A/N: Hi! I've really honestly been meaning to update sooner! I'm super sorry about the delay! ;v;

I'd like to give a big thank you to all my reviewers! So, Thank You! I really honestly appreciate it and they're all so sweet and excited and it makes me so happy!

Speaking of Reviews, I was waiting until the 35th to start working on this again! 35 was a great number milestone on my first version of this, and it made me very happy at the time, It still makes me happy today! So, this chapter's a little longer. Also, a HUGE shout out/thank you to PuddingNinja! They were y 35th review on this revamped version! They have a very neat revamped story of their own, so if you're into ocs in the IZ world then Check Them Out! I totally recommend it! I hope you enjoy this version of the story! I'll meet you at the bottom!

The Invader Zim Universe's version of Woodmans was 'Treebaby', and, as in Woodmans, everything was incredibly cheap. We still had forty dollars left at the end of it. And... A shopping cart Sasha had stolen. We'd hidden it in the back yard in the greenhouse, behind the tomatoes. I in no way approved of this thievery. But, hey, it was our equivalent of a car. If we needed to go somewhere we'd just... Start Sasha up and go. She was like a limitless source of energy when she wanted to be, which was hardly ever, but she liked pushing shopping carts.

There were fruits and veggies in the fridge now, and I knew how to keep them at least a little edible, so we had enough food. The greenhouse only had bean plants and some tomatoes, which was disappointing. Sasha and I had gotten three twelve packs of ramen, chips for days, and so many apples it was ridiculous, however. Also water and stuff. Nothing too expensive. Cheap-not-used-by-old-man shampoo. Cookies... We didn't do too good on 'healthy'. But the instant oatmeal was at least a token 'healthy' food, and at least we had money left to get Sasha some school supplies and both of us a few cheap shirts from Goodwill- I mean, 'Happyhearts', and new towels. Old Man Egbert's were rather threadbare.

Invader Zim sure has a lot of stupid names for things. Like 'Skool'. Eugh. I'll never get over that.

…

Sasha skipped and hummed. Her backpack – washed and cleaned by yours truly of course, and demudified. Sasha didn't know how to work a diswasher let alone a washer-washer – bumped up and down with her skips. I watched and squinted. She did that weird, videogame lag skip. She'd jump up, freeze, and then be the next step over, jumping up again. I glanced around as we passed through town. No one gave us any sort of 'uh what the heck' look, so I assumed that it was normal. Normal for children at least. If the most alarming thing in this world was 'Chickenfoot' then, well... We weren't that interesting compared to anything that 'amazing'. No one could compete with Chickenfoot.

Sasha stopped skipping, and it took me a long second to realize she wasn't following me. I paused, looking back at her. Sasha was frowning.

"What?"

"Casey."

"What?"

"Cas."

"What?"

"I'm tired!"

I looked at her shocked face and sighed. "You were singing that goofy goober whatever song 'till midnight."

Sasha flushed. "You HEARD!?"

"Sasha our rooms are literally right next to each other."

"Oh."

I tried not to laugh at her as she trudged after me, pouting. I walked a little slower with her. I was tired too, of course,but at least I'd eaten breakfast. Sasha had skipped it in favor of... Cartoon-world Cartoons. From what I had gleamed, sitting next to her and eating my energy providing breakfast while she fed her brain nonsense, this universe didn't put much effort into 'background noise' such as cartoons. Yet, Sasha had been enthralled. Weirdo.

I could only be happy for her, I guess. She was taking this all okay. I had lain awake all night, listening to that stupid spongebob song, staring out the window and trying not to imagine that I was in some sort of coma and this was my coma-dream. Or that The Sponge was outside my window, breathing and... And waiting. Watching.

It's fair enough to say that I dislike Spongebob. Especially the thinly veiled suicide-gags.

Disgusting show.

Sasha was a creepy singer. Not a bad one, but creepy. I'd have to buy her a binkie or something so she had, well, something to do that wasn't singing while she was in her room. Doing... whatever Sashas did.

Nothing good, I could guess. Possibly something Satanic. I didn't really want to know. She'd always been weird, but being in an Invader Zim themed universe seemed to have given her weirdness a... Tangibility, and man, she could make that weirdness bend to her will like it was nothing. I didn't want to see her whip out the Chuckle-Voodoos on me if I, say, ate her sandwich or something. Nuh-uh.

She started to hum the theme-song from... Whatever she'd been watching as we passed a few other 'skool' students. I could see the Skool building from here, so at least we wouldn't be late.

"Hmmm, hmm hmm hMMM, hm hmmm, HM HM H M HM HM HM HM-!" Sasha's face shook and turned red as she finished her song. I squinted at her.

"Sasha don't forget to breathe."

We crossed the road and hurried against the fence towards school. Sasha waved her hand at me, smiling like I was silly. "Oh Casey, I don't need to breathe! You know that." She snorted and shook her head at me.

I sighed. I believed that. "Alright. But if you're going to be humming that all day-"

"Hey-! Rat girl- Macey!"

I frowned at the obvious mispronunciation of my name and stopped. Well, at least he'd remembered the rats, though 'Macey' was my grandma's dogs' name...

We were at the end of the sidewalk, the sch- Skool looming in front of us. Dib rushed at us. Behind him, Gaz stared down at her game, jamming buttons and walking slowly. I guess she didn't have to worry about being late. She was Gaz, The Terrifying.

