A/N: And here we go, the second entry in this anthology. Not much to say here, except a reminder that everyone human here is roughly 18 years old, and that full credit for the plot outline goes to The Cowardly Christian.

Please read and enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own only the OCs. Any canon characters or concepts belong to Jhonen Vasquez and Nickelodeon.

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New Adventures: Mature Edition

Entry 2: Buff Run at Skool

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It was another dull and boring day at Doomsville Hi Skool. Everyone slogged through the typical drudgeries of teenaged skool life, rarely breaking from the routines they'd set for themselves. Though for some of them, those routines could still be pretty exciting.

Case in point, there was Zim, always planning mayhem. And today, that took the form of him acting on a human expression that he'd heard and, of course, misinterpreted. Specifically, the fact that during a Biology class, the teacher had brought up the fact that in many species females were more dangerous than the males. Somehow, the resulting train of thought Zim had after hearing that had culminated in the idea of turning human females into vicious warriors to serve him.

And what better place to start than here? After all, this filthy building was overrun with human females, so it wasn't like he'd be short of test subjects. And even better than that, was that this would give him a perfect chance to eliminate Dib once and for all.

"Remind me again how this is supposed to work?" Skoodge asked, as he and Zim sat at one of the outdoor tables in the Hi Skool's courtyard, watching the other students mill about. Zim, who was tinkering with a handheld device that looked somewhat like a dart launcher, scoffed at Skoodge's inability to follow his clearly superior thought processes.

"It's simple, Skoodge, much like yourself," he explained, putting the finishing touches on the device, "With this delivery device, I'll be able to discreetly infect a number of the female pig-smellies with my Anger Serum, along with a healthy dose of nanites programmed to make them focus the resulting anger on Dib. Then they'll destroy him, and I'll know it works, at which point I can then mass produce it to use on a global scale. Now I just need to find the right test subjects to use it on."

"Why not just use it on Tak?" Skoodge asked.

"Zim would never give her the satisfaction of destroying Dib instead of me, even if unknowingly on my command," Zim snapped, "Besides, this serum is calibrated for humans."

"How about Gaz, then? She'd be in perfect position to get rid of him."

"Yeah, but she already hates him. How would I know it was because my serum was working properly and not just because she finally got tired of having him around?"

"Okay, then how about Viera?"

"Who?"

"The girl Not-Dib," Skoodge clarified, sighing, "You really should try to remember all your enemies' names, Zim."

"Zim has more important things to do than remember the names of lesser foes!" Zim snapped, "And in any case, do you really think I could get close enough to infect her without any of them noticing? They're somewhat less stupid than other humans, more observant. No, I need people who won't see it coming… that's it! The so-called 'popular' crowd!"

"Huh?" Skoodge asked, blinking in confusion.

"It's perfect. Just look at them," Zim said, gesturing towards a group of girls gathered at one of the other tables, chatting animatedly about something, "So wrapped up in their inane and petty beliefs that they're better than everyone else. They'd never notice me infecting them, and even better, while they already dislike the Dib-Stink, they don't outright hate him, so changes in their attitudes will be noticeable. It's genius!"

Without a second thought, Zim stood up and, device hidden in his clenched hand, started walking in the popular girls' direction, but leaving enough distance between them that they wouldn't notice him. It worked, the girls remaining oblivious as Zim passed them by a few feet away, not noticing even as he lifted the device to point just above them, nor as he fired it.

A dart, no bigger than a pinkie finger, shot out of the device and flew through the air. Reaching a spot in the air a few feet above the assembled girls, it burst apart, disintegrating into a nearly-invisible cloud of vapor, which quickly settled down over them. As it did, they all froze for a moment, their eyes dilating and glowing slightly, and then they returned to normal, shaking off their stupor and resuming their conversation.

Smirking, Zim slipped the device into a pocket and walked away. Now it was just a matter of waiting for the serum to fully kick in, and then the fun would begin…

Of course, as per usual with Zim's experiments, this one was flawed and already doomed to fail. Not that it was entirely his fault in this case — sure, there was his usual misunderstanding of how human body chemistry worked, but it definitely didn't help matters any that GIR had come across the serum while Zim had been leaving it to brew, and for some reason mixed some gravy into it. As such, the serum's chemical nature was completely screwed up, and rather than invoking rage, it would have the exact opposite effect.

Needless to say, the girls Zim had just infected would not be planning to harm Dib anytime soon. That being said, there was one member of Team Save Earth who would be feeling their ire very soon…

A Couple of Days Later

Gaz, currently in-between classes, walked down the hallway, focus on the Game Slave in her hands, and as usual doing her best to block out everyone and everything else around her. It was something she'd made an art out of over the years, though that said she could still pick up what people were saying if they were within earshot, it was just a matter of filtering it out unless it was one of those rare cases of actually being something important.

