Dlbn: Hey everyone! Welcome to a new update! First update of the month.
Nbld: We're excited to get going. So, let's get to the Review Corner! Thank you to Invader Johnny and Zim'sMostLoyalServant for reviewing! Birthday cake and cookies for you both!
Invader Johnny: It won't happen very often unless there's something really important being discussed. I feel like if you got Gaz to talk about something she's actually interested in, you might be able to get more than just one sentence from her.
Zim'sMostLoyalServant: It was hard giving Gaz a speaking role, but most of her stuff from now on is sarcasm unless it's really important or insulting to Dib. I feel like just brushing off the effects of everything on Lahna would be insulting not only to the character, but anyone that's ever gone through something along those lines. It won't be a major plot, but it's important to discuss it anyway. One meet up, coming up soon!
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot, grandmother Haven, and Lahna. Everything canon belongs to Jhonen C Vasquez. I make nothing off writing this.
000
Zim was surprised, but not entirely shocked, to see a blonde girl sitting at his lunch table, talking to Dib, later that day. He and Gretchen entered the lunch room together, and Zim could practically see her heart breaking. He put a hand on her shoulder.
"She's probably just asking him for help with science again." Zim informed. "Don't worry about it."
"I hope that's all it is…" Gretchen watched as the girl put a hand on Dib's knee and he put his on top of it. "I have to use the bathroom." She fled before he could stop her.
"What's wrong with Gretch?" Keef wondered, joining Zim's side and latching onto his arm.
"Look." Zim motioned to the table with his head and pulled his arm away.
"Oh, Dee is sitting with us again?" Keef sighed. "I like her, but she's a bit of a bitch to us…oh…that's why Gretch is upset. I hope they're not getting together or something."
"She has her hand on his knee, and his hand is holding hers. What do you think?"
"Poor Gretch…"
"Yeah." Zim sighed. "Come on, it's our table too."
He and the redhead walked over to their table, trying to ignore the looks Dee was giving them to dare them to interrupt. Remembering that the blonde was a freshman and had no power over them, Zim took his usual spot.
"Hey, hope we're not interrupting." He greeted. "But it is lunch time, and I'm starving." He opened his lunch bag without waiting for them to reply.
"Actually, Dib and I were in the middle of talking about something." Dee informed. "Do you mind giving us a couple more minutes?"
"I was getting a little hungry, myself, Dee…" Dib replied. "I'll sit at your table today so we can talk, okay? If that's okay with your friends?"
"They'd love it." Dee stood. "Bye Zim, bye Keef." She bounced back to her table.
Dib smiled sheepishly at his friends and stood. "Sorry…" He stated. "It was important, and…"
"It's fine, we get it." Zim nodded.
"Thanks." Dib smiled. "Tell the others." He grabbed his lunch and backpack and followed Dee back to her table.
"He's a goner, isn't he?" Melvin wondered, sitting in his usual seat.
"Got that right." Zim nodded, taking a bite of his sandwich. "Women. Who needs um?"
"Not us." Keef grinned. "That's why I don't have a girlfriend."
"Yeah. That's why." Zim laughed at him.
Keef smiled, though he seemed a little annoyed. The rest of their table quickly filled up; each newcomer wondering where Dib had gotten off to. Gretchen sat down with her tray.
"He went to eat with her?" She sighed. "Oh well…he'll be back tomorrow."
"Yeah, we hope." Keef sighed back. "You know how it is when a guy gets a girlfriend. His buddies no longer exist in his world."
Zim lightly kicked him under the table.
"What?" Keef wondered. "It's true!"
Gretchen glared at the redhead. "Shut up, Keef…"
"And for each friend lost, a new one can be gained." Gaz snorted from behind Zim.
He and Keef turned to see her and a girl with long black hair and pale red eyes standing between Gaz and Iggins. The girl wore shorts that reached mid-thigh, a black tank top, black knee-high boots with spiked heels, and a long black trench coat.
"Hi." She greeted.
"This is Lahna Evans." Gaz introduced. "Just started today. Behave."
She and Iggins took their seats. Zim cocked an eyebrow at the name.
"Hey." He greeted. "I'm Zim. That's Keef, Gretchen, Screamy, and Melvin."
"Nice to meet you all." Lahna smiled gently.
"Have a seat." Gretchen motioned to the empty seat next to her, where Dib sat.
"Thanks." The girl sat down.
"So how long have you lived in town?" Keef asked.
"We moved in completely yesterday." She replied. "Had to move because we were having money issues."
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that!" Keef put his hands over his mouth. "Must stink having to leave your friends and stuff behind."
