--Previously--

Suddenly, the door slammed shut and a tall shadow projected from behind my silhouette. I turned around in surprise as I heard a not-so-pleased tone from none other than my Dad.
"Where have you been...!?"
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I started to bite my nails, the feeling of nervousness taking over. He looked quite mad, but who wouldn't be? I told him I left, but that was hours ago. If I were only going on a quick stroll like I said I would then I'd be back in less than 30 minutes. Because of the lack of patience my father had right now, he expected an answer straight away. I was just too nervous to give it to him.
"Well?" More than anything, he seemed quite worried when he said that. His tone had completely changed, as his voice cracked. I still never said a word and just kept biting my nails. To that, he added, "Please, (Y/N), I was only worried. I thought you'd be back sooner-"
"I was at Zim's.!" I quickly said. I half expected my Dad to start yelling at me, since he was the one telling me about Zim being a danger. And I was shocked when he acted the complete opposite. Dad begun to have second thoughts about Zim already. If I was there and got back okay, that should mean something, right?
"Okay." Dad nodded, completely understanding the situation. Awkwardly, I hugged him, said goodnight and went to bed.
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"Do we.... talk to Zim..?" Dib asked me. Right now, it was lunch time and we'd all sat at the table. This included the four of us, me, Dib, Gaz and Alex. Obviously, Alex was confused with our conversation since we were talking about last night. We didn't go into too much detail, so she never really got the grasp of the situation.
Zim sat alone, like always. Today though, he acted very different. He was shaky, and not just at this hour. All morning, he's stuttered a lot, he's been really nervous and he almost seemed out of it. I think it had something to do with the situation last night. As much as we dreaded it, we'd have to go talk to him before school ended. It'd just be too awkward to speak to him with the group.
"Yep. Dib, you come with me. Gaz and Alex, you guys stay there." After realising how demanding I sounded, I added the word "please" to the conversation. After that, both me and Dib left.

"Hey... Zim..." Dib awkwardly said, leaving Zim to raise an eyebrow.
"Dib-Stink." Zim narrowed his eyes. The Irken seemed puzzled as to why and what we were here and looked at me, hoping to find answers. "And (Y/N).?"
I stayed silent and did nothing but show a quick wave. Not that I was shy, it was only because I didn't really know what to say that that moment. But by looking at Dib, it seemed like he knew what he was doing, and was confident with his words too. Gaz watched it all from afar with Alex sitting by her side. But it seemed that the black haired girl didn't quite understand the situation. It was better that way though.
"Zim, we decided to talk to you about..." Dib struggled with his words. He looked confident and sure on the outside, when really he had no clue what he was going to say. He looked over to Alex, then came up with an idea. "-about the project! Alex wanted to know if we were still doing it at your house!"
"Didn't we agree not to do it at my house?" Zim asked, not really understanding what any of us were doing. He coughed, then said, "No worries! I- We can do it at my house if she wants to-"
"NO- thanks. We can do it at Dibs place, like we agreed on before." I butted in. I felt gutted, partly embarrassed and nudged Dib. I wanted to slap my head in frustration, but then it'd be even more troubling for Zim to understand. Before I gave anyone a chance to speak, I left with Dib, saying, "Alright, that's sorted! Thanks, bye!!"

I dragged Dib over to a nearby table and shook him furiously. He only responded by trying to stay balanced. I looked at Zim, who looked dumbfounded, then looked back at Dib.
"Okay. Dib. What were you trying to do!?" I asked, noticing his pure stupidity. Dib was clearly shaken, and replied with a nervous 'I tried!'. Clearly, none of us knew what we were doing, nor where we were. We only did notice when we heard a grumpy female voice,
"Go away. You're so annoying." I looked up to see a blonde girl, quite popular in this school. I recognised her instantly and replied,
"Sorry Jess-"
"Never call me that again." She crossed her arms, watching us leave since I didn't reply after that. I never left because I may have felt 'threatened' or 'scared'. Me and Jessica never really talk so I wouldn't say I'm scared of her. I just thought it was awkward. That's why I grabbed onto Dibs hand and paced away.

Me and the nerdy boy sat beside each other once we got back to Gaz and Alex. As mentioned they watched from afar- unable to hear anything, the two never even said a word about it. Dib and I discussed that we would be doing the project at Dib's house, to which Gaz moaned,
"Why can't you just do it somewhere else? I have enough of Dib annoying me as it is!"
"HEY!!" Dib raised his voice, offended. Gaz ignored this and looked over at me. I gave her an apologetic look and told her,
"Sorry, Gaz, we can't do it at my house because it's too small. Alex's house it out of the question, it's too far!" I rubbed the back of my neck. Grumpily, Gaz walked off. While she did hate the fact that more people would be in their house with her brother, she did seem to understand the fact that they really had no choice. Not to mention what happened over Zims house! After that incident, the three agreed never to go there again. From Zims point of view, he could see where they were coming from. What helps is the fact that he smiled throughout all of this. Having guests over (especially more than one) would be a burden to him. He'd be worrying constantly! What if someone were to get lost? What if he'd end up catching people snooping around? What if he didn't!? Zim was the type of guy who didn't really respect others. Because of this, he was untrusting and never wanted or let anyone know what his secrets were. It made sense though, he is an alien.

Upon hearing Gaz's disrespectful remarks, Dib asked:
"Should I be offended? Or...?"
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Straight after school, we all gathered at Dib's house. We never saw Gaz, assuming she was upstairs and spent most of our time just waiting for Zim. When he finally arrived (which took forever) we got started on the project right away without any of us talking. It wasn't until minutes later, Zim broke the silence.
"If I'm correct, you all aren't talking. Why is that?" He asked, pointing the obvious. I wanted to just blurt out the fact that he had kidnapped me and Dib, then acted like nothing happened afterwards. Sure, that's how you should act if you don't want to get caught, but still, what a dumb question. I huffed, trying not to get irritated by his stupid question.
"Because we are concentrated, Zim."
"-I actually don't know what I'm doing." Alex butted in, "I've been sitting here for the past 5 minutes staring into space, nervous about asking for help because of how awkward it'd be." Alex finished, wanting to thank Zim for sacrificing himself with that 'duty'. She never said it and put a thumbs up, directing it at Zim.

We set aside the paper, which none of us had actually written on. All apart from Dib, who had actually thought of a small something. I really didn't want to have to do this right now, after everything that's went on, I wanted to relax. It was clear to everyone that me and Dib felt that way. Surprisingly, Zim helped me with this. He saw and could tell by the way we were acting that we wanted time to ourselves. So he asked to cut the project short for today. Question is, why?
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A/N: It's been another week, haha, sorry!

Word count: 1445 words

Amberzoeheart~