Author's Note: This is just a little something I "had" to write (originally for school), because I like this song so much… I know it may be a little weird, but I think it fits the lyrics very well… :) Please read and review!
Oh, and one more thing… I've never been in France, so this is just imagination!
Disclaimer: I do not own Jimmy Neutron, or Christian Walz's song "Wonderchild".
WONDERCHILD
by Charla Tardecita
"We're going to make this huge star map!" Sheen gesticulated excitedly; giving the others an impression of how big he wanted it. "And then we'll put in all the places that have been important to Ultra Lord!"
"Hey!" Libby slammed her palm on the surface of the table and scowled at him. "We're not going to put anything that involves Ultra Lord in our astronomy-project!"
"Oh yeah?" Sheen stood up, put his hands on the table and bent forward to scowl back at the African-American girl.
"Yeah!" Libby got up as well and leaned closer to the Hispanic boy. "There's nothing to discuss so give it up, Sheen!"
Sheen was just about to protest, when he got interrupted by a whine from Carl.
"Stop it, guys!" Jimmy glared at the two arguing teenagers. "You're reminding me about me and Cindy."
Libby and Sheen glanced at their two friends and then back at each other. They nodded like there was some kind of understanding between them and they calmly sat down.
"Yeah, you two usually don't have this bad effect on my digestion," Carl complained and placed a hand on his stomach.
"Do I and Cindy have that effect?" Jimmy frowned at the chubby redhead.
"Sometimes," Carl said shyly and adjusted his glasses.
"Talking about Cindy, where is she?" Libby started to look around the Candy Bar.
"Leapin' leptons," Jimmy said and put a hand to his forehead. "I've totally forgotten!"
"What?" Libby raised an eyebrow, while Jimmy checked his watch.
"I was supposed to meet Cindy outside my lab ten minutes ago. We're going to work on our project!" The brown-haired boy got up and headed toward the exit, while saying goodbye to his friends. He walked quickly, knowing that Cindy would be pretty mad at him for making her wait.
He arrived at his house about ten minutes later, going straight to the backyard. An annoyed looking blonde was sitting leant against the wall of the clubhouse and Jimmy walked slowly toward her. She turned and gave him an angry look.
"Where have you been, Neutron?" She got up to meet him. "I've been here for over 20 minutes!"
"I know," he defended himself. "I forgot. I'm sorry…"
"You better be, because I've wasted a lot of time just sitting here, waiting for you," she yelled and placed her hands on her hips. "I could have done better things, like researching on our project so we could have finished this faster!"
"Okay, okay," Jimmy said and picked a strand of his hair and held it in front of the DNA-scanner. "I've said I'm sorry!"
"Because although your oversized brain can come in handy, I didn't chose to-"
"OKAY!" Jimmy shouted. "I get your point, Vortex! If you absolutely have to mock me, then you can just leave because I can do this project on my own!"
Cindy got quiet and looked a little taken aback. Then she mumbled, "Fine, I'll shut up."
Let me love you, let me be around
I promise you I won't make a sound
Cindy followed Jimmy into the clubhouse and down to the underground laboratory. She had been there before, but it happened rather rarely.
This spring day, however, Jimmy and Cindy had gotten a school assignment they had to do together. None of them liked the idea of having to cooperate with the other, but deep inside they thought of this as an excuse to be near each other, and maybe have a normal conversation. Cindy knew that this could be a big opportunity for her to finally tell him how she felt, so she wasn't keen on ruining it.
"So," she said when they had gotten inside the lab. "Any suggestion to what we can do?"
"Well, we're pretty lucky," Jimmy said as he checked his computer. "There's a total lunar eclipse coming up next week. Maybe we could tape it or something."
"Yeah, I've heard about that," Cindy tried to be enthusiastic, but felt that it sounded false. "That's a great idea!"
"There's only a little problem…" Jimmy didn't seem to notice Cindy's fake tone. Maybe it was because he was so used to it. "The weather forecast for that night isn't very good. A storm is reported."
"Can't we just take the hovercar and go out of town?" Cindy walked over to him and watched the big computer screen.
'Cause the wind is blowing hard you see
We'll take a ride just you and me
"We would have to go a little further than just outside Retroville," Jimmy said, as a map popped up on the screen. "You see, the eclipse is only total in the north western parts of The Mediterranean Sea." He turned to look at her. "In other words; The Riviera is the most appropriate place."
