I looked up at the building that was clearly labelled 'Skool' and sighed. Was this the systems attempt at 'getting down with da kidz' or something? Whatever, lets try and get through this. Was it me, or was everyone a little short around here. I mean, not by much but I was al least a good four inches taller than everyone. Great, let the jokes begin!
I made my to my new classroom and found that everyone was already sat down. I jumped as an old woman slithered from her desk and stood in front of me, sneering. Her name on the desk read 'Ms. Bitters'. Surely she wasn't that bad?
"Nice of you to join us, now why don't you tell us about yourself before clamping that mouth shut for the next skool year!" she turned to the class "Class! This is out new exchange student from the U.K, LISTEN UP!"
Everyone snapped their heads up in unison, all eyes on me, perfect. I held my hands behind my back to stop them shaking and took a breath.
"Um, hi everyone. I'm Amy, I'm from Wales and if you don't know where that is then... imagine England is a house, Wales would be the little conservatory attached to the side." pause for laughs, there was none, okay, "Um, I hope we can be friends and... yeah thanks for having me."
"That was horrible, Amy, now go sit down in the front row." Ms. Bitters droned, wow what an appropriate name.
I saw too seats, one closest to the door and another one away from the window next to a boy with the weirdest hair I've ever seen. It looked kind of like a lightning bolt, or maybe a scythe? Well, this room smelled horrible and it was worse in the corridor so by the window it was. The boy looked up at me with surprised eyes behind his glasses; I smiled back and set up my things. I think he returned the smile, but I was distracted by another late comer walking through the door. My jaw dropped in shock.
This boy also has weird dark hair, and unnaturally large blue eyes. His black gloved hands only had three fingers each and... he was green. I squeak escaped my and his eyes snapped in my direction. They widened and his jaw dropped, revealing a pointed, worm-like tongue.
"Cake-lady?" he cried, jumping back.
The boy next to me darted his eyes in suspicion from me to the green boy.
"Zim, you know the new student?" Ms. Bitters snapped.
"No, no! I was merely commenting on... DO NOT QUESTION ME!"
Well, he gave himself away now. It was definitely the same person. The sore on my neck throbbed, oh I was so going to get him for this!
What seemed like forever, and writing the word 'doom' about a million times, it was finally lunch. I made my way to the cafeteria and grabbed a burger. I saw the green-guy, Zim, sitting alone at the back. I made my way over and gave one of my most welcoming smiles, kill them with kindness so they say. He eyed me suspiciously.
"Hi, look, I know we got off on the wrong foot yesterday but, here." I put a cup-cake on the table, "I'll forget about it and everything I saw, including you stabbing me in the neck, if we can, start over?"
"I do not need your peace offering, worm-baby, and you didn't see anything out of the ordinary at the perfectly normal house of ZIM!"
I nodded, "Sure I didn't... and if you don't want the cake give it to your 'dog'." I used my fingers for air quotes, "I just figured we're neighbours now so, maybe you could be my first friend here?"
His eye twitched, I think my job was done. It wasn't in my nature to threaten someone, so maybe trying to make best of the situation was good enough. The awkwardness started to grow so I could tell this wasn't going anywhere. I turned away, waving at him and started looking for a place to sit. Nowhere, brilliant. This was starting to feel so welcoming already. I travelled along the tabled, receiving odd looks of disapproval and irritation. Clearly the new girl wasn't wanted. That's fine, let them be like that.
I was about to give up and sit outside instead when a figure moved in next to me. It was the boy I was sitting next to in class. Wow, that was some trench-coat he had there, like a shadow.
"Hi, Dib Membrane." he held out his hand.
I eyed him for a moment before returning the handshake, "Amy, hi."
"Want to sit with us?" he offered.
"Us?"
"Me and my sister." he nodded behind him towards a girl with purple hair playing on a game consol.
"Sure, thanks." I grinned, following him, I didn't want to sound mean, but he had a really big head!
