Nyuu nu ny!
CHAPPY! GET THE HELL AWAY FROM MY COMPUTER! *runs at him with a shovel, he hops down and I brake a lamp* DAMN IT! YA GOT LUCKY THIS TIME YOU LITTLE MONSTER!
*Dangling from the ceiling fan* NYUUUUUUU!
SCREW YOU TO! God I hate that thing. But anyway! Welcome back everyone! As you can see Chappy is just slightly worse then usual. The little demon stole my last can of Mountain Dew and now hell is breaking lose...AGAIN. -_- But I digress! Thank you everyone who has reviewed, fallowed and favorited the story thus far! You guys rock! A really big thank you also goes out to my good friend Mystichawk for all of her help with this chapter and all of my others as well!
As always I do not own Rise of the Guardians or the Guardians of Childhood book series! They belong to William Joyce and DreamWorks! The first 5 and 2/3's (approximately) chapters of this story were written by the amazing Starskulls who was kind enough to let me take on this story! Thanks Star! I hope you like the chapter! So without any farther adieu! Please allow me to present the next chapter of- *explosion in the background*
OH GOD NOW WHAT?! HERE! READ THIS I NEED TO GO GRAB THE FIRE EXTINGUISHER!
Spirit -not so- Well High School
Chapter 10: An Interrogative Hummingbird?!
With a tired sigh Jack leaned back against the lockers of the now empty hallway while dragging a hand over his face to try and work some of the sleep out of his eyes. He hung his head and waited by the gym for the final period to start, every few seconds looking back down towards the end of the hallway to make sure no one else was coming.
Jack had successfully managed to dodge the strange gang (well, actually about ⅘ of the gang) which had taken an interest in him for two whole days, making up half-assed excuses why he couldn't have lunch with them and then running away before they could ask questions. He'd been doing that to Pitch as well, but he didn't seem too phased by it. Jack had a feeling the strange, dark teen knew why he didn't want to talk or even stand still for very long, though their meet on Saturday was getting closer and closer.
Still, Jack was feeling pretty proud of himself for keeping anonymous this long, though he knew he wouldn't be able to keep is up much longer.
And he was soon proven to be right as after lunch gym class began.
"Alright marshmallows!" The teacher called. "It's that time of year again. We're going to be doing fitness tests for the next few weeks, the first of which will be sit-ups and crunches. So, pick partners and let's get started!"
Jack blanched. Partners. Damn! He scanned the rest of the class for the four people he didn't want to partner with. No Tooth, that was good. No Aster, even better. He might not mind partnering with Sandy. Because of the mute thing he would be easy to ignore even though the thought of doing that made his stomach turn. Likewise, he wouldn't mind partnering with Pitch too much. At least he would have any questions about his weird behavior when faced with a simple question regarding parents.
And then, as Jack allowed himself to hope that maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't have to talk to any of them just yet, he caught sight of the huge Russian heading straight for him and cursed.
Crap! He thought, scrambling up from his spot on the hard gym floor. Now how the hell am I gonna get out of here?!
But North, evidently seeing the panic in his eyes, picked up his pace and moved too quickly for Jack to get away or move to a random person and choose them as a partner, which he would have dearly loved to do. Someone, anyone but North!
"Hello Jack." North said before said teen could make the decision to run for it.
Jack flinched back, careful to keep his head down.
They waited for a few seconds in awkward silence, while the rest of the partners began to set themselves up on the floor, getting into position and doing a few warm-up stretches.
"HEY, you two! Frost and the Russian! Do you think this is a staring contest?!"
North chuckled. "Best get into position Jack." He said, casting his eye towards the grouchy gym teacher. "I think old Mr. Whateverthehellhisnameis is going to have our tails."
Jack briefly looked up at that with a confused stare toward the Russian. "Huh?" Then he realized that it was just North mangling a popular colloquialism. "Oh. You mean heads."
North shrugged and laughed again. "Tails, heads, it does not matter. Now, are ve flipping coin or doing exercises?"
