Important Note: This, lovely and constant reader, is a story I volunteered to finish for The-Death-Bringer-of-Hell. She allowed me to and here I am. Credit for this chapter goes to her, because this is her work. I just fixed it up a little. Now, enjoy!
Persona Reversed
Chapter Three: Skool: Hardships or New Friendships?
Zim had it easy. He would just sneak into The Dib's room and search for his major weaknesses. "This is much too easy." He told himself with a grin. "I will make sure that NOBODY ever believed Dib-human about me being an alien. Oh, the Tallest will be so proud of my evil! All I had to do was switch bodies with that nasty stink-beast! Though it has absolutely NO physical strength, it will be worth it in the end! I WILL DESTROY THE CREATURES THAT INHABIT THIS FILTHY DIRTBALL OF A PLANET! Then, I will give it to the Tallest. They will have to forgive me for all those fires on Irk! …But I did make them better. …I AM ZIM!" Zim, being the idiot that he was, screamed his plans at the top of his lungs, for ALL to hear. And so the downside, as all evil plans had them, was that Dib-human heard Zim's plans and also could do the same thing to Zim. Why? Because Zim's faithful half robot half doggy companion would now obey Dib.
Zim, head in the clouds, strolled down the streets toward Dib's house. It was dawn, so no one was up yet. Zim jumped up into the tree by Dib's window, and made his way inside, preparing for the Sunday that lie ahead.
Zim woke up from the sleep that his new body required. He walked downstairs to find the sister, Gaz, playing that God-awful Game Slave. Zim made mistake number one: He went over to watch, thinking it might be something the Dib would do. He sat down next to the Gaz and watched over her shoulder. "If you wanna keep all your limbs, Dib, you will go away, and you will go away now." She threatened without even looking up.
"I have as much right as sitting here as you do, human!" Zim yelled in her ear. Big mistake number two. Gaz, seemingly calmly, turned off her Game Slave. She turned around to face "Dib". Next thing Zim knew, he was hanging upside down from the ceiling fan. Gaz turned on the fan and left the room, ignoring Zim's cries of apology. Zim, after some struggling, finally got loose of the rope Gaz somehow magically obtained, only to hit his head on the hard-wood floor.
The rest of Zim's Sunday went the same. He would annoy Gaz, thinking that what he was doing was something that Dib would do, and then Gaz would hang him upside down from somewhere.
Zim walked to Skool with Gaz, completely silent. He had learned, all in one day, what the Dib-human went through in his home life. Well, at least Skool would give him a place to plot his next move. Zim spotted Dib in his body, and quickly disappeared into the crowd of kids behind him. He didn't think the Dib-human would come to Skool in his present condition. No matter, Zim thought to himself. We'll just have to act like each other, won't we? I'll make that a part of my plan. He gets his information, and I'll get mine… I AM ZIM! Zim thought this to himself, as he couldn't scream it.
He walked into class and sat by the window, where he had once had to sit on Opposite Day… When he was being stalked by some loony named Johnny, the Homicidal Maniac. He shuddered at the memory. The rest of the class filed in, Dib coming in last. Wow, he's smarter than he looks. He took my idea about acting like each other. Perfect… He smirked to himself.
"Dib! I would like to start my rare role call. STOP LOOKING HAPPY!" Zim's thoughts were interrupted by Ms. Bitters. Oh, how he hated her. What would The Dib-human do…? He thought quickly and suddenly came up with something… not half-bad.
"Sorry, Ms. Bitters. So, start the role call. Just remember to start with A for Alien. Then Zim would have to answer AND THAT WOULD PROVE THAT HE'S AN ALIEN!" Zim hopped on "his" desk and pointed in Dib's direction.
"Alright," She hissed back. "I'll play it your way, Dib. I'll start with Alien. Is there anyone with Alien for a name in this class? HM?" Nobody in Zim's class raised their hand. "I guess Mr. Alien must be out today, Dib. NOW PLEASE TAKE YOUR SEAT!" He sat, another kid called him crazy, and Dib just smiled at him… A knowing smile…
Ms. Bitters went on with her so called teaching then lunched rolled by, just as Dib and Zim's glares toward each other were getting more intense. Zim was the first one out, as Dib usually was and Dib was the last one out, as Zim usually was. Zim sat at a random table in the cafeteria and poked at the food on his lunch tray. The Dib-human usually ate this disgusting Earth food. But everything on the tray was poison to him… Dib would surely know this… Somebody sat in front of him but he neither noticed nor cared until...
