Fly on the Wall Pt 18

Gaz grimaced at herself in the mirror. Somehow the preps had found a black and green dress in an old box. The bodice wrapped around Gaz's shoulders and didn't exactly hug her frame, while the green skirt portion landed awkwardly around her hips, the big bow over her left hip where the green fabric bunched up to just accented the fact that her hips weren't that wide. Her hair was attempted to be curled but now it just looked like it hadn't quite dried yet as the curls deflated. The only aspect of her makeover that Gaz even began to like was the black eyeliner and shadow that somehow made her eyes look even more gold.

Gaz eyed the box they'd found in her Dad's room. Why was he keeping a dress in there, anyway? She walked over to it, it was too big to have just contained the dress, the name Gwendolyn Annette was scrawled in black marker on the side of it. Could this maybe have belonged to her mom? Her dad never discussed anything about the woman that would have given birth to her and her brother. She slowly opened it and spotted a photo a girl who Gaz would of sworn was herself if it weren't for the fact that the girl in the photo was smiling. “What the hell?” Gaz whispered as she unburied more photos of a smiling version of herself from the box. Something wasn't right here, but before Gaz could dig any further, the doorbell rang.

“Dammit.” Gaz growled, “I'll look into this later.” She closed the box and pushed it to the side. She needed to focus on ruining Beth Ann's perfect night in every conceivable, non assuming way possible. So far Gaz knew that they were gonna be late for their dinner reservation, as she was fairly certain they were gonna not only catch every red light but also the limo was gonna break down at least once along the way. Heck maybe if Gaz played her cards right she wouldn't even end up at the dance at all.

- - - -

Meanwhile several streets away, a ruby eyed green skinned alien worked aggressively at cleaning a random mess he'd found who knew what. Getting angrier every second of scrubbing as the computer seemed to find it necessary to narrate every moment of what was happening at the Membrane household.

“Well the 'dates' have shown up now. They're doing the meet and greet thing, the blonde ones heel just broke for no reason causing her to fall face first into the tallest guy. Her makeup smeared all over his shirt.”

Zim snickered at that,  but he still didn't understand why it was pissing him off that the computer was narrating everything to him. At first he thought it was the random noise but he knew he'd be even more pissed off not knowing it, and that pissed him off even more.

“ And they're gone. You okay?”

Zim glared at the spot he'd been cleaning to find that it was now cleaner than the area surrounding it.

“Someones at the door” The computer said just as knocking echoed through the lab.

“Have gir, make them go away” Zim said as he scowled contemplating his next course of action regarding the fact that clearly he hadn't been cleaning as often as he should have been.

“Gir is currently away”

Zim exhaled twisting his rubber gloves off his hands as he head upstairs, applying his disguise along the way. He opened the door to see Dib standing there holding a metallic briefcase and wearing his usual long black trenchcoat. “I don't have time for you Dib stink” Zim said as he attempted to slam the door in his face only to have Dib's foot prevent it from closing. Zim glared at Dib “What?”

“I propose an exchange of information.” Dib spoke as he held up the briefcase, “Answer my questions and I'll give you whatever random files I grabbed from the professor.”

Zim glared at Dib, what could he possibly want to know from him. However he was curious what the most brilliant human on this planet may know, so he gestured for Dib to come in.

“What's the chance of an Irken surviving a barren remote planet?” Dib immediately asked once he'd stepped inside the living room.

“Plan on abandoning me on one?” Zim growled as he crossed his arms, “Since when do you fact check prior to one of your plots.”

“This has nothing to do with you.” Dib spluttered out before, which peaked Zim's interest. What other Irkens did he know.

“It depends on if their pak got damaged and how badly.” Zim answered his curiosity refocused on the briefcase

“Their pak?”

“Surely you remember the time you stole mine. An Irken is nothing without their pak.”

Dib looked at a spot on the wall, his presence annoying Zim. “Good enough” Dib whispered as he turned dropping the briefcase on the floor and headed for the door and left.

Zim glared at the door, “Odd” he said as he turned his attention to the briefcase on his living room floor and opened it up, sitting inside were several manilla folders. He picked through them, they were mostly files for failed experiments involving various appliances. Zim growled he should have expected as much from the Dib meat, and then he spotted Dib's names on one of the folders.

Zim grabbed it greedily and as he shifted the papers to read more an unmarked disk fell out. He picked it up between two of his talons. “Scan this.” He ordered as a a metal claw came from the ceiling and took the disk away. Zim went back to the stack of papers, in bold type face at the top of the first page were the words Deoxyribonucleic acid  Identic Bioform, below that was the name Gwedolyn Annette and what appeared to be a picture of a smiling Gaz. “The hell?” Zim said physically moving the picture  away from himself.

“Sir, you might want to watch this.” The computer said as the disk dropped back into Zim's lap. Zim scowled into the space above him and the slid the disk into the player above the television and leaned back as Professor Membrane came on his screen.