For example, earlier she'd overheard Zim grumbling something about something not working the way it was supposed to. She didn't have the context to understand what he was talking about, and frankly didn't really care. But, she could tell that he clearly had some kind of new plan in the works and it was already starting to fail on him, so she should probably keep an eye out for the right time to hunker down whenever whatever it was blew up or something; she had no interest in getting dragged into one of Zim's messes, after all.

"…sick of that stuck-up Goth bitch!" a voice sounded from down the hallway she was passing. Freezing mid-step as he heard that, Gaz's regular frown deepened. Pausing her game, she looked up and saw a group of the popular clique — Zita, Jessica, Sara, and others — huddled by a row of lockers, deep in conversation.

"I mean, she just struts around like she owns the place!" Zita was saying, "Who the hell does she think she is?"

"Yeah, and she's so ugly," Jessica added, "With her stupid hair and her dumb black clothes."

"Someone should really do something about her," Sara said, "Teach her a lesson about where she really belongs around here — right at the bottom!"

"Excuse me?" Gaz hissed, having come up to the group without their notice and now glaring intently at them. Jumping in surprise, they turned to look at her, all going pale as they took in her visible anger.

Realizing what Gaz must have heard and misunderstood, Zita frantically started waving her arms to ward her off.

"Not you, not you!" she explained rapidly, "We meant Viera!"

"Oh, okay then," Gaz said, her aura of menace instantly melting away, "Fine, yeah, she's a bitch. But since when do all of you care?"

"Every since we realized that she's hogging Dib to herself!" Aki spoke up, leaving Gaz staring at her in disbelief.

"Come again?" she asked, eyes actually opening in confusion.

"Look, I don't know when this started or why, but lately we've all realized how badly we've been overlooking your brother," Zita said, "There's just… something about him that's just suddenly become so irresistible."

"Also he's a hunk!" Jessica added.

"Right, that too," Zita nodded in agreement, before scowling, "But we can't get the time of day with him because he's always hanging out with that freak and her brother! He's finally something worthwhile, and she's in our way of him!"

"…Ew," Gaz said after a moment silently absorbing all that, going green in the face. Shaking it off, she turned to try and get away from this conversation, only to stop as a thought suddenly occurred to her. Smirking, she turned back to the other girls and asked, "How badly do you want to get Viera out of the way? Because I think I've got a surefire way to get rid of her."

"Really? Well, then we're listening," Zita responded, her and the other leaning forward as Gaz started explaining her idea. By the time she was done, they were all grinning nastily.

This was going to be fun…

XXXXXXX

Standing under the warm flow of water from the shower head, Viera let her mind wander as her body went through the motions of scrubbing herself clean. This was part of her routine, and something that made her glad that she had a free period in her schedule right after gym class. This way, she didn't have to rush cleaning up, and if necessary she could give herself plenty of time to just think through whatever was on her mind without anything else, Skool-related or otherwise, distracting her.

And what was on her mind right now was, what the hell was going on with all the other girls in this skool? After all, she'd long since gotten used to the nasty looks, casual dismissals, and occasional insults she received from most of the other students. After all, she and her brother and Dib all fell outside of the oh-so-preciously-coveted category of "cool", so being sneered at was the price paid. But lately, it seemed like most of the other female students were going out of their way to direct their dislike at her. Particularly intense glares, stage-whispered heated insults, intentionally trying to trip her up or bump her or anything else that might cause her physical, if minor, harm, and so forth.

Weirder still, it seemed to Viera that the girls really ramped up the cattiness of these acts against her whenever Dib was nearby. Yet at the same time, they were acting particularly better, almost kind, towards him. Hell, if she didn't know better, she'd swear a few of the girls had actually been flirting with him.

"But there's no way that really happened," she mused, as she rinsed shampoo out of her hair, "Dib's been treated as a social outcast by these people since he was a kid. They're not going to suddenly switch gears just because they've noticed how cute he is… whoa, hold on, where did that come from? Slow down there, girl, don't go ruining a good friendship by making it awkward."

Deciding that she'd let her mind wander quite far enough, Viera finished rinsing and shut off the shower. Grabbing her towel off a nearby rack, she did a quick pat-down dry before wrapping it around herself and walking towards the locker room. Still focused on trying to make sense of the other girls' behavior, she barely noticed as she transitioned between rooms, until she saw something that made her stop in her tracks.

"What are you doing here?" Viera asked, frowning at Gaz, who was sitting on a nearby bench. Ordinarily she wouldn't question why another girl was in the girls' locker room, but Gaz never came in here. Hell, she didn't even take gym class — she'd presented Coach Walrus with a signed permission slip from her father saying that he didn't want her wasting her time on "pointlessly trying to perfect the inherently flawed human meat case" when she could instead be focusing on increasing her intellectual boundaries with other studies.

Personally, Viera thought Gaz was either too lazy for gym or self-conscious about being naked in front of other girls, or both. Either way, it was very out of character for the other Goth to be here, which made Viera highly suspicious.

"Oh, don't mind me," Gaz replied with a smirk, "I'm just here to enjoy the show."