"So, Dib-human. Not hungry?" Zim looked up to see "himself" sitting in front of him. Zim shrugged Dib's strong shoulders. Zim had to admit, for a geeky scientist, Dib did have some nice muscles. He just hid them under his jacket. "Listen, Zim. I don't know how you managed to do it, but I know you switched our bodies. Now tell me why!" Dib whispered threateningly.
"I think you already know why. And you better keep up acting like me… Or nobody will ever see you again… Not that they'll care…" Zim smirked, his usual evil smile. Dib thought it looked horrible on his body.
"Change. Us. Back." Dib almost screamed. The look in his eyes was unbecoming for an Irken Soldier.
"Oh, alright, alright. I've had enough of your stupid sister anyway. I'll go home with you after Skool. I don't have my technology here. But this is a secret, you got it?" Dib nodded and started to pick at Zim's food.
"So, you really can't eat this stuff, can you?" Zim shook his head cautiously. The Dib-human must be up to something. I'll have to keep my wits about me. Dib shrugged, as though he didn't really care and asked another question about Zim, this one more general. "How can you stand living with that maniac G.I.R. all the fricken time? He doesn't ever shut up!" It was Zim's turn to shrug.
"You get used to it…" He tried a bite of food. In this body, it didn't actually taste too bad… He made a small face and continued eating. He looked at the human across from him and saw him staring at the food wistfully… He sighed… almost a defeated sigh. "There's some food in my Pak if you want it… It won't hurt my body…" A ghost of a smile grew on Dib's face. Dib thought for a second, and out popped a candy-bar looking thing. He ate it and thought it was ok… Zim was impressed that he actually ate it.
Skool literally dragged on as Zim and Dib were hardly looking at each other. In fact, they avoided each other's eyes until after Skool. Zim told Gaz that he was going home with "Zim" and… she socked him in the eye. Glasses now broken, Zim and Dib together walked to Zim's house. They didn't say anything to one another and Dib practically followed Zim home. He knew the way… But decided he didn't need Zim laughing at him incase he took a wrong turn somewhere.
The only sound on the street was the sound of their shoes hitting the asphalt. When they got to Zim's house, G.I.R. was there waiting for them. "MASTER!" He squealed. "YOU ARE HOME! GASP! THE HUMAN HAS YOU CAPTIVE! …I LIKE CORN!" He ran in circles a couple times, then ran into the house. Zim, although being used to these wild outbursts, was still stupefied by G.I.R.'s consistency of stupidity.
"Advanced my ass." he said as they followed G.I.R. inside, awaiting the inevitable appearance of the robo-parents.
"Welcome home, Son!" they screamed and they were shoved back into the closet.
"Alright, Dib-human. Let's get back into our own bodies." Zim said, almost sounding defeated, as he led the way into the kitchen-type-thing. He sat in the "toilet" and flushed, disappearing. Dib did the same. When he landed, Dib was a little shaky.
"I will NEVER get used to that."
"You won't have to, Stink-beast. As soon as we get our bodies back, YOU'RE NEVER COMING BACK IN HERE AGAIN!" Zim retorted.
"Oh, really?" Dib said sarcastically. "Aw, I wanted to come back here every day for the REST OF MY SCREWED UP LIFE!" Now they were having a screaming fight. The one who screamed loudest, without his throat rebelling and rupturing, would win.
"You're nothing compared to me, Earth boy! When we get our bodies back, why don't you go home and shave your giant head of smell with your bad self!" Dib was taken aback with this statement.
"Okay... There's all kinds of things wrong with what you just said." They tied. So tired of each other right now, Zim told Dib what to say to the computer, when, in order to get back into their original bodies. Dib followed instructions without complaint. Then, Zim turned to face Dib and put a hand on his shoulder. There was a blinding flash of light, then everything went black for both of them.
Zim awoke first, with Dib shortly after. They took one look at each other. Zim gasped and Dib nearly fainted. This wasn't what they were expecting…
AN: Hope you enjoyed! Credit goes to the above mentioned. Please review! Well, bye!