Chapter 16
Jail wasn't THAT bad. Hahaha, yeah, it was. First minute there I was informed by my cell mate that I shouldn't pick up my soap. Whatever that means... It sounded really cryptic to me.
I was waiting for my trial here. You'd think I wouldn't go to jail, since I was a minor, but it sort of was an adult jail, but there were minors here, too. My cell mate was a minor, for instance, but this whole facility wasn't all for us. It wasn't juvenile hall. It was the real, scary thing.
Guess the President Man had passed a law recently so all minors should be treated as adults. Yay, not.
I still waited for Zim impatiently. I couldn't understand why he hadn't busted me out yet. What was he waiting for?
I ended up crying myself to sleep at night. My cell mate slept through it because I did it as quietly as possible.
The food was horrible here...They served goop for breakfast. Goop for lunch. Goop with an extra side of goop for dinner.
I thought I was going insane.
But still, I waited. There wasn't much anything else to do.
The morning everything changed I woke up, my pillow wet. I had been crying in my sleep, I guess. Again. Sighing, I turned over to my back, and tried to remember the dream. I stared at the top of the bottom of the bunk bed. My cell mate's heavy form made it slump a little in the middle.
Zim had been in my dream, I knew that...Everything else was a little bit foggier, and I couldn't remember. That should have made me happier, because even if I couldn't see Zim physically, I could at least see him in my dreams. But it didn't really brighten my spirits at all.
I wiped my face, and got up slowly, trying not to wake my cell mate. She wasn't very nice when I did that.
I changed into my striped black and white jumpsuit, (stereotypical, I know) and washed my face in the sink. The filthy mirror showed me as someone I didn't know. I started crying again, my tears dropping in the sink and down the drain.
I accidentally let a wet, choking sound come out of me, and my eyes widened and I spun around. She hadn't woken up. Good. I would have to be more careful... I slid down to the floor, shivering. Suddenly, and officer showed up at the bars. I looked up and tried to look as if I wasn't crying. She smiled sympathetically, and I hated that. I hate sympathetic looks—the word 'sympathetic' still has 'pathetic' in it. Her name tag had Susan written on it. She was probably just in here for my cell mate, or something. I didn't pay much attention to her after I thought this, until she spoke.
"Avi," she said, and I looked at her curiously, "you have a visitor."
I stood up, shocked. Maybe it was Zim! My excitement must have showed on my face because she laughed. "You know the drill though," she said seriously. "Or you should know it. I have to handcuff you."
I eagerly ran over and she handcuffed me. "Someone's excited," she commented. I didn't say anything, because I didn't find the need to, and I followed her.
As soon as I started walking, I felt like everything would be okay. Maybe Zim was here to inform me that in the next couple of hours he'd blow this place up, or something. That seemed reasonable, actually, especially for him. This place was hell anyway. Some people in here would be happy if he blew it up. With them still inside it.
As the different cells, I started feeling sorry for some of the people in here. I know I probably shouldn't, since they're criminals, but they looked so caged...And then one wolf whistled at me and I tried unsuccessfully to flip them off wearing handcuffs. Dammit. It ended up being some weird jerk thing that made me look like I was trying to rip my arms out of their sockets.
After that I stared straight ahead with a 'you mess with me 'n you die' look. Sad that I'd had to go from pathetically crying one second then tough the next. Ah well. I was used to it.
Finally, we reached a door, and Susan went up in front of me to unlock it on her keys. Inside the door, or should I say room, it was very brightly lit, which made me blink and my eyes water from my pupils trying to go small in a short period of time. I squinted and looked around, and saw a bunch of rows of areas where I guess you could sit down and talk to visitors on one side. You've probably seen them in the movie—there's a chair and a desk thing, with a pane of unbreakable glass, and a black phone. The criminal sits on one side, the visitor the other.
Susan led me to very end of it, and my heart sped up. Was Zim behind one of these? She made me sit down and I stared across from where I sat.
It certainly was not who I expected.
"Dib?!"
You have GOT to be kidding me. I repeated this out loud and Dib looked nervous. I don't think it was because my handcuffs were being taken off, though, for some reason. No, I wasn't let off that easily because another officer appeared behind me, and so I guess if I ran off they'd jump on me. I didn't really plan to make a daring escape at the moment, because Dib being here made it seem a lot more complicated.
I realized Dib hadn't heard me, because I hadn't been talking in the phone. Maybe that was why he looked so nervous—he saw my lips moving and the look on my face—it probably looked like I was angry and cussing him out or something.
I grabbed the phone quickly. "What're you doing here?" I asked him. Not that I wasn't flattered, or anything, except he was the last person I would think would visit me. For hell's sake, I thought he hated me or something! I don't think I paid him back for that hat money...
"I mean," I got out, "you're...I mean...What the...What's a nice way of saying 'what the hell are you DOING here?'"
"Well...Actually, I don't know," Dib said. He gave me a weird look through the glass. "But anyway, since I'm pretty sure Zim hasn't visited you yet, I decided to... Okay, Zim's promised me that he won't try to brainwash the human race with this new advertisement on TV as long as I visited you and told you that...uh...He's... 'Coming soon'? He's just trying to figure out a way to..." Dib stopped, looking a little confused. "'Strip the onions of their sweet, juicy energy that will soon...'"
"Yeah?"
"He sort of just rambled after that and hit things."
"Oh."
"Mhmm...Well...See ya!" He said this abruptly and jumped off the chair.
"Wait wait!" I said, loud as I could through the phone.
He must have heard it because he reluctantly came back and picked it up.
"Yeah?"
"So he's coming?"
"Yeah."
"...With...onion power?"
"I think so..." I was silent for a second while I contemplated this.
"Well you can tell him that...I. DON'T. CARE. ABOUT. THE. STUPID. ONIONS! D'you hear me? D'YOU HEAR ME? Get him here by effing car! Or plane! AN EFFING FLYING SQUIRREL! ANYTHING! I don't give a shit! I need him here NOW! NOOOOW!" Dib had dropped the phone and had started backing up, and I collapsed in a fit of tears on the table, dropping my phone also. Once he realized I was done, he came back and picked it up again. It had fallen right next to my left ear, so I could still hear him.
"Alright," he squeaked.
"Sorry," I said, coming up and sniffling. I picked up the phone. These mood swings had been happening a lot lately. Jail does that to you, I suppose. "Thank you though. A lot. I really appreciate you coming here... But...Why couldn't Zim come here himself?"
"He was too busy with his onions..." Another flare of anger hit me but I held it back, for Dib's sake. I'd said what I wanted Zim to hear.
"Y'know...I kind of get why you two like each other," Dib looking at me as though I was insane.
"Why?" I asked him, sincerely curious.
"You both scream...A lot." I managed a smile.
"Oh...I think there's something I need to tell you, too," I added more quietly...
"Hm?" Dib asked, his scythe raising just a bit.
"You see..." I started, going slowly.
"Oh. My. Gosh."
"Well, I'm not fully sure, you know."
"I know. But still. I can't believe you..." Dib looked scarred.
"Shh! I know."
"Is it...good that this happened?"
"I think so," I said, grinning.
"Wow," Dib said. "Wooow...That IS creepy..."
I rolled my eyes. "It's not creepy, Dib."
"Okay, I guess not. But..."
"Yeah," I finished for him.
"So why did you tell me? You don't expect me to tell him, do you?"
"Of course not," I replied. "I'll tell him myself. It's just, I didn't have anybody to tell...I didn't feel like blabbering off to anyone, and..."
"Oh," Dib said, looking mystified. "Wow," he said again, looking at me differently.
"I know." It was absolutely amazing.