A/N: Warning for slight angst at the end.

Chapter 2: Not Really Living

The bell rang loudly, signaling the start of his first period class. Jack was late again, but he didn't really care. He didn't really care about anything anymore. Not after his sister...

"Move," some jerk said rudely as he pushed Jack out of the way.

Jack stumbled slightly, sighed, and continued slowly on his way to his new first period. He and his mom were finally back in Burgess, but he wasn't happy in the slightest to be here.

He didn't try to socialize with the people in any of his classes. Sure, Jack was alive, but he wasn't really living. He was just going through the motions, hoping that each day would end quickly so he could go home and sleep.

"Come on everyone, sit down. The bell already rung. Get in your seats now," his teacher was telling everyone as Jack walked in the room.

"Jake! Tardy again?" she scolded. "I could understand the first few, not knowing where your classes are, but it's been a week already. Come on. You have a detention scheduled for next week."

Jake. Jake. Because that is totally my name. Thank you Ms. Day for bothering to learn my name. Really means a lot. Jack rolled his eyes and moved to go sit in his seat. It was Friday, but he wasn't happy like he normally would have been. Still, he was grateful that the weekend was here so he could go home and catch up on some much needed sleep.

"Psst!" A loud whisper sounded to his right.

Jack tried to ignore it as he stared out the window.

"Pssstt!" Whoever it was clearly wasn't going to give up easily.

Jack took out his notebook and tried taking notes on his new teacher's lecture.

The harsh whisper continued. "Hey, Jake!"

Jake. Thank you Ms. Day for getting literally everybody to call me Jake.

The nagging voice just wouldn't relent. "I know you can hear me."

Fine then, Jack thought angrily as he turned to his right.

"Finally," a teen with odd gray hair sighed.

"What do you want?" Jack whisper/yelled back to him.

"Chill, chill. I was just wondering why you were always late to class."

"Why do you care?" Jack muttered as he turned back to his notebook. This ended the conversation, and Jack was able to ignore the other guy for the rest of class.

His day continued on, as Jack wandered from class to class through the unfamiliar hallways. He wasn't sure if he would ever be able to get used to Burgess High.

"Alright, today we are going to be starting a new project," his last period teacher said, bringing Jack out of his thoughts. "Everybody get in groups of two to four people," Mr. Marvin continued.

Jack sighed. He always hated group projects, especially now since he's the new kid again. He hated being the odd one out, so Jack just sat there while his classmates began gathering people for their groups. He just figured that he'd join whichever group needed another person.

After a few minutes, a girl walked up to his desk. "Hey Jake," she greeted kindly. She had emerald green eyes, and dressed fashionable with bright colours. She wore a light green v-neck top with a dark blue mini skirt, black leggings, and blue converse. Her hair reached her lower back in light brown waves. Streaks of pink, blue, and green peeked through the natural brown of her hair.

This girl was pretty, and seemed popular by the way she held her head high. Jack briefly wondered what she could possibly want with him.

"Do you want to be in our group?" she asked, answering Jack's mental question. She gestured over to the guy with gray hair that had been bothering Jack in his first period class. He was really tan and wore a plain green shirt and blue jeans.

"It's Jack," he murmured, quietly correcting her.

A look of confusion crossed her face. "Huh?"

"My name is Jack. Not Jake," he repeated. "But yeah, I'll be in your group."

"Oh!" the girl exclaimed. "I'm so sorry! It's just that I've heard so many teachers calling you Jake that I just assumed..." she rambled on, though Jack really didn't care to listen to all of it.

Jack momentarily wondered if he might have been put in the school system as Jake Overland Frost.

"Anyways," the girl coughed, clearing her throat and the awkward tension in the air. "I'm Tatiana, but people call me Tina." Tina flashed Jack a warm smile. "And this is Evan." She gestured over to the gray haired guy from earlier.

"Sup," Evan said with a typical highschooler nod. "Why did you ignore me earl-" he started, but Mr. Marvin interrupted.

"Okay class, now that you have your groups, I'll explain your project." He waited until he had the class's full attention before continuing. "Each group will be creating a poster board about cancer. You may choose whichever type of cancer you would like, but it can't be the same as another group."

Jack's heart sunk at the "c" word.

"I will come by your table and give you a paper with the rest of the instructions on it. You must tell me your group's topic so there will be no duplicated diseases. These projects will be due in three weeks, and because you have so much time to work, I expect the final product to be neat and informative. When you turn in it, we will be presenting your poster board. For the rest of the class period, you may discuss your topic."

Jack's stomach began hurting halfway through the instructions.

