Dlbn: Hello, everyone! Welcome to another update!

Nbld: Been sick for a while, but now I'm back and not nauseous for once. Woot.

Dlbn: Surprise, surprise.

Nbld: Review Corner! Thank you to Invader Johnny, Zim'sMostLoyalServant, and CE for reviewing! Candy for you all!

Invader Johnny: And somehow nobody realizes these things ^^" Unfortunately, those two communicating is never good.

Zim'sMostLoyalServant: Otherwise he'd just punch him, probably. Them working together could never be a good thing. With how dumb the humans can be in IZ, it wouldn't surprise me if no one noticed, really.

CE: He's really just digging his own grave, in a way. Thank you!

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot and select OCs. Everything canon belongs to Jhonen C Vasquez. I make no money off this.

000

After school that day, Zim found his locker slammed shut by his head. He sighed, turning to see who had done it.

"Yes?" He wondered.

"Any more incidents?" Ense asked.

"No, not really." Zim shrugged. "They don't do anything with teachers around."

"What am I? Chopped liver?"

Lahna giggled at Zim's side. "Apparently, you are."

"You know what I mean." Zim rolled his eyes. "You're the new guy; they have no problem causing trouble in front of you. Honestly, keep up with this whole 'we're equals' approach to coaching, and you're going to fuck yourself over. They won't respect your authority."

"You do."

"So? I know you."

"So do they."

"Not like I do, and you know it."

Ense sighed. "I guess I can't argue with that…I spoke with Torque and he insists he didn't hit you on purpose. I could just feel the smirk in his words."

"Duh."

"And I heard from Rya. Our computers picked up some tech activity in the area that's completely Irken."

"Seriously? Who else is here? Chase?"

Their cousin on their mother's side. Their family had left town for another cluster when they were kids because they couldn't stand the Havens. That and something about Chase's father's job.

"Wouldn't that be something." Ense laughed. "We haven't seen one another in about ten years, we haven't seen Chase in about fifteen."

"I barely remember him. I wouldn't know him if I tripped over him." Lahna shook his head.

"He's taller than me, so I doubt you'd trip over him." Ense laughed.

"Don't be so literal, bro."

"Bro?" Gaz asked.

Zim jumped and turned to see the purple haired girl playing a game on her portable Game Station 7.

"What are you still doing here?" He asked.

"Guess who's going at it on the school steps." Gaz informed. "I don't want to deal with that nonsense. Fuck that."

"Gross." Zim groaned. "How are we supposed to leave?"

"Wait until they do, or we go out the back."

"Dib and Dee?" Ense asked.

"Yeah. So, answer my question. Bro?"

"Uh…" Ense paused.

"She's a'right, Ense." Zim stated. "Ense is my brother."

"Ahem." Lahna complained.

"Our brother." Zim rolled his eyes.

"Much better." Lahna nodded.

"Different last names?"

"Don't ask."

"Family secrets. Got it." Gaz nodded. "Mind if I join?"

"You have a secret of your own you'd like to share with the group?" Zim asked.

"No, your family." Gaz snorted. "Mine's a disaster I'd rather not associate with."

"Dib is her brother." Lahna informed.

"I figured there was a relation from the rosters, but I didn't want to ask and sound like an ass if you weren't." Ense stated.

"You always sound like an ass." Zim commented.

Ense shoved him lightly.

"You're welcome to join the family." Lahna stated. "Though, to be fair, ours ain't much better."

"My father comes home once a month for family dinner, and my brother turned on his only friends for a blonde, fork-tongued she devil poodle-Chihuahua hybrid mutt." Gaz informed, looking away from her game for once. "Top that."

Zim snickered, knowing full well they could.

"I can't." He offered instead.

"Yeah, you got us beat." Ense held up his hands.

"So, when are you moving in?" Lahna laughed.

"You're hilarious." Gaz stated. "How about next Tuesday?"

"You're serious?" Zim asked.

"For real?"

"Right. Sarcasm."

She nodded. "Sometimes I wonder how you made it this far in life."

"So do I."
Ense laughed.

"You know, this is our school too, and walking out the front door is a right that we have." Lahna stated. "Why let them claim their territory?"

"She's got a point." Zim stated. "It should be a neutral zone."

"Yeah, sure, right away." Gaz rolled her eyes. "What kind of fairy tale world do you live in, Zim? I'd like to join your stupid ass."

"Mai cassia sai tai cassia." He replied.

"Um…English…?"

