Chapter 13

Let me out.

No.

Come on. Just one fight on the dance floor? It'll be real contained.

I'm sure…

Five minutes. Just five minutes.

The answer is still no.

Oh! You stupid, law-abiding, idiotic, little girl! Why do I even have to listen to you anyways? I should be the one controlling our actions. I should be out there! I want to get out! You can't keep me inside forever! You know that you can't! Just let me out for a while so that you can replenish your strength. You'll feel much better after you do. Just a few minutes on the dance floor. I want to get back at that girl, Gretchen, too. You know, for when she tackled Dib in front of the base when he was trying to talk to us. I want to get her for that! Let me out!

Let me think about that… No.

You didn't even think about that, shisno.

I'm not letting you out because I know that you'll fight when it's time to get back in. I'm going to keep you inside as long as possible and then you're going to become nothing but a memory to me. You'll slip away once and for all after a few years and then I'll be able to forget all about you.

You see that's where you're wrong, little girl. I won't be going anywhere for quite a while. After that thing with Dib all those months back I've become angered again. I'm back and badder than ever. Once I get mad enough I'm going to burst through this stupid mental barrier that you've put up and then I'm going to come out fully and everyone in the area will get hurt. Don't you think that it would make more sense to continuously cool me down?

It would if I would be able to easily put you back. But, sadly, I cannot put you back easily and, so, you must stay.

Fine. But when I do come out you'll be sorry. Because you won't be able to get back out. I'll keep you in like you're doing to me right now. Then you'll be sorry that you didn't let me out when you first had the chance to. You'll see how sorry you can be when I come out for my revenge. You'll see.

I'm sure I will…

Oh, you will… YOOOUUUU WWWWIIIIILLLLLL…

"Brooke?"

She sat up straight and shook the tiredness from her eyes. Brooke rubbed her left eye, because it was very irritable, and then looked up to see who had disturbed her in the middle of some serious thinking.The person she saw before her was Dib of all people. She was actually surprised that he had been able to find her in such a crowded room. In fact, a lot of the kids had actually gone outside because the place was so crowded.

Dib had on a filly looking blue tuxedo. When she'd seen Gretchen earlier that night Brooke had noticed that she had been wearing a blue dress with frilly, white sleeves. It was assumed that Gretchen had chosen Dib's outfit for him so that they would match. But, now, Gretchen was nowhere to be seen. Obviously Dib had been able to evade her and slip away into the crowd. Now he'd found Brooke.

"Brooke?" he repeated. "Are you all right? You look… different."

"I wonder if the make-up may have anything to do with that." Brooke rolled her eyes.

"Oh, right. Sorry."

"Don't be."

Dib sat down in a chair next to Brooke. He swung his legs aimlessly as he leaned back and watched as the other kids in the room danced away to the music of Belly Furdato and her song ManDevourerer. They all seemed quite happy with dancing on the floor. Then there was Brooke, who sat on the sidelines and watched quietly.

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All night he'd watched her from afar and found that Brooke hadn't really moved from her spot. Zim had been sitting there with her for the longest time, just talking to her. But, not too long ago, someone had spilled a tray of something on him and the alien had run from the room, screaming. Dib had followed him into the men's room and taunted him for a while. But when Zim didn't come out and continued to make gross noises from the stall he'd returned to the dance room.

So now he was sitting next to Brooke, away from Gretchen for the first time all night. Being next to Brooke made him feel a little bit nervous. After all, after seeing what she did to the entire class the day of Miss Bitters' test he'd been quite nervous about her. She'd really changed from the girl that he had met at first. That nice artist that he had known and liked turned sour so quickly. And it wasn't just recently; he'd noticed a change before they crossed over to her dimension as well.

So he looked over to her. Dib was surprised that she had worn a dress.

It was then that he noticed the little dog beside her chair. Gir was curled up by the leg, rubbing against her boot. He looked very happy, just lying there. It wasn't any wonder that Dib hadn't seen him before, because Brooke hadn't given any attention to the robot/dog. She'd acted as though he wasn't even there. In fact, even when she'd been talking to Zim it looked like she wasn't even really listening. It was sort of like she was off in her own thoughts but listening too. Like someone else was there while she was occupied with something else.

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Kim: Big hint for later stories right there!

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Dib looked down at Gir and sort of smiled when the robot wriggled where he was and smiled wide. He could see that even Gir had dressed up. He had a bowtie on. It was loose and crooked but it was there nonetheless.