Jack nodded again and- reluctantly didn't even begin to describe it- got down on the ground on his back. North sat down in front of him and put his huge hands over Jack's feet. Jack wasn't sure how comfortable he felt about this, knowing that North was probably going to start grilling him the minute the music to fill the background noise started, but he knew that it would all have caught up to him eventually. So why not now?
Because 'now' sucks! He thought in irritation.
But, to his surprise, North actually let him get ten crunches in before even speaking.
"So, Jack," he began quietly, clearly not wanting to be overheard. "Would you like to talk?"
Jack, who wasn't even winded after ten, asked evenly, "About what?"
Two more.
"About vhat happened a few days ago."
Jack opened his eyes, which he had closed for concentration, to look up at North in surprise when his accent suddenly seemed to get heavier and when he did, he was surprised to see North's bright sapphire eyes looking straight into his as he came up and he nearly stopped.
"There's nothing to talk about," He said firmly as he went back down. "I overreacted to a simple question. That's it. Now can we just forget it?"
Six more.
"Jack, if ve said something to upset you then please, tell us. So that ve don't make same mistake again."
Jack opened his eyes again. North's voice had sounded so empathetic, just like all the other kids he had naively told when it had first happened. He had thought, if he explained to them, they would all understand and wouldn't treat him any different than they had before. Over time he had learned better.
But when he looked into North's eyes, all he saw was concern. Not pity, or doubt. He really did seem genuinely concerned for him.
Jack stared back in doubt, confusion and- what was in his opinion -a justifiable amount of suspicion as he pushed down any possible spark of hope that North's concerned look was managing to give him.
He debated about answering for a long time, and he was about thirty crunches in before he finally spoke.
"You guys didn't do anything wrong," he said quietly. "I overreacted. I do that a lot. You guys don't need to worry about it, or about me for that matter. I'm fine so there's no need to treat me like some charity project for your little club."
Shit! He thought when he fully realized what he had just said. When the hell am I going to learn to shut my big mouth?! But in his heart he knew he meant every word.
But, instead of getting angry, North just looked surprised. Empathy and concern flashed in his eyes as he finally started to see the extent of just how much Jack didn't trust people and wondering just what had happened to make him this defensive. "You are not charity project, Jack." He said quietly. "You are person, and even the toughest person needs someone to talk to sometimes."
Jack opened his mouth to respond, but found himself completely tongue-tied. For the first time in his life, he had no smartass comment. No sharp remark, no witty jab. Nothing.
They continued the rest of the exercise in silence and Jack found himself doing more sit-ups that he had ever done in his life.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Tooth was the next one to corner him, as he had had a feeling she would be. (Despite all his prayers that she wouldn't) From what Jack knew of her, she would have been fretting and worrying about him this whole time. While some part of him liked that idea, the rest of him stubbornly refused to see it as anything more than pity for the poor boy who must've had something awful happen to his family.
She didn't know what, but she was smart. Hell, she didn't even have to be with how obvious he'd acted and how much he freaked out over a simple freaking question! She must've figured out something was wrong with his family, but she would need more to put the pieces together. More than that, he was not going to give it to her, or any of the others for that matter.
Jack was just stepping out of the library with a ridiculously large pile of heavy textbooks in his arms. He hadn't realized just how much study material he was going to need to get these classes done, and as a result had stacked them one on top of the other until only the top of his snowy head could be seen over the books.
This in turn, led to walking straight into someone and the books in his arms went flying.
Jack jumped back as the books scattered along the hallway floor after crashing down with loud bangs that echoed back into the library and down the hall and he cursed silently, bending down and reaching for the books before actually taking the time to look at whomever he had hit.
"Oh!" The person said. "I'm so sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going." Jack looked and saw, to his horror, that it was Tooth. She was scrambling to pick his books up, but she hadn't actually looked to see whose books she had knocked on the ground.
Only when she had gathered them all in her arms and presented them to him with another apology did she notice. "Again, I'm so sorry. I hope you're- Oh!" She stopped, staring up at the startled expression and shocked, wide eyes of the boy she had been looking for the past three days. "Jack!"