"Mi casa es su casa." Ense stated.

"Gotcha."

"What the hell?" Zim asked.

"It's a common Spanish phrase that people who don't even speak Spanish say." Ense stated. "Culture yourself, would you?"

"I had more culture in my body by the time I was fourteen than you have in yours now at twenty-eight."

"And a lot of that culture got deposited in other people's bodies." Lahna offered.

"Gross."

"Leave it to you."

"You love me."

"By blood, we have to." Ense laughed.

"She said the same damn thing the other day." Zim commented.

The siblings laughed, and even Gaz cracked a small smile.

"Hey, guys! What's so funny?!" Screamy shouted up the hallway.

He was walking with Gretch, Keef, and Todd. Iggins was nowhere to be found.

"Where's the other half of your gamer squad, Gaz?" Keef asked, grinning at her.

"Out sick with a cold." Gaz stated. "Pft, whiner."

"I had a cold once. It was awful." Gretchen commented.

"Once again…"

"Whiner, we know." Zim rolled his eyes. "Why are you guys still here?"

"The football team was hanging around by our lockers so we couldn't go."

Ense cocked an eyebrow. "You shouldn't be afraid to go to your own lockers…what if you miss the bus?" He asked.

"Oh, hey, coach. Didn't see you there." Keef blushed.

"How can you not? He's taller than we are." Zim offered.

Keef shrugged.

"Then we can just hide in the library until the late busses or we could walk home." Gretchen stated. "We did that before Zim came around."

Ense looked at his brother. Zim shrugged.

"Torque and his crew backed off when I got here."

"Not that they're afraid of you." Gaz stated.

"He did openly help me out of the dumpster they threw me into. Guess they saw his defiance as a threat." Keef offered.

"They threw you in a dumpster?" Ense asked. "And here I thought they couldn't get any more juvenile."

"You shouldn't speak ill of your students, coach." Todd muttered. "It's not nice."

"Sorry, they rub me the wrong way. Remind me of some punk kids I knew back home growing up."

Zim caught the hidden meaning in his words and blushed, knowing he was referring to Riot and Covert.

"Still. What if they hear you?" Gretchen nervously twirled her hair. "I overheard a couple of them saying something about you and Zim and Lahna being too close and that they were getting creeped out. I don't want you to lose your job…"

"For real?" Ense ran a hand over his face. "Like I said, remind me of some punk kids I knew growing up."

"A'right, I'm right here." Zim rolled his eyes. "We're from the same neighborhood back home, guys. That's why he's familiar with us."

"You all are?" Keef asked. "But you and Lahna didn't even recognize one another."

"To be fair, she was four when I saw her last." Zim shrugged.

"Yeah, it's been a while."

"Oh, I see." Gretchen smiled. "It sure is nice to reconnect with old friends, isn't it?"

"Got that right." Zim stated.

"Reconnecting with old friends…do you think…after a few years…once high school is over and we go our separate ways and have some time between us, that we'll go to our reunion, or run into Dib in the grocery store…and we talk again…? Like we reconnect? Even if only for a moment…?" Keef wondered, staring at his feet as he shuffled them. "Who am I kidding? The rift is too big to mend now."

"Yeah…maybe in a few years…people sure can change when you haven't seen them in a decade." Zim stated.

"Yeah, you have." Ense told him.

Zim flushed, looking away. "C-Come on, man…you're making me blush here…"

"How cute." Lahna commented, draping an arm around his shoulders. "He has a soft side."

"You two are assholes."

"So are you."

"I know. At least I admit it."

"Unlike Dib and his friends. Seriously that move in gym class was so lame. I'm glad you were there to stop them, coach."

"Please, just call me Ense. It's all good." He stated. "Torque swears it was an accident but…"

"What happened in gym?" Gaz asked.

Gym was after lunch, so none of them had a chance to tell her yet.

"Torque hit me right in the damn shoulder blade with a baseball." Zim rubbed his back. "Hurts like hell. I'm sure its bruised."

"Idiot." Gaz glared at him. "You two didn't get into it again, did you?"

"No. Dib made Torque back down."

"Until you ran your mouth again." Ense stated. "One day, that thing's gonna get you into some deep shit you can't just use it to hop back on out of."

Zim shrugged.

"Dib made him back down? That's a shocker."

"He was worried for Torque's ability to play in the game." Gretchen stated. "He fights, he can't play this weekend."

"That's pathetic." Ense commented.

"People change a lot, Ense."

"Yeah, but not overnight."