Chapter 2
At 9 am Jimmy looked up from his chair in his lab to see that the first of his friends had arrived. Jimmy had spent the last two hours chastising himself for almost letting his feelings slip out so haphazardly.
It was Carl. He had a backpack on.
"552627" Carl hummed as he typed in his code to Jimmy's lab and clubhouse. Carl still loved llamas and so Jimmy made his code the numerical equivalent of said animal.
The clubhouse was added when they reached high school. Jimmy felt the need to maximize space and make an atmosphere that the group of friends could hang out without being bothered by plants that eat people.
As Carl entered the clubhouse he rubbed his eyes. "You said the seven of us, Jim. Does that mean that Karla will be coming along too? You know how I feel about these trips."
"Not to worry, Carl. This trip is harmless. We're going camping, in the woods. What is in your backpack by the way?" Jimmy noted Carl's green, oversized, large backpack.
"My family is good at camping. Don't you remember, Jim?" Carl was referring, of course to the time Jimmy went camping with Carl and his family.
Jimmy cringed inwardly. Being a genius had its ups and downs. He no longer relied on his science and inventions to get him through. He realized a while ago that science cant solve everything.
Sheen was the next to arrive.
"UltraLord!" Sheen typed in the number pad. To everyone's surprise, Sheen remembered his passcode.
"Is there aliens involved this time Jimmy? I want to fight aliens!" Sheen was overly excited to fight the troop of alien men invading earth.
"Just camping, Sheen." Carl informed their friend.
"Guys, I just remembered. Karla doesn't have a passcode. I shall have to make one for her." Jimmy sat in his chair and thought hard about a code for Karla. Strumming his fingers on his desk and thinking. "Think, think, think" Jimmy's brain blast was interrupted by Carl's voice.
"She likes roses, Jim." Carl's crush on Karla was showing itself this morning.
"Roses it is." Jimmy typed in the code and then picked up his phone to dial Cindy again when Libby walked in through the door with marshmellows and her cds.
"I am so glad that I remembered my passcode is Black Eyed Peas. Jimmy, that thing is harder than your DNA scanner. Why not just have us talk to it? And here are your marshmellows. Where is everyone else?" Libby scanned the room.
"Libby, will you call Karla and tell her that her pass code is the numerical equivalent to roses?" Annoyed with the small, puffy white globs of nothing but sugar, Jimmy took the marshmellows from Libby and gave them to Goddard to put with the rest of the supplies. He also made a mental note to work on voice recognition when they returned from their trip.
"Sure, I suppose." Libby pulled out her cell phone and in a few short minutes she closed it once again and placed it in her pocket.
"Libby Cakes, my main squeeze. Let's sit and talk a while." Sheen placed his arm around Libby and led her to a couch.
Libby only laughed and followed.
Cindy was in her room deciding what to wear for the weekend. She glanced at her clock and even though she was running late, she knew that this weekend was going to be different.
Jimmy's voice saying, "You rock!" kept playing over in her head. She wanted to tell him so much badly. Many times she came close to just spilling it out. But she had her pride. She wanted Jimmy to love her back.
Settling on two tank tops, a jean short, and a jean Capri, she packed up her bag and headed across the street.
Karla met Cindy at the door to the lab and greeted her. They were the last two to arrive.
"Libby said that Jimmy said that my passcode was roses, but I only see numbers." Karla stared confused.
Cindy inwardly smiled at the newest member of their gang. "Let me show you how its done. This will allow you to come in and out of the clubhouse as much and as long as you want. 76737" Cindy typed into the keypad. "It helps if you make a tune or a rhyme. Go on in. Don't worry it's okay everyone is already down there." Cindy waited until the door closed behind Karla to punch in her number. "527283 is karate." She sang out loud.
Stepping into the lab she saw that everyone was ready to go. Goddard greeted her with a bark and a kiss on the hand.
"Who's a good Goddard? Who is a good Goddard? You are. That's right, you are." Cindy cooed and petted Goddard's mechanical head. "Let's get going gang!" She cried out.
Jimmy had expanded the hoover car to allow more room for the passengers. He also installed a cd player so that they wouldn't have to just sit and be bored. The newest feature was a dome lid like item that allowed them to be safe from rain, snow and other various slick elements.
Cindy hoped into shotgun next to Jimmy who was driving. Libby and Sheen took the next row of seats and Carl and Karla sat in the back. Goddard took his place between Cindy and Jimmy.
"Lets blast off crew!" Jimmy couldn't escape his signature "Gotta Blast" slogan, but he loved changing it up every so often.
