October 31

Cook sighed as she returned to her car, shaking her head at the officer in the passenger's seat. "None of the neighbors saw him come home either time. They said they avoid watching the Frost house on general principles."

"Why?"

"Apparently the father's got temper problems. Poor kids…" She glanced over at her partner. "Look, I'm not too concerned about this, are you? I mean, you should've seen the kid's face. He was so stunned when his friend stepped in for him. I'll bet that's the first time anyone's ever done something like that for him. He looked pretty scared when he thought I was about to arrest him. I don't think he'll do anything like this again."

Her partner sighed, shifting in his seat. "I think we're going to have bigger fish to fry tonight, frankly. If he does anything again, we'll catch him and be sure to follow it up. We don't have enough for him this time." He narrowed his eyes mischievously. "Getting soft on the kids, hmm?"

She glared at him. "No."

"Oh, but this one's different, isn't he?"

She huffed, putting the car into reverse and backing out of the driveway. "No."

"Aww, he is, isn't he?"

"Shut up."

"Worried?"

The sudden sincerity made her pause and look over at him. "Something like that. I'm going to check up on him later."

"That'll give him a heart attack."

"I still want to make sure he's okay."

"Do what you want, Cook," he sighed. "Just remember that we can't save everyone."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Aster," Jack said cautiously as they approached Sandy's house. They were within sight of it, and walking side by side. "Can I ask a favor?"

" 'Course. What's it for?"

"Take the binders."

"What?"

"The binders. Get them out of my house, alright? I don't want them. I never did. They remind me too much of Pitch and that mess. Just take them, alright?"

Aster glanced at him, frowning slightly. "Yeah, sure. I can do that. When?"

"I don't know. As soon as you can." They walked in silence for a few more seconds, before Jack frowned and said, "What's that smell?"

Aster frowned, sniffing the air. He stopped suddenly. "Uh oh."

Jack paused, leaning against his staff. "What?"

Aster groaned. "You're about to meet our chaperone for the New York trip."

"We have to have a chaperone?"

"Yes. Someone has to be over eighteen, an' none of us are so we had to invite an adult along. This adult just so happened to be the most immature sibling one could ever have. Present company excluded."

"Thanks. Who is it?"

"Sandy's sister."

"Sandy has a sister?!"

"He doesn't talk about her much."

"I…see."

"Come on, let's get it over with." He stalked over to the house. Jack matched his pace, barely using the staff much anymore. Aster didn't comment. Maybe Jack was just ignoring the pain. By the time they arrived in the yard, the scent of cake was too strong to ignore. Sandy's sister was an avid cook for sweets. They had gone from the house of the army cook to the house of the sugar plum fairies. Aster pushed open the back door, revealing the mess inside the kitchen.

A tall, lanky girl with way too little clothes on for any degree of appropriateness was standing at the stove. Flour and salt had fallen at some point over the counter and were sprayed over parts of it and the floor. She had long honey-brown hair that fell to her waist, pulled back in a low ponytail. She turned when she heard the door open and waved at them. "Aster!" She dropped her spatula and hugged the Australian, who immediately flushed a bright red and didn't return the hug. There was no way to return the gesture and not touch an outrageous amount of skin. Jack simply stared, not sure how this woman could possibly be related to Sandy. "Oh my God, it's been way too long! You're looking even hotter than when I saw you last!"

"Um, thanks…?"

She let go, holding him at arm's length. "Swimming's definitely treating you well," she said, nodding. "Dating yet?"

"No time. Look, we've kinda got stuff to get done…"

"Oh, work's boring, don't worry about it." She glanced past him at Jack. "You two would be a cute couple."

"No," they deadpanned simultaneously.

"Hey, you've got the mutual thought process down and everything! You're doing great!"

"We are not dating," Jack said firmly. "Who are you?"

"Isabel, Sandy's sister! Who're you?"

"Jack."

"Well, you're not as adorable as Aster, but you're still pretty cute." She glanced at the stove. "Hold on, I think the cake's going to start burning in a minute." She moved away, opening the stove and peering inside. Aster ran out of the room as quietly as possible with Jack at his heels. By the time Isabel turned back around, they were gone.

