Disclaimer: I do not own Jimmy Neutron.
Today, Carl and Sheen begin to get along more with Jimmy, slowly isolating their old friends Cindy and Libby.
Carl and Sheen had stepped on the bus the next morning and sat in the row next to Cindy and Libby as usual. Except this time, something felt different about the atmosphere. They couldn't quite put their fingers on it…until they realized that the usually empty spot behind them had finally been occupied.
And who was sitting there? None other than the boy they had met yesterday.
Jimmy was making some modifications to his Levitation Ray as Carl and Sheen peeked over. They kept eyeballing the boy genius as he twisted his screwdriver into the trigger on the Ray.
"Hey, aren't you that kid we met yesterday?" asked Sheen.
Jimmy looked up from what he was doing.
"Oh, you guys again," he said.
"What are you working on?" asked Carl.
"My new and improved Levitation Ray," replied Jimmy.
"Levitation?" asked Carl and Sheen.
"Basically, when I point it at something, the object will start to float in midair," replied Jimmy, explaining his latest invention, "And then I can move it in any direction I want."
"Whoa! Cool!" exclaimed Sheen, "I could make my Ultra Lord figures really fly with that thing! Can I try it?"
"Well…" said Jimmy, "I'd have to test it first to see if it actually works."
"Well then test it already!" cried Sheen, his mind exploding with possibilities.
"If you insist," said Jimmy with a devilish grin.
Jimmy pointed the Levitation Ray at a bottle of Purple Flurp that was in the cup holder by the bus driver. The Levitation Ray began to increase in weight.
"I think I got a grip on it!" exclaimed Jimmy.
"Make it float some more!" cried an excited Carl.
However, when Jimmy moved his Levitation Ray up, it wasn't the Purple Flurp that went up in the air…it was the bus itself. In less than a second, the bus went from the ground to 500 feet in the air, falling right towards Lindbergh Elementary. Needless to say, lots of the kids on the bus were screaming in fear.
"Do something!" screamed Carl, "Do something!"
Jimmy didn't have to be told twice. He had been used to his parents telling him to clean up his messes after his inventions had caused chaos. Jimmy quickly reversed the wirings on the inside, and then shot the ray again just as it was about to crash face first into the ground. Jimmy managed to rotate the bus and lower it to just a few feet above the ground, and when he released it, the bus landed safely.
"Whew," said Jimmy, "That was a close one."
"Too close," sighed Carl, getting out his inhaler.
"Awesome!" cried Sheen, "Let's do that again!"
"NO!" cried everyone else on the bus.
The four friends had a difficult time getting used to the fact that the seat in front of Sheen and between Cindy and Carl had finally been occupied…let alone by the boy who almost got them killed on the bus. And at the most unexpected of moments, Carl and Sheen finally realized where they had seen Jimmy's parents before.
"Hey, wait a minute," pondered Sheen, "Your parents were talking to the principal yesterday!"
"So that really pretty lady is your mom?" asked Carl.
An awkward moment of silence followed, resulting in Carl sinking into his chair just as the teacher, Miss Fowl, entered the classroom.
"Ah, I see we have a new face in class," said Miss Fowl, turning her attention towards Jimmy, "Let's see…you're Jimmy Neutron, right?"
"That's me," replied Jimmy.
"I was wondering what your name was," said Carl, "You never said it yesterday."
By now, class had started, and the first part of the day involved show and tell. Jimmy wasn't told this, but he was never without an invention of his, so he wasn't exactly unprepared for a presentation.
"This is Ultra Lord!" exclaimed Sheen when it was his turn.
"For the love of all that is holy, Sheen," said Miss Fowl, "Can't you bring something other than Ultra Lord?"
Libby had presented the newest Green Day album that she had gotten. Carl Wheezer brought in his Llama Lover Society ID Card. Cindy Vortex had brought in a large plant that she had planted herself, which usually awed the class. Today, however, would be different.
"Jimmy, normally at this time of week, we do show and tell, so if you don't have anything, don't feel bad about it," said Miss Fowl.
"That won't be necessary," replied Jimmy, walking up to the front of the class, "I think I might have something."
Pulling out two small suction cups, he placed them on the bottom of his shoes, and the class gasped in awe when he began jumping higher into the air than any normal person.
"Sweet muffins!" cried Miss Fowl, "Did you build that yourself?"
"Among other things," replied Jimmy, "I also built a Cheese Ray, a Microscopic Basketball Court, a built-in Lie Detector in my dog Goddard, and I'm currently working on a Shrink Ray."
"My word!" exclaimed Miss Fowl.
"He's a genius!" cried Sheen.
Right as he said that, Jimmy jumped a little too high, ramming his large head into the ceiling. His legs were still running, trying to get out of that uncomfortable position.
"Okay, but still!" cried Sheen.
At lunchtime, Carl, Sheen, Cindy, and Libby all sat at the same section of the table (boys on one end, girls on the other) as usual. Carl and Sheen couldn't shut up about the new genius in town, leaving Libby and Cindy with doubts about him.
"Man, that is one cool kid!" exclaimed Carl.
"Okay, so he has some cool toys," moaned Cindy, "But that's all we know about him. He might not be as much of a genius as you guys say he is."
"Sounds to me like someone is worried about losing her 'smartest kid in Retroville' title," Sheen said.
"Sounds to me like someone wants a spoon shoved down their throat!" shouted Cindy, lunging towards Sheen.
Sheen leaped back as Libby held Cindy back from lunging at Sheen.
"Calm down, guys!" said Libby, and after everyone had fallen quiet, "Look guys, we've all been good friends since we were babies! Are we really gonna let one guy tear us apart?"
"No," the other three said quietly.
"Oh, hey look!" cried Carl, "There's Jimmy!"
Sure enough, Jimmy had been walking by with a bag lunch looking for somewhere quiet to sit and write notes on his projects. Sadly, that wasn't what he was going to get.
"Come sit with us, Jimmy!" shouted Sheen.
Jimmy sat in between Carl and Sheen, and the more they talked to Jimmy and asked about what other cool inventions he had, the more Cindy and Libby felt left out.
"Can we play with those super jump thingies after school, Jimmy?" asked Sheen, "I wanna crash into the ceiling like you did!"
"Well, it would take me a few minutes to make more, but yeah, I suppose we could," replied Jimmy.
"Huzzah!" exclaimed Carl.
Both Jimmy and Sheen looked at Carl in confusion.
"What?" asked Sheen.
"Huzzah," Carl repeated, "It's a fancy way of saying 'Cool!'"
After a few minutes of conversation, it had been established that Jimmy was now the "cool best friend" for Carl and Sheen. All three of them looked next to them and finally acknowledged the two girls that were sitting across from them.
"Oh hey," said Sheen, "How long have you been here?"
"The whole time!" shouted Cindy.
"You didn't even know we were here?" asked Libby.
"Not a clue," replied Carl.
"Well, I wanna try out that Super-Jump thing," said Sheen, grabbing Jimmy and Carl, "See you gals later!"
The three boys walked out of the cafeteria leaving Cindy and Libby by themselves.
"Did they…just ditch us for the new guy?" asked Libby.
"I think they just did," replied Cindy.
A moment of silence followed, neither of the girls were sure how to react to their two friends being more fascinated by Jimmy than the ones who had known them since they were young…well, younger anyway.
"Still," said Cindy, "At least he's smart. But he's no genius."