Hello, and welcome to Chapter Eight of this story!
Now, some of my more observant readers who (unlike me) can keep track of these sorts of things may be wondering, "Didn't this story already have a Chapter Eight?" Er...yeah. I decided to take this story in a different direction, change some things from my original plan, so that chapter has been deleted. That whole thing with the giant robots in Dib's neighborhood never happened. It was a bit painful--30 hits just disappeared into nothingness!--and my constant changes are making the reviews kind of all confused, but, well, this is my first long and serious story so I'm still kind of learning. This chapter takes place immediately after the lunchroom thing with Peggy and Rodger.
Also, I recently put up a one-shot called "Just Perfect" that ties into this story, though either one can be read without the other. But go read it anyway, because...you should. Also, as the first person to review that story, Invaderzimfannumber1 gets to be (kind of) included in this chapter; see if you can spot where. I also touched up a few of the earlier chapters of this story, but not very much. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!
(Dang my author's notes are too long...)
Chapter Eight
Gretchen, Goo and Grudge
It can be debated whether or not Gaz meant for me to be late getting back to class. After I caught up with her we quarrelled all the way to Mr. Elliott's room, me so caught up in defending myself from her accusations that I completely didn't realize that I was supposed to be heading for my own class. In any event, I raced down the nearly deserted hallways a few minutes later, gazing up every time I passed a clock, hoping I could just make it--
RIIIIING.
I threw open the door, but it was too late--Ms. Bitters and the rest of the class all turned to face me as I entered, panting. "You're late, Dib," Ms. Bitters said, glaring. "Take your seat now or it's another trip to the Pain Machine for you."
Still gasping for air, I slumped over towards my desk. Zim smirked as I walked by. Then let out a cry of pain as my boot tip hit his shin. I couldn't help but grin and chuckle even as I could feel him glaring at my back.
"Now, class, due to new Skool Board regulations about the proper use of rabid wolverines, I have had to return last week's Science experiment to the Animal Control units," Ms. Bitters began, sounding thoroughly displeased. I let out a sigh of relief, unconsciously rubbing the set of bite marks on my side. "And so, instead of that, we will be using today's Science class to learn how to manufacture worthless, disgusting green sludge."
"Why?" I blurted out without thinking.
Ms. Bitters turned, gave me a deadpan look, then turned back to the class without answering. "Anyway, I will be breaking you up into pairs for the day." She picked up the roll sheet and began picking names randomly without looking up. "Aki, you'll be with...Flan. Brian, you're with...Melvin. Poonchy, you're with Keef--"
"But Keef's not here!"
"Silence! The Letter M, you're with Alex..."
I crossed my fingers, shooting a look at Zim from across the room, who likewise was looking around nervously. Please not Zim, I prayed, Anyone but Zim...
"Dib, you're with..."
I tightened my fingers' grip on each other and felt my eyeball twitch.
"...Gretchen."
Gretchen let out a little squeak, probably apprehension at being paired with 'the crazy kid,' but I let out a sigh of relief. "And Zim, you're with Zita," Ms. Bitters completed, causing Zim to jump slightly and Zita to rise angrily to her feet.
"What? Why do I have to be with Zim?!"
"You're both at the bottom of the list," Ms. Bitters said with an apathetic shrug. Zita scowled. Zim scowled right back in return.
"Now everyone get with your partners and collect the materials from the back of the class near the sink."
"What are we supposed to do, exactly?" someone called.
"Quiet!" Ms. Bitters snapped, leaning back in her chair and taking out a book called Pool of Horrors. I had a strong feeling she would be incommunicado for the rest of the lesson.
As everyone got up and began to join off into their groups, I picked up my backpack and slouched over to the sink, collecting the materials Ms. Bitters had left out on the counter, then headed over to Gretchen, plopping down into the seat beside her and putting the stuff down in front of me. She surveyed me nervously. "Hey," I said, a bit sullenly.
"Hello, Dib," she said, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. She smiled nervously at me, a kind but somewhat horrifying sight. Gretchen was usually a little nicer to me than most of the other kids, though she always seemed a bit jumpy.
