Chapter 24: The Brief Adventure
By the time Cindy caught up to the rest of the kids, they were back at camp. She looked around their base before spotting Jimmy kneeling next to a tall metal pole sticking up out of the ground.
"Jimmy!" she shouted while running up to him. He looked up and waved as she came to a stop beside him. "Um, well," she began; trying to figure out how to talk about the moment they had shared on their walk back. She eventually shook her head and smiled, realizing that they shouldn't talk about that right now. "What are you working on?"
Jimmy smiled too; glad to not have to bring up that awkward kiss. Yet at the same time, he couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. This always happens, he thought. We take a step forward in our relationship, and then we pretend it never happened. How are we ever going to get anywhere this way?
"Jimmy?" Cindy asked after a moment.
At the sound of his name Jimmy snapped out of his little trance. "What?" he asked, a little confused. "I mean, I'm finishing up on this alarm system," he explained to her.
"Can I help?"
"Sure," he quickly answered, a small smile creeping up his lips. He handed her a screwdriver and pointed to the eight screws at the square base of the pole. "You're stronger than me. Could you tighten those?"
She nodded and bent over, immediately getting to work. Jimmy stared at her ponytail while absent-mindedly fiddling with some wires. She eventually noticed this and looked up. Jimmy quickly looked away and focused on the wires in his hands.
They sat and worked together in near silence for around an hour. When Cindy was done with the screws, Jimmy handed her a soda. She thanked him and they leaned against the pole, staring out across the asteroid. As they slowly sipped their drinks, the four other groups of kids began to return from the firing range one by one.
"What's the alarm system for?" Cindy finally asked.
Jimmy took another sip from his nearly empty drink and closed his eyes for a second. "It's in case there's some sort of an emergency. I don't really know what I would need it for, but better safe than sorry, right?"
Cindy nodded. "Speaking of better safe than sorry, when was the last time we checked on Libby and that fortress back home?"
Jimmy realized that she was right and immediately looked around for his headset. "Darn, I left my headset back in my tent."
Cindy shrugged; she had left hers at her tent as well when Jimmy had gathered everyone for firing practice. "We'll check in with her tonight."
They sat in silence for several more minutes, watching the stars twinkle in the sky. "Hey," she finally asked, "you really think I'm cuter than Sheen?"
Jimmy choked a little on the last sip of his drink. "You alright?" Cindy shouted, concerned. She scrambled over to him and put a hand on his knee, and he swallowed his soda.
"Yeah," he gasped as he dropped his soda can. He coughed violently for a moment before giving her a thumbs up sign to show that he was ok. They both looked down to see that her hand was still on his knee. She immediately retracted it and blushed.
"Um, what did you say?" he asked her.
Cindy subconsciously debated whether or not to drop the subject. What's wrong? a familiar voice inside her head asked. Is the fact that you're all alone not doing it for you? Does the constant flirting not set the mood? Is the gorgeous night sky not a good environment for romance? You have to decide, right now. Because if you don't do anything now, all the baby steps that you took today will be swept under the carpet. So, ask yourself, do you want him?
Cindy thought about what the voice inside her head was saying. She looked at the scared boy in front of her, with his ice cream cone hairdo and sparkling blue eyes. In that one moment, everything clicked. She felt an inner peace, a serene calm and intense courage. It was now or never.
"I said," she began pausing for a second. Suddenly, she realized why the voice had sounded so familiar. It was Libby's. Her best friend wasn't here to give Cindy her advice, so her mind had imagined what Libby might say. And her mind had guessed well. Cindy could picture Libby having that exact same conversation with her.
"I said, do you really think I'm cuter than Sheen?"
Jimmy was a little nervous, but the inclusion of Sheen's name made the question seem more flirtatious than serious. That helped him relax. "Well, he's got a nice smile, but you're eyes are much deeper," he said while inching towards her.
"Oh?" she asked as loud as she could, which was a whisper.
Jimmy gulped and swallowed his fear. "Yeah," he told her while grabbing her hand. She squeezed it, and that act seemed to transfer some of her courage to Jimmy.
