Chapter 3

Blossom's Point of View

I didn't care about the looks that I had gotten.

Or the looks that I continued to get when I left school for work.

That morning, after the fight with The Rowdyruff Boys, I woke up feeling an intense sensation of smug satisfaction. I had beaten him, and I had done it all by myself and the best part was that he had been so overconfident that he hadn't even seen it coming. It was because of his error in judgment that I was able to swipe the hat right off of his fat head, and when I woke up, I decided that I was going to do what Brick would do in my position. I was going to flaunt my trophy with unbridled pride. I didn't care how absurd I looked to them, or how utterly unfashionable my blouse and skirt were with a backwards red cap. I walked around with Brick's hat on my head all day, people were so stunned that they didn't even tell me to take it off.

My only regret was that I wasn't going to be able to see Brick's initial reaction to how I had commandeered his most favorite, and to my knowledge, only hat.

In the middle of my AP Government class, I briefly toyed with the idea of offering my share of the past month's royalties on all Powerpuff Girl Merchandising to Boomer and Butch, just so they could record Brick's reaction. If I wasn't completely sure that the idiots wouldn't do it - I might have actually made them that offer.

Reaching into my purse and fishing out my car keys, I took a deep breath in and continued my walk through City Hall's parking lot. No one had given me any problems at work, and Miss Bellum even smiled at the hat. I probably wouldn't be able to pull this act off tomorrow, but the memories of the reactions would be enough to sustain me for a lifetime. I would mock Brick about this for the rest of our lives – and if he didn't like it, I would do it some more, and again, and again.

Brick had a special talent to make me petty and low.

He was the only one, and I repeat, the only one that had ever driven me crazy.

When I neared my designated parking space, I pressed the unlock button on the keypad – I was looking forward to going home and crawling into bed. The Rowdyruff Boy's stunt yesterday had screwed up my schedule pretty good, and it had forced me to give extra to both school and work to catch up. Life would probably be easier if I was Bubbles or Buttercup, only having to worry about school and whatnot, but I wasn't like that – I had ambition, and socializing got in the way.

Looking up from the pavement as I heard a deep laugh coming from the vicinity of my car, I did a double take when I saw a man sitting on top of the hood. When it finally sunk in that the dark haired, green eyed man was Butch – I readied myself for a fight. I'd never let him know, but I was also readying myself for injuries.

Buttercup was the only one of us who could fight to his level and not get hurt.

"Relax pinky, I'm not here to fight," Butch held his hands up in surrender and leaned back against my hair. It would probably take a little more force to damage the car, but that didn't stop me from wanting him to get off of it. I would make sure that he suffered if he damaged my car. "I'm just here to talk, so please, unclench."

I lowered the fighting posture that I had taken, very slowly, and narrowed my eyes on the most violent of The Rowdyruff Boys. Butch was just as handsome as any of his brothers, some would say pretty even, just like his brothers, but underneath those eyes – there lurked the mind of a brute. "What are you here to talk about?"

He was a brute that I did not like being alone with.

"I see that you're wearing Brick's hat?" Butch's eyes drifted up to my head.

I nodded and Butch threw his head back in another bark of laughter, "Excellent."

"Excuse me?" I raised an eyebrow in confusion, he seemed happy?

I did not like happy Rowdyruff Boys – not at all.

"I have to hand it to you Blossom, you choose the one thing that would probably piss him off more than anything else," Butch seemed genuinely amused as he slid his legs off the side of my car and hopped down onto the pavement. "And you're wearing it too! That's just going to be an extra kick in the balls for him! I love it!"

I put my hands on my hips, "I do try."

"I know you do, and that's why I'm giving you this courtesy," Butch's voice quieted down slightly as he got closer to me. "Now, as far as Boomer and Brick are concerned, I'm out robbing a liquor store – and if they ask, which they won't, but if they do, that was what I was out doing tonight. Do we have an agreement?"

This was all so confusing.

Setting aside the shock that I was feeling over the fact that Butch had become eloquent in his old age, I began to mentally calculate the odds that this was a trap of theirs. There was the possibility that Brick had ordered his brother to do this, but there was also the possibility that Butch was doing this on his own. Under either circumstance, I did not know what to do – so I just stood there, gaping at him.

