"Hey Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup." A familiar voice greets them once they enter their homeroom.
'No way!' Blossom and Bubbles shriek as they behold Bell atop of Princess' desk. It appeared as if they were engaged in a friendly conversation with one another.
"Bell? Aren't you supposed to be in your homeroom class, right about now?" Buttercup grills, which surfaces her orange haired and blonde sister out of their thoughts.
"Oh yeah, I was just waiting for someone that's all…it sounds like they're coming around the corner." Bell retorts when she pushes her way through her sisters'.
The sudden presence of Bell sinks in amongst the sisters, who were in complete utter astonishment.
"Hey Butch," Bell greets the raven-hair boy.
Blossom and Bubbles note the three siblings share the expression of shock from the sight of Bell alive and well.
"Don't you suppose to be in your class?" Butch questions since it was the first thing he could form with his mouth.
Bell lifts herself from the desk, "I swear...this homeroom can't even properly greet a guest! I guess I will be seeing you later on today. Ladies, let's go!"
Out of nowhere, they watch her three Barbies materalize from the crowd of their homeroom classmates. She waves at him while she exits the classroom.
"Is it me or did a ghost just raise from the dead?" Brick nervously mumbles to his brothers', who nods their heads to display that they agree on the statement.
At that moment, their homeroom teacher Mr. Matura enters.
"Alright maggots sit down and shut up!" He proclaims as he marches in the room already in a foul mood.
Mr. Matura scoops out his homeroom while he gathers the confidence that his class would be able to take the top prize in the Sports Fest.
He roughly slams his palms against the surface of his desks, emits steam from his nose, ignites flames in his eyes, and declares, "It's that time of year again where everyone in our grade level compete with each other. Ms. Omiya's students took the liberty of writing on my chalkboard this morning."
Mr. Matura slides the first chalkboard to the left and sure enough there were some graffiti written in pieces of chalk. It clearly displays her class name along with little pictures of them with the trophy.
"Principal Zeal, has already informed the freshmen of their job. He has even handed us schedules on the events and how it is going to work." He says while he unrolls a piece of paper so that his class can see.
"The sport that we're going to be doing is…Swimming!" Mr. Matura broadcats when he listens to the guys happily cheer and the girls loudly groan.
"The events are going to be ran like an Olympic style so you have: butterfly, backwards, breast and front crawl along with your relay races. Girls will be swimming against girls and vice versa for the guys. Luckily for us, this event doesn't require everyone to participate so we need our best swimmers." Mr. Matura discloses when he examines what appears to be depression for the girls and excitement for the boys.
"We need one person each for the butterfly, backwards, breast and front crawl. Also, we need four people to swim in the relay. Now with the relay race, you can have already swam a race before then." He broke down the amount of people that would be needed.
For the boys, it did not take too long for all the spots to be filled but the girls was a tad bit empty.
"Come on ladies, I know you can do it! I have faith in you. Besides, it is the school swimming uniform so you don't have to worry about a thing." He asserts to the girls, who abruptly huddles together.
"You can sign me up for the breast stroke." Bubbles voices while she steps forward since she did not mind competing in an event today.
"I'll do the backwards and the relay race." Midori says as she ambles ahead when she peers at Buttercup to join in on the fun.
"I'll do the butterfly and the relay race." Blossom volunteers because she did not want to be on the sideline while everyone else had fun.
"We need two more girls for the relay race and one more girl to do the front crawl." Mr. Matura reads from the list.
He greatly appreciates the enthusiasm that the girls bring to the table.
"I'll just do the relay. I'm not good at the front crawl." They track the voice and register that the source of the statement is Princess.
For some reason, Buttercup senses the girls' eyes rest on her when she stares at them and replies with a no.
"Ah come on Buttercup! You're our ace in the hole for events like this, just think about it…" Mr. Matura attempts to convince the main person, who would carry the girls during the entire week.
"Buttercup will you do it for me? You know I don't ask much of you but will you do this one favor for me?" Bubbles pleads as she cranks up the charm on her famous puppy dog face.
Blossom knew that her sister's puppy dog face was a sure fire way but with Buttercup it effects appeared to have wane a little.
She faces the chalkboard once again when she recognizes Bell's message, "Sorry Buttercup, but it seems as if you will lose to me yet again. Toodles!"
The platinum blonde had the nerve to even draw a little face with one of her eyes being drag down and a tongue sticks out.
'Why that bimbo!' Buttercup howls while her body emits imaginary flames.
"Wow, I've never seen Buttercup this excited in a while." Her teacher whispers to himself
"I will do the front crawl and the relay race…oh and Mr. Matura?" Buttercup affirms as the flames brightly glows while she displays her resolve.
"What is it Buttercup?" He poses while his eyes sparkle like diamonds since he assumes he had this event in the bag.
"Don't erase that board for the whole week. It will serve as our inspiration for the entire week!" She admits her resolve when the flames around her body glows brighter.
'I thought she was going to back out at the last minute…' "Sure why not, I haven't seen you this amped up in a while."
"I wonder what got the girls so excited over there?" Boomer asks. His curiosity got to him when he swore he saw flames spew from one of them.
Butch laughes to his self because there was only answer and it was a dead give away, 'It is her.'
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"Good Morning and welcome to Sports Fest! As you know, this is a week that consists of nothing but fun and competitive activities."
"At this very moment, the freshmen are setting up the pool as well as the concession stand. It will be grade level and student ran." Principal Zeal speaks in to the microphone at the gym full of color-coordinated students that sits before him.
"Today's schedule will run like this, sophomores will be competing in the Swimming event this morning, followed by the juniors at noon and seniors in the afternoon. Juniors during the time that the sophomores are competing, you will be keeping track of their scores, seniors you will be running the concession stand."
