A.N. Well, I'm allowed on deh compy over spring break. . . yay! Thank you everyone who reviewed, I really appreciate it. Enjoy deh chappy. . . oh yeah, there's another fancharacter of mine briefly mentioned, Kacer's cousin, but he is the most boring character I've ever created. Which is a shame, cuz his design is really adorable. Well, yeah. . . he's Gaz's friend. . . and stuff.

Chapter 5- Fighting Back

"Dib likes you," Kacer says.

She looks kind of. . . sad. But not jealous or anything.

"I know," I say.

"He doesn't want to admit it, but. . ." Kacer trails off, then looks up and smiles, "Well, I just thought I'd tell you.
"You know I don't like him?" I say. "He's not. . .my type."

Kacer nods and then sits across from me and sighs.

"And I'm not his. . ." she says sadly.

To be honest, I really don't want to hear a human complain about their love life, but then I find it really hard to be rude right now.

"Oh, I'm sure he likes you," I say, without much effort to sound sincere, "he just doesn't know it yet."

Kacer just sighs again and rests her head down on the table. For some reason it's making me really uncomfortable. She glances up at me, without really lifting her head.

Damn, she's going to say something, I don't want to hear it. . .

"Say Tak," she says. Shut up, you nasty little- "If you don't like Dib, is there anyone-"

"NO!" I shout, and I jump up from the table. Kacer cowers back a little, so I sit back down and say as calmly as I can, "No, I don't. Don't ever ask me again," and my eyes flash.

Kacer sits upright and nods obediantly.

"Yes Tak," she says.

I glance around, and see a few more students who were startled by my outburst. They keep staring at me, and my eyes flash again, so they turn around quickly.

Suddenly, from outside, there are screams. Familiar screams. There's a small explosion on the opposite end of the cafeteria, destroying half the wall, and I groan as I see Zim emerge from the rubble.

He's holding a HandHeldDoomCanon, and he seems ready to fire, as Dib jumps over the broken wall into the cafeteria.

"This ends now, Dib," Zim says darkly, and Dib jumps behind a table, but Zim just shoots it out of the way.

As this continues thoughout the cafeteria, Kacer keeps gasping, muttering nervously to herself,

"Oh my. . . someone could get hurt. . ."

I just roll my eyes.

Mostly everyone's run out of the cafeteria, and then Dib jumps in front of my table, and he leans down and whispers something to Kacer, and then she runs out of the room too.

Zim gets ready to fire again, but then he sees me and lowers it for a moment.

"Move out of the way, Tak," he says.

I just say, slightly annoyed,

"Oh, cut it out Zim. You'll get expelled."

He seems surprised by my response, as does Dib.

But then Zim narrows his eyes, and raises the canon.

"Tak," he says again, "Move out of the way."

I give off a short laugh then say,

"You're such an idiot. You think this won't bring attention to you?" I don't wait for a response, but as I speak, his expression softens, "Just give me the canon and I'll return it home before anyone else witnesses you using it..." He doesn't reply, so I add, "It'll cause a lot less trouble..."
So he lowers the canon and shuts it off. Without a word, but with a scowl, he hands it to me.

I just smirk in return.

"Good boy," I say.

"Filthy Irken."

I instantly felt dread and anxiety flood in as I turned to face the source of the voice.

Ginna. A few of her companions.

I tried to ignore her, tried to keep walking, but then she blocked my path and she was towering over me.

"I'm getting sick of seeing your ugly little face," she hissed, leaning in and getting saliva on my forehead. Which pissed me off, but I didn't say anything. "What makes you think you can live here, like you really deserve it?"

It was. . . annoying.

Suddenly, for the first time ever, I realized that Ginna's words didn't hurt me. They were just irritating.

And for the first time ever, I looked her straight in the eye and smirked.

"Trust me," I said, "Not even the dirtiest criminals deserve this place."

Her response was her typical one- a punch in the jaw.

Mine, however, was not my typical one at all.

Something just snapped. I was tired of all this. It was all so stupid.

I activated my spider legs, so that I would tower over her, and the just started to fight back.

Kicked, punched, scratched, and Ginna was too shocked to do anything about it.

I attacked her until I saw blood. Then I stopped and dropped back to my normal height.

And then I ran as fast as I could, hoping Steg and Joon were home, so I could tell someone what just happened.

The first time I fought back. I was young, but it felt. . . refreshing.

Maybe Zim was just fighting back, but I don't know. He won't tell me what the fight was about, so I get the feeling it was something more then expressing their usual hatred for each other.

