The group of girls clad in their one pieces all huddle together. Some of the bold ones stood in the front, the cautious ones in the middle and the meek in the far back.
Serena blows on her whistle in order to capture the girls' focus and proclaims, "Alright ladies, I need the ones who are in the breast stroke up on the platforms first."
"The next events will be in this order: backwards, butterfly and the front crawl." The orange hair lifeguard bellows while the swimmers shuffle over to their respective platforms.
Buttercup signals her group to gather in a huddle for a brief chat, "Okay,let's try and win as many events that we can! We're going to get that trophy!"
"Aye captain," The others quip but were quite serious about the mission for her.
"Bubbles start us off good. Remember to pace yourself. Focus on your breathing." Buttercup offers some last minute encouragement for her.
The blonde briefly pauses to adjust her swim cap and addresses her sister. "Stop worrying so much. Just have fun!"
She then files in line with her competitors when she develops the urge to check out her opponents.
"It seems as if Bubbles is going to be swimming first." Brick assumes while Boomer shifts his position to get a better view of Bubbles.
Butch notices his action and offers to switch seats with his younger brother so he could have a better vantage point. "And I want it back when it's my turn!"
Bubbles climbs up to her respective platform and with a deep breath waits for the sound of Serena's whistle to blow.
"3…2…1…Go!" Serena counts down to one and whistles on "go".
Bubbles throws her body in the pool with little to no hesitation and greets the cool refreshing feel of water against her body.
'The pool is longer and deeper than it appeares.' That thought went through her head once she resurfaced to breath.
Blossom and Buttercup watch their sister with her head above the surface of the water while she uses her arms and legs to propel herself forward.
"You're doing good, Bubs!" Buttercup shouts to her.
They witness the blonde overtake third place on the electronic place board.
Blossom eyes cut over to where Bell, who peers down uninterested in her teammates position on the scoreboard.
'I mean Buttercup completely obliterated her to nothing but ashes when she was in the pool. So how can she still be alive and breathing?'
She then pegged her sister, who displayed no signs of relapse from what occurred at Bell's pool party.
'Where did Princess go?' Blossom scans the crowd of girls on their side of the pool but there was no Princess.
Her eyes eventually roam over to where the bleachers that accomadates the spectators.
'Wait a minute...I think I see her.' Blossom thinks once her sights travel to the side of the bleachers. She finally spots Princess signature style of two red curly puffy pigtails.
Her lips were opening and closing as if she was conversing with someone.
Before she could advance toward Princess, Midori strolls at a fast pace along with Buttercup.
"Are you alright Pinkie, you look like you saw a ghost?" Buttercup humors after she flashes Midori a gesture for good luck.
"Bring it home Bubbles!" The raven hair teen yells at her sister.
The sound of Serena's whistle can be heard, which instructed the girls' on the side of the pool to stop where they were.
"The first race was so close." Brick overhears Boomer mumbles to himself. He glanced up to see that Bubbles finished in second place.
'I did it!' The blonde inwardly hollers. Her palms lingered against the wall as she realized that she came in second instead of third.
"Way to go Bubbles." She peeks up at Midori, who congratulates her from the pool's surface.
"Thanks Midori!" Bubbles accepts the compliment. She patiently waits for Serena's instructs for them to get out of the water and adds, "Now, it is your turn."
"Okay then. Will the ladies that just swam remove themselves from the pool?" Serena instructs the participants.
The girls nod their heads to show that they understand the instructions and paddles over to the exit of the pool.
'Alright Midori...you're swimming against no competition.' Midori reassures herself as she scopes out her competition.
She listens to the instruction, hears the whistle blows again and hops in the water.
"All of your hands need to be visible on the bar! Be ready for my signal." Serena issues out another set of directions for the girls, who floats in the pool.
Midori inhales a deep breath in order to calm her anxious thoughts and relocates her feet against the wall so she can execute a good launch.
The high shrill noise beckons for Midori to kick away from the wall as hard as she can.
The red head tarries underwater for as long as her lungs allow her. It was all so she could get a good lead on her competition.
"So how did I do?" Bubbles questions once she drew near her sisters' and a now seated Princess enshroud in a towel.
"You did amazing Bubs! You got second! That's a great way to start off! Right Blossom?" Buttercup poses to her red hair sister, who sits on the bench.
"Oh," She hesitates in her answer, "You did good! I hope I do as well with my race."
Buttercup senses that there was something that bothers Blossom since her tone conveys uneasiness. "Is there something wrong?"
