Going Somewhere, Going Nowhere

Oneshot

She wasn't anyone, not really.

Just another woman at another desk in another company of the incredibly generic kind.

She had no real friends, no 'significant other', no social life to speak of. She hadn't talked to her parents in three years, and had become a workaholic, burying herself paperwork and similar matters, as though that would make her problems go away. She knew better, but she didn't care. She'd rather be 'that creepy chick with the purple hair' than 'that loser with no social skills. And purple hair'. Actually, she wasn't even 'that creepy chick with the purple hair' anymore. She was just 'the secretary on floor two'. She wasn't sure if anyone here even knew her name, aside from her boss. She just hoped she wouldn't forget it.

After one of her usual, lonely walks home, she spread her work out on her dining room table, ready for yet another mind-numbing night of silent work. She should probably get something to eat, so she wouldn't pass out and forget to eat the next morning before work.

Grumbling at the trouble she'd have to take to make dinner, she turned her little portable T.V. on, barely thinking as she flipped through the channels until she could find something resembling good to watch.

"The littlest ghost girl-"

"Mysterious mysteries of stra-"

"Oh my God! Somebody put-"

"I HAVE HEAD EXPLO-"

"Interview with Jhonen Vas-"

"-Put the fires out-"

"Good Lord…" She mumbled to herself, rapidly channel surfing and wondering more and more why she even had a T.V. in the first place. "Isn't there anything GOOD on? EVER?"

And that was when she saw it.

Initially she skipped right past it, but she turned back to see if it had really been what she'd thought it was.

"Musician and singer, Seine Cerebrum, is a prime example of a successful person who DIDN'T recognize his own passion at first."

She leaned in, the static making the words harder to hear. She saw the visual of the singer they were apparently talking about. He looked familiar. Really familiar, and yet she couldn't place a finger on where she'd seen him before. A billboard, perhaps? Supposedly, he was quite famous, though she couldn't really tell. She didn't generally listen to music all that much.

"Initially, like many other children, Seine wanted to do something much different than his current job."

Her eyes popped open, and she snapped her fingers. It wasn't from a billboard. Whoever this guy was, he looked uncannily like…like…she bit her lip. How was that possible? Back then, he'd been a loser, just like her. She hadn't gone anywhere, how could he have…? Well, this announcer could tell her…

"As a child, Seine dreamed of being a paranormal investigator, going so far as to accuse another kid in his class of being an alien."

That was it.

She didn't even notice as the glass of water she'd been holding in her other hand slipped from her grasp, only bringing her back to reality when she heard the smash of glass on tile and felt her ankles get wet. She blinked, and realized that (A) her glass of water had just broken, and (B) the T.V. was flashing contact information. She didn't have time to scribble down the e-mail before it dissipated and the announcer went on to some other famous person she didn't know or care about.

But…Jesus.

She remembered him from elementary skool. She'd sat behind him, staring at the back of his head, hoping he'd turn around and look at her, hoping beyond hope that he'd even acknowledge her by name, prove he knew who she was.

But she remembered other aspects, too.

She remembered him offering another girl a bite of the Valentine's steak that she'd gotten him. She remembered how he would push her out of the way in an attempt to get to Zim. And, of course, she remembered him asking her for her name in middle skool, when they'd both been in a group together. Humiliating to the extreme.

If she'd been able to write down his e-mail address, would she have sent him a message? No. No, she wouldn't have. She was too much of a coward. What would she have written anyway? 'Hey, this is that girl who had a crush on you all through twelve years of school! I'm only contacting you now that you have money!'

He'd gone somewhere, and she'd gone nowhere at all.

…Wow, this is depressing.

For those of you who didn't figure it out, this is DibXGretchen, which I find one of the most adorable pairings in the I.Z. fandom. BECAUSE IT'S ADORABLE. Love it now.

Now, obviously Gretchen seems OOC, but that's because I assume she'll change as she grows up. Except, y'know, she won't become more popular by magic. Thus why I wrote this. Dib doesn't actually appear as a character in this, but…eh, I dunno why I made him a singer. I guess he just struck me as the kind of kid who would grow up to be something totally different than what they want to be.

Yeah, I'm aware that this fic is pretty crap. It's a oneshot, and I wrote it in thirty minutes. Leave me alone. Wait, no, don't! Review first!

…Please?

…I'm SO alone…

Invader ZIM belongs to Nickelodeon and Jhonen Vasquez.