"Huh? What are you-?"

"Get her!" a voice yelled, cutting Viera off as more than a dozen other girls suddenly came running out of hiding behind the rows of lockers and swarmed at her. Before she knew what was happening, they had tackled her, and soon she had two girls apiece firmly holding each of her arms, two more kneeling on the floor to just as firmly grab her legs, and several more grabbing her by the shoulders and waist, leaving her almost entirely immobilized.

"What the hell is this? Let me go!" Viera shouted, struggling in vain to break free while glaring at Zita, who was standing in front of her with a sneer. Clearly, she was in charge of whatever was going on here.

"Well, well. Not so high and mighty now, are you, bitch?" Zita asked, chuckling nastily.

"Look, whatever this is, knock it off right now and I'll be sure to forget about it," Viera said, trying to sound less nervous than she was. She didn't exactly have a lot of leverage here.

"Oh, you're not going to forget about this any time soon, and neither is anyone else," Zita sneered, "By the time we're done, you're never going to dare show your face around this skool ever again. And once you're gone, we'll have Dib all to ourselves!"

"…What?" Viera asked flatly, not sure she'd heard that properly.

"You heard me!" Zita snapped, stepping forward to get into Viera's face, "We're sick of you hogging Dib for yourself! He's a hunk, and he deserves better than a paranormal-loving freak like you holding him back! He deserves someone hot and awesome who can help him stop studying all that alien and magic junk and realize how cool he can be. Someone like me!"

"Ahem," Jessica cleared her throat pointedly, she and the other girls giving their leader slight glares from their spots still holding onto Viera.

"Or any of the rest of us," Zita added halfheartedly.

Viera didn't respond, being slightly distracted. Thanks to the closed distance between them, she was able to see how strangely dilated and discolored Zita's eyes were; moving her gaze around with moving her head, she noticed that it was the same with every one of the girls whose eyes she was able to see.

"…Are they high?" she asked, glancing past Zita to direct her question at Gaz, who was still sitting on the bench and watching the proceedings with a smirk; so she, at least, was still acting normally.

"Eh, I don't really get what's gotten into them either," Gaz replied with a shrug, "Honestly, this whole 'them suddenly being into Dib' thing is weird and gross. But, if it means a chance to put you in your place… well, when I heard they had a problem with you now, I wasn't going to let the opportunity pass me by."

"Wow, so you're getting someone else to beat me up for you. Real nice," Viera said dryly. To her surprise, Gaz only smirked wider at that, and Zita snorted in what sounded like a mix of amusement and derision.

"Really, that's what you think we're going to do? Beat you up?" Zita asked, "Why would we do that? It'd just make everyone — especially Dib — feel bad for you, and that's the last thing we want. No, the only thing that's gonna be wounded today is your pride. Like I said, you're going to be so humiliated, you'll never come to this skool again. Hell, you'll probably never show your face in public at all!"

"And how do you plan on doing that?" Viera demanded, putting on as much bravado as she could. In response, Zita smirked even wider than Gaz, before grabbing ahold of Viera's towel and, before the restrained girl could even register that, ripped it right off.

Viera gave a high-pitched yelp, face turning as red as a stop sign while Zita tossed aside the towel, her and the other girls all laughing at Viera's embarrassment.

"Hey, not bad," Jessica said mockingly, looking Viera over, "She actually looks pretty good, don't you think, Z?"

"Hmm, I dunno, Jess," Zita replied, making a show of looking like she was deep in thought, "I guess we'll just have to get an outside opinion, won't we?"

"Wha… what do you mean, 'outside opinion'?" Viera managed to stammer out through her sudden embarrassment and fear.

"They mean, you're going outside," Gaz said, laughing heartedly. Viera's eyes bugged out at that, and then she cried out in surprise as the girls still holding onto her lifted her into the air, now carrying her crowd surf style as they started heading towards the locker room's hallway door.

"Wait, wait, hold on! You can't do this!" Viera yelled, trying to squirm free to no avail, "Stop and think about how much trouble you'll all be in!"

"Why would they get in trouble?" Gaz asked, gleefully taking in her nemesis' panic, "After all, it's your word against all of theirs that you didn't just decide to go streaking."

"You'll be lucky if you don't get expelled or at least suspended after this," Zita sneered, "And even you don't, you really think you'll be able to walk around this skool without everyone picturing you naked? Even if they let you stay, you'll have to leave. And then Dib is ours for the taking."

"Oh come on, that- that's just- how is humiliating me going to make any of you more appealing to him?!" Viera demanded near-hysterically, as they finally reached the door.

"We'll figure out the rest of the plan later! For now, you streak!" Zita snapped, grabbing the door and flinging it open. And then, before Viera could say or do anything else, the girls chucked her forward, sending her tumbling head over bare ass across the floor, until she came to a halt in an undignified heap in the middle of the hallway.

