It was another normal day in Retroville. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and Jimmy and Cindy were arguing. Everything was as it should be. At least, that is, until after school in the park.
Jimmy, Sheen, and Carl were throwing a baseball, playing a sort of three-way catch, when something caught Sheen's eye. He looked up just as Jimmy hurled the ball toward him. It, of course, plowed his unprotected head.
Jimmy and Carl rushed to their friend's side as he hit the ground. He just lay there like it was his "in between Ultra Lord Marathons Sleep Time."
"Oh, my gosh! Oh, my gosh! Jimmy, what are we going to do? Sheen's DEAD! He's DEAD! Oh my gosh!"
"Carl, calm down! Sheen's not dead. He's just unconscious! I'm going to go to the lab and call the paramedics. You stay here and make sure NOONE touches him, ok?"
"You can count on me, Jim!"
Carl plopped down on the ground beside his friend. Almost immediately after Jimmy left, Sheen aroused.
"Uhh...where am I? Who are you?" he blinked continually, trying to focus, "Who am I?"
"Oh, no! What am I going to do?" Carl thought for a moment before getting what Jimmy would call a "Bad beyond reason" idea.
But it was Sheen's only hope.
"Stay right here, ok?" Carl told the confused Sheen.
"Ok."
Carl ran as fast as his pudgy legs could take him over to where Cindy and Libby were talking on the swings.
"Cindy...I..." he said, panting between each word, "Need your help. Sheen got...hurt and..."
"Sheen got hurt?" Libby asked, suddenly stopping her swing abruptly.
"Yeah, so? Why don't you get Nerdtron to help Ultra Freak? We're busy! Right Libs?"
But Libby was busy listening to Carl.
"Jimmy went to call the doctors! Sheen's in BIG trouble!"
"Come on, Cindy! Let's go!" Libby said, stopping Cindy's swing.
"Um...give me one good reason why I should help Ultra Loser over there?"
Libby whispered something in Cindy's ear and Cindy went pale.
"Let's go!" she said.
Carl led the way to where he'd left Sheen sitting. Sheen was still there, looking curiously around.
"Hey! I remember you! You left me sitting here on this hard stuff," he started pointing to Carl, and then to the ground, "Who are they?"
He actually seemed kind of frightened of Cindy and Libby. But he continued picking at the grass.
"Ok...Carl what happened?" Cindy asked, watching the normally weird boy confusingly playing with the grass.
Carl explained about the baseball and Sheen being unconscious. He saw Libby go pale but didn't say anything about it.
"He's got amnesia," Cindy said, calmly, like people at the park got amnesia everyday.
"Oh, no! Get me away! I don't want to catch it!" Carl said, hiding behind Cindy.
"No Carl! You can't catch amnesia! It's a loss of memory. I read a book on it once. You have to introduce said patient to familiar surroundings and faces to help the chances of his memory gain," Cindy quoted.
"Hey! Let's take Sheen to the Candy Bar! That should be familiar enough!" Libby suggested taking his hand and pulling him off the ground.
He just stared at her with blank eyes, but smiled and followed her.
"Where are we going?" Sheen asked, suddenly pulling back after he realized they were leaving his "hard stuff."
"To the Candy Bar to get something to eat, Goof Ball!" Cindy said, rolling her emerald eyes.
"Is that who I am?" Sheen asked Libby, completely baffled.
"No! Cindy's just kidding," Libby shot Cindy a warning glance before continuing, "Your name is Sheen and I'm Libby and that's Carl."
"I like you!" he hesitated, glancing at Cindy, "Her I don't know about."
"He's getting his memory back! He never liked Cindy!" Carl exclaimed. Cindy smacked him on the head.
"No Carl. I think he's just getting used to his surroundings," Libby said, sighing.
Libby, Sheen, Carl, and Cindy walked into the Candy Bar and sat down.
"Hello kids. What can I get you to eat...yeah!" Sam asked.
"Four hot fudge sundaes, please," Libby said.
"What's a hot fudge sundae?" Sheen asked.
"It's an ice cream. You eat it and it tastes REALLY good," Carl answered in reply.
Sheen looked like he understood. That's when they heard the door to the Candy Bar open and Jimmy walked in, walking over to where the group was sitting.
"Carl! I told you not to move him! And what are Cindy and Libby doing here?"
