Gaz

"Daughter! I think I have discovered a new way to make toast!"

"Hmph." Gaz crossed her arms and eyed her dad. "What's the point?"

"Science is the point, of course!" Membrane replied with a gloved finger stretched to the ceiling. Then he added with a cringe, "It's reality and fact. …What would we do without it?"

Gaz 'hmmph'ed again and stomped upstairs from her father's lab. She grabbed a can of Poop soda on the way past the kitchen and started to her room to get working on sleep. She had school tomorrow, after all.

Gaz laid back on her black pillow in her always dark room. She continued to slurp on her soda until it started making a popping noise.

Proffessor Membrane was always at work in his lab ever since Dib disappeared. Not much of a difference from earlier but still.

He hadn't even asked about his son but once, when Gaz and him went to Bloaty's for their yearly family dinner.

"Say, where is your brother?" he had asked after sharing a theory about turning animal hair into gold.

"He's playing with Zim," Gaz had automatically answered, occupying her mouth with a straw before she could add anything. She hadn't known for sure anyway. And it hadn't been but a few days since they had seen Dib, so she didn't really care.

"Oh! Is that it then?" Membrane lened over his pizza to stare at Gaz through his shiny goggles. "Some paranormal things are adjusted differently with different people. Your brother likes to be INSANE! Maybe he will come back to REAL SCIENCE when he starts being less insane!"

"I don't think he understands that people don't care."

Membrane laughed lightly and changed the subject. "So how is the puppy, Gaz?"

The rest of the night played through Gaz's head as she relaxed drowsily into her pillow. It had been a long night, and she would be tired in the morning for sure, not that it mattered.…

Gaz only half noticed her empty Poop can bounce on the hard wood floor when it slipped out of her hand. In seconds more she was out.

—~—

Beep...beep

Gaz woke up slowly. She smashed the off button on her bat alarm clock and literally draggd herself out of bed.

Curse life, she was tired. Her eyes would only come half open as she went to brush her teeth and slide on her depressing clothes. She didn't even bother to brush her hair. It just needed some smoothing and it was fine.

Gaz stomped her shoes on and dragged out the door. Part of her expected to hear a second alarm going off in the next room.

Tired.

Gaz stopped in the kitchen to pour a quick bowl of cereal. She tried to eat fast with big chomps at a poor attempt to wake herself up. After a cup of orange juice, Gaz punched the front door open. It helped a little.

She shrugged her purple book bag more comfortably on her shoulders as she walked in a tired motion on the sidewalk. The glare of the early morning sun on her back helped to keep her awake until she reached the Skool building.

"Tag! Now who's it, freak!" Two boys were playing tag around a big, deformed tree. They hopped through the open trunk in the middle, stumbling and tripping as they wrestled together.

"Ha! What now—" One of the boys with shaggy brown hair wasn't watching where he was going and ended up crashing right into Gaz.

"Ow. Grrr, get off of me, moron!" Gaz growled from under him.

The boy shifted dizzily, and pulled his cap from covering his eyes and readjusted backwards on his head. He had big, sky blue eyes and olive skin, maybe a little darker. His nose was a perfect shape; not big and round or long and skinny. His teeth were milky white and perfectly straight as he flashed an apologetic grin.

"Whoops! Sorry! Did I hurt you?" His high voice rang out clear as a bell. He stood up and offered his hand to her, not seeming to notice Gaz's angry glower as she slapped his hand away.

"Don't touch me," she warned through clenched teeth. The breath was knocked out of her, and being tired, she did not want to get up. But she didn't want help either. That was weak.

The boy's smile just got bigger. "Aw, come on, can't you let a guy treat you like a lady?"

"No," Gaz replied. "I'm not something fragile that needs to be handled delicately all the time. Just go away before you do anymore damage to my life."

The boy frowned. "If that's what you want." He turned to walk away but didn't notice his friend behind him who was pointing at Gaz.

