Love is Weird But It Makes You Feel All Warm and Tingly Inside!
Chapter 5-Losing Your Soul on an Index Card
By: Kichara
Whee!! Chapter 5 is up! Geez, 5 chpaters already! Lookit me and my all- mighty writing self; I'm COOOL!!! The hamster's tell me secret and feed me stolen cheddar cheese, I'm so lucky! And I got sporks and Invader Zim on DVD for graduation!
In other good news, I got my friend totally hooked on Zim. MWAHAHAHAAA, FEAR MY SKILLS OF PERSUASIVENESS!!! Acutually, I just had her sit down and watch an episode with my other friends at my graduation party, and she was all for it, but, um, oh well. SPORKS!!
Kudos always go out to SwEeTiNsAnItY, who's insane ways and helpful comments help me to move along. Anyonw who hasn't read her story yet shall face the horrible wrath of Kichara, which involves sporks, angry toilets, and marathons of the Teletubbies and Barney (the horror, the horror.) Check it out on my favorite stories! And she'd better update soon or face my horrible wrath herself!
Hey, Almasy and Psyche, glad to have you aboard on the Kichara Express! Woohoo!! I get to be the caboose! Celelorien gets kudos cuz she's cool and wrote me a looong review. I love long reviews, cuz they always either full of compliments or nonsense. Yay! SM, yay flamethrowers! Woohoo!! Okay, well that's it for now. Thanks again! Oh, and glad you all liked the poem… heh heh heh…
"Alright, organisms, keep it moving. We don't need to be clogging up the hall's air with our carbon dioxide." Mr. Zella ordered, keeping his class moving along.
They were trudging down the desolate hall to the library, where they were to start research on the subjects they'd picked, telling Mr. Zella the topic as they handed in their Kubla Khan compositions. Dib blushed a bit as he remembered his trouble in forming the paper the previous night. Zim, who was walking alongside of him, noticed and narrowed one eye in the Irken equivalent to raising an eyebrow. The body of people made it to the library doors, passing through them as Mr. Zella held one open, watching them all closely.
"I'm gonna go see if I can find anything in the reference section, okay?" Dib said, indicating to the shelves of dusty books.
Zim nodded, heading over to a computer, sitting down and starting up the internet.
The library was a refuge for all students in the school, a santuary where all groups came together to practice the fine art of skipping. And with only an ancient, wizened woman who'd lost all interest in life known as the librarian as their only supervisor, it was more than easy. Nerds, preps, goths and all the people that fit in between would crowd in between the tiny aisles of musty books to form tiny circles of people, or fill up the old creaky tables, laughing and talking as the hag hid in her office. It was hardly even used as a library now, it's main career being in helping reluctant students to escape from their school life.
Zim, who'd been working furiously on the computer for about twenty minutes sat back to glare fiercely at it. When the piece of machinery refused to burst into flames, he stalked off in search of Dib. He found the boy leaning against the encyclopedia shelf, book open on his knees as he flipped through it. He looked up at Zim as the alien came up, crossing his arms and glaring down at his ex-rival. Dib blinked expectedly, waiting for the inevitable outburst that always came with that stance.
"I CAN'T FIND ANYTHING!!!"
Dib bit his lip, searching for something to say. He had a bit of trouble coming up with encouraging words, however, as he himself had found...squat. It was a bit depressing. He looked at the huge pile of books next to him that he'd already gone through as if they could give him an answer to Zim, since they hadn't been able to help him with their project.
As the paranormalist was pondering over what to say in consolation to his irate partner, Mr. Zella walked up. "Is there a problem, boys?"
"Yessss, there is!" Zim raised his voice again almost to a yell, and several people looked over in their direction. Dib winced internally, watching as his partner turned to place his fierce glare on their teacher. "This horrendous partner you have paired me with decided on this HIDEOUS topic, and there isn't any reasearch to be found about it!"
Mr. Zella's expression stayed neutral, changing slightly as he raised an eyebrow. "Is that so? I'll bet there are plenty of resources out there, you just can't find them."
"LIES! YOU TELL LIIIIIES!!!" Zim voice rose to a shriek as he uncrossed his arms and waved them frantically to fully express his point.
The older man remained passive, then smirked at the green boy. "Willing to bet on that?"