Jack horridly took the books from her hands, knowing what was sure to happen next. He didn't want to deal with this right now, not this soon after North. His words still haunted the outer-most reaches of his thoughts and Jack could only murmur a weak, "Thanks." Before turning and walking away.
Unfortunately, Tooth was a fast walker and soon she had grabbed him by the elbow. "Jack pleas wait! I wanted to talk to you about what happened-"
But Jack just managed to slip away again and, despite his snowy hair and rather distinctive skin, he melded into the crowd of students that suddenly began crowding the hallways as the school bell began to ring.
Toothiana tried to follow, but after chasing him for a few minutes and slamming into people she didn't know while hurriedly apologizing, Tooth leaned against the blue lockers that lined the hallways, breathing hard. "Man that guy can run fast!"
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Jack was bolting down the halls at full-speed, looking for the way out and repeatedly checking over his shoulder to see if Tooth had caught up to him yet. He had to get out. He had to get away from all these people. He didn't care if he was missing classes or other school stuff. He had to get away from these people and to some place where he could be alone and think about what he could do, though he was already thinking about it quite a lot.
As he first started running away from Tooth, his thoughts were all along the lines of, 'Holy shit that was too close!' as he charged down the halls. People saw him coming and easily parted, but he still had to dodge a few bodies and backpacks while ignoring the yells, taunts and odd looks everyone was shooting him. Then he progressed to bitching himself out for running away like a scared little kid when he finally began to come to his senses and the instinct of self-preservation began to wear off.
Why the hell did I run off like that?! He screamed at himself. Why didn't I just tell her the truth and hope that she tells the others, and they lay off me for a while?!
He'd tried that tactic before, but it had always backfired. Oh sure, in the earliest days when he had been a naive little kid, the people he had told had left him alone. For a while. Then the news had spread around and within a week, he had gotten into three fights and had nearly broken kid's nose.
And, with these people, he knew it wasn't going to be any different. They would feel sorry for him, they would pat him on the shoulder and say, "Oh I'm so sorry, we didn't know." Then they would tell the entire school and he would be forced to break one or all of their noses.
Unfortunately for him though- because the world hadn't proven to hate him enough apparently-he was thinking so much about the others and Tooth that he didn't see where he was going and as he turned around a corner ran smack-dab into someone. The impact sent them both at least three feet back and Jack, being the thinner and shorter of the two- though not by much -ended up on the ground surrounded by his books which had fallen to the floor again!
"I have GOT to stop running into people." Jack muttered as he sat up and grabbed the back of his head that he had just planted into the floor, his ears still ringing from the impact. He didn't even look to see who he had run into, instead focusing on grabbing his books and then getting the hell out of there. However, before he could move to pick up the nearest the person he had run into spoke.
"I second that."
Jack looked up and felt his eyes widen as he saw the dark form of Pitch Black looming over him.
"Oh, hey man, I'm sorry about that," he said sheepishly, trying not to look worried.
Pitch had been one of the people he had tried to avoid in his few days of solitude, but only because he thought Pitch might ask him about why he was avoiding the others. Actually, his opinion of the dark teen had changed considerably from when Sandy had first told him about his picking on younger kids. He still didn't like that, but he at least had the sense to wait until Pitch actually did something bad to be judgmental.
And it wasn't exactly like he had the option of being picky about his choice in any possible friends at this point anyway.
Pitch was smirking slightly, but the smirk vanished when Jack apologized to him. For a few seconds he just stood there and looked down at the white haired teen with a blank and slightly shocked look, but then the look faded to be replaced by what Jack thought was a real, sincere grin. "It's alright," he said quietly, and as Jack met his eyes he got the feeling Pitch hadn't been apologized to very often. When Pitch held out his hand Jack took it, making an unconscious mental note about his pale skin that looked almost ashy that he hadn't really noticed before.
"Again thanks." Jack said, using Pitch's weight, which seemed to only be slightly more than his own, to haul himself up. Then he remembered his books and he immediately dropped to his knees again to pick them up.
Pitch raised a slender eyebrow at this. "I go to the trouble of helping you up," he said loftily. "And then you just get right back down again. Well, there's gratitude for you."
