This is my first attempt at a real fanfic. I apologize in advance for my short chapters! I also wanted to give credits to DibsLyn, who gave me the inspiration for most parts of this story.

P.S. I could use some feedback!!!

I make no claims to the IZ characters. They are property of the one and only JHONEN VASQUEZ.

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So far, it had been a good day. It was a beautiful Saturday and naturally neither children in the Membrane household had taken advantage of it. But, today was also good in other ways. No fundraisers, no Ms. Bitters' constant ramblings on the eventual doom of the human race, and no crazy Irkens named Zim making plots to take over he Earth. Of course, the day was ONLY half over.

As usual, Gaz Membrane sat on one end of the couch, moving her fingers madly over the buttons on her GAME SLAVE 2. She had a look of deep concentration on her face as she obliterated blood pig after blood pig. This, of course, made the day fly by almost unnoticed. The sight of flaming blood pigs flying across the screen would speed up the day for any other GS2 player as well.

Dib Membrane wondered into the living room, with a look of suspicion on his face. He slicked back his pointy hair (which bounced back rebelliously), just as the phone rang. He paused and looked at Gaz, who didn't appear to have an ambition to go for the phone. Dib began to walk cautiously towards the other side of the couch where the phone sat. He hadn't taken two steps when Gaz's boot clad leg shot out in front of him.

"AAAAHHHHH!" Dib screamed, as he fell flat on his face. Gaz, without looking up from her GS2, gave a demonic chuckle as she stepped on her brother's head on her way to the phone. "Ow! My brain!" yelled Dib painfully.

"Whiner," said Gaz, still concentrating on VAMPIRE PIGGY HUNTERS. Without looking up from her GS2, Gaz picked up the phone. "Yeah?"

There was a slight pause. Gaz growled slightly. "Hello? Anyone there? There'd better be, I'm nearly dead because of you. . ."

"What!?" exclaimed a female voice on the other line.

"My GAME SLAVE," said Gaz offhandedly, although that female voice had suddenly struck her as a familiar one, maybe from her distant past.

"Oh." There was more silence, well, apart from Dib shouting; "Who is it? Are they from MYSTERIOUS MYSTERIES? I won! I won! WWWOOOOO HHHOOO!" and running around the couch trying to take the phone away from Gaz.

"Gimme the phone!" said Dib, grabbing madly for the phone. Annoyed, Gaz made several kicking attempts before finally hitting her target. Dib fell to the floor, writhing in pain.

"Is everything ok over there?" asked the somewhat confused female voice.

"Yeah," said Gaz, still playing her GS2, "Dib's just being weird again." She glanced over at her brother as he fought against the pain in his groin just to sit up properly. Gaz smiled as she watched Dib get up off the ground wincing and sit uncomfortably on the couch.

"Oh, well, that's good," said the voice happily. Gaz could almost hear the woman smiling although her last statement was followed by more silence.

"Well, is there any particular reason you called?" asked Gaz with a hint aggravation in her voice.

"Uh, yes," said the voice as if it had regained its train of thought, "I was wondering if Professor Membrane lived here?"

"Yeah, he does," said Gaz.

"May I speak to him?'

"Sure."

Without looking up, Gaz began to yell. "Dad! Phone for you!"

Seconds later, Professor Membrane appeared in the doorway leading into the living room from the kitchen. By the looks of the black smudges all over his long white lab coat, he'd obviously had been down in his lab working on God knows what!

"Who might that be, daughter?" asked Prof. Membrane in his usual goofy manner.

Gaz shrugged her shoulders. "Dunno, but her voice sounds vaguely familiar," said Gaz.

Prof. Membrane crossed the room and took the phone away from Gaz. "Hello?" he said into the receiver. There was a moments pause before he said hello into the phone one more time. He heard a click and then he too shrugged his shoulders as he hung up the phone.

"Who was that?" asked Dib, wincing slightly.

"I don't know," said the Prof., "They hung up!" With that, he turned and went thru the kitchen and into his lab to continue his work.

Gaz turned off her GS2 and joined Dib on the couch. Dib, who had mostly recovered from his injury, picked up the tv remote and turned on the tv. When the screen flickered on, a commercial of a mother playing with her two children appeared. Dib looked longingly at the screen. "I wonder what ever happened to our mom?" he thought aloud.

A wave of sadness mixed with anger washed over Gaz. She'd forced thoughts of the absence of her mother out of her mind long ago and in a matter of seconds they had returned. These thoughts of longing almost broke through the hardened look that usually masked her face. Immediately she mentally beat herself up for thinking this. There was no use wishing for something that would never happen, she thought. "We used to have a mom, didn't we?" replied Gaz coldly as she glared at the tv. . . .

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This is kinda a short chapter, but chapter two will DEFINATLY be longer. Stay tuned!