sorry this took so long to update. not much going on here but it needed to be addressed. hope you enjoy

After another week of being absent from school, Jimmy finally felt brave enough to go there. He knew he wasn't really showing but it felt like everyone in the whole school could see his pretty much non-existent belly. Although his pants were more snug than they had been some weeks ago, there was nothing really different about him. Jimmy decided that acting as normal as possible was probably the best thing to do in his delicate situation. The only thing that really annoyed Jimmy more than knowing he was pregnant was the nausea and the peeing. He could have done without either of them.

"Jimmy, sweetie, are you sure you're ready to go back to school? You've been nauseous for days now and I hear how many times you have to use the bathroom. Do you really think this is such a good idea?"

"Mom, I can't just stay out for nine months. I have a reputation!"

Judy looked at her son, knowing for a fact he didn't have a reputation worth 'keeping' so to speak.

"I don't think you have anything to worry about in that department."

Jimmy made a face. "Well, gee, Mom, thanks for making me feel better about myself. Way to be part of the team."

"This is another reason too. You're too sensitive at this time. Your hormones are kicking in… What if someone said something and you burst into tears? What would you say?"

He shrugged. "I'll say it's an experiment. I'll say that everything is an experiment."

"Oh really? Please explain it to me."

"I can't, Mom, I gotta blast. Wish me luck!" he said, running outside.

"Don't run!" Judy yelled.

She sighed and hoped that her son would be alright in his strange predicament.

As Jimmy walked to school, he thought about what he would tell people when he began to show and all the symptoms he was going to be displaying. He really just couldn't believe it had happened to him in the first place. He was a boy genius! How could he get himself into something so impossible as being pregnant.

"Guess that's what happens when you're a man of science." He said to himself, putting his hand over his stomach. "These pants… I'm going to need bigger ones…"

As he kept going he heard a door slam and stopped. Sheen was coming out of his house and shoved his hands into his hoodie when the door opened again, his dad at the door.

"Yo no estaba hecho con usted! A dónde crees que vas?!" he yelled out the door.

Sheen turned around angrily. "Voy a papá escuela! Así que puedo aprender cosas y alejarse de usted!" he yelled, pointing at his father.

He turned around and ran straight into Jimmy.

"Ver por dónde vas- Jimmy?"

"Is everything okay?"

Sheen seemed embarrassed and rubbed the back of his neck, looking away.

"Um, yeah…"

Jimmy looked at the Estevez residence and back at Sheen.

"Are you sure?"

"Just a misunderstanding or something… I don't know anymore… He's been like this ever since I came back this last time… Then again, maybe it's just me…"

Jimmy nodded and Sheen looked at him, turning his head a little.

"You seem different."

"What do you mean?"

"I dunno. You just seem really different."

"Oh, well, I'm walking to school…?" Jimmy offered.

"No. It's something else…" Sheen leaned over and sniffed him. "New cologne?"

"Uh… yeah… that sounds about right…"

Sheen knew Jimmy was lying but in payment for Jimmy opting to forget about what had happened between his father and him, he would allow Jimmy to think him ignorant.

"Thought so. So, do you want to walk together? For old time's sake?"

"Sure. Even though we usually rode the bus." He said as they began to walk.

"No, Carl and I rode the bus. You were usually late and trying to do an invention."

Jimmy laughed a little. "Yeah, talk about a failure."

"Yeah, they were never any good. Though some of them were pretty cool. When we went to save our parents from the Yolkians and you rallied everyone up? Only you could have put that confidence in all those other lame asses. Even Nick was able to make something."

"Well, he hasn't changed."

"Not at all. He's still a dickhead."

Jimmy smiled a little and they walked in silence for a while. Whether either of them knew it or not, they were sizing each other up.

Even though they had been eating lunch together, Sheen was always distant and Jimmy tried not to get in the way. They hadn't spoken one on one since the incident in the bathroom but both could tell that something wasn't right about the other. Jimmy could see that Sheen was acting odd and not just because of the pills he had to take. There was something else about him that wasn't right. He had never, ever seen Sheen angry in as long as he had been friends with him and he was pretty sure that he was harboring resentment to Carl for taking Libby.