Jack looked up from picking up one of his books. "You gonna help me or just stand there being sarcastic?" He asked in his own sarcastic, Jack-like way.
Pitch laughed, but he did bend down to get the books farthest away from them. As he picked up each one his eyes briefly flicked over each title. "Geometry, Biology, and history." He read aloud. Then he picked up another book that was lying nearly underneath one of the lockers and his eyebrows rose again. "Mysterious and Mythical Creatures: They're out there?" He asked questioningly.
"Sorry!" A voice said and both of them turned to see a younger-looking teen with a mop of brown hair and an over-flowing backpack rushing towards them. "That one's mine!"
Pitch held it out to him with a look of contempt. "Here." He said, and the boy grabbed the book looking relieved. "Enjoy reading about your fantasy."
The kid paused, just as he was about to head back down the hall. "Oh it's not fantasy," he said firmly, looking both Pitch and Jack straight in the eye. "They are out there." and then he turned and was gone.
Pitch shook his head. "Weird kid." He muttered, then he turned to Jack. "So, Jack."
Jack, who had gathered up all his books and was now standing and leaning against one of the walls, looked up. "Yeah?"
Pitch had that cynical smile on his face again. "Mind telling me why you were running like someone had just called 'Snow day'?"
Jack laughed again, then he remembered Pitch's question and he replied carefully, but attempting to maintain an air of ease, "Oh, you know. Had to get to class."
Pitch stared at him for a while, during which Jack felt extremely uncomfortable. It was like this guy never blinked.
After about a minute he asked, "What?" Rather more defensively than he was sure he meant, but he didn't apologize a second time.
"You are an absolutely terrible liar Jack." Pitch stated flatly, without batting an eye. "Now, let's try this again shall we? Why...were...you-"
"Is it any of your business?" Jack cut in, giving him a challenging look. "I mean seriously, I apologized for knocking you down-"
"As I recall it was your ass on the ground," Pitch interrupted smoothly. "But, if you don't want to tell me I understand. It is none of my business."
Jack gave a sigh of relief and turned to go, then he heard Pitch add behind him, "I just thought you might like someone to talk to about it."
Jack rolled his eyes and, against his better judgment, wheeled around to face Pitch again. "I was being chased by an interrogative hummingbird, OK? Happy?"
Pitch was momentarily confused, but then he smirked. "Ah. Toothiana grilling you on your method of teeth cleaning?"
Jack had to hold back a snort. "No, she wanted to talk to me about... something." he finished lamely, unsure of how much to tell Pitch. He hadn't gotten to know him very well, but from what he had seen he didn't think Pitch would tell the whole school. Still, he liked to keep his secrets close, and he didn't elaborate.
"Ah," Pitch said again. His accent made it sound slightly condescending, but Jack didn't pay any attention to it. "So," he said, changing the subject smoothly. "Are we still on for Saturday?"
Jack nodded. "Eleven, right?" He asked, just to make sure he was getting it right.
Pitch nodded back. "Yes. Meet you outside, by the tree?"
Jack nodded again. "Definitely."
Pitch didn't nod, but he continued to look at Jack for a few seconds longer than strictly necessary before turning and heading back down the hallway.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sandy walked down the crowded hallways, ducking and dodging both people and their backpacks who ether didn't notice his presence or just didn't actually care. Sandy wasn't actually upset by this though, after all this time he had learned to get used to it and it was just part of his everyday life now.
On the plus side though he now had the reflexes of a cat. He wasn't really sure if that would ever come in handy or not besides in gym, but you never know.
So yeah, Sandy wasn't really irritated by the fact he had to nearly throw himself into the lockers to keep from getting crushed. No. At the moment he was irritated because Aster was once again being a complete and total idiot.
Sandy sighed and rolled his eyes as he thought back to the conversation he had had with his Australian friend earlier that day.
The others (meaning Tooth and North) had all decided that they now needed to get to the bottom of whatever happened with Jack a few days ago. And according to them the only way to do that was to get him to talk to them again, though their version of talk seemed to be seen as more of an interrogation by Jack and he now took every opportunity to avoid them.
