The New Girl

The clouds, which were particularly gray this morning, showed of a faint distaste for the sun. Only small rays were permitted to shine through the windows of the classroom, which was fitting to the mood, as Miss Bitters was more than her usual cranky self.

"Open your textbooks to page 357 and study the pattern on the monkey picture. You will be quizzed on this," growled the teacher. Miss Bitters, a surly old woman whose age was too high to count, was never content with her class. She had taught these students since fifth grade, an act only made strange by the fact that these students were now juniors in high school. Miss Bitters never trusted any of the other teachers with her students; whenever the new school year would come, the students would all rush in and stop when they saw their old teacher, sitting unavoidable at her desk, glaring at them. Some said she bribed the principal to let her keep this class to herself; others said she threatened him. But it was all the same.

"But what does this have to do with the space-time continuum?" inquired Dib.

Now, Dib had some very strange qualities. For one, he was completely obsessed with the paranormal. Bigfoot, aliens, and ghosts fascinated him. He was not 'nerdy' in any way, except for his glasses, which, although quite large, gave a small touch of mysterious intelligence to his unblemished face. He was not at all unattractive: he was not inclined to eat in large amounts, his clothes were not out-of-date, and his facial features had been arranged in a most pleasing way. The only thing that lowered him in the eyes of his peers was that he was constantly trying to prove to them that the things in which he believed were real.

And, in fact, they were real. Due to the bizarre teachings of teachers like Miss Bitters, overpopulation, and pop culture, Dib had reason to believe that he was the only smart person on Earth, leaving his naïve father, Professor Membrane, who was a brilliant science master. The students of Dib's class were so ignorant, as well as most of the world, that they could not see what was there, right in front of them.

"Are you questioning my teaching skills?" rasped the teacher. Miss Bitters was strange in another way as well, as she had the ability of changing her appearance into a shadowy figure with cold, dark eyes, and an even colder glare.

"No, Miss Bitters! I would never do that!" cried a startled Dib. Zim, always amused by Dib's follies, snickered.

Zim was strange in his own right. The most unusual thing about him, at first glance, was that his skin was a pale green color. Zim was an alien; anyone could see that, but because people were so ignorant, no one did. He had been sent to Earth on an important mission: wipe out all life on the planet, and claim it for Irk. Irk was Zim's home planet, and his leaders, The Tallest, were in the middle of an inevitable conquest of the universe. They had actually tried once before to do this, but Zim got in the way of their plans. He was much shorter then, about the size of a small child, but to blend in with his ever-changing surroundings, he concocted a substance which made him grow at the rate of the children around him, so he was now a normal sized teenager.

The government system of Irk was quite different from our own. For one thing, the leaders were called the Tallest, because they were the Tallest. An Irken's ranking was based upon his height, or lack thereof. Zim, before the substance, was one of the smallest of his race, so he was always looked down upon, both literally and figuratively.

Because of the fact that Zim was so destructive, they sent him to Earth.

They probably thought of him as too horrible a soldier, so they assumed that he would be there for a while. Little did they know that, for some reason, when he consumed that Substance, it changed his mind as well. He was still the same naïve Zim; but deeper down, he was smarter, wiser and his mind was made clearer. He now had the potential to cause more destruction than the Tallest would ever know.

Dib and Zim were natural enemies. No matter how hard he tried, Dib could not convince anyone that Zim was an alien. Zim loved this fact, for the sake of his mission, and for the entertainment it gave him to watch Dib fail. This only made Dib try harder. No matter what Zim did to further his conquest, Dib always tried to thwart him, and most of the time succeeded, with a little help from fate. Each thought the other was too stupid to actually do anything important. The only other person who believed that Zim was an alien was Gaz, Dib's sister, and she knew for a fact that Zim had neither the capacity nor the knowledge to conquer the Earth.

Gaz was two years Dib's junior at the age of 15. She was a disturbing child: always threatening people with a vengeance, always keeping to herself, always verbally bullying her brother. Her hair was a rebellious maroon color, and she was quite thin, which only added more to her menacing character. However, she was not pierced, or chained, or spiked in any way; and she was lovely under her violent appearance. But little did she know – little did any of them know – that their lives would each be changed forever by one small knock at the door.

She came in as a vision of confidence and grace. Her lips were set in a firm line; her cheeks flushed from coming in from the chilled environment outside. By the way she carried herself one could realize that she had a high level of self esteem and made sure the world knew it. Her jade eyes glowed with curiosity as she surveyed the classroom before her, noticing each being in the room and adding their faces to her mental database. She enjoyed observing people and watching their movements and facial expressions. Based on their original reactions to her presence, she was able to make detailed first impressions of their personalities.

