Chapter 2: "Blooo prints"

Dib had been noticing the disappearance of Zim for quite a while now. Even though he had been ditching school beforehand, never before was there a hiatus like this. It'd been going on for almost three weeks. Though there were sometimes where Zim would come to schoool, but always seemed to have a sort of glower about his face. And his aura was even more profuse and cold. Of course, if he were to in any way express his concern about the subject, he would be rewarded with insults on why he was just a creepy, little weirdo who was intolerant for the different. Oh, if only they could see through Zim; how wrong they would be. And for a reason, he got an uneasy suspicion that he was going to initiate the little plan he had. He didn't know what yet, but regardless, it wasn't anything safe. And annoyingly, it brought constant waves of paranoia and silent anxiety. He would look outside the school windows to insure that Zim wasn't there to do something.

He no longer shared his mind with anyone; Not even with Gaz. Mainly for the reasons is that no one would receive him seriously. It was ironically similar to the Boy who Cried Wolf, but in this case there was no deception or lying involved. And that was one of the things Dib hated about people. However he still had to hold the responsibility and keeping them safe, despite how much they insulted him and how they didn't believe them. Some way, some how, he would make them see.

Dib was doing his homework quietly, isolated in his dark room with the exception of the bright table light he was using. He couldn't concentrate on the homework; his mind was going over possibilities about Zim's plots to overcome the planet. He would sometimes catch himself astray, and would try to force himself to keep on working at the task ahead, school matters, or, "Schoool". Dib couldn't quite understand the inability the workers had to spell school right; In elementary, he remembered there was a k. Now in middle, there was one too many o's.

" Dang it." Dib muttered and placed his pencil at his desk. He put his hands at his forehead and sighed. He hated how much his mind wandered. First from possible threatening encounters or machinations from Zim, to the misspelling of school. Oh, the correlation.

He got up from his desk and stretched. He wasn't able to concentrate, and he knew his mind wouldn't relent on those persistent concerns and measures until he actually did something about it. He turned off his table light and left his bedroom into the living room. Dib walked passed the couch and headed for the closet for his shoes. Once he'd opened the door and grabbed his shoes, Gaz spoke out.

" Where are you going?" She asked.

" Out for a walk. Where's dad?" He responded. Tch! That's what normal people do. Gaz muttered to herself, playing on her electronic a little while more before answering his question. " He's doing those experiments again." She remarked.

" You think he'd notice if I was gone?"

" If I told him…yeah, I think he would." She answered, sarcastically. But Dib knew that she was serious and a groan escaped from him.

" Don't tell him Gaz." Dib said defensively.

" Tell me where you're going." She countered.

" Why does it matter?"

" You know…I think Dad's about done with those experiments—"

" Okay, Geez! I'm going to Zim's house." Dib said, crossing his arms, waiting for the expected reaction.

" Why?"

" Nope. You said If I told you where I was going, you wouldn't tell—"

" Dad's only a level below us." Dib was starting to become irritated and he slapped himself on his head.

" He hasn't been to school in weeks. I'm going over there to make sure he's not trying to kill us all."

" I thought you were done with those stupid ideas about tracking him down." Gaz said, finally glancing up from her device and looking at him while she spoke.

" I never said that…And they're not stupid! You just don't believe me." He said crossly.

" Yeah…because they're stupid."

That's it. Dib thought. I don't have time for this. I don't want to waste anymore time with this. Dib turned around and reached for the door knob.

" You know what? Tell Dad. I…I don't care anymore." He said with a fraud smile. He opened the front door and walked outside, closing the door behind him. He was starting to become really impatient with Gaz and her annoying little threats to get him in trouble if he didn't do a specific thing she wanted. He knew why already, but it was also at the same time hard to believe. He just wished that Gaz would soon grow up as well.