"It's Casey." Obviously names with more than three letters were hard for people to remember. "Call me Cas if it's too hard, it rhymes with a-"

Dib stopped in front of us, waving a hand and interrupting, which I guess was good. "Yeah, whatever-! Here!" He held up a notebook. Well, more so shoved it in my face. "I spent the night going over plans for Zim! I figure I can use you as bait or something- you don't mind being a test subject do you?"

"No not at all I find it quite thrilling."

"Good!" His voice cracked and he grinned. It was obvious he hadn't gotten much sleep. I smiled a little. What a dumby. "But that's just one plan! This whole notebook-" He waved it around so violently that I thought it would fall apart. It was blue and had a little alien sticker on the back. The front had 'PLANS FOR EARTH'S (cross this out) HUMANITY'S DEFENSE! - By Dib-' written on it. The last name was smudged out. "This whole notebook is just FILLED with all my amazing ideas! If one doesn't work we'll just move onto another! Also, do you have a camer-uhhh. Who is that."

I blinked. Dib had a way of lulling you into a rant when he was excited. Well. To others it was probably annoying. Gaz's expression as she stomped past certainly wasn't pleasant. I looked over my shoulder at what Dib was staring pointedly at. They had large eyes and a very scary grin. Also morning breath. Ew. I'd forgotten to get toothpaste for her. Darn it.

"Oh... That's Sasha." I said, turning back to him and pointing my thumb back at her. "She's uhm." I scrambled to quickly think of something. I'd totally forgotten to write the lie I'd thought of down on my arm! Dang it I'm so stupid! "She's my... F-Friend. We're sharing the same house at the moment, so, uh, but she got here a day late."

"It was the beavers."

"Yes, it was... The beavers." I agreed. Beavers? Ugh.

Dib squinted. He grabbed my arm and scooted back, pulling me along for about, eh, three inches of privacy. I felt very un-over heard at this distance, especially since Dib wasn't whispering.

"Uh, Casey? She- Are you sure she's your friend? It could be one of Zim's rob-"

I giggled and Sasha stepped up next to us. Well, it was more like she just appeared. Maybe this was her destined universe, her weirdness-zone. I glanced at her grinning face. "Sasha's weird. If she started, ah, acting normal, then Dib, then we get concerned."

Sasha smiled, proud. "I'm insane!" Her eyes squinted shut in glee. I believed her.

Dib frowned. He looked down at his notebook and then at us. "If you two are aliens-"

I sighed. Of course Sasha would give off the 'we're not normal' vibe. Her vibe only made mine stronger. So strong was our combined vibes. So very strong. So very potent.

"Dib, 'c'm on. I think we're pretty human. And not green." And we smelled better than Zim anyway. At least I did. Sasha smelled like cheese. Eugh. Wait, maybe that was me... No, no it was Sasha. It was always Sasha.

Sasha leaned forward and into Dib's face before she exploded; "SO- DIB!" Dib stepped back, surprised, obviously. You could only get so close to Sasha without being a little dumbfounded. She was noisy and her breath was bad. I loved her. "RAISED THE DEAD LATELY? You should do that. Casey said you were into paranormal stuff. You should totally raise the dead. I would raise the dead. So would Casey." She looked to me. "Casey would you raise the dead?"

I nodded. "Uh, yeah probably." Way to put me on the spot Sasha. "If, uh, the results could be contained." And not bite me.

Dib seemed uncertain, and then relaxed. Well, more accurately, got excited, which, for Dib, was relaxed. "You know, I've been considering doing that actually! I just don't have the right ingredients yet, and Dad changed the locks on the basement again. I'll bribe Gaz into figuring it out for me though! Gaz is my sister, by the way." He looked around for her and then shrugged. "I need some of Dad's needles for the injections I'm thinking about making."

We started walking to the sch- Skool. Sasha grinned as Dib started ranting about – well, ranting was mean. He more so explained with great... Excitement, what his plans were for the Zombie-thing. He kept saying that he was putting it off, however, at least until next weekend – it was Thursday or something today, I wasn't paying attention anymore – because of Zim. As soon as Zim came up, Sasha, smiling, asked who that was. She was good at this, I had to admit it, better than me.

Dib got that look in his eye. "Zim! He's an alien! I'm surprised Casey didn't tell you!" He sent me a dirty look. I put my hands up.

"We were shopping."

"SHOPPING!? While an alien menace is working his way into this very SKOOL!? There's no time for shopping!" Dib was lying, there was always time for shopping. If you had money. We didn't have money. Dib was telling the truth. Sorry Dib.

Sasha wilted. "Is there time for eating? We like eating."

"Well, I guess..." Dib frowned. "Well, yeah, okay, eating is cool- BUT!"

Sasha snickered a tiny 'butt' as Dib continued. We were getting closer to Miss Bitters' room. I could feel the ooze of her own ozone of Evil and... Doom drifting down the hall. Home sweet hellhole.

"But, still! I heard this transmission coming through- a while ago, seven months ago actually! Something about alien conquest- And then Zim! Zim arrived! He's been here a month, gathering information I think- I've yet to get into his base but-" Well Sasha had gotten in her first try. I almost said that out loud. Oops, that wouldn't have been good. I wasn't supposed to know where he lived. Dib would also probably try and use Sasha as an entrance key, which would result in harm to Dib, I was sure of it. Why? It usually incited harm on me.

