I find it funny how all of you were impressed by Cody's rant, even though I had credited Julchen for coming up with it in the first place. So you should really be impressed by her instead.

On Monday morning at school, the first words out of Zander's mouth once he saw Jack were, "Friday night wasn't a dream, was it?"

Jack raised one eyebrow in amusement. "Uh, no. That is, unless if you're talking about something other than venturing down into the Boogeyman's lair and witnessing Cody beat said Boogeyman up."

"Once we got back home, Zander went up to our room and just lay down on our bed, muttering to himself," Spencer chuckled. "He's more surprised by this than he seems."

"You were the one who started yelling at him like no tomorrow during the ride home!" Zander retorted. "You were going on about how he should've told us earlier and how that would've saved all of us a whole lot of trouble!"

"It wasn't pleasant being yelled at," Jack admitted. "But it's understandable. I can get why you would react that way." He turned to Cody. "By the way, nice job on whacking Pitch up. You're like the only one I know who would do that. Most people would just get the hell out of there instead of threatening him with Mexicans." He smiled at the memory.

"He's not scary though," Cody objected. "Not to me, at least. He needs to brush up on his skills if he's seriously gonna allow himself to get smacked around by me."

"Of course he doesn't scare you," Anton pointed out. "For the record, you're scarier than him, so it would only make sense if—" He stopped once he saw Cody's glare. "What? Would you prefer to be called less scary than him?"

"I'd prefer it if you didn't compare me to him at all."

"Whatever, you totally whooped his ass!" Zander laughed. "That's something I would pay to watch again! I mean, all you used was a stick! A stick!"

"You know, it's pretty hard to actually be scared of him, especially if you were ten years old when you ventured into your older sister's bedroom and saw her unexpected corpse dangling from the ceiling."

Stunned silence followed Cody's remark.

"What?" he asked.

"...Nothing," Jack finally answered, exchanging a look with Spencer.

"Anyway," Anton began, trying to get the suddenly tense atmosphere to go away, "I didn't find Pitch that scary either. I honestly find Cody with a buzz cut more frightening."

"Oh yeah, I remember that!" Zander piped up, snapping his fingers. "The day you first came here! You had that buzz cut going on!"

"Why yes, I am grateful for your loving consideration to remind me of freshman year because it is apparent that I don't possess the ability to remember these things myself," Cody said dryly.

Jack stared. "Wait, you had a buzz cut?"

"The second Anton brought it up, I just knew you would ask."

"No, I just...can't picture it," Jack said frankly. Cody currently had a full head of black hair, not to mention some fairly long bangs, so a buzz cut was rather hard to imagine.

"It was like a few days before my first day here, and I was at the park when some little shit decided to put gum in my hair," Cody sighed. "I didn't really give two fucks about it once I calmed down, so I just buzzed it all off. I let it grow out again over the years."

"You had a class with me in ninth grade, and I remember when you walked in, you looked really weird," Anton added. "It didn't suit you."

Cody gave him a glare. "Whatever. It grew out again, didn't it?" He began walking away, presumably to his own locker.

"There are better ways to handle gum in your hair, you know!" Anton called after him.

Cody neither turned around nor stopped, but he held up one middle finger as he was strolling away.

Anton turned back to the others in exasperation. "Remind me again why we have a better relationship nowadays?"

Jack grinned. "Quit acting like that's a bad thing. The progress in your relationship has its benefits. Like I don't have to go home everyday with a migraine anymore."

"Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha right," Anton deadpanned. "But seriously, I don't remember how we even managed to make that progress."

Zander shrugged. "I don't know, the power of croutons?"

"I'm home!" Jack called as he closed the door behind him. Wynter immediately came over and meowed at him as he set his backpack down on the ground. He crouched down and ruffled the fur on top of her head. "Now who let you inside the house?"

Jamie came hurrying over from the other room. "I was feeding her for you, but then you came in and she just darted inside. Sorry."

"No, it's fine. Go put her back, alright?" Jack picked Wynter up and handed her over to Jamie. The younger boy began to walk in the direction of the backyard, and after a moment of thinking, Jack followed him.

"You're going tomorrow, right?"

Jamie glanced up at him. "Going where?"

Jack frowned. "The performance at the middle school tomorrow night! You know, my...project?"

