This month has been crazy because of my internship and college work, but I finally managed to crank this out!

This is not a continuation of the assistant story because I was dying to work on this idea instead. But no worries, I'll go back to the assistant string at some point- I promise it won't go unfinished.

Until then, here's a one-shot about JC receiving college acceptance letters. Truth be told, it was very difficult for me to imagine how these two would actually react given the situation, but I tried my best. It was especially difficult to imagine how Cindy might react although generally she's easier for me to write than Jimmy.

Feel free to critique/comment on my interpretation of the characters' actions/feelings in this!
And thank you again to all my readers/reviewers!

For everyone except Retroville High's two smartest students, Jimmy Neutron and Cindy Vortex, March 29th was an uneventful day. The school food continued to puzzle and disgust freshmen and seniors alike, and classes seemed to last an eternity as always. However, school food and long classes only served to exacerbate Jimmy and Cindy's anxiety, although they had dealt with much worse than bad lunch meat and annoying math teachers in the past. Even so, the day seemed to drag on torturously.

When the bell finally rung, Cindy found herself standing in front of Jimmy's locker. He was already there, waiting for her. She wordlessly gazed at the textbooks in his hands, her expression blank. She tried to hide her shaking hands in her coat pockets, but Jimmy reached out for them and clasped them in his own to reassure her.

"Hey, it'll be okay, Vortex." His kind tone lifted her spirits just a bit.

She could barely bring herself to look up into his piercing blue eyes; she was fighting the shameful sting of tears that had gathered like a film over her eyes. She repressed the urge to cry and nodded her head silently. Hand in hand, they walked in utter speechlessness down the hallway, a rare occurrence for them. Anyone who knew Jimmy and Cindy knew that their normal mode of communication was framed by a series of tense, quarrelsome interactions that generally ended in some sort of passionate physical contact. This was not the case today, as the two remained content to walk back to Jimmy's lab in a consuming sort of muteness.

As they made their way up the path to the lab, Jimmy punched in his entry code on the security keypad and authorized Vox to permit Cindy into his lab as well. Jimmy's voice trembled as he commanded Vox to retrieve his mail from the outdoor chute. And sure enough, there it was. A white envelope, with an elegant red seal and the address of the university of every academic's dreams—Harvard University.

The two had agreed to open their letters together, although Cindy's had come in a day earlier than Jimmy's. She'd fought back the urge to rip open her envelope at several points throughout the night and the following day, and her mother had found it ridiculous that Cindy was choosing to delay some of the most important news of her life in order to keep a promise to "that boy".

But Cindy knew deep in her heart that she wouldn't have wanted it any other way, whether it broke her heart or not. She turned to Jimmy and squeezed his hand before pulling away to fish through her backpack to find her envelope. She extracted it with extreme care. The two shared a longing look before they each ripped the seals and drew out the letters…

"Dear Mr. James Isaac Neutron,

I am delighted to inform you that the Committee on Admissions and Financial Aid has voted to offer you a place in the Harvard class of…"

"Dear Ms. Cynthia Vortex,

With sincere regret I must report that the Committee on Admissions and Financial Aid has completed its selection of the class entering in…we were most grateful to even have received applications from so many students like you…although you may be disappointed…"

Before she even looked up, Cindy could tell that Jimmy had been admitted. Truth be told, she'd known it since the day she'd met him all those years ago. He was brilliant, clever, and creative, not to mention the fact that he had spent eighteen years of his life making amazingly complex inventions.

Cindy's eyes misted over in tears yet again. She reprimanded herself for her involuntary show of emotion. She'd known this was coming. She'd been admitted at Princeton, Yale, Columbia, NYU, among other colleges. But not Harvard.

And there it was-the inescapable truth of her life—that she was doomed to a sub par existence. The truth that haunted her every waking moment, the truth that weighed her down more than a hundred stones ever could. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to keep from falling apart into Neutron's arms, or taking part in some similarly melodramatic expression of emotion. She reminded herself that this shouldn't have even come as a shock…

Meanwhile, Jimmy's hands rested firmly on his now opened envelope. He examined the plastic seal intently as if to avoid even looking at Cindy. If he was being honest with himself, he had always known he would get into any university of his choosing. His grades were flawless, his inventions were far ahead of his time, and he had already done quite a few projects for major research organizations across the globe. How could they not accept him? Conceited way of thinking, sure, but in the end, it was simply the truth.

Jimmy Neutron was destined for great things.

But Cindy…his heart ached for her…

She was astute, deeply emotionally aware, and very skilled at the liberal arts. This was not to say her skill in the sciences was anything less than extraordinary, but merely to say that her passions lied in the intangible, the abstract. If not for Jimmy Neutron, Cindy Vortex would have been valedictorian and top of her class. But Jimmy Neutron, being the outlier he was, had thrown a wrench in Cindy Vortex's path, merely by merit of existence. His natural genius had barricaded her carefully trained prowess from day one.