Dib shook his mind from the trivial matters and began to focus on what he would have to do if he encountered Zim. He didn't bring anything with him, and he knew if he were to walk back inside, there would be many scenarios of which could happen, mainly from past experience, A; Gaz locked the door. B; She would tell Dad. C; She would force him to tell him more reasons on why he was going to Zim's house. D; If Dib didn't tell her anyways from C, she would crush pills into his food. Ones that would make him sick, have insomnia, have diarrhea, or any other type she could find in their cupboards.

" Okay… Since I don't have my materials, I'd just have to do hand-to-hand combat if it ever came to the point. But I know he'd try to zap me or shoot me, or…sick his…alien little…minion thingy at me.." Dib thought and considered different possibilities. " Or if his…robot…thingy answers the door, I can just get him to give me Zim's plans on taking over the world…He's pretty stupid." Dib remarked. After a while he sighed disappointedly. " I need to stop talking to myself." He said, even taking a gander around him to make sure no one was around to hear his babbling. A wave of assurance came when he saw that no one was near, at least within the earshot vicinity.

He continued on until he got to the familiar sight of the abnormally small house, squished in between the other residences of poor, suffering humans. Dib huffed and glanced at each of the garden gnomes, remembering how they were programmed to shoot lasers from their eyes, or to pick people up and toss them to the sidewalk. He needed to be careful, alerting Zim's security system would only resolve in unwanted failure and Zim's suspicion.

However, he decided to try and continue on through the main walk anyway, striding up to his porch. He raised his hand to press a finger against the door bell button, but he paused momentarily to try and think of a better approach than what he was seconds away about to do. He was going to ask Zim for his plans…Ask permission for access of his plans. It sounded insane to do something so implausible but then again, what else could he do? He had no weapons to threaten, he didn't have a phone to call the police…not that would work anyway, they would only laugh at him if he tried to warn them of their safety of extraterrestrial life forms coming to take over the planet, and really…He had nothing. Walking up to the door and demanding for his plans was the only option he had. As ridiculous as it sounded, he was about to do it anyway.

Dib pressed the doorbell and he could hear the ring permeate through the door. In this case, unprepared was kind of an understatement. The door opened and Dib looked down to see Zim's little minion in disguise, a green little dog. A feeling of relief passed through, knowing that his minion was more dumb than a rock.

" Hello…Zim's minion." He said casually.

" Are you Mary? Or Dib?" Gir asked in return. Dib took a few seconds to try and make out what he was trying to say to him. But he shook his head in confusion and lifted an eyebrow.

"…Excuse me?" He said.

" I think you're Mary." Gir remarked. Dib paused for another moment before deciding that trying to decipher what Zim's minion remarks meant was in vain. He shook his head again.

" Uh, I'm here to see if Zim has any plans to take over the world."

" You want to see Zim?" Gir asked, rising panic in Dib.

" What? No!—"

" ZIM! ZIM!" He screamed. Gir turned around and ran maniacally towards the kitchen, and then had jumped head first into the toilet, all the while his voice still audible even from within the tubes.

" Curse that stupid robot!" Dim yelled as he ran inside and looked for any sign of blueprints, or the like. For a reason he didn't know, it was plastered on the kitchen table, and for a moment it seemed too incomprehensibly lucky for those to be placed right there, but he ran nevertheless and snatched them off the table.

" You let him in the house!?" He heard Zim's voice boom, traveling through the toilet. Split second thoughts of complete confusion of why their voices were heard from the toilet and why Zim's robot had jumped in there in the first place entered his mind, but Dib immediately ran out the house, no time to stop and wonder at the randomness that occurred.

He slammed the door shut, to prevent them from seeing where he was headed. Instead of trying to run away to his house, Dib sharply turned to the left as he entered the sidewalk and sprinted to the neighbors house, and ran in their yard. He hid behind their wall and flattened himself against the side of the home. He heard the sound of the door behind opened forcefully and Zim's robot trying to explain why he committed the actions.

