Disclaimer: I do not own Jimmy Neutron or any related characters.
"We've got to hurry," Jimmy said while running down the street. He slipped a little as he rounded a corner. He clawed at the ground with his hands and pushed himself up. "We've got about twenty-four hours to pull this plan together."
Sheen and Carl struggled to keep up with Jimmy, who looked as if he was running for his life. "Jimmy, what exactly is the plan?" Carl questioned.
Jimmy ignored him as he finally reached the entrance to his laboratory. He leaned against the door for a second before opening his eye and shoving it close to his new retina scanner. He had found out the hard way that a certain blonde-haired beauty could easily break into his lab with a strand of hair.
"Move!" Jimmy shouted as he ran past the open door. He pushed a few buttons on the wall of the dusty shed. The floor slid out from beneath the three and sent them tumbling own a twisting tube into his lab.
"Ow!" Sheen shouted as he landed hard on solid concrete. "Why don't you put a couple of mattresses right there?"
Jimmy ignored him and jumped into a nearby rolling chair. He flew across the floor and came to a stop at his main work station. Jimmy pointed at the two phones on opposite sides of the room. "Get on those phones immediately. Call every guy in our classes. I want them all over here right now."
Sheen and Carl looked at each other. Carl shrugged and walked over to one of the phones. Sheen walked over to the other. "What do we tell them to get them over here?"
Jimmy slammed his head onto the table hard enough to make him a little woozy. "I don't care what the hell you tell them! Just get them over here!"
Sheen smiled and began dialing the numbers of every classmate he knew. "Bolbi? Yeah, it's Sheen. Get over to Jimmy's clubhouse right now. Why? Uh, free, uh, food."
"Ike," Carl said into the phone, "get over to Jimmy's house now. And bring every guy you know. We've got an alpha level situation over here."
Jimmy accessed his computer's directory and strapped on phone headset. "Nick? It's Jimmy. Get to my lab now. It's an emergency."
So this continued for several minutes. Jimmy glanced upwards at his security monitor. He noticed about twenty boys impatiently standing outside. He hit a button marked Emergency Entrance. The ground slid out from under the kids. They quickly landed in a heap on his lab.
"What kind of sick welcome is this?" Nick asked while picking himself up and bushing off his clothes. "And you," he shouted while pointing at Sheen. "I'm not too fond of you at the moment.
Sheen rubbed his two black eyes. "Ditto."
Carl and Butch started yelling at each other. Soon the whole place was enveloped in chaos.
"Everybody shut up!" Jimmy shouted at the top of his lungs. "There is an emergency and I need your help."
Nick's gaze hardened. "What? Those stupid Yolkians again?"
"Uh, no," Jimmy said.
"Meteorite?" Butch asked.
"Not exactly," Jimmy mumbled. "It's kind of, a, uh, personal emergency."
The guys glared angrily at Jimmy and then looked towards Nick. He nodded, and they all advanced towards Jimmy.
"Wait!" Sheen shouted. He jumped in front of Jimmy and blocked the crowd. "He has helped you with your homework, saved the town, and provided you a butt for your jokes for years! The least you could do is hear him out!"
"What about the food?" one kid in the back asked.
"In a minute!" Sheen shrieked. Once again, the guys looked at Nick. He thought for a moment before snapping his fingers and pointing downwards. They went to sit down, but Jimmy hit a button on a nearby wall. Dozens of seats emerged from under the floor.
"Thank you," Jimmy said. "Goddard, display holographic projection screen. Run slides A3, D7, and Q9. Switch slides when I say next."
What looked like a video camera popped out of Goddard's back. Carl flicked the lights off. Behind Jimmy was a realistic looking projection screen.
"Everyone, I've brought you here for a special reason. As many of you know, we were recently given an assignment by our loud-mouthed teacher Ms. Wolf. Next." A picture of Ms. Wolf appeared behind him.
"Ms. Wolf told us to write a journal entry. I wrote something incredibly important and personal in that journal, thinking it would never be seen by anyone. But this journal has been stolen. I had three suspects. Nick, Butch, and Cindy. That is why Sheen and Carl stole your backpacks. They needed to see if you had the journal. But I now know that Cynthia Vortex is in possession of this valuable notebook. Next." A slide of Cindy in the dress she wore for the fifth grade graduation dance appeared on the holographic screen.
"Cindy is having a slumber party tomorrow night. And I have reason to believe that she will be sharing the contents of said journal with her friends tomorrow night. It is absolutely critical that we prevent her from doing this. Which is why I've called you here. Next." A blueprint of Cindy's house replaced the last image.
"Here is the design of Cindy's house. I need you to help me infiltrate it tomorrow night, get that journal before she reads it, and get out. Terminate hologram." The picture behind him disappeared.
"Of course this is only the basic layout of my plan. If you're willing to help me, I can go into greater details."
The boys turned to Nick. He asked the obvious question. "What's in it for us?"
Jimmy smiled. "I can offer you the opportunity to use my high-tech gadgets, be part of an exciting mission, and maybe some free food afterwards."
Nick thought for a moment. "There are two other conditions."
"What?" Jimmy asked, excited that he might be getting help.
Nick straightened himself in his seat. "First off, I want to know what is in that journal. And second, well, let's see if you do the first before I tell you." The guys nodded their approval.
Jimmy looked to Carl and Sheen for help. They just shrugged. Jimmy sighed. "Nick, please hear me out. This journal, I, can't begin to explain what's in it. It holds a secret I've been guarding for three years. If Cindy and those girls read it," he paused, struggling for words. "If they read it, you can't even begin to imagine the pain I'll go through. This journal contains my heart, my soul. I just, I can't live with myself if anyone knows what's inside. Please, Nick, don't make me say it. I haven't even said it out loud to myself."
Nick stared at the pitiful boy in front of him. He didn't know why, but something about Jimmy struck a cord in him. He sighed and shook his head, smiling a little. "You're a sweet talker, Neutron. Alright. First condition met."
Jimmy breathed a sigh of relief. "But you're not going to like the next condition," Nick added.
"What is it?" Jimmy asked, too happy to worry about what Nick was going to say.
Nick leaned forward. "You say there's a girl-only slumber party tomorrow night. Every guy in the world wants to know what goes on in one of those. And you just might be the guy who can help us find out. You plant some of your high-tech mini-cameras, which I'm sure you have, inside that house in several convenient places. I want to know exactly what those girls do when guys aren't around."
Jimmy leaned against the wall and looked down at the ground. Nick was asking a lot. Besides being against the law, bugging Cindy's house wasn't exactly ethical. But stealing my journal wasn't exactly ethical. And she's played a lot more jokes on me than I have on her over the years. Plus, Jimmy was a little curious about what those girls would be up to himself.
"Deal," Jimmy said. He walked over to Nick and outstretched his hand.
Nick smiled a little and shook it. "So what do we do?"