5. Welcome to the Fringe
The thing about Hi Skool was the cliques didn't seem to mean very much. They were just lines drawn in sand, in theory. Applied in real life, they were circles around groups of people. Everyone talked to everyone else for the most part, and drama wasn't so widespread as it may have been in other skools. It was the sense of belonging that glued individuals together.
Mathletes hung out with mathletes, constantly quizzing each other or studying at their benches. To their left and right were the other studious types, at peace with their quiet section of the cafeteria. Reference sheets and calculators were arranged around stacks of binders and hardcover textbooks. Around the center section a bit of spillover from other students was allowed for homework help (in exchange for money) and more.
The other side of the cafeteria was the loud side. The cheer team, the Skool thespians, cool goths, and other miscellaneous groups were free to screech and play their shitty music in this area from their cellphones. Somehow it all worked out and resulted in a harmonious din to disguise the sound of once-edibles plopping onto trays at the head of the massive room.
The center was where most of the other kids ended up - the ones with average lives and ambitions typical of the City. A moderate amount of loud conversation and activity was enjoyed, all the way up to the last two tables. They were completely devoid of life, as far as Laura could tell from the front of the room - with the sole exception being a squinty-eyed girl concentrating on her handheld gaming device. Nobody was around to talk to her.
"Are we sitting with her?"
Dib laughed. "No. Gaz has her own table. She's my sister."
"...Why don't you share with your sister?"
"Uhhh, you'll see. Just don't try to talk to her or anything."
Dib turned to fully face the tables. A few menacing-looking linebackers leered back from the front center. Some of them noticed the short new kid next to Dib and smiled at each other.
"I don't have a good feeling about this, dude."
Laura tensed when she heard Dib suck in his breath and release it. It was a feeble attempt to control his apprehension.
"Okay, yeah, we'll just make a run for it. Let's go. One, two three!" The scythe-haired boy took off on one side of the aisle.
Laura just followed suit, bewildered, but something told her to stay on the other side as all the attention was focused on Dib.
It paid off. Nobody caught her slipping by on the left side as Dib received numerous beefy jabs that looked like they hurt.
Guffaws resounded throughout the hall at the antics of the teenagers. Dib, visibly distressed now, sat himself down at his own quiet table. Laura noticed Zim walking with his back to the walls, eating some kind of powdered candy dip, smiling at the mayhem with his weird eyes and weird skin and ugly hair. She met his gloating gaze with her own stony face and his smile dropped.
She rushed to catch up to Dib, but in doing so, got too close to the Gaz chick. A few seconds later and a feeling of dread grasped the half of her body closest to this other girl's vicinity.
Laura's eyes widened as she took in the unsettling sensation at her right half. Her footsteps quickened and her breath trembled, stuck in her lungs... until she turned past the table corner. Whatever was up with that girl seemed to have stuck there, in that area devoid of other students.
I'll have to ask someone about that later, Laura pledged to herself.
For now, she edged herself closer to Dib on the uncomfortably flat bench with her tray, saying nothing. She didn't really know what to say. Clearly he wasn't popular.
Talking only came easily to the new kid sometimes. Is he hurt?
"Are you hurt?" WHY DID YOU SAY THAT, SELF. I meant if it hurts. Was I too loud?
Dib stared straight ahead with nothing betrayed on his face.
This is getting awkward. I feel awkward. Man, I am never gonna get any fucking friends if this awkward shit keeps happening to me. And what was that with Gaz? What if... like... there's a reason both of them are back here, like they're gonna shoot everyone up one day? Everyone's gonna judge me for it. Death by association-
"Nothing hurts." Laura's internal dialogue was thankfully interrupted by Dib's voice. There was something strained in his tone that she couldn't place, but she knew that voice. That was her voice when she was struggling not to cry. And if Dib had anything else in common with her, he'd also hate being asked those fake-as-fuck questions that everyone had when they didn't want to actually help. So she pulled out a paper and pencil and wrote the question down. It was a good question, though. Just not for others to overhear.
She slid the paper towards him a few inches with a pencil and casually looked in another direction with the intent of picking thoroughly at her cafeteria food.
'Are you okay? Is that normal?'
First starches, then meat group, and then fruit. Laura had begun poking at the edible parts of the fruitcake mistake by the time the subtle scratch of pencil got her attention. He was writing back. A quick glance revealed he had a bit on his mind.
'You're the first person to ask me that in years.
In fact, you're the first person to see ZIM for what he really isn't. The first to stand up against Bitters. The first to willingly walk past Gaz and not get hurt somehow. I don't know how you're doing it. It's like you're either really stupid or really brilliant. And lucky. Those guys typically go for the new kid on their first day. I predicted incorrectly that they would keep their attention on you and leave me alone, because of your androgynous features (no offense!). Once they find out you're a girl you'll be fine, but I really thought I had a chance at evasion today.
This won't be getting shared with anyone, will it?'
The lined paper abruptly shifted towards her again and Laura gingerly slid it closer to herself. Putting her food tray aside, she thought for several minutes about the situation and its consequences, and replied:
'I don't know anyone here yet besides you and Zim and everyone else is kinda bleh and stuff. And I'm not the type to blab to people about my conversations. Then again, I'm not particularly stupid. Also, woooow. You were trying to use me as bait? Nice job, dude! Didn't see that coming.
Do I really look that much like a boy? How do I know I can trust you if you just pulled that on me? I'm not mad or anything. But I need an explanation.'
Dib reached for the paper as soon as Laura put her pencil down. The conversation became more fluid.
'It's not like you have much to lose, do you?'
'Ha! As if, dude.'