"No. It's just...I was thinking of a way to get a good start so I can win my race." Blossom half lied because she wanted to make sure that what she saw was authentic.
She feels something touch her shoulders only to see that it was both of her sisters' respective hand, "Just have fun!"
The orange head erupts in a bout of giggles, her two sisters were in unison and both wear the same expression of concern on their face.
"You can bet that. Now let's cheer for Midori, she's about to overtake the girl from Ms. Maggie's class." Blossom redirects the subject to Midori, who drives herself off of the wall for the last part of her race.
"After all, it will be your turn to swim soon." Bubbles remains her sister of the next event.
Blossom notices that some of the girls were already pose at their platforms and patiently bids their time for their teammate to touch the wall.
She shakes her head in agreement with the blonde before she separates from them and treads over to her platform.
"Yo, Brick! Looks like Blossom is up to swim." Butch mutters while he elbows his brother, who was out of it at the moment.
"Oh yeah, I forgot she signed up to swim." Brick replies.
At that exact moment, the same blonde boy who was with Blossom at the party speaks up.
"Flash, there's no way you can ever get Blossom to be your girl." A random male student asserts to the blonde student.
"Why not?" The boy, name Flash, retorts with confidence in his tone.
"...because she isn't like other girls. She actually uses her brain. Besides, there's no way you can get pass Buttercup." The same male student presents the facts to Flash.
Brick silently agreed to what the boy told Flash. Besides, he's definitely not her type and he knew it was so.
Flash tucks his arms underneath his chest before he voices, "I'm not as dumb as I appear. I do have a plan you know."
"Flash, nobody said you're dumb. I'm just saying there's no way you are ever going to date Blossom Utonium." The boy repeats his last statement once again to Flash.
"Look, she can't turn down anyone who needs help. So, I'm going to ask her to tutor me in a subject. I'll tell her that my house isn't a good place to get anything done." Flash divulges his master plan.
'And he is dead serious about that plan too.' Brick deems before his attention returns to the red hair girl, who climbs on her platform.
'If I angle myself here, I'll be able to enter the water smoother with a hard thrust. It would provide me at least six inches of space ahead of the competition.' Blossom conjures up a plan while she positions herself on the platform.
The images of Buttercup and what happened at Bell's party abruptly resurfaced through her conscious, 'What the world?'
She was so lost in her thoughts, the whistle was blown and she was the only one left on the platform.
"Kick it into gear, Blossom!" Buttercup shouts once she processes that Blossom was not in the water while the other competitors were.
"What's wrong?" Bubbles posed to her but she did not immediately respond to what her younger sister said.
Buttercup marches toward Blossom when Midori blocks her path and explains, "If you touch her, they'll think that we are cheating and will disqualify us all!"
Bubbles opts to abide her quietness on the situation at hand. A couple of thoughts circulate through her mind about the reason why she did not budge.
"Look! Something's wrong with Blossom!" A random student yammers right before Brick faces away from Boomer and Butch.
He observes some of the girls were midway in the pool but there was no Blossom.
"What the hell is going on?" Brick questions to no one in paricular, which prompts Butch to lean from his position.
"She's frozen on the platform! I guess she isn't in her body at the moment." Butch comments after he studies Blossom's behavior.
"Do you think that what happened…" Boomer carefully strings his words since he did not want anyone else to know what really happened at Bell's party.
"She's a statue on the platform! The girls are about to make the turn." Butch mentions from his observation of the orange head girl.
Brick unknowingly raised the hand where he attempted to shake her hand but instead was jolted by a spark of electricity.
'I wonder what's really bothering you? You usually keep yourself calm in situations like this?'
Butch cuts his eyes over to Brick, because he grew too quiet in a short period of time, which was not like him.
"Are you alright there Brick? You got quiet a little too fast." He inquires when he watches him lifts one of his hands.
Brick squeezes his hand, clutches it in a tight fist and trembles a little from anger, 'Why am I so angry?'
Butch simply exhales, props himself back in the middle of the bleachers and with his eyes close respond in a calm tone, "You're upset because you care about her."
"You just don't want to admit it to yourself that you actually like Blossom. Don't you?"
Brick did not counter in his typical defensive manner, which consists of a flat out denial in a fit of anger.
His face clearly displays that he was deep in thought about what Butch just told him.
"Butch, I don't think he's in his body at the moment either." Boomer expresses.
He jabs his index finger against Brick's head and nudges it forward with little to no resistance.
'What's going on here?' Butch wonders to himself.
He realized that it was not only the pink color Puff that was zoned out but his brother was as well.
0000
Author's Note:
07.18.16 Major editing revision