They only slowed when they were up the stairs, almost to Sandy's room. "Does she…?" Jack started, confused.

"Sexually harass everyone? Yeah." He snorted at Jack's expression. "She's a handful. We've already agreed that we're going to ditch her in New York an' wander around without her. She's just there for liability or whatever."

"Oh, good," Jack said, looking nervously over his shoulder at the kitchen to make sure she wasn't following. "Does she do that to everyone?"

"Everyone."

"Everyone?"

"It's a little disturbing. I think she went easy on you today, too."

Jack groaned.

"Trust me, it gets much worse." They had reached the top of the stairs, and Aster lead them down the hallway, past the bathroom he had used a few weeks earlier to wash off all the grime. Jack noticed him pointedly not looking at it as they walked by. Aster pushed open a door at the end of the hallway, walking in to Sandy's room. The room was only lightly decorated, as if the owner didn't stay there often. If Ana's earlier statement about everyone going to her house was anything to judge by, then he probably didn't.

North, true to Aster's statement with the police, looked like he had fallen asleep and had been dragged here. Sandy, as always, looked completely awake, while Ana was waiting impatiently for them. "Finally! What took you guys so long?"

"Jack's neighbor's dog got out," Aster muttered irritably. Jack nodded. "We got roped into helping catch it."

Ana sighed. "Okay, let's see… What else do we have to do?"

"Got through all the binders. Those're really goin' ta help the kids who don' understand the way the teachers are teachin' now," Aster said. "We've got help from the heads of the departments at school. Mr. Vanesburg is happy with us. We have the times worked out. A bunch of students are already goin' to be coming, an' word of mouth is gettin' it around pretty fast. I'm not sure if that's because a lot of kids want ta come or because they're just not sure what we're doin'. I think if we needed ta, we could prob'bly start it tomorrow."

"So we have a month to do…what?"

"Procrastinate for anything else we should probably get done," Jack suggested.

"Well, we can' procrastinate if there isn' anythin' to do…" Aster trailed off. "We got done a lot faster than I thought we could."

"So we basically just need to work on public relations and the rest of this will all fall into place," Jack said.

"Yeah."

A few seconds of awkward silence passed. "Should we figure out where to go in New York?" North asked. "There's the basic guideline we all follow when we go, but we can find some other places. And Isabel is here to say where she wants to go."

"Maybe we could just tell her the places we want to go are the places we're s'pposed to go an' hope she doesn' notice?" Aster muttered, glancing at the door like she was about to walk through on their dastardly plan in a moment of glory and shove the cake she had just made in their faces. "I mean, it's not like she's gonna check the schedule or anythin'."

"But what if she talks to one of the other chaperones?" Ana asked.

"I'd kinda prefer she doesn' talk to anyone from our school…"

"But we have to be prepared," Ana said.

"Um, and isn't there a…dress code we have to follow?" Jack pointed out hesitantly.

"She's going to have to abide by that…or maybe not. She's not a student," North said. "Should we talk to her now or later?"

"I say we put it off as long as-"

"Come get the cake if you want any!"

They all winced at the loud volume of her yelling and exchanged looks. Aster finished, "…as possible."

"Let's go sort this out now," Jack sighed.

Aster nodded and stood up. Jack started to do the same, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him. Ana frowned, peering down at his head. "Woah, hold on a second."

Jack tried to look up at her, but she pushed his head back down so it was level. "What? Lice or something?"

"No… Sandy, come here. I'm not going crazy or something, right?" Sandy walked over, looking at Jack's head to see what she was talking about. He nodded. "Yeah, okay. I'm not insane. Jack, do you dye your hair? No, if you did it'd probably be the other way around… But maybe that's why you dye your hair…"

"Ana, I don't dye my hair. What is it?"

"Your hair is turning white."

"What?"

Aster walked over, nudging Sandy and Ana aside gently. "Lemme see." He looked down at Jack's head, pushing aside hair to get a better glance at the roots. "Woah. Mate, she's right. White as snow. All of the roots. You know what this means?" He paused for dramatic effect. "Old age."

