Oooh, I so excited.. Went shopping today and got a trenchcoaty-looking thing that's really neat... and shoooz... i like mah nice shooz... anyway... yep yep yep, I've finally completed the next piece of mah fic for ya... ^_^ Fanki fanki to all you happy people who've responded... I really am trying to get this up fast... ah well... I hope ya likes this, it focuses mostly on Dib and Gaz... Cereal is good... yesss... ahem.. you all know the disclaimer drill: I don't own anyfing but the plot, and maybe not even that... maybe I'm being controlled by aliens who are feeding me the storyline subconsciously... o0; thaz a skeery thought... anyway, kudos to Jhonen Vasquez! He ruuuules! Yay on him for making IZ and JtHM! Oooh, and if you know where I can possibly get the JtHM comics, pleeaase inform me! ^_^; on wif da fic now!
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Dib yawned, blinking sleepily as he stretched his arms. Fumbling for his glasses, he found them in their usual place on his nightstand. Pushing them onto his face, he blinked to clear his eyes. "Wait a minute, wasn't I downstairs?" he thought out loud, looking around at the familiar walls of his bedroom. He frowned, thinking back on his dreams for his answer... Zim had come into his dreams, saved him from himself... That must be it, Dib decided. /A favor returned.../ The words floated back through his memory. He smiled; Zim must have brought him back up to his room when he left.

He ran a comb through his messy hair, and changed clothes from the ones he'd worn yesterday to an identical but clean set. Half-staggering downstairs, he poured himself a bowl of cereal, sloshed some milk on, and proceeded to have breakfast. He felt unusually rested, considering how late he'd fallen asleep. He'd been up for a long time, just thinking and listening to the steady tick-tock of the wall clock. When he had finally gotten to sleep, it had started out a nightmare. Zim had stopped that. He sighed, smiling softly, and deposited his empty bowl in the sink just as Gaz came down.

"Zim likes you, you know," she said, pouring a bowl for herself.

"No he doesn't, he just had a debt he felt he needed to repay," he protested. "That's all."

"Sure, a debt. That's why he stopped your nightmare, took you upstairs to your bed, and didn't bother to destroy anything on his way out, among other things," she said snidely, chomping away at her cereal and pretending not to notice his blushing.

"Gaz, if you ever..." he started, but she waved a hand at him dismissively.

"I won't, unless you or Zim do something to seriously hack me off," she said, returning to her cereal.

"Well... okay then... I'm leaving for skool now, Ms. Bitters said if I was late one more time this year I'd get detention for the rest of my life," he said, making a face. He started out the door, and Gaz opened an eye to watch him go.

"If only you knew, big brother... If only you knew..." she mumbled, then deposited her own bowl in the sink and got ready to leave.

*******

Dib was actually smiling as he reached skool. This day had started off pretty good, and he wasn't feeling all that bad for once. The feeling of happiness slowly started bleeding away as he noticed two things: one, the doors to the skool were still locked, he was so early, and two: the jocks, bored with throwing a football around, had started eyeing him interestedly. /Ahh, crap.../ he thought, remembering not to say anything out loud. "Ah... hi. H-how are you guys?" he asked weakly, backing up slowly until he was trapped against the door. He mentally kicked himself for showing his fear; they loved the fear they invoked and would tear him apart at the seams for it.

"Hey Dib, want to play a game?" one of them asked. Dib almost groaned as he recognized Torque.

"Um... what kind of game?" Dib asked, reeaally hoping it wouldn't be one that involved himself as the utensil to be kicked around.

"It's called Dib-ball. We kick the ball around. That's you, Dib!" Torque said, grinning. His moronic goons chuckled stupidly at the lame 'joke.'

"I was afraid of that," Dib mumbled, and looked around for any way to escape. As they advanced on him, he flung himself to the side, leaping over the railing bordering the stairs and taking off running.

