Jacklynn walked ahead to be level with Gaz for a moment. Luckily Zim seemed to understand her signaling and he stayed back a pace or two to give them privacy as they made their way to the cafeteria.

Jacklynn nudged Gaz who looked up at her.

"What's up?"

"Well first of all, I wanted to thank uou for the head's up earlier. Secondly Iglatinpay?" (piglatin)

Gaz shrugged.

"No biggie, I know how Dib is. Ehay ouldhaveway a eildfay aday ithway imzay."( he would have had a feild day with zim) "Obodynay eedsnay atthay" ( nobody needs that)

"Ouyay oticednay?" (you noticed?)

"Oticednay atwhay? Ethay eengray inskay?" (noticed what? the green skin?)

Gaz laughed. "I oticednay. eypochromichay neimiayay...Adday is a ientistscay?" (I noticed. hypochromic anemia. Dad is a scientist?)

"So...atwhay asway ithway atthay ooklay ouyay avegay emay?" ( so what was with that look you gave me?)

Gaz smirked again.

"Ackjay...eshay othay!" (Jack...hes hot)

Jacklynn stopped dead for a second, a blush blooming immediately on her face. Gaz laughed.

"See! you think so too! He's gotta be better than Dib at least."

"Gaz!"

The younger girl laughed and pushed open the cafeteria doors.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Zim

Zim watched curiously as the two girls spoke in a new language... fluently at that. He fiddled with his scanner, trying to get the AI to translate. So far, these two females were quite fascinating. There seemed to be English intermingled in the words...was it code? From the first part of their conversation, he gathered that Gaz was the one who had alerted Jack Lynn to The Dib. They knew tactics...that could be good, could be bad...either way, that was good information to have.

Right before they reverted back to english, the AI managed to translate the last bit of the code "Hes hot."...

Zim gathered that they were talking about him. He knew "Hot" had to do with temperature...but he got the feeling that it was being used as slang...was that bad? He checked his vitals...his body temp was at a normal level, just a few degrees higher than the base temp of the humans...surely they wouldn't consider that to be hot...Looking at the redness if Jack Lynn's face he could tell that she had been embarrassed...but why?

He followed the females through large double doors and into the mess hall. Suddenly anxious, he went closer to Jack Lynn. The large room was filled with humans. He surveyed the area, some of them seemed to pay him no mind, others looked at him with curiosity...there were a few females blushing and looking away when he caught their eye. Strange.

Jack Lynn looked back at him and offered a small smile.

"Don't worry Zim, you'll do fine. Let's get some food and find a table so we can look at your schedule."

He followed her to the line, and studied the surroundings. There seemed to be some sort of an event taking place. There were streamers decorating the ceiling and banners on the wall.

"Home...coming...? Jack Lynn, what is this Home coming?"

Jack Lynn turned slowly, now aware of her surroundings. She looked around the room and made a strange noise.

"Ugh...I forgot this was coming up..."

"Same time every year... what's your excuse going to be this year? Court wont crack it twice."

Gaz said as she grabbed food to put on her tray.

Jack Lynn sighed and shook her head.

" No idea Gaz...Zim, to answer your question; Homecoming is a dance. People get dressed up in suits and gowns and pair off into couples to go together."

Zim nodded. "Another Mating ritual."

Gaz snorted a laugh. "You could definitely call it that! Jack here dreads homecoming."

"You can say that again" Said Jack, grabbing a tray for herself and handing another to Zim.

She began grabbing her food as Zim looked at everything laid out...the prepared food looked a little too questionable to start with...not to mention the smell...the prepackaged food contained labels and descriptions as well as ingredients... he'd start there for today.

"Why do you dread the home coming? Do you not wish to have mate?"

Gaz laughed again and Jack Lynn nudged her. She shrugged as she grabbed a carton of liquid out of a freezer.

"Its not that, it's -"

"My brother Zim. It's my brother. Dib is obsessed with Jack, and he asks her to go with him every year...You know...Jack, if you had a date, then he'd have to back off."

Jack Lynn scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"Pfft...nobody even talks to me. Who would take me on a date?"

Gaz smirked and took a bite of a stick she'd put on her tray before gesturing to Zim with it.

"What about Zim?"

Jack Lynn whipped around and looked at him wide eyed and blushing.