He wanted to talk to Jack, he really did. He wanted to make sure Jack was OK- which he clearly wasn't- and try and get him to open up a little. However he really did think the others were going about this all wrong.
Whatever had upset Jack when Tooth had asked about his family he clearly didn't want to talk to them about. So trying to make him talk and asking all of these questions wasn't going to be productive at all. I mean really! He was already running away from them because of it!
Sandy did want to help Jack. He really did. But Jack didn't want any help and was more than a little reluctant to accept any. In all honesty he thought it would be best to just drop the subject for now.
If Jack ever wanted to talk to them about what happened, he would, but they shouldn't pressure him into it.
Still, he had promised the others he'd give it a shot. He was just planning on taking a more quiet approach. That was his thing after all.
But back to what actually had him irritated.
As stated, Tooth and North had come up with the idea of trying to get Jack to open up to them all a bit. He had agreed hesitantly, but surprisingly and completely against what he would have expected, Aster actually seemed to be slightly on board with the idea.
At first he had just stayed quiet while the others had discussed a plan on how to approach Jack and just stayed out of it all together, acting like he really didn't care. But after everyone had decided on the plan of talking to Jack one at a time to hopefully not overwhelm him and North and Tooth had both left for class Aster had stopped Sandy before he could leave.
"Sandy, you're… You're talkin to Jack about what happened right?" He asked firmly yet hesitantly.
Sandy had responded with a slightly shocked and wide eyed look before nodding his head in confirmation.
Aster rubbed the back of his head with a slightly irritated look on his face that confused the smaller teen to no possible end as he wondered where this was going.
Aster sighed after a minuet of awkward silence and looked away from his friend before talking. "Just… Just let me know what he says when ya talk to'em alright?"
Sandy's jaw had literally dropped in shock when he heard that and Aster could feel a small blush creeping up the back of his neck in embarrassment as he glared holes into the ground.
The awkward silence streamed on for what seemed like an eternity before Aster finally looked up, but the slight blush that had started to form on his skin exploded tenfold when he saw the total shit eating grin on the smaller teen's face.
"I-It's not like that damn it! I'm just tellin ya to tell me what Frostbite says when you ask 'em why 'e ran off like we were holdin a knife at 'em!" He yelled, cursing himself for showing any form of concern- NO! He was NOT concerned for that little show pony! No way in bloody HELL!
Sandy continued to smirk up at the now completely embarrassed teen before pulling out his notepad and quickly jotting down his message.
'Why don't you just ask him then? What, too ashamed?'
"I'm not ashamed!" Aster growled, not looking him in the eye as he fought to keep from punching something, or someone out of frustration.
'Oh really? Then what are you?'
Aster had no answer for that and he felt his eyes go wide with uncertainty before he forced himself to choke out an answer and, to his utter humiliation, he actually stuttered! "I'm- I'm-"
'Struggling with your macho-complex?' Sandy wrote with a smirk.
Aster clenched his fists and ground his teeth in a way that would have made Toothiana scream in horror. "I am trying to not kill you now I hope you know."
Sandy just laughed silently as his taller friend fumed in embarrassed rage and let out a low string of mumbled curses before throwing his hands in the air and yelling. "Oh forget it! It's not like I even care!" Aster turned and stormed off as these words left his mouth and drew a few odd looks from nearby kids who he pointedly ignored before kicking the door open and leaving for class.
The smaller teen just rolled his eyes, the smug grin never falling from his lips as he grabbed his bag and left for history. Surrrrre you don't Aster. He thought. Just keep on telling yourself that.
That conversation had been just about an hour ago and now Sandy was attempting to catch up with Jack before art class, sadly though he was finding it rather difficult. Apparently Tooth hadn't been exaggerating when she had said he could run fast and the fact that Jack had immediately grabbed his things and left the class before anyone else, the second the bell rang, which wasn't exactly making it any easier to catch up to him.
Thankfully however, he was able to catch site of Jack just as he turned the corner and found him grabbing a few books out of his locker.
