Rookie

Sophomore Year - October

"I don't get why we needed her." Boomer's guy on the tv screen went through a series of kicks

"Buttercup has heat vision and I needed someone to keep the thing hot." Brick's fighter threw a fireball at Boomer's.

"Then, why didn't you do it and tell me to get the big metal thing?"

"Boomer, I don't-" Brick winced like the question was so hard. "I do not have the time to tell you every little detail when we're fighting a monster."

Boomer grumbled. Brick had the time, he just didn't want to. Their guys smacked each other around. Boomer wasn't very good at fighting games, he mostly mashed the buttons until he found some combination that worked.

"You have time now. You said she was the enemy."

"When?"

Boomer shook his head, he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Years ago. It's been the thing since day one."

Brick huffed. "Not everything is black and white, Boomer." Brick's guy summoned a pillar of fire and roasted Boomer's guy. A big 'Player 1 Wins' splashed on the screen in blood. "I need to study." Brick got off the couch and started up the stairs.

Boomer realized he was hungry. He opened the refrigerator to look for something to eat.

Butch burst out of his room. "Guys. The cheerleaders want us to take them out."

"Butch, shut up," Brick called from his loft.

Butch rolled his eyes.

"Why would we care?" Boomer asked.

"Uh, cheerleaders. They're all hot as fuck. There's Blondie, Short Skirt, Legs, Bubbs, That Girl With The Ass. Now, I'm not usually that into butts but this girl man-"

"Bubbles?" Boomer said under his breath. "I gotta see this girl with the ass."

Boomer's friends talked and rolled dice from the game he had brought. They sat in a booth in the back, away from all the football players and cheerleaders. Boomer didn't say much, he was distracted. He had waved at Bubbles when she came into the dining room. She waved back and gave him a smile he couldn't get out of his head.

He thought about going up and talking to her. They had gone on a date, he should be able to do that without it being weird. But she was talking to the cheerleaders and he wondered if she had even told them about him. Maybe she was keeping it a secret and she would be mad if he just went up and talked.

"Boomer," Wes said, trying to get his attention back on the dice game. "Wind beats lightning, right?"

Boomer glanced at the table. "Uh, yeah."

"Nah," Julie said, looking through the instruction booklet. "Lightning beats air. It's in the rules."

"There's no way a bolt of lightning beats a whole tornado," Wes said.

"You okay, man?" Mike asked. "You've barely touched your fries."

Boomer shook his head. "Yeah, I'm fine." He took a clump of fries and ate them.

His friends went back to the game and Boomer took another look toward Bubbles. She was still talking with the other cheerleaders and football team.

"Just give her a little time, man," Mike whispered.

"What?" Boomer asked.

"She'll come when she's ready."

Boomer grumbled. What if she never did? That was always a possibility. He wanted to just know where they stood. She had told him, but he was discovering people said a lot of things they didn't mean. And she said she really enjoyed their date.

As he was thinking about it, Bubbles got up from the table, turned and looked right at him. Boomer's heart pounded while she walked toward him.

Bubbles put her hand on his shoulder and nudged him. "Scoot, Boomer, scoot." He slid further into the booth as much as he could. She squeezed in next to him. It was a heavenly feeling. "Hey guys! It's been forever since we have gotten to hang out!" she said.

Boomer took a long breath. Her perfume smelled so good.

"Yeah, it's been a really long time," Mike said. "What have you been up to?"

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

Boomer didn't know Bubbles played the drums. He really wanted to know what the whole bunch of stuff was. He wanted to know everything.

When Mike and Wes started talking about what they had been doing, Bubbles took a fry from Boomer's plate and ate it with a wink at him.

He wondered if she thought about him as much as he thought about her. They had a really awesome date. Maybe she changed her mind and wanted to be with him.

"And how has monster fighting been going?" she asked, breaking Boomer out of his reverie.

