Everything is on fire. The skool, the buildings, my house…. The world….
I'm standing in the street watching the chaos. A half-dead man crawls towards me. He looks up and reaches to me. "Help me!" he pleads. I would, but he is already dead at my feet. I back away.
I tried, I really did. But I guess it wasn't enough. This is all Zim's fault! He did this! I tried to stop him, I always have, but the world thought I was crazy! They called me insane! Now they believe me and the world is ruled by Zim and the Irken race.
I fall to my knees and cry out in pain. The blood seeps down my back, from the wound Zim created.
"You should have left, Dib. Now you are dead!" Zim cackles. "Mwah hahahahahahahahahaha!"
Dib wakes up scared and sweat staining the bed. He searches in the dark to find his glasses. When he does he checks the time. 6 o'clock. He should be getting up now anyways, so he goes downstairs to get some cereal.
He shuffles down the stairs and goes into the kitchen. Gaz is already there playing her Game Slave 2. Dib checks the cabinet and finds some CocoFang cereal. He gets his breakfast ready, sits down and starts to eat.
"Do you HAVE to eat near me?" Gaz asks not looking up from her GS2.
"Duh. Where else would I eat?" says Dib.
"I don't know and it's not my problem. I am going to skool now," she nonchalantly walks out of the kitchen and out of the door.
Dib looks at the clock. "Oh no! I'm going to be late if I don't hurry!" he says to no one and rushes out the door.
He catches the bus just on time going to the back of the bus to sit with Gaz. Usually on the way to skool he yaps about Zim and what he is going to do to stop him, but today he keeps quite and thinks about his dream. He has never had a dream like that before. Usually he dreams of catching Zim and watching his autopsy video, but Zim has never won, no not in Dibs dreams.
Gaz wasn't sure what to think about her brother and deep down she cared. But being Gaz she acts like she doesn't, so she asks "What's your problem?!"
"Nothing, just a weird dream I had last night," Dib simply answers.
Gaz knew where this was going and she didn't want a full explanation, so she left it at weird dream.
After dib got to skool he was still quite. He walked to class quietly and sat in his seat right before the bell rang. He only noticed he was in class when he looked over to see Zim wasn't there.
"Hmmm…. Where is the alien?" he asked no one.
"Zim? I heard he dropped out," a random boy said.
"No. I heard he was eaten by that evil green dog of his," said a girl.
"No he wasn't! He was hit by a bus! I saw it this morning! He was walking to skool and a bus hit him!" another girl piped in. Her remark had Ohhs and Ahhs around the room.
Dib for some reason got a little worried. He didn't understand why, but he was worried about the little alien. Would if he really was hit by a bus? The kids always made a big deal when a kid is tardy or absent, but Dib could sense something was wrong, but he didn't know what.
The class kept chatting and debating over Zim's absence, when Ms. Bitters slinked in like a shadow and hissed "Be quite! Or I will call all of your parent and instruct them to do terrible things to you and to love you less!"
All the kids shut up and the class began. About forty-five minutes into reading how to skin a moose, the door opened and Zim walked in.
He looked different and Dib could tell. He looked less enthusiastic and more sad than usual. He didn't come in and announce he is here and why he was late, followed by an "I am normal!" He just walked in and went to his desk.
"Zim! Why are you so late!?" Ms. Bitters demanded.
Zim thought a moment for a good excuse and just whispered something incoherently.
"What!? Speak up Zim so we may all hear of why you are late," Ms. Bitters demanded, once again.
"I…. I…. I was…." He scratches the back of his head, "I don't have an excuse. I am sorry."
That freaked Dib out the most. Mostly the apology, but also because he was speaking right, usually he would say "Zim does not have to answer to YOU!" or "Zim is sorry," but he wasn't the same.
Ms. Bitters seemed to have noticed this to, but quickly had a comeback. "Well that doesn't cut it Zim. Give me a reason why you are late or go to the office!"
"But… But Zim… I mean 'I' don't have a valid human excuse! I can't tell you why! Zim shouldn't have to answer to a stuupid huuman meat puppet like you anyways!" He ranted back.
Ms. Bitters couldn't take this anymore. "To the office NOW, Zim!"
Zim reluctantly left, head hanging, a scowl on his face. He went to the office for punishment.
Ms. Bitters sat back down. "Finish reading this chapter class, then you can go to lunch."
The whole class was gaping; mouths open, eyes wide, but soon went back to reading. Dib was amazed with what he saw, but quickly finished the chapter. When he got done he left along with other students.
He got his lunch and sat with his sister, like normal, but didn't eat. Instead he told Gaz what was going on, and what happened in class
"Sounds like he spazed out," she said bluntly.
"What should I do? Should I go and try to talk to him or laugh in his face?"
"I don't care," she eats her food and continued to play her GS2.
Of course she was no help to Dib, so he went with his gut. He looked around for the alien sitting by himself poking at his food. When he spotted him he smiled and walked over to the table.
"Hey Zim!" He said cheerfully
"What do you want Dib-monkey?" Zim asked.
"Just wanted to see what that whole thing this morning was all about," Dib answered truthfully.
"There was nothing going on this morning. I just came in late and I didn't make up an excuse. Now go away human worm-baby! I am trying to eat and be normal!" he exclaimed and eyed Dib suspiciously when he didn't leave. "What do you want with the mighty ZIM!?"
"Nothing. You just haven't been acting like yourself today. That's all."
Zim eyed him a little more, "Yeah right! You probably want to expose me, or take away my new robot bee like Tak did!"
Dib was puzzled by his comeback and let out a little laugh.
"What is so funny?! Zim demands to know!"
"Your just funny," Zim gave a startled look. So did Dib; he wasn't expecting to say anything nice to the alien. Then they both burst out into laughter at each other's faces.
When the laughter subsided Dib asked "So do you want to come over to my house after skool today, maybe?" Dib got a little embarrassed that he asked, but felt it might help the alien. He still didn't know why he cared.
Zim nearly laughed out loud, but caught himself, though, he didn't know why. "Ummm…. Why should I trust you?! You could be trying to expose me again!"
"I am not! I just thought we could hang out, you know?"
"Well…. Zim doesn't know about that. But…. I COULD get away from Gir for awhile…. I'll come over if I decide to trust you, but if I don't then oh well, OK?"
"Sure, whatever." Then the bell rang for class to start again.
After everyone was back in class they studied the universe and how it was all going to be doomed one day. And, strangely, Zim didn't ask any questions that relate to him being alien. No questions at all, really.
But through the whole day Zim kept giving Dib weird looks. He stared at him endlessly at times, trying to figure out why he asked him to come over. In the end he gave up trying to figure what was going on in that big head of Dib. Dib ignored him, making it look like he didn't notice.
When skool was over they both went out on the front of the skool above the stairs.
"So have you made up your mind about coming over to my house?" Dib asked coming up beside Zim.
"I have considered your offer and I accept. However if you betray me and try anything while I am there I will kill you. Got it?"
"Got it!"
"I have to go home before I come over. Gir gets worried if I am not home after skool. He thinks Pipi has come back to eat me or something stupid."
They both broke out into laughter again. "OK, well, come over when ever. Kay?"
"Alright. See you then," Zim said trotting off in the direction of his home.
"See you!" Dib called going in the direction of his bus.
He felt this way going to be a good day.