"Well see the thing is Jimmy, Sheen woke up and..." Carl told Jimmy the entire story (including some extra things about llamas, of course!), and then took a deep breath.
"So Sheen has amnesia?" Jimmy asked when Carl finished.
"Yep," Libby said, watching as Sheen stuck his nose into his sundae, "No, Sheen, eat it like this!"
"COLD!" Sheen shouted loudly.
"He has no clue what's going on, Jim!" Carl added.
"So what else is new?" Cindy said, sarcastically.
"Cindy, this is no joke! He could be like this forever!" Jimmy said, watching Libby explain to his friend how to use a spoon, "Or it could wear off in a couple of hours, months, etc."
"So we have to help Ultra Freak get his memory back?" Cindy asked, sighing an angry sigh. She was about to protest, but caught Libby's glare and was silent.
"Yes, pretty much. But until he gets his memory back, we spend the weekend making sure he doesn't hurt himself. Come on. Let's go to the lab. I need to make some observations before I can figure out a solution."
And with that, the group was off again, this time to Jimmy's lab. However, as they were crossing the street, Sheen suddenly stopped and stared at the car that was heading right toward him!
"Sheen! Move!" Jimmy called.
However, Libby grabbed his hand again and pulled him away from the speeding car just in time.
"Ok, Sheen. When a car is heading toward you, you have to get out of the street or you'll get smashed to bits, ok?" Jimmy explained, taking a deep breath.
"Ok, Jeremy!"
"Close enough."
The rest of the way to the lab went ok. The group kept Sheen from killing himself and they all sat down in the lab for a breath while Sheen sat on the floor, examining it carefully.
Libby knelt down beside him, "What're you looking at?"
"It's a different color than the other hard stuff!" he said, kind of in a panic.
"It's ok. It's supposed to be that color."
"Oh, ok Libby," he said, smiling happily, but still looking at the floor.
They were in the lab for an hour at least. Jimmy and Cindy were studying Sheen's memory (which was now on Jimmy's computer because Jimmy brain scanned him) and Carl was playing a game on the other computer. Libby was still trying to make Sheen understand the world around him (which was hard because he barely understood it before!)
"No, Sheen. That's CINDY. Not Cookie," Libby said, giggling at Cindy's distraught face.
"Oh. Ok, Libby! And that's Carlene?"
"Close, but no. It's Carl."
"Oh, ok Libby."
"How come he remembers my name, Jimmy?" Libby asked.
"I haven't quite figured that out yet. All I can concur from this is that he's blocked out almost all his memory except for bigger things. It makes absolutely NO SENSE to me!" he exclaimed, rubbing his temples.
"Ok. You're Windy, right?"
"It's Cindy! CINDY!" Cindy said, getting very aggravated with the poor boy.
Sheen's face suddenly looked sad and tears lined his eyes, "SHE YELLED AT ME!"
"She didn't mean to! She's just upset. Right Cindy?" Libby asked.
"Sure, why not?" Cindy replied, rolling her eyes.
Sheen's face cleared but he still refused to talk to Cindy for the rest of the day.
When it was time to go home, Jimmy asked his mom could Carl and Sheen stay the night. She, of course, agreed.
"Ok, you two be here no later than seven! We have got to find an event in his life that was big enough to jog his memory and reenact it," Jimmy said, as Libby and Cindy left the lab.
"Where are they going, Jenny?" Sheen asked.
"It's Jimmy and they're going home. You can stay at my house tonight ok?"
"Ok. But I want Libby to stay, too, please."
"I can't stay, Sheen. I have to go home. But I'll be back tomorrow, ok?"
"Promise?"
"Promise."
This seemed to satisfy the boy and he went back to playing with his fingers and toes. Libby looked absolutely horrified when she left but walked to Cindy's where she was spending the night.
When Libby and Cindy were lying in Cindy's bed that night, Cindy asked the question that had been on her mind all day.
"Why do you care so much?"
"About what?" Libby asked, sleepily.
"Sheen. I don't know if you noticed or not, but you spent the last five hours trying to explain EVERYTHING in the world to him."
"Oh...well...he's hurt...and uhhh...I just want to make sure he gets his memory back...because....well...he just looked so....I don't know. I guess I felt sorry for him."
"Sure, Libby, sure! Whatever you say!"
"What? Are you saying that if Jimmy or Carl or anyone else would've gotten amnesia that I wouldn't be just as nice to them?"
