Chapter 11 ~ Back to Normal?
"Can you believe we'll be back in school in just a couple days?" Cindy asked across a cluttered worktable to Jimmy.
"I'm surprised you remembered about school with your patient coming through the other day." Jimmy teased.
"It's been a whirlwind," Cindy admitted, looking back to the sketches of speaker packaging design she was working on. "But so has the past two months, so how am I even supposed to tell the difference."
"True enough." He agreed as he set down the motherboard he'd been tampering with and looked up to his friend and asked jokingly. "So, am I gonna be stuck with you for every class this year?"
"Just about," she smiled looking up "1st hour AP Chem, 2nd hour AP Statistics, 3rd hour I've got choir, and since you can't sing to save your life, what do you got?"
"Ha, ha, Vortex!" he sassed, then looked to a form beside him on the table. "Let see, 3rd hour I'll be in metal shop, only class I got with Carl and Sheen. Then we got AP Literature 4th hour, not looking forward to that."
"That's one class I can help you with genius, and I think Libby's in that one too. Then I have 3rd level French 5th hour, you end up taking that?"
"I don't think they were going to let me in. I could test into second, but that wasn't offered till spring anyway, so that might be my study hall. Then do we have health or gym 1st semester for the last period?"
"We got gym first. I know we're the same with that cause we managed to have the rest of the gang with us in one class."
"Nice! I didn't know they we're all the same hour."
"Well I'm glad, cause it won't be just me having to help you through that mess too." She snickered.
"Hey they made us do some physical training during the program."
"Yeah, yeah, you've mentioned." She replied, almost annoyed by the statement "personal trainer, every other day, program paid for it, yada, yada, yada…" she trailed as she refocused on her work.
"Hey earlier this summer you were fascinated by anything I said about the program you made me go to."
"Oh, so now I made you go, I thought I merely was the last opinion you needed." She commentated still doodling.
"Well if you would have begged me to stay I probably would have." Cindy smiled a little at the notion then Jimmy walked around the table to her "This what you got so far?"
Cindy bashfully pulled out her two 'best' designs "It just needs to be a concept that marketing could run with." Jimmy examined the papers, clouds etched on the top and rain coming down over a party with emphasis on how loud the speakers were and plenty of happy party goers. "I know my people look weird, but you get it right?"
"Yeah, I get it." Jimmy assured then looked to the second sketch and leaned in closer, "Is that my neutron symbol?" he asked looking at his symbol etched behind a hovering speaker.
"Well it came from your lab technically. And I'm running out of sketch ideas, so I just did the basics and…"
"Wait?" Jimmy sat down beside the girl on the bench. "Are you crediting me for your invention?"
"Yeah, I mean, I spring-boarded off your hover-car technology, so legally I'd be in trouble if I didn't credit you on the patient."
"Oh quit hiding behind legal jargon Vortex. You know I wouldn't do that to you." he commented giving her a light shove shoulder to shoulder after sitting down beside her.
"Well you'd care when I'm making a ton of money on inventions that were half yours."
Jimmy looked confused "Umm, define a ton of money?"
"For being a genius, you sure are dumb about the more profitable side of science Neutron. I mean, from the inventions you made before 5th grade alone you'd be set for life with the money you'd make out of patenting them and placing um into production. Heck, you may be set just off your hover-car." Jimmy was almost offended about him selling his hover-car technology "But then it wouldn't be just yours and it'd be not nearly as beneficial to be your friend." she stared, with a smile creeping on her face.
"See I knew ya only like me for my lab."
"Caught me." She fake admitted throwing her hands up in the air. "You have a bad sense of humor, you're horribly rude to me, you don't trust me, your eyes are a nauseating shade of blue, you're dumb as a box of rocks, and you always smell horrible." She sassed looking to the boy "I don't know how you built this lab but it's the only cool thing about you Spew-tron." Cindy couldn't contain it, she started laughing at her own ridiculous rant, Jimmy laughed along too until a familiar tone echoed though the lab. The both looked to the computer, then to the clock. "8pm on the dot."
"Punctual as always." Jimmy smiled "2/8 date call." He stood up to head for the computer
"Mind if I ask Aja about my sketches?"
