Bittersweet Ch 11:

All For The Thrill Of The Game

A/N: Back again with a new chapter! Hope you guys enjoy!

Finally Friday. I've been waiting for this day for a long time, it's the day Coach Mellona announces who's going to be Cheer Captain. I'm so anxious, I just want to know and get on with my day. Luckily because of this distraction, I haven't thought of Nerdtron that much, I'm trying to just block him out of all my thoughts. I mean, why would he act so into me this past week and a half just to make a move on Christine? Unless it was her he wanted all along and he used me to make her jealous? Or maybe it's the opposite? What if he's using her to make me jealous? Ugh probably not, she is perfect after all. Maybe I should just do the same thing, find some cute guy to use as a pawn in a game and try to make Jimmy jealous. But then again, I was the one who chickened out when he told me he was into me.. I just tense up, I don't do well when talking about feelings and shit, I wasn't raised like that. We didn't really talk about stuff like that, my mom isn't really a mushy person. I guess that's why I never have been either. I just need Jimmy to know and understand that. Ugh I hate this. Maybe today I'll talk to him and ask him why the fuck he asked Christine out. Well good thing I'm starting the day in a good mood, I think sarcastically to myself as I end my train of thought and walk out to Libby's car.

"Hi love bug! You excited for our meeting at lunch?" She asks me bright cheery, I didn't tell her about what happened yesterday. I wasn't in the mood to talk about it then and I'm still not in the mood to talk about it now. When I get like this, it's hard for me not to take it out on Libby or anyone else for that matter, but with her I try really hard not to. She doesn't deserve it, but even when I do lose my shit, she always puts up with it and is a good friend. She understands me and knows why I get the way I do and just listens to me. So this morning, when she greeted with me a nauseating cheeriness, it was nearly impossible not to be a bitch and try to bring her down with me. Miraculously though, I kept my cool and just tried to remain as cool, calm and collected as possible.

"Yeah I'm excited. Anxious, but excited."

"I really think you're gonna get it."

"I hope so, let's not jinx it."

"Deal."

As we pulled into the parking lot, I couldn't help but notice that the hover car wasn't there. I also couldn't help the natural curiosity creeping up about where he might be. I hate myself for caring about him and what he does, why should I care? Obviously he doesn't care about me.

I took my seat in my first class waiting for the bell to ring and waiting to see if the genius himself would show and sure enough, just seconds before the bell rang, he stumbled in, hair messy and flustered. I have to admit, he looked cute with his hair ruffled up like that, he must have overslept. He took the empty seat next to me and whispered hey as he sat down, acting as if yesterday didn't even happen. I chose to ignore him and stare blankly ahead waiting for lesson to start. I wasn't ready for this. What I also wasn't ready for was his persistence to talk to me. I figured after I ignored him the first time that he would've gotten the hint and shut up. I was wrong.

"Hey Vortex."

Once again I didn't reply, I don't know what the fuck he's doing but I want no part of it, I know I don't really have any reason to be upset, I turned him down so he moved on. Or at least that was the theory I'm choosing to go with. Either way, I'm upset with him and I didn't want to talk.

"Hey Jimmy." I heard him say softly to himself, pretending as if I had actually answered him, I almost laughed but at the last second I was able to bite my tongue, there was no way I was going to give him the satisfaction.

"How are you Cindy?"

"Oh I'm good, thanks for asking. How are you?"

"Oh I'm good-"

"What the fuck are you doing?" Finally I decided to break his one-person conversation because I couldn't take it anymore. He seemed pleased with himself that I finally broke, damn it.

"Well Miss Vortex, since you decided to ignore me, I chose to do it for you."

"How gracious of you, however I think that's enough. Some of us actually value our education and would appreciate it if our classmates would shut the hell up and let us learn."

"Yeah you hear that Oleander! We're trying to learn!" It was so hard not to laugh, over the years it seems that he's really developed a great sense of humor, poor Oleander looked so confused but I shot him an apologetic look and right away he understood.

"Oh whatever Neutron, just shut up and let me learn."

"Yes ma'am." Out of the corner of my eye I saw him salute to me, a smile escaped my lips and I immediately scolded myself for the slip.

As the day dragged on, little moments like that kept happening, he'd try to get my attention, I'd ignore him and then we'd end up talking. Finally towards the end of lunch, I was at my wits end. I was fed up with trying to figure out why he wanted to talk to me when yesterday he asked Christine out on a date. I got up and grabbed him by the arm and dragged him out to the hallway so I could properly berate him without the stares from all our peers.

"Um Vortex, where the hell are we going?"

"Just out in the hallway, you got a problem with that?"

"Um kinda, why are we going out into the hallway? You miss me?" I noticed the underlying tone he had to his voice as he said the second part, I rolled my eyes, this was just the shit I wanted to talk about. What the fuck?