Cindy widened her eyes. France was one of the most romantic countries in the world. "Nah ah, it's called la Côte d'Azur," she stated with a playful smile.
Let's go down to the south of France
But we can love, I think there is a chance
"So you're willing to go?" Jimmy asked and bit his lower lip.
The last time he and Cindy had been a place together alone for a longer period of time, they had actually gotten kinda close. They were stranded on an uncharted island in The Pacific Ocean, and hadn't it been for their friends, Sheen, Libby, and Carl, they might still have been there.
"Sure," Cindy said and felt that she handled the enthusiastic tone much better this time. Maybe some of the magic that had been between them on the island would re-establish. "Doesn't the eclipse take place on Tuesday? We have Tuesday off from school, you know."
Go down the for the holiday
To live those happy thoughts again
"Great, then it's a deal," Jimmy smiled. "We'll leave Tuesday at 10am."
¤+¤+¤+¤
"Are we there yet?" Cindy looked disapprovingly up at the sky. "I sense rain."
"It's not going to rain!" Jimmy sighed. "I checked all my weather forecasting instruments before we left."
"Have you brought into consideration that your stupid instruments can be wrong?" Cindy frowned at him.
"For your information they're always showing the correct weather forecast!" Jimmy turned to her slightly, but kept his hands on the steering wheel.
"Well, I'm sorry, Nerdtron, but to refresh your memory a little; most of your inventions usually go wrong!"
"Maybe so, but I'm telling you; it's not going to rain!"
"Then what do you call the darkening sky, brainboy?" Cindy gesticulated towards the clouds above them.
"Sundown, maybe?" Jimmy said in a sarcastic tone and gazed forward again.
"What?" Cindy stretched out her hand and grabbed Jimmy's left wrist, pulling it closer to her and looked at his watch. "But it's only like 1pm!"
"Not in France," Jimmy said and pulled his hand back. "There's a seven-hour time difference."
"I knew that," Cindy mumbled and crossed her arms. "I just didn't think we were there yet."
Jimmy didn't say anything this time. They spent the rest of the trip in silence. Why did she always try to be better than him?
How you gonna run at the speed of sound?
Oooh oooh wonderchild
It was like there was something she needed to prove to him. She wasn't this competitive when it came to other people. It was like she was hiding something from him and that this behavior was a way to cover her true feelings.
How you gonna breathe if you're underground?
How many times will you try?
If this really was the deal, then Jimmy got kind of annoyed by it. Why couldn't she just tell him how she felt and then he could say that he felt the same way. But because she was so hard to read, he wouldn't say anything as long as she didn't say something first.
How you gonna walk at the rainbow's edge?
Oooh oooh wonderchild
But Jimmy was certain that neither one of them would say anything that would change their relationship. After the journey they would return to Retroville and continue with the arguing…
Oooh oooh wonderchild
Everything comes to an end
The night had fallen around them, and they could tell by all the small lights beneath them that they now traveled over land. After a while Jimmy started to let the hovercar drop to the ground. It landed on a hill with a thump and the two teenagers got out and started to look around. It seemed like they were in a somewhat deserted place. Next to the hill was a long sandy beach and water that reflected the moonlight and starlight. In the distance they could see citylights and hear faint sounds from cars and music.
"Where are we?" Cindy narrowed her eyes while she studied the apparent metropolis.
"According to the coordinates we're near Nice," Jimmy said.
"Right," Cindy turned to him and started laughing. "It is pretty nice here."
Jimmy shook his head, but smiled slightly. He turned to look at the glittering ocean. Cindy was right; it was pretty nice there. But they hadn't come to enjoy France. Primarily they had come for the lunar eclipse because of the astronomy project… Or was it something else that had made them both agree to voluntarily go on this trip, knowing perfectly well that they would spend a lot of time alone with each other.
Jimmy decided to drop the thought for a while and went to get the necessary equipment out of the hypercube he had brought along.
"Sure it's nice, but we need to focus on the eclipse," he muttered, as he started to set up the special camera and the star telescopes.
"Just because we're here because of a stupid school assignment," Cindy said, still amazed by the beautiful view. "It doesn't have to mean that we shouldn't have any fun, right?"
"What do you mean?" Jimmy stopped and glanced at her, feeling that he blushed a little.
"I mean Nice," Cindy said and nodded her head in the direction of the city. "What did you think?" She placed her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes at him.
