Zim slammed the door behind him and flattened himself against it, panting. He'd felt like he was being followed all the way home, and kept glimpsing flashes of blue and orange out of the corner of his advanced eyes. He wasn't too concerned, though, this was the after-affect of his and Keef's brief 'friendship.' Now any dealings with that particular deranged human left him in a hyper-paranoid state for a while.
And to think, he'd promised to go to the dance with him!
Ah, the dance...
His eyes narrowed dangerously as he thought of it and all that it entailed.
First, there was the whole 'Keef being in the same room as Zim' thing. That didn't sit well with the little Irken, in fact it made him rather queasy. Of all the horrible Earth children he'd come across, Keef was the worst. Even Dib paled in comparison with the over-enthusiastic redhead.
Then, of course, having to feign normalcy for the extended amount of time he would be forced to endure in that miserable 'learning' facility. That alone was enough to make him cringe, even without the rest of the student body being there.
Third, the 'Dib being in the same room as Zim' thing, which never worked out well for anybody. They'd probably get caught up in some war, trash the place, blow a few things up, then both get stuck in detention with a less-than-pleased Ms. Bitters.
Zim had to laugh at that. His war with Dib was generally amusing, and blowing things up was one of his favorite hobbies. Maybe there would be some things about this dance that didn't suck after all.
He abruptly stopped chuckling, eyes darkening again as he thought of another annoyance. Gretchen.
That's right, if Dib was with her, then that would mean he wouldn't be warring with him! And he was ZIM! With the Dib distracted, he would have no one to fight with! Nothing to blow up! Not to mention him being left to endure Keef on his own. He shuddered violently at the thought.
He stormed off to the elevator, mood blackened, and put his disgruntled thoughts into words.
"Ugh! Where does that disgusting human get off distracting the Dib from me? From ZIM! Does she not know that we're enemies? And as such, he must battle me! Not grow slack and... hang out," these words laden with disgust, "with some pathetic, large toothed stink-beast!"
The computer groaned as Zim entered his lab, still ranting animatedly about the audacity of Gretchen. Did she not know she could be endangering the entire fate of the world? Shouldn't she care that she was distracting the planets sole defender?
"Fine!" Zim shouted randomly, as though actually involved in an argument. "I'll just have to force Dib to concentrate on his MOST IMPORTANT job! Doesn't he know how boring conquering this dirt-ball would be if he just decide to be normal? Stupid big headed fool."
He jumped onto his chair, grumbling quietly to himself as he formulated a plan. Dib wouldn't forget his place after this... oh, no.
Maybe this dance wouldn't be a waste, after all.
Dib impatiently waited out the rest of the day. He tried sleeping to pass time and ease boredom, but a loud exclamation of doom from his teacher or mysterious spitballs from his lovely classmates always jarred him awake. Zim was gone and looking at his desk made him jumpy, and elsewhere in the classroom Gretchen was making googly eyes at him, so his only options were to either pay attention or stare sullenly out the window. His pencil had broken a while back, and sharpeners were 'an unnecessary strain on budget,' so drawing was out of the question.
Finally, at long last, the bell rang. He practically flew from his seat and dashed for the door, only to fall backwards with a yelp when Gretchen appeared right in front of him from seemingly nowhere.
"Gyaa! Ah- bu- wha.. Where'd you come from?" He stammered, stumbling over words in alarm. Gretchen just smiled crookedly at him, then glanced behind him for a moment. Surprise fading, he turned as well, just in time to catch the end of Keef mouthing something.
"What was tha-"
"So, Dib!" She interjected, not stuttering or stumbling for once. "Since you're my, uh, m-my ...date, and all, do you maybe want to, you know, walk home together?"
"You ride the bus and we live in opposite directions. Besides, I kinda have something planned for this afternoon, so if you'll excuse me..." he said, trying to step around her.
"You really should, Dib! It'd be the nice thing to do," Keef said, blocking Dib's escape. He could have been imagining it, but there seemed to be a trace of malice in Keef's usually chipper voice. Creepy.
Dib opened his mouth, ready with a clever retort and excuse, but a trembling whimper from Gretchen holding the promise of screeching sobs in the near future made him sigh and hang his head in defeat.
"Fine, whatever, but after this I really have something I need to do! Okay?"
Gretchen happily squealed her consent and, grabbing him roughly by the arm, went skipping merrily from the classroom.
Keef grinned as he watched them depart, waving vigorously before hastily making his way from the school in the direction of Zim's base.