"Amy, this is my little sister, Gaz. Gaz, this is Amy."
She didn't even look up, but she seemed really into her game so I let it go.
"Nice, Game-Slave 2, have you reached the level with the vampire pigs yet?"
She paused and glanced at me "Of course, and you know of this because?"
"My uncle works for the developers in the U.K, he gave me a memory stick with a few hidden levels if you want to borrow it sometime?"
She smirked with approval, before glaring at her brother "She's of use to me, don't mess this up with your weirdness." And with that, she went back to her game.
"Um, impressive." Dib mumbled.
"Thanks."
Did he just blush? I started eating as not to embarrass him. I noticed he kept glancing over towards Zim's table.
"So," he cleared his throat, "How do you know Zim and what do you know about him?"
I narrowed my eyes at him suspiciously, "I moved in next door to him yesterday and went around to say hi. But, things kind of took a turn for the worse."
"How so?" Dib asked, leaning across the table not to miss a detail.
"Well his 'dog' dragged me into the house and down into some sort of lab thing and turned out to be a robot, then Zim showed up and tranquilized me." I pointed to the red lump on my neck.
"You've seen the dog and the labs? How?"
"Cake believe it or not. Wait, how do you know about them?"
He arched an eyebrow and smirked, "I know a heck of a lot more than that."
"Go on..."
"You're not going to call me crazy or anything are you?"
"Only if you don't make any British jokes?" I challenged.
"Deal. Well, you see the thing is, Zim is actually an - "
He was interrupted by a very familiar cake hitting him right in the middle of his brow, knocking him backwards off of his chair. A cruel laugh echoed behind me. I span around to see this Zim glaring down at us.
"Insolent Dib-monkey, you think you can convince anyone about me, when I am so clearly normal?"
"Normal like your dog?" I asked, folding my arms.
"Yes, just like my dog!"
"Your dogs robitic." I smirked.
"He- It, agh, CURSE YOU!" he yelled, "You dare to challenge me, the almighty ZIM?"
I stood up to my full height which was al least a foot taller than him and smiled sweetly, "I do dare, and I'll enjoy the challenge too."
His eye twitched. He sneered and turned away, as he left he called over his shoulder "You shall not here the last of the amazing ZIM!"
"I hope not!" O called back, "You seem like such an interesting person!" I didn't mean to sound sarcastic, but there was truth in my words too.
I rushed to the other side of the table and helped Dib to his feet and brushed the crumbs from his glasses. I noticed that almost no one had turned around at the series of shouts from out side of the cafeteria. Was it that they genuinely didn't notice or maybe they were used to this.
"I'm guessing you and Zim don't see eye to eye?" I asked, smiling.
"He's my arch-nemesis." he explained, brushing himself down, "That alien is going to get what's coming to him soon, I know it!"
"Wait, alien?"
He sighed, "Suppose this is where you call me crazy now isn't it?"
For a moment, I thought about it. But then again, "No, it would actually explain a lot."
"You believe me? Why? No one believes me?" his arms dropped to his sides and eyes widened.
I shrugged, "It's better to believe that then submit to insanity, right? So, what else do you know about him?"
Dib stared at me in shock. Did people really find that hard to believe? I mean, the guy was green, he had three fingers, he wasn't eating anything, he had a green dog which turned out to be a robot and he never referred to a human as anything but an insult! Maybe I was just gullible, but which one was going to be more interesting? Dib shook himself and cleared his throat.
"Tell you what, after school, do you want to come to my house? I cans how you everything you want to know about the alien."
He waited for my answer. Now I was once again faced with the conflicting emotions that I had felt yesterday about following the dog/robot. I should say no and try to find some normal, less 'eccentric' people to hang around with, but the sense of adventure and mystery was calling to me. I was terrible for curiosity, and this wasn't helping. I chewed my lip in thought before answering.
"Sure, sounds like a plan." It was the size of a car that head!
