Chapter one
It was the first day of school, and Toothiana Molaris didn't want to be the first one into the classroom. She was so often teased for her eagerness to please, and she didn't want it to start again this year. This was junior year, for crying out loud!
She took a seat in the lobby of Guardian High School, pulling out a book to read. She had carefully covered the front of the book with bright teal fabric (her favorite color, actually) because she was too embarrassed of the title ― The Norton Anthology of Teeth. It was a truly wonderful book, full of beautiful colored pictures of molars, incisors, and canines, and it had plenty of information about them, too. Truth was, Tooth wanted to be a dentist when she graduated. Not just any dentist, though ― a dentist who worked in poor cities, helping children who couldn't afford orthidonture. That was her real dream.
"Oh! Tooth, you forgot your lunch!"
Toothiana looked up, seeing a tiny redheaded freshman standing, pigeon toed, in front of her. "Oh, hey, Babe."
Babe was Tooth's little sister. Of course the two looked extremely similar; so much so that the little one had earned the nickname "Baby Tooth" when she was eight, and the name stuck. Now she was a freshman at Guardian High, with her big purple eyes and tiny frame.
"Where's everyone else?" she asked, giving Tooth the paper sack and looking curiously around the huge school. Students were everywhere, mulling about the lobby with books in hand, waiting for class to start. Babe set her big purple-and-gold backpack down on the ground and sat next to Tooth. "Jack and Sandy and them?"
Toothiana shrugged. "Beats me, Babe. They usually ― just kidding ― hey, Bunny!"
A tall, well-built boy with dark blond hair and bright green eyes approached the two girls. "G'day, mates," he said cheerfully. Originally from Australia, E. Aster Bunnymund (but everyone called him Bunny, it was just easier) was by far the most athletic of any of Tooth's friends.
She grinned at him. "Hey," she said. "First day of school, you excited?"
"Not particularly," the Australian replied, shifting his backpack on his shoulder. "I'd much rather stay hope and work on artwork."
"Oooh! Are you still painting eggs?" Babe interjected, eyes wide. "I love when you do that!"
Bunny ruffled her curly red hair. "Yeah, ya little ankle biter, seems that's all I do, huh?" He was at least twice her height; he laughed at the thought. "What are ya now, a freshman? Crikey, they grow up fast," he said, turning to Tooth. "Seems like just yesterday Babe was a little hoon taggin' along with us everywhere, eh?"
"What the heck is a hoon, kangaroo?"
Everyone turned at the sound of the familiar voice.
"Jack!" Tooth exclaimed, turning bright red. "I mean ― wasn't expecting to see you here ― well, of course I was, it's school ― you go school, you go to school, I mean…"
Jack Frost and Bunny did not get along. Jack's prankster personality and easygoing nature were all but hair-raising to the organized Australian.
"A hoon is a young'un, for yer information, mate," Bunny said, raising an eyebrow at the pale boy.
"Yeah, yeah, you and your Aussie slang." Jack grinned at Tooth, saying, "Hey, long time no see! Have a good summer?"
"Yeah, it was pretty uneventful," the now bright-red girl replied. "Lots of reading."
"I lost a tooth!" Babe shouted, a little louder than necessary.
"Still losing teeth?" Jack asked, shocked. "You're a freshman in high school, noodlebrain." He thwapped her small head, laughing.
Tooth laughed, nose buried in her book to avoid being caught blushing. "Well, some kids can continue to lose their teeth until they're sixteen, and Babe's still only fourteen," she said matter-of-factly.
Bunny clacked his teeth, nodding. "Alright, mate, that's a right interesting fact about chompers that I really didn't care to hear."
Tooth's face fell. "I was just saying!"
"I know, sheila, I ―"
"Everyone is ready for school, yes?" Nicholas St. North asked, walking up to the group.
"Oh, lord ― who invited the giant lobster?" Jack asked, eying North's red sweater and pants.
"Lobster? Where is lobster?"
"Come on, man… You look like a lobster," the pale boy replied. "What's with the red?"
"I like red," North said, frowning. The only senior of the group, his bulky frame and nearly-white hair and half-beard gave him a very fatherly look. "What's wrong with red?"
"Ya do look a bit like a lobster," Bunny said. "Say, anybody seen Sandy?"
"He probably slept in," Tooth said, grinning widely.
"Yeah, right," Jack said, rolling his blue eyes. "He's probably just fine, and he's sitting at home laughing because he's not at school. Playing hookie."
"Half expected you to chuck a sickie today, mate," Bunny said with a grin, punching Jack's shoulder.
"Chuck a sickie? ― Bunny what the hell does that mean?"
"It means ta stay home and pretend yer sick so ya won't hafta go ―"
"Jack!"
The five kids wheeled around towards the source of the voice. Jack's neighbor, a freshman boy called Jamie, grinned back at them with a snaggletooth grin. "I'm back from Minnesota!"
"You don't say?" Jack said with a laugh. "C'mere, you!"
The two embraced, with Jamie laughing the whole time. Ordinarily opposed to any form of touchy-feely business, he regarded Jack as the older brother he'd never had. He only had a baby sister, Sophie, who was just three years old.
