Disclaimer: I do not own Jimmy Neutron.
Chapter 2: Pieces of a Puzzle
"Um, Cindy?" Carl began uneasily. "I've got one question."
The blonde female sighed in exasperation. "What is it, Carl?" she asked with a roll of her limpid green eyes, strumming her fingers impatiently across the tabletop.
"Why didn't you get any lunch?" he inquired, eyeing his own empty tray with hunger.
"Why? Did you want to eat mine, too?" she snapped, noticing the look on his face.
"Um...maybe...?" he said sheepishly.
Cindy smacked a hand against her forehead. Why was she sitting with such numbskulls again? Oh, yeah. Because of Neutron, that was why. "Sheen! Get over there now!" she suddenly yelled in frustration.
"For the love of UltraLord, Cindy! You don't have to be so rude!" he exclaimed. "I'm going, I'm going!" He stood up quickly, then shot a suspicious glance at Carl. "Don't even think about touching my food! I'm not finished!"
"OK," Carl agreed. When Sheen's back was turned, however, he slowly inched his pointer finger towards the pudding on Sheen's tray.
Sheen immediately whirled around again. "I mean it!" he called.
Carl drew back, startled. "OK!"
Cindy shook her head in amusement.
Jimmy was sitting at a table, surrounded by the same girls who had crowded him in the hallway. He was in the midst of telling them about one of his inventions, when Sheen broke into the conversation.
"Jimmy! Where's Libby?" he demanded.
Jimmy looked up at his best friend in surprise. "Uh...right there, Sheen," he replied, pointing across the table.
Sheen marched around and grabbed his "girlfriend" by the forearm.
"Sheen!" she exclaimed. "What in the name of music do you think you're doin'?" She gave him "the look" while all the onlookers snickered.
"Libby, you're my girlfriend. You should be sitting with me!" Sheen pleaded after dropping her arm like she wanted.
Now Libby was infuriated. "That's it, Sheen! Not in front of all these people! You're comin' with me!" She grabbed him by the shirt and dragged him off. All the other girls watched with entertained smiles and then turned back to the previous center of attention: Jimmy.
Sheen grinned at the pretty, dark-skinned 11-year-old girl as she pulled him out of the cafeteria and into an empty hallway. Without realizing it, she'd done exactly what he'd wanted her to: leave Jimmy's table. Plus, he had always thought she looked attractive when she was angry.
"I can't believe you embarrassed me in front o' all those kids...especially Jimmy!" Libby burst out.
"Come on, Libby!" Sheen beseeched her, giving her his big puppy eyes. "Why were you even at his table?"
Seeing how cute he looked, Libby calmed down a little and let out a submissive sigh. "'Cause Sheen," she tried to explain, "Jimmy's...the new Nick."
"The new Nick?" Sheen repeated in shock. "He's nothing like Nick! He's still a nerd! Besides, you never sat at Nick's table!"
"Well..." Libby hesitated. He did have a point. "Everyone's sittin' there. And don't even try usin' my parents' line...'If everyone jumped off a cliff, would you?' I get that enough already!"
"No, no, no! I was going to say, 'if everybody jumped off a bridge, would you?'" Sheen replied innocently.
Libby just rolled her eyes. "Don't even gimme that, Sheen. Ya know what I'm sayin'."
"Well...is Cindy sitting at Jimmy's table?" he questioned her.
"Sheen—" she began to protest.
"Hey, let me talk! I'm on a roll here!" her boyfriend interrupted.
Libby thought about it for a few seconds, then waved a hand in permission. "OK, go on."
"You and Cindy are best friends. Carl, Jimmy and I are best friends. Cindy didn't want to sit with Jimmy, so you ditched her, and Jimmy didn't want to sit with me and Carl, so he ditched us. Now Cindy's stuck sitting with Mr. Hefty-Llama-Lover!" Sheen passionately vociferated. "...And Nick," he added under his breath.
"Sheen!" Libby burst into giggles. "How could ya make fun o' your own best friend?"
"Well, it's true," Sheen countered with a smile. "Besides, I could get along fine without Carl. But because he's always around Jimmy I'm stuck with him. I mean, when I decided I missed you—"
"Aw," Libby broke in.
"—when I decided I missed you," Sheen continued, "I got up from the table and specifically told him not to touch my food. So what does he do? Tries to touch it when I turn my back! I mean, sheesh! He's probably polished the tray off by now! I can't imagine how he's torturing Cindy!"
"I get the point," Libby grinned. "So basically you told me all that 'cause you really want me to be sittin' with you. Is that it?"
"Yes...," Sheen sighed, then exclaimed, "and leave Jimmy alone! He's a jerk for shunning me and Carl!"
"An' we all know Cindy has a thing for 'im," Libby pointed out. "I don't know why she won't sit with 'im. Everyone else is, so it's not like it'll ruin her image. Plus, he practically invited 'er 'imself. I mean, could it honestly kill 'er just this once?"