" You insolent idiot! He took my blueprints! Why do you never listen to me?!" Zim's yells echoed. Zim's robot's voice was audible, but Dib couldn't make out any words that he was saying; being too quiet. Then the door was slammed and all of the racket was stifled. Dib took a deep breath and sat upon the spot. He looked at the blue prints he'd stolen and tried to recognize the structure of Zim's ideas. Pictures were incorporated, however, the language was not so easily identifiable. It wasn't any sort of alphabet or sign he'd ever seen before, and it used symbolism and characters that he wasn't familiar with.

Back then, he would readily deem this worthy of unworldly constitution, and evidence of alien lifelike. Though now, he wasn't so leaned to say this was the composition of an alien language. He would study to see if this had any sharing linguistic characteristics to any other languages. Even though he knew it came from the hands of Zim, he wanted to make sure these documents were teeming with otherworldly evidence with untraceable origins known to mankind…and womankind.

Dib stood up and folded the blueprints, and stuffed them into his pocket. They bulged out rather distinctly, considering the bold framework of the paper, but he ignored it and took a peek from the wall to make sure they weren't outside or spying. However, from his angle, he wouldn't be able to see if they were spying. Dib wanted to run for it, but he also had the worried thoughts that Zim would be there to chase him. He decided to wait a while longer, until he would saw Zim leave the house; It was more than likely that he would search for his blueprints. It would jeopardize his mission.

Then he had heard a large, almost exploding sound emanate from Zim's house. Dib jumped from the stifled bang and immediately peeked over the wall. Nobody from that house was currently outside, but he couldn't tell what that sound was. Dib waited a while before he sat back down, concerned that the sound might've been an assault directed towards him. When he realized that it was probably just a weird occurrence, he sighed and sat back down.

Dib waited and glanced back at the house and waited again. Other times he would glance at the house again and then wait. It was a bit of a procedure in his case. Dib had to run when the family finally came back home, with their van. Their windows were clear and he saw their bewildered expressions when they saw him at the side of their house. He stood there for a moment, like a deer caught in headlights, and then dashed a way. It was awkward for everyone.

He ran all the way and stopped for nothing, even when his rapid breathing began to scratch his throat and ache his lungs. Well…He stopped for that. But he walked the rest of the way home when he no longer had the stamina; being only a block away from home.

" I'm such an idiot." Dib wheezed. He knew that he was right to panic and try and get away as quickly as possible, treating it like a crime scene as being the criminal, but he also knew that he wasn't physically adapted to straining himself from oxygen and suffering his limbs to move from the lack of energy. He wasn't unhealthy, but it didn't mean he was fit.

Dib sat down and held the side of his abdomen. It ached and he had an unrelenting side stitch. He had been overexerting himself and whenever he did so, he always regretted it. He had to wipe his brow a few times before he began to cool down, though he had sweat that clung on to his shirt.

" Why do I wear jackets all the time? It's summer!" He proclaimed. He slid the sleeves of his jacket off his arms and removed his jacket to cool off. After a while, He was able to regain his energy and catch his breath. He still had a slight wheeze to his breathing, making him sound asthmatic. Dib stood up and continued on home. He entered into his house and took off his socks and shoes and replaced them into the closet.

" I told Dad." She said, drinking from a can of soda, while watching TV. Dib rolled his eyes.

" I don't care—"

" Son!" His father said as he walked from the kitchen towards him. " There you are! I was starting to become worried. I thought that alien might've gotten you!" He remarked and laughed at his own joke. Dib sighed quietly at this and looked down at the floor; he would have to call it a lie, saying how he didn't care. It was already bad that nobody believed him about his paranormal investigations. It was worse when his own family made fun about it.

" Oh you know I'm joking. Come, let's go into the kitchen." He said and as he turned around, placed his hands behind his back in a formal fashion and walked away. Dib followed him, knowing that he would have to endure through the long speech his father was going to give him, about real science and how to stop chasing childish dreams.

