Gets out a handy loudspeaker I DON'T OWN JIMMY NEUTRON! WILL YOU LEAVE ME ALONE ALREADY?!

Now that that's over...

Chapter 11: Reflections

Far above the falling kids, Beautiful Gorgeous laughed triumphantly while Jimmy stared anxiously at the spot where his friends had been. He couldn't decide whether Cindy had just done something incredibly brilliant or extremely stupid. All he knew was that it was extremely daring and just like her to take such a risk—but then, extreme situations call for extreme measures. He could hope his friends were all right, but, for once, he couldn't help them.

"They did my work for me!" Beautiful triumphed. "Although," she muttered to herself, "it would have been more satisfying if I could have done it myself." Suddenly, she turned to Jimmy. "Now I just have you to deal with, Jimmy Neutron!"

Jimmy thought quickly. "But you can't kill me yet. I could be as valuable of an asset in your crimes as Jet Fusion will be!"

"Hmm, you do have a point," Beautiful Gorgeous mused. "Very well, you can come with me and use your intellect for my evil ways!" She chuckled deviously.

Still standing at Jimmy's side, Jet Fusion held his hand to his heart ridiculously. "What a brilliant idea! My little honey biscuit, your intelligence is amazing!" He stared dreamily at the villain, who rolled her eyes again.

"Yeah, whatever," Beautiful responded as she turned to the other minions crowded near the ravine's edge. "Call the rest of my father's idiotic minions and have them fly the other hovercraft over here!" she ordered. "This is my best evil plan yet! I just hope my father doesn't ruin everything by demanding to rule part of the world too."

With that, she strode away from the ravine with her accomplices. A rather dazed and idiotic Jet Fusion stumbled along behind her as he held onto Jimmy, who looked as if he was thinking hard. Bolbi was last of all, skipping cheerfully and stupidly along behind them.

Hours later, Jimmy sat dismally in his chair aboard Beautiful Gorgeous's second hovercraft, where he and Bolbi had been left alone. Snoring peacefully, Bolbi lay sprawled in an easy chair, but Jimmy was restless. There had been no sign of Jet Fusion, Beautiful Gorgeous, or her minions, which concerned him. They could be up to anything.

But right now the fate of his friends was worrying him the most. When Cindy had sent them all plummeting off a cliff, he'd been confident that she had a good plan. Now he was getting anxious. What if her plan didn't work? At the moment—strapped to a chair, alone, and sad—all he could do was think about them. What would he do if they were gone?

Thoughts of each of them ran through his mind. Nerdy, timid, llama-loving Carl. Strange, energetic, sometimes-irritating Sheen; and his beloved Libby, so calm and practical—Sheen's complete opposite. Her loyalty and down-to-earth comments had never failed them throughout their adventures.

And Cindy. Proud, annoying, rude, unbearable …amazing. He wasn't even sure if she considered herself his friend. At times, such as when they were stranded on the island or they had faced Eustace on Mars, Jimmy would think that she really liked him. Then her competitive spirit would take over again and all signs of affection would vanish. Now he wasn't sure what Cindy thought about him: their relationship was constantly changing. To put it plainly, Jimmy, boy genius, was baffled.

With the concern growing inside him, he found his mind wandering back to the day he had first met his friends. It'd been a day not long after he'd first moved to Retroville: his first day of school at Lindbergh Elementary. It had also been about a year before the Yolkians kidnapped everyone's parents and Jimmy earned himself recognition as a hero…and nuisance.

Standing in the doorway, Jimmy had caught sight of a boy sitting in the front, looking lone and shy and paying close attention to what the teacher was saying—when he wasn't busy touching up the sketch of a llama sitting on his desk. Jimmy noticed another lean, dark-haired boy sitting with his pencil up his nose, paying no attention whatsoever to what Ms. Fowl was saying.

Ms. Fowl had introduced everyone to Jimmy. Carl Wheezer, the shy boy sitting by the door. Sheen Estevez, the one with the pencil lodged in his nose. He would never have imagined that these strange kids would become his closest friends.

Then Ms. Fowl named the other students in the class, who'd either studied Jimmy curiously, uninterestedly, or contemptuously. Nick had worn an expression displaying something between those last two attitudes, while Butch immediately burst out with a few cruel, unoriginal nicknames. Many of the kids laughed, and even Sheen was half-curious, half-insulting.

Finally, after restoring some amount of order in the classroom, Ms. Fowl introduced Cindy Vortex. Cindy had been writing something on a piece of paper and showing it to Libby with a smile, as if she'd made a clever joke. With that smile still lighting up her face, she turned to look at the newcomer. Jimmy had never forgotten that moment: when he must have made a complete idiot of himself by staring in admiration. Nor had he forgotten how, two moments afterward, she made some witty, cutting remark about the size of his head. Anger had surged through him and he'd looked away in disgust. After all, when did he gaze at a girl like that? And yet…those first feelings never completely vanished, did they? He'd always felt them; they just hadn't always been as strong as they were now.

Jimmy snapped out of his recollections and scanned the room carefully as ideas zipped through his mind. He couldn't keep just sitting here thinking about his friends; he had to find them! It was time to form a plan to get Jet Fusion on his side and escape this hovercraft.

A/N: Good? Bad? The worst thing you've ever read? Please tell me what you think!