Chapter 8 ~ Just Like Old Times
2 large pizzas, a comedy, and an action movie later the gang was well settled in to the Neutron's living room that Saturday night. The friends were chatting and laughing like old times, but the topic of conversation was a lot of Jimmy getting filled in on what happened here in the last few years, as he had mostly filled them in on his life at Cindy's party. "So, you have all been reluctant to tell me how and why this so called Alaska trip happened," Jimmy insisted "Or, ya know any other time you used my hover-car."
"Oh it's in better shape then you left it and you know it Spew-tron!" Cindy scolded light-heartedly.
"Just cause it runs smoother and quieter, and has a fully functional trailer doesn't mean it's better." He tried to refute.
"Do we need to get the genius a dictionary?" Libby asked, the gang laughed.
"Alaska, why, now?!"
"Fine," Libby conceded "We had a group project for class on polar bears, the book work we were using was getting really boring then Sheen suggested we just go find the polar bears and film them drinking a coke."
Jimmy looked confused to his friend "What, those commercials are gold, they would have got us an A easy." Sheen explained.
"Except those aren't real bears Sheen!" Cindy explained for probably the 50th time since "You give a real polar bear a coke bottle they'll either ignore it or smash it to pieces."
"You keep saying that, but we never even tried it to find out." He rebutted then stared Carl down.
"If you didn't want me to drink them you shouldn't have told me they were there in the first place."
"Anyway," Libby intervened "We had this project, and weren't coming up with anything, so when Sheen suggested to go find um, we thought we were dumb for not thinking of that sooner. Plan was to go, get some actual bits of their environment, food samples, some hair, a tooth maybe. And just video them doing something. But after we got there, we had a close call, got between a momma and her what so did not seem like a cub. Anyway, we didn't get hurt but Sheen whizzed his pants and his seat he was so scared."
"But he wouldn't of if he had gone to the bathroom at our last pit stop like I'd told him to." Cindy added "And the reason it was a close call was because the boys wanted to give the dang thing the half-drunk coke bottle and jumped out before I found a spot to land it safely. Ergo, I didn't have a chance to warn them about the bigger bear only I was seeing apparently."
Jimmy was stunned by what he was hearing, all he could think to ask was: "So did you get anything for your project?"
"Libby filmed the whole thing." Sheen muttered.
"So after capturing that gem, we based the project around the pack mentality and that they are good at defending themselves." Cindy concluded.
"And that they are way scarier in the wild than in the zoo." Carl added.
"So, do I get to see this project video?"
"No!" Sheen blurted.
"I've still got it somewhere, I've been meaning to threaten to put it on YouTube the next time Sheen pissed me off." Cindy mentioned, then giggled an almost maniacal laugh.
"When exactly did you get so creepy Vortex?" Jimmy asked remembering the sweet but sassy girl he was working in the lab with yesterday.
"Fear is my bread and butter to get people to do what I want, you know this." Cindy clarified "I've just gotten a little more creative. And hey, after that trip I never had an issue getting the boys to take advantage of a potty breaks or jumping out early."
"Yeah, I remember you snapping at them in Paris and you guys actually listened."
"Yeah, she's wicked scary when she wants to be." Sheen agreed almost scared just saying it.
"Good to know," Jimmy replied "So you take my hover-car to any other out of town venues?" he asked raising an eyebrow to the blonde.
"Hey normally the trips weren't my idea, I just drove. And we never went out of country after Paris."
Jimmy knew Cindy wasn't gonna dig herself a hole, so he turned to Carl, just staring him down hoping he'd say something. "Well we were hoping to go to all 50 states before we graduated, so when we've had a free day we'd go explore." Jimmy smiled, silently thanking Carl for telling him exactly what he wanted to hear. "But we never crossed ocean, we didn't want a repeat of the deserted island incident without you there; except for Paris of course."
"Well thanks for keeping your word on that. But I've got to say I'm a little annoyed you didn't have an issue, cause now I can't scold you and say I told you so."
"Nope." Cindy blurted then continued in a feminine Jimmy voice "All you can say is: 'Oh Cindy, you're so smart and talented, thank you for taking my friends on amazing adventures when I couldn't'." she giggled at her own joke as the rest of the gang joined in.
"Wait a just a minute, if you've been to every state… Hawaii?"
"We were waitin till you got back for that one." Libby explained "Plus we haven't been to um all yet, still got like 20 to go. Say why don't we go somewhere Monday? Sheen and I are free, you're stuck at the Neutrons till Wednesday," she nodded to Cindy "And Carl your free right?"
"Oh I should be? Where we going?"
"Well we've yet to hit up the Mall of America in Minnesota."
"Uggg, you suggest that every time." Sheen whined.
"Sheen you don't have to shop, there's an amusement park inside the thing." Libby rebutted.
"I still think that it's too small to be any fun."
"One way to find out… C'ome on guys!" Libby pleaded.
"I'm in, but there's more to Minnesota than the mall." Jimmy commented "One of my classmates was from there, as far as I know she's still in England finishing, but she'd given us a long list of things to do other than the mall."
"See it's not that special." Sheen blurted
"No, Hannah said it's pretty awesome, there's just so much more to Minnesota than MOA."
"So it's settled Minnesota on Monday!" Libby announced excitedly. "When should we leave?"
"Well it should only take us an hour to get there, so 9am?" Cindy interjected before Jimmy had a chance to say anything, he smiled a little, impressed she was able to figure that out so quick.
