AN: This is my very first fan fiction ever. This is also my first piece of work ever but don't turn away because of that! _ It would mean a lot to me for you all to read and review. Invader Zim or any of it's characters do not belong to me. Please enjoy!
It was a normal day like any other. The sky was still blue and the grass was still green. Green. It was weird of how he had come to think of that color. When he thought 'green' he thought about the pale green kid that sat right across the room from him. The green kid that no one else seemed to notice was a light shade of green. How could they not see? He didn't even have ears! How stupid can people get to see that this kid was really an alien? It stubbed him all these years how no one seemed to notice anything about this alien, named Zim.
It had been six years since Zim first landed on Earth. Not much had really changed since then. Zim still tried to take over the world but they always ended with his own stupidity ruining his plans or Dib foiling them. Dib always seemed to find Zim at the right moment to stop him from doing whatever he planned to do. Over the years the fights got a little rougher. They had started using hand to hand combat. Dib had several scars from their past and more recent fights. He sort of thought of them as glorious battle scars. From what he could see, Zim didn't have any scars on the visible parts of his body. He always his Irken uniform on which included his gloves and boots, so you never saw any of his skin except for his big...alien head.
The two enemies themselves hadn't really changed much. They had both grown to be pretty tall. Dib was around six-foot one while Zim was five eighths. Dib could tell his height bothered Zim so anytime he could he would rub it in his face. Some of their arguments would end with Dib yelling, "Well I'm taller than you, so ha alien scum!". After that Zim would grit his teeth together and storm away from Dib. Dib found out that this was an easy way to make Zim go away if he was getting too annoying even for him to handle.
So as was being said before, it was a normal day or so it seemed at first. Dib and Zim were in their fifth hour class that was right after lunch. This was their last class of the day that both Zim and Dib were in. Dib was laying his head on his desk. The teacher was just droning on and on as usual about doom or something like that. Everything was fine until he felt a hard smack on his head. "Ow!" He looked up angrily, half expecting to see Zim standing over him. Instead it was his teacher, Ms. Jenkins, looming over him with a stern look on her face. She wacked him one more time this time with a little more force.
"I have tolerated with your moping, pathetic self but I am teaching a class. You will respect me enough to at least lift you're head up. Whatever a sad and miserable life you may have, in my classroom you will act like you have gumdrops and sugar filling your brain. Now sit up and don't make me ever have to say this again!" Ms. Jenkins yelled the last sentence making almost everyone in the classroom jump.
Ms. Jenkins huffed and then turned around, heading back to the chalk board. Snickers could be heard throughout the room and Dib was genuinely embarrassed. He had never had a teacher lash out at him like that before for being so quiet. Usually they were yelling at him to stop being so crazy or for him and Zim to stop fighting. When he thought about it though he had been moping around for a while now. It had started when he first realized he didn't have much to live for anymore except for saving the world. Even that was starting to lose its edge; the buzz that it gave Dib had slowly started to fade away. It just seemed to him that no one cared about him anymore. Well saying anymore was an overstatement. No one had ever cared about him.
Dib sighed trying hard to not think about it too much. He looked at the teacher as she continued her lesson on whatever it was that she was teaching. Luckily for him this class was almost over. They had a little under five minutes left. Out of habit Dib looked up and glanced over at Zim. To his surprise the alien was staring straight at him, those lavender contacts staring right through him. Dib felt a little uncomfortable at this. It would've been normal if Zim was glaring at him with a look that said, "I wish your big human head would explode!''. The look Zim gave Dib though was a quizzical look. He looked confused, almost as if he had never seen Dib before. Dib just turned back around and looked at the floor. There was this little black speck that was rather interesting.
Dib was thankful for the bell to ring because it broke the silence inside of him that was threatening to make him go insane. 'At least the voices aren't bothering me today...' He thought to himself. The class swarmed out of the room as it always did and Dib was the last to leave like he always did. The teacher gave him a cold glare as he passed her desk and left the room. He had no idea what he had done to make her so mad.
Dib's locker wasn't too far away from the classroom. Then again the skool wasn't very big so his locker wasn't far from anything. He opened his banged up locker, putting his torn up book in it. He sighed closing his locker,
"There's just a few more hours of school left. You can get through it...", he mumbled to himself. Dib turned around, ready to head to his next horrifying class. When he turned around though all he saw was green right in his face. He thought his heart was going to burst out of his chest as he clutched the front of his shirt and slid to the ground. Zim looked down at him and laughed maniacally.
"Stoopid Dib-beast. Did Zim finally scare the life out of you? Zim does have that effect on some people." Zim grinned his zipper grin poking Dib in the chest. Dib just pushed his hand away, standing up.
"Wh-What do you want, Zim?" Dib stuttered trying to not show his shock. Zim started to look a little uncomfortable, twiddling with the hem of his uniform.
"Well Dib-stink, you haven't been acting like your normal dirt-child self. Zim demands to know why!" He practically yelled, poking Dib in the chest again. Those contacts of his seemed to be searching Dib, as if looking for his very soul so he could poke and question that too.
