"You missed a spot, Vortex." Jimmy tipped his sunglasses up to take a sip from his Coke can.
"Yeah, come on, put some back into it, Cindy." Sheen called out.
"Shut up Ultra Geek, or I'll hose you." She gritted her teeth and pressed the wet sponge against the outer shell of the hover car a little too hard.
How had she sunk this low? Oh yeah, she'd lost that ill-conceived bet with Neutron. She knew she shouldn't have agreed to a 'friendly wager' in the subject he was most comfortable in, but she hadn't been able to resist his provocation, as usual.
She continued to scrub away at Neutron's vehicle, marveling at how much dirt had accumulated in its turbines.
At some point, Sheen slunk away to go antagonize Carl, and Jimmy walked over to inspect her work.
"Hmm." He scratched his chin thoughtfully. "You're doing a decent job Vortex. If nothing else, you could have a lucrative career in cleaning."
"And who says I'd have to resort to that, Nerdbomb?"
"Well, you got yourself into this situation in the first place by missing a couple key points on our AP Physics test."
Her anger reached a boiling point. "That does it, Neutron, eat this."
She squeezed the sponge over his head until his thick brown hair was sopping wet.
"What the hell, Cindy!"
"That's what you get for saying I should be a cleaning lady! I am perfectly capable of—"
She couldn't finish her sentence. Jimmy took the bucket of clean water and splashed it towards her.
"Oh, it's on, King Cranium."
She raced after him armed with a bottle of soap and a spray, deftly leaping over the duck sculptures in the yard.
He tripped over one and fell, sending him tumbling onto her, their bodies tangling in the soft grass.
He was mesmerized by the fiery intensity in her green eyes and reached over to gently touch the drenched ends of her ponytail.
"I'll relieve you of your hover car maintenance duties if you admit my intellectual superiority."
She scoffed. "Who do you take me for, Neutron? And besides, this isn't...so bad." She smirked.
Heat rose to his cheeks. He was suddenly aware of the closeness between them and the fact that her shirt was wet and that she smelled like aloe and jasmine.
"Cindy, I—"
"You what?" She liked watching him struggle for words. It was strangely entertaining. And maybe kind of endearing, but she would never admit it.
He leaned in closer, and she could feel his heart beating against her chest.
Just then, Sheen and Carl came running back. Jimmy pushed her away and bolted upright at the sight of them.
"Great timing, geeks." She huffed under her breath, helping herself up.
"What's the she-demon doing here, Jimmy? Shouldn't she be shining the Hover Car until it's clean enough to fry eggs on?" Sheen looked at the two of them suspiciously.
"She was distracting me from relaxing."
Cindy punched Jimmy in the arm. He let out a cry of pain. "Ow!"
"If my integrity weren't on the line, I'd already be gone." She got up and made her way back to the hover-car. Yet another...moment foiled by those two nimrods.
Half an hour later, she was finally done, and the hover car looked good as new.
"Well, I'm done Neutron. That's the last time I bet you anything."
"Ah good, so you've learned your lesson that I smoke you in everything."
"Don't go getting over-confident, there's plenty of things I could best you at."
Jimmy snuck a glance in both directions to confirm no one was around anymore and kissed her.
She responded in kind, wrapping her arms around him.
"You know, Vortex," he grinned, "you look kind of cute this way." He gestured to her green tank top clinging to her skin.
"Yeah, well take a good long look because it's the last time you see me like this. I am never washing the hover car again." She tried to sound serious but a smile played at the edge of her lips. He thinks I'm cute!
"Oh, I beg to differ. I know you'll challenge me again and lose, and when you inevitably do..." He let the implication hang in the air.
"Oh, go jump in a lake, Jimmy." She walked off, ready to shower and change into new clothes.
He stared after her. Whenever she called him Jimmy he felt butterflies flutter in his stomach. Stupid Vortex. The things that girl did to him.
