Chapter 10
May I have this dance?"
Their attention was all turned to a tall boy. He had a pinstripe tuxedo on with a bat collar. His mask was a simple skeleton face but it looked oh, so real. He had a long, lanky body with abnormally long arms and as wide smile planted on his mask. It even moved when he spoke. Cleo smiled at him and extended her arm as she said: "Of course." She cast a smug smile towards Jade who sank down where she stood.
"I wasn't speaking with you."
Cleo looked back at the boy in the skeleton mask, her eyes wide. "W-what?"
The boy extended his long fingers towards Jade. She just stood there, lost for words and unable to move. "I was speaking with this young lady right here. May I have this dance?"
For a moment Jade didn't speak. Then, with a grin on her face, she took the boy's hand and allowed him to lead her out and onto the dance floor. Leaving Cleo and her crew to be laughed at by the student body.
"I'm Jade Ortho."
"Pleasure, I'm Jack Skellington."
"That works."
"I suppose it does." He smiled at her.
"What are you doing?"
I fell out of the chair that I had been sitting in. My body crashed to the floor and I cringed with hatred at Zim. The Irken was standing over me a smug smile planted on his green face. I glared at him and said, for the umpteenth time this week: "nothing".
"Why is it that every time I find you on the computer and ask what you're doing you fall out of the chair and say nothing."
"Why is it that every time I am on the computer, trying to get something done, you have to come ask me what I'm doing?"
Zim had nothing to say to this. He frowned at me and then collected his thoughts as I stood up and saved my work. "I think that you're being too secretive EB. This isn't a good thing. You're my helper and I find it disrespectable for you to keep things from Zim. I demand to know what you do! Everyday you come home from collecting information on the humans of this dimension and bury yourself in the computer! What is it that could be so important that you need to do it every single day? You do it through the night as well! What is that important?"
"You sound like my father…" I muttered to myself.
"What?"
"Nothing!"
"What's with all this 'nothing'? I demand to know what all the nothing is!"
"We'll be late for skool." I deactivated my Irken guise and put my backpack on. Then I walked to the elevator and waited as Zim dawned his contacts and wig. He hurried inside with me and we both made out way to skool.
While walking to the bus he was bothering me more and more about the entire 'nothing' I said that I was doing. The bus stopped and I let him get on first. Then I motioned to the bus driver. He closed the doors and Zim stared at me out the window, both confused and angry. He yelled something as they went down the road but I couldn't hear him for I had put my headphones on and I was wrapped in the music that Rob Zombie made. I really liked that. As I continued through my 108 songs I walked down the road towards the skool. I'd lied about the time just so that I had enough to get to skool. Of course, I'd had to bribe the driver to come early but it worked and so I was finally alone.
So far I'd been in Zim's world for a whole week. For that time I had skipped skool. Also, for that time, I hadn't had a moment's peace. Zim had constantly been on my PAK, asking me about my dimension and stupid things that I really didn't want to answer. He would constantly hover over me when I did my drawings and he would constantly watch me when I was typing. Although I never gave him the chance that he needed to actually see what they were. It wouldn't be too good if that were to happen.
"Brooke? Brooke!" That voice pierced through the music like a buzz saw to bone. I cringed at it and then whipped around to see… Dib? He was running up behind me. I took the headphones off, which of course I hated, and greeted him when he came up to me. "Hey Brooke," he said, smiling at me the whole time. "Where have you been? I haven't seen you for a whole week. I thought that Zim did something to you."
"Why did you think that?"
"Well… he's always been a fan of making my life miserable… I just assumed that if I were to ever get a friend he would want to… you know…"
"Get rid of them or make you think that you're crazy?"
"Yeah. So. What did happen that day? I mean… You just disappeared into thin air. I had no idea where you went. It was a little creepy, you know."
"Uh… I don't know what you're talking about."
Dib jumped in front of me, his hands on his hips. "I know that you know what happened. Even Zim had no idea."
"How do you know that he wasn't lying?"
"I had my lie detector on. It showed he was telling the truth when he said that he didn't know what had happened to you."
Then why don't you just use it when he says that he's human? Duh! I ignored what he said, walked past him and then continued to the skool. Dib ran up beside me. He looked a little bit hurt. Still, although he wasn't my favorite character on the show I still liked him. I sighed and stopped. He did too. "The truth is Dib…" I can't believe that I'm doing this… "I'm not from here…"
Dib's eyes went wide. He jumped back from me and pointed. "You're EB! You're that new Irken that moved in with Zim! I was right all along! You are an alien! You lied to me! You didn't want to be my friend! You wanted to gain my trust so that you could get rid of me!"
Now it was my turn to look hurt.
Dib's accusing finger fell.
