should have asked, thanks for telling me I'll know better next time". More employees enter the kitchen and the chef greets all of them with enthusiasm. Brick goes back to mopping the floor and smiles to himself; he was hereby open for business.
An hour later
Butch is amongst the first of the students to enter the cafeteria, he walks in with the rest of the team and tosses the football to his captain "PARTY AT MY FUCKING HOUSE", the other players hoot and holler like a bunch of animals in heat and they all gather at the food area skipping the other couple of students who were there first.
More students file into the cafeteria, among them are Bubbles and Buttercup, Bubbles leads the way to the food counter "can you believe Jack asked me out?"
Buttercup rolls her eyes and picks up a lunch tray "duh….you guys are following the perfect high school cliché. The head of the football team asking out the head of the cheerleading team, so yeah I can believe it". She pushes her tray forward and picks up a small container of milk, putting it on said tray "what I can't believe is why the hell he would ask you out when he's already dating Carla fisher". Her tray bumps against Boomers as he stands there, trying to decide whether to get the mystery meat or the tuna surprise. Buttercup frowns at him "keep it moving Blondie".
Boomer ignores her and stares at the two entrees, thinking to himself constantly "hmmm, what's in mystery meat? Looks like meat loaf in gravy, course there's the tuna surprise. It's tuna salad, why don't they just say that? Maybe I'll just have a sandwich, or candy bars from the vending machine. On second thought I think I'll have the Mystery Meat, I'd rather have something hot then something cold".
Buttercup gets agitated "it's not rocket science asshole, make a decision already".
Boomer looks at her through his long bangs "good decisions are made because geniuses take the time to make them". He reaches for the mystery meat, then stops and stares at it shocked as if he had just remembered something "I'm a vegan". He puts the mystery meat down and moves on.
Buttercup growls "wow you are really trying to piss me off are you?" she moves forward and picks up her food while bubbles giggles a little and follows her. Suddenly they both stop again and Buttercup looks at boomer again "WHAT NOW?"
Boomer stands there, his face in a state of shock and confusion, he nervously fiddles with the silver antidote x collar around his neck as he stares at the salad section of the food counter. "Caesar salad is kind of salty, but chef's salad has egg in it, I don't particularly like egg. Macaroni salad has mayonnaise in it, but that gives me gas. Hmmm this is hard".
Buttercup fumes "you're kidding right?" she hears Bubbles and other students behind her chuckling, she turns and yells at them "DON'T ENCOURAGE HIM".
Boomer rubs his chin and sighs "it just can't be helped; a decision has to be made". He picks up the chef's salad and looks at buttercups body.
Buttercup glares back at him "what?"Boomer puts the salad on her tray and looks deep into her eyes, Buttercup blushes, she hadn't noticed before how hypnotic his dark blue eyes were. Perhaps it was because they were always covered by his hair. She gazes into them as the environment around them becomes a blur "w…what is it boomer?"
"You need this more then me" Boomer says smiling at her "you're getting chunky around the hips, consider this a diet incentive".
Buttercup instantly get pissed "What?!"
Boomer then abandons his tray and picks his book bag up off the floor, he reaches into it and takes out a paper bag filled with food, he then looks back at a very confused bubbles and a very furious buttercup "I always carry a bagged lunch with me, I hate cafeteria food", he then walks away "see ya".
"YOU BASTARD, YOU DID THAT ON PURPOSE" Buttercup shouts as bubbles holds her back from pounding him "let me go, I'm going to knock what's left of his brain out".
Butch chuckles as Boomer walks over by him and takes a seat "you always know just the right buttons to push on that girl".
Blossom walks into the cafeteria and accidently glances at Butch as he pigs out on a foot long hotdog. She instantly blushes and adverts her eyes away from him remembering his hot naked wet body "dear god, just make it stop". She looks over at her sister who have just sat at their table and started eating and she heads for the counter to get her food.
Brick comes out of the kitchen area and instantly spots the other red head getting food. He tenses up and tries to walk by casually "shit, I still have two dime bags left, I better drop it somewhere before she catches me with it". He then spots bubbles and buttercup and smiles "what better place to hide something then right underneath their noses". He casually walks over to where Bubbles is and hooks his foot over her bag on the floor. He grabs onto the back of her chair and they both fall to the ground "ugh…." Bubbles shouts out in shock as brick falls next to her. She is about to say something when brick immediately gets up and puts both hands on her hips "oh man, my bad pigtails". While helping her up by the hips he slips the dime bags into her pants pocket with his thumb "you ok?"
Bubbles blushes being so close to him and looks at him as he stands her up right, she stays in his strong arms and her face turns red "I….it's…ok".
Buttercup frowns at him "watch where you're going next time fuck wad".
Brick smiles at the both of them "sure thing, later". His smile turns wicked as he walks away "mission accomplished". He moves forward and gets his lunch, then he casually sits with his brothers to eat.
