Chapter 25 Preparing for Holiday Parties
*I am extending the length of each chapter because I feel that they are too short, but that's just me, so yeah it'll take me longer to update but I will try my best to update every other day or so (even if that is not really working for me at the moment).
"Finally Winter break is here! We have to drag Zim and Dib over for a party." Sally said.
"I'm sure it'll be easy to get Dib over, all you have to do is bat your lashes a little and give a smile and ask him." Alex said jokingly.
"I do not have to do that. I ask, if he's not busy he usually says okay but if he's busy then he'll tell me. Simple." Sally argued.
Alex shrugged.
"And you need to talk Zim into coming." Sally added.
"Why?" Alex asked.
"Because I want all four of us to hang out and at least act like we like each other, plus you have a Christmas present for him don't you?" Sally asked.
"Well yeah but I can go to his house and give it to him." Alex answered.
"No! We both have the week of Christmas and New Year's off of work we have to have Dib and Zim over for a party or something. Some day where we can get them to not argue and have some fun, they're too uptight sometimes." Sally said flicking Alex on the nose.
"Hey!" She protested.
"Now go and talk Zim into coming." Sally said.
"Okay, okay, when do you want to do this anyways?" Alex asked.
"Hm, Christmas Eve, and New Year's Eve. Now off with you." Sally said pushing her out the door and following behind her. She locked the door and continued to push Alex down the hall and into the elevator.
"The elevator? Sally we can both fly, let's just fly." Alex said.
"Aw come on we always fly. Let's walk like normal people." Sally said.
"Flying is fun and we might as well take advantage of the fact that we can." Alex argued but the elevator doors had already closed and started to go down.
Sally gave Alex one last shove in the direction of Zim's neighborhood as she walked down the street toward Dib's.
When Dib opened the door he wasn't really expecting Sally there.
"Hi! Alex and I are having a little party for Christmas and New Years, you wanna come?" Sally asked with a small smile.
"When is it?" He asked.
"Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve." She answered.
"And knowing you, you sent Alex to get Zim and this is part of a ploy to get us to have a day or two to get along." He concluded.
"You're learning, but I just want us to have some fun. But if you have other plans that's okay." Sally said.
"No. I don't really have other plans. I'll go." He said.
She smiled a little and said, "Great, I'll call you when we figure out times."
"Okay." He answered.
"See you later." She said with a wave and headed back down the sidewalk and down the road feeling a little giddy. Dib was coming even if Zim might be there.
Alex walked down the sidewalk, ignoring the creepy lawn gnomes that followed her every move. They still creped her out, but she was learning to ignore them since; so far they haven't bothered her. She rang the doorbell and immediately a hole opened up under her feet before she even had time to open her wings and stop herself from falling.
She slid through a pitch-black tunnel and it reminded her of a water slide she had been on called "The Dark Hole" the difference, no water and no idea where she was going to end up. She found out soon enough when she landed on, what at first she thought was a net, but couldn't get up and realized it was more like a web.
"Zim!" She shouted sounding irritated through the dark room. She heard movement, more specifically metal; the same sound his mechanical spider leg thingy's made when Zim used them.
"Zim! I know you're there and I know you can hear me. Get me out of this web-thing!" She shouted.
"Alright, alright, I'm coming!" She heard Zim call back as the sound came closer and she could make out his form. The room was dimly lit so she had a little bit of trouble seeing him until he got closer.
"What the heck? You couldn't have answered the door?" Alex demanded.
"I'm busy, you've been down to this part of the base before so I saw no reason in going to answer the door." He responded and cut the webbing. Alex landed on her feet and pulled what was left, off.
"But really? A web? Is that actually necessary? Wouldn't it be easier to just have a trampoline or a cushion or something that people don't stick to?" She asked.
"It keeps you out of my way." He said.
"I don't like webs, I don't like being restrained or being restricted in any way." She answered.
"So I've noticed, but you do not have to be so loud." He said.
"You're one to talk." Alex responded teasingly.
"What does that mean?" He asked going back to what he was doing. She followed.
"Often when you use your name, talk in third person or something like that, you're pretty loud yourself." She explained. He just shrugged. Of course he wouldn't notice it himself.
"So what are you working on?" She asked looking over his shoulder. She was actually able to do that since she was only a few inches shorted.
"Um, nothing. Can you get back please?" Zim demanded.
"Yeah sure, don't need to be snippy." Alex said backing up.
"Why are you here?" Zim asked.
"Oh right. Sally and I are having our own little Christmas and New Year's parties and I was wondering if you wanted to come." She answered.
"I have no interest in attending." He said simply.
"Come on, you might have fun." Alex said.
"Party!" Gir shouted and started running around in circles yelling the word 'party' over and over.
"Enough!" Zim shouted at him.
"Well if you change your mind, they're at our house, first one is Christmas Eve and Gir can come along too." Alex said.
