The Don't List:
Part IV: Peppermint
For the fourth rule on the list, Jimmy would have to take a trip downtown, buy a silly bag of chocolate and peppermint things and then break into Cindy's car and leave it there. And then wait.
This wasn't a good idea, of course. It would just backfire in Jimmy's face, but he was past caring, now. He had already failed three times.
And like any genius should know, you never succeed if you stop trying.
And so Jimmy rummaged around his room for a good twenty minutes just to find ten dollars, which was the cost of the little bag of Peppermint Bark at Borders. And he thought that was totally ridiculous, of course, but like he told himself every morning: this was Cindy, and she was worth it.
His parents didn't know what he was up to, and since it was just before six in the morning and school started at 8:30, Jimmy decided it was best to walk to the bus stop just a block away, ride downtown to Borders, get the freaking stuff, and ride the bus back and then go to school. That would take about an hour, if everything went smoothly.
…If.
Jimmy wasn't a superstitious person, even though he had seen plenty of crazy things in his life. Almost everything could be explained by science, but he supposed that this was one of those things that couldn't.
He had arrived at the bus stop just two minutes late (or at least, that's what the homeless man sitting on the bench told him, and he had been laughing at Jimmy) and had to wait at least another twenty minutes for the next one to arrive.
When he got to Borders, he found that there were only two bags of Peppermint Bark left, and Jimmy made a dash for one, smiling triumphantly when he had the bag in his hands. He even thought about buying the last one, but then decided against it…what if some guy (or maybe even a girl) was having the same problem he was, and needed to buy a bag of Peppermint Bark and break into his girlfriends' car and leave it in there?
You never know.
So Jimmy just paid for the bag, left Borders, and got on the bus and happily made his way home.
But when he got home, he realized he had underestimated the time it would take to get home, and found that it was already 8:35, and he was late for school.
And since Jimmy was late for school, he had obviously missed the bus, and now he would have to ask for a ride from his mom and then he would have to explain why he wasn't home this morning.
Shit.
All for Cindy, Jimmy thought, taking a deep breath.
This was all for Cindy.
After spending a good ten minutes explaining to his mother why he hadn't been home all morning and was going to be late for school, she finally looked convinced enough to give him a ride to school, and by then, Jimmy was already about a half an hour late.
But this could work to his advantage, he considered. If he could break into Cindy's car while everyone was in class, then that was a good thing.
Because honestly, Jimmy hadn't planned how he would get the bag of Peppermint Bark into Cindy's car, but he was glad he had an idea now.
After waving goodbye to his mom, with a handy little excuse note in his hand to give to the secretary when he got inside, he stalked over to Cindy's car and easily worked his way into Cindy's car without any problems or damage to the car itself, set the bag right on her dash, in sight and looking very tempting.
Jimmy smiled, and made his way inside.
"…suspended?"
"You are an hour late, and you were caught breaking into another student's car in the parking lot just minutes ago! We have evidence, Jimmy. You will be suspended for a week."
"…but…I have a note!" Jimmy was almost on his knees, begging the principal to please please please not suspend him. But of course, begging wouldn't help. He would have to grovel.
The principal just sighed, rolling her eyes. "It's invalid now," She commented in a sly tone, plucking the note from Jimmy's outstretched hand and ripped it in half, letting it flutter to her cluttered desk.
Jimmy just stared in awe.
Later that day, when the final bell had rung and Cindy was making her way through the parking lot, she noticed something silver and shiny glinting obnoxiously from the dashboard. She froze, her hand halfway to the handle of the door.
No!
She made quick work of putting the key in her door and unlocking it, scrambling into her seat and grabbing the bag off the dash and clutching it.
Peppermint Bark. She lifted it and saw that it was indeed authentic, the Borders logo on the bottom and the price equaling ten dollars.
She opened the bag slowly, pulling one square of packaged chocolate and peppermint deliciousness, tempted to open it, but not really wanting to.
Cindy stared at the small chocolate for a few minutes before throwing it back in the bag.
Jimmy would die.
Part V: Library
Suspended.
Not only suspended, but grounded, and in a lot of trouble. Jimmy had been sent home early after a little more begging, got yelled at a little, and sent upstairs for the next week.
But that doesn't mean he couldn't do the next step in his plan, and just because he was suspended didn't mean he couldn't have visitors, and his parents weren't even home! They didn't even have to know. It would all work out wonderfully.
And Cindy went to the library probably every two weeks or so, to get books and return them whenever she needed. It was Tuesday. Library day, of course.
Jimmy usually didn't believe in Fate, but it seemed that he was becoming more of a believer each day.
Cindy was wary. She was wary; but that didn't mean she was actually acting on the unpleasant feeling in her gut. She knew Jimmy had gotten suspended, but she didn't feel guilty at all. It was his own fault.
