Author's Notes

Hi, long time no see! This is the long-awaited sequel to My Secret Santa; actually, My Secret Santa is more like a prequel, and this one's where the actual story starts...the story of a very, very long series I've been dreaming up for a while. I think it has great potential, and I'm particularly fond of it, so, even though this is just the beginning and I tend to have large gaps between my stories (this one's about a year late!), I'm hoping to stick to it and finish it someday. That aside, I hope everybody enjoys what's in store!

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Chapter 1

The Meaning Of Crazy

Here comes the rain again

Falling from the stars

Drenched in my pain again

Becoming who we are

As my memory rests

But never forgets what I lost

Wake me up when September ends

-Wake Me Up When September Ends by Green Day

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It seemed summer had just started as soon as it was over. Surprisingly enough, the past heated months had been somewhat enjoyable. Well, of course that time of the year was always enjoyable when you didn’t have your teachers always nagging at you and your peers constantly jeering at you…but any day in general was never really a highlight of enjoyment in the life of Dib.

Despite that fact, summer really hadn’t been all that bad this year. Gaz had recently applied for a job testing video games before they hit the market, and with her superior gaming skills and forceful nature…well, needless to say, she quickly got the job. With Gaz recently semi-absent and their father constantly absent, this left Dib the freedom to enjoy an empty house of silence in pure bliss…at least 90 percent of the time.

Not to mention he had also gotten in plenty of hours of Zim-spying, more than he ever could while in skool. The summer permitted him to keep his eyes on the alien 24/7, while the skool system constantly allowed his nemesis to escape his grip. So, as one would imagine, 99.5 percent of Dib’s summer was spent planting spy-bugs in Zim’s base, evading laser-shooting lawn gnomes, stalking the alien in public, attempting to expose his identity to every new person he came across…slaving over his thoughts and equipment planning new tactics, unable to erase the alien from his mind. He had even managed to coax Zim into the chlorine-infested community pool, which meant good news for his sweat-soaked human body and bad news for Zim’s Irken body. Even Dib’s digital camera had gotten some laughs out of the event…which reminded him of the footage he had downloaded waiting to be sent off to Mysterious Mysteries, unknowing of the overflowing file it would just be catalogued into.

Now, here they were, climbing up the skool system ladder once again, only this time to high skool, and nothing had changed. Zim still devised clever, new schemes to conquer Earth and best Dib, while Dib still chased Zim, doing everything within his power to foil his evil plans. Dib had even managed to place himself in all the same classes as Zim, to the annoyance of many counselors and the grief of many teachers.

As a bonus, he received an advantage that he hadn’t had since entering 7th grade – existing in a separate skool than Gaz. Since she had just entered 8th grade, he didn’t have to worry about her for another whole year, and maybe even the next year she would be social enough in high skool to let him exist in peace…but that was surely false hope. Setting aside his feelings concerning his scary sister of a sibling, Dib realized that a part of him still longed to protect his younger sibling, to ensure her safety in their cruel orb of a world…a world, he reminded himself, that he was risking life and limb to save. All tender feelings he had for his little sister, microscopic though they were, suddenly flowed out of him like the gushing of a waterfall upon hearing her voice, or rather her scream, penetrate his eardrums.

“DIB! Get your lazy butt down here, or I’m leaving WITHOUT YOU!” Oh, he almost forgot; he still had to walk to skool with her…

Slipping on his black boots, which seemed to be slowly shrinking, Dib grabbed his backpack and dashed down the stairs, trench coat flapping behind him with his quick motions. Leaping off the stairs and onto the floor, Dib saw an image he had become accustomed to seeing ever since they were little children. Punching away at the buttons on her Game Slave, Gaz stared fixedly and furiously at the console’s screen, completely absorbed.

He would’ve felt better if she had left without him…why did they have to walk to skool together anyway? As of today, he didn’t go to the middle skool anymore; could she have forgotten so quickly? No…Gaz seemed to be in a better mood than usual. If she thought the two of them still went to the same skool, he’d be sliced and diced by now. Not wanting to waste his sister’s rare, “cheery” mood, Dib moved toward the front door. The quicker he got to skool and away from Gaz, the better…

Just when he was about to open the door, however, the doorbell rang. Who could that be on a morning right before skool, at their house no less?

“Well, answer it, genius,” Gaz stated the insult calmly. Apparently, she didn’t see the oddity of their unexpected guest. Obeying his scary sibling, Dib opened the door, revealing a face they both knew all too well.

“Hi, Gaz! I thought we could walk to skool together!” an enthusiastic Splurj chimed. Gaz was less than enthused, however.