"How was your summer, Jamie?" Tooth asked, always the sweetest of the group.
"It was awesome! We did a lot of swimming, and Sophie caught a fish!"
Bunny's eyes lit up at the mention of the little girl. "Ah, Soph. How's that little ankle biter doing, mate?"
"Just great," the boy replied, smirking. "She talks about you constantly!"
The Aussie's cheeks flushed. "Good ta hear."
A bell sounded, and a groan rose from the mass of students in the lobby.
"Time for class," Baby Tooth said, biting her lip. "Gosh, I'm so nervous ―"
"Don't be." Her older sister gave her a kiss on the head. "Go on, don't wanna be late to your first day!"
Bunny was relieved to discover that he and Tooth shared the same first period. At least with her, AP Statistics would be bearable. The pair took seats next to one another and waited for class to start.
"You really do care about little Sophie, don't you?" Tooth asked, smiling sweetly at her Australian friend.
He chuckled, flipping his dark blond hair out of his eyes. "Bloody oath, Tooth, that's like asking if you fancy Jack's arse," he laughed, watching her face turn bright red. "Course I care about Sophie."
"I do not fancy Jack's butt," Tooth said defiantly.
"Yeah, you do, mate."
"Attention, class," came the booming voice of their professor. A fatherly-looking man, Professor Time was in charge of the freshman class as well as teaching junior math. He was a bit old-fashioned in his teaching style, but everyone always said great things about him. "Welcome to your first day back. I hope all of you had a wonderful vacation.
"However, since this is math class as well as your homeroom, I have to be the bearer of bad news ― as I usually am." He chuckled. "First day of class and you've already got an assignment. Here is a five page quiz to see what you remember from Algebra II; yes, you may work in pairs" ― he looked around the room warningly ― "but be careful whom you choose, because this is a grade. You have until the end of class. Begin."
As soon as they got their papers, Tooth and Bunny set to work. Tooth (who had been studying during the entire vacation) got the answers quickly and easily; while on the other hand, Bunny struggled to remember last year's math problems.
"What'd ya get for number three, mate?" he asked Tooth, looking at her nearly completed paper.
"Umh… I got x equals eleven," she replied, hurrying to finish the rest of her problems.
"What's the rush, twinkletoes?" her friend asked, copying her answers as nonchalantly as possible.
"I want to finish my book!" She scribbled the answer to the final problem, practically threw her pencil on the desk, and silently punched the air. "Now" ― she pulled out the same fabric-covered book as before ― "while you finish solving those problems, I shall be enriching my mind with facts about lovely white teeth."
"More like while I finish copying these problems," Bunny said with a smirk, pulling her paper towards him.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the school, Jack was busy hating his life. He got stuck with United States history as his homeroom, which he didn't mind… It was who was in his class that bothered him.
He could hear the Black twins snickering behind him, and he had half a mind to turn around and shut them up. Instead, he snuck a sly glance at them over his shoulder, just to see how much they'd changed over the summer.
They hadn't changed a bit. The older one, Pitch, still had the same jet black hair that went every which direction (much like Jack's, although Pitch's hair always seemed to look more refined), and his skin was still a pearly white, as though he hadn't seen the sun over the entire vacation. The only thing about him that looked remotely inviting was his eyes ― bright golden yellow, and sparkling with spite.
Sitting beside him with a distant but malicious expression was Pitch's spitting image, Lully. The two looked exactly alike, except that Lully's onyx hair came down to her tiny waist in loose curls. If she weren't such a rude spitfire, Jack thought, she might be pretty.
"Have a nice summer, Frost?" Pitch sneered, tapping his pencil on the desk.
Jack, not wanting to get sent to the principal's office on his first day of school, quirked an eyebrow and turned around in his seat, rolling his eyes.
"Welcome back!" A young woman with a pretty face strode to the front of the room, adjusting her small black tie with a flick of her wrist. "I hope you all had a great summer," she said. Jack decided he liked the sound of her voice. He might not fall asleep in this class every day.
"I'm Miss Peace, I teach United States history," she continued, pulling out a notepad. "I'm just gonna take role, here… Lully Black?"
"Here," came the quiet response of the youngest Black twin.
"Pitch Black?" Miss Peace said. "A sibling?"
"Twins," Pitch replied with a droning voice. "Present."
Miss Peace nodded, looking down at her role sheet.
As she continued to call out the names of the students in his class, Jack checked his phone under his desk. He had an unread text from North.
"Hey, hang out after school today?"
He typed back, "Sure man, get everyone else too" and looked up just as Miss Peace called his name. "Yeah, I'm here," he answered, throwing his hand behind his neck with an excess of charm. Behind him, Lully scoffed.
"Jackson Frost?"
Jack rolled his eyes. "I said I'm ―"
"I'm here," a voice came from the back of the room.
He turned, sending his white-blond hair into his eyes. A boy who looked exactly like him (with dark brown hair in place of Jack's white) was sitting next to a small Asian girl, hand raised to show who he was. Jack raised his eyebrows. Eesh, now there were two of him…
"Jillian Waytan?"
"Heeeeere!" the small Asian girl trilled. "Except I just go by Skye."
Jack sat back down in his seat with a huff. This was going to be a long, long year.