"You are the most redundant thing ever, fat head." Gaz scoffed as she peered over her brothers shoulder, reading what Dib was writing. He growled and went to flick her nose, but Gaz grabbed his wrist, nearly crushing it with inhuman strength. "Don't touch me, or I will kill you."

"Touching you right now." Dib smiled as she threw down his arm in disgust and stalked off to the kitchen. Before Dib could go back to thinking, his dad walked in. He was in his normal attire and reeked of lab chemicals, he sat in a chair directly across from Dib with a plate of eggs. "Hey, dad."

"Why, hello, child of mine. You have been unusually calm of the late. Are you still playing with your foreign friend?" Dr. Membrane said as he took a bite of his food. Dib scowled. His father, although a renown scientist all over the world, was a complete imbecile. Dib started to doodle on the corner of his paper. "He's not my friend. He's never BEEN my friend."

Dr. Membrane laughed, taking another bite of his food, "Of course, son. He was always a bad influence, you're much better off without him."

"Dad! Dib has a girlfriend!" Gaz chimed in from the living room, leaving Dib a bit confused on how she managed to slip past him from the kitchen into there. Dib looked at his father, who was staring at him. He began to twiddle his thumbs. Dib began to nervously blurt stuff out.

"She's not a girlfriend! Just my best friend! She's so pretty, though! And smart! But she's only my best friend. We went to the dance as dates! SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!" Dr. Membrane watched as his son pinch his nose in frustration. He had never thought Dib could gain such a friend... Let alone a friend in general. Being... Well, being who he was. Unsure of how to react, the Doctor stood, grabbing his empty plate. "Well, son, if she likes you, too. Ahh, young love. All the strange chemical reactions within the developing brain."

With that, he went to return to his lab. As soon as he was gone, Dib turned around in his seat to face Gaz who was now in the doorway. 'girlfriend?' he mouthed, and she laughed. "Everyone knows you want her to be. So, ask."

~¥~

"Oohh, Kyt has a talent? How very surprising!" Kyt heard Tak's repulsive laughter from her right. She finished signing off her name on the bulletin, and felt Dib's protective arm around her shoulders as they walked past. Gaz was walking along side Dib in silence. "Awwe, how cute."

Tak cooed as they walked past, making Kyt look from the corner of her eyes to her. Zim was beside her, staring in a shamed manner at the ground, kicking around imaginary dirt. Why...?Kyt wondered. She had thought they were friends. She must've thought wrong. Especially at the dance... All those feelings surged forward at the sight of him. And she pushed them all down into a pit. Feeling Tak's satisfied smirk on the back of her head, the ghostly haired girl hastened around the corner. Tak then went off to class, not making sure if Zim would follow; she already knew he would.

"Why aren't you doing anything about this?" Zim let out a high pitched scream at the sound of Gaz's voice in his ear. He pressed himself against the wall, away from her, his hand on his chest. "How.. How dare you scare Zim!"

"Oh, shut your face." Gaz rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, "What the hell is going on? Kyt is your friend! Remember what I told you at the dance? You're letting Dib have her!"

Zim looked away, remembering the dance. That wonderful, wonderful night! He tightened his jaw, "There are some things Zim can no longer do, Gaz. I can not interfere."

"I underestimated how much of an idiot you are," Gaz mused.

"It is not Zim! It is Tak!" Zim half-yelled, "I told you.... Now, Zim must go."

Gaz watched with him with dagger eyes. And as he disappeared around the corner, a blurr of familiar red and black caught her attention. She shook her head; trick of the light.

Throughout the whole day, Gaz was brooding more than usual. She even went out of her way to sit alone at lunch, but in her place Dib and Kyt found... "Gir?"

"Hi, Kyttie!!" He said enthusiastically, hopping up from where he sat, "I made you WAFFLES!"

He ran around Kyt, sitting her down. He pushed her lunch box away and set down a plate of waffles. Dib stood there with a look mixed between horror and confusion. He sat down, "Why are you here?! Did Zim send you?!"

"Nope!" Gir sat with Kyt, taking a waffle off from the top with his hands. Dib narrowed his eyes in suspicion. Gir sloppily ate his waffle, then waved around his syrupy hands, "Tak doesn't like me! And she makes Kyttie sad! Kyttie just needs some waffles."

Dib then looked at Kyt, who was staring at the big stack of waffles hidden under a waterfall of syrup. She was smiling a little at Gir's strange antics, but he could see she was miserable here. Tak had been bothering her more and more over the past few weeks. Kyt had come back from winter break happy, but soon she went back to... This. Quieter than usual. So, downcast. He didn't know how to make her better. He didn't understand how to fix her, how could he even begin? He could hardly understand his feelings for Kyt after this long!

Dib thought about what Gaz had said earlier that morning as he watched Gir try to feed Kyt waffles. He poked at his own food. Valentine's was coming up soon, the same day as the Talent Show. Dib smiled, he knew what he was going to do!

~¥~

"So, what's your talent Kyt?" Tak whispered into her ear from behind her. Kyt hunched down a bit, trying to ignore her. She continued to ask, though, over and over and over. When the bell rang, Kyt was off. She just wanted to go home, and have a nice chat with her mother.

She had always been close to her mother, although they didn't like many of the same things, they still managed to have a lot in common. She ran all the way home, only yelling goodbye to Dib and Gaz and Gir. But not Zim. Her heart thudded with a dull pain. After she had been so nice to him, all she had ever wanted to do was help him... How could he turn on her for the next girl that came around? Kyt didn't realize she was teary eyed until she ran into her door. She let out a small yelp of pain, and reached down to turn the knob. She let herself in, holding her nose. Scampering into the kitchen she got a bag of ice and went to the nearest mirror. Her face was fine, except for the the bruise on her nose. She blinked, she had hit that door pretty hard. She shrugged it off and went to change and curl up to watch her favorite show.

Sad thoughts ran across her mind, because of school. Tak made it miserable. At least, at home she could vent to her mother.

An image of the darker blond woman appeared in her head. Her chocolate brown eyes glowing with fire. Kyt remembered the time in Kindergarten her class went on a trip to DisneyLand. She had cried and cried the whole way, wanting her mother to go with her. She didn't like being all alone without the one person she felt safe around. In the end, she ended up having so much fun and telling her mother how she had taken a picture with Mickey.

And in middle school, when the one boy she had liked never noticed she existed her mother comforted her. She was always there. She would never leave Kyt alone.

Kyt was woken up by a pounding at her door. She hadn't even realized she had fallen asleep. She rolled off the couch and shuffled over, not noticing the red and blue flashing lights through her window. She opened the door to a chubby police officer with coffe stains on his uniform. "Are you Kyt Lucifine?"

He was looked at her from his notepad, and she nodded, still half asleep. He took in a deep breath, "I'm sorry to be the one to deliver this news to you, miss. But it seems that at 6:36 tonight, your mother was found dead in an old lot."

There was a long silence, green eyes staring at him widely, "Come again?"

"Kyt, your mom is dead."

A sudden blur of images entered her head, sounds, smells. A strange heat began in her and she shook her head. Strange words ran through her head in different voice. A man. A woman. A young boy. A baby.

And the world around her faded just like that, in a jumble of nonsense, and pain. Deep, deep pain.

Today had been full of surprises...