Sheen swung open the doors leading into the cafeteria and the two went and sat down with Cindy, Carl and Nick.
Carl squirmed uneasily in his seat when he saw them approach. "Um, Sheen, there's something you should know..."
"Carl!" his friend interrupted, fuming, as he took a seat next to the plump, red-haired boy. "You ate my lunch! I specifically told you not to touch it! Twice!"
Carl winced. "That's just what I was going to tell you," he whined. "But you took so long to talk to Libby that I thought you weren't coming back!"
"What are you talking about? I was only gone for five minutes!"
"It was at least ten!"
"Fine! Ten! That's barely anything!" Sheen barked.
"Actually, he waited for a minute after you left and then began devouring it like there was no tommorrow," Cindy spoke up.
"You are so buying me lunch tomorrow!" Sheen yelled.
"Can you two shut up and get back to business here?!" Libby interrupted, thouroughly tired of their arguing.
"Oh, yeah," Sheen complied, calming down immediately. "Libby's here," he pointed out to Cindy.
Cindy rolled her eyes. "Um, as if I can't see that!" she scoffed. Then she turned to Libby (who was sitting to her immediate right) and gave her best friend a genuine smile. "Libby! I'm so glad you're back! What happened?" she questioned.
"Like, with—" Libby began.
"Yeah."
"And—"
"Yeah."
Nick Dean let out a sigh. "Are you two going to continue like that?" he asked in exasperation. "I thought we were trying to put a stop to Neutron here."
"Sorry, Nick," Libby apologized.
"I just don't get how all these girls, all at once, could develop a huge, overpowering crush on such a—a—" Cindy rummaged for the right word.
"Loser?" Nick suggested.
Cindy shrugged. "Works for me. I mean, it just doesn't make sense. Things like that just don't happen—especially not all at once!"
"And it felt weird—still does. It's like, when he walked in the door o' the classroom, I suddenly couldn't keep my eyes off 'im. Like, I was almost...obsessed," Libby tried to explain. "I've never found Neutron attractive. Plus, I usually don't act like that when I like a guy anyway. It felt...unnatural...but I just couldn't help it."
Cindy's ears perked up and her eyes grew wide. "Like you were deprived of your free will?"
"Yeah!" Libby agreed.
"Are all of you thinking what I'm thinking?" Cindy asked, looking around the table from one person to the next.
"You really need to go get some food?" Carl guessed.
"No! That this whole thing reeks of the love potion!" Cindy snapped.
"Love potion?" Sheen gasped. "No way! Are you telling me Jimmy used the love potion on all the girls so that he could steal my girlfriend?!" he raved.
"And all the other chicks, too!" Nick added.
"Why, when I get a hold of that deceiving, back-stabbing, conniving, malevolent, loathsome little jerk I'm gonna—" Sheen kept on going.
"Wow, I didn't know you had such a large vocabulary, Sheen," Libby complemented him, impressed.
"Actually I don't know what any of those words mean," he humbly clarified. "I just heard Jimmy using them when he was yelling about Cindy one time in his lab."
"Gee, thanks," Cindy said sarcastically.
Libby just shook her head and laughed.
"Except...why isn't Cindy affected?" Sheen asked.
Silence befell the five as all eyes turned to the aforementioned blonde.
"Yeah, why aren't you affected, Cindy? I want to know," Carl piped up.
"Jeesh, stop interrogating me!" Cindy exclaimed. "I—I—um...I must hate him too much for it to work," she improvised, not fully believing her own explanation. Didn't Jimmy hate her just as much? Why had it worked on him and not her? Maybe he had tweaked it and it wasn't as strong. Or, maybe...she didn't want to think it, but...what if, deep down, she loved him too much already for the change to take place?
"I donno," Libby was saying. "When Jimmy was exposed to it, didn't it work on him? And I'd say your 'hatred' for each other is pretty much equal...Cindy?" Her best friend wasn't paying attention to her and looked as if she were deep in thought. "Cindy?" Libby repeated.
"Oh, uh, sorry," Cindy mumbled, coming back to reality. "So, who has an idea of how we can expose Neutron's evil scheme?"
"Well...if anyone's confused about why you're not affected by Jimmy's potion, it would be him, right?" Libby asked.
"Right, although I don't see where you're taking this," Cindy commented.
Libby just flashed her a grin. "You'll see."
A/N: Well, this is installment number two. I hope everyone has enjoyed the fanfiction so far. I know it's a lot different from my usual writing style; more comedic than dramatic. And it'll most likely be a lot shorter than my usual fanfictions, too. Perhaps only a couple of chapters. It's just an old idea that I wanted to take a shot at for fun...I'm not as serious about this as I am with My Happy Ending. Just jot me a review and tell me what you think!
