School trip of changes

Chapter 2: Flight

Dib unlocked the front door of his house, happy for being out of school. With a lot of noise the lock of the door opened, letting Dib push it open and enter. He went to his room, threw his backpack under his desk and dropped onto his bed.

Today was Friday. 'Thank god!', Dib thought. He liked Fridays. Not that they only meant weekend, but they also meant that Dib`s father, Prof. Membrane, would be home until at least Saturday evening, maybe even Sunday. When Dib was younger and his father decided to spend more time with his children, he had been almost as happy as never before. That time he really missed his father while he was gone, since he had no one to turn to if he had a problem. Now he actually didn't care that much anymore, but he still was glad to see his father from time to time. He also wasn't called insane anymore, now he was called 'cured' by his father all the time. He didn't talk about paranormal beings and faked some interest in REAL science. Which seemed to make his father very proud.

Reaching over to his backpack under the desk, Dib pulled out the sheet of paper their teacher had given them.

School trip

Dear parent(s),

the school has decided that the French class of the 11th grade is allowed to make a school trip to Paris this year. Meeting is at 7am at the town's airport.

Make sure your son/daughter brings following items with him/her:

-enough clothing

-toothbrush, toothpaste, soap (etc.)

-enough money, but not too much

He/she is NOT allowed to bring:

-cellphone

-laptops

-video games

-alcohol/drugs/cigarettes

-weapons/pocket knifes

-medicaments*

In case something happens, the teachers will inform you about it.

*If your son/daughter needs to take medicine regularly, please bring us proof from his/her doctor and the medicaments.

My son/daughter ________ (name) is allowed to join the school trip to Paris. Sincerely ___________(signature).

Dib had been on a school trip before, but that was a very long time ago. Even before Zim came to earth. Afterwards there were always dates for school trips, but none of them was really made, for different reasons. This must also be why the school trip was next week already, so nothing could destroy the plan of going to Paris.

Dib looked at his clock. 5:00pm. Half an hour ago, he had reached his home. Had he really been lying this long on his bed? Dib shrugged and got up. He made his way to the living room and dropped onto the couch, turning the TV on. Until his father would come how, Dib could watch some TV, afterwards convincing his father to let him go to the school trip. Knowing Membrane, the boy would have to fight a bit so his father would let him go. He never asked why.

6pm

Dib had been sitting one whole hour in front of the TV, but after half an hour Gaz had sat next to him, claiming the remote and switching to the another channel. It was a cartoon, with the story of her Game Slave games. Once, Dib had told Gaz to switch channels while it was playing, saying that it was a cartoon for little kids. He still regretted that day.

However, suddenly the door flew open and Membrane was standing in the doorway in a 'I'm-the-best-position'. „Hello son and daughter!", he said loudly. His appearance hadn't changed a bit in the last couple of years. While people had expected him to start looking older or maybe get into his midlife crises, he didn't. No changes, no crises. Also, he hadn't changed calling his children 'daughter' and 'son'. It appeared weird for everyone outside the little family, but Dib and Gaz got used to it, knowing Membrane wouldn't stop calling them that way, anyways. Everybody had their little weirdnesses inside the family. Even though this family was actually completely odd mixed. The father great scientist, the son called crazy and the daughter always beating up others. But somehow they managed to get along.

"Hi, Dad.", Dib said, while Gaz just muttered 'hi'. Membrane closed the door carefully and went into the kitchen. "Did you two eat, yet?", he asked. "Yes.", Dib answered him. They had eaten in the cafeteria before. Not that he wouldn't have wanted something that also looked like it was meant to be eaten, but knowing his father, the meal wouldn't taste any better than the one in the cafeteria. "Well, then.", Membrane said, not looking at Dib, starting to prepare himself a sandwich.

Dib rocked himself back and forth on his feet. He was a bit nervous to ask his Dad about the school trip, since Membrane seemed to dislike them and wouldn't like his son being on one. Finally, the teenager got himself into asking. "Dad, there's something about school, I need you to sign." He pulled the sheet of paper out, holding it towards his father, who had finished making his lunch. Membrane grabbed the letter suspiciously and read over it. After a few seconds he gave it back to Dib and shook his head. "No, son, I don't want you to be anywhere without me having the chance to observe you and look after you from time to time. You know there are many bullies in your French class and it's not like they wouldn't pummel you from time to time." Dib looked confused at his father, did he actually care? "You're lying. It's not about the bullies. Why don't you want me to go? You know I can handle some pummeling and my classmates and in case they're beating me up really harshly there is always a teacher around!" the boy tried to convince his obviously stubborn father. "Son, it's a trip with boys and girls." "Wat do you-", Dib wanted to ask, but then quickly got the message and a faint blush came to his face. "DAD! It's not like we're sharing rooms with girls or something!" He held the letter in front of Membrane's face with an almost begging expression. His father sighed and grabbed the letter. "Fine. If you want to go so badly...", he said and filled the empty spots in the letter. Dib received the signed letter. "Thanks, Dad.", he said and left to his room quickly. He started wondering. Zim had never been on a school trip before. What would he say?

