Chapter 1: Second Year

Several months passed since the incident with the bullies and Dib continued to be more and more distant with Zim to the point of avoiding him for weeks at a time. Tak had returned to Earth after the Armada found her drifting in space. She was healed and send back in exile for having quit her previous job. With her arrival came a message from the Tallest as well, Earth was now deemed an Exile Planet since it was so far away from any other habited planets. Zim was to stop trying to destroy the place, though he never got very far in any of his plans, and just live there among the humans. His new assignment was to help any of the future exiles adapt to the human culture.

With the coming of Tak's news, Dib decided there was no need to constantly monitor Zim and left him and his household alone. Now and then he would check his cameras to see if they were not just trying to fool him but nothing more than that. He also began to miss his constant fights with Zim. He took to science more like his father wanted but the thrill was not there like it was when he was battling Zim. Even helping his father with the more advanced research and experiments was not enough to keep him interested. It was all too easy after having learned how to work alien technology that was much more advanced than most of the things in Membrane's labs.

Now and then Skoodge or Tak, mostly Skoodge, would ask him about something to do with humans that they could not understand and wanted better clarification. Zim was normally not much help with most of their questions, especially when it came to things like emotions, relationships, religion, family, and why humans do some of the things they do. When Skoodge asked him one day why the humans were trying to destroy their own planet he had no idea how to answer that except to say that most people were ignorant. Tak's questions on human mating and all the different forms were just as hard and had him direct her to the net instead of explain things. Questions like family structure were much easier to explain.

Both Tak and Gaz could be seen sitting together at lunch now. After her return, the two girls became closer to the point of friendship. Their mutual dislike of the world had them talking more. Once Tak showed Gaz the irken equivalent of video games, virtual reality battle simulations, Gaz spent most of her weekends over at Zim's base playing them and battling against Tak. Zim was not pleased to have a human in his base but it kept both Tak and Gaz from beating him up. After the first few times he came to school covered in bandages and limping he finally decided to let them be and just open the door if Gaz showed up on his doorstep.

Keef had finally come back to school after so long being in the Crazy House for Boys. The official reason that everyone was given for his release was that the new medication the doctors had him on was working. He no longer saw a squirrel as being his best friend that he followed all over. The real reason was that Dib had decided to figure out what had happened to his old classmate and, during visits with Keef, had found a way to fix his eyes. With the help of his father, since it was for REAL SCIENCE, he was able to take Keef to one of the labs for testing until the surgery was complete. The redhead would never get his normal eyes back, but he did not mind; these looked like his old ones enough and all of the alien technology was rather neat. At least now he could go about his day like all the others his age and the years he had spent in a padded room had helped him to calm down.

After Dib introduced them, Skoodge had taken a liking to Keef right away. The human was still a bit wary at first of the other alien since his encounter with Zim but Dib reassured him that the two were nothing alike. Once Keef started to warm up more to the smaller green person, they could usually be seen together in class or at lunch. If they did anything after school it was usually go to a movie or try to find some other form of amusement. Neither was allowed to have the other at their homes so they found other places to go. Dib was invited more often than not, or they would show up at his place to hang out, but he always got a bit anxious with the ready-to-please attitude of the other two so could not handle being around them all the time like they wanted. They were his best friends, aside from his sister, but there was only so much happiness he could stand. The boys even decided to spend holiday weekends at Dib's for a sleepover so that he would not get lonely with his sister being with Tak for so many days. After the first night of both of them trying to sleep in his small single bed with him, he decided to just buy a bunk bed and put it in the spare bedroom with the other bed so that they could all stay in there. Tallest forbid that Dib tried to stay in his room without them. If he did that they would probably join him thinking that he was lonely.

It was now the third month of their second year and Dib had noticed a few strange things happening with the three irkens. Though they were all full grown adults by their race, Skoodge being almost 300 and Tak at least 100, they were beginning to have a growth spurt. For a while, Dib thought that it may be because their species aged differently than humans and this was normal for them. That proven wrong one night when he asked Skoodge and the other said that their species was generally all about elementary height compared to humans. Very few ever got any taller than that. Aside from Tak who had grown about half a foot, it was only a slight change in their height. None of them were too worried about it and thought it may have something to do with the gravity on the planet or the new foods they were eating. They were not that much taller, Tak being maybe 5 feet as the tallest, but it was enough that they did not look too much like children anymore. With their slight increase in height, their bodies changed a bit as well. Skoodge was slightly more muscular, his fat decreasing to give him a bit more of a football player look. Tak did not change much for her body shape but her teeth did change; as she grew they became even sharper. Skoodge explained that females were rare in his species and they were much more dominant and violent than the males. Dib silently thanked the Tallest that Zim had not been a female or the planet may have actually been in trouble.

