Flashback Attack

A romantic-comedy piece of fanfiction by Madam Crackerjack.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything associated with this television series.

chapter 3- The Gift of Gifts

Okay, so Jimmy was going to make a new model for a personal brewery- one that could make Purple Flurp, but he thought that what he had come up with after his little "revelation" turned out to be much more useful. He looked down at the box wrapped in sheets of cardboard and stuffed it into his bookbag, ready for another day of school.

He climbed onto the bus and saw that Cindy had already sat down, looking out the window and being strangely silent. He sat down next to her and fidgeted nervously, unsure of what to say.

"Hey Cindy."

Cindy cleared her throat and shrugged her shoulders, daring to catch Jimmy's eyes when she looked over at him, "Hey Jimmy."

She obviously felt ashamed after being so angry with Jimmy when most of it was her fault in the first place. Jimmy noticed this, so he looked down and saw her hand resting on her knee and he patted it.

"It's okay, Cindy, it's okay."

Cindy suddenly grinned, her cheeks slightly flushing pink, and she held his hand, "Okay."

So, it was all okay. Nevertheless, Jimmy could hardly wait to unvail his newest invention to her, but he would wait a little longer. Things were pretty pleasant, already.

"Um," Cindy started, but hesitated. She figured that she would tell Jimmy the truth about something, and she looked around the bus to make sure that no one was eavesdropping on her conversation. When she was assured, and comforted that there was hardly anyone sitting around the two of them, she began, "Jimmy, I need to tell you something... about my mom..."

Jimmy had given Cindy his full attention, that is, until the bus stopped and Carl climbed onto the bus, sitting across from them.

"Hey Jimmy, hey Cindy." Carl said, and then he noticed that they where holding hands. He smiled a little, "I still can't believe you two finally-"

Cindy growled, "Mind your own business, llama-boy!"

Jimmy smiled, "Hey Carl. How was your first day of school?"

"Well, my mom packed me a weird lunch that I never-..."

Cindy looked out the window feeling a little disappointed that her talk with Jimmy had been flushed down the conversation comode. A sudden tingle shooting up her arm snapped her out of her glum mood, however, and she glanced down to find that Jimmy had been stroking the side of her hand with his thumb as he chatted with Carl. She smiled, feeling a little lovestruck, and figured that since her mother wasn't on the bus, anyway, she could wait a little longer to talk to Jimmy about the issue.

When the bus came to a stop in front of the school, everyone climbed out of their seats and made their way to class. As Jimmy and Cindy left the bus, Cindy dropped Jimmy's hand, to his surprise, and left him. Cindy weaved her way past everyone to talk to Libby.

Jimmy looked around and figured that this was as good of a time as any to catch up on some of his other friends and find out their opinions of being back at school. He spotted Sheen, whom was not with Libby, but rather he was talking to a group of people that Jimmy had never seen before... possibly seventh-graders. As Jimmy approached Sheen, his friend stopped talking and pointed at him.

"Jimmeh!" He ran up to Jimmy, and crossed his arms, "Where've you been? I saw you yesterday for, like, a second and when I came to your lab you were gone!"

Carl approached his two friends and interjected, "He was probably with Cindy." A giddy smile crossed his lips and Carl continued, "They're in looove now."

"What?!" Sheen gasped, overdramatically, as usual. "I thought they were just study partners!"

"That's what they wanted you to think." Carl pointed out.

"You guys!" Jimmy cried out, looking a little frazzled. He looked around their group cautiously, "Cindy doesn't like it when people talk about us in public."

"Hey!" Sheen started; his short attention span suddenly redirected to the bulge in Jimmy's bookbag, "What's that?"

"Um," Jimmy slowly backed away from Sheen, putting his hands behind his back, almost as if he attempted to hide it, "It's nothing-- a project."

"A project, already? School just started!" Carl said, a little freaked out.

Sheen glared at Jimmy, whom was looking around nervously, "You're a liar."

"Uh- It's nothing, guys!" Jimmy said, afraid that if his friends found out what was in his bag, they would never let him alone until they got a free test trial of what it did, that was simply out of the question. "It's a... lunch... that I packed, yeah."

Sheen looked at Jimmy suspiciously, but before he could say anything, the bell rang that signaled that the start of class was near. The group disbanded, much to Jimmy's relief, and everyone headed their own seperate ways to their first class.

