"Hm..." A light, playful-sounding hum of interest rose up from the girl's throat as she, for what may have been the first time ever; focused on the brunet-haired boy sitting several lunch tables over. Twisted around her finger was a lock of her long, black hair, most of which reached to nearly the middle of her back. Every now and then, she'd release the lock, once she deemed that it had been coiled far enough around her finger; which in turn would make said lock look far curlier than the rest of her hair.

The girl, who wore a lavender-colored sweater, a white short skirt, and matching knee-high boots, was known to just about everyone in Dimmsdale as Trixie Tang, easily the most popular girl in her school. Though a significant portion of that popularity was not just because of her powerful and wealthy family, but also because she was downright infamous for her reputation of turning would-be suitors away. A reputation that was only built upon by the fact that her mere presence made roughly ninety percent of the female population of the school feel as though they were invisible to the entirety of their school's male population.

"Like, whatcha 'Hm'-ing about, Trixie?" Veronica Star, the self-proclaimed best friend of Trixie, asked in her oh so stereotypical California-girl accent. The type of accent that could even drive a saint right up a wall, were the blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl not so easy to completely tune out.

"Say, V?" The black-haired girl leaned up off her elbow and turned to face her underling, addressing her with the nickname that allowed her to put in the least amount of work in remembering the blonde girl's name. "You know that kid over there, right? The one with the pink hat?"

Trixie nodded her head toward the table that the brunet sat at with his friends: Chester, AJ, and Tootie. The foursome known by and large as the least popular people in their school.

Veronica's eyes widened in surprise as she looked back and forth between her best friend and the boy she secretly crushed on, but knew she'd never have as long as Trixie was around. "You mean... Timmy? Timmy Turner? I don't- Why uh- Why would I want to associate with someone like him? He's... Unpopular!"

"Well yeah, obviously... But there's something about him today that I... I can't quite place it, but he seems... Somehow cooler. D'you notice it too?"

"I don't..." The blonde again glanced over at Timmy, who appeared to be deep in thought, though he'd briefly snap out of it to respond(she assumed) to something his friends asked him, only to go right back to having a thoughtful expression on his face. "He's... Kind of cute? I guess? Why do you care though? He's poor and unpopular! Just look at who he hangs out with!" Veronica did her best to maintain her 'rich girl' persona, despite the fact that she was talking about a boy she still crushed on pretty hard. "And... You know he's come over to talk to you before, right? He's the one you're always telling to go away, I just assumed you didn't think he was your type..."

"Hm? I have? ...Oh! Right... I remember now!" Trixie snapped her fingers as the nearly forgotten memories returned. "Timmy! I thought his name was Tommy all this time!" The girl laughed to herself, earning her an eye-roll from the blonde that she didn't notice. "Heehee! Maybe he wasn't my type before... But he seems... I dunno, more interesting today! I'mma go talk to him!"

"Wh-What?! What do you mean talk- Like... Ask him out?!"

"Mm-hm. Yep, I think I will. If I remember correctly, he can't be that poor, what with all the gifts he's tried to give me over the years. Maybe I'll give him a shot, see how it goes." Trixie spun around in her seat and stood up from it, bidding the overly large bodyguard that was always nearby the popular kids' table to stay, not unlike how one might command a dog to. "Be right back, V!"

Veronica slumped forward as her friend left, letting her chin come to rest in her hand as she leaned on her elbow. "Bye, I guess I'll... Stay here. As usual." She muttered out, a tinge of sadness in her words. With Trixie evidently no longer wanting to play hard to get, and knowing how desperate Timmy was to get Trixie's attention, what hope did she have?

Trixie, meanwhile; completely oblivious to her 'best friend's' internal struggle, walked the short distance across the school's cafeteria over to Timmy and his friends' table, stopping a few feet behind her brown-haired target. "Ahem." She cleared her throat in a polite yet commanding manner, expecting the bespectacled girl seated next to Timmy to give up her seat so she could speak to him more directly.