I was so busy watching Dib – and Sasha who looked incredibly excited (enchanted really) – that I didn't notice the skinny little ankle sticking out in the doorway of Miss Bitters' room until I'd tripped over it and was staring at it from ground level, dirt on my cheek. This floor was pretty dirty. Ew. Nice lines on that ankle though. Very well drawn.

I rolled onto my back and squinted at a giggling Zim. Sasha was just standing there, basically the Gir of the situation, and Dib was starting to puff up like a balloon. Sasha, after a moment, frowned a little. She was protective, but she needed to be less excited, and the damage to my person more severe before anything... 'Interesting' happened. Bless her.

"Zim! Is that your great alien invasion tactic?! Tripping girls!?"

He sounded so personally offended. It was kind of adorable. Then again, I found his screams of terror adorable too. So...

I made a face and sat up. A few kids in the room giggled and smirked. I turned my head, staring at them. They stopped uncertainly. I could faintly hear ominous music, rat squeaks in it. Maybe rat screams. I turned back to the squabbling boys, getting up. In secret I hoped that maybe I had my own weirdness ozone like Sasha and Miss Bitters. That would be neat.

"Well it obviously wasn't that great- It was supposed to be for you! Wait." Zim frowned, sticking his lower lip out a little, realizing his own jab at himself. "NEVERMIND, IT WAS ALL PART OF MY PLAN, Dib! My plan!"

Dib snagged his chance. "Your plan to conquer the planet!?" He gestured wildly at Zim, looking to his classmates. There was a sort of not-energetic 'eehghg' noise of disapproval. Dib wilted. Someone shouted 'you're stupid!'

What a wonderful skool this was. Such a healthy environment. No bullying, no sadness, such plentiful organ supplies.

Zim made a squawking noise. "NO! My plan, to, eh, buy... A puppy! Yes, A Puppy! A normal human puppy! To guard my house from INTRUDERS." He actually turned to glare at Sasha before Dib caught his attention again. I'd have to watch out for Sasha.

A human puppy, though. A puppy, made out of human. Wow. That, that was a scary thought. Or maybe a human that was a puppy? Eeeh...

"A Puppy?! That's stupid!" Dib tossed his arms up.

I wasn't TOO upset about being tripped. I planned to kick Zim in the shins as revenge – creating my doomed fate of being a test subject or not, it was going to be done. However, a shadow fell over the four of us, and Sasha suddenly scooted to my side, eyes wide in awe and appreciation as Bitters appeared. Again, ominous music. Woo.

"Sit down! All of you. Class has started." She squinted and growled at the boys. Dib fled to his desk and Zim uneasily slid back into his own, glaring at Bitters before glaring at us. Jerk. We'd been nothing but nice to him. Well, I had. Sasha had invaded his home and probably eaten his food.

"Ma'am?"

With a whip's crack, Miss Bitters swung around, looking down at Sasha and I. "What."

"Uh, this is Sasha, should she be introduced to the class or-"

"No. Sadly, Cas-ey, we have used our only scheduled class introduction on you, thus possibly ruining and dooming poor Sasha's life from this point on."

"Oh." I said.

Sasha gave a small; "Aw man."

I tried to continue. "So, where should she sit-?"

"Due to budget cuts-" She glared towards the door where two substitute teacher-looking fellows shrunk back before fleeing, dropping their coffee cups as Bitters emitted a low hiss. "All other desks have been removed. You two will have to share." She looked back at us.

I blinked and looked back towards my desk. Yep. All the desks that had been there yesterday were gone. Used for... Whatever. I looked back to Miss Bitters. Probably cages for souls. Or the underground classrooms.

"We had to cut the punishment Badger as well." She scowled, probably very disappointed. "It has been replaced with the Sadness Eel. Do not touch it." She floated backwards, staring us down as she phased through her desk and then to her chair, sitting in it. Sasha and I looked to each other.

"Sorry for ruining your life, Sasha."

"That's okay! I've already ruined yours! Twice!"

She had.

Sasha smiled at me and I snickered before we both headed to our desks- well, our desk, singular. We took a moment to both sit in the same chair, balancing half of our butts equally. The chair shrieked and squeaked until we got settled, both pressing a leg down on the floor to keep us up. Bitters stared us both down until we stopped, not daring to breathe. Well. I didn't. Sasha just fidgeted and made the chair squeak. That didn't help my stress levels.

The class settled down as Miss Bitters began to speak. Her tone was light. I remembered I hadn't gotten to kick Zim and instantly felt like an excellent adventure opportunity had been missed. Also kicking a jerk in the shin was a fun pastime of mine.

"Class, today we will be discussing the PLAGUE, and the increasingly likely fact that it is coming back. And soon. SOON! Leaving us all to be doomed... doomed... DOOMED to horrible, horrible deaths. Just horrible. Absolutely horrible" Bitters waved a hand before she stood and turned to the board, starting to write on it. The scratching noises she made – I was pretty sure – were completely on purpose.

I looked at Sasha. We looked around the room together. Most students looked bored, and weren't paying attention. A few further back were chatting. Bitters didn't seem upset by it. We looked to Dib.

He was violently writing in his notebook.

We looked to Zim, heads in sync. Like owls.

He was... Violently looking bored. Supposedly a month of human 'skool' information was not interesting enough for the 'mighty Irken'. Though it had been a good idea, just not an exciting one. If I was an invader I'd have gone for something like that... If I was a smart invader.

