XXX

It was one of those days when it was only the two of them at the lunch table. Ann's other friends were busy a lot, and Zee was rarely ever busy aside from reading during lunch, so these days weren't exactly uncommon. But Zee looked forward to them all the same.

"So, Zee, I was wondering…," Ann started. "Do you want to come to the GSA meeting with me after school tomorrow? We're having a holiday party."

Zee tilted his head.

"What's a GSA?" he asked.

"Oh, it's a club," Ann explained. "It stands for either Gay-Straight Alliance or Gender-Sexuality Alliance. It's pretty much a space to learn about LGBT+ issues, get support, and participate in the community. Plus we try to raise awareness for queer issues and rights and stuff. You don't have to be, like, gay or trans or anything to come to meetings. Some people who go are straight and cis, and they're just allies, but…"

They rubbed the back of their neck, messing with their hair.

"I mean, I don't know what your sexuality or anything is, so I just wanted to make it clear that I'm not assuming anything," they continued. "I just thought you might be interested. Plus a lot of my friends are in it, and you seem to get along with them, too, so I thought it might be a good opportunity for you to get to know some more people."

Ann looked a bit awkward, as if they were apprehensive about Zee's response.

As such, Zee tried to think it over quickly, but he wasn't entirely sure he understood most of what Ann said. They'd used a lot of words that didn't really translate into Irken, so he didn't really know what they meant. Even the explanation of what 'a Jee-Ess-Ay' is was more confusing than anything else.

But he figured that, if Ann was asking him to go with them, it must not be a bad place.

"Okay."

The bit of tension in the air instantly dissipated as Ann smiled widely. Zee felt something strange in his chest.

"Cool! You don't have to join or anything if you don't want to, by the way. I just thought I could invite you."

Zee nodded, waiting for the strange feeling to go away.

For some reason, it didn't, but once he got used to it, he didn't think it was all that unpleasant.

XXX

Dib had to force himself to hold back a sigh as he noticed that Chadley was, once again, harassing Zee.

He would have thought that Chadley would have enough common sense to leave Zee alone after what he'd eventually dubbed the 'Krabby Patty Incident', seeing as Zee had proven he could easily take Chadley on in a fight. And win. He also thought that sticking them on opposite ends of the classroom would help, but apparently not, because Chadley still bothered Zee whenever he had the opportunity to leave his seat.

Unfortunately, today was an opportunity for him to leave his seat.

It was the Wednesday before winter break began, and most students had already checked out. A third of his class hadn't even shown up, their families having decided to get a head-start on travel plans. Some part of him wanted to remind his students that they still had a few days before break began, but another part of him remembered what it was like to be a student. He had gotten just as antsy for break to begin as anyone else back then, even if his breaks pretty much consisted of him trying to track down cryptids and preventing Zim from taking over the world. The lack of attention his students gave to their schoolwork around this time of year was something he had already come to accept.

That was why he'd just given them a worksheet for the day and allowed the students to work in groups, leading to desks getting scraped across the floor and mixed up out of their typical orderly rows.

Zee had worked alone and quickly finished his worksheet, being one of the first students to turn it in. It was, admittedly, a pretty easy worksheet, and it didn't really have any word problems that would trip Zee up too badly. Most of the groups just weren't done because they were chattering rather than the difficulty or length of the worksheet. With his worksheet finished, Zee just got out a book, what seemed to be a comic this time, and started reading.

Chadley and his friends, meanwhile, didn't seem to be working on it at all. Which, okay, neither was half the class, so he couldn't be too mad at him in particular for that. What he could be mad about, however, is that they decided to use their time to bother Zee again.

"What, so you're gay now, too?" Chadley scoffed. "What, had to be even more of a freak?"

Zee just lifted his eyes from the page for a moment, glanced at Chadley, and then continued reading, saying nothing. Dib, however, wasn't going to remain silent on something like this.

"Chadley!" Dib called out. "I will not tolerate discrimination in my classroom! If I hear it again, you're getting a detention."

Some of the other students turned toward either him or Chadley for a second, but since they had long-since gotten used to Chadley's bullying, they turned away just as quickly. His friends began pretending they weren't part of it, while Chadley himself grimaced.

