Zim is introduced to the world of confusing and tricky 'tongue-twisters', and we all know that Zim never backs down from a challenge. This fic doesn't give any much detail on time so it can be set whenever the reader wishes it.

If Ms. Bitters mentioned the word doom one more time – okay, never mind she already did. If I had a penny for every time she said it, I would be able to re-enact the scene from Duck-Tales where Scrooge dives into a sea of money. However, if I tried it, I would break every bone in my body instead of being able to swim in it. So that's not a good idea… but I'd be very rich either way! I felt something tap my foot so I casually glanced down. Dib had used his boot to scoot a note across to me. He was playing a risky game there. Being sat in the front row usually meant that it was harder to get away with note passing and such. I elbowed my pencil off of the desk and reached over to pick it up along with the note. However, I ruined the innocent illusion by accidentally smacking my head under the desk on the way up. I grunted in pain and heard the slap of Dib giving himself a face-palm. There was a murmur of sniggers from the class behind me and my face turned scarlet with embarrassment. Luckily, just at that moment the bell rang, giving the students excuse to leave. Ms. Bitters hissed at me for interrupting the last few seconds of out torture before slithering out of the room. Dib hopped from his chair and bent down to be lever with me.

"Real subtle." He commented.

"Thanks." I smirked sarcastically, but I still wasn't getting up, "Uh, I'm stuck."

He tilted his head, "Stuck?"

I wriggled my head to prove my point, "Yes, stuck. There's gum or something under here and my hair's caught in it."

He placed his hand over his mouth and tried to give the illusion of think of a solution, but the way his eyes brightened and the colour of his cheeks darkening it was clear what he was really doing. I rolled my eyes and swatted his arm.

"It's not funny!" I insisted, laughing myself.

"It's pretty funny from here." He chuckled.

I allowed myself a giggle before gritting my teeth and forcing my head downwards in the hope of pulling my hair out of the sticky mess. I winced, it really hurt and I hated having my hair pulled, but I'd rather pain for a moment then being stuck for longer. After a few inches, the grip was starting to become loose. I reached up with my hands to try and dislodge it more and shuddered at the gooey mess that glued to my fingers.

"This is vile!" I declared.

"You might have to cut your hair out of it."

I narrowed my eyes, "Don't even joke."

"Joke about what human?"

I jumped and the jolt ended up snapping my head upwards again, reattaching the gum back into my hair again. Dib jumped back in alarm and fell on his rear, glaring at the newcomer. Zim was looking at me with great amusement from his position, leaning over my desk to look at me upside down.

"Sticky situation?" he offered.

"Predictable cliché?" I retorted, reaching up to pull his wig off of his head.

He lunged for it and ended up sliding right off of the desk and head first onto the floor. Enjoying the result, I tossed the wig back to him. He replaced his carefully while scowling at me. I resumed my work at re-detaching myself, but thanks to Zim, having to restart again and this time taking a lot longer. Dib tried to give me a hand but I gently eased him away, it wasn't that I didn't want his help, it's just that my hair being pulled by gum is bad enough, but if a person was to pull my hair, then I got really miffed.

"Dib, are you walking home or not? Waiting is irritating me.", Gaz stormed into the room and took in the scene, rolling her eyes at me, "Is this all?"

Before any of us could reply, she pulled out her house keys and bent down to look at the damage. She lined up the jagged edge of the key with the gum and swiftly sliced it. My hair came loose and the gum snapped sickly back to the desk. I ran my fingers through my hair and picked the tiny leftover bits out.

"Thanks." I grinned.

She shrugged, "Whatever."

I looked back at my sticky prison and scoffed, "Someone's had some fun with some chewing gum."

Dib tilted his head and smirked, "Someone's had some fun with some chewing gum. Hey, say that five times really fast!"

I tried and got to the third go and I got a few 'some' in the wrong place and instead of chewing gum ended up 'sewing gum', I chuckled, "Hey I made a tongue-twister."

Zim blinked and peered closely at me, "What on Irk is a 'tongue-twister', you're mouth appendage appears in normal condition."

Dib rolled his eyes, "Not literally, space-boy! A tongue-twister is a phrase that's meant to make you mess up your words."

Zim scoffed, "Pfft, as if a pointless pass-time would work on the almighty Zim!"

I arched my brow, "She sells sea shells down by the sea shore. Say it quickly."

