'Oh man, she caught me' Cindy thought. "Come on Libby give me one more chance, please; I promise I will not leave until I have told him."
"Man, I can not believe I am letting you do this! Come on before I change my mind." She grabbed Cindy and the two of them went across the street.
Yes and this time I will tell him, Cindy thought.
Back at Jimmy's lab Carl & Sheen said that they had forgotten their backpacks and would see Jimmy in homeroom. (Note: The characters are in 9th grade and 15 years old close to 16) Just as Carl opened the door Cindy came running, and upon surprise of the door being open tripped and fell right atop of Jimmy. They both got up, blushing, and said it was their fault.
"Uh... Libby come on in and have a seat," Jimmy said as he had every time Cindy hands tried this.
"No thanks... I'll just see Cindy at school."
"Suit yourself." He closed the door and turned to Cindy. "So lost your key again," he said trying to hide the fact that his pulse was probably at an unhealthy point.
"Not really," Cindy said opening her hand to revile the key, which she had slid up her sleeve.
"So what's up?" Jimmy asked? He knew that she couldn't possibly loose her hey every 3 days even though secretly he enjoyed those awkward moments of silence between them, alone in the small entry to his laboratory. But he was not alone; Cindy also liked just the two of them being together without teasing each other.
"Nothing much" Cindy said still really nervous about telling him the truth. What if he didn't like her? What if he thought she was mental? What if he…
Her thoughts were interrupted by Jimmy's soft voice. "So do you have a partner for that long term health project yet?"
"Which one," Cindy joked, they always had a project or two due in health.
"The one where we have to have girl/boy partners and take care of baby dolls for the rest of the year."
"Oh, that one," Cindy said as if she had been enlightened. "Actually no, Courtney took nick 10 years before Libby or I got a chance."
"Well…wants be my partner…. Since I don't have anyone either," Jimmy added quickly to cover up his true motive.
"Sure," Cindy said nervously trying to hide her excitement. Jimmy Neutron had just asked HER to be his partner. "But as long as I HAVE to be stuck with you for the rest of this year I have to tell you something."
'Yes! She does like me.' "Well go ahead & say it."
"I…I…I," she took a deep breath, "I just want you to know I'm sorry for all of those time I made fun of you. And I am sorry your inventions don't always work out. And I kind of feel sorry for you when the whole class laughs at you. And I…" Cindy was about to tell him the truth, about how much she loved him and about how bad she felt but just then Jimmy did something Cindy thought she would only dream about.
He put his finger to her lips, to quiet her, took her hand, & kissed her, quickly, on the lips.
"Cindy please doesn't bring all that up, and especially not right now." He kept his hand in hers and softly asked "Wanna walk with me or catch the bus?"
"I think I'll walk today," Cindy said realizing they were still holding hands. She quickly pretended to fix her hair, dropping his hand in the process. But when she did she wished she hadn't, instantly she noticed that when they were holding hands her body just had a happy-go-lucky tingling sensation.
"You know we're just friends for now right" Jimmy asked but immediately wished he didn't. "Unless of coarse you wanted to… you know…" he just couldn't get the words out no matter how much he wanted to.
"Go out," Cindy said trying to help to him. "And while I still think you put up with a lot going out on a date with you would just be plain weird." Cindy said thinking that he was totally uncomfortable with the idea, but secretly yelling' yes of coarse I'd like to go out with you' inside her brain. 'Not to mention if you were so uncomfortable with the idea why did you have to kiss me like that' she thought.
"Well then, better be going if you want to make it to school on time," Jimmy said trying to cover up his disappointment that she said no. Then again he was the one who sounded like he didn't want to be anything more than friends. But that wasn't it at all; he REALLY wanted to go out with her. The problem was once again his mind had turned to mush after seeing her, well it wasn't exactly just seeing her, that kiss alone was enough to turn his brain into some kind of gelatin substance.
"Um, Jimmy, we are straight A students, right?"
"Uh… yeah.
"So… Let's skip!
"To school? You want to skip to school?" Jimmy asked for fun… he knew what she meant.
"No silly, I mean let's not go to school and go to Retroland instead." She gave him a 'your joking aren't you' look.
"Sounds cool to me; however how will we going to get by with it without our parents permission?"
"You call as my dad and I'll call as your mom."
"Good idea, Goddard phone please."
They made the calls and everything went as planned. On the long walk to Retroland the talked about the weather, school, names to name their 'baby', and anything else that wasn't considered 'personal'. When they arrived at Retroland there were no lines so first they rode every fast-paced, action-packed, most-thrilling-in-America ride at they park. After that they ate and made calls to their respective parents, telling them that they were going to be home around eight O'clock because they were staying late for an 'extra credit project'. Once that was done they looked at the map. They decided to ride all the rides again. Finally when they had rode every ride 2-3 times they looked at the time. They had just enough time to ride one more ride. But which one, they were sick of the roller coasters. They looked at the map one more time. Every ride had at least 2 marks next to it; all of the rides except one… The Tunnel of Love.