I looked around the room. "So, do you actually want to do the assignment?" I asked. Just as nobody bothered to listen to Ms. Bitters' lectures, only about half of us ever felt the need to do any of her assignments; most of the kids around us were just sitting with their friends talking or throwing paper airplanes across the room at each other.
"Um, I guess," Gretchen said, a bit apprehensively. "But Ms. Bitters didn't leave any instructions," she murmured, frowning at all the things before us. We weren't the only ones who had noticed this, either; everybody who was bothering with the assignment at all were looking dully at their things, oblivious to what exactly we were supposed to be doing.
"Well, it shouldn't be too hard to figure out," I said, picking up a bottle and reading the label. "Let me see..."
Fifteen minutes later, the half of the class that had been trying to do the experiment had been whittled down to less than a quarter as most of the kids gave up and went to chat with everybody else. Of the few pairs still working, Gretchen and I seemed to be doing the best; by carefully reading each of the labels I had managed to more-or-less figure out what we were supposed to be doing, and Gretchen watched, a bit awed, as I managed to concoct a slimy, disgusting green substance in the measuring cup we were working in.
"Wow...that's really good, Dib," Gretchen said. "Ours looks better than anyone else's."
That was true; across the room, Alex and the Letter M had managed to make something, but their sludge was so thick that it had quickly solidified into what looked like a sticky green rock. They now seemed to have given up like everybody else and were tossing it back and forth across the table in a game of desultory game of catch. The only other pair still working were Zita and Zim--or rather, Zim. Out of the entire class, Zita seemed to be the most audacious in ignoring Ms. Bitters instructions, to the point that she had taken out her cell phone and was having a lively conversation on it while her partner worked. Usually Zita was pretty attentive to her skool work--trying to maintain her position as Ms. Bitters favorite student--but she seemed to feel she didn't need to bother now, since Zim was working hard on the project alone. Zim was bent over, trying to work on his sludge, casting furious glares from Zita to me. I knew he was only still working because he saw that I was succeeding where he was not.
"Thanks," I said, smiling up at Gretchen, then looking back at the sludge and pouring one final ingredient to make it nice and runny. I put it down and sighed. "Assuming Ms. Bitters actually bothers to check our work today, I think we'll pass."
"Well, it's worthless, disgusting and green. That seems to fulfill the requirements."
I laughed. Gretchen blushed and looked away. And then something exploded.
BLUCH!
"Agh!"
"Agh!"
I spun around. I caught sight of Zim just in time to see the briefest flicker as one of his PAK legs vanished from sight. Apparently, he had done something to his beaker of slime--probably used the PAK leg's laser to heat it, I thought--and it had exploded in his hand, sending glass and sludge flying. Zita had been hit, though she seemed unhurt--instead she was shrieking at the sight of her ruined shirt and trying desperately to comb the slime out of her hair with her fingers. Zim, however, had received the bulk of the mess: the green slime was all over his clothes and already-green face, and, either because he had heated it too much or just because of his natural aversion to Earth substances, it was burning him rather badly. He let out a scream and fell to the floor, crying out and clawing at his face as steam and smoke issued from his body.
At the sight of him rolling around on the floor, covered in slime and bits of broken glass, I couldn't help but let out a harsh, barklike laugh. He rolled over onto his side, stopped, and then looked up at me, glaring daggers. He rose shakily to his feet, still smoking a little, and then slowly wiped the slime off of his face with one gloved claw. Then, in a sudden movement, he leaned back and threw it at me from across the room.
SPLAT!
"Agh!"
I fell back, falling out of my chair, suddenly blinded by the warm green slime all over my face. The whole class laughed, except for Gretchen, who had jumped down to try to help me up, but I pushed her roughly aside, feeling anger course through my entire body. Without a word I lunged, grabbed my own beaker of slime, ran and splashed the entire contents towards Zim.
"Agh!"
He suddenly grabbed Zita and held her out in front of him like a human shield; she shrieked as the sludge hit her instead of Zim. I felt my eyes go wide as her face twisted into a furious grimace, and, just like Zim, she grabbed a handful of sludge from her shirt and threw it at me. I ducked, which unfortunately caused her blow to go flying and hit Gretchen, who stumbled backwards into Tae, knocking him out of his chair and getting sludge on both of them--
"SLUDGE FIGHT!"
