So how was THAT for a shocker in the last chapter? Okay, you most likely guessed it beforehand, but let me have my moment. Sorry for not updating in a while, busy drawing and planning on how to be famous, ya know? LOL, anyways, so here's chapter 11.
DISCLAIMER!: In case you havn't caught on yet, I don't own Invader Zim and you people should be punched in the sqeedely spooch for thinking I do. Though I AM pretty awesome... XD
Chapter 11- OMG (Oh, my Gaz)
Zim looked at me for a second, that started laughing hystericaly. I got angry.
"Zim! I'm not kidding!" I growled. He laughed even harder. I slapped him.
"Ouch!" Zim stopped laughing and yelled. "What the Irk was THAT?"
"That was because you are laughing like a damn hyena and you can't be damn serrious FOR TWO DAMN SECONDS!" I screamed, letting all my anger out. He looked surprised. I sighed.
"Listen, I saw a sticky-note in Dib's room the other day-"
"What were you doing in Dib's room?" He asked, interupting.
"What? We were hanging out! Now shut up and listen! I saw a sticky-note with a heart on it, and the word 'Tak' in the Irken language on it! That explains it! Dib loves Tak, and doesn't want us to know! So he is giving us false information! He is going to let Tak kill you!" I gasped, figuring out his plan.
"Great, just awesome," Zim growled. "Now the human has doubled against us. That STUPID! NO GOOD! PITIFUL! HUMAN! UGH! What do we do about it?" I shook my head.
"I- I don't know. Just, bring me home, I want to go back to my apartment," I said softly. I needed to get home, to think things over.
"Okay, let's get out of our tree," Zim said and hopped down, using his spider legs. My heart skipped a beat. Did he say OUR tree? Was my fanasty not such a dream as a reality? My eyes grew huge as I looked down, and thought about the 'mighty' Irken. Maybe... he wasn't so imune to love as he thought...
I shooed the cupids and hearts away from my head and jumped down, swinging like a monkey. I jumed down and Zim and I hopped the fence again.
We walked in silence this time, absorbing all we'd seen and heard. When we finally got to my apartment, it was snowing, softly. I sighed.
"You'd better get home before it starts snowing harder," I said and walked up my steps.
"See you tomarrow, Rose," He said and I waved to him. I walked inside and shut the door. I greeted my parents and practicly dragged myself upstairs, throwing on some pajamas and grabbing Joy, since I left her home that day. I trugged back downstairs and ate dinner silently. When I was done with my nightly rountine, my parents were already in bed. I walked into my room and turned the lights off. I hopped in bed and tried to get to sleep, but I just couldn't. So I walked into the lving room and saw the simple, but amazing Christmas Tree. I looked at it, and sat down in front of it.
I heard the radio still playing. My parents kept it on tonight. Carols were softly swirling in the air to my ears. I closed my eyes and stared at the tree, slowly falling asleep, all my insane worries slowly draining as the carols softly flew inside my head.
_
DECEMBER 21'st
"If I could fall, into the sky, do you think time, would pass me by?" I woke up to the sound of my phone ringing. I picked up my phone just as Vanessa Carlton's voice sang "tonight" and the instramental session that was my favorite part of "A Thousand Miles"
"What's up?" I answered, clearing my throat because of just waking up. It was still dark outside. I checked the clock. 6:04 AM. On a Saturday! I frowned.
"Rose? Is that you?" Came Dib's paniked voice. "You need to come over. NOW." He sounded terrified. My eyes shot right open and I leaped to my feet. Forgeting all my anger for him last night, I imediatly fell worried.
"Dib? What's wrong?" I said hystericly. Dib sounded like there was a murderer in his house. I suddenly chilled. What if there was? What if Tak was there?
"It's, it's horrible! Gaz! She's- she's- I can't even describe it!" He whispered frightend into the phone. My eyes narrowed.
"Oh, it's Gaz? I'd say stop doing whatever is pissing her off, and she'll stop trying to put you into a nightmare world. Bye, Dib," I said, bringing the phone down to click it off.
"NO, ROSE! Don't hang up! Gaz is wearing pink and lipsti-" And I hung up. Then I gasped. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did he say Gaz, Pink, and Lipstick in the same sentence without also saying hate, destroy, pain, of misery? I quickly dialed his number.
"Rose! You have to help! It's scaring the CRAP out of me!" He yelled.
"I'm on my way!" I paniked back. I quickly wrote a note to my parents saying I went to go play in the snow with my friends for the day and I had my phone, got dressed into a warm, cozy, cocoa colored strapless dress that went down to my middle thigh and some tan boots. I threw on a winter coat over it, threw a candy cane in my mouth, grabbed Joy, and raced out my apartment building.
