Cindy groaned lightly as the harsh blaring of her alarm awoke her. She rolled over and half-heartedly attempted to slap the snooze button but she was ultimately unsuccessful. Then her sleep-addled brain remembered what the date was, February 14th; Valentine's Day, the day of the dance.
"I'm just going to ask you straight out," said Jimmy. "Will you be my date for the Santa Valentinus Dance next Saturday?" For some strange, strange reason he looked as if there was another answer to the question than the one she was about to give.
"Of course Dorkatron, or have you forgotten that we've been dating for the past three months?" Cindy asked, a slight smirk tugging at her lips. Jimmy had asked her before Christmas whether she wanted him to get her a gift, so she probably should have expected this.
"Well I'd hate for you to have a chance to say no, but if you insist…"
"No one else has asked me yet, so I suppose I could go with you," joked Cindy. As much as she had been expecting Jimmy to ask her, the butterflies in her stomach fluttered about at the thought of spending the whole night with Jimmy, dancing and possibly kissing. Apart from one small peck on the cheek on New Year's Eve and some light hand holding, they'd yet to do anything that Cindy would consider making out or French kissing.
"Great!" He said, now beaming, "I uh, just want to-" the bell for sixth period shrieked before he could continue, but as they were being swept away by the sea of students he managed to shout out, "see you in biology!"
Now that the day of the dance was upon her, Cindy remembered that she had to meet up with Libby and Brittany to make sure she looked stunning for tonight. She looked at the list in her phone: 'nails-11am, hair-1.30pm, final dress fitting-3pm, makeup-4.30pm.' It looked like Cindy had a long day ahead of herself. She glanced at her alarm clock and began to swear under her breath at the little digital seven on display. Of all the days to not get her beauty sleep, it just had to be today. "Might as well put my time to good use," thought Cindy as she walked into her ensuite bathroom, intent on waxing her legs. Before slipping into her shower, she had one last errant thought.
"I hope Jimmy has as long a day as I do."
All was silent in the room when Goddard's sleep mode ended. An alert detailing his current mission flashed across his optics along with the time, 7.30am, before he entered into stealth mode. The whine of the servos in his joints ceased and the glow of his central processor dimmed accordingly. The hardware slowly crept across the carpet before it encountered its first obstacle, how to ascend the slumber device of its master. The padding on Goddard's feet slid back, exposing microthrusters, enabling near-silent flight. Once atop of the comforter, he inched his way forward until his target was in sight. The torso plate then slid back and a speaker rose from the depths. Goddard wheezed quietly, then blasted the chorus of a powerful rock ballad. Jimmy shot out of bed, rolled to the floor and threw whatever he could get his hands on (in this case, pants) at Goddard. The mechanical companion easily avoided the flying blue denim, barked twice and then collapsed to the floor panting and wheezing.
Jimmy, now thoroughly unimpressed with Goddard, grumbled under his breath about 'overconfident inventions' and 'the process of disassembling.' He quickly changed from his pyjamas into his everyday clothes and walked his way through the kitchen, grabbing the milk out of the fridge, and then stepped out into the chilly Texas morning. He felt a shiver run through him, due to both the weather and the occasion. In less the twelve hours, he would be attending the Retroville High School Valentine's Day Dance with the most beautiful girl in school. Sure, Junior Prom was only in a couple of months but he had something special planned for tonight.
After a short fall, Jimmy arrived in his recently upgraded lab. All the surfaces had been polished to a high sheen and some of his inventions were now on display. Jimmy walked over to the small kitchen in the corner and ate breakfast quickly before approaching his supercomputer. He scrolled through the list of previous and planned inventions before clicking open a folder entitled 'VDAY CONCEPTS.' Jimmy transferred these files to his holographic interface to conduct his business. There were a number of items that needed to be completed before tonight.
"Vox, I'm sending the suit design and car chassis to the Fabrication Sector. Can you keep an sensor on it for me?" asked Jimmy. "I'll conduct further research into the corsage and accessory."
"Of course, Jimmy. By my estimates the fabrication should be completed by 1700 hours," replied Vox. "Will that be satisfactory?"
