"...The Rowdyruff Boys transferred to our school..."
Buttercup got dressed in the early morning in uncharacteristic total silence.
"...The Rowdyruff Boys transferred to our school..."
Lime green eyes briefly checked her reflection in her bedroom's full-length mirror. She was wearing a short-sleeved lime green shirt that exposed her belly button piercing (her lips twitched as she remembered the Professor nearly had a heart attack when he first caught sight of it) and black skinny jeans with her favorite pair of green converse.
"...The Rowdyruff Boys transferred to our school..."
She ran her black wristband-clad hands through her shoulder-length raven locks a few times and Buttercup decided she looked alright enough (not that she actually cared much about her appearance, unlike her sisters), especially for someone who had trouble falling asleep last night, before grabbing her backpack and exiting her room, heading downstairs to the kitchen for breakfast.
"...The Rowdyruff Boys transferred to our school..."
Buttercup slid down the stair railings and felt her stomach rumble when her nose quickly caught the familiar scents of coffee and delicious cooking.
Sure enough, Buttercup entered the kitchen to find her blonde sister, Bubbles, humming some bubblegum pop song (ugh) while making another batch of gigantic fluffy pancakes along with mouthwatering bacon and eggs. Bubbles was wearing a light blue spaghetti-strap tank top and white ruffled skirt with a blue belt matching the ribbon wedges on her feet. She always was the most fashion- and beauty-obsessed sister among the three of them.
"Smells good, Bubs." The black-haired puff let her backpack fall to the floor, took a seat at the dining table, and grabbed a plate. She yawned widely. Unlike her two sisters, Buttercup was not a morning person.
"Morning, Buttercup!" Bubbles cheerfully greeted as she set down the latest batch of pancakes atop the dining table. Her light blonde hair was styled in two low pigtails that reached down to her upper back. Buttercup knew her sisters well. She could tell the blonde's usual cheery disposition was forced and she was distracting herself by stress cooking: making today's breakfast more elaborate (and excessive, given the size and amount of food currently piled atop the dining table) than usual and 'too-beautiful-to-eat'. Almost.
Blossom was standing off to the side of the kitchen, pouring herself her daily morning cup of freshly-brewed black-as-her-soul battery acid she calls coffee. Much much stronger than her usual this morning, Buttercup noticed. Yep, Blossom's stressed, the green puff decided*1. The redhead was wearing a long-sleeved pink shirt and grey skinny jeans with dark pink flats. Her long orange-red hair was tied up in a single high ponytail that fell down to her waist with a long red ribbon. After their hell puberty, Blossom stopped wearing her iconic big red bow in her previous rather childish manner, as the pink puff puts it.
"Good morning." Blossom greeted, taking a seat down at the table with her mug of steaming poison in one hand and a copy of the daily newspaper in the other. Buttercup barely managed a grumbled reply from her over-stuffed cheeks, too busy pigging out on Bubbles' delicious cooking. Though all three of them learned to cook (selectively blocked traumatic memories of childhood attempts at cooking, including the Professor and his liver and onions), Bubbles loved to and would often cook for them. Bubbles chirped a greeting back as she set down her 'eldest' sister's plate in front of her, receiving a thankful smile from the redhead.
Taking a long sip of her coffee, Blossom quickly perused the newspaper as Bubbles poured some honey over her own stack of blueberry pancakes. "Hmm, that's interesting..." The redhead lightly hummed, gaining the attention of her two sisters.
"What's interesting?" Bubbles curiously asked after swallowing a small forkful of her pancakes.
"You know that new grand hotel and mega casino that everyone's been talking about?" Blossom replied, "Well, they're halfway through construction, with the simultaneous grand openings scheduled for sometime next year."
"Eh?" Buttercup's eyebrows raised. "Didn't they start building only like a month ago or so?"
The pink puff read the corresponding newspaper article aloud, "Apparently, the Mayor is planning to improve Townsville to better rival the other cities, and the top of his list includes Townsville's business and tourism sectors..."
Bubbles tilted her head, swallowing another forkful of pancake. "That doesn't really sound like the Mayor at all..."