Dib sub-consciously listened to his father's grumbling and babbling and murmuring, or at least that was how Dib heard it, not directly paying attention to the words he was saying. Every once and a while, Dib would reply with uh huh, or yes dad, and he decided to keep his remarks positive, though there were some instances where Dib had said those words and there was an awkward pause. Dib wouldn't have known what his father had said, and so he would wait until his father continued talking.

Once his lecture was finally over, Dib headed over to his room and sighed. He took out the small, taut square and unraveled it. He sat at his computer and turned it on.

He had scanned the blueprints and sent the files to his computer. There he did research to see if there was any sort of connection it had with other human languages. After a few hours had passed, he went to the kitchen table after being called and ate dinner with his family. Per usual, his father was the only one who did the talking at the table, talking about his research and how much success or failure he was having. Dib only spoke if he had questions. Afterwards, he continued on with his analyzing. Gaz would sporadically check up on him and watch for a while, when he was studying the other languages and comparison. She would leave, but then after a while arrive again. She seemed to have a bit of an interest, despite her first comments on how desperate he was about the alien thing.

Though after a while, her visits stopped. He was able to work in silence and concentrate completely at task, but he began to feel tired. Dib rubbed his eyes and yawned. He saw that it was near 12 o'clock midnight. He was in need for sleep, having school tomorrow. And he knew that he could continue on tomorrow after school. So he saved the data on the computer and all the notes he took, and shut it down. He climbed into his bed, took off his glasses and closed his eyes.

· · ·

Dib woke up to the blaring sound of his alarm clock, Alerting him and bringing him out of his slumber. He slowly opened his eyes and saw it said 5:12. He always hated how early middle school started in the morning. He sighed, blinked and lifted his arm and turned off his alarm clock. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, while his other hand felt the desk for his glasses.

" Wake up son! You don't want to be late to school, now do you?" His father boomed as he entered the room. " The most important meal of the day is ready on the table!"

" Okay…Thanks dad." Dib murmured tiredly. He got up from his mattress and walked out of his room. He performed some of his perfunctory actions, like eating breakfast before brushing his teeth, and taking a shower. Afterwards he would get on his socks and shoes again, and if there was time leftover, he would listen to music or watch TV before he would have to leave to school. However, today, the performance of each of these activities were very sluggish and lazy. Dib was tired from the lack of sleep he had, especially since he had fallen asleep at 1 o'clock in the morning. As Dib brushed his hair, he noticed small bags under his eyes and he tried to splash water at his face to wake himself up. However, all it did was excite his nerves and cause his face to constrict to garner heat. Which in turn didn't help his condition.

Dib waited patiently and tiredly at the couch, as it was nearing 6:25 in the morning. He reminded himself again about how much he hated how early middle school started and how it was a very tiresome routine to get up everyday at 5:00. He usually began walking with Gaz to school at 6:30, where school would start then at 7:00. The only reason why they waited exactly until 6:30 is because when they would arrive at school, they would have to wait in the cafeteria, where there would be less things to do. And the cafeteria wasn't very clean.

Once it finally hit 30 at the dot, Dib and Gaz said their byes and departed on to school. Dib always appreciated the cool, morning breeze that would make his skin tingle, and it brought a sense of nostalgia sometimes, but today he was a bit too tired to notice it. It only made him more cold and he buttoned his jacket.

Walking to school brought some mental activity to go in his brain, processing on to move his legs, but he still found himself nodding off into sleep and he would have to wake himself up

" What time did you go to bed?" Gaz asked, with an air of disinterest. Dib just shook his head and blinked slowly. He consciously realized just how little sleep he had…4 hours. Wow…That's…That's a record. Dib thought to himself. Then he realized that Gaz has just asked him a question, and by instinct he shook his head. Though he didn't have the volition to ask about what she asked him about, so he hung his head low and wished the rest of the way to school to be able to sleep. Man…what I do for this country…All in a day's work, I suppose. The thought ran through Dib's mind and it formed a small smirk on his face.