"Zim has no interest in -"

"Say it quickly." Gaz ordered; a look of intrigue in her eyes.

"She sells sea shells down by the sea shore." Zim said with the swiftest of speed, an uneasy look in his eyes and not tripping once, "Was something meant to happen?"

"Okay try this one. Can a clam cram in a clean cream can." Even as I said it, I had to take my time and concentrate.

Dib tried it and got to 'clean' before tripping and ending up with a new word 'cerlam' instead. Gaz attempted it, and achieved it, but she was forced to slow her pace which clearly irritated her. Zim on the other had increased his speed and finished the phrase with ease. He eyed us suspiciously.

"Surely you are toying with Zim, this is not challenging whatsoever."

Dib glared at him, "Six sick hicks nicks six slick bricks with picks and sticks!"

I tried not to laugh, that one took Dib four times to get right and at a very slow pace, one word at a time. Zim folded his arms and smirked at Dib.

"If you are going to challenge Zim then at least perfect it yourself first Dib-worm, it's most embarrassing on your part." He tilted his head, "Would you repeat it again, I don't think I heard correctly."

Gaz smirked a little at that, I bit my lip and looked away while Zim continued his smug stance, mocking Dib to no end.

Dib clenched his fists, "Just say it, lizard."

Zim shrugged and took a breath, "Six sick hicks nicks six slick bricks with picks and sticks!"

"Six sleek swans swam swiftly southwards!" I offered.

"Gobbling gargoyles gobbled gobbling goblins!" Dib snapped.

"Mr. Tongue-Twister tried to teach his tongue how to twist and turn!" I challenged.

"Red lorry, yellow lorry, red lorry, yellow lorry, red lorry, yellow lorry!" Dib babbled.

It went on and on, Dib and I threw every one we could think of at him. We tripped and fumbled over out own words just giving the to him, and he accepted them all. And every time… Perfect. No breaks and no trips, he said every single one of them perfectly. Zim looked at Gaz mockingly and forced a yawn.

"Does the Gaz-human wish to attempt a challenge? Or has Zim already proven himself too much of a superior being through his speech?"

Gaz eyed him curiously for a moment and then raised an eyebrow. Her hand went to her chin in thought and then she smirked. Her arms folded and she dampened her lips with her tongue in preparation for her words. Zim smirked and waited patiently at her doing so. Gaz took a breath and looked at him dead in the fake blue eyes. She said her words slowly and with care, careful not to make the mistakes Dib and I had made before.

"Irish. Wrist. Watch." She stated.

Zim sniggered, "Is that it? I must admit that Zim expected a little more of a challenge from you of all people, little-Gaz."

I allowed myself a smirk. It always made me smile when he called her by that little pet name. Lately, he wasn't even aware he was doing it any more, and it was the cutest thing. But back to the challenge at hand, Zim had openly mocked it, and I had to admit that considering this was Gaz, I was also expecting a longer and more complex phrase to come out. Dib glanced at me and shrugged, also clearly expecting more than three little words. Zim cleared his throat.

"Here goes. Irish wish rosh." He blinked and licked his lips, "I wish rish wash. Irish wriss ratch! I wish rish rash!" he pointed at Gaz accusingly, "What kind of trickery is this!"

I attempted it, but it came out in a slurred jumble. Dib got it more right than me, but still ended up slurred and using a made-up word near the end. Wow, that was a good one… Gaz raised an eyebrow at Zim.

"Is that it?" she smirked, "Does the alien wish to accept defeat? Or have I already proven myself too much of a superior being through my speech?"

Her twist of words were quite effective, making his fists clench in agitation, "Zim shall not be defeated by three insignificant words!"

"Then by all means Zim," Dib smirked and folded his arms, "try again."

Zim glared at him, eyes darting for an escape route, "I wish risk what. Oh for the love of Irk how do you endue this infuriation!" he cursed and kicked his foot out to turn over a chair, "This is not over worm-children, for I shall master the twisting-tongue words and when I do… oh such victory shall there be…"

I swallowed at his threatening glare, "It's just a bit of fun Zim, none of us can say it that well."

"I am Zim!" he declared, "Zim does everything well, in fact Zim achieves everything with perfection!"

Dib rolled his eyes, "Perfection like your security system?"

Zim pointed accusingly, "What are you getting at, human?"

