Disclaimer: I do not own Jimmy Neutron or any related characters.

The five kids ran like the devil was chasing them. Cindy, being the most athletic, quickly took the lead. Jimmy, Cindy, and Sheen were right behind her. Carl brought up the rear.

Cindy's eyes hardened as the seconds flew by. Jimmy and the others fell farther and farther behind. They took time to move branches out of their way. Cindy just ran straight through them, ignoring the numerous cuts on her arms and face.

"Cindy!" Jimmy shouted as he picked up his pace, but still unable to catch her.

Cindy ignored the burning in her sides. With each step she took, her stomach twisted and cried out in pain. Cindy simply bit her lip and continued onwards. As the explosion of the batteries reached her ears, she thought back to what had started this whole adventure.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cindy lay in her room, twiddling her pencil between her fingers and then tapping it on her desk. It was the first of June, the final month of school. She couldn't help but smile as she thought back to the many memories she had experienced this past year.

Fifth grade had certainly been the most exciting year of her life. Besides the countless adventures she had experienced with Jimmy, Libby, Carl, and Sheen, she grown as a person. Finally she was able to drop the charade of hating Jimmy. There was no denying that they were friends now.

She suddenly snapped out of her thoughts and looked down at the blank sheet of paper on her desk. Well, almost blank. All she had put on it was her name, the date, and the title of the assignment.

Ms. Fowl had assigned them what she thought was a fun assignment for the end of the year. Write a poem that says something nice about one of your classmates. Cindy knew she could take the easy way out and write about Libby, even Nick, but she knew that this poem had to be about to Jimmy. They had started the year out as enemies, and this poem would allow them to end it as friends. Sighing, she began to write.

You're the boy that I love to hate.

I thought our feud was the work of fate.

I never dreamed that we could be friends.

I thought we'd be enemies until the end.

I know that sometimes we argue and fight.

Even though you're usually right.

I guess what I'm trying to say

Is that I'm your friend starting today.

Cindy put down her pencil and read her poem. She smiled a little. "Utter and complete crap," she said while shaking her head. She crumpled the poem up and threw it into her trash can.

"Cynthia! Please come down here for a moment!" her father yelled from the living room downstairs.

Just what I need, another excuse to procrastinate. "Be right there!" she shouted while looking across the street. It was almost midnight. She knew that she shouldn't be up this late, especially on a school night. But she couldn't bring herself to give up on the poem just yet.

"Sweety, you might want to sit down," Mr. Vortex said as his daughter strolled into the living room.

"Um, alright," Cindy cautiously said while plopping onto the couch. "What's up?"

"We hate to wake you up, darling, but we felt you should know this now. Your mother and I, we're getting a divorce," he sadly explained.

Cindy looked from her father's sad face to her mother's blank expression. "Uh-huh, sure. Nice try, dad. I'll see you in the morning," she said while nervously laughing. She tried to leave the room, but her father blocked the exit.

"Cindy, I'm not joking. Your mother was, well, she," his voice trailed off.

"Oh just say it! I had an affair!" Cindy's mother angrily shouted. "You just have to blame this whole thing on me! I'm not the one who insisted on working late every night. You just have to stay perfect in front of the girl and let her hate me!"
"Not in front of Cynthia!" Mr. Vortex angrily told his wife.

"You said that you and Mr. Smith were over," Cindy angrily said. "You told me it was a mistake, and that you would fix it."

"You knew about this?" an astounded Mr. Vortex asked.

"Our bedrooms aren't far apart," Cindy angrily muttered.

"Watch your tongue, little missy!" Mrs. Vortex shouted.

"Why don't you watch who you sleep around with!" Cindy shouted back. She stood in front of her mother and glared at her. "Why do you have to ruin everything? All you care about is yourself! You don't care about dad, and you especially don't care about me. You're just a, a, a slut!" Cindy shouted, not believing what she had just said.

Mrs. Vortex slapped Cindy hard across the face. Cindy fell onto the couch and put a hand to her bleeding lip.

"Don't you dare hit her!" Mr. Vortex shouted while grabbing Mrs. Vortex's wrist.

Cindy's mother threw Mr. Vortex's hand off of her. "Enough beating around the bush. You want this marriage over? Fine! Let's make a clean break!" she said while opening a drawer and pulling out a gun.

"What the hell?" Cindy and her father shouted at the same time.

"Why...what...what are you doing?" Cindy's father asked while raising his hands up in the air.

"Killing you," Mrs. Vortex calmly said.

"Why?" he asked while reaching for a nearby lamp to use as a weapon.

Mrs. Vortex shot her husband's arm. He dropped the lamp. "A million reasons. Here's a few. I want a fresh start. I want a clean break from you. Insurance money. Hell, the thrill of it. Want some more?"

"Just come down, Ana. Don't do something you're going to regret," Mr. Vortex said. "Do you really want to spend the rest of your life in jail for murder?"

Mrs. Vortex laughed. "Obviously you haven't realized the benefits of having a police captain for a boyfriend. I highly doubt they'll think I had anything to do with the murder of our daughter Cindy."

"Say what?" Cindy quietly asked.

Mrs. Vortex shook her head slowly. "So sad. My husband went insane with jealousy after he found out about my affair. He pulled out a gun and tried to kill me. Brave little Cynthia tried to stop him, but my husband here shot her. Overcome with grief for killing his daughter, he turned the gun on himself. And me, well, I'm the traumatized survivor," Mrs. Vortex said with a laugh.

"Like hell you are!" Cindy said while tackling her mother.

Cindy was strong, but her mom was stronger. She threw her daughter to the ground and spun around, emptying a bullet into Mr. Vortex's forehead. "Advantage number two of dating a cop: access to shooting ranges. Excellent target practice."

"Dad?" Cindy said while crawling towards her father's lifeless body. After realizing he was dead, she turned around and faced her mother. "You're insane."

"Maybe," she said with a grin. "But don't worry. You'll meet up with dear old daddy in a moment. Say hi to him for me," she told Cindy while aiming her gun at her daughter.

"No freakin' way," Cindy angrily said while kicking her mother's shin.

Mrs. Vortex dropped the fun and lost her footing for a moment. Cindy ran out of the house and towards the one person she knew would help her.

"Let the games begin," Mrs. Vortex said while getting up and running into the kitchen. She grabbed a large knife off of a rack and headed back into the living room. She scooped up the gun with her other hand and chased after her daughter as Cindy busted down the door to Jimmy's house.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"She's not going to catch me," Cindy whispered while running through the woods.

Author's Note: I know this differs slightly from what Cindy told Jimmy. But she probably wouldn't have wanted to go into all of these horrible details.