v. owned, own·ing, owns
v. tr.
To have or possess as property: owns a chain of restaurants.
To have control over: For a time, enemy planes owned the skies.
I do not own Jimmy Neutron.
Thanks go out to all of you who have been reviewing! I must admit, it spurs me on, and your encouragement has all been very flattering.
It's so cliché. Aw well, I'll say it anyway. Read and Review!
The bus pulled up to Jimmy and Cindy's houses. Libby had spent the night at Cindy's house. All three of them had the butterflies. Today would be their first day as sixth graders.
Cindy kept her distance from Jimmy by sticking to Libby's right. Jimmy, who'd been alone most of the summer, was getting used to the whole "solo deal" and was about a yard away from Libby's left. He threw a couple of questioning glances wayward at Cindy, who was doing her best to eliminate her peripheral vision, by bluntly staring at the back of Libby's head. She kept her mouth closed. It was hard; it would be a new record if Cindy could restrain herself from making any remark whatsoever to Neutron.
The bus pulled up to their stop, and they boarded.
They noticed something peculiar, however. The entire front of the bus was filled in with groups of two per seat. The entire back of the bus was empty.
The bus driver turned to Jimmy, Cindy, and Libby, who stared curiously at the children. "I'm having everyone seated in order from bus stop until I can remember where everyone gets off, since I'll also be dropping you off at the end of the day. Two of you sit together in that seat," he pointed to the seat that followed the consecutive pattern, "and one of you sit in the one across from it."
Immediately Cindy thought to herself, Me and Libby, but then Libby spoke up.
"Wait, I don't usually go to this stop. I was just spending the night at her house," she motioned to Cindy, whose smile fell.
"All right then," the bus driver led them over to the correct seating arrangements. A couple of kids had to scoot back seats to make room for Libby. "You sit there," he said to Jimmy and Cindy. They picked seats opposite each other and managed their items. "No, no. We have to make room for the rest of the kids. You both sit there," he motioned to Jimmy's seat, which coincidentally, was right behind Libby's.
Normally, Cindy would've protested, but she didn't want to let her metal show. She cautiously took the aisle side of Jimmy's seat, while he stared out the window. She didn't look at him.
The bus began moving, and Jimmy broke the silence, "Look, Cindy, I know you're mad at me," her eyes widened at this, but she still refused to look at him, "but I honestly don't know what about. Could we please just discuss this?"
I'm not mad at you, you big oaf. Why does he always have to make me feel guilty about things?
"I saw that look. Don't go arguing about it. I know you're mad at me." She stole a quick glance at him, and then looked away. "Cindy, you said you hated me."
She glared at herself, I said that? Wow, I don't remember saying that. I have to pay more attention to these things. Her eyes remained narrowed as she sat there, kicking herself.
He noted her sudden angry disposition, "So, you still do hate me?" He closed his mouth; he didn't want to start bawling. Jimmy Neutron doesn't cry.
She looked up at him, with what resembled in her eyes of the utmost horror. She turned away, and looked at the seat in front of her. Come on, Vortex. We're almost at school. You're too young for this kind of stress. Just keep your eyes fixed on anything but him, and you'll be home free.
"Wait, so you don't?" he was quick to respond. He paused, "How about a game? It's called the yes or no game. I'll ask you a yes or no question, and all you have to do is nod or shake your head. Want to play?"
It looked like once again, she wouldn't respond, but finally, she slowly nodded her head up and down.
"Okay then. Are you mad at me?"
She rolled her eyes as if contemplating, Am I mad at him? She shook her head, no.
"Are you mad at someone else?"
She thought about herself. No, she wasn't mad at herself. It wasn't her fault she had braces. She thought of Britney. That self-conceited witch! She ground her teeth, absent-mindedly, and focused so hard on the seat in front of her that Jimmy was surprised a red-hot beam didn't shoot from her temple and melt the seat in front of them.
"Okay, so I'll take that as a yes… Is it someone I know?"
Jimmy knew who Britney was, but he didn't really know her. She squinted one eye and teetered her head back and fourth, as if to say "Sort of."
"Is there anything I can do to help?"
She shrugged.
"Is that all that's bothering you?"
She shook her head violently.
"Does it have to do with why you're not talking?"
She nodded violently.
Jimmy broke the yes or no question rule, "What's bothering you?"
Cindy looked down at her shoes, and finally said to herself, I can trust Jimmy. She turned her head in his direction, and looked into his eyes for the first time in what seemed like ages. Quickly, with absolutely no emotion, she revealed her braces, and looked away.
"You too?"
Both Libby and Cindy turned to face Jimmy. Cindy displayed a very puzzled expression. Libby, uninterested in the conversation, turned around merely to retort, "Quiet down, will ya? I'm in the middle of a rillay good song."
Libby caught the way Cindy and Jimmy were staring at one another, and realized it was her turn to be quiet.
Jimmy grinned, revealing his braces.
Cindy smiled a genuine smile, something that's really rare, well, for Cindy.
Libby couldn't hold it in any longer. She smirked, "Aw, how sweet."
"Stow it, Braids!" Cindy was her old self again. Jimmy was glad to see it, and apparently, so was Libby, who didn't consider "braids" to be a real insult.
Cindy and Jimmy exchanged quick smiles again, and headed off the bus, onto the campus of their new school.
"Wow, everything's… big," was all Libby could manage to get out. It was true, at least compared to them. The school building was much larger compared to Lindbergh Elementary, not to mention everyone was either their age, or older. Everyone was in a rush, too, to find their new classrooms. Now that they were in middle school, they'd have six teachers, instead of one. Teachers and students rushed back in fourth in the big mess, whereas Cindy, Libby, and Jimmy, just stared in awe.
