HELO, RETROVILLE! This will be my second-ever JN fic, yet my first-ever not-a-one-shot JN story! (confetti) Yay! Anyway, I wrote this while coming out of a Ceres obsession, but I think it's a pretty cool story. I hope I'll be keeping our characters IC, and I hope y'all like this a lot! (And go easy on me; it's my first non-Teen Titans one.) Enjoy! And PLEASE REVIEW!

The Night in New Jersey

Chapter 1: The Interrogation
Cindy and Libby walked to Cindy's house from Jimmy's having embarked on yet another space adventure. Needless to say, the two girls were bushed.

"Man, I am beat!" Libby slouched.

"Me, too," Cindy said upon entering her house, "Mom, Libby's staying over!" They trooped upstairs, but Cindy's mother called her back down. Both girls had a sense of foreboding.

"Don't worry, girl," Libby said lowly, "You'll be fine as long as she doesn't say 'We need to talk.' That's the worst sentence in the English language." Cindy sat on the opposite end of the white vinyl couch and drew up her legs to turn and face her mother, who was sitting normally on the other end. She cleared her throat.

"Cynthia," she said, "We need to talk." Cindy squeaked with dread and tensed up. Libby, hiding in the hall by the top of the stairs, gave a small gasp and also cringed. They both knew what (or should I say whom) this was about.

"I notice," her mother started, "that you've been out quite a lot with the young Neutron boy and his friends. If I'm not mistaken, half of these outings are life-threatening space adventures!"

"I prefer to think of them as high-level play sessions that help me advance my karate moves," Cindy said smoothly. (HA! Alliteration!)

"Be as that may," Mrs. V said, "I think you've been spending a little too much time with that Neutron boy."

'That Neutron boy?' Cindy thought defensively and said, "Mom what exactly are you saying?" Her mother rose.

"I'm saying," she said decisively, "that I don't want you to see that boy again!"

"WHAT?" Cindy jumped from the couch.

"WHAT?" Libby grabbed the banister to keep from falling.

Ignoring her eavesdropping, Mrs. Vortex continued, "You heard me, Cynthia. You can 'hang' with Libby all you like, but Neutron is too rambunctious with 'living on the edge.' From now on, you are to remain in the Retroville city limits at all times. I'll not have my delicate princess prancing all over the universe with a space cowboy who rides his dog!"

But Cindy was still in shock from "You can't see him anymore."

Fists shaking, Cindy rounded on her mother.

"You just don't want me to have any fun and be with other kids!" she exploded, "I'm having the best childhood ever because of 'that Neutron boy'! You just don't like him because he's even smarter than me, and you can't accept that your 'delicate princess' is not perfect!"

"Now see here, young lady," mother pointed at her.

"No! You see here!" Cindy snapped back, "All my life, you've been pressuring me and pushing me almost beyond my limits because you said you wanted what was 'best' for me. If you really did, you'd let me enjoy being a kid while I still can! And Jimmy is NOT a bad kid! He's smart and fun and he's nice! Believe it or not, I like spending time with him! (A/N: Okay, the argument gets really lame here, but just go with it.) It's good for me, because leading psychologists say that interaction between the sexes at an early age increases mutual understanding at a later age."

Mrs. Vortex hadn't thought about that. Cindy felt smug; she always knew how to push her mother's buttons. Mrs. Vortex looked at her daughter as if she was reading her. There was a whole world more than what Cindy had just ranted, and she sensed it. Cindy could tell her mom sensed it, too.

"Mom," Cindy softened her tone and walked to her, touching her hand, "I like being eleven years old. Please don't make me live like I'm 45." Mrs. Vortex laid her hand on Cindy's head as her daughter pled with her eyes.

'Please don't take me from Jimmy,' she was mentally begging, 'I need him.' Mrs. Vortex sighed.

"You two go to bed," she said, "I'll think about it." Cindy ran upstairs half-relieved. Her mother's sigh was a good sign.

"Did she sigh?" Libby asked once they scurried in her room.

"Yeah," Cindy nodded, "That's a good sign."

"You sound worried, Cindy," Libby touched her friend, "What's wrong?" Cindy looked at her.

"I think," she answered, "she's starting to suspect." Libby's eyes flew open.

"You mean," she softened, "about Jimmy?" Cindy nodded with a freaked out face. As they got in their PJs on opposite ends of the room with their backs towards each other, Libby continued, "What are you gonna do if she figures it out?" Cindy pulled her pink cotton nightgown over her head.

"I don't know," she thought out loud, "Whatever circumstances provide, I guess." Libby pulled up her soft blue PJ pants that matched her equally soft green tank top and got in Cindy's bed.

"That's the spirit, girl!" she said brightly, "Now let's bump some Graystar!"

"Okay!" Cindy giggled as she got next to Libby. For the rest of the night, they talked and snacked. Finally, they fell asleep. 15 minutes after they reached the unconscious stage of sleep, a black-clothed figure made his move. Having entered through the window, he crept over to Cindy's side and put iron manacles on her wrists in front of her that were linked together by one tiny link on each one. Then he scooped her up, slipped out the window, and got in the waiting black Ford LTD (think Men In Black.) They sped off into the night, away from her lifelong shelter that was Retroville.

In Jimmy's bed, Goddard woke in a disturbed panic.

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Author's Review:
(I do these all the time.) As I said, I was coming out of a Ceres phase when I wrote this, (which was a long time ago) but it should shape up to be a pretty cool story. The psychologist thing was super lame, I know; I just needed an opening when Cindy would actually stump her mother. What better way than what the experts say, right? And I kind of like what I've done with her mom; you can tell she's getting a whiff of Cindy's feelings about Jimmy (which was what Libby was talking about when she said "about Jimmy."), and I think it's going to do a lot of good in the later chapters. The next chapter will be kind of funny, I hope. Oh, the "We need to talk" philosophy? I got it from "Lizzie McGuire," in case anyone cares. Please tell me what you think! (nodding enthusiastically)
-samuraistar