Chapter 15

The Heart

Fifth Grade

Buttercup twitched in her sleep. She called it 'sleep fighting', but whatever it was she was doing on her end of the bed woke Blossom up. When Blossom woke momentarily, she would turn over and that would wake Bubbles. It was a never-ending cycle that kept Bubbles from getting her beauty sleep. When they were little, the bed felt huge and they had plenty of space. As they had grown, their bed had become smaller.

Bubbles needed her beauty sleep. And if she kept getting woken up every time Buttercup kicked or Blossom turned over, she'd never get it. They needed their own beds.

"No, we need our own rooms," Buttercup said, taking over the conversation when Bubbles brought it up at breakfast. "I don't like it when you guys touch my stuff."

"We wouldn't touch your stuff if it wasn't constantly in the way," Blossom said.

Bubbles pouted, not that anyone cared.

"I like my stuff where it is. You can just float over it."

"We shouldn't have to."

"Exactly. Which is why we need our own rooms."

Their dad started drawing up plans to section off their one big room into three smaller rooms. By the time they got home from school, it was already done. He had spent the whole day putting up the framing for the walls. He even found room for two extra closets.

Bubbles' room was the one on the left, just at the top of the stairs. Blossom's was in the middle and Buttercup's was on the end next to their parents' room. She stood in the center, getting a feel for her new space. The walls felt wrong, they gave her a lump in her tummy.

Bubbles didn't want her own room. She wanted to be close to her sisters, All she had asked for was her own bed. But, as usual, no one was listening.

Sophomore Year - October

Bubbles was looking at local used cars on her phone. She had bookmarked pages of old Leúteauto Bumblebees. She loved how people back in the '60s made them their own and she adored the free artist lifestyle they symbolized. But she knew she would need something with more room. She was planning on living in it for a year or more after all. So she had settled on their minibus-like siblings, Caterpillars.

She had watched internet videos on how people had modified them to live on the road and fell in love with it. They would camp in state parks where overnight parking was both legal and usually free. They used propane stoves to cook meals. If they didn't like a place, they'd leave. They went wherever they wanted whenever they wanted. That was exactly what Bubbles wanted to do.

Buttercup peeked her head into the living room. "Blossom isn't here, is she?"

Bubbles rolled her eyes and paused the video she was watching. "No, she's out." Buttercup always seemed to want to know if Blossom was around.

"Cool." Buttercup plopped onto the couch, resting her legs on Bubbles' lap and grabbed the TV remote. "I've been avoiding her," she said, flipping through channels.

Bubbles resisted the urge to look up. "Clearly." She went back to looking at local used cars and intermittently texting Dee Dee.

They were together, but each doing separate things. It was inevitable that they'd develop different interests, but they were still sisters. Bubbles still wanted to know what was going on in Buttercup's life.

"So, Brick paid you for that metal monster thing?" she asked.

"Yep! Five thousand bucks. I don't even know what to do with it. Dad says I should save it for college. But I could buy an amazing bass or a really crappy car."

That piqued Bubbles interest. "What are you thinking about as far as a car?"

"I dunno. I haven't even seen what's out there."

Bubbles pulled herself over and showed Buttercup her phone. "What do you think of this one?"

"A Caterpillar? That's a little too much flower-power, even for you."

"Yeah, but I could put a bed and a living space in the back."

Buttercup looked at her strangely. "You're really going to do it, huh."

"I said I was. And I will."

Buttercup crossed her arms. "Why in a car though?"

"Cars mean freedom, you know?"

"No. We can fly. Cars are for the sake of having a car."

"They can also be a home. A home that can move. If I don't like a place, I can leave. You know, freedom."

"Oh, that's what you mean. Okay, yeah. We're here in a nice warm house, but it's all wrapped up in duty and obligation. We can't even do what we want on our birthday. We have to do what the town wants 'cuz they made it a city holiday."

"Yeah, I feel sorry for all the people who share our birthday. They deserve their special day too."

"It's not like a car makes all that obligation go away though."

"It will when I leave."