"Um, Zim..." Dib said from his spot on the floor, trying to get the alien under control before he did something stupid. Dib was feeling a little nervous about the whole situation that was taking place. The look on Mr. Zella's face wasn't helping.
"SILENCE, MIS-GUIDING EARTH MONKEY!!" Zim swiveled his torso around to quiet Dib, then turned back to lock eyes with their teacher. "I am more than ready to take your bet on account of the absurd-ness of this situation."
Dib sighed softly. Too late.
"Alright then. My bet is that I can find, let's say...10 resources on Oxford College in...five minutes. If I can't, you boys can change your subject. If not, I get...your soul."
Dib blinked, wide-eyed on the floor as he watched the teacher's lips curl into a smirk. 'Okay, that's just...creepy.' He shuddered slightly.
Zim's lips curved up into a defiant smirk. "That's just fine, as I realize how impossible it is to find actually sources on this horrible subject." Dib groaned as he pushed himself off of the floor, following his teacher and partner over to Zim's computer, where Mr. Zella sat down. The alien stood off to the side, folding his arms again and smirk never faltering. His arrogant gaze found Dib's worried one, and the human sighed, shifting from foot to foot nervously as Mr. Zella pounded away on the keyboard. Okay, so maybe Zim had become more mature, but he still had that ego the size of a small planet that came out from time to time, making him quite childish. Maybe, but he was certainly cute when he did so.
Dib blinked, letting his eyes wander over the students littered about the library to try and forget his last thought. 'It's not like it's going to do you any good.' He scolded himself as his eyes scanned over the group of gossiping girls that were taking up a table, make-up strewn across the surface. As they applied the face paint and giggled, a group of big-muscled guys in the table beside them did their best to laugh raucously, trying to show off without being too obvious, in hopes of getting the girls' attention. Dib's honey-colored eyes continued to roam, passing over the weird kid who ate crayon's for a living, to a pair of punk girls sitting cross-legged in the biography aisle, to the school's best-known stalker, a guy named James, who was currently slinking along the perimeter of the library, eyeing everyone closely. Oh, the poeple that made the school what it was...
"DONE!" A triumphant voice at Dib's side made him blink in confusion, turning to see Mr. Zella, whose smirk was wider than usual. "10 in four and a half minutes! You know, that's actually surpassing my original bet plan, so maybe you should owe me. However, I'll let it pass, since the prize is so high anyway." He said generously, swiveling his chair around to stare into Zim's stunned face. "I believe you have a soul to give me." The teacher reached into his pocket, pulling out an index card and a pen, and handing them to the Irken. "Write your name on it."
Zim was frozen for a long moment before he finally looked down at the white piece of thick paper in his claws. He pressed the pen to it and scribbled down the three letters, brow furrowing. Mr. Zella snatched it back, standing up and offering Zim's chair back to him. "Thanks so much. I'll see you two later. By the way, there are 50 note cards due by next Tuesday, so I'd imagine you two should get cracking." He strode away, whistling cheerfully.
The Irken plopped down heavily into the chair, which let out a loud creak in protest. He turned to look at Dib, whose mouth was dropped slightly in a perfect 'O' as he watched Mr. Zella retreat to hover over another set of partners, who were sitting together at a table with a tall stack of books between them. "Um.." Dib began, unsure of exactly what he should he say in response to the rather...unusual event that had just taken place. Especially since it was partially his fault.
The alien merely sighed, clicking on a window to print out the information as he simply remarked, "As you said, Dib-human, why do we always get stuck with the weird teachers?"
Dib chuckled, relieved, if anything, that Zim wasn't ready to strangle him. "You've got me."
***
In the far corner of the consecrated place known commonly as the library, a small group of gothic people were sitting at a rickety table. They sat quietly talking to each other, all except for one, who was too engaged in her video game to care. Gaz's hair hadn't changed much since elementary school, still in a short cut that framed her pale face, the only difference now being in the streaks of darker violet that ran through it. The others at the table could be called her friends, although the more appropriate name for them would be worshippers. Not that she minded or anything. It was certainly amusing to have a small group of people following her around, catering to her every whim as if she were some sort of dark goddess. It suited her fine, just as long as they stayed out of her light.
