Chapter Five: An Easy Afternoon

August 10th 2006 4:20pm

Retroville, TX

"What'll it be this time?" Sam asked in his usual fashion with a clipboard on hand. With the first day of school over, everyone in the main group decided to head to the Candy Bar which was in walking distance from the middle school. Jimmy sat next to Sheen with Carl at the edge of the booth. Nick was across from Carl with Libby in the middle and Cindy across from Jimmy.

"I'll have a cookies n cream milkshake," Jimmy answered.

"Butter pecan ripple," Cindy then said.

"Birthday cake batter," Sheen said.

"Vanilla caramel fudge all the way," Libby said.

"Rocky road please," Nick said.

"I'll have two number nines, a number nine large, a number six with extra dip…" at this point everyone stared incredulously at Carl, "a number seven, two number forty fives, one with cheese, and a large shake."

"Alright, it'll be out shortly. Yeah!" Sam said and walked into the kitchen.

"Carl… you've had your lunch and my lunch and you're still THAT HUNGRY?!" Jimmy asked in shock.

"What can I say, I'm a growing boy." Carl commented.

"In more ways than one…" Sheen whispered.

While everyone waited, they found ways to occupy themselves. Carl read a llama book he checked out of the library; Nick refused the urge to pull out a mirror since his popularity is all but gone; Sheen played with his Ultralord figures and Libby listened to music. Seizing this opportunity, Jimmy got his homework out and started working on it. Suddenly, Cindy's face lit up with an idea.

"Hey Neutron," Cindy whispered. "Wanna do a bet to see who gets it done faster?"

"You have my curiosity Vortex. What're the stakes?" Jimmy asked.

"If you win, I'll pay for your dessert. If I win, you'll have to grant me clearance to your lab at any point in time."

"Sounds pretty steep. I don't even let Carl and Sheen in the lab on their own. Plus what you're betting is very tame by comparison."

"How about this. To even things out a bit, I won't debate with you on anything for a week straight."

"Hmm, that sounds pretty desperate…" Jimmy thought about it for a minute. "I accept." They both proceed to shake hands and he allowed Cindy to get her homework out. "On three…"

"One-two-three-go!" Cindy teased.

"Hey that's not fair!" Jimmy protested.

"You gotta keep up if you wanna win Nerdtron!"

Jimmy then grumbled and he would've retorted further but he didn't want to lose so he continued with his homework. Meanwhile, Nick seemed bored. "Hey Carl," Carl looked up. "Wanna do an arm wrestle?"

"Uh no thanks," Carl began. "I'm not really all that strong." He then went back to his book.

"What about you Ultra-boy?"

"Can't, I'm playing with my action figures. Ultralord is on his 244th fight with Robofiend and I want this to look good!" Sheen then went back to that.

That dude has a one track mind with his dolls Nick thought. Then he thought of something mischievous. "Don't you wanna prove that you're stronger than me in front of your Ultra lady?" Nick asked while pointing his eyes to Libby who was currently bopping her head to the music in her earbuds.

"Forget my story. You're on suave boy!" Sheen said as Carl went out of Sheen's way so that Sheen and Nick can arm wrestle.

"I'll take that as a compliment," Nick said with a smirk. They both went in position and surprisingly they were evenly matched. It went on for at least 15 seconds before either side budged a little. Eventually, Sheen was about to win. But Nick pulled the old distraction card. "What's that behind you?!"

"Huh?" Sheen turned away for a split second catching him off guard for Nick to win the match. "Hey! No fair!"

"Oh come now. No one likes a sore loser." Nick smirked.

"Yeah well no one likes a cheater!" Sheen retorted.

"Is that a rematch I hear?" Nick challenged.

"You bet! This time with opposite arms!"

"Alright let's go!"

Sam then arrived with their desserts in the midst of the arm wrestling and the homework competition. "You folks better make room for all this or you're not having any, yeah." Everyone immediately paused what they were doing and cleared the table so that they could eat.

"We'll settle this later," Sheen, Nick, Jimmy and Cindy said in unison.

Libby took her headphones out. "Did I miss something?" she asked curiously.

7:31pm

After the Candy Bar, everyone had gone their separate ways whether it was to do homework or watch Ultralord. Carl was at his house trying to do his science homework, but he was ultimately stuck on a question. Naturally, a kid would ask his parents for assistance, but Carl lives next door to the smartest kid in town. So he thought it would be best to pay Jimmy a visit. Carl then left his house with his homework in hand and walked to Jimmy's house. He looks up at his bedroom first to see if he's there. Seeing that the lights are off, Carl deduces that he's in the lab. Carl then walks into Jimmy's backyard only to be swayed by the fresh scent of snickerdoodle cookies from the kitchen window. Those cookies smell so good. Maybe I should pay Judy a visit… No! I gotta get this homework done! That's what I came here for after all. After a few more seconds of smelling the sweetness of the cookies, Carl presses on to Jimmy's lab. Carl then took a twig of Jimmy's hair from his pocket to let himself in. In the background Cindy was about to approach the clubhouse, but upon seeing Carl just enter it she nervously turned the other way back to her house.

Carl then takes the chute down to where the lab is and was met with a mattress upon landing. Carl then sees Jimmy looking spiffy in the outfit he was wearing during the news show. Jimmy then turned around holding two glasses of sparkling cider.

"Well hey there Cin-" Jimmy said with a charming voice, but then stopped immediately when his eyes were met with Carl's with his face red. "C-Carl… I uh… How'd you get in here?"

"I have my ways," Carl said while putting the small hair back in his pocket. "You gonna drink that?"

"Uh… here you go I suppose," Jimmy said while handing one of the drinks to Carl. He then regained composure after a few more seconds. "So what's on your mind?"

"I need help with a science question for my homework," Carl stated and took a sip from the cider. He liked it though he wasn't used to the carbonation. It's number 12. It's asking me to find out what form of heat energy is most efficient for moving the largest amount of energy in the shortest amount of time."

"Oh that's simple," Jimmy started to explain. "It's convection. the movement caused within a fluid by the tendency of hotter and therefore less dense material to rise, and colder, denser material to sink under the influence of gravity, which consequently results in transfer of heat."

"Okay, let's pretend I'm not a science guy. What does that mean?" Carl asked.

"It takes the heat energy and leaves the cold energy," Jimmy shrugged. "Now, was there anything else you needed?"

"I did have one question," Carl thought for a second. "I was wondering if you could take me to Elkie's at some point. It's been awhile since I've last seen her and we were both talking lately about having a trip over there at some point."

"I suppose that is doable. So long as you don't act like a jerk towards me like last time," Jimmy remembered that incident.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I was a little in over my head. I promise I won't act that way towards you again," Carl said sheepishly. "Also why are you wearing a suit, are you going to a job interview or something?"

"Uh, I just wore this because I felt like it. Anyway, it's getting late and you better get home."

"But it's only 7:52," Carl retorted.

"Have a good night!" Jimmy said and the chute took him back out to the lawn of Jimmy's backyard.

Carl then slowly walked back to his house feeling curious above all else. Jimmy was acting weirder than usual… Ah well. At least I got that problem out of the way.