"He's the one who brought gay porn to school!" he declared, pointing at Zee.

This statement made the other students stare a lot longer.

Dib opened his mouth to reply, intending to tell Chadley to cut it out and stop bothering Zee, but then he paused. There was a chance that Zee might have actually brought a pornographic book without knowing he wasn't allowed to.

With a sigh, Dib stood from his desk and walked over to them. Getting closer, he could see that there were two women on the cover.

"Zee, can I see your book real quick?"

Chances were that there was nothing wrong with the book. But he had to make sure because he a) didn't want to get in trouble for not enforcing the school rules and b) didn't want Chadley to go home yapping about it.

With a shrug, Zee handed him the book. Looking down at the page Zee was on, there was a drawing of two men hugging. Innocent enough. From that page alone, it could even be platonic. Just to make sure, though, he did a quick flip through all the pages.

Luckily, there wasn't anything in it that could even remotely be considered pornographic. He didn't even spot any kissing, so he highly doubted he was missing any long stretches of sexual content. He did notice a panel with some man yelling about his son being 'dragged into gayness', so it did seem like the book had some queer content, though.

With a sigh, Dib pinched the bridge of his nose and handed the book back to Zee.

"Chadley, that book barely even looks romantic, let alone pornographic," he huffed. "The presence of gay characters doesn't automatically make something porn. Plus, there's a sticker for the school library on the spine, so it should have already been checked."

Chadley just crossed his arms and made a noise in vague protest.

"Just. Can you stop harassing Zee for a day?" Dib requested, exasperated. "Do you honestly believe that constantly pestering your classmates benefits you in any way?"

Dib was being a bit harsher than he usually would be with his students, but he was really getting tired of this thing Chadley had with bullying Zee. And fine, Zee didn't seem to care all that much, but he couldn't let Chadley continue thinking this kind of behavior is okay, nor could he risk Zee deciding to take things into his own hands again.

But, speaking of Zee and his lack of care about being bullied, Zee spoke up:

"He's not harassing me," he stated. "He just wants to talk about the book."

Hearing this, Dib wasn't sure if Zee was being serious or not.

"I do not!" Chadley denied. "Like I would read that stuff!"

Zee tilted his head.

"But you knew what it's about?" he said plainly. "I mean, I don't know what porn is, but you got the gay part right."

Silently, Dib realized that Zee had a point. Even with the women on the cover (which wasn't visible with the book open, anyway), the book wasn't very obviously gay. Flipping through it, the pictures barely even clued in him in on that. To know what the book was about, you'd have to read the words, or at least have heard of it or read a summary. But that wasn't a conversation they needed to have, especially not here.

He could hear his class snickering, though he wasn't sure which one of their classmates they were laughing at. Both, probably.

Regardless, Dib decided that enough was enough. Time to put a lid on this.

"Alright, conversation over," Dib declared. "Chadley, cut it out or I'm giving you a detention. Find literally anything else to do. And Zee."

He took a deep breath in.

"If you want to know what that means, you need to have a conversation with your mother," Dib instructed, even though he knew Bee probably wouldn't have much of a better idea about it than Zee did (it wasn't like he could outwardly tell his student to google that kind of thing, though). "Everyone else, get back to work."

With that finally over, Dib returned to his desk, while his students returned to their work. Or chattering. Mostly chattering.

Eventually, finally, the bell rang, signaling the end of the day's first class. Students started filing out, and even though Dib wished he could just be done with this class for the day, he called out to Zee.

"Hey, Zee, could you wait here for a minute?"

They had to talk, and Dib had already been planning to have another chat with Zee before Chadley happened again. The problem was, however, that he couldn't have this discussion with his other students around, but he also didn't want to make it look like he was doing anything he shouldn't be doing. So, he pretty much had to talk to Zee during school hours at times he would normally be around him.

Zee stopped, turning to look at him, before stepping off to the side. They waited for the rest of the class to file out, which thankfully didn't take very long. Knowing they didn't have a lot of time before next block's students began showing up, Dib started talking.

"Alright, so, we need to talk real quick," Dib told him. "First, I'm not saying you aren't allowed to come over to hang out with Zim, but in most circumstances, it isn't exactly… appropriate for a student to be coming over to a teacher's house. Chadley's parents already tried to accuse me of favoritism, and with the whole thing with you falling out the window and all… Look, are you able to use a different disguise when you come over? I don't want someone to see you and wonder why you're coming over to my house."