In response, this bespectacled girl, who Trixie would soon find out was named 'Tootie', turned and looked over her shoulder, her expression quickly turning flat and disinterested as she realized just who was trying to get her and her friends' attention. "I think you've got the-Enh?" Tootie began, but was interrupted by an elbow lightly jabbing into her right side, the owner of which was a blond boy in blue jeans and an olive-green jacket, known to his friends by the name Chester McBadbat. "Don't elbow me! I was being perfectly nice!" The girl turned away from Chester, her pigtails swaying back and forth from the motion.

"Wah!" The blond teen leaned back, narrowly avoiding one of the pigtails as it swung by his face. "Jeez Tootie, you could take someone's eye out with those things!"

AJ, the only other person at the table whose name Trixie already knew, due to the fact that he lived close to her, and was well-off himself, opted against butting into the argument, but chuckled nonetheless.

"I'm gonna do more than take an eye out at the rate you're going, buddy." Tootie turned back toward Chester with fire in her eyes as she cracked her knuckles threateningly.

"Ah-ah!" The blond boy smirked and wagged his index finger at the raven-haired girl. "One Vicky is enough, Toots."

"UGH!" Tootie again turned her head away from the blond teen, this time much quicker, in a lame attempt to hide the dusting of pink on her cheeks. "I HATE that name and you know it!"

"Oh-ho! You're blushing again, ain'tcha, Toots?" Chester reached over to the girl and put his arm around her shoulders, pulling both himself closer to her, and Tootie closer to him, initiating an awkward side-hug and bringing about a deeper blush on her face.

"Um... If I may-" Trixie began, hoping to get a word in once the argument began to die down-

"Hey Timmy? I think Chester's moving in on your territory-Agh!" AJ grabbed for somewhere below the lunch table and winced in pain, then mumbled under his breath before going back to his lunch.

"I am NOT anybody's territory!" Tootie narrowed her eyes at the bald teen, who went back to nursing his now injured shin. "Timmy is free to like and/or date anyone he wants, and I'm free to do the same. We're friends. That's F-R-I-E-N-D-"

"Yeah yeah, I get it." AJ waved his hand dismissively, honestly just wanting the conversation to be over and done with. "Some people can't take a joke..." The dark-skinned teen muttered under his breath.

"No, I can take plenty of jokes, so long as they're funny." Tootie, determined to have the last word, stuck her tongue out at AJ, then blew a raspberry at him.

"Ladies, LADIES! You both need to chill, alright? Let's just eat, and let Timmy sit and think about... Whatever he's been thinking about since he sat down." Chester returned to eating his lunch, soon followed by Tootie and AJ.

"O-kay... Now that I have the floor... Ahem, Timmy?" Trixie moved from behind the brunet, over to his left side, sitting down in the empty seat next to him.

This action seemed to be enough to finally rouse Timmy from his thoughts, as his eyes briefly scanned the cafeteria, then fell squarely on Trixie's blue ones. "Hm? Sorry, I was- Uh... Thinking about something... Ah... What's up, Trixie?"

"Well... I noticed you sitting over here with these... People, and was wondering if you'd want to join me, Veronica, Tad, and Chad for lunch? I feel like you and I don't really talk all that much, and I wanted to get to know you. Maybe... Hang out after school, or something?" The entire time she spoke, Trixie bore a sly, inviting smile on her lips, knowing that, with how often this boy chased after her, he'd be putty in her-

"Oh, that's... Nice, and I appreciate it, but... Um... I think I'm gonna pass, actually. Aside from Veronica, who I don't really know all that well, you and those guys are kind of..." Timmy trailed off, not wanting to say anything too mean, but mentally wishing he could say something to tip the girl off that he really wasn't interested in her, or her clique. "Um, guys? Help me out here?"

"Elitist?" AJ piped in helpfully, though he was clearly confused by his friend's actions.

"Snobbish?" Followed by Chester, also bearing a look of bemusement.

