(A.N. Here, have a dabing Zim doodle. But I must know, does it cause depression or cure it???
Anyway, back to the story)

BOOOOOOOM!!

Your eyes busted open and you heaved in a breath out of shock. Your body whipping upward, making you sit up in your bed.
You were shaking and sweaty. Not to mention you could hardly breathe.
(A.N. @introvertdorito, yep you called it)

"Oh god." was all you could weakly let out through heavy breaths. You gripped the bridge of your nose, trying to calm down and bring yourself back into reality.

Your room was dark, but a warm, slightly comforting dark. A strange sound of pitter-pattering on your window then caught your attention. You turned your head to see it was storming outside, plump raindrops hitting the glass being the source of the noise. Luckily, the sound of the rain was oddly comforting enough to calm down your traumatized heart and bring your breathing back to normal.

That explains the thunder, you thought.

You squinted your still sleepy eyes on the glowing red numbers on your alarm clock, trying to focus them enough to read the blocky digits. Though the darkness translated that it was late at night, to your surprise it was just ten minutes earlier than when you are usually woken up.

"Uhhhhgg" A common sound effect for you, was the one you used to describe your overwhelming joy to have to go to school again. This however, made you realize that it was only your SECOND DAY.
It felt like so much had happened yesterday that you would have easily assumed it's been at least a week.
You found a spark of energy though, when you thought about Zim in your dream, or more suitingly, your nightmare.
Re-visuallizing his lifeless corpse was enough to get you out of bed just so you could confirm that he was ok.

Wait. You thought, stopping for a moment.
It just hit you. You just met this kid, you haven't even had a conversation with him, and yet you were so concerned for his safety that you dreamed about him.

Then again, Dib was also in there. So maybe it was more of your fear of him, or... what he is willing to do, that brought the terrible nightmare into existence.

Nonetheless, you still wanted to check on Zim, and swiftly went to get yourself ready for the day.

Before exiting your house you made sure to put on your F/C hoodie and grab your umbrella to protect yourself from the rain. You thought about grabbing your raincoat, which would be the more logical choice of apparel, but you were too lazy to go grab it, so you settled for the hoodie and left the house.

You opened up the F/C umbrella on your porch, reminding you of all the times people said opening one inside was bad luck. You weren't really superstitious, but you always followed the rule anyway. The last thing you needed was bad luck.

You stepped off into the rain, the thumping of the drops on your umbrella filling the silence as you walked.

You looked up at the sky for a moment. While the weather was crappy, it was relieving to see that it did not play out like it did in the nightmare. You looked back down and noticed the streets looked like a ghost town. This was probably due to most kids getting rides to school.

You reached the familiar destination and stepped up the concrete stairs, closing your umbrella once you were under the awning.

You stopped in front of the door but stalled opening it, feeling slight PTSD. But you took in a brave breath and entered.

It gave you the greatest amount of relief to see that there was no ominous crowd in the hallway. It was just the normal commute of students grabbing their belongings from their lockers and heading to class.

"Phew" you let out.

You continued walking and to your great joy, you spotted the green boy. I mean, he sticks out like a sore thumb so he was incredibly easy to spot at the other end of the crowded hallway.

You started in a light sprint towards him, gently pushing past the students. As you grew closer, you noticed he seemed to be patting down spots on his body, spots that we're seemingly smoking.
You finally got close and strolled in front of him.

Zim, noticing your presence, looked up to see you standing there.

.  .  .  .

Well this was awkward.

Your mind went blank. You had no idea what to say without sounding like a creep or just plain crazy. Although you had to think fast, because he gave you a look that looked like he was starting to get weirded out, and slightly frustrated.

So, you took in a breath and...

"HEYZIMJUSTWANTEDTOSAYHIORWHATEVEROKBYEEEEEEEE!"

And with that you sped away like the awkward, socially challenged child you were.

Zim just stood there, eying you as you sped further down the hallway.
"I will never understand these idiot humans" he said to himself.

Real smooth, you thought, now heading to your classroom.

You sat down in your seat, raindrops swiftly sliding down the window beside you. Looking outside, you were surprised to suddenly sense movement in front of you. You turned your head and jumped in your seat seeing Dib now sitting at his desk.

You didn't want to speak to him, instead you just grumbled under your breath, just quiet enough so he wouldn't hear.

The last student finally sat at their desk and Ms. Dookiebag started her lesson.

About an hour had passed, and you were extremely bored due to having to endure an extremely long lesson on why the school system has failed you. You just wanted lunch to get here. You directed your eyes to the clock.

Half an hour left.

Well that's just great, I have to survive another half hour of this garbage.

That's when you felt a delicate tug on the baggy sleeve of your hoodie. You turned your head to see the kid who sat beside you, handing you a tiny folded piece of paper.

"This is for Y/N, I mean, you." The kid whispered.