"Hey Buttercup, I heard you were going to be competing against Bell twice in the same event." Midori mutters while she elbows the side of Buttercup's ribs.
"It doesn't matter to me! Just as long as I beat her through rest of the week. Then it will be easy." Buttercup whispers back when Principal Zeal captures their attention.
"I need for all of the sophomores to file toward the pool right now. The other grade levels have been assigned to your duties."
The girls' class rose to their feet and filed out with their grade level as well as their class not too far ahead of them.
The traveling mass soon arrived at an inside pool that was medium length but long in width. White lines section off the water in to swimming lanes.
'Since when could Pokey Oaks afford an inside pool?' Butch and his brothers shared a similar thought upon their entrance in the building that house the pool.
"Alright! We're going to have the ladies head to the locker room to dress in the appropriate swimming attire. The young men, who are going to compete, sit on the far left side. The classes sit in the middle and the right side." Their principal instructs.
Butch located Buttercup, her sisters' and their close friend position when a young man with brown hair draws near Buttercup.
"Hey, who is that talking to Buttercup?"
Boomer shrugs his shoulders while Brick decides to tease his brother for being easily jealous. "If you want to know so badly then why don't you ask Princess? I'm sure she would be more than willingly to spare some more valuable information to you."
He chose to fall back and silently hope that the young man that converses with Buttercup and her sister would be his opponent in the upcoming races.
"For safety concerns, I have requested someone who is certified as a lifeguard to come and maintain order at all times while the events are going on." Their principal trumpets while he points to someone, who hunkers down on the white seat at the other end of the pool.
'Wait a minute…it can't be her!' Butch and his brothers shared similar thoughts again.
The orange hair, was styled in a ponytail, sways back and forth until the woman occupies the seat in the chair.
"This is Ms. Serena, everyone. She will be the lifeguard presiding over today's water sports."
The sentence did not seem to process the presence of their older sister being their lifeguard, which meant only one thing.
'We can't joke around with the girls.'
Serena blows her whistle at a loud pitch, which quickly silences the chatter after Principal Zeal introduces her to them.
"Listen up, I'm here to ensure that no one is injured or drowns. So I am going to make this as simple as possible: no horse playing and don't get in the water until I instructed you so."
There was absolutely no verbally noise heard through the building once Serena issued them strict yet basic instructions for them to follow.
"She reminds me of a drill sergeant."
'They don't know how close they are with their guess on Serena! Why didn't she tell us that she was going to help out today?'
Butch soon found himself amongst his homeroom, except this time he had to break away from them since he signed up to participate in the events.
He immediately madd out the young man, who chatted to Buttercup earlier was one or two people down on his row. 'I wonder who he is to Buttercup?'
Serena smiles because she holds up her end of the deal with Alma. After all, he did send her those beautiful flowers and she just wants to pay him back.
'I was surprised that I even woke up with the little sleep that I had acquired when I was with General Malone.' She thinks when she shifts left and right so she could stay in an upright position.
"Ms. Shaw, I mean Serena," Alma calls her name when she rotates her head to face him to acknowledge that she listens.
"They are going to do these given events: the first one will be the breast stroke, the second is backwards, the third event is butterfly and the fourth will be the front crawl. Those who swim in the last race will have a three minute break and will be required to be the anchor of the team." Alma gives her a brief rundown on how the setup was going to play out.
"I understand…oh and thanks for the sunflowers. They were lovely." Serena thanks the purple hair man in front of her. He merely shakes his head with a small smile before he monitors the crowd.
"Is it me or do you think that our principal was just flirting with our big sister?" Boomer inquires after he watches the pair interact on a friendly level.
Butch and Brick glimpse at each other, look at their baby brother and respond in unison, "Nah"
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"I didn't know that Serena was a lifeguard too." Bubbles comments after she undresses herself. She then snatches one of the school issued swimsuit.
Blossom, Midori, Buttercup, Princess including Bubbles changes before Blossom replies to her blonde sister's question while she steps in her bathing suit.
"She seems as if she has multiple qualities about her. I mean she does have to raise Butch, Brick, and Boomer. The first two are the dynamic duo while the latter is the sweetheart of the group."
"You better watch it or our Bubbles may have to set you straight about her sweetheart!" Buttercup quips, which earns some giggles from the girls around her.
"Do you really think we have a chance against Ms. Omiya girls? I mean I heard that some of them were on their middle school's swim team." Princess wonders as it could have been her being nervous or her curiosity.
Buttercup weighs over the answer to that question for a while until a bob of platinum blonde hair pops in on their conversations. "If there are any questions that I need to entertain about my homeroom, have the courage to ask it to my face."
"Bell head back with your group, your presence isn't wanted here or are you just scared that your team will come in last place?" Buttercup fires back with a small grin on her face.
Bell simply huffs out her breath and spins on her heels for the exit to the girls' locker room.
"That went well." Midori humors, which earns more laughter among the group.
"Alright ladies, let's just have fun and try to get first. I have never seen Mr. Matura so revved up for Sports Fest like this." Bubbles verbalizes to the group, who all nods their heads in unison before he travels to the pool.
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Butch swore the silence that Serena unintentionally enforced on the crowd was no longer present. They observe the girls emerge from the locker room.
"Ah man! I thought I was going to get some good swimsuit shots!" A random male exasperates his frustrations at the school's issued swimsuits.
At that moment all of the male students, who were to face off against each other, agree on the same thing.
Mild chatter was heard amongst the girls as they venture to the platforms that were positioned at the far end.
'And so it begins…'
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Author's Note:
07.18.16 Major editing revision