Thanks for all the reviews! Ok I will definitely try and make this chapter way longer. I don't own Invader Zim (obviously) so...... just read it!

Chapter 2

Hurt inside

It had only been a few days after Dib and given up his mission to prove Zim an alien and his luck seemed to be turning steadily for the better. The day after he had made his choice, was one he would never forget.

Zim had ranted on about some stupid plot to destroy the Earth in front of the class, expecting Dib to retaliate and humiliate himself. However, Dib had simply smirked at him and said, "You freak."

Zim had been at a loss. He never expected such a cocky reply from Dib. Zim felt himself blush as the entire class laughed at him. Dib had loved the response he had received, and people were laughing with him, not at him!

There had been many more events like this throughout the day. Zim had mostly avoided him since, but the other kids still seemed to be on his case.

One boy yelled, "Where are you goin Dib? To find Bigfoot?" as he passed Dib in the corridor.

"No, Bigfoot doesn't exist, duh!" Dib had replied in a patronising tone. He hadn't even hung around to look at the boy's reaction, but he knew he had been shocked.

Dib was amazed at how easy it was. He pondered over this as he went to sit down at his usual table with Gaz.

"Hey Gaz." He greeted his sister, as he was about to sit down. She didn't look away from her gameslave, and didn't look like she was going to. 'Well some things don't change' he thought to himself.

"Hey Dib! Over here!" A voice called from across the lunch hall. Dib spun round, expecting to get someone's lunch thrown at his face at any second. But there was no discarded food, just a boy waving to him from the over side of the room.

"Come eat with us!" Dib couldn't believe what he was hearing, surely it was a trick!

He turned nervously to Gaz. "You don't mind if I..." He started, but she just grunted in annoyance and turned away from him. So Dib headed over to the table and sat himself down.

He recognised the boy as being the one who had insulted him in the corridor before, and the rest were various other popular people from his year group. He winced as he recognised the gang that had beaten him up- the ones who had caused him to be here at this moment.

"Heard what you said to Chris! Man Dib, you've changed!" Dib just smiled, afraid that he might say the wrong thing and blow it all.

Little did he know that Zim was watching this conversation closely, bursting with jealousy. 'How could he do that to me?' He thought in disbelief. 'He said he'd never give up, and now he's pretending that none of it ever happened!' He sat there with his untouched lunch, staring at Dib as he nervously tried to blend in with the other kids.

Dib suddenly turned to find Zim watching him intently. Zim jumped and turned away, blushing furiously. This confused Dib- wouldn't Zim normally be insulting him or at least scowling at him with his best death glare by now? But Dib didn't have time to ponder over it.

"Hey Dib! Watch this!" One of the bullies said. He aimed a ball of meat at the blushing Zim, and flung it across the hall. It landed with a splat on Zim's head, and started steaming.

The whole table- including Dib- laughed hysterically as Zim ran around the lunch hall screaming in pain as the meat burnt his tender skin.

----------------------------

Zim walked warily down the bustling corridor, rubbing his sore head. The meat of doom had been a most unpleasant experience, as had the various other pranks that had been pulled on him throughout the day (without Dib to pick on, all the bullies made him the new target). But none of them had hurt Zim as much as seeing Dib laugh along with them.

He didn't even understand it. Dib had been laughing at him since he had come to Earth, and so what if he did? 'Why? Why does it matter to me? Why does it make me feel so......' He didn't know how it made him feel. Well sure he was hurt, but that wasn't all.

Zim's thoughts were interrupted as someone walked right into him.

"Hey, watch where you're going earthsti-"Zim stopped as he looked up into Dib's amber eyes.

"What Zim? Scared?" Dib scoffed, absolutely loving it. But Zim didn't make any comeback- he just turned and ran down the corridor.

"Man, what is wrong with Zim today?" Dib muttered to himself as he headed to his next lesson.

----------------------------

Zim gasped for air. What was wrong with him? How could he just run away and let Dib get away with that!? He walked out into the now deserted corridor, still caressing his poor head. He stopped abruptly as his antennae twitched ever so slightly.

He looked around nervously, scanning the corridor for signs of life. Suddenly a gang of boys- the ones that had talked to Dib at lunch- appeared around the corner. He shivered with fear as they approached him.

"Hey alien!" they sniggered, surrounding him.

"Just leave me alone." Zim muttered, trying to sound confident, but feeling (and showing) the complete opposite. This just seemed to egg them on.

They pushed him to the floor, punching and kicking him in his precious squeedily spooge. He could feel his warm purple blood staining his proud invader uniform.

'When will this pain end?' He thought despairingly to himself. Now he was hurt physically as well.

This went a bit dogdey coz would you believe it, there was a 2 second powercut when I was writing this, so I lost a bit of it. But never mind, hope u enjoyed it! Please continue reading and review!!!