I would have had this out sooner, but I do have some semblance of a life. Well...maybe 'life' isn't the correct word. "Obligations" Yes, i had obligations this morning, so here you go.
I do not own Jimmy Neutron yadda yadda insert vain attempt at humor.
"Well if you think about it, it is suspected to be about 50,000 AU from the sun. It's not like they can hop in a rocket and speed off to something that's entire light-year away." Jimmy said as they sped down the road.
"Yeah but If they sent a probe out when they first suspected the Oort cloud, they'd be one step closer to proving its existence. Not doing anything just opens the theory up to speculation, and you know the problems start when other people are given a chance to criticize something."
He couldn't believe how easy this was. Granted, there had been some awkward silences when they first headed home, but as soon as Cindy spotted his newest copy of Discovery magazine on the floor (which apparently she also subscribes to. Who would have thought?) they settled right in discussing the validity of a suspected cloud of comets surrounding their solar system.
"Yeah, they really shouldn't have gone public without more conclusive evidence. The non-science community can be very judgmental. Do you know that there are people who think they faked the moon landing?"
Cindy scoffed, "That is so stupid! Besides, if they were going to fake it, don't you think they'd make it a little more theatrical than a couple of guys bouncing around on white rocks? Like, have Neil Armstrong battle a hostile group of aliens who try to take over the ship or something."
He burst out laughing. Only she would think of something so ridiculous yet brilliant. He decided to swing the conversation.
"So, piano?"
He heard an exasperated sigh next to him. "I would prefer not to discuss the bane of my existence right now. As far as I'm concerned, leave the music up to Libby."
He chuckled. "No love for the ivory keys?"
"Uh, no. The disdain is mutual though, I'm pretty terrible at it. I really don't know why I'm forced to continue it except my mother is delusional : she refuses to accept that I will never be a concert pianist like she was."
Ahh, another piece to the puzzle. He pulled out his best fake patronizing voice, "Aww, you don't want to perform that for your talent portion?"
"There's not a talent portion in high school pageants. Not in ours, at least."
That didn't seem right. "So what, you just walk across a stage and smile?"
"Basically. Each person gets interviewed by the judges, but we do that before the pageant. The audience never sees it." Her tone changed and she started speaking each word with a nervous giggle. "It's really dumb."
He was about to respond, but an orange light caught his attention. He looked down at the dashboard. Hmm, why is the check engine light on?
She continued with the same tone, "I don't know how they always sell out every seat, because I can't imagine why anyone would want to watch it."
The oil was changed last week. Of course, if dad did it who knows what actually happened...
"I mean, who would drag their friends to see them walk across the stage in a dress… Libby has to be there, and I'm sure she'll convince Sheen to come…"
I'll need to look under the hood when I get home.
They pulled up in front of her house. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow."
Cindy let out a soft sigh. "Yeah…bye." She got out and walked up to her house.
Man, she must really not like piano.
Cindy turned to walk up her steps, trying not to scream in frustration. Why are you upset? What did you expect; him to be completely enthralled with something as shallow as a stupid pageant? Why do you care anyway?
She didn't know. Why did Neutron always make everything so confusing? Every conversation they had either left her in a state of bliss or wanting to punch a wall. He had to be the most infuriating person ever! Why on earth did she li-
Oh, I'd like to hit something right now!
Instead, she pulled out her phone and pressed "2" and "call". After one ring, she heard the automated click.
"Hi, you've reached Libby. I can't answer the phone right now, but if you leave your name and number I will-"
"ULTRALORD!"
"SHEEN! I'm trying to record my voicemail!"
"Well you should leave that in there. Only the really super awesome people have Ultralord in their voicemail, and you certainly fall in that category, babe."
"Aww, Sheen! Oh shoot, *ahem* please leave a message. Beep."
You have got to be kidding me!
"You do realize how easy it is to re-record your extended absence greeting, right? It would literally take thirty seconds for you to create a voicemail that isn't completely inane. Look, I know you said you'd call me when you got home, but I really don't feel like talking right now. I just wanted to let you know not to get all excited about him giving me a ride home and start assuming things that are obviously not true. I'll see you tomorrow."
She hung up and walked in the door, only to be greeted by her mother's voice. "Ah good, there you are Cynthia. Ms. Harmon has yet to arrive, so take off your shoes and we can study for your history test until she does. I've created a timeline for you to fill out, starting with the important events of 1869 that led up to…"
Cindy groaned quietly. This day just kept getting worse. The only positive thing is now Libby would have to believe that Neutron wasn't interested in her or coming to the pageant. He'd made that pretty clear by ignoring her for five minutes when she mentioned it.