The gang discussed travel plans for a while, getting more excited for their first adventure together in years. Cindy tried to stay in on the conversation, but she couldn't help thinking that this may be her only adventure with the gang this summer. Do I really want to electively miss out on all this? I mean I know they aren't gonna put off their plans for me, especially now that Jimmy's back and he can drive them. I do want to be able to spend more time with Nick, especially since he's admitted he loves me… But is rodeo what I want to be focusing on? I mean if I stink will Nick still wanna be with me all summer, or after? Or if I'm good, there's a ton that goes with that, including missing school, which has always been important to me, and now with college so close, grades are more important than ever. And now I'll be in pretty much all Advanced Placement or college credit classes, do I risk hurting my GPA for a boy? Cindy popped out of her thoughts when she saw everyone staring at her.
"You okay girl?" Libby asked
"Of course, why do you ask?"
"Cause you haven't said in a word in over 10 minutes." Sheen commented a little scared.
"I'm fine," she reassured. "Just a little lost in my thoughts I guess." She admitted as she scrunched her knees against her chest and held them in her arms.
"Nick say something stupid to ya at the show?" Carl guessed.
"No, why would you even ask that Carl?"
"Cause it wouldn't be the first time." He explained bluntly, then inquired "What's going on in the brain Cindy?"
"Nothing, just Nick brought up something and I don't how to respond."
"Did he finally say I love you?!"
"Carl!"
"What? Not like that's a secret to anyone here, or is Jimmy not caught up on the you and Nick drama?"
Cindy thought for a moment and looked at her friends "I guess everyone is pretty much up to date, I haven't told you much Sheen but I'm guessing Libby has."
"Hate to say it girlfriend, but unless you say specifically not to tell him, my boyfriend's gonna hear about it."
Cindy rolled her eyes with a 'whatever' glance, then Carl asked again "So he said it didn't he? And you couldn't say it back, am I right."
"Yes Carl," she admitted to her friends then continued "But the sneaky bastard proposed something right after he said it so the dramatic first 'I love you' was kind of made mute."
"What the hell?!" Sheen couldn't help but burst out "He proposed! But you two ain't even out of high school yet?"
The rest of the group was as shocked as he was thinking that's what she told them "No, no, proposed something, not marriage proposal." This alleviated the group, then she explained "Well he's gonna be on the road pretty much all summer, so he talked to my parents and his uncle and arranged for me to be able to go with. Jump into the rodeo world, train with him and his uncle, and go on this amazing cross country trip, with my boyfriend, parent approved." She tried to sound excited about it all, but her friends could clearly see she was confused.
"Doesn't sound like you really want to go?" Jimmy said plainly.
"Well it could be a lot of fun, and I'd become a much better rider, and oodles of quality time with Nick."
"Okay, well suppose everything goes well," Libby started "You do better than Nick, and he's proud of you for that, and you're a happy couple on this grand adventure. Doesn't Nick miss a lot of school when he competes?"
"Yes" Cindy replied, not looking to refute the point.
"Well that's gonna effect your college plans, can't really get a 4.0 when your attendance is in the toilet Cindy." She shrugged and agreed to Libby's point.
"Okay, so let's swing the spectrum." Jimmy proposed "What if you two get in a huge fight and break it off? Or if you do poorly, will Nick still support you? He seems pretty into all this, it may shatter his glass ceiling to find out his girlfriend sucks, or if you start to hate the sport. You going to have a way out?"
"Damit Neutron, why you gotta go so negative so quick?" Libby scolded "I was trying to warm up with the negatives of the good stuff."
"It's fine Libby, I've been thinking about all this stuff and more since he asked this afternoon." Cindy informed "But the kicker of it is, he said he loves me, and he did mean it. If I say no to this, I'm telling him I don't love what he's most passionate about, so why keep loving me? Why not find someone else who's got the same passion for the sport, there's plenty of girls who love rodeo, I'm just not sure if I'm one of um."
"It's probably way more fun to ride than watch, just saying." Sheen interjected.
"I just feel that if I say no, then we're done, or should be anyway." She presumed.
"You really think that your 2 year relationship is so fragile?" Libby pried softly.
"I'm afraid to find out." Cindy shrugged, not wanting to say yes, but not confident enough to say no.
"You know the answer to all this Vortex." Jimmy stated, grasping her full attention "All you're doing now is pushing it off so it's easier to break-up. Why not just call him sort things out for better or worse and then you can either keep being a happy couple or be done and move on with your own life."
Cindy's mouth gaped open a long moment before she responded. "What the hell Freak-tron?" almost offended as she heard her own words reflected on her. "That was like word for word. How the hell do you do that?"
"Eidetic memory," he said plainly then admitted, "You were right though, it was a good suggestion. So take your own advice and sort out what you want, then either go with on this grand adventure with the guy you love or let him go and be a single guy in the prime of high school."
"Neutron, stop with the overdramatic bluntness." Libby scolded. "Cindy big brain didn't mean…"
"Oh loosen up Libs," Sheen bellowed, his girlfriend was shocked by the interruption "Cindy doesn't need an hour of us beating around the bush, we're her buds, we got to tell it to straight ya know, and just hope she doesn't screw things up too royally."
"Thanks? Well, well we're still on the subject, I gotta mention, there is one more part of this that worries me…" Cindy started, waited a moment then continued "Well, we just got Neutron back, so we're all together again. I don't wanna miss out on our gang's adventures or ya know, even just nights like this..."
"But it was okay for me to miss out while in England." Jimmy commented mostly sarcastically.
"But that's the thing, now that your back the town or world will probably be put in danger on a more regular basis and I'll need to be around to help get you out of whatever mess you've made."
"Way to have faith in me Vortex."
"You know, she's got a point." Sheen stated calmly. Jimmy shoved his friend for the comment.
"Girl you'll be having your own adventure, just like big head was, so don't even worry yourself on what you'll miss. Besides, if we really need ya cause he screwed up again, we'll call." Libby explained simply. "When do ya have to decide by?"
"Thursday, that's when I said I'd tell him. Nick leaves Friday morning whether I go with or not."