Meanwhile...

Zim went to his house. As soon as he reached door, his self-made robots opened the door. "Welcome home, son!", RoboDad said. As soon as Zim had went inside the base and closed the door, both robots went back into their closets. GIR was sitting in front of the large TV, watching the "Scary monkey show". "HI, MASTAH!", the little robot yelled, looked at Zim, but then quickly turned back to watch the monkey... breathing. As the green alien saw the monkey on TV, he wondered why it hadn't been canceled yet. But before he started to care about this he turned his gaze towards the letter he held in his hand. "Why would I want to be stuck with a bunch of FILTHY humans?", he asked himself, about to tear the letter apart, when his computer raised it's voice. "Zim, if you don't join the trip and can't come up with a good reason why not, especially the enemy might notice something." "You're right!", Zim yelled. "But how will I behave so they won't notice anything during this trip?!", he asked himself. While Zim was thinking of many different situations, he could get stuck in, the computer used one of the wires to sign the letter, with a handwriting of an adult. Then is scanned the list of things they would need. "But on the other hand..." , Zim talked to himself, before his mechanical house interrupted him once again. "Zim, I-"

"Bu QUIIEEET!! I'm trying to think!!", the boy yelled. The computer went silent and wouldn't dare to annoy Zim for the rest of the day. Ever since Dib and him had stopped fighting, Zim was really aggressive. Not to his classmates or teachers. But to the computer, GIR and even his all mighty tallest. A human would say it was just puberty, but it was something else. When Zim had fought against the Dib-human, he had let all his anger and power out on him, now that they weren't fighting anymore, the anger and aggression was stuck inside Zim's body and needed to get out from time to time.

The weekend went as usual for both, human and alien. Zim tried inventing something to destroy all humans, which failed because of GIR and Dib got beaten up by his sister once. Not as hard as usually, but it was still painful. And just because he forgot to tape her cartoon, while she was out on a gamer convention.

At Monday at 7am all the students of the French class stood in front of the airport with suitcases. Dib looked around. He saw all the students hugging or kissing people to say goodbye for the week. Just he was alone. Neither Gaz, nor his father seemed to care that the boy would be gone for a couple of days, there was only one person as lonely as him. Zim. He stood away from the crowd, as if enjoying his last moments without humans that close to him. Dib couldn't help but feeling sorry for him. No one of his own kind around and living with the enemy for 24 hours a day? Not quite an experience Dib would like to make. Him being alone, so helpless in case someone discovered something, so...- what was he thinking?! He couldn't start caring about Zim. Even though they weren't enemies anymore, he was an alien. Not human!

Their teacher cleared her throat loudly and asked for attention, then she began her explanation. "Good morning, students. I hope all of you are ready and got their letters with them. This is Mr. Elliot. He will be there to take care of the boys if they have a problem. I'll be there for the girls. We will go together to the plane we are going to take now. You will line up and before entering, I will check the letters of every single one of you. Now come on." Some last hugs and kisses were given and taken in the crowd and then the students followed the teachers to the airplane. Dib wondered that Gaz's teacher was joining the trip, but didn't really care. He lined up with the others.

All the students gave their letters to the teacher, while Mr. Elliot ticked the names on the list of those who had a letter and could join. As it was Dib`s turn he quickly gave the female teacher his letter. When he was about to enter the plane, Mr. Elliot started talking. "Dib! Nice to see you! Remember? Mr. Elliot? Your sisters teacher?" "Yes.", Dib said and entered the plane to escape an annoying talk with the blond haired man. When it was Zim's turn, however, the teacher gave him a weird look and commanded him to wait outside the plane until everyone entered, so they could talk. "Zim. Your parents didn't sign this for you, you did it yourself.", she said waving the letter in front of Zim's face.

Zim has had enough of that teacher and his anger was really large today, since GIR had almost destroyed the whole base. "JUST SHUT UP YOU STUPID BITCH!! MY PARENTS DID SIGN THIS!! IF YOU AREN`T GOOD ENOUGH TO SEE THEN FINE! LEAVE ME HERE!! MY PARENTS WON'T BE HAPPY ABOUT IT!!!", the boy yelled as loud as possible, not caring about the students that looked out of the windows at him and the teacher curiously. Mr. Elliot seemed unable to process so much anger and the female teacher just stared at him, before making a movement for Zim to get inside the plane. Without another word the alien entered. As he did so, all students looked away from him quickly, afraid that they were the next one Zim would yell at.

