Life is Change

Rated: T

Summary: Dib's miserable high school life takes a strange turn when his long-time arch nemesis Zim proposes a temporary truce. What could Zim be up to this time? Eventual ZADR.

Chapter 14

Lunch arrived none too soon, giving the high school student body a break from the tedium of a morning filled with nothing but classes. Once again Dib was trailed as he got his meal and found a table. He looked over his shoulder at the alien walking a few feet behind him. Lunch with Zim was becoming a regular occurrence it seemed. Dib didn't mind having Zim around as much as he would have thought only a week ago. His lunch break, like much of his life, normally revolved around watching Zim. With Zim sitting at his table, Dib could keep an eye on Zim and at the same time… Zim could be annoying beyond belief, but he at least made Dib feel a little less alone.

Dib plopped down in his seat and tentatively took a bite of the dubious looking substance on his tray. He gagged and put his tray aside. No lunch for him today. He glowered at the cafeteria workers. Of all the days to serve corn and mayonnaise….he was starving. It was his own fault for forgetting to pack lunch half the time, knowing what the cafeteria was like. But it would be nice if they served something that humans normally eat every now and again.

"So, Dib-human," Zim said conversationally. "I couldn't help but notice your fellow dirt monkeys have been less obnoxious than usual today."

Dib grumbled, trying to get comfortable on the hard bench with a stomach full of emptiness - to no avail. He exhaled heavily in irritation and focused his attention on Zim instead. "They're scared Zim. Yesterday freaked them out."

Zim laughed, "As well they ought to be." He nodded enthusiastically. "Filthy humans, of course they fear the mighty fists of ZIM!" With this narcissistic proclamation came the usual outpouring of evil laughter. A few students looked over curiously, but most ignored Zim's outburst. It was more notable when the ugly green kid didn't do something loud and annoying during the lunch period, as this was an extremely rare event.

Dib chuckled at Zim's antics. His new laissez-faire attitude, while taking some effort to maintain, made it much easier for him to find Zim's quirks amusing.

Zim ceased his cackling and blinked, eyes wide and curious. The sound coming from the human's noise tube was somehow different than Dib's usual triumphant laughter. He hadn't noticed it at the time, but thinking back on it, Dib had been making similar laughing noises the other night at his base. His antennae twitched under his wig, trying to translate the variation in the familiar sound into meaningful information. After a few moments of fruitless effort Zim gave up. Humans had too many different emotions for him to ever make sense of all of them, even when his poor antennae weren't being suffocated by his horrible hair piece. If it was important Zim's amazing brain would have been able to figure it out. Zim returned his concern to the conversation.

"They were already scared of you Zim, that's nothing new. They're scared of me because I finally fought back against them." Dib smiled, resigned, "I didn't just resist a little either – I really hurt someone."

"The Zita-monster you mean?"

"Yeah."

Zim frowned "I gather that this upsets you, Dib-stink. And with that enormous head -"

Dib cut him off, "My head's not that big!" he protested.

Zim ignored him, plunging ahead, "I would have expected you to be smarter. Doesn't your species have some generally accepted self-defense rule that excuses your actions? You were attacked first."

"Well…"
"Well nothing Dib. She threatened you, giving you every right to defend yourself. "

Dib scowled, glaring at an innocuous spot on the table rather than responding to Zim's irritatingly logical argument.

"Besides," Zim continued, "This is a good thing Dib-monkey! You've cowed your classmates into submission. As I said yesterday, for a filthy human, you are the superior being Dib. It's about time your fellow pig-smellies bow down before your large-headed might! Bask in your victory human!"

Dib glowered some more at the off-white plastic as he contemplated Zim's argument. Putting aside the fact that Zim was incapable of understanding the complexity of human emotion, his reasoning was fairly sound. It wasn't as though Dib had sought Zita out and punched her for no reason. She initiated the whole ordeal. Reminding himself that it was self-defense could lessen his guilt somewhat, if not entirely.

And as for Zim's other point, Dib already agreed with the alien. Fear wasn't the emotion that he ideally wanted to elicit from his classmates, but it was nice to not to be bullied for once. He could work with fear. Admiration could come later, after he'd revealed Zim to be an alien.

Yet even as he repeated this age old promise to himself, doubt sprang into Dib's mind. He no longer had the same feelings of certainty that he had had as a child. Whether he could ever win over his peers with evidence of Zim…he didn't know anymore.

However, Dib couldn't dwell on this sentiment. No matter how torn and unsure he felt, he had to hold on to something. There was nothing else to live for. How else could he obtain the love and companionship that he so desperately desired? This thing – whatever it was – with Zim would only last as long as Zim felt like being on vacation. It was temporary, doomed to vanish the minute Zim resumed his quest for world domination. That being the case, he couldn't let himself get too emotionally invested. His long term plan had to be to expose Zim.

Zim looked at Dib expectantly, awaiting a reply from the human. Dib eventually looked up. "You're right," he said blandly.

Zim grinned, "Of course Zim is right! I'm Zim!"

Dib smiled back at Zim, "You sure are."

Hey everyone, hope you like the new chapter! Please review if you can, I love reviews! ^^ School is in full swing, so I'm doing my best to update as fast as I can, but homework must come first. Bear with me folks, the story will continue!