Stunned by the impact, Viera was only able to lie there, face down on the floor, until the sound of the locker room slamming shut snapped her out of her daze. Eyes widening, she jumped to her feet, arms instinctively clamping over her breasts and privates as she looked around in panic. Fortunately, she seemed to be having at least a little bit of luck at the moment, as there was no on else in sight, but that wouldn't last — before long, the next period would begin, and the hallways would fill with students heading for their next class. She needed to do something, fast.

She didn't even bother trying to get back into the locker room. The others were probably keeping it shut from the other side, at least long enough to guarantee she couldn't get back in without being seen. After all, even if most of those airheads weren't that bright, Gaz at least would be smart enough to think that detail through. So getting back to her clothes in there was a lost cause at the moment.

Fortunately, those weren't her only clothes in the skool. After a few years of fights with the Irkens (and the occasional other paranormal entity), all of Team Save Earth had learned the value of having extra clothes on hand to replace those that got torn, burned, covered in strange substances, and otherwise rendered unwearable. And since a good percentage of their fights took place in skool, each of them had spare sets of clothing stashed around the building. Now, if she could just get to one of those without being seen…

Clamping down on her panic, Viera forced her reeling mind to focus on this slim hope, and decide which of the stashes to go for. The first one she could think of was the one in her locker, but she quickly eliminated it — she didn't have enough time to get to it and get dressed before the end of period. So she'd have to go for one of her hidden stashes, and of that category, the first one to come to mind was one she kept in the art classroom, which thankfully was hardly ever used due to budget cuts.

Knowing she didn't have much time left, and not able to think of anything better to do, Viera started making her way towards the art room. She was somewhat hindered, however, by the fact that she had to crouch to avoid being seen by anyone who happened to glance out a classroom door's window at the wrong moment. Since she couldn't move very fast when practically doubled over, this meant she barely made it to the next hallway intersection before the bells suddenly started ringing.

"Shit!" she cursed, eyes widening in panic and darting about. Seeing that she was standing next to a door marked "Pool", and having only seconds to act, she burst through it, slamming it shut behind her just as other doors up and down the halls started opening. Quickly looking around to make sure that the room was empty, Viera heaved a sigh of relief and slumped to the floor, leaning against the door and listening to the sounds of people moving around in the hallway.

After a few minutes the noise died down, the students reaching their next classes, and as no one had tried to enter the room, Viera allowed herself to calm down. Standing up, she gave a closer look to the room, and her face scrunched up in disgust at the state of the pool. While impressively-sized, being about fifty feet long, half that across, and a dozen feet deep at its deepest, it was also absolutely filthy, the water practically opaque and green due to how long it had been since someone had bothered to clean in here.

"Seriously, is there any part of this skool that hasn't had its budget cut?" Viera muttered rhetorically. Shaking it off, she started to mentally prepare herself to head back into the halls when she paused, a thought suddenly occurring to her. Looking to the side, she confirmed that there were indeed doors there clearly marked as leading to the locker rooms; between all the panic and the fact that she never used the pool, she'd completely forgotten that you could go directly from the locker rooms to here.

"Please, if there is a God, let those dumb bitches have left during the class changeover, and not think to steal my clothes just in case I circled back," she said, quickly making her way towards the door to the girls' lockers. However, just before she could push it open, she froze as she heard the distinct sounds of people's voices coming from behind both it and the boys' room door.

And more importantly, of people walking towards those doors.

"Are you kidding me?!" Viera mentally screamed, before turning and rushing away from the locker room doors. Seeing the hallway doors — both the one she'd come through and one on the opposite end of the room — and immediately realizing that she'd never get to them in time, she did the only thing she could do, no matter how disgusting it was.

Taking a breath, she charged forward and dove headfirst into the pool with a splash. A moment later, her head popped back up, and she gagged at the taste and feel of the nearly slime-like water she was now coated in. But despite now feeling like she'd need another shower, she was grateful for the state of the water, as it meant that everything below her neck was now obstructed from view. Something that came in handy seconds later, as the locker room doors opened and about a dozen and a half students came out, none of them paying Viera any real notice as they started getting in the pool themselves.

Viera honestly couldn't understand why anyone would willingly swim in this cesspit of a pool, and could only watch in disbelief as her fellow students splashed about happily in the filthy water. On the bright side, at least, they were all so preoccupied with their frolicking that no one was paying any attention to her as she hid as best she could in the corner. But she knew this wouldn't last forever — sooner or later, someone would get close enough to see through the murky water that she wasn't wearing anything. And even if they didn't, when the time eventually came for everyone to get out of the pool, they'd surely notice the oddity of her staying put and question it.

No matter how she looked at it, Viera knew that she was rapidly running out of time before she was (quite literally) exposed. She needed to get out of here, and she needed a way to do so without anyone noticing. She needed a distraction, but what?