Sheen, on the other hand, had never seen Jimmy not want to show himself off. It was the very opposite of all that Jimmy was. Even though Jimmy was smart, he had always been an idiot about not lording it over people. But Sheen never minded and even though he portrayed himself as an idiot for the sake of face, he had learned a lot from Jimmy. Plus, Jimmy never made fun of him when he was going through his Ultra Lord phase. Most people didn't know that the Ultra Lord action figure was the last thing he ever got from his grandfather before he passed. He had loved his grandfather very much and he had been into action figures himself. Sheen took that passion with him and although he was overboard with it, it was a part of him. Jimmy and Carl were the only two people who hardly ever said anything about Ultra Lord or his obsession.

He was over it now, but he was older and so many things happened. He knew that Jimmy could help him with his own problems but whatever that smell was told Sheen that something else was amiss and he didn't want to burden Jimmy any further…

"So um…" Jimmy tried. Sheen looked over. "You're still taller than me."

Sheen hadn't realized that at all and smiled a little.

"Does it make you mad? Everyone's always been taller than you."

"Yeah, but you're almost five inches taller than me now. It's not fun when you're almost a half a foot taller than I am."

"Make me a potion to shrink myself."

"Don't you know I'm not public with my inventions anymore?"

"Since when did the boy genius start keeping his stuff under wraps?"

Jimmy looked away. "When you came back from Zeenu."

Sheen understood and nodded. "It's not your fault, Jimmy."

"I know. Everyone tells me that but I just can't think it isn't."

"Nah. I was an idiot. You told me not to do it so I just had to. We're older now and I have more common sense… that and ADHD medication as well as the other."

They got to the school when the bell rang and they both looked up.

"Well, I guess we're late together."

Jimmy smiled and they went up the steps to the school.

During AP Chemistry, Cindy watched Jimmy as he did his work, listening to the teacher so calmly. For some reason, his serenity made her feel good and free. She watched as he finished off chemical equations like they were only answers to questions like 'what does E=mc2 stand for?' or any other simple thing. She had to admit that he was always smarter than her (though she would never admit it) and he understood what she was talking about. She liked that she could argue with him over things like quantum physics and chemical equations to make something and not feel like she was over lording him.

"I can see you out of the corner of my eye, Vortex. What are you doing?"

"Hmm? What? Oh, nothing just… making sure that your work was correct. I know you've been in that high tech school and sometimes getting back to what you –as in yourself- would call the basics."

Jimmy smirked. "I thank you for your concerns, Cindy, but I'm not a boy genius because I forget who things work."

Cindy shrugged. "Just making sure… There's something different about you, Neutron."

Jimmy looked up and gazed at her, their eyes meeting and Cindy had to keep from showing her feelings.

"What's different about me?"

"I don't know… it's something about your skin. It's… kind of beautiful…"

"Uh, thanks, I guess. Between you and Sheen you'd think I was trying to woo someone."

"What do you mean?"

"Sheen said I smelled different and now you say I look different. I haven't done anything different to myself."

Cindy shrugged. "Well, whatever it is, it's nice."

Jimmy shrugged and Cindy almost fell in love with him again. The fact that Jimmy could take a compliment and not say anything about it made her heart skip a beat. She hadn't had such humility and innocence since Jimmy left the first time. It was going to be so hard now to keep her relationship with Nick. She had Jimmy back now and if anything happened, she wasn't going to let him get away.

TRANSLATION:

Mr. E: 'i wasn't done talking to you. where do you think you're going?"

sheen: i'm going to school dad so that I can get away from you!"

*bumps into jimmy*

sheen: watch where you're going-

and i can't remember if they showed when sheen got his first ultra lord but i made it where it was of sentimental value. sometimes when kids lose favorite grandparents or lose parents, they get overly obsessed and attached to things that remind them of them. this is just my guess.