The next day, Gaz must have set her alarm or something, because Dib woke up to find her already having taken a shower and eating a piece of toast while shoving the last of her homework from yesterday into her bag. She still wore a white t-shirt with a purple tank top over it, but thank God, she was wearing black shorts that were a little longer than the ones she had yesterday. After scrambling and putting some final things together, Dib and Gaz were just about to leave when one of the worst sounds one would hear in the whole world erupted from the master bedroom of the house.

"ARE YOU CHILDREN LEEEEEAAAAAAVVVVVIIIINNGG?" Both teens grimaced as one of the fattest ladies in the world crashed down the stairs and almost squeezed the life out of both Dib and Gaz. When he finally got his breath back, Dib replied,

"Yes, Mrs. Membrane. We're leaving for Hi-Skool." Mrs. Membrane only squeezed Dib's cheek and cried, "Oh, Dibby-wibby. You know better than to call me Mrs. Membrane. I'm your mommy now, remember?"

"Oh yeah. We remember," Gaz mumbled under her breath. Dib and Gaz have told Mrs. Membrane plenty of times that they didn't want to call her their 'mommy' but Mrs. Membrane was either too stubborn or too stupid to listen. Mrs. Membrane didn't hear Gaz's remark and pushed her step-kids out of the door. "Well you have a nice day, Dibby-wibby. And you too, Gazzy-dazzly." With that, she slammed the door in both the kids' faces. Dib saw Gaz's fists clench and un-clench as she tried to calm down. Dib only dragged Gaz along and, thankfully, she didn't fight him.

About a year ago, Professor Membrane decided that the only way Dib and Gaz could be 'good' kids was for them to have a mother to watch over them. So, he married Darla Lovejoy, one of his assistants, and ever since, Darla has turned the Membrane household into a worse nightmare than it already was. In truth, Darla wasn't that fat, but she always had a few extra twenty pounds of baby fat that she could never quite take off. Of course, Darla never minded, so long as her wardrobe of oversized pink dresses and zebra-patterned pajamas always fit.

Dib honestly didn't think his life could get any worse. All of the kids picked on him as usual, Gaz was becoming even worse of a sister than she already was, and he had nobody to take his frustration out on anymore. But that all changed when he stepped into the room. Dib felt his jaw drop just like the day when they met, but he shut his jaw and thought,

No, no, it can't be him! It can't be! Okay Dib, just calm down, maybe you just haven't woken up yet. His thoughts were interrupted by his English teacher Mr. Coffins telling him,

"Dib, whenever you're done giving yourself mental torture, I would like to introduce our newest prisoner-I mean student-to our class." Dib looked around and saw that everyone was staring at him. Dib coughed and sat in an upright position, pretending to be paying attention. Mr. Coffins then pointed to the student and said, "Class, I would like to introduce you all to Zim...uh...Zim...um...excuse me, what was your last name again?" He asked this last part to the green teen standing next to him. Zim simply replied, "Just 'Zim' is fine." Mr. Coffins coughed and said, "Class, this is Zim. Treat him as you would treat a friend." The whole class, who recognized Zim in an instant, looked over at Dib expectantly, waiting for an accusation. Zim also looked over expectantly. All Dib could do, however, was to keep working on his daily English work. Mr. Coffins, who didn't notice the stares, said to Zim, "You can sit behind Dib over there." Zim nodded in thanks, took out a beautiful red apple, and placed it on Mr. Coffins' desk. Afterwards, he walked over casually to the seat behind Dib and started working.

Mr. Coffins picked up the apple in pure curiosity but the apple immediately turned into a puke-brown and died. The rest of the class started working again, but for Dib, working on schoolwork in front of an alien was so nerve-wracking (especially when this alien was from your past), that Dib didn't even notice the note until the bell rang. When the bell finally did ring, Dib found that he was the only one in the classroom left. So, he packed up his bag and saw the note. On the front it said;

To: Dib

From: Zim

It looked like any other note, but when Dib opened it, he stared at it in horror. For there, in the note, was a picture of Dib's body being eaten by a giant squid monster, while his head watched in pure horror and Zim laughing evilly in the background. There were only three words at the bottom:

YOU'RE

GOING

DOWN

During lunch, Dib kept looking over his shoulder for any sign of the alien. Throughout the whole lunch line (which was always a lot longer on the second day of school), he kept looking and looking, but surpsingly couldn't find the green-skinned alien anywhere. When he had finally gotten his lunch made from Lord-knows-what, Dib was shocked to find the alien sitting at a lunch table with. his. sister. They were sitting across from each other, talking to each other in low voices, as if telling each other secrets that they would never tell anybody else. That, or, Gaz was telling Zim the best way to get to classes while staying out of the popular kids/bullies' ways. Either way, Dib didn't like it one bit. He stood right behind Zim, glaring at the back of his green head, but Zim either pretended or didn't really notice him until he happened to look behind him.

"Ah, Dib. Interesting lesson Mr. Coffins gave us today, didn't he?" Dib didn't answer. But Zim kept on talking and said, "I'm sorry, did I take your seat? Here, let me get out of the way for you." By doing this he moved aside a seat and gestured at Dib to sit. Finally, Dib accepted and took his seat. When he did sit, Zim asked his foe, "By the way, your lovely sister here can actually keep up a beautiful conversation." With this, he winked at Gaz. Gaz glared back at him. It's not that easy to impress Gaz, and for once, thank God that this was so, at least in Dib's eyes it was. Dib glared at Zim and growled in a low voice, "Beat it." Zim looked over at Dib and actually looked hurt. "Oh, Dib. Don't tell me that you're still mad at me about every little fight that we've had? That was ages ago. Ah, me." Zim got up to leave and said, "And here I was trying to be friendly. Well, see you in class." And with a friendly wave, he left. As soon as he was out of hearing range, Dib immediately asked his sister in a low voice,

"What did you two talk about?" Gaz only shrugged and said, "About how stupid mankind is. Nothing unusual. At least, for Zim it wouldn't." Dib groaned and asked, "Can I ask that you stay away from Zim?" Gaz gave him a weird look, but said nothing and only shrugged, which her older brother took as a 'yes'. But Dib had a strange feeling that Zim's sudden appearance, his note, and his flirting with his sister were just the beginning. Dib's only thought throughout the rest of the day was: Zim may just have gotten smarter this time.