Jimmy pulled into Retroville High's parking lot in his normal space. He switched his phone over to vibrate before pulling his duffel bag from the back seat of his Escalade. He hopped out of the front seat and shut the door behind him. The crisp morning air hit his face,causing him to shiver a little, and it probably didn't help that he had ball shorts on. He stood in the parking lot in a pair of Adidas red and black shorts, with a black D-Rose hoodie, and a pair of red and black ball shoes. His once swooped hair down now resembled that of Sheens, and his recent grow spurt put him at around 6'3. He popped in his headphones and headed into school.
Cindy stood at her locker, grabbing a few books she needed for class before the first bell rang. She had on dark blue skinny jeans, a light orange off the shoulder shirt, and white flats. She had a recent growth spurt as well, but nothing to make her height compete with Jimmy's. She stood at around 5'11. She had her hair in a long ponytail that hung over her shoulder. She grabbed the last of her books and closed her locker door to see Jimmy walking down the hall. He had his headphones in and was busy with something on his phone. She smirked before walking past him and bumping him forcefully. He shot her a look and she just smirked before swaying her way to class. He rolled his eyes and made his way to his first class.
His first class happened to be homeroom, with Sheen and Carl. He walked in and took his normal seat next to his friends, where Sheen and going on to Carl about a new video game he had bought. When he too his seat, Sheen glanced over from his conversation. "Welllllll, if it isn't Mr. Basketball" he said with a sly smile. Jimmy rolled his eyes and removed his headphones. "Yeah right, I checked the polls on my way here, i'm still in 3rd place" Jimmy explained disappointed. Carl gave him a smile and patted him on the back, "Its okay Jim, you still have a lot of games left in the season. If anyone can win Mr. Basketball, it's you." Jimmy smiled bleakly at his best friends. It was just weird going from being #1 in the classroom to being #3 on the hardwood.
Cindy sat in her homeroom with Libby, mindlessly chattering away. "So how far away is the boys next away game again" Libby whined. Cindy laughed a little, "It's close to 4 hours I believe." Libby rolled her eyes and put her head down on the desk, "The life of a cheerleader" she murmured. Cindy laughed before scrolling through the web page on her phone looking for new practice shirts.
The beginning of the school day didn't last long before it was lunch time. Jimmy walked into the cafeteria with his duffel bag, spotting his table with Sheen and Carl already present. He tossed his duffel bag onto the table and fished around inside his bag. He pulled out two containers, one filled with pasta while the other was salad filled. "How do you just fill up on that" Carl asked curiously, still a little on the hefty side but no where near his 4th grade self. Jimmy just shrugged, he didn't even know himself, but it was better than lunch food. Before he could answer, Libby and Cindy joined the group.
"Hey babe" Sheen greeted, giving Libby a small peck. "Jimmy, please tell me Cindy was joking about the distance to the next away game" Libby whined. Jimmy smirked and shook his head, "If she said 4 hours, she wasn't lying" he said before taking a bite of his pasta. Libby leaned her head on Sheens shoulder and sighed. "So hows it feel Jimmy" Cindy questioned without looking up from her food. Jimmy raised an eyebrow at her, "Hows what feel?" She smirked before swallowing her food. "Not being the best at something." She could feel the eye rolls around the table at her comment, but it didn't bother her one bit. But Jimmy didn't even blink at it. "Probably no where near as bad as being #6 in the Miss Basketball polls" he retorted, without an emotion evident in his voice. That didn't sit too well with Cindy.
"I can't help that I was injured at the beginning of the season and had to sit out a few games" she fired back, raising her voice a little. But she only made herself more angry when Jimmy just smirked and continued eating. At this point in time, Cindy knew both Jimmy and herself had feelings for one another, both too hardheaded and prideful to admit it to each other. So if she couldn't win verbally, she had a secret weapon that just walked into the cafeteria. She excused herself loudly and made her way across the room, Jimmys eyes following her the entire time. She finally stopped when she met what she was aiming for, Nick Dean. Jimmy's fists tightened up at the sight of him. They both came back to the table, and Cindy grabbed her duffel bag. "So I thought maybe we could go to the gym, have a little one-on-one time" Nick said smoothly to Cindy. She gave Jimmy a quick glance and nodded her head, "Sure lets go" she cooed.