"Pricks?" And lastly by Tootie, wearing a wide and very satisfied smirk.

"Kind of." Timmy quickly turned back toward Trixie with an apologetic look. "Even if I did want to hang out with you guys, I'd want to do it with my friends too, and besides all that, I'm probably being babysat today, and my babysitter... Usually wants to know where I am at all times, easier for her to get paid that way."

"O-Oh... Um... Okay...?" The black-haired girl was almost struck dumb by the brunet's response. Never before had she, Trixie Tang, most popular and beautiful girl in their middle school-in Dimmsdale-been rejected, and by a boy who was unpopular and middle class, no less! It threw her completely off guard, and for nearly a whole minute, she simply didn't know how to properly respond.

Eventually though, she decided to break the silence as she stood up from her seat next to Timmy. "I... I guess I'll be going then. See you... Around?" Looking as though her understanding of the world had been shaken to it's absolute core, Trixie returned to her own table, whereupon Veronica tended to her dumbstruck friend.

"Wha-?" AJ gaped at his friend, wondering if this boy sitting at their table was, in fact, still Timmy, and not some imposter.

"Dang dude, that's- Uh... Huh..." Chester rubbed at the back of his head, in a state of similar disbelief to AJ.

"Hoh... Alright, I'll say it. You, Timmy Turner, are officially my hero." Tootie gave her best friend a reassuring pat on his shoulder, making him look at her hand, then up at her violet eyes, meeting them with his own confused blue ones.

"I am...? For what?"

"For rejecting Dimmsdale's most popular hussy! What else? ...Oh!" The bespectacled girl snapped her fingers. "And for choosing us, your friends, over hanging out with those snobs at the popular table!"

"Indeed, Timmy. For as long as you appeared to be enamored with Trixie, I'm truly pleasantly surprised that you summarily rejected her offer, despite the possible benefits it might have entailed. Well done." AJ smiled at his friend, nodding in approval.

"Jeez, gave me a tough act to follow, Brainiac..." Chester rolled his eyes at AJ, then looked over at Timmy. "Seriously though, dude. That was something else! You do realize you just turned down Trixie Tang, right? She was asking you out! So, not saying I don't appreciate you telling her that we're more important, but what gives, Timmy? You feel alright? Hit your head? Finally snap from Vicky torturing you?"

The brunet, amid all the praise from his friends, could do little to hide the practically luminescent blush now radiating off his cheeks, though to be fair, the blush wasn't completely brought on by their praise. "You guys... You're all my friends. I'm not gonna just leave you to hang out with the popular kids! And Trixie... She's not- I mean, I thought she was my type, but... Over the past few days, I got to thinking... She's probably not the girl for me. Don't get me wrong, she's attractive... But... Ah... AJ, what's that thing about beauty being...?"

"Oh, you mean beauty being only skin-deep with some people?"

"Yeah, that!" Timmy smiled widely at his friend. "Like... It makes more sense for me to find someone that cares about me, right?"

"Oh now you realize the thing I've been telling you for years!" Tootie facepalmed in clear exasperation. "Yes, Timmy. Trixie cares about one thing, and one thing only: Herself. There's no room for anybody else in that pretty little narcissistic head of hers."

Timmy scratched at his nose, the heat in his cheeks not subsiding in the least. "I... May have been a bit stubborn for a while... How someone looks on the outside... Isn't always able to reflect how they look on the inside... Or something."

"Ooh... Careful there, Timmy. You keep talking all philosophical, and you just might give AJ a run for his genius crown..." Tootie chuckled, happy that, while she no longer harbored her crush on the brunet; he'd finally wised up. "Ah... if only you'd figured it out a few months ago, you and I could've-"

"Hey!" Chester cut in loudly, his head coming to rest on Tootie's shoulder. "I'm literally right here!" The blond spoke in a clearly(mockingly) offended tone, his blue eyes blazing with faked anger.