"Neutron what the fuck is wrong with you?"

"What are you talking about?"

By the is point we were alone in the hallway and by now my feisty confidence had slightly worn off, but my will to fight was just getting started.

"Ummm. I'm talking about how you asked Christine out on a date." I say as I put my hands on my hip and cock my hip to the side. He merely just shrugged and played it off.

"Oh that, well I knew she was into me so I figured why not." I wanted to explode.

"Oh really? Well how fantastic for you. I'm so flipping happy for you. That's just great Nerdtron. Just fucking great."

"I don't see why you're upset." He said as he slowly but surely backed me against the row of lockers. I could feel my heartbeat quickening and my cheeks starting to heat up, not just from the close contact but from the anger rising inside me because of his enormous stupidity.

"Excuse me? You don't see why I'm upset?"

"Yes, you have successfully repeated the words I just said."

"Ugh! You're so hopeless sometimes I don't even know why I-" He cut me off in the best/worst way possible. He crashed his lips onto mine and for a moment I was content, but then reality came flooding back into my head and I hit him in the arm and walked away, not before shouting some choice words at him though.

"Alright ladies! Take a seat! Time for the moment you've all been waiting for!" I could hardly contain myself. I had been waiting for practice all day, between this and my interactions with Jimmy, I had been so on edge, I still can't get over the fact that he had the audacity to kiss me when he's going on a date with another girl tonight. I was so lost in my thoughts that I almost didn't hear her announce captain, Libby elbowed me in the ribs and whispered, "Hey stop day-dreaming, she's about to announce Captain."

"Alright girls, senior captain is none other than Cindy Vortex, congratulations Vortex, go ahead and give me your uniform on Monday so we can get it embroidered." I was on cloud 9 that I didn't even pay attention and listen to who the Junior, Sophomore and Freshman co-captains were. Even though we're one collective team, each grade has a 'captain' because each grade does their own thing sometimes, for example, for football games, they all cheer at their respective games while seniors cheer at the Varsity games. I was co-captain my freshman and sophomore years but I couldn't do it last year because I was out half the season with a broken wrist. I was pissed. Needless to say, I'm ecstatic that I get to be captain again, I've always been a natural born leader and I'm excited to lead my fellow teammates once again. The rest of the practice went great, I got to help coach put together a mini stunt sequence and teach it to the other girls, after practice Libby congratulated me and told me she had something to tell me.

"Girl you are never going to believe what I heard." Libby excitedly told me as we walked out of cheer practice. Any gossip she heard, she took it and ran with it, somehow my curiously was always piqued. Half the time it was never anything interesting, but sometimes it was pretty juicy, so naturally I was curious.

"What Libs?"

"Jimmy is going on a date with Christine! What the hell?" Oh god. That. I forgot she didn't know about that.

"Oh, yeah. I was actually there when he asked her."

"What the hell Cin? I thought you guys kinda had something going on..."

"Omg no! Never in a million years! Me and Nerdtron? Are you kidding? What a ridiculous idea! Why would we ever have something going on?"

"Girl shut up. I can't even roll my eyes hard enough right now, just get your butt in the car and let's go."

"Yes ma'am," I say before saluting. As I got in the car, I could hear her talking but I didn't know what she was saying, I asked her to clarify but she kept mumbling until finally her index finger flew into the air and she screamed.

"I have a great idea!"

"What is it?" I wasn't normally super interested in her "great ideas" because it was usually something simple like going to the mall but this time my gut told me it wasn't about that so I was actually really excited to find out what her idea was.

"Let's find out where their date is and go see what the hell is going on."

"What? You mean stalk them? Watch them as their date is happening?"

"Exactly!"

"I'm in."

"Yes! This is going to be great! I'll ask Sheen to ask Jimmy where they're going. All we have to do is go to that same restaurant or wherever, sit a few tables away and hide behind our menus and listen to their conversation. This going to be so perfect."

"Libs, we can't hide behind for two hours, the restaurant will get mad, we need some sort of disguise."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right... Do you still have that big black floppy hat?"

"Ummm yeah I think so.. Why?"

"Go ahead and wear that, I'm going to wear a pair of my mom's big sunglasses and one of her wigs. That way they won't recognize us."

"Good thinking Libs. Alright I'm going to go in and get ready, text me what the plan is, I'll see you in a few hours." I say as I get out the car and open the door to my house. She waved goodbye and drove off. As crazy as our plan was, it was necessary. I couldn't take this lying down, something wasn't right with this so I needed to investigate, I'm lucky Libby is a gossip addict and lives for this. We'll see how this goes.

A/N: Next chapter includes the date between Jimmy and Christine! I was going to include it in this one but honestly I felt that it was better to leave off there instead of continuing. I've got a lot of great ideas for the date, the next chapter should be up soon! Hope you guys liked it, what are your thoughts?:)