Chapter 1

Gaz woke up, already hating the day. She was stuck celebrating another full year on this stupid world.

Her birthday.

She groaned and rolled out of bed, slipping on her normal dark attire and walked out of her bedroom down to the kitchen, ready for what was to come. She sat in her chair and crossed her arms. Her father's floating head came around the corner with two bowls of oatmeal. It began repeating the same question "Do you love me?" with two buttons labeled yes or no. Gaz was always tempted to press 'no' just to see what would happen, but she was too hungry to find out it would throw away her food or something.

The floating head asked over and over again, already driving Gaz into a bad mood.

"Dib!" She yelled up, annoyed that he was taking so long.

"Sorry Gaz! Be right there!" He called down, making a lot of thumping noises upstairs. She leaned her head on her hand, tapping the table in tune to her father's recorded message.

"Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?"

"Dib!" She yelled again.

"Coming!" He said half running, half pulling up his pants as he stumbled down the stairs. He was a rushed mess, his pants were halfway on, his hair was still in bed head mode, he had a toothbrush in his mouth, his shirt was wrinkled and his backpack hung on one strap.

"I overslept." He said smashing his fist on the button that said 'Yes'. A short fanfare went off as the recorded message replied happily:

"And I love you kids, now let breakfast begin!" The floating head set the bowls down.

"Today is October 15th. I hope you have a good day!"

Then the screen went black, continuing to float above the table. Gaz furrowed her eyebrows, the date was right but it was her birthday. Dad usually put in an extra little message on their birthday, but that was it.

Oh well. She thought, beginning to eat her bowl while Dib continued running around getting ready for skool."What do you mean you overslept? Skool doesn't start for another hour." She said with a cheek full of now semi-warm oatmeal.

"I was going to get up early today to spy on Zim's base. I think he's working on a new plan and I was going to get the jump on him today, but my alarm didn't work. So now I'm late!"

"You're stalking Zim today?" Gaz asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm not stalking him Gaz, that's creepy. But yes, basically that's what I'm doing today." He zipped up his pants and spit in the sink, setting his toothbrush on the counter. He strode to the table where his bowl of oatmeal was and began shoveling as much as he could into his mouth.

"Is there… anything else you're gonna do?" She poked, churning her oatmeal, avoiding his eyes. Dib stopped shoveling his food to think. He twisted his face, Gaz looked up from her bowl to see Dib suddenly remember.

"Of course!" He exclaimed, thumping his head. Gaz smirked down and continued stirring her oatmeal.

"There's a new episode of Mysterious Mysteries on tonight! The Vampire Doughnut! How could I forget?" Gaz frowned.

"First I'm gonna save the world, and then I'm gonna watch a new episode of my favorite show." Dib smiled in thought, sliding off his chair and heading for the door. "Today's gonna be a good day."

He opened the door and turned back at Gaz, waving.

"See you later Gaz! I would give you a ride today, but you're not ready yet and I'm already late so… Gotta go!" Then he slammed the door and hurried off. Gaz was still scowling at her food. After a moment of silence she quickly stabbed her bowl with her spoon, causing the contents to spill over on her dress and face. She growled and pushed the bowl away from her, getting up to clean off and walk to skool, apparently.