Edit:

I'm having such a good time re-reading these chapters! Updating is super satisfying too

Monday was a historic day for Dib Membrane when he went to the parking lot after school to get his car. Next to the lot was the Skool's football field where tryouts for the team were being held. It was weird that their Skool had football season during spring semester since it was a fall sport, but at least their Skool had a football team at all. Regardless, Dib nearly dropped his keys when he saw who was trying out for the team.

"Zim?" Dib asked himself quietly. He ran to the chain-link fence and looked out in disbelief. There was Zim, wearing padding and a red pinnie, doing stretches and running across the field with all of the other boys there. "What is he planning?"

Meanwhile Gaz was stuck in English. She made eye contact with the kid who had been the DJ at Keef's party. As they looked at each other, he suddenly began making fun of her for what happened at the party, pretending to barf. Once the bell rang, Gaz walked over to the kid and knocked all of his books off the desk.

"What the fuck!" He yelled, picking up his books from the ground. Gaz smiled evilly and left the classroom. Her mood was actually starting to lift until she saw Jake in the hallway, talking to two girls. His face was badly bruised and his lip looked like it had been split open. By the way he was talking to those girls and gesturing to his injuries, Gaz assumed he was bragging about the fight he had last night.

Gaz's fists clenched and unclenched in anticipation. She hated him more than she hated Dib on a daily basis in that moment and wanted nothing more than to destroy him, so she did the next best thing.

"Oh, shit." Jake suddenly said when he realized who was marching towards him. "Gaz, I-" His words were cut off by a swift punch to the face. The two girls he was talking to screamed. It was such a powerful blow that he fell to the ground, blood pooling out of his mouth from his lip being reopened. Her knuckles hurt slightly, but it didn't bother her. She was just happy that she was able to get revenge on his ass.

"Never touch me again you piece of shit." Gaz spat, kicking him in the stomach. She noticed one of the girls had run to get a teacher. Gaz didn't care. She smiled as she gazed down at the boy who had been reduced to nothing beneath her feet. It was funny to think that he once believed he was more powerful than her.

"She's right over here!" The girl had returned with a teacher who immediately walked up to Gaz and grabbed her by the arm.

"Principal's office. Now."

Gaz had been to the Principal's office many times, so when she got there she basically mouthed the Principal's words.

"Detention. One more strike equals suspension young lady." The Principal always forgot to suspend Gaz, maybe out of laziness or maybe because he hated giving kids free days off. Either way, Gaz was just happy she got to punch that jackass in the face.

Detention went by fast. Gaz still didn't have a phone, but she assumed Dib got the message that she was in detention since it happened so often. She knew she'd have to walk home, but at least it wasn't raining outside.

"You can go." The teacher supervising detention said. Gaz swiftly grabbed her bag and exited the classroom along with the other kids that were in detention with her. As she rounded the corner she suddenly saw Zim. He was at his locker putting something away. He wore a red hoodie and black joggers. Gaz casually walked past him, trying not to draw attention to herself. Zim slammed his locker before noticing her walk by.

"Gaz," Zim greeted casually, giving her a quick head nod. She was caught off guard by him calling her by her actual name. It was weird hearing it outloud. She also noticed that Zim had a black eye which looked odd with his contacts in.

"Do you always wear red and black?" Gaz retorted, noticing his color-coordinated clothing.

"Yes. They are the colors of the Irken military of which I was a member. I could say the same to you human." Gaz opened her mouth to protest about him calling her that when he interrupted her, "You never said I couldn't call you that, little-Gaz." Zim smirked.

"Whatever, Zim." Gaz sighed, starting to walk away before remembering what she wanted to say to him. "I heard you were at Keef's party last night… I didn't know you went to parties."

"Zim didn't know you went to parties either."

"Anything interesting happen while you were there?" Gaz asked, deciding to play dumb. Would he bring up the incident?

"No, not really. Just a bunch of stupid human teenagers acting stupid." Zim replied casually, walking past Gaz towards the door to leave the building. She wondered if he was referring to her or not.