"Uh, thanks?" You whispered back accepting it.

You turned back to face the front, staring to quietly unfold the mysterious note, flipping the folds in different directions, allowing more and more of the sheet to be revealed.

You held the creased paper in front of you, reading it in your head.

__________________________

'Y/N,
You will meet I, the great Zim,
in the front hallway at the time of lunch. It is of great importance that I speak to you.

Also, it might intrigue you that I have candy.

And a dirt growth thingy.

Zim'
__________________________

Okayyy...just a little shady, you thought.
But I'll see what this is all about.

The note was indeed semi suspicious, and you had no idea what a dirt growth was. Nonetheless, you were happy to see Zim actually wanted to talk to you, even after your odd meeting you had that morning. It made your mind wander thinking about what he had to say that was so urgent.

The last few minutes passed and the bell rang.

*RIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNGGGGG!*

Music to your ears! You rushed out into the hall with the other kids.

"Ok, Zim time" you said to yourself, trying to avoid the crowd.

You stood at the side of the hallway, waiting for all the kids to go into the cafeteria. Once the halls we're empty, you started your search for Zim.

You walked swiftly, not wanting him to think you abandoned him. Your shoes leaving an echoed squeak with every step. Then you stopped at the front door. You looked around. No sign of Zim.

"Where is he?" you questioned aloud. You worried that you took too long and he had already left.
That was until you heard a sound from around a corner.

"psssssst"

"huh?"

"THE MIGHTY ZIM SUMMONS YOU WITH THE PSSSSSSST!"

You walked up close and peeked your head around the corner. But before you could process it, Zim pulled you behind with him, then leading you by the arm to a much more secluded hallway at the back of the school.

Zim let you go and turned to face you.

"Uh Zim, can you please tell me why we're here?"

"SSSSSHHH human, let me speak"

"But I-"

"SSSSSHHHHH! Zim hushed you, forcing his index finder over your mouth.

"Ahem,
Y/N human, since your arrival I've noticed that you are smarter than the other earth pigs that go to this school."
Zim started pacing slowly.
"I've also noted that you have great strength against the DIB.
Because of these qualities, I have called you here to make you my

euughh...

my gahhheug...

my...

friend."
Zim cringed.

He bent forward, motioning to you and awaiting your response.

"Oh, ok"

"What?"

"I said ok. Sure!"

"Oh. Well.
As friends you will accompany me during school hours like normal human friends do."

"Yeah, and we can walk home together if you want. That is if we live in the same direction of course."

"Yes! Especially walking back to my ba- I mean home. That is were the Dib likes to strike the most."

"That sounds great. Not the Dib thing, but you wanting to be my friend. I mean, you seem like a pretty cool guy!"

"Eh?
My temperature is normal! NORMAL!"

You chuckled at the abnormal response.
"No, no zim I mean you seem like a good person to be around."

"Oh right! RIGHT!
I knew that. I was just making sure, uh, you knew that."

This made you laugh again.

"Ok Zim.
Oh! Uh, I just realized we haven't formally met yet."

You extended an arm out to Zim.

"My name is Y/N L/N"

Zim just stood there, switching confused gazes between you and your hand, leaning back slightly.

"It's a handshake."

. . .

Zim still didn't get it.

"Um.
Ok, may I?" You asked, taking your other hand and reaching for his.

His silence told you you had his permission, and you gently took Zim's hand and put it in yours.

"Good, now squeeze"

Zim squeezed your hand really hard, making you cower backward.

"Ow! No, lightly squeeze"

Zim loosened his grip, replacing it with a firm grasp.

"Thank you, a lot better. Now we just shake."
You lightly shook his hand, moving up and down, showing him how it's done.

"There." you then said, parting your hands and placing yours back at your side.

"That is...very odd" Zim said, closely observing his hand.

"Heh, you aren't from around here are you?"  You asked. His unfamiliarity with such things made you think that might be the case.

"That's none of your concern!" Zim snapped.

"That's fine. Not everyone wants to share personal information."

Though Zim wasn't the most gentle person, his quirky confidence and prideful energy was enough to make you smile. You were very happy knowing that this was reality. This was Zim. Not the corpse from your nightmare, but a lively, very strange, and somewhat charming green boy.
The green boy who was now officially

your friend.

"Hey wait a minute" you said.
"I thought you said you had candy? Also, what is a dirt growth?"

"Uhhhhg" Zim grumbled. "First of all, the candy was a lie, and second..."

He reached inside his backpack thing and handed you a bent up dandelion.
"Here"

"Oh, you mean a flower" You said taking it from his gloved hand.

"Thank you"
you then added, blushing lightly.

"But you still owe me candy!"

__________________________

Yay, another chapter added to our tale! Please let me know how you like the story so far. Also, I just wanted to thank you guys for reading my story and leaving great comments! They always light up my day😄.

Oh and don't worry, more Zim to come soon!