"You forget that Miss Bellum is his assistant." Blossom sent her a wry smile. "And the fact that campaign period is approaching once more."
"Well, that's stupid." Sitting in front of the redhead, Buttercup rolled her green eyes and swallowed her food. "It's not like there's any other candidate other than that pickle-loving old fart."
"He's a good mayor." Bubbles spoke up, feeling the need to defend the Mayor. "I admit, there are better mayors out there, but still..."
Buttercup scoffed, "Anyone's a better mayor than the Mayor."
"Except Fuzzy Lumpkins." Blossom commented dryly, flipping a page of the newspaper.
All three girls shared a reminiscing look.
Quickly draining her glass of fresh orange juice, Buttercup hesitated for a second before bringing up the inevitable topic that she'd been dreading since yesterday, effectively ending their semi-farce of a normal morning. "Hey, Bloss...?"
Bubbles promptly quieted as well.
"...The Rowdyruff Boys transferred to our school."
Rose pink eyes glanced up from the newspaper for a single second before resuming reading. "I told you, Buttercup, Miss Bellum even confirmed it. We'll need to keep a closer eye on the boys while at school." There is currently only one high school in Townsville after all, and that is Pokey Oaks High.
Buttercup scowled. "Damn it! What the hell are they playing at, suddenly reappearing after six years..."
"Calm down, Buttercup." Blossom sighed as she carefully refolded the newspaper and set it aside for the Professor to read later.
"Maybe they're not planning anything...?" Bubbles spoke up hesitantly, slowly setting down her fork on her empty plate. "I mean, it's been six years, right? A lot has changed since then..."
"Are you serious?!" Buttercup spun towards her blonde sister with an incredulous expression on her face. "You're saying that the boys just suddenly decided to come back and live normal lives, going to high school with us? Those boys could never be good, Bubbles."
"And why not? We've changed, maybe they did too..." Bubbles frowned. "Not to play devil's advocate, but have you considered that they may be telling the truth? Even if it's just wistful thinking, but... we are counterparts after all..."
"Ugh. Don't remind me." Buttercup grumbled, massaging her forehead. "Just thinking about mine gives me a headache..."
"Besides," Bubbles softly voiced. "You heard what Boomer said to Mojo..."
"And you fell for it?" Buttercup scoffed. "Typical Bubbles, you always did have that crush on Boomer. Hell, I bet you still do."
Bubbles blushed indignantly, grabbed one of the fresh blueberries from the fruit bowl nearby, and chucked it at her black-haired sister. Buttercup just caught it in her mouth and smirked. Bubbles huffed and crossed her arms, leaning back onto her seat.
Blossom, who had finished her coffee while listening to her two sisters argue, chose that moment to speak up. "Bubbles has a point though, Buttercup."
"You can't be serious, Blossom!" Buttercup raised her eyebrows, pointedly ignoring her blonde sister's equally surprised but triumphant look. "They can't be neutral just like that!" The black-haired puff protested. "...Can they?"
Blossom rolled her pink eyes, "What Boomer said and how the boys acted yesterday, the lack of a fight... you can't ignore the implications of that. Though, we also can't ignore the possibility of them misleading us..." She sighed as she closed her eyes. "I'm stressed with conflicting doubts. We'll see how today goes, and then..."
"You're fucking shitting me..." Buttercup scowled.
"Language, Buttercup. I'm just telling you to be wary of them and to watch yourself. If I have to hear about a fight, then it would be one that the boys started, got it?" Blossom warned as all three of them stood up from the dining table and picked up their plates. "We don't know if they'll be as... civil as they were yesterday. If they can't be good, they can at least be neutral."
Buttercup narrowed her eyes but grumbled her reluctant consent. "Fine!" All three of them knew that Blossom was right, Buttercup was merely being hardheaded.
"Come on, Buttercup, who knows?" Sweet Bubbles was ever the optimist, though her smile was tainted with uncertainty. "We might be able to befriend them? You can't deny having friends just like us would be nice..." All three girls couldn't deny that they wanted companions (other than each other) that they wouldn't have to be careful around, unlike how they had to constantly watch themselves and hold back around their human friends. But still, the Rowdyruff Boys...?