Jamie's face lit up with realization as he put Wynter down outside, then shut the screen door. "Oh yeah! Yeah, I'm going. All my friends are too."

Jack nodded in approval. "That's good, 'cause I need to get all the support I can get from you guys. Just the thought of talking in front of an audience has been giving me the jitters lately."

"Oh, that's normal." Jamie waved Jack's apprehension off. "Pretty much everybody gets stage fright at least once in their lives."

"Jamie, I've been alone for three hundred years, so I'm still kinda new to facing so many people at once. I'm sure what you guys feel can't compare to what I feel," Jack pointed out, unconvinced.

Jamie rolled his eyes. "Trust me, you'll do fine."

"Still though. Support?"

"Sure, I'll support."

At the middle school the next night, it was utter chaos in the amphitheater. The entire performance art class was rushing to get things in order before the curtain went up. McCarthy was busy taking advantage of her authority to direct everyone on costumes, timing, and whatnot—and was thoroughly enjoying everyone's submission towards her.

"Do I really have to wear this dress?" Cody complained to Jack as he held up his costume for Pitch. Lowering his voice, he continued, "I thought it looked weird enough already, but meeting the actual Boogeyman kinda made me regret taking on his role."

"It's not a dress, it's a robe," Jack said back. "Dresses and robes are completely different articles of clothing."

Cody rolled his eyes. "Like I said before, that doesn't make it any better. Besides, he's all talk and no action, which is what I hate most about him. Just the thought of portraying him makes me cringe."

"Come on, Cody! It's just this one time, and I promise I won't force you to act as him ever again!" Jack persisted. "Besides, it's not like I can change your role at the last minute."

"Didn't you offer me that role as the Tooth Fairy once I came back to school? Any chance of switching my role to that?"

"...Are you serious? I was kinda fifty percent joking on that."

"Just answer the damn question, Overland."

"I ended up giving that one to Cici. Both you and I know that already."

Cody sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah, true. I just want to seek out every option there is before I'm forced to put on this stupid outfit."

"You don't have to put it on right now, you know. If you're a fast changer, then you could wear it at the last minute for all anyone cares," Jack suggested.

Cody seemed to be satisfied with that possibility, because he simply walked away at that moment, probably to put his costume back on the rack.

"Yeah, you're welcome," Jack muttered under his breath.

"Hey Jack. We have a slight problem," Anton told him, approaching him with McCarthy in tow.

"Sure, what's up?" Jack looked up at McCarthy. There wasn't a day when he wasn't the problem solver, so how bad could it be?

"Did you and Anton forget to prepare an opening introduction?" McCarthy inquired, looking quite displeased yet still managing to keep her professional persona up.

"...What?" Jack croaked out. Oh dear god.

"You know how they do it on television, don't you?" McCarthy asked him. "Like on Ellen...or the Oscars."

"I don't watch TV!" Jack defended himself. How was he supposed to know that when he clearly had no experience with this sort of stuff?

"Well, you two need to prepare some witty opening in order for you to attract the audience's attention," McCarthy instructed. "At this point, I don't really mind what you do or say, but keep it appropriate and G-rated." Without waiting for an answer, she clacked off on her heels.

"'Appropriate and G-rated'?" Anton echoed irritably. "What's that supposed to mean? It's like she's actually worried that we'll pole dance for our intro."

"Sometimes pole dancing is the perfect choice when it comes to desperate measures," Jack grumbled back, sinking to the ground. "I can't believe we forgot our opening..." He glared up at his friend. "And you! Why didn't you remind me?!"

Anton looked taken aback. "Hey! Don't go pinning all the blame on me! Okay, so I can get a little forgetful at times, but it's not like you remembered either!"

"You heard me back there, I don't watch television! I don't know how this stuff works!" Jack lay down on his stomach and put his hands to his face, getting into the exact position he was in when he and his friends were holding auditions. "We're screwed..."

"You...tend to get into that position a lot when you're upset, you know that?" Anton couldn't help but comment. "Don't worry, we'll figure something out. Like McCarthy said, it doesn't matter what we decide to do as long as we keep it interesting."

"The curtain is going up in like ninety seconds, and you think that we'll be able to come up with something by that time?" Jack moaned hopelessly.

