Princess made her way into the dusty underused classroom behind Keane with Buttercup and Princess in tow. She knew her antics would land her here, but she didn't anticipate that she would be privy to sharing space with Buttercup Utonium and her insufferable know-it-all sister. She figured she'd get a few weeks detention alone cleaning the gym lockers for an hour then making her way to Kamari's while she went on about the smell of sweat and letting her best friend amuse her as to which footballer had the bigger jockstrap. Not sharing quiet time with the beast herself, who would probably try to freeze her to her seat the moment Keane looked away. It was going to be a long month.
"Each of you pick a corner of the room," Keane began motioning to the desks scattered about the classroom. "Not one word from anyone for the next hour."
Princess quickly secured her spot in the back right. There was no chance in hell she would have her back turned in Blossom's presence. Unsurprisingly, Blossom took the front left sitting as far as she could get from Princess. She anticipated that Buttercup would sit in front of her across from her sister but she plopped down in the back left bored and uninterested behind her. Princess spared a glance in her direction and BC scrunched her brow at the eye contact.
"What?" She glanced up and down at Princess as if she could find whatever problem she had with her stained on her clothes.
"Nothing I just… it's nothing." Princess finished lamely fishing her copy of Frankenstein out of her bag. There wasn't any homework assigned yet, but some reading to get ahead in the silence wouldn't hurt. Adjacent to her, Blossom huffed and pulled out her copy even more determined to stay number one in the class than before. BC simply pulled out her notebook, writing lyrics.
Thirty minutes went by with no other sound than flipping pages and scribbling notes. Princess found that she was rather enjoying the novel, finding an interesting correlation to the monster ostracized by the very species he was made of. Including his father. Her eyes once again wandered to the left of her at Buttercup. Her long dark brows were furrowed over the pages chewing the end of her pen cap furiously. She could hear her grunting and groaning under her breath, visibly dissatisfied with her work.
The Powerpuff Girls were comprised of four ingredients. Sugar, spice, everything nice, and that pesky ingredient that turned three "normal" little girls into the most super-powered trio this side of the Midwest. The monster was all human carcasses, some strange chemical concoctions, and electricity. Princess remembered when the girls first entered society in the city of Townsville. It was not a warm welcome. If Buttercup or any of them had been alone would she have been made out to be a monster too? Then there was Bunny… but she decided not to ruminate on the fourth sister's fate. The girls were just as much mad, careless scientists as Victor was. Creating frivolously without regard for the consequences. Bunny was destroyed in an act of love, the monster in an act of violence. It is unnerving the way we could harm ourselves and others in the wake of misunderstanding. Though Buttercup had two other sisters like her, she wondered if she felt misunderstood, too.
"Okay well, I'm headed to the bathroom then my office, and will be back to collect you all before the hour is up," Keane informed gathering her paperwork. "Please, try to be civil."
The door had barely shut behind her before BC let out a loud sigh of relief and began to gather her things.
"Um," Blossom whirled in her seat to face her younger sister. "Where do you think you're going?"
"Home, obviously," BC said slinging her bag over her shoulder. "I can't think in here it's like bad creative juju or something."
"You can't just leave!" Blossom chastised her sister.
"Yes, I can," BC rolled her eyes. "She can tack on the lost fifteen minutes to the next detention."
"That you still won't stay for," Blossom grumbled.
"Duh," BC smirked. "Besides while I'm gone you and Princess can talk about your little book club and hopefully reach some common ground."
"As if I'll spend my time bonding over some monster," Blossom sneered shifting her gaze to Princess. "Or maybe she'll offer some insight given her father is one."
Princess stood from her desk and glared at her across the room. "Coming from the abomination of a lab freak that's rich coming from you. You are the creation of a mad scientist after all." There goes civil. "Has it occurred to you that we're all fucking monsters of our parent's creation? An amalgamation of bits and pieces and that eternal spark that gives us life? No, you'd rather be like Victor and the rest of them, choosing to see a monster rather than learning to understand them you hypocritical, judgmental, bitch!"