"You lose that bet." Buttercup muttered under her breath, picking up her backpack from the floor.
At that moment, the Professor's body silently zombie-walked into the kitchen, eyebags prominent and eyes sealed shut.
"Morning, Dad." Blossom greeted, kissing the man on the cheek and gracefully walking past him to grab her dark pink handbag that was waiting on the couch in their living room. "Mornin' Dad." Buttercup grunted, also kissing the man on the cheek before zipping away to impatiently wait for her two sisters at the door. "Morning, Daddy!" Bubbles giggled, kissing the man on the cheek and handing him a freshly brewed cup of espresso before skipping over to grab her own white leather purse that was also on the couch in their living room.
"Bye, Professor!" The three sisters simultaneously called out before flying off to school, leaving behind three quickly fading streaks of their signature colors.
"Huh?" Professor Utonium jumped, snapping back to consciousness, blinking rapidly. He scratched his head in confusion. "Why do I feel like I forgot something...?"
-M-I-A-S-M-A-
"Just when I think I have learned the way to live, life changes."
- Hugh Prather
Pokey Oaks High, despite being the sole high school in Townsville, was still considered as an excellent educational institute, bearing a few academic, athletic and artistic awards to its name (nearly all of which were earned currently and by the three Utonium sisters).
When the girls arrived at Pokey Oaks High, Bubbles suddenly stopped and quickly tugged at her sisters' sleeves. The blonde hastily pointed up to the sky, "Girls, look!"
Both Blossom and Buttercup glanced up to see what their 'youngest' sister was pointing at, and it was only thanks to their super vision that they managed to catch the tail ends of three streaks of dark colors above in the clouds before they had completely faded. Red, dark blue, and dark green ran across the morning sky, straight towards the school building.
Well shit.
"Great." Buttercup grumbled, one wristband-clad hand tightening its grip on the strap of her backpack. "There goes the last of my plausible deniability..."
"Come on," Blossom rolled her eyes and strode forward, forcing her two sisters to catch up with her. "We still have to meet up with the principal to discuss our new 'duty'."
"Ugh, can't we do that 'fashionably late' thing that Bubbles always does?" Buttercup tried.
"Hey!" Their blonde sister protested, "Not always!"
"It's impolite to make the boys and the principal wait too long." Prim and proper Blossom replied and side-eyed her black-haired sister. "Nor the vice-principal."
"Ugh, that old hag..." Buttercup blew an unladylike raspberry.
After the Rowdyruff Boys' return to Townsville, the Mayor (Miss Bellum) had the Pokey Oaks High principal immediately replaced. The old, both in time and age, principal would not have been able to handle the boys.
And the girls.
At the same time.
The three super-powered sisters entered the school building and headed straight for the principal's office.
Contrary to how their eyes immediately went towards the vice-principal and the new principal, the first thing the girls noticed was their respective counterparts.
Boomer was quietly sitting on an armchair to the left, casually leaning his chin on the palm of his hand. His eyes were closed, his attractive face set in a small smile. He was facing the spacious office's open large windows, as if taking in the warm sunlight and picturesque view of Pokey Oaks High school grounds. A light breeze faintly ruffled his golden blond hair.
Bubbles stared. He was breathtaking.
Butch was lounging on one of the two black leather couches, his arms draped across the back and his feet crossed atop the glass coffee table set between the two couches. He was pointedly ignoring the sour glares of the austere vice-principal, who had long given up on harshly lecturing him. Head tilted back, he glanced at Buttercup with glinting forest green eyes and a smirk on his handsome face.
"About time you three got here." He mockingly drawled.
Buttercup's subsequent facial expression made the vice-principal's look sweeter than sugar.
Brick, his back turned towards them, was standing in front and a little to the side of the principal's desk. His stance indicated boredom and impatience, his hands inside the pockets of his jeans. He acted as if the girls hadn't just entered the office, despite the principal's greeting.
Blossom pointedly ignored her counterpart's pointed ignoring and focused her gaze straight at the new principal. In contrast to the old hag of a vice-principal, the new principal looked to be in his mid-thirties and entirely professional.