· · ·

Dib woke up to the sensation of being poked at. He opened his eyes and realized sub-consciously he had been sleeping and immediately sat up. He felt a wetness on his cheek and noticed it was a small trail of drool. He tried to discreetly wipe his face with his jacket sleeve, so that other's wouldn't think that he had been sleeping. Soon he did the same with the desk. He knew that Gaz had woke him up, being the one at his right side, which he was sure the poking had emanated from that side. Plus, she would be the only one to care to do so. And in that way he thanked her. Dib blinked a few times and focused at the chalkboard ahead. The teacher had been wrapping up about the lecture of today's lesson and she seemed pretty happy. Her named was Ms. Pamela. However, he was glad that she wasn't Ms. Bitters. She would've spot any child sleeping a mile away, and she would always be able to notice any wrongdoing that occurred in her class. She had that sort of ability to do so. Almost like an eye in the back of her head.

Plus, Dib was also grateful to be placed in the back of the class. He liked the divided attention which was especially beneficial when you didn't want to be spotted doing anything embarrassing. Soon, the bell rang and all of the students stood up almost simultaneously. Dib sat up as well and gathered his materials and exited the class with everyone else.

" Dib!" Ms. Pamela called. He turned around and sieved through the crowd of kids and approached her desk.

" Yes?"

" Where's your homework dear?" She asked with a smile. Though it sent a knife through his brain. He remembered how before he went to Zim's house, he was doing his homework, but then he'd forgotten. Dib stayed silent for a moment to try and think of an excuse he could use but he shook his head when his mind wouldn't process any thoughts.

" I left it at my house…" Dib shrugged. Ms. Pamela's face twitched a bit hearing the response, her left eye more specifically. Her smile formed into a distorted frown and she stared at the wall. Then her eyes came back to his face and she forced a more ragged smile.

"…You…what?" She said, giggling, in disbelief. Dib slightly furrowed his eyebrows and slowly took a step backwards.

" I…forgot it." He said carefully, studying her reactions, with a slight fear rising. Ms. Pamela's eye twitched again and she closed them shut. Her smile turned into a deathly sneer. Her tightened fists slowly rose to her face and she bent over. All the while, Dib heard her muttering. He forgot it…his homework…at his house…he forgot…his…homework….at his house. Some of the works were shaky from her emotions. Her body trembled and quivered, almost appearing to make her spasm. Dib backed up a little quicker and he bumped into a desk. Then within a split second, Ms. Pamela stood up straight, her face blank and her hands down at her side. A smile came back and she giggled once more.

" That's okay dear. Don't forget again!" She said, giggling, but the last word containing emphasis that showed her disgust. It was expressed in her twitches. Dib's mind was in a stage of slight shock. He nodded and removed himself from the class with haste. Goosebumps traveled through his skin and his mind drew blanks for explanations on what just happened. Dib shook his head.

" I don't care. I don't want to know what happened." He proclaimed to himself. He began to run to the cafeteria. He just wanted to be away from her.

· · ·

He entered the cafeteria and waited in line for lunch, however, not eagerly. The food was rather close to rot, and if anything, the food was only good for large amounts of waste to excrete. Dib received his plate tray and got splotches of mashed potatoes and a horrid colored slice of pizza. He grimaced and walked towards the table near the back of the cafeteria, where he sat alone with Gaz with the exception of the other introverts and nerds and whatnot at school. He sat at the seat beside his sister and looked down at the food, still a bit groggy. The food had no appealing traits to it, instead it was more of the opposite. Dib sighed and scratched the side of his neck.

" That's why I bring my own food." Gaz remarked. She took out a sandwich took a bite out of it. Dib didn't understand why it was so hard to grasp the concept of good food. The school employed people to cook for the children, and they always said "Health comes first!" But that statement was obviously used for appearances because the food they served could give an poor unsuspecting elder a heart attack. Dib spooned at the watery potatoes. The only reason why he got his food in the first place was to purposely relieve him of his appetite so that he wouldn't be hungry throughout the day.