Bubbles sat back down in her seat and greet blossom as she sits with them, they converse amongst each other but every 2 seconds her eyes wander off to look at brick. For some reason she couldn't stop looking at him, someone was addressing her but she didn't hear them "excuse me?"
Buttercup repeats herself "I said what are you going to do about Jack?"
"The guy's a total pig" Blossom says munching on her salad "he only wants you for your body".
"Oh come on" Bubbles says "it's not like I'm a virgin, I'm not entirely naïve", her eyes spot brick again but she quickly looks back at them "Jack is totally not my type".
Suddenly principal Rayman walks into the cafeteria, a couple of security guards. Blossom sees this and smiles "perfect timing".
Bubbles looks over at the entrance "what's going on?"
Blossom smiles fully "the end of Bricks drug dealing days".
Buttercup grins "whoa, they're here for brick?" he looks on at the principal as he approaches Brick's table "this I gotta see".
Bubbles looks on concerned "oh you siced the Principal on him?"
Blossom nods "I couldn't catch him the last time but I know that he was the one that sold Mitch Michelson that crack". Her expression turns serious "Mitch is in the hospital right now due to a heart attack, brick is seriously going to pay".
The principal goes up to Brick "Mr. Jojo, will you come with us? And bring your bag".
"Of course" Brick grins innocently at them and gets up picking up his bag to take with him. He then follows the principal out of the cafeteria.
Later after lunch
"WHAT?!" Blossom says while looking at the principal and his men in the halls outside the lunch room "But…..but Principal Rayman…"
"I'm sorry blossom" the principal says "but I can't arrest someone just because you don't like them".
Blossom looks outraged as her sisters come out of the cafeteria "that's not the reason, he sold crack to Mitch, and he's a drug dealer".
The principal shakes his head "we checked through his bag and we didn't find anything. We can't convict him without any proof".
"This is unbelievable" Blossom sighs "I could have sworn he had something on him". While Blossom talks, Bubbles reaches for her lip gloss in her pants pocket, she then stops and notices something plastic between her fingers.
The principal sighs "listen Blossom are you sure this whole thing isn't part of the long time rivalry you girls have had with the Rowdyruffs? They're powerless right now, there's no need to kick them while they're down".
"Principal Rayman" Blossom says pleadingly "that's not what this is about at all".
Bubbles pulls out two tiny bags with what looks like powder sugar in it "sugar packets?"
Buttercup's eyes widen "oh god bubbles, that's not sugar". The principal then looks over at her too and so does Blossom.
The principal's eyes bug out "Bubbles? You?"
Blossom also looks at her and freaks out "Bubbles what are you doing with that?"
Bubbles tilts her pigtailed head "I don't know".
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T KNOW", Blossom yells.
Buttercup frowns at her "it's a bad time to be dumb, Bubbles".
"I'm not being dumb" Bubbles says insulted "I really don't know where these came from".
"ALRIGHT THAT'S ENOUGH" Principal Rayman yells "Bubbles I want you in my office, right now, the rest of you go to class".
The two remaining powerpuffs watch helplessly as Bubbles is escorted to the principal's office by the security guards. Blossom continues to plead with him "sir please, she's obviously being framed".
Rayman frowns at her "blossom, it's not likely for two ounces of crack to magically appear in her bag out of nowhere".
"If you'll just let me get to the bottom of this" Blossom pleads.
"I'll get to the bottom of this" Rayman says sternly "you two go to class, you may be the student body president, but I still run this school. This problem will be handled by me, now go". He walks away from them while they are forced to move on to class, not knowing that another student passing them in the hall had eavesdropped on their conversation. The notorious gossiper excitedly rushes off to her next class.
5 minutes later in Math class
Brick loved math, one wouldn't have known this just by looking at him, but how else can one calculate how many ounces are in a pound much less how much to charge the customer on. Brick smiles to himself "education can be fun", at this moment they were all taking a math test; he finishes it within the first 5 minutes that it was given to him "child's play". He gets up and gives his test to the teacher who gaps at him in disbelief "I'm going to the bathroom". He doesn't even wait for him to answer and ignores him when he calls out to him. He steps out of the room and down the hall, he then passes the principals office and notices a hint of blond sitting near the door "boomer in there again? I wonder what he did this time?"
"Did you hear?"
Brick looks at whoever said that, it was Gabby, the school gossip "Hear what?"
"Bubbles, the head cheerleader" Gabby says grinning "she's in hot water right now". Brick looks at her confused and she continues "they found two dime bags of crack in her bag, she is totally going down".