He was so glad she remembered he did that. She had such a good memory. "We took down that metal monster together. That was cool."

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

Boomer thought back to Brick and Blossom arguing about how to take the monster down. "Oh man, I don't even know what they were fighting about." It really was stupid the more he thought about it. All that mattered was that it was gone.

Bubbles leaned forward and whispered something into Julie's ear. Julie's eyes got wide. "Really?"

"Mmhmm," Bubbles said, nodding her head.

Julie pursed her lips and Bubbles giggled.

"What's going on?" Mike asked.

"Oh, nothing," Bubbles said, sweetly. "Just a little girl-talk." she hopped out of her seat. "I should go, but it was great catching up with you guys."

Boomer watched her leave. Their time together was always too short. He really wanted her to give one last look back, but she never did. Some football guy got her attention before she got the chance. He started hitting on her.

Boomer looked down at his hands and studied his fingernails. She was a beautiful girl. Guys were going to talk to her. He couldn't stop them.

He couldn't watch, so he turned away, only to turn back again because he couldn't not watch. Whatever the guy said must have made Bubbles happy.

The guy talking to Bubbles started playing some music. He launched into some weird complicated dance routine. Everyone cheered, especially Bubbles.

A lump built in Boomer's throat.

When the song was over, Bubbles wrote her phone number on his arm. Boomer's mouth went dry. He knew exactly what that meant and there was nothing he could do to stop it. Then she kissed his arm with absolute glee shining in her eyes.

Boomer's tongue swelled in his mouth and he wasn't hungry anymore. There was the mark of her lipstick on the guy's arm, marking him as her chosen boy. Not Boomer. Images of them dancing flashed through his mind. Bubbles laughing and having a great time, all with this other guy.

The lump in Boomer's throat choked him. She had moved on so quickly like she barely thought of him at all. Did their date really mean nothing to her?

Boomer sat, an empty shell. He didn't dare to breathe.

"Hey, guys," Mike said, getting everyone's attention. "It's loud all of the sudden. Let's get out of here."

"What do you want to do?" Julie asked.

"Boomer, you live near here, right?"

"Uh, yeah," Boomer said, trying to keep his composure. He needed to be anywhere else. "Do you guys want to check it out?"

Brick was gone when Boomer and his friends got to their apartment. He gave them a tour of the downstairs, not letting them look at Butch's disaster area of a room. They gravitated toward the window and took in the full view of the city.

"I don't think I've ever been up this high," Joey said, pressing his face into the glass.

"Yeah," Mike said. "Good thing we can't fall off."

Boomer got an idea and chuckled to himself. "You guys want to see something cool?"

"Uh, yes!" Julie said. Mike and Joey nodded in agreement.

Boomer smirked. "Hang on to something."

Each of them grabbed onto the nearest piece of furniture, looking at him with concern and excitement.

He clicked the button on his keys and the far wall folded up, opening to the afternoon air.

"What!?"

"That's awesome."

They crept up to the edge like the floor was going to crumble away.

"Did you guys build that?" Julie asked.

"Nah, Butch hired a guy. He said it gets us into the action faster."

"That's so cool," Wes said. "I'd just keep it open most of the time."

"People would rob you though," Julie said.

Mike chuckled. "Who would be dumb enough to rob the Rowdyruff Boys?"

Joey mustered the courage to go right up to the edge and look down. He was hanging on to a handhold for dear life. "Man, superpowers, fighting monsters, awesome apartment and freedom. You must be the coolest guy I know."

Boomer couldn't help but smile.

After an awesome afternoon of video games, Boomer's friends left. He had felt good, really good, for the first time in a long time. Now he was alone again. The sun was lower and the feeling was gone, leaving an empty hole in his chest.

He thought about Bubbles. She would have loved the sunset. He knew from the way she had talked about the colors on the buildings, she would have said the orange and purple represented something profound Boomer wasn't smart enough to think of. But she was probably out with that guy. The lump in Boomer's throat returned. That lipstick smear burned itself into Boomer's memory.