Jack batted their hands away. "I am not getting old," he scoffed, and stomped off to the bathroom. The others followed, so he left the door open while he tilted his head down and looked at the top of it in the mirror. Ana was right. All of the roots were turning pure white. "Holy crap… It is white!"

North frowned. "How did that happen?"

"I have no clue…" A thought suddenly occurred to him, and he shot a look at Aster. The Aussie's eyes narrowed, catching onto Jack's thought process. Jack broke eye contact, glancing over his shoulder at Ana. "How long does it take for hair to grow?"

"It grows about an inch in a month," she replied. "Why?"

Jack looked back at Aster for a second, and then back to the mirror. "It's nothing. We'll figure it out later."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The food was good, but the conversation wasn't. Isabel never stopped talking, but it became surprisingly easy to simply tune her out. A small conversation started up between North and Ana over a text one of them had gotten, speaking quietly enough to avoid attracting Isabel's attention. They appeared pretty frustrated over it. Sandy and Aster were the main focus of Isabel, leaving Jack to sit on his own and let the others pretend he didn't exist. It was preferable to Sandy and Aster's predicament. Sadly, it wasn't hard as it could have been. The others still weren't used to having him in the group, and he was able to fade into the background without any of them noticing.

"That's fine, that's fine," Isabel said, waving it off when Aster finally broached the subject of them splitting up in New York. "I had some stores I wanted to go to, and it seems like you all want to go to some of the boring places, like Central Park. But I have one requirement!"

Aster groaned, rubbing a hand over his face. "And that is?"

"You guys have to allow me to take you shopping at least once!"

"Isabel-"

"It'll be fun! And besides, I've taken the rest of you before-"

"We remember," North muttered under his breath, having come back into the conversation when it turned to New York. Ana was also paying attention. Sandy seemed content to just let the rest of them figure it out.

"-but I've never gotten time to spend with Jack!"

He almost spit out his drink, but kept it in. Jack shook his head, swallowing. "No, that's alright, I'm sure I can pass on the offer."

"I insist!"

"So do I, I'm totally fine sitting out on this."

"I'm not!"

"I'd really rather just stick with the others."

"Come on, it'll be fun!"

Jack shot Sandy a pleading look, but his friend only shrugged slightly. "Look, can we just figure it out then?"

"But there's important stuff we need to figure out now!"

"Like what?"

"What size are you? Do you prefer long socks or ankle socks? What about long sleeved t-shirts over sweaters?"

"Wait, socks, what-?"

"Yes, socks!"

"We're shopping for socks?"

"We're shopping for everything!"

"I don't like this idea…"

Ana escaped the situation by taking her dishes and starting to wash them off. North quickly followed suit as Isabel continued attacking every detail of Jack's wardrobe. Aster jumped ship soon after, and at some point Sandy just vanished. Jack was abandoned at the table, despite his every effort to get away (excuses including everything from needing to call his parents, homework, and a bathroom break). Isabel took no notice of his obvious discomfort or the disappearance of her family member and his friends.

Meanwhile, the other four reconvened upstairs. Ana shoved her phone in Aster's face as soon as he walked in the door. "Look at this," she hissed. "Text from Laura. The rumors are getting worse. How can they even be going on for this long?!"

"Ana, its high school," North said, sighing. "Besides, it's been less than a month."

"Have you even seen some of this stuff? It's ridiculous! There's no way people are making up all this!"

"Ana's right," Aster agreed. "I mean, rumors do fly around fast, but this is nothin' short of spiteful."

"Someone's deliberately starting all of the rumors?" North asked.

"Yeah. An' I think I know who it is." Sandy nodded in agreement. Aster jumped slightly, having not seen him come in. He regained focus and held out his hand for Ana's phone. She gave it to him and he began skimming through some of the texts. "Look, most of this stuff… It's all offensive ta Jack, obviously, but it's, it's… It's just devious. Whoever started this knew that Jack doesn' pay attention to gossip, so he's never goin' ta hear any of this."

"Most of the students know that," Ana pointed out.

"Yeah, but how many are smart enough to use that against him? See, it's aimed at underminin' him. Like, this one," he said, showing a particular text to the others. "This rumor said he cheated on tests an' that's how he got such good scores. Jack isn' gonna care, even if he hears about that. But people will think he's a liar an' won' want to work with him at the tutorin'."

