Author's Notes/Disclaimer: This is my first attempt at Invader Zim Fanfiction… Fear it!! Also I do not own Zim, Dib, the showMs. Bitters, and the other characters I didn't mention. Rin is mine… I think. She was spawned from some place deep within the recess of my awesome brainz.
Rin; the Doomed new Student
For once reason or another, Ms Bitters was in a more horrible mood than usual. She had been rambling on and on about how hopeless life was and that all of their greatest hopes and dreams would be smashed into oblivion. The old kid sitting in the back coughed, and Ms Bitters stopped in mid rant and flew over her desk, landing in front of his desk.
The children sitting nearby stared wide-eyes as their teacher firmly told the old man… child… thingy that he was getting transferred to the underground classroom and the floor promptly opened under his seat and swallowed the guy whole. Dib, who was greatly interested in the paranormal, had always thought this to be a little odd but remained silent as Ms. Bitters returned to her desk to continue her lecture. The old man had been failing anyway.
"Excuse me."
She was interrupted by a young girl peering in through the doorway. She had short choppy brown hair and wore a baggy white shirt that read "I Heart Nessie" The letters were really small and printed underneath a cartoonish picture of the fabled sea creature.
"What do you want?" Ms Bitters demanded spraying spit in the girl's direction.
"Well uh… I just moved here…and they told me to come to this classroom so…"
"What's your name?"
"My name's Rin," she replied looking around the classroom. Some of the students in the back had started whispering, the others continued to look at her curiously, except for one boy who remained with his hands folded and looking at the front of the classroom. She squinted at him for a moment, glanced at Ms Bitters, and then turned back to the green-skinned boy with a confused expression on her face.
Zim avoided eye-contact with the human girl and continued staring at the empty chalkboard.
"Rin, take a seat by Zim," Ms Bitters said pointing her gnarled old finger at the desk in the front row, only there was someone sitting in it.
"But Ms Bitters…" the young boy began looking uncertain at the empty seat which had belonged to the old kid. "I'm sitting here. Can't she take the empty seat in the back?"
Without a word, the teacher glared menacingly at the boy, and the floor once again opened up. The child let out a frightened scream before falling into the darkness below. The hole quickly closed, much to Rin's surprise, and she was told to take her seat. She did quickly and opened up her notebook in case she had to take notes.
"Now who can tell me the meaning of life…?" Ms Bitters asked after finishing her long lecture.
Most of the kids were falling asleep in their desks or staring dumbly around the room.
"No one?" their teacher stated, her voice sounding dull and lifeless… A cockroach fell from her face as she turned to write something on the board, and Dib gave a sigh as he drooped in his seat. Only Zim seemed not to have been bored senseless by today's banter about her usual topic of negativity towards all living things.
Suddenly Rin raised her hand.
"Umm.. Ms. Bitters? How can following your dream result in your brain exploding all over the pavement?"
The chalk snapped as the frightening old teacher turned to face the young girl.
"I mean… it's easy to concentrate on the negatives, but what about the positives? As a teacher shouldn't you be giving us both sides so that we can come to a conclusion ourselves?"
"You obviously haven't been alive very long," their teacher said. "There are no positives, you will find that out when you're older, but while you have your hand raised you might as well give us your meaningless answer."
"Oh, well no one knows for sure what the true meaning of life is…. But mine is to obtain as much knowledge as possible in my life-time and use it for the greater good."
"You will fail."
Just then the class bell rang signalling the lunch hour, and the children filed out of the classroom. There were only about eight left… most having been sent to detention for one purpose or another during Ms. Bitter's lecture.
Rin let out a relieved sigh before grabbing her notebook and putting it away. She had tried to take a lot of notes on her first day of class, but she had ended up drawing all over her papers instead. None of the other kids had been taking notes anyway…
"Zim!" she called to the green skinned boy who was heading out the door. She placed her backpack over one shoulder before following after him.
The odd looking kid gave her an odd look. "What do you want filthy earth child?" he questioned irritably. "Can't you see Zim is busy?"
