A/N

Okie dokie! You guys are so great; so I'm bringing in Jamie this chapter! (He's like my favorite person ever).

Special thanks to…

-MiloAndOtis: Aw, thanks so much! Stay cool! ;)

-snowing-in-the-spring-time: Dude, did you seriously just apologize for loyally reviewing every single chapter without fail? Are you kidding me? I freaking love you and your reviews! Extra Sophie hugs for you!

-thunder angel13: Cool pen name! And lol thanks! Aster's a little bossy there, but I love him.

-Crystal013: Hehee! Glad you liked the humor in there! Thanks!

-Articwolfpack: Haha have to say you wrote one of my favorite reviews. Short, simple, and to-the-point. *saluts* Yes, sir!

-Anie6142: Yup, you'll find out (not in this chapter), you'll find out (in this chapter), eventually, and thank you! OH MY GOSH GLITTER YOU HAVE NO IDEA THE LEVELS OF HAPPY I JUST REACHED! *starts glittering everything*

SOPHIE IS NOW GIVING HUGS TO ALL OF YOU! Hope that made your day a little better. And I also hope you enjoy this chapter! Remember, I'd love to hear any suggestions/requests/ideas for this story! STAY AWESOME, READERS!

~Smiley

Jack took a step outside. He waited, just watching.

The kids were running around, ages going from two or three to ten or eleven. They were playing tag, hide and seek…anything and everything they could think of playing, they played. They were laughing and talking and out of breath, but Jack felt like he had stepped into a ghost town.

And Jack was the ghost.

No one paid him any mind. He stood on the edge, watching them playing and wondering what he was supposed to be doing here, but he felt invisible. Like he was on the outside looking in.

Perhaps that was for the best. Jack needed to take some time to process what he was seeing. Every other kid looked or sounded just like Emily. Their age or gender didn't even matter; Jack was having a hard time actually seeing the kids for who they actually were. Somehow, their features all ran together until a girl with brown hair and eyes had taken their place.

Jack wondered if he should turn around now. Call Manny and tell him it just wasn't going to work. That would certainly be easier.

But Jack remembered how much he loved playing with kids, even kids who weren't Emily. He used to do some babysitting back in his old town, and he remembered how getting children to laugh felt like the greatest accomplishment in the world. He used to love making games, inventing stories, telling jokes…

Manny certainly thought this was going to be good for him. And his mom had such high hopes of this working out…he didn't want to let her down. She really worried for him far too much as it was. And…well, he kind of liked his new boss and co-worker, despite how much they got in his face. They seemed like really great people, and he didn't want to disappoint them.

And, just maybe, a small part of him didn't want to give up in front of Aster, either. With how much he hated Jack, being forced to work with him was going to be torture for Aster. And had the potential to be very fun for Jack.

Jack took a deep breath, closing his eyes. He counted to three, and told himself that when he opened them again, he was going to see the actual kids, not Emily. After another breath, he opened his eyes again, shocked to see that it had actually worked.

Okay, Jack thought, my head's sorted out. Now what do I do?

As if to reply, a strong gust of wind blew by, stealing a book from a young boy sitting on top of the monkey bars. The book landed by Jack's feet.

Bending down, Jack picked up it up, looking at the cover. "Well, that looks interesting," he said. The kid who had dropped it had started trying to get down from his perch, but Jack held it up towards him. "This yours?"

"Yeah," the boy answered. He had brown hair and eyes, like Emily, so Jack tried hard to focus on staying in the moment, not seeing faces from the past. "Well, technically it's from the shelves inside, but I'm the one who dropped it."

"Is it any good?" Jack asked, attempting to make conversation.

He nodded his head vigorously. "Uh-huh. This is my fifth time reading it."

"Whoa, fifth? Must be a really good book then." The boy took the offered book from Jack's hand.

"It said that Bigfoot was spotted! In Michigan! That's, like, super close!" he told Jack, excitedly.

"No way!"

"Way!"

"What if he decides to take a little road trip over here?"

"That would be so cool!"

"I know, right?"

"I could try and get a picture of him! Then they would have to believe!"

Jack laughed. This kid was pretty cool. "Wait, who's they?"

"Oh, my friends," he answered, his mood suddenly becoming a lot less happy. The kid shrugged his shoulders. "They don't believe in this stuff as much as I do."

Jack grabbed hold of the monkey bars, hoisting himself up so he could sit beside this kid. Besides, he could watch all the others better from up there.

"Well, that sucks. Why don't they?"

The boy sighed. "They think they're too old to believe in it anymore, I guess."

"What? I'm eighteen, and I still believe in this stuff. How can you get too old for Bigfoot?"

He hugged his knees to his chest, the book getting squished along with them. "I don't know. Maybe the same way they got too big for this place."

"Huh. Well, I think that's their loss. I mean, I hear we get cookies here," Jack said, trying to think of what he knew about GC.

Jamie laughed a little, but didn't seem much happier. "Yeah, we do. And they're good cookies, too."

"See! We don't only get cookies, but we get good cookies."

He laughed a little bit more.

"And, uh, we have cool art supplies," Jack said, thinking of Aster.

"Uh-huh."

"And interesting books," Jack continued.

"Yeah, that's true." Somehow, he didn't seem much happier. The poor kid probably missed his friends.
"Do you wanna read it? I was finished with it anyway."

"Well, was there another book you wanted to read?" Jack asked.

The boy shook his head. "I've read them all before."

"Huh."

"Yeah."

"Well…" Jack thought for a minute. "Why don't we make up our own story?" he suggested.

"What do you mean?" Jamie asked, mildly intrigued.

"I mean, you are clearly the book expert here, but if there are no new stories for us to read, why can't we just make one up?"

"You mean like writing our own book?"

