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Well, it's been a while since I've updated this… Tbh, I got really invested in Sanders Sides, and most of my fics have been for that fandom recently. But, here's the next chapter.
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Class the next morning was thankfully uneventful. Dib had changed the seating chart so that Zee and Chadley were on opposite sides of the classroom. Sure, he knew that that wouldn't do much if they were really determined to start something, but he figured it would stop Chadley and his buddies from teasing Zee while they were in his class. He couldn't do anything about the other classes the two shared, but he hoped it would help a little.
And it seemed to work, because Chadley's motivation to tease Zee was much lowered. Maybe it was more due to Zee flipping him than the seat change, but it was, at least, harder to insult someone when you had to shout the insults across the room.
But yes, the morning passed by without incident, and the two of them were soon out of the classroom.
Then, at the end of the school day, Zee showed up for detention as instructed. The teen hovered in the doorway, and Dib gestured for him to come in and sit in the chair that he had, once again, moved beside his desk.
Dib got a text from his roommate, asking him about grocery shopping. He sent a quick reply to remind him that he was staying after school a bit later that day, and they would go after he was done.
"Why don't we have a little chat, Zee?" Dib asked mildly, turning back to him as Zee settled into the chair.
"Hm."
"So, I know Chadley has been bothering you a lot," Dib started. "Has he been like this in your other classes, too?"
"Hm."
"Zee, that's not an answer."
"Yes. And during lunch. It's not always him, though," Zee answered flatly.
Okay, so this was a bigger problem than just Chadley.
"And did you talk to your mom about this?"
Zee nodded.
"And what did she say?"
"Nice."
"... I assume that was in response to hearing you flipped Chadley."
"Yes."
Dib took a deep breath.
"But Zee, did you tell her you were being bullied?"
"I said Chadley punched me."
"Did you tell her about the teasing?"
Zee gave him a confused look, though it was mostly just a slight tilt of the head.
"You know, the whole calling you a robot thing."
"Oh. Hm. No, I don't think I did," said Zee.
"Why?"
"Most of what Chadley says is incorrect. Why bother telling my mom about it?"
Okay, apparently Zee either truly didn't care, or he was a really good actor.
"... Zee, it's great that you aren't taking what Chadley and the others say to heart, but the teasing and name-calling are bullying just as much as hitting you is," Dib explained. "Words can hurt just as much as a punch can."
"They don't hurt, though. And what do hearts have to do with anything?"
Dib sighed again, deciding to just ignore the comment about the hearts.
"I'm trying to help you here, Zee," he said. "We need to figure out a solution to this that doesn't involve violence, okay?"
"... Hm."
Dib got the sense that Zee disagreed with him.
Zee really was strange. He was quiet, and really, he didn't look like the kind of person who would be able to flip his much larger classmate so easily. Dib found it hard to believe that Zee had rippling muscles beneath the sleeves of his sweater. The teen, frankly, appeared rather thin and lanky. And yet, he was completely capable of flipping Chadley, and he apparently favored such violence as the solution here.
Dib sighed.
"... Alright. I think I'm going to have to have a meeting with your mom," Dib said, silently hoping that Zee's mother would be a bit easier to deal with. "For now, just go sit and do homework for about an hour, okay?"
Zee gave him another confused look, but went over to another desk and took out a textbook.
XXX
Zee didn't entirely get what the point of detention was. He was pretty sure it was meant to be a punishment, but Mr. Membrane just told him to do his homework. He would have had to do it, anyway. All this did was change the location at which he did it. Maybe Mr. Membrane didn't really want to punish him? He did apologize for it, and he seemed to pity him because of Chadley's pestering. On the other hand, he was pretty mad about the flipping Chadley thing.
He didn't regret flipping Chadley. Chadley punched him right in the squeedily-spooch, and it really hurt. If Chadley was going to hit people in the squeedily-spooch, then he should at least be able to handle the retaliation. Had Chadley actually known how to fight, he wouldn't have left himself so open to counter-attacks in the first place.
Regardless, Zee started his homework. They were learning about lipids in biology this week.
About half an hour of silent homework-doing passed before Zee noticed that his teacher was fiddling with his cellphone a lot. The man had a vaguely annoyed expression on his face. Was the phone broken? No, it looked like he was typing messages. He must not be very happy with whatever conversation he was having.
Zee turned back to his homework for a minute before he heard Mr. Membrane get out of his chair.
"Zee, I have to make a quick phone call," he spoke exasperatedly. "Just… keep doing your homework."
And with that, Mr. Membrane stepped into the hall. Zee could hear little snippets of the conversation.
"... No… -im, how… any times do… have to tell you not to come here? ...old you I'm working… ly an hour… what do you… your way here?... Ugh… ait outside, then…"
Before long, Mr. Membrane came back into the classroom.
XXX
Dib was, simply put, annoyed. Zee's oddly-apathetic antics aside, his roommate was being a pest again. Dib told him that they would go to the grocery store after he got home from work, but no, he just had to decide he wanted to go now. As if the extra half hour wait would make that much of a difference.
Dib glanced at the clock. Detention was only supposed to last for another ten minutes. Dib could probably let Zee go early so he would have time to intercept his roommate before he caused some kind of destruction while waiting, but he didn't want anyone to think he was giving Zee special treatment. Ugh. He wished he knew about the constant precautions teachers had to take before he became a teacher. One wrong move at the wrong time, and you could get an overzealous parent out for your blood.
