I'm glad to see that my loyal readers haven't lost faith in me! Especially The Legendary Frob (Yay! I have finally conquered the elusive and mind boggling task of separating author's notes and author's story!) and fanjimmy, who has written a review for 75 (or percent, just in case the sign doesn't show up) of this story. And many, many thanks to all the others who have reviewed! I really appreciate it!

A quick author's note: I love the Libby and Sheen pairing and everything, but feel as if I've not put enough attention on their particular side of the story seeing as how I really love the Jimmy and Cindy pairing more. So it wasn't that quick of an author's note; but please tell me your opinion of this. Do I need to elaborate more on the Sheen/Libby perspective or what? Also, I still need some ideas for how Sheen should look. I think I've got Jimmy's new look down (I do in my head, anyway).

Chapter 5: Window Shopping and Ultralord

"I thought you said you didn't have a clue where you were taking me, oh shining one?" Sheen asked as Libby followed a rather winding course, apparently intent on reaching a certain spot.

Libby slowed her pace a little and loosened her angry grasp of Sheen's hand. "I always know where I'm going."

Sheen stopped with a confused, thoughtful look on his face. "Hold up. I thought you said at the Candy Bar-"

"Sheen," she said as she dropped his hand and turned to face him. Her voice took on a tired, pleading tone. "Can we just forget the whole Candy Bar scene? Please? For me? That's not really something I want to remember when I'm eighty."

"What don't you want to remember?"

"Sheen, I just told you. Forget it."

"Forget what?"

"Sheen! Stop it!"

"Stop what?"

"That!" Libby exclaimed as she pointed a finger at him. "Stop that! Stop acting clueless! Please, for both our sakes; because I know you don't want to be six feet under and I really do not need to add 25-life to my resume."

Sheen threw his arms out to his sides and his face held an insulted expression. "But you said to forget it! That's what I was doing!"

Libby looked at him for a few seconds, and then covered her face with her hands. Small, unidentifiable sounds could be heard from behind her hands. Looking concerned and thinking he had done or said something wrong, Sheen asked, in his own 'timid' way, "Libby? Libby! Are you alright? Is it me? Did I do something wrong? Libby! Speak to me!" As he shouted this last part he fell to his knees, typical overly exaggerated Sheen style.

Almost immediately after, Libby uncovered her face and laughed hysterically. Sheen, who had closed his eyes with hands outstretched toward the heavens, opened them suspiciously and abruptly dropped his hands to the ground. His lip quavering and eye twitching slightly, he exclaimed, "Nothing makes sense any more!"

Libby, who had stopped laughing, had also noticed he was beginning to make a scene and quietly tried to shush him. "Sheen, stop it! You're making a scene! Stop! Sheen, you'd better stop or I'll-"

Sheen stood up. "Who do you think you are telling me to stop, you, you, Libby impersonator you!" He began walking around Libby, who stood with her arms crossed and an agitated look on her face. "Why do the aliens of Xortek 5 find pleasure in tormenting Ultralord and his loyal followers?" he screamed at the sky.

As he passed around again, Libby reached out and snatched his arm, temporarily pausing both him and his outlandish cries. "Sheen, how long are you gonna do that? Because if you go on much longer, we won't have any time to go shopping. Now I'll give you two choices. One: You stay here and keep screaming idiotic things at the sky alone, or two: You come with me to the mall where you get the joy of viewing me in different dresses for our dance Friday and telling me which one flatters me most," she finished with a sweet smile.

Like I don't know which one he's going to pick, though Libby as Sheen placed a finger on his cheek, apparently deep in thought. This surprised Libby as she thought he would automatically pick being with her, but his answer almost made her roll her eyes.

"Can we stop by the Ultralord store after?" Ugh, boys and their toys, she thought as she rolled her eyes. Out loud she said, "Only if you don't act up. And if we have time." She began her way to the mall, Sheen happily following thinking of the new action figure he might get, both completely unaware of just who you can run into at the local mall.

"Which one do you think looks best?" Cindy asked, holding two dresses up to her in front of a full length mirror.

Jimmy sighed for what seemed like the hundredth time in the past two hours. After dragging him down to the mall, supposedly on a needed trip to buy things for him, she had spent a combined total of fifteen minutes on him; an hour and forty-five on herself, asking him his opinion on this dress with those shoes and such. I thought we were coming to shop for me! He voiced his opinions when she turned from the mirror to him expectantly.

He sighed again as he straightened, removing his cupped hands from his chin. "I thought we were coming to get stuff for my unneeded makeover, not to spend hours looking for a difference in identical dresses!"