Zee blinked at him, his expression blank.

"I can use a different disguise, I guess," Zee agreed. "Why, though?"

Dib sighed.

"Zee, it's just not appropriate. Your situation is a little different since you're an alien and my roommate is an alien, but normally, students don't just go over to their teachers' houses," Dib explained. "People might think that I'm playing favorites or helping you cheat or I'm threatening you or that something inappropriate is going on. So it's just easier if you change your appearance, okay?"

He was pretty sure that Zee still didn't entirely understand the problem, partially because Dib was being a bit vague in case someone walked into the classroom, but he saw the teenager nod.

"'Kay."

"Alright. Good," Dib sighed.

He wanted to tell Zee that he could go to his next class, but he figured that he should probably address what happened with Chadley, even if he was pretty certain at this point that Zee just didn't care about what the other boy said/did. At least bullying was something he could address as a teacher without someone questioning why he was talking about aliens and going over to his house, so it would be fine if another student came in.

"So, just to make sure, you're okay, right?" Dib asked. "Like, are you upset about what happened with Chadley?"

"No. Why would I be?" Zee questioned back. "He wanted to talk about my book, so maybe flipping him made him change his mind about trying to fight me."

Of course Zee thought that Chadley's blatant homophobia was an attempt at friendship. And of course he was still convinced that flipping his classmate was a good solution to his problems.

"Zee, remember what I said about no violence unless necessary?" Dib reminded him. "And I'm sorry to tell you this, but Chadley was still trying to be mean to you."

"How?"

Apparently, Dib had to explain homophobia, which, one the one hand, was good because that meant that Zee likely hadn't experienced it before, but on the other hand, it sucked because Dib had to tell him about another way the world sucks.

"He was mocking you about being gay," Dib explained. "Which, whether you are or not, he was still trying to insult you."

Zee's eyebrows crinkled.

"But being gay isn't an insult?"

Dib sighed, for what must have been the eightieth time that day already.

"It isn't. There isn't anything wrong with being gay, or any other sexuality, really," Dib agreed. "But, Zee, there are a lot of people who think that being gay is wrong, so they try to hurt people who aren't like them. And to those people, being called gay is insulting, so they use it as an insult to try to be mean, but they shouldn't do that."

"That doesn't really make sense."

"I know," Dib nodded. "But sometimes, people are mean for no real or good reason, and it doesn't make sense. Sometimes people are just mean because of how they're raised or because it makes them feel powerful or they're lashing out or any number of reasons that have nothing to do with the person they're being mean to. Humans are like that sometimes. So it's great if you don't mind Chadley being mean to you, but it's okay if it bothers you, as long as you don't try to beat him up in response, okay?"

"But what's the point?" Zee questioned. "If we were fighting a war over resources, it would make sense for him to fight me. But I don't have any resources, and if he wants to read the books or something, he could borrow them from the library after I'm done."

Dib got a sudden reminder of Zee's attempts at solving word problems.

"It's not about the books, Zee," Dib stressed. "Really, sometimes there isn't a point, like I just said. I don't know if maybe there's a reason behind what Chadley does, or why he bothers you so much specifically, but there really might not be any point at all. Okay?"

"Why would he do something without any point?"

"I don't know if he has a reason or not, Zee. But some people do things without thinking about it too much."

Dib looked up at the clock. The late bell was going to ring soon, and he noticed that most of his next class was already seated, practically everyone's focus on their phones rather than their conversation, thankfully.

"Just take my word on this, okay, Zee?" Dib tried. "If you want a reason for today, at least, Chadley was being mean about your book because he doesn't like gay people. It sucks, but that's how some people are. Okay?"

Zee frowned.

"I guess that explains some of the stuff in the book, at least…," Zee muttered, seemingly more to himself than Dib.

"Alright. You better get to your next class. I'll write you a late pass, okay?"

Dib handed him the pass, and Zee took it without a word.

He couldn't be sure, but he almost felt like their conversation actually made things worse somehow.

XXX

"Hey, Ann?"