Anyway, since it couldn't be proven Zim even had a DoomCanon, he was only suspended for five days. And for some reason, so was Dib.

Several thing have resulted from this:

First, Antoinette and I are partners on the end-of-the-world project. Oh goodie.

Second, Zim's dissapointed he can no longer do the end-of-the-world project, and I want to see if he can figure it out himself that he can research it without the skool's consent.

Third, since Kacer's only friend is absent, and so is mine, she seems to think that mean we need to be friends.

And fourth, Zim actually seems depressed. I mean, beyond his dissapointment about the project. I feel pretty bad for him, actually. It's weird.

And also. . . skool is. . . really boring now. Without Zim.

I'm leaning against the skool wall during recess, spacing out a bit. No sign of Kacer yet, thank God.

My thoughts somehow go to a memory of this morning, right before I was about to leave for skool. Zim had stopped me, and he muttered something, and I think it was,

"Thanks."

I had guessed he meant about stopping him the day before.

Once again, without thinking, I patted his shoulder, and he looked at me and. . .smiled.

I don't know what I did after that. I think I smiled back. Or maybe I just ran out of the house. I can't remember.

Now I feel really funny. Like my insides, and I wonder if maybe I'm sick or something. Just what I need.

"What are you so happy about?"

I look up and see Kacer.

"Huh?" I respond brilliantly.

"You're smiling," she says.

"No, I'm not," I say, and I turn to her and scowl, just to prove her wrong.

"Well, you were," she says. She comes over and leans against the wall beside me.

I groan to myself, then I say,

"Listen Kacer. . . can't you talk to your cousin or something? He goes to this skool, right?"

"Yeah, but. . . well, Blitz always hangs out with Gaz. . . and she kinda. . .scares me. . ."

I sigh and now I'm about to tell her directly, "Go away," but then I hear my name coming from somwhere on the playground.

I look around and see a group of girls a few yards away, and Antoinette is in the middle, saying,

"Yeah, anyway, Tak has to be my partner now, but she's not as bad as Zim."

Just then, a dodgeball lands by my feet, and some kids are calling for me to throw it back. I slowly reach down to get it, though my eyes never leave Antoinette as I hear her continue,

"I don't know what's wrong with him, but my god, I'm so glad he's not my partner anymore. I mean, he wears a friggen dress all the time."

Nasty pile of meat, what does she know? It's the standard Irken uniform. . .

Her stupid friends are laughing and she says,

"And he never talks to anyone unless he's screaming. What a freak!"

She starts to laugh herself, and for some reason, this is really pissing me off. . .

"Not to mention he's ugly."

Without hesitation, I peg Antoinette with the dodgeball, square in the jaw.

Once I see she's knocked out, I leave.

"I don't know whether to be proud or terrified," Joon sais.

Resting his elbow on my head, Steg said,

"I choose proud."

I looked up and saw he was smiling.

"If you keep fighting Ginna like this, Tak," Joon said, sounding suddenly serious, "You're gonna get hurt."

I rolled my eyes.

"No kidding, genius."

"No, I mean, like. . .really bad. She could-"

"Tak can handle it,"Steg said.

Joon didn't say anything.

"Really Joon," I said, "I'll only fight her when she starts with me."

"But she wasn't starting with you," Joon protested, "She was starting with Steg."

"That's the same thing," I muttered.

But Joon didn't look satisfied.

I looked down at him, then said,

"Listen, I'll be more cautious, okay?"

Joon nodded, and said softly,

"I need a hug."

So I leaned down slightly and hugged him. Until I realized he was burying his face into my breasts, and then both Steg and I smacked him upside the head.

I chuckle to myself without realizing it.

I've reached the front steps of Zim's base, and as I turn the doorknob, I find myself wishing I could see Joon at least once more.

Suddenly, I hear Zim screaming from inside the living room,

"I don't care why you're here, just get out of my house!"

Turning off my disguise, I step inside, and Zim sees me, then jumps in front of me and shouts,

"Tak! Do you know this guy!"

and he points to an Irken standing several feet away.

The Irken smiles and waves.

Hm. I got my wish.

I turn to Zim and say,

"Kind of. . . that's Joon. . ."

End of Chapter 5

Chapter 6 is coming up next, and it is my favorite chapter. Like, ever. Cuz of this one scene, which you will all know what I'm talking about when I post it, which should be soon.

kk, first sentence of chapter 6. . .

"Just thought I'd pay you a visit,"Joon says.

Wow, that gives away so much, right. . . XP Review, and I'll be your best friend. . .