I don't own Invader Zim okay? I don't have much to say in this intro but enough of this A/N, on with the fic!
"Yeah the food itself isn't very good but I at least somewhat know what is in chips. School food, I don't know." Dib said.
"Well, I don't mind if I do." Tak said as she grabbed a few bags of snack foods and a diet poop cola and handed some money to the cashier.
"That stuff is horrible for you." Dib said.
"Maybe but at least it tastes good." Tak said. So snacks are bad for humans but they still eat a lot of them. "And did you not say at least you somewhat know what is in these?"
"I guess." Dib said.
Tak opened the bag and munched on the chips, tasting them in her mouth. "Not bad." She said. "So, what else does this place have to offer?"
"Let me see your schedule." Dib said as Tak handed him her schedule and he looked over it. "After this you have science, history, math and finally homeroom... you're in mine actually."
"I think they said it was grouped by last name." Tak said quickly, trying to have it seem that it was pure coincidence and not like she was stalking him.
"Meh. It's my last year here, I don't care what they do anymore. I just want it to be June. And I am done with these fools." Dib moaned looking at his books.
Tak looked over at him, noticing something she had seen in herself. There was something he had against his classmates. They did pick on him for being different but she could not see how that was inherently any thing that could be bad. He was quite intelligent. Sure, he did have a slightly bigger than normal head and pointy hair but honestly that was nothing that seemed to be a negative trait. Humans seemed to be rather vain. But that desire to do his own thing and spirit was something she had seen a lot in herself. "So what will you do then?" Tak asked.
"Go to college somewhere else, far from here to reduce the risk of running into any former classmates." Dib sighed. "Why do you care?"
"Just do." Tak said. "You seem too interesting to be treated like you do."
"This isn't a set up, not like what some girls did my sophomore year where they made like they were interested in me for a long time then betrayed my trust?" Dib asked, raising an eyebrow.
"You don't trust people much do you?" Tak asked.
"Would you?" Dib replied.
"Fair point." She said thinking to the fact she did not trust that the Tallest had her best interests at heart at all and even if they did take the planet, she knew better than to expect that they would give her any credit for anything she did.Well I'm learning a bit about negative human interaction here. Maybe I won't destroy this human... Tak thought as she looked back at him. She saw his disgust and disappointment and felt a strange feeling in her gut. What is this feeling? She thought as she looked at him.
"Oh hi guys!" Gretchen said sitting down, placing her salad down beside them. "How are you liking this place Tak?"
"Oh, it's only my first day." Tak said pouring on the innocent new girl charm.
"I noticed you talking to his sister in the hallway." Gretchen said. "She didn't scare you did she?"
"No," Tak asked genuinely confused.
"Gaz likes to keep to herself and hates to be disturbed. Really hates it." Dib said, not wanting to scare Tak and cast a dirty look at Gretchen who looked away in embarrassment.
"I could get that from her. If Gaz doesn't want to talk to me, I'm fine with that." Tak explained.
"See you didn't get the cafeteria food either." Gretchen said noticing Tak's choice in snacks. "Don't blame you."
"What'd you get?" Tak asked.
"Salad. They have a salad bar and I won't eat anything cooked here. How you can go from the same type of chicken patty that you can get at McMeatie's to that-" She pointed with her fork to where another student was covering their patty in Italian salad dressing and mustard "Is beyond me."
"That's a lot of condiments. And a unique combination..." Tak observed.
"In the past few years the school board thought that school kids were becoming too obese. So they removed all the full flavored drinks, stopped frying things and offered only 'baked' snacks." Dib explained. "So to make the food edible, most students pile on the condiments. We used to have ranch dressing here but when they made the change, that went."
"They still have it at the salad bar." Gretchen said holding up the packet she had gotten.
"Yeah, the low fat kind." Dib stuck out his tongue. "And that doesn't taste very good. And you're only allowed so much dressing for a salad. And if they were really concerned about student's health, they'd know that these diet drinks and low fat additives are just as bad if not worse than some of the regular drinks." Dib sighed.
"You're still mad you cannot get that Poop cola you like at school and you hate the diet." Gretchen sighed as she turned to her salad.
"With a passion. And I hate when they say that that one is better. Like it's not..." Dib said.
"As you can see Tak..." Gretchen began. "Dib hates it when someone lies to him about their intent."
"Especially when the lie is complete crap." Dib said. "Who do they take us for? Idiots?"
"Not all of us have high IQs, you know most of the students are very... simple..."Gretchen said. "There are times you make me feel like an idiot by not understanding what you're saying and my father is a dentist and a therapist. You don't get two doctorates without having something of a brain. So don't act like the only offspring of a phd recipient here."
"Sorry." Dib said, realizing his ranting was getting under Gretchen's skin. "I guess I have a hard time thinking that a beautiful person has a brain..."
"Well, maybe nowhere quite near yours but better than most. And it's not fair you judge my intellect by my looks." Gretchen said getting up and walking away.
"What's her issue?" Tak asked.
"Think we're on different wave lengths on some things." Dib sighed as the bell for lunch to end rang.