"…And that's when I shoved him in a trashcan and then stuck it in a locker," a familiar obnoxious voice spoke up from nearby. Glancing over, Viera saw Torque lounging against the side of the pool next to one of the ladders, talking to some disinterested-looking girls floating nearby him. Watching the jock flex his muscles in a blatant attempt at flirting, Viera rolled her eyes and tried to brush off the distraction, when he continued his story, "I gotta admit that I didn't think his big head would fit in there, but it squeezed in. Heh, I figured that'd teach that crazy freak to yap about all that paranormal crap."

Viera scowled as she realized that the jackass was talking about bullying Dib. She knew it still happened on occasion, though not as much as it had before she and Steve had shown up. It honestly pissed her off, but now wasn't the time to do anything about it, not when she needed to focus on finding a way out of this…

An idea suddenly sparked in Viera's head.

"Okay, yeah, that could definitely work," she thought, "But do I really want to sink that low? …Screw it. He's a jackass, and I'm desperate."

Taking a deep breath, Viera quickly but quietly dove below the surface of the water. Forcing her eyes to stay open, she looked around and confirmed that the water's murkiness meant that while she couldn't really see the other people in the pool, she could still make out their vague outlines enough to see where she was going.

Moving as carefully as she could to avoid anyone bumping into her, she made her way over to Torque. Just as carefully, she reached out and grabbed fistfuls of his baggy swim shorts, pulling them over to the ladder he was next to, tying the material around the metal. That done, and her lungs starting to burn, she turned around and swam back over to the corner she'd been hiding in before.

Emerging from the water with a gasp, Viera looked around. As before, no one was paying her any attention, and Torque was still attempting to sweet-talk the girls, oblivious to what she'd just done. Leaning against the side of the pool to brace herself while still looking as casual as possible, Viera took a calming breath before putting her desperate plan into motion.

"Hey, aren't they serving tacos in the cafeteria today?" she asked no one, pitching her voice so it would carry across the room. That had the reaction she'd hoped for, everyone suddenly perking up; tacos were the one food item at this skool that were actually fully edible every time they were served, so whenever they were available it was something to get excited over.

"Edible food? Thank you God!"

"I can taste it already!"

"I'm not going to be sick all day for once!"

"Let's go get on line now before anyone else can!"

"Not before me you're not!" Torque shouted, leaping up out of the pool-

RIP

-causing his swim trunks, still tied to the ladder, to tear right off. There was a moment of stunned silence, and then everyone still in the pool burst out laughing at Torque.

"Oh wow, now that is just sad."

"How could someone so big have something so small?"

"What's wrong, Torque? The water too cold, or you just been taking too many steroids?"

As the jeers and insults flew at Torque, the usually tough jock turned bright red, covering himself with his hands and turning to run away. The laughter followed him as everyone watched him run towards the locker room… and thus were all looking in the opposite direction from Viera. Seizing the opportunity, she leapt out of the pool and bolted towards one of the hallway doors, slipping through it before anyone could turn back around to see her.

Once back in the hall, Viera allowed herself only a moment to feel relief at having escaped that close call. But she wasn't out of the woods yet, so she quickly shook her head and turned her attention back to once again creeping down the hall in the direction of the art room. Her luck seemed to be holding out this time, as she made it more than halfway towards her destination before something interrupted her again. Namely the bell ringing once again as the period ended.

Cursing, Viera quickly checked her surroundings and spotted a closet off to the side. Rushing over to it, she flung it open, slipped inside, and then shut it behind her, leaving it open only a crack. Peering through that slit, she watched as the hallway filled with students moving between classes, and after a few minutes emptied again. Sighing, Viera prepared to leave, only to pause as it occurred to her that there might be some spare towels or something in this closet she could use to cover herself with. So she turned around… and her eyes bugged out in shock.

At the other end of the surprisingly spacious closet was a table, strapped to which was man who had been partially skinned. And standing over him was Nny the creepy janitor, bloody knives in hands and staring at Viera in what looked like just as much surprise as she felt.

To his credit, the homicidal maniac only ogled the naked teenage girl for a few moments before tearing his gaze away to look her in the eyes.

"…I didn't see anything if you didn't," he said.

"Agreed," Viera said quickly, horror and disgust overriding her mortification. Not wanting to spend another moment in his presence, she threw the door open and ran back into the hallway as fast as she could. That was risky, but frankly after what she'd just seen, on top of everything else she'd already been through, she didn't care anymore. Especially when she was so close to finally reaching her goal and the relief it provided.

Maybe the universe was finally taking pity on her, because she managed to make her way to the art room without anything else interrupting her. As she entered the empty room and shut the door behind her, Viera finally allowed herself to fully calm down. All she had to do now was slip on her spare clothes, and this nightmare would be finished.

"Well, for me anyway," she mused as she walked over the trashcan in the corner behind which her clothing stash was hidden, "But I'm sure as hell not letting the others get away with doing this to me. Especially Gaz for giving them the idea — she likes nightmare worlds so much? Let's see how much she enjoys them when I send her to…"

Viera's thoughts trailed off in surprise as she pulled aside the trashcan only to fail to be greeted by the sight of the bag holding her clothes. Instead, all that was there was a note posted to the floor, which read "Whoever this bag belongs to, please claim it at the Lost & Found. -Mr. Lubbock."