A beam of pink light rushed past the building and stopped in front of Boomer. Blossom hovered in place over the street looking at him. She stayed in place like a statue despite the wind.

"Hey, Blossom," he said, raising a hand to cut the tension.

Blossom's face softened. "Hi." She floated closer to the building. "This is where you guys live?" She gave it a scrutinizing look.

"Yeah, this is our place." Boomer looked back and realized how messy it was. He hadn't cleaned up after his friends. "Butch is kinda a slob. Brick's part is upstairs."

Blossom floated in close enough that her feet almost touched the floor. She peered in to give it a cursory inspection. She even looked up toward the loft. When she was done, she backed away, but didn't leave.

"What are you up to?" he asked.

"I'm on patrol."

"Oh, that's cool." Boomer felt his face scrunch up. He tried to relax, but he was sure he still looked awkward. Blossom was intimidating when she had that look in her eye. "How is that going?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary." Blossom tilted her head.

"Oh, yeah, cool." Boomer put his hands in his pockets. "It must be exciting, being a hero and all that."

"It has its moments." She tilted her head and stared into him with a steely gaze. "Boomer, if I ask you a question, will you give me an honest answer?"

"Y- Yeah. Why wouldn't I?" Boomer remembered his brothers after the words came out of his mouth. They might want to hide stuff from her. He might need to lie after all, which made his 'yes' a lie too. He really couldn't escape it.

"During that incident with Tyler, you didn't have to help Mike. Why did you?"

"I uhhh- I don't know." Boomer didn't really have a reason at the time. "Tyler was being a bully and Mike needed…" He stammered trying to remember what had happened just before, dumb fliers taped to the walls of the school, Mike's red face with Tyler's arm around his head, Tyler's frowny smile.

"I just wanted him to stop," Boomer finally said.

Blossom seemed to relax. "Sounds like you wanted to be a hero."

"I don't know about being a hero or anything like that." Boomer blinked. Wasn't he already a hero? He took down monsters and saved the city after all. Or did that not count?

"Boomer, would you like to come patrol with me? I can show you what it really means."

"Y- Yeah." Boomer realized he sounded maybe a bit too eager. He took a step back. "But I don't want to bother you."

Blossom seemed to study him for a moment. "Keep up with me. And do not interfere with my work."

"Okay." Boomer floated out of the building and closed the wall. Blossom took off and he followed. He positioned himself behind and slightly to her left, not knowing why other than that was where he felt the most comfortable.

Blossom dove between the buildings, Boomer followed, trying his best to match her speed. Then she slowed way down. Boomer had to slam the breaks to match what she was doing.

Blossom scanned the buildings they passed on both sides and then stopped dead. Boomer stopped too and was about to ask why when she turned and stared into him in that intimidating way she did.

"Boomer. While I commend you for holding yourself back compared to your brothers, you are causing a shockwave that does damage to the city. Please streamline your flight."

Boomer had no idea what she was talking about. "St- Streamline? How do I do that?"

"I want you to slide through the air as opposed to bulldozing into it."

He wasn't 'bulldozing' into the air or anything like that. He was just flying like he usually did, and not even all that fast.

It was like everyone was always keeping secrets from him, not explaining themselves all the way like they didn't want him to know for some reason. Probably so they could get mad at him for screwing up. They always did that, got mad at him for them not explaining themselves right. He never got why they wanted to get mad at him, but everyone always did.

"You don't understand," she said.

Boomer nodded. "No."

She tilted her head. "Do you see how I fly without making the buildings shake?"

Boomer had noticed that, but he didn't realize he had noticed it until Blossom had pointed it out. She flew all fancy and delicate. Boomer's brothers flew however they wanted, Boomer guessed he just followed their lead. He nodded. "Yeah, okay. You want me to fly all girly-"

Blossom raised an eyebrow. He had said something wrong.

