Cyberchase Jealousy
Cyberchase Jealousy.
Chapter 2: Tomboy vs. Girly-Girl.
After the endless party at the Cyber Grand Tower in Cyberspace the night before, Matt and Inez met up with each other at an intersection not far away from their school, and walked to school together. Normally, Jackie would meet them there as well, but there was no sign of her that day.
Inez still was a bit upset from the night before, when Slider and Jackie became a couple. She and Jackie both had a crush on Slider ever since they met during their second visit to Radopolis, but neither of them fought over their hot love interest, that is, until Slider asked Jackie to be his girlfriend, causing Inez to express her emotion of jealousy.
Even though Jackie was closer to his age by two years and Inez only four years, age didn't matter when it came to someone like Slider.
Matt had a special someone that he wanted to ask out too. Although she was interested in someone else, that someone else was already taken. He loved teasing her because she looked so cute when she's ticked off. If you guessed Inez, you are absolutely right.
It's funny how love worked. Matt liked Inez, Inez liked Slider, and Slider liked Jackie, who liked him back. Who knew loved could be so complicated?
"I wonder where Jackie is," Matt said, skateboarding next to Inez, while she walked. "It's not like her to be late. Today is the last day of school too."
A frowning Inez was walking next to Matt, kicking a stone as she went. She was so busy muttering sentences to herself to take in a word Matt was saying.
Matt seemed to know what was going through Inez's head. "Come on, Inez, Slider likes Jackie for who she is. The least you could do is be nice to her. She is your best friend after all."
Inez turned to Matt. "What makes you think I'm talking about them?"
Just then, Jackie came running up to them, holding her skwak pad in her hands. She was giggling, happily, as Matt and Inez turned to look at her. Inez took Matt's advice and didn't glare at her, but she still kept her arms crossed, to express how she still felt at that moment, without anyone knowing.
"Hey, Jacks," Inez greeted, calmly. "What took you so long?"
Jackie smiled. "Oh, I was just Cybertexting with Slider this morning and well, lost track of time," Jackie answered, giving her skwak pad a glowing look, as it beeped. "Ooh, incoming message!"
Matt and Inez looked over Jackie's shoulders to read the text message on her skwak pad.
need to c u
Matt looked sick, sticking his tongue out in disgust. "I think I'm going to be sick."
"How sweet," Inez commented. "I wish he said that to me."
"My mom just happened to notice the ring on my finger – the one Slider gave me last night," Jackie stated, laughing. "I told her it was fake and I got it from knocking over milk bottles at the fair."
"We're almost at school," Matt informed the two girls. "You got to stop texting, Jackie. You can text after our last day of school today."
Just then, beeping was heard. It was coming from Matt's backpack, as well as from the inside of Inez's pockets in her shorts and from Jackie's skwak pad. No one answered. Matt and Inez were hoping for Jackie to answer it, since she had her skwak pad in her hands already, but it turns out she was too busy texting.
Inez sighed and pulled out her skwak pad from the inside of her right shorts pocket. "Hello?"
"It's Ms. Fileshare from the Cybrary," a female voice replied. "It's that time of year again, Inez."
Matt looked over Inez's right shoulder to join in the chat. "Is it the time you closed the Cybrary while you fix the computer system?"
She nodded. "That's right, Matthew. There's no problem with the computer system this time, I just want to check them, just in case. I want you, Inez, and Jackie to clean up the Cybrary while it's closed."
Inez nodded. "Okay, sure, but a bit later. It's the last day of school on Earth. We'll be there right after."
While Inez hung up and slipped her skwak pad back into her right shorts pocket, Matt turned to Jackie, who wasn't taking her eyes off her skwak pad. "Jacks, stop texting now. We have our last day of school to finish, then head over to the Cybrary to help clean up."
Jackie sighed. "Fine, but I'm texting more later, whether you like it or not."
She texted her last message for that morning to Slider and sent him the message.
got 2 go 2 school, cybrary l8ter 2 help clean
luv u lots
It was around three in the afternoon, when Digit slid down the "Returns" chute and into an overflowing bin of books and discs, Inside the Cybrary. Matt slid down after him, followed by Inez and Jackie. They each climbed out, dusting themselves off from sliding down the dusty chute.
Ms. Fileshare hovered over to them, with a screwdriver in one hand, a hammer in another, a wrench in another one, and a pair of pliers in the last one. She greeted them, with a sweet smile.
"It's nice to see you again, Cybersquad," she greeted. "Ready to work?"
Matt nodded. "Sure, what do you want us to do?"
