Arco IV
"Oh, really, paranormal studies huh?" Avery said, keeping the book out of his reach. Dib didn't answer he just tried harder to retrieve his journal. Sure it was a log of all the paranormal happenings he had witnessed, but he had written a few personal notes that were strictly for his eyes only. Now some preteen half-wit he didn't even know was opening the cover and flipping the pages, making sure he couldn't attain it.
"Mmm, well look here . . . it was a wonderful day. I got this new telescope and Red helped me set it up. Then she stayed over to help me test it out . . . " Avery read as Dib sunk. He was dreading the part that she was going to read next, but he couldn't stop her. "The stars were amazing and she was happy. I love to see her enjoy herself for some reason. I know we just met, but it makes me happy too."
"Ooooh," half the class teased while the rest laughed.
"Read more," the letter M laughed.
"All right, how about this. I don't know why I did it but, well . . . I thought it would be the last time I saw her, and she was so nice, and brilliant, not to mention beautiful, so I did . . . ," Avery stopped for dramatic pause, " I kissed her!" Dib fell out of his seat, right on his back. At first, it was quiet but then mixed sounds arose, from laughter to puckering noises, to whoops and hollers.
"I'll give you fifty dollars for that book," someone shouted jokingly.
"He kissed a girl," some still immature others shouted.
"Oh, the whole skool has got to know this," another said. The paranormal investigator's pale complexion grew far paler as he felt that he was going to be the only person in history to die of embarrassment. He closed his eyes and wished it was a dream, a horrible nightmare, but he opened them to find he was still there. He looked up at Red who, too, was receiving a good amount of taunting and turned his head sharply at Avery and glared, hard. He sat up slowly still blaring heavily on the odd girl and snatched at the book quickly. Just as fast Avery moved the book from his grasp, sending him to the floor; which caused another round of laughs. Red, finally recovering from her distress, scowled and quickly seized the journal from Avery.
"Students, two words. SETTLE DOWN!" Mrs. Anderson bellowed quite annoyed by the children's outlandish behavior. " Dib, please return to your seat." However before Dib could do this the bell rang, signaling the end of the school day. As kids past Dib and Red, remarks were made up about their supposed love life. Red helped Dib off the floor and handed his book back to him.
"I'm sorry," Dib said, turning away and looking down at the cheap, tiled floor.
"For what. Because they're jerks. Last time I checked, you weren't raising them," Red implied. Dib smiled faintly and looked back up.
"Come on let's met up with Chris and Zim, maybe they had a better day."
"All right." the pale boy agreed as they walked out of the classroom. Before he could get out of the door he tripped and fell to the ground sending his belongings all over. He turned to face the object that so wrongly offended him, but was quick to find it was a black boot extended out from a grinning Avery.
"Why don't you watch where your going, maniac," she said sarcastically. Dib growled in her direction but decided to just gather his load and leave. Avery, on the other hand, didn't appreciate his gesture and kicked some of the boy's papers and pencils out of his way. The boy stood up angrily and looked at his adversary straight in the eyes.
"What was that for? I don't even know you much less done anything to you," he scolded. By this time a small crowd had grouped around Avery, Red, and Dib. The blond girl smiled and pulled an object out of her backpack.
"Haven't done anything to me, huh?" She revealed the object to be a bottle of glue. With one swift motion, she poured the contents of the container out on Dib's black hair.
"Hey!" he shouted.
"Why don't you buzz off, what's your problem," Red fumed becoming angry with each misdeed. Students started to come from all ends of the hall as classes were being let out. When some reached the scene of Dib with globes of adhesive in his hair, they broke out in a fit of laughter. Some others felt sorry for the poor guy. Avery just glared at both of them and bent down to pick something up. She held it up for all to see with a wide sinister grin. The journal.
"Give it back," Dib yelled, but before he could make an action to grab the book the evil girl took off running down the hall. Dib gave chase, too furious to think about anything but getting that journal back. Red followed just as mad at the little monster. Also, some mean-spirited children tagged along to get in on the action of torturing the school geek and weirdo known as Dib. Avery ran off of skool grounds and into the city streets with Red and Dib close behind.