She'll have to believe me now that there is nothing going on.
Except…it didn't really feel like a good thing. It kinda felt like she had been hit by a truck.
Jimmy sat down at the lunch table to discover that the girls were not there.
Hmmm. He hadn't talked to Cindy since yesterday due to their test last period. After going back to his house the previous evening , he had noticed she looked rather forlorn and wanted to make sure she was ok.
"Hey um," Sheen and Carl looked at him from across the table, "Where are…"
"They had another pageant meeting," Sheen read between the lines (surprisingly). "Libby's really glad Cindy seems to be taking it seriously. Says that she is really enjoying herself."
Jimmy felt confused. "Huh, I didn't get that impression."
"What do you mean?"
"Well when I gave her a ride home yesterday she seemed to think it was dumb, and kept saying that she didn't understand why people would want to see it."
"And what did you say?" Carl asked.
"Well…I don't know. The 'check engine' light came on and I was more preoccupied by…" He noticed the two other boys shaking their heads and trailed off. "What?"
Carl looked at Sheen. "You tell him."
"Jim my man, for one so smart you are clueless when it comes to girls."
"Hey!" he objected.
"She said it was dumb to see if you'd disagree, and was most likely hinting that she wanted you to come see it."
What in the name of Alfred Nobel was Sheen talking about. "That makes absolutely no sense. Why wouldn't she just say that? And besides, how would you know?"
Sheen just chuckled, "One does not have a girlfriend without learning that girls make absolutely no sense. You don't have to understand, you just blindly go along with it and hope you get something right. It works for me about sixty percent of the time. Point is, by not saying anything you made it seem like you thought it was unimportant."
"So she's probably upset with you again."
"That's really helpful, Carl, thank you." Jimmy rolled his eyes.
"You're welcome!" The sarcasm was lost on him.
Cindy is an intelligent girl, why does she need to play mind games like that? It defies reason. Although, he was slowly figuring out that reason and girls don't mix all that well.
"Well what am I supposed to do?"
"Tell her that you want to go see the darn thing."
This whole situation made no sense. "Why does she even want me to come?"
"Do you really have to ask?"
What? Oh. Ooooh. Oh. What? No. They were just friends. That's what was best; they had decided it was for the best.
Is it though? Is it really? Do you really want to be just friends with the smartest, most amazing girl in Retroville and possibly the planet? It was dangerous to think like that, so Jimmy pushed the question to the back of his mind.
"Ok, I'll try to fix this. If that's at all possible"
"So tell me again what happened in detail this time," Libby called to Cindy in the dressing room. Friday was the only day the girl had any free time, and while Libby technically had to work that afternoon, there was no reason her friend couldn't look for a pageant outfit at "Boss".
"It's exactly like I said before, he came into English and asked how much pageant tickets were. I was really confused after what happened yesterday and thought he was trying to make a joke, but he really wanted to know. He even asked if it was okay for him to come."
"And what did you say?"
"I said it was whatever. It's none of my business what he wants to do."
Libby shook her head. Would Cindy ever learn? "Well see, he wasn't ignoring you then. He was just being his usual clueless self. Do you have the dress on yet?"
"Yes," the changing room door opened and the blond stepped out. "There is no way my mother would let me leave the house in this, let alone walk across a stage in front of the entire school."
Libby personally didn't see the problem. The bright purple leopard-print mini dress looked great.
"It's not the entire school… besides, parents and stuff will be there too."
"That, my dear, is called justification. I don't want to look like-"
"Annnnd Jimmy's coming now; all the more reason for you so show some leg." She cast her friend a sly glance.
Cindy's face colored. She returned to the dressing room and slammed the door. "That is completely ridiculous. I did not come here to be harassed." She came out a minute later in a pair of gray slacks and a violet blouse. "What about this?"
"Oh it's fine," Libby walked over to the small room, "if you're going to court."
An older woman in a navy vest glanced at pair and walked over. "Liberty, your shift isn't over yet."
Libby panicked. "Uhhh…"
Cindy quickly handed her the purple dress. "She was just getting me a smaller size."
The woman's expression softened. "Alright, as long as you're helping a customer." She walked off.
"Thanks girl. Now put something else on." She put the dress on its hanger then put it on a random rack. "Honestly, the stuff they expect me to do around here."
"Yeah," Cindy laughed from the changing room. "How Draconian of them to expect you to work at your job."
"I know! It's simply ridiculous. Now let's see."
The door opened. Libby smiled.
Perfect. "Girl, we got a winner."
Oh Jimmy, so much lady trouble. Will he ever learn? Probably not.
Review kui tohib paluda! (Have I done Estonian yet? Eh, I'm too lazy to check)