"Yeah, fine Vox. Can you send all the necessary materials for the other two projects to Design Room Two; I'll work on them personally. Set the availability to Isolationism and put on some Vivaldi, Concerto Number 1 if you would." Jimmy then entered Design Room Two and the door slid shut behind him. There were two active holographic displays in the room. One projected an image of a bracelet while the other displayed an arrangement for a corsage. Only upon further inspection were the Neutronic elements discovered. The bracelet was to be composed of electrum with small pearls decorated it. Additionally, the main flower in the corsage was the rare moonflower, which would only bloom for that night and by dawn, would wilt. Thus, Jimmy set about the arduous task of artificially creating a moonflower that would be ready for display that night, and manufacturing the electrum and pearl elements of the necklace.
After three hours of relentless work, Jimmy exited Design Room Two. The corsage was almost finished, its white flowers in the process of being arranged, whereas the bracelet strands were in the process of being linked by Vox. The teen genius grabbed a Purple Flurp from the fridge, collapsed onto a nearby couch and started playing video games.
Cindy Vortex was fretting about the fit of her dress, and when Cindy Vortex frets, she gets angry. Libby, whose dress had been adjusted 20 minutes earlier flipped through a magazine in the dressing room, completely disinterested in the situation. In her opinion, the dress fit perfectly; it showed off neither too much nor too little cleavage, didn't drag along the floor or expose to much leg and unless Cindy lost 40 pounds in the next 5 hours, it wouldn't fall down at the dance.
The shop assistant, Paige, was running from one side of the store to the other, hoping to remedy the situation. The truth was, so many Retroville High students had come in today for resizing, that she couldn't afford to spend too much time with one customer. Yet she had to choose between resizing the Vortex girl's dress for an extra half-hour or facing her wrath.
She chose the former option.
When the shop assistant left the girls to attend to another customer, Libby turned to Cindy. "Girl, you've got to chill out right now. You look fine," she said.
The blonde slowly turned to look at her best friend. "Libby! You know fine's not good enough. To even have a chance to look as good as you, I need to be perfect," replied Cindy. "Plus…" she continued as her face grew red, and her reply grew quieter and quieter.
"What was that last bit Cin?" asked Libby.
"I said I want to look good for Jimmy, alright?" came the gruff response.
"You and me both know that he thinks you look fine all the time," Libby said, a knowing smile on her face. Cindy felt better almost immediately although she tried to hide it from her best friend. When the sales assistant came by again, the blonde said she'd take the dress, much to Paige's relief. Fortunately, Brittany's resizing finished at almost the same time, so they paid for their dresses together and then walked up the street to the beauty salon. Only three hours until the dance.
"The fabrication sequences are complete Jimmy. They are now awaiting your approval," chimed Vox at almost exactly 5pm.
"Thanks Vox. Can you ship the car chassis to the garage and the suit to my closet upstairs?" asked Jimmy. "Oh and could you please set an alarm for 6pm, broadcasted through the garage speakers?"
"Of course Jimmy," came the reply.
For the next hour, the teen genius set about swapping his current car chassis with the recently fabricated one, making small adjustments to the engine every once in a while. He was bolting the final piece into place when a whirring interrupted him from his work. Jimmy looked at his watch and noted that the time had flown by. Grabbing a clean rag from atop a tool kit, he wiped the grease that had accumulated on his face during his work. Jimmy grabbed the nearby bracelet and corsage, made his way to the elevator and waited a few seconds before walking out of the fireplace. His mom would undoubtedly want to take a million pictures before he could leave so he raced upstairs to change into his suit. Goddard, who had done nothing but lie around all day, was wrestling with something in the corner, but Jimmy was too preoccupied to investigate further. His suit design had translated perfectly from paper to silk and cashmere, the silver-grey fibres almost glowing in the light. Like all of his inventions, the suit had a Neutronic symbol on it, on the inside. Jimmy pulled on the pants and noticed they were tailored. After tying the laces on the soft leather boots, he turned to Goddard for his opinion and immediately exploded with laughter. The mechanical canine had somehow slipped on a tiny jacket and bowtie and was barking at his master. Jimmy slipped the bracelet into his pocket and passed the corsage to Goddard. The two left his room and worked their way down the stairs to be fussed over by Judy.
"Oh Jimmy, you look fantastic. And you too Goddard!" she exclaimed. "Now hold still while I take a few shots for the album. For the next fifteen minutes, Judy snapped pictures of Jimmy and Goddard, Jimmy and Hugh, Jimmy and herself, the whole family together and, oddly enough, Goddard and Hugh. At exactly 7pm, he stepped out into the cold and made his way over to Cindy's house.
