"…Dib?...Zita…?...Old Kid…?...Zim…?" Alright, looks like all of your sorry souls are here. It appears no one has come down with a sudden onset of the plague. How disappointing." Ms. Bitters hissed. "Now, get out of my class. I don't want to see your faces for three whole days, so don't think of leaving early- I don't care if there's a hurricane." The kids stampeded out of the classroom, overturning desks and breaking windows and jumping out of them. Zim pressed himself against the wall as the herd paraded by, and then slipped out the door, trying to keep ahead of Dib so he didn't have to endure his whiny squeal-voice.

"Zim!"

The Irken growled to himself as he turned and saw his enemy trotting up to him with a most annoying grin plastered on his stupid Dib face.

"What, Dib-monster?" he asked testily, exiting the front doors of the school and heading to the line of children piling onto the bus.

"Oh, I was just wondering if you remembered your paste. It'd be awfully funny to watch you try to swim if you didn't. You claim you're an advanced alien species, and you can't even handle a little water." Dib taunted.

"I can handle water just fine, thank you." Zim's purple eyes narrowed at Dib as the irritating monkey fell into line behind him. "I'm simply not compatible with this polluted earth-dirt water. It's a miracle your species has survived this long, what with its water supply so horribly contaminated. You should all have died from poisoning centuries ago." Zim muttered, hurrying up the steps of the bus to avoid a lengthy confrontation. Stopping short at the top of the steps, Zim gasped in horror while simultaneously feeling someone collide with him from behind.

"Ow! Geez Zim, why'd you…oh. Oh no." Dib despaired, looking over Zim's shoulder at what had given the alien a similar reaction; every seat on the bus was taken except for two on the right side.

"I refuse to sit with you for hours on end you, you, pork cow!" Zim hissed, walking down the aisle and sliding into the seat, deliberately sitting on the edge to keep Dib from sitting down as well.

"B-but…" Dib stuttered. Zim watched him warily as the human cast around for another seat, but spots that could have easily accommodated him were suddenly filled by bags or legs. Zim glared as Dib eventually ended up back next to his seat.

"Come on, move over. You can't have a whole seat all to yourself!" Dib yelled, shoving Zim over forcefully against the window.

"Dirt beast! Zim was here first!" The Irken screamed back.

"Space fungus!"

"Stinky meat…uh, head!" the screaming match went back and forth with more similar insults, until a stomping drew the attention of both boys to above them.

"If you don't sit down and shut up right now, you're both going to spend the entire ride standing. Together. In the port a potty!" The hairy, gorilla-like bus driver loomed over them, acrid breath wafting down over the two. After a few seconds of silence, the bus driver appeared satisfied and made a grotesque snorting noise before stomping back to the front of the bus.

"Smelly hair beast…" Zim grumbled, but remained quiet as the bus rumbled to life. This trip was going to be hell.

"Stop touching me." Zim growled.

"I wasn't touching you! Geez." Dib replied, shuffling over to his left more. The past few hours of the ride had been uneventful aside from a small paper ball fight that had broken out and been quickly ended by the ape driver. Dib was writing in his notebook, and Zim obstinately looking out the window.

"You know, Dib, I get the feeling that your planet may have actually been a clean place once- a really really long time ago, before all of you pig-smellies fouled it up." Zim observed casually, startling Dib out of jotting down a note about improving Tak's spaceship when he returned home.

"Uh…yeah, it was. There's pictures of what it used to look like in the textbooks. It was greener, and the sky was more blue." Dib responded uncertainly, pencil hovering over his paper. "The only nice places now are away from the cities- like the beach we're all going to, and protected forests and stuff."

"Irk never had these "plants" or "oceans" of yours." Zim muttered, Dib observing him carefully as he trained his gaze on a stand of trees on the side of the road.

Dib decided he would take a stab at asking Zim a question- the most that could happen was he'd get an insult involving filth or a pig and not receive an answer, after all. "So…if you don't have plants or water, what the heck is your planet like?" Dib asked, bracing for a scream of outrage. The even tone of Zim's answer surprised him when he heard it after a moment.

"Irk is more or less plated entirely in metal. We have buildings and training facilities and many snack bars. And four of your "moons."" Zim answered in a flat voice. "Now mind your own business and stop probing me for information like some…. irritating probe-y thing." With this Zim crossed his arms and turned his head farther away and looked out the window more pointedly, clearly ignoring Dib.

"Entirely in metal…? They don't know what grass is, or what hamsters and flowers and water are? Just snacks and training? That…explains a lot about Zim. I'd be megalomaniacally insane if I grew up around that too." Dib thought. Pulling out his headphones and music player, he flicked it on and settled back into the seat. Might as well pass the time by sleeping, he figured.

A particularly rough jolt on the bus woke Dib, who looked around the vehicle. It was beginning to get late out, and the interior of the bus was barely lit by the dying light of the sun. Most of the children were sleeping, but the few who remained awake were listening to music, or drawing, or talking quietly. Yawning, Dib stretched out his limbs comfortably, hearing a pop in his spine as he did so. For the first time since waking up, he looked at the alien to his right. Zim seemed to have not moved an inch and appeared to still be looking out the window- but the slow even breathing and shut eyes suggested otherwise. "I thought Irkens didn't sleep…huh…" Dib wondered. While he was debating whether he should try to slip Zim's wig off and prove he wasn't crazy once and for all, the intercom of the bus crackled to life.

"Attention little children. We will be arriving at the beach house complex in approximately half an hour. Wake up now, so that when we get there I don't have to deal with a bunch of sleepy brats." The driver rudely said, and ended his message with an animalistic grunting noise. A light out of the corner of his eye caught Dib's attention, and he looked over to see Zim's Pak flashing dimly. After the third or so flash, the Irken's breathing quickened and he opened his eyes and flicked them over at Dib.

"What are you looking at, Dib-stink?" The alien asked, seeming vexed at the idea of his enemy watching him when he was vulnerable.

"You, moron." Dib said, too tired to bother making something up this time. "I didn't know Irkens slept."

Zim merely grunted and did a very human thing, which had Dib confused for a moment- had he really gotten so used to seeing Zim that he was beginning to seem normal to him? Zim stretched; his three thin gloved fingers spread out as he reached his arms above his head, and he stretched his legs out as well, seriously invading Dib's leg room.

"We don't sleep." Zim said, glowering at Dib through slitted eyes as he settled back into the seat.

"But you were just asleep. I saw you." Dib protested.

At this Zim merely shifted a little, and reached a hand under his wig absentmindedly to rub what were undoubtedly sore antennae and said "We go into temporary stasis. We don't sleep."

"I don't see how your stasis is any different from our sleeping…" Dib muttered, toying with his music player for a decent song.

"Because, Dib worm. We-" here Zim's sentence was broken by a large yawn, and Dib took the opportunity to inspect his tongue as it poked out between Zim's strange teeth. It was worm-like, and unusually segmented, and Dib wondered how it managed to form comprehensible words without drawing out S's too harshly. Zim closed his mouth with a click of teeth, and continued. "We don't need to go into stasis. We can choose to whenever we want, and wake up whenever we want- like flicking a switch. Now shut your noise tube- I'm going back into stasis for the rest of this miserable bus ride, and don't try to mess with me; the Pak monitors my surroundings for me." Zim grumbled, and turned fully towards the window. The odd flashing on his Pak occurred again, and within moments the alien's breathing slowed and his limbs lost some of their stiffness.

"Pf….it's totally just sleeping with a different name." Dib whispered to himself, and selected a song he finally decided on.