Author's note: This is not my first fic, but it is my first dealing with JN. I may or may not finish this, depending on the amount of reviews I get. The chapters do not have a fixed length, they just end where I want them to. Oh, and they may be a little OOC. That's just because I feel they are older and deserve to be even a little more mature. So don't complain. I think I'm done ranting now.

DC (this will apply to all the chapters, because one for each is a pain in the arse): I own Jimmy. He's my bitch, if you will. And he's reading over my shoulder now, nodding his head. So I do own him, just not legally. That's Nickelodeon's job.

I'd Rather be Anywhere but Here
By me, Cassi Mo.

Chapter one: Let's get this Show on the Road

The wind that brought the rain into their faces was warm, providing a stark contrast to the cold water lashing into their bodies. The horizontally flying rain also made visible the vertical tracks of tears flowing down the five friends' faces. At the side of the road a car and a moving van were parked, their occupants restless and impatient. One of the friends moved forward, her blonde hair soaked pencil straight and her eyes puffy, and hugged all of her friends in succession, except for the last one.

Cindy looked her almost-lifetime archrival and her secret crush sadly, and uttered two words that were barely audible, carried off into the wind.

"Remember me."

She didn't even give him time to say a last farewell, for once those words were uttered, she ran off of her former front lawn and into the relative safety of the backseat of her car. And with that, she was gone.

"Yes! Last day of school! Summer vacation, look out!" Jimmy Neutron sighed as he walked into Retroville High's bustling hallways. He was greatly excited to finish his junior year at this school and enter the renowned world of seniors.

Although this was the last day of school, there were still exams to finish and graduation to endure. There was definitely a nervous/excited current running among the teenagers scrambling to get to class as the final bell rang for homeroom. Jimmy was not among them. He was, after all, a certified genius. Exams, however hard they may be, were no match for his intellectual capacity, and if he was late, he could use that capacity to talk himself out of any situation he might encounter.

Before long, it was time to go home and not come back for twelve whole weeks. Jimmy's two best friends, Carl and Sheen, piled into Jimmy's modified Audi A8 along with Libby, Sheen's longtime girlfriend. Cindy, Libby's best friend was the only one not present, for she had moved away out of state shortly after the gang's fifth grade year ended. Jimmy inwardly sighed, thinking that the six-year anniversary for her departure was coming up. Cindy was the only female he had ever loved, and when she left he all but killed himself over not telling her how he really felt. And now it was too late. He hadn't even seriously dated anyone else; his love was that strong. Well, was. He wasn't sure of his feelings anymore. Maybe life would throw him a wonderful girl soon and he would take it from there.

Amid much laughter and jesting, Jimmy was able to drop everyone off at their respective residences, and then he was free to go home, or wherever he pleased. He chose the former, unfortunately.

Upon his arrival through the front door, his mother, Judy, greeted him with a huge I'm-going-to-kill-you smile pasted on her face. "James, we're not going to let you sit around and watch TV all day. It will make you fat, lazy and stupid."

"Mom, haven't we already established this?" Jimmy interrupted. "Sheen's the one that watches TV and snacks all day. And I don't like it when you call me James, even if it is my real name. It doesn't fit my personality."

He would have gone on longer, but Judy put up a hand to halt his ranting. "If you would have let me finish, I would have told you I know you don't do that, but I don't want you to start this summer. I don't want you in your lab all day and night either. That's just not natural. So I've come up with a different idea. You will be working as a robotics counselor and dorm advisor to camp Eyedrath Erbee. It's for eight weeks, and it's an all boys camp. Now before you go whining again, let me tell you that this camp has a sister camp, and it's an all girls camp. So maybe you'll finally be able to get a girl counselor there and stop hanging around the house all the time." Suddenly a small voice piped up from below the two adults.

"But mama, I don't want Jimmy to leave. It will be too lonely without him."

Judy looked down at her four-year-old daughter with love and amusement. "Sorry, Sophie, but he has to go. I won't let him sit around anymore. If he does stay, he has to pay rent and get a job anyways."

Jimmy also looked down at his sister. "Awe, c'mon, Soph. It will be fun without me. No one to boss you around! And maybe, when you're older, you can go to camp too."

Sophie smiled a little at this. "Okay. I guess. Go on, and get out of here, you bum!" Jimmy raised his eyebrows at his mother.

"She must have picked that one up from you."

"Okay. So when do I leave?"

"Tomorrow."

"Wait! I can't go tomorrow! That's graduation. I need to go!"

"Okay, fine. The day after tomorrow."

"Great."

Meanwhile, Cindy Vortex was getting much of the same treatment, only with angrier words.

"Cynthia Aurora Vortex! You went over your cell minutes by 900 minutes! Do you know how much that's going to cost?" Cindy's mom was yelling at her seventeen-year-old daughter, who just shrugged. "Over $1,050!"

Cindy's mom was in a rage. Cindy had just broken up with her boyfriend of three years, Spencer, who she had caught cheating on her with another guy at school. Now that school was out, all Cindy wanted was to be alone, or with her best friend there, Lexa. The reason for her going over her minutes was simple. Spencer felt like he needed to explain himself, and all that did was waste minutes. Nine hundred minutes, to be exact.

"You should be happy your stepfather is away, on a business trip!" Cindy's mother was still yelling at her. "If he were here—"

"But he's not." Cindy was tired of all this nagging. It got old after a while.

"If he were here," Cindy's mother continued, "He'd have your neck on a silver platter!" She decided yelling wasn't getting through to her daughter, so she tried a different tactic. "However," she continued calmly, "I have something planned that will save us all a lot of trouble. I'm sending you to summer camp. Not as a camper, but as a counselor. You will be the swimming coach at Camp Anee Wherebutt Heer, as well as the Dorm Advisor. All the money you make will go towards paying your phone bill. I have no doubts that it will be paid by the time you come back, as this is for eight weeks, but if it does not cover it, you will get a job here in town upon your return. And you will not have your phone until you get back, either."

Summer camp? Cindy's mind raced. How was this happening! However, her mother still was not finished.

"You leave the day after tomorrow."

"I can't believe I'm actually here," Jimmy grumbled to himself upon his arrival at Eyedrath Erbee. He was to be the Robotics Counselor in a camp for boys for eight weeks, and being DA got him his own cabin.

"Well, Goddard, I guess this is it," he remarked to his robotic canine. Since he was going to be teaching robotics, it seemed only logical that he bring along his mechanical dog that he built. "Let's go get settled. The boys arrive tomorrow."

"Bart, bart!" Goddard replied, which meant "Let's get this show on the road!"

"I can't believe I'm actually here!" Cindy complained to herself when she got to Anee Wherebutt Heer. Her jobs were to lifeguard and teach swimming. That wasn't too hard. At least she got her own cabin for being DA. And she didn't have to deal with any of the male species, considering the camp was all-girls.

"I guess I'd better get this show on the road."