Lookit! Another chapter! I'm on a roll here. Actually, I'm just really bored so I decided to go ahead and do this. ~glee~ Anybody got Super Mario Sunshine? I bought it over the weekend, but I can't figure out how to go any farther in the game. The best part of the game is having Yoshi spit up on people. If you spit up on Toadsworth, he goes "Oh No!" then dances around. Then he yells at you "Ya Blah Blah Blah Blah!" What also is neat is when Mario dies and says "The horror." Okee..I'll shutup now.
Disclaimer: Sock puppets scare me
Speech Therapy
Zim shivered and hugged his arms, desperately trying to get warm. His teeth chattered a little, just enough to be heard. His antennae stood straight up, with goose bumps all across his skin. The cold chair he was sitting on didn't help much either. He'd thrown up three times in the past four hours and his throat was raw and hurting him badly, but the scientist, Leela, still forced him to do the speech therapy. They were sitting at a table, Leela with her back to the large painting, Zim across from her.
"The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog," Leela said, holding the shock remote in her hand in case Zim didn't cooperate. She was just a teenager, and thought Zim was annoying but cute in a weird, innocent way.
"Aw ick bow ox um er aw zee og," was all Zim could strain out. His voice was soft and very raspy. Leela could hardly hear it, but nodded and wrote down Zim's progress on her clipboard. Zim's body shivered harder. He was freezing. He pointed over at the bed.
"Et baket," Zim said with a loud sneeze. Leela raised an eyebrow, not understanding.
"What's that?" she asked, straining hard to hear.
"Baket," Zim repeated, and he motioned toward the bed. He hugged his knees.
Leela shook her head and cupped her hand around her ear. "I'm sorry, I'm just not understanding."
"Baket!" Zim said, becoming upset. All he wanted was a nice, comfy blanket, but because of his throat, he couldn't ask for it. He wanted to get it himself, but he couldn't get up without assistance. "Baket!" he said again, and he pointed at the bed again. Leela still didn't understand. Zim clenched his fists. He was frustrated and felt like throwing a tantrum, but he calmed himself and tried harder to be understood.
"Buh-la-ank-et," he said slowly. He pointed at the bed once more.
"Oh...Do you want me to get you the blanket?" Leela said, finally understanding. Zim nodded eagerly. Leela smiled and got up. She left the shock remote behind. Zim stared at it, wondering if he could steal it and break it some how. He shook the thought out of his head, knowing he'd just get in trouble.
Leela unexpectedly showed up behind Zim and picked him up. Zim cried out in surprise. Leela giggled giddily, amused that Zim could be caught off guard so easily. She wrapped him up in the blanket and sat him back down on the chair.
Zim hugged the blanket against his body, not wanting any heat to escape it. He kept his knees bent and close to his chest. He rubbed his arms and legs with the blanket until the goose bumps went away. His teeth ceased chattering, and the shivering grew less severe. He sneezed a few times, and frowned, feeling a wave of nausea go through his body.
"Hinnnnng...," he moaned, and he hugged his stomach. He hunched over, his lower lip quivering. He knew he'd have to throw up again soon.
Leela watched Zim intently, taking note of everything. Just a second ago he'd been fine, but as soon as he got the blanket, he was sick again. Leela pondered on it for a moment, then got up and pulled a thermometer out of her lab coat pocket.
"Open wide and say 'Aww,'" Leela said. Zim opened his mouth a little, not wanting to throw up on the scientist. Leela shook her head sadly, then put the thermometer under his tongue. She waited a moment and the thermometer beeped. She pulled it out and looked at the temperature.
"103.8?!" Leela exclaimed, and she looked at Zim, who was hunched over again. "That's what probably is making you puke all the time! Your body temperature is really high, but you feel cold and you shiver. The more you try to warm yourself up, the higher your temperature will get, and you'll throw up again. That's what's wrong!" she said, understanding everything. She quickly jotted all this down on her clipboard. Zim moaned louder.