The peculiar arrangement had been in motion for almost two years now, she mused to herself, remembering how they'd all come to her, one by one, drawn for unknown reasons to the slender girl hunched over her Gameslave that sat by herself, eyes squinted down to her beloved system and ignoring the world around her. And it was almost nice; there was always someone to talk to when she actually felt the need to play human, someone to go out with or just 'chill'. Hard as it was to admit to herself, she felt sorry that her older brother didn't have those same options.
His moving out had affected Gaz more than she let on. It really wasn't all that great, being alone all the time in the empty house without Dib's chatter. So maybe it had been annoying, but…he was still her brother,. She felt a slight twinge of guilt that she hadn't really talked to him since he'd moved out.
And the voice that she'd been absent-mindedly been missing suddenly cut through her thick hair to pierce her ears, and she opened her brown eyes to see Dib sitting across the library with Zim. The two were talking intently, their elbows almost touching as they conversed. It actually made Gaz blink. 'Well well, what's going on here?' A little smile managed to creep onto her face and she turned back to her game to hide it.
***
"I can't believe I let you talk me into having this horrible topic." Zim said, sifting through the printed out papers on the table and separating them.
"Well, sorry for the millionth time! I thought it was going to be easy."
"Noooo, easy is the Martial Arts Vegetables one. And they already have 15 sources on The Existence of God in a Universe without Yogurt!"
Dib sunk down into his chair, cheeks burning in embarrassment as he highlighted a sentence on one of the papers. "You know, this is the only day we're going to have to work on this in class. We're gonna have to, um, meet on our own time to work on the paper."
Zim blinked, looking surprised before he slowly answered. "Yes, that seems like the reasonable idea."
"Uh, so…Why don't we go to the public library tomorrow after school?"
"Fine, then I'll…see you at your locker, and we can walk there together."
Dib's mouth turned upwards in a huge grin before he could stop it, and he felt his heart race at the thought of spending the next afternoon with Zim.
***
Whoa, this chapter was short! Sorry, but I can't think of anything more to add. And more sorries for not having this done sooner, I had a ton of things going on. Blah, blah, blah, like anybody cares. WELL YOU SHOULD AT LEAST ACT LIKE YOU DO!!
Little bit of spookiness for you to consider. The whole thing with the index card really did happen to my friend Lindsey last year. Mr. Zella still proudly displays her soul on it's lined, white bit of paper.
Chapter 5-Losing Your Soul on an Index Card
By: Kichara
Whee!! Chapter 5 is up! Geez, 5 chpaters already! Lookit me and my all- mighty writing self; I'm COOOL!!! The hamster's tell me secret and feed me stolen cheddar cheese, I'm so lucky! And I got sporks and Invader Zim on DVD for graduation!
In other good news, I got my friend totally hooked on Zim. MWAHAHAHAAA, FEAR MY SKILLS OF PERSUASIVENESS!!! Acutually, I just had her sit down and watch an episode with my other friends at my graduation party, and she was all for it, but, um, oh well. SPORKS!!
Kudos always go out to SwEeTiNsAnItY, who's insane ways and helpful comments help me to move along. Anyonw who hasn't read her story yet shall face the horrible wrath of Kichara, which involves sporks, angry toilets, and marathons of the Teletubbies and Barney (the horror, the horror.) Check it out on my favorite stories! And she'd better update soon or face my horrible wrath herself!
Hey, Almasy and Psyche, glad to have you aboard on the Kichara Express! Woohoo!! I get to be the caboose! Celelorien gets kudos cuz she's cool and wrote me a looong review. I love long reviews, cuz they always either full of compliments or nonsense. Yay! SM, yay flamethrowers! Woohoo!! Okay, well that's it for now. Thanks again! Oh, and glad you all liked the poem… heh heh heh…
"Alright, organisms, keep it moving. We don't need to be clogging up the hall's air with our carbon dioxide." Mr. Zella ordered, keeping his class moving along.
They were trudging down the desolate hall to the library, where they were to start research on the subjects they'd picked, telling Mr. Zella the topic as they handed in their Kubla Khan compositions. Dib blushed a bit as he remembered his trouble in forming the paper the previous night. Zim, who was walking alongside of him, noticed and narrowed one eye in the Irken equivalent to raising an eyebrow. The body of people made it to the library doors, passing through them as Mr. Zella held one open, watching them all closely.
"I'm gonna go see if I can find anything in the reference section, okay?" Dib said, indicating to the shelves of dusty books.