I flew down the stairs and grabbed my scooter, racing off to Dib's two story house. It took me about 10 minutes to get there because of ice, lots of snow from last night, and some early-morning Saturday traffic. I rang the doorbell and Dib answered it, with a terrified look on his face.
"Thank God your here, come see the horror for yourself!" He whispered through his teeth and pulled me down into ninja-stealth mode. I crouched down and followed a crawling Dib up the stairs to what I asumed to be Gaz's room. He opened the door slowly, as though not to make noise. The door didn't creak, to his luck. I peered in and bit my tounge to keep from screaming.
Oh, my God. Oh, my God! OH, MY GOD! Gaz was... pink. She had on a pink mini-skirt and a pair of white lacy socks on, covered by delicate ballet slippers. Her shirt was a light pink top with spaggetti straps and baby pink arm warmers. And her hair was tied up into pigtails, her bangs still apearing monster-like, but nonetheless, still a horrificly girly sight. Her face- I won't get into the gorey details, but lets just say she looked like some kind of china doll.
But the worst part? Oh, the worst was that Gaz was singing. And to none other than Justin Beiber. I gasped at the horrible sight. Gaz, singing? To Justin BEIBER of all people? I shuttered and turned to Dib.
"Okay, tell me, what the hell did you do to her?" I asked. He looked exasperated.
"That's the problom! I don't KNOW! She woke up with a suddenly high-pitched voice and a horribly happy attitude! I don't know HOW!" Dib freaked out. I looked at her again and stood up. I walked into the murder scene, cringing as she turned and saw me, her open, chocolate brown eyes sparkling. Ugh.
"Rosella! My best friend! How are you?" She giggled and gave me a hug. I paniked and pushed her away lightly.
"Gaz! What HAPPENED to you?" I breathed, intaking the amazing picture. She shrugged.
"My old clothing and attitude was so... dark! I didn't want to change, but overnight, it seems I've been given a second chance! Yay! Now we can be best buds! We should TOTALLY go and have a sleepover, and we could paint our nails, and..." Gaz blabbed on and on about how much fun it would be to braid hair and talk about our celeberty crushes and all that crap. I backed away slowly.
"Gaz... I don't know how to say this, but... your scaring me," I said out in the open. Gaz gave me a perfect pout face.
"Why? You liked old, depressing Gaz better? Fine, go make out with my brother or something, see if I care," She said haughtily and turned, aplying another layer of eyeshadow to her lid.
"I do NOT like your brother! Sheesh!" I said, storming out of the room. Dib looked at me, terrified.
"What do we DO? We have to get old Gaz back, she's one of our only hopes left for the invasion of Tak!" I asked, kinda scared at the girly behavior. But this time, when I mentioned Tak, Dib's face looked guilty, and red, but I wouldn't have noticed it before if I didn't know the truth.
"Erm, why don't we ask my dad?" Dib suggusted. "He might know, he's a man of science, he SHOULD know why she's acting all weird." He started running downstairs. I shook my head. Way to steer the converstaion. I had to give him points for that. Rolling my eyes and sighing, I followed Dib downstairs. He whoosed around the staircase and pounded on a door that read, "Prof. Membrane Lab".
"Son! For the last time, NO! I'm not replacing your forgin friend's brain with a weasel's!" Came a muffled voice from inside. Dib groaned and looked a me.
"This happens all the time," He said. "He never helps me with anything. THIS ISN'T ABOUT THE WEASELS, DAD! IT'S GAZ! SHE'S NOT BEING GAZ-ISH!" He yelled to his Dad.
Silence. Then footsteps. The door opened, revealing a man in a white coat that covered the whole bottom half of his face and a pair of sunglasses. His hair was like Dib's: Spiked and insane, but longer, and he was tall. I had to look up to see him talking.
"What's wrong with your sister, Dib? And who is this?" He asked, motioning to me.
"Hey. I'm Rosella, I'm Dib's friend," I introduced myself.
"Dib's friend? I'm proud of you, son! You finally made some friends! Maybe now you will stop your sill paranormal studies and study-" His Dad suddenly struck a heroic pose and wind was blowing through his hair. "Real science!" I looked sideways to Dib.
"Does he do that a lo-"
"Yeah."
His dad bent down to our eyelevel. "So, son and friend, what is wrong with Gazeline?"
Gazeline? I thought. I could see why Gaz kept her name short. It reminded me too much of Gasseline.
"Gaz is acting all weird, she isn't acting like herself! She hasn't promised to make me wish I was born without a heart and brain instead of a sister," Dib explained. I nodded.
"Well, son. It seems like your dear little sister must be in a good mood! This seems like no problem to me. Now don't bother me, I'm on the brink of a life-saving cure for the commen-cold!" Dib's dad, Professer Membrane, said and was about to shut the door when I put my foot in the way.
