ZAGR ch. 11

         ZAGR ch. 11: The Prank

    Gaz sat in the theater and waited for the movie to start. The lights were still on and she was pushing the seat in front of her with her foot. No one was sitting in it, but it was still something to do even though there was no one to get a reaction from. Dib came back with the drinks and sat next to Gaz. Gaz took a drink and drank from the straw. She saved her game and set it back down.
  "Dad's getting the food," Dib said.
  "Mm."
  "You could try watching the movie," Dib said. "I think you'd actually like this one. It has vampires."
  "Do they kill people?"
  "Yes."
  "Do they show them killing people?"
  "I don't know."
  "If I hear action or dying I'll watch. If I hear geek talk from you during the movie because you're explaining something to me, I'm leaving," Gaz said. She took another sip.
  "Well, as long as you don't play your game," Dib said. Gaz mumbled something. "What?"
  "I'll play what I want where I want. If you don't like it, you can see this another time."
  "It's not showing again tonight," Dib complained.
  "Then-" Gaz saw her battery light turn red. She groaned and shut the game off. "Never mind, it just went red."
  "You can watch the movie, now!" Dib said happily. "I have a friend coming and he's-"
  "Hell no," Gaz said. "If one of your friends is coming, then I'm leaving."
  "Gaz! I got you your candy!" Membrane said as he sat beside Gaz. She took her candy and tossed Dib his.
  "Ricky!" she heard him say. Gaz leaned over and saw one of the chess team members sit next to Dib. She groaned and stood up.
  "Where are you going?" Membrane asked.
  "I just need some air. I'm waiting in the lobby, I didn't even want to see this anyway," Gaz said. She ignored anything they said as she left into the lobby and out the theater's front doors. She sighed as she felt the night's fresh air on her face.
  "Hey, Gaz!"
Gaz looked around and saw a group of goths leaning against the theater walls. Gaz walked up to them.
  "Hey, Beth. What are you guys doing here?" Gaz asked.
  "Just hanging," a girl with a spiked collar and bracelets said. "What are you doing here?"
  "Family night," Gaz said.
  "Sucks for you," a boy said. He had his leather jacket draped over his shoulder. He was smoking a cigarette and sitting on the sidewalk.
  "It was Dib's turn to choose," Gaz said. Beth and her crew started roaring with comments and Gaz stood calmly until they stopped.
  "Oh. Hey, Gaz, are you sure you don't want to join our crew? You'd be a good asset," Beth said.
  "As your enforcer," Gaz stated. "I already told you your goth gang doesn't interest me, Beth. It's still no."
  "You'll come around sometime," Beth said. She motioned her head to the side and they all started to leave into the parking lot.
  "Bet your ass I won't," Gaz said. Beth rolled her eyes and got into her truck. She winked at Gaz as she drove away. Gaz sighed and whipped out her phone. "Zim..."
~(*)~
    Gaz saw a convertible start to pull up and then stop. She looked around nervously and saw as Zim stepped out and opened the passenger side door for her.
  "Where did you get this?" she asked as she sat in.
  "I'm cloaking my ship," Zim said. Gaz looked around and noticed that she was indeed sitting in Zim's ship. He had fitted it to seat two people.
  "Are we flying back?" Gaz asked.
  "Yes," Zim said with a smile. He started up his ship and made sure there was no one watching after he had driven into the darkest part of the theatre lot before allowing the ship to drop the hologram and begin flying. Gaz watched out the window as they flew over the city.
~(*)~
    Beth stopped her truck in front of Gaz's house and her crew stepped out.
  "Did you grab enough?" she asked the boy.
  "Yeah. Three rolls each," he said, handing out toilet paper rolls from the back of the truck.
  "C'mon. If we can't convince her politely, we'll trick her into joining us," Beth said. "Danny, you TP the left side of the house."
  "Right," Danny said. He ran into the yard and started throwing the paper.
  "Moon, you take the right," Beth said. The girl with the spiked jewelry nodded. "I'll take the middle. When you're done, grab a carton of eggs and go wild."
The three started TPing the house and anything in the yard they could find. A forth member they had picked up set the egg cartons on the sidewalk and grabbed herself one.
