Hellooo all! I know I should be focusing on my current story Dangerous right now, but the idea for this story hasn't left my head in months. This story won't be too long...just a couple chapters. I'll still be writing my other story, of course - the next chapter is about halfway done! I think taking a small break to gather ideas and thoughts is healthy. My other story is pretty serious most of the time and I wanted to try something funnier and lighter for a little while!

I hope you all like this story featuring a slightly grumpier, less angsty Cindy (compared to the version I'm writing for my other story). I'm also testing out third person POV. Not sure how I feel about it.

If you haven't read my other story (which you should, duh) then you can ignore all of this. Just know that I'm the queen of long author's notes.

I don't own anything in the Jimmy Neutron world.

The Crown

January meant the start of a new semester for Retroville High students, and also the beginning of months long in-your-face advertising for the most popular event of any given school year: Prom. Sometimes when Cindy Vortex caught a glimpse of the huge poster that was located conveniently on the wall next to her locker, she wanted to gag, but usually refrained.

Libby was already seated at the lunch table when Cindy plopped her tray down across from her. "If I have to spend the next four and half months listening to every little girl and boy in this school talk about prom incessantly then I'm not going," she exclaimed as she sat down.

"Don't be so dramatic," Libby chided, but her eyes went wide nonetheless. "You didn't go to prom last year! This is our last year of high school, we have to go."

"I don't have to do anything."

"Prom is so fun, Cindy! You should definitely go!" A girl that sat on the other end of the lunch table named Jennifer piped up.

"And you should definitely stop eavesdropping," Cindy replied, smirking. Jennifer frowned and didn't say another word.

Libby just rolled her eyes. She was used to Cindy's bad temper and blunt remarks. But not everyone knew that it was just her main way of communicating; malice not always included.

Brittany Tenelli sat down next Libby gracefully.

"Are you not eating?" Cindy asked, noticing she hadn't brought a lunch tray with her.

"I can't eat anymore school food. It makes me fat," Brittany whined.

"Can you please help me convince Cindy to go to prom?" Libby asked her pleadingly.

Brittany's eyes went comically wide, just as Libby's had moments ago. "You're not going to prom?" She asked Cindy.

"I was weighing the pros and cons of going and as of right now the cons are piling up," Cindy said, concentrating on dissecting the mystery school meat on her tray.

"Oh my god, you have to go. It's the biggest school-"

"-event of the year, yeah. I've heard," Cindy finished Brittany's sentence for her.

It wasn't that prom was that bad. Sure, the general camaraderie surrounding the event was annoying but Cindy was annoyed by most lively things. She hadn't attended prom her junior year due to a stomach bug that led to a night of hanging out by the toilet instead of wearing the brand new dress she'd begged her mother to buy. She had been just a little jealous scrolling through the pictures of everyone having a great time while she laid miserably in what she considered to be her deathbed.

Needless to say, she felt like she'd missed out on one prom, so why not another? Her parents wouldn't have to buy an expensive dress that she would never wear again. She also wouldn't have to suffer through the embarrassment of trying to find a date considering her boyfriend, Logan, had dumped her three days ago.

I don't think this is going to work out he'd said, along with all of my friends think you're intimidating. Neither statements had hurt her feelings too badly but she'd started yelling at him anyway. Maybe she'd called him "dumb" in passing - she couldn't really remember. Before he'd left he'd told her you're going end up as an old, lonely cat lady with that attitude.

So maybe that comment had hurt a little.

But Cindy had already decided she didn't need a boyfriend. She had better things to focus on anyway, like trying to slide up from her number two spot in the class to the number one spot - aka being the valedictorian. That was no easy feat if you thought about how there was an actual genius currently sitting comfortably in the number one spot. She also had college applications to finish and send off in just a few weeks, which would explain the recent angry outbursts that everyone around her had to experience.

"Not only that, but it's all downhill from there," Brittany sighed. "Then we graduate and move away and just...die."

"I think you skipped a few years between moving away and dying," Cindy said, one brow raised.

Libby wasn't happy with how this conversation was going. At this rate they would convince Cindy to attend prom when they were all eighty years old.

"Maybe we should just give up, Brittany," Libby said, trying a different tactic. "We'll have to go to prom without Cindy. It's really a shame. I guess Grace Walker was right."

Like the words Grace Walker were one of Cindy's active triggers, her eyes narrowed. "What was she right about?"

Libby just shrugged. "I overheard her talking to Millie Andrews about running for prom queen. Grace thinks she's got it in the bag. Millie was asking her who she thought her competition would be and your name came up. Apparently Grace doesn't think you've got what it takes."

At this point, even Libby was impressed by her own lying skills. She felt a little bad for stretching the truth. She'd never heard such conversation between Grace and Millie. She was essentially throwing Grace under the bus for her own personal gain...but it was too late to worry about that now.