-

So, after a few periods of class was lunch and kids from all over the school gathered at the cafeteria to break, eat, and be merry. Sheen was unusually hyperactive today, making Cindy cringe each time he thought of something remotely exciting. By the confused looks that she would get from Libby, she could tell that Libby thought it was the cutest thing in the world- for a boy to go nuts over how amazing spinning rims were.

"No! I'm telling you-" Sheen cried out, flinging apple juice down the lunch table, "How do they get them to spin like they do?"

Jimmy smirked a little and raised his hands to demonstrate how the speed of the car combined with wind currents could propell something connected to a car tire, "Kind of like a pinwheel."

Sheen was staring at Jimmy as he explained to him, but interrupted him- "So what about that lunch of yours, Jimmy?"

"Oh yeah!" Carl agreed, remembering earlier that morning, "You must have packed a big lunch." Then, he looked excited, "Hey- hey, if it's a ham, would you share it?"

Cindy looked over at Jimmy and raised an eyebrow, "What are they talking about, Jimmy? I thought you bought school lunch?"

"Um," Jimmy mumbled, looking nervous. He had forgotten about the close call that he had earlier and he glanced downwards at his bookbag, which was still housing his newest invention. He wondered if now would be as good of a time as any. Perhaps no one would bother the model if it was in Cindy's possession.

"Um, yeah," He continued, and he smiled as he reached for his bag, "It's not really lunch, it's a present. For Cindy."

Sheen looked shocked, "It's Cindy's birthday?" He jumped up in his seat, "Happy birthday, Cindy!"

Carl clapped his hands and smiled, "Happy-pappy birthday! Oohh... I forgot to get you a present. Would you like my milk?"

Libby looked confused and tried to get their attention over Sheen singing a certain congratulatory song. She frantically waved her hands at the both of them. "Stop! It's not her birthday!"

Cindy gave Jimmy a confused stare. A part of her was pleased that he was going to give her a gift, but another side of her was afraid that it would be something that could be assumed romantic, which would make it harder for her to hide that they were close friends from everyone, even her mother. Immediately, she began to wonder where she would hide such a thing in her room...

"So, uh," Jimmy started, and he handed her a box wrapped in cardboard papers, "Here."

"Thanks," Cindy said simply. She looked up at her friends who were all staring at her curiously and she frowned. "What?"

"Open it!" They all replied simultaneously.

Cindy looked down at the gift, her eyes scanning over the crevices of the papers and the tape. It looked even a little suspicious without a bow or a name anywhere, but nonetheless, she gently stuffed it into her bookbag and stuck her tongue out at her friends. "I'll open it when I feel like it."

Libby looked a little jested, but she simply crossed her arms and eyeballed her friend curiously, respecting her decision, but she was of course disappointed that she wouldn't find out what was in that box for a while.

Sheen twitched, unsure if he could handle the suspense.

Carl had stopped paying attention somewhere in the middle of the drama.

Jimmy looked a little disheveled. "But Cindy, I have to show you how to use it."

"What do you mean?" Cindy asked, glancing up at him curiously, "This isn't one of your crazy inventions, is it?"

"Maybe."

Jimmy suddenly looked down, feeling something bump against his leg. When he saw that it was just Cindy, he looked up at her and noticed that she was smiling. "Thanks."

-

Jimmy was excited. Cindy's eyes had been drifting from his to the gift for the past twenty minutes as they sat across from each other in a booth at the Candy Bar. The second day of school was over, and not nearly as bad as the first day. As it turns out, it was almost as if no one had remembered that Cindy was utterly embarrassed just yesterday in biology class. The teacher even allowed the two of them to work together on a few questions out of a book.

In fact, the day went by fairly well.

Cindy cleared her throat, "So, about what I was going to tell you on the bus..."

Jimmy sipped from his chocolate milkshake and nodded, "About your mother?"

"Yeah," Cindy smiled weakly, "Um... I just think that you should know... she doesn't like you."

He grinned and rolled his eyes, "Haha, I already knew that!"

"Well!" Cindy started, "It's just that... I don't think that..." Her voice droned as she searched for the words to say, "I don't think it's a good idea if people find out that we..." She looked up at Jimmy, whom looked away and turned a little pink. "Yeah, that we're... close?"