He straightened his back and screwed his mouth shut before he could say anything else. "I mean, you want me to fly like you."

Blossom's eyebrow lowered. "Yes."

Boomer felt like she was telling him what to do. It felt bad, like he wasn't good enough just being himself. Like he had to be better than himself. He couldn't explain it any more than that. Brick almost never told him what to do, usually only when they fought monsters. And even then, he didn't order him around like Blossom was. It was like he was doing something wrong without knowing it was wrong in the first place.

But she had invited him on her patrol. She didn't have to do that. So he guessed Blossom made the rules. He sighed. "okay."

Without saying anything else, Blossom shot across the city again. Boomer followed. He scrunched his shoulders in and kept himself streamlined. The power he was using for flight pulled in and concentrated. He quickly found it took way less energy to fly like that. He could corner around buildings and make tight turns in a smaller space just like Blossom. It had never occurred to him that he could fly that way. It was different and pretty fun.

He swirled around the Sky Pin in tight loops. Tourists waved to him and took pictures of him on the observation deck on top. He waved back.

Blossom flew up next to him and slightly ahead. "Looks like you're getting the hang of it."

He smiled at her and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, I guess."

"I'm glad you're having fun, but if you're going to participate on this ride-along you need to abide by our rules of engagement."

"Okay. Rules are good."

Blossom blinked at him. She was about to say something when her phone beeped. "This is Blossom Utonium." There was a pause while she listened to a voice on the other end. "I already have back up. We're on it." She hung up the phone and caught Boomer's eyes. "Let's go." She launched herself at a higher speed than she had before.

She led them straight to one of the tallest buildings in the city. A group of police officers was gathered outside. A crowd of people watched from behind some barricades.

They landed in front of an officer who was talking to another officer holding a shotgun. "Blossom Utonium present and reporting in. Lieutenant, give me a sitrep."

The officer narrowed his eyes on her. "Server room. Someone knocked out security and plugged into the hardline."

"Thank you. I'll take it from here." Blossom turned and started walking toward the building entrance. Boomer wasn't sure if she meant for him to go with her or- "Boomer, you're with me."

Boomer zipped over to catch up with her. They went into the lobby where more officers had guns pointed at a wide elevator door.

"Stand down, officers." The officers lowered their guns and Blossom pressed the call button. Boomer was confused. Wherever the server room was in the building, it would have been faster to fly there. But he figured Blossom knew what she was doing, so he didn't say anything.

The elevator took a long time to arrive. After a while, Boomer looked around at what was going on. None of the officers said anything, they just stood around, looking anywhere but toward them. Blossom stared at the door and crossed her arms at some point.

The elevator arrived with a 'ding'. The officers raised their guns again. The doors opened, revealing an empty car. Boomer had expected a bomb or something with the way everyone was acting.

Blossom stepped into the car and turned back toward the officers. Boomer did the same, standing beside her. The police officers kept their guns up for some reason. It didn't make any sense, there weren't any bad guys around.

The doors closed and the car started moving down. This server room must have been underground. The elevator thing made sense. Blossom really did know what she was doing.

Blossom turned to Boomer. "You said 'Rules are good'. What did you mean by that?"

"I dunno." Boomer slipped his hands in his pockets. "Rules tell you what to do and what not to do. So you don't… uh." Boomer scratched his head. "So you always know how to do whatever you're doing… or something."

"That's true. Rules provide procedure while also protecting the other party's rights. It's strange to hear that coming from you."

"What? Why?"

"Because you are a Rowdyruff Boy."

"Oh, yeah. I guess we kind of have a history." Boomer had to chuckle to himself. "Me and Bubbles haven't actually fought each other since, like, fifth grade."

Blossom eyed him skeptically. "You haven't?"

"Nah. I just didn't feel like fighting most of the time."

"That's…" Blossom looked away for a moment. "Good. I can work with that. I don't have time to explain the rules, so I want you to not engage at all. I know you can fight, but leave all of that to me. Understood?"

