sorry for the hiatus. i should be back with updating now! enjoy!
Cindy went to the bathroom and Betty walked in behind her.
"Is there something I should know, Vortex? I got the vibe that I'm covering for something."
"Betty… I didn't hear you behind me."
"That's not the point. What was that that you made me do?"
"Something happened and I just don't want to get Jimmy involved in it. Please don't give off any indication it's something else." Cindy said, putting her hands together.
"It's fine. It's not that big of a deal… So… Neutron got so much hotter after he came back from High Tech City, huh? Is he available?"
"Available? For what?"
"Dating of course. He doesn't have a girlfriend, right?"
Cindy thought about it for a second. This last dealing with Nick had left her with a black eye and she swore that if it got to this point that she would dump him. With her mind resolved, she had decided that she was going to try to get back with Jimmy. Even though Nick wasn't there, she had already broken up with Nick in her mind.
"Yeah, he does."
"Oh?"
"Yeah…"
Betty made a face at her and then smiled.
"Of course. Oh well, I guess I missed out then, huh?"
"Yeah, I guess so."
Betty flipped her hair over her shoulder and smiled again, leaving the bathroom. Cindy sighed and looked at her face in the mirror. She looked at her black eye and frowned. It looked pretty bad and it seemed a little worse that she didn't even try to cover it with makeup.
"No wonder they were confused as to how Betty could have done this. Jimmy just can't find out. He just can't…"
Cindy sighed and walked out of the bathroom when she bumped into Sheen.
"Oh! Hey, Sheen…"
"I know Nick did it."
Cindy turned her nose up at him and walked away from him quickly.
"Whatever do you mean?"
"Don't play games, Cindy." She stopped walking. "Jimmy has his suspicions too."
She turned to him swiftly as he watched her intently.
"Are you going to tell him then?"
"No."
"Then what's with the threatening aura?"
"I came to let you know that Jimmy doesn't know how much you've changed. He thinks he does, but he doesn't. He still thinks you'll go to him and let him know exactly what he needs to hear so that he can fix it for you, but that's not how you are anymore, is it? You've been under Nick's thumb for far too long now and even though you want to, you can't get out of it."
"You don't know anything about me, Sheen. You just got back from being in LaLa Land or whatever place it is you go when you're on pills. I don't need someone like you lecturing me about my life."
"My life is fine, thank you." Sheen growled. "I've come to terms with my demons, it's time to face yours. Jimmy won't do anything unless you tell him. He's always been that way and you've forgotten it. He's the Boy Genius of Retroville with a high IQ and low social skills. He won't just 'figure it out'…"
Cindy looked down a little as Sheen licked his lips to talk again.
"Cindy, everyone knows that your story is false. Jimmy chooses to believe it because he's tried to warn you and you assured him that it wasn't the case. He's not stupid but if he doesn't have to deal with it, he won't, and if you seem to be able to handle it, he will step back. But you can't handle it anymore. It's come to this and there's nothing you can do to save yourself unless you either put up your own fight or have someone help you. You can't do this alone anymore."
Cindy sighed and nodded a little.
"Fine… I'll… I'll tell him at lunch. Will you tell him to meet me at the lockers?"
"Sure…"
She nodded and headed off as Sheen watched her go for a moment. He leaned back a little to the corner.
"Fair enough?"
Jimmy walked out with his fists clenched.
"I knew it."
"Well, what are you going to do?"
Jimmy sighed and leaned against the wall.
"I guess the only thing I can do: listen and play the innocent."
Sheen nodded and they both left.
At lunch, Cindy waited for Jimmy by the lockers, ready to tell him the truth about everything; her feelings, the black eye, everything.
"Hey, Cindy, thanks for waiting."
Cindy looked up and was surprised to see that it was Nick. She floundered for a second and then smiled at him.
"N-Nick…"
"Does anyone know that it was me?"
"No, no one-"
"Don't lie to me, Cynthia." He said, slamming his hand behind her on the locker. "You went to Libby's house and told her didn't you?"
"I… well… I was scared and you'd never done that before and-"
"Save it." he snarled at her. "I know what you're planning to do but don't worry about it, I took care of Neutron for you."
"Wh- what do you mean?"
"You were going to sell me out to that idiot smartass. I may not be as smart as him but I'm pretty smart about babies."
"Babies? What are you talking about?"