"Yeah, close!" Jimmy agreed, and he cleared his throat, "Of course. Wait, why not?"

"If everyone knows about it, then my mom might find out and..." Cindy trailed off, thinking of terrible things. One of which included; "She might not let me hang out with you anymore."

Jimmy smiled and rubbed the back of his neck, trying to think of something to say. He could always tell that Cindy felt uneasy with him in public, but he just thought that she might have been shy about that sort of thing. Now that he thought about it, he suddenly realized that he had been contradicting himself the entire time: Cindy--- shy?

Of course, she just didn't want her mom to find out. That makes sense.

"Open your present." He softly offered.

"Okay," Cindy felt a little excited thinking of what it could be. She wondered if it might be something exotic or even fun. As she ripped the cardboard paper off of the box, she found herself coming up with numerous things. She opened the box and... she had no idea what it was.

"Um," She started to say as she reached in to pull it out, but Jimmy leaned across the table and pulled it out for her, holding it in front of her face.

It was a funny-looking thing that looked like it was the shape of a football helmet, but where one would normally look out, there was a black visor. On the side of it, in red, it was labled "Cindy. BT3X"

"I call it the Backtrack 3x." He said proudly and hopped out of his seat to sit down next to Cindy. "It's a module that scans the memory portion of your brain and memorizes each second of it. Here, lemme show you."

Without hesitation, or even the chance for Cindy to protest, Jimmy slipped his invention over her head and pulled the switch. Cindy sat frightfully still hoping that this thing wouldn't blow her head off (no, she has witnessed some of Jimmy's experiments gone awry) and she could feel her nails digging into the seat. But the expected pain was nothing more than a light buzzing noise. Then, she heard, all of the sudden...

"Shouldn't we keep moving, Jimmy?"

The voice was her own, but it was very loud. Some of the people in the Candy Bar turned to see what was going on at their booth, only to see a girl with a football helmet on and a freaked out boy with a large head, apparently searching it for the volume.

"If we've gotten this far, maybe Eustace has, too."

"Wow, Cindy... under these moons you look-"

"Ah hah!" Jimmy cried out and swept his hand over something which turned out to be the volume.

Cindy shook in her seat as she remembered where the dialogue came from, and she started to pull the contraction off of her head. Jimmy froze as he watched her put it on the table, looking around the establishment with fear clouding her eyes. "What are trying to do, Neutron?? Publically humiliate the both of us!?"

Everyone in the Candy Bar was listening now, and she looked around, her eyes flying everywhere except at Jimmy. She quickly grabbed her gift and marched out of the Candy Bar, looking embarrassed, but fearful. Jimmy quickly dropped some money on their table and tagged along behind her.

"What happened?" He asked after her, oblivious to what caused her reaction.

"What happened?" Cindy repeated him, growing a little angry, "What happened? Well, everyone just took part of one of my personal memories, that's what happened."

Jimmy scoffed as the two of them slowed to a halt and he waved a hand at her, "Nobody heard enough to recognize anything. They probably have no idea what it was."

"Why would you try to pull something like that, anyways, Neutron?"

"STOP calling me Neutron!" Jimmy growled, feeling alienized of his own name.

"I'll call you PickleHead if I want to!"

"What is the big deal!" Jimmy argued, "I just wanted you to have something that would show you all of the memories that we had together, of all the adventures we've been on," he continued, "with all of our friends, and all of the enemies that we faced together!"

Cindy fell silent. She wanted to retort with something catchy and mean, but her anger started to buckle like a wet paper towel when her eyes caught his. She looked down at the gift from a genius. No longer did it feel like just some hunk of metal that Jimmy brought up from his lab- it felt like something more than that, maybe even as if it was full of life. Cindy turned the model in her hands and her eyes widened when she saw the visor, which was no longer black. Instead, it had frozen to display Jimmy in her perspective, as they were standing on Mars underneath the moonlight, almost as if she was re-living the day. She could swear that something in her chest had started to melt.

Jimmy chuckled a little and shifted his stature, looking at the ground; he was a little embarrassed. "Yeah, I think I put the visor in the wrong way. You're supposed to see what's going on on the inside of the helmet, not the outside, so-"

But before he could finish, he felt the helmet hit his back as Cindy yanked him into a hug.