"Go for it. Just let me answer, last time you answered she kinda freaked on me."
"Fine." She agreed remembering a lengthy conversation on how Aja still didn't really trust Jimmy alone with her, more so after finding out that her Nick were no longer together. And Jimmy had elected not to tell her it was so soon after he got home. Even though Cindy reiterated time and time again the break-up wasn't about him, Jimmy knew he or Cindy would have little luck convincing Aja.
Jimmy hopped into his computer chair and picked up the video call, Aja appeared on the giant screen with a sweet smile. "Bonjour James."
"Salute Aja. Comment ça va?"
"Comme-ci comme-ça. Et toi?"
"Bien. Je suis excité pour l'école. Just a couple more days."
"Why you stop speaking my language James?" she pouted.
"Because I'm getting rusty, and I can chat much easier in English."
"Will you be studying French this fall?" she asked hopeful.
"I don't think they're gonna let me test in to the level that's offered and worth taking according to Cindy, but we'll see after school gets going." Jimmy remembered Cindy waiting out of sight of the camera. "Oh, speaking of Cindy, she was hoping to get your opinion on some designs she's been working on." Cindy took the cue and stepped into view.
"Bonjour Aja." She greeted smiling.
"Hello Cinthia, how have you been?" she replied civilly, but not especially happy.
"Good, pulling my hair out a little, but I just got news my patient was approved!"
"Félicitations à toi!" She replied genuinely excited "This was for the speakers correct?"
"Yeah, took all summer, but now I'm searching for a production company, which brings me to my question for you, just give me a sec." She paused to scan the two designs into the computer so they would pop up on the screen clearly "I wanted to put together a concept design for marketing, and these are the best I got. Do they make sense? They any good? I'm looking for your brand of brutal honesty here girl, not the fluff professor goody-goody is feeding me."
"Hey they aren't as bad as you think Cindy." Neutron defended.
Aja took a moment to look them over, then commented "I like the more complex drawing, makes it clear what the device is capable of, the other is too plain, and why is there an atom image behind it?"
"You don't recognize it Aja?" Jimmy persisted pointing to his red shirt's yellow logo.
"I see that it's your symbol, but I don't see it's place on conveying the product to the public or a company. As long as the marketing team can make the party scene look realistic and fun I'd go with that design Cinthia."
"Thank you Aja. And might I say you look well rested."
"Well, after finishing my thesis last week I've had a chance to breath for the first time in months."
"Right! I don't think I've had the chance to congratulate you myself on completing the program, so félicitations à toi!" Cindy smiled to the girl on the screen.
"Merci Cinthia."
Cindy caught a sideways glance from Jimmy, trying to usher her out "Well I'll leave you two to your date. Talk to ya later Aja. I probably won't have a chance to swing by tomorrow Neutron, gotta do some school clothes shopping, Sunday we got family stuff, so probably just see you at school on Monday." Jimmy nodded to his friend as she headed for the exit.
After directing his attention back to his girlfriend, he noticed the different background, "So, you back home?"
"Oui, a few days ago. Sorry I haven't called."
"Well after you called about your thesis, I didn't expect to hear from you for a few days with the move and all. Good to be home?"
"Oui! Great to see my parents again, I didn't realize how much I missed them when I was so busy."
"I know exactly what ya mean. So… now that your home, program done… you ready to talk about this?" he gestured between the two of them.
"I just got home James, give me a few days, then we can talk about that…"
"Fair enough.
The halls of Retroville High School were buzzing with kids for the new year; Jimmy, Libby, Sheen managed to find each other first as their lockers were feet from each other. Cindy and Carl however had yet to be seen.
"What kind of cock-a-mamy stystem is this that we could all just have lockers right here?" Sheen asked.
"Well I believe it is based on last names Sheen. Estavez and Folfax… But why Neutron is so close too is beyond me?" Jimmy reasoned.
"Who cares, I get to see my Bo between every class." Libby smiled and kissed Sheen on the cheek. Just then a bell dinged, warning students to make their way to their first class. "Well off to band for me, see you later guys."
