UPDATE!

Well, it's been a long week for me, what with exams and all, but they'll soon be over and I'll have all the time in the world (literally) to write about stuff.

So yea… woop for me.

Anyways, this chapter contains a little argument based of one I actually had with lesbian once, and also part of something I read about which I thought was absolutely brilliant when I read it.

Try and guess which was which…

Either way, I fully support Gaz's quote on the matter.

Also, as most have you have now realised, only about… 2 chapters are left in this fic. Sorry, but all good things must end sometime.

Either way; for now just sit back and enjoy.

P.S, I own nothing of this!

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The school hall was a vision of silence and emptiness, the clean polished floor, the natural light causing a slight glimmer on the floor and the shadows of clouds occasionally causing a slight darkness to obscure the hall. The dark green lockers stood on either side of the corridors, like guards, keeping a watchful eye on the stillness of the corridor. However, the peacefulness wasn't without its darkness. The pipes that ran along the ceiling, dodging around open pipe-lights and the grimy, dirty stains along the walls reflected the state of the school's pitiful funding.
There was graffiti from where someone had sprayed a bunch of lockers, yet, no one had seemed to care and so the spray paint had stayed un-cleaned, permanently staining the dull green metal.

The smell of the natural air clashed with the unnatural smell of grime hiding behind floor cleaning liquids. It would almost be sickly if the windows above the lockers hadn't been open.

Suddenly, a shrill cry of a bell was sounded, and the ear splitting ringing causing the scene of tranquillity to almost become distorted in its peacefulness.

Then, every dirty brown door on the corridor opened, and the occupants of the school trampled out, their voices and footfalls creating a sense of life in the cold, serene corridor.

One of the many teenagers now filling out into the hall was Gaz. She was wearing a pair of baggy black pants with a chain and her favourite black and purple striped top with black t-shirt over it with 'Deathbook: Raito Is Justice ' written in classical white letters on the chest. Her boots clicked on the lino floor and her old backpack bounced lightly from where it hung low on her back.

As she walked over to her locker, itself marked with several game stickers and various little notes like "Zim, touch this locker and die," or, "Dib, touch this locker and die." Directly on the front of the locker was a large asex triangle, drawn with a black marker and painted in with wite-out.

She smiled at the sign and opened her locker up, putting her maths books away and picking up her chemistry notes. She also took a moment too look for any spare batteries, her Gameslave was running low, before picked up two of them from the top shelf of her locker and shutting it.

She turned, and paused.

Walking towards her through the crowd was Izzy, and by the looks of it, she was being bugged intensely by Keef. She was wearing a pair of blue, form fitting jeans and a plain white baseball top. On her wrist she had a rainbow wristband and on her shoes were a pair on sneakers. Across one shoulder she had a red backpack with a rainbow triangle stitched into one side and a 'Vicious Whisper' patch on the other. In one hand she held a half-empty bottle of 'Deep Black' cola, and it seemed she was trying to use it as a stress ball.

Keef was wearing a pink shirt with long red and black arm-warmers and a pair of black pants with a matching short pick dress. He was also wearing a pair of all-star shoes and heavy black, but green tinted eyeliner. Around his shoulder and at his waist was a pink satchel with lots of rainbow and pro-gay badges on it, as well as a few band patches.

"Come on!" Keef begged, actually pulling at the sleeve of her white blank top, "You're the vice-fucking-president of the club!"

"No," Izzy turned on him and poked him in the chest, "I'm not going to no god-damn advertising event."

"It's not an advertising event!" Keef whined, "It's a civil rights protest!"

"It's being sponsored by Poop Cola!" Izzy growled, "It's an advert!"

Gaz frowned in interest; this was something she never thought she'd see. Gay people arguing over advertising at gay-right events, it wasn't exactly something she'd read about in the papers. She slowly began to walk over to the two, making sure to keep relatively unnoticed.

Keef waved a hand at the furious Izzy, "Oh so they say we've gotta put their logo on a few signs-"

"It's a god-damn banner!" Izzy raised her arms up in anger, "Its mascots and shit! We're not trying to get equality we're advertising the nicy-nice side of Poop Cola! People will walk off drinking cans instead of paying attention to our cause!"

"She's got a point," The two quickly turned to see Gaz standing behind them, "Equality shouldn't be achieved holding a coke can in your hand."

Izzy smiled. "Gaz! Just the person I wanted to see."

"There's no harm in letting a corporation help us out," Keef blatantly ignored Izzy's glaring that he'd interrupted her. Gaz couldn't help notice Keef seemed to have dropped that lisp, "It's a good thing! They're showing they're supportive of minority groups like us!"