"Matthew, I want you to dig into that bin you all just fell into and gather all the discs," Ms. Fileshare explained. "Please put them away for me."
Matt nodded, again, hurrying over to the bin. "Alright."
She then turned to Digit. "Digit, head over to the nearest janitor's closet, grab one of those tall, multi feather dusters poles and dust all the displays."
Digit saluted her and flew away, down an aisle of books.
Ms. Fileshare then turned her attention to Inez and Jackie. "I want you two girls to gather all those returned books and place them back on their proper shelves, understand?"
"We're on it!" Inez and Jackie exclaimed in unison.
Ms. Fileshare grinned. "Splendid, in case you need me; I'll be working in the art section of the Cybrary. If you need to find me, check your skwak pad for my hourly schedule. Oh, and besides us, only one other person is here. There's a reason I let him in. If he needs help with anything, you know what to do."
As she hovered away, Inez and Jackie began rummaging through the overflowing bin. Matt already grabbed a handful of disks, hopped onto a Cybrary cart, and drove away. Inez wasn't comfortable working alone with Jackie, but decided not to say anything.
"Cool, romance novels!" Jackie exclaimed, looking at the titles of the stack of books in her hands. "I'll bring these to the romance section of the Cybrary.
Inez's face lit up. If this was a way to get away from Jackie for a while, she was willing to take it. "Alright, I'll just find all the science books for now."
Jackie nodded and hopped onto a Cybrary cart. She dropped the books on the back seat and drove off, leaving a satisfied Inez all by herself. Jackie was hoping to finish volunteering early that night and hopefully see Slider before they all had to go back to Earth. Texting isn't the same as seeing him in person.
Jackie finally arrived below a chute that led to different rooms in the Cybrary. She pressed a red button on the controls, causing the cart to hover up the chute. She passed by different entrances to different floors, until she reached the sixteenth floor. She pulled a lever on the controls and drove into the hole in the wall, arriving in a room.
A giant red heart was hanging from the ceiling, indicating she was in the romance room. The Cybrary cart remained hovering in mid-air, while Jackie hopped off with the books in the back seat, and began slipping the books back on their proper shelves.
Meanwhile, Matt hurried back to the returns bin to grab more discs t put away. At the same time, Inez finished putting away the science books, and was also seen rummaging through the returns bin for more books, as Matt approached her.
"Hey, Inez!" Matt called. "How's it going?"
Inez didn't answer his question, as she stacked up on mathematics books. Instead, she returned her answer with a question. "What does she have that I don't?"
Matt sighed, rolling his eyes. "Give up, Inez. Slider likes Jackie for being her and she likes him back for being him, end of story."
She frowned a bit. "I don't get it. Just because there's a larger age difference between Slider and I than Slider and Jackie, it doesn't mean he had to choose her."
"He didn't have to choose her," Matt explained, searching for more discs. "He probably wanted to, because something special about her caught his attention. Didn't you notice the signs, revealing that he liked her?"
Inez turned to glare at Matt. "Like what?"
Matt pondered the question for a moment. "Well, here's my opinion. Look at you, you're a smart tomboy. You wear the same purple vest, teal-coloured shorts, and blue boots all the time. You have short brown hair going down to your shoulders."
She kept glaring at him. "Are you saying I dress weirdly!?"
"No, not at all," Matt answered, putting his hands up, to reassure her that he wasn't insulting her. "I mean, think about what I just said." Inez thought about it for a minute. "Now, what's Jackie like?"
Inez placed her right hand underneath her chin, thinking. "She wears a yellow skin-tight jacket, sky blue miniskirt, and bluish-purplish shoes. Her black hair is longer than mine and is always put up in an upper bun at the back of her head with a yellow scrunchy. She wears red beaded jewellery too."
Matt nodded. "So, what would you call her?"
"A chicken-leg-like slut?"
"How about something nicer, like, the opposite of tomboy?"
"Girly-girl?"
"Exactly."
A light bulb went on in Inez's head. Matt was right. Jackie was a girly-girl – someone who was more likely to get a guy's attention. She on the other hand, always wore shorts, vests, and boots. She may be smart, but some guys either like her as a cool friend, nerd, or was the butt of everyone's joke.
Matt interrupted her thoughts. "Okay, enough gossiping about what guys like. Let's get back to work." He gathered more discs in his arms. "I'll be in the history room if you need me."
"Oh, wait for me, Matt!" Inez called after him. "I have history books in my arms. I'll go with you."
Matt nodded, as they both sprinted for the teleporter pad.