"Good, you're all here." The principal adjusted his glasses and laced his hands, his eyes holding everyone's gaze. "Let's make this quick."
"I'm sure you've already received your schedules, reschedules in the girls' cases." The principal nodded towards the three Powerpuffs, "Due to your... situation, we've rearranged your timetables so that your classes match as much as possible per counterpart pair."
Brick and Blossom were unsurprised, having long predicted this. Boomer silently inclined his head, while Bubbles was startled. Butch scoffed and rolled his eyes, while Buttercup scowled.
The principal's air suddenly turned serious and grim.
"I know who you all are and just exactly what you can do." The principal spoke, looking all six of them straight in the eyes to show how serious he was. "Rest assured, I can and will be dealing with you six properly."
The puffs and ruffs were stunned. 'How the hell did someone incompetent like the Mayor manage to hire someone who's actually competent?'
'...Miss Bellum.' All six super-powered beings thought not even a second later. 'Definitely Miss Bellum.'
The girls left the office in advance, while the principal held the boys back as he still had a few more things to discuss with them.
The three silently walked along the hallways towards their first class, one of the few that all three of them shared, paying only half-attention to the three dots on the monitoring program running on their phones. Students started swarming into the school, quickly filling up the background with noise and loud chatter.
Buttercup eventually spoke up. "What now, leader girl?"
After a minute of silent walking, Blossom looked up from her thoughts. "We go to class like normal people."
"And the boys?" Buttercup asked, one hand resting on her hip. Bubbles was next to her, one hand fidgeting with the straps of her white shoulder bag.
Blossom didn't pause.
"We hope they do the same."
Blossom fought the urge to sigh for the nth time.
As if sharing her first class with her counterpart wasn't enough, she was forced to endure one whole year of him sitting right beside her.
In hindsight, she really shouldn't have been surprised.
As she quietly sat in her seat at the front row, Blossom had never felt so stiff and tense in her life. And judging by Brick's face, or from what little she could read from his side profile's cool expression (wasn't ice her thing?), he apparently felt the same. The two redheads were both sitting rigidly straight, perfectly and uncomfortably still, clearly avoiding making any contact with each other. This seating arrangement was choking the two of them.
The pink puff kept her eyes locked to the front, where the teacher stood and slowly droned on a long, tedious lecture with an equally dull voice, effectively boring most (all) of the students in the class, not that the said teacher noticed. Keeping one ear steadily listening to the lecture (that she already knew and apparently much better than the teacher), Blossom studied her counterpart out of the corner of her eye, carefully making sure to do so in a surreptitious manner.
Brick was taller than her, and it annoyed her. His tall height made him even more intimidating, as if his equally unusual-colored eyes weren't enough. He had long red hair, a shade or two darker than hers, reaching down to his lower back and tied in a low ponytail, his bangs framing his handsome face and bringing out his half-lidded eyes the color of fresh blood. The pink puff took note that his trademark backwards red hat was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps he got rid of it in the same manner she stopped wearing her childish big red bow...?
Blossom twirled the pink pen in her grip. She wrote down a few notes on the lecture subject.
Brick's attire only added to his appealing looks, if the rather pointed stares coming from a third of the girls in the class (the other two-thirds were split between his brothers) were anything for Blossom to judge by, with her counterpart wearing black pants with a long-sleeved button-up red shirt that had its sleeves folded just below his elbows and a few buttons undone, giving the pink puff a glimpse of a black stone pendant hanging around his neck.
Blossom nearly broke her pen. He was sinfully good-looking.
Blossom suppressed a scowl as she took down more notes, writing a little too hard. The redhead quickly banished those thoughts and instead gave a discreet checking glance at the two other counterpart pairs sitting inside the classroom.
All the way at the back of the classroom, Buttercup was doing a surprisingly good job so far of restraining herself from punching the living lights out of her counterpart, who was currently sleeping (snoring) in the seat right behind her. Thanks to her super hearing, Blossom could clearly hear her black-haired sister's teeth gritting in frustration. In comparison, Bubbles was lucky enough to be seated far away from her own counterpart. Every few minutes or so, her blonde sister's light blue eyes would glance towards the back of Boomer's head, where he quietly sat a few rows in front of her and to the left.