"Uh huh!"
"Well, I would!"
"Sure you would, Libs. Goodnight."
"I WOULD!"
"Goodnight!"
Across the Street
"No, Sheen. You lie down and close your eyes and you'll go to sleep."
"I don't understand! Everything is so complicated!" Sheen said, covering his eyes with his hands.
"Well, maybe we should just stay awake. Come on. Let's go watch TV."
They sat down on Jimmy's sofa and watched TV until Sheen naturally fell asleep.
However, VERY early that morning, he started hitting them in the head.
"JAMIE! CARLOS! Wake up!"
The three boys walked upstairs to get dressed and after much complication from a still confused Sheen, walked downstairs just as Cindy and Libby knocked on the door.
"Well, we're here! AT SEVEN IN THE MORNING! Now what do we do, Nerdtron?"
"I thought his name was Jamie?" Sheen asked, looking at Cindy, then Jimmy.
"Well, actually it's Jimmy. But Cindy and Jimmy don't get along and they often call each other names. Understand, Sheen?" Libby asked.
"Yes, kind of."
They started toward where Sheen's first major life moment occurred: Lindbergh Kindergarten.
"So let me get this straight. They are my friends," Sheen said, pointing at Jimmy and Carl, "And you two don't like us?"
"Sort of. Yeah."
"So, why are you two helping me?" he asked.
"Well, I'm helping because my best friend is blackmailing me and Libby's helping because she l...."
Libby elbowed Cindy hard in the ribs and continued, "So I can say you owe me later!"
Cindy rolled her eyes but quickly stopped when she saw Jimmy eyeing her curiously.
When they got to Lindbergh Kindergarten, Cindy and Carl stopped dead in their tracks.
"Lindbergh Kindergarten," Carl breathed.
"It hasn't changed at all," Cindy said, smiling at the playground where she had experienced many a moment, "Hey Libs! Remember our first day of kindergarten?"
Libby smiled as she remembered walking to school with her best friend and playing happily on the monkey bars for hours on end.
"Did I go to school here, too?" Sheen asked.
"Yep! But two years before we did," Carl replied.
"Oh."
The kids walked over to the playground and began to look around.
"Anything look familiar, Sheen?" Cindy asked.
"Nope, sorry Sara."
Cindy started but saw the look on her best friend's face when he didn't remember and was quiet.
"Ok, what happened on his first day on his first day of kindergarten?" Cindy asked.
"Sheen's memory says that kindergarten was one of the worst years of his life! A bully tortured him endlessly! And it says that's why he got held back! Because he couldn't concentrate for the torture! But he never told anybody!"
"Wow, and I thought it was because he was dumb!" Cindy said, suddenly feeling kind of sorry for Sheen.
"Ok, so we definitely don't want to reenact kindergarten for him. It'll just make him more scared to grasp his memory. Let's go on to the first grade. It says that was VERY important to him."
Libby followed the group but her thoughts weren't on first grade. Her thoughts were on what life would've been like if that bully hadn't have tortured Sheen. She would've never met him! NEVER!
"Maybe reenacting Sheen's life isn't such a good idea," Libby thought, hoping first grade would bring better news.
They walked in silence to Lindbergh Elementary. But instead of going to the fifth grade hallways as usual, they sat on the corner and waited for Jimmy's information.
"You guys will never believe why this year is so important," he said, laughing.
"Why?" they all asked.
"Because this was the year he met all of us!" he said, still laughing.
Soon the others joined him, too. They remembered that day like it was yesterday instead of four years ago.
SHEEN'S FLASHBACK!
"Welcome Class to the first grade," the gang's teacher, Miss Kirkpatrick, started, "Now I'd like you all to stand up and introduce yourselves since some of us are NEW FACES!"
I propped back sadly in my desk after I introduced myself.
"Another year, another failure!" I sighed.
I hated being held back. Sure the first year it was because of Nikki Porter and his stupid bullying. But when I finally made it to the first grade, I still couldn't concentrate! It was like Nikki's torture just lingered.
I watched as my classmates introduced themselves. A boy that sat in front of me with a large head introduced himself as Jimmy and the rather chubby boy beside Jimmy introduced himself as Carl. They were obviously friends, because they talked continuously throughout class
Then this blonde headed, seemingly stuck-up girl next to Jimmy introduced herself as Cindy and properly sat back down in her chair.