'If anyone else wanted to give you a chance, you wouldn't be sitting here with me on your first day. I am the last choice for company at this place. Even Gaz and ZIM sit alone.
Given your conscious decision to sit with me, you're not going to be a cool kid. But was that ever your plan?'
'Nah, man. I know I'm not worth that much in social currency. Just trying to do my own thing. So tell me! What is with the football guys?'
'I remember that one of the things you mentioned about yourself during introductions was that you grapple. Why tell everyone that the first day unless you want to let people know not to punk you? Even though everyone thinks you're weird now and that you take yourself too seriously, you still benefit from your decision. It's an effective pre-emptive defense for the most part.
I don't have any of that defense. I have one mission in life,, and that's to get ZIM to drop off the face of our planet. But we'll come back to that!
Most of the skool body has known each other since elementary. In this city it's rare to have people moving in. I didn't think social pressure would turn everyone against me like this. But people stopped listening to my truths years ago. I never have solid enough evidence for the sheep here, and it's really frustrating. I'm missing something, I don't know what, but I can't focus on finding it if they keep... you know. You saw. It does hurt.'
'That's... a lot of stuff to tell me all at once. I'm not sure you answered my question. And I don't really care that I'm the other weird kid as long as I'm respected, but I know being shunned isn't fun.
I honestly don't care about little green man right now. I cried on the first day because I got in trouble, and that's all I can focus on inside my head. That's soooo hardcore, right? Who wants a fucking crybaby in any sort of clique? I don't mind being on the fringe. My first impression on everyone was just bad. This is what I get. You don't seem too bad anyway.'
The note writing suddenly stopped.
"So... where'd you come from and why'd you change schools?" Dib asked.
The question caught Laura off guard. Her eyes widened and she looked away from Dib again for a bit.
"Uhhh, just, uh, nowhere in particular. Just needed the change in scenery. My whole family. Yeah." An uncomfortable smile plastered on her face, she abruptly stood up with her tray. "Where do I put this away?"
"Oh! I can take you to the tray drop."
"No, it's all good. I got it. Just tell me where to go."
"It's better if I have a tray. I can take it up to the front for you today. Otherwise you'll have to navigate back through those assholes-"
"Okay, so it's up in front. Gotcha." Laura was already stepping away from the table, ignoring Dib's worried expression. "Only this time I'll go the longer way." She eyed the cool goths. "They look okay."
Sure enough, she was able to walk safely by without interacting at all. They did stare and whisper a little, but Laura was used to being a new kid. She kept her head down and walked fast to the destination. Only a few other students seemed to be finished with their trays, so there wasn't much of a line headed to the bins. But then she turned around and realized where everyone was at.
An audience of students formed a half-circle around the center row of tables. Was there really going to be a fight? Here? On my first day at this place? How exciting- oh God, it's Dib.
She resigned to watch from a distance for now as the only relatable person she'd spoken to thus far was pelted with fruitcakes. Entire fruitcakes, donated to the jocks voluntarily. Dib just covered his head. In complete shock, Laura chose not to ask others around her why this was happening. They were all enjoying the spectacle. Even Gaz, the plum-haired girl with such a callous open-mouthed smile, pointed and laughed at her own brother.
"Hit him in the head!"
"Fucking seriously?" Laura's voice was hardly heard over the excited voices and cheers. As quickly as they started, they ended, and everyone dispersed back to their own tables. They might have had Noize-Activated cameras here as well.
"We do this, like, all the time," scoffed a nearby cheer team member, who rolled her eyes. "You'll get used to it if you hang out with Dib Membrane. He's crazy. You're probably crazy, too, for choosing to sit near Gaz anyway."
"Wow," was all she could reply to that.
Her eyebrows raised, the girl surveyed the cafeteria's tension fade back to normalcy. She had no idea who she'd be up against if she tried directly passing the front center table again, and opted for the leftmost route.
Dib wore his stony face again, but his glasses could hardly contain the enraged smolder he refused to meet Laura's face with. He was a laser beam of hate pointed directly at Gaz, who had gone right back to her game.
"Dib. Hey. There's a bit of fruit right by your elbow." I'm so glad I didn't take my backpack off. It would have been ruined.
No vocal response from Dib, but he did nudge the piece slightly out of the way. The paper they were conversing on was untouched. Laura took it and folded it up neatly into sixteenths, then placed it into her backpack's biggest compartment.
The bell rang after several tortuous minutes of silence, during which she wondered if it would have been better to stay in the bathrooms today. And maybe forever. Gaz left the two alone to beat the human traffic just before people started moving.
Slowly but surely, the room cleared out as people went to either the STEM or ROOT block sides. A feeling of detachment swelled inside the new kid. After-Skool detention and a power play at the expense of Dib was disconcerting.
"We both have ROOT block next."
"Yeah." Standing up finally, Dib looked down at the floor. "Listen. Gaz set this all up. She wants you to know who you're dealing with if you mess up the natural order of things. Nobody hangs out with crazy."
"I don't think you're crazy."
"You just haven't heard what I have to say about Zim."
"Well, why don't you open my mind after-after-Skool? I'm gonna need it." Laura walked a respectful distance away from Dib and sniffed her sleeve. "Do I still smell like blood? This might squick other people out."
Dib shook his head. "No, nobody will care now. You're already dead to them by choosing to talk to me."
And for the first time in the day, Laura noticed a little smile form on his softened features.
A/N: Hello, everyone. it's been five years. I'm working on this again. I'm thinking of tweaking the last four chapters to better fit a slightly more mature writing style, if the discrepancy is obvious to some of you. So, rejoice! Expect more updates! TONK has been reborn!