"All you gotta do is spit out the first interesting thing that comes into your mind! You're not a boring person, so you must have something, right? And get up off the floor before you embarrass the both of us."

Jack laughed humorlessly. "Heh. Right."

At that moment, Cody was coming back over, and behind him, Cici, with half of her feathers done, yelled something at him. He turned his head around and shouted back, "I'm putting it on later! That dress-robe thing isn't nearly as complicated as all the feathers covering your body, so I have time!"

Because he was still walking forward with his head turned, he ended up tripping over Jack, who was still drowning in his own misery, right after he said this.

And he landed right on top of the poor, unsuspecting Anton, who couldn't move out of the way in time.

Cici ended up witnessing this whole thing, and hurried over. "Oh my god, are you okay?! Jack, why are you—" She immediately shut up and covered her mouth with her hands once she got a closer look at what was going on, her cheeks slowly becoming red out of embarrassment.

"Hey, what's going on?" Spencer appeared, having noticed Cici's flustered look from afar. He followed her beeline, and almost immediately saw what was making her so uncomfortable. "...Oh."

"Why are all of us—" Zander also came over, paused, took one look at Cody and Anton, and burst out laughing.

Cody, finally getting over his shock, frantically picked himself up off the floor and began to vigorously wipe his mouth. "What the fuck! GAH!"

Anton slowly sat up, looking very, very traumatized. "My teeth hurt..."

"To hell with your teeth! Nobody cares about your teeth!" Cody shouted at him as he stormed off.

Jack got up off the floor, completely oblivious to what just happened. "Okay. I decided that you're right. We'll just wing it," he complied reluctantly. He grew slightly concerned when he saw Anton with a very uncomfortable look on his face. "Something the matter? You look like something bad just happened to you. Like really bad, like you-accidentally-kissed-Cody kind of bad."

Anton stared at him in disbelief, then began exclaiming, "キスしただよ！アホか？！お前はバカ！バカ！アホなバカ！ゲホ！"

Jack blinked. "...Is that Japanese?"

Anton groaned and put a hand to his face. "Ugh, never mind. The curtain's going up any second now, so just...get ready..."

"Oh yeah. Sure."

Both of them walked off, leaving Zander, Spencer, and Cici awkwardly standing there. Cici held up her phone. "I took a photo of them," she admitted, breaking the silence.

Zander grinned like a maniac, while Spencer just looked at her in surprise. "That's totally wrong! You should delete that before either of them see it somehow," the latter advised.

"Ignore my killjoy of a brother, Cici," Zander smirked. "You really should keep that. For future blackmail use, I mean."

Cody came back. "Okay guys, I got back from rinsing my mouth out with mouthwash. What'd I miss?"

"Oh, nothing," Cici excused with an innocent look on her face, hiding her phone behind her back. "Just that the curtain's gone up, I think."

Cody went closer to the front, and raised an eyebrow when he heard Anton's voice go, "Jack likes Twilight!"

Snickering went on in the audience while Jack shot back, "HEY! I was only curious about it! Besides, I'm not the one who—"

Cody went back to where the others were before he could hear anymore. "Okay," he stated flatly. "Those morons are just exposing each other's secrets for their 'opening.' Who let them do that?"

Zander shrugged. "Beats me."

Zander put on the white wig that was part of his costume and looked in the mirror. He sighed and took it off again. I'll just put my costume on later...

He exited the bathroom where he had gone to change, and saw Cody sitting against the wall nearby while staring unblinkingly at something. He walked over and sat down beside him.

Cody stopped staring at whatever he found interesting and eyed Zander. "I thought you were gonna go change."

Zander shrugged. "Yeah, well... I changed my mind. Why aren't you dressed?"

"In all honesty, I'd rather have nightmares for the rest of my life than put on that weird dress-robe thing." Cody turned his attention back to his previous distraction.

"What are you staring at?"

"Nothing that interesting," Cody dismissed. "Just your brother and his future girlfriend." He gestured towards Spencer, who was somewhat nervously helping Cici adjust her Tooth Fairy feathers.

Zander raised both eyebrows. "Why? You find them worth being stared at?"

"Not really, but there isn't much else to stare at," Cody answered, not even darting a glance at him. "I think it's best if I keep my mouth shut about the two of them. I don't want Spencer to get all dramatic again."