  "Beth, I grabbed the dozen egg cartons so we could cover the house," she said.
  "Nice. Moon! Help Kendra cover the right side of the house! Danny, you and I will take the left. We'll all do the front together," Beth ordered.
~(*)~
    Dib walked out of the theater and noticed that Gaz was nowhere in sight.
  "I think she might've gotten a ride home," Dib suggested.
  "Well, no matter, son. We'll meet her there," Membrane said. He led the way to the car and Dib said good bye to his friend.
  "Tell Gaz I said hi," he called as he made his way to his own car.
  "Sure," Dib called back. After he sat down in the back of the limo, he noticed his dad taking a call and took out his cell phone. He dialed Gaz's number but only got her voice mail. He sighed and waited for the phone ot allow him to speak. He heard the beep at last and spoke. "Hey, Gaz. You missed out, there was actually a lot more blood and gore than the movie's trailer let on. It was awesome! I'll tell you all about it when we get home."
~(*)~
  "...tell you all about it when we get home."
    Gaz's phone beeped again and the voicemail ended. Gaz glanced at it but inevitably decided to leave it on the ship's dash and faced Zim again. She kissed him on the lips again and then looked out to the stars. He had taken the ship out of the Earth's atmosphere and they were looking down at it from a great distance away. The Earth turned slowly in the distance and Gaz sighed as she looked at the trillions of stars in the distance.
  "I'll never be bored of this," she muttered.
  "One of the few things you'll never be bored of, I hope," Zim said. "I've found it satisfying to drift in space and watch as the universe passes by."
  "Mm..." Gaz turned Zim's head and kissed him again. "I'm getting tired."
  "I'll drop you by your house," Zim offered. Gaz nuzzled into his shoulder. "Gaz, I can't pilot if you're restricting one of my arms."
  "Killjoy," Gaz mumbled. She stood up from Zim's lap and sat back down in the passenger seat. She stuffed her phone in her jacket's pocket and struggled to stay away as Zim flew the ship back down to Earth. After he had flown close to Gaz's house, he slowed down enough that they began to hover above the rooftop.
  "You're family is home," Zim said. Gaz groaned and looked out the window. She saw the limo start to pull away and saw her father and Dib standing seemingly bewildered on the sidewalk. "And your yard has been trashed."
  "What the? Who the hell?!" Gaz shouted. She saw toilet paper and eggs coating the lawn and the front of the house. Silly string was covering most of the lawn. and Gaz could almost read something written in the grass. "Do you have anything like binoculars?"
  "Here," Zim said. He handed Gaz a device that looked similar to binoculars and showed her how to use it. Gaz zoomed in on the lawn and read the message aloud.
  "Have fun cleaning up. Gaz is our..." Zim looked at her and then down at the lawn.
  "Bitch," he finished. Gaz growled and gripped the binoculars. Zim stood up. "I'll track down who did this."
  "No, I will. They'll experience a hellish revenge unlike any other they've ever experienced in their life," Gaz said grimly. Zim smiled.
  "I believe I like seeing this side of you when it is not directed toward me," he stated. Gaz gave him a smirk.
  "Drop me off at the corner so Dib doesn't see me," she said.
  "Of course," Zim said. He moved the ship silently and landed in the darkness at a street corner out of the reach of the street lamp. Gaz pecked him on the cheek one last time and stepped out, heading toward the house. She waved as Zim lifted off again and flew toward his house.
  "Dib!" Gaz yelled when she got close. Dib turned to Gaz and ran up to her.
  "Where were you?!" he shouted.
  "I had a friend pick me up and we hung out at the mall for a while before he dropped me off at the corner," Gaz said. She pretended to notice the yard, or her father using the houses cleaning-bots to clean the mess up.
  "Look at the yard! Someone has it out for you and this time they're not scared to hit you back," Dib said. He motioned toward the house.
  "Damn," Gaz said boredly. "That's soooo bad. What, are they twelve?"
  "Gaz, this isn't a joke. This is going to get worse," Dib said.
  "They're cowards," Gaz stated. "If they can't stand up to me to my face, then they aren't worth my time."
    Gaz moved around Dib and glared at the message on the lawn with a death glare as the cleaning bots picked the silly string off the grass.