"Err… No, we're not going to move from this spot until the eclipse starts," Jimmy said, while shaking his head, and turned away from her to continue with the setup. "And we shouldn't move after that either. First of all, the equipment can be stolen. Second, I didn't bring Goddard along, so we can get lost or something. Third, you never know who we could meet, and considering the fact that we're only thirteen, I highly doubt that we'll be allowed to enter any of the clubs or bars…"
Jimmy thought it was strange that Cindy didn't have any comments to this, so he slowly turned to her. "Right, Cindy?"
But he found that he suddenly was standing there alone. "Cindy?"
Where is she? He twirled around to see if he could see her anywhere. She was standing right here! Various thoughts went through his mind; what if something had happened to her? He caught himself being worried about her, and settled on that she had just walked away. She was the person who could likely do something like that. He grabbed a flashlight and went to find her.
After a while he finally saw her walking fast in front of him, and he ran to catch up with her.
I get to you at the speed of sound
Really fast when you're on the run
"Why did you leave?" Jimmy tried to catch his breath after the running. "The eclipse starts in one hour."
"Yeah, exactly, one whole hour," Cindy said, and kept walking. The road seemed kind of deserted, and the only light was from the starry sky. Cindy didn't really want to continue alone, so when Jimmy stopped walking she turned swiftly and raised an eyebrow at him. "You coming?"
"Didn't you just hear what I said?" Jimmy frowned as Cindy sighed and started walking again. All he could do was follow her and try to talk her into coming back with him. The discussion soon led to a fight, as always, and while they were shouting at each other, they only drew further away from the hill.
"Just go back if you don't like to leave your precious equipment!" Cindy exclaimed in a sarcastic tone.
"You know I can't just let you wander about all alone!" Jimmy said a little annoyed.
"Oh, and why not?" Cindy gave him a contemptuous look. "I can take care of myself!"
"I don't doubt that," Jimmy said and shook his head. "But I would never forgive myself if something happened to you…"
Jimmy's voice trailed off and Cindy slightly widened her eyes at him.
"Uhm," Jimmy looked at the ground and rested his hand on his neck. "We won't be back in time for the eclipse now…"
"Why not take the bus?"
'Cause the world's closing in on us
A second later we're on the bus
Jimmy hadn't realized that they were standing on a bus stop, until Cindy had suggested taking the bus. And then it was just standing right beside them. Jimmy hadn't seen nor heard it coming. It was like it had just appeared out of thin air, just when they sorta needed it.
They got on the bus and paid with some euro that Jimmy had brought just in case. There were two other people, an old man and a little boy, sitting on two of the first seats. Jimmy studied them for a while and wondered if it was a grandfather and his grandson. All of a sudden Cindy spontaneously seized Jimmy's hand and dragged him to the back of the bus, where they sat down. Jimmy got kind of surprised by this action and couldn't help but stare wide-eyed at the girl beside him, who now seemed somewhat embarrassed by the thing she had just done. She let go of his hand, and turned slightly to look out the window. He found it rather cute; the way her cheeks turned a bright shade of pink. He wished they could hold hands without being embarrassed; that they could just forget everybody and everything and be together.
You're so fine and I love you so
So beautiful but I have to know
"Why did you do that?" Jimmy asked and gazed at her with a dazzled look, wondering if France really had brought back some of the atmosphere that had appeared on the island.
"Well, I had to do something," Cindy said, and it wasn't exactly the answer Jimmy had been hoping for. "You were just standing there like some kind of idiot…"
And here we go again, Jimmy thought. Maybe I was wrong. We're just going to wind up like last time, right?
Is this real or is it just a game?
Take a ride, we'll come back the same
Cindy felt uncomfortable. Jimmy kept examining her and she almost regretted that she had taken his hand. But it was okay… She had wanted to do it and it had just happened.
Jimmy shook his head and sighed. Cindy glanced at him, wondering if he was disappointed because there hadn't been another reason for why she had grabbed his hand.
How you gonna run at the speed of sound?
Oooh oooh wonderchild
What if he really was feeling the same way as her? Maybe she should just ask him? No, that would be too obvious. If he wanted to say something, then he should say it.
How you gonna breathe if you're underground?
How many times will you try?
She shouldn't have to ask… But on the other hand, she wasn't exactly giving him her feelings on a silver plate either…
How you gonna walk at the rainbow's edge?
