Chapter 12: Horrible Awful Tuesday

Yeah, yeah, yeah it's been forever since I updated. Hate me if you will but when you break your laptop and have to WORK for a new one then start an entirely long chapter from scratch then you'll be able to judge me. Until then you can swallow this and suck on the words that come from my sick and twisted awesome sauce machine of mine. So prepare to suck it!...okay nobody take this out of context okay. This is an overview of Dibs day and what an average day is for him.

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results each time. - Narcotics Annon.

A city was burning below him. He turned in his side of the cruiser. Zims eyes were fixed on the burning sky, billowing black smoke and ash from the bodies and buildings below rising into the air. Zim looked over at his riding partner for a moment before focusing on piloting again. Dib waited for the usual rise of hate and fear, but it never came. He felt strangely calm. Maybe Carl was right. Maybe he was going to die. His uniform, so sleek and light on the ground when standing, made sitting comfortably in the small aircraft impossible. He shifted awkwardly in place. Packs were useful but honestly annoying as hell. He fiddled with his gun checking to make sure it was still spotless. He looked over at his...companion, trying to find something to say. Zim was the one to break the silence.

"Never thought I'd go down fighting with an alien." Dib turned in surprise. Zims head was still turned to the large window. Dib sighed. He leaned forward marveling at the devastation below. A few more minutes and they'd reach their ron de vu point with the others. He turned to Zim. "You know what?" Zim finally turned to him. Dib found himself smiling, "I was about to say the same thing."

Zim let out a sad sigh. Zim pushed a button and turned to face him completely. His deep purple maroon suit stood out in stark contrast to his own black suit. The bright pink mark on his forehead glowed. His voice was eerily casual when he asked, "You worried about her?"

Dib felt a numb blow to his heart. He swallowed, "Yeah." Zim nodded, "Don't be." Before he could stop himself he asked, "How's Gir doing?" Zim stopped, immediatly scowling. "Fine. When I get my hands on that insolent fool, I'm gonna kill him."

"Can you promise me something?" Dib tried not to sound stupid. Zim leaned back surprise covering his face. Dib pointed to the scene of destruction below. "Promise me your on my side this time." Zim smirked. "Now where have I heard that before, hmm? I told you before, I know not of sides but I will concede to this. The new king must die." Zim started to turn back to fly the ship. He paused, leaned over and whispered, "On one condition." Dib raised an eyebrow. Zim went on, "If captured, I'll kill you if you kill me first. Deal?" He reached out his hand. Dib shook it. "Deal. Wait how'd that work out if your dead?"

BEEEEP BEEEEEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEEP

Stupid clock. Killjoy.

Dib groaned, rolling over on his side. He reached out into the darkness, fumbling for the snooze button. He felt the smooth plastic button and pressed it down. He rolled onto his side. He didn't want to go to school today. He so didn't want to go to school today. He turned flat on his back and stared up at the blurry ceiling. He wondered what type of horrors awaited him today. How bad the bullying would be. If he should follow Tonjas advice. He took a deep breath…and slowly let it out. Playing the sick card would be pointless. His Dad-Dib stopped mid thought as his throat tightened a bit. Pushing aside the balloon of emotion, he sat straight up and flung himself out of bed. He pulled on his glasses and got dressed. He picked one of his many shirts and black pants. He walked down the hall into the bathroom, giving himself a quick lookover before heading downstairs. Dragging a small step stool over to the sink, he looked himself over. He sighed at his broken scythe. He reached into the opened a tub and slicked back his hair into a sharp scythe. Nodding approvingly, he admired himself in the mirror. He felt a sharp shove on his side and fell to the tiled floor. Gaz stood on the step stool, brushing her hair into place in her usual black jumper/grey shirt/pink tight combo. "The back."

"Hmm?" Gaz grunted, looking down at him. He heaved himself up off the white tiles. Brushing off the nonexistant dirt he remarked, "The back? Of your hair? You missed that."

Gaz turned to the mirror and dissecting her reflection viciously. The entire back of her head was pure unfiltered bedhead. Tufts of soft purple hair swirled in knots and worked into other knots that made up BIGGER knots. Gaz twisted her neck to the side, an annoyed grunt escaped her lips as she began swishing the black brush through her hair. Dib watched this for a few moments before leaving. Halfway down the hall he heard a snap of a brush being broken and his sister mutter, "STUPID BRUSH murmurmurmur."

He stopped in his tracks and sighed. Not even looking back he asked, "Brush broke again?"

"Yeah." His sister leaned out of the doorway. He eyed the broken handle in her hands. She threw it at his feet and slammed the door. Bending down he picked up the black handle and shoved the plastic into his pants pocket. He thumped downstairs and into the kitchen to make breakfast. He was halfway through pouring the last of the Count Cocofang into a bowl for Gaz when the floating Professor Membrane screen wandered into the kitchen.

"Good morning children. Remember to walk the dog, take out the trash, do the dishes, and don't open the door to strangers."

"Yeah yeah," Dib said to the floating head. The floating screen flew out the window and exploded into a million pieces. Little bits of debris rained from the sky like…rain. Dib frowned out into the back yard as a large piece fell down and crushed a hobo holding a hot dog. He shook his head.

"What're you doing to?" He turned away from the sink. Gaz stood in front of the fridge door, digging around its contents for the milk.

"Dad's dumb monitor exploded in the backyard." He hopped off the kitchen counter, barely managing to keep the bowls from spilling out onto the floor. He set the bowls on the table. He hopped into his chair. "I think it crushed a hobo."