I don't know who gave the command, but it was quickly obeyed. I threw myself under a desk as sludge-globs went flying through the air, kids laughing or screaming as they threw and got hit and dodged--
"What is going on here?!"
Ms. Bitters had finally looked up from her book long enough to notice us; in a flash she had swept over her desk to stand in the middle of the room, glaring, her arms crossed.
Everybody froze. A glob of sludge that had already been in the air dropped down and splattered on her face. Her lip curled into a growl.
"ZIM! DIB!"
I jumped, bumping my head painfully into the desk I was using for shelter; I cursed and slowly crawled out of my hiding place, stepping over several of my slimy classmates who had either fallen or slipped onto the floor. Zim, hiding near the bookshelf across the room, shot me a look, then looked fearfully back at Ms. Bitters.
"You two will stay after class today to clean up this horrible mess. And you both fail the assignment for the day."
"What?!" I cried, looking around the room at the gigantic mess--the sludge was all over the walls, desks and ceiling. "But Ms. Bitters--"
"Silence!"
I crossed my arms, glaring at the floor. Zim shot me a look. I shot it right back at him.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Needless to say, cleaning the mess up wasn't fun.
For one, in the two hours between the sludge fight and our detention, the sludge had had a chance to dry, so that now it was less of a sludge than a crust. After trying desperately with a sponge, I had switched to a math compass and found the stabbing point infinitely more helpful, using it like a pickaxe on the dried-up globs and puddles.
Even less pleasant than the work was the company.
"I cannot believethat you got me stuck doing this, Dib-stink!" Zim screamed for the tenth time, on his hands and knees on the floor, scrubbing desperately with a sponge. I had made a note not to let him see my compass trick.
I turned to glare down at him. I was standing precariously on the top of a tall ladder with a bucket of water at my side, trying to clean the ceiling panels. The ladder shook dangerously ever time that I moved, but I was smart enough not to ask Zim to held steady it for me. "I got you stuck here?! Ididn't ask you to throw a handful of alien slime at me, Zim!"
"Ha! This inferior hyuman slime is nothing compared to the slime my people could create! If I had my lab equipment with me now, in five minutes time I could manufacture a slime one hundred times superior to this!" he screeched, gesturing to the mess before him.
I paused. "...You realize we're arguing about which species can create the better slime, right?"
"And I'm winning!"
"Are not!"
"Are too!"
"Are not! You couldn't--whoa--"
The ladder tipped; I let out a cry, windmilling my arms wildly to try to steady myself, but the leg of the ladder suddenly got caught on a glob of dried sludge, and I fell with a cry.
I hit the floor, hard. The bucket of water followed a moment later, splashing down on my head.
"Ha HA!" Zim cried, pointing at me triumphantly. "VICTORY IS MINE!"
"What?! No it's not--"
But he wasn't listening; he had turned and ran out of the room before I could recover enough to object.
"ZIM! Get back here!" I screamed, running towards the door after him, but suddenly jumped as Ms. Bitters materialized out of the wall in front of me. (Yeah, I'm still working out how she does that. So far efforts to run tests on her have proven futile.)
"Dib! Where do you think you're going? This mess isn't going to clean itself, you know."
"But Zim! He was supposed to be helping me, and he ran out--"
"No excuses! Get back to work!"
"But--"
"NOW!"
I gaped in astonishment. Then I slowly went back into the room to finish cleaning the mess, alone, Ms. Bitters glaring after me as I went.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
It was nearly 6 o'clock before I got home, and the first thing I did was go straight to my computer.
Dear Peggy,
Club meeting tomorrow at 4:00. Can we use your house? Zim's already attacked us at the skool and Gaz probably wouldn't like it if we had it at my house. If not we'll just meet at skool again, but I'd like to avoid it. Also, do you by any chance know how to contact Jack? I can just tell Keef in class tomorrow.
See you soon.
--Dib
I sent the message and sat glaring at my computer. I would have my revenge on Zim.
And I already had a plan how to do it.
Pool of Horrors is by Invaderzimfannumber1. Congratulations on winning my little contest. (And I promise I'll get to reading the rest of your stories soon. :-)
Chapter Nine will be up...soon! Ish. The next few chapters will get more interesting. GIR will be coming in soon. :-D