"Stop!" I said, stopping the door. "You have to listen to Dib! He's telling the truth! Gaz is acting a LOT odder than normal. Profeser, Gaz is wearing a pink dress." I had to help Dib out, he was my best friend, after all (Well, besides Zim, but I'm not sure we are just friends anymore. I mean, do best friends often kiss each other's cheeks and feel light and floaty around them?). Plus, this was for the good of the mission. And the fact that pink-Gaz was scaring me to death.
The Professer turned back to us. "Gaz is wearing pink? Ha ha! Success!" He said to himself and started to run up the stairs. I gave Dib a confused look and he shot one right back. We raced after his father, now laughing like he'd won the lottery or something, but he didn't have a scratch ticket in his hand. He ran into Gaz's room and we followed curriously.
"What's up with your dad?" I whispered to Dib as we reached the door. Dib shrugged.
"I don't know who's acting stranger, Gaz or my dad," He whispered back, very confused.
"Gazeline! My daughter! You are finally the perfect daughter I dreamed of!" The professer picked up the 7th grade puff of pink and Gaz giggled at him.
"Hi, daddy! Do you like my new skirt?" She asked, suddenly in a Tutu, her old pink clothing on the floor. She had changed quickly!
"I sure do, daughter. You finally decided to use your closet of pink clothing instead of that outfit you wear every day. What made you change?" He asked. I was curious to know why the Professer was so excited about the fact that Gaz was horrifyingly pink.
Gaz shrugged. "I dunno, I just woke up and had a change of heart, I guess," Gaz said in the discustingly sweet tone. I almost barfed.
"Well, whatever made your made up, it's good to know that you are back to normal, daughter!" Membrane said and walked out, completly ignoring Dib and I. I could see why Dib was so sad about his family.
"Back to normal?" I asked. Gaz hardly looked normal, spraying her hair into a new style with a huge can of hairspray.
"I think dad means normal, like when Gaz was about two years old and would put a crown on her head and run around with a pixie wand. But she seemed to become darker after our third trip to Bloaty's in her life. I don't know why, but it seems she outgrew it like-" Dib gasped. "A spell! That's it! Gaz was put under a spell, by something! Maybe a witch, or... a wizard or something, or she was being mind controled! Maybe-"
"DIB!" I yelled. "Shut up. Okay, so maybe Gaz was put under a spell. Maybe this is normal Gaz. Maybe we should leave Gaz like this, no matter how terrifying it is," I said, shuttering at her, singing off key like a normal teen. "But what we need to worry about right now is the fact that this means our whole mission is in danger! Gaz is probably the most skilled fighter, and the toughest. We NEED her! So we need to get her back to normal! So how do we recast the spell on her?"
"Well, I do have some old SpellDrives, but the only thing I can cast is the Shadowhog..." Dib said biting his nails.
"The what can do huh?" I asked. Dib shook his head.
"Never mind, it's not important. Different story. What we need to do is find a wizard by ourselves, and somehow convince them to cast the spell on Gaz, only for a while, or forever, whatever seems right. Then Gaz will be normal Gaz, and we can save the earth," Dib said, thinking. I noticed how he said save the earth, not stop Tak. Weird... not.
"Good plan. But one problom. Where the hell are we going to find a wizard?" I asked, stating the obvious that Dib didn't see. He sighed and slid down the wall, sitting on the floor.
"You're right. It's hopeless! With me, you, and Zim working together, we STILL won't be able to er, uh... stop the aliens," He said. I looked at him closely.
"Listen, Dib. You don't have to keep pretending. I know that you like Tak. You don't have to keep hiding it. I just want you to know that the one endangering the mission is not exactly Gaz. We know that Tak is here," I said, sighing. I couldn't take it anymore. I needed to tell Dib off. He couldn't keep these kinds of secrets from us. And then I felt terrible. I thought of the huge secret I was keeping myself. Dib's eyes grew huge, and then he turned guiltily from me.
"How did you know?" He asked suddenly. I felt myself get pale suddenly. How DID I know? I couldn't tell Dib about how I could read the Irken language. He'd know I was half Irken, or he'd think I was a full Irken, most likely. And then I got an idea.
"I- I saw Mimi. I saw her in a tree near the school!" I said a little too quickly. At least it was part of the truth. There was no WAY I'd say that I was with Zim, let alone THINKING of Zim in a way other than just friendship. Dib crossed his arms.
"Okay, that explains how you know she's here. But how can you be so sure it was Mimi?" He asked smugly. I narrowed my eyes.
"She shot lazers out of her eyes at me and on the tree," I said darkly.
"Ah, I see your point. But how can you be so sure that I like Tak? I would NEVER fall in love with an Irk-"
"I saw it on the sticky note the other day. Her name was on there with a heart around it," I interupted.