It also wasn't interesting enough for either of us. I looked to Sasha as she pulled a notebook out, setting it on the desk. The desk trembled a bit from the 'sadness eel' inside, but Sasha didn't notice and I pretended not to notice as well. Ignorance was bliss, no wonder most people here were stupid... And that the most stressed out person here was Dib.

"So." She said, starting to draw small, melting monkeys with very happy smiles. Or sneers of pain. Who knew. I leaned down so our heads were huddled together. "So you already got in good with Dib, huuuhhhh?" She winked at me, snicker-whispering. I rolled my eyes.

"Sure, not as good as you, though." I wiggled my eyebrows. "You listen, boys like listeners."

"I'm just so perfect!" Sasha swooned, putting the back of her hand to her forehead.

I rolled my eyes. "So, Dibs' side for now?"

Sasha screwed up her face. "But Dib's boring, I wanna blow stuff up with Zim!"

I shushed her, looking up. Zim was too busy, uh, balancing a pencil on his lip. Yeah. Dib was hunched over, writing. Cool. I pushed Sasha's shoulder. "Be quieter! Besides, Zim's... Too much work." At her disappointed look, I shrugged. "Let's just, try and be nice to him, okay?" So much for my shin kicking. Dang.

Sasha sighed. "Okaayyyy... But we better get to hunt some monsters with Dib." She crossed her arms. I rolled my eyes at her.

"Well yeah, duh. We have to, what's the point otherwise?"

She snickered, nodding. We sat in silence after that. I took my own notebook out and started scribbling on it. More kittens. Excellent.

We were stuck in Invader Zim World. To some, that was a nightmare. To some, heaven. I was the some that were... Leaning a bit more towards Nightmare. Sasha was in Heaven.

She was poking her fingers under the lid of the desk at the moment, giggling; "It tickles" whenever – what I assumed was – the Sadness Eel bit her fingers. I squinted, before turning back to my notebook. I started scribbling little doodles of Sasha. Cat Sasha, skeleton Sasha, eel Sasha.

We, probably, couldn't die here. That was good, considering. Considering what? Considering where we were and who we were. Normal people (sort of normal) in a polluted, disgusting, alien infested universe.

Hey, it was pretty similar to back home. Just with more aliens. And werewolves. Probably. I hoped. Magic too.

I looked to Sasha again. She... She had the Sadness Eel out. She was stuffing it into her backpack, glancing around suspiciously. I looked to Miss Bitters. She'd fallen asleep at the chalk board. There were drawings of screaming children on the board.

"Sasha." I pushed her shoulder. "You're feeding it."

Sasha nodded, understanding, and then went back to sticking her fingers in the things mouth. Wow.

I closed my eyes, rubbing the side of my face. We weren't... We weren't doomed, not yet at least. We... I just, just had no idea what to do. Did I want to go home? Not really. It, it was stupid back home. In a, a not cartoon way. Back home we had responsibilities, college, highschool of the correct spelling variation... I didn't want that.

"Sash?"

"Hmmmmm yes?"

I glanced at her, speaking quietly. "You wanna stay here forever?"

Sasha blinked. "I thought we already were!"

"Well, now its official." I smiled at her.

"Oh! That's good! I already lost the lantern thingy!"

I stared at her. She smiled. I let my head fall down onto the desk with a thunk as she started giggling. Ow.

"What episode is this anyway?" I grumbled.

…

By lunch, I knew what episode it was. The terrifying, hideous screaming coming from Zim as he writhed on a table was a, well, pretty tell tale sign. Also it was horrifying and made my stomach feel like a bag of curdled milk. In summary; Gross.

Cartoon humor was all fun and games when you were on the viewing side of the screen, not when you were up close and personal and could smell burning alien lady-bug flesh. Don't try this at home kids. Beans were dangerous. Deadly. Contaminated. Beans.

I stood still, while Sasha just giggled. Zim was writhing on the table, steaming in his beany doom. Just a normal day at Skool, I guess. A horrifying, disgusting, normal day. Ugh, maybe Irken conquest would be worth it. At least it was sanitary. Sorta.

Sasha grabbed my arm, dragging me towards the line for food. I squeaked; "Are you insane? I packed a lunch, Sasha!" I wiggled, feet being dragged on the floor despite my attempts to slam my heels down. Sasha had powers of unknown abilities. That included being able to drag my fat butt around. But, I was fairly certain that it didn't include the ability to consume the food here. I didn't think anyone could do that without some sort of universal consequence.

Sasha looked over her shoulder at me. "But, I want to try the food. The food Casey, the foood." She squinted at me before her eyes 'squeaked' open. I looked at her. Why was she so good at this cartoon thing? I felt like I was about to burst into hyper reality any second and Sasha... She looked like she belonged here. I'd just, have to find my place.

"Sasha the food moves."

"I know, that's why I wanna eat it!"

I twisted my arm, grabbing her's, and started tugging her in the other direction. She let out a pitiful wailing noise. I shushed her as we neared Dib's table. She just made another wailing sound, she sounded like a whale. Get it? Wail. Whale. Haha.

Kids started glancing at us, blinking and squinting. One mooed.

"Sasha!"

"Hhhhhngh what?" She gave me a pitiful look.