The question Zim asked shocked Dib even more than the sudden scare did. Was Zim worried about him? Well he didn't really question Dib; more like demanded answers from him. Either way, was Zim showing concern for him?
"I don't know what you're talking about..." Dib stated bluntly, looking anywhere but those lavender eyes. He had never really liked those contacts. Not just because they somehow hid the fact that he was an alien but because he thought Zim looked better without his disguise on. Wait, what was he thinking? Zim never looked good disguise or no disguise. He was alien scum that Dib despised and Dib wanted it to stay that way.
Zim just kept staring at Dib. He obviously wasn't satisfied with his answer but he didn't say anything else for what seemed the longest time. It had to have only been a minute or two though. As soon as the silence came it was broken. The last remnants of students were wandering the halls going to their next classes reluctantly. Torque and his goons could be heard turning the corner. As they passed they didn't even bother giving Zim or Dib a glance. When Torque passed Dib though he bumped his shoulder into him as if he was playing football. Dib was tossed into the lockers none too gently. Torque and his gang just laughed as they kept making their way down the hallway. Left over kids in the hallway who saw this act just laughed, commenting on how crazy Dib was.
Dib just gritted his teeth and clenched his fists together. He looked up noticing that Zim was still standing there. Zim's attention was no longer on Dib though. He was staring in the spot that Torque and his buddies had disappeared from. The look on his face was one of pure hatred that he would sometimes give Dib when he foiled his plans. "There is an earthly custom called 'excuse me'," Zim hissed under his breath.
Dib was shocked at this. "Well yeah but no one here has manners. If you haven't noticed that yet. I have to go to class." Dib just turned around leaving Zim to stare after him. Zim just turned the other way to go to his next pathetic earth class with his fists clenched. He was going to find out what was wrong with the Dib-thing whether Dib wanted him to or not.
The rest of the day was going moderately fast. The teacher for this class was just like the others and would just babble on about whatever the topic was. In this class Dib sat in the very back though. There was no need for him to sit in the front because Zim wasn't in this class. So he didn't need to keep an eye on him or be able to make a quick exit for a chase after the alien. Dib didn't know what class the alien had this hour. He wasn't even sure if Zim kept going to class after their last hour together. Everyday after school though Zim confronted him with a remark about the earth being a stinking pile of filth. Those were almost his exact words every other day.
This class was almost over and they already had a pile of meaningless homework like they did mostly everyday. The homework was relatively easy no matter how much of it they got. Dib usually did his homework in the morning before school when he was waiting for Gaz to get wake up and get ready.
While Dib was in thought the bell to go to next hour rang. This was his least favorite hour of the day, despite it being the last hour. He got out of his seat shuffling out of the room behind everyone else not even bothering to go to his locker. It may have been his least favorite hour but he could get there with his eyes closed if he wanted. There was one time he actually had to go there in the dark so to speak. Torque and his buddies had gotten ahold of him in the hallway and given him a super wedgie. His underwear had been stretched out so much that they had been able to pull it over his head covering half of his face. He would've pulled his underwear off of his head but the pain was too much that he didn't even want to try. It was one of those moments where it hurt really bad but keeping it in that position kept it from hurting him even more. When he had gotten home that day Gaz had to get a pair of scissors and cut them off.
Ever since then Dib made sure to go down a different hallway that Torque didn't go down. Dib was down the hall before he knew it. The door to his classroom just loomed over him. It was as if the door grew as Dib shrunk in its presence. He sighed and decided it was his last class so he might as well get it over with. He took a deep breath and opened the door, looking in the room as he did everyday. There were desks filling the classroom like any normal room. These desks were a little smaller than what Dib was used to and some of them looked like they had a sticky substance on the top of them. The one thing that stood out the most in the classroom though was the figure that was located in the front of the room. At first sight you'd almost think she had the qualities of a snake. She had a look about her that made kids respect her out of fear. Her long black dress and tight official bun made her even more intimidating. Yes, Miss Bitters did always have a way of making her class shut up.
Dib was the lucky high school student that got to have Miss Bitters as a teacher. He was the only student in her class that hour though.
"Sit down Dib. I want to get out of this wretched school and you keep me from doing that." Miss Bitters said in her scraggly voice. Dib obeyed while just nodding and going to sit in his seat that he has always sat in. That one seat that was in the front row, right by the window. He looked across the room at the desk that Zim would have been sitting at. There were so many memories in this old classroom. The most prominent memory in his mind was that first day that Zim showed up in class six years ago. A lot had happened in this room that first year of school with Zim. That was the last year that they had Miss Bitters as a teacher. Except this year for Dib, which still confused Dib. He remembered at the beginning of the year when he looked at his schedule and saw he had her last hour. He had even went to the principle about it but he said it wasn't a mistake. As soon as he walked in the class that day, Miss Bitters just told him in her demeaning, sarcastic tone that he was special and got a study hall. Dib had doubted that since she told him but he didn't want to argue with her. It would've ended ugly.