"That little bitch," Cindy muttered. "Who is she to say that I don't have what it takes? What does that even mean?"

"I think she means that you'd lose," Brittany quipped and Cindy contemplated dumping her drink over her head.

"Well she's wrong," Cindy said matter-of-factly.

"You think you can win?" Libby asked.

"I don't think it'd be too hard to beat goody two shoes Grace."

"You should do it!" Brittany exclaimed, pumping her first in the air excitedly.

Grace Walker held the attention of most people, especially of the young male variety, despite being the one of the most irritating people alive - in Cindy's opinion, anyway. She was quiet but was always smiling as if she had a secret. She was tall and slim and possessed a mean baton-twirling ability. Something about Grace and her halo of long, perfect red hair rubbed Cindy the wrong way.

"Uh, absolutely not."

"I bet you can't win," Libby said bravely, knowing such a statement might put her on the receiving end of a rampage. Cindy glared at her.

"Excuse me?" Cindy asked, surprised by her friend's behavior.

"I bet you won't beat Grace. She's pretty much got a cult following," Libby replied. All three girls took a glance at the lunch table Grace was seated at. There wasn't an empty seat around her and she was smiling in such a way that she knew something no one else did.

"I'll take you up on that bet," Cindy said confidently. Libby cheered internally. She'd just tricked her best friend into going to prom and it was like taking candy from a baby.

"What are the stakes?" Brittany asked.

They were all silent for a while, pondering the question. Cindy gasped suddenly and said, "I got it. If I do win prom queen, you have to ask Sheen on a date."

It was the most well-known secret that Libby had a huge crush on Sheen, and it was most definitely reciprocated - but somehow nearly four years of high school had passed without them making it official.

Libby blushed and shrugged. "Fine. But if you lose, you also have to ask someone on a date."

Cindy froze with her drink halfway to her mouth. She had a bad feeling about this. "...who?"

Libby and Brittany exchanged a devious look. They had the perfect person in mind.

"Jimmy Neutron."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Cindy wasn't sure how Jimmy had charmed the student population the way that he had. She could begrudgingly admit that the past years had been good to him; he was taller, more muscular, and was much less awkward than he'd been in his middle school days. Annoyingly enough, he was on the good side of seemingly every teacher in the school. He was in every single academic club. He had a lot of friends since he got along with mostly everyone.

To everyone else, it had probably seemed like his arrogant attitude and haughty know-it-all tone had simply waned with time. Cindy knew better. They were still toe-to-toe in most of their classes and he always managed to slide into first place no matter what. She should be used to it by now, but that little smirk he always gave her after getting a higher score on an exam than her was just as infuriating now as it was when they were eleven.

It was a cruel cycle, really. School had only started back up following the holiday break two weeks ago and Cindy was already tangled up in lab reports, term papers, and quizzes in her classes.

Currently she was sitting in AP Calculus, impatiently watching the teacher hand back the quiz they had taken yesterday. She peeked at the grade immediately after receiving the paper. Ninety-eight percent. Jesus.

She looked up to see Jimmy, who sat in the row next to hers but a few seats ahead, turning around to look at her. He flipped his paper up so she could see - one hundred percent. Of course.

She glared at him and there it was - that damn arrogant smirk.

He turned around before she could unceremoniously flip him the bird.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

"Let me see that," Cindy unashamedly snatched Jimmy's quiz out of his hand the second they were out of the classroom.

"Fess up, Vortex. What did you get?"

"I'm not telling you anything. I just want to know how you bribed Mr. Reid into giving you a one hundred on everything."

"It comes with the genius territory."

Cindy followed him to his locker, still scanning his test to try to find where she'd made a mistake on hers.

"Hey guys," a sickly sweet voice sounded right next to her.

"Hey Grace," Jimmy replied with a huge smile on his face. Cindy resisted the urge to throw up in her mouth. She wasn't sure if he could be any more obvious about his little crush he had on the redhead.

Grace Walker stood there in all her 5'8'' glory, looking a little bit like she belonged in an ad for a sophisticated clothing store with her expensive-looking outfit and perfectly curled hair.

"You might've heard by now that I'm running for prom queen," Grace said with a laugh. "This is a little embarrassing, but my friends insisted I hand these out."

She handed both of them a small circular object. Cindy realized it was a pin. It was bright pink and had Grace's face on it.

"You don't waste any time, do you?" Cindy asked.

Grace shrugged. "No one wins anything by sitting around," she said simply.

"You're right about that," Jimmy agreed, nodding. The two of them shared a smile and Cindy rolled her eyes, a move that went unnoticed by anyone else.

"Where did you get these made?" Cindy asked abruptly.

"A printing shop downtown makes them. The name is on the back," Grace said. "Why do you ask?"