I put my hands on her shoulders, giving them a squeeze. "Stop being stupid." I looked her in the eye. "You're too pretty to be stupid."

"Aw man." Her shoulders slumped. I patted her cheeks, squishing her face, before turning around. I looked for Dib. He shouldn't be that hard to find, big head and all. And weird hair.

The cafeteria buzzed with shouting and movement. Dib, however, squinted at something on the other side of the room before looking back down, scribbling in his notebook. I glanced at where he'd looked. Green met me, assaulting my vision.

Zim. Of course.

I watched as he looked towards the 'reject' corner. He smiled, getting off the table and heading towards them. Okay, time to intercept before Dib saw Zim and Zim saw Dib. Sure, everything had been going according to plot, but, what effect did we have on the plot, us being here? We could wreck things if we weren't careful. Sasha could wreck everything by farting. She was just that amazing. Me? I'd trip or say something stupid and we'd all probably die.

Sasha liked to call me over dramatic. I called it realistic.

Sasha zoomed by, literally making a 'nyoom' noise. She rushed to the table, almost appearing there. She put her hands on it and leaned forward. She... she was literally holding herself up on her arms, her legs curled behind her. "DIB!" She did not have any upper body strength. I could hardly lift Sasha up as it was. How. "DIB!" she shouted again, though he had heard the first one.

Dib screamed, hey, I'd scream too. He sat up and dropped the pencil he'd been using. I picked it up as I sat down, handing it it a surprised Dib. "Don't DO that!" I started taking the pencil back. "No not you!" I gave the pencil back. What twisted games Dib played. Twisted, insane child. Horrible.

Sasha sat down normally, giggling, and Dib gave me a look. Gaz was silent, beeping through her current game. I shrugged, crossing my arms on the table. Sasha wiggled over to sit closer to me, breathing heavily. I gently pushed her face away and she whined. Her breath stunk.

"Jeez, you guys are weird." Sasha and I snorted at the same time. Sash covered her mouth and I choked on my laugh as Dib rolled his eyes, looking down at his notebook. "Anyway, I got a few more down, and I've been think- what are you doing."

Sasha had again propped herself up on her arms. She leaned over the table, seeming to stretch, and had her face in Dib's. She squinted suspiciously. "If you take off your glasses, are there more glasses, Dib?"

"Wha- No!"

"How do weee know that, huh!? You and your, mysterious glasses!"

"You're wearing glasses too!"

"Oh."

I grabbed the back of Sasha's shirt and tugged her down to sit, blushing on her behalf. "Sasha, what did I tell you when we got in here?"

"That it smells like oysters."

"The other thing."

"Oh, aw. Ok." She folded her hands in her lap, starting to fidget. I looked over at Dib nervously, holding my hands together against my chest. All we needed was for Sasha's weirdness to ruin everything.

He frowned. "Anyway, and, well, this just proves it in my opinion, I've decided you two need to go through some sort of tests! Just as a precaution, 'cus, you know, there are aliens about."

He said 'aliens' in that weird, pilot episode 'aaaaaaaliiieeeoonnnsss' way. Adorable.

Wait, tests?

I pulled my backpack off, pulling Sasha's lunch out of it. She squealed, taking it and tearing into it. Well, there goes one paper bag, wonder how much were left. "What kinda tests?" I asked, taking my own lunch out. I squinted at him. No Zim tests.

Besides me, Sasha squealed a 'mmm!' as she bit into her peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Dib, who didn't appear to have a lunch, looked down at his notebook, scratching behind his ear with his pencil. "Well, at first, I figured I'd maybe make you guys catch a zombie or something, so I could replicate it's, un-deaden-ing qualities." He gestured vaguely with his hands, making direct eye contact.

Sasha and I stared at him, Sasha a bit more enthusiastically.

He gave a defensive shrug. "Hey! I didn't sleep much, and she kept talking about raising the dead!" He pointed at Sasha.

I frowned. "Look, Dib." I poked at my own sandwich, hesitating. "What do, what do you want us to do with these tests? Are they tests to be your friends? That's just... That's really stupid." And kinda a jerk thing to do, I mean, the big mean green jerk was doing it currently.

Dib blinked. He actually looked kind of offended. "You just don't understand! You're new here, and you've probably never even met an alien before!"

Sasha opened her mouth. "I've met an anal-" I covered her mouth, making a face at her. I blushed on her behalf. She just squinted her eyes with glee at me. Rude fool.

"So, you want us to prove that we're not going to, like, skimp out on you or something?" I asked. "Like, leave you stranded?" That was a lot of 'like's in the same sentence.

"Exactly! Besides, you're girls, girls get grossed out by zombies and stuff, I can't have you bailing on me when I'm trapped in some, disgusting... Alien goo!" Dib shuddered.

Every girl at the table stared Dib down. Gaz only momentarily before deciding she had nothing to prove. I however, stared Dib straight in the eye, took my hand off of Sasha's mouth, and held it palm up. Dib blinked, leaning back.

Sasha spit chewed up sandwich into my hand. It was wet and slimy.

I put the chewed up sandwich in my mouth. It was still wet and slimy, maybe more so.

Dib stared at me as I chewed the already chewed food. "That's... That's disgusting!" He seemed to turn green. "That's, that's so gross!"

"You should see what Casey's willing to do for hummus." Sasha said, smiling knowingly.