Viera felt her eye twitch as disbelief and frustration swelled up in her. After all the trouble she'd gone through to get here, all the near misses at being seen, and now she had to go somewhere else? Really?!

Grumbling angrily, Viera made her way back to the door, pausing as she heard the bell ring again. Sighing, she waited for the crowd of students to die down before she could make her way to the Lost and Found, only to freeze up as she heard a particular voice approaching.

"…Right this way, young dudes and dudettes," said the voice of Mr. Lubbock, the old hippie who served as the art teacher, "This is the one day a week that the budget lets us have art class, so let's get our grooves on."

"Seriously?! Today of all days?!" Viera thought with panic. Looking around desperately for a place to hide, Viera saw a group of roughly human-sized clay sculptures in the back of the room, each at least partially covered by tarps. Bolting over to them, she ripped a tarp off of one of the statues and quickly draped it over herself, making sure to cover herself as completely as possible. She then forced herself to stay perfectly still as she heard the door open and people enter the room.

"Alright everyone, let's get settled in and get started," Mr. Lubbock said, "Now, for our truly righteous class, we're going to be working fully with our hands, really become one with our art. So, we'll be working with clay, and in the spirit of communal art — and because our supplies are limited — you're going to be working with and adding onto existing pieces. So, everyone go grab one of those statues in the back."

"Oh, fuck me," Viera mentally moaned, as she realized that he meant the statues that she was currently pretending to be one of. At the sounds of the students starting to walk towards her corner of the room, it took all the naked Goth's willpower to not start hyperventilating, "Should I make a break for it? I mean, I'm covered by the tarp, I doubt anyone would recognize me or even realize I'm naked. Or, no, should I just wait? I don't know how many people are even here; they might grab all the statues they need without coming near me. Or-"

Caught up in her panicked thoughts as she was, Viera failed to notice the sounds of someone walking up to her until they were directly in front of her. And as such, she was unable to do anything before that person pulled the tarp back.

Viera froze in shock and humiliation as she registered the fact that she'd just been exposed. Worse, that the person who'd found her was a guy. And worst of all, was that that guy was Dib.

As Viera began suffering a borderline total mental breakdown from the mortification, Dib was staring at her in surprise and confusion, which only grew as he started noticing how much skin she had on display. Turning red in the face as he put two and two together, he forced his eyes to stay on her face rather than wander too far downwards, then quickly covered her back up with the tarp. Glancing around, he gave a sigh of relief as he saw that no one else had seen her; that said, he knew he had to get her out of here quickly. Racking his brain for a means of doing so, he latched onto the first cock-and-bull excuse he could think of.

Quietly shushing Viera and whispering at her to stay still and quiet, he turned to Mr. Lubbock, who was sitting at the desk at the front of the room with an airy look on his face as he watched his students start to work.

"Uh, Mr. Lubbock? This room is giving me some, um, weird… vibes? Can I take my piece out into the hall to chillax and work on it out there?" Dib asked, pretty sure he could feel his IQ drop with each word he spoke.

"Right on, little man. Just remember to grab the hall pass first," Mr. Lubbock replied, gesturing to a plastic plaque hanging from a hook on the wall next to the door.

Glad that the teacher had bought his BS (and also that this pass wasn't another radiator), Dib quickly grabbed and slipped the pass on, before he — being very, very careful where he put his hands — picked up the tarp-covered Viera and carried her out into the hall. Once out of the classroom, he looked around to make sure there was no one else in sight, and then leaned close to where Viera's head just to make sure no one whom they might pass could overhear.

"What the hell happened?" he whispered to her.

"Shut up," Viera hissed, face burning underneath the tarp; she'd snapped out of her embarrassment-induced shock, and now was just plain mortified and angry, "Just get me to the Lost and Found so that I can grab my spare clothes."

Sensing how much his friend wanted to avoid this conversation at the moment, Dib did as he was told. A few minutes later, they reached the Lost and Found, which was just a series of beaten-up plastic boxes lining one wall of a hallway. Spotting a backpack with Viera's color design, and quickly confirming with her that it was the right one, he grabbed it. He then walked to the closest girl's bathroom, at which point Viera slipped out of his arms, grabbed the backpack from Dib, and then slipped into the bathroom.

For the next few minutes, Dib stood awkwardly next to the bathroom door; several people passed by and gave him odd looks, but he just flashed the hall pass around his neck and they moved on. Eventually, Viera emerged from the bathroom, backpack in hand and looking extremely happy to be clothed again. A heavy silence then fell on the hallway, the teenaged pair awkwardly avoiding looking at each other, both blushing at the memory of recent events.

"So, uh," Dib finally broke the silence, "Is now a good time to ask what happened?"