"Get him!" yelled Torque. Dib didn't dare look back, he was afraid they might be gaining on him. They WERE jocks, after all, and half of them were on the football team. He launched himself towards a fairly low branch, hoping to avoid them as one might avoid a rhino. Almost... there... he thought, straining. His fingertips hit the branch, and then... a sudden weight on his legs brought him crashing down. True to his ability to play football, Torque had tackled him, bringing him down hard. Dib grunted as he hit the ground below. Torque stood over him, and soon he was surrounded by jocks all ready to play Dib-ball. Torque pulled him up by his collar, and slammed him against the tree. "Trying to leave so soon?" he asked, smiling wolfishly.

"Please... just leave me alone..." Dib whispered, half to himself.

"Aww look, the little wimp wants to be left alone... What do you think, guys?" Torque asked, grinning. They all shook their heads, and they started pummeling Dib, who sank to his knees in defeat. /There's no Zim to save me now, and this is reality, not a dream.../ Dib thought, trying to protect his face. It was so much like his dream, if only Zim would come...

"What's going on?" a voice asked. Not Zim, but his sister.

"Gaz, go away, don't get involved," he said, looking up to see her. She looked pretty angry by now.

"No I will NOT go away. You leave my brother alone," she said, her fists clenching. She opened her eyes to give them a death glare, but being the idiots they were they didn't realize the peril they were in.

"Oh look, his baby sister's gonna save him," Torque sneered. BIG mistake. Gaz marched right up to him, and delivered a really painful kick with her steel-toed boots where the sun don't shine. Torque squeaked and sank to his knees, doubled over in pain. She followed it with a nice roundhouse, knocking him to the ground. The other jocks as well as Dib stared at her in amazement. The rest of the jocks fled in terror as she turned to glare at them.

"Come on Dib, let's get you inside," she said, pulling him to his feet and looping an arm around his shoulders.

"Where did... how did you... what just happened?" he asked dazedly. She picked the lock on the door with a hairpin, and set him down against the lockers.

"Come on, you don't think I played all those video games without ever learning a few tricks? I took karate in seventh grade, and just improved on it some," she said matter-of-factly, opening the nurse's office and using some of the liberated antiseptic on him, ignoring his slight hisses of pain as it stung. "Hold still," she commanded, applying more.

"I'm fine, really, it's just a few cuts," he said, ducking away. "Thanks for saving me, though... You're not half bad for a little sister," he said, grinning at her.

"Ah, don't go all mushy on me. Who else would I pick on if you weren't there?" she said, as close as she ever got to admitting she liked him. "Come on, we can go chill in the library until the school's open." They headed off for the library relatively quietly, exchanging insults every so often.

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Otidoki, guess what happens now! No really, guess!! Three chances!!! Yup, it's individual noteses time! Also maybe some plot revealing, but we'll see about that... probably not... meeehh... whatever...
PRHG: Teehee... don't trust those cafeteria hamburgers, they aren't really meat!! And never buy veggies from the nuclear plant, they glow in the dark... o0; skeery...
ArmAndLeg: ^-^ Yee! I like the dream sequence too... maybe more dreams later? I dunno... i can't believe i wrote that while high on my Choco-Dew Brainfreezy! I'll put the recipe below... muahaha... caffiene and sugar: a fanfic writer's two best friends...
Diartemis: Yay for any replies, even short ones! ^-^ I is reply-oriented, and I wuv yu all for replying at all! Hooraayy!!! And i've said it before and will say it again: fluff rules all!
Kwee: Once I made a turkey noise at a turkey in the zoo and it got mad at me and tried to eat me... o0;; i'm serious... and turkey is tastee!! Is so yummy... yay for turkeys! teehee...
Recipe for Choco-Dew Brainfreezies: Get a big bowl and fill it halfway with chocolate ice cream. Pour a can of Mountain Dew on it. ENJOY! ^_^; is a very simple recipe but it tastes sooo good... Now you must hit the reply button and give me your comments! *imitates Zim from 1st eppie* Gimme! ^_^ and pwease read my ZAGR fic too, Hunter... is a songfic!! Ohh, i stop shameless plugging now... I know I've said it before lots, but I SWEAR I will have pictures up SOON!!! SOOOOOON!!! *cough* anyway... bye!
~*~Celelorien~*~