A/N: Yep... New chapters come fast with this story.

This chapter will be so much fun to write! Enjoy!


"Dib, you little brat! Wake up now!" Dib was already awake this morning, like every morning. He was on the roof, searching for signs of incoming aliens. His mother's screams were loud enough to be heard from the roof, as long as he left a window open. He quickly clambered into his room and got ready for his first day of preschool. He grabbed his little ghost toy and ran downstairs.

He was downstairs in six minutes, but that wasn't fast enough for his mom. "What possibly took you so long? That was a ridiculous amount of time! That's it, no breakfast for you today! That'll teach you to hurry up."

The boy sighed and sat down on the living room couch. He opened up NaInCom and played around for a bit. Half an hour later, Gaz came downstairs, playing her brand new GameSlave Color. "Oh, good morning, Gazlene! Here, I made waffles for breakfast!" The little girl grunted in an annoyed tone, and sat down at the kitchen table. Dib watched as Gaz slowly ate her breakfast. Yesterday, they didn't leave that much scraps for him to eat, and Dib never gets lunch.

Once Gaz finished her breakfast, she walked into the living room and stood in front of Dib. When he didn't get up right away, Gaz yanked on his leg so he fell out of his seat. She sat where the boy was sitting a moment ago. Dib grabbed his toy and went over to the front door to wait to go to preschool. He left NaInCom on the couch next to where he was sitting; the laptop was too big for him to carry around with him all day.

His mom noticed him standing by the door. "Dib? What do you think you're doing with that stupid toy of yours?"

"I'm going to bring it with me. Why?"

"Oh, no no no. Do you want to look like a baby in public? You are not bringing that sh*t-stuffed sack to preschool, you got that? You already look ridiculous, with your coat and that tuft of hair sticking up."

"But it won't stay down! It keeps popping back up!" And it was true; Dib tried all the previous week to get that one bit of hair, that seemed to come out of nowhere, down in a normal position.

"Well, that's too bad." With those words, Mrs. Membrane snatched the stuffed animal and tossed it up on top of the refrigerator, where the young boy couldn't reach. "Come on, you little c*nt. Time for preschool."

"Okay." Dib forlornly followed his mother out the door.

:~:~:

A hyperactive teacher welcomed the new preschoolers. "Welcome to PerSkool, children! My name is Miss Fondell! We're gonna have a blast this year!"

Dib tried to pick a seat near a few kids, but not too many. Next to him was a boy with dirty blond hair and brown eyes, and behind him was a girl with lightish purple hair in tiny pigtails. Her teeth were a little crooked. The teacher continued talking. "Today we're gonna learn about each other! To start, I want you all to introduce yourselves to the kids around you. Okay? Go ahead, now!"

The boy went first. "H-hi... My name is Louie. What's yours?"

"My name is Dib."

The girl behind him spoke up. "Dib? That's a wierd name."

Dib was slightly offended by this. "Yeah, so? I'm sure there are weirder names out there! What's yours, anyway?"

The girl looked a bit shocked by Dib's reaction. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it in a bad way. My name's Gretchen."

Dib felt a little bad for snapping back at her. "Oh, sorry. It's just..." Dib didn't continue.

It was Louie's turn to comment. "It's just what?"

"Well, my mom doesn't really like my name. My dad picked it out."

"Oh," both children responded. Louie continued. "So... What do you like to do? I like figuring out stuff. Like how adults can read such huge books, especially without pictures in them!"

"Yeah, it must be hard to do," Gretchen replied. "How do the adults not get bored?"

"Maybe, the book's about something interesting," Dib stated, "like my Uncle; he has a whole collection of huge books! He said they're all about different things that he likes, and that he read all of the books."

"What does your uncle like?" Louie asked.

"Oh, he likes stuff like ghosts and aliens and... Stuff."

"Really?" Gretchen questioned. "What about you? Do you like that stuff?"

"Yeah, actually. Right now I'm-"

Dib was cut off by Miss Fondell. "Okay, class, time to learn the class rules! You can talk to your new buddies soon!"

:~:~:

By the end of the day, Dib, Louie, and Gretchen became good friends. Louie also happened to find interest in the paranormal, and Gretchen enjoyed learning about the various creatures the two boys discussed. Outside of the PerSkool building, parents waiting for their children chit-chatted. Louie's parents were the first ones there, wanting to make sure that they got their boy on time. Gretchen's parents were there by the time most of the parents were, a moment or two before the kids were let out. Dib's mom, however, wasn't there when Dib got out. Louie's parents decided to wait with him, and the two boys played around while they waited.

Finally, Mrs. Membrane got to the building an hour later, dragging along Gaz, whose face was glued to her GameSlave Color's screen. Wanting to get home right away, she grabbed Dib by the collar of his coat and started to drag him to the car. Before she could get far enough, Louie's parents came up to her and introduced themselves. Before Mrs. Membrane knew it, they were going on about how Dib was an adorable and kind young boy, what the family must be like, etc. The one thing that stuck in the woman's ears was how the two boys shared an interest in what Louie's parents called "silly ghosts and goblins". Mrs. Membrane promptly stated that they had somewhere to be soon, and shoved Dib and Gaz into the car.

Once inside, Eleanor harshly scolded, "Were you talking about that retarded paranormal garbage with that boy, Dib?"

Dib didn't answer, he was too shocked by his mother's anger. She continued to shout at him. "Dib, you're making yourself look like a creep or a freak. Or both! And that'll make the entire family seem like freaks! Do you want that, you little brat?"

Dib answered this time. "No... But Louie's parents were nice, they wouldn't-"

"People act nice to others when they first meet a person, okay? That family will let everyone know that you're a freak, and I'll be a freak by bringing you into existence! When we get home, Dib, I have something to show you."

Once the family got home, Mrs. Membrane brought Dib into her room. Gaz walked into the living room to start up her game. Upstairs, in her mother's hand, she had a fairly small, yet very sharp, kitchen knife. "Mom, what did you want to show me?"

Dib's mother grabbed his left hand and spread out his fingers on her dresser. "This is to show you that you cannot talk about that paranormal stuff with other people." She slammed the knife down on the boy's middle finger.

Downstairs, Gaz was playing a first-person shooter, Zombie Killjoy, in an online tournament, so the scream from upstairs blended with the screams in the video game, so the girl couldn't hear the difference.

Back upstairs, Dib was frantically searching for something to use as a bandage to cover up the bleeding stump where his finger once was. He ended up running into the kitchen and grabbing the first-aid kit, using the supplies in there. Before Dib could do anything else, his mom grabbed him by the coat and shoved him into his room, along with his toy ghost and NaInCom.

"You aren't allowed out of there until you have to go to school tomorrow!" Mrs. Membrane shouted.

"B-but what about dinner?" the child feebly asked.

In response, his mom tossed Dib's severed finger into his room. "That's all you're getting for the next two days." Then she slammed the door shut.

NaInCom couldn't stand it. "What is wrong with that woman? She shouldn't be taking care of children if she does stuff like that! Dib, are you okay?"

Dib hugged his ghost toy. "O-of course, NaInCom. It's discipline, it's only discipline, parents are supposed to do that..."

That night, Dib had horrible nightmares, filled with demonic versions of all the people he had met in his life. These creatures haunted his dreams for many nights afterwards.


A/N: I told you that this would be fun to write. But I never said it would be fun to read, now did I?

This chapter proves that whenever something good happens in Dib's life, it has to be ruined.

So, did you like this chapter? Probably not, so flame and complain if you wish.