"What happened is that all the popular girls are crazy, and your sister is a bitch," Viera replied, scowling as she started rummaging through the backpack.

"What?" Dib asked, blinking in confusion.

"Something weird happened to the popular girls, making them all decide they hate me more than normal," Viera explained, leaving out the fact that they were all suddenly infatuated with him; no need to embarrass him, "And Gaz decided to egg them on and convince them to jump me in the locker room and toss me out naked. I've spent all morning running around to avoid being seen, and now it's payback time."

To punctuate her point, Viera pulled a spell drive out of her bag, Dib arching an eyebrow at it.

"You keep spell drives with your spare clothes?" he asked.

"I like to be prepared," she said, tucking the drive under her arm, "Now, any idea where those bitches are?"

"Uh, well, it's almost lunch, so maybe they'll be in the cafeteria?" he suggested. As Viera nodded and walked off at a determined pace, Dib followed after her and quickly added, "But, you're not going to hurt them, right? I mean, I could understand that being your first reaction after something like this, but that'd just get you in trouble. Plus, I'm probably obligated to keep you from doing anything to Gaz."

"Like she'd care if your positions were reversed," Viera muttered, before adding at a normal volume, "No, I'm not going to hurt them, even though I really want to. I'm just going to give them a taste of their own medicine."

Not sure how to respond to that, especially as Viera seemed to be barely keeping a lid on her anger over the situation, Dib said nothing and continued to follow after her. Soon, they arrived at the cafeteria, hanging back by the doors as they took in the view of the room. There was a mid-sized crowd of students milling around, either on line to get food or sitting at tables eating and hanging out.

Of particular interest to the pair was the sight of Zita's group sitting at one table off to the side, talking amongst themselves animatedly, while Gaz sat at the next table over, eating and clearly trying to block them out. Craning their heads, Dib and Viera were able to overhear what they were saying.

"Why hasn't that bitch been caught yet?" Zita demanded angrily.

"Maybe she has, and the teachers are just keeping it quiet?" Jessica suggested.

"No way, someone would have seen or heard something," Sara pointed out, "She's probably hiding in a closet somewhere."

"Shit, maybe she doubled back to the locker room," Aki said, "We should have tossed out her clothes just in case she managed to make her way back."

"Yeah, then why didn't you say something before?" Zita snapped.

"Will you all shut up already?" Gaz snarled, "I'm trying to eat here."

"Why aren't you more worried? This whole thing was your idea!" Jessica said.

"I don't do 'worry'," Gaz replied, "Besides, there's only two ways this turns out — either she's caught, or she somehow gets away, at which point we just come up with something else to do to her. Either way, like I said before, it's her word against all of ours that we did anything to her in the first place."

"Okay, but what if she does get away and tries something to get even with us?" Zita asked.

"You're just worried about that now?" Gaz asked with a derisive snort, "Not that you need to be. Viera doesn't have the nerve to try anything."

"And I think that's my cue," Viera whispered to Dib, opening the spell drive and scrolling through its contents until she found the spell she was looking for. Smirking, she activated it, a glow spreading from the spell drive to her free hand, which she pointed at the group. The glow gathered in a ball at her fingertips and then discharged with a flash; seconds later, the clothes of all the girls in the group briefly glowed the same color, though none of them seemed to notice it.

Smirk widening, Viera placed her fingers together in preparation to snap them, but paused as a thought occurred to her. Turning to Dib, she quickly said, "You might want to either turn around or cover your eyes."

Dib arched an eyebrow at that, but took her advice, placing a hand over his eyes. Seeing that, Viera turned back to her targets and snapped her fingers, triggering the spell. For a moment, nothing happened, and then startled yelps emerged from Zita's group. She and the other girls' clothing was once again faintly glowing, and more than that was now moving on its own, clearly wriggling and writhing on the girls' bodies, much to their surprise and bewilderment. Even Gaz, who was dragged out of her seat by her dress's movements, had lost her usual cool, eyes wide with confusion.

"What the hell's going on?!" she yelled, a note of panic in her voice as she rapidly patted herself down to try and stop her clothes' movements.

"How should we know?!" Jessica yelled back, likewise trying to pin her clothes into place.

"Well, someone do something!" Zita shouted, "And fast! My clothes feel like they're about to-"

TEAR

With a single massive sound of cloth ripping, the clothes of Gaz, Zita, Jessica, and all the other girls in their group suddenly tore apart so violently it was like they were exploding. As the resulting scraps fluttered to the floor, the girls all stood there in shock, too stunned to fully process that they were all suddenly naked, until the rest of the students in the room — whose attention had been drawn by the girls' erratic movements as their clothes came alive — all burst into uproarious laughter, pointing and jeering at them. That snapped them out of it, and they all reacted the same, squealing in embarrassment, blushing brightly, and trying to cover themselves with their arms while also simultaneously trying to hide behind one of the tables, despite the fact that there wasn't nearly enough cover for all of them.

