I apologize that this is a short chapter, but it serves to preface my next two chapters, which will be considerably longer, since they'll be the last two chapters!
Onwards!
Following her emotional altercation with Jimmy, Cindy headed home and curled into bed. She wept ceaselessly into her pillow until she fell asleep from fatigue.
When Cindy's mother returned home from work, she found her daughter fast asleep. Sasha was angry, but the sight of Cindy passed out in her bed by seven PM stirred a sort of motherly pity in her. It wasn't often that Sasha felt any sort of prolonged affection for her daughter, so she decided to deal with Cindy in the morning. She'd had a long day herself.
Cindy woke up early the following morning. Instead of getting out of bed to make the most of her day as she might have done most days, she laid back, pulling her blanket more tightly to her body. Her whole body felt heavy, weighed down by the ghost of her irretrievable self and the wretched reality of her life.
Her self pity didn't last for long before her mother came rampaging in, throwing the curtains open. She stood at the foot of Cindy's bed in her gray pantsuit and tight bun. "What do you have to say for yourself, Cynthia?"
Cindy wanted to sink into her sheets and disappear. She couldn't handle her mother's ministrations any more than she could bear to wake up and face the twisted truth that she'd been screwed over in more ways than one.
"You lose your tournament, you skip class, you get an A minus in Chemistry, and half the time I don't even know where you are!" She shouted, throwing her hands up in the air.
"And now you tamper with school documents and get suspended?"
Cindy's eyes travelled to her bag involuntarily, as she realized she still had Neutron's file.
"What was the need to go rifling through school files? Are you insane? If Harvard hears about this, and believe me, they will, they'll be crossing your name off the wait-list without so much as a second glance."
Sasha observed her daughter's tired expression with fury. "I sure as hell hope you have a damn good explanation for your delinquency—"
Cindy could no longer put up with her mother's incessant aggression.
"I was looking out for a friend."
Sasha's jaw hardened considerably. "I've told you time and time again, that there's no such thing as a 'friend' when it comes to academics. There's you and then there's a hundred more qualified people out to get exactly what you want."
Cindy pursed her lips. "This friend…it wouldn't happen to be that stupid boy from across the street, would it? I've seen you come home with him a few times. I thought nothing of it at first because I knew you had to tolerate the boy in order to get chemistry work done…but I had no clue you'd go to extreme lengths for him."
"He's not stupid." She gritted her teeth. "He's a certified genius." Her mother regarded her defensive outburst with obvious surprise.
To save some face, Cindy sat up in bed and crossed her arms over her chest, defiantly. "But believe me, I sure as hell wouldn't do anything for him, and even if I did, that would be my choice."
"Your choice?" Sasha's venomous eyes bore into Cindy's. "You're under the delusion that you have choices at this point in your high school career?"
"I could go to any one of the other schools I was admitted to."
"And sell yourself short because you got lazy? What a waste of potential."
Sasha's words hit her violently and she felt a lump forming in her throat. A flurry of tears threatened to spill. She looked away from her mother in fear of letting her mother see any stray tears.
"Come what may, I expect a letter of admission. Make it happen, Cynthia." She snarled.
And then she was gone, leaving Cindy in the company of her two new best friends: Misery and Rage.
For quite some time after her mother left, Cindy remained in a comatose state, staring aimlessly at the ceiling. She let the ebb and flow of sadness overtake her. She would drown in her own ocean of torment. Her life had become some sort of theatrical production put on for the amusement of the cruel universe.
Around noon, she dragged herself out of bed. Sluggishly, she made her way to her desk to retrieve her AP Chemistry study material, when the coveted folder fell out of her bag. It seemed so silly now…to risk everything for a stupid boy. A stupid boy who had used her, no less. She bit her lip to keep from crying as she stared at the name on the folder. Jimmy Neutron. The name now seemed to signify some destroyed vestige of hope. Nevertheless, her curiosity as to the contents of the folder overrode her resentment towards Neutron.
She flipped the folder open to find a physical report. Standard information like his name, weight, height, and age were covered in the first half of the page. The second half of the page was less standard, as it detailed extraneous medical conditions. Her eyes scanned the notes on the bottom of the page until they fell on a single, soul-crushing word.
Cancer.
Her hands started to shake, as she dropped the folder on the floor. She was unable to process it for a few seconds. She forced herself to pick up the papers and read the entries scribbled haphazardly across the page. Her brain latched onto a few stark words. Malignant brain tumor. Recovery. Unexpected new growths. Personality changes, and symptoms of clinical depression emerging.
She threw the file across the room, incapable of holding it in her hands any longer. Her whole body trembled as she managed to stand up.
"Jimmy!" She banged on the door of the lab again and again. "Jimmy open the door!" She leaned her head against the wooden panels. "Please come outside." She begged in vain. "Please."
But Jimmy didn't come out.
"Hey look, it's that girl who got suspended!"
"I heard she went poking around where she shouldn't have."
"Isn't she on the waitlist for Harvard?"
Word had spread like wildfire about Cindy Vortex's suspension. Clusters of seniors whispered and pointed at her discreetly as she walked through the halls of Retroville High for the first time in a week.
Libby scouted out her friend and wrapped a protective arm around Cindy's shoulder. They walked down the hall together, glaring at the gossipmongers littering the hallways. Libby only had a vague idea of the reasons for Cindy's suspension, but she hadn't questioned Cindy about it too much, which Cindy found relieving.
Somehow, the two made it through the day. Libby's show of unusually silent solidarity gave Cindy some well needed peace of mind. That was, until her last class of the day— AP Chem.
The last class before AP review saw students working on their final lab report. Cindy sat quietly at her lab station, doing her work and drowning out the surrounding chatter about prom and final exams.
A voice called out from behind her. "Excited for prom, Vortex?"
She didn't even turn around to face Neutron. He took his usual seat opposite her and propped his head up on one arm.
"Aren't you excited to dress up in some overly priced dress, knot your hair in the most complicated twists, and take pictures with a bunch of tall, tan guys in suits?"
Cindy clenched her fists.
"And the trite pop music will be fantastic too—"
"Shut. Up." Her voice was deadly, and she carefully concealed her teary gaze by refusing to look in Neutron's direction.
"Come now, Cindy, surely you're a little enthusiastic like your peers."
"I will not hesitate to punch your oversized head, Neutron."
"Ah, the end of chemistry as we know it." He smirked and shook his head in amusement.
"As far as I'm concerned, this is a really shitty way to end things."
She grabbed her notebook and pen, stuffed them into her bag, got up and left, leaving the whole class staring behind her in awe. Mr. Anderson stared rather reproachfully at Jimmy.
He simply shrugged his shoulders. "Guess she wasn't too excited about titration."