"Well I shall soon find our comrade Carl… Since he's in Algebra with me."
"Sounds good Sheen. See you in metals." The boys waved each other off as they headed for their halls. It almost feels like I'm a normal kid again… locker, classes with friends, everyone is from here, I might even go to the homecoming game… maybe. He thought to himself as he approached his first class, spotted Cindy and joined her at the 4 person lab table. "Morning Cindy, so where'd yours and Carl's lockers end up?"
"Good morning too you Neutron, we're in the chunk of the lockers in the cafeteria hall. You?"
"Sheen, Libby, I are by the Math department."
"You're all by each other?"
"Yeah, I'm guessing my funky placement is because I got plopped back in the system after locker assignments were done."
"Makes sense. So, you think you're gonna learn anything in this class?"
"Probably not, but if anything I'll observe a means to teach the concepts to others."
"Smart-ass." Cindy commented quietly as the final bell sounded for the morning. The teacher, Mr. Christiansen, introduced himself, then began to take role, having everyone introduce themselves and say their favorite chemical reaction. By the time it got to Cindy and Jimmy's table there was a knock at the door. Mr. Christiansen answered the door, and invited in the Principle followed by a thin but tall, pale faced, bob-cut dark brown haired girl, with dark brown eyes. Cindy looked to Jimmy to revel in shock, but only to see he was gawking forward with his mouth wide open.
"Would you care to introduce yourself to the class? State your name and your favorite chemical reaction." Mr. Christensen asked, seemingly fully aware she was coming and likely would be late.
"Bien sûr. Je m'appelle Aja Dupont, Je viens de Caen, France. Et ma réaction chimique préférée consiste à placer un ours gommeux dans du chlorate de potassium." She smiled, Cindy could practically hear half the class roll their eyes at her smug reply, while the other half were in awe.
"You are in America miss and this is not French class, in English please." Mr. Christensen addressed.
"Very well, I simply said, my name is Aja Dupont. I am from Caen, France. And my favorite chemical reaction is when you place gummy bears in potassium chlorate."
"Thank you, now, please find a seat." If the table Cindy and Jimmy were at had a space there was no doubt she would have joined them, but it was probably better she didn't cause Jimmy and Cindy were discretely passing a paper back and forth throughout the rest of the class. The teacher dove right in the curriculum after introductions, presenting a lecture on what chemistry was and the sheer difficulty of the course that was ahead of them.
Did you know she was coming? – Cindy
Not a clue! I knew it was an option, for her to move state-side after the program. – Jimmy
To enroll? – C
She never mentioned – J
What year is she? – C
Senior – J
Where is she living? – C
Got me? – J
Don't they normally live with host families or whatnot? – C
Who? – J
Haven't heard of anyone expecting an exchange student – C
How long is passing time? – J
6 min, not enough time for that convo, Lunch is your best chance. – C
Finally the bell sounded to end the class, Jimmy and Cindy had already gathered their stuff, and bolted for Aja. Jimmy hugged the girl, partly to determine he wasn't imagining things. She appreciated the gesture and hugged him in turn. She went to kiss him but Jimmy blocked the advance, and simply explained "Not here, Aja." He managed to pull himself away from her and let her finish grabbing her things. "I have a million questions, but we need to be in our next class in 5 minutes, where you headed?" Aja pulled out a paper with her scheduled printed on it, and handed it to Jimmy. "Chemistry, Calculous, Study Hall, American History, French 3, then Physical Education."
"So, you'll have Chem with us, obviously." Cindy stated creeping over Jimmy's shoulder "We all got math next so let's start walking that way." Jimmy and Aja acknowledged the suggestion and headed out the room.
"What math are you taking?" Aja asked Cindy.
"Neutron I are in AP Statistics."
"Oh." She acknowledged, but was less than thrilled to hear that the attractive blonde walking with them would be sharing math with her boyfriend, and not her.
"I'm taking calculous."
"Yeah, that'd be a next year class for us Juniors. Okay, let me get a better look at that Nerd-tron?" Cindy snatched the paper from Jimmy. "You'll have French 3 with me, and the whole gang is in last hour gym."