Smiling to himself Sandy decided to take the small window of opportunity to talk to him and quickly walked up to the line of blue metal lockers. Jack didn't notice the shorter teen's approach or he surely would have run off again and Sandy was finding himself slightly grateful for being both quiet and small for once.
Jack reached into his locker to pull out the last textbook he would need for today's homework and stuffed it into his backpack that already felt like it was full of bricks before slamming the door closed and turning to leave.
However he nearly jumped out of his skin the second he saw the shorter teenager behind the locker door and backpedaled before he could run into him like he had somehow developed the oh so cleaver knack for lately.
"S-Sandy!" He stuttered, backing up slightly more as the sudden urge to run for his life started to come back to him. But he held his ground and stayed where he was, mentally making the decision that he wasn't just going to run away like a cowered anymore.
However, despite his decision not to run away anymore, well, that didn't exactly mean he had a plan here. His hand tightly gripped onto the strap of his backpack while the other clenched into a fist in his pocket as he forced himself to keep looking at Sandy instead of down at the floor.
Sandy was instantly able to tell what the problem was, especially when he saw how tense Jack had gone the second he had seen him, but he was rather relieved he hadn't just tried to run off before he could even try to talk to him. Figuratively speaking of course.
Pulling a notepad and pen out of his pocket Sandy quickly jotted down a response with a happy smile on his face that was actually able to put Jack at ease if only just a little. 'Hay Jack! How have you been?'
Jack read the note and again found himself waging an internal battle in his soul as to whether or not to make a run for it while his heart pounded like a drum against his ribs. But that happy smile that was still on the shorter teens face somehow managed to keep him calm despite what he knew was about to happen, and for the first time in three days he actually managed to give a response to one of his 'pressures' instead of being completely tongue tied or stuttering like an idiot.
"I've been alright. Just… trying to get my work done is all." OK, so not completely stuttering like an idiot. Hesitating? Well it couldn't be helped.
Sandy nodded in response, understanding the hesitation in the other's voice and finally choosing his course of action, deciding that he would just have to apologies to the others later.
Jack felt his eyes widen when Sandy started to scribble down another message at astonishing speeds and held back a flinch when he suddenly shot out his hand to hold up the notepad and show him.
'OK, Jack I'm not going to just beat around the bush here. I'm going to be straight with you because you deserve it.' Jack had to forcibly restrain himself from letting his jaw sink to the floor like a rock as his eyes widened in shock when he read this.
'I really want you to explain what happened a few days ago and why you've been avoiding all of us.' The white haired teen felt his heart drop into the pit of his stomach and the desire to just run exploded tenfold in the back of his mind before he read the next line.
'But I'm not going to ask you to do that.'
This time Jack did actually let his jaw drop. 'Look, I want to apologize about the others and how they've been acting lately. I also want to say sorry about whatever happened a few days ago at lunch.'
The was the last line of the note and when he had finished reading it Sandy again scribbled something down and held it up for him to see as the pounding in his chest began to slow down until it no longer felt like he was about to break a rib.
'I don't know what really happened, and while I know all of us would like to, we shouldn't have tried to make you tell us.' Jack was slightly confused at that bit on multiple points. What did he mean by 'all' exactly? There was no way in hell Aster actually cared, right?
And why should he be the one apologizing for that? It was his fault he overreacted and North and Tooth were the ones who had been trying to interrogate him the last three days.
'Again I'm really sorry about this. Whatever happened you clearly don't want to talk about it and you don't have to. It's none of our business. I'm going to talk to the others and call them off so you don't have to worry about the interrogations from Tooth and North anymore.'
Jack dragged his eyes away from the note for just a moment to look at Sandy, expecting to see some form of amusement that would say this was all some sort of joke. But the shorter teen was still just smiling up at him with a look that couldn't have been anything other than sincere.
'I just want to tell you that if you ever change your mind and decide you want to talk about it, or really anything for that matter, you can talk to us.'
Sandy lowered the notepad when Jack had finished reading the last line and continued to smile up at him, really hoping for some sort of response or answer but understanding if he didn't get one.