"They've been getting worse as they go," North said. "I think you're right, that it's planned. You said you know who it is?"

"Yeah. I can't think of anyone else it would be."

"Are you going to tell us?" Ana asked a few seconds later, when Aster didn't elaborate.

"No. I think having this happen to Jack is bad enough, but if it happens to all of us, we might not be able ta convince people ta come ta tutorin'. If it's only two of us, it won' be as bad."

"Wait, you're going to confront whoever it is about this?" Ana asked, frowning.

Aster nodded firmly. "Yeah. I've had enough of this guy."

"Pitch," North guessed.

Aster winced slightly at having the answer guessed so soon, but then nodded again. "Yeah. He's had a grudge with Jack that got even worse recently. An' it's about time he learned who all he's messing with now if he pisses of Jack."

Ana frowned, shifting her weight. "What are you planning on doing?"

Aster smirked.

The door opened, admitting Jack. "Okay, she's crazy. And you left me with her!"

"Hey, it was every man for himself," Aster replied. "You didn't see us helping each other, did ya? How'd you get away?"

"Told her I thought I heard her phone ringing and then ran for it when she went to look," Jack said smugly. "Is she going to come up here when she notices I'm gone?"

"If ya sent her ta her phone, she won' even notice yer gone."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

November 1

Jack looked down warily as Ana disappeared over the edge of the roof. North was on the ground already, helping them down as they descended. Sandy was crouched midway between the window of his room and the edge, peering over to make sure Ana got down safely. He glanced back at Jack, and silently laughed at his expression. Jack raised his eyebrow slightly before looking back to the roof. "Isn't this… over kill?"

"Nah. If we went the normal way, Isabel would stop us an' we would never get ta school on time," Aster said. "Besides, this is way more fun."

"How often do you do this?" he asked, a bit exasperated.

"Every time Isabel's home, or if its night and we don't want to wake up the parents of whoever's house we're at. We have to do this for North and me too, on occasion." Aster shrugged. "No one's ever gotten too badly hurt before, so we just kept doin' it over the years."

"Wait, too badly hurt?"

"Well, we've fallen once or twice, but there were always bushes to break the fall. Besides, that was before we figured out the trick to getting down safely."

"And the trick is?"

"Don't look down an' move fast before yer nerves get ta ya."

"Somehow, that's not comforting. Do you usually go last?" Jack watched as Sandy turned around, gripped the edge of the roof, and dropped out of sight.

"Someone's got to close the window behind us. Yer turn."

Jack stepped over the sill and walked carefully, keeping low and in a crouched position. A few bits of ice had frozen onto the roof, but he avoided them and moved steadily the whole way. He looked over the roof, seeing the other three below. Sandy waved at him cheerfully, but Ana was no longer paying attention. She watched the back door and windows to make sure Isabel didn't notice their impromptu escape. Why was he suddenly finding himself using windows as an alternative to doors? At least the ladder had had a direct route to the ground…

He copied Sandy's earlier movements, turning around to grip the edge of the roof. His legs went over, dropping below his torso and the edge. His knee knocked lightly against one of the back porch's posts, telling him where he needed to aim. He let his right arm go, getting a hold of the post and leaning his legs against it. His other arm let go of the room, letting him slide down to stand on the railing of the porch. Over his shoulder, he could see North nodding in approval, telling him he'd done it right. Jack quietly let go of the post, jumping lightly to the ground.

Aster shimmied down faster, having the advantage of height to make the descent easier. "Alright," he said, keeping his voice low, "let's get ta school before Isabel notices we left."

"Do you guys seriously think she woke up earlier just to talk to you when you go to school?"

"Yes," they all responded at the same time.

"Oh. Maybe the James Bond evasion technique there is necessary…"

"With Isabel, ya can never be too careful." Aster turned, walking towards the road.

"She isn't home as often as she used to be," North explained, "so we don't have to worry about this as much anymore."

They were about twenty minutes down the road, laughing and joking when Aster stopped suddenly. "Crap," he groaned, "Mr. Watson wanted some papers… Let me go grab 'em, I'll be right back."