I know I looked stupid, standing there at eight o'clock at night, hair whipping gently against my face, jaw dropped. I only actually stopped when I realized that I was acting like this in front of Butch, "Agreed, but if this is some sort of trick, I swe-…"

"Believe me, I know the risk that I'm taking," Butch shook his head in exasperation and then folded his arms over his chest. As soon quickly as his moment of seriousness came, it ended when Butch plastered a lecherous grin on his face and took a moment to survey my body. "Speaking of which, Blossom, you are hot."

I rolled my eyes, "Is that the big secret that you're trying to tell me?"

"That you're hot? No, everyone with eyes sees that," Butch grinned.

"Get to the point," I sighed in irritation. "I'm hungry, and thanks to you and your idiot brothers, I am very sore and very tired. Unless you want me to murder you, you had better say what you came to say, or get away from me very quickly."

Butch grinned slightly and nodded, before looking down to the pavement and kicking it slightly with the heel of his shoe, "Alright, I just wanted to let you know that Brick is very angry with you pinky. He's been plotting a way to get back at you, and get his hat back, from the moment we got back home. I'm doing this because I want to see Brick taken down a peg, so please watch your back Blossom."

And before I could even begin to think of a suitable retort, Butch took off.

As I watched the streak of green light fade away, I looked back down to the pavement and scowled.

Of all of things that I had expected to come from a Rowdyruff Boy…

That had not been it.

Brick's Point of View

I could not believe that I was doing this.

It was beneath me.

I always feared that if I took this step and actually agreed to it, then I would be no better than Blossom. Several years ago, the thought would have made me sick, and if someone, namely Butch, would have compared me to her, it would have earned them a punch in the fucking jaw. We were made to be polar opposites of them in just about every way, and somehow the thought of being like her was included too.

Things had changed.

I had changed.

I would never admit it out of the safety of my own inner thoughts, but I was taking this step for more than just revenge. Sure, it was a big part of it - I wanted to make her squirm with complete and total paranoia. The little bitch had stolen my hat and she had the nerve to be so... so damn smug about it, it was so... Blossom.

I knew this would work and frankly, I would enjoy every moment of it.

In a way, we had virtually identical minds - and I knew that seeing me walk into her classroom, books in hand, would drive her over the edge. When I would sit next to her, open my book - and be a good boy, she would lose her mind with paranoia.

It was perfect.

Signing my name to the bottom of the form, capping my pen and setting the form that would allow me late entry to Pokey Oaks High School, I tapped the pen against the surface of my desk and grinned. This was going to be an interesting experience.

Barring the reaction from Boomer and Butch, which I knew would not be good, I was fairly excited. Not just for the pleasure of seeing Blossom twitch in paranoia.

I... wanted to learn this stuff.

I would be a good boy at school.

I wouldn't so much as swat at fly if it got into my face.

By the end of the school year in the summer of next year, I would be Valedictorian, I would take all of the scholarships and I would take everything away from Blossom. This was revenge, not some half-assed fist fight, this was real revenge.

Nothing could take the smile off of my face tonight.

Blossom's Point of View

"You're not going to guess who I saw come into the Vice Principal's office this morning," Robin said and I rolled my eyes, before putting my pen down and giving her a patient look. She had been my study partner since Freshman year, and though most of the time she was on task, there were times when I wanted to hit her on the head. "Oh don't give me that look, you know you want to know him."

That wasn't entirely untrue.

I did want to know.

"Him?" I raised a single eyebrow.

Why did I have a bad feeling about that?

"Brick Jojo," And for some incomprehensible reason, Robin seemed pleased by this development. She seemed to be completely forgetting the fact that wherever he went, trouble followed and it would be the same for the school and it's students.

But I had forgotten, Brick was pretty.

And Robin was a normal teenage girl.

She had no conception of what I suspected was about to happen, or the danger that everything was now under. She had no conception of what kind of pressure this was going to be me and my sisters under, with more emphasis on me. If she knew that school administration, which she didn't, then she would have realized that they were more than likely going to force me to keep an eye on him all day.

"Get out," I commanded.