Then he turned his attention back to Brooke, who was still just sitting there. But as he looked closer he found something quite strange that had happened to her. Her eyes were no longer brown; they weren't even like normal human eyes anymore. No. Brooke's eyes had turned completely black and then there was a stream of white that rotated across the middle, back and forth. It was sort of like it was reading the data in front of it. Like a robot. LOL.

He got a little worried for her now.

This wasn't normal. Although Brooke, herself, wasn't normal either this was just too weird.

This wasn't right.

Dib snapped his fingers in front of her face and waved his hand to her. "Brooke? Brooke? Are you ok? Brooke? Can you hear me?" He was able to get a reaction.

Brooke shook her head hard and wobbled a bit. "Huh?" She turned to Dib. "Oh, I'm sorry. Did you say something?"

"Uh… yeah… I was…" He looked out to the dance floor for a moment. His eyes crossed around the room, looking at all of the kids dancing and having such a good time. It looked very fun, to dance like that, not a care in the world. Dib wondered if he would be able to dance and just wash away the worries about Zim conquering the world for at least one night. Not being worried about that sort of thing might feel good. "Yeah. I was wondering if…" he turned back to Brooke. "If you wanted to dance. Do you?"

Brooke's face went blank. She looked completely surprised at what had just come from his mouth. "Uh… N-No thanks… I… uh… don't dance. Sorry…"

Dib sank down in his seat. Rejection hurt. A lot. He hadn't expected Brooke to just say no thanks to his offer to dance. From what he could tell she was a pretty lonely girl. And from what Kim had told him when he was in her dimension three months ago Brooke never really had a boyfriend or dated anyone at all. She didn't love anyone and Dib thought that maybe all she needed was someone nice to make her feel good. It couldn't hurt to make her feel good for one night.

So he turned back to her and smiled. "Come on Brooke. You'll have fun. Dancing will help you to take your mind off of things."

"That's what I'm afraid of…" she muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing!" She jumped in her seat when she said that.

Dib took her hand. "Come on. Please. Just one dance."

"But I… Don't dance."

Dib then stood up, her hand still in his. "Please. One dance? Please?" He was sure that his eyes looked watery and close to tears. Hopefully that would convince her to dance with him. If the watery eyes didn't work then nothing would.

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Normally, had EB been out to cause trouble, she would have just ignored his face. Then she would have taken her hand out of his grasp and shooed him away so that he would disappear into the crowd again. Then she would go back to her thoughts and not bother with him for the rest of the night.

But EB hadn't come out.

Brooke was out.

EB was safely put away and couldn't hurt anybody.

So Brooke was inclined to say yes.

And say yes she did.

"Fine…"

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Dib walked, with Brooke, to the dance floor. The kids around them spread farther away. Not so much to let them pass but for two other reasons. The first being that Dib was a paranoid, insane boy and that none of the other children wanted to catch of paranoidinsanesyndrom. The other reason being that Brooke was scary at times and that most of the kids still had visible black eyes and puffed up noses. So Brooke and Dib walked into a large, bare circle of the dance floor and began to dance to 'don't let me catch me' by Rose. (Kim: Get it?)

They let go of each other's hand and then started to dance away to the beat.

Dib had his hands in fists and his elbows tucked tightly to the side moving from the left to the right to the left and left again then to the right to the left to the right and to the right again. Then he repeated the pattern. His feet moved about a little bit, but not much, while he danced about.

Brooke just swayed a little bit. She had a lot of trouble getting into a dancing mood. It was much harder than it might seem to most people. She tended to look at her feet a lot and do a few moves where she would spin a whole 90 degrees and then move right back to how she was at first.

Hey. Guess what.

What?

You're distracted.

What?!

Brooke stopped her dancing for a moment and looked at her feet. Her hair fell over her face a lot and most of her face wasn't seen behind the brown locks. Dib stopped and cocked his head. He was starting to get worried for her. "Brooke…? Are you… ok? Brooke?"

She looked up at him and smiled. "I'm great! I've never felt better!" Then the part in the song where is says 'doctor, doctor, would you please give me some drug? A day in the life of a hobo?' for the last time before the music line. 'Brooke' held her finger up to Dib for a moment and waited for the music part to come. Then she spread her arms wide and spun around once really quickly. In one fail sweep she went down, onto the ground. Dib though that she had fallen but she hadn't. No. Now she was on the ground; her hands stayed in, relatively, the same place as her feet spun her entire body about in a circle several times. When she pulled herself back up and raised her hands into the air everyone started to clap.

EB smiled with delight.

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Kim: Aw! I feel all bad for leaving this for so long. Stupid tests and stupid being grounded. I hate them both. Haven't been able to update for a while but I will! I promise! And once again Brooke isn't on MSN so no quotes from her. Wha!!!