"Humph. A lot you know, brainiac. These dresses aren't identical. This one," she said, holding up one, "is sea foam green while this one," holding up the other, "is light pastel green. The difference is easy for anyone to see, unless they were colorblind, which apparently you are. And besides, we have all day tomorrow since the teachers are decorating. . We'll just have to come back." And with that, she turned back to examining herself in the mirror.

Jimmy just rolled his eyes, and started to respond but thinking better of it, put his head back in his cupped hands, elbows on his knees as he waited for her to decide she didn't really like either dress enough to buy it and put it back on the rack. He could almost hear her explaining it to him like she had at all the other dress stores.

"What was wrong with those two green dresses you just found?" he would ask as they walked into yet another dress shop.

And she would say, "They weren't just right. The sea foam green dress had too much foam, not enough sea, and the light pastel green dress wasn't green enough. I have to have something that compliments my good features, such as my eyes. By the way, what color do you think my eyes are? Do you think they're more deep green or emerald green? I think they're more emerald myself.

"Oh, and don't forget I have to have something that goes with my hair. And shoes! You can't forget about the shoes! They have to match my dress. They can't have too much of a heel, but they can't be flats either. Hmm…do you think we'll have enough time to go to the salon Friday? I can get my nails done and they can fix my hair and you can pay for it, because, of course, we are going out, and that's what boyfriends do. Ooohhh!" she would squeal and point as she rushed at another green dress, "Look at this one! Don't you think it's just perfect?" she would gush, as she had at all the previous dresses.

And he would roll his eyes, nod, paste on a fake smile, and say, "Yes Cindy. It's perfect Cindy. Why don't you just buy all the green dresses and try them on at home with someone who actually cares, Cindy? Why don't you just let me go to do what I please, Cindy? Why don't you just go jump in a lake and take all those perfect green dresses with you, Cindy!"

Okay, so maybe he was exaggerating a little bit. Okay, make that a lot. Maybe he was exaggerating a lot. And so maybe shopping with Cindy wasn't pure torture, albeit very boring and monotonous. And maybe, just maybe, he was enjoying himself just a little bit more than he cared to admit. But why in the name of Einstein does she have to take so dang long? Are all girls like this? If so, I should invent something that would allow men around the world to be free of this kind of heinous treatment. In fact, I think I'll start on it right now! As soon as Cindy goes over to that aisle of dresses, I'll make a break-

His thoughts were interrupted, however, as he heard a familiar voice ring out from what seemed to be directly across from his present location.

"Libby! You said we could shop for Ultralord paraphernalia!"

I know that voice…Jimmy sat up and turned at an angle where he could see what was going on. Sheen was hanging onto the door frame of the Ultralord shop, and Libby was yanking hard on his other arm, appearing very disgruntled. After a few hard tugs without any apparent results, she let go of his arm and stood with her hands on her hips. Jimmy was just close enough to hear what they said, and it sounded as if she was irritated. Very, very irritated.

"Sheen, I said after we shopped for my dress, if we had time! Do I look like I have my dress? Well, do I?" Sheen had let loose his hold on the door frame and looked at her with a pleading look.

"But-but I want Ultralord! Please Libby? Please?" He looked up at her with big, hopeful eyes.

"No," said she, sternly. But as the 'puppy-dog' look remained on his face, her expression softened and she finally said, all the while mentally cursing herself and Sheen for a) falling for that look and b) using that look, respectively, "Look Sheen, there's a dress shop straight across from here. We'll go look through it, then we can look at the Ultralord shop for a few minutes. Okay?"

"Okay," he said dejectedly.

"Good."

Jimmy watched as Libby and Sheen made their way over to the store. Jimmy turned around to find he was face to face with a very agitated Cindy.

"And just what do you think is so important out there that you have the right to ignore me?"

He said pointedly, "I have every right to ignore you and I try to use that right as often as I possibly can." Then, upon remembering who was soon to be appearing in the store, he said, "Oh, um, hey Cindy! Ready to go? You are? Good!" Jimmy grabbed her hand before she had a chance to do anything, save for the fact that she was really confused by his actions. He then began to run with her in tow to the nearest exit. Just a few more feet! Ten…nine…six…

Stopping just a few feet before he reached the exit, he realized who he was about to barge into and decided heavily against using that exit. Turning, he again began to run until he came to the dressing rooms. Stopping to pant for breath, he quickly scanned the doors until he found one that was ajar. "Aha!"

"Neutron, just what do you think you're doing?" Cindy yelled, as she tried to release her hand of its imprisonment.