Out of the three of them, it was quite clear that Blossom was the most unfortunate.
It was only a few incredibly frustrating minutes later that the redhead paused in her writing and closed her eyes resignedly, giving up the silent charade between the two of them with a small, inaudible sigh.
"Brick." Blossom carefully controlled her volume so that it was too low for the four other super-powered beings in the class to pick up, much less for an ordinary human. Light pink eyes daringly glanced sideways, directly up at half-lidded red eyes that were staring straight at the projector screen in front of the classroom. "What are you doing here?"
Half-lidded red eyes briefly darkened and Brick held in a sneer.
The pink puff was serious. She wasn't asking, she was commanding an answer from him.
Dark thoughts bubbled inside his head, and his thrice-damned blood started to sing, but he swiftly suppressed it. Besides, he was more annoyed than anything, really.
Closing his eyes, he answered just as lowly. "Isn't it obvious?" Brick's mouth barely moved, Blossom quietly noted, "I'm here to learn." It was a load of bull, considering that the two of them were smart enough to test into university for a master's degree, or even a doctorate, if they chose to and the only reason they were holding themselves back was so that they could keep an eye on their siblings.
Blossom's grip on her pen tightened before relaxing.
"So am I."
"Good for you."
His rich and velvet voice was mocking.
Blossom's eyes narrowed. The tight grip she unknowingly had on her pen loosened, her hand automatically releasing the pen, thin cracks on its frame.
"Is that really all you're here for?" Blossom's words were more derisive than probing. "No tricks? Or maybe this is just part of some elaborate and twisted revenge scheme..."
Brick sneered. "Cross my fucking non-existent evil heart and hope to die a second time." His tone was impassive and cold.
Blossom actually flinched. Brick felt just the slightest bit placated at that.
The class ended, and all the students hastily stood up and left in a noisy rushing crowd. Butch and Buttercup were the first two to exit the classroom, zipping away faster than the blink of an eye. Boomer followed the two rushing Greens in a comparatively more sedate pace, a still rather hesitant Bubbles leaving right after giving her blond counterpart a head start. Two pairs of blue eyes, one light and the other dark, both gave a questioning glance at the remaining two sitting inside the classroom as they passed by. Blossom and Brick paid them no attention, even as they were left alone in the classroom, the teacher having already left a few seconds before.
The red ruff finally turned to face his counterpart and leaned down, his smirking mouth right next to her ear.
"At least," Brick's voice was low and shiver-inducing. "That's what you believe, right, babe?"
Brick then swiftly stood up and headed for the door, leaving behind a blushing Blossom.
Butch was taller than her, that's for sure, easily looming over her, which grated on Buttercup's nerves.
He had an unfortunately undeniably handsome face and spiky jet-black hair, with bangs falling over fierce eyes that were an intense forest-green color. He wore a short-sleeved black shirt that clung to his muscled torso and dark jeans, with multiple ear piercings and rings on both middle fingers.
All the girls in the classroom blushed and drooled over him with hungry gazes at what could be perfectly described as yum. He was to die for, and Buttercup was the only one there who knew how very literal that statement was as the Pokey Oaks High girls' new 'bad boy eye candy' could easily kill them with a single flick of his finger.
He was in her second class.
"What the fuck are you doing here..." Buttercup hissed, drilling her glaring lime green eyes right into taunting forest green ones.
He was her damn psycho counterpart.
"Sitting." A jeering smirk crossed his handsome face, causing all the girls in the class to swoon even more at him. "Ain't illegal."
And he was sitting right behind her. Again.
Buttercup gritted her teeth. "There are lots of other free seats in this classroom..."
"Oh, you don't have to ask." Butch gestured with his hand towards the open seats to their right. "You're free to move, don't be shy."
"I mean you, you moron!" Buttercup scowled. "Move your ass somewhere else! Preferably far away from me!"
"Hmm..." Butch didn't even try to pretend to think it over as he leaned back comfortably in his seat. "Nah."