"Oh calm down, Chester. Tootie may be over Timmy, but that doesn't mean you're automatically the next one in line..." AJ shook his head in disappointment, only to look up at his three friends to find he was the one getting the odd looks. "Wh-What? Did I give myself a milk mustache again?"

Timmy grinned, doing his best to look nonchalant and contain a fit of giggles rising up in him.

Tootie blushed a deep shade of pink and twiddled her thumbs, suddenly finding her hands more interesting than anything else.

And Chester, with a much lighter blush than Tootie's, simply grinned at his friend as he brought his arms up and laced his fingers together behind his head.

"What? What's with those faces?! You guys know something I don't?" AJ looked between his three friends warily, suddenly feeling like he was the butt of some joke he hadn't even heard! "What don't I know?!"

"About these two-" Timmy used his right index finger to gesture back and forth between Chester and Tootie. "Apparently."

"I don't..." AJ began, his own eyes darting back and forth between his two friends. "Okay... What don't I know about Chester and Tootie?"

"Wow, dude. All those brains, and you really haven't noticed?" Chester's grin grew a bit wider as he felt Tootie nudge his leg with her foot, a silent request he knew meant she wanted him to shut up.

"He- He's probably just not very perceptive, Chester." Tootie emphasized the blond's name as she spoke, glaring daggers at her 'friend'.

"Heheh... There's that temper again..." Chester chuckled as he once again put his arm around Tootie's slightly smaller form, pulling her into another side-hug. "Lucky for you, I like your temper. And you."

The raven-haired girl flinched and blushed furiously at Chester's touch, burying her face in her hands in a poor attempt to hide the bright red color of her face. "D-Don't make me hurt y-you..."

AJ stared at his two friends, mouth agape once more, and briefly looked over at Timmy, who'd gone back to daydreaming about whatever he'd been lost in thought over for most of the day. "Chester? And you, Tootie? And... And Timmy?! You knew?!"

"Hm?" The brunet focused his gaze on AJ as his train of thought was interrupted. "About Chester and Tootie? I mean, yeah, Tootie's been chasing after me for the past four years or so, how could I not notice her suddenly stopping out of nowhere?"

"B-But you- And them- And I didn't even-" AJ grabbed his head, and ran the fingers of both hands over it, trying his best to comprehend the information he'd abruptly been exposed to. "HOW AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO'S KEPT OUT OF THE LOOP ON THESE THINGS?!" AJ very nearly screamed, though his voice was still loud enough to silence everyone in the cafeteria and draw their attention to the small table occupied by Timmy and his friends.

"Ah... Two-thirty can't come soon enough..." Timmy thought to himself as he shook his head, then took a deep breath, preparing himself for the long explanation he'd no doubt have to assist Tootie and Chester with in regards to their newly-formed relationship. It appeared his musings on a certain babysitter would have to wait.

Later, on the school bus...

"Man..." AJ muttered as he dropped down from the seat he'd been peeking over in front of himself and Timmy. "That's gonna take some getting used to..."

"You spying on our friends, AJ?" The brunet peeked over the seat as well, catching sight of Chester's blond hair, and the very beginnings of Tootie's pigtails. After a moment, and no response from the apparent genius, he sat back down, turning his attention to AJ again. "...Well I think they're pretty good together. Tootie's really calmed down since Chester started... Dating her? I guess they're dating..."

"How is this not bugging you?!" The bald teen whispered out harshly, nodding down the aisle toward where Tootie and Chester were. "I know you weren't especially fond of Tootie's advances, but you're not- I dunno... This doesn't weird you out or anything? Our two best friends are dating!"

"Uh-huh. And that means Tootie can finally be with someone who actually wants to be with her, someone who likes her. Gonna be honest AJ, I'm really happy about not having a stalker." Timmy averted his gaze from his friend as he finished, turning to instead look out the window at the passing scenery. The bus already wasn't far from his house.