Buttercup looked over at her, bothered. They needed to leave the nest eventually. Obviously, Blossom was going to a prestigious university, she had been talking about Bromwell or Raft. Raft was hundreds of miles away and Bromwell was on the other side of the country. So it wasn't as if the three of them wouldn't be broken up anyway.

"I mean, you're coming back for Christmas, right?"

Bubbles felt conflicted at that. That was why Buttercup didn't want her going in a car. If she didn't have one, she could fly home for movie night in minutes. But then she'd still 'live' at home, and that was the point of her trip. Of course, they'd always be sisters and probably still see each other all the time.

But it wasn't Bubbles' job to regulate Buttercup's mood. Buttercup needed to regulate her own mood. Bubbles wasn't everyone's therapist. It shouldn't be her burden to fix everyone. All she had ever wanted was to make a genuine connection with the people in her life.

"Remember when we used to fly around the world?" Bubbles asked, instead of answering Buttercup's question.

Buttercup smiled. "Yeah, good thing dad never found out about that."

"It was like our very own secret act of rebellion. Why did we stop doing that?"

The front door opened. Buttercup blanched and looked for a way out. Blossom floated into the house and her face went sour when she saw Buttercup.

"Hey Bloss," Buttercup said when she realized she couldn't escape.

"Buttercup, I think it's time we had that talk." Blossom set her book bag near the stairs.

Buttercup groaned, throwing her head back.

"We do not accept payment for saving Townsville." Apparently, Blossom was jumping right to the point. She must have been tired and she did have patrol that evening.

"The guys do. And so do police officers."

"Police officers are experts in their field. The Rowdyruff Boys are not."

"Uh, yes, they are. And so are we."

"It is not the same. We are teenagers-"

"Who can be employed at sixteen. It's only a month away. Besides, we're going to need money for college and cars and stuff."

Bubbles flipped over to her other side so she was facing the couch. She was in the living room first and wasn't going to move just because her sisters were fighting.

Blossom caught the action and took the opportunity to drag Bubbles into their fight. "You agree with me, right Bubbles?"

Bubbles squeezed her fist and enclosed herself in a reinforced force field.

Blossom's muffled voice made a chastising noise, but Bubbles didn't care.

Another minute went by without either of them letting up. They began screaming at each other so loudly, Bubbles could hear through her forcefield. She found DeeDee's contact in her phone and called her directly.

"Bubbles," Dee Dee said, concern clear in her voice. Bubbles would never have actually called her if nothing had been wrong.

Bubbles fell back onto the couch. "Can you hear them fighting?"

"No."

"At least I didn't throw a grocery store robber through a pane of glass!"

"He had a loaded gun. I apprehended him according to our rules of engagement."

"Kinda," Dee Dee said.

"Well they are."

"What is it this time?"

"Same thing they've been fighting about all our lives."

"Yeah, that's pretty toxic."

"Thank you."

"We gotta get you out of the house."

Bubbles sighed.

Something on Dee Dee's end snapped and there was the sound of something powering down. "I bet if we got the girls together we could get the football team to buy us food." Bubbles could hear Dexter yelling in the background.

Bubbles did need a distraction. "That could be fun."

"Leave it to me," Dee Dee said before hanging up. Bubbles immediately saw plans start to develop on the groupchat.

Brannigan's was a kitschy restaurant right around the corner from Bubbles' house. She arrived fashionably late with DeeDee and the other girls. The guys had already connected several tables in the back and were pushing each other around in that way guys do with their friends. It was a welcome change from Blossom and Buttercup's argument.

It wasn't the entire team. Most of the popular guys were there, led by Butch. His distinctive laugh loomed large in the crowd. They calmed down a bit when the girls got there.

Dee Dee immediately started her scheme with Beau, falling into the same pattern as always. Bubbles rolled her eyes, at least there wasn't any alcohol.

Off to the side, Bubbles saw Boomer hanging out in a corner booth with Mike Believe, Wes Goingon, Joey Finklemeyer, and Julie Bean. They were playing some kind of game with dice. Boomer waved at her. She gave him a smile and a wave back.

