What is it about being so close to Christmas that makes teachers want to pile on the responsibility? I mean really- do they think that all I want to do after doing schoolwork for eight hours is to go home and do more!

Anyway, that's the main reason for the long, extensive delay. So here goes my last chapter; the last in my very first multi-chapter fanfic! I'm so proud! I want to thank all my reviewers for sticking with me! I never, ever thought I'd have a nine-chapter story, let alone get over forty reviews! So, thanks you guys. Thanks so much!

(You can also thank the weather for giving us some snow and the like and giving me a chance to actually finish this!)

Think of things this way: the first two scenes happen simultaneously, so the girls both partake of the evil, burning substance at practically the same time, and the boys run off to fetch a cure…and…yeah, okay, just read it, lol.

Sorry if I disappoint anyone, but I'm skipping almost straight to the dance. Hope that's alright…

Chapter Nine: A Dance To Remember

Anger filled brown orbs. Pure, unadulterated anger. Not hate, not rage, just anger. The head that the eyes belonged to was set in a scowl, and the body attached to the head was leaning against a wall on the far side of Lindbergh Elementary's gymnasium, every fiber of her being screaming, 'Leave. Me. Alone.' They stared through the throng of joyous students to the object of the extreme dislike: the girl mirroring the person's stance, leaning against the opposite wall.

Suddenly she felt a peck on her shoulder. Removing her glaring eyes away from her subject for just a second, they flicked to the intruder long enough for recognition, then hastily back to her prey. "What do you want Sheen?"

Sheen shrugged, then copied Libby's pose. "Dunno. What are you doing? It must be pretty fun if you'd rather do it than dance. What are you looking at?" He followed her gaze.

"It's really none of your business, but I was looking at something on the other wall."

Sheen was silent for a moment, thinking. If Libby minded his presence, she didn't say anything, so he continued to lean against the wall and think. After a minute of deep meditation, he felt ready to take on the world! Or at least try and cheer his pseudo girlfriend. "So, Libby, um, would you like to do something?"

"No, not really."

Not one to be defeated, he tried again. "Are you sure? Maybe you just need someone to talk to. I'm always here, you know."

She paused, then mumbled, "Yeah, I know."

A comfortable silence fell on them as they studied the human wallflower. Once again, it was Sheen who broke it. "So…" he said, dragging the word out a few extra syllables. She didn't answer, and he didn't really expect her to. Finally, the silence became too much for him, and thinking of an ingenious plan, he dug around in his pockets for his life-saver. Finding it, he pointed it at his enraged friend. "Want some? I've not even opened the pack. It's, um, an 'electrifying innovative expedition for the taste buds', whatever that means," he read from the colorful package.

Libby finally refocused her burning gaze at her companion, and they rested on the wall. Only Sheen, she thought. Smiling, she took it, saying, "Sure Sheen. Why not? I'm sure it doesn't taste that bad." Unwrapping the gum from its foil encasement, she started chewing. Mmmm…this isn't too bad…

Suddenly, though, the cinnamon spiced fruity flavor erupted into an all-out flame. To be frank, it was simply no longer worth chewing, and she fiercely spit it back out into its paper. Panting, she looked-wide eyed-from gum wad to Sheen, then back to gum wad. Finally she half gasped, half shrieked, "What…was…that!"

Looking a rather cute combination of flustered, humored, and scared for his life, he managed to somehow defend himself. "But…but…Libby, the package said it was an electrifying innovative-"

"I don't care," she said, enunciating each word clearly, "what the package said, my mouth is burning up! Quick, get me something to drink!"

"What do you want to drink?" he asked good-naturedly.

If looks could kill… "I. Don't. Care. Just get me something! Hurry!"

Maybe it was the flames in her eyes, or possibly the dangerous edge in her voice, but he hurried away to the refreshment table to carry out the request of his queen.

Anger filled green orbs. The blonde to which the eyes belonged stared through the mix of students, locking on similar spheres on the opposed wall. She needed something, anything to do. The anger spread to every cell in her body, making her tense and rather moody. Her companion standing beside her appeared weary of her, and kept trying to inch his way to safety. Of course, after a few minutes of observing her, shuffling a few inches, observing and shuffling, she grew tired of the constant insubordination of the boy next to her.

Without moving her eyes off their target, she bid him comply her order hastily. "Neutron, I promised I wouldn't hurt you tonight. Don't make me break my promise."

Startled that she even noticed his secret and covert moves, he took a little while to respond. "What do you mean? I'm not doing anything."