"Bucket," he said softly. His frail body shuddered as it tried to force the vomit out of his system. He fell out of his chair.
Dr. Conway suddenly entered the room. "You can leave now, Leela, if you please," she said, heading directly toward Zim with a large bowl and a cold washcloth.
"Is he going to be okay? I've seen him sick before, but this looks bad," Leela said, worry showing in her voice.
"He'll be fine, but he needs some air and space. Thank you for your hard work, Leela," replied Dr. Conway. She helped Zim up to a sitting position and put the washcloth on his neck. Zim's eyes watered, his muscles twitching on their own. He had no control over his body anymore. He coughed hard a few times, then gagged and vomited.
Zim whined and wiped the blood off his face. He fell backward, and Dr. Conway caught him. He gasped for his breath, his chest going up and down in an irregular pattern. His pulse beat hard through him, a few veins popping out of his neck with each beat.
"Are you breathing? Are you going to make it all right?" Dr. Conway asked, pulling the clipboard down from the table. She bent her knees and sat on the sides of her feet. She laid Zim on her lap, facing up towards the ceiling. She took the clipboard and waved it like a fan above Zim's face.
"Can you say anything? Just to let me know you can hear me and you're still awake?"
Zim went to say something, but all that came out was a high pitched squeak. He looked up at Dr. Conway weakly. She wasn't wearing her goggles. Zim saw that she had light green eyes. They looked worried. Zim stared up into them for a moment, but felt another wave of nausea go through him, making him shudder. Something was hurting inside of him, making him sting. He hugged his stomach again, expecting an organ to burst. Zim shrieked hoarsely, his voice cracking too much to really come out right.
Dr. Conway bit the bottom corner of her mouth. She saw how much pain the subject was in, but didn't want to lose his trust by drugging him up. She didn't know what to do. Zim moaned loudly, and Dr. Conway heard his insides gurgling. She couldn't stand seeing the subject like this anymore. She pulled a syringe out of her lab coat pocket and quickly forced it into Zim's arm.
"I hope you get some relief in your rest," Dr. Conway said, her voice cracking slightly. Zim looked at the syringe, then at her, then back at the syringe. He half smiled. For once he was happy to have a scientist around.
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Dib sat on the sofa in the lounge room, smiling cockily. He laced his fingers together and twiddled his thumbs. Dr. Conway was sitting at the table with an open can of Vanilla Coke. Her hair was scraggily looking, her braid falling apart in the back. She sighed and took another swig of soda.
"So, I've heard that the subject is sick," Dib said, glancing up at Dr. Conway. Superiority showed in his voice. Dr. Conway nodded slowly and sighed again. She rubbed her temples. "I was watching," Dib said smugly, and chuckled softly. "You hesitated."
Dr. Conway glared at him, but her expression quickly softened and she decided to stare off into space again. For a while there was silence. Dr. Conway chewed at her nails and shook her head.
"I just can't figure out how he got so sick," she said all of a sudden, breaking the silence. "What could make him have such a high fever? We haven't fed him anything spoiled," she said.
"You gotta keep in mind that he's an alien. His body is different than ours," Dib said.
Dr. Conway nodded. "That's a good point." She went back to zoning out. Again there was silence. Dib sighed in annoyance. He didn't like how Dr. Conway could just shrug off an insult. He wanted to get to her, make her frustrated. Her even temper didn't please him.
"Oh! I almost forgot!" Dib said, and he smacked his forehead. "Sierra found something and wants you to see it."
"What is it?"
"It's a little green and black puppy dog. Sierra wants to give it to the subject to cheer it up. I thought it was a good idea," Dib said, faking his pleasant tone of voice.
"Hmm...I'll have to look into it," said Dr. Conway, and she finished off her Vanilla Coke. "Thank you for telling me, Dib." She left the room. Dib got the Vanilla Coke can and crushed it.