I had enough sense to feel embarrassed, and sort of grossed out, but I was proving a point here. A gross, disgusting, chewed up, spit covered... Point. A point that tasted, somehow, like cheese. How.

"Stop chewing it just get it out of your mouth!" Dib pulled on his face in horror and I coughed, laughing. I spat Sasha's food into my empty lunch bag, retching a moment later. Disgusting, why did I do that. That was so stupid.

"Oh my god Sasha when did you brush your teeth last!?"

"A week ago."

I started retching again.

Dib shuddered. "Okay, okay you've proven your point." He shook himself before turning to a page in his notebook. "I'll just give you a bit of a... A test about what you know about paranormal things."

I looked up. Besides me, Sasha's eyes sparkled.

"First off, Bigfoot-"

"REAL!" Sasha squealed immediately. "He ate out of my garbage once."

I smiled, going back to my own, not disgusting, food. Dib looked at me as he wrote something in his notebook. I shrugged. "Haven't seen any but they're probably real."

Dib nodded, humming.

"Mermaids?"

"HECK YES." Sasha slammed her fist on the table, making Dib jump.

I grinned. "Well duh."

"Hmm, Chupacabra?"

"Totally."

"Mmmyep, my mother was a chupacabra once."

"Okay... Werewolves."

"Yes!"

"I hope!"

"Ghosts?"

"Yeah!"

"Sure."

"Uh huh... Dragons?"

I put my hands down on the table and leaned forward like Sasha had. Sasha leaned back, giving me space. Dib also leaned back, more so because my face was in his. I gave him my most serious look, arms trembling.

"I don't care if they're real or not; they will always be real to me." I squinted at him before sitting back down.

"Uh... I like your enthusiasm! Ok, those were the basics, now some other paranormal entities!"

Sasha squeaked, pumping her fists. I glanced over my shoulder and out the windows. I spotted Zim almost immediately, using Keef as a bat. We'd have to help Keef out after this... How would we get his eyes back though? I tried to stop thinking about it, shuddering as I turned back to Dib.

"Okay, Rat People?" Dib continued.

I leaned forward. "Of course." I said earnestly, because, well, I was rat girl, and rat girl had to do her job; distract Dib.

…

I had my job for a few more 'hours' before Dib finally noticed Zim. He was still testing us – he'd moved onto stuff that was, well, obviously bunk, and we'd gotten him on a rant about radioactive wiener dogs or something. It was art class, and Bitters had moved us to the back of the room. Arts and Crafts day consisted of Bitters telling us to make something before she sat in the front desk and turned into Windows 97's human version of the Blue Screen of Death.

I was making paper dolls; Two boys, Two girls. If you'd guessed that I was making little Invader Zim dolls, you'd be right. Of course, I wasn't going to give them the same clothes, and they'd all have different colored hair – the boy's purple and the girl's black – but in my heart I knew who they were. It could be said that this was a bit creepy, seeing as they were – in this universe at least – real people. I would counter that the drawing Dib was working on was a more able candidate for 'creepy'. He'd drawn a Zim, split open on an autopsy table, and was using scraps of my paper and those... Bendy furry things and some party paper to give it a strewn gut effect. Creative, yes. Creepy? Also yes.

Sasha, meanwhile, had somehow constructed a bat out of Popsicle sticks. No. not a cute little spooky bat that goes shriek shriek. A bat, as in baseball bat. It was taller than she was, and a fake nail had been made out of some of the sticks. Miss Bitters, though asleep in some way, seemed to snort in appreciation of it from across the room. I just couldn't believe that Sasha had gotten it to hold together, especially since she was beating it on a desk and, well, denting the desk...

I looked up as Dib slathered his creation in glue. He pulled my scraps forward and started placing them in strategic gut-looking positions. "I mean, the dogs wouldn't be dogs if they were that radioactive! Some sort of mutation would have occurred! And no one's even seen one of these dogs! At least not alive! I don't even think it's possible for them to be alive!"

I put a little dress on one of the girls, not permanent, just one with little foldable tabs. "Well, what about the Radioactive Wolves in Chernobyl?" I hoped to god that this universe had a Chernobyl. Dib didn't look suspicious. "When all the people left they eventually came back in. It's still radioactive, and dangerous, but, like, could someone just be mixing these things up? Where'd you even hear about the wiener dogs?" I frowned at him, making the little alien in disguise dress in her new, pretty, ballgown dress. A very nice ballgown dress, very purple. I moved onto a new sheet of paper, the ballgown dress shape traced onto it. I started adding rips and tears and bloodstains, sighing.

Sasha shot me a look out of the corner of her eye and I flushed, turning to slap her shoulder. Dib mulled over what I'd said.

"Well, I have some sources that give out okay information most of the time, but sometimes they're a little shady." He laughed. "This one time- HEY!"

I jolted. Sasha mooed and dropped her bat. It hit the floor and... And broke a small hole in it. It crushed a hole in the school floor. Sasha picked it up a moment later like it was nothing. I stared at her as she continued hitting a desk with it.

Dib, obviously unhappy with my lack of attention, grabbed my chin and twisted my head around. "Hey!" I wiggled my face away. Dib didn't seem to care, he was pointing at – who else – Zim, who was looking rather uncomfortable as he sat at a table with Keef. I could feel Keef's weird energy from here. Jesus. Sasha suddenly looked up and scooted her chair over, eyes wide. Ah yes, the native Sasha senses a fellow Weirdo, watch as her eyes dilate, legs tense. Run for your effing lives she's active.

