Author's Note: Please forgive me if almost everyone is out of character. I meant to make it that way. Also, forgive me on my vocabulary as well. Review as soon as you can and you are entitled to offer some constructive criticism and pointers. But please, keep it light. If you also see any unnecessary lines there; please ignore them. I didn't intend to put them there. If there is a way to get rid of them, please inform me as soon as possible.
It was morning. As the sun shone through the window, I felt like it was blinding me completely. As I tossed and turned to gain a few more minutes of rest before school, I heard someone calling me.
"Dib, dad wants you down for breakfast; now!!" The echo from the message that I was receiving from downstairs, was audible.
"Be there in a minute, Gaz," I called back to my baby sister. I hope that she heard me, so I wouldn't have to worry about her storming up the stairs and giving me a beating. Gaz was really violent at times; especially when you don't listen to her. If anyone who would have the nerve to mess with someone that was so short in size, they would regret it for all eternity.
When I was finally downstairs, I saw Dad drinking his coffee and skimming at the newspaper, while Gaz was playing her Game Slave 1.
"Good morning, son. Did you sleep well?" My dad was curious, so he checked to see if I was alright.
"I slept alright, I guess," I smiled at dad. To be honest, though; I didn't get all that much sleep the other night, especially because that today was the first day of skool. No one could fall asleep before their first day begins. It was almost impossible for anyone to get at least one hour. I couldn't complain, though. I was lucky enough to get at least 5 hours of sleep. I was still feeling overly tired, but that was more than what I could say for others. So, from then on I decided to stay quiet and not say a word; mainly because, I was in no mood for Gaz to get on my case. Even though I did put on a silent act, dad could still notice the circles that surrounded visibly around the bottoms of my eyes.
It was 8:15 and the bus had finally arrived. I saw kids from different houses just a few blocks down saying their goodbyes to their parents and running towards the bus with their knapsacks on their backs and lunch boxes in their hands. I was standing in line beside Gaz, who was still concentrating on her Game Slave 1 and didn't look up since breakfast. When we finally got up to the front of the bus, I slowly stepped on the ledge and looked innocently at the bus driver, who motioned me to come in. As I walked in, I notice that most of the seats were taken, especially the ones at the back of the bus. I took my time in trying to find a good spot to sit in but it was harder than I expected to be.
I fidgeted nervously, trying to find a seat. I noticed several groups of kids were engaged in casual conversation in the backseat. They were all discussing about their summer holidays and already planning on what they wanted to do on their very first weekend that was coming up during the year. It all seemed to be pretty interesting but apparently, dad wouldn't allow us to do anything interesting because he was rarely around half the time to even take us out. Neither Gaz nor I could drive because we weren't old enough, let alone own a car. As I continued approaching every seat that I could spot; in a matter of seconds, kids were placing their hands down on the open spaces where it was possible to fit one more person beside them. At last, I found a seat and I slowly maneuvered around the area of my spot and I finally made myself comfortable in the rusty, dirty bus seat. I shifted to my right to see that I was sitting with a short peppy red headed boy, who was wearing an immense grin on his face. He sort of reminded me of a young kid who was at least at the age of five. Though, this kid was not five years of age. It turned out that he was the same age as me, but that was no surprise; because obviously, we were going to be in the same school together.
"Hi, what's your name? I'm Keef," the boy greeted happily and stuck out a hand for me to shake it.
I just shot a slightly dirty look at the kid. But weirdly enough, he didn't budge. His face was still the same and his grin remained freshly intact. I figured right now and then that there was nothing that could get this guy upset. So, I answered submissively.
"I'm Dib," I finally replied shaking the boy's hand slowly.
"Wow, I could tell that you and I will be the best of friends. I'm sure you've had friends before and they have probably dumped you for someone cooler. But don't worry; I'm going to be the bestest and most loyal friend ever, new best buddy of mine. We can go to each other's houses, the circus and each others' birthday parties. Oh boy, it'll be so much fun!" He squealed in delight.