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The next day, Zim was laying in bed reading a book. It was a science fiction book about Martians invading the Earth. Zim would have laughed at some parts, like how the Martian spacecraft was built, but he didn't have the strength. So far he hadn't thrown up all day, but his throat still was sore from the day before. Whenever he breathed in, he could hear his throat click. He hadn't gotten out of bed all day, and the therapy was postponed until his temperature was lower than 101.
Zim had trouble holding and turning the pages of his book. His hands were shakey, and the pages kept sticking together. His arms were too weak to hold the book up to his face for a long period of time, so he had piled up all the pillows to help him sit up and look down at the pages. Zim had a slight headache and felt a little stuffy, and he coughed often, sometimes tasting blood. It was a hard day to suffer through, but it was better than the day before.
Gena was the scientist watching Zim today. She took his temperature every hour and put a cold washcloth around his neck if it was over 100. So far she'd used six washcloths. Gena was bored, chewing on her hair and reading the newspaper. She sighed, having read the comics section five times.
'Humans sure are ignorant of how alien invasions work," Zim thought as he finished another chapter of his sci-fi book. For some reason, the book fascinated him. The martians in the book seemed primitive. All they ever seemed to do was hiss, growl, fight, or drool on people. But they also had highly advanced technology. Zim shook his head from time to time, confused by the whole thing. He'd been reading the book for almost the whole time he'd been awake. He had been promised a special surprise if he behaved through the day, so he read the book to keep himself occupied and out of trouble.
"Do you want to watch TV?" Gena eventually asked. Zim looked over the top of his book. He hadn't watched TV for a long time.
'How long have I been in this place?' he asked himself, and it half depressed him. He forced the thought out of his head and nodded at Gena. Gena smiled happily, glad to stop reading. She turned on the TV and flicked it to the Cartoon Network.
"You are stooopid! You are stooopid! And don't forget, you are stooopid!" the TV blared. A short scientist boy with orange hair was yelling at his tall, blonde haired sister.
"WELL YOU'RE SHORT!" screamed the scientist boy's sister, and she sat on his head. The scientist boy growled and clenched his fists.
"GET OUT OF MY LABORATORY!"
There was a huge explosion on the screen and an egg headed scientist boy with black hair appeared.
"Ah HA HA! Ah HA HA ha ha!" the egg headed scientist boy laughed. "Now you will pay, Dexter, for making a mockery of me! Ah HA HA! Ah HA HA ha ha!"
Zim groaned. He'd watched this cartoon before with Gir. He hated every episode with the egg headed scientist boy. His evil laugh was just...not good.
Dr. Conway burst into the room. "I heard an explosion!" she said, and she looked around nervously. Gena giggled.
"Forgive me, Doctor, I must have the TV volume up too loud," Gena said laughing, and she turned the TV down.
"Oh...well...this is sort of embarrassing then," Dr. Conway said, and she rubbed the back of her neck. Zim looked over at Dr. Conway, and half smiled. He'd grown to like her a little. She was the nicest and most caring scientist he knew. Some of the others were nice, but he liked her best.
"Well...I guess we could give you your surprise now," Dr. Conway said, looking over at Zim. "Have you been a good boy?" Zim smiled, glad to be called a boy instead of an 'it'.
"He's been very well behaved today, Doctor. Then again, I don't think he has the strength to misbehave," said Gena. Dr. Conway laughed.
"Okay," Dr. Conway said, and she opened the door. "Sierra, you can bring him in!" she yelled out. Dr. Conway kept the door opened, and Sierra walked in backwards, handling whatever was in her hands with care. She turned around slowly. In her hands was a large box with holes punched in it. She sat it in front of Zim.
"Go on. Open it!" Sierra said excitedly. Zim looked at the box for a moment, and noticed it was moving. Something was alive inside. He pulled the top flaps up, and gasped.
He stared in disbelief into the eyes of Gir in his doggy costume.
And there's a good place to end. I'll leave ya hanging there for a while. Muah, I'm evil. Yes, I watch Dexter's Laboratory. Laugh at me if you will, but do not diss the Dex-man. ~glee~ Yeah. Seeya guys later. Peace!
-Crystal