"I-" AJ began, a long-winded retort on the tip of his tongue, but took pause as he remembered two things. The first being that his friend was right, Tootie being happy with someone, even if he found it odd that that someone was Chester; was not a bad thing. Second, he remembered the importance of this particular Wednesday, March twenty-first. Putting off his concern over Tootie and Chester's relationship, the bald teen placed his hand on Timmy's shoulder, getting his attention once again. "I just remembered something! Today's your birthday, right?"

Timmy's response was a blank stare, realizing he'd been so deep in thought today, he'd actually managed to forget his own birthday. "Oh wow... Yeah, you're right!" The teen's cheeks pinkened in embarrassment, causing him to reflexively bring his hand up and scratch at his nose with his index finger. "Eheh... Guess I have had a lot on my mind!"

"So it would seem." AJ shot the brunet a flat look, somehow unsurprised that Timmy could be so forgetful. "Your parents throwing a party?"

"I... Guess so?" Timmy shrugged. He knew his parents wouldn't forget his birthday, despite how forgetful they tended to be when it came to their only son, but he honestly didn't know if they'd throw a party or not, let alone when it would be if it did happen.

"Hm..." AJ scratched his chin in thought, brow knitted in concentration. "Well... If I had to guess, chances are they'll be doing it over the weekend, that makes more sense, seeing as how we'll actually be able to go... That's what they've done before, right?"

"Yeah, pretty much everytime my birthday fell on a school day, they'd throw me a party either Friday, or during the weekend."

"Right, right... Probably what they'll do this time as well then. I'll tell my parents today, see if I'll be able to show up..." The bald teen nodded, seemingly agreeing with his own thought processes. "Oh!" AJ smirked, a knowing expression on his face. "And don't forget to tell the two lovebirds up front, in case they forgot with all the making out they've been-"

"Ah!" Timmy interrupted, covering his ears with his hands. "Stop! I don't know how far Chester and Tootie are in their relationship, and I don't need my brain imagining it either!" The buck-toothed teen stood up from his seat as the bus came to as stop, then squeezed past AJ to quickly make his way down the aisle.

He came to a stop next to the seat occupied by Chester and Tootie, grinning to himself as the raven-haired girl quickly yanked her hand out from under Chester's as she saw her ex-crush. "So, you two coming to my birthday party that might possibly happen maybe over the weekend?"

The blond facepalmed, evidently just now remembering that Timmy's birthday was today, and that he hadn't picked up any sort of gift for his best friend. "That-Uh, that's today?"

"Really, Chester? You've known Timmy longer than I've known him, and you forgot what day his birthday is?" Tootie frowned in disappointment and shook her head. "Well I got you something, since I did remember!" The bespectacled girl blinked her eyes closed and smiled proudly as she crossed her arms. Though after a few seconds, she peeked her right eye open as she felt Timmy and Chester's eyes on her, following it with her left, then a loud, annoyed huff. "Alright fine! So maybe I forgot too!" The girl pouted, doing her best to keep from making eye contact with either Timmy or Chester. "...Vicky reminded me."

"Picked up the gift too, didn't she?" The blond remarked with a sly grin.

"Yes, Chester, she did." Tootie glared at the teen, speaking through clenched teeth as a bright pink blush grew across her cheeks. "Y'know what? Shut up! The fact that I forgot Timmy's birthday, the same Timmy whose life I used to know everything about; means that you are more of a distraction than he is! You should be flattered-Eep!"

The raven-haired girl cut off her own sentence with an adorable squeak as Chester put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her into yet another side-hug. "Never said I wasn't, Toots."

"Nnh..." Tootie, still being unused to having her affection returned, blushed bright red and hid her face in her hands again, letting out a low, flustered-sounding whine.

"Jeez, these two are sweet enough to give me diabetes... And I don't even know what that is!" Timmy thought to himself. "So, you two gonna come by then?"

"Will there be cake?" Chester asked, momentarily taking his eyes off his girlfriend.

"Considering it's my birthday party... The chances of there being cake are probably higher than usual... So yeah, there'll be cake."