There she stood for a good two minutes, staring with interest at the class, seemingly waiting for them to do something. Soon the usual whispering began between the students. Some made jokes that she was stupid and didn't know what to do next. The girl was pleasantly surprised. They lasted longer than usual, which suggested their elevated level of maturity.

Soon the impatient teacher cleared her voice and tapped her foot on the tile floor. The girl didn't seem to mind. She was done with her observing for now anyway.

"Is this my class? They said it was. If it's not I will leave you to your teaching, Miss…" She paused, glancing down at a thin sheet of paper in her hand. "…Miss. Bitters?"

"Lina Battement, I presume? You're my new student. You can sit next to Zim." The teacher answered, gesturing to the strange green being in the front row. The girl looked over at him, eyeing him for a second time. The first thing she noticed was his odd flesh color. Being a person un-inclined to be judgmental, she let it go as probably some skin care product gone wrong.

Dib was in a state. In the 30 seconds she had been standing in the room, he had not taken his eyes off of her. He couldn't understand why he was so focused on this new girl. He had never cared for the female sex in his life, so why now? What was it about this girl that made him squirm, that made him think about what he looked like from the outside? Who was she to be able to make him so aware of himself?

In his daze he failed to realize that she was looking at him. He woke himself up and looked down. She went to her new seat beside Zim and attempted to make conversation.

"So, Zim, what are we studying?"

"Go to page 357 and study the horrible monkey," said a vaguely interested Zim.

"Well, I can see I'm going to have to step up my home schooling…how in the world can she get away with teaching people to study pictures?" Zim took this as a chance to examine her more carefully. She was no different than the other new students he had encountered, yet she was. There was just something about her – something out of place – something almost likable…

"Yes. Look, just because you sit next to me doesn't mean we're going to be friends," he said, suddenly regaining control of sound and rational thought.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that. I don't seem to be able to make friends easily. People don't tend to take a liking to me. I guess if I had never met myself before I wouldn't like me either." She was peculiar to the alien. Her train of thought left him confused as to why he should care about what she had to say. Maybe this was the reason why she didn't make friends easily.

Dib was still trying to gaze at her more. She caught his gaze a second time and held it for a moment. He flushed and tried to look away, but her look stopped him. She stared at him for a moment, her eyes seeming to smile at him though she was not. Zim, thinking this ever amusing, smirked. Dib scowled at him and went back to the girl.

The day went on as it usually did in Miss. Bitters' class: the students would cower whenever their teacher spoke, Dib would make a remark that displeased her and Zim would laugh, the clock ticked slowly. And Lina Battement made herself at home in this new class. The students got used to her as well, and came up with the conclusion that she was acceptable. They, of course, shunned her odd fascination with Dib, but they grew to tolerate her.

Dib had absorbed all he could in the half-day he was with her. Most would find it disturbing to have someone pay that much attention to you, but the girl quite enjoyed it. In fact, she seemed to encourage it. She knew she was pretty; she was confident that way. Many times she had had male attentions forced on her, and many times she politely declined those awful creatures. But this one was different. Not once had he tried to pin her in corner to talk, not once had he stared at her with a sinister, disgusting smile. She liked that he was taking his time. She liked that this one studied his subject before contact.

Her rising had been a wise one; her parents had taught her morals from some lost perfect decade in the past. Her father was a business tycoon; her mother an heiress herself. The girl had lived in France for four years. She had more money to her underage name than all of the families in her class combined. She was an heiress.

Of course, she was not hasty to divulge this fact to her peers. That would make them even less likely to want to be around her. Once the word got out that she was filthy rich, the only attention she got from anyone was just more plots to win money off of her. Most people she came into contact with only acted like greedy pigs. She had also come to learn that no matter how much money she had to her name, not a single penny of it could be used to buy companions and love. How often had she sat in her room, wishing someone would want to be with her just because she was her? This girl could actually use the excuse that it was not easy to be the little rich girl.

Dib was almost to the point of obsession. He was careful what he said around her. He was careful to make sure not to talk about his paranormal studies at all. All the girls he had ever met had shunned him for believing in Bigfoot and ghosts, calling him a crazy lunatic. But he hadn't really cared what they thought. He knew what their biggest aspirations in life were, to be famous or have as many hot boyfriends as possible.

And so the day wore on. The girl demonstrated her capability of answering questions correctly. Zim paid little to no attention to the new girl at all; she was just another inferior human to him. Dib snuck glances at her when he felt she wasn't looking. The other girls in the class murmured and passed notes of jealousy about her hair or clothes, saying that she was ugly and unpopular. The boys thought out silent plans of how they would ask her out.