"I have a plan," Dib huffed as his feet pounded the concrete sidewalk.
"What is it?" Red breathed, her trenchcoat billowing behind her.
"I'll distract her since she's obviously more interested in tormenting me anyway, then you nab the book from behind."
"Sounds good to me." They both watched as Avery made a quick turn down an alleyway. Both took the same turn to find a dead end but no Avery. Dib immediately froze feeling his paranormal intuition kick up his senses. He hated the feeling of being watched and now for some reason, he could feel it.
"Where'd she go?" Red asked as she too was spoked by the girl's sudden disappearance. She turned around feeling it in her gut that it was the right thing to do. When she did, she was shocked to find Avery standing there. Dib whirled around too just in time to see more kids come into the alley with them.
"Look what we have here, two flies in the spider's web," Avery snarled gleefully. She tossed the journal back to Dib who caught it in his stomach.
"Its lover boy and his sweetheart," a bully from behind Avery said moving up.
"Ready for your date," another with, more muscles necessary for a fifth grader, said as he picked up a garbage can. Dib knew where this was heading and he didn't want to see Red get hurt. He wished she hadn't of followed him to this fate, but there wasn't too much he could do now. However, he had to try. With a firm but gentle grip, he grabbed Red's hand and tried to pass.
"Where do you think you're going," one boy said madly, stepping in his way.
"Let me pass," Dib said as he bypassed the boy.
"I don't think so," another said shoving Dib back.
"Then at least let her go," Dib pleaded.
"No."
Dib took a chance and tried to run through a gap for which Red had no problem following. She had contended with bullies before, but most were usually to chicken to fight physically, and too stupid to be cable of witty remarks. However, these guys might have been dumb but they meant business.
"Hey, their trying to escape, ain't that cute," one said, quickly snatching both of their trench coats causing Dib and Red to fall forward.
"Jerks, let us go," Red shouted as she and Dib were lifted up in the air by the collars of their coats. Avery walked up and dumped some glue in Red's hair. Dib began kicking and punching, but the boy that was holding them was twice his size and twice as strong. With a piece of cloth, taken from the dumpster, the bullies tied 'the couple' together tightly. Avery smiled as they slammed Dib and Red down causing the two to groan in pain. She motioned for the garbage can to be put atop the boy and girl.
"With pleasure," the mean boy said, crashing the can over them with a loud bang.
"Let us out now, hey! Hey!" both shouted from inside the trash container muffled by not only the can itself but the resounding laughter that echoed around them. The crowd of annoyers left leaving Dib and Red to bake in the hot sun.
Meanwhile, outside of the skool, Gaz tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for her 'dumb brother'. She didn't know why she always waited, maybe because he was her big brother and it was the right thing to do or maybe it's because her father made her do it since she was too little. Whatever the reason, because she stayed Chris and Zim bumped into her.
"Whatcha waiting for," Chris asked noticing the peeved expression and her unwilling delay stance.
"Dib, what's taking him so long," she gripped.
"Didn't he tell you, guess not. They said they were going to the park this afternoon," Chris said surprised that Dib would leave his sister out in the cold, so to speak. He only knew Dib for a couple months but had already picked up that he cared for her a lot, not to mention she would probably kill him for it.
"That retard, wait until he gets home," Gaz said, turning her impatient face into one of disgust.
"Hey well since you're here, you want to go to the baseball game with us?" Chris asked. Gaz seemed to wonder about it for a moment and shrugged. Her dad wouldn't care and her brother didn't matter at the moment.
"Yeah, why not."
"But I still have to tell Juel . . . my mom where I'm going," Zim stated.
"Okay let's just drop where you live and ask," Chris said, heading down the sidewalk before turning back and saying, "Maybe you should lead the way since I don't know where we're going." They reached the odd greenhouse with an even stranger green dog playing in the yard.
"Master!" it shouted, running to Zim. The alien flinched when the dog spoke hoping that Chris wouldn't notice.
"Wow what a neat trick, come here little guy," Chris said playfully as he pet the small animal on the head. Zim went in and told Juelia where he would be as Chris just stood.