Gaz narrowed her eyes. "Last election Poop Cola gave over a million dollars to the Republican Party and another two thousand dollars to President Marshal. Of course, more money was given to other smaller republican supporting groups as well, to get around the congress gift money laws." Gaz folded her arms and let a smug look appear on her face. "And now you're going to let them sponsor your protest? Smooth move, moron."

Izzy's eyes widened and Keef suddenly looked like someone had slapped him in the face, which is probably what Gaz had just done. There was a moment where Gaz could almost see the embarrassment being worked through Keef's whole system, before he looked down and mumbled. "Izzy wants to tell you something."

The girl turned to Gaz with a smile on her face. "Hey, you know how two weeks back when you were panicking about, you know," she looked around; the corridor was quickly emptying by now with people rushing off to who-knows-where, "The whole 'liking no-one' thing?"

Gaz raised and eyebrow slowly, "Yes…"

Izzy grinned. "Well I think I found something that you should know about. I was watching TV the other day and I saw this talk-show thing…" She took a short breath, "Have you ever heard of asexuality?"

For a second, Gaz felt like the world had dropped away behind her. Then, slowly she looked down, and a strange kind of choke escaped her.

Both Izzy and Keef had a sudden look of shock and sadness. Izzy even braved a hand on Gaz's shoulder. "Hey it's ok…" Then she realised that Gaz wasn't crying.

She was laughing.

Gaz wasn't used to laughing, so her laugher was more like a grinning, choking kind of laugher. Either way, both Izzy and Keef looked to each other as Gaz stumbled back a few paces, a scary looking grin on her face and her hair covering her eyes as she choke-laughed against the lockers.

Finally, after about a minute of this strange behaviour from Gaz, she looked up, a small smile still on her face. She looked like she was going to say something, then she shook her head and just pointed over to her locker. "Do you see that triangle?"

"Erm," Izzy looked to Keef, who looked completely mystified by the whole thing, before turning back and nodding, "Yea."

"That's the international sign of asexuality," An odd sparkle entered Gaz's eye, "But I found that out before I watched the Dr Feto show." Gaz could feel a rise of joy and pride inside her as she straightened herself up, "I've decided I'm asexual, and once more I'm proud of it."

Izzy took a moment to process the information, then smiled and held her arms out, obviously expecting a hug. "Hey that's great news! I'm so glad you found out what you are!"

Izzy might have looked a bit stupid with her arms held out to Gaz, who wasn't about to hug her, but Keef's sudden statement made her turn around and drop her arms. "What's an asexual?"

Gaz frowned at him. "I don't feel sexual attraction to anyone."

Keef smirked and crossed his arms. "That's impossible." A sudden cold atmosphere descended onto the three; however Keef seemed not to notice. "Everyone feels desire towards someone, it's natural."

Izzy growled at the boy, "Have some respect moron, if Gaz says she's asexual then that's what she is."

Keef shook his head. "I don't believe it. She's just going though a tough patch or something. You can't not have a sex drive, you'd be all pent up and stuff, plus you'd be lonely all the time."

Gaz took a step towards Keef, one that seemed to echo darkly through the corridor. "Look, prick, asexuality is a valid and proper orientation. I can't help be asexual just like you obviously can help being a complete asshole." Keef was shaking in the face of Gaz's pure anger, and rightly so. Someone had blatantly insulted her on the basis of who she was, but this went deeper than if someone had insulted her on her dress code or music tastes, this was a defining feature of who she was, something that she'd been through a lot of pain to finally understand and accept. "I do not feel lonely, I do not get 'pent up', I am not going through a 'tough patch'." She slowly clenched a fist and Keef could swear that flames were dancing in Gaz's amber eyes. "I am asexual and I'm happy with that. If you ever try to insult my personal feelings again I'll make sure you'll never be able to breathe again. Understand?" Keef nodded twenty times in a second. "Now," Gaz narrowed her gaze slightly. "Fuck. Off."

Keef vanished down the hallway, almost falling over himself in the process. Gaz watched with a satisfied smirk. She realised that she'd taken another self-asserting test; she'd defended herself from a contradictory moron, even if that moron was expectedly meant to be on her side.

"Well…" Gaz turned to see Izzy standing with her arms wrapped around her middle, a small smile on her face. "You're defiantly a sexual minority now." Gaz raised an eyebrow and Izzy smiled wearily. "You're not a real sexual minority unless someone tells you you're not natural." Gaz chuckled quietly and Izzy looked down, still smiling. "Sorry, I've got a stupid sense of humour." However, she looked back up, "And sorry for Keef, he's a-"

"Moron, yes," Gaz turned to fully face Izzy. "Don't worry about it." She turned and began walking; she needed to get to her next class. Unsurprisingly Izzy began walking alongside her. Gaz sighed as Izzy took a drink of her Deep Black cola, "I'm sure I'm gonna have to deal with that kind of shit for the rest of my life now."