"Well I'm sold. Count on it, bro! Tootie and I'll be there!" The blond subtly tightened his grip on the slightly smaller girl's shoulders, which seemed to calm her down, as she moved her hands far enough away from her face to shoot him a little smile.

"Cool, I'll... Let you two know if it's actually happening when I get to school tomorrow." With a last nod of farewell to the young couple, Timmy made his way down the rest of the aisle and off the bus, stopping on the sidewalk in front of his house as he noticed that a certain red-head's car was parked in the driveway in place of his parents' car.

As his young mind registered this fact, Timmy couldn't hide the wide smile that quickly formed on his lips; a warm, almost giddy feeling coursing through him as his heart marginally sped up.

It had been just under a week since his little 'incident' that left him with a blue, sticky blob of bubblegum in his hair, and in those short few days, Timmy had managed(with a fair bit of receptiveness from the red-head herself) to give his relationship with Vicky a complete one-eighty from how the past four years had been. She was by no means the angelic fountain of goodness that his wishes tended to turn her into, but her demeanor, at least around him, was almost entirely different. They joked, they laughed, they even played video games and watched TV together!

"And for once... I didn't even need to wish for anything!" The brunet giggled as he climbed the small set of stairs of his front porch, opened his front door, and headed inside, closing it behind him. Yet as he entered the living room, he couldn't help but feel like something was... Decidedly off about his home. The couch, where he was positive he'd find Vicky at this time of day, was strangely empty, no red-haired eighteen year old in sight, though the TV had been inexplicably left on.

And an odd smell hit his nostrils. It was slightly sweet, almost pastry-like, but marred by another scent, one that reminded the teen of burnt toast.

BeepBeepBeep

"Argh! Every five fricking seconds!"

Timmy heard his babysitter, clearly in distress; yell at what he assumed was the fire alarm, judging by the beeping. "Wait... The fire alarm? Whats on fire?!" Feeling a sudden rush of adrenaline, the brunet rushed through the living room, narrowly avoiding smashing his shin on the coffee table as he passed it and shoved open the door that separated the living room form the kitchen. "Vicky?! Where's the-" Timmy paused, completely caught off guard by the catastrophic scene in the kitchen. Everywhere he looked, there was some kind of whitish, batter-like substance sticking to the floor, walls, and even parts of the ceiling. The kitchen table was a soggy mess of flour, sugar, water, and things that at one time were probably eggs, their shells discarded and smashed, long forgotten amid the devastation.

In the sink sat several black pans, many of which held the white battery substance smeared all around the kitchen, though a few on top held a darker, nearly blackened substance, likely the pans holding batter that had made it to the stove.

Finally, the countertops and cupboards were in a similar state of disaster, with some being wide open, their ceramic contents splashed with even more of the whitish substance; a few more thankfully closed and undisturbed, and one actually hanging on with only a single hinge!

Once his brain had taken stock of the warzone that was once his house's kitchen, Timmy's eyes at last fell upon the apparent cause of all the destruction: his babysitter. The red-head, unsurprisingly, didn't look all that out of place in the room, what with her clothes stained with varying amounts of white batter and egg yolks. Her exposed skin fared about the same, with her hands and forearms covered in flour, her exposed midriff having batter dripping down it, and her face bearing streaks of batter that suggested she'd absentmindedly tried to wipe her face a few times. Even her fiery red hair was not spared, as it too managed to have what appeared to be an egg yolk rubbed into it.

The red-head held a broom in her hands, positioned mid-swing at the fire alarm, which chose this very moment to cease its complaints, plunging the kitchen into silence.

Timmy took another slow, appreciative glance around the room, bringing his hand up to rub the back of his head. He opened his mouth to speak when his gaze fell back on his babysitter, but was quick to shut it, as his brain simply couldn't think of what to say at the moment.

Vicky narrowed her eyes at the brunet, instantly recognizing the look he was giving her. "What."