"Yeah uh… no actually," she said when she realized that Zim hadn't been doing anything. "It's just, well… You're green."
"It's a skin condition," he replied loudly, startling some of his classmates as the walked by. "I am a normal human creature!"
Rin stared blankly at him for a moment. "Ok…"
"Are you done bothering Zim stupid human? I have much to do before that horrible class of inferior learning begins!"
"Could you show me where the cafeteria is?"
"That filthy place of filthy humans eating their filthy food!?" He paused and looked back down the hall. "I mean, of course! Follow me worm-child. Zim will show you."
"You sound very alien like to me," she admitted with a giggle. "Oh well, at least no one will ever get bored speaking to you."
"You mock Zim!?"
"No no," she raised her hands defensively when Zim shot her an angry look. "It was a compliment."
"Oh, I see. Well then… I guess I won't have to make you pay for mocking the almighty Zim!"
He stopped just as he reached the cafeteria doors and recoiled in disgust when he smelled the meats inside.
They were serving some horrible kind of sausage like things again! After being turned into a baloney, he had no desire to go anywhere near the stuff.
"Ugh… well, I really have to get going. Don't kill yourself trying to eat the horrible worm food…"
He waved at her to go with his free hand before heading back down the hall.
As soon as she entered the cafeteria, she was approached by a boy wearing a trench coat. He must have passed her sometime in the hall since his desk was closer to the windows than it was the door.
"What did you think?" he asked glaring defiantly at the cafeteria doors as though he expected Zim to walk in at any minute and cause some kind of trouble.
"Of?"
"Of Zim."
"Oh… he seems nice."
Dib slapped his forehead and uttered a hopeless sigh. Were humans really this stupid!? Why couldn't he find just one person, ONE that could see through Zim's crudely made disguise?
"He talks like he's from outer space, and he looks like he's from outer space… Why can't anybody see Zim's an alien!?"
He shouted a little too loudly and caught the attention of the kids sitting at the table closest to them. For fun, they threw there food at the crazy boy who stood there for a moment with a bemused expression on his face before wiping the mashed potatoes (at least the looked like potatoes… kind of) and the sausage juice from his face.
"Crazy boy is at it again!" one of them laughed and the whole table joined in.
"I thought so," Rin said quietly so that the other children couldn't hear her. "I wouldn't say anything though… I mean, if he's discovered he might get hurt so…"
"That's the whole point! He's been trying to destroy the Earth for over a year now! If I expose him, the Earth will be saved!"
"We're tired of hearing your stupid stories large head!" a larger boy shouted from his table. Two girls had dropped their food off at a table before coming to Rin's "rescue."
"It's better if you just ignore him," the girl with frizzy red hair explained. "He's pretty much insane"
"He even claimed to see Bigfoot in his garage," the other girl remarked snickering.
Dib hung his head a little. "He was using the belt sander…" he murmured. Of course he knew no one would believe him. They never did. Before he could say anything else, the girls whisked Rin away, and Dib went to stand in the lunch line, listening to the snickers of his fellow schoolmates. He would prove himself one day…
He sat down at one of the empty tables and placed his tray down before leaning on his fist and gazing off into the distance. He would find a way to expose Zim, even if it killed him.
A tray clattered down next to his as Rin pulled up a seat beside him. She had a coy look on her face as she began eating what she hoped was some kind of BEEF sausage… though from the smell she had a feeling that she would be lucky if it was even racoon. Maybe it was opossum. She'd eaten strange things before though, so this idea didn't really frighten her so much,
"Rin?" Dib questioned in confusion. He was used to people avoiding him like this plague or calling him names, from a safe distance of course. No body knew when the crazy boy might snap.
"Sorry about that," she said stabbing one of the meaty looking things with her fork.
"Sorry? But… don't you think I'm crazy? I thought those girls…"
"I scared them away with my Nessie bantering; I don't think they'll bother me again."