"You don't say?" Brick says smiling, but deep down inside he was a bit worried, most likely if they caught bubbles, then that means they have confiscated the dimes bags, that's 50 dollars down the drain. Brick sighs "so they caught bubbles with my stash, geez I wasn't expecting her to actually look in her bag until at least her next class and even then if she found it she probably would have shown it to her sisters and kept it secret. Then again I suppose either way I would lose it cause there's no way I would have been able to get my hands on it without blossom noticing". He shrugs a little and walks off sticking his hand in his pockets "oh well, sucks to be you bubbles, I've still got a few dime bags to push today, I'll just…". He then stops and suddenly turns pale "oh shit, how could I have forgotten? That's not my blend; it's my suppliers, DAMMIT". He has sold so much that he sometimes forgets that most of it is not his stuff, and his supplier wants every last bag accounted for, which means he will have to compensate for the two missing bags. Those suppliers were perfectionists, everything had to be perfect, everything had to be accounted for or he will not only lose business but they can also take 10 times the amount he owed them. "I shouldn't be surprised, they are crooks after all, they're also traitors you can switch on you at any minute". He looks back at the door to the principal's office and grins "guess this is your lucky day pigtails". He opens the door and walks into the office spotting bubbles tear stained face "what's up pigtails?"
Bubbles blows her nose with a handkerchief "why do you care?" she looks down miserably at the floor, her cheerleading days are over. She wraps her arms around herself "I have no idea where those drugs came from, I'm innocent".
Brick rolls his eyes and speaks sarcastically "oh boohoo, you don't get to be a pom pom wielding piece of football eye candy, wow does your life suck or what?"
Bubbles hunches over crying some more "just leave me alone, I wouldn't expect you to understand anyway".
"Whatever" Brick moves on to the room where the principal is and closes the door behind him.
Principal Rayman looks up at him wide eyed "Brick Jojo, what are you doing in my office?"
"Where's my shit Rayman?" Brick says looking at him seriously.
"W….what are you talking about" Rayman says getting nervous.
"The dime bags? Sergio's supply, you know what I'm talking about" Brick says yells a little.
The principal freaks out and rushes over to him "shhh, quiet, someone might hear you". He opens the door a bit and sighs seeing that the staff isn't out there, he then closes the door. When he turns around he sees brick has taken his seat "out of my seat you brat".
Brick leans the chair back and puts his feet up on the table "you know very well that Bubbles isn't a drug dealer, and yet you seem more then willing to send her up the river. You're that desperate for the stuff?"
"I'm doing this for your benefit you know" The principal says getting angry "if she takes the fall it'll take the heat off of you". He panics as Brick pulls his legs off the desk and onto the floor sitting upright in the chair. He then begins searching through the desk "l…look just let me keep them ok, I'll tell Sergio what happened, you know I'm good for it Brick".
"you're not doing this for my benefit" Brick smiles as he finds what he is looking for, the two dime bags "you're doing this for you, if I go down the feds will track down every client in my little black book and you will go down right with me. You're not doing me any favors jackass; you're an inconvenience who would sell out his own mother for some blow".
"Look Brick, just let me keep it ok", Rayman says desperately "is it about bubbles, cause if that's the case I'll let her go".
"Well without the drugs you can't convict her" Brick says getting up from the chair "so you'll have to let her go anyway" he stands in front of him seriously again "this is about you trying to steal from me and Sergio, he won't be too happy about that". He then grins "but I'll tell you what, 200 dollars and it's yours to keep".
Rayman starts to sweat nervously "And the girl?"
"Don't know, don't care" Brick says "although, the possession of drugs by a powerpuff girl might cause some media attention, depends on you, if you would want that kind of attention. All I care about is my business; everything else can just fuck off".
The principal wipes his face with the back of his hand, Brick was right, he would definitely not want that kind of attention "fine, I…I'll pay 200 it is, just don't tell Sergio ok?" he shakily reaches into his pocket and pulls his wallet out. He then gives brick the money and the red head in turn gives him the dime bags.
Brick puts the money in his pocket and walks out the door "nice doing business with you". The door quickly closes behind him as he casually makes his way towards the waiting room where bubbles is. He sees that she is still crying but he resolves himself to ignore her and heads for the door. Suddenly for some reason he stops and remembers what she said to him earlier about not understanding where she is coming from. He realizes something and speaks to her "I think I do understand where you are coming from".
Bubbles sniffles a little and stares up at him confused "what?"
Brick regards her for a moment "even though cheerleading is a stupid waste of time it's a normal activity in your otherwise not so normal life". Bubbles fully looks at him and stops crying while listening to him "you fight monsters, save the world and pretty much have to deal with comic books villains on a daily basis. Outside of school you're the super hero, the savior and a lot of the times the side show freak that everyone loves to gawk at. But here, you're just an ordinary girl who really just wants to be treated just like everybody else. An interruption of your cheerleading activities is an interruption of your life and also may be the one thing that you are good at that doesn't require the use of your powers, and that's what makes it important to you". He looks back at her and sees her blushing and looking back at him "what? I'm just being honest". When she doesn't respond, he rolls his eyes "whatever pigtails, sometimes I don't know why I even bother". He opens the door "later" and with that he walks out.
Bubbles looks at the door for a moment, then at the floor again blushing "he does understand". She wonders why her heart always beats whenever she's around him, but her thoughts are interrupted when she is called in by the principal.