GalaxyDancer's "Flowers and Spikes"
Chapter 01: "The Really Fun Tag Game"
Author's Comments:
This was one of my early, short fanfiction stories about a little demented girl who gets a crush on Zim. Lord knows why . . .
Anyway, because it was written as a short story instead of a chapter story, I decided to break up the chapters according to time-lapse breaks. Because of this, some chapters are incredibly short, and others are somewhat lengthy. This chapter would be about the medium, leaning closer to the short side. Well . . . enough of these comments taking up your time. Go ahead and read!
Oh, and I changed the name…. well, mainly because my titles don't seem to make people interested. When, of course, the story IS interesting… so I'm just trying publicity techniques.
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Another normal day was beginning on the worst planet in the universe: Earth. The sun slowly rose above a small, odd-looking green and purple house, the orange and bright red colors of the sky now becoming visible after fading in from black and dark blue.
It was Saturday, one of the best days of the week. And that meant that the usually school-bound children had no homework to weigh them down. This lovely early morning was perfect for keeping themselves entertained with a playful game of tag.
A pale blue still lingering on the far side of the street, the dew still on the grass, and the birds just now beginning to chirp all caught the attention of a young boy who wasted his time in his room day after day like a lab rat. Taking a moment to look away from his computer which had occupied his time all night, he glanced out the window and noticed a few kids walking in a familiar direction.
"Where are they going?" he asked himself, quite curious why four kids of his age would be interested in heading that way. He was usually the only person who ventured to the area which they were clearly wandering to.
Deciding he had been cooped up for a few hours too many, he hopped up and, grabbing his binoculars on the way, ran down the stairs to the living room to begin this new day with frightful suspicion. He noticed his sister sitting on the sofa with the remote, clicking past channel after channel for no reason at all. It was obvious she had been at it all night by her peeved and exhausted expression.
Giving her actions an uncaring shrug, he ran to the door and quietly opened it, peering out to see if the children were out of his sight of not. They weren't, but might as well have been. They were rather far away now, still strolling down the sidewalk and chatting on about . . . stuff.
He raised his binoculars to his eyes and watched the four kids continue to walk out of sight. They seemed happy enough, not acting as if they dreaded arriving at their destination. Perhaps it was an innocent attempt for them to ask a fellow classmate to come out and play. After all, it was a virtually perfect morning.
Making up his mind to follow them and make sure they didn't get themselves killed or badly injured by the person who lived in the house they were nearing, he raced across the street and dived into a nearby bush. Using his binoculars, he realized he hadn't attracted their attention yet. He wiped away a bead of sweat forming on his forehead and snuck out of the bush only to run and put his back against the south side of a light pole.
"So you remember last Spring when we played the Really Fun Tag Game?" asked Melvin, one of the kids to his three companions. "We played it in this cul-de-sac over here, so that's where we're going!"
Thinking it over, Zita responded, "Yeah, that was the best game ever! I remember that place! It's so wide and open and has tons of hiding places!"
"That's the one!" agreed Keef.
There was a pause as Zita took the time to remember all the details of last Spring's amazing game. "Hey . . . last time, didn't we invite all the kids? Like Jessica, Torque, The Letter M, and . . . Dib?"
Sara shuttered even thinking about Dib, the weird paranoid kid who was believed even to be insane. "Yeah, and I guess 'cause it's tradition, we can get them to come. I already called Brian, Rob, Spoo, and Smeedge to join us. We won't start until they get here."
The four kids continued talking and making their way to a certain cul-de-sac while the concerned and also curious Dib kept them in view. He raced from tree to tree, bush to bush, and light pole to light pole to continue with his stealthy act, hoping they wouldn't spot him spying. He still wasn't completely sure why they were going towards the most horrible place on Earth.
One by one more and more kids noticed the meeting like Dib had, and ran outside to join. Everybody knew what time it was, and everybody was ready for it. Always on the first perfect weekend of Spring, the children of the neighborhood gathered in this one special cul-de-sac and played their Really Fun Tag Game of the year. As tradition, once they had all arrived, they would begin shouting out "not it!" until only one person remained, and that person would be "it". The "it" had to tag another person, as any game of Tag goes, then that person would tag another, so on and so on until it was noon, then they would all stop for a glass of Poop Cola. It happened every year, and every year it was the exact same. Except this year, the kids would initiate a new member of their Tag game, one who hadn't come too long ago.
Now initiation is a whole other thing entirely. To become an official member of the Really Fun Tag Game, the new kid would have to prove his skills by running "The Course". The course is a trail set up for the game that runs from the very cul-de-sac they were all at now, through the woods, loop around the school, and back to the cul-de-sac again. It wasn't hard, especially because the winner of last year's game always went with the new kid. The winner is the only one who is never tagged throughout the entire day. If more than one person remains, the kids continue the game the next day. The longest game only lasted until Monday, a total of three game days.
After not too long, mostly all the kids were together, talking, whispering, spreading rumors and making bets. Dib came out from hiding as he watched even more kids arrive. They were too distracted to notice him, anyway. He still wasn't sure what they were doing, but the whole thing rang a loud bell in his head. Something about this was very familiar.
"Okay everybody!" screamed Zita, the leader of it all. Dib listened. ". . . Not it!"
"Not it!"
"Not it!"
"Not it!"
Suddenly recognizing the cries, Dib whispered to himself, "The Really Fun Tag Game . . ." The experience brought back horrible memories of when he had been banned from ever joining in the Really Fun Tag Game ever again. He sighed, and decided to go back home, forgetting all about his mission. He was too depressed to worry about what kind of terror the new kid would unleash upon the helpless school children.