They scooted closer together, their fingers shaking nervously. Their foreheads touched, and Jimmy became entranced in her eyes. He hadn't been kidding when he compared them to Sheen's smile. He felt like he was drowning in an emerald ocean, yet he wanted to dive in further.
They both closed their eyes and let their lips connect.
"James," Betty asked as she strolled up to them. "Oh my," she shouted while seeing that he was kissing Cindy.
Jimmy and Cindy immediately pulled away from each other, their lips tingling from their brief adventure. Cindy shot Betty a glare that would have made a weaker person run away in fear, but Betty didn't flinch.
"I'm, uh, sorry to interrupt," she sincerely apologized, "but I'm worried about Nick.
Cindy's gaze softened slightly, just slightly, as she realized that Betty wasn't here to interrupt her moment with Jimmy.
"Why?" Jimmy asked while drumming his fingers on the ground like a speed addict.
"The last group soldiers came back nearly an hour ago, but Nick's still out there," she explained to him, surprised that Jimmy hadn't noticed. "When I left with you guys, he said that he'd be a few minutes behind the last group."
Jimmy looked down at his watch and saw that it was nearing six o'clock. Nick should have been back by now. "You're right," he said while getting up and looking towards the horizon, expecting to see Nick come walking towards camp. He didn't.
Cindy got up as well, and she and Betty joined Jimmy's gaze towards the firing range. Nick still didn't appear.
"You think something happened to him?" Cindy asked Betty.
Betty shrugged but didn't take her gaze off of the horizon. "He said he'd be back a few minutes after the last group came home, and they’ve been here for nearly an hour. That's all I'm saying."
"Come on," Jimmy told them while leading the two girls back to his tent. It was a short walk, less than ten minutes. He brushed the entrance flap aside and grabbed his headset. He flipped it to Nick's headset's private frequency. "Nick? You wearing a headset? Can you answer me?" he asked. There was no response.
Jimmy growled in frustration and walked over to the supply tents. Betty followed him, but Cindy trailed off and ran to her own tent. "Where are you going?" he asked.
"Getting a headset!" she shouted as she entered her tent. She reemerged with the headset on and dashed back to Jimmy and Betty.
"Libby? Can you read me?" she asked.
"Folfax here, I'm reading you loud and clear," Libby responded.
"Run a search for Nick's DNA," she quickly instructed.
Libby nodded and furiously typed in several commands into her computer. "He's on the asteroid, around three kilometers west of your position. Bio-signs look normal. Why?"
Cindy hung up on Libby and turned to Jimmy. He had switched the frequency to Libby's channel and had heard her too. "Thanks, Libby. Gotta go," he told her before hanging up on her as well.
"I'm going to go check it out, make sure he's ok. Maybe he fell or got trapped in a hole or something," he told the girls while reemerging from the tent that held the guns. He held a pistol in his hand and loaded it the way Nick had taught him.
"And you need a gun because…?" Cindy asked.
Jimmy shrugged and made sure the safety was on. "Just in case. Don't worry, the safety's on. I'm not going trigger-happy or anything. I don't plan on using it. But be
tter safe than sorry, right?" he asked.
"That's quickly becoming you catchphrase," Cindy told him. She paused and seemed to be thinking about something. "I'll go too," she finally told Jimmy.
Jimmy shook his head. "I want either you, me, or Nick present at the base at all times. One of us needs to be in charge here to keep order." He turned to a disgruntled Betty. "No offense," he told her.
"None taken," she said with a huff. "I'll just go back to camp and do some not-in-charge stuff," she told him while walking away
Jimmy was too preoccupied to care about Betty's feelings at the moment. He'd apologize later. "Cindy, don't worry. Stay here, watch over everyone. We'll keep in contact with the headset."
She nodded as Jimmy put a bottle of water, a compass, and some rope into his hypercube. "Just be careful with that," she said while pointing to the gun. "You're not as good a shot as me," she reminded him.
Jimmy smiled as he went over his supplies and realized that he was good to go. "See you in a bit," he told her while staring at her. They awkwardly moved towards each other, not sure how to say goodbye. Finally, Jimmy gave her a friendly hug.
"Bye," Cindy told him as he set off running towards the firing range. She waved a good-bye which he didn't see. "I hate it when he does his macho thing," she muttered while walking back to her tent.