Only five more minutes and then we'd be free. All we had to do was hold on a little longer. That wasn't too much to ask. Freedom was just around the corner. Four more minutes left now. I glanced at Dib from the corner of my eye and saw him staring at the time as intently as I was. On the other side of the room, Zim had his chest pressed against the desk, his claws digging into the woodwork with desperation. Three minutes. Two minutes. One minute.

"Doom, doom, doooooom. Go home now!"

Yes! The bell cried down the corridors and doors swung open to let in a welcoming breeze of cool air. I pushed my books into my bad and jumped from my seat, shivering as Ms. Bitters slithered like a shadow across the room and out of the door.

"Man, I thought that was never going to end!" Dib groaned.

"Tell me about it, there's only so much doom a person can take in one day." I laughed.

His eyes narrowed, "Speaking of which."

I turned around and saw Zim standing directly behind me. His powder-blue eyes shone with mischief and his arms were folded in a demeaning manor. I greeted this with a grin, never failing to throw him off balance.

"Hey Zim, got any plans for summer?" I asked.

He shrugged, "Oh, nothing Amy-beast, nothing at all." He waved his hand passively, "However, I do know what you are planning during this sweltering Earth season."

"And what's that?" I asked, suddenly feeling nervous.

He sensed my discomfort and pressed on it, "Details yet to be detained, but oh what a special day is vastly approaching, wouldn't you say?"

I scoffed, turning away to readjust my bag, "I don't know what you're talking about. Come on, Dib, let's go."

He eyed me questioningly and for once, looked at Zim for answers, "What's going on Zim?"

Zim smirked at me, knowing he'd won this time. He opened his mouth to answer when I quickly reached into my bag and pulled out a half-empty bottle of water, aiming it threateningly at the alien. He paused in mid snarl and glared at me.

"You wouldn't dare…"

"You want to risk it?" I challenged.

For effect, I allowed a single drop of the liquid to seep from the cap and drip onto the floor. The splashes making him wince. I arched an eyebrow. He growled and turned on his heel.

"You may have won this battle, human, but it shall be Zim who wins the… thing… greater than battle!"

"You mean war?" Dib asked sceptically.

Zim threw his arms in the air, "You dare declare war on the amazing Zim? A war it shall be!"

As he vanished down the corridor, I couldn't help but chuckle at the echoes of his maniacal laughter. However, as I turned back to face Dib, I knew that I still wasn't in the clear. He placed his fists on his hips and cocked a brow at me, waiting for an explanation. I shrugged, pretending that I didn't know what he was getting at and turned to leave. The only problem was, was that Dib never let anything go once his curiosity was peeked. Much like Zim unfortunately…

"And that was about…?" he left the question hang in the air.

"Look, it's nothing; just forget about it, please?"

"And you've known me to do that… when?"

I smirked, "Please? I'll tell you another time okay? So, what do you usually do for summer holidays?"

He noticed that I was trying to change the subject and followed on it, "Well, now that skool's out, stopping Zim becomes a full time job. And now that there's two of us protecting the Earth, we might even get to expose him for the alien scum that he is!" he punched the air in early triumph.

"Hate to burst your bubble there, but you know that I don't want to expose Zim. He may be an alien and a little dangerous sometimes but I still see him as a friend. A very… dysfunctional and one-sided friendship fair enough, but still…"

He rolled his eyes, "I know, but a guy can dream right?"

"Right." I grinned, following him out of the classroom.

Later that night, Dib and I were in my bedroom, gathered around my laptop and scanning the surveillance cameras that GIR had so kindly placed for us a few weeks ago. We were looking right into the depths of Zims base. He was standing in front of his computer, scanning symbols in his native writing that I had still yet to learn. Dib narrowed in on the screen.

"What's he reading?" I asked.

"I don't know, the camera's too far away to read, but I can see a few bits here and there." He adjusted his glasses, "Annual? Birth? What's he looking those up for? Hey, he's bringing up skool records now!"

I slammed the laptop shut and flicked the 'off' switch. He stared at me in horror, hands flying up to the sides of his head.

"What did you do that for? We could have seen what he was up to!"

I stammered, "Well, we shouldn't be looking at skool records, so… by watching him looking at them, it's the same thing… yeah?"

"Okay, what's up? You've been acting weird ever since Zim earlier."

Wow, I must really be nervous if Dib was calling me weird. I put on my best grin and rolled my eyes, trying to look as nonchalant as possible and failing miserably.

"Nothing, everything's fine! Hey, why don't we check out the big-foot tracker instead? You haven't looked at them in ages."

"Amy." He said, voice lowering with warning.

I sighed, "Dib?"

He smirked and folded his arms, "Okay, so if it's really nothing… Then you won't mind me asking Zim about it?"

I froze, "You wouldn't dare…"

He let out a laugh of triumph and gave me a final flash of a grin before turning on his heel and sprinting out of sight. Man I hated when he ran. I could never keep up with him, curse this asthma! I chased after him nevertheless and got to the bottom of the stairs just in time to see the tip of his black hair vanish out of the front door. I quickly followed after him and looked at the house next door that stood out like a sore thump among the pain, grey streets. Dib hoped around the back of the garden gnomes through the blind-spots and started pounding his fist on the door. The breath caught in my chest as I sprinted after him.