As Dib was playing around the horrid substances, A tray in front of slammed against the table and startled the two. Zim placed himself in the chair in front of them, however his undivided attention at Dib. His perpetual scowl, along with the bags under his eyes could be considerably intimidating. Though it wasn't because it was Zim. He wasn't an intimidating character. However he noticed a large discernable swell in his shoulder. He was curious at first at what those were but shook the thoughts from mind; Dib smirked at him.

" Stress? Since when does a self-centered, prideful, hot-heated alien feel any other emotion than arrogance?" He remarked. Zim's eye twitched slightly and a sneer formed.

" Give me…my blueprints." He said solemnly. Dib chuckled.

" You're stressing over blueprints? I don't know how it is in your planet, but here in Earth, paper isn't something to die for—"

" The blueprints, Dib."

" You know, now that I think of it, if you die for these blueprints, it might make this world a better place."

" Dib…You will give me what's mine!" He exclaimed.

" Why should I?" Dib asked, crossing his arms.

" You stupid boy—You stole what belongs to me!" He slammed his fist at the table.

" Baby's first temper tantrum. I'm proud of you!" Dib remarked and laughed. He forgot about how tired he felt, and he enjoyed making Zim angry; it would provide with amusing results.

" Give me…my blueprints Dib." Zim said, his voice slightly shaky from the annoyance and anger.

" You know…you're like a broken record." Dib said, looking at his nails. " Blueprints…Blueprints…Blueprints—"

Zim's hands reached over the table and grabbed Dib by the collar. He tightened his grip and pulled him closer, causing strain on Dib's neck. They caught the attention of the entire table, and Gaz stood up from her seat. Zim was glaring at Dib.

" The blueprints…now." He demanded. Dib did have an amount of fear over what might happen next, but his want to make Zim angrier upended in the situation and he believed it was worth it; He smirked.

" Did the blooo prints do something vewy vewy bad?" He asked with a laugh. Without a second to realize, Dib's head whipped to the side and he was sent flying to the ground head first, tripping over the long seat that was connected to the cafeteria tables. A split second had passed and Dib knew that he was punched in the jaw, leaving him slightly disoriented. Zim jumped over the table in attempts to beat him more, but Gaz grabbed another kid's milk carton and launched it at Zim's face. The contents spill out and splashed all over him, and the immediate chemical reaction took place, beginning to burn his skin and Zim cried out. Dib managed to get to his knees and shake his head clear of his bleary vision, but he began to have a headache from the shock. A bit of blood was drawn from his lip and it dripped slowly. Zim was a few feet away, clutching his cranium from pain and yelling out in the process.

However the pain he experienced was like coal to fire; it fueled the anger he had to a blind rage and he got up and centered his fury at Dib, tackling him down as soon as he stood to his feet. The event caused an uproar in the cafeteria, and the other students began to gather around the wrestle. It was then that event had been the start of an all out food fight, kids began discharge their trays and food into the air, and many other individual fights began to happen on their own.

They were cheering and acting like animals, some kids were uncontrollably screaming over the excitement and violence. Gaz had just about enough of this; she grabbed her water bottle and held it in a tight grip.

She marched over to the tumbling two and whacked Zim across his face, and again, and one more time until the bottle broke from it's weak structure and spilled the contents all over them. Steam rose and he immediately screamed louder. She helped up her brother and Zim was on the ground writhing in pain. Gaz could hear some kids in the audience murmur. One kid yelled out, " She drinks acid!" She disregarded the stupid comment. She knew that out of all the liquids, water burned worst for Zim.

" Zim you're stupid blueprints are at my house. You're not getting them back, not after what you did." She said, clenching her fists. He was still on the tile floor, cradled up in a slight fetal position, but he had his arms covering his face from the mortification. In a small fit of anger, she kicked him in the knee, and he recoiled. She noticed a gauze wrap at his shoulder, and a smaller bandage at the back of his head. She disregarded the thought and then began to make her way through the audience, leaving the cafeteria. Dib followed behind.