So yeah, I really don't know why this is so popular but who am I to argue with the will of the people?

I still have only a small idea where this is going, but it's going to be character driven I feel. I'm working on themes/symbolism/imagery and all that, but as I said, it's very much a 'evolve as I go' kind of work.

Anyway, enjoy this chapter kids!

Dib had to say he liked his job. He had helped about five kids already, as well as take care of a few other general issues which he had to deal with, mostly just boring things though, file filling and all that. But yes, this school which had once treated him so harshly was now... kinda nice to be in. Sure nothing here had been updated since he was a kid, but hell, it was his childhood school, and because of that, he felt like he could understand these kids much more.

However, he had been doing some checking on one child in particular. Zim. And he wasn't liking what he was finding. For one, the child had no last name. He was just Zim, that was all. Either he had very hippie parents, or there was something weird going on in that household. Second, that was another thing, his house simply wasn't on the records. In all actuality, it just seemed like he'd walked into the school, sat down and began taking lessons.

And yet no one had noticed this.

But Dib didn't bring it up, not yet. If he did, he risked breaking the breach of trust he was trying to establish with Zim, he had to make sure the boy was on his side before he began investigating his home life.

Right now he had scheduled Zim to come in on the lunch break of every Thursday. So for thirty minutes every day, he had to come in and talk to Dib.

That is if Zim even bothered showing up, the man had a feeling that the little green boy wasn't one for following orders for people he didn't like.

"Mr Membrane," A nasally voice rang through the intercom, "Zim's here to see you."

"Oh, good, send him in." Dib answered quickly, gathering his papers together and shoving them all into his drawer. He didn't need Zim seeing that he'd been looking at his school files.

The small green boy marched in, dressed and looking exactly like last time. It was almost kind of odd, hell even Dib had changed his tie since last week.

"PAH," He announced as he sat down on the small chair that was placed before the desk, "I should not be made to come to talk to you, human."

"Hello to you too." Dib replied with a smile, "How are you feeling today, Zim?"

"Bored," The little green boy replied quickly, "This skool is a waste of my time. Nothing taught here is correct, you humans have no idea abut anything! You can't even decided between two wrong theories about physics!"

"Why do you do that?" Dib asked with the tilt of a head, "Why do you keep calling me a 'human', you're human too you know."

"I AM NOT!" Zim screamed suddenly before his eyes went wide and he looked away, "I mean, yes I am a human. A normal human stink beast. Normal."

"... is this because you feel different?" Dib ventured tentatively, "Because you have green skin?"

"What? Oh, err, YES!" He pointed a finger up, "My skin condition makes me feel different!"

"... huh," Somehow, Dib just didn't buy that. It was obvious he'd just took that answer and threw it out there, and if it had worked on other people, it would not work on him. But than again, he hardly looked like any normal child. He had no nose or ears for one and as far as his file as concerned this was all part of his skin condition. Besides, Zim was always falling over his own words and terms, something Dib couldn't decide was on purpose or unconscious Freudian slips.

"Well, let's talk about that then," The counsellor said simply, folding his arms on the desk, "Do other kids pick on your for it?"

"What? No," Zim replied quickly, almost sounding like Dib was stupid for asking, "They never talk to me about anything."

... what was this? It seemed Zim was a loner, although by the sound of it, not by choice. "Why do think they don't."

"I don't know, I don't care," The kid replied simply, shrugging his shoulders, "They're not important to me."

"Everyone needs someone to talk to," The counsellor replied softly, "You talk to me after all, right?"

"... I guess," Zim hissed his words, obviously he didn't like talking to Dib. "But like I said, those pig smellys are not important to me."

"So who is important to you?" Dib asked with a smile, "Who do you like talking to?"

"My Tallest." The strange answer came almost immediately, but again, Zim seem to pause as if he realised he'd said something, "I mean! Parents! Teachers! The leaders or leader or king of whatever nation this is!"

Somewhere inside Dib, some age old suspicion was raised. What kind of person didn't know this country was run by a President? It was almost like... no, maybe he just immigrated here and he didn't know anything about the culture. It would fit to why he acted so outwardly aggressive and had no friends. Although if that was the case, how would he speak perfect English? Maybe he was European. Yeah that fit.

Still, he would focus on this first comment. "Who are your Tallest?" Dib asked quickly.

"No one!" Zim quickly denied with the shake of his head, "No one. Your smelly head doesn't need to know."

"Zim, you have to tell me at some point," The counsellor said simply, leaning back, "You have to keep coming here all semester."

"What if I just don't talk this whole time?" Zim replied with a sharp, cunning grin, "You will fail in your talking task!"

"What if I just keep making you come back here until your graduate, that's, what, almost two years until you get rid of me?" Dib chuckled and leaned forward again, "And believe me. I will make you come here every day for two years. We can just sit here and say nothing."

"FINE," Zim screeched, pointing a finger at the older man, "I'll talk, human, but I will never reveal information that betray my Tallest."

"You haven't even told me who they are," Dib slyly asked, hoping to catch his little companion out, "How could I not ask about them if I don't know about them?"

"They're my leaders," Zim spat out, but this time he chose his words carefully, "And that's all you need to know."

"Alright, alright," Dib knew he was getting nothing more on that subject from him for now. But still, he considered this a good start. He was starting to make some kind of sense with Zim's odd story and way of speaking.

Instead, he decided to pick apart other notes of Zim's argument. "So you said the other kids aren't important to you, why is that? Don't you want to make friends?"

"No," Zim commented quickly, "Zim needs no friends."

"Zim, you've got to have some friends," the counsellor commented, knowing the irony of his statement. He didn't make friends with anyone until he was about seventeen and doing his major in psychology and his minor in science. Hell he was almost thirty and he didn't have a girlfriend, something his father kept bringing up.