"You could say that." She shrugged. "I didn't really have that many friends…"
"Well now you have a table full of them." Zim stated.
She cocked an eyebrow as though she recognized his voice from somewhere before, but she didn't say anything about it.
"Lucky me." She giggled. "It's just my first day here, and already I'm popular."
"Popular among the losers, maybe." A blonde girl named Jessica waltzed over with her trio of friends; violet haired Zita, brunette Morla, and Sarah the nun (whose real hair had never been seen by anyone in the school, so it was a mystery).
"I'm sorry?" Lahna wondered.
"Look, you're pretty. And you have great fashion sense, too. Why are you wasting your time with a bunch of losers?" Jessica grinned, showing off sparkling white teeth.
"Because we're the best-looking table at the school." Zim offered with a smirk. "What else?"
"As if." Jessica laughed at him, making her friends laugh as well. "So, what do you say? Come join our table instead?"
She nodded her head towards the table where Dee and Dib were sitting with Dee's friends. They didn't seem to mind the bespectacled boy's presence, despite the fact that he was known as a 'loser' like Zim and his friends were.
"Um…" Lahna paused. "I think I'm okay. I appreciate the thought, but…"
"Don't feel like you have to sit here because they invited you first." Morla offered.
"Agreed." Jessica beamed. "Tell you what. You sit with us tomorrow instead, okay? Then compare us and figure out who you'd rather spend your time with, okay?"
"Um…I don't think I need to do that…"
Jessica grinned. "Sure." She stated. "I'm Jessica, by the way. Zita, Sarah, and Morla." She motioned to each of them in turn.
"Nice to meet you." Sarah bowed, pressing her hands together like she was praying.
"Hi." Zita added.
"Welcome to Skool." Morla stated.
"Thank you…"
Jessica nodded. "We'd better go to our table before we get contaminated. Have a nice lunch." She waved as she flounced off towards her table, with her friends in tow.
"She's…er…"
"A bitch?" Gaz offered.
"Yeah, that." Lahna nodded.
"She's a popular kid…" Gretchen informed softly. "They treat us like garbage all the time…Zim's the only one that's managed to stand up to them and not get his face bashed in."
"Or get thrown in a dumpster." Keef added.
The day he and Zim had met, Zim had helped him out of a dumpster after watching some of the jocks throw him into it and walk away. They didn't become friends until Zim befriended Dib and was invited to join the group.
"What?" Lahna crinkled her nose. "That's gross! They do that to you guys?"
"Yeah, sadly…" Keef agreed.
"It's kind of annoying!" Screamy cried.
Not expecting it, Lahna squeaked and covered her ears with her hands.
"Don't you have a lower volume?"
"No!"
Lahna sighed.
"His name is 'Screamy' for a reason." Melvin said, laughing.
"You get used to it." Iggins said, before putting a headphone back into his ear.
"Or you go insane. Either one." Gaz shrugged, mashing away at buttons on her game.
Lahna giggled and Zim was suddenly reminded of his younger sister. But she never dressed the way this Lahna did. Lahna was an Irken name, but it didn't mean much. Someone could have gotten lucky and put letters together to form a name they didn't know was from another species. It meant 'Goddess' in his native tongue, as far as he knew. The girl in front of him really did look like a goddess; from the way she dressed down to her perfect hair and sparkling eyes. If it wasn't for the similarities between her and his sister, he could've liked her. But she was a teenager, and he was really twenty-six. It wouldn't work anyway. That wasn't to say that he was a saint. He did date a couple younger girls; until the first one cheated on him and he left her, and the second one accidentally revealed her real age once when getting drunk with him and he'd dropped her like a hot potato.
As they got to know Lahna better, Zim couldn't help but notice how the similarities between her and his sister kept piling up.
000
Lahna didn't understand how and she didn't understand why, but there was something familiar about this 'Zim' kid from their table. He was like a calmer, gentler version of her brother. Strangely enough, their names were spelled the same way (she'd peaked at one of his homework sheets while he was finishing it in lunch with Keef), though her brother went by the Irken pronunciation of 'Hi-may'. This kid had the more literal, English-based translation. Unfortunately, he hadn't put a last name on his paper-though it was probably because his name was uncommon and it wasn't likely that there would be more than one 'Zim' in the school, let alone in the same grade or class-so she couldn't find out if she knew him from somewhere. According to Gaz, he was the 'three years ago new kid' she had talked about when Lahna first met her. Her brother had left three years ago, but that had to be a coincidence. Lahna spent the rest of the day ignoring teachers unless they called on her in favor of thinking of him. When she left her classroom after the final bell of the day rang, she spotted him at a set of lockers, spinning a combination. She decided to walk over and talk to him one on one. Maybe that would give her some insight.