Since Cindy knew what she wrote on the List, and she knew that Jimmy would be trying to bait her once she walked by, but it was like some invisible force was forcing her to go to the library like every other time, and walk along the sidewalk slowly and just stare at his window.
Some people never learn.
Just keep looking forward, Cindy advised herself, but she could see his open window from the corner of her eye, the curtain fluttering with the movement of the slight breeze. She sighed and gave up, glancing towards Jimmy's house and immediately regretting it when she did.
His window was open, but only slightly, and she could see his dark curtains fluttering lightly on the inside. It was so inviting, so nostalgic, so happy looking. It definitely made her interest grow, and she could feel herself drifting away from the sidewalk, across the street, and up the steps of Jimmy Neutron's porch.
She didn't even realize what was going on until after she rang the doorbell and the door was opening. Mrs. Neutron smiled, surprised, at Cindy and opened the door wider. "Cindy! What a nice surprise. Are you here for Jimmy?"
Cindy almost straight out panicked as she scrambled her brain for excuses. "Um…no, actually. I wanted to talk to you!"
Judy Neutron narrowed her eyes and raised a brow at the same time. "Really? What about?"
Looking at everything but Mrs. Neutron herself, Cindy finally came up with the perfect excuse. "Well, I just wanted to…to thank you. For always being there for me…and…treating me…like a daughter! You know."
Now that Cindy had made the situation almost incredibly awkward, she just wanted the ground below her to open up and swallow her whole.
But Judy just smiled pleasantly at her. "Oh, no need to thank me, dear. I'm always here for you. Is there anything else you wanted?"
Cindy knew that Mrs. Neutron could see straight through her lies, but played along and shook her head. "Nope. I'll…be going now!"
And she ran down the steps of the porch and down the walk without looking back, not stopping until she reached the safety of inside her house.
How odd, Judy shut the door and wondered why Cindy was so against her son all of a sudden. It was so strange. She sighed when she heard footsteps on the stairs, and looked up to see Jimmy standing on the last one, staring at the door.
"Was someone here?"
"Cindy was. But she just left. She seemed very…disorientated." Jimmy's mom shook her head, walking quietly back into the kitchen without another word.
Jimmy, who just knew something like that would happen, just smiled.
It had worked.
Part VI: What's Wrong, Cindy?
The next day Cindy Vortex was not happy.
Jimmy was doing the exact opposite of the List she had given him, of course. After a long night of thinking over things, Cindy realized he was just going down the list, and now he was almost halfway through.
But today, she was definitely ready. It was Jimmy's first day back, after his suspension from breaking into her car, and he would most likely just jump right back into routine. With enthusiasm, knowing him.
But when he would give up?
She didn't like to admit it, but she hoped he never did.
It started with notes. Tiny, white scraps of paper thrown over her shoulder and onto her desk, with that annoying, scrawling text, "What's wrong?"
And it continued, all day long. She found notes in her locker, in her textbooks, stuck on the bottom of her shoe during Study Hall.
She wasn't even sure if she had a valid reason for looking so angry today, other than him. The one person who kept asking her what was wrong was the person who was at fault in the first place!
But she couldn't tell him that, oh no. She couldn't let him know that he was actually getting to her. He was not going to win.
In the back of her mind, the rising question arose, "When did this become a game?"
And unfortunately, Cindy knew the answer.
Jimmy sure was trying his hardest. He sent notes through the vents of her locker between classes and passed them during class time. He had thrown one right in front of her during Study Hall, but she had just stepped on it and it had stuck to the bottom of her shoe.
He knew that she thought she was being sneaky and mysterious and mean, which she sort of was, but now that he knew that he was ahead in the game, he could look past her steely demeanor and keep pushing her and pushing her until she broke. And break she would.
It was in Gym when he tried again, the last class of the day.
They were playing dodge ball, and Jimmy knew what was going to happen before it actually did. Cindy wasn't even paying attention, her focus elsewhere. A ball was heading straight for her head, and of course, it didn't look like she had any intention at all to dodge it.
So Jimmy caught the ball easily before it hit her, bumping into her shoulder in the process and jarring her out of her daze. She jumped when she saw him, her eyes widening.
There was a moment where they just stared into each other's eyes, and Jimmy swore that he saw a tear.
But then she blinked, and he changed his mind.
"What's wrong, Cindy?"
The almost soft look in her eyes left immediately, and her gaze narrowed as she stalked away.
I think I just screwed up, Jimmy thought sadly, before throwing the ball he had caught at someone else and walking off himself.
Review!
P.S. All the facts about Peppermint Bark are real. I ate some while writing this part. =)