Princess was huffing and puffing with a lockjaw and eyes to match on Blossom after her long-winded speech. Blossom chose to see her the way she did. Never once did she give her a chance, to know her and not what she believed her to be. Still, she took that wicked imagination of hers and spun whatever story amused her around the school. Tying any and any crime back to her family with no concrete evidence. True or not, it's the principle. Princess is just a teenager. A misunderstood, deeply feeling, raging teenager. The daughter and creation of her own madman.
"So Frankenstein's monster is just a ball of teenage angst?" BC interrupted the silence. "Guess there's inspiration in the room with us, after all."
"Fuck this," Princess said quickly gathering her items and pushing past Buttercup out the door.
She made it a few paces down the hall before she heard Buttercup's voice trailing after her. "Princess! Shit, Princess, wait up!"
She paused for a moment just in front of the doors to the school and let out an exasperated sigh when the green puff caught up to her. What she would give to be Powerpuff free for the rest of the day.
"Hey!" BC said a little too lax before switching her tone. "Hey, I um… I'm not… I don't believe that shit she says about you…" she trailed off, shifting her feet.
Princess eyed her face blankly. As if her admittance of not siding with her sister's bigoted shit was going to change anything about her. About the way she was treated in school by all the other rich kids, about who she truly was. Princess Royalty Morbucks was a Morbucks. It was the part of her that made her a monster, even though she was of human flesh like everyone else.
"I felt what you were saying in there though," BC chewed her lip. "I feel like that too sometimes."
"You and I are not the same kind of monster," I said shifting my eyes to hers.
"But we are both different, aren't we?" BC's eyes met hers. "People look at you based off of what someone made you and create all these expectations. To be hard, to be… their other half." BC grimaced as if the words tasted sour on her tongue. "Does anyone ever ask what the monster wants?"
Princess's gaze softened, seeing a glimpse of Buttercup's struggles in her relationship with Butch. For whatever reason, despite looking perfectly matched on the surface, the two were not. She was a Powerpuff. Expected to perform and play her part. She was in the public eye just as much as everyone else here. Then Princess looked at her. BC stood just slightly taller than her, but enough to where she would have to tilt her head up to gaze at her. She typically always had a relaxed expression but her forehead entertained a worry line for her, and her green eyes were unwavering in her search for a shared sentiment in Princess's own. She dared to take a glance at her lips. The color of petals with a plain lip oil to moisten them, or maybe that was her tongue as she watched her full bottom lip bounce out after being freed from her teeth.
"That's the thing about monsters," Princess's voice was nearly a whisper, "what they ask for is never given, so the only way to get it is to take it. Even if you worked to give it to yourself, monsters are undeserving and we will always look like a thief."
"And what do you think you deserve?" Buttercup breathed back.
The air became thick between them sharing a moment that carried the weight of their respective burdens. Today, Princess has shared more words with Buttercup than she had in years. The two were always in passing, staying out of each other's way and maintaining a respectable distance. Over the past few hours, the two were proving themselves to be closer than they initially believed. Maybe too close. Buttercup had a mole on her upper left cheek, her lashes fanned more feline than round, and her prominent jaw sported a bruise she had just now noticed from her fight with Butch. She had nearly fought the urge to caress it before the classroom door banged open, revealing Blossom and a repugnant expression on her face at the sight of them.
Princess matched her glare and dropped her hand before it could reach Buttercup's expectant face. "My throne," Princess vowed, before turning on her heel and marching out the doors. Her driver had been waiting for long enough.
"And then what'd you tell her?" Kamari excitedly asked her as she recapped detention with her archenemy.
"Nothing, I said fuck this and walked the fuck out," Princess flopped on her bed rubbing her eyes. The day was tiring from start to finish. Her father's demands for her to accept the life she lives, hiding the "fireworks," the performance, the fight, detention, Buttercup. She was tired and just wanted to forget the day for the weekend.
"Damn, sucks to have the Pink Puta on you and her sister," Kamari noted.