"Hi." She greeted him softly.
He seemed startled by the sound of her voice and looked in her direction.
"Oh, hi, Lahna." He greeted, shoving a book into his locker. "I see you've found me."
"Yeah." She grinned. "Sorry, I hope I don't come off as stalkerish. We only just met, after all."
He smirked. "Yes, it would be rather creepy of you to find me like this, even though I saw your schedule earlier when Gaz was helping you, so I know your last classroom is right there." He pointed with his thumb. "Convenient."
She smiled. "Isn't it, though? I'm all alone in that class, I mean I don't know anyone, so it's nice to see a friendly face after leaving."
He nodded. "Where do you live, by the way?" He asked. "No one thought to ask you earlier."
"I live in this development called 'Glendale Manor', a few miles from here."
"I live right near there. I can walk you home if you'd like."
"That would be very nice." She nodded. "Thanks."
He smiled back. "Any time. Anything for a friend."
She could picture him saying 'ya desen'; 'for life' in Irken. She giggled at the thought of a human speaking Irken.
"Something funny?" He cocked an eyebrow.
"Oh, just thinking."
He nodded. "Understandable. People don't do a lot of that anymore."
She watched some kid chase his friend down the hallway, swinging a backpack at him furiously. "I can tell." She mused.
He laughed. "Well, come on. Let's get going." He stated. "The next bus leaves in five minutes."
"Oh, I didn't bring bus fare…"
"You're a student." Zim pulled out an ID card. "Flash this and you get in free during school hours."
"It's after school hours…"
"They consider an hour before the first bell and an hour after the last bell to be school hours. For early arrivals, late departures, and detentions. I was confused by it too, at first, but Gaz explained."
"Gaz said she has a brother…why wasn't he with us?"
"You were in his seat."
"Oh, gosh, I'm so sorry!"
For some reason that she didn't understand, she felt bad for intruding on this guy and his friends the way she did.
He laughed. "No, no, it's cool. He gave up his seat and went to sit with this girl he's sweet on."
"You sound like you just stepped out of a fifties sitcom, Zim." A kid without antennae things going by stated.
"Bite me, Torque." Zim called after him. "That's Torque Smackey. Football captain."
"He one of the popular kids?"
"He's the football captain. What do you think?"
"Yeah, I guess that's stupid question."
Zim laughed. "Come on."
She followed him to the bus. It wasn't until they stopped at a street corner with a bus stop sign that she spoke again.
"Hey, I wanted to talk to you about something, if you don't mind?" She asked.
"Not at all." He shrugged. "What is it?"
"Well…it's just…you're going to think I'm nuts, but I feel like I know you from somewhere, but I can't put my finger on it."
His smile waned a little. "You know, I was thinking the same thing about you earlier. You seem familiar."
"I do?"
He nodded. "You remind me of my sister…"
"You remind me of my brother!"
They both stopped and looked each other over. Seconds ticked by. She didn't know what to say, and it appeared he didn't either.
"A…Aiyies…?" She wondered gently.
His eyes widened. "Lahna…" He replied softly.
"I…sorry, that's my…"
Before she could say anything more, he was hugging her. Her eyes widened.
"Did I say something?"
He pulled from her and smiled gently. "I didn't think I'd ever see you again…Little Lahna…"
"Hey, don't call me…!" The words died on the end of her tongue. "Aiyies!" She said again, louder this time, before launching herself onto him in a hug. "I found you! I can't believe I found you!"
He hugged her back, taking a step back when she collided into him. "I can't believe you found me either." He informed. "What are you doing here? Did Gram give you my address? How did you get here?"
"One question at a time, Aiyies." She giggled, pulling away and smiling up at him. "Let's wait until we're somewhere private so I can tell you without anyone overhearing."
He nodded as kids began coming up the road. He pulled away from her.
"I agree. My place?"
"Sure."
She couldn't believe it. It was her brother, here and in the flesh! And this person couldn't be faking, because no one called her Little Lahna and he couldn't have known that her brother, who he would have never met, called her that. He was so different then he used to be. She remembered the dark ruby eyed teen with the baggy cargo jeans, a baggy t-shirt, steel-toed boots, fingerless gloves, and expensive, stolen leather jacket. She wasn't used to a kid who wore plain t-shirts with light, fitted jeans, and black shoes with white shells on the toes and various accents. He looked more like a skater then an ex gangster. But regardless of how he was dressed or what he'd become-she knew he had calmed down some after living with Gram for long enough-he was still her big brother that she respected and adored. And nothing was going to change that.