"Move over! People can see me!" Jessica yelled, jostling Sara over to try and make more room for herself.

"They can see all of us, you stupid bimbo!" Gaz snapped, shoving several girls aside in her attempts to squeeze further out of sight, "Now give me some room!"

"You give me room!" Zita replied, actually daring to shove Gaz back, "You don't even have anything worth covering up, flat chest!"

"What did you just call me?!"

"You heard me, you masculine-looking Goth bitch!"

"What is going on here?!" a familiar voice screeched, all the laughter and the nude group's panic screeching to a halt as Miss Bitters suddenly swept into the room. Taking in the sight of the naked girls huddled behind the table, the old crone's typical glower intensified to a truly terrifying extent.

"Why are you all naked?" she demanded. Caught between humiliation at their state and fear at Miss Bitters' anger, none of the girls were able to stammer out more than a few syllables of a response before one came from elsewhere.

"They all just started jumping around for no reason, and then they tore their clothes off," someone on the other side of the room spoke up, several agreeing comments quickly chiming in.

"We didn't tear them off, they tore themselves off!" Zita protested, trying desperately to cling to some control in the situation.

"Yeah, they were moving on their own, that's why we were all running around!" Jessica added, several of the other girls rapidly nodding in confirmation.

"Your clothes were moving on their own?" Miss Bitters asked dryly, clearly not believing them. At the whole group's enthusiastic nods, she snorted, then reached into a pocket and pulled out a remote-looking device, "Well, you're all clearly suffering from a shared delusion. Good thing the Crazy House gave us this upgrade."

"Wait, what?" Gaz asked, eyes widening. But before she or any of the others could protest, Miss Bitters pressed a button on the remote. In response, a panel opened in the ceiling, and a tube came out, which began sucking up air like a giant vacuum; caught off guard, all the naked girls were pulled off their feet and dragged through the air, disappearing into the tube. A few moments later, it spat them back out, except now they were all crammed into a Crazy Bucket that was swelling out like a metal balloon to try and contain them all.

"Can't breathe!" Sara wheezed.

"Get your elbows out of my kidneys!" Jessica protested.

"Eww, I'm touching her ugly-boy body!" Zita shouted, earning a glare from Gaz, whom she was pressed up against.

"If I could move, I'd punch your teeth in," she snarled, "And why are we all in the same bucket?!"

"We barely had enough money to pay for this upgrade, let alone buy more buckets," Miss Bitters replied, as the doors to the cafeteria suddenly opened and a pair of hulking men in the white-coated uniforms of the Crazy House entered the room. Nodding towards Miss Bitters, they walked over to the overstuffed bucket and picked it up, the girls inside it screaming protests as they were carried away.

Protests that died off into shocked disbelief as they were carried past Viera, who smirked and waved at them as they passed by. Seeing their intended victim standing there fully clothed, while they had been humiliated, Gaz and the others could only stare for a moment, slack-jawed, before bursting out in enraged yells and profanity as they were carried away.

"So, is it safe for me to look now?" Dib asked, still covering his eyes but blushing anyway — while he hadn't seen anything, he'd heard enough to give him plenty of mental images, which only conjured up the memory of seeing the exposed Viera earlier.

"Yeah, you're good," Viera replied, still watching where the others had been carted off, "Man, watching that almost made everything I went through today worth it."

"Right," Dib said, blush not really going away as he looked at her, "So, about earlier-"

"No," Viera said, flatly and firmly, "We're not going to talk about it. Not now, not ever. As far as I'm concerned, now that it's settled, it never happened. Got it?"

Seeing the determined look in Viera's eyes, and honestly wanting to put the awkwardness of that moment behind him, Dib nodded in agreement. The two then quietly walked back into the cafeteria, where everyone else had settled down and gone back to their food.

All except for Zim, who had watched on in confusion and disgust as the girls he'd infected had all suddenly started running around and then torn their clothes off, all for no apparent reason. Was this some side effect of his flawed serum? But he hadn't infected Gaz, so why would she have gone crazy like the rest if that was the case?

As Zim was pondering this, elsewhere the orderlies were struggling with their human cargo, whose combined struggling was causing the bucket to shake in their hands. One of the orderlies shifted position to try and get a firmer grip on the bucket, but in the process his elbow smacked into a fire alarm switch, triggering it. As bells started and sprinklers came on, the orderlies looked at each other sheepishly, and then quickly ran off towards the exit, still carrying the Crazy Bucket. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to them, back in the cafeteria, Zim was caught unawares by the sprinklers and, having not put on any paste today, starting rolling around in agony on the floor; everyone making their way towards the nearest fire exits totally ignored him.

So in other words, what passed for normality had been restored.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

The End

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

A/N: And done. Funnily enough, the first couple of scenes were a lot easier to write than the main plot (starting with Viera's actual entry into the story), even though I figured I'd have more fun with that.

Ah well. Hope you all enjoyed it none the less.

Please review!