I hope this is okay. I am trying to make this good, despite what you may think. I've included a short explanation of how Gaz died in this chapter. If you want a longer version, like in a separate story, let me know in your reviews, if I get any. Ha.
By the way, the stories Malleh reads are not real, as far as I know. She and I have almost completely different tastes. And I know Zim is more than likely a lot out of character, but don't you think time could have definitely changed him?
One more thing before I've bored you to death: I'm homeschooled and always have been, so, if my interpretation of school, or 'skool', I guess I should say, is really off, I apologize. Don't fail to let me know and tell me what I have wrong, and what it's supposed to be like. It would be most helpful.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Invader Zim, but Malleh's mine. And so is Cara. If anyone else has characters with these, names, sorry. It's not my problem, because I didn't know.
Malleh was miffed. Tomorrow she would have to go to the human's 'skool', unless she could talk her dad out of it. And it didn't seem like she'd be able to. She had been trying all week with not even partial success.
If her mom were still alive, there wouldn't be a problem. Her mom had always been able to talk her dad out of punishing her too severely. The most severe punishment she had gotten before this was no going to any parts of the lab except her room for a week, and that was when she had 'accidentally' contacted the AMT and told them a lot of the things her father had been doing.
Red and Purple had laughed that up for weeks, particularly the time when Zim had gotten stuck in a landfill surrounded by water after a rain. He had been looking for G.I.R. at the time. It had taken him forever to get over that one. If Gaz hadn't have shown up when she did, Zim might have been buried under a pile of garbage. Even then it had taken several weeks for Zim to lose the smell of that landfill…
Malleh laughed about that as she remembered. It was one of the funnier memories she had. But the laughter soon ended, and she started up on a tirade of angry thoughts and ideas. She soon realized that she wasn't thinking strait when she formed a plan of giving her father a shrinking drug and force him to go to school with her.
She shook her head clear, and then picked up a book she had been reading. Yes, it was indeed a human one. Despite how nasty most humans were to her, she still liked their books. Especially their sci-fi books. It was fun to laugh at their usually pathetic ideas of other life forms. She was in an especially funny part of what was supposed to be a scary sci-fi book, when she heard the noise of the tube that led into her room opening.
"Vi doha gi, li." "Knock next time, please."
"Ye tli, na so ket? Ge hari, Malleh." "Where at, may I ask? Be serious, Malleh."
Malleh sighed, and spoke in English, as she wanted to get this over fast, and English was a simpler language.
"All right Dad, what is it you want?" Zim disliked her abrupt switching of languages, but he didn't voice his opinion about that.
"Don't take that tone with me, Malleh. And you know what I want. I want to talk to you. I wanted to apologize to you for shouting at you earlier. Maybe I was a little harsh on you, but you know by now how my temper is." Malleh grinned.
"It's okay Dad, I know you didn't mean it. And I didn't really mean to sound that way to you." She pulled her father into a hug. Malleh pulled away after a minute.
"So… Does this mean I don't have to go to that 'skool' thing tomorrow?"
"Nope, sorry, you still have to go."
"But why, dad? You know it'll be way too easy." Zim held back a grin at that.
"Maybe, but I think you need to get used to the humans. You are half-human, you know. It would be insulting your mother to avoid them completely." His tone turned darker. "It not like you're going to get to know the Irken race." Malleh nodded. She couldn't help but see his point.
"All right. But one thing."
"And what's that?"
"Should I change my disguise? I mean, the skin condition thing may have worked with you, but…" Zim grinned, and it was far unlike the rather nasty smiles he used to have.
"I understand. Come on, let's go fix it."
~*~*~*~*~*~
Monday morning
Malleh took a deep breath and walked into the classroom. She knew what her father's teacher had been like. He had somehow seemed stuck with her, winding up with her every year of 'skool'. Luckily, her teacher wasn't Ms. Bitters. Oh, Ms. Bitters still taught, but she had been transferred to another school, to scare to minds out of some other kids for a while.
Malleh was in before anyone else, but she waited to take a seat. She didn't know who would sit where. She hoped her disguise worked. It was simple enough. She had makeup on her face and neck to hide the green tinge of her skin, contacts, and she had her hair along with her antennae pulled into a ponytail. It hurt for a little while every time she forced her antennae down, but she had learned to ignore it.
Oh, did I mention the addition of fake ears and a fake nose? A much better disguise than her father's had been. After everyone else had sat down, she took the remaining seat, which was near another girl. She wore glasses over amber eyes, and had light brown hair that was cut to her chin.