"That is pretty funny." Gaz hauled out a quart of milk from the fridge. Gaz came back, smirking, with the milk and turned it over onto her Cocofangs. Chunks of milk poured from the spout and covered the chemically sweet smell of Cocofangs with a bitter, sour stench of expired milk. Gaz blanched sticking out her tongue. Dib made a mental note to pick up milk on the way home and took the container from Gazs hands. "Ugh…it smells like a pig."

" If you're that hungry, I'll find you something else. " He felt his eyes roll involuntarily in their sockets. I'm was probably the only person who could get away with that, he thought to himself. He tossed the milk and cereal into the trashcan, turned, and saw his cereal disappear into Gazs mouth. "Hey!"

Gaz opened her eyes and gave him one of her famous half open caramel eyed stares. He stopped in mid protest. "Uh, yeah sure, go ahead. I wasn't going to eat that anyway."

She went back to eating his cereal. He sighed and decided to skip breakfast. He headed to the living room, sat on the floor and flipped through the channels until he saw a special program catch his eye. He leaned forward in anticipation as the announcer began with the usual spiel and pictures of his father and his amazing accomplishment.

"Now. The man whom without, the world falls into complete and utter chaos and the inventor of super toast…"

"Gaz, hurry up! It's DAD." Dib hollered. A quick tink of her spoon hitting the bowl, the pat of her footsteps and she was there, sitting cross legged on the floor an unreasonable distance away from him.

"DR. PROFESSOR MEMBRANE!" the screen showed his dad appear on a platform rising from the grey floor. He waved to the audience and took a bow. The unseen audience roared in hysteria. Dib felt a surge of pride run through him. His Dad was so cool! Professor Membrane stepped off the platform onto a small lab complete with beakers, bunsen burners and hydrochloric acid. White walls, black cabinets, and random lab equipment embellished the room, adding a sense of realness to the otherwise useless set.

Professor rose his hand for silence, "Thank you, thank you." An immediate silence took the room. His father walked up beside a table in the middle of the 'room'. He began, "Hello my fellow homosapians! Another day in a world full of mystery, full of excitement and SCIENCE! As always, we will open the show with questions sent in by YOU from ALL OVER THE WORLD!"

The crowd screamed in excitement.

"Yes, yes, I know. Exciting stuff right?! RIGHT?! OF COURSE IT'S RIGHT! Now on with SCIENCE!" Professor Membrane exclaimed in over enthusiasm, arms raised over his head. Dib looked up from the flat screen to the clock above on the wall. He jumped with a start. 7:30. Skool started at 8:30. He jumped up running to the landing. Calling over his shoulder at his sister, "Gaz! The time! Hurry up we gotta go!"

Gaz appeared by his side at the coat rack. He brushed aside the eye roll she shot at him and grabbed his black overcoat from the wooden peg on the wall along with Gazs black coat.. Somewhere along the line he had dropped his backpack down next to hers in the landing. Scooping up both, they slid on their shoes and walked out the door.

Later on in the day, this happened at some point maybe probably yeah it happened...

"Dib!"

"Ehwah?" Dib snapped his neck up. The entire classroom, minus Zim, was staring at him. Ms. Bitters, the living embodiment of creepy, scowled down at him, " Thank you for joining the realm of the living again, Dib. Now tell me... what's the 6th noble gas?"

"Uh, radon?" Dib replied. Ms. Bitters narrowed her eyes, hissed, and slunk back to the front of the class. Dib blushed and looked at the clock. Eleven eleven? Geez, had he really been asleep that long? He glanced over at zims empty seat. Ms. Bitters said he had a concussion, where was he really?

"Now, time for the best part of the school year." She grinned venomously, "It's time to learn about living things by cutting open there dead bodies and examining their organs inside of their lifeless, decaying bodies."

From the back of the room a voice cried out, "Um Ms. Bitters? Is this legal?"

"I'm talking about frogs, Gretchen. " Ms. Bitters corrected. Dib whipped his head around as soon as he heard her name. Gretchen looked the same as ever with her overly large over bite and deep maroon hair the color of wine pulled back into two pig tails. She looked the same as when he'd left her. Ms. Bitters slunk behind her desk into the wooden chair. She looked over every child before her until her spectacles rested upon him. "The frogs are downstairs in the basement. Gretchen you and...Dib, will go downstairs. And NO SNOOPING! That means you, Dib."

Gretchen got out of her chair, her red pigtails swishing side to side with each step to the door. Dib, astounded by his luck, bolted through the classroom out into the empty hallway. As soon as Gretchen closed the door behind her the words "We need to talk." came tumbling out before he could stop them. She whipped around in surprise. Dib gulped, suddenly unsure of how to go about this. What had Dr. Tonja said? Just tell the truth. They strolled down the hall both waiting to see what would happen next.

He took a deep breath and went on, "Remember when we were in third grade and we friends?"

"Yeaaaah." Gretchen face was immediatly guarded better than fort knox. She started walking down the hall. Dib walked with her going on, "Well, do you want to be?"

"WHAT?!" Gretchen stopped in shock.

"Do you want to be friends with me?"

"...maybe." Gretchen grinned sheepishly at him. She kept walking down the hall carrying out a conversation but he couldn't hear past the voices singing SHESAIDYESSHESAIDYESSHESAIDYES! in his head. They reached the end of the hallway. Dib put his hand on the basement door, "Trust me, Gretchen your not going to regret this."

He flung open the door and nearly ran straight into the person on fire.

"I believe everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you can appreciate them when they're right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together."-Marilyn Monroe

Who's the person on fire? Why should you care? Is anyone still following this story after not updating for 2 or 3 months? WHO KNOWS!