Invader Zim ZADR: How did we get here?

Chapter 10: Just two boys at prom: Part 1

You know, I once thought about the idea of adding a prom into the story, but at the time I thought it would be too cheesy, and that it had been overdone at this point. I just thought it wouldn't have anywhere to fit, and that I just shouldn't do it...

Now I have concluded that I don't care, I think it would be cute, and I'm doing it. But most importantly I found a way for it to work with the rest of the story. So no one can stop me, not even myself.

I hope you will enjoy this.

"What are you looking at, Dib-stink?"

Dib had for nearly five minutes been staring at a wall. It wasn't a very special wall in any way. it was just like any other wall in the skool. The only difference was that on that specific wall, was a poster. It was black and purple, with white text. With regards to the text, there stood one word, which made dread fill Dib's mind, as he kept looking at it. It was the one word he hoped most of all he could have avoided for the rest of his life. For there was only one thing that word spelled for him, and that was humiliation. The more he looked at it, the more it seemed the word was taunting him, beguiling him with its other terrible connotations. He hadn't even read the rest of the text, he had just fixated on that single word. And that word was; Prom.

"Oh, uh, what?" Dib asked, having barely noticed Zim approaching him, or how he had stared at him while waiting to be noticed. Dib wasn't used to people willingly walking over to speak to him, but he was used to Zim bothering him, so he had definitely lost track of the world around him. The more he had looked at the word, the more sinister characteristics it would get in his head, even though the knowledge that it was nothing more than a damn piece of paper remained in the back of his mind. Still, he swore that it was looking at him funny.

"You have been staring at that poster with your squishy eyeballs for nearly an hour now! Do you TRULY not have anything better to spend your miserable time on?"

"First off-" He finally turned to face Zim, holding one finger up. "-it's only been at least five minutes, and secondly, none of your business." He continued before turning back to stare at the wall.

Zim made an annoyed grunt at the human, who still kept ignoring him. He wondered if he should just leave the human to his pointless activity, but The Dib's continued fascination with the poster was starting to intrigue him. While looking around to make sure no one was around, he started whistling as he silently slithered up behind Dib's back, looking over his shoulder. There he stood for a few seconds while inspecting the primitive human words written on the poster. All he could gather was that it was some kind of invitation, but he had no idea the meaning behind it, or why it was managing to keep the Dib-thing's unending attention. Something that usually belonged to Zim.

"Why is it even you care so much about this, this..." Zim stuttered as he had never encountered that human word before, and wasn't sure there even was an Irken equivalent.

Dib usually would have been worried at the dangerous alien sneaking up behind him, but he had started doing it more frequently, and many of those times didn't involve malicious intentions, so he was willing to allow it. He was also convinced that it would just be more of a hassle to try and stop him from doing it, and Zim was already a hassle enough as it was.

"It's called a prom, Zim, and trust me you wouldn't be interested." There was a hint of apathy in his voice as if hoping that the statement could also relate to him, so he could stop worrying about it.

"Eh? Why not! What even is this 'prom'?"

"Oh, it's a kind of party where you have to bring someone along, and you have to talk to people, eat food, dance, and-"