It had taken Cindy almost twelve hours to prepare for the Valentine's Day dance, but she now felt like she was ready. Her hair was styled, her makeup on and her nails filed. She sat at the desk in her room, listening to music and texting Libby when she thought she heard a distant knocking. Cindy paused, looked at her alarm clock and went right back to texting. It was only when there was a knock at her door that she paused the music. "Yes?" she asked.
"Cynthia, James has arrived and is waiting downstairs with you father," said Sasha, after opening the door. "You look marvellous by the way dear," she added before pulling the door closed.
The familiar butterflies in her stomach stretched their wings as she looked at herself in the mirror one last time. There wasn't a whole lot she could do now but adjust how her hair fell. Cindy walked out of her room and down the stairs, gasping slightly when she caught sight of Jimmy. He'd tried and failed to formalize his long hair, but it looked like he couldn't get rid of the ice cream. The grey suit fit his thin form well and his shoes complimented the look of sophistication that he exuded. She noted the corsage he held in his hands and the breathtaking flower that enjoyed pride of place at the forefront of the ensemble. Finally, she looked into his eyes and saw the calm and confidence that typically swirled within them, although she giggled when she saw that his jaw had dropped somewhat. Cindy walked forward and smiled widely. "Hi Jimmy," she breathed.
Jimmy was chatting with Cindy's father, when he heard the swishing of fabric. He looked up at the stairs and that was when he saw her. In one part of his mind, he noticed the ruffled white dress that clad her form and left a large portion of her back uncovered, displaying her clear, porcelain skin. However, the main processing centres of his brain were entirely focused on Cindy's face. Her golden locks were curled and hung down past her shoulder blades. Her bright eyes twinkled in the bright artificial lights and her full lips were coloured a natural pink. His mouth opened slightly after taking her in. Cindy usually looked gorgeous, but right now, she looked stunning.
"Hi Jimmy," she said to him, fluttering her long eyelashes.
"H-Hey Cindy, I got this for you," he replied, slipping the corsage onto her wrist.
"Thanks, it's beautiful," she smiled.
"Alright you two, I think that some photography is in order," Sasha interrupted. She turned and grabbed her nearby camera, taking some photos of Cindy and Jimmy together, and then getting Jimmy to take some of her family together.
By now, the beginning of the dance was upon them, and unless they wanted to rush they needed to leave immediately. The two juniors walked out the door with her parents waving goodbye. When Cindy turned to face the road, she ground to a halt. On the curb sat a dark luxury car with the Neutronic symbol on the front and back. They both climbed in and relaxed in the soft leather seats, embroidered with the aforementioned emblem. "You really went all out for tonight," she commented.
"So did you," he replied. "You look absolutely gorgeous by the way."
"Th-Thanks Jimmy," Cindy flushed. "We should probably get going. I don't want to have to kick your butt because we're late."
"Like we could ever be late with planning everything. In fact, by taking into consideration the distance to Retroville High, the speed of the Neutronmobile and the speed limit along the projected route, I believe we have a few minutes to spare," he spouted, completely proud of himself. Nevertheless, he started up the car and drove off in the direction of the school.
"The Neutronmobile?" asked Cindy, an unreadable expression on her face.
"Was that the only thing you heard?" Jimmy replied. The blonde raised one of her professionally waxed eyebrows at him. "It's a work in progress. The choice was between that and the Neutroninator."
Cindy burst out laughing at the sheepish expression on his face before smiling. "Thanks for the corsage Jimmy. That wouldn't happen to be a moonflower on top would it?"
He tapped his nose and grinned. "A gentleman never tells, although that wasn't the only thing I got you." He became extremely nervous as he slid the bracelet out of his pocket and presented her with it. "Happy Valentine's Day."
Cindy sat completely still in her seat for five seconds, with one word repeating through her brain. Pearl. She looked at Jimmy and a devilish smile flashed across her face. "I got you a present too Neutron," she said, as he pulled into a park and shut off the engine. Before he could open his door, her hand shot out, grabbed his tie and she pulled his mouth to hers.
And scene. This is my first JN fic, but there should be many more to come.