Almost everyone in the class was asleep, including me! That is, until the girl sitting next to Cindy shyly stood up and quietly introduced herself. Her red dress had pink flowers all the way down it and her jet black, curly hair seemed to somehow make her small brown freckles glow. I propped myself up, suddenly at attention while she said her name was Elizabeth, but everyone called her Libby.
"What are you looking at?" Jimmy asked me, suddenly turning around looking me, though my eyes were still on Libby.
"NOTHING! I don't like girls if that's what you're saying!"
Jimmy laughed, "No, that's not what I meant! What's your name?"
"Sheen. And your name's Jimmy because I heard you say it!" I smiled proudly like I'd won the lottery.
"Oh, and this is my best friend, Carl. I just moved here over the summer and he's my neighbor!"
END OF FLASHBACK!
And they'd been together ever since.
"You don't remember meeting us, Sheen?" Libby asked, remembering that day in her own way.
Sheen shook his head, trying his best to remember for Libby and the rest of the kids surrounding him, hoping he'd remember something.
Libby's Flashback
I sat down in my desk beside Cindy and looked at my classmates. All my other friends from kindergarten were there. Brittany, Nissa, and all the girls from the kindergarten cheer squad that Cindy had begged me to join. I was a VERY shy person so normally I wouldn't have joined, but Cindy and Brittany and Nissa were my friends and I wanted to spend time with them.
I saw two new boys in my class, sitting beside a boy that I'd seen in kindergarten once. They were talking happily to each other. One was kind of cute...WAIT! No! I don't like boys! EWW! They have cooties! But something about him was somehow...different than most boys I met. It was strange.
End of Libby's Flashback
Just remembering that made Libby smile.
"What are you smiling at, Libs?" Cindy asked.
"Oh, nothing much!"
When they received no response from Sheen in first grade, they headed on to the next biggest point in his life which made the whole group, even Cindy, upset to think about: his mother's death.
"Guys, I know we have to help Sheen get his memory back, but are we sure we want to do this?" Jimmy asked, looking at Sheen, who stared back at him with the same childish wonder eyes as he always had.
"We have to! Otherwise, Sheen will be like this forever," Cindy said, taking the paper from Jimmy and reading the information on top, "Let's go to Sheen's house and find out some information."
She led the way to Sheen's house and knocked on the door. Sheen's grandmother answered the door and Jimmy told her that they had a project to work on and walked up to Sheen's room. But before they found out ANY information...
"SHEEN! I'm telling! You stole my Ultra Lord action figure again!" whined a voice.
Before they could even question Jimmy and Carl about who it was, the door burst open and they're stood what looked to be...SHEEN! But a much smaller, girl version!
"Hi, Sheila! Why don't you just get your action figure and leave? We have a VERY important project to work on...THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ULTRA LORD!" Jimmy said, smiling at the little four-year-old.
The little girl put her hands on her hips and stuck her little nose in the air, "You can't tell me what to do!"
"Sheila! We have to get this project done please just..."
"Who are you people?" she asked Cindy and Libby.
"I'm Libby and this is Cindy and I'll tell you what. You leave us alone for about...five minutes and I'll PERSONALLY take you to the Candy Bar and buy you an ice cream! Ok?"
"Wow! I like her! You should hang out with HER more often," she said, obviously talking to Sheen, who didn't know her from the wall.
"Ok, well nice talking to you," Jimmy said, ushering the little girl out of the room, "BYE!"
"Ok who...or WHAT was THAT?" Cindy asked when Sheila was safely locked in her room.
"Sheila Estavas, Sheen's little sister. She's like his mini-me, I guess you could say, only four times more hyper, obsessed with Ultra Lord, and with more attitude than you, Vortex!" Jimmy said.
"So, in other words, she's Sheen, but bratty?" Libby asked, still amazed at how much the little girl resembled Sheen.
"Exactly."
After absolutely NO success in the mother's death department, the gang and Sheila headed out for ice cream.
"Ok, who's she, Libby?" Sheen asked, eyeing the little girl with curiosity, "She's very small."
"That's your little sister. She's like you, but smaller!" Libby replied, still trying to believe it herself.
After a very odd lunch (what with Sheila talking 24/7 and Sheen just staring at her confusingly instead of yelling at her like usual), the gang took off for Sheen's next greatest life moment: Valentines Day.