I closed my eyes and took a breath. Then I continued in my walk down the street. Dib didn't follow me for the longest time. I was wondering if he would follow me at all. At this point, however, I found that I didn't care all too much. Dib had called me a liar. I was human but I couldn't really tell him that or he might brag to Zim and then I'd have a real conundrum on my hands. If Zim knew that I was human then I'd have to convince him that I was Irken but then he would brag to Dib and the boy would get mad at me again. I didn't really want any of that to happen. So I'd keep my mouth shut. I guess that Dib and I… we were never meant to be real friends… I sighed as I walked down the street.
---
What have I done? Dib watched Brooke walk down the street. He had seen the hurt, the anger and the horrible glare that she had given him. He felt really bad about what he had done. She wanted to be my friend and I accused her of being an alien. Just because she said that she wasn't from here doesn't mean that she's an alien. I jumped to conclusions. Now I've probably lost her. This time… for good…
Dib sighed.
He walked down the street slowly.
Lucky for him he still made it to the skool before the bell rang. He entered the classroom; his head still down, and crossed to his seat. He noticed the others kids in the room staring at his sorrow filled expression. Dib sat down in his seat and looked out of the window.
What have I done? He looked back over at Brooke. She had dowsed herself in her drawings once more. He glanced at them once but she had pulled them out of his sight and he hadn't tried to see them since. I've ruined what friendship we could have had. I can't believe I was so stupid… I accused her of being something but I didn't listen to what she had to say. I just jumped. I jumped for what I already knew about and I hurt her because of it… I wonder if she can ever forgive me… Maybe we can rekindle what friendship we might have had…
---
I indulged myself in my drawings again. Usually the time and the patience that it took me to do an extremely good one bored me so. But today, after my fight with Dib, I didn't much mind how long it took. It didn't care if it took me until lunch to get half of it done. I didn't care who thought what about it. I just wanted to draw.
What I was doing was a picture of a sunset that I had seen before. It wasn't a sunset per say but I wasn't really sure what to call it. What I had seen had been more like the end of a sunset just before nightfall. It had beautiful. I'd seen it down at my grandparents' house. They lived right by the bluffs so I could always look out to the lake and think to myself. Once I had gone out and I had seen what I was drawing. I planned to put myself with someone just by the edge but… but… who?
I didn't know whom to put. Zim would be nice but… something stopped me from putting him. Maybe Dib then? No. Something stopped me from putting him too. For Dib, however, I knew what was stopping me. Anger. I was angry with Dib. How dare he call me an alien? How dare he say that I lied to him? How dare he say… that I didn't… want to be his… friend…?
Then it hit me.
My anger was coming back. That was never a good thing. Anger meant that she wouldn't be too far behind and the last thing that I needed was for her to regain her power and stay inside me for yet another 6 years.
You see, the person that I am referring too… is the real Brooke. Yes, I am not the real Brooke. I am a false one only brought into this world because something kind was introduced to me as a child. Originally I was a hard, cold child who wouldn't hug or give love to anybody. Even as a baby I hated everybody. I was stubborn and I hated going to sleep and I especially hated being loved. But then I was introduced to the horrible, purple dinosaur that so many loved. Instantly, that horrible person that I was locked away deep within me and she stayed there for the longest time. Eight years to be exact.
Then my heart was broken.
That horrible boy.
She was released again. The real Brooke, I mean. She wandered back out from inside me and life became one horrible mess once more. I disregarded all of my social activities and locked myself in my room constantly. Once more I hated everybody and once more I was stubborn and an unpleasant little girl that no one would ever wish to spend time with.
Lately, my friends have been telling me that I'm turning nice again. The real Brooke is sinking back within me and I'm feeling happy again. I love life and I'm actually doing something that's close to a hug. But now…
She's back…
It wasn't fair. I only just got rid of her and now she was back. The real Brooke was out again.
My eyebrows went low and close to my nose. I glared at Dib for a moment and he flinched back so suddenly that he nearly fell out of his chair. I smiled. My glare was back. I could scare anybody with that stare of mine. I could make them feel so scared that they couldn't bear to look at me any longer. This was what kept me going.
I hated life again. And I liked it. I didn't care who thought that I was creepy. I didn't care who thought that I was nice. I didn't care who thought that I was ugly. I didn't care who thought that I was pretty. I didn't care for anything cute. I didn't care for anything fun. I didn't care for anything pleasant. And I, especially, didn't care for anything involving love.
Love. What a horrible emotion. In fact, emotions were horrible! They stank! They sucked! I hate them! I hate love! I hate sorrow! I hate happiness! I hate fear! All that remains in me now… is my anger… All of my anger. And I was going to use it to help Zim conquer the human race.