Boomer nodded.

"Good. I want you to be my second set of eyes and ears."

The elevator slowed and came to a stop. The doors opened to a concrete corridor. There were police officers and security guards laying on the ground. Blossom checked on a few of them, they didn't look hurt. She led them down until they came to a big metal door.

Boomer shivered when the cold in the server room hit him. Blossom didn't seem to mind at all. There was a loud hum of a thousand computers running at once and the air was heavy, like all that dirt they had passed through was pressing down on him. The space was dark, only lit by blue and green LEDs on a series of huge black towers. There were rows of them that went a long way back. Each of the towers had three feet of space between all of them. The ceiling was a spiderweb of cables and pipes.

"Boomer, don't get distracted," Blossom said, scanning the space. "It's probably a trap."

"Oh yeah," Boomer scratched his head. "Probably."

"We need to search. I want you to go four columns down and scan for anything unusual. Can you do that?"

"Four columns that way?" Boomer pointed in the direction he assumed Blossom meant.

"Yes. I'm going to take this column And we will check row by row. When you have cleared a row, I want you to say 'clear'. We will not move on to the next row until both of us have confirmed 'clear'. Do you understand?"

That was a lot all at once. But Blossom was the best. He figured she had already thought of everything. "Yeah, I look around and say 'clear' if I don't see anything." He described it as much as he understood it.

"Correct." A wave of relief washed over Boomer when she said that. "And be sure to stay in my sight line as much as possible. Begin." Blossom marched down her column.

Boomer jogged, counting four server towers and started down his designated column. There was a wave of heat between the towers that didn't mix well with the cold. The blue light got more intense. There were green, yellow, and a few red lights on the towers. Some of them were blinking, some were steady. He wondered what they meant.

"Clear," Blossom called out.

He shook his head. Blossom had told him not to get distracted. He was looking for something. He didn't see anyone and he was pretty sure they were looking for a person. Then he remembered Blossom had said something about traps.

"Boomer?"

"Uh, what does a trap look like?"

"Anything out of the ordinary."

Boomer kept looking at everything, it all looked out of the ordinary. "I mean, I've never been in a server room before."

"Please do your best."

Boomer really didn't want to fail Blossom. She was trusting him to do a job and he was already screwing it up.

She was expecting him to say 'clear', and he didn't see anything. He stepped forward and saw Blossom casually looking toward him.

"Uh, clear."

Blossom turned and walked further down her row. Boomer followed and walked down his. Everything looked exactly the same as the last one. He felt relieved. It would help him find anything out of the ordinary now that he had a standard setup to compare against.

"Clear." Man, Blossom was fast.

Boomer took one more look and stepped forward so she could see him. "Clear." He was much faster that time.

They moved on again.

This row had a step stool next to one of the servers. Boomer looked up and discovered what he thought had been the ceiling wasn't actually the ceiling. There was metal grating that held up bundles of cables. The spider web of wires reached through it, probably so workers could fix the computers easier. The racks were hanging from the actual ceiling much higher up.

Boomer got the idea to take a look with his x-ray vision, but regretted it when he turned it on. Loops of red and green power ran through the cables making everything too bright. The server towers glowed like huge yellow lightbulbs. He could see even less. "Ugh."

"Did you use x-ray vision?" Blossom asked, calling from her position a few rows away.

"Yeah, I didn't see anything."

"More like you saw too much."

Boomer laughed.

"Clear.

Boomer stepped into Blossom's sight line. "Clear."

They both moved on to the next row. Again, it looked exactly the same.

"Clear," Blossom said.

"Clear." Boomer was getting the hang of it. He smiled at Blossom.

"You guys are real cute." The voice came from somewhere behind them. "Is this your first date?"

Blossom looked at Boomer, pointing in the direction they had come, and took off in that direction. "Good evening, Soyun."