I just looked straight ahead, not paying any attention at what Keef was saying. I looked back him to see if he was speech was over, but it wasn't. Instead, he decided to continue.
"We can have sleepovers, play charades and do stuff that only best friends would do. You do know what friends are, don't you?"
As Keef continued rambling on, I was completely lost in a trance and I lost track of what was going on. Now, just simple words that I was hearing from a simple-minded kid turned into an elaborating speech full of mumbo-jumbo.
"Dib? Dib? Are you listening to me?" Keef asked trying to snap me back into reality.
I finally snapped out of it and looked back at the red-headed boy, who was expecting for an answer.
"That's cool," was the only thing that I said.
Keef paused for a moment, making me believe that he was catching on to the fact that I wasn't paying much attention. But then, he just smiled. "Cool!" He chirped.
When we got to the school, the bus made a complete halt near the pavement and when the bus door flapped open, kids began walking off. As I finally got off the bus, I looked up at the top of a large building that was written Skool in block writing. Hmm, it looks a lot bigger than the last time I remembered it, I thought to myself a bit confused. I walked inside to get a little tour of the building. Even though nothing has changed much, I still felt like taking a short walk before I would head to my locker regardless. I strolled in the hallway, seeing how empty it was. It actually wasn't as crowded as I expected to be, which kind of puzzled me because usually at this time, there would at least be a few students walking around for some kind of purpose. But, still no sign of anybody. I decided to stop by my locker, to gather my books. Class started at 9:00 and it was five minutes before that. I carried a sheet of paper in my hand as I searched for my locker. The sheet had my locker number which was 51 and my combination number which of course, I could not reveal.
After gathering my books, I headed up the stairs to my first class, glancing at the room number that was written on my schedule. Despite the many paths I had to take and the obstacles that stood in my way; I finally made it to my first class; panting, indicating that I was out of breath and a loss for words.
"Hello. Sorry, I'm late." I said in between breaths.
The teacher just cocked an eyebrow. "Um, who are you?"
"I'm Dib; Dib Membrane."
"Membrane, Membrane," the teacher muttered to himself as he scrolled through the attendance. "Uh, no… Sorry, but you're not on here."
"What? But there's got to be some kind of mistake," I said in disbelief, as I rushed over to look at the attendance. When I tried to scroll through myself, it turned out that my name wasn't there.
I looked up at the teacher and shot him a look of disbelief. He just came up to me and put a hand on my shoulder.
"I think you're in the wrong class, son."
"That's impossible. It says on my schedule; room 341."
"Can I just see your schedule for a second?"
I handed him my schedule. The teacher took a glimpse at it and chuckled.
"Hmm, that's weird. Well, I can't help you but if you go down to the guidance office, I'm sure that the guidance counselor can fix your schedule. I'm kind of in the middle of something, but I apologize sincerely.
"Thanks, anyway. I'll head down to the guidance office to get this straightened out now. And I happen to know the way there, so this shouldn't give you any more trouble."
I made my way out of the classroom, when something struck my mind which made me stop in my tracks. "By the way, I didn't catch your name. What is it?"
"Mr. Storell."
"Okay. Thanks again for all your help, Mr. Storell."
"My pleasure, son," Mr. Storell beamed at me.
I turned around again and continued heading for the door. I made my way down to the guidance office. I peered from outside and I notice that there were several students inside which meant that they were experiencing the same problem. At this rate, it would take the whole day for these counselors to get through all of these peers. I sighed in disappointment as I opened the door and entered. When I went inside, I found an empty red chair and I settled myself in it; waiting for someone to call on me.
I sat there, twiddling my thumbs and it wasn't long until I felt a smooth hand touch my shoulder. I shifted around to the source of where the hand came from and I was face to face with one of the guidance counselors. He had a welcoming empathetic look and he looked like that he wanted to help me.
"Hi. I noticed that you've been waiting in here patiently for quite some time now. Step into my office, so we could deal with whatever the situation is."