"Well I got to head to science class." Tak said.
"Do you need directions?" Dib asked.
"I think I got it. They did include a map." Tak said. "But you can be quite helpful." She waved as they headed off.
During that science class, Tak sat, bored, knowing that humans had a limited understanding of what their 'science' could do. Most of the information she would have had to learn, she was taught as a smeet in the most basic of schools back on Irk, but the science she had worked her way into was 'Earth Science' knowing this would teacher her about the planet that they were on and how they could adapt. She made sure to take careful notes to bring back to the Tallest but her thoughts kept drifting back to Dib. How he hated everyone he was around. How he was just going though the motions he was supposed to. Much like she was. Something just wouldn't leave her alone about this, and a weird feeling was arising in her abdomen again. Brushing it off, she headed back to her base at the end of the day, running into Tenn along the way.
"Tak, how was your first day of school?" Tenn asked as they headed back to the base.
"Meh. Got some useful observations. And don't go for diet snack food here. I think it's disagreeing with my squeedlyspooch." She said handing Tenn a Diet Poop.
"I'll analyze that when we get back." Tenn said putting it in her PAK. "But regular Earth snack foods seem to have no effect. I've been drinking the regular all day at the library."
"You actually went there?" Tak asked.
"Well, we need as much information as we can get and it seemed to be just sitting there. I've got tons of pages scanned and notes for the Tallest to give a great amount of data on this planet." Tenn said.
"Well the diet is the only thing I can get at the Hi-Skool. Seems that they don't want their students eating what is considered to be unhealthy. The human who was guiding me around said that while the chemicals they put in it lower caloric count, they can also be harmful in other ways." Tak said. "At least for humans, that's why I think I have a fluttering feeling in my Squeedlyspooch."
"Or maybe..." Tenn giggled.
"Or maybe what?" Tak asked looking at Tenn rather annoyed.
"It's what humans call in these books 'a fluttering in the stomach' when they are in love." Tenn said pulling out a book with the title Wolfman Bare Chest
"That's one of those trashy romance novels human females read." Tak said. "I saw the librarian reading one. "I am not having a desire to mate with Dib!"
"You used his name!" Tenn laughed.
"So what?" Tak asked. "I don't want to mate with him and that's that."
"Whatever you say." Tenn said.
"You need to get your mind focused on the mission." Tak said as she took the book from Tenn. "Dib is just highly trusting yet intelligent. He could be quite useful as the son of one of this planet's top scientists too. Nepotism is high in human society and he can get me into his father's labs if need be. I looked up his father's name after Gretchen mentioned his father's job in relation to her father's bizarre career choice."
"What do you mean?" Tenn asked.
"Dentist and therapist. Mental and dental health." Tak asked.
"Odd. Usually when a human specializes they keep it to one or if they have two, they have specialties that pertain close to the main one. I ran into a neurologist who was studying psychology. Neurologists study the human nervous system including the brain and psychology studies human behavior. He was looking for a link between brain damage and changes in behavior." Tenn explained. "You see I had been talking to humans too." She added in defense of Tak's piercing gaze.
"Fine, you're helping out!" Tak rolled her eyes. "Besides, that Gretchen female is the one you want to talk to about misplaced desire to mate."
"What do you mean?" Tenn asked.
"She wouldn't stop stalking Dib it seemed after he kept dropping hints that he wanted to be as they say 'just friends'. Humans need social interaction but it is not all romantic. It is useful." Tak said.
"Whatever you say." Tenn said as they approached the base.
"I DO NOT LIKE DIB LIKE THAT!" Tak yelled as she headed in, causing Red, Purple, Zim and Skoodge to look at her. "Forgive me my Tallest." Tak bowed. "I was just discussing some areas of observation I had today with Tenn who did her own information gathering as well."
"Okay..." Red said looking at her, slightly weirded out by her statement.
"Skoodge!" Tak called as he rushed over and saluted her.
"Yes Tak!" Skoodge asked.
"Analyze this stuff. It's the diet soda Dib said was just as detrimental for human health as the regular and it has me curious as to if it is bad for Irkens. It seems the regular human snacks are safe but I want to be sure."
"Yes mam!" Skoodge said as he ran off to the labs.
"Just whose mission is this?" Purple said from behind Tak.
"Yours my Tallest." Tak said. "I'm just taking charge to make sure it is done as best as it should be."
"Don't get too pushy Pur," Red said as he pulled Purple away. Once out of earshot, he whispered to him, "We need Tak. She's the best we got out of the rejects of Irken society and if anyone's going to make this place useful, it's her. Don't piss her off."
"Fine." Purple sulked.
So how was that? Good? Short? Long? Let me know in a review. I'm thinking of starting a sort of sequel to Taboo here in a few months, at the one year mark since I finished it. Just let me if you would want that. I'm going to make it pretty stand alone on its own but still. I had a flop of a sequel before due to insufficient demand. And if you have any ideas for DATR fics, let me know. I'm looking to do more but that well is dry for ideas personally. Anyway, remember to read (well you just did) and to review. Ciao for now,
otherrealmwriter
aka
Realm.