Zee and Ann had decided to go to the park after school, as they often did. They were sitting on the swings, lazily drifting a few inches forward and back. Ann was staring off across the park, not exactly spaced out, but not staring directly at Zee, either.

"Yeah?"

"Do people ever get mad at you for not being a girl or a boy?"

At this, though, Ann did turn their full attention on him. They frowned.

"Well, yeah, sometimes," they responded. "But not too much. Most people assume I'm a girl until I tell them, though, so maybe it would happen more if more people knew. But I usually just ignore them. Like, if they want to be jerks, then they're not worth my time, ya know?"

"Hm."

Zee looked down at his feet pushing his heels down into the damp wood chips beneath.

"Is this about that manga series Zane told you to read?" Ann asked. "It's a good series, but I know it can get pretty heavy."

Zee shrugged.

"Kinda."

There was a brief silence.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Zee shrugged again, but he opened his mouth to reply.

"I was reading it in class, and Chadley started calling me gay and saying that I brought gay porn to class, and I thought he just wanted to talk about the book, but Mr. Membrane said that Chadley was trying to be mean," Zee said. "And I didn't really get it, but he said that some people just don't like gay people and use it as an insult and… I don't know, in the book, Saki's dad got upset about her getting married, and Toma's dad got upset that he could be gay, and in the other book, Denna and Mare weren't allowed to be together, and… Is being gay bad?"

Once he'd started talking, Zee hadn't been able to stop the words pouring out of his mouth. It was like what happened when he got excited about a book, except this wasn't excitement. This felt… bad.

He felt Ann's hand on his knee, and suddenly, he was aware of the stinging in his eyes.

"Hey, hey. It's okay," Ann spoke gently. "No, there's nothing wrong with being gay. Some people really are just jerks. But remember how Saki's dad told her that he was wrong for being angry about her being a lesbian? He realized that he needed to reconsider his prejudices and support his daughter. And Toma's dad apologized too, remember? That series is about accepting who you are, and if being gay is a part of you, there's nothing wrong with that, even if some people try to tell you otherwise."

Zee rubbed a hand across his cheeks. He didn't know why he was suddenly so upset about all this. He didn't usually get like this. But he usually didn't panic, either, and that had already happened recently. And then there was that weird feeling in his chest. Something about Earth must just make him experience different feelings.

"… I don't know if I'm gay, though," Zee told them.

"That's okay. You don't have to know," Ann reassured him. "I was just saying it's okay if you are. It's also okay if you have a different sexuality, too. You're not hurting anyone, so you're not doing anything wrong."

Zee nodded. Ann sighed.

"Sorry about making you come to the holiday party," Ann apologized. "I just thought you would have fun. I didn't mean to introduce you to homophobia. I kinda thought you knew about this stuff, but I probably should have guessed you didn't from some of your questions."

"… The party was fun. I liked the club," Zee denied. "But I think I liked being confused better than… this. And Mr. Membrane says I'm not allowed to fight Chadley anymore, so I don't know what to do about that. I didn't think he was still a problem."

"Well, first of all, screw Chadley. If he keeps messing with you, I know a few ways to get him into trouble without getting you in trouble, too," Ann told him. "But I'm glad you had fun at the party, at least. Figuring out this sort of thing can be hard, but no matter who you turn out to be, you're still you. Got it?"

"… If he tries to punch me again, I'm still going to flip him, I think," Zee decided quietly.

"That's the spirit! I guess," Ann partially agreed. "I mean, it's better to avoid that if you can, but if that's what you gotta do, just try to make sure the teachers don't see you, okay?"

Again, Zee nodded.

He was learning about a lot of new things on Earth, and he loved most of it.

He supposed he had to learn about a few bad things, too.

XXX

Okay, so, the next chapter was originally supposed to be part of this one, but this one is already super long, so I'm gonna cut it off here and we'll continue with this next time.

By the way, the manga being discussed in this chapter is 'Our Dreams at Dusk' by Yuhki Kamatani, specifically volume 4. If you haven't read it, I do recommend it since I feel like it does a really good job at discussing a lot of LGBT+ topics and stuff, but it really does get pretty heavy at parts. It made me cry, lol (And I'd look up trigger warnings before reading it).

XXX