By animeninjaNIPPON
Ms. Bitters was just about to announce something horrible to the class when a sleep-deprived Dib stumbled through the door, his backpack slumped over one shoulder. In one hand, he clenched a handful of computer papers, two of which found their way to the floor as he trudged to his desk.
"Ms. Bitters, I can expl…" he started, then nodded off into much-needed slumber. Ms. Bitters dropped a huge dictionary next to Dib's oversized head, waking him up.
"As I was saying," Ms. Bitters announced, "the skool has a new tardiness policy. From now on, anyone late to class will be forced to copy the dictionary five times. Dib here has made an example of this horrible new rule."
"But Ms. Bitters!" Dib protested. "I can explain why I'm late!"
"What is it this time?" she groaned. "Did you find out the janitor was Bigfoot?"
"He is? – I mean, no! It's these weird stories on the Internet!" He waved the handful of papers in question.
Ms. Bitters glanced vaguely at the papers Dib held and rolled her eyes. "It's not my responsibility to make sure you get to bed on time. Now, copy the dictionary and turn in your definitions at the end of the day. As for the rest of you, turn to page 360 in your textbooks…"
As Dib opened the dictionary to the very first page, he noticed that Zim was nowhere to be seen. "Hey, where's Zim?"
"He left early due to symptoms of purple monkey fever," Ms. Bitters replied, frustrated at the constant interruptions she had to put up with.
Dib's eyes went as wide as saucers. "Maybe HE'S the one who's writing those romances about us!" His poor choice of words touched off a wave of laughter behind him.
"Someone's writing romances about you and ZIM?" Zita asked. "Yeah right – you're probably writing them, if they even exist."
"First you're screaming like a howler monkey about how Zim's an alien," the letter M piped up, "and now you're telling us that people would actually write about two guys dating?"
"Yeah," someone else added, "why are you reading those, anyway? Do you have a crush on Zim or something?"
"NO!" Dib rose abruptly in his seat. "Zim's an alien! And a guy! And he stole my camera!"
"You two would make kind of a cute couple," a girl in the back spoke up. "I mean, you're both crazy and all."
"I DON'T like Zim!" Dib protested.
"Sit down and copy that dictionary," Ms. Bitters ordered.
With a long, defeated sigh, Dib slumped back into his chair. As he began to copy the definition for "A," he wondered why no one thought it was odd that people wrote stories about him and the people he knew. Well, somebody had to believe him…somebody was bound to give a hang…
Dib cringed. He knew exactly who would care about that strange fiction online – Zim. He didn't want to seek the alien's help, but he had no other choice – Dib was bent on getting to the bottom of it all.
End of part three