Today though so much had already went through his mind. So of course he was going to wonder why he was the only one in this class alone. He finally mustered up the courage to ask the question that he had wanted to know ever since he first walked into that classroom this year. "Miss Bitters, why am I the only one that has this class? You're not even a high school teacher; you're an elementary school teacher. I just don't get it..." Dib looked over at her and she narrowed her eyes giving him that all too familiar glare.
"Well Dib, I guess you have the right to know. At then end of last school year your class held a meeting about you. They decided they were done dealing with your craziness all day. The principle couldn't find a way for you to have all different classes than your classmates though so they had to settle for one hour of the day. They also decided to separate you and Zim from some classes to keep fighting to a minimum. When I said you were special at the beginning of the year I wasn't lying. You're just especially crazy. Now no more questions!" Miss Bitters hissed the last sentence, folding her hands together.
Dib sat there for half of the hour stunned. He was feeling emotions but they were just flowing through him all at once. When he would close to figuring out what one emotion was, it would be replaced with another. He could make out the hatred and loathing he felt for his classmates. There was sadness in there someone. He knew that his fellow students never believed anything he ever said but did they really dislike him that much? Zim would sometimes act just as strange as he did, so why wasn't he forced to be in this class too? There was that one time that the class agreed on sending Dib to the crazy house for boys but he was the only one who ever got sent. Dib didn't understand what made him so different. There were other kids at their school who were medically insane and they had friends! This new information just left Dib feeling...hollow. There had been signs of him being depressed before but now it was kind of inevitable. He had no friends, no one cared about him, and the only important thing in his life was an alien who hates him and wants to conquer Earth! Even his family didn't pay as much attention to him as Zim did.
The bell couldn't have rang at a better moment. Dib stood up clutching his arm and slowly making it out of the classroom. Miss Bitters must have noticed the look on his face because she didn't even make a remark telling him to get out of her classroom. Her pitying him almost made Dib feel worse. If he hadn't got out of that classroom soon then he might have really went insane. The voices were on the verge of coming back to him. It had seemed like he had only just got them to go away and now they were coming back to taunt him. He tried not to think about it as he walked down the hall. Students were scrambling through the hallways in a craze to get out of the school and get home. Dib's mind was just blank, until he heard that familiar voice.
"You dare push the almighty Zim! You stoopid, stoopid earth worms will get what's coming to you!" Zim's voice roared over the crowd of stinky kids running out the door. Dib grinned evilly as he casual headed towards the front doors. Zim was standing there his hands on his hips and his head held high. Dib couldn't help but think how conceded he looked standing that way. Then he remembered this was Zim he was thinking about, so of course he was going to act like that.
Dib walked up shoving Zim to the ground while he was mid-rant. Zim grunted looking up from his new seat on the ground. Dib just kept walking as if nothing had happened. "Excuse me!" He yelled back to Zim. He was trying his best to not laugh because he could already picture Zim's face. Zim must have been fuming because he didn't yell at Dib or anything. Dib took this as a bad sign and started running in the direction of his house. If Zim was really mad then Dib knew that he was going to get even. His enemies footsteps resounded behind him as they ran down the sidewalk. Dib smiled in hope as he saw the cross walk that split the road. One road took Dib to his house and the opposite road took Zim to his own house.
Dib slowed down just a little getting ready to cross the street. He was almost positive Zim wouldn't follow him to his house. The street was getting closer and then it just disappeared. Dib felt himself almost flying through the air. His back landed on the ground full force, the weight of a full-grown alien making it even worse. Dib looked up at the green face that was seething with anger. "What do you think you're doing space boy!" Dib yelled angrily, wriggling underneath the weight of his nemesis who was straddling him. Zim had Dib's wrists pinned to the ground keeping him there. His grip was so tight and despite his skinny arms he was stronger than Dib. Dib would never admit that though.
"You pushed Zim! I was only getting even and now you have no choice but to tell Zim what has been wrong with you. What's going on in that big head of yours Dib-stink?" Zim narrowed his eyes staring into those amber eyes of Dib's.
Dib's face got real hot as the blood rushed into his cheeks. He wasn't used to this kind of contact with Zim. They had been in this kind of position before but then they were clawing and taking swipes at one another while rolling on the floor fighting. This was completely different from all those other times. They weren't fighting or even yelling at each other. Zim's voice had went down to a more normal, low tone. Dib just sighed, knowing that there was no way he was going to get out of this easily. "Do...you ever just get tired of it all?" He asked, turning his head to look away from Zim. Zim just looked down at him with his trademark one eye narrowed and one eye wide.
"Zim does not understand. Irkens don't need as much sleep as you pathetic humans!" Zim got his condescending tone back, loosening his grip on Dib's wrists. Dib saw he chance to break free from the alien. He reached up pushing Zim off of him and standing up. His back had to have been bruised because it hurt as if he had got hit with a bat.
"I should have known that you wouldn't have been any help." Dib got a hard look in his eyes, just turning the other way heading back to the road.