"Whatever." He said.
"How do I get out of here?" Alex asked.
"Gir, show Alex the way out." Zim said simply while not looking up from his project. Whatever it was, Alex figured that it had to be something important for him to be so focused on it. She followed Gir to an elevator that opened through the trashcan.
"Elevator trashcan, weird." She commented and gave Gir and hug and went out the door. The gnomes followed her every move as she walked down the sidewalk.
Zim watched the monitors as Alex left and let out a sigh of relief. She had come at the worst time and had almost seen what he had been working on.
"You should go master. It would make her happy!" Gir said jumping around.
"I have no reason to go to something so stupid." Zim answered.
Gir proceeded to scream and cy the way he often did when Zim rejected him. It lasted longer than usual before Zim shouted, "Silence! I'm not going Gir!"
"Then we can have it here! I can decorate. This is going to be so much fun. We can call them and tell them and I'll get streamers, glitter and make a cake." Gir said.
"No! We are not having any kind of party here!" Zim snapped.
"Then we should go to there's. If not we have it here!" Gir responded smiling.
"Fine! We'll go." Zim growled.
"We can make Alex a present!" Gir said jumping around.
"Why?" Zim demanded.
"She's nice." Gir said.
"So? What's your point?" Zim asked.
"And you like her." Gir added with a grin and stared blankly at him and the started dancing around and yelling, "I'm dancing like a monkey!"
Zim let out a sigh and said, "No I don't."
"Yes you do!" Gir said jumping up and squishing Zim's face in his hands and standing on his chest.
"Stop it Gir! That is utter nonsense!" Zim snapped. He had admitted it to himself that he may like the bird human a little bit and he had almost told her that himself, but he refused to openly admit it to anyone else. He found it odd that two bird humans happened to become friends even though they appeared to have different backgrounds but he knew that they were not the same genetic wise. Alex had told him that she had been genetically modified; he suspected that Sally was not.
Alex walked through the door and was a little surprised to see that Sally was home and was braiding her long pale-blonde hair back so that it didn't get in the way when she baked. That was the reason Alex just grabbed a pair of scissors and hacked off her gold-blonde hair to right above her shoulders so she didn't have to deal with putting it back in a ponytail or in Sally's case, braid and then put it up in a bun or something like that.
"Have you ever cut your hair a day in your life? Or had it cut?" Alex asked her.
"Yea, why?" Sally asked.
"Because it's almost to your ankles and it seems like a hassle to have to braid it and then put it up just to keep it out of the way." Alex answered.
"My hair always stays at this length. I don't know why to be honest but my guess is something about magic and my mom cause her hair is always the same length too but, it just does. Watch." Sally answered and grabbed the scissors Alex used to chop off her hair when it got too long and cut about halfway up the braid. In about a minute all of it had grown back to the length it was before and stopped. She threw the lock of hair into the trash.
"So what're you up to?" Alex asked.
"Just making some sweets and stuff for the party." She answered.
"The party isn't for another three days." Alex said.
"I know but might as well start now." Sally answered.
"Assuming the people that we invite show up there will only be five of us." She answered.
"Ah but Gir eats a lot just like you do." Sally pointed.
Alex had nothing to come back with that so she said, "Touché. Okay then I'll help."
They spent about an hour making stuff and stored them away so they would be okay for the next few days.
"So are Zim and Gir coming?" Sally asked.
"I don't know. Zim said he didn't want to, but Gir will likely try to talk him into it." Alex answered.
"Uh Alex? You have something on the back of your jacket." Sally said and pulled off a strand of thick spider silk.
"Damn it. I thought I got all of it off." Alex hissed.
"When did you run into a giant spider web? Are there seriously spiders big enough to make this? This could hold a freight train." Sally asked.
"Oh, Zim had it at the opening of a tunnel that had opened up at my feet when I rang the doorbell. He said it was there to keep me out of the way, you not from look at his stuff and asking what it does. But I was yelling for him to get me out of it so he did. He seemed very distracted, he didn't call me worm-monkey or anything like that." Alex explained.
"Probably working on something for his next scheme." Sally answered.
"Most likely. Well time to do some decorating." Alex said pulling out the few decorations they had and both of them moved on to that.
"Glitter." Sally said pulling out a bag of glitter.
"No glitter." Alex said frankly.
"Why?" Sally asked.
"Because glitter is the herpes of the art world. You cannot get rid of it. I still find glitter in my hair from when you dumped a bowl of it over my head on Halloween during the first month we had met. That was nearly two years ago. No glitter, we'll never get rid of it." Alex said simply.
"It wasn't that bad." Sally said.
"It fell into my food for a month from my hair. Even if you couldn't see all of it, every time I took a shower it was glittery for four months. How so much glitter fit into that bowl I will never know but I still find glitter on some clothes and in my hair." Alex said rolling her eyes.
"But it was funny. The look on your face was priceless." Sally said.