Nick chuckled in a slightly degrading fashion as he leaned against the lockers beside Cindy. Cindy could see that he had some bruises of his own and his knuckles were healing over as if he had been in a fight. She didn't dare ask what happened.
"I overheard you talking with Sheen and then I overheard you and Neutron talking some time ago. Your feelings for him never changed after all these years… well, I'm sure when you find out the truth about that little freak, you'll come running back to me."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"When you see him next, ask him what's been going on with him. Why he's been acting the way he has… You'll see what I mean."
"Nick, you're not making any sense."
"I don't need to." He said, turning away and pushing his fingers through his hair. "Oh, and next time, if you do anything like that again, I will not only go after you, but go after Libby too. Carl is still unable to defeat me and Jimmy… well, you'll see about Jimmy."
Cindy clenched her fists and crossed her arms.
"Then I'm sure Sheen will have something to say about it."
Nick turned back to her, a strange glint in his eye.
"Sheen is crazy, who would believe him?"
He whistled a jaunty tune as he walked away. Cindy wasn't scared anymore though and was going to tell Jimmy the truth… if he ever got there. Cindy looked at her phone and saw that lunch was almost over. Did he forget? Where was he?
"You alright?" Libby asked, looking at Cindy.
"I was going to tell Jimmy everything that happened but he never showed up. Did he get sidetracked with you guys and forgot to come meet me?"
"Sidetracked? What do you mean? We were all under the impression that he was with you."
Cindy made a face as Carl walked up.
"Carl, did you see Jimmy anywhere?"
"No… I thought he was with Cindy." He looked around for a second. "Where's Sheen?"
Cindy was worried, mostly about Jimmy, but Sheen missing too was kind of odd. Libby looked at her in fear as well and she smiled nervously.
"Maybe they had something they needed to do? I mean…"
"Yeah, maybe…"
The silence hung in the air like a bad smell and they all seemed quite uncomfortable all of a sudden. They got the stuff that they needed and parted from one another in deep thought and concern for their friends.
As the day went on, Cindy didn't see hide nor hair of Jimmy and Sheen. The weather turned bad and she was a little happy that they didn't have practice anyway. She hated practicing in the gym. It was different when it was for the pep rallies and things because they only had one shot to get it right but practice was a little different and cause for injury a lot. She was waiting for her mother to come and get her when her phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Hello, Cynthia, it's your mother. I won't be able to come and get you because I'm stuck in traffic. I'm afraid you'll have to make your own way home. You should ask Libby for a ride or Nick can give you one."
"Alright then."
"Ciao, kisses."
She hung up the phone and sighed, wishing she didn't have to walk in the rain. Libby had already left and she was damned if she was going to find Nick and ask him to take her home. She decided to just brace herself when she felt something over her head. She looked over and saw that it was Carl.
"Oh, Carl…"
"Libby had to go to dance practice and I saw you were about to get in the rain. You want to walk together?"
"Sure. What about you?"
"Nah, don't worry. I brought an extra umbrella with me just in case." He said, pulling it out of his backpack. "I don't trust clouds and Libby usually never brings an umbrella. She doesn't like to get her weaves wet but she doesn't like it when I give her the umbrella and walk in the rain because I can get sick."
"I see… Thanks, Carl."
"Sure thing." They began to walk together down the street in silence when Carl turned to her. "So… Did you ever find Jimmy or Sheen?"
"No, I didn't. Should I feel this worried about them? I mean, they can take care of themselves but… for some reason I have this uneasy feeling."
"I do too. I feel like we should be on the lookout."
"I'm glad I'm not the only one… Carl, what if something happened to them?"
"I wouldn't worry about it. I mean, it's Jimmy we're talking about. How many times has he gotten us out of some pretty weird situations? I'm sure he'll do that brain blast thing and be able to get out of something if he had to."
"But what if he's in a position of not being able to think?"
"You mean like if he's unconscious?"
"I don't know…"
"I've never known Jimmy to get into that sort of situation. Most of our encounters with anyone or anything has led to capture but nothing that would make him unable to think."
"I just have a really bad feeling that if he got himself into trouble then it's not in the same manner as usual."
"Maybe he got checked out and will be back tomorrow? Sheen does what he wants but you know…"
"Yeah… We'll worry about it tomorrow."
They talked discursively back to their homes, although Cindy didn't stop thinking about Jimmy and if he was alright.
hmm, so is jimmy and sheen alright? maybe its like what carl said and jimmy got checked out and sheen just did what he wanted...