"Then how'd you get your black eye?" Gaz questioned in a bored tone, trying to act uninterested.

"Gir hit me in the face with a frying pan this morning."

Gaz rolled her eyes, annoyed that he wasn't addressing the elephant in the room. Should she bring it up? Did Zim assume she didn't remember what happened?

"Are you walking home, earthling?" He asked suddenly, holding the door open for her. Gaz stepped outside and nodded.

"I will also be walking." Zim replied.

Gaz shrugged in response and walked down the concrete steps and onto the sidewalk. Zim followed and walked next to Gaz.

The pair walked in silence for a few blocks, observing the cars and people they passed by. Gaz kept finding herself glancing over at Zim's eye which looked like it hurt.

"Does it hurt?" Gaz asked, realizing she had said her thoughts out loud. She mentally slapped herself for it.

"My eye? Yes. Gir hit me very hard. But I hit him back harder, so victory for Zim." Zim replied darkly. Gaz knew he was talking about Jake, but didn't want to let on that she knew.

"Is Gir okay?" Gaz asked, curious to see what Zim's response would be. He didn't disappoint.

"Oh, no. Not after what I did to him." Zim said as he grinned evilly, exposing his zipper-like teeth with his eyes narrowed, but suddenly stopped when he noticed Gaz was looking at him. He cleared his throat and stared back ahead.

They walked in silence again. Gaz felt her chest tightening. She wanted to ask him about last night, but didn't want to make him think she owed him more favors.

"So Gaz-human-" Zim stopped himself when he noticed Gaz giving him a death-glare for calling her that nickname. "Gaz." He corrected, "I have thought long and hard about this favor that you owe me and have come to a decision."

"Which is what?" Gaz raised an eyebrow. This had better be good.

"I will require your services tonight when I'm performing maintenance on my house's computer. It's had some system errors recently, and last time I tried to repair it, Gir uploaded his brain to the house... it was a dark day." Zim shuddered, remembering when Gir took over the house and sent it rampaging through the streets in search of tacos.

"So what? You want me to babysit Gir or something?"

"Yes, but you must watch him in my base. Then he can watch that horrible monkey show on the television or make waffles or whatever."

"He can still do that at my house."

"Silence, human! *ahem* Gaz! Besides the Dib will be there and I don't want him messing with Gir's programming or anything. You will comply with the favor now!" Zim ordered.

"Fine. When should I come over?" Gaz growled.

"Come to my base around eight o'clock. Bring whatever it is you need for the time to pass quickly. Maintenance could take a while."

The pair rounded the corner and Gaz noticed that her house was in view. She nodded at Zim and crossed the street, leaving the alien to walk by himself. Zim watched her leave, wincing when he remembered that his eye hurt.

Gaz entered her house and went straight up to her room, only to run into Dib in the hallway.

"There you are Gaz. Detention again? I swear to god, you get detention every week now. One of these days the karma is going to catch up to you and when that happens I won't be there to dry your tears. Oh no." Dib said intensely.

"That's great Dib. Now move out of my way. I've got homework to do."

"Homework? That's odd. Usually you just go straight to playing that stupid video game." Dib said, eyeing his sister suspiciously. Gaz walked up to him and grabbed the collar of his t-shirt, yanking him down to her eye level as she glared daggers.

"Vampire Piggy Hunter is not a stupid game Dib. Your head is stupid!"

Dib raised his hands in defense.

"Okay, okay! I take it back. But you've got to admit that you do play that game quite a bit. Why are you going straight to homework anyways? It's only five o'clock."

"Because I have a lot of homework to do, okay? Get off my ass!" Gaz yelled, pushing past him and slamming the door. Dib was still suspicious though.

Gaz had finally finished her homework and looked up at the clock which read 7:45. Not wanting to be late, Gaz grabbed her Game Slave 2 and a few magazines and shoved them in her backpack. Running down the stairs she saw Dib in the kitchen eating toast. Gaz sighed, knowing she'd have to ask to borrow his car.

"And where are you going at this hour? Aren't you going to eat dinner?" Dib asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'll eat dinner later Dib. I need to borrow your car."