“You can shut it now,” Gaz instructed her brother, her voice showing no traces of distress or exasperation, though she certainly felt it at the sight of the boy in front of her.

“But skool starts in-” Dib started, but wasn’t allowed to finish.

“I said, SHUT THE DOOR!” Gaz shouted at him, taking matters into her own hands by forcefully slamming the door in poor Splurj’s face.

“He only wanted to walk to skool with you,” Dib turned to her, “don’t you think you’re being a bit harsh?” Wait a minute, scratch that. There wasn’t any such thing as “too harsh” when it came to Gaz.

“Fine then. You walk to skool with him,” Gaz told him, about-facing to walk in the other direction, apparently to find an alternate exit out of the house.

Any other solution lost to him, Dib opted for opening the door. Turning the somewhat squeaky doorknob, Dib swung the door open to face the kid who so recently had been “stalking” his sister.

“Where’s Gaz?” Splurj piped innocently, completely oblivious to what had just conspired.

“She’s…taking a different route to skool today,” Dib informed him, darting his eyes back inside the house to try and catch a glimpse of Gaz. Fortunately for him, and unfortunately for others, she had disappeared.

“Oh…” Splurj trailed off, his eyes wavering a bit in disappointment.

“But, I’m…sure you’ll see her at skool!” Dib forced a happy voice and smile, attempting to cheer the kid up if only to get him out of his hair.

“Okay, Dib!” Splurj said, cheery attitude seemingly renewed as he walked down their driveway and continued his walk to the middle skool.

“What a weird kid…” Dib acknowledged the boy under his breath. “I kind of feel sorry for him, running around after Gaz all the time. He’d better wise up if he hopes to keep all his limbs…”

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Gathering all the necessities he’d need for the day into his PAK, Zim scoured his “living room” for anything he might’ve missed. It seemed that horrible robot had attempted to hide everything from him after getting a hold of his PAK and throwing its contents everywhere within the vicinity. Let’s see…he’d already checked under the sofa, in the fridge, behind the TV and shelving, out in the front yard, down the “toilet” and in his base…surely the infuriating robot hadn’t gone as far down to his labs…

“I suppose anything’s possible with GIR,” Zim said to himself, trying to think of where he hadn’t looked. The only place he hadn’t checked was the robot itself.

“GIR!” Zim called out in a militaristic voice. “GIR! Where are you?” he tried again, finally getting an answer from the window.

“Yes, Master…?” GIR trailed in a singsong voice, unaware of his wrongdoing.

“Are you hiding any more of my things!” Zim asked, grabbing the robot’s antenna and lifting him off the ground. “Skool starts in ten minutes! I don’t need you goofing around with me today, GIR!” Zim scolded, GIR’s plastered smile never leaving his face.

“Hee-hee! Is the Big Head Boy gonna be at skooool today toooo…? GIR asked, his silly voice grating on the Irken’s nerves.

“Of course he is! That’s the whole point! Now that all the free time he had in summer is over, I can catch him unawares! Skool will be the Earth-Stink’s downfall!” Zim cackled evilly, completely ignoring the fact that his rival had always been more interested in him than he had ever been in skool.

“Oooh! I wanna play with Big Head Boy too!” GIR screamed, escaping his Master’s clutches for the moment and dashing for his doggy disguise. Zim just sighed at his distracted “evil” henchman.

“Looks like you’ve got a lot of time on your hands,” a new, yet oddly familiar voice crept sarcastically toward Zim’s ears. Turning his head to the open window in time to meet a brisk morning breeze, Zim caught Wiezs’ eye, the little bugger who’d been annoying him all summer.

“No! I do not have a lot of time on my-” Zim suddenly halted his retort with a gasp. “TIME! I’m going to be late for skool!” Zim hollered into the boy’s ears, rushing from the window to grab his PAK off the floor and reattach it to his back.

“Since when is an alien invader worried about skool?” Wiezs said teasingly, observing Zim’s frantic form leaping about the house with a smirk.

“You’re one to talk about attending skool!” Zim retorted to the little outlier.

“Hey, the street is my skool!” Wiezs said proudly.

“GIR! Where are you now? I require your assistance AT ONCE so that I may get to skool QUICKLY and ON TIME!” Zim screamed into the house, hoping the dysfunctional robot would hear him for once.

“OKIE-DOKIE!” a green doggy GIR sang, firing from out of nowhere underneath a protesting Zim and flying out through the door. Literally, as a stricken Wiezs was left to stare at the gaping hole in the door, chunks of wood dangling from the frame.