Struggling to maintain composure, she turned to him, her eyes finally off the hole they were currently trying to burn through the girl on the other wall. "What do you mean," she threw back in his face, "you're not doing anything? You're moving away from me like you're afraid I'm going to notice and…and…attack you or something!"

"Well how do I know you won't? You've practically been itching to hurt something ever since we arrived," Jimmy spat at her, mentally assuring himself that he was at least three feet away from her reach and mentally scolding himself for not helping the situation any.

Cindy had to dig deep within herself to find some forgotten reserves of will power, with which she used to restrain herself from leaping at her big-brained, big-headed enemy and tearing him limb from limb. "Just…just…"she stuttered, angry. "Just, shut up! What do you know, anyway?" Fed up with everything, she returned to her previous engagement: angrily staring at Libby.

Even though she wasn't looking or concentrating on him, Jimmy could practically see the plethora of emotional vibes radiating from her. She was enraged, yes, anyone could see that, but there were so many more emotions being felt within her right now-betrayal, hurt, sadness-Jimmy just couldn't stay mad at her.

Wanting to call a truce, but not wanting to be overly enthusiastic about it, he searched his pockets for something he hoped might calm her nerves and ease her mind. Upon finding what he was looking for, he cautiously strode up to Cindy and placed a hand on her shoulder. Surprised that she didn't flinch; didn't even seem to acknowledge his presence, he was reluctant to even finish his mission, but one look into her face-the corners of her eyes that he could see, to be more precise-removed most of his initial standoffishness. "Cindy, um, would you like a piece of gum? It's a brand new flavor-I just bought the pack the other day. I've not even tried any," he said, proffering her said piece of confectionary goodness.

Mulling it over, she finally accepted his offer and took the gum. What did she have to lose? And anyway, the gum would give her a wonderful, if small, outlet as she chomped irately away. Only a few minutes into her blessed relief, however, the small wad of gum began to give off heat. It started as a tiny warm sensation, but soon heat equaling a bonfire was emanating from the back of her mouth. Her eyes widened in surprise, and she quickly spit the offending substance back into its wrapper. No sooner had she done this did she start her verbal assault on the person who gave it. "Neutron! You're trying to poison me! What was that, some new failed invention of yours?" Cindy panted, her mouth ablaze.

Confused but indignant at being yelled at for simply giving her a piece of gum, he retorted, "What! I was just giving you a piece of gum! I told you I hadn't tried it yet-how was I supposed to know that it was hot?" Besides, I wouldn't even grace you with the presence of one of my failed inventions, Blondie, he added in his head.

"Ugh, I don't care! Just go get me some water or punch or something! My mouth's on fire! Hurry!"

He stood in front of her, debating on actually getting her something or not.

"Don't just stand there, you idiot. Hurry!" Cindy ordered.

Cursing his lucky fortune and good nature, he glared at her before turning around and getting lost in the sea of kids surrounding the refreshment table, muttering obscenities and curses the entire way there.

"Hey Jimmy. What's up? Where've you been the past couple of days? I called, but-"

Jimmy looked up at his chubby, bubbly friend who stood behind the table, serving punch. "Yeah, sorry about that, Carl. Ever since Cindy and Libby made that stupid bet, I'm afraid I've been rather, er, busy," he finished glumly.

"Busy? Doing what?" As if he had just realized he was holding a giant bomb, he whispered the next question as though if spoken too loudly it would detonate said bomb. "You weren't…kissing, were you?"

Jimmy was so shocked by his friend's observation that he couldn't really conjure up an answer. "That's…that's… that's preposterous! Me and Cindy…KISSING? Eww, no way, Carl!"

Carl, however, went right on as if Jimmy hadn't said a word. "Because you know, that's okay, if you have been. I won't tell anybody-it'll be our little secret. Well, I might tell my llamas…and of course, Cindy already knows."

"Carl, Cindy and I have never-"

"And Cindy's not the worst, I suppose. I mean, she's nice. Sometimes. And she rarely beats you up anymore. And I guess she could be prett-"

"CARL!" Jimmy snarled. Obediently, Carl shut his mouth with a snap.

Thinking he had done something wrong, he cowered and said, "What?"

Taking a deep, relaxing breath, he was about to explain to Carl that he and Cindy hadn't engaged in anything willingly when a third party burst in on their private conversation.

"Busboy! Waiter! Punch police! My dearest queen needs a cooling refreshment to quench her burning tongue!" The figure, to emphasize his point, banged his fist on the table top as if it were a gavel. Then, because no one immediately rushed to the bowl, he looked around and searched for assistance. Spotting Jimmy and Carl, his eyes lit up and he ran to them.