Just as the front door opened, I jumped and slammed into the back of Dib, sending him flying face first onto the ground. He turned and tried to push me off of him, but ended up rolling me onto my back. I shoved his arms out of the way and pushed myself up, slamming his back into the floor. I couldn't tell if he was laughing or growling at me, but I ignored it as I tried to cover his mouth with my hand. I couldn't let him talk to Zim, I just couldn't!

"Ahem!"

Dib and I froze in mid-struggle at the sound of someone clearing their throat loudly at them. We both looked up to see a rather amused green figure, arching a brow at us with a wry smirk. One of his antenna quirked as he tried to suppress a laugh.

"As much as this entertains me, and also adds to the list of things Zim never thought he'd see…" he sighed, "GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!"

I jumped to my feet as Dib shoved me off of him and brushed himself off.

"I'm here to ask you something!" Dib snapped, "What's going on? What is it you know that's got her so freaked?"

Zim folded his arms in victory, "Secrets, such powerful things, wouldn't you agree? Especially those we keep hidden."

"Zim, leave it." I ordered, narrowing my eyes.

As I was taller than him by a good head, he felt inclined to almost follow what I said, however he composed himself and raised his brows mockingly.

"It seems that a certain event is coming up, and the Amy-human here is ashamed of it, mortified even. You did wrong allowing me this emotional reaction; you only pushed me to use it further."

I lunged and clasped my hand over his green lips, his ruby eyes widening in shock. Dib stood frozen at the sight. He grinned and started egging me on. I ignored him, if I could just restrain Zim for a moment or two, then I'd be able to drag Dib away and be safe for a while longer. Just for a few more days anyway. That's all I needed. I'd been so close!

I recoiled in disgust as something snake-like and wet slithered over my fingers. I exclaimed and snatched my hand away and rubbed the gooey liquid onto my jeans. Zim gagged brushed me away, swatting away the invisible human germs from his tongue.

"You liked me!" I cried.

"You ever do that to me again…" he growled, "And my tongue shall be the least of your problems."

"For the love of yeti, will someone just tell me what's going on?" Dib cried, throwing his arms in the air.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMY-CAKES!"

My blood turned to ice in my veins. We all turned to see GIR standing in the doorway to the kitchen, holding a large cupcake in his hands with a lit candle poking from it. The brown icing was hissing slightly and the sponge appeared to be bubbling. However, the acid looking cake was the least of my problems. Zim was grinning at me in victory while Dib just stared at me, baffled.

"So let me get this straight… All this fuss, was over you not wanting us to know it was your birthday?"

I blushed, when he said it like that, it sounded pretty pathetic. But he had no idea…

"HA! Victory for Zim! Now the world will know of this birthday and shun you for the pig-meat you are!"

Dib arched his brow, "Zim, what exactly do you think a birthday is?"

Zim scoffed, "Silly Dib-worm, it is obvious to Zim that a birthday is an annual event that causes the victim much fuss and discomfort, forced to undergo such rituals and never be left alone for a certain period of time. It looks torture! Forced into the lime-light and held in front of flaming cakes and opening boxes constantly under the fear that something may attack! There is no escaping it Amy-human, let the birthday madness begin!"

Zim finished his rant and, even I who just wanted the ground to swallow me up, had to laugh. In some cases, he was right, but the whole concept was totally off. I shook my head, thankfully Dib explained.

"No… Just, no. A birthday is when a human celebrated the day they were born, making them a year older. Wait…" he jolted and stared at me, "It's your birthday? What's so bad about that?"

I blushed, "It's not my birthday yet, it's in a weeks time. And… I didn't want anyone to know because, like loud mouth said, I don't like being the centre of attention."

GIR giggled, "Loud mouth…"

Dib's expression softened as he rolled his eyes, "That's just… stupid." He laughed.

"It's not! Every birthday people have been fussing and gathering around and I just feel like I'm some animal in a zoo for people to gawk at. Birthdays just aren't my thing."

"And now you're secret is revealed!" Zim cackled, pointing dramatically, "Never a moments peace shall you have until this birthday is over! HA!"

Dib grimaced, "I'm kind of with space-boy on this one, sorry, everyone has to celebrate their birthday."

My jaw dropped. Seriously, he chose now of all times to side with Zim? All this time I've been trying to get them to cooperate and this is what they team up about? Oh, that was it!

GIR bounced on the spot, the cake swaying dangerously, "Wish now! Wish now!"

My eyes brightened, perfect, "Okay, you two want me to celebrate it, I will. Surely you are both aware of the birthday wish being a binding contract?"

Sure, I was over exaggerating, but I was annoyed. Dib nodded and Zim eyed me warily.

"I suppose you could call it that…" Dib muttered.

"As an Irken operative, a contract is something that I can understand, in whatever shape or form…" Zim gulped.

"So whatever the birthday 'victim' wishes for," I said using my fingers as air quotes, "they must get, or else…"

GIR hopped over and felt the bubbling cake up to me. I narrowed my eyes on the pair of enemies who were starting to back away nervously. The perfect revenge. I should have used this to my advantage long ago!

"My birthday wish: I wish that from this moment, until the end of my birthday, that Dib and Zim…" pause for effect, "became the best of friends!"