"And why not?" Buttercup asked irritably.
"'Cause it annoys you."
"Your butt-ugly face annoys me." Buttercup pointedly ignored the glares directed towards her by the girls in the class for her little comment.
"You know what, I think I'll move after all." Butch stood up from his seat. Buttercup gave a sigh of relief. "Finally... wait, what-"
Butch palmed the desk in front of him and swiftly made a small, agile flip.
...To the empty seat right beside Buttercup.
The girls in their class all squealed at the minor display of athleticism from their black-haired new object of affection while the green puff's gorgeous face twisted into a scowl. She snapped when Butch casually turned his head towards her with a smirk on his handsome face. "Yo, Butterfly. Miss me?"
Buttercup slammed her left hand down on her desk and brought her face close to his. "Are you asking for a fight?!" She hissed lowly, their faces inches away from each other.
Forest green eyes glinted as Butch's smirk turned sneering. "You answering, Butterbutt?"
"Sorry, Butch," Buttercup leaned away and spat out the name as if it was completely drenched in Antidote X. "But I'm not a retarded psycho like you."
"You sure about that, Buttercup?" Butch sneered back. "Because we're fucking counterparts, remember, or do I have to keep reminding you?"
Buttercup scowled. Where the hell was the fucking teacher!
"If you want a fight so bad, why don't you throw the first punch?" Buttercup growled through gritted teeth.
"Careful, Butterbabe." Butch smirked down at her. "I might just do that since you're apparently too chicken to do so." His forest green eyes were taunting.
Buttercup stilled. "What the fuck did you just call me?" The black-haired puff demanded slowly, her narrowed lime green eyes flashing in warning.
Forest green eyes flashed back in return.
The tension between the two of them was thick, intense and just plain obvious. What kind of tension between the two of them, however, was apparently not. Well, either that, or the students at Pokey Oaks High were just plain stupid as Buttercup felt numerous stabbing glares directed towards her coming from all the jealous girls in her class. What the fuck? Oh, they better not be insinuating that she and Butch were...
"Yo, new guy!"
Buttercup broke her stare-off with her counterpart and let her face fall to her desk with a loud groan as Butch raised a brow at her from where he sat.
The black-haired ruff turned around to find a guy with brown hair and black eyes angrily glaring down at him. He was admittedly charming and indeed had the 'bad boy' looks, but he was nowhere near the green ruff's level, nor his two brothers'. Buttercup knew that, unlike the brown-haired wannabe standing in front of them, the three Rowdyruff brothers were the real bad boys.
"Who the fuck are you?" Butch dully asked as he stood up and towered over the new arrival, which only incensed the brunet even more.
"Mitch Mitchelson, the hottest and baddest guy in Pokey Oaks High." Mitch crossed his arms and smirked. He looked smug and absolutely sure of himself.
Butch wanted to laugh.
He decided to humor the little wannabe. "And?"
"And I want you to stop flirting with my girl-best friend. So back off or else!"
Butch raised a brow as both he and Buttercup caught that little slip. Beside him, the aforementioned girl merely sat up and sighed in annoyance.
Her situation with Mitch was complicated. He was Buttercup's best guy friend, the closest among their small group of childhood friends that she grew up with as "one of the guys". Though seeing him only as a friend, a brother even, Buttercup knew about the fact that Mitch was in love with her. Everyone knew, fuck her life... The black-haired girl often had to deal with awkward moments, along with the said brunet's growing protective (possessive) attitude. Whenever a guy would show interest in her, Mitch would often butt in and try to drive the guy off, never mind the fact that she could have done it herself. It was incredibly annoying and frustrating. No one owned her, damn it!
Buttercup inwardly grimaced. She had hoped that he'd outgrown that little childhood crush on her. But, to her chagrin, it instead grew into love (that was only platonic, dammit!), one that was completely unrequited and would definitely not change, no matter how much the hopeful brunet kept hoping, which she'd rather not have.
Half-heartedly, as she was used to her friend's attitude, Buttercup stood up and yelled, "Mitch, stay out of this!"
Sadly, she was pointedly ignored by both egotistical males. Fucking idiots.
