The Adventures of Mip Membrane

Chapter 2: Dad

Parent-Teacher Night. A night when parents and teachers do... parent and teacher things.

From what I learned from TV, parents are the adult humans that care for child humans. That would make Dib my parent. I think. I wasn't sure if the same rules applied for a human who takes care of an Irken.

The thing I noticed, though, is that children seem to have titles for their parental figures. Dib and Gaz do this too, they call Professor Membrane "Dad." Louie also refers to his male parent as "Dad." I called my parent "Dib."

Dib never told me to call him anything else, so it was probably alright with him, but I worried outsiders might find it strange. I planned to talk to him about it after skool.

When I got home, he and Zim were there, wearing disguises. Dib was wearing formal-looking clothes, had his hair slicked back, and wasn't wearing his glasses. I noticed his eyes were blue instead of their normal brown shade.

Zim looked even stranger. Instead of his natural green skin tone, his skin was a similar shade to my disguise. He also had ears and a nose like my disguise, and a different outfit.

In short, they were wearing disguises so they could attend Parent-Teacher Night without being recognized by Moofy.

When I first told Dib that Moofy was in my class, he became extremely paranoid. And rightfully so, after what she did to Zim. I don't remember much of what happened that day, since I was hiding in a backpack during most of it, but I remember how stressed everyone was.

While disguised, Zim and Dib would also take on new identities. Zim would be my brother, Miz, and Dib would be our dad.

It turns out, Dib didn't want to force me to use a parental title for him, since the concept of parents is nonexistent on Irk. In that case, I prefer Earth culture, because I remember how scary everything was before Dib found me.

When we arrived at skool, we went to the cafeteria, where all the students, parents, and teachers were. Dib sent Zim and I to the snack table so he could go do parent things. Not that I minded, I'm always up for cookies.

Zim sighed, leaning against the table. "It's been years since I left this dump. So, how've you been holding up?"

"Those back-to-skool commercials are all filthy lies, but it's nice to get out of the house. And Louie's fun to hang out with." I explained.

Suddenly, I felt a cold liquid pour over me, mocking laughter erupting from behind me. Moofy.

She poured punch on me. Gross, sticky punch. But I could punch her back.

I made a fist and slammed it into her face. Well, more like lightly pressed it on her face. I never punched anyone in real life before, how was I supposed to know what I was doing? It was way easier in Gaz's video games.

"Okay, that's just sad." She stated, turning away.

I could feel the punch dripping down my head, making its way to my back. The moment the punch came into contact with my PAK, I felt a quick shock course through my spine.

"What was that?" I asked Zim.

"You'll be fine, just go to the bathroom and wipe yourself down with the towel paper. Don't use water. It burns."

I did as he instructed, wiping off the punch as I fought through a couple more minor shocks from my PAK. I'd find a way to get back at Moofy for this. Somehow.

As I was leaving the bathroom, I saw Moofy heading in my general direction, so I attempted to hiss at her. Emphasis on "attempted." It came out like a pathetic little squeak.

"Aw, did I hurt your feelings? What are you gonna do about it?"

She approached me, and I started clawing at her with my gloved hands. She just stood there, not reacting to it. I didn't actually scratch her, since Dib specifically told me not to scratch people, which was why I wore the gloves, but I hoped I could at least make her feel threatened. I couldn't.

"Hey, why did you wear your backpack to Parent-Teacher Night?" She asked, peeking over my shoulder.

"Oh. Um..."

"You've got a dirty little secret, don't you? What's in there?"

Before I could stop her, she started pulling on my PAK, still under the impression it was a backpack. I tried not to scream as the pulling became more painful.

"Why won't it come off? Did you glue it on or something?"

I didn't respond, gritting my teeth as she attempted to separate the PAK from my spine. Eventually, I couldn't take it anymore, and I shouted out in pain.

"Stop it! That hurts!"

To my surprise, she stopped pulling. "Wait. That hurts you? That's... not really a backpack, is it?" The look in her eyes was menacing. They weren't the eyes of a bully anymore, but something much worse. "You're one of them, aren't you?"

I froze, not sure what to say. "That boy you were with, I thought he looked familiar. That was Zim! And what are you? His freakish alien-spawn?"

I started to back away. "I-I'm not sure what you're talking about."

"Oh, I think you know. Now cut the act, Mip! Show the world what you really are."

At that point, I had pressed myself up against the lockers behind me, silently wishing this was just another nightmare, but the logical part of me knew that I hadn't slept since the first night Dib brought me home.

Thankfully, at that moment, Zim walked out into the hallway to look for me, and saw me cornered by Moofy. She turned to him and smirked.

"Hello, Zim. You thought you could hide her from me, but it's too late! I know."

"Eh? Who is this ZIM you speak of? I am MIZ!!!"

Moofy rolled her eyes. "Oh wow, you reversed the letters of your name, how original. Well, if you're not gonna fight me, I'll just take this girl's perfectly normal human backpack off..."

That was what got him to snap. Zim deactivated his hologram, revealing his true Irken form. His PAK legs burst out and he ran at lightning speed towards Moofy, pinning her to the lockers against the opposite wall.

"Listen here, you little worm. The Dib tells me not to harm humans anymore, especially children, but Dib isn't here right now, and I'm willing to make an exception!"

Man, Zim is the coolest.

Moofy started to scream out for help, but no one seemed to hear her. In fact, the sound of people talking in the cafeteria was louder than normal, and their own voices drowned her out.

"Oh, what a pity. Looks like you won't be exposing the Irken race today. Nobody cares about you." Zim taunted.

Moofy scowled. "Fine. You've made your point."

He released her, and she walked over to me.

"This isn't over. But I must say, it's pretty pathetic that you had to wait for Zim to come and save you. I bet you don't even have those creepy spider legs."

She gave me a shove as she headed back to the cafeteria, and I collapsed to the floor. There was no holding back my tears this time.

"Ugh, that hideous child! I will destroy her... Eh? Mip?" Zim sat down beside me, looking concerned.

There were so many things I wanted to say. I wanted to tell him that while I was grateful for his help, I wish I could've defended myself. Moofy was right in that I was weak and defenseless, but the thought of it only made me want to claw her eyes out more, even though I knew I was incapable.

But I was already too physically and emotionally exhausted for all of that, so I instead just said one thing.

"I wanna go home. Can you go get Dad?"

Zim looked surprised when I referred to Dib using a parental title. It would take some getting used to for all of us, but in that moment, I needed that reassurance. I didn't care if it was unnatural for Irkens to have parents, children, and families, because that was what I needed.