I used one of these OTP prompt generator things because I had no inspiration, but have badly been wanting to write some JC lately. The generator gave me, "Person A gets a haircut," so I decided to run with it.
On the first day of their senior year of high school, Jimmy was nowhere to be seen. Cindy half expected (read:hoped) that he would crash through the roof during AP Statistics. She was bored out of her mind and already knew everything they would be covering for the next four classes at the very least. After all, what girl could ever deign to be a rival to Neutron without at least being able to calculate your basic standard deviation?
Some morning entertainment wouldn't be the worst thing in the world either, after her breakfast was spent ignoring the missed calls from her irate father on the home phone, and trying not to make more noise that would further annoy her hungover mother.
Cindy was counting on something to make this year different and better than the last. Thankfully, once her college applications were sent off, she could start thinking about life beyond Retroville. And being on the Prom Committee with Libby would certainly help her get her mind off her parents' sour divorce. Of course, getting a date to Prom was an altogether different issue than merely helping plan the event. There were tons of guys who would sell an arm and a leg to go with Cindy, but she wasn't interested in most of them, though she enjoyed the attention.
Neutron notably did not enjoy all the attention she received. Not that she cared what he thought—mind you, she could care less—but it did give her satisfaction to see him bite his tongue whenever some jock from the track team or debate friend of hers flirted with her while he was in earshot. She could admit that sometimes, she even timed her encounters with these drooling boys just so that Neutron was reminded that she was not just any girl, she was Cindy freaking Vortex, and she could land anyone she damn well pleased.
It had only been twenty minutes of class, but Cindy had been staring out the window instead of writing anything down in her brand new notebook. Suddenly, she spotted a tiny dot in the distance, that drew closer and closer to the school before finally descending. She felt her stomach turn, knowing exactly what was coming next. However, she was not prepared for the sight she was about to behold.
A few minutes later, a teen boy in jeans and a sapphire blue t-shirt stood outside, peering in. The teacher, whose name Cindy hadn't even paid attention to, frowned and made for the door, clearly unhappy to be interrupted. She opened it and announced, "You're late, Neutron. I cut genius no slack." Some students snickered to themselves but when he entered the room, they all stopped.
Cindy felt her heart stop. Was she going into cardiac arrest?
The boy in front of her was not James Isaac Neutron. Couldn't be. He was, daresay, attractive. Extremely so.
The very first thing she noticed was that he no longer had his signature whippy-dip hairdo. He'd gotten a haircut and cleanly combed his hair to one side, though a few dark brown strands still fell over his eyes. He was taller, more toned, and maybe she was imagining it, but his voice sounded deeper when he started explaining that he'd had hover car troubles.
Nor did Cindy seem to be the only one who was observing the remarkable change in Neutron's appearance. A couple of the girls in the back of the class were whispering and trying to hide giggles, while the girl sitting directly to Cindy's right seemed to blush involuntarily.
Cindy felt her cheeks growing hot. So he looked good. Big whoop. Lots of guys looked good. He was still a massive nerd. Yet, she wasn't sure who she was convincing, as she found herself sneaking glances in his direction as he slid into the open seat next to her.
To his credit, he offered her a good-natured nod to acknowledge her presence, and what she could have sworn was the inklings of an apologetic smile as he leaned over to ask her which problem set they were supposed to focus on for the remaining hour in pairs.
"We're on page 259 of the textbook, doing the starter level questions. If you want a challenge, you could always try the ones on page 263. Don't break your head, though. You still need some horsepower for AP Lit after."
He snorted. "I could do the problems in this whole book in my sleep. AP Stat is the class I took for a fun GPA boost, Vortex."
Why did bantering with him always feel like a shot of adrenaline? Who needed caffeine when you could just exchange quips with Jimmy all day?
"They should just give you the Nobel Prize in Modesty already. God knows you deserve it."
"Maybe you can polish the prize after I win it. It's the closest you'll ever get to a Nobel." He shot back, flashing her a cocky grin.
Oh no. That grin was doing things to her. She'd better feign interest in their assignment before he caught on.
"Shut up and work, Neutron. And feel free to ask me how to calculate mean, median, and mode, since you missed that during the first bit of class."
Before he could find some scathing remark to hit her with in return, their teacher gave them both a stern look that left Cindy sighing while Jimmy wrote down his answers effortlessly in chicken scratch.
By lunch time, it was all over the school. Neutron was, by some freak of fate, handsome.
Cindy felt uncommonly possessive. Truth be told, she'd always thought he was cute in a geeky kind of way. Even early on she'd seen the potential that was there. His looks had just never seemed to be a priority to him. He was too busy figuring out time machines and building rocket ships to care about whether or not girls found him particularly approachable.
Well. That wasn't entirely true. He'd had some kind of weird off and on thing for Betty Quinlan for a while, and there were rumors she might still be into him. There was also April, the Gorlock girl he'd been 'trust sealing' with, but that was years ago now. And maybe some others in between that Cindy had never seen as a serious threat of any kind.
She found herself thinking she needed to up the ante if she wanted him to notice her, and then hated herself for thinking it. She adamantly defied the idea that she needed to impress him.
But maybe there had been a paradigm shift...