"How can you be so sure it was her name? What if it was just a bunch of pictures?" Dib persisted on his inocence. I sighed.
"Stop asking all these freaking questions! I know because it's an exact copy of what Mimi wrote into the tree. I could match the two up perfectly. And why else would you have a heart around the name? It's not like Mimi would write 'Aliens' or anything into the heart!" I tried to interpret the story the best I could for him. Dib's face fell.
"Okay, fine. You've caught me. B- but I can't just FIGHT her. Think of your first crush," Dib said. I thought of Zim imediatly, guiltily, because I was in Dib's house."Mulitiply those feeling for them by ten. That's how I feel about Tak." Whoa. That's a LOT of feeling. I looked at him.
I put my hand on Dib's shoulder. "Why do you like her? She's trying to destroy earth! She's hates Zim, and everyone who he's ever talked to. She's a physcopath, Tak is Irken! Don't you hate Irkens?" I tried to talk some sense into him.
"It's not like that. Tak... at first I thought she was human, and I had a crush on her. Just because I thought she was pretty, and the fact that she hated Zim too, for unknown reasons. But when Zim started to fall in love with her, and started to give her meat, flowers, presents, anything he could, I was furrious. I was going to confess my feelings for her, but then I found out that she was Irken. I thought that would change my mind about her, but it just made me have a huger crush on her. Powerful, beautiful, amazing, and a common hatred for Zim. When we sent her spiraling into space, never to be seen again, I lost part of my heart with her. But now that she's back, I feel like my heart is repairing. I havn't had a crush on another girl ever since," Dib confessed. I was shocked at how much passion he had for her, considering we were only eighth graders.
"I-I didn't know you felt that strongly about her. So your plan, you were going to let her kill Zim, considering your hatred for him. But what after that? You're going to let her blow up the planet? You'd sacrafice your own planet for love?" I said softly. But inside, I could feel a huge shame blowing up inside me. Here Dib was, pouring his heart out to me, and I'm not returning the favor one bit.
"I'm not sure. I'm torn, Rose! Between the most amazing girl in the whole galaxy, and earth, a planet with billions of lives on it! I'm not even sure the girl likes me back at all, and I'm 100% sure almost everyone on this planet doesn't even give a damn. What do I do, Rosella?" He asked, his voice starting to crack. I really didn't want to see Dib cry, so I hugged him. He hugged back, and I felt wetness on my bare shoulder, most likely from Dib's tears.
"I think that if you truly have proof that Tak loves you back, you should give up earth. If she doesn't, let her go. Even if she seems like the perfect girl, is she the perfect girl for you?" I asked him. He pulled away from the hug.
"Yeah, that's a really good idea, Rose," Dib sniffed and wiped his face with the sleeve of his coat. "I'll do that."
"But you have to promise me one thing, Dib." I said in all serriousness. "You can't let Tak kill Zim." Dib looked sulky.
"Why? He's just an Irken. A stupid, idiot Irken. We're both humans, here. Zim is an alien!" Dib said. I realised that almost none of what he said was true. Zim wasn't JUST an Irken. He wasn't stupid, or an idiot. He was just... misguided. He was sweet if you dug deep enough, and he was funny, too. And no, we weren't both humans here. I wasn't a full Irken, but I wasn't exactly a normal human. Sure, Zim was an alien to Dib, but to me, Zim was like one of my own.
Dib's eyes suddenly got big. "Rose? Rosella? What's wrong?" I realised I hadn't said anything back.
"No. You just can't kill him. He's one of our only hopes to save earth. Oh, wait... well, Zim is still my friend! We can't throw him away! And I won't betray him, Dib." I said, my voice slightly cracking from the preasure inside me. If only Dib knew...
"Okay, but only for you, Rosella. No one else. Now, I think you should go home now, I have to look up some nearby wizards that can redo the spell on Gaz. See you around," Dib mumbled and lead me out the door. I pulled my boots up and grabbed Joy, lying by the front door. I looked around the living room. If you didn't see the snow or know it was December, you wouldn't know it was Christmastime. I frowned.
"Where's your Christmas Tree? And lights on the house?" I asked, realising I'd seen none on my trip here. Dib frowned larger than mine.
"We don't actually have any. My dad is too busy, and my sister hasn't cared about anything until now, really," Dib said like the answer was plain. My jaw fell.
"Okay, we're going to the store later to buy you some decoratons, mister! I'll meet you here at three today, alright?" I said, not allowing him to be all Scroodge-y. Dib gave me a half-hearted smile.
"Okay, fine. See you at three," Dib said and closed the door. I hopped on the scooter and raced down the sidewalks, nearly flying I was going so fast. I was going to Zim's house, to fill him in on everything, but at the same time feeling like a horrible traitor to Dib.