She wore a purple shirt with writing on it that stated as follows: ALIENS EXIST, AND I HAVE FOUND ONE! And on the back: REALLY! She wore gray-blue jeans that were just a little long and hung over her shoes.
She noticed Malleh reading her shirt and laughed.
"My dad made me wear it. I'm called Cara."
"Called?"
"Yeah, my real name's Caroline, but I always liked Sarah better, so I compromised and go by Cara. My mom doesn't mind, so much as I let her call me by my real name. Your name?"
"Malleh."
"Malleh? What kind of a name is that? Oh, wait, I shouldn't talk. It's a foreign name, isn't it? I never was very good at any other languages. I'm taking French at home. My dad thinks I should learn all the languages on the planet so I can 'tell when someone's not from this planet.' I think he's crazy. All P.I.s are."
"P.I.s?"
"Yeah. Paranormal Investigator. Mouthful, isn't it? Any way, he's making me take French and about the only word I can get in French is the word yes, and even that I have trouble saying! Uh-oh, teachers coming. You'd better be quiet. She's supposed to be a scary one."
Malleh was about to whisper that she wasn't the one who needed to be quiet, she had barely been able to get a word in edgewise, but Cara hushed her. Everyone sat in silent fear except for Malleh and Cara, and they just sat silently.
Then the teacher walked in, and she surprised nearly everyone.
"Hello there! I'm Ms. Sunni. As you can tell, I'm your teacher. And I want to get to know each and every one of you personally!"
"Okay, now I'm scared." Malleh whispered to Cara, who she, despite her rather disgust of humans, already thought of as a friend. Cara giggled. Ms. Sunni looked over at Cara.
"Did you say something, miss…?" Cara couldn't help the smile on her face.
"No, Ma'am."
"I think I heard you laughing. Would you care to tell the class what you were laughing about?"
"No Ma'am."
"All right then, you can be the first to introduce yourself! And since it seems that your friend over there had a hand in this too," She waved her hand at Malleh. "She can go next." Cara sighed.
"The name's Caroline Membrane. Call me anything but Cara and your dead." Her face turned stormy then turned back to normal. "Otherwise, I'll talk to ya." Ms. Sunni gave a half smile.
"Thank you, Caroli-"
"Cara."
"Ahem. Thank you Cara. That was quite an… Interesting introduction. Next!" Malleh spoke up.
"Malleh Redavni. Spare yourself the trouble of calling my name. I won't answer." Malleh then fell silent and deep into thought. Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad after all. She was startled to find a piece of folded up paper on her desk. She unfolded it and read:
Do you want to come over to my house after school? You could meet my mom. Dad will probably still be at work. He's always working. Don't answer out loud. Write your answer and send this back. -Cara
Malleh considered this. Her Dad might not like it; he never liked it when he didn't know where she was. But she could always contact him with her backpack from Cara's house. And this might be a good opportunity to learn about her human side. She grinned, wrote an answer, and tossed it back to Cara.
Yes, I'll come. I don't think my dad will mind. -Malleh When Cara read the note she grinned too. Malleh then noticed that all the kids had finished their introductions. Ms. Sunni began speaking.
"Okay class, I just would like you to know that every school night this month I'll be coming to one of your houses to get to know your parents." One kid raised his hand.
"Ms. Sunni, isn't that what Parent Teacher Night is for?" Ms Sunni smiled. Apparently she smiled a lot.
"You're right, Dylan. That is what Parent Teacher night is for. However, I'd like to get to know your parents, not just meet them. If I get to know your parents, then I might be able to work with you all better." Another kid raised their hand.
"Ms. Sunni, who's first? And when are we starting?" Ms. Sunni smiled even wider. Malleh thought her face was going to break if her grin got any bigger. She'd like to watch that.
"Well, Jinni, I think it would be best to start with whoever would find it the most convenient. I'll tell you what. How about we draw names out of a hat? You would like that, wouldn't you?" Her grin did get bigger, but to Malleh's surprise, her face didn't break. It stretched a little bit, but it didn't break.
"Drawing names out of a hat? What are we, kindergartners?" Malleh shrugged.
"How should I know? Do you think her face is going to break?"
"I don't know, but it would be pretty cool, wouldn't it? My little brother smiled that big once, and I managed to convince him that his face would stick like that if he smiled ever again, and he didn't smile for a whole week! Of course, I got in trouble for that, but it was so cool!"
