Disclaimer, I don't own Invader Zim or the characters, etc, because they belong to Jhonen Vasquez.
"Honestly, Purple! How are you constantly getting hurt? If you're in a fight, you have to hit them back! There are only two in-trainings bigger that you, and one of them is a female! Then there's one your height! That really helps in a fight! So, maybe two students could hurt you, but you're getting hurt way too often for that! Why isn't anyone else getting sent to the nurse's office?...It is a student doing this, isn't it?" The training adviser lectured Purple.
"No, ma'am, I just...I'm clumsy. I hit my head. The door was built for smaller Irkens." He lied.
"Whatever. Just, go to the nurse's office, they might be able to do something!" The adviser snapped. Purple went to the nurse's office, his eye closed where his left ocular implant was broken. Someone ran into him in the hallway.
"HEY WAT- Oh, hey Pur." It was his roommate, Red. Red was the only other student his exact height (Miyuki and Spork were a small bit taller than him).
"Oh, hey, how'd you do that?" Red asked, pointing to Purple's broken implant. "You blind in that eye now?"
"Momentarily."
"How'd ya' do that, then? Get in a fight?"
"No!" Purple snapped, then added, "Hit my head." Red just shrugged and walked away. Purple stepped into the office. The secretary, Amy, smiled, and said into the microphone,
"Nurse Gera, Purple's here for his weekly appointment." This was a joke. Amy often joked that Purple had a weekly appointment because he came in so often. He actually came in more often than once a week. Purple walked through the big double-doors. Through this was a hallway. He walked in the first door.
"Purple! What'd you do this time?" Gera asked. Purple opened his left eye to reveal the cracked implant.
"Wow!...Okay, I'll get another one." Nurse Gera started shuffling through the cabinets behind her. "Ya' know, you're lucky you need the purple ones, because we often run out of the red ones, and sometimes the blue and green ones...Ah, here's a good replacement. Here," The nurse removed the broken one, and popped the replacement in.
"Thanks," Purple mumbled, before running out. He tried to leave before they could ask questions. He went back to his room. Red was playing with blocks, but quickly hid them.
"Oh- Um- Hey!" Red stammered.
"Don't worry, I already know you play with smeet toys." Purple said.
"Pft. Fine. What's up with you?"
"What?"
"You don't talk, you're constantly getting hurt, yet you never get into any fights!...Did that Zim kid hit you with an experimental laser or something?"
"No. I woulda hurt him."
"So it's someone you can't hurt?" Red asked.
"NO! It's no one! I'm just clumsy! Why does everyone think-"
"Jeez, okay...But I've never seen you fall."
"No one would see me push you down a flight of stairs, but that could perfectly well happen." Purple threatened.
"...I don't believe you." Red said smugly, and started building a new tower with his blocks.
"That I'd push you?"
"That you're clumsy!..." Red gasped. "Do you have a thing with the nurse? Are you sleeping with her?"
"I AM NOT SLEEPING WITH THE NURSE!" Purple yelled. There were giggles from the other side of the door. Red opened it. Miyuki and Zim were on the other side.
"Hello, Miyuki!...What do you want, Zim?" Red asked flatly.
"Science is canceled tomorrow," She said between giggles. They both turned around to walk away, but Red grabbed Zim. Miyuki left.
"Zim, what did you do to Purple?" Red demanded, dragging the much smaller Irken into the room. Zim's antennas wilted innocently.
"Zim did nothing to Purple. Buuuuuut, Zim did hear some smacky-noises coming from an empty classroom, and Purple walk out with a broken ocular implant a few minutes later." Zim said. Red was about to say something else, but Purple screamed,
"YOU SAW NOTHING! Red, he didn't do anything! GET OUT, ZIM! NOW! And it's nothing to worry about, Red! Just let me take a nap!" Zim ran out. Red gave Purple a suspicious look.
"Who're you trying to protect?"
"I'm trying to sleep."
"Denial and obsessive sleeping are-"
"I don't care! Shut up or go away!" Purple snapped. Red was used to his outbursts. He quieted, and went back to playing with the toys he hid under the bed. Why would he want to protect someone who's beating him up constantly? ARG! Why do I even care?...But I do, so I have to figure out who it is...It's not Zim. Purple could hurt Zim, and I don't think he'd want to protect him. It can't be Miyuki. She's too nice to do something like that. Not Spork, because I don't believe he and Purple have even formally met, or talk to each other...And why would Purple want to protect anyone else! DAMMIT! Red knocked down the tower and stomped out. I'll use the free time from class being canceled tomorrow to find out...I'm gonna seriously hurt whoever's doing this!