Dib was currently studying the irken across the room who was mindlessly stabbing at his lunch while staring off into space. After all of these years Zim still tried to blend in as a human by buying the cafeteria lunch even though he could not eat most of the foods. He had found a few things, snacks and some fruits and vegetables, that he could eat, but he refused to just tell people that he was a vegan. Something about vegans and him not wanting to fall in with fad crowds. Dib stopped paying attention after having suggested it once Zim started going into one of his tirades so he never caught most what the green boy was ranting about. It was probably a stupid reason anyway. At the moment, the extraterrestrial seemed to be in very deep thought and not paying attention to those around him or the human that was watching him. As Dib watched, a frown passed over the green ones face and Zim stabbed at his plate much harder than before, bending the spoon and making his hand slip into the strange meat which was being served that day. He hissed in pain, snapping out of his thoughts, and quickly wiped off the offending matter before getting up to toss the contents of his tray in the garbage and leave.

Once Zim was gone, Dib went back to half paying attention to what Keef and Skoodge were talking about. It was something about a Halloween party that one of their classmates was having that weekend and everyone was invited. Dib did not feel like going, he was not a big fan of any of his classmates, but both of the other two boys would not stop bugging him about it. He knew they really wanted to go but said that if he was not going then neither would they. The alternative would be them all staying at his place to have drinks and handing out candy while they played some silly games the boys would come up with. The party was a much better idea than another day at home. Even his sister was going to be there since she was going with Tak and they wanted to compete to see who could out drink the other and the booze was going to be free.

He finally agreed with them that he would go and the two decided to plan out matching costumes. Dib ignored their ideas as the bell rang for the end of lunch period and he began to head towards his next class, biology, in which he shared with Zim. They were told that today they would be dissecting frogs and he was excited to be able to do some hands on work. School was just too easy, he already knew what they were teaching in the books anyway, the only reason he did not try to just skip ahead to finish was that he had yet to make any plans for his future now that Zim was not going to blow them all up. There were just too many fields that he could go into but none of them interested him as much as space and the paranormal did. His top choices were in engineering and in medicine. Perhaps he could use his knowledge of irken technology to help advance that on Earth so that he could travel the stars as well. Was that or go into medicine so that he could continue to help those in need. Unless he just follows the same path as Membrane and just do what he feels like doing at the time, in the name of REAL SCIENCE of course.

Aside from Biology class, the rest of the day went by rather slowly. After Biology was Calculus, followed by Phys. Ed to finish off the day. Dib had long ago surpassed most of his classmates in in Phys. Ed. thanks to all of his battles with Zim over the years. He did not, however, want to be noticed for this and have one of the teams or clubs try to force him into joining them so each day he made sure to only give a moderate effort. None of the other students or teachers had noticed that by the end of the classes he did not even seem winded or sweaty like the other students. He always made sure to be the first one to the locker rooms and change in one of the stalls so that he would not be bothered by the jocks and bullies when they came in a few minutes later. His clothes were purposefully baggy on his frame and he wore long sleeves under his gym shirt and sweatpants instead of shorts to cover up that he was not just skin and bone like everyone assumed. His body was actually quite toned from all of the cardio and martial arts that he did. Since it was the last class of the day he would just head home right after class to change and shower so that he could leave sooner.

Today had been an exception to his routine though. When he got to his locker it was to find that his gym clothes were not there and he had to track down a new set or face getting suspended by the coach. He was able to borrow one of Keef's spare sets and they made it to the locker rooms as the other students were changing. The two stalls were already in use so he had to change at the locker with the rest of the students. Keef knew how self-conscious Dib was of his body so stood next to him to block some of Dib's body from the others. Even with him and Skoodge always telling him how good he looked, scars and all, Dib was embarrassed by all of the marks on his body. They were mostly put there by Zim during one fight or another. He knew that if people saw them though then there would be a lot of questions that he did not want to answer. Even with Keef's help and trying to be as quick as he could he was still noticed. It was such an odd occurrence for him to be there with them how could the other guys not notice him. Just as Dib was about to pull on the shirt he heard footsteps coming up behind him just before he was spun around and pinned against the locker. One hand came out to tangle his arms in the shirt at his forearms and pin his hands above his head.