"Actually, BC is cool. Doesn't agree with any of Blossom's shit," she defended. The interactions she's had with BC today were bizarre but somewhat unsurprising. She was a decent person but her defense was unlikely to be repeated. She was just going through a break-up, and Princess was just… around?
"Hmm, well, good to know she's an ally and we can still use her band for our set," Kamari began before batting her eyes. Her tell-tale sign she is about to ask Princess to do something she doesn't want to do. "How would you feel about going to "The Basement" to watch BC's band perform tonight?"
"The Basement," was an underground nightclub that one of BC's bandmates owned. Their drummer was the nephew of a famous drummer and though he was very good, it was rumored that access to "The Basement" was what secured his spot in the band. He could be a real asshole and a notorious homophobe, but Mitch had already informed them it was just a projection.
"Ugghhh," Princess groaned. "Haven't I seen enough of the Powerpuff's today?"
"Maybe for this part of the day," She grinned. "It's only five and the show starts at eight. You can be rejuvenated and ready by then. You won't even have to go home."
It was true. Princess spent so much time at Mari's she created a small second wardrobe in her room. It was fitted with everything she'd need for any occasion. If Princess had it her way, she would live out of the plastic container in Mari's room and never return home. Unrealistic, but one could dream.
"Fine, but let me nap for an hour and then I'll hop up to get ready." Princess compromised.
"Suit yourself," Mari hopped off the bed and was about to start getting ready in the bathroom. "If you need anything use our psychic connection."
"I'll be dreaming of you," I called back before rolling over onto the pillow.
Today was strange yet, empowering. There was a change on the horizon for her senior year at Pokey Oaks. She took the leap and did it, consequences be damned. Did she earn herself a month of detention with her tormentor, put a target on her back with the entire cheer squad, and possibly become more of a public enemy than she was before? Maybe, but she also put her talent out there for people to see, boosted the exposure for the Hot Pokers, and maybe quasi-gained a friend in Buttercup.
Buttercup. Newly single, beautiful, uncontrollable, talented, powerful, enigma Buttercup Utonium. The treatment Princess was receiving from her was sudden. She wasn't expecting her to come to her defense or even go out of her way to create one-on-one time with her this year. It was clear that the BC she appeared to be was not really who she was. Maybe there were parts of herself she had been hiding all this time. If she wasn't herself with Butch, then who was she without him?
Princess pulled out her phone and quickly went to check the boys' socials. Brick seemed to completely deactivate his account. Butch hadn't posted to his story all day and changed his profile pic to a black and white photo of himself, and Boomer simply left his account with "social media cleanse, be back soon," in his bio. The boys were truly gone, for now. She shifted gears to BC.
All of her old photos of her and Butch were gone leaving only pics and reels of herself with her band. She changed her profile pic to an artistic photo of her sitting with her bass guitar, bangs covering her face, and smoke creeping at the edges. Her bio read, "BC, bass player and singer for Rotten Flowers." She seemed ready to go professional with her art. There was no mention of her Powerpuff status, other interests, or personal accounts. Not even a spam to troll with. According to social media, this is who she was.
BC did seem like the type to create a wall between the real her and her musician persona but this felt extreme. The number of people she followed decreased tremendously, her posts went from 78 to 24, and all the highlights she had with her family, close friends, gaming, and sports were deleted. The only explanation she offered was a post to her story of a black screen and the word, "REBRAND." So who was she now?
Princess quickly locked her phone and flipped to the other side of the pillow. She was not going to start the year with an obsession with the Powerpuff when it was time to focus on her own rebrand. She wasn't the only one reinventing herself this year. Just because BC appeared to be forging a new acquaintanceship with her it did not mean she had to accept or apply any energy. They were simply cordial, and sharing a month's worth of detention together. If she wanted to offer her songs for the Hot Pokers set that would be preferred and strictly business. She has enough friends, anything more with BC would just be complicated.
She released a deep exhale and unfurled her creased brows, trying not to agonize over what to wear tonight and if there was anything more BC wanted from her than civilities.
Thanks for reading!