"Drey, who's this chick?"

Gaz growled.

"I don't know." Drey turned to Gaz. "What's your name?"

"Gaz," she mumbled absently.

Drey smiled again. "Cool name. I'm Drey." He jabbed a thumb in his chest, then at his friend's. "This is Max."

Max was a whole head taller than Drey. While both boys were as skinny as a rail, Max was wide and hard in his chest. He tossed his black hair that was also shaggy and wore his cap the same way as Drey. He had hard brown eyes and red lips that stood out against his pale skin. His furry eyebrows creased in fear of Gaz's glare, unlike Drey who was lit up with kindness.

Gaz puffed an annoyed breath, got up to dust herself off, and began to walk away.

"Do you need help?" Drey offered taking a step closer, hand outstretched. "Who's class are you in?"

Gaz eyed Drey, this time curious. He was offering his help after stupidly running over her. He should be humiliated, not kind. But as Gaz watched his eyes light up at her, positive cancelled out the negative, and Gaz tossed him her books.

"I'm in Mr. Gardner's class." She narrowed her eyes. "And don't get close enough where anyone would think anything."

"Alrighty!" Drey crowed, but stopped himself when he saw Gaz's ill look. He formed a reassuring crooked smile, and followed her to class, keeping his distance as Gaz had ordered. There was silence at first. Gaz could feel Drey's hyper eyes on the back of her head, and maybe zooming around the lockers and little first graders as they passed through their hall.

"So, Mr. Gardner?" Drey couldn't stand the silence anymore, Gaz guessed. "Hey, my teacher Mr. Wolff is right by him!"

"Super," Gaz said.

Gaz and Drey stopped in front of Mr. Gardener's door. Most of the kids were already in, chatting and throwing paper at one another. Drey's class was just to the right.

"Well, here ya go, Missy!" Drey handed Gaz her books.

"Dont call me Missy," Gaz growled, taking her books and turning to enter her class.

Drey smiled as he watched her go straight to her seat at the front of the class. He didn't realize he was staring so long until someone punched their big fist into his shoulder.

"Hey, man, now you're ditching me for some pissed off Goth chick?" Max said from behind Drey, but Drey didn't turn around.

"I don't think she's so bad."

"Really?" Max snickered. "Did you not see how she looked at you?" Drey shrugged.

"She probably just has a lot to deal with."

"Who doesn't?"

Drey chuckled and turned to clap Max's shoulder as they turned to walk off. Little did they know, Gaz heard every word, not having cared for anybody else's conversation in the class. It was typical for one out of every few people she met to fear her. And that's how she liked it. She could hear most of the other words they were saying too as they were a foot from her classroom. She listened harder, not that the conversation was interesting to her.

"Dude, you must have a love bug wadded in your pants. Let me know if you want some help with that, 'kay?" Max teased with a wide grin.

Drey threw back his head and laughed, then patted his buddy's shoulder again as they disappeared into the crowds of students.

Gaz glared thinkingly at her desk. For the rest of the class her mind was a bit side-tracked. Out of all the struggle and irritation about Dib's disappearing (she still didn't believe he was dead), life had been more hellish than ever. She had spent endless hours searching for Dib, and the next endless hours giving up and trying not to care anymore with...Zim. She'd been so tired it hardly gave her time to pay attention or give time to anything. It's been so long since she'd seen someone like Drey.

He was...nice.

I see this is still short...errrmmm...

I had no idea if Gaz's teacher's name was revealed in that one episode (Gaz:Taster of Pork) so I just messed a little bit. Same with 'Orange Blood' and the 'Dawn Break 14'. Feels better getting two chapters pinned up at the same time for once. So now you guys will have something to hold you over after my month-long waits I keep giving you 0_0

And for those of you who couldn't figure it out, Drey's name is pronounced DRAY, like Drey off the new Karate Kid movie.

Review quota is..hmm...u guys have been great so how about RxR (hmm..let's do 64)