Okay, I'm back, with another installation! I would have had this up last night, but I had to work, and study for exams. I feel like Jimmy in the first chapter. Summer vacation is almost here!

Anyways. I wanted to reply to Darth Vortex's comment. I felt that their school and such needed to be explained for the reader to adequately grasp everything that's going on. But don't worry, it will get better!

I'd Rather be Anywhere but Here
By me, Cassi Mo.

Chapter Three: So much for a Peaceful Meeting

Jimmy sighed as he walked toward the mess hall very slowly. His "encounter" with an old friend drained him of everything. That race back across the lake didn't help either.

Although the two camps Eyedrath Erbee and Anee Wherebutt Heer were located on opposite sides of the lake, to save money they shared a mess hall, in between the two camps, which meant co-ed meal and free times. For the most part, the boys sat at different tables than the girls, save a few spots where the older ones mingled with the other sex. The mess hall got quite crowded during these times, and loud, so Jimmy made sure to arrive early to get a good seat.

Even though he walked very slowly, Jimmy arrived at the hall earlier than the crowd. There were only a few occupants in the room, so he was in the clear. He got his food and took a round table in the corner, hoping that others would join them (A/N: just to clarify, the campers sit at cafeteria-style tables where the counselors sit at round ones). He was right.

"Are these seats reserved?" A very familiar voice broke through Jimmy's thoughts. He had been staring at his food, thinking about the owner of that voice. Upon hearing it his head snapped up and he shook his head. Cindy smiled and took the seat next to him.

Former enemies and present strangers stared at each other for a minute while taking in all the changes in the other since their last meeting. Jimmy was the first to break the silence. "Wow, Vortex, you look good. Who would've thought?"

Cindy had indeed grown more beautiful. Her hair was straight now, long and blonde, contrasting well with the tan of her skin. Her skin was flawless, and her eyes were still the same emerald orbs Jimmy remembered from so long ago. Upon her nose a small diamond protruded out of her left nostril (read: she has a nose ring, but it's a tasteful one).She was wearing a blue ankle-length skirt that tied at the hip and a white tank top that clearly showed her bathing suit underneath. Jimmy was finding it increasingly hard not to stare at her.

"Obviously not you, Nerdtron." Cindy's retort brought Jimmy back down to earth. "It's still safe to call you that, right?"

Jimmy chuckled. "Yeah, I haven't lost it. I'm the robotics counselor at the boys' camp. Goddard is napping in my cabin as we speak."

"Oh my God, you still have Goddard?"

"Well, I wouldn't dream of willingly parting with him. So I would say, yes, I still have Goddard. But since he's so old, I have to give him regular checkups to make sure he's working right. You wouldn't believe the amount of parts I had to replace in this dog. He used to go through power cells like toilet paper, and then a brilliant idea hit me: why not make the cells rechargeable? I then turned to Carl and hugged him for his wonderful contribution. That kid's mind works in wondrous ways."

This small talk continued for a while, Jimmy and Cindy chatting like they had been friends their whole lives and not enemies, until Cindy made a shocking comment.

"God, Jimmy, it's been so long since I've seen you. I've missed so much. Last time I saw you we couldn't look at each other without trying to kill the other one."

"Man, you're right."

"For the last time, Vortex, it's not my fault!"

Ten-year old Cindy had accused Jimmy of pouring water on her walkway the night before, as pranks were common between them, but previous pranks were simply humiliating, not harmful. Cindy had unsuspectingly stepped out of her door to get the paper that winter morning and slipped and fell on the ice. And since Jimmy was also getting the paper, she supposed he was there to watch.

"Why would I want to make an ice skating rink on your front lawn anyways? I know on ice you're about as graceful as an elephant with a concussion." Jimmy indeed knew this;ice skatingwas one thing he could shamelessly beat her at, hands down.

"How should I know? There's got to be some sick purpose in that turgid head of yours!" Cindy spat back. "And now you're making jokes about it! That proves you're the culprit. I've had it with you! You're always infuriating me, and I don't like it! I'm going to kill you!" Cindy screamed out the last sentence, leaving her red and exhausted.

"Oh, so that's how it's going to be? Okay, I can do that. I'm ready!" Jimmy had now relaxed into his arguing stance, his posture indicating he was bored but his eyes revealing otherwise.

"I'm going to kill you!" Cindy repeated, enraged at his bored appearance.

"Is that all you're going to say?" Jimmy replied calmly. His composure during their arguments only made his neighbor angrier, and that's what he lived for. "I really don't think so, but how do you plan to do this?"

"Well, for starters, I know where you sleep." Cindy had also relaxed, and her voice was too calm, laced with a hint of threat, which was worse than the yelling.

"I know where you sleep, but that doesn't mean I'm going to kill you. Well, maybe I will now, since you so falsely accused me."

"Yeah, well you better sleep with your eyes open!" Cindy hissed, leaving the Neutron front yard to escape from Jimmy and the cold January morning, this time carefully avoiding her frozen-over walkway.