"So basically you're not a shipper?"

"Nah, not really." Cody brushed his bangs out of his face. "But then again, I don't ship anyone together, so nobody should be too bothered by it."

"How come?"

Cody looked at him again. "Uh, you know how my sister died. Also, I have never personally known anyone who has had a successful relationship. Need I say more?"

Zander paused. "You know, if they do end up making it, I will rub it in your face so hard, you'll feel like you just got a face full of sandpaper."

Cody rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Like I said, you shouldn't be too bothered by it."

"But what if you were the one who, you know...ended up liking a girl?" Zander asked.

Cody remained silent for a minute. "As much as I hate to do it, I guess I have to put on my dress-robe now," he finally said, abruptly changing the subject.

He got up and began walking away, and Zander protested after him, "Aw, come on! You can't just leave my question hanging like that!"

Cody stopped, then turned around. "Love is not real, at least not for me. It's just some sort of lust that's only there because someone feels lonely and wants what they call a soulmate. Besides, in the one in a billion possibility that I do end up liking someone, there's a zero percent chance that they'll like me back, all because I'm...well, me. So yeah, currently single, will be single forever, no matter if that's my intention or not, which it totally is."

Zander was obviously not expecting that type of answer. "But you're...not ugly..."

"...What?"

Zander stood up. "Look, I'm only saying 'not ugly' because any other term would make it seem like I'm turning homo for you. And I know love can't depend on just looks, but you know, shouldn't there at least be someone with a crush on you? Like how those Robinson triplets like Jack and all that."

"...I'm just good at making sure people don't like me." Cody looked away. "Can I just go now? Jack's gonna come here any second and I don't want him to get on my case for not being dressed yet." He looked at Zander again. "You should probably get into your costume too."

Zander cringed and rubbed his arm tentatively. "Uh, yeah, about that... I don't know, I feel like I don't deserve to have the lead role as Jack. After finding out who he really is, it just doesn't seem right anymore. Why should he watch me pretend to be him when he's missing the time when he was still a spirit? It's not fair to him. And I can't just give the role to him at the last minute."

Cody thought for a moment, then said, "Unless if something bad happened to you."

Zander stared at him, a little on edge. "...What are you getting at?"

Cody rolled his eyes. "Relax, I'm not gonna kill you and stuff your body in the dumpster in the back lot or anything like that. I have a plan, but I need you to go along with it."

"Ugh, I can't wait until all this is over," Jack sighed as he leaned against the wall wearily. "This is more exhausting than I thought it would be."

"Well yeah, you didn't really think it would be like a walk in the park, did you?" Anton pointed out. "Both of us have to keep the audience entertained, so of course it's gonna be stressful and tiring."

Jack had to admit to himself that Anton had a point. "I'm just gonna go see if Cody's put on his costume yet. The kid really doesn't want to wear that thing."

Anton nodded, but before Jack could even take one more step, he heard a loud yelp coming from further backstage. Recognizing it to be Zander's, he immediately rushed in the direction of the voice. He spotted Zander on the floor, with Cody next to him. Once he got closer, he saw that Zander was painfully grasping his bloodied left arm.

"What happened?" he demanded.

"Zander fell onto a prop," Cody answered cryptically.

Spencer and Cici had also hurried over, and the former was about to step forward to help his brother, but Cody shot him such a withering look that he got the point. Still, he kept his place nearby so he could be the first one at Zander's side if the injury turned out to be even worse than it looked.

"What prop?" Anton had followed Jack.

"Does it fucking matter?" Cody snapped. "The kid's hurt, don't you think we have to take care of him first before you ask anything?"

McCarthy had come over by now, and cautiously looked at Zander's seemingly injured arm. "You need to go to the infirmary. The nurse is in her office since she knows that all of us are here." She added, "You're not going to be able to be in the play."

"Yeah, I figured that much out," Zander muttered sullenly, getting up off the floor with Cody's help.

McCarthy turned to the others. "Do you have a prepared understudy?"

Jack had been shooting worried glances at Zander this whole time, and he didn't even turn when he replied, "No. None of us thought that something like this could happen."

"Wait, but Jack, don't you know our entire script by heart already?" Zander asked, still clutching onto his limb. "You know, since you were the one who typed it up in the first place."