"Welcome to our world." Izzy laughed lightly. "It's sad but you kind of learn to deal with it after a while. Lucky for us modern gays though, the world is a more accepting of us."

Gaz frowned slightly, "I think it's going to be a bit harder for me on the social scale…" Izzy cocked her head in silent interest as Gaz continued, "People are always going to be telling me things like 'you have to find the right person' or 'you're gay and repressing it' or some such crap. I mean, you've got gay clubs and all sorts, it's going to be near impossible for me to find a relationship that wont being up the question of sex sooner or later."

Izzy raised a hand to her chin. "Hum… but at least you don't get a violent reaction from some people… not like us. We get attacked and slandered all the time. Shit, in some counties we get killed… it's a sad state of affairs for those not living in the western world."

Gaz shrugged. "I suppose… but you've got a much bigger community then asexuals, so most of you guys can at least contact someplace safe if your get hated by your family or something. Plus, like you said, the world is more accepting of you guys." She sighed, "People only read about asexuals when talking about single cell reproduction." Gaz suddenly shut her eyes in annoyance. "Oh god… I'm probably going to get called an amoeba or something all the time now."

"As opposed to being called a faggot or an AID's pixie?" Gaz's eyes widened and Izzy nodded. "Yea, I got called an AID's pixie once, it wasn't nice."

Gaz suddenly felt a pang of guilt for all the times she'd said called someone a 'faggot' in anger. Although she knew she didn't mean to insult gay people, now that she realised she too was a minority in the world, and thus, up for mocking also. She could relate to the little points hurt that one felt whenever hearing an insult like that, even if it wasn't used in hate, and she had no illusions that if she told someone she was asexual, it was likely she'd be poked fun at for it. She could stand being joked upon, as long as it didn't drag, but some people tend to take things too far and end up using insults like 'queer' or 'faggot' all the time.

She silently promised herself try and stop using strong gay bashing words as insults, even for online gaming, from now on.

Gaz looked forward again focusing back onto the subject, "Alright… but perhaps that's because you're still wider known then most of us guys. I mean, come on, let's admit it." Gaz turned back to Izzy, "We live in a world driven by sex. It's everywhere, and for asexuals it's a confusing world to live in." She looked down, "You end up thinking you're broken or heartless… I know I did. You don't have anyone to turn to either because we're so rare."

Izzy nodded slowly as she swallowed more of her drink. "I can see that… I can see why you guys have such a large internet base instead of, if you don't mind me saying, real world communities like we do. You guys are probably one to a town, one to a city maybe, so I'm glad to see you guys having a community, especially an online community.

"You checked out the Asexuality Awareness dot Org?" Gaz smiled slightly as Izzy nodded, "Wow… that's… cool of you."

"Thanks," Izzy shrugged and paused to throw her now empty bottle into a nearby bin, "You guys are really getting yourselves organised really quickly. You've got videos and multiple blogs and all sorts, it's really interesting."

Gaz shrugged, "I suppose since we're not sex-mad like the rest of the world, we have more time to make websites or write essays or articles and things."

The taller girl chuckled, "See, that's the kind of attitude to have. Being all up your own ass on your sexuality just makes you annoying, like Keef."

Gaz shuddered, "I guess assholes transcend things like orientation or whatever. Assholism can strike anyone, anywhere."

Izzy laughed and smiled, "That's so true it should be on a t-shirt."

"Hey," Gaz looked to Izzy, "Why did you go out of your way to tell me about the talk-show?"

"I want to become a sexual psychologist, but a good one, you know?" Izzy smiled, "So I make it my business to check out any new things like this." Her eyes narrowed slightly, "I hope you don't mind me saying, but… you're an interesting person Gaz."

The girl frowned, "What?"

"Well, I've never met an asexual before," Izzy shrugged, "So… you're interesting because you're not like anyone else I know."

Gaz just raised an eyebrow and shrugged slowly. "Well, thanks, I guess."

Gaz stopped; she was outside her classroom now however the bell still had a minute or so to ring before she would have to go in. Izzy stopped alongside her and shifted her feet. "Hey, can I ask you something?"

"What?" Gaz folded her arms silently confident she could answer anything Izzy had on asexuality.

"Have you told your parents yet?"

Gaz's face dropped, she wasn't prepared for that. Immediately the girl looked down, "Erm… no. I haven't even told my brother."

Izzy nodded, "Hey its ok if you haven't, but… do you plan on telling them?"

Gaz bit her lip, how does one tell their parents about something like this? She could understand bi or gay, again, facts about that where everywhere. Everyone knew what being bi or gay meant, but asexual? How the hell are you meant to come out about being asexual?