After a few minutes that turned into half an hour chatting with the other girls, she went over to Boomer's table. She sat next to him to a chorus of "Hey Bubbles".

She gave them all a smile. "Hey guys! It's been forever since we have gotten to hang out!"

"Yeah, it's been a really long time," Mike said. They had drifted apart after sixth grade when their subjects were split among different teachers and classrooms. Mike, Wes, Joey, and Julie were all able to keep close. Bubbles had heard Wes had started the computer club at their middle school. "What have you been up to?"

"Oh you know," Bubbles said in a singsong voice. "Cheerleading, fighting crime, playing drums, a whole bunch of stuff."

"Wow, are you the coolest person ever?" Joey asked.

"Maybe," Bubbles said, giggling. "How about you guys?

They told her about computer club and a few other things. Boomer wasn't saying anything. Though he would look at her from time to time and smile the cutest smile ever when she caught him. She smiled back and thought of a way to bring him into the conversation.

"And how has monster fighting been going?"

He beamed at her. "We took down that metal monster together. That was cool." He was so humble, answering her question in a way that didn't just make it about him.

"It was." She rested her chin on her hand. "Who do you think was right, Blossom or Brick?"

"Oh man, I don't even know what they were fighting about."

Bubbles giggled then gave Julie a look. She leaned in and Bubbles whispered in her ear. "He's an amazing kisser." She shifted her eyes to Boomer sitting next to her so Julie would know who she was talking about.

"Really?" Julie asked.

"Mmhmm," Bubbles said, nodding her head.

Julie pursed her lips and Bubbles giggled.

"What's going on?" Mike asked.

"Oh, nothing," Bubbles said. "Just a little girl-talk."

Julie looked innocently at anyone but Boomer.

Bubbles hopped out of her seat. "I should go, but it was great catching up with you guys."

A chorus of goodbyes followed. Boomer just continued to smile.

Bubbles started back to the girls when she was stopped by one of the football players.

"Hey Bubbles," one of the guys on the team said with a wave to get her attention. She already knew exactly what he wanted. Bubbles hadn't been looking for a romantic connection, but guys always had other plans. He could have been worth a date. She decided to grill him.

"Hi! I don't think we've met. How do you know my name?" That question always threw guys off. Most didn't know how to answer.

"Everyone knows your name, superhero, but no, we haven't met yet. I'm Block. I'm new to the team this year."

"Really? What position do you play?"

"I'm a lineman."

"Oh, that sounds fun. How many points did you score yesterday?"

"Uhh…" He looked away but smiled more. "I don't get to touch the ball. My job is to defend the quarterback while our receivers move into position. If I score a touchdown, something's gone very wrong."

Bubbles knew that of course. She just wanted to hear how he explained it to her. You could tell a lot about a guy by how he explained something to a girl. While he should have expected she knew the rules of the game she was cheerleading, she hadn't asked her question in the cadence of a joke or sarcasm. Block was nice enough, she supposed. At least he wasn't talking down to her.

He looked into her eyes. "It's about being part of a team, you know. I'll never get to score a touchdown, but it's not about the glory of getting points." He dug a shoe into the carpet in the cutest way. "Everyone contributes. I have my job on the team and I'm happy with it."

That did it. He understood something profound about the world. He was both humble and thoughtful, definitely worthy of a date.

"Don't let K-Pop here fool you," Butch said, walking up to them. "His job on the team is to dance like no one's watching."

"You dance?" Bubbles asked.

"I uhhh." He smiled and his hand went to the back of his head.

"Show her that thing you did, the one right before I threw that touchdown."

Block laughed and shook his head. "When your quarterback gives you an order…" He pulled out his phone and played a K-pop song Bubbles didn't recognize. He launched into a perfect dance routine. The other guys and girls stopped everything they were doing to check out his performance. Everyone was cheering while he danced to words Bubbles was sure she was the only one who could understand.

When he finished and everyone clapped for him, Bubbles zipped to the server's stand, found a pen, and zipped right back. She wrote her phone number on his arm and gave it a kiss so that her lipstick gave it a stamp. "Text me."