Of course she'd been admitted to every other Ivy she'd applied to and some, but Jimmy knew her well enough to know she would take this very harshly. This would only reaffirm her worst fear of relative mediocrity. (Although to be fair, Jimmy reasoned, her standard of comparison was rather flawed to begin with) Jimmy knew Cindy of all people was anything but mediocre. Her talent extended well beyond the sphere of academics. She was an accomplished martial arts master, and she was also a classically trained pianist and vocalist. She was competitive to the point of aggression, but Jimmy had found over the years that this was a rather endearing trait. He'd never thought much of it as she might have—as a floatation device, a lifejacket. He didn't comprehend that for her, competition was the sole mode of survival, the sole mode of rising above the water that threatened to drown her at any given moment.

He sighed and finally looked at her. She was trying her best to keep it together, he could tell. She was disappointed, as he had guessed, and sorely so. He wondered if it was safe to reach out to her, if this of all things would sever their delicately knit ties. "Cindy?" His voice rang out in a mixture of pity and heartbreak and fear.

She couldn't even bring herself to meet his gaze. She averted her eyes from the very sight of him by focusing on her shoes. She wanted to scream. Was she ever good enough? Could she ever be anything more than this? Would she always feel like a second rate scholar?

The worst thing was the pride and love that was filling her heart. It threatened to spill over into an embrace of some kind. She ached to let her boyfriend know that she had known all along that he'd make it. She ached to let him know that she was so, so proud of him.

But she found that his victory so often came at the price of her own. And that was the way it had always been, and seemed, would always be. Cindy Vortex was cursed to play the supporting role.

"Cindy?"

Against her better judgment, Cindy let herself face him. She found the courage to look him straight in the face. "Congratulations, Neutron." Her voice came off much more bitter than she intended and her sour expression belayed her deep jealousy. The jealousy hidden away beneath the love and the pride was now rearing its ugly head at the worst possible moment, and she found herself too exhausted to pull out her whip and tame it.

"Cindy, I'm sorry—you know I wanted you to get in just as much as you did."

"I guess." She shrugged. "Although I don't expect you to understand how it feels." She blurted out.

"Understand how what feels?" He gave her a confused look.

Her voice quivered as she breathed a deep sigh. "Failure."

Jimmy felt something break inside of him with an incredible force.

"Cindy, please don't think you failed just because—" He took a moment to swallow the lump in his throat. "You have to know that this doesn't change anything. You're still the brilliant girl we all know."

"Easy for you to say. You've never spent your life being the perpetual silver medalist."

Jimmy moved closer to her and settled one hand on her shoulder and the other on her cheek. He lovingly traced the line of her jawbone before pulling her into a hug.

"Cindy, don't reduce yourself to silver. At the very least remember that you deserve your silver. You work hard—"

"You don't get it, Neutron." Her lips grazed his.

"I work hard for nothing—"

"Princeton is not nothing. Nor is Yale. Or Columbia." He pointed out.

"Simple question, Neutron. Would you have been happy with just those?"

"It's not the same—" He argued.

"Answer the question." Her voice was filled with deadly venom.

He couldn't say no, he couldn't say it. But he knew it was simultaneously the most correct and the most incorrect answer he could possibly give.

"No." He admitted defeatedly.

"And there you have it." She sent him a smug look, eyes burning with a volatile fire.

"That doesn't mean I wouldn't be perfectly happy at those other institutions, Vortex!" He cried out.

"It doesn't change the fact I will always be second to you no matter what I do."

Jimmy looked at her, a deep throb of fear already welling in his throat.

"Cindy?" His voice was quiet, unassuming.

A few tears streaked down her cheek. She quickly brushed them away so as not to look weak. He touched her shoulder very gently. She nestled her head against his chest. "I…I love you."

"I love you too, Cindy."

"And I'm really proud of you, Jimmy. Believe me, no one is happier than I am that you've been as successful as we all expected." A slight tremor tinged her words.

He held her closer and stroked her smooth blond tresses. He wanted so much to stay like this forever. But he knew forever wasn't that easy…

Cindy hesitated for a second before she turned around and gently kissed him on the mouth. After a minute, she completely retracted herself from him.

"But maybe—" Her voice was on the brink of breaking.

"Maybe it's time I stepped out of your shadow for a bit."

"Cindy-"

She touched his cheek longingly.

"I've been playing the supporting role in my own story for so, so long..." She whispered. Her soft breath grazed his lips.

"Cindy..." Jimmy stared directly into her tear filled emerald eyes with a deep regret.

Please don't go.

The ghosts of the words died on his lips as she turned and walked away quietly. He had the odd feeling that he'd lost much more than he'd gained, and for once victory felt much more like defeat.

As he watched her lithe figure fade into a silhouette as she made her way down the dark hallway out of the lab, he felt waves of sadness wash over him. How could genius be such a wonderful and terrible thing all at once? Costing him the things and the people he loved, but providing him with a immense world of his own...