"Can you believe the service around here? I mean, my queen is in dire need of something to drink and I can't even find the person that's handing it out! What idiot leaves their post in times of desperate need?"

"Uh, Sheen, Carl's serving the punch," informed Jimmy.

Silently mouthing the last of Jimmy's sentence in thought to himself, he didn't miss a beat-even if he was playing a different song. "Oh! Carl! And just why aren't you serving punch!" Sheen demanded, stepping closer to Carl, who promptly stepped backwards away from the hysterical Hispanic.

"Well I-"

"You're supposed to be giving out liquidy goodness to those in dire need of liquidy goodness, such as my treasured sovereign Libby. And where are you?"

"I-"

"I'll tell you where you are. You're not where you're supposed to be, that's where you are! Quick! I need a glass of punch for Libby! Hurry!" As Carl scampered off to fill a cup with some sort of fruity concoction, Sheen turned to Jimmy and said, "You just can't find good help these days."

Staring at Sheen as if deciding whether or not to believe in his sanity, Jimmy shook his head and called to Carl, "And can you bring me one for Cindy?" before addressing Sheen in his entirety.

"So…what are you doing?"

"I am bringing my dear friend Libby something to quell the burning sensation in her mouth," Sheen said calmly.

"Why is Libby's mouth burning?"

Sheen shrugged. "I dunno. Some kind of new gum or something."

"That's funny. I gave Cindy some new flavor of gum and it caused the same react-"

The sound of high heels being angrily snapped against the hard wood floor of the gym interrupted his statement, which was followed by, "Neutron! Where's my fruit punch!"

Jimmy froze, fearful of the blonde girl who was angrily stomping her way through the crowd, trying her best to get to the local genius.

Sheen was about to make a quick getaway from the local yellow volcano when a voice from behind him made him freeze in his tracks. "Sheen! What are you doing? Nobody takes that long to get a glass of punch!"

Quickly recovering from his petrified state, Jimmy mouthed animatedly to Sheen, "If we hurry, we can still-" Jimmy never got a chance to finish his thought, however, as both extremely ticked off and perturbed females took one glance at the other and, attaching themselves firmly with a strong indiscernible bond to Jimmy's and Sheen's arms (respectively), promptly left the scene of the crime, fleeing in opposite directions.

"…idiocy. This whole thing is complete and total lunacy; it's…it's…gratuitous, and furthermore, it's a complete waste of time-my time, your time, everybody's time," Jimmy chastised the hotheaded blonde sitting on the bench in front of him. For the most part, Cindy had kept her head bowed and acted the part of astute and condemned listener. At this pause in his long monologue, Cindy lifted her eyes from the cement floor where they were resting and trained them on Jimmy, following his pacing movements. For a moment he stopped pacing to continue his line of rebuke. "I just don't understand why you and Libby can't kiss and make up, figuratively speaking, of course," he added when he saw her murderous glare.

Salty tears resting at the edge of her eyes, she stood up and pounced upon her prey in much the same way a tigress attacks her dinner. "Why? Why? Why can't I make up with Libby? I would've thought that you of all people would understand, Jimmy," she began, throwing his name out at him with a vengeance. "After all, Sheen and Carl disappoint you all the time. She was my best friend-and she sided with you! She belittled my abilities to successfully get a date; she disappointed me Jimmy. Your best friend is supposed to be on your side, no matter what. They stick up for you and defend you-they don't aid the enemy!"

After a pause which weighed heavily on both preteens, she went on, lowering her voice to barely above a whisper, talking as if she was speaking to herself, "And so, okay, maybe I'm being a little bit unfair. And maybe I got on her case a little too much about it, but still." She turned to look him in the eye, and he was surprised by just how much emotion was swirling around behind those emerald orbs. "Best friends don't do that to each other."

His voice matching Cindy's, he asked her, "Why don't you tell her this instead of me?"

She retorted, "Do you tell Carl and Sheen everything? Of course not. And I'm sure that you're the first person to run up to them apologizing after they completely destroy one of your 'oh-so-prized' inventions. Let's face it, Jimmy, they may be sweet and loyal, but they're definitely not the sharpest tacks in the container. And don't try to argue it, because you know just as well as I do that Sheen and Carl would lose their heads if they weren't physically attached."

Point taken, Jimmy thought. "Well-"

"Aha! See Sheen, I told you he was no good!" Libby exclaimed as she began coming closer to the hostile duo.

