ZAGF Chapter 26

The front page of the school newspaper had a picture of Zim and Gaz. It was from a picture they had in the yearbook at one point. They were standing next to each other and giving silly faces. Above the picture said “two friends turn to lovebirds” in big black letters. Zim’s heart stopped and his face grew white. Gaz couldn’t breathe. Tak looked at the both of them with a concerned look.

“H-how….d-do….p-people….know?” Gaz stuttered.

Tak shrugged.

“I don’t know…” Tak said still holding the paper up.

Zim’s face turned red with anger. He stormed off to go to the newspaper room. Gaz and Tak followed him.

“Zim! Don’t over react on this! It’s fine! I mean, people were bound to find out eventually!” Gaz said trying to get him to calm down.

Zim stopped walking and turned to her.

“It’s our business! No one should be in our business! It’s embarrassing to me! I love you yes, but I don’t want people to find out this way!” Zim said taking the paper out of Tak’s hand and pointing to it.

“Zim…I don’t like either, but don’t get too worked up about it. Ok? Can you calm down? For me?” Gaz asked grabbing his arm and pulling him close.

Zim took a few deep breathes. He calmed down after a little while.

“Thanks Zim,” Gaz said giving him a kiss on the cheek.

Zim blushed and gave a smile. Gaz hugged him around the neck. Gaz let go and they walked to their homeroom class. As they walked in they could hear giggles from every side of the class room and a few from some people who were in the halls. Zim rolled his eyes and took his seat. Gaz and Tak took their seats as well. Tak put the newspaper in Zim’s pak.

Zim decided to read the story later. Soon later class ended and Zim, Tak, and Gaz walked out to see almost everyone in the hallway reading the paper. Zim’s squeedalyspooch felt strange. He took the newspaper out of his pak and read the story.

“A series of events happened to the two best friends lately. Our reporter Nick Marino…” was all Zim needed to read before storming off for the newspaper room again.

Tak and Gaz followed him. Zim walked in and saw Nick by a desk reading the paper. He looked up at them as they came in.

“You…you…blarnknich!” Zim screamed.

“Blarnknich? What in the world is that?” Nick asked giving him a confused look.

“It a curse word in our old language,” Tak said lifting herself up to sit on the desk.

“Ok…” Nick said giving Zim a strange look.

“HOW DARE YOU DO THIS YOU-” Zim started.

“Mr. Irk! Don’t you dare finish that sentence!” said a female teacher who walked into the room.

Zim turned around to face the teacher.

“He shouldn’t be getting all up in our business! He put a story out about me and Gaz dating! That shouldn’t be allowed!” Zim said.

“But I didn’t-” Nick started.

“Shut up!” Zim shouted at Nick.

“The story is already up Mr. Irk. On Monday there will be a new story and things will move on,” the teacher said before walking to another student’s desk.

Zim’s mouth dropped in surprise. Gaz glared at Nick. She was pissed.

“Hey, you said not to spread anymore rumors. This isn’t a rumor now is it?” Nick said putting his feet on the desk and laughing.

Zim, Tak, and Gaz didn’t say anything. It was true that the rumor was now reality. Nick smirked knowing he had won that comeback. Gaz hated the smirk and grabbed him by the collar. She pulled him close to her face. She was so angry her eyes were red from anger. Nick grew frightened.

“I’m going to make your life a living nightmare!” she said in the coldest voice Zim and Tak had ever heard.

Zim and Tak became frightened. Zim grabbed Tak and backed up a little.

“Look! Before you kill me, just read the rest of the story!” Nick said with his eyes tightly closed.

Gaz looked at Zim and Tak. Zim put Tak down and took the newspaper out of his pak. He began to read.

“A series of events happened to the two best friends lately. Our reporter Nick Marino had recently spread a rumor involving the two students dating each other when they weren’t. Although, yesterday a student had seen the two kiss in the New York City’s mall. So to say for now we don’t know if there was a different reason for why they had kissed or if the two friends are now in love. We’ll have our reporter Nick interview them to see if what he had once rumored before is now true.” Zim read as he slowly said the last sentence.

Zim, Tak, and Gaz’s mouths dropped. Not a single bad thing about them in the paper. Heck, no one even knew if they were really dating or not. Gaz looked at Nick who she still had by the collar. He gave a small smile. Gaz let go of him and he backed away.

“Next time you two should let me talk before you get to any conclusions,” he said with a smirk.

Gaz punched him in the stomach. He fell to his knees holding his stomach in pain.

“What was that for?” he asked in a wheezing voice.

“I just needed to blow off some steam,” she said with an evil grin.

Nick started to say something, but stopped.

He thought for a moment before sighing and saying “I guess I deserved it.”

He got the air back into his lungs and stood up.

“I’m not gonna interview you guys now. I’ll ask you two later. For now I have to get to class,” he said before picking up his back pack that was beside his chair and then heading off to his next class.

Zim, Gaz, and Tak watched as he left. They walked into the hall way. Zim leaned against a locker, thinking about what had just happened. He turned to Gaz and Tak.

“Can we go home? I’m not sure I want to go to class today,” he said.

“I don’t either. Let’s go,” Gaz said nodding.

Tak nodded and they headed for the school doors. They walked all the way to the base without saying a word. They got to the base and opened the door. They walked in to find a young girl sitting on the couch watching TV. She turned her head to look at them as they came into the room.

“Welcome home,” she said with a smile.