"Do you remember that time you woke up and stepped out your door to fall on a patch of ice on your walkway when we were in fourth grade?"

A slightly uncomfortable silence stole over the old friends after the small talk had worn out, each one now concentrating on their plates. Jimmy had tried to break the silence with a memory of their incessant fights.

"Was that the time I thought it was you and kept telling you I was going to kill you?" Jimmy nodded. "Yeah, I remember that one. God, we fought all the time back then."

"Well, not all the time," Jimmy retorted. "There were times when you showed me you could be nice, which made all your nasty moments so much more frustrating."

"Why frustrating?" They had both discarded their meals after finding them unsuitable to eat and started to walk in the direction of the boys camp.

"Because once you showed me you could be nice, niceness seemed to make you more at ease with yourself than being mean. That led me to the conclusion that being mean was just a mask, yet I wondered why you didn't just out and be nice to me in public."

"You know, I'm pretty glad that you don't use big six-syllable words all the time. I mean, I understood them, but no one else did, and now that you talk relatively normal, youseem relatively normal. Not the show-offy jerkface you used to be." Cindy tried to change the subject not-so-subtly with a mischievous grin.

Jimmy dittoed her expression. "Whoa, don't try to change the subject on me, Vortex. As for that, I realized people listened to me more when I spoke more in words I thought they should be able to comprehend." His grin grew in size when he saw the shock on her face. He knew he had taken her completely by surprise. However, he noted he should never be surprised by Cindy Vortex.

"Just because your vernacular is completely above the heads of the general public does not mean it is above mine." Cindy's shock had faded into mock exasperation, for they had done this a number of times many years before.

"Okay. Now you're purposely trying to get me going on a tangent so I forget what we were talking about before. I know how you think, Cind. Don't try to get around me. You never answered me."

"You never asked me a question."

"Stop playing stupid. Tell me why you were nice to me when it was just us two, and downright nasty to me in public when we were kids."

"It doesn't matter now," Cindy replied vaguely, looking at her shoes. When she looked back up, Jimmy was surprised to see vivid emotion beyond her green eyes. "Look, can't you just be grateful I'm being nice to you now? When the right time comes, you'll finally know why."

Jimmy sighed. "I guess."

By now they had arrived at Jimmy's cabin. "Cute," Cindy replied, smirking. "Looks just like mine. And everyone else's. How do you find it at night?"

"Same way you find yours. Listen, I have to go now, but I'll see you around, okay?"

"Okay." Jimmy and Cindy exchanged a friendly hug (gasp! No way!) in farewell, before each going their separate ways.

Cindy's "separate way" was very eventful, however. Her first stop was the mess hall, where she picked up some of whatever it was they served for dinner and some silverware. Next, she went to her own cabin, added one of her five containers of Marshmallow Fluff, a can of raspberry-flavored shaving gel and some rubber gloves to her pile and put everything in a backpack. She then set her alarm clock and fell asleep, dreaming of the old days.

One o'clock. It was well past lights out for both camps, counselors included. Except for Cindy. Not only was she allowed out whenever since she was DA and therefore had to check on the cabins from time to time, but she had some other business to attend to. She had just docked a canoe on the lakeshore, Eyedrath Erbee side, and now she was walking from memory toward Jimmy's cabin. She used a flashlight to read the cabin numbers, because she figured if the kids saw the light, they'd assume it was Jimmy.

Cindy finally approached CO2, Jimmy's cabin, and smiled at the address. Only Jimmy would pick a cabin with the same number as a molecular formula.

As she entered the dark cabin, Cindy saw the his living accommodations were pretty much the same as hers, only filled with different things. One thing that was the same, however, was the guitar on a stand in a corner. Almost identical to the one in her corner, too. Creepy. She also noticed Goddard, who perked up from guard mode at the sound of her footsteps, but seeing her in the doorway started his tail wagging. As he opened his mouth to let out a happy yelp, Cindy covered it with her hand. "I gotta do this, boy. And if you utter one syllable to Jimmy about this I won't give you any of the silverware I have here. See?" Cindy held up a spoon for the mechanical canine. "Will you keep quiet about this?" Goddard nodded his head. "Okay, then, have the spoon, and a fork and two knives. You can have more, the longer I keep this up and you keep quiet."

Goddard nodded in acknowledgement and sat down patiently, silently watching Cindy go about her task. In about 20 minutes, she was done, and Jimmy had not even stirred.

Before she left, Cindy patted Goddard on the head and gave him two more spoons. "Not a peep."

Pausing in the doorway to Jimmy's cabin, Cindy turned around and faced the teenage genius' sleeping form. "Good night, my Whippy-Dip head," she whispered before bursting into stifled giggles. She laughed all the way over the lake and back to her cabin and didn't stop until she fell asleep on her bed.

And here, I will leave you with the golden rule, of course. I'm habituating it into you. Remember, repetition is the key to learning! Always review how you want to be reviewed. If you don't want bad feedback, don't give it!