"Who do you have for first period?" Cindy asked.
They all fumbled through their things and fished out their schedule cards.
"I have Gildred."
"Gildred."
Both Cindy and Jimmy stared up at Libby to see who she had.
She sighed, "Cunningham."
Cindy looked slightly disappointed but then added, "Oh well, maybe we'll have something else together later. Right now, we have to find our classrooms though."
"We should ask someone," said Jimmy.
"Who?" Cindy and Libby asked.
"Everyone looks so… serious," Libby commented.
The older kids looked more like aliens than someone of the same species, and all the teachers seemed like walking corpses, the way they sipped their coffee, the way they walked, the way they seemed to stare off into nowhere and pace across the linoleum. They were nothing like sweet, old Ms. Fowl.
"Well, we have to find our classes; the bell's due to ring in three minutes," Jimmy reasoned. "Excuse me, Sir? Umm, Miss? Gas planet, will anybody- hello, could you? Gah! WILL SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHERE I CAN FIND GILDRED AND CUNNINGHAM?"
A girl who looked around thirteen happened to be passing by. "Yeah, just go down the main corridor and bear left," she said nonchalantly, and faded back into the crowd of buzzing students and teachers.
"Thank you!" he yelled. "Come on, they're this way!"
Cindy and Libby followed him pass the swarms of people.
"Aha! Cunningham and," he looked to the classroom parallel to it, "Gildred! We're here!"
"All right then! See ya guys later then!" Libby entered her classroom.
"See ya!" Cindy and Jimmy entered theirs.
Right away, they located Carl and Sheen. Wait a second, Carl?
"Carl! It's you!" Jimmy ran over to where Carl and Sheen stood; Cindy slowly followed.
Jimmy ran over to hug Carl, "It's so great to see you!"
"No Sheen, how was your morning? Or Hello, Sheen, I missed you? Just Carl, I love you! Let's glomp!" Sheen spat.
Jimmy smiled facetiously, "Sheen, I saw you a couple days ago."
"Yeah, well I saw him this morning. My dad gave us rides to school! So there!"
Carl smiled, but didn't say anything.
"Carl, you got braces too?" asked Cindy. She was beginning to feel a little more comfortable with the whole "metal mouth" thing.
Carl flipped through a set of eight by eleven inch index cards. He found the one he was searching for and held it up. It read: Yes.
"What are those?" Jimmy grabbed the index card and flipped it over. It read Mime World on the back.
"Mime World?" Jimmy questioned.
Cindy shivered and grimaced, "Mimes…"
"What's this for, Carl?"
Carl looked to Sheen for help. "Fine, I'll tell it," Sheen sighed. "Jimmy, remember the petting zoo you had at your birthday party?"
"Don't you mean birthday parties?"
"Yeah."
"How could I forget?"
"Well, Carl pet llama one too many times. Llama go evil insane. Llama chase Carl. Carl scream. Llama keep chasing Carl. A lot. Carl keep screaming. A lot. Carl lose voice. Carl go to doctor. Doctor say Carl no talk for long time or Carl lose voice permanently. Doctor also say Carl need braces. Carl get braces. Carl go to mime world yesterday. Carl buy index cards to communicate. Carl find llama. Carl kick llama. The end."
"So that's where you and your parents were off to in such a hurry? Mime World? And that's why your mom said you couldn't talk on the phone? Well, that explains a lot…. Gee, sorry, Carl. I wouldn't have let my parents set up that petting zoo if I'd known about the rabid llama."
Carl searched through his index cards but apparently didn't find what he was looking for. He quickly scribbled something on a blank card and held it up. "It's okay."
"Yes, this is all very good, Calamitous, but where's the romance?"
"Are you kidding, Delstohks? At least they're acting humanely. Are you even aware of how Neutron and Vortex usually treat each other?"
"Of course I am! I watch the show all the time."
"You mean this universe-"
"Whatever! I watch the show every day! I'm the number one J/C fan! If I say there's not enough romance, I mean it. Stranded just got my juices pumping. I-"
"Stranded?" asked Calamitous, confused.
"The episode- I mean the time Jimmy and Cindy were stranded on that island together."
"Oh."
"We need more J/C! If they don't start moving this relationship along, the fans will die out and-"
"Fat chance of the fans dying out, Delstohks. And do you think you could even call it a relationship? They're eleven years old."
"YES! A RELATIONSHIP! NOW STOP INTERRUPTING! No wonder you could never finish sentences. You won't even let me finish mine."
Calamitous frowned upon that last statement, but it got him to shut up.
"Like I was saying, maybe instead of just waiting for things to progress naturally, since it's appearing they never will or will take forever, I'm taking into great consideration of planting something…"
"Delightful! I've always enjoyed turnips, especially when they turn a deep crimson. Then you'll know they're-"
"NOT AGRICULTURAL PLANTING! Plant as in let's plant a little romance between the two."
"You mean set them up?"
"Precisely."
Calamitous and Dehlstohks continued watching Jimmy and Cindy from a monitor, evidently located somewhere in the class room. The screen kept going black, but they could catch enough glimpses of the two to recognize what one might call "bonding" as they chose their seats in the front row next to each other.
"You getting pictures of this, Calamitous?"
"You bet."
"Excellent. First day in progress. First stage as well. Things are heating up quite nicely."
The monitor displayed Jimmy and Cindy, smiling at one another, but breaking eye contact quickly. Then the screen went black.