Jack quickly caught on to what Zander was trying to get at. "Zander, I can't. I—"

"Not a bad idea," Cody agreed with Zander. "You know this play better than the rest of us do combined. If anyone's going to fill in for someone, it should be you."

McCarthy hesitantly nodded. "They're both right. I normally wouldn't allow this, but it seems that we have no choice. Jack, will you substitute for him?"

Jack opened his mouth to argue, but realizing that he had no other option, unsurely consented, "Alright..."

"Zander, will you be okay?" Spencer concernedly questioned his twin.

Zander smiled reassuringly. "I'll be fine." Thinking for a second, he then said, "Actually, on second thought, I need to talk to you, Cici, and Anton for a bit after I'm done getting this thing patched up. Do you mind?"

Spencer blinked, not understanding. "Um... No. Sure, we'll talk, I guess."

Jack left the bathroom stall and looked in the mirror, wanting to see how his costume looked on him. Looks okay, except... He fixed the wig on his head a little, then smiled satisfactorily. There.

"Hey."

Jack turned around and saw Zander in the doorway. "Oh hey." His eyes fixated on to his friend's sling. "Is your arm doing okay?"

Zander looked down at it, then simply shrugged and took his arm out. "It's doing great. I could live without the cast though."

Jack blinked in surprise. "Wait, so...your arm's not really...?"

Zander shook his head. "Nah. Nothing ever happened to it. It was all fake."

"...Why—"

"Because I didn't want to pretend to be someone when that someone is standing right there," Zander cut him off. "I'm not the one who used to be a winter spirit. And it's pretty obvious that you miss being one, so I, uh, decided to be considerate for once and hand my part over to you."

"...Oh." A thought hit Jack. "Wait, but how'd you get past the nurse? I mean, you went to the infirmary, didn't you?"

"Yeah, except we didn't actually go. Cody had stolen this sling from our box of props—we got the fake blood from there too—and once we were outside, he helped me put it on," Zander explained. "That's all."

"So Cody knew? All of them knew?"

Zander nodded. "Yeah, Cody knew. Nobody else did though. The two of us just finished explaining what really happened to them before I came here."

"Oh," Jack said again. "Well, uh... Thanks."

Zander smiled. "No problem. You deserve it anyway."

"But Zaaaaaaaandeeeeeeeeer!" Jack whined in a high voice. The play was over, and now they were all in the parking lot along with Jamie and Kayla.

"No means no, you moron!" Zander snapped at him. "I'm not giving you a piggyback ride all the way home! Why do I like you?!"

Jamie looked up at Spencer. "...How did this happen again?"

"He somehow inhaled some helium from one of the balloons and he just began acting like this," Spencer sighed as he rubbed his temple. "I didn't even know it was possible to get high from helium..."

"Hey, you two should kiss!" Jack grinned drunkenly, randomly pointing at Cody and Anton.

"In your fucking R-rated dreams..." Cody muttered. "I'm not going through that shit again."

Kayla's eyes lit up. "Again? You mean you two have kissed before?"

"Now look what you did," Anton mumbled toward Cody. "She's been getting into yaoi anime lately. She'll ship any pairing that's boy and boy now."

"Oh boy!" Kayla began excitedly. "First off, a new relationship blossoms, and then you two move in together, and eventually get married! Can I be the wedding planner? Ooh! I need to be one of the bridesmaids too!"

"What the fu—"

"Heeeeeeeyyyyyyy!" Jack slurred, cutting Cody off. "Anton! Have you been cheating on me? You're a dishonor among Japanese geishas! Fuck you in every knickerbocker glory hole! You're a moray eel!"

"You were the one who told me to kiss Cody only moments ago!" Anton shouted at him.

"What the hell is a knickerbocker glory hole?" Cody wondered aloud. "And I'm the only one who's allowed to say 'fuck you' to him."

Jack hurried over and attempted to aggressively thrust Anton in the testes, which he epically failed at because Anton was doing a fantastic job at keeping him and his sexual intentions away. "YOU JEALOUS~~~"

Spencer awkwardly looked away. "This is making me very uncomfortable..."

"Okay, if I give you a piggyback ride, will you stop trying to sexually harass him?" Zander gave in exasperatedly.