"Do you want us to wait?" Ana asked, but he was shaking his head even before she finished.

"No, no, don' worry about it. I'll meet ya at school, okay?" He turned and ran back in the direction they had just come from. Ana and Sandy exchanged a look that Jack couldn't quite interpret, but they smiled soon enough and tried to move him off the topic.

Aster and he hadn't had any time to talk since they had arrived at Sandy's…but there wasn't really anything else to be said. It didn't seem like Aster had spoken to the others either, although they had the time when Isabel had been holding him hostage. None of them had treated him any differently, though. It didn't seem like they knew what happened.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

They got to school about ten minutes later. Aster rejoined them five after that, having apparently run the entire way home and back. School started just a bit later, sending them all off on their different ways to go to class. The day passed easily, seeming to get only better and better from class to class. He had several enthusiastic conversations with the teachers involved in the tutoring, and those who weren't were slowly beginning to warm up to him.

Government was the only road bump, but it was over quickly.

Pitch switched places with the girl next to Jack at the end of the period, like normal. Jack did a double take, noticing his broken nose, but not caring enough to ask about how that happened. It would have made more sense if he had noticed that Aster's hand had been bleeding when he had rejoined the group that morning.

"Heard about a ruckus down at the house you were making the drop at," Pitch muttered under his breath, quietly to keep from anyone else hearing. "The guy got arrested."

"I know," Jack snapped irritably. "The police came to my house just a few minutes later."

"Getting sloppy."

"That's not my problem."

"It's Emma's."

"No, it's yours. I'm done. Don't come back to me with this again." Pitch started to say something, but Jack cut him off. "No, don't bother threatening Emma or me. If you plant something on her, I've got enough information to ruin you." Pitch froze. "You never thought about that, did you? I've got as much leverage over you as you do over me. So let's just forget this ever happened."

Pitch glared at him, fist tightening. "You're afraid, aren't you?"

"Of you? No."

"Of course not of me, you dolt," Pitch snapped. "Of letting the other four down and disappointing your sister. You'd keep working with me if it weren't for that."

"Oh really?"

"Yes. What's so important about them, huh?"

"I guess that's something you're never going to understand if you don't get it already," Jack responded, turning away from him to focus on the English homework he was getting done. "Go scare some other freshman, will you? You're not a nightmare for me anymore."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

a/n: Important, please read.

Jack's limp was real at the beginning. As it continued on and began going along with what was going on around him, it became psychosomatic (all in his mind – he thought it was getting worse but wasn't nearly as bad as he thought it was). So at this point, it's not really causing him much trouble anymore and won't again.

Some of my more epic analogies: Obviously, Baby Tooth the cat is, well, Baby Tooth. I couldn't color her random shades of purples and blues, so I made her grey. Obviously, the ferrets North as are the elves. I thought about little dogs, but that just didn't fit. Ana's mother cooks a lot because she's "cooking for an army". Like Tooth's army. Her army is also represented by her never standing alone. When she got in the fight with Pitch, the other three stepped in to help. The staff and hair for Jack are pretty self-explanatory. If you didn't catch that before, I'm gonna smack ya upside the head with somethin'. And chapter eight was fluffy and happy because it represented a change in Jack's life for the better. When they were all climbing out the window in this chapter, it was because they never really enter a house through the normal way in the movie.

REVIEWERS: I know, I know, I'm a horrible responder. To be honest, I'm usually typing the next chapter when you send it in, so I don't have much time to respond (or I haven't slept in a long time and am too tired). Also, my internet has been having problems recently and I've barely had enough time to get the chapter posted in some cases. I DO read your reviews and they encourage me to write faster. I've loved yours more than ones from any other story I've written, because you guys leave good reviews. I mean, some of the ones I've gotten have been pretty animated, which is really awesome.

And thanks to snowwolfninjaprincess-23 and (anonymous) KuroHikari for helping with Aster's accent. I seriously thought about making it more accurate, but then I remembered that I'm ultra lazy and that frankly, if Aster's spent a while in Maine, he'll have started to lose the Australian accent.

Pitch was punched! Jackson O. Frost was the first to ask, but I think someone else did later… (And several people were just violent towards him in general.)