Jackie spent five minutes, slipping all the romance novels into empty slots on the shelves. She was on her last book, but it wasn't a romance novel. It was a picture of a skateboard. The title said, "An Pro's Guide to Advanced Skateboarding."
"Whoops, I must have grabbed this by accident," Jackie told herself. "Oh, well, I better get to the hobbies section of the Cybrary."
She hurried over to the nearest directory on the sixteenth floor to find out if she should take the mail tube, Cybrary cart again, or teleporter pad to the hobbies section of the Cybrary, since each vehicle went to a different room on each floor, and there were three rooms on each floor.
Using her index finger on her right hand, she ran her finger down the lists of rooms in the Cybrary, as well as the vehicle used to get there.
"Hobbies, teleporter pad," she said to herself, after finding the information she needed. "Now, where's that on the sixteenth floor?" She then read the three rooms on the sixteenth floor. "Geography, Literature, and Romance. And it looks like the teleporter pad in the Literature section of the Cybrary."
With the skateboarding book underneath her left arm, Jackie sprinted down the hall to a room with a giant book above it – literature. She hurried inside to the teleporter pad inside. She hopped on the pink chair and set the purple projector to the hobbies section of the library, but turning the knob on the side of the projector.
Seated carefully in her seat, keeping the book steady between her legs, she flipped the orange switch.
The green lamp above her emitted a bright yellow light like a regular lamp. The light covered Jackie completely, transforming her and the skateboarding book into a ball of light. Once she became a ball of light, she travelled through walls, windows, and floors throughout the Cybrary.
"Ugh, where is that book!?" Slider said, searching a shelf for the book he needed. It turns out he was the guy Ms. Fileshare told each member of the Cybersquad, before they got back to work. "It should be back today."
Just then, a ball of light entered through a round opening on the side of the projector on the teleporter pad next to him. The green lamp shone the same yellow light on the pink chair. Once it faded, Jackie was sitting on the pink chair, with the book in her arms.
She stood up and hopped off the teleporter pad. She scanned the room to find the shelf where the skateboarding book belonged. She scanned the room, from left to right.
"Let's see, yo-yoing, cooking, checkers – "she muttered, reading all the different categories. She stopped by the skateboarding section, spotting Slider by a shelf. "Slider!"
Slider turned around, hearing Jackie call his name and smiled. "Hey, Jacks, what's up?"
"I'm just returning books to their proper places in the Cybrary," she answered, sweetly. "What about you?"
"I'm looking for a skateboarding book," Slider replied. "It's called, "A Pro's Guide to Advanced Skateboarding."
Jackie's face brightened, as she handed the book in her arms to him. "Here, it was returned, so I decided to put it back here, but here you go."
He took the book. "Thanks, Jackie."
Just then, two balls of light entered the opening on the side of the projector once more. The green lamp shone light over the pink chair. Once it faded, Matt was sitting on the chair, with discs in his arms. Next to him was Inez, who had history books in her arms. She frowned at Matt.
"You turned the knob the wrong way, Matt!" she cried. "We ended up in the hobbies section of the Cybrary! Let me turn the knob this time."
As Inez turned to turn the knob to indicate where they need to go in the Cybrary, Matt looked around the room, before his eyes widened and his mouth dropped open.
He tapped Inez on her shoulder. "Uh, Inez?"
"What is it?"
"Turn around."
Inez turned around to face in the same direction Matt was facing and her mouth dropped. That wasn't the only thing that dropped. It also felt as though her heart dropped into her stomach.
Leaning against the shelf containing skateboarding books was Jackie, who had her eyes closed. Slider was in front of her, pushing her gently against the shelf, kissing her passionately. He had his hands on her head, while she had her hands on his shoulders. The skateboarding book lay forgotten on the ground.
Matt smirked. "Get a room!"
Jackie opened her eyes in surprise, as Slider broke the kiss ad turned around to find Matt and Inez standing by the teleporter pad, looking as surprised as he and Jackie were.
Slider rubbed the back of his neck with his right hand. "Sorry about that."
Jackie blushed a bit. "I thought we were the only ones here."
As Jackie turned back to talk to Slider, Inez looked at her, narrowing her eyes, with a thought running through her head.
"Girly-girl?" she thought, as Jackie was laughing at a joke Slider told her. "I wonder – "
Chapter 2 up! I hope you like it! Thanks for the reviews! I greatly appreciate it!
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Your Cartoon/Anime Fanfiction Writing Extraordinaire,
TeenQueen661.