The New Green Kid (Redone)

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Invader Zim and am not making any profit from this work of fiction

After almost two years of college, Jem was sure she had seen it all. Off-the-wall parties that seemed to be home to the weirdest of personalities, professors that seemed so out of place that they were almost alien. All of these things, these odd people and scenarios could not prepare her for what was to walk in through the door to her human studies class.

The first knock went unnoticed due to the amount of noise going on in the class. The professor, a tall bald man in his early thirties, had set the class into a raging discussion about the ethics of gender marketing only moments before the knocking had started. The second knock managed to elicit a response from the professor. He blinked in confusion before walking over to the door and opening it. Jem turned away from the door to quickly finish up the rest of her notes, having gotten a little behind in the past couple of minutes.

Murmurs could be heard from the doorway before Mr. Goodman stepped back into he room with a short, odd looking boy following closely behind him. Jem had seen some pretty weird looking kids in her lifetime but this one cut the cake by a mile. His skin was a light greenish color and he lacked both ears and a nose. Upon closer inspection, he appeared to be missing some fingers as well. He had jet black styled into an undercut and a pair of large, curious, pale purple eyes that took in everything around him with a distasteful interest. Needless to say he was the strangest person Jem had ever laid eyes on and she felt compelled to look away in fear that she may have been staring.

The duo walked to the front of the classroom and stopped so equally confused professor could introduce the sickly looking boy. Even his outfit was odd. It vaguely reminded Jem of a Sci-Fi alien costume used in old, low-budget movies.

Mr. Goodman spoke suddenly in his thick, almost liquid voice.

"Boys and girls, this is Zim. He will be joining us this semester and I want you all to welcome him." he said, head tilting in a manner that said 'If you don't I will disembowel each and every one of you.' Several murmurs were heard as everyone slowly nodded their heads.

"Zim, I believe there's a seat right there behind Jem." Mr. Goodman pointed out with a nod of his head in the bulky girl's direction. She slunk farther into her seat, directing her gaze to her notes, pretending to take interest in them. The green bugger walked confidently to the desk, sitting neatly in the hard, metal chair.

After a few seconds of highly unnecessary silence, Mr. Goodman took up the SmartPen once more and continued with his lesson, forgetting the class argument that had taken place only moments before.

Once they got back into the swing of things, Jem had all but forgotten the strange boy. That is, until he tapped her on the shoulder with one of his two finger.

"Excuse me meat-monkey, could Zim perhaps borrow a writing stick?"

The sudden wave of apprehensiveness that swept through Jem at the oddly worded sentence and the use of third-person perspective hit her like a rock and almost had her reeling out of her seat. She had never heard another human being talk in such a way and sat numbly in her seat with a dumb expression on her face for nearly a minute before checking her bag for a spare

(writing stick)

pencil.

When she could find none, she looked perplexedly back at the green-tinted boy. His own look was one of pure innocence, as if every word that came out of his mouth had been in the vocabulary of every single person on Earth.

"Sorry dude, I don't have any extras." she managed to say, her voice surprisingly even. Perhaps the only thing keeping her from berating the boy about his use of the word 'meat monkey' to address her, was that she didn't want to be rude. She had no idea where this boy was from and knew nothing of his culture. He could easily be from Germany, or England. Somewhere where there isn't much sun because man-oh-man this kid was pale.

Zim cursed quietly before leaning back into his seat.

In the following minutes after the odd encounter, Jem found she had forgotten the incident entirely. She happily and absentmindedly forgot about the new green kid sitting behind her.