Chapter One- The Plan

I looked up from the book I was studying and examined the clock; was it really 8:30 already!? I'm going to be late to skool! I thought, desperately trying to shove my math textbook and loose papers into the new black backpack I ordered from the back of crop circles magazine. It's got a detector in it that's supposed to show if there's any alien life forms nearby!

Hi, I'm Dib. Yeah, I know what you're thinking, but it's a perfectly normal name! Really, it is! Exactly a year ago from today, HE came here… To Earth, I mean. Okay, I'm all over the place here. Let me start from the beginning.

It started out as just another normal day at skool. I was listening to Ms. Bitters ramble on and on about our doom... Again… And then she got a call on the random phone she had on her desk.

"Not another one… NOOOOO!" Ms. Bitters slammed the phone down onto its stand as she always does to hang it up. She explained to us in a hateful tone that a new student would be joining us. In a few seconds later, the classroom door opened and the new student marched in; but I noticed something no one else did. He was GREEN! That's not normal! Skin condition my butt! I saw through his disguise the moment I laid eyes on him! CAN NO ONE ELSE SEE THAT ZIM'S AN ALIEN!?

"Dib, stop talking to yourself and get some real friends!" Gaz's loud and irritated voice snapped me back to reality; I guess I was talking to myself again. I grabbed my backpack and dashed out of my room, sliding down the railing rather than using the stairs.

"Bye, Gaz! I'm going to skool!" I called as I made my way for the door.

"Whatever." She mumbled, absorbed in playing her Game Slave 2. By the time I sat down in my normal seat in Ms. Bitter's classroom, I was already late.

"Late again, Dib?" The horrible witch growled. At the sound of her voice, my hands started shaking; there was nothing I could do to make them stop.

"Who, me? Um yeah, well I was at home thinking about how lucky I was to, um, have such a great teacher here at skool! Then I uh, I lost track of time and…" I trailed off, knowing that what I was saying was useless. I stared down at my desk, afraid to look up at the horrible creature that I called Ms. Bitters. After a silence that seemed like an eternity, she finally spoke.

"If you're late again, I have no choice but to send you to the underground classrooms."

"Yes, Ma'am." I said, making sure not to have any trace of emotion in the words. I could feel her stare burning into the top of my head; she was even scarier than Zim was when he uses his metal spider legs! Ms. Bitters began to explain her lesson to the class once again, so I slowly lifted my head to take notes. Now that Zim was on my mind I glanced in his direction, curious to see what he was doing; what I saw was not a surprise.

He had an evil grin on his face and was stabbing some sort of alien needle into the arm of the new girl who sat behind him. What was a surprise, however, was that the girl wasn't reacting to the sharp object at all! She stared forward with the same blank expression that all of the people have here; how can everyone else be so stupid!?

I shot my hand up immediately. "Ms. Bitters! Zim's trying to do some kind of alien probe thing to that new girl!"

"Alien probe thing? Nonsense! I was simply preforming… Erm… Acupuncture! Yes, harmless hyuuman acupuncture." Zim quickly took the needle away and shoved it into an opening of his PAK, which immediately closed as soon as the object was inside. He shot Ms. Bitters an innocent toothy smile, then gave me an irritated, dark scowl. How could anyone fall for his tricks? He doesn't even pronounce human right!

"Dib! Stop being stupid and answer the next question." Ms. Bitters snapped, barring her teeth at me. Before I got a chance to even open my mouth, the boy sitting behind me raised his hand.

"Ms. Bitters? Can I move? I can't see the board because of Dib's giant head."

"It's not that big! Ugh!" I got up from my seat and stormed out of the classroom; I couldn't take it anymore! How can everyone on Earth be so dumb!? That's when it hit me- What if I exposed Zim in front of them all without his disguise on? I mean sure, I thought of this before, but I didn't realize how simple it could be until now. I didn't need to infiltrate his base or anything! All I needed to do was take off his wig and contacts in the middle of class! Then they would all see! Then they would stop mocking me!

"MY HEAD'S NOT BIG!" I yelled as I ran home to prepare for the next day.