"I… don't know…" Gaz looked back up to the taller girl, "Yea I think I should tell them… but…"

"It's a tough thing to do, right?" Izzy smiled warmly, "Its fine, telling your parents anything like this is one of the toughest things you can ever do."

"Have you told your parents?" Gaz asked with a slight turn of her head, "What was it like for you?"

Izzy looked up and breathed out, falling against a nearby locker. "Well I knew my dad would be ok with it, he's a civil rights lawyer, but I was scared my mom might be mad with me." She smiled, "But she was fine with it, I was so glad." She frowned, "But when my granddad found out he went ballistic and now he refuses to talk to me," she sneered, "but that's fine with me because I've always hated the old bastard anyway."

"Lucky," Gaz commented and leaned against the locker next to the taller girl. She sighed. "I want to tell them you know, but… It's just, time and place and shit…" she chuckled, "And I've got no idea what the reaction will be. I think my brother will be ok with it, he watched that talk-show with me and he was cool about it," Gaz smiled, she'd never tell him, but she was impossibly thankful of Dib for that and her respect for him had greatly risen. "But my dad…"

Izzy nodded slowly, "Yea, don't wanna be drawing on statistics here, but it's usually the dad's who react the most negatively."

"… I think I'm going to tell him soon," Gaz nodded to herself, "We have a family outing every year to some restaurant, it's coming up this Saturday and this time it's my turn to choose where we go." She smiled, "Yea, I'll tell my family then."

Izzy nodded and smiled, she then suddenly reached into her backpack, drawing out a small pad of paper and, after a few seconds more searching, a sparkly pen. She quickly tore out a small square and turned to use the locker to write something on it.

Gaz watched this with a silent interest, wondering what the girl could be doing.

When Izzy turned back to Gaz, she was surprised to find the taller girl had an odd, sad expression. "I'm only meant to do this for members of the club, but here," and she held out the paper. Gaz took it and looked at it as Izzy explained, "It's my mobile phone number and house address."

Gaz frowned, "Why would I need this?"

Izzy looked down. "Right now there's a guy staying at my house because his parents refuse to let 'that faggot piece of shit' back in their home." She looked back up to Gaz. "You never know what you're parents reactions are going to be like, so this is just in case… you need somewhere to stay, or even someone to talk to, you know?"

Gaz was, well, rather shocked that a girl she'd only known for a little while, barely even an hour, had given her such a generous and personal helping hand. She supposed not everyone in the world were mindless grinning morons, that some people where actually worth the effort of getting to know them.

"Thanks…" Gaz placed the address firmly into her pocket.

Izzy smiled, "No problem." She pushed herself off the locker as the bell rung out, causing Gaz to wince at the loudness of the ringing. As the taller girl walked away she turned around and waved. "See you later Gaz! And if I don't then good luck!"

"Yea," Gaz put up a hand, "Thanks, bye."

As Gaz walked into the classroom and sat down at her usual desk, she couldn't help reach into her pocket and look at the paper again. A cold sense of dread entered her stomach and ran across her back.

Would her dad actually kick her out over this? She would expect him to be angry, but, and while it might have sounded rather mean, it wasn't like she was admitting she was gay. She was sure her dad might try and talk her out of it, come up with excuses for her, maybe even drag her to his labs and check her hormone levels on some invention of his, but throw her out? Attack her? She was sure he wouldn't do that.

But still… she folded the paper and put it in her pocket again, she'd keep the address on her.

Just in case.

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WOO!

So, another chapter over and done with.

So, I'd like to say that since I told my friends about my asexuality-ness, of which by the way they where fine about, I have been called 'amoeba' a good many time and I have been joked about reproducing by splitting in two and such.

Now, while I can take this as a joke and not get offended, sometimes it does get to me, as it would get to anyone I suppose.

So I thought that I'd mention that… I can take a joke, but sometimes it wears a bit thin…

Also, I think it's true about that thing about asexuals having a hard time with the world at large. Although I know gay people also have a tough time, ON A WHOLE, they have a far easier time then barely 30 years back.

However, my point stands that asexuals do have a tough time telling people about themselves to others. But, rather than us being hated, we're simply completely misunderstood and just, well, dismissed. I can say from my own personal experience that we gotta stand there and explain, over and over again, that nothing is wrong with us.

Either way, while the state of acceptance is good, it's still improving.

Enough of me ranting.

'Vicious Whispers' is from that awesomage book 'Serenity Rose', which I would highly recommend to anyone.

Both 'Marshal' and 'Deep Black' are references to 'How To Totally Rock' by GunGreg89. You know you loved it.

Anyways, R&R cos… you know… reviews are nice to read…