When they had disappeared out of sight, Jimmy closed his containers up. He couldn't eat after witnessing that. Libby rolled her eyes and shook her head at him, "Would you please just tell her already." Jimmy just looked up at her, "No idea what you're talking about" she spoke quietly. Sheen and Carl matched Libbys eye roll. "Look guys, if Cindy really had any interest in me, she would've said something by now. Besides, you saw what I just saw" he explained with a small amount of attitude. Libby rubbed her temples out of frustration. "You guys have been at this for 6 years now, everyone sees it, and everyone knows it. So why oh why, can't you two hard heads just admit your feelings and be done with it" Libby blurted out. Jimmy didn't even give her a response, "I'll see you guys after school" and on that note, he left.
The rest of the day went as usual, Jimmy avoided contact with Cindy at all costs. After school he had an hour of basketball practice where he was forced to have contact with Nick. He did get some anger worked out though, they ran a scrimmage and Jimmy gave a Nick a cross over that landed him flat on his face. Jimmy had a smirk all the way to the basket. Eventually 4:30 rolled around and everyone started packing up their things. Jimmys head coach and Cindys dad, Steve Vortex, took a seat next to Jimmy while he was changing his shoes.
"Everything alright with you and Dean" he asked nonchalantly. Jimmy removed his right ankle brace and tossed it into his bag. "Why do you ask" Jimmy asked trying to hide the sarcasm. Steve chuckled a little, "Crossing some over is one of the greatest feelings in basketball, but that smirk you had wasn't one of accomplishment but more of vengeance" Steve said crossing his arms. Jimmy stopped tying his shoes and sighed. "It's complicated. Trust me, there will be no issue on the court. Just something that needed to be done in practice to keep things running smoothly. I know you love 'team chemistry' so much" Jimmy joked using air quotes and bumping his coach. Steve shook his head and put his hand on Jimmys shoulder. "As long as things run smoothly, I don't have a problem. But if you need to talk about anything or just wanna get something off your chest, you know where my office is" Steve said getting up and walking into his office.
Jimmy continued lacing back up his shoes when he heard another set of footsteps in the gym. He looked up to see a petite blonde walking across the court towards Steve's office. He almost had her avoided all day long. He sighed and hoped she just kept walking, he didn't need her heckling him right now. But sure enough her voice echoed through the gym, "always the last to leave huh Neutron." He didn't give her a glance or a retort, he just picked up his bag and headed towards the gym door. He stopped when he felt a small hand on his shoulder.
"What" he asked coldly looking over his shoulder. She removed her hand and breathed out through her nose loudly. "What crawled up your ass" she asked angered. He turned and faced her furiously. "Whats it matter to you? Shouldn't you be giving Nick a post-practice one-on-one massage" he asked harshly, not 4 inches from her face. Her eyebrows crinkled up. She tried to keep her cool. "I hope you're not implying what I think you're implying" she said calmly through gritted teeth. He didn't give her a joking tone, "I call what I see Vortex, and today in the cafeteria said it all." Before she could even bark at him, he turned on heel and walked out of the gym. She picked up a nearby basketball and threw it with all her strength into the wall. After it bounced to a slow roll, someone cleared their voice. She turned to see her dad leaning against a wall. Her face immediately flushed red.
"So, you're whats causing a fluster in my star player" he spoke up. Cindy rubbed her arm awkwardly, not looking at her father. He cleared the gap between them, and put an arm around her shoulder. "Cin, I've watched you and Jimmy grow up together, fight tooth and nail, and drive each other to insanity. But its obvious what's going on, even an old man like me can see it." Cindy pushed herself off her dad and shook her head, "Dad can we PLEASE not talk about this" she pleaded embarrassed. He chuckled and nodded. "I'm almost done with my game plans for next week, shoot around for a bit until i'm done and we'll head home." She agreed and began some shooting drills. She looked at the spalding basketball in her hands, her therapy away from her crazy life.