"OH NO! No way, uh uh! Not going to happen! You've got to be crazy!" Libby exclaimed when Jimmy told her the plan.
"Libby, if you don't, Sheen might never get his memory back!" Jimmy said, trying very hard (and very ineffectively) not to laugh.
"Yeah, Libs! You got to! Otherwise, he'll be dumb, or dumber, for the rest of his life! You don't want that to be your fault do you Libby?" Cindy asked, also laughing at what her best friend had to do to retrieve this boy's memory.
"Ok, but you three have to LEAVE! There's NO WAY I'm doing this in front of you!"
"Ok. Come on guys. We can go to my house and have some lemonade," Jimmy said between laughs. He, Cindy, and Carl walked toward Jimmy's house, laughing the entire way.
"Why'd they go away, Libby?" Sheen asked.
"Umm...well...you see...the thing is I have to get your memory back and..." but she didn't even finish. She kissed him sweetly on the cheek and waited for him to remember. However, all he did was faint.
"OH NO! CINDY! JIMMY! CARL! Something went wrong!" Libby said, kneeling at his side while he just lay there silently.
The rest of the gang came running from behind Jimmy's house and stared horrifically at the young, unconscious boy. Suddenly, he stirred.
"Uhh...where am I?"
"Umm..we're in Jimmy's front yard. Do you remember me?" Libby asked, slowly and in syllables.
"Libby, are you ok? You're talking funny, babe."
"He remembers me!" Libby said, throwing her arms around Sheen happily.
Sheen stared questioningly at Jimmy, Carl, and Cindy.
"Ok, now I'd like to know how I ended up here. The last thing I remember, I was in the park," he said, after the hug was over.
"Ok, this is going to sound stupid, Sheen, but WHAT'S MY NAME?" Cindy asked, making sure he just half of his memory wasn't back.
"If I say Cindy, you're not going to hug me, right?"
"No! EW!" she said, but smiled all the same.
"Ok, I'll ask again...what did I miss?"
"Ok, Sheen, it's Saturday. You had amnesia for two days because you got hit in the head with my baseball," Jimmy said.
"And you didn't know any of us and you kept calling me Cookie and Sara!" Cindy said, now laughing at the way it sounded.
"And you stuck your nose in your ice cream. Which I ate by the way," Carl added, shuffling his feet.
"And then Lib..." Jimmy started but watching the look on Libby's face continued differently, "But then you passed out and got better."
"Oh. What's that, Jimmy?" he asked, pointing at the paper with Sheen's life in Jimmy's hand.
"Uhh...well we kind of reenacted your life so that you'd regain your memory," Jimmy answered, passing the paper to Sheen.
Sheen read the words and went pale, suddenly.
"Um...hello! Me meeting Ultra Lord is NOT on this list! This isn't mine!" he said, passing it back to Jimmy.
"Whatever, Sheen, we're just glad you're back to normal. I don't think we could take anymore of you not even knowing what grass was!" Cindy said, rolling her eyes.
"Was I really that bad?"
"No, actually you were just confused. It was no problem!" Libby said, smiling.
Sheen smiled back at her before asking, "Anyone up for a trip to the Candy Bar?"
"Uhh...we just left," Jimmy said.
"Who cares?" Carl asked, and they all laughed and walked toward the Candy Bar.
"Libs, you coming?" Sheen called back, looking over his shoulder at Libby, who had just starting writing something in a little book she pulled out of her purse.
"There. Yes, I'm coming!"
Sheen paused at the corner to wait for her to catch up and they walked side by side to the Candy Bar, with Jimmy and Cindy ahead of them, arguing about something of the other yet again, their own unique way of flirting...everyone knew it but them. But Libby wasn't paying attention to them or Carl as he chased a butterfly all the way to the Candy Bar. She was looking at Sheen, who, even though had his memory back, still examined the world like it was all new to him.
And that's the way it should be. Libby never told Sheen about her helping him regain his memory. But she did tell someone.
Dear Diary,
Yes, I'll admit it. I do like Sheen a lot. But it's not some childish girly crush like Cindy has on Nick or Nissa has on Arnie. It's more than that. I can't explain it, but when I kissed him, even though it was just on the cheek, I felt something amazing. And when I found out he was hurt, I panicked. Is it love? No I doubt it. But it could be...One day. Who knows? All I know is that I like him...A lot...and that's how it will always be.
Elizabeth M. Folfax (Libby)