Ms. Sunni was in the process of handing little strips of paper to every kid. She handed one to Malleh. Malleh looked at it, and then back at the teacher.
"What do I do with this?"
"You write your name on it! You know how to spell your name, correct, Malleh? Or would you like me to help you?" Malleh was about to gag at this lady. She was scary, after all. Instead, she grinned sweetly.
"Oh, I think I can handle it, Ms. Sunni. I'm a big girl, after all." Almost everyone in class was trying to hold back their laughter now. Ms. Sunni didn't notice.
"I'm sure you are. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to hand these out to the rest of the class." Malleh quickly scrawled her name, and then whispered to Cara.
"Now that's what I call scary." Cara grinned and nodded. After everyone had written their names, a hat was passed around and they dropped the paper in. When the last kid had dropped in his name, Ms. Sunni took the hat.
"Okay, the first child's house I come visit is… Deanna Girlie's! I'll see you at your parent's house tonight, Deanna. Okay, tomorrow night's visit, I'll go to… Cara Membrane's! I'll draw the next three nights, and then we can get on with class. Here's Wednesday's lucky hostess… Malleh Redavni!"
Malleh groaned a little bit. How in the world was she going to convince this human not to come to her house? She didn't even notice who the other two unlucky ones were. Ms. Sunni's smile disappeared for a moment, as if she had to rest her mouth, then she broke into a grin again.
"Well, it looks like we're out of time for this class. We'll get some real work done tomorrow, won't we children? I'll look forward to meeting your mommies and daddies. They all must be wonderful to have such nice little children as you!" Malleh gagged. Then, as if she just remembered it, she walked up to Ms. Sunni as the bell rang.
"Ms. Sunni, I don't have a mom." Ms. Sunni 's smile lessened.
"Aww, I'm sorry. What happened?"
"She died a few years ago."
"I am sorry Malleh. It must be hard for you." This hit Malleh's pride. She stiffened.
"No it's not." And she walked out the classroom door. As she walked towards the general direction of the cafeteria, she thought about how her mom had died. How the Almighty Tallest (s?) wanted Zim to come back to Irk because of a rebellion that had broken out, and how Zim had refused, as he didn't want to go back until he had conquered earth.
Less than three weeks later, a mysterious Irken arrived on Earth. Malleh had caught him reporting to the AMT that the real reason that Zim didn't want to was because he actually had a 'family unit', as how the Irken reported it, and was secretly a member of the rebellion. This, of course, wasn't true, but the Irken hated Zim, as he had been one of the ones who were under his command during Impending Doom One.
This turned the Tallests even more against Zim, and ordered the Irken to kill him. But Malleh had heard, and the Irken went after her. She had run to her mother for protection, because her father wasn't home at the time.
The Irken had shot her, and was about to shoot Malleh, too, when her father came home. He didn't hurt the Irken that had done it too badly, and forced him back to Irk, where he'd never have any missions again. Needless to say, Zim stopped all contact with the AMT, and in fact, had joined the rebellion.
He was now a crucial figure in it, sending supplies from Earth to the Irken Rebel's space station. Malleh shook her head to clear it of that awful time, and walked into the cafeteria, wondering what he would do. She saw Cara sitting at a table with some other humans, and was waved over. She nodded and walked over. She had taken notice of the food as she walked in, and had decided not to eat lunch. It was safer not to.
She tried to still her heart (Or would that be something else? You never know), took a deep breath, and sat down.
~*~End~*~
I know, the end of that chapter could have been better, but I couldn't think of how else to end it. I hope that explanation is satisfactory. So it wasn't exactly short, but it could have been longer. This chapter is quite a bit longer than the last one. And just so you know, Cara and Malleh are cousins. They just don't know it.
I hope this is better than the last chapter. Anyway, tell me if you liked this. Tell me if you didn't. Just tell me something, please! Chapter three's coming soon! Ms. Sunni's scary in her own way, isn't she? Hmm… would you rather I had put someone more like Ms. Bitters in this? I'm trying to be different.
Don't worry, Malleh will have a rival, but she's not human… Okay, I know the way I worked in the explanation is a little shabby, but there was no other way that I could find to work it in without putting it in the next chapter, and I didn't want to keep anyone waiting too long. So, what about reviewing? Please?
Oh, and one last thing. Cara is pronounced like Sarah, just so you know. I'll leave you all to live your normal lives now.