He smiled at her and looked at his arm. "It's upside down."

Bubbles winked at him. "You'll figure it out." She skipped away, leaving him wanting more. He'd ask her out by the end of the week if he knew what was good for him.

"Butch, buy me a milkshake." Bubbles said, pulling him away from the rest of the group. They found an empty booth and sat down across from each other. "Hey, congratulations. I knew you'd be perfect."

"Ha! Yeah, the hottest beefcake in school turns out to be a pretty good quarterback." He smiled then it faded and he rubbed his wrist. "Just hate wearing that thing."

"They're making you wear one of those awful bracelets!?" Bubbles hated that they made Buttercup wear one for hockey.

"Yeah. I lost the one I had, but they have a ton more." Butch ordered two milkshakes from a passing server. "Did you know they had that much AX at school?"

"Blossom told me it was watered down or something."

"Still though. They have a gallon of it somewhere." It bothered him for the same reason it bothered her. She had been born with her powers and he with his. Taking them away was a violation of her body. They had no right to take them away from her.

"Why would they want it anyway?" Butch looked off in some direction. He did that when he was thinking. "The only people it'll work on is me and my brothers or you and your sisters, and we're all heroes."

Bubbles looked away, then felt guilty about it. Butch and his brothers risked their lives to fight giant monsters. They hadn't caused any major trouble in years. And Boomer turned out to be a really nice guy. Butch deserved another chance, maybe Brick did too. Maybe they really were heroes. And heroes didn't deserve to be threatened.

"You're right," Bubbles murmured. "It's like, what are they afraid of?"

"We're gonna kill 'em or something?" He looked off into the distance again. "Like we're the monsters."

Bubbles' phone buzzed with a text. She unlocked her phone to the used car screen. Quickly switching to her text app, she saw it was from Blossom and didn't care to read it.

She looked back up at Butch, remembering how he handled DeeDee's car. He knew just where to lift it. She wondered if he knew more.

"What's that?" Butch asked, gesturing to her phone. She didn't realize he could see the screen.

"Butch, do you know about cars?"

Butch leaned back in his seat and grinned. "Yeah, I know a bit."

Bubbles got out of her side of the booth and sat next to him. "I'm thinking of buying a caterpillar and setting it up for a long-term road trip." She showed him the ideas on her phone.

He leaned in to get a good look. "Now you're talking my language. What's this road trip? Cross-country?"

"Yeah." She pulled up her map with all the stops she wanted to make.

"That's awesome. A caterpillar though, I wouldn't suggest it."

Bubbles moved back in her seat, aghast.

"Don't get me wrong, they've got the whole 'hippie-energy' thing that fits what you're going for. But if you're doing something long-term, like you're living on the road for a few years, you need something more reliable and with more room." He took out his phone and started searching for used vans. "There's an old guy I know, used to customize vans back in the '70s. We'll go see him. He's gotta have something. Might have to fix it up."

Bubbles looked at her hands. It was all happening really fast. Butch was helping her once again, he was really good at it too. She was starting to realize he was just a helpful guy. Weirdly, of all the people in her life, she could count on him.

"How much do you have?"

"That's the other thing." Most of what Bubbles had her parents had collected for her from Birthday and Christmas money from her grandparents. It was supposed to be for college, but three thousand dollars didn't go very far against tuition. "I don't really have any money."

Butch took a sip of his drink. "My guy can probably help you there too."

"Come on, Wrench. You can't apprentice her, why?"

Bubbles peeked over to where Butch and an older gentleman were talking.

"'Cuz I ain't got time for that. I got shit to do."

"You're retired, you got all the time in the world."

"I got all these vans I'm working on." He gestured to a line of vans on his lawn. Most were covered in rust and cobwebs.

"Perfect, she'll help you fix 'em up."

"Butch-"

"Um, hello, I'm Bubbles," she said, approaching them. "I know I'm young, but I work really hard and I want to learn."

The older gentleman took one look at her and shook his head. "Shit…"