Soyun? Brick had a friend named Soyun. She had been to their apartment a few times. But it couldn't be the same person.

"Hey Blossy."

Boomer headed toward the source of the voice, careful not to bump anything.

Blossom slowed when she got close. "What are you doing here?" She asked, floating a few inches off the ground.

"Nothing illegal." The voice came from further in, somewhere close to Boomer.

Blossom broke toward him, searching every direction. "Breaking into and hijacking private property is absolutely illegal."

"The taxpayers built the building and paid for the servers. Then that corrupt mayor just gives it to a rich man and that's not illegal?"

"Why don't we discuss that face-to-face." Blossom pulled Boomer behind one of the towers. She indicated her plan by pointing to either side of the tower. She wanted to close both sides.

Boomer nodded. They moved and swung around the tower.

"You're under arrest-" There was no one there. On the floor there was a small device connected to a walkie talkie.

A tiny pop went off at their feet, with barely even the force of a firecracker. Usually, Boomer liked explosions, and he loved the really big ones. All this one did was puff some smoke into their faces.

Boomer took a sniff, expecting that sour smell of gunpowder he liked. But this smoke had a sweet tang, like candy.

"Your mind control gas isn't going to work on me," Blossom said, covering her nose and mouth.

Soyun chortled. "That's not what this does."

Boomer felt like his face was being attacked by a swarm of flies. His entire body itched and tickled. He scratched, wanting to scrape the skin off his body. The red and green lights he could see with x-ray vision bleeding through his eyelids. He could see too much and he couldn't stop it. The low hum of the servers became a jackhammer in his ears. He could smell metal and electricity and plastic all at the same time. He fell to the floor covering his head and making himself as small as possible to get some relief.

Blossom covered her face with her hands growling. "I will catch you." She slowly crouched to the floor.

"Calm down. I'm almost done." Soyun's voice echoed from every direction at once.

"Boomer, remain calm."

Boomer realized electricity was bleeding out of his hands. He did his best to suppress it. He could easily fry every server in the building.

"We need to find her."

Boomer coughed. His throat was so dry. Everything was flashing and roaring and shaking. "She's probably up above."

"What?" Blossom grit her teeth and looked up. He was squeezing his eyes shut, but he could still see everything she was doing. "What's up above?"

"The metal grating above us, with the wires." Boomer rubbed his eyes. They were so itchy but so were his arms. He was frustrated at not being able to scratch both at once. "So the workers can fix the servers."

"There's a catwalk." Blossom finally saw it. "Stay here." She rose up, slowly and shakily. Boomer couldn't blame her, he could barely move with all the annoying sensations. She told him to stay where he was, but he did his best to keep watching her in case she needed help.

Boomer was starting to get his senses back when a wave of bitter cold slammed into him when Blossom used her ice breath.

"Trouble, Blossom?" Soyun snickered. "Feeling a little overstimulated?" There was the telltale sound of some cables being ripped out of a laptop. "I'm finished anyway."

"Yes, you are." Blossom managed to find loops and loops of extra cable. She bundled it up, wrapping it over itself again and again. It got tangled like a pair of headphones in a jeans pocket. She threw the bundle out wide into the space.

Whip fast, Blossom pulled back and Soyun came with the wires, her legs and one arm tangled in the web.

Blossom zipped around her, tying her up with the rest of her makeshift net.

Soyun sprayed some gas toward Blossom out of a spray can in her free hand. "You're too scared to fight me. You want to run away."

Despite moving through the gas Blossom only hesitated for a moment. "No I don't," she said, shaking her head. She snatched the spray can out of Soyun's hand and broke it. "I told you it wouldn't work on me."

The colors and itching had mostly abated by the time Blossom carried over a tied up Soyun. Soyun was wearing a gas mask over her nose and mouth. It had vents on either side, probably to filter out her own gas so it wouldn't affect her.