"Look, I'm only gonna say this once, so you better listen, newbie." Mitch growled threateningly, his black eyes narrowing in warning. "Stay the fuck away from Buttercup, and you might just live to see another day..."
Buttercup face-palmed, exasperated. 'That idiot...'
Butch merely raised a brow. "So sorry," Not "But no can do." He drawled, only he and Buttercup knowing that he was referring to the babysitting shtick the Mayor (Miss Bellum) forced on them. Remembering that, the aforementioned counterparts glared at each other.
Mitch scowled, his black eyes narrowing at Butch. "You-"
The classroom door suddenly banged open, and the substitute teacher came barging in, dumping his stuff atop the teacher's desk.
"Quiet, all of you, and take your seats right now!" The substitute, as ancient and acerbic as the vice principal, shouted as he pulled back his chair and sat down. "Your teacher had an emergency and I was the only one free to watch you brats for today." He grumbled, adjusting his thick glasses as the students scrambled to do as he told.
Buttercup and Butch hesitated, still glaring at each other, and Mitch in turn was still glaring at Butch, which the old teacher noticed.
"You three, I said take your seats!"
Mitch scowled. "This isn't over..." He quickly spat at the green ruff, who unconcernedly shrugged off his words.
"Sit down right now before I give you detention!" The substitute teacher's face was starting to color in anger.
Mitch shot Butch one last warning glare before grudgingly going to the only free seat left, all the way at the back of the classroom.
Two pairs of green eyes forcibly smothered their angry glow as the two black-haired counterparts reluctantly sat down and faced the front of the classroom, where the glaring teacher stood, scowling at them.
Buttercup shot a discreet look at the clock hanging above the short old fart of a substitute teacher and swallowed back a groan. A few hours passed, the rest of her fucked-up lifetime to go.
Ugh, where was a Powerpuff emergency*2 when you needed one...
Bubbles had steeled herself and entered her second and favorite class, Art, fully intent on being prepared to be alone with her counterpart (she knew Blossom and Buttercup didn't take this class and she highly doubted Brick and Butch would), only to find out that Boomer also wasn't taking that particular class. Nor the class scheduled after that, which was Music.
And here she thought classes were scheduled to match per counterpart pair...
She didn't know whether to feel relieved or disappointed.
Bubbles' third class ended earlier than expected and the blonde made her way over to the lockers hallway and realized that she wasn't exactly as prepared as she thought she was.
There, standing a short distance in front of her and busy organizing a few things inside his locker (which was right beside her own!), was her counterpart.
She immediately noticed that he was taller than her now, which made her pout. It seemed that everyone was taller than her, even when she wore high heels! When faced with her or her sisters, but mostly her, Bubbles noticed that the blue ruff would close up, and she realized this was his poker face. Though to unobservant eyes, it would look like Boomer's typical sunny smile remained unchanged. His smile seemed to never fail to attract star-struck stares and second and third glances from girls, especially his rapidly growing base of fangirls, which consisted of about a third of the school's female student population. He and his brothers were rapidly becoming the top three heartthrobs of Pokey Oaks High, Bubbles saw with no amount of surprise.
Boomer had golden blond hair that looked softer than feathers, and for a moment, Bubbles was tempted to run her hands through those cottony sunlight locks. His bangs were parted at the center, revealing his mesmerizing deep ocean blue eyes, which were often closed. His clothes were rather simple and casual, but they suited him. He wore blue jeans with a short-sleeved blue shirt that was left unbuttoned over a white long-sleeved one. Boomer was downright dreamy, and all the equally, if not even more, blushing girls passing by the lockers hallway attested to that fact.
Bubbles' lips thinned.
Truthfully, Bubbles felt luckier than her two sisters at first.
She was the only one out of the three of them who wasn't seated anywhere near their respective counterpart during their first class. Honestly, she felt sorry for Blossom. At least Buttercup had the silver lining of the fact that she couldn't see Butch when he sat behind her (even though hearing his snores more than made up for the lack of sight).
