As Jimmy had expected, this village was far too quiet, and that was exactly what the Neutron family needed after all the problems—more bad than good—that their son had caused in Retroville.
But it wasn't as bad as Jimmy had thought. He knew that here, he could create inventions without many people being interested in their purpose, since no one knew him. The only thing he missed was his home, his friends, and a few other things that, honestly, he didn't think were necessary to mention right now.
Hugh asked for many directions to find their new home, though he ignored that his son was guiding him, as he wanted Jimmy to value interactions with new people more in order to make friends.
Everyone was concerned that Jimmy wouldn't be able to make friends, as that was one of the reasons he might have been so angry. His parents didn't want the mere idea of making new friends to seem absurd to him, out of fear that he might lose them later.
Of course, Jimmy wasn't thinking about this. Right now, he was looking at his robot dog, how he had obtained its new technology, and how this would help him a lot in the future with his inventions.
...
In the house across from where the Neutrons were moving, a girl holding a doll ran to the window when she saw a huge RV stop in front of the new neighbors' house.
"It looks like our new neighbors have arrived," said a burly man named George, looking out the kitchen window, but not paying much attention.
But he underestimated how much his younger son, Sheldon, would care about the new neighbors.
The girl, Missy, ran to the window and couldn't help but shout, "Wow! There's an RV parked in front of our house."
Soon after, Sheldon, who usually ignored anything that wasn't science or logic, ran to the window for the first time in his life and looked at the huge RV that had stopped not far away. "It can't be. My torment has arrived."
"You're being too dramatic," replied Missy, not even looking at Sheldon. "I hope I can make a new friend."
"I hope I can sleep peacefully," said Sheldon, the older brother of Penny but younger than George Jr., with his usual tone of superiority and disdain for other people's emotions.
Mary Cooper, who had come out of her room, looked at the dispute between her younger children and asked, "What's going on here?"
"They're fighting over the neighbors," replied George, who didn't feel like getting involved in one of those never-ending arguments.
"Why don't you stop them?"
"Words don't hurt anyone," said George, trying to downplay the situation. "And from the looks of it, Missy is winning."
Mary, like a good mother, walked over to her children and asked, "What's going on?"
"Sheldon is worried about his life stability now that the new neighbors have arrived. I think we should go welcome them," said Missy with a clever smile, knowing this was the perfect opportunity to take advantage of her brother.
Sheldon looked at his mother with total seriousness and said, "I think this will work. That way, we'll know what kind of people our new neighbors will be. Also, I need to evaluate if they are fit to coexist with someone of my intellect."
"Then go find your older brother. I think this is an excellent opportunity to forge friendly bonds with our new neighbors," said Mary, convinced it was the right thing to do.
George lifted the newspaper to his face to avoid being involved in this new activity, which, with Sheldon's participation, could go terribly wrong.
But now that the whole family was gathering, he lost hope of being left in peace. So, since it was Saturday, George got up and went to grab a beer to calm his nerves.
"Are you going to drink this early?" Mary didn't want to make a bad impression on their new neighbors if her husband smelled like beer.
George looked around and replied, "I think I'll need it."
"I'll call Grandma," said Sheldon, who wanted the whole family to be gathered, even though his idea of "gathering" the family was more of a logistical act to assess their relationship with the neighbors.
"I definitely need this beer," said George, expecting the worst from this meeting with the new neighbors.
Missy went to change because she wanted to look presentable. She put on her best dress, preparing for the first significant social interaction in the village that she was interested in.
Meanwhile, George Jr. came out of his room, as he was constantly being called, and asked, "What's going on?"
"Wash your face, we're going to welcome the new neighbors," said George tiredly, knowing it might be a waste of time.
"That's not my problem. Good luck."
"George Jr., you must be in the welcome to show that we are a united family," Mary, as a mother, didn't want to create the wrong idea that they were a dysfunctional family.
"But we're not."
"That doesn't matter. Wash your face and come before your grandmother gets here," Mary had lost patience with her oldest son.
Her sudden release of stress made everyone stop being so dramatic, so after about five more minutes, the Cooper family, joined by Grandma Connie, walked toward the new neighbors' house.
"Is it okay to bring them those stale cookies?" George looked at the box of cookies in his mother's hands and couldn't help but mention it.
"We won't talk about it anymore."
After a while, the Cooper family stood in front of the house, which had undergone many modifications since the new owner bought it.
"Sheldon, if you say anything weird, I'll kill you," said George Jr., looking at his younger brother, who seemed to be very attentive.
"I'll only say what's obvious," Sheldon wanted to see who the new tenants were, since there was nothing else to do now that the owner had bought the house without even looking at it.
"Are you nervous?" Connie approached her grandson, who seemed to be the most stressed.
"I'm fine."
"He's not fine," Missy looked at her brother and judged him with her gaze.
"Alright, looks like someone's coming," Mary stepped back after ringing the doorbell.
The door to the Neutron family opened, and Judy, who hadn't expected visitors, looked at the pleasant family in front of her.
"You must be the new neighbor. We're here to welcome you," said Mary, with her charming aura, stepping forward to greet Judy, who also smiled.
"Thank you very much for the welcome. I'll introduce you to my husband and son," said Judy, quickly calling her family.
"A son?" George was interested to hear that. The neighborhood could use another child nearby.
Judy nodded and said, "He should be about the same age as your younger children."
"Wonderful, they'll surely become good friends."
Sheldon quickly said, "I doubt it, though I'm not ruling anything out."
At that moment, Jimmy arrived at the door with his father and was surprised to see such a large family in front of his house.
"Son, introduce yourself. This family is here to welcome us to the neighborhood."
"Oh, excellent, I'll save myself the trouble of greeting them later…" Jimmy extended his hand in greeting, then said, "Hello, my name is Jimmy Neutron, thank you for taking the time to visit us."
"Does your last name have something to do with the Neutron? In case you don't know, a neutron is a subatomic particle, a nucleon, with no net charge, present in the atomic nucleus of practically all atoms, except for protium," as soon as Jimmy finished speaking, Sheldon couldn't resist adding this fact that no one else knew.
"Oh my God…" George sighed at this, his son again, all his worries had been in vain.
But instead, Jimmy, with a slightly superior look, smiled faintly and said, "I know it's a neutron, I know it's an electric dipole and its formula is <1.8 × 10−26 e cm, without this, nuclear energy would be impossible."
Sheldon furrowed his brow, unable to accept that there was someone just as smart as him, so he asked, somewhat annoyed, "Did you memorize all those facts because you learned them just from your last name?"
"It's not about memorization, although the information is relevant, current studies say my IQ is 242, something few people believe until they get to know me well," Jimmy smiled triumphantly, enjoying seeing the boy who clearly felt threatened.
Everyone fell silent, the Cooper family couldn't believe another child as intelligent as Sheldon had appeared as their new neighbor.
"I never thought there would be someone smarter than Sheldon…" Missy teased her brother, who was visibly furious.
"Well, I'm Sheldon Cooper. Well, goodbye," Sheldon left, ending the conversation without further words, while the adults kept talking and the children disappeared one by one without the adults noticing.