The counselor gestured me to follow him and I stepped into his office. "Have a seat," he motioned me; showing me where the seat was. I sat down while I watched the counselor flipping through some files in a cabinet. He pulled out a file which had my name written on the top and papers that were stored inside.
"So, your name is Dib?" He asked as he cracked the file open slightly, pulling out a form.
"Yes."
"I'm Mr. Dwindle, the new guidance counselor. Okay, so what seems to be the problem?"
"I seemed to have my schedule mixed up. It said that my homeroom number was 341, but my name was not on the attendance and Mr. Storell told me that I was in the wrong class."
"Oh, okay. That was my mistake. I seemed to have mixed up the numbers. Your room number was 241, not 341 and your homeroom teacher is Mrs. Bitters, not Mr. Storell."
I just swelled up when I heard Mrs. Bitters' name. I had her last year. I should be in a different class this year, I thought angrily to myself.
"So, don't worry," Mr. Dwindle continued in a friendly matter. "It was just a minor error. It was no big deal. So, I think you should just go off to class, now," he shoved his hand forward as a sign to go back.
I was on my way out, when I heard him calling me.
"Hey, Dib?"
I turned around and looked at him bored. "Yes?"
"Let me know if you would like to chat sometime. Not just about skool, but if there is anything else on your mind that you would just like to discuss about."
"Um… Okay," I moved away slowly and headed to my class.
When I finally made it to homeroom and just when I was bout to shut the door, I saw Mrs. Bitters' head swift rapidly in my direction. She shot me an angry look and growled at me. Knowing Mrs. Bitters', she was in no mood for anything, so I just smiled weakly at her.
"Sit down, Dib! I have a very important announcement to make," she ordered.
I found myself a seat near the window and I parked my bum onto the chair.
"Class, we have a horrible new student. I'm about to introduce him and I suggest you all pay attention to him…" She narrowed her eyes rapidly around the room as a spider was creeping and crawling right up her face. "Otherwise, I will inflict doom on you all!"
"This… Is Zim," she stated. She pushed the new student in front for everyone to see. Most of the students in the class were sleeping and didn't bother to make any eye contact. Mrs. Bitters' just growled at them, which got their attention and the students sat straight up, with blood rushing to their veins in each one of them. But, that was only for a brief amount of time. Even though they kept their heads up, the students were still drained.
"Hi, Zim," they greeted in unison.
Zim was just quiet. He didn't utter a single word. He didn't make a single sound or even said hello. Zim just made his way to his seat and rested his arm on the desk.
"Now that I've made that gagging announcement; now, I go away from you all!" Mrs. Bitters shrieked. Her shadow then disintegrated into the midst and all that was left was black mist floating around.
I just stared at Zim from where I was sitting. I was so astonished on his appearance. He just looked so… so different. He had green skin, jet black hair that was jelled up and pale blue eyes that you would tempt you to look into them. What was he? Was Zim even human? I continued to stare at him; dazed and focused without blinking even once. He's got no ears. How can any normal human being not have any ears? I wondered. I looked down to notice that he had only three fingers and they were sharp. I glanced at the features around him and I noticed even more strange things. I couldn't take my eyes off of him. Still not blinking, I then began to drool subconsciously as I took another gander at this mysterious being. Aliens aren't real; no one has proved about other life existing on other planets…Well, I mean, if he is an alien… What's he doing here in skool? If he has come here, just to keep it low key, then I bet he's planning something diabolical. I continued to ponder deeper into the thought. By now, the abstraction that I was supposed to be doing class work completely disappeared. I was too busy occupying myself with Zim. Was I developing an obsession over him? No, that's preposterous. Why would I obsess over someone or something that I just met? Even if it was Zim, it's just not natural, I thought to myself. I peered over my desk to see Mrs. Bitters growling and shooting me an 'I've warned you. Now, prepare for your demise' look. This made me stoop a bit low, to attempt to hide my face. Of course I was used to Mrs. Bitters' eerie ways at this point. But this was the first day of skool for crying out loud. I needed some time to adjust, especially since there have been some changes.