"Nothing else?"
"Well I think Sheen may be in your history class, and Carl may have your Study hall, but I'm not 100% on that." Cindy added.
"Who are you staying with while you're here? You gonna be here the whole year or just a semester?" Jimmy was about to ask another question but Aja grabbed his arm to distract him.
"I will be here a semester for sure, but they do some type of inspection to determine if I can or should be here the full year, based on behavior, grades, and a couple other factors." She explained then proceeded to the other question "My host family is the Deans."
"Wait, Sarah and Marcus Dean?" Cindy asked beyond shocked.
"Oui. Very nice couple, they say they have a son, but he hasn't been home yet."
Cindy laughed dryly, "Their son is Nick, my ex-boyfriend." Obviously Aja didn't know how to reply, "He should be home before the end of the week. I think he's at national semi-finals, or maybe it was quarter finals? If he even made it that far, I haven't exactly been keeping tabs on him this summer, but he may have laid the whole schedule out for me once or twenty times before we broke up."
"Little obsessive." Jimmy commented to his friend.
"I tended to call it passion." Cindy suggested then realize they reached the end of the hall. "Well I'll go grab us spots Nerd-tron. Remember ya don't have time for this whole conversation now you two." With that Cindy ducked into the classroom.
"She's right, we can talk more at lunch and after school." Aja clarified, then grabbed his hands "I've missed you so much James."
"I've missed you too Aja." He squeezed her hands in reply. "But one more question before class. Why didn't you tell me? Talk to me about your plan, obviously you knew you'd be doing this for some time."
"I wanted to surprise you."
"So you lied to me for a surprise?" Jimmy reiterated "A malefic surprise that I had no inkling to prepare for. I mean if I would have known we could have arranged schedules better for one, maybe even have my folks as your host parents, I could have come picked you up in my hover-car, or…" Jimmy was silenced by a kiss.
"Well talk later James. Off to class now.
"So what's the deal girl?" Libby asked hurriedly sitting down at the lunch table across from Cindy. Carl, Jimmy, Sheen, and Aja, were all working their way through the lunch line yet.
"Basically, Neutron had no clue, seemed kinda mad about it, and she'll be rooming with Nick and his folks. Might be here all year, and she's technically a senior."
"Dang," Libby looked to the lunch line then back to her friend "This is gonna be one weird lunch."
"Yup, she hasn't even met Nick yet. I'm worried he's gonna say something stupid like I broke up with him to be with Neutron or ya know that the break-up was a few weeks earlier than Neutron told her. She gets set off pretty easy, but especially when the topic is me it seems."
"Good to know, but I'd hope she wouldn't believe that you're trying to get with him. You and Neutron have just been friends for two months now, no issues since you laid everything out on the table, right?"
"Yeah, but I doubt she's gonna believe that once she see's how invested I am in his lab."
"Invested? How so?"
"Well I got my stuff like everywhere. My music is loaded into the computer, fridge has snacks and drinks that I like and Neutron doesn't, my inventions, stuff like that."
"Gotchya, so it's like you've moved in." Libby looked up to see they had parted the line, then she waved them down to join them. "Ready for fun?"
"If you wanna call it that Libs." After a few moments they had joined them at the round 8 person table. "So Aja, how's Retroville High treatin ya?"
"Hey this is my first day back too." Jimmy interjected to the girl on his left.
"You know most of the folks here Nerd-tron, little easier for you, even if most of the people who see you're back meet you with groans." Cindy sassed.
"I have done nothing to make anyone do that!"
"Yet." Was all Cindy added then looked past the genius to his brunette girlfriend "So Aja?"
"It's nice, the chemistry and calculous courses may be a bit dull, as we covered beyond them in the program. But I suppose it is better than taking a remedial math or science."
"Hey don't go knocking the remedial classes, those are my bread and jelly to my solid C's." Sheen blurted from across the table.
"I'm not saying they don't serve a purpose, James and I just will not be challenged by much of the academics at the high school level."
"What about your American History class? I'm sure they'll be things in there you didn't learn yet." Cindy reasoned.