They rode back up the elevator, Blossom restraining Soyun. The doors opened to the officers still pointing their guns.

"Clear," Blossom said, passing through them and pulling Soyun with her. There was a lot of chatter after that, officers giving orders Boomer guessed. They and a few people in civilian clothes went into the elevator.

Blossom opened a police car door and directed Soyun into the seat. "You're going away for a long time."

Soyun rolled her eyes. "I'll see you in class on Monday." Blossom closed the door on her. She set a wide stance with her hands on her hips in a silent victory.

"That was really cool, Blossom," Boomer said. "You're a good hero."

Blossom gave him a small smile. "Thank you. You're not a bad sidekick."

Boomer couldn't stop himself from smiling.

Blossom giggled, covering her mouth with her hand.

An officer walked up to them pulling at the gun strap looped around his shoulder. "Good work, Blossom."

Blossom's smile changed. She was still smiling, but there was something weird about it, like she didn't mean it. "It was my pleasure," she said with a small shake of her head. She lifted into the air a few feet and looked at Boomer. "Let's go."

They took off, up high over the clump of police officers wrapping up the scene. The lights on their cars flashing red and blue. Blossom crossed her arms, that serious look on her face again as she watched them move back and forth. Boomer had a feeling something was wrong.

Blossom sighed. "We could use a break." She flew toward Candelabra Park, the football stadium down the shoreline. It was lit up even though there wasn't a game going on. "We're going to see a concert."

She led them to the stadium. They sat at the edge of the open roof with their legs dangling. The Fried Green Tomatoes were playing. Alternative rock was Boomer's favorite genre and FGT was a classic band. Blossom started singing along to 'Jimi Nevada'.

Boomer laughed to himself.

"What's funny?" Blossom asked.

Boomer blanched. "I uh- I just didn't think you'd know..." He scratched his head, trying to think of the words. "You're just so serious about uh..."

Blossom wrapped her arms around a leg and set her head on her knee. "Didn't think I took breaks or liked good music, huh?"

"Well, you are a Powerpuff Girl."

"I am." Blossom smiled. "I'm also a person. I like alt rock. I watch action movies. I eat junk food."

Boomer laughed again. "You're so good though."

"I wish people didn't reduce me to 'good'." Blossom pushed off the roof and floated up a few inches, still in a sitting position. "'Everything nice'. I'm not some prim and proper schoolmarm."

Boomer blinked. That wasn't what he meant by 'good'. Though now that it was said, he hadn't realized he wasn't treating Blossom like a person. But people always wanted other people to see them as infallible gods, right? So why did Blossom not want that? The way she conducted herself certainly made it look like she did.

Boomer peered down into the concert. "We didn't really pay for tickets or anything."

"We're not in the stadium, and we'll only stay for a few more minutes."

This had to be one of those 'not everything is black and white' things Brick was talking about. Boomer didn't like it. It was so confusing, impossible to know anything for sure. Blossom did know things though and she probably wouldn't mind if he asked.

"Blossom, you know how to do stuff. Can you teach me how to do stuff?"

"What kind of stuff?"

"You know, like Brick-stuff." He looked around sheepishly again. "Or Blossom-stuff."

"What kind of Brick-stuff?"

"I don't know. But you and Brick, you guys know how to do things and I have no idea even what those things are."

"Leadership?"

"No, more like..." He thrust his hands forward and looked at her. He spread his fingers out and then thrust his hands forward again. It was a lot of work to make up for his lack of communication skills.

"I'm going to need more to go on than that."

"So like, say I started a band. And I bring some band mates together and we have all the equipment. How do I get us a gig? Like one gig leads to another gig, right, but how do we get the first one?"

"You mean, literally, how to do things."

"Yes!" His palm slapped the roof.

"I think what you're actually asking is how to find solutions to your problems on your own."

He jumped into the air. "That! That's what I want."

Blossom regarded him with a raise of her head and a smile. "Yeah, I can teach you that."