On Earth, a girl slept in a white house. For six months she had slept. And for six more she would sleep. The night an alien ship crashed through Earth's atmosphere with a deafening noise, she merely twitched and slept on. She had been through so much. She deserved a long rest. Someone out there was making sure of that.
* * *
Six months later there was a new girl at skool.
"Class, I want you to give a warm welcome from the voids in your chest cavities to our new student. Its name is Mia."
The new girl was dark-haired and blue-eyed.
"Welcome to eleventh grade, Mia. My name is Miss Bitters." Miss Bitters looked not a day over one hundred years old. When she moved she gave the impression of a thousand insects scuttling through a hellish void. "Go sit down and get ready to fill your soft tissue with useless information. There's a seat beside Dib."
The girl moved through the classroom with great composure, with the eyes of a wary wildcat. She took a seat beside the black-haired boy, Dib.
"Class, I'm at the breaking point of my sanity," Miss Bitters announced from her desk perch. "The only lesson I've prepared for today is for you to contemplate doom. Begin." She flitted from the classroom and the class broke into idle chatter. The black-haired boy angled his chair towards Mia.
"Welcome to hell," he said with sympathy, "My name's Dib."
"I'm Mia. Surely it's not that bad."
Dib shrugged. "I shouldn't be so negative. There's probably some good about this place. By this point I'm numb to it."
"Doom, the old flesh-vulture says. Hmph."
The chatter came down to a murmur. Mia looked over.
"Not again," muttered Dib beside her.
Mia had to blink a couple of times to be sure of what she was seeing. A boy sat in a chair on the end of the row but it was not a normal boy. His hair was black and his eyes a weird blue, but his skin… was it the light or did his skin have a green tint? And his clothes were just as odd. A pinkish uniform-looking attire, with a silver motif clasp at his throat, black gloves upon his slender hands and boots on his feet. He was quite intriguing to look upon but it was an unnatural sight for the eye. The boy stood and strode back and forth as he spoke again.
"Doom, doom…what is doom? Do any of you even have the slightest grasp in your puny minds of what doom is? That crow throws the word around like those sick red spheres you launch at each other's large, slimy heads for sport. You cannot begin to fathom real doom. Doom is inescapable. You filthy little worm-babies, you wereborn into doom! This planet is at the absolute edge of the void, the dusty corner of the cosmic shoe-closet of the great…big…doom feet of the universe! And you will be stomped into puddles of doom by the FEET!"
He halted and turned to face them.
"…Please keep in mind, my fellow worm babies, that I am just as much doomed as the rest of you because I am human." He looked around frantically in the silence.
"…I really enjoy food. I really do. Thank you."
His boots tapped on the floor as he promptly made his way back to his seat.
The classroom erupted into chatter again, unperturbed.
"I don't think I can begin to comprehend what just happened," Mia said, watching the green boy as he looked suspiciously around the classroom.
"That's Zim," Dib sighed.
"Does… does anyone realize how weird that was?"
"Just me, so far. He's been here six months. I seem to be the only one who finds him remotely odd."
"I'll go ahead and say that I'm with you on that," Mia said.
"Oh God," Dib said, looking at her in awe. "This is a monumental event. You just proved that either I'm not insane after all…or we both are."
They looked at each other for a moment.
"This is going to be one hell of a year," Mia muttered. "I can feel it."
* * *
"Do you know what today is?"
Through the black void of space the Massive placidly hummed. It had been a quiet day.
The Almighty Tallest lounged in the control room. Purple addressed Red from his position sprawled elegantly on the sofa. Red sat brooding in a chair nearby. He said nothing.
"You do know," Purple said. "She woke up today."
Red closed his eyes. "Yeah. I know."
"Don't worry so much, Red. She'll have a good life. Oh, and she's going to school with Zim. Their landing coordinates were so close. Funny, huh?"
"Zim," Red snarled. "That pitiful excuse of an Irken. Miyuki really adored him, didn't she?"
Purple glanced sidelong at the other Tallest. "Don't be like that, Red," he said gently.
"I'd have them on opposite sides of the universe if I didn't have you always buzzing in my ear." He sighed and slouched back into the chair. "Why did you even have to bring her up?" Red muttered.
"You were thinking of her," Purple said quietly. "You always are."
* * *
Mia found the letter that night. Written in bold spidery print on travel-worn paper.
Miyuki,
My old friend. By the time you read this you won't remember anything about me or the life you used to lead. But I couldn't live with myself if I didn't offer my deepest apologies for what we have done to you. Miyuki, we value your life more than anything. That is why all this has come to pass. I hope that somewhere within you these words will be recognized. Perhaps you will forgive us... I don't expect you to. This decision will pain me for the rest of my existence. At least I will know that you are safe.
Goodbye, Miyuki. Take care of yourself.
Almighty Tallest Red
Ruler of the Irken Empire
She put the paper aside, running her hands over her head in disbelief. That morning when she awoke it seemed perfectly natural to jump in the car parked in the driveway of the house that was empty except for her, and to drive off to school. Yet as she read the letter, and as she thought back, she found that no other memories existed within her except those of that day. Further back there was only the glimmer of stars in a dream.
And what a day. A school full of imbeciles, a teacher who was a card-carrying resident of hell, a black-haired kid with more brainpower than the entire 11th grade combined, and a green kid preaching doom.
"…the hell is wrong with this place," Mia muttered as she leaned back on the bed. Sleep took her the moment her head hit the pillow. Dreams of silent supernovas flickered behind her eyelids, reflecting in the sapphire-ocean eyes that lay dormant there.