He was also getting sick of Gaz's gay jokes.

"I have to?" Zim commented suddenly, raising an eyebrow. "Is having a friend normal?"

"... yes." He couldn't let his own past push down on the poor boy. On one hand he wanted to tell him it was fine to be a loner, but he knew it wasn't completely true. Everyone needed a friend, especially a child who seemed as outwardly volatile and confused about the world as Zim.

"AH!" the little green boy exclaimed and grinned as if he'd stumbled onto some great secret, "Then Zim shall find himself a friend and be seen as normal!"

"That's great, Zim!" Dib replied with a smile, feeling somehow that this was a cheap victory at best, "You should go out and make friends!"

"Oh what friends I shall make," The green boy now seemed lost in his own world, wringing his hands in an almost menacing manner, however instead due to his small and skinny statue, it came off as rather comical. "And I shall make them into my slaves!" He suddenly burst into a harsh laughter before suddenly realising Dib was still there and looking to him, "Oh, I mean, erm, I will be... normal to them?"

Yeah, that there had to be addressed before Zim hurt himself. "Zim, you can't just make people your slaves," The counsellor replied with a small frown, "Friendship means you and someone else share interests, are equal and you treat each other nicely."

"What?" Zim seemed so blown away by this idea that his eyes even grew slightly wider, "Treat someone... nice? As an equal to the mighty Zim? It is not worth having friends if you have to do that!"

"But," Dib quickly went to reply, "It is what people do, Zim, you cannot just keep making people do what you want. You'll find that maybe if you work with other people, you might have fun. Just, try and go out and play some games with the other kids. You might like it."

The green boy quickly shook his head, "I refuse to treat anyone as equal to me. You humans make me sick, none of you are worth the appreciation of Zim."

"Why not?" Dib responded almost bluntly, "Zim everyone is equal and should be treated as much."

"You're not equal to me," Zim responded with a harsh tone, "You don't know the things I know!"

"But I know other things that you don't," the counsellor responded with a sly tone, "You could run faster than me, but I could jump higher than you. Through our differences, we become equal."

It was perhaps a little too philosophical for most students, but somehow Dib was sure Zim would understand this idea on some basic level. He was far smarter than he sounded, he could tell, his frustration at others probably came not just from his strange looks, but from his inability to even find someone equal to his intelligence. Even if it was highly pompous and egotistical of him, Dib could understand on some level what it was like to be surrounded by people who simply didn't understand the things that he did.

Hell, he had to wait until he was doing university level theoretical physics to find people he could talk to as an equal.

The boy too a moment to think on this, behind those purple eyes Dib could see a mind bouncing the idea around, and again, his thoughts were silently confirmed.

"I... see." He replied slowly, "You're not as stupid as the others, are you?"

"Hopefully not," Dib replied with a small smile, "You're the smartest kid I've ever met, Zim but if I'm being honest with you," He sighed and stood up, walking around his desk and sitting on the front of it, "I think you have a lot of problems and I think they stem from having no one to talk to."

"Fool," The child pointed up at the far taller adult, "I talk to lots of people! Like teachers! And Gir! And my Tallest!"

"Who's Gir?" Dib asked quickly.

"My... dog, my pet dog." Zim replied simply, looking away, "Gir is my dog."

Ah, so the boy's one outlet in his life was his dog. Other than school of course, which was never a good outlet anyway. He was glad that he'd made Zim come in every Thursday, he knew he could help the poor child, even if he knew for the first month or so he'd just be receiving all the abuse that Zim wanted to deal out to the world.

"Well, at least you have someone," He smiled softly, "That's good. But I want you to talk to me, Zim, whatever you say in here stays in this room. It's just between me and you," He knelt down so that he was now eye level with the green boy, "And I promise you I will never tell anyone anything that you don't want them to know, okay?"

Zim seemed greatly shocked by this, as if no one else before had ever really spoken to him eye to eye, or even made a promise like this to him. Dib's heart had to leap for the poor boy, and he wondered what kind of home life he must have when no one ever looked him in the eye or ever made a simple promise to him.

He blinked a few times before, again in Zim's infinite suspicion of the human, narrowed his eyes, "Why should I ever trust you, human."

"Because you can." Dib insisted, "Because that's what I'm here for."

"You're here... just to listen to me, the almighty Zim, talk?" The green boy asked suspiciously.

"Yep," The counsellor nodded. There was a sudden ringing in the background, lunch break was over and therefore so was their meeting. He stood up as Zim hopped off the chair, his face still a picture of confusion and suspicion.

The green boy paused at the door, looking back and frowned, "You're strange, even for a human. Were you in some program where they bashed your big head in with a door?"

"Almost!" Dib replied with a smile, hiding the inner sting he felt at the big head comment. He was a kid, couldn't get mad at a kid.

Zim walked off without saying goodbye and Dib watched him go. He had made a little ground this time, establishing that Zim had only his dog to talk to and he seemed to pay some great respect to his 'Tallest' most likely his parents. He would have to see if he could ever get some information on his parents, he really, really hoped they weren't abusing the small child, although he didn't get that vibe in particular.
Rather, he got the impression that Zim was very lonely but also very smart. When you're different, smart and lonely, you tend to go a little bonkers.

Yeah, Dib could certainly relate to that.

I like writing these chapters. They're so quickly done, and so easily designed too. Very minimal style or writing.

Like I said, it's character driven so far, whether Dib turns to fight Zim or turns to help him... I don't know.

Hopefully you guys will stick around to find out with me.

Review, critique, tell me what you'd like to see more/less off in future chapters! Until then, thanks for reading!