A/N: May I present...something I wrote a long time ago and decided to clean up and release for feedback and fun. I swear, I'll update The Perfect Student soon. When I get over the writer's block curse that someone seems to have laid upon that story...

At any rate. Allow me to apologize in advance, and beg reviews from you.

The second that the bus doors opened, the scent of the city washed over me. A smell of diesel fumes, concrete, hot tar, and grease from the various fast-food restaurants. A smell of civilization.

It must have just finished raining here. I hopped off of the bus, glancing up at the gray sky as my sneakers hit the wet cement of the sidewalk. There were puddles everywhere, most of them filled with water that you wouldn't want to splash in, lest it get on your skin. Rain is supposed to be cleansing, but I doubted that anything could clean this city. The filth was too deeply ingrained in it.

The doors of the bus closed, and it drove off. For a moment, the ground beneath my feet thrummed with the force of its engine, then was still once more. Well, not really still, in a place filled with over a hundred thousand vehicles. But at least the vibrations were less noticeable.

Hitching the strap of my backpack a little higher on my shoulder, I started walking. The air was slightly cool on my bare arms, but not bad enough for me to dig out my jacket. I welcomed the slight chill after the stifling heat of the bus, which was pretty much all I'd known for the past few days. I had come to this place from pretty far away.

A few people gave me odd looks as I made my way to the suburbs, but a shabbily-dressed, pink-haired girl wasn't the strangest thing that they had seen all day, so their eyes didn't linger on me for long. I was glad of it; the last thing I needed was for some good samaritan to stop me and ask what I was doing and where my parents were. I could probably lie my way out if that happened, but still, it would slow me down.

It had taken months of spying and eavesdropping to gather the information that I needed to find this place. Months of standing on a table in the basement of an abandoned apartment building, holding my laptop over my head and searching for a good signal. Months of deciphering codes and guessing passwords. Months of fashioning crude listening devices from scavenged scrap metal and placing them at various key locations in my hometown.

But now I was here. And that was really all that mattered, right?

The buildings were thinning around me. I was glad of it; cities built with the new, futuristic designs (like this one) had a slightly claustrophobic feel to them. And the magenta-and-purple stone was a little weird. Seriously, who designed this place?

I checked my watch. 11:35. It was a Tuesday, which meant that school was in session. And according the maps that I'd printed off of the internet, the school was right...

Here. I stopped and frowned at the building that I saw in front of me. It looked kind of run-down, even by public educational standards. The fence around the playground had barbed wire on top of it, and I really hoped that the obvious spelling mistake in the sign was meant to be funny.

But I wasn't here for education. At least, not the kind that this place would offer.

Sighing, I walked down the sidewalk, up the steps, and into the building. It was even more derelict inside, with the half-mechanized look that most buildings in this area had. I had a bit of trouble finding the main office; the hallways were pretty confusing. I imagined that the kids who had gone here forever would know this place like the back of their hands, though.

The secretary looked up and smiled when I opened the door and walked in. The various motivational posters scattered over the walls drew attention away from the cracks and water stains, and I glanced uneasily at them as I made my way to the front desk. The sayings were normal, like what you'd find in any school (Reach for the Stars! You Can Do It! School Rocks!) but the icons were kind of weird. I mentally shivered and looked up at the secretary. She was tall normally, but her desk was also several feet off the floor.

"Can I help you?" the woman asked.

"I'm a new student," I said, trying to sound as confident as possible.

"New student?" she frowned, turning to the computer beside her. I nodded.

"Yes. Ila-"

"Oh, wait, here you are. Yes, you're scheduled to start today." She glanced at me, her interest fading slightly as she realized that I was just another member of the mob that went to this school. "You'll be in Miss Bitters' class. I'll give her a call and warn her."

Warn her? Interesting choice of words.

She gave me directions to the classroom, and I thanked her. My footsteps sounded unnaturally loud in the shadowy hallways, but I tried not to dwell on it. So far, everything had gone pretty smoothly. Every plan has a point where something goes horrifically wrong, but mine obviously hadn't reached that yet. I had nothing to worry about.

I found the room that the secretary had described and reached for the door handle. As soon as I opened it, every head in the classroom turned to me. A few stood out in particular: a withered, nasty-looking old woman in the front of the classroom who had to be a teacher, a kid with glasses whose raven hair formed a perfect right angle, and another boy, with weird clothing and...green skin?

My gaze lingered on this last one the longest as something in the back of my mind gave a little flutter kick of excitement. He narrowed his violet eyes. I had the distinct feeling that I was being threatened in a way that I couldn't understand.

I quickly looked away from him and walked up to the front of the room.

The teacher-presumably Miss Bitters-glared at me, then looked back out at the class.

"Children," she said in a creaky voice. "This is the newest addition to your ranks. Please try and act interested as she introduces herself."

Most of my new classmates looked incredibly bored, with the exception of the kid with glasses and the one with the green skin. The green one was looking at me like he wasn't quite sure what to think, and the other...well, he was staring me down with downright hostility. I glared back. What was wrong with him? I hadn't even said anything yet.

"I'm Ila," I announced. "I've never been in a school this big before, and I'm kinda hoping that you guys will help me out with finding my way around."

Miss Bitters snorted. "Don't count on it."

I glanced at her, then back at the class. "Um...there's not really anything else, other than that I like computers. Questions?"

The hand of the kid with glasses shot right up. I pointed to him.

"Uh, you aren't some sort of alien invader, are you?" he asked, fixing me with a penetrating stare. "Pardon my asking, but...we've had that problem before."

I gave him a weird look, and a purple-haired girl called out, "Don't pay any attention to him. He's crazy."

Her comment was met with murmured agreement from the others. The one in question turned around in his seat and exclaimed, not without a certain amount of indignation, "I'm not crazy! Remember Tak? And Zim?"

"Lies!" the green kid yelled, jumping up on his chair and stabbing a finger at the kid with the glasses. "The Dib-creature lies!"

I pointed to him. "What about this one?"

The purple-haired girl looked at him. He seemed to have calmed down; he was sitting again, although he was still glaring at the kid whose name seemed to be Dib.

"Yeah...we're still figuring him out. I'm Zita, by the way."

I nodded. "Nice to meet you."

"And I'm Dib," Dib spoke up suddenly. "The only one who actually knows what's going on!"

"Yeah...okay." I glanced back at Zita, who twirled her finger next to her head in the "crazy" gesture.

"Ila, you can sit there," Miss Bitters said, pointing to a spot near the middle of the room, away from Dib, Zita, and the green kid. A few desks in one row slid backwards, a hole appeared in the floor, and an empty one rose out of it. I raised an eyebrow. High-tech.

I headed over to the newly-surfaced desk, being sure to give Dib's a wide berth. I slung my bag over the back of the chair, sat down, and just like that, it was as if I had been part of the class forever. Miss Bitters resumed her lesson about squirrelly doom or something, and none of the other kids gave me a second glance.

Except for Dib, who was looking at me again. This time, it was like he was sizing me up, trying to determine what I was. Or what I could be. He seemed to be looking for something. Maybe just anything to suggest that I was not of this Earth. Or maybe...

He was looking for a potential ally?

I stuck my tongue out at him, and Dib promptly faced forward again.

The green kid looked over at me, his expression a mixture of suspicion, curiosity, and a certain amount of perplexity.

Him, I smiled at.