Oooh oooh wonderchild
Oooh oooh wonderchild
Everything comes to an end
The bus stopped, and the two teens got out, somehow knowing that this place was near the hill they had landed on earlier. They walked toward the shore and soon reached the hovercar. Luckily Jimmy found everything the way he had left it. The eclipse was about to start so he pushed the record key on the camera and went to get something from the hovercar. He already knew, before they had left, that the eclipse would take a while. So he brought a blanket and a basket with some sandwiches, cookies and Purple Flurp, which his mother had provided for him, to the edge of the hill. After spreading the blanket on the ground, he sat down on it and turned to Cindy to see if she wasn't coming.
Cindy had been standing in one place, following Jimmy warily with her eyes ever since they had arrived at the hill after their bus trip. When she now met his gaze she saw something in his deep blue eyes that she hadn't seen in a while, and she realized that she had missed it dearly. It was a glow that made her feel welcome, safe, and beloved, if only for a second, and it was as usual making her slightly nervous, in a good way. He was the only one she knew that could give her this kind of feelings. She gently bit her lower lip and went to sit next to the boy genius.
And if I could be with you
I keep on wonder why
If this whole escapade
Is it worth all this time?
They sat there for a moment, in total silence, just taking in the magnificent view and the decreasing moon. Right there and then, words weren't necessary. They sensed each other's presence, and somehow that was enough. They soon began to relax and both leant backwards at the same time, causing Jimmy to put his right hand on top of Cindy's left one. Both of them recoiled their hands automatically and looked wide-eyed at each other. Smiles spread on both faces as they laughed nervously. Automatically, Jimmy held out it his hand and Cindy instinctively grabbed it and laced her fingers through his.
"Well," Jimmy broke the silence. "This seems kinda familiar…"
"The island," Cindy whispered and turned to him eagerly.
"You still remember?" they asked each other in unison, as they both brightened up with anticipation. Then they both turned away, a little shy, and mumbled, "Of course I do."
"I'll never forget that," Jimmy stated and looked at Cindy again.
"No, me neither," she said, as she met his gaze. "Those were some of the best days of my life…"
"Really?"
She nodded and gave him a warm smile.
"Mine too," Jimmy returned the smile. "Although there is one thing I regret…"
"What?" Cindy asked a little dazed.
"That I never got to kiss you," he said, suddenly feeling slightly insecure, and glanced at the girl next to him, waiting for her reaction.
"Well," Cindy said, as a mischievous smile spread on her face. "It's not too late for that, you know…"
As he heard her say that, Jimmy brought himself closer to her while focusing on her emerald eyes. Cindy leaned closer as well and they both slowly closed their eyes…
And if I could be with you
I keep on wonder why
If this whole escapade
Is it worth all, all
All doubt and insecurity disappeared as their lips met for the first time. The kiss lasted for a while and both had a big grin on their face as they pulled away. Both laughed sheepishly as they snuggled up to each other. They remained that close for the rest of the eclipse and silently agreed that this project didn't turn out so bad after all.
How you gonna run at the speed of sound?
Oooh oooh wonderchild
How you gonna breathe if you're underground?
How many times will you try?
How you gonna walk at the rainbow's edge?
Oooh oooh wonderchild
When the eclipse was over, Jimmy got up, collected all the equipment and made the hovercar ready for take off. Cindy gathered the blanket and the basket and walked over to him.
"If we leave now," Jimmy said as he checked his watch. "We'll be home around 10pm, Retroville time."
Cindy nodded as they crawled onboard, and soon they were on their way back to the US. Jimmy turned on the autopilot and took a seat next to Cindy. They sat like that for a long time while none of them said anything.
Oooh oooh wonderchild
Everything comes to an end
"Can you promise me something?" Cindy suddenly asked in a serious tone and turned to look him straight in the eye.
"What?" Jimmy studied her curiously.
"That this won't be the same as when we were stranded," Cindy said. "That we won't pretend that this never happened when we get home?"
"Of course," Jimmy stated, gave her an assuring smile and seized her hand. "Just because this trip comes to an end, it doesn't mean that you and I'll do the same."
"That's what I wanted to hear," Cindy said and smiled calmly, as they flew over the Atlantic Ocean.
Thanx for reading! Feel free to leave a review, and tell me what you think…
It would be highly appreciated!