"…And so, class, this is why you should never play around with nuclear matter." Miss. Bitters had been going on about atomic bombs and nuclear reactors. She well knew that since the students were seniors they should have been taught these facts years ago. But she let the matter go, for she thought that it was not her problem if they didn't learn it on their own.

Zim anxiously stared at the clock, urging the hands to move faster. He had better things to do with his time than learn about human mistakes. He already knew how to contain nuclear energy; all Irkens were taught this at an early age.

"Come on already!" muttered Dib under his breath. He wanted the day to be over too. He wanted to freely introduce himself and his scientific status to the new girl. He wanted to know her name and hear her voice directed at him.

The girl was bored. She knew she hadn't learned anything that day and so her home schooling hours would be increased. The only reason her parents wanted her to go to school was purely so that she might make some friends. She received all the schooling she would ever need right at home, and really had the qualifications to graduate, but they didn't want her to spend the summer alone before college. She had wanted to drive around her new city and see what the territory was like but now her tutor would hole her up in the study until dinner.

Finally in a ring of victory and the teacher's defeat the bell sung. Dib flew to stuff his papers and books into his briefcase. Zim quickly skulked out of the room without saying a word to anyone. The girl took time to make sure her desk and chair were in order and then she arranged her bag neatly and zippered it up. Dib approached her but stopped. He realized that in his excitement he hadn't practiced what he was going to say to her.

"Hey, you're Dib, right?" There it was. Her voice was asking him a question.

"Yeah! How did you know? Well, I guess it would be possible that you saw me on the television with my dad last year. I told him I didn't want to be on, but he pretty much forced me to." He was nervous, so he started rambling.

"Well, umm…no. Miss. Bitters called on you." She showed him a small smile and started moving towards the door.

"Oh, right…" He blushed and scratched his head in embarrassment. Noticing her move he followed her to the hall.

"So, you were on television? Why?" There was no reason not to be polite to Dib; after all, she was there to make friends with people.

"My dad is Professor Membrane. You know him?" He was excited. She seemed interested in what he had to say.

"Yes, actually. My cousin interviewed him for an article in London. She said he was an intimidating person." Comparing his father to her father could turn ugly. She let him have the higher reputation for now.

"Oh. Yeah. He can be a little overpowering sometimes." Without really thinking, he blurted out, "Do you want to go to a movie with me?" He mentally slapped himself.

"That depends. Why do you want to go out with me?" Did he already know who she was? Was that why he was being so friendly?

"No reason. Just forget about it, okay?" He felt even more stupid. She could've said yes! But he didn't think she was the type of girl who would care about a guy like him. She would eventually find out what he was interested in. What then?

"Oh." They walked in silence a few moments before Dib said anything else.

"You never told me your name."

"Do you want to know what it is?"

"Why else would I ask you?"

"So you do want to know?"

"Yes."

"Okay."

"Well what is it?" They were almost to the parking lot. The unnamed one shouldered her bag and stopped walking.

"It's Lina, okay," she said, looking him squarely in the face for the first time. Dib's heart rate increased slightly.

"Lina," said Dib, letting the name roll off his tongue. "Do you have a last name?" Lina turned to walk away from him.

"Look, I'd rather not tell you what it is, okay?"

"Oh."

"It's nothing personal, but I just don't want anyone to know who I am…" She completely turned away from him.

"I understand. You want to get a fresh start, right? You don't want anyone to judge you yet?"

"Exactly. If someone found out who I was, it would be the same as everywhere else I've lived. I'd rather live a lie than that again."

"We're not all that different, then. I would give anything to have a second chance." Lina turned to face him.

"What would you stand to gain by hiding yourself? You're just a normal person."

"Not to every one else. They see me as a crazy lunatic." He had planned not to tell her, but it seemed like the best way to connect with the girl.

"I don't see how that's possible. You seem very level-headed to me."

"I'm a paranormal investigator in training. I study things like Bigfoot and Nessie and aliens. You can laugh your head off now." He looked away from her gaze.

"I'm not going to laugh, Dib. You have every right to believe in what you want to believe. Doesn't make any difference to me." He brightened. She understood? She accepted him? His mind screamed with joy.

"Really? You don't care?"

"No. Listen, I have to go home. I have to study for my finals next week."

"Finals?" Dib inquired as she neared the rows of cars. "You're graduating a week early?"

"Yeah. I don't even need to go to school right now. But I want to," she called back to him.

"See you tomorrow?"

"I guess so," she said before vanishing into the shining sea of vehicles.