Libby handed him the latest black eyed peas cd and he faded the music to the back where Libby could fully jam out.
The hoover car took off and Karla looked scared.
"Don't worry. Its not that bad when you get used to it. Sometimes I get very sick so I have a bag. Do you want one too?" Carl reached for another empty bag and extended his arm towards Karla, who took the bag with uncertainty. "Its okay to be nervous. Jimmy always takes us on trips like this. Sometimes to the moon, other times to the stars and even Egypt this one time." Carl took hold of Karla's hand and squeezed it to show he understood and was there for comfort.
"Sheen. Look at Jimmy and Cindy." Libby prompted.
"What about them my queen of queens?" Sheen asked.
"They look so good sitting next to each other, don't they?" she squealed.
"Yea, Cindy always gets front. Hey Jimmy, next time I want to sit in the front with you. How come Cindy only gets to?" Sheen poked his head into the front seat between the two and above the sleeping Goddard.
Cindy giggled and blushed a little.
"Sheen, all these buttons do certain things and I need someone who is close to my same intelligence to press them. Not just someone who likes shiny things. " Jimmy replied, confident in his answer.
"What does this button do?" Sheen no more than pressed the button and asked the question when the hoover car jolted to a stop and quickly descended to the ground.
"Sheen!" Libby yelled. "Look what you did!"
Sheen bowed his head in shame. "Sorry, everyone."
"Well we could continue on foot, or I could set up camp here. What do you guys think?" Jimmy asked everyone for their opinions.
"Remember what I told you this morning, Neutron. If ANYTHING goes wrong…" Cindy made a punching fist and left it at that.
"Guess we make camp here then. " Jimmy, with the help of Goddard unloaded the equipment and supplies. "Because it is getting close to lunch, why don't I pull out this food that we brought, and cook it up?"
"Sounds great, Jimmy. We're all hungry here!" Libby was still pining over her lost music for the moment though, her stomach won the war.
"Karla are you okay?" Carl came over to her sitting on the log and grabbed her hand again.
"I want to go home, Carl. You have been very nice to me, but this is not what I had in mind." Karla informed him that she was afraid of the dark and the woods.
"Here." Carl dug through his backpack and grabbed a stuffed llama. "His name is Whitey. I sleep with him when I get scared. But you can have him. And he is a good listener too."
"Thank you Carl." Karla had nothing else to say. She held the stuffed llama and Carl's hand.
Swallowing her shame at her previous comment to Jimmy, Cindy walked over, sat on the log and asked, "Jimmy, do you need some help with that?" Cindy, surprised at her own niceness towards this genius she swore to always be enemies with, scooted closer to him on the log pointing to the fire and the kettle dangling from just above it.
"Got it all under control here Cindy, but thanks for asking." Jimmy replied.
"She's being so nice. I wonder if its because she knows. And if she does know, how am I to approach that subject with her…" Jimmy thought to himself
Cindy sighed and scooted away from the teenage genius. Getting up she went to go hang out in the hoover car with Libby, hoping that Sheen wasn't distracting her.
"Libs, I need to talk. Got a minute?" Cindy knocked on the side of the hoover car and walked in.
"Sure girl. Is it boy problems? I know I've got them." Libby was not proud of the way her boyfriend had started this trip off.
Sighing, Cindy took a seat next to Libby. "Its Jimmy. When he called me this morning, I felt so different. Then he called again wanting marshmellows and he said "You rock." I cant stop thinking about it Libby. I went to help him just now, and he brushed me away. What am I supposed to take out of this relationship we have going on, Libby?"
Libby nodded her head. "I have been saying this for three years now girl, you have got to get it out of you. Scream it if you have too. Let him know that just because he is a genius does not mean that he is smart in everything. He cant read your mind girl. You have to tell him yourself."
Hugging her best friend, Cindy decided it was time to tell Jimmy.
"The food is ready!" Jimmy called out to his friends.
Jimmy and Cindy sat on the same log, Sheen and Libby sat on the log to the left of Cindy and Jimmy. Karla and Carl holding hands came and sat to the log on the right of Jimmy and Cindy.
Goddard dished out the first serving of food.
Everyone ate in silence.
"I have to make things right with Cindy. If not, I may lose her to Nick for homecoming." Jimmy was surprised at his own competitiveness with Nick Dean at this point, but he wanted Cindy to be his date. "I will set up the tents after this. Would you like to help me, Cin?"
Cindy nearly choked on her food when she heard that Jimmy called her Cin. It was like a personal pet name. She liked it. Blushing and reaching for a napkin, she nodded her head, "Yes."