The Adventures of Mip Membrane

Chapter 1: The First Day

"Class, I have horrible news. A new student will be joining us today. Mip, speak now, or forever hold your peace."

I smiled at my teacher, Ms. Bitters, and she hissed in response. It reminded me a little of Zim and Gaz. They hiss a lot.

"Hi class! I'm Mip, and I can't wait to be friends with you all!"

I was met with silence and deadpan stares.

"You disgust me. Now sit down!" Ms. Bitters ordered.

I took a seat at the empty desk in the front row.

Class was... boring. Dib was right about that. But that didn't matter. I was finally going to make friends with other kids!

When time came for lunch, I took my tray of unidentifiable food product to a table where four girls were sitting.

None of them seemed to notice when I sat down, continuing their conversation without acknowledging me.

"Hi!" I blurted out the moment they all stopped talking. They paused and stared at me for a second, then started talking again.

"So, do you guys like Floopsy Bloops Shmoopsy?" I asked.

The girls stopped talking and stared at me again, looking more irritated. "I'm sorry, were we talking to you?" Asked the girl with orange pigtails.

"Well... no... but you could talk to me, maybe. I'm open!"

The girl rolled her eyes. "Look, just eat your meat and leave us alone."

I looked at the "meat" or whatever it was on my tray. Dib did tell me not to eat the cafeteria food, but it would probably look weird if I didn't eat anything. I was also kind of curious. It didn't look like anything I'd seen before.

Only a few seconds later, I instantly regretted trying to eat it.

As soon as the meat came into contact with my mouth, it started to burn. Not just because it was hot, it actually felt like it was melting my flesh. I spat it out immediately. All over the girl with the pigtails.

The other three girls stared in shock, exchanging nervous glances. The ginger slammed her palms down on the table, her expression dead serious.

"Alright, new girl, I didn't wanna have to do this, but you leave me no choice! As resident popular girl, I hereby sentence you... to the REJECT TABLE!"

The cafeteria broke out in gasps, followed by quiet murmurs.

The girl pointed to a dirty table in the back corner, largely hidden by shadows and covered with cobwebs.

I began my slow, shameful walk to the table. Dib was right. Skool is terrible.

I sat right at the edge of the reject table, so I would be as close to the light as possible. At first, I thought I was alone, but I could hear the sound of someone breathing on the darker end of the table.

"Finally. Someone else is here. I thought I was the only one." A voice stated.

"Uh... hello? I'm sorry, I can't really see you. Is there any reason why it's so dark over here?" I asked.

"That's not important. Finally, another kid has been deemed repulsive enough to be sent here. I've been alone for so long. Quick, come into the shadows! Prove this isn't another one of my delusional visions!"

As terrified as I was, I wasn't about to ignore this guy. He seemed kind of unstable.

I slid myself along the bench, until I was completely surrounded by darkness. A flashlight was pointed in my direction.

"State your name."

"M-Mip!" I stuttered.

Suddenly, the shadows disappeared, and I could actually see the boy in front of me. He was on the taller side, with brown hair, green eyes, and glasses.

"Nice to meet you, Mip! I'm Louie!" He greeted, shaking my hand. "Yeah, Moofy can end your social life in a snap, but luckily for you, I'm already here, so you aren't completely alone!"

"How did you end up here?" I asked.

He frowned. "I asked Moofy to the skool dance once. She was so embarrassed that someone so low on the social food chain asked her out that she banished me here for eternity! Or until we graduate, whichever comes first."

I looked over at the table I was previously sitting at, where Moofy was talking and laughing with her friends. "Why do you think she's so mean?"

"She's super insecure. She feels like she needs to constantly be the center of attention, and if anything makes her look bad, it sets her off. I think it's just a defense mechanism. The skool hierarchy is so cutthroat, so if she doesn't fight to keep her place, she could be dethroned in an instant."

When Louie put it that way, I felt bad for her. She may have had the power to declare me a social reject, but she could easily become a reject herself if she made one wrong move.

"I honestly don't think you would've been banished if you'd shown up last year. She's been on edge because of the incident that happened over the summer when she supposedly captured an alien and it escaped. She had to do a lot of damage control to keep everyone from finding out she's a closeted paranormal freak."

Oh, that was her? Never mind, I'll destroy her.

"Professor Membrane made a statement that it was just a hairless cat, but I kinda hope it was an alien. I'm a bit of a paranormal enthusiast myself. Though, if I met an alien, I wouldn't turn them in. I mean, how cool would it be to have a secret alien friend?"

I had to hold my breath to prevent myself from telling him. I already broke one of Dib's rules, and I didn't intend to go for two.

"Yep! Really cool, heh heh!"

That day, when I got home from skool, Dib hugged me the moment I stepped through the door.

"Oh, thank goodness! You came back in one piece! How was it?"

I shrugged. "Well, it was kinda bad, but I made a friend, so I think I'll keep going."

He smiled. "That's good. You've got one more friend than I did when I was in skool."

"Do I not count?" Gaz asked, not looking up from her game.

"You're my sister. You're required by law to like me." Dib stated.

I was about to head off and get some food, but then I remembered something important.

"Oh, by the way, that girl that almost got Zim killed is in my class, and she's super mean, and I kind of want to destroy her."

"WHAT!?"