Not bothering to take the time to explain, he hastily dragged the reluctant Cindy to it and shoved her in, followed suit, and shut the door behind them.

Cindy felt a combination of anger, shock, and disgust. So it was only natural that when poor, poor Jimmy turned around breathing a sigh of relief that he was targeted, he being the person who initiated those feelings and all.

"Neutron, I don't know what you think you're doing, or what you're going to do, and I really don't care to find out, but you most certainly are not going to do whatever it is you were going to do with me. So if you would be so kind as to step aside and let me out, I'll just be on my merry way." Cindy stepped forward, prepared to leave and put her hand on the door handle.

Jimmy automatically reached out to try and stop her from leaving and starting World War III in the middle of the mall. Ignoring the tingly feeling of his hand on hers, he screamed as loudly as he could while trying to be inconspicuous, "NO!" He frantically threw her hand off and locked the door, placing himself in front of it as a human barricade. "You can not go through this door," said he, shaking his head for effect.

Cindy had heard that geniuses often bordered on insanity, and Jimmy's actions had her thoroughly convinced of it. She looked at him as if he were crazy as she said, "What are you doing?"

Realizing the look she was giving him, he said defensively, "Despite all evidence otherwise, I am NOT crazy. I think my actions are justified. Just let me explain, okay?"

"Fine. Explain to me why you shoved me into a dressing room, then followed me in, then locked the door when I try to leave all for no apparent reason?"

"Hey! It's not my fault I saw Libby and Sheen coming and decided it would be to everybody's benefit if you two didn't see each other! I was only thinking of your best interests!" And my safety, he added to himself.

It took Cindy a moment to realize what exactly he was saying. Finally, she spoke up. "So, you think shoving me into a dressing room so I wouldn't run into Libby and do something is in my best interests?" He nodded. Cindy was torn; Jimmy was actually helping her with a bad situation he hadn't started in the first place. How sweet! He wants to help me! On the other hand, it was apparent that he didn't have a whole lot of faith in her will power. Wait, how does he know that something bad would've happened? Big brained, know-it-all; Thinks he knows what I would have done. I'll show him! I'll walk right past the little snob and her so-called boyfriend and I won't say a word to them. I might even try to be civil to them!

"Okay Neutron. You win. I'll stay in here until they leave. Happy?" Cindy said forlornly as she stepped closer to him. "I promise that I won't start anything with Libby when I see her. Could you just do me one little favor? Unlock the door, please, it's making me uncomfortable; I mean, being in here with you and all."

Sticking his tongue out at her, he complied. She edged closer to her target, and calmly placed herself between the doorknob and him. Taking care to distract him from what she was really wanting to do, she started talking to him. "So, Jimmy, what have you been working on lately?" she said, smiling sweetly.

It was his turn to stare. "Are you okay? I think this small, enclosed space may have disrupted your normal thought processes and you're having a momentary lapse in judgment."

Hmph. Lapse in judgment, my foot.

"No, it's just now that I think about it, you bringing me in here shows that you're really thoughtful and sweet."

Jimmy looked at her doubtfully, warily. "Really! It's just-wait. Come here. You have something on your cheek. Just let me get it-" Cindy leaned in close as if she were examining a spot on his cheek.

Okay, Vortex. You really want out of here and there's only one way to get around Brain Boy without damaging his oh-so-precious mind and getting into big trouble by doing so. Deep breaths…In… Out… In… Out…NOW!

"Where?"

"Right….here!" Instead of wiping it away with her hand, she swiftly closed the gap between them and a second later Cindy Vortex was kissing Jimmy Neutron on the cheek.

Realizing what she was doing, Jimmy pulled away at the speed of light, and began to vigorously wipe his cheek off, loudly exclaiming, "Eww! Eww! Eww!"

Success! Cindy opened the door to the dressing room and ran out, trying strongly to erase the pleasurable, tingly feeling on her lips as she did so.

Another chapter without too much delay. I'm proud. LOL. I meant to have this up earlier, but my best friend's Mom died and what a mess that was (and still is). For all the spiritual out there, we need a lot of prayer.

On that note, the next chapter will be delayed at least until after the 5th. First camp, then a cookout with my family, then fireworks, then various other story-delaying things. Blegh. I hope you really liked this chapter because I think I did well (not to be arrogant or anything). I really liked writing this chapter.

But you know what I would really love? If you reviewed this chapter! Or this story, whichever. Any questions or comments, please feel free to blather away! Why are you still reading this author's note when you could be reviewing? LOL!