After the teenager had calmed himself down a bit, he looked around for a free seat. There was only one left. Next to Dib. Zim's expression turned shocked and he looked around another time. Him sitting next to his ex-arch enemy for a couple of hours? NO WAY. But when the teacher told him to finally get a seat, with her expression still shocked, he moved slowly towards Dib, who was just staring out of the window, his backpack on the free seat, apparently not thinking someone would sit next to him.

The green boy cleared his throat, making Dib look up and stare at him surprised. Zim felt uncomfortable about asking Dib to let him sit with him and showed it with his expression. "Uhm... well... all the other seats are taken and ... can I sit here, Dib-human?". He asked, using one of the nicer nicknames to get that seat. It took Dib a couple of seconds to process the message, but then he took the backpack off the seat, lying it in front of his feet, answering. "Sure.", he answered as if it was the most natural thing to have Zim sitting next to him. The alien made a thankful expression as he let himself fall into the seat. He looked around to learn a bit more about the inside of a plane. He wondered why there wasn't anything like in a spaceship, but quickly pushed the thought away as he noticed Dib's elbow giving him a soft push. "Hey, watch-", he was about to say as he saw the teacher in front of him. A dark glare in her eyes. "The answer, Zim." Zim looked around nervously. The teacher sighed and stopped glaring, taking a couple of steps away from him. She started talking again, a hint of anger in her voice. But Zim just couldn't listen and also didn't want to. He glanced over at Dib, next to him.

The human had been staring at Zim for quite a long time now and just realized it as soon as the alien looked at him with an odd expression on his face. "What are you staring at, Dib-thing?", he asked. Dib was surprised once again. He didn't know what to answer. He had been staring at Zim to enjoy the green one's beauty and... sexiness. Once again the boy asked himself what he had been thinking and finally noticed that he had been quiet for a long time now. "Nothing.", he then answered. "Okay.", Zim answered. He actually wanted to yell that Dib lied, but considering the weird situation he decided it wouldn't be the best to start a fight now. After all, people didn`t think he was weird, anymore and he wanted them to keep thinking he was normal.

While Dib and Zim looked into different directions, both of them were burned by questions. Dib was thinking how Zim had been, How was he? What did he do? Was he ever on a school trip-like thing? Was he still on his plan? And that were only a few questions from all of those the human wanted to ask. As for Zim it wasn't different, he wanted to know more as well. What did Dib do? Why isn't he called crazy anymore? What about his family? Is he still interested in Zim? And probably the most important one of all: Where had he been?! Zim had needed someone to fight. All the time. There wasn't one day on which he wouldn`t think back of the time when Dib used to fight him. Trying to proof his existence to all man kind.

They hadn't realized that the flight had started and they had put their seat belts on without noticing it. After around half an hour Dib finally raised his voice. "So... have you ever been on a school trip before?", he asked, hoping to receive and answer and not having to fear of Zim yelling at him. He had seen what happened between the teacher and Zim and he knew, the green boy wasn't in a good mood. The alien stared at him for a moment. "No... is it good? And will I get my own room?" Dib scratched the back of his head. "Well, not exactly. School trips are usually fun. The boys build groups and share rooms under those groups and same with the girls." "WHAT?`!", Zim yelled. He had to share a room with other boys?! Meaning that he had to wear the wig and the contacts 24 hours a day, so no one would notice anything? He hated this trip already. For some strange reason, a feeling in his stomach yelled that he wanted to share a room with Dib. For sure, if he wasn't obsessed with exposing Zim anymore, he could help him from time to time, so he could take out the contacts for an hour. Because after some hours, they really began to hurt his crimson eyes.

After this little sentences both of the boys fell silent again and remained this way for the rest of the flight. They would exchange gazes, like in class . Or give each other something they needed or wanted to have like tissues or something to drink.

Zim and Dib had a weird feeling in their stomach, like things were about to get pretty horrible.

Sooooooo ^^; Deeelay, hehe ^^; Sorry ^^;

*looks at chapter* Wow, it`s longer^^

Lady of the Darknesss: Thanks Sis, and yes, Zim DOES look oh so sexy -w-

snickers-03: Meh, some people in my class with be in 10th, some in 11th also here, because they got into school earlier than me. Also, there are always the ones who skipped classes or had to repeat one ^^; Thanks^^