I wasn't angry with Robin, not at all – in fact, I could easily say that I was grateful that she had told me that this was going to happen. The odds of my reaction being any better of just seeing Brick turn up at school would have probably been far worse and far more dangerous. In my anger, and probably in a brash, knee-jerk reaction – I would attack him, destroy half of the school, injure, or perhaps kill dozens. No, Robin was right in telling me and I would make it a point apologize to her later on. It was after I reconciled the fact that Brick would, most likely, be joining me at school. If I was going to counter him, I did need to think about this.

If I did not start thinking this out rationally, I would do something irrational.

And that would lead to my undoing.

"What's wrong Blossom?" I looked up from my notebook to find Bubbles standing in the doorway – an obviously concerned look on her face. "Robin just left suddenly."

"Get Buttercup up here, I have something to tell the both of you," I ordered her.

Bubbles nodded and turned on her heels to the leave the doorway, and left me to deal with my own thoughts.

When did things get so mucked up?

Years ago, I would been so close to my sisters that it would have been painful, I would have been able to share everything with them. Nowadays, the only talking that we seemed to do with each other was when we were out saving the city. I couldn't even tell them about the physiological war that I was now in with Brick.

I suppose that I could, really.

When the both of them got up here, it would be a perfect time to tell them that Brick was going to be attending our school, and probably for the sole purpose of annoying me. That could give us something to bond over, something to repair our relationship to make it look like something that it once did, a long time ago.

Though that hope quickly faded when reality set in.

Bubbles, Buttercup and I were three different people now, we were not just The Powerpuff Girls anymore. The odds of us going to back to that dynamic within our relationship was extremely low. This move by Brick, and possibly his brothers, might bring us closer again, but for all intents and purposes, that was in the past.

"What is it Your Highness?!" Buttercup spat off sarcastically as she and Bubbles came into my room only a few minutes later. It was Buttercup's attitude that made the idea of reconciliation a long shot and it made it incredibly unlikely to happen.

Waiting until Bubbles came to sit down on my bed, and watching as Buttercup leaned up against the wall, I looked down to my notebook to decide on an approach and only opened my mouth when I found an approach, "You two know that Robin got assigned to work as the Office Assistant this semester? You did know that?"

Buttercup rolled her eyes and nodded, "Yes."

I glowered menacingly, not in the mood to tolerate her abrasive attitude, especially in the face of Brick's actions, "Well, today she saw Brick leaving the Vice Principal's office – who is in charge of admissions. She didn't say anything about it, but I'm fairly sure that Brick was picking up admission forms, so I just wanted to let you-…"

"Are you saying that they're coming to our school?" That got Buttercup's attention better than any thread that I could level against her. I understood why it did of course, it was the same reason that I was, but it was still deeply insulting to me.

I shrugged, but nodded nevertheless, "She didn't know, but why else would he show up to our school? Why else would he show up and now want to cause havoc? That's the only logical conclusion that I can think of – do you two have any ideas?"

"What about the other two?" Buttercup's voice was less abrasive and hostile, which meant that she did understand why she had been called up to my room – but was no less still annoyed by it. I hoped that she was not going to make an ass out of herself when Brick, and quite possibly, his brothers, turned up at school tomorrow.

I shook my head, "I don't know – it was just Brick that showed up."

"If he does show up, what do you want to do?" When Bubbles's voice sounded for the first time, I did everything I could to hide my double take and turn to look at her. The normally bubbly, and perky Bubbles shut in on herself whenever the conversation turned to The Rowdyruff Boys, for the incredibly obvious reasons.

"Provided he's the only one that shows up, they're probably going to make him my responsibility to manage," I answered her quietly, and then forced a smile onto my face. "Of course, there is the possibility that all three of them show up tomorrow."

"And they're going to force us all to watch after them," Buttercup concluded.

"You better believe it," I concluded grimly.

God help Butch if he decided to come to school with his brother, she was not going to tolerate him there. There was the good possibility that Bubbles wouldn't either and I wasn't looking forward to seeing that at all. They both viewed school as their escape from thatlife – and if those two intruded on it, the results wouldn't be good.

They had worked hard to separate themselves as superhero's from the rest of our classmates, and if those two came to our school, they would not be able to stay that way. They would need to be on their guard to protect themselves from those boys, and stop whatever they tried to do when they were attending our school.

They'd have to get over it though.

Then again, I could handle Brick.

I would handle Brick and his half-assed maneuvering, with or without the girls.