Zim nodded, heading over to a computer, sitting down and starting up the internet.
The library was a refuge for all students in the school, a santuary where all groups came together to practice the fine art of skipping. And with only an ancient, wizened woman who'd lost all interest in life known as the librarian as their only supervisor, it was more than easy. Nerds, preps, goths and all the people that fit in between would crowd in between the tiny aisles of musty books to form tiny circles of people, or fill up the old creaky tables, laughing and talking as the hag hid in her office. It was hardly even used as a library now, it's main career being in helping reluctant students to escape from their school life.
Zim, who'd been working furiously on the computer for about twenty minutes sat back to glare fiercely at it. When the piece of machinery refused to burst into flames, he stalked off in search of Dib. He found the boy leaning against the encyclopedia shelf, book open on his knees as he flipped through it. He looked up at Zim as the alien came up, crossing his arms and glaring down at his ex-rival. Dib blinked expectedly, waiting for the inevitable outburst that always came with that stance.
"I CAN'T FIND ANYTHING!!!"
Dib bit his lip, searching for something to say. He had a bit of trouble coming up with encouraging words, however, as he himself had found...squat. It was a bit depressing. He looked at the huge pile of books next to him that he'd already gone through as if they could give him an answer to Zim, since they hadn't been able to help him with their project.
As the paranormalist was pondering over what to say in consolation to his irate partner, Mr. Zella walked up. "Is there a problem, boys?"
"Yessss, there is!" Zim raised his voice again almost to a yell, and several people looked over in their direction. Dib winced internally, watching as his partner turned to place his fierce glare on their teacher. "This horrendous partner you have paired me with decided on this HIDEOUS topic, and there isn't any reasearch to be found about it!"
Mr. Zella's expression stayed neutral, changing slightly as he raised an eyebrow. "Is that so? I'll bet there are plenty of resources out there, you just can't find them."
"LIES! YOU TELL LIIIIIES!!!" Zim voice rose to a shriek as he uncrossed his arms and waved them frantically to fully express his point.
The older man remained passive, then smirked at the green boy. "Willing to bet on that?"
"Um, Zim..." Dib said from his spot on the floor, trying to get the alien under control before he did something stupid. Dib was feeling a little nervous about the whole situation that was taking place. The look on Mr. Zella's face wasn't helping.
"SILENCE, MIS-GUIDING EARTH MONKEY!!" Zim swiveled his torso around to quiet Dib, then turned back to lock eyes with their teacher. "I am more than ready to take your bet on account of the absurd-ness of this situation."
Dib sighed softly. Too late.
"Alright then. My bet is that I can find, let's say...10 resources on Oxford College in...five minutes. If I can't, you boys can change your subject. If not, I get...your soul."
Dib blinked, wide-eyed on the floor as he watched the teacher's lips curl into a smirk. 'Okay, that's just...creepy.' He shuddered slightly.
Zim's lips curved up into a defiant smirk. "That's just fine, as I realize how impossible it is to find actually sources on this horrible subject." Dib groaned as he pushed himself off of the floor, following his teacher and partner over to Zim's computer, where Mr. Zella sat down. The alien stood off to the side, folding his arms again and smirk never faltering. His arrogant gaze found Dib's worried one, and the human sighed, shifting from foot to foot nervously as Mr. Zella pounded away on the keyboard. Okay, so maybe Zim had become more mature, but he still had that ego the size of a small planet that came out from time to time, making him quite childish. Maybe, but he was certainly cute when he did so.
Dib blinked, letting his eyes wander over the students littered about the library to try and forget his last thought. 'It's not like it's going to do you any good.' He scolded himself as his eyes scanned over the group of gossiping girls that were taking up a table, make-up strewn across the surface. As they applied the face paint and giggled, a group of big-muscled guys in the table beside them did their best to laugh raucously, trying to show off without being too obvious, in hopes of getting the girls' attention. Dib's honey-colored eyes continued to roam, passing over the weird kid who ate crayon's for a living, to a pair of punk girls sitting cross-legged in the biography aisle, to the school's best-known stalker, a guy named James, who was currently slinking along the perimeter of the library, eyeing everyone closely. Oh, the poeple that made the school what it was...
