'I wonder what's wrong with Blossom? It's not like her to freeze up like that.' Serena wonders once she glances at the other racers, who just passes the quarter time mark.
Blossom was still on the platform unmoving whatsoever, "Midori, move out of my way! That's my sister up there."
Midori remains firm in her position, which was to block the sister who tries to reach Blossom on the platform.
"I don't want to have to hurt you Midori. I'm asking nicely, please step aside!" Buttercup hisses at the red hair girl.
"Don't you think I understand that?! Right now Blossom isn't aware of anything, not even your own voice? What she's going through we won't possibly know." Midori reasons to her.
"Bubbles," She rotates toward Bubbles, who concentrates on Blossom. The blonde then directs her sights to the exchange between Midori and Buttercup.
"Midori has a point! Blossom isn't even answering to your voice. That's a problem." Bubbles agrees with Midori.
Meanwhile...
Brick stares at his fist and ignores his brothers' voice because his mind was truly somewhere else.
He floats in a dark abyss with no visible light anywhere, except for the white light that encompasses his body.
'Where am I?' Brick wonders.
He pivots his head left, right, up, and down before the images of Bell's party flashes in front of him.
'Wait a minute, I wasn't in the pool with Flash…' The orange head teen recalls after he beholds Flash's face. His mouth was moving as if he was carrying on a conversation.
'That means...I'm in…Pinkie's head right now! But where is she?' Brick realizes since he figures out that the images that he watches did not belong to him.
'Did it just get colder in here?' He considers once he feels a cold shiver travel up his spine.
In front of him was Buttercup, in her transformed form and the robotic Bell.
'Pinkie must have felt this when she saw Buttercup in her new form?' He assumes after he reaches the end of the slideshow that broadcast the events that occurred.
"Listen to me Pinkie! You can't hold back the feelings you felt when you saw what happened!" Brick yells to no one in particular.
"It's okay to admit that you were scared because I was scared too!" He confesses and includes, "I've never seen anything like that in my entire life! I worry that Butch will be able to tap into that power and not come back to Boomer and I."
"More importantly right now, you have something you owe to your sisters, and that is a win." Brick reminded Blossom of her assigned task at hand.
A bright pink light blinds him to where he shields his eyes with his forearm before he registers his fist in front of him.
The sound of a "plunk" was heard before the cheering increased in volume with cheers for Blossom.
"Brick?" He blinks over to see that Boomer was close to his face with signs of concern on his face.
"Why are you so close to my face?!" He irritably declares to his younger brother. The orange head teen advances his forehead forward and connects with Boomer's.
"Ouch" Boomer repeats in a cycle as he cradles his forehead with both of his hands to ease the pain.
Brick cuts his eyes over at Butch, who wears an expression on his face, "What?" with irritation lace in his tone.
A smirk surfaces on his face instead of a verbal answer and returns his attention back to the race.
'I wonder why I got that look?' Brick ponders.
His eyes automatically tracks a girl, who closes in on to the competition, 'Did she realize that I was…'
He shakes his head to rid himself of the thoughts that were in his head at the moment and focuses in on what occurs.
Back with Buttercup, Bubbles, and Midori...
"She's going to make it!" Bubbles cheerfully shouted to the group.
Blossom was about to overtake three of the inexperienced girls, who had yet to make the turn.
'I'm glad she was able to snap out of it.' Serena considers as she watches Blossom's determination to overcome the odds.
'Whatever it was had her frozen like a complete statue but now...it seems as if she has overtaken the girls who had a considerably large lead on her.' She conceives before she enters the turn.
"Come on Bloss! You're almost there! Just four…three…two…it's a close one." Buttercup resembles an announcer with her statement.
The girl, who led for the entire of the race, went in to overdrive when she sensed that Blossom had caught up with her.
'This race is over with…' Bell assumed with her arms folded across her chest and her right leg over her left leg as her eyes closed.
"She did it!" A random student bellows after the silence encloses them when they were head to head.
Blossom's head surfaces from the pool while her shoulders heave for a couple of seconds before she calms herself down with even breaths.
Her eyes were now on the wall after she peeps up to see both of her sisters' sights on her and motions her to look at the scoreboard.
There it was, her name with her last initial after her full name, her time, and her final rank, "Number one".
Blossom silently rejoices at the outcome of her race before Serena's whistle signals to her and her competitors to remove themselves from the pool.
"That was an amazing race! I can't wait to race you again in the relay races." The girl, who raced against her congratulates her.
"Oh, same to you! I would like that." Blossom returns the greeting to the young girl, whose name is Felicia, which she learns from the scoreboard.
"Yo Bloss!" Buttercup exclaims after she high fives her with a smile on her face.
"You had us worried there for a minute! You froze up at the start but you pulled it off." Midori divulges with her right hand over her heart.
"Sorry about that, but isn't it your turn to go?" Blossom apologizes and asks her raven-hair sister before she hunkers down a seat on the bench next to Bubbles.
Buttercup diverted her eyes over to see Bell had already taken her position on her class respective platform.
"So it seems as if my turn has come around then. Wish me luck." She quips with the latter part of her statement.
"We know you got it!" Bubbles asserts to her sister along with Blossom, who nods her head in a yes fashion.
Buttercup whirls around, repeats the same action that Blossom did and strolls toward their respective platform.
"It's about time we had a rematch. Did you get my personalized message?" Bell directs her question at Buttercup after she steps up on the platform.
"I sure did, Bell. I must say your drawing looked exactly like you so you get an "A" plus for that." She retorts before she shakes each leg.