"What is this Dib? When did you get all emo and start cutting yourself? It bet it was after your boyfriend broke up with you last year when he saw how pathetic you really are. Looks like you even tried to kill yourself over it." Lug pointed out one of the larger scars on Dib's chest where a leg from Zim's pack had once pierced him near his shoulder. He remembered fainting from the pain and blood loss and then waking up back in his own room, mostly healed. He figured Zim had patched him up and sent him home but why he had even bothered to save him always troubled Dib.

"Like you even care Lug. And if it was self-harm then how would I get some of the marks that are on my back? I can't even reach those spots." Dib didn't even bother to struggle against the other boy's grip, knowing that to do so would only make matters worse.

Keef reached over and began tugging on Lug's arm, "leave him alone Lug. Can't you see that he has been through enough? He does not need you to make it worse."

Lug laughed at Keef's attempts to pull him off of the pinned teen and used his free hand to shove the smaller boy away. With the sudden push, Keef lost his balance and fell back onto the benches just as Zim and Skoodge walked into the locker rooms. Skoodge ran to his companion and helped the boy back to his feet while Zim stood frozen in the entrance. His eyes were glued to the sight of Dib's body on display, hardly anything covering his lithe form as it was pressed up against the lockers. He had not seen the boy in such a state for a few years now, not since he last experimented on that body. The changes he was seeing now had him thrown off and Zim could not figure out why it affected him so much. It took a few moments before he dashed forward as well to confront the one that was holding his nemesis in place.

"Lug, what have I told you before? Do not touch what is not yours!" Zim reached up and easily removed the bullies hand from the boy, crushing the fingers in his grasp and nearly breaking a few of them.

Lug hissed in pain and pulled his hand away from the smaller green teen. How someone that was so tiny could ever be so strong was beyond any of the students or teachers imagination. Both Zim and Skoodge were still the size of children compared to the rest of their class and yet everyone had seen them do amazing feats of strength. Once, when Skoodge had first started at their school, one of the senior bullies had parked his vehicle on top of book Skoodge dropped. While everyone was laughing at him, he had just shrugged it off, lifted the truck with one hand, and retrieved his book with the other. From that point he was left be. Zim was just known as being crazy and loved to fight. Many a student who had angered him were sent to the nurse's office, if not the hospital.

"You don't even speak to him Zim, so how is he yours? You two still dating after all and just not showing it at school to protect him?"

"Dating? That hyuman affection thing were you are making with the kissy faces and the hand holding? Zim is not like THAT with the Dib. He is my own personal enemy. No one is to harm him but Zim!"

While Zim was busy distracting Lug, Dib quickly finished dressing and left to join the rest of the class that was already waiting to start. Those that were left let him pass, instead watching to see if there would be a fight between the crazy green kid and the school's biggest tormenter. Keef joined him and the two lined up along the side, waiting for their teacher to arrive so that the day could end quicker. Zim and Skoodge exited a few minutes later, followed by Lug who sported a black eye.

When the coach arrived he announced that they were to do warmups before working on a test of their fitness level. Partway through the class Dib began to become very uncomfortable. He caught many students that were watching him as he went through the drills, some were openly staring and it took him some time to realize why. Keef's clothes were much too small on his larger frame so they were hugging every curve and muscle he had tried to hide for so many years now. Each time he would stretch the shirt would raise enough for a good sized strip of his stomach to be exposed. By the time class was over he was extremely self-conscious, some of the girls had even come up to him and asked if he would be their partner for the drills. That was, until Zim became extremely enraged for some reason and told the "hussies" to back off and declared himself as dib's sparring partner, though there was no sparring to be done, just watch and be the other's spotter with the weights and running. With Zim as his partner, Dib found himself pushing his body further than he normally would. The alien's taunts on how weak he was not letting up and inspiring him to push his limits. By the end of class, he had several of the students looking at him differently than they used to and the coach was angry with him for having half-assed the classes this whole time. Dib left once the bell rang, grabbing his backpack and leaving straight for home, not waiting on his friends to catch up with him.

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