"What for?" He asked. Gaz sighed too tired to come up with a good excuse.

"I have to work on a Science project with Zim, okay?"

"Don't you think it's a little late to be working on a project, Gaz?"

"It's due tomorrow and I had detention and a shit ton of homework so this is the only time we can work on it. Why the hell am I defending myself to you? It's Zim! It's not like he's going to do anything bad."

"True, but he's unpredictable now! Who knows what he's planning. I saw him trying out for the football team today, Gaz! He's never expressed interest in football before! It's unnatural! He's definitely up to something."

"Zim joined the football team? Weird." Gaz tried picturing what that would look like.

"See? Isn't it odd? Zim means trouble. Stay away from him Gaz."

"I don't care. Give me the car Dib!" Gaz growled, raising her fist threateningly.

"You better be back by a reasonable time or I'll assume he kidnapped you and is using you for his horrible experiments." Dib replied, hesitantly handing Gaz the keys. She snatched them from his hand and swiftly left. Dib sighed and went back to eating his toast.

Gaz drove to Zim's house and parked the car out front. She looked up at the glowing building that seemed even brighter at night. Gaz slung her backpack over her shoulder and walked up Zim's walkway to the front door, not even bothering to knock as she went inside. Gir was on the couch watching a weird show involving a chicken and two balloons. Gaz watched the TV show in confusion before Zim walked into the living room.

"You're late human." He stated before raising an eyebrow as he also saw what Gir was watching.

"Don't call me that." Gaz warned, narrowing her eyes. Zim looked back at Gaz, about to protest but decided against it. He wasn't wearing his disguise. Gaz also noticed that he was wearing a grey tank top instead of something red, causing her to wonder whether he did that on purpose because of what she said to him earlier. Gaz suddenly felt heat on her cheeks when she noticed his toned abs and chest outlined by the fitted tank-top. Stop! This is just stupid.

"I'll be down in the equipment room if you need anything. Hopefully you won't. Gir, behave while I'm gone!" Zim instructed, pointing at the robot.

"Okie-dokie!" Gir responded before pulling an entire bucket of fried chicken out of nowhere. Zim shuddered before making his way back into the kitchen to go down to the lower levels of his base. Gaz watched as the robot began eating chicken, setting her backpack on the cushion next to him.

"How do you even eat? You don't have a stomach." Gaz pointed out.

"Yes I do!" Gir yelled back, throwing the now empty bucket at her. "Hey! Wanna make cupcakes? Youuuu wanna make cupcakes?" Gir asked annoyingly. Gaz rolled her eyes but nodded. Gir screamed, "YAY!"

The robot then proceeded to drag her into the kitchen and pull out an assortment of random ingredients from the fridge and cabinets. He even pulled out inedible items from the garbage like wrappers and cans.

"Now mix them together until they start glowing and fly out the window," Gir instructed, handing Gaz a spoon and a bowl. Gaz took them and watched the robot start slamming all of the ingredients into the bowl.

"STIR!" He screamed, scaring Gaz. She began stirring angrily, close to losing her temper with the idiotic machine.

"I'll be right back," Gir stated, suddenly running out of the room to sit on the couch, turning on the TV before falling asleep. Gaz growled, chucking the spoon on the floor. She went back into the living room and opened her backpack, pulling out her Game Slave 2 to begin playing it. The house was quiet for a while before a loud crashing sound from below startled her.

"FUCKING HELL! What's wrong with this stupid piece of-" Zim yelled as more crashing sounds muffled the rest of his speech. Gaz was amused by his anger as she let a small smile form on her lips before going back to her game. Suddenly her arm was tugged down by a curious robot.

"Whatcha playing?" Gir asked, staring at her screen.

"A game." Gaz responded, spamming buttons while killing hoards of piggies.

"Can I play?" Gir asked.

"Sure, just give me a second to beat this level." Gaz replied, moving the screen closer to her face as she became more focused on the game. Meanwhile, Gir hopped off the couch and started wandering into the kitchen. The noise of him climbing into the garbage can alerted Gaz as she stood up and ran over to the trouble-making android.