Jack slowly straightened back up from reading the note when he had finished and Sandy pulled it away, thousands of thoughts and doubts and questions flying through his head that he had absolutely no answers for.
Part of him wanted to run, part of him wanted to not believe anything he had just read, part of him wanted to just forget this whole situation ever happened, and part of him actually wanted to scream.
But, despite all of his better judgment, despite everything he had learned over the years about never trusting people, and despite the fact that every rational cell in his brain was telling him not to believe a single word of this, a small part of him actually believed.
And maybe it was because he hadn't felt this way in so long he couldn't even remember. Maybe it was because some naïve peace of himself was still somehow not dead yet. But, somehow, that small part of believing hope managed to overpower all of the others.
Sandy watched hopefully as the tension in Jack's soldiers slowly began to loosen and the nervous look of anxiety in his eyes began to disappear, and Sandy had to hold himself from both sighing in relief and leaping for joy when the smallest, sincere smile began to slowly make its way across his face.
"Th-thanks Sandy."
Jack was trying to think of anything else to say, but he really couldn't. He didn't know what else he could say. But thankfully, Sandy seemed to understand, and when the bell for the next period began to ring he simply gave a small nod and began to make his way to class, taking clear note of the smile that was still on Jack's face in the corner of his eye as he left.
Sandy continued smiling all the way to class.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
'It's none of my business, it's none of your business. Can we please just leave it alone?' Sandy presented the note to the others when they had all met up after the last class to go over more of the festival plans for this year like they did every day.
Tooth hadn't even had a second to ask him how it went with Jack before he held up the prewritten note to show them and her jaw had dropped in shock. However against anyone's first possible guess it was actually Aster who had spoken up to this.
"But Sandy-"
North, understanding exactly where this is going but still trying to wrap his mind around the fact Aster was actually the one he was stopping here, merely placed a hand on his Australian friends shoulder and shakes his head. "No, Aster. You did not see him when we were alone. It was painful for him, I could tell. We shouldn't try to get him to talk about what he doesn't want to.
The other went silent at this and looked towards Tooth along with Sandy and North when she sighed and hung her head after a moment of silence. "He wouldn't even talk to me about it."
North nodded in response, knowing how upset Tooth had been sense Jack had run away from her when she tried to speak with him. "He only spoke to me because we were in gym class and I had ahold of feet."
Aster quirked an eyebrow. "You were holding him upside down?" The Aussie teen couldn't help the small smirk that began to stretch across his face at the mental image he was getting despite the serious situation.
North shook his head while Tooth sent a glare at him and Sandy rolled his eyes in exasperation. "No, we were doing crunches and I had to hold Jack's feet."
Sandy cleared his throat which does nothing and then wrote down a note before showing it to the others with a stern look that seriously didn't match his normal personality but still managed to get his point across. 'Alright. So we're all in agreement to never speak of this again?'
The other three shared a hesitant look before sighing in defeat, everybody nodded.
Sandy smiled to himself in victory as Tooth started up the meeting to discuss possible sponsors for this year's festival and tried to get her mind off the subject. He really did want to know why Jack had suddenly run away like he did when Tooth asked him that question about his family. But he knew that it wasn't their job to try and force it out of him.
They would be there if Jack ever decided he did want talk, even Aster though- though he would forever deny it and undoubtedly try to act like he didn't care if it ever happened. All they could do for now was try to get to know him and make him see he wasn't actually alone anymore.
He'd come around eventually. Sandy had every hope in that.
*runs back into the room with a fire extinguisher and salmon in my hand with a small piece of my hair on fire* OK! Once again the fire department has been called so I need to make this quick! I hope you all liked the chapter, please review and let me know what you think!
A quick notice saying that I'm currently working on a new RotG fanfic that should hopefully be up by next Sunday! Please everyone go on and check it out along with my other works!
Until next time ladies and gents! Keep calm and- *fireworks explode in the background and a teargas grenade comes flying through the window* NOT AGAIN! *dons gas mask* Are you my mummy?
REVIEW! Especially if you get the reference!