"Just wondering."

Grace walked away to continue her mission to pin the school with her face. Jimmy looked at Cindy suspiciously. "It's like I can hear the gears in your brain moving as I speak. What's going on?"

"Nothing, Nerdtron," Cindy tossed his forgotten quiz and the pin in her hand into his open locker. He rolled his eyes.

Cindy left to go to her next class. Grace had been sort of right - she wouldn't win prom queen unless she tried. She was thinking that maybe she needed to get a head start on a campaign if she actually wanted to win this bet.

Winning would be a small prize compared to the look on Grace's face when Cindy beat her.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

The rest of the week flew by quickly. Friday was the official day that planning for prom would begin; the prom committee would start having regular meetings and the king and queen nominations would be tallied.

In order to win prom queen, you had to be nominated, which wasn't hard to accomplish if you had any sort of motivation to win. Nominations were held silently - the fiasco from a few years ago where two girls got into a hair-pulling fight in front of the entire school caused a change in how the school did things. Libby and Brittany had planned on writing Cindy's name down since nominations only required two people.

"That won't work," Brittany said as Libby was telling her and Cindy this plan. "Since our class has so many people in it they changed the rules. You need to have three people to nominate you now."

"Shit! Who can we convince to help us?" Libby asked.

Cindy crossed her arms and glared at Libby. "What do you mean by convince?"

"Why don't we ask them?" Brittany pointed to a group of girls that were standing and talking just a few feet down the hallway. "I think they sit at our lunch table."

Without another word, Cindy marched over to the group. She didn't really know any of them but their faces looked familiar. She didn't really know how to go about it, but she figured that picking out the most vulnerable looking one would be her best bet. She decided on the short brunette that looked a little shy. Cindy pointed at her as interrupted their conversation. "Hey, can you do me a favor and nominate me for prom queen?"

The girl stood there for a moment with her mouth slightly open in shock before she burst into peals of laughter. "You're kidding me right?"

Cindy rolled her eyes. "It's not that hard to do. You plan on nominating anyone else?"

"I hadn't planned on it. But I definitely won't be helping you."

The attitude of this girl had Cindy feeling slightly stunned. "What's your problem?" She inquired.

"My problem? You were the one that snapped at me lunch the other day for no reason," the girl snapped. Realization dawned on Cindy quickly. She barely remembered the incident but now that she thought about, she did know this girl's name. Jennifer or something.

"Well, you were eavesdropping," Cindy said simply shrugging. "Are you gonna help me or not?"

"Not," Jennifer sneered. "Good luck."

The small group of girls walked away, giggling. Cindy had a feeling Jennifer wasn't being sincere when she said good luck. What a bust.

She returned to Libby and Brittany, who were waiting impatiently. "What did they say?" Libby asked.

"They...uh...didn't seem interested in helping," Cindy replied.

"Great," Libby groaned. "What are we going to do now?"

Still feeling the slight shame of being turned down by a group of girls she didn't even know, Cindy wasn't feeling too keen on the whole idea of being nominated anymore.

"If I don't get nominated then it's whatever. The bet is off," Cindy said. "I'm going to class."

She walked away, leaving the other two girls to come up with a plan on their own.

"Maybe we should leave it up to fate," Brittany said, shrugging.

Libby glanced at the clock on the wall. They only had a few minutes until first period, where nominations were going to be taking place before class started.

"I don't like that idea, but it looks as if we have no other choice."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

After a long day, Cindy wanted nothing more than to go home and hide in her room for the majority of the weekend. All she wanted was to finish her college application essays in peace. She was sitting in her AP Calculus class, tapping her foot against the leg of her desk and watching the clock impatiently, when a voice came over the loudspeaker.

"Good afternoon everyone! Since you've all been waiting all day for the announcement of the 2018 prom court members, I'll make this short and sweet."

Cindy rolled her eyes and tuned out the rest of the announcement. She knew the bet she'd made with Libby was just a ploy to get her to attend prom. She'd let it happen because secretly she wanted the feeling of dressing up and having a night of fun before graduating.

Over the past few days, she'd done some thinking. Cindy had spent most of her high school career worried about grades, her GPA, and being the best at everything - which she hadn't even succeeded at considering she usually came in second place. She realized now she had missed out on many parties and events that could've been enjoyable if she'd actually attended them.

Maybe Logan had been right after all. Maybe she would end up as a lonely cat lady.

She glanced up at the clock again but realized that she had several sets of eyes on her. She also noticed that the announcements were over. "What?" She asked.

The girl next to her laughed. "Were you not paying attention?"

"What did I miss?" she asked while shaking her head.

"Cindy, you got nominated for prom queen."

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You may find Cindy annoying right now, but give her a chance. Character development is in her future!

Please review!