"Just that the intruder alert timer is a bit off, you may want to adjust it to your wrist watch for better effect." He raised his eyebrows at me for a hint.

Hint received, "If you want your watch adjusting I know a nice Irish guy who can fix it."

Zim shook his head, "Zim see's what you're doing and it's not working. You think that by hinting at watches and Irish worm-babies that you can trick Zim once again? Do not flatter yourselves!"

Okay, it had been a long shot, but it was still funny to see him get so annoyed about it. Gaz squinted in confusion at her G.S.2 and held it out towards us.

"Who's been messing with my Game-Slave? This message just popped up." She said darkly, "I can't make it out, the screen has gone static."

As Zim was the closest, he peered at the screen and narrowed his eyes in concentration before he read out the words, "I lish wish wash. Oh curse you and your infernal vocabulary! CURSE YOU!"

He finished his bellowing curse and stormed out of the room and out of sight. Dib and I looked at Gaz's triumphant smirk with confusion. As an answer, she held out the screen to face us. I snorted with laughter while Dib sniggered and nodded at his sister in approval. There, on the screen in large red pixellated letters were three little words. Irish. Wrist. Watch.

It turns out that the reason Gaz chose that particular tongue twister for Zim was in actual fact, because of his tongue. She explained in her blunt way that his snake-like tongue would flow quicker and allow the 's', 'sh', 'g' and 'c' types of twisters to be of no problem. However, the one she chose was all to do with the lips, and even as humans, it forced the tongue to the back of the mouth. So with Zim unable to use his worm-tongue to work around the words, he was left just as tripped up as the rest of us. I had to admit, I was pretty impressed with her thinking. I would never have thought of that and Dib, who claimed he knew that all along, also looked at her with mild admiration. Gaz was quick to ignore our praise and went back to her game, passing it off with her usual 'whatever' attitude.

The next day however, Zim didn't show up at skool, and when I went to check on him that afternoon, there was no answer. I figured that maybe he was busy and tried to put it to the back of my mind as I headed over to Dib's house. After all, it wasn't the first time Zim vanished. One time he'd disappeared for almost a week and then returned as if nothing had happened. Hmm… I still never found out what happened there… Evil curiosity, shut up!

I mentioned this to Dib that afternoon while watching another re-run of Mysterious Mysteries.

"Maybe he's making a machine that will literally twist everybody's tongues in knots as revenge!" Dib gasped, making a move as if to get up.

"Or… he's sulking like a whiner." Gaz muttered, rolling her eyes.

I poked my tongue out to examine it, "Can you tie a tongue in a knot?"

"Well this is Zim, who knows that that evil space-monster is up to!"

There was a knock at the door. We all looked at each other curiously; hardly anyone called at the Membrane house apart from me and occasionally one of the Professors work-friends to pick something up. Dib peeked through the eye-piece and gave a startled expression. He beckoned me over and opened the door carefully. Zim stood on the front step in his disguise and smirked at the pair of us. He pointed in triumph and grinned menacingly. His tongue ran over his lips and he took a large breath.

"Irish wrist watch!" he declared, "HA! Take that, humans! Zim has mastered your inferior language tricks once and for all!"

Dib stared at Zim in bemusement, "Seriously, you came here just to show that you can say a tongue-twister?"

I rolled my eyes at Dib, "Well done, Zim, really great job."

It came out a little patronising, but how could you not congratulate someone on a word game without sounding it a little?

"Victory for Zim!" he tried, punching the air.

"Hey Zim."

The alien peeked past us to look at Gaz. He arched one eye suspiciously at her while she returned the stare, but hers was more smug and challenging.

"Say it again." she ordered.

"Zim has already proved his superior speech motor skills, Gaz-human."

"Then prove them again." she raised an eyebrow.

"If you wish it, little-Gaz." He cleared his throat, "I lish wash witch. Wait! Irish wish walsh! AGH! Curse you Gaz-worm! CURSE YOU!"

He gave each of as a threatening glare along with an accusing point before sprinting down the sidewalk and out of sight. We turned to look at Gaz in awe, but she'd already returned to her game. She shook her head absentmindedly and wore a more prominent smirk, tweaked at the side of her mouth.

"Whiner." She muttered.

A/N:

Poor Zim, and you were doing so well XD Try and have a go at a few and see of you can do better than the characters! Hope it made you laugh XD