She gave him a smile before shoving a piece of meat into her mouth. Something crunched, and she made a face. Those better not have been opossum claws…
"You believe in the Loch Ness Monster too?" Dib asked; his voice filled with hope. Maybe it was possible for him; a school reject, to have a friend. He wouldn't get his hopes up too much though… The last time someone talked to him like this, it had been a sick joke.
"I believe in the possibility of the Loch Ness monster," she said after swallowing the strange meaty substance. "My father believes in it full heartedly though. He got me this shirt when he went to the Loch in search of the creature last spring. Right now he's in Antarctica looking for evidence of the snow yeti."
"Ah yes… Bigfoot's cousin," Dib said nodding. "I guess he's a paranormal researcher?"
"Yeah, he would have pounced on Zim if he saw him… he's into aliens and UFOs too. Personally, I had my doubts about alien existence, but seeing Zim made me change my mind."
"You should see his base," Dib said letting his doubts about the girl's sincerity fall away. "It's filled with all sorts of alien type things. You'd probably appreciate it more than Gaz does."
"That's his house," Rin said playing with the mush on her plate with her fork. "Even if I was interested, I'd have to be invited over. I don't agree with trespassing."
"I guess you're against alien autopsy too then…" Dib spoke sounding almost disappointed.
"You guessed right, the very idea of it gives me shivers. You'd like my dad though, he's into everything. My mom supports him the best she can, but he's been spending a lot of money recently."
They talked for the whole lunch period. Rin spoke about her father and his research, and her mom and her involvement in POOP Corporation. Dib mentioned his father, Professor Membrane only once, and the girl seemed surprised to find out that she was sharing a classroom with the famous professor's son.
The bell went and they walked back to class together. A few of the kids in the hallway stared. They couldn't believe Dib was actually talking to someone, and he sounded almost normal for a change! Rin didn't seem to mind the stares, and he gave a sigh of relief. Maybe he could be friends with her… maybe.
"I see the filthy earth food didn't kill you human girl," Zim stated impassively. His hands were folded on his desk; he seemed innocent enough, but Dib couldn't help looking around to see if the alien might have done something to the room. There were no obvious signs of tampering…
Rin smiled at the disguised alien and popped a piece of gum into her mouth as she sat down in her seat. "I wouldn't let something like that kill me," she said. "At least, not on my first day of Skool anyway, though I think tomorrow I'm going to play it safe and bring a bagged lunch."
They worked on a five paged math worksheet for the rest of class. Dib seemed to be good with numbers, and he finished ahead of nearly everyone. Then again… there were still only eight kids in the classroom, so he might not have been the fastest on a normal day. Rin mulled about, erasing numbers and reprinting them back on the page over and over again. These questions never made any sense to her. She raised her hand for help once, but Ms. Bitters told her to figure it out on her own. With a sigh, she slumped in her seat.
Zim had been staring angrily at his paper for a long time… when he saw that Rin was no longer working on hers, he gave her a fiendish smirk and asked "were you defeated by these earth numbers Rin-human?"
"No, I'm just taking a break," she replied glancing over at his paper. "You haven't written anything at all Zim."
"I know, but these earth numbers don't make sense to Zim. I command them to reveal their secrets to Zim!"
"Well Ms. Bitters wasn't any help..." She glanced over at Dib who was watching the clock tick by.
"Maybe that kid could help. He seems to be pretty good at this."
"That filthy human Dib? Never!" Zim exclaimed.
"That's Dib?" Rin questioned, and the boy glanced at her before turning back to looking out the window.
"He seems ok to me."
"You lie!"
Whatever they didn't finish was due for homework, and Rin gave a short sigh as she stuffed the only half completed package into her backpack.
More Notes: Is Rin a self-insert? No way. You crazy. Basically I probably would have used Gaz if I liked her character more. Sorry Gaz, and then Tak is…well she's lost in space somewhere, so I decided to place my own character in the story. I wonder if that will be ok. I don't usually like putting my own characters in fanfiction. It feels kind of wrong, somehow… But oh well. It's worth a shot I guess. A super toast to shots!