"Why thank you dear! But we both know that this race is unimportant. It's really the relay race where we will get majority of the points from." Bell counters with a small smile on her face.
"Just try not to fall too far behind here. After all, we are taking one race at a time." Buttercup defends with no expression on her face except for seriousness.
"You know what Buttercup, you should try to smile a little more. It will actually make you appear to be a girl." She fires back as she tilts her head.
Her hands tug at the edge of her swim cap, her eyes close and a wide smile stretches across her face.
"You know what Bell if you would shed your plastic, it would actually make you appear human…wait actually it wouldn't." Buttercup wedges in the last bit between the two girls spat.
The first blow from Serena motions them to assume a ready position, which everyone except for Bell did.
'Is Bell malfunctioning? No way! She should be able to adapt herself to what she was asked to do.' She contemplates to herself.
Serena observes Bell wave at her or at least she thought it was her.
"It seems as if Ms. Bell has her sights set on you, yet again Butch. I think that mkes the eighth time she looked at you." Boomer publicizes to his brother, who had a rather stoic expression on his face.
"...with Buttercup coming in at zero! Better luck next time, Romeo." Brick humors along with the blonde among the three of them.
"You two act as if I'm bothered by it?" Butch snaps over his shoulder.
He then rotates to focus on Buttercup when he observes Princess waves at him.
Brick erupts in a fit of laughter at the timing of Butch's question and huffs out, "I told you with that girl, there's always a price with the information you receive from her but no you just thought she did it for free."
'She could become a problem.' Butch deduces before Serena's whistle emerges him out of his thoughts. He was welcomed with the sights and sound of a new race.
'What does Bell have up her sleeve? Why did she wait?' Serena, Butch, Bubbles, Blossom, Midori and Bubbles shared similar thoughts after they notice Bell had both of her hands on her hips.
She simply covers her mouth with her right hand and pretends to stifle a fake yawn.
Buttercup opts to concentrate on her own stamina and paces herself. This race was not completely unimportant but it would earn them a devent set of points whether she wins or loses.
She drives off of the opposite wall and swims back to her platform.
As Buttercup catches her breath, she swears Bell did not budge from the platform. She slows down because she passes the other, who head towards the opposite wall.
Due to the fact that she had lapped the others that race against her, she had a maximum breathing time period of about thirty seconds.
"Good job Buttercup! You did better than I expected. This should make the rematch even better, wouldn't you agree with me?" Bell scrutinizes while she squats and peers at Buttercup, who floats in the water.
'You freaking cheater! You knew I was going to swim! You chose to withdraw from the race because you knew you wanted to conserve your power.' She surmises while she glares at Bell's face.
Serena's whistle was blown before they overheard her voice, "Three minute break period starts when the first girl get out of the pool."
"Hurry up and get out of the pool Butter." Bell orders her before she raises to her height and swivels away from her platform.
"It seems as if it is beak time. I'm going to go and find Princess. She should be ready for the relay races since I'm not racing again." Bubbles volunteeres once Buttercup pads toward them.
Princess name snaps Blossom out of her thoughts, "Oh the last time, I saw her was over there by the bleachers. Shouldn't you go get change first?"
Bubbles slaps both of her palms against her cheeks to display shock and voices, "Ah! How can I forget that I had this thing on, Midori can you go with me?"
"Sure...it's no problem." She agrees to tag along with the blonde.
"Just make it quick, I don't like the feel from this crowd." Buttercup warns her sister and her close friend after she spectates the competitors whisper amongst each other.
"That's why I asked her to go with me." Bubbles explains and points out that she was aware of the obvious.
"Make it back quick. We do need Midori for the relay race so make sure she comes back in one piece." She repeats with emphasis on to be safe.
Blossom and Buttercup watch Bubbles and Midori round the corner of the pool and head to the women's locker room.
Buttercup directs her sights at her sister, examines her and identifies her face slightly lost its color and was paler then usual.
"Are you alright Bloss?" Buttercup poses to Blossom, who glances upward at her with weariness in her eyes.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little stressed out…that's all. Trust me, it's something that I can handle on my own." Blossom replies to her sister's question of concern.
Buttercup clutches her orange head sister shoulder's and spiels, "If you say so, just don't keep it all to yourself! If you do, you're going to upset me and of course you know how Bubbles overdramatizes the situation."
She forces a smile on to her face so she could rid Buttercup of her concerns for her well being.
'Why can't I just spill it out and tell her what happened?' Blossom deliberates to herself.
Buttercup plops down on the bench, stretches her hands outward, weaves her fingers within each other and settles it underneath her head.
'What if I do tell her? What if she undergoes the transformation again? What if we can't stop her like Butch?' Her brain rapidly fires out what if questions.
'This time we will surely be expelled from the school!' Blossom frets before she supports her head with her hands.
'I thought I would at least have a clear idea on what to do? What about Bubbles? How's she able to cope with it?'
Blossom peers over to where Bell sits with her arms and her legs cross while her head bobs to invisible music with a creepy smile on her face.
'How can she even be here? I mean Buttercup incinerated her in the pool before our very own eyes!' Blossom cognates.
She views her twists her head in her direction as she tenses up from the platinum blonde's abrupt movement.
Bell tilts her to the side, produces a wide smile on her face, and lifts her index finger in front of her pursued lips as if to shush her.
Blossom shutters from the gesture and stews, 'What is wrong with me?'
0000
Author's Note:
07.20.16 Major editing revision