Dib pointed a finger that shook. "What is Zim doing with Keef!?" His voice cracked.

Sasha shrugged. "He's makin' a friend? Because he is a lonely little green bean. Aw. Aw! Look! He's drawin' them, aaawwww!" Sasha looked smitten for a moment before her face turned Dr. Seuss' The Grinch and she went back to destroying school property. Dib trembled with inner paranormal rage.

"What if he runs some sort of experiment on him! Huh!? What if he turns Keef into his robot slave!?" Dib pulled on his hair a little, obviously distressed.

"Keef's a robot?" I asked. It was a valid question.

"Well, no! But Zim could make him into one! At least, I'm pretty sure he could..." Dib frowned, starting to get up.

Ok, time to intercept.

"Hey! Dib, wait-" I stood with him. "The Scho- Skool day's almost over, just wait until we're out of class." I shifted to stand in front of him and he blinked.

"Humanity's fate doesn't wait for after skool!" Again, trembling of paranormal rage.

"What harm can Zim really do, though? Wouldn't someone notice if Keef, like, immediately went missing after spending the day with Zim?" Logic, this boy liked logic.

Dib frowned, stopping his attempts to get past me. "Okay... I guess, besides, Keef is, I think he's not even human anyway." He practically whispered this to me, looking a bit nervous. "So at least no human will be hurt!"

I blinked at him before sighing, resisting the urge to roll my eyes. "Yeah... Sure..." I sat back down, glancing at the clock. Dib sat down as well, frowning at his artwork and occasionally glancing over at Zim with narrowed eyes. I looked to Sasha for assistance, raising my eyebrows.

Sasha blinked at me, and then leaned forward. "Diiib, Dib, DIB, Diiiiiiib, Dib, Dib-"

"What!?" Dib gave her an exasperated look, shoulders hunching. Sasha laughed.

"Do you have any way for us to contact you? You know, in case we see anything spooky!" Sasha grinned almost evilly. "I'll call you so you can watch me hit it with my bat!"

"Sasha what if it's a unicorn." I interrupted.

"Then it can fight back."

I sighed loudly. Dib just squinted. "Well, you can call me, I guess, why?"

Sasha waved her hands around before crossing them. "Because we're in a little club now! Plus I'm a spooky magnet! Tell 'em Casey!"

Dib squinted at me. I shrugged. "A monkey broke into the school. It found her immediately, didn't even go for the banana traps. They found out later that it had rabies."

Dib stuck his tongue out, disgusted. "Er, okay, here." He ripped some of Zim's guts off of his artwork and wrote a number down on it, sliding it over to Sasha. Sasha pulled out her little flip phone and started putting it in immediately. "I don't think we're a club, but it's good to have eyes everywhere, you know?" He seemed hesitant. Alright, time to take a calculated risk.

Sasha seemed to be on the same mind wave as me. As she finished entering the number, passing the note to me, I pulled out my phone.

"Swollen Eyes?" We asked in union.

Oops.

Dib looked as if Sasha had slapped him with her bat, only more like it was a good thing. His eyes started to sparkle. "Wha-"

The bell rang, and Bitters made a shrieking computer start up noise and sat up. "Bring your artwork home to your parents! Tell them I hated all of it!" She was almost entirely ignored as students rushed out of the room, mostly through the windows.

I stood up, stuffing my 'artwork' into a folder and then into my bag. Sasha simply kept her grip on her bat solid.

"Wait-!" Dib started. I looked up. Before I could respond to him in any way, Sasha shrieked, grabbed my arm, and made a dive for the windows. Wow, she sounded like a monkey.

"AAAAH! SASHA!" She dragged me through the windows in one fluid leap, and we landed in the bushes. Well, I landed in the bushes. Sasha landed normally. I started to get up, wobbling. "Sasha we can't just leave Dib after tha-"

Sasha laughed, pulling me to my feet and starting to run. I stumbled, shocked. "It's more dramatic Casey! Come on, have a little fun!" She grinned at me, hitting the gate with the bat as she ran past. I was sure I was waving in the air like a flag at this speed. "We want Dib to come to US!" She tripped and we both went tumbling.

Sasha was an evil genius. But not at running.

…

We got home and ate Ramen noodles. We'd managed to avoid Dib, which I was sure he'd be yelling at us about tomorrow. Sasha didn't seem to care. I pretended I didn't care either, even though it made me extremely nervous. Sasha sat calmly, eating her food next to me as we sat on the couch. I had finished already, and pulled my laptop out.

Sasha looked over at me, noodles falling out of her mouth. "What ya doooin'?" All of the noodles fell out of her mouth at that.

I looked at her out of the corner of my eye. The couch smelled like old man, and I used that as an excuse to wrinkle my nose. "I'm going to see what I can look up on SEN, seeing as you've given Dib the impression that we're members!"

Sasha blinked. "Oops."

"Yeah, oops." I looked at my computer screen as the background came to life. Pink moon in a black sky. I looked at a few of my icons. Minecraft, Steam, Flash... A bunch of stuff that I was dumb about and fiddled with, honestly. "First though..."

I opened most of my folders before going back to my desktop. I made a new folder with no title, and in each of the opened folders, searched anything related to 'Invader Zim'. Sasha slurped down the rest of her noodles and scooted over to me, turning the tv off – it was on the news or something, I wasn't paying attention – and leaned over my shoulder.