"Gir no! Zim said you can't go down there."

"Aw, I wanted to show him my new pet." Gir cried, pulling a rabid raccoon out of his mouth. Gaz backed away slowly before Gir set it free. It scurried around the house before jumping into the trash can, falling down into Zim's underground base.

"Yay! Master's gonna be soooo happy!" Gir exclaimed, pleased with himself. Gaz's eyes widened as she heard Zim begin screaming down below.

"Who let this racoon into the house?!" Zim cried. "Get it off me!" Gir began laughing hysterically before falling asleep on the floor. Gaz already felt exhausted and it hadn't even been an hour with Gir yet. She picked the robot up and carried him back into the living room, placing him on the couch. Gaz wondered if she could chain him up somehow to keep him from destroying the house and suddenly remembered that Dib had "alien proof" handcuffs in his car! Gaz hesitated getting them though since they were outside which meant that the robot would be left alone. Gaz began to wonder if maybe Zim had anything like that in his house.

She stood up and decided to go explore, looking back every so often to make sure Gir was still asleep. Gaz rounded the corner of the kitchen but realized there wasn't anywhere else to go except down. She sighed, debating whether or not it was worth it to venture down to the lower levels while Gir was still asleep. Gaz walked back over to the little robot and stared at him for a moment thinking. Then she looked down at her shoes. She got an idea.

Gaz removed her shoes, using her shoelaces as a makeshift rope, tying it around Gir's wrists and then the couch's leg. She made sure the knot was super tight. Gaz considered using the strings on her backpack to tie up his legs too, but decided that was too much. She quickly went back to gaming, but couldn't concentrate as her mind began wondering. What did the rest of Zim's base looked like? Gaz had only seen his lab a few times but she knew there were other levels she hadn't seen yet.

She looked back down at the robot who was sound asleep before letting curiosity get the best of her. She walked over to the small table next to the TV. It lifted up and the floor opened to reveal a platform. Gaz had used this entrance once before when she went looking for Dib back when it was her turn to choose where they went out to eat with dad and he had been kidnapped. Gaz stepped onto the platform and it lowered instantly. She prayed the robot didn't do anything stupid while she was gone, but he probably would.

The platform landed in a familiar room which had small chambers that teleported users to various places. Gaz decided to go into the far left one which transported her to a large room with tanks filled with water and a metal table at the center of the space. Gaz guessed this was where Zim conducted experiments on test subjects. Imagining Zim inflicting pain on others made Gaz's heart flutter, but she shook it off reminding herself of Zim's annoying stupidity. Gaz went back into the chamber that sent her there and, once transported back to the first room, tried the second chamber. This one led her to a tiny room that consisted of a chair with tons of buttons and monitors that seemed to be powered off. Gaz pressed a button and her eyes widened as the screens lit up. They appeared to be security cameras Zim had set up around the neighborhood. Gaz messed around with the buttons and monitors for a while, spying on random civilians before growing bored.

Gaz explored the rest of the rooms, intrigued by the complexity of them while wondering how Zim utilized each room back when he was hellbent on taking over the Earth.

Finally, there was only one last chamber to enter, but Gaz decided against it, knowing it would lead her right to where Zim was. Borely, she began looking around the room she was already in, but this time she noticed a small door toward the back that she had never seen before. Gaz walked toward it and entered, surprised by what she found inside. There was a circular bed with a weird looking lamp placed next to it. The room was pretty bare except for a few jars of glowing substances decorating the shelves on the walls. Was this Zim's bedroom...? Gaz scanned the room for a moment before she heard the sound of someone clearing their throat behind her.

"Are you looking for something?" Zim asked, standing outside of the room with his arms crossed. His shirt was stained with what looked like oil and a pair of goggles hung around his neck. In his hand he carried what looked like a wrench of some sort.

Gaz quickly stepped out of his room and closed the door to face him, sweat forming on her forehead. Zim walked past her, opening the door to his room and looking inside.

"There is nothing of interest in there human, I can assure you. Now what are you doing? Where's Gir?"