Whatever. It was only a few minutes. His roommate could certainly wait outside for just a few minutes without doing anything, right?
"DIB-STINK, WE NEED TO GET TO THE STORE BEFORE THEY RUN OUT OF GLUE!"
Or, apparently he couldn't.
Almost as soon as he heard his roommate's lovely voice screeching down the hall, the door to the classroom flying open.
"I REQUIRE THE GLUE, DIB! YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I REQUIRE IIIIIIIT!"
Dib stood from his chair, scowl already on his face.
"Zim! I told you to wait outside!"
Zim pointed his sharp finger toward Dib's face, striking a dramatic pose.
"WE NEED TO GET THE GLUUUUUUUE!"
Dib put his hands on his hips, bringing up his best teacher voice.
"When has the store ever been out of glue except for when you buy it?" Dib questioned.
At this, Zim paused momentarily, trying to think of a come-back. It was true, after all. The only reason the local stores ran out of glue was because Zim bathed in it.
"I'LL DIE WITHOUT THE GLUE, DIB-WORM!" he shouted finally.
This was also true. But the stores wouldn't run out of glue because Zim let Dib finish the last few minutes of his job.
"Zim, I'm working! I have a student here!" Dib scolded.
Dib gestured toward said student, simultaneously hoping that Zim would cut it out and that Zee wouldn't care about what was happening.
To Dib's surprise, however, rather than the apathy or mild confusion Dib had come to expect from Zee, he saw fear.
Not just fear.
Pure terror.
XXX
That was an Irken.
An Irken.
Oh, they were so screwed.
What was an Irken doing here? Zee could see that the other Irken was disguised as a human, albeit badly. It was obvious. The green skin, lack of a human nose or ears, the short height typical of most Irkens.
Why was this Irken here? Earth was so far from Irken space. There's no way that the Irken Empire could have expanded all the way here in the past few months. It was impossible.
Was he sent after them? Was he here to finally complete the order Bee couldn't fulfill?
.
.
… Were they going to die?
After all these years of running and fighting and finally finding a place to settle down, were they going to be killed? After all this? Was this Irken the only one sent after them, or were there more? Zee could take this one Irken, but he couldn't take out a group of them by himself.
.
.
… He didn't want to die.
He didn't want to die.
He had to go home, find Bee. They had to leave. Zee didn't want to leave- he liked it here- but he would rather run than die.
He didn't want to die.
They had to run, to fight if they had to.
… But the Irken was right in front of the door. Zee would have to get past him to escape. He could do it. One shorter Irken wasn't too hard to defeat. Unless he had a weapon. That would pose a problem since Zee couldn't bring any weapons to school.
And what about his teacher? Mr. Membrane very clearly knew this Irken, and knew him rather well, it seemed. Was Mr. Membrane an Irken in disguise as well? Or a human that was helping Irk for some reason? Or something else entirely? How much of a threat did his teacher pose? He didn't like not knowing what he was up against. It made fighting so much harder. What would he do if he got past the Irken, only for Mr. Membrane to capture him while he was distracted?
And why was his mind racing like this? His thoughts were usually clear, and that was always important in battle. In a fight, he had to be careful and plan out his moves as rationally as possible. Doing otherwise could mean death or capture. But right now, Zee was having a hard time getting his thoughts together and keeping them in one place long enough to settle on an effective strategy.
Why was he like this right now? This never happened to him before, not unless the battle had already started and it looked like he was certain to lose. He didn't even get like this when they had previously encountered Irkens. Perhaps, there was just something so terrifying about Irk being able to find them wherever they went, even if they went somewhere Irk wasn't anywhere close to reaching.
Perhaps, he had believed in their safety here just a little too much.
Zee saw Mr. Membrane gesture at him. The Irken then turned and looked at him too, and Zee was suddenly hit with the thought that it was too late to run or hide. The Irken definitely knew he was here. Did he know who he was? Was his disguise enough to fool him?
His legs, not listening to what he wanted them to do, began to back away out of instinct.
"Uuuuuuh. What's up with him?"
"Zee? Are you okay?"
He kept backing up. He wanted to run- he had to run, but his back soon met the wall. Mr. Membrane came closer.
"Zee, can you hear me? Are you alright?"
His eyes darted around the room, trying to find any alternative escape routes. The Irken was still standing in front of the door, and he was still looking at him, and Zee didn't want to die.
Zee's eyes landed on the windows.
The windows!
Before Mr. Membrane or the Irken could try to grab him, Zee darted toward the windows and started to pull one open.
"AH, ZEE, WAIT!"
Unfortunately, the windows were old and got stuck easily, so it took him an extra second to force them open. An extra second he didn't have.
Mr. Membrane grabbed his arm just as Zee was halfway out the window.
"Zee, stop! What's going on?!"
He struggled. Luckily, he appeared to be stronger than the teacher and managed to free himself.
And then he fell.
XXX
And I'm leaving it on a cliffhanger. It's actually not the cliffhanger I originally had planned, but oh well. I think this one's better?
And yup, Dib's roommate is Zim, wHO eVEr WoUld hAVE GUessEd?
Anyway, thanks for reading.