I went to one folder, where fanfiction I had saved to my laptop popped up. I selected them, pulling and dropping them into the new folder. I did this with the rest of the folders, dragging fan art, links, and other IZ things into the folder. Out of curiosity, I checked my internet bar, pulling up the 'connect to' part. 'MEMBRANE_WIFI' popped up immediately. I clicked it, and a little icon spun before it asked for a password. Man, Membrane's wifi must be really... Really strong.

Sasha leaned over and quickly typed something in. The box disappeared and then, quite suddenly, the internet connected. Full bars. I had never experienced full bars in my entire life.

"What did you put in?!"

"I dunno."

I squinted at her before sighing and opening my browser. I started hiding all links I considered too, well, not of this universe, especially things like Zim blogs and Dib blogs. However, out of curiosity, I clicked the Zim wiki.

It took me immediately to a page that claimed it 'didn't exist'. Sasha 'aw'ed and I deleted the link before moving to my search engine, deleting my history.

"Alright." I said, cracking my knuckles. Ow. I shook my hands. "Okay, I'm gonna look for SEN forums and stuff, I've already got a lot of paranormal stuff. What are you gonna do?"

"Go to bed." Sasha said, yawning. I sent her a look. She shrugged. "I'm tired, besides, Keef gets his eyeballs ripped out tomorrow! I wanna be wide awake for that!"

I shuddered. "Fineeee." Sasha whooped before rushing off. I clicked the first link I found and started reading through the page it provided.

…

"Casey, CASEY!"

I was jolted from dreams of the loch ness monster emerging from a lake full of alien blood and sat up, gasping. It was dark out, and my laptop was on the table where I'd left it, shut down automatically. Sasha was sitting on the couch, leaning over me and shaking me. I slapped her hands away, "whugh"ing in confusion and sitting up.

I yawned and squinted. "What? What!? What time is it, what?" I yawned again, looking at Sasha. She seemed to be vibrating in place.

"It's night time!"

"Yes it is."

Sasha nodded eagerly and slid off the couch. "Come on! I've got something to show you!"

"Is it a bed?"

"NOPE!"

"Eehh." I slipped off the couch, feeling ruffled. My beanie was tilted at an odd angle but I didn't bother fixing it. Sasha rushed out of the living room and into the hallway. I trudged after, blinking when I turned a corner and spotted her standing at the bottom of a pull down ladder, the attic open above her. "What's that?"

"Come on!" She insisted. Her eyes sparkled and she shifted from foot to foot. I hurried as much as I could, following her up the ladder. She tugged my arm when I reached the attic, leading me stumbling through darkness until, suddenly, a hatch was flung open and Sasha's silhouette startled me.

Her glasses flashed as she looked back at me before she crawled onto the roof. I blinked, and then followed.

It was cold out, and I shivered immediately, rushing up towards Sasha. She was sitting at the peak of the roof. I scurried to her on hands and knees before huddling next to her, shivering more. "Sashaaa, why'd you bring me out here." I yawned.

Sasha pointed up. I hugged my knees and looked where she was pointing.

Blue had returned to the sky with night. I didn't know where the moon was, but I didn't need it. City lights seemed somehow farther away than it had been, and the light had increased. Blues in a million different shades hovered in the sky, clouds occasionally drifting by. My eyes widened. The stars! There were so many stars!

We sat in silence. I don't know for how long, long enough for the roof to grow warm under us. Sasha and I stayed huddled together, and it was Sasha who eventually broke the silence.

"Casey?"

I looked at her, taking my eyes away from the sky. "Yeah?"

Sasha was frowning. She looked deflated. "I'm sorry about losing the lantern... It was our only way back n'... Well you don't seem to happy here... I'm sorry."

"Hey! No, it's okay!" I shrugged against her, bumping shoulders. "This is a dream come true!"

Sasha frowned. "Really? 'cus, you're still worrying just as much as you always do."

I flushed, and shrugged, looking down. "That's just... What I do? I do it all the time! I want everything to be okay! I know it's a cartoon, but I still think we can get hurt."

Sasha smiled a little. "But it's a cartoon,we can't get hurt. You only get hurt if you think you're gonna get hurt."

I rolled my eyes. "For you, maybe. I'm not magic like you."

Sasha shrugged. "I'll protect you then! With my magic!"

I nudged her again. "How come you're only nice at night?" I smiled at her. "It's weird."

"The world may neeeverr knoowww." Sasha said, nodding solemnly. I giggled and we both went back to watching the sky. Green caught the corner of my eye and I glanced over. I could see Zim's house from here. I smiled before looking back up at the sky. I didn't feel as nervous as I did before, Sasha's magic seemed to work, at least a little bit.

Still, that didn't mean we wouldn't have Dib to deal with in the morning.

A/N: Hi! I actually drew a little picture for this, it's not THAT good but i kinda like how it turned out! Here's the link:

Juicesoul . tumblr .

com

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post/95857198675/silly-thing-i-painted-for-dubm-story-im-doingg-its

(just remove the space and enters!)

hehe ignore my flustered dumbness ;v;

Also! I'm going to make a poll of 'neat' words/titles, and i'm not telling you what they're for - and in all likeliness they'll all be used - but i guess you can probably guess if you've read all the way to down here! Thank you for reading, and thank you if you decide to review! -3-