48 reviews so far, thank you all so much! I've decided that there will be a small competition: 60th review gets a dedicated chapter that they can choose the theme of!

Of course, it does sound a bit silly, but there we go!

North ran up to Jack at the end of school.

"Jack, do you want to walk home with me?" he asked, but Jack shook his head, pushing North away slightly with his left hand.

"I'm going to a friend's house, I'll be back later," he muttered, refusing to look his brother in the eye. North thought he might know who that friend was, but Jack was already walking away, not looking back. It stabbed at North's heart.

Jack was always so cold to him when he was in a mood like this. His little brother who he had always protected now acted like he couldn't care less about him. His friends never really talked about Jack if they could help it, as he was just the little brother of a friend to them. But Kozmotis was bad news; he was trouble on two legs with a smirk that promised to break all hearts. If he had a kind smile, perhaps North could have brought himself to trust the younger boy, but that smile was anything but kind.

He turned to see Tooth and Sandy deep in conversation via sign language while Bunny was walking towards him.

"What's wrong, mate?" asked the Australian teen, while Sandy looked up sharply as he caught sight of a very familiar figure stepping out of the shadows and flinging an arm around Jack's shoulders.

North turned to see what Sandy was looking at before his features darkened, causing Bunny to look over North's shoulder to see what could cause the positive teen's reaction. He too began to stare at the pair as they walked away, presumably towards the Pitchiner house.

…

Jack turned to Kozmotis. "It must be hard to deal with being at a new school…most people here already knew each other from before. I don't think I could deal with that." Kozmotis almost laughed. He just acted the same as he always did, being unsociable and having one friend exclusively, and let the school adjust around him, rather than having to change things himself. It wasn't exactly difficult.

However, if your older brother was popular, it must be hard to make friends without being linked to him and expected to act the same as your sibling. Being invisible was probably a better bet than people being friends with you because of who your brother was.

"I guess…" Kozmotis looked at Jack, smiling a little. "What was it like for you?"

Jack looked at his feet. "I guess it was just… I didn't like the way people compared me to Nick. Only, they all called him North, and then our parents doing the same to please him. I wanted to call him what I always called him, actually."

Kozmotis whistled. "Sounds rough." He was rather pleased with himself for having figured it out correctly. Well, it was true that Jack made it rather easy, but he was glad that his plans would not need changing.

He remembered Jack, and turned back to him. "So I have a load of movies at my place, do you want to watch one? I have a lot of horror stuff…"

Jack shook his head quickly. "I'm not a fan of all that, really…" Kozmotis grinned a little. So he didn't like that? He probably hadn't seen many. Personally Kozmotis adored horror movies, but he could put off his own taste for this once.

"I have some animated movies… like Princess Mononoke…"

Jack blinked. "Never seen it." Perhaps it wasn't too bad… It didn't sound as if it could have anything to do with injury. He had never been able to stomach gore and the fear filled movies. His brother had tried to watch them, but he had not been able to either.

Kozmotis grinned. "You are in for a treat then, huh?" He dragged Jack so that the other boy had to run, heading towards the house where the movie could be found.