"Yes please!" Jack squealed out and practically hopped into Zander's arms. "Onward, Squidward Tentacles!"

"Do you have a thing for comparing people to marine life or something?!"

Meanwhile, up in the sky, a familiar blob lingered in the distance.

I'm typing this while Julchen is working on a Snowflakes chapter involving her own experience pretending to be a ghost of a nun for fifteen minutes.

I know I promised to show you guys the play, but once it came down to it, I didn't know how to write it without despising it with the very core of my soul. So I decided to give you guys some behind-the-scenes action instead, and I hope this makes up for it. I'm sorry if anyone is disappointed. So yeah. Filler chapter, and the next one is when things get important.

Okay, time to be serious for a moment. I hate saying the same thing over and over again, and I'm sure you guys hate reading someone go on and on about something just as much, but there are people out there who still don't get it when I say, "Please do not beg me to update. I will UPDATE ON MY OWN TIME." I really don't want to name names, but if things are going to continue on at this rate, I'm afraid I'm going to have to call you out on it individually.

On a lighter note, who loves reading bad fanfiction? I'm talking like really bad, the kind that makes you want to set your screen on fire. If so, there's a new link at the bottom of my profile that leads to a page where me, Julchen, KokoLolo, and McVitie deeply analyze various bad fanfics. Don't worry, the only victims are going to be those stories that don't have proper spelling, capitalization, and just grammar in general. Oh yeah, and the plot reeks. We don't have too many fics on there yet, but we're hunting for them. I'm assuming you guys are at least decent writers anyway, so you don't have to worry. But anyway. Go visit it and give it a try. (Once you get there, I'm Mulan. That's my nickname)

Also, there is indeed a reason why Cody's lack of a love life comes up so much as a topic of conversation. It foreshadows what happens to him in the sequel ;)

Speaking of Cody, he's winning on my poll in a landslide. Not that I'm surprised, I mean he's my favorite one too.

feathered moon wings: Oh, don't worry, I totally get what you're trying to tell me. Yeah, I know it seemed a little...crackish...but I was in a really cracky mood and I couldn't help myself. Besides, I figured that the hilarity of it all would remind everyone that it isn't the climax just yet. I'm planning on having the confrontation with Immo much more serious. (By the way, is your name Abril? In other words, April in Spanish? If it is... *whispers* My name is also April)

PuppetMaster55: I felt the supreme urge to change my chapter title to that. The only thing stopping me was my promise to a couple other people that my title pattern would resume.

Lovepuppy316: Well yeah, that's partly the reason why he was in a maid dress. But the main inspiration for that is because I saw fan art of him in a maid dress, which turned into all three of them in maid dresses (I saw you brofisting with Julchen by the way). Also, Cody is badass. CODY IS BOSS.

Dude: Nah, you didn't cuss at me, and even if you did, I would've found it more amusing than offensive.

McVitie: LOLO'S READING IT BUT SHE WON'T TELL ME HOW MUCH SHE'S READ SO FAR GODDAMMIT LOLO And yes that was a DM2 reference. Congrats on being the only one who noticed. DON'T TELL ME TO GET OUT OF BED, VITIE.

Writeous: Of course you can call me that, darling. Wynter finally appeared too, so I hope you're happy. And you're right, that wasn't the climax. Only a few chapters left, which is a good thing because I want to hurry up and do the sequel already. Thank you for being patient, I love you :*

Lolxxx: The word 'cumslut' comes from Julchen. It's not mine :P Anyway, since I forgot to say this last chapter, let me just add that as much as I want to see Cody as a cheap stripper, I don't think he's ever going to have the opportunity to show his stuff XD Fun fact: He's a good twerker though.

readandwrite4evernever: EVEN MORE CROUTON IN THIS CHAPTER. ARE YOU CHEERING. I AM CHEERING.

lotsofdrama: Um, I don't think I'll be able to answer your question without spoiling it for everybody. Sorry D:

Sol and G'syr: No, it's fine! You're not one of the people I was talking about in the note above, by the way :)

MadlyMagical: I promise the confrontation with Immo will be more climactic. And much more serious.

Cheri D: I don't think Cody smokes either :P

sparklyvampire: Ariel will appear again, don't worry about it.

Review~!