"DONE!" A triumphant voice at Dib's side made him blink in confusion, turning to see Mr. Zella, whose smirk was wider than usual. "10 in four and a half minutes! You know, that's actually surpassing my original bet plan, so maybe you should owe me. However, I'll let it pass, since the prize is so high anyway." He said generously, swiveling his chair around to stare into Zim's stunned face. "I believe you have a soul to give me." The teacher reached into his pocket, pulling out an index card and a pen, and handing them to the Irken. "Write your name on it."
Zim was frozen for a long moment before he finally looked down at the white piece of thick paper in his claws. He pressed the pen to it and scribbled down the three letters, brow furrowing. Mr. Zella snatched it back, standing up and offering Zim's chair back to him. "Thanks so much. I'll see you two later. By the way, there are 50 note cards due by next Tuesday, so I'd imagine you two should get cracking." He strode away, whistling cheerfully.
The Irken plopped down heavily into the chair, which let out a loud creak in protest. He turned to look at Dib, whose mouth was dropped slightly in a perfect 'O' as he watched Mr. Zella retreat to hover over another set of partners, who were sitting together at a table with a tall stack of books between them. "Um.." Dib began, unsure of exactly what he should he say in response to the rather...unusual event that had just taken place. Especially since it was partially his fault.
The alien merely sighed, clicking on a window to print out the information as he simply remarked, "As you said, Dib-human, why do we always get stuck with the weird teachers?"
Dib chuckled, relieved, if anything, that Zim wasn't ready to strangle him. "You've got me."
***
In the far corner of the consecrated place known commonly as the library, a small group of gothic people were sitting at a rickety table. They sat quietly talking to each other, all except for one, who was too engaged in her video game to care. Gaz's hair hadn't changed much since elementary school, still in a short cut that framed her pale face, the only difference now being in the streaks of darker violet that ran through it. The others at the table could be called her friends, although the more appropriate name for them would be worshippers. Not that she minded or anything. It was certainly amusing to have a small group of people following her around, catering to her every whim as if she were some sort of dark goddess. It suited her fine, just as long as they stayed out of her light.
The peculiar arrangement had been in motion for almost two years now, she mused to herself, remembering how they'd all come to her, one by one, drawn for unknown reasons to the slender girl hunched over her Gameslave that sat by herself, eyes squinted down to her beloved system and ignoring the world around her. And it was almost nice; there was always someone to talk to when she actually felt the need to play human, someone to go out with or just 'chill'. Hard as it was to admit to herself, she felt sorry that her older brother didn't have those same options.
His moving out had affected Gaz more than she let on. It really wasn't all that great, being alone all the time in the empty house without Dib's chatter. So maybe it had been annoying, but…he was still her brother,. She felt a slight twinge of guilt that she hadn't really talked to him since he'd moved out.
And the voice that she'd been absent-mindedly been missing suddenly cut through her thick hair to pierce her ears, and she opened her brown eyes to see Dib sitting across the library with Zim. The two were talking intently, their elbows almost touching as they conversed. It actually made Gaz blink. 'Well well, what's going on here?' A little smile managed to creep onto her face and she turned back to her game to hide it.
***
"I can't believe I let you talk me into having this horrible topic." Zim said, sifting through the printed out papers on the table and separating them.
"Well, sorry for the millionth time! I thought it was going to be easy."
"Noooo, easy is the Martial Arts Vegetables one. And they already have 15 sources on The Existence of God in a Universe without Yogurt!"
Dib sunk down into his chair, cheeks burning in embarrassment as he highlighted a sentence on one of the papers. "You know, this is the only day we're going to have to work on this in class. We're gonna have to, um, meet on our own time to work on the paper."
Zim blinked, looking surprised before he slowly answered. "Yes, that seems like the reasonable idea."
"Uh, so…Why don't we go to the public library tomorrow after school?"
"Fine, then I'll…see you at your locker, and we can walk there together."
Dib's mouth turned upwards in a huge grin before he could stop it, and he felt his heart race at the thought of spending the next afternoon with Zim.
***
Whoa, this chapter was short! Sorry, but I can't think of anything more to add. And more sorries for not having this done sooner, I had a ton of things going on. Blah, blah, blah, like anybody cares. WELL YOU SHOULD AT LEAST ACT LIKE YOU DO!!
Little bit of spookiness for you to consider. The whole thing with the index card really did happen to my friend Lindsey last year. Mr. Zella still proudly displays her soul on it's lined, white bit of paper.