Even though she told Buttercup that they should give the Rowdyruff Boys the benefit of the doubt, even backed up by their 'eldest' sister, who also told them to be cautious, she still couldn't help feeling hesitant. Oh, she knew that she should be 'watching' her counterpart. She should've started 'watching' him at the start of their first class with all six of them together, but...
Out of the three Rowdyruff Boys, everyone thought that Boomer was the gullible one, now and especially when they were young. Even her sisters thought that her counterpart was the most naive of the three brothers, easy Boomer who wore his heart on his sleeve, with the red ruff being the most unreadable and closed-off.
Bubbles knew better.
Blossom was the best at sensing how others thought, but Bubbles was the best at sensing how others felt. She had always been a people person, and years of observation and experience helped her master how to recognize face and body expressions. Conscious and unconscious, obvious and subtle, real and fake. Bubbles could tell what others around her were feeling, herself and her sisters and their counterparts were no exception.
Her counterpart, however, was.
The aloof Brick was the same young red ruff, prideful and quick to temper, just with near-perfect self-control and now actually thought (and thought further) before taking action. He was like Blossom actually.
Bubbles could tell Brick and Butch's emotions. Despite the red ruff's disdainful distance and the green ruff's devil-may-care attitude, anger and hatred were the obvious surface expressions, especially when in the Powerpuff Girls' company. She doesn't dare to dive deeper though, her sister's counterparts were already scary enough without taking into account their inner emotional turmoil.
The always smiling Boomer, with his sunny and honest face, was the blue ruff's poker face. It was his mask, Bubbles quickly realized, as Boomer's eyes always felt blank and empty. Unnervingly lacking whenever she tried to sense his emotions, no matter how deep Bubbles tried to study him. Not that she had ample time to anyway.
Everyone felt something at any and every moment in time. The blue ruff didn't.
Truly emotionless, it was like he had none at all...
Like he didn't exist.
And taking into account that emotions were connected to the psyche... Boomer was unnerving.
"Things do not change; we change."
- Henry David Thoreau
II. Right Beside
(or the one time Tuesday sucked more than Monday)
Author End Notes
*1: Buttercup and Bubbles can tell how stressed Blossom is by how strong, potent and poisonous her coffee is. Buttercup dislikes coffee, especially Blossom's type of "darker and more bitter than hell" coffee. Yes, the "black-as-her-soul" part implies that Buttercup's (and Bubbles') scared of Blossom('s wrath).
*2: Powerpuff emergency – monster attacks, disturbances by villains such as Mojo Jojo, natural disasters, opening pickle jars for the Mayor, etc...
Tension and sparks of both anger and attraction start flying between counterparts...
Part of the reason why Buttercup hates Butch more than her sisters hate their own counterparts is because Butch confuses Buttercup as hell, especially on whether the green ruff wants to fight her or not. Butch's being intentionally provoking and yet won't pull the first punch. It's irritating as fuck for the green puff, who doesn't have as much self-control as her sisters do.
To clarify, Boomer just looks and acts sunny and always smiling, he doesn't necessarily feel sunny and always smiling.
Both Blossom and Bubbles know how to read body language, but unlike Blossom, who learned how to by deliberately studying, Bubbles did so through sheer experience and talent. All three Powerpuff Girls are incredibly intelligent, just at different specialties. Blossom is obvious. Buttercup is a prodigy at strength and how to move her body to excel in sports and actions. Bubbles is in people and animals. Her expertise in reading people (in regards to their emotions) has reached the point of her being practically an empath, but it's not one of her abilities. She's just that good at reading people. In fact, I have a different ability planned for her...
Pokey Oaks Kindergarten and Pokey Oaks High are two different schools in Townsville situated far away from each other. Miss Keane is strictly a kindergarten teacher and remains at Pokey Oaks Kindergarten, though the Powerpuff Girls do visit her from time to time, especially since the girls view her and Miss Bellum as female role models and the closest they have to mother figures.
Ugh, I give up on their characterizations. I'm having way too much fun playing with their characters. Also, I'm barely holding myself back from rushing the story, if I wasn't already. I can't wait until they're all officially together. Or at least friends.
Yes, I like to describe what they wear. It adds to the story word count. (Plus, sometimes it's plot-relevant.)