"I can go," Zim proclaimed as he stepped out.
"Great. Let's go. We only have thirty minutes," Chris cheered as he took off. While Zim, Gaz, and Chris ran to the park for the baseball field, Dib and Red yelled for help as loud as they could, but no one ever came to their rescue.
"This stinks and I mean literally," Red said. Dib sighed sadly not wanting to be here, not to mention getting his best friend in the same situation. In addition, he hadn't gotten a chance to explain to her his journal entries. Then again what was there to explain. He had tried before to tell her his feelings and it was just too hard. The truth was they had never spoken of the kiss they shared months ago, and he wasn't sure what to make of that. But now he felt horrible and Red could sense this.
"Not quite the park, but at least you're here to keep me company," Red said trying to lighten the mood of dismay. Dib chuckled a little, which made her smile.
"Yeah. It could be worse, right," Dib said, "Like garbage could still be in here."
"It could smell worse."
"Yuck! At least they didn't shove us in a dumpster."
"Dumpster, yeah. Of course, we could roll in the garbage and still have more class than them," Red said. They paused in the conversation until Dib let out a yelp.
"What is it?" Red asked.
"Something's jabbing me in the ribs," Dib grunted.
"Here, what side is it on?" Red asked.
"The right." Red rubbed her back up against the side she thought was right.
"Ow! No, no, the other right I mean the other side," Dib moaned. Red switched sides and brushed up against Dib's other side.
"Almost got it, wait, wait. It stopped, its okay," Dib said.
"Ya know my head is stuck," Red stated.
"Yeah mine too, its form that glue," Dib replied. Both noticed that daylight was becoming slim from underneath their trash can prison.
"I wonder what time it is," Red questioned.
"Time to go home," Dib sighed as he moved his hand across the dirt in the alley.
"Don't worry. I'm sure someone's looking for us."
~At the baseball game
"Yah, go, Alvin," Chris shouted from his seat in the stands along with his mother, father and two friends.
"At a boy, Alvin! Hit her hard!" Mr. McDuncal shouted.
"Yeah, hit that thing right out of the park," Mrs. McDuncal yelled. Gaz and Zim thought they were crazy, but it didn't matter because fifty other parents rooted from the stands for their child. Zim was puzzled by these humans reactions to the game, but sort of felt excited about it at the same time. He began to cheer just because it felt good to shout out. Gaz felt a little cheerless as she watched the other families. Hers was less than perfect and out of touch with itself. You'd never see Professor out spending time with his kids. Sure Dib tried to let her in on what he did, but let's face it, half the stuff her brother did was a little out there, and she'd much rather play video games which Dib hadn't done for a long time. She sat in silence until the game ended with a tie. Mr. Duncal offered to drive them home since it was now getting late.
The sun had set and the streetlights gleamed. Zim and Gaz were driven home with the only conversation being the highlights of the game. When Gaz returned home, she wasn't surprised that Dad wasn't home yet, but when Dib wasn't there it was troublesome. Usually, he would come home around eight, if he did go out, then he would leave again at nine to do his paranormal garbage.
Then she remembered that he was out with Red, which could take hours all in itself. Suddenly the telephone rang and she picked it up.
"Hello," she responded into the receiver.
"Hello there, this is Ms. Jackson, is Rosa over there, I've been callin' since six," Ms. Jackson said.
"No, she's not, do you know where she is," Gaz asked knowing Red wasn't one to let her mom worry.
"No, she hasn't been home, and I can't find her anywhere," Ms. Jackson said.
"Chris, Dib and her went to the park but we were just there and didn't see either of them," Gaz stated realizing this for her first time.
"Oh dear, well thanks anyway, is your father home?" Ms. Jackson asked.
"No, but I'm going to go look for Dib."
"By yourself hon. No. I'll be right over."
"Hey bring Max with you," Gaz suggested.
"Will do."
They hung up without saying goodbye.
~*Sorry that these chapters are slow to getting up here but schoolwork combined with laziness is never a good mix, but that's what I have. Thank you for your patience. Enjoy!