Tolerance Chapter 5

Dib stood awkwardly in the middle of the lunchroom, holding his tray of slop. There were so many people; it would be a miracle for him to find a simple place to sit, let alone find Zim.

Of course, this is Zim we are talking about.

“Get out of my way you humans! Can you not see me trying to find a table where I don’t have to deal with YOUR HORRIBLE SMELL!?” Screamed a voice from the other side of the room.

Dib rolled his eyes and walked towards the source. Sure enough, there was Zim scaring away students from a lunch table, making it his own.

“I see you are doing well.” Dib greeted, earning a glare from Zim.

Zim got settled in his seat and gritted his teeth. “What do you want? Cant you see I’m busy?”

Dib eyed him. “You are just sitting.” Zim huffed and crossed his arms.

“I am busy ignoring you!” Zim stated.

Dib shrugged and sat across Zim. Zim hissed. “What are you doing?!”

Dib poked at his food. “Sitting. You can still ignore me.”

“Fine then, I will!” Zim sat there and started to stab his meatloaf with a fork.

An awkward moment passed.

“IRK! Will you just leave?!” Zim suddenly screamed.

Dib smiled. “You are not too good with the whole ‘ignoring’ thing, are you?”

“Will, it’s a bit hard when you smell so bad!” Zim countered.

Dib scoffed, but quickly smelled his coat. Quietly, he muttered, “Liar.”

Another awkward moment passed.

Dib sighed. “Actually, I wanted to tell you something.”

Zim eyed Dib. “If it’s a word of pity, I will stab your eye out Dib-Stink.” He threatened.

Dib shook his head. “No, I just wanted to say I am sorry.”

Zim raised his fork.

Dib quickly waved his hands defensively. “Let me finish! I am sorry that I broke into your base! It was wrong of me and you were right. It was none of my business.”

Zim lowered his fork. “That’s pretty big of you.” He smirked.

“So you forgive me?”

“Hell no.”

Dib raised an eyebrow. “Did… Did you just curse?”

Zim shrugged. “It seemed to fit the situation. Zim learned many words here on this awful dirtball.”

Another awkward moment passed.

Dib coughed a little. “So…” He started. “Now what?”

Zim stabbed his food some more. Dib swore he heard it scream a little. “Well, there is still the truce…”

“Yeah…” Dib laughed a little. “Who knew I spent all my free time fighting with you.”

“The teacher, your parental unit, your scary sister, that awful Keef, all those smelly children, that hobo man, the…”

“OKAY! I get it!” Dib interrupted Zim.

Zim drummed his fingers a little. “Zim is bored.” He stated. “I hate this… bored feeling. It’s boring.”

Dib sarcastically made a motion at Zim. “Zim! The alien of many words.”

Zim growled and flung a chunk of applesauce at Dib. Dib dodged it making the sauce land in the trashcan.

“… Well that was pretty anticlimactic.”

Zim rolled his eyes. “What did you expect human, a clichéd food fight?”

“Sorta, yeah.”

Zim scoffed and returned to his food. “This planet is boring. If I was at Irk, I could be killing stuff in training, or maybe even upgrades for my weapons.”

Dib stared at Zim. “Is that all Irkens do? Fight and prepare to fight?”

Zim smirked. “We are a military planet you monkey. Of course that’s all we do!”

Dib tapped his finger to his chin. “Well, humans don’t kill people for fun, but can pretend to on video games.”

“That’s why your race is so pathetic!” Zim crackled.

“Its either that or you can sulk in your base all day.”

If looks can kill, Dib would have had his head chopped off by now. “I hate you.”

“The feeling is mutual.” Dib sighed. “So how about it?”

Zim thought for a moment. “No tricks?”

“No tricks.”

Zim made a face. “We don’t have to act like we are friends or anything?”

“Heck no. I’d sooner kill myself.” Dib said quickly.

Zim nodded. “Good. Zim will be at your base at five o’ clock.”

Dib nodded and the two ate… well, attempted to eat in silence,

Meanwhile, back at Dib’s home there was a computer screen flashing. It was e-mail from the Swollen Eyeball Network.