Hm...it's been a while, hasn't it? My apologies.

So it seems this is going to be majorly a reds story. I feel it's always easier to focus on one pairing. If any of you have read my story "The Life Project" (which is a Harry Potter fic) a lot of people requested a sequel in which I would talk about the side character's love lives and let me just say, that story was an utter mess.

Let's continue. :)

...

Fortunately, it seemed that the Rowdyruff Boys did have some respect for their elders. Butch kept quiet during the lecture, but did occasionally lean back in an obnoxious stretch that knocked things off of Blossom's desk and seriously distracted her from her note taking. That was awful enough. Probably worse than if he'd been making some sort of huge commotion in the middle of class.

When pre-calculus over, Blossom shoved everything in her bag and was out of the room before she could be hindered. She examined her schedule to find her mandatory art class was up next, and she turned into the stuffy back hallway, searching in all of the little alcoves and doorways for room 178. She stopped to ask a teacher and, after being pointed in the correct direction, she quickly made her way to the proper room and took her assigned seat.

The teacher had given his lecture and the students were all starting their preliminary sketches in pre-purchased sketchbooks by the time Blossom had the chance to realize who exactly was in her class.

"Mr. Gardener, I don't have a sketchbook," she said, raising her hand.

Mr. Gardener, the art teacher, flashed her a quick smile. "That's alright. I'll go find one for you. You'll owe me seven dollars for it."

"That's fine," she replied.

He left the room, then, and Blossom sat for a few moments, awkwardly looking at the clock and then all of the paintings and sculptures around the room before she reached into her bag and fished out a book so she could read while she waited.

"Hey, you can borrow a piece of my paper while you wait."

Blossom sighed. "Can I ever get away from you three?" she muttered.

"I was just trying to be friendly," Boomer replied casually with non-chalant a shrug. "If you don't want the paper, you could have just said so."

Blossom sighed. She knew Boomer was different than the other two, and she should have respected that. Even though she hated all three of them, including Blondie, equally.

"No, I'm sorry," she said through gritted teeth. "I'm being stupid. May I have a piece of your paper?"

"'Course," Boomer replied, handing her a piece.

She sat looking around at everyone else for inspiration. It appeared they were all using charcoal sticks. Of which she had none.

"There's charcoal in those cupboards back there," Boomer said. "Here, take mine. I'll go get a new piece. They work better when they've already been used a bit, anyway."

Blossom smiled kindly. "That's very nice of you. Thanks."

Next, she noticed everyone else had a prop that they seemed to be sketching. She sighed, realizing she, again, was not adequately prepared, and would be needing Boomer's help once more.

He came back to his seat, which just so happened to be at the table behind her, though facing away from her, and he began on his sketch once again. He was sketching a clock with a floral design on the face. His sketch looked better than the clock did in real life.

Blossom unclasped her necklace from around her neck and set it in front of her on the table to begin sketching.

She tilted her head after a bit of drawing. Kind of looked similar to some sort of wingéd bear. She glanced over her shoulder again to see that Boomer had finished his clock and was now drawing the figure of a girl. Was that...Bubbles?

She shook her head. Couldn't be.

The teacher finally returned with her sketchbook and she handed him seven dollars. She hid her sketch in the book so no one could accidentally look at it while the teacher played a video of the properties of shadows and their effect on realistic imagery.

Blossom managed through her next class to not run into a single Rowdyruff boy. At lunch she sat with her sisters and a few friends from middle school.

"Are you going to be able to cheer, Blossom?" asked Suzy. "Is your wrist okay?"

Blossom nodded. "Of course! I'm fine now. Besides, I have recovery time until Friday. I'll just take it easy at the practices."

"What about volleyball tryouts?" asked Violet. "Are you going to be okay for that?"

Blossom shrugged. "I should be perfectly fine. No worries."

They all seemed rather concerned.

"Listen, guys, I'm okay," she said. "You know that I get better really quickly. What gives?"

"Well..." said Amber. "Brick told us he went to visit you in the hospital, and..."

"And you listened to him?" Blossom exclaimed. "What did he say?"

"He just said that you didn't look like you were doing very good," defended Suzy. "He said that he saw everything happen and he's never seen a worse injury in his life."

"It was pretty bad, but I'm completely fine," she said. "Why would you listen to him, anyway?"

They all shrugged and the conversation petered out.

Blossom caught a shock of flame red hair covered by a baseball cap in the corner of her eye pass by the tree she was seated beneath and she stood up, dumping the homework she'd been working on into her bag.

"I've got to go, guys. I have to talk to someone."

She stormed away from them, leaving the group of girls discussing some boy or another that Blossom had little interest in. All she got was that his name was Shane.

"Hey!" Blossom exclaimed when she was within earshot of her target. "Brick! Hey!"

He turned around with a start.

"Oh!" he exclaimed before smirking. "Hey, Red. I see you're all better."

"Yeah, as opposed to what you told all of my friends," she said, sticking out her hip and crossing her arms in front of her chest. "You realize telling them that I was in bad shape could have gotten me kicked off the cheer squad. Or prevented me from trying out for volleyball."

Brick shrugged. "I was worried about you. You didn't look good. Didn't want you to push yourself."

"Wait," Blossom said, holding up a hand. "Did you tell them to try and keep me from cheering and tryouts?"

"Like I said," Brick said with another shrug. "I was worried about you."

"Well, don't be," she snapped. "Just stop caring about me all of a sudden. I don't need you ruining my Freshman year of high school, alright?"

He held up his hands defensively. "Fine. You got me. I'll leave you alone."

Brick turned on his heel and headed away from her. Maybe her snapping at him would make him stop pining after her in secret. Maybe he could let her go before he did something stupid.

He had convinced himself that he was over her until he ended up sitting right behind her in Chemistry class and he could smell her shampoo practically feel her warmth.

Yeah, he wasn't getting over her anytime soon.

He was snapped out of his reverie by the sound of an alarm coming from the corner of the room. There were telephones in all of the classrooms where a Powerpuff Girl had class so if something was awry in Townsville, they'd know right away.

Blossom shot to the other side of the room like lightening and put the phone to her ear at the same time the girls did in the other rooms.

"Hello? Mayor?"

They could slightly hear his panicked voice from the other end, and Blossom turned to Brick, eyes wide and filled with horror.

"I'm on it," she said, dropping the phone on the receiver.
"Mr. Baxter, I'm going to have to take Brick with me, if that's alright with you," she said. "We have a bit of a common enemy that he needs to help us conquer."

Mr. Baxter nodded. "Whatever needs to be done. Keep us safe, Miss Utonium."

She nodded firmly and the two shot out of the window installed on the ceiling for this very reason.

"The guy who hurt your arm?" Brick asked.

Blossom nodded.

The other girls caught up with them, followed by Boomer and Butch.
"We saw you fly past the window," said Boomer. "Thought we'd join in on the fun."

Hopefully that's what this would be - fun. Hopefully no one would lose a limb this time.