"Quite possibly." She shrugged "Cinthia, I thought you had said Carl would be in my study hall over the third hour?"
"Huh?" Carl grunted "No, my study hall is 5th hour."
"My bad." Cindy admitted.
"I was disappointed not to see him or any of you, that is a very boring class."
"It's not really a class Aja." Jimmy explained "Certain education laws state that students need to be permitted a set amount of in school study time during a school year. So how our school does it is if you're in band or choir, 25 minutes of that class time is designated to a study hall, but if you aren't taking a music elective, you have study hall for a whole 50 minute class for half the school year."
"Wow Jimmy," Libby said unenthused "Sounds like you recited that from the school manual."
"Cause he probably actually read it when they sent us our school stuff in the mail." Cindy guessed, right apparently by the look on the boy's face
"Okay, I know Aja's here and all that is super exciting, but we gotta talk party plans cause our back to school bash is tonight." Libby interjected "Everyone been talkin it up?"
"So you gonna ride home with Jimmy, save me the awkwardness of being the third wheel in a wheel-less hover car." Cindy asked Carl a few lockers away as they were packing up for the end of the school day.
"Sure, I gotta say it's gonna be weird not having you drivin us home from school in the hover-car." Carl noted "Does he know how much you used it while he was gone?"
"Not entirely, I don't think he's figured out I took it to school most days." Cindy commented as she shut her locker and walked over to Carl, "Or that I made my own set of keys." She grinned holding them in her hand.
"One day you're gonna take it without asking and he's just gonna assume Professor Calamitous stole it or something." He pointed out closing his own locker and they started walking to the door.
"That's the idea. Ya know, next time he pisses me off." The pair made their way to the hover-car parked out front by the bike rack, but after most of the end of the day traffic had dissipated there was still no Jimmy or Aja.
"If they're going at it somewhere while were standing here patiently waiting for them I'm gonna be really upset." Carl huffed and leaned against the hover-car.
"Those are strong words coming from you Carl." Cindy smiled, then offered "They've been apart a while, but I doubt the two brainiacs would try something like that at school, especially not their first time."
just looked confused "But I thought they lived together, like in the same room for the last year, and you're saying they never did it?"
"That's what Neutron says. It was too important to not flunk out of the program, so they refrained from a fully intimate relationship, but sounds like they'd do everything thing but sex when they had a chance."
"When'd he tell you all this?"
"We spend a lot of time in the lab together Carl. Did ya think we never talked?"
"Well not about that stuff." Carl blushed a little, then noticed the two familiar faces they were waiting for, finally exited the school hand in hand. "Nor did I ever think he'd walk hand in hand with a girl in public."
Cindy looked to see them walking toward them, "Yeah, wouldn't have pegged Aja as a hand holder."
"Hey guys," Jimmy greeted.
"Nice of you two finally leave the building." Cindy sassed.
"Aja had to take care of a couple things in the office. And it looks like I may get to jump in to French 3 with you ladies after all, gonna have a meeting with the teacher tomorrow."
"Super, but we gotta get going geniuses." Cindy ushered stepping into the craft "I gotta get my speakers together and to Libby's for her party tonight, and I'm sure she'd appreciate some set-up help."
"Oh, you were all going to that tonight?" Aja asked.
"Well we all helped her plan it." Carl explained as he climbed in "Kids are even calling it the N-Men back to school party. It's just at Libby's house."
"I just thought we'd have a chance to catchup James." Aja pouted to her boyfriend.
"Aja, I can't just bail on my own party." He tried to explain as he followed Carl in, then turned to offer his girlfriend his hand to help her in. "It'll be fun, your first real American party."
"But on my first day here?" Aja asked pulling herself in.
"It's what I did my first day back." Jimmy explained, catching Aja off guard, obviously he'd forgotten to mention as they were 'fighting' his first week back.
"Yeah, he surprised the hell out of us all." Cindy chuckled "I didn't recognize him until he started asking about this being at my house." She added gesturing to their vehicle.
"Yeah, and Carl tackled me once he realized who I was." Jimmy noted as he started up the hover-car. "It'll be fun Aja, and if you really hate it we can leave early."
"Very well James."