Cold Shoulder
Chapter 11
Okay so it still hasn't snowed where I live yet which is REALLY weird since it normally snows in October, and it's now January. Not. A. Single. Flake.
XXX
Jack didn't return to the lake for the rest of winter break. He couldn't yet when he was still terrified of
whatever unknown fear that had washed over him. He didn't want to be afraid of the only place he actually felt calm, but he couldn't control his fear. Therefore, he decided to stay away for a while until he could get his thoughts sorted out.
Instead of going to the lake, Jack spent his break alone in his room. He spent his time drawing as there wasn't much else he felt like doing.
He drew the girl a lot. He drew her from different angles, different ages, different expressions. After the tenth drawing of the same unknown girl in far too much detail to be a figment of his imagination, Jack knew that she had to be real. He could tell that she was important, but still couldn't actually remember anything about her other than what she looked like.
"If you are my sister…," Jack whispered sadly to himself. "I wonder if I'll ever remember you. Maybe I'll remember you one day and we can build a snowman together. And if we have parents, they can help us build more until we have an entire snow family."
A tear fell from Jack's eye. He shook his head roughly.
"No… I know that'll never happen," Jack told himself so he wouldn't get his hopes up. "I don't know if you even are my sister. You could be a neighbor or an actress or whoever else. It will never happen."
By the end of what he was saying, Jack's voice began to waver. After giving up on remembering, he had been given brief hints at his old life. And yet, that was it. He still couldn't actually remember anything substantial, and the fact that he was teased by the whispers made it even more unbearable not to know.
He looked away from his current drawing and down at the loose floorboard. After hesitating for a moment, he set down the sketchbook and stood up.
XXX
As he was about to enter the school on the first day back from break, he heard a yell from behind him.
"Jack!" Toothiana called. "Hi!"
The hyperactive girl pulled him into a hug, which he had not been expecting at all. The hug put pressure on his many new wounds, and he let out a yelp of pain.
"Oh my God, I'm sorry, Jack! I didn't mean to hurt you! Sometimes I end up hugging people too hard! Are you okay?!" she apologized.
Jack quickly forced the pain to the back of his mind and let out a huge grin.
"It's okay. It didn't really hurt; I was just surprised," he replied.
"Sorry! I forgot that I never asked if I could hug you! It's just been a while since any of us have seen you since it was winter break, and I got excited," explained the girl.
Then, the rest of the group approached, having caught up after Toothiana ran ahead. The group then started a conversation that Jack was apparently included in. The conversation, however, quickly turned into a debate between Aster and North over holidays with Toothiana trying to get them to compromise. While they were distracted, Sandy starting writing in his notebook.
"Have you been doing okay?" he asked in writing.
"Yeah," Jack lied with a smile.
"You don't have to pretend, you know," Sandy continued with a worried expression on his face.
Jack stayed silent for a second, knowing that Sandy already knew one of his biggest secrets, but still firm in his resolve to keep as much as he could hidden.
"… It's nothing important. I'd just rather not talk about it," he explained.
Sandy nodded, not wanting to push Jack and make him uncomfortable.
XXX
Jack looked into the mirror of the school bathroom. As he had been walking to the art room, Pitch had found him. He luckily got away with only a few bruises since Pitch had a detention and didn't want to get another one for being late. However, the dilemma that Jack now faced was that one of those bruises was on his cheek. Jack attempted to cover it up with some makeup, but he only succeeded in making it look less severe rather than hide it. So, he left the bathroom and continued on to his destination while coming up with a lie to tell the other club members if they asked.
When Jack entered the room, Aster was the only one who had arrived yet, and he was too in the zone to even notice that Jack had come in. So, he pulled up his hood and sat down, hoping that no one would notice the bruise.
This, however, was little more than wishful thinking on his part. As Toothiana walked into the room with Sandy and North, she immediately saw it.
"Jack, what happened?! Are you okay?!" she asked as she dashed over to him. "Where'd you get this bruise?!"
Jack looked up at her, a small smile on his face.
"I fell asleep during class and fell out of my chair," he explained with a laugh. "The chair landed on my face."
"Do you need ice or something?" Toothiana questioned in an attempt to help him.
"It's fine," Jack replied.
Toothiana, although still clearly worried, accepted his explanation. Sandy looked as though something had just clicked in his head, and Jack internally groaned as he knew that Sandy had probably figured it out. North had accepted his explanation with a worried nod. Aster, however, had stopped painting and was now looking directly at Jack with a strange stare that Jack couldn't figure out.
XXX
DUN DUN DUN. Has Aster figured something out too?
Also, I have literally never been to a school that has after school detention, and I have been to A LOT of different schools. They all have had lunch detention or Saturday detention. I don't know, do schools just not do the after school detention thing anymore, or is it just that the schools I've gone to are weird?