"Yeah!" Jack said. "And we don't even have to write anything. We can just act it out."

Jamie grinned. "That sounds cool!" He bounced with excitement. "But…uhhh…how do we start the story?"

"Once upon a time—"

"No, no!" the boy interrupted. "I've heard that beginning too many times."

"Okay," Jack said, smiling. He hopped down from the monkey bars so he was standing in front of the kid. He talked with his hands, gesturing up at the sky. "It was a dark and stormy night..."

"Better!" the boy exclaimed. He looked down at Jack with awe.

"And…" Jack began, gesturing for Jamie to continue.

"Bigfoot came stomping through the woods!"

"I like it!" Jack said. He began to act it out as he spoke. "It was a dark and stormy night, and Bigfoot came stomping through the woods." Jack lifted his feet and stomped under the monkey bars, stopping on the other side of the kid. He whirled around so he could watch Jack.

"Then, all of a sudden, Bigfoot saw something flying high in the air!" Jack pointed at the sky and ducked, like something had just flown above his head. Unbeknown to the two boys, a couple of the other kids had stopped to watch what they were doing.

"A UFO! The aliens had spotted Bigfoot!" the boy cried, leaning over the edge of the bars, clutching them tightly.

"Bigfoot panicked, and started running away from the aliens!" Jack ran under the monkey bars again, acting like Bigfoot.

"Bigfoot ran and ran and ran!" the boy continued.

"And then his big feet got very, very tired," Jack said, dragging his feet on the ground and stumbling like he was about to collapse.

"But then he found a house in the woods!" Jamie exclaimed. More children had gathered around to hear the story.

"Hello!" Jack grunted, trying to sound like Bigfoot and knocking on an invisible door next to the monkey bars. "Is anyone home?"

"But Bigfoot hadn't realized that this was the home of—"

"A witch!" a first grade girl cried. She stepped up to the other side of the invisible door, flinging it open and cackling evilly.

"Oh, no, not a witch!" Jack cried, falling to his knees in front of the six year-old. "Please, please don't turn me into a toad!"

"I'm a wicked witch!" the girl exclaimed. "I'm going to turn you into a toad!"

"Noooooo!" Jack cried, and once the red-headed girl had made the appropriate spell-casting hand gestures, squatted down and went, "Ribbit!" He hopped in the air.

The children were all laughing, especially the boy on the monkey bars. "Now Bigfoot is a toad!" he narrated. "He is going to need a kiss from a princess if he's going to change back!"

A group of seven year-olds shoved one of their friends towards Jack. "Nuh-uh. There is no way I'm going to ever ever kiss a frog!"

"Ribbit!" Jack croaked, hopping over to the newest character.

"But only a true love's kiss will break the spell!" A kindergartener argued.

"Ewww!" the princess cried. "No way! I'm not Bigfoot's true love! A princess needs a handsome prince!"

"Nooooo," a two or three year old said.

"It was then that the aliens found them!" Jack said from his position on the ground. Now, kids who had been doing crafts started drifting over to the window to watch the story unfold.

"You're still a frog!" the boy told Jack from the monkey bars.

"Ribbit!" Jack croaked.

Three boys stepped forward, walking like robots, for whatever reason. "We are the aliens," one said.

"Take us to your leader," another said.

"Earthling," the third added.

"Excuse me, aliens, but you are talking to a princess!" the princess said, flipped her black hair over her shoulder.

"Ribbit!" Jack added.

"The aliens are looking for Bigfoot!" Jamie called.

"We are looking for Bigfoot," one of the aliens repeated.

"Do you know where he is?" another asked.

The witch cackled again. "You won't find any Bigfoot! I turned him into a frog!"

"Your Highness, is this frog Bigfoot?" an alien asked the princess.

"Ribbit!" Jack croaked, hopping a little.

"You bet!" the princess cried.

"The aliens know how to change Jack back!" the boy on the monkey bars stated. More than half of the arts and crafts kids now had their faces pressed to the window, listening to the story. Aster looked at his kids, confused.

"Beep boo bop bee boop," one alien said, poking Jack's face like there were buttons there.

"POOF!" Jack exclaimed, jumping to his feet. "I'm Bigfoot again!"

"But you're not a handsome prince!" one of the princess' friends called.

"Oh my gosh, a wolf!" Jack shouted, pointing at an unsuspecting kid. By this point, Aster had walked over to the window and was watching, along with all the other kids.

"Me?" the kid asked.

"Yeah!" Jack responded.

"Okay!" The kid immediately dropped down to all fours and started growling at them.

"Ahhh!" the princess cried. "A wolf, a wolf!"

"A wolf, a wolf! A wolf, a wolf!" all the other kids chorused. Aster turned around to see North, Tooth, and Sandy standing behind him, watching the new guardian entertain the kids. Tooth was smiling, Sandy was laughing, and North crossed his arms, smirking at Aster.

"A wolf, a wolf!"

"Bigfoot saves the princess!" the boy on the monkey bars declared.

"I'll save you!" Jack repeated. He swooped down, grabbing the princess under her arms and swinging her around before depositing her next to the boy on the top of the monkey bars.

"My hero!" the princess exclaimed, clasping her hands together by her head and batting her eyelashes.

"Bigfoot and the princess got married!" someone decided.

"And the aliens took the wicked witch back to their planet!" another shouted.

"And so," the boy on the monkey bars concluded, "they all lived happily ever after."

"The end," Jack said with a bow. The kids all cheered.

"Who want cookies!" a booming voice bellowed. Another wave of cheers erupted, and everyone headed inside. Then, just for Aster to see, North patted his tummy twice, giving him a look, before going to hand out the cookies.

A/N

Whoo! That took a little while, but I think I like how that turned out! Ugh…it is soooo late! Pretty please leave a review! You can have a cookie too!

~Smiley