Surprised that he and Cindy were no longer alone, it took him a few seconds to process what the brunette was attempting to start. "What! I never said anyth-"

"Jimmy, is this true? Do you really think that I'm some sort of simpleton?" Sheen asked, only catching the last part of Cindy's attack on Jimmy's friends.

"Now wait just a minute. I never said-"

Interrupting him once again, Sheen said, "Well, I guess you find out what your friends truly think about you only if you eavesdrop."

Getting agitated that Sheen clearly wasn't going to listen to him, he tried one last time to convince him otherwise. "Sheen, just let me explain," Jimmy pleaded.

Libby, not about to hear more lies from an arch rival's ersatz date, jumped into the ongoing argument. "He doesn't need any explanations; I know what I heard."

Not about to be left out of the fun, Cindy joined in the disagreement too. "Just what exactly is it you heard, Miss Private Detective? Because it certainly wasn't my dear boyfriend Jimmy criticizing that plastic-for-brains-"

Libby began her verbal assault also. "Big headed-"

"-superhero outfit wearing-"

"-destructive and hazardous-"

"IDIOT!" the two girls yelled at each other, glaring at each other with as much hate and despise as they could muster.

Switching tactics, Libby began the attack again. "You know, I love my boyfriend so much…" she trailed off, grabbing Sheen's hand in the process.

Mirroring her actions, Cindy grabbed Jimmy's hand and gave it a squeeze. "And I love my boyfriend so much too…"

Slightly angered that her plan wasn't working quite as she had intended it to, she went a step further. "Yes, well, you know what they say. If you love someone, give them a hug." And she proceeded to do just that. The glares that the boys were giving each other vanished, as they suddenly began to fear for their very lives.

"Li-libby, I'm perfectly fine with you loving me, but do you think that maybe you could love me a little less…tightly?" Sheen begged from within the confines of the death grip Libby was giving him.

Oh yeah, Miss You-Know-What-They-Say? I'll do you one better, Cindy thought mischievously. She began inching her way close to Jimmy, to which Jimmy responded by repeatedly backing away a few inches. Without removing her gaze from Jimmy's large head, she threw in Libby's face, "Some might say that, but you know what they really say?"

Letting go reluctantly of Sheen (who almost dropped to the ground from lack of much-needed oxygen), Libby, annoyed that her plan was being turned against her, answered, "Just what do they really say?"

Without really answering her, she quickly closed the gap between her and Jimmy and, muffling his unheard pleas of discontinuement, brought her lips crashing down on his.

Libby, mouth agape at Cindy's actions, quickly decided on her next procedure, and mirrored Cindy's and Jimmy's stance.

Both couples broke apart at approximately the same time, eye lids at half mast and breath coming silently. No one spoke; afraid the fragile moment would be broken. A smile spread across Jimmy's face, goofy yet extremely sweet. Sheen was the first to break the silence. "Wow, that was some kiss!"

Libby, for the most part the spell being broken, rolled her eyes in Sheen's direction. Cindy began giggling, and Libby soon joined in. "I'm…so," some more uncontrollable laughter, "sorry!" Cindy apologized.

"Me…too!" Libby chorused. Walking together, laughing, back into the crowded dancing area, they left two befuddled boys behind.

Standing beside each other, they watched their dates tread into the midst of the dance. Recovering from the daze he was in first, Jimmy asked, "What just happened here?"

Sheen answered, "I don't think I'll ever understand girls."

Jimmy nodded in agreement, and they too walked into the dance.

Over the next few weeks, some of the group's classmates marveled at the extreme turnaround in the behaviors of Jimmy and Sheen towards Cindy and Libby. They sat together at lunch and at the Candy Bar, and several would swear that they saw Libby walking out of Sheen's house, or Cindy entering the Neutron household. Most called it the start of a beautiful relationship.

Isn't it amazing what a little bet can do?

YAY! I'm so finally done with this story! I'm so happy! (weeps hysterically)

Oh, and you can thank my good friends Chrissy and Maggie for proofreading this last and final addition to my story, and Chrissy especially for giving me the gum idea. Thanks bunches you guys!

And thanks to all of you for sticking with me and for reading my story and reviewing. It means a lot to me!

This is my Christmas present to you all! And today's my birthday, so it's also a birthday present to me and all of you out there who've enjoyed my story. Again, thanks so much for reading it and reviewing it and helping me to write it.

I hope that all of you will continue to read and review my future stories. Again, thanks SO MUCH! You all make this worthwhile.