Earlier that day: Purple walked nervously to his councilor's office. His councilor was a mean female. He knocked on the door of the empty classroom. No answer. He looked at the classroom number and at the scrap piece of paper. It was the right one. He walked in. His councilor, Mrs. Leons, scowled at him.
"There you are! What's wrong with you, you incompetent defect?...Whatever! Come in! You said you wanted to see me?" Mrs. Leons growled.
"Y-Yes, ma'am. I-I don't think..."
"You don't think what?"
"I don't think us meeting three or four times a week is necessary..." Purple squeaked timidly.
"...Not necessary?...Not necessary? If you weren't a stupid defect, it wouldn't be necessary..." Mrs. Leons hissed. It was almost a whisper.
"It's just...I...I always have to go to the nurse afterwords, and people are starting to ask how I get hurt..."
"Go ahead! Tell them! They won't believe you!" Mrs. Leons snapped.
"I'm not saying I will!...But..." He almost mentioned Red.
"But what? It's that simple! You can tell them all you want! You'll go into a defect trial and be erased forever! That's the end of it! I meet with you so often to see if I can somehow prevent that!" She backhanded him. "But-" Smack! "-If you-" Smack! "-Don't listen-" Smack! "-It'll all be in vain!" Smack! "Gottit, boy?" If she didn't call him something along the lines of 'incompetent defect', it was 'boy', as if his name was poisonous. He nodded, and turned around to leave. She put her hand on the back of his head and smashed his face against the wall. This was when his ocular implant broke.
"You'll leave when I tell you to! You can go!" She hissed. She called after him,"And if anyone asks about the implant, you hit your head!"
When Purple woke up, he realized something; Mrs. Leons taught science. Missing her class meant she would want to see him later. He groaned, and buried his face into the pillow. Sometimes, he wished he could suffocate himself with the pillow. Unfortunately, Irken instincts made him pull back up before he could even pass out. Of course, the adrenaline rush was always nice...
"HEY PUR, I'M COMIN' IN, SO IF YOU'RE NOT DECENT-"
"Since when do you care when I'm not decent?" He yelled at the door. Red walked in.
"Good point. Hey, sorry 'bout earlier."
"Sorry I snapped at you." Purple mumbled. He didn't talk to people, and Red was the closest thing to a friend he had. Red was a bit of the opposite. He talked to almost everyone, and always could make them laugh. Still, he chose to stand up for Purple. Purple was always glad Red didn't just ignore him. When you make it clear you don't want very many friends, most people just stopped talking to you. Of course, Red was too stubborn to give in to Purple's anti-social nature. Purple was beginning to suspect that Red enjoyed the challenge of getting the most anti-social kid in their training group to talk to him.
Red did enjoy it. He saw it as some sort of a personal accomplishment that Purple talked to him. Still, Purple didn't talk much. He didn't even talk as much as an acquaintance. Still, Red knew Purple didn't like big groups, so he always dismissed the crowd of people that seemed to always surround him when Purple came. To Red, life and death and everything in between was just a big game, and he was currently focusing on the game of getting Purple closer. He didn't know why he did it- He just knew he wanted to.
Red walked in and sat on the floor. He pulled the large tub of toys out from under the bed. It was almost routine. He got out more blocks and started building something. Purple sometimes wondered why Red still liked playing with smeet toys. He had once asked, but Red just shrugged. He had said, "Isn't everything just a game?...This way, I can play, people can die, but not really die." Purple just accepted it as Red probably being a sociopath.
"Hey, Pur?" Red asked. Purple wouldn't admit it, but he liked being called that, but only by Red.
"Yeah?"
"...Um...Just, tell me something, is the reason for your always being bruised a cause of a student...Well, no...I mean...Is it...Is it a student that we've seen at the same time, today, outside a classroom?"
"This, again?"
"Just answer me!"
"Fine! No. Not to imply it's anyone's fault..."
"All I needed! Thanks, Pur..." Red swept the blocks back under the bed and walked out. Purple shrugged. Well...Maybe it is someone's fault...If I weren't so stupid, she wouldn't hate me so much...