Thanks for being so patient guys and for the reviews! I promise this chapter will be more interesting! Yay!

Disclaimer: I do not own Jimmy Neutron. If I did, there would be a fourth season!

Chapter 21- The Convention

BEEP… BEEP… BEEP… BEEP…

"No… Sleep..." Cindy rolled over on her side and smacked the alarm clock so hard it fell off the table. Picking up the clock she noticed it was…

"9:45! WHAT! I set it for 8:45!" There was no time to panic. Even though her presentation wasn't until 2:00, she promised Professor Yoland she would meet him in front of the convention center 5 minutes before 10:00. He insisted on going to the convention at 8:00 to help set up (once again, her professor denied the need for an adequate night's sleep… the nut). Poor Goddard was too exhausted to fly so she found that a bus would pick her up at 9:50…

"Now I only have 5 minutes to get ready! AH! And my hair is still greasy!" A freaked out Cindy didn't notice her robot dog spray her down with a chemical mist.

"Uck! Goddard! What is this! I don't have time to play right now!" Goddard simply whipped out his attached mirror and Cindy's eyes grew wide at her reflection.

"…What? I'm clean? My hair isn't greasy?" Cindy looked at Goddard and wanted to hug him. "Thank you so much! Now I'll I gotta do is find my outfit!" With that, Cindy began to rummage through the closet. "Man, I wish Goddard would have told me about that misty stuff sooner… that sure comes in handy when you're running late!"

A minute later, Cindy emerged from the bathroom fully dressed. "Goddard! It's 9:50! We've got to run!" Luckily, their hotel room was only on the second floor, so the two of them flew down the stairs and out the front door. They finally made it outside just as…

"Goddard! The bus is leaving! What do we—" Goddard grabbed on to the back of her jacket and they went zooming towards the bus.

"Goddard! The door isn't open! What are you—" As a reply, Goddard simply set her down on the roof of the bus, fastening her with his own built-in seatbelt. "Oh, Goddard… what would I do without you?" Cindy couldn't wipe the smile off her face. "If we had missed that bus, I don't know what we'd do! I know you like to fly me places, but you're probably tired and I honestly have no idea where the convention center is!" Goddard nodded a sleepy consent and decided to doze off for a few minutes.

"Goddard! Wake up! We're here!" Cindy gently shook her robotic dog as the bus came to a stop in front of a large, square building. Many different people with lab coats, lab equipment, charts, and other things were coming in and out of the building. "This must be it!"

Goddard flew Cindy down off the roof of the bus.

"Hey, girl! What do you think you were doing on top of my bus?" Cindy's heart stopped. "Oh no! The bus driver saw me!" The bus driver jumped out of his seat and off the bus to face his non-paying customer.

"Um… hi. I, uh," Cindy stammered, "um… I was running late and the bus was already leaving…" For the most part, Cindy stared at the ground (her helpless girl act) and only occasionally looked into the man's eyes. "I had already paid for my ticket! See!" Cindy pulled out her bus ticket and showed the man who grunted an "okay" and proceeded back onto the bus.

"It's a good thing I didn't leave this in the hotel room! Although, I don't know why he wasn't more surprised that I just came down from on top of the bus… Well, I guess that guy sees enough crazy things as it is, being a bus driver at a university and all." Cindy laughed to herself and headed toward the front doors of the convention center.

"Cynthia! Miss Vortex!" Cindy's round professor came blobbing down the path toward her with, of course, a smile slapped on his face. "If only I could ACTUALLY slap his face…"

"Oh, Miss Vortex! I wasn't sure if you were going to make it! Did you remember to bring everything for our presentation?" Cindy simply gestured toward Goddard. "Oh, yes, yes, of course! I keep forgetting you have such a remarkable dog." Once again, a smile. That was rather annoying. "Shall we head on in, Cindy?" Cindy nodded and followed her jolly professor into the convention center.

The whole convention center was buzzing; scientists were sharing their findings, observers were traveling from station to station, and a passerby couldn't help but pop in for a look. At the far end of the room, a stage was set up where a group of five people were beginning their presentation on "Common Uses for DNA Today."

Yoland and Cindy went from station to station, learning about what other universities were studying and researching.

After a while, Cindy's stomach began rumbling. "It's already 12:30 and I never even ate breakfast… no wonder I'm starving!"

"Hey, professor, do you think we could grab something to eat for lunch?" She asked the back of Yoland's head as he was immersed in some experiment.

"Yeah, yeah, go ahead Cynthia. I'll just meet you near the stage at about 1:30?" After that, Yoland went back to mixing chemicals with several other scientists and professors.

"Okay…" Cindy sighed as she walked off towards the "Buffet of Science," a small room (with things that might hopefully be food) located down a long hallway attached to the main convention center room. "He doesn't eat either? He's more than nuts! He's something I don't think there is a word for! He's skipping sleep and food… for science? There's only one other person I could think of that would…" Cindy halted. "No, Cindy… stop it!" Goddard glanced up at his master and sighed, sensing what was troubling her once again.

At 1:30, Cindy made her way back to the main room and met with Yoland by the stage.

"Now, Cindy, let's grab a chair or two and just go over again what we're going to do. We didn't get to go over it as much as I would have liked on the car ride here." Cindy rolled her eyes. "It's because normal people like me enjoy some shut-eye once in a while!"

2:00 came fast. Cindy and Yoland had on white lab coats (to look more scientific and credible, she guessed). Goddard began displaying their presentation slides via his projector.

Everything was going fine until Cindy began speaking about the various chemicals they had used in some of their experiments to test trees for weather records. It wasn't her speech that had made her nervous. It was the man sitting in the back row.

"Oh my god…" Cindy began stuttering and sweating uncontrollably. Luckily, most of her part of the presentation explained itself through slides so she had a few moments to collect herself. "Why is he here… I don't believe it… no… it's not him… it's someone else… it has to be…"

"And as you can see, these chemicals showed that the trees…" Cindy continued her speech, trying not to think about the man in the back row.

At the end of the presentation, Cindy and Yoland were applauded and met with many different scientists and professors. After everyone had dispersed and the next group was setting up, Cindy couldn't help but notice that same man was still sitting in the back row.

"Maybe he's just sitting through all of them? Maybe he didn't even see me? Oh, that's silly… he would have noticed Goddard for sure!"

Cindy stared at the man, waiting for him to make a move. When he finally did, it wasn't what she was expecting. He simply got up and walked out of the center.

"Wh-what?" Cindy said softly to herself. "Where is he…" At that moment, she had forgotten she had never wanted to him again and ran out the front doors after him.

"WAIT!" She had lost him. She frantically looked up and down the sidewalk. Spotting a small mechanical dog rounding a building, she ran off again.

Maybe this would get him to turn around… "Professor Smith!" It worked. The man with the brown hair and radiant blue eyes turned around to face someone he thought was a student.

"May I help you—" That was as far as he got. His eyes grew wide and his mouth dropped open at the sight of the girl he was never supposed to see again. "M-miss Vortex? What are you doing here? Well, I mean, I know what you are doing here but what are you doing—"

He was interrupted by the same girl, the very one who decided she never wanted to see him again, throwing her arms around him.

Oh my…

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Thanks for reading, as usual!

-brigette (aka: Kaze-no-Tenshi89)