"Sleeping upstairs. I was just curious." Gaz explained poorly, looking at her shoeless feet in embarrassment. Zim stared at her feet too.

"Gaz-human, where are your shoes?"

Gaz didn't even protest him calling her that this time as she felt her face heat up. However, she nearly screamed when Zim suddenly touched her face with his gloved hand.

"Why does your face change color? Are you sick, human?" Zim asked. Gaz became overwhelmed with his questions, so she moved away from his hand and walked back to the platform which would bring her back up to the living room. Zim watched her, confused, as the platform raised her up.

Gaz decided to bury her head back in her Game Slave 2 and pretend nothing had even happened. Gir, luckily, had remained asleep during the whole endeavor. However, it wasn't long before Zim resurfaced in the kitchen, walking into the living room to face Gaz. She hid behind her game, ignoring him, before he gently lowered it from her face.

"Gaz?" He asked cautiously, unsure how she'd react. Gaz took a deep breath and looked up into his ruby eyes which were narrowed in concern.

"What Zim?" Gaz sighed, feeling her chest tighten up in anticipation. Zim glanced around, looking at the situation in front of him. He saw Gaz's shoes without shoelaces, her feet covered only by a pair of thin striped socks, and Gir's hands tied together by shoelaces. Suddenly Zim burst out laughing, waking up the robot who suddenly began laughing with him.

Gaz's embarrassment quickly turned to anger as she glared at Zim who was laughing so hard that tears began to form in his eyes.

"Hehehehe! Why are we laughing?" Gir suddenly asked. Zim wiped the tears from his eyes and sighed, before looking back at Gaz who was giving him a sinister look.

"I just find it amusing how you tied Gir up using your shoelaces. I applaud you, human. I haven't laughed that hard in months."

Gaz's face heated up again as embarrassment and anger overwhelmed her. Before she could threaten Zim, however, he pointed at her cheeks.

"See, you are sick! Your face keeps changing color!"

"I'm not sick Zim." Gaz said through clenched teeth. "Now go back to fixing your computer before I destroy you."

"Oh, Zim is done with that now little-Gaz." Zim explained. "Now leave before you infect me with your sickness."

"For the love of God! I'm not sick! Human faces change color when… well you should know! Your face changed color after I-" Gaz cut herself off, remembering when she mistook Zim's antenna for a lightswitch. Zim still looked confused.

"I'm not sure what you mean human." Zim replied stupidly. Gaz slapped her forehead and walked over to him, tugging on his antenna harshly. Zim let out a squeak in response. His cheeks turned dark green.

"See? Not sick." Gaz explained before walking back to put her Game Slave in her backpack. Zim stared at her in shock. "What?" She asked, noticing this.

"You clearly don't know what you just did, but these antennas on the top of my head are not just for show, Gaz." Zim looked serious, his eyes narrowed.

Gaz shrugged, "So?"

"...How do I explain this?" Zim began rubbing his temples tiredly, "What are those… those things on your chest?"

Gaz immediately blushed, crossing her arms over her chest. "What?!"

"Sorry, I haven't had time to study human anatomy or whatever… although now that I think about it I probably should have."

"Zim, I'm not going to give you an anatomy lesson right now!" Gaz exclaimed, outraged.

"Fine, then. As payback for abandoning your post when I clearly told you to stay with Gir, I order you to tell me about human anatomy!"

"Are you serious?!"

"Deadly serious."

"No way! I never agreed to this." Gaz protested.

"Then I'll have no choice but to take the ship back. I may actually have a use for it now anyways."

"Ugh! Fine! You're gonna regret this though Zim!" Gaz yelled, clenching her fists before angrily plopping down on the couch next to Gir.

"Let's go down to my lab for this, I may need to write some of this down for future… er reference." Zim suggested, heading to the little table next to the tv and hopping on the platform. Gaz reluctantly followed and stood next to him before the platform lowered, taking them to the depths of Zim's lair…

Hey guys! Sorry for the late-ish update but I have a nice long chapter for you! Things are going to start heating up in the next few chapters so get ready ;)