"We can make our poster board so pretty!" Tina exclaimed, turning to Jack and Evan.

"Sounds like too much work to me," Evan groaned. Jack noted that Evan had a peculiar accent, probably Australian.

"Oh come on!" Tina said, playfully shoving Evan's shoulder. "I wonder if there's a cancer that affects your teeth..."

"Ugh Tina, no." Evan gave her a look of scorn.

Jack raised an eyebrow at their strange conversation. Apparently Evan noticed, as he turned to Jack to explain. "Tina here is obsessed with teeth."

"No I'm not!" Tina said exasperatedly.

"Yes, you are. Don't even try to deny it."

"Well I want to be a dentist when I grow up, so it's a completely normal fascination that I have about teeth," she told him matter of factly.

"Yeah right," Evan chuckled and turned back to Jack. "We all like to call her Tooth because of it."

"Whatever, bunny," Evan winced from the nickname and Jack smirked at the other's discomfort. "Well what cancer do you want to do?" Tina asked them both.

"I don't really care," Evan said, sounding bored. "I just wish we had a more exciting topic than cancer."

Jack's stomach began hurting again when they continued to repeat that word.

Tina rolled her eyes at Evan. "This is health care class, so it makes sense to do a project like this. Anyways, what cancer would you like to choose, Jack?" Tina turned her attention to the white haired teen.

"I don't know..." Jack mumbled. He'd rather not do this project at all. It was still too soon.

"Oh c'mon snowball head, you gotta have some idea," Evan said, leaning over to ruffle Jack's hair.

"Snowball head?" he asked curiously. This was a good distraction from their previous conversation about cancer.

Evan pointed to his head. "Your hair, it's white and messy and it kinda looks like snow."

"Ignore Evan," Tina cut in. "He likes giving people nicknames. Like he told you before, he calls me Tooth a lot. Don't worry though, that might not be your nickname. He'll probably change it once he gets to know you better."

"Oh..." Jack trailed off. He didn't really care about getting to know people, but he supposed it wouldn't hurt to make some friends. The doctors told him that having friends would help with the healing process.

"So what cancer are we gonna choose?" Evan said, leaning back in his seat and stretching.

Tina looked up to the board at the front of the class. "Well, some of the better known cancers are already chosen."

The other two looked at the board, and saw that three other groups had already chosen their cancers.

"Hmm... I guess we could choose leukemia since it isn't taken yet," Tina says, turning back to her group.

Jack's stomach felt even worse. There were so many different types of cancers to choose from, and Tina just had to suggest leukemia.

Jack really wanted to throw up at that moment.

"Why leukemia?" groaned Evan.

Yep, definitely going to throw up.

"It's interesting! And besides, it's one of the more main cancers. What do you think Jack?"

He felt like his throat was closing in that moment, and Jack couldn't utter a single word. He just stared at her dumbly, mouth gaping like a fish.

"Jack?" Tina furrowed her brows in worry. "Are you okay?"

He tried finding his voice again. "Y-yeah, fine.

"Um, all right then. Do you want to choose leukemia?"

"Um..." Jack tried swallowing the lump in his throat. "I'd rather not..." He trailed off as Mr. Marvin came up to their group.

"Leukemia? Your group is doing leukemia? Oh, that's a great choice! Then I'll put Tatiana, Evan, and Jake down for leukemia," their teacher said happily, going up to the board to write it down.

"Okay! Leukemia it is then!" Tina laughed.

"Whatever." Evan shrugged.

Jack just kept his mouth shut. Mostly to prevent the bile in his throat from rising any further.

"So, I guess we have the rest of the class time to talk, since we can't really start on the project without any supplies," Tina commented, resting her chin on the palm of her hand.

"I guess so," Evan agreed. "So Jack, why are you always late to class?"

"Oh... I just... don't really know my way around the school yet," Jack responded quietly.

Evan raised a brow. "No offense but it's been a week since you came here, Jack. Don't you know where your classes are?"

Jack shook his head.

Tina glanced at Evan. "Oh, well if that's the case, then Evan and I can walk you to the classes we have together. Evan is in your first period, right? Then Evan and I are both in third, fourth, and last period with you..." Tina turned to Evan. "Do you have second period with Jack?"

"Nope. I have art second."

"Oh, no. Please, no. It's fine, you guys don't have to walk me to my classes. I'm fine. Please don't. I'll be fine. I'll try hard not to be late anymore if that's what you're worried about..." Jack rambled on, and it felt as if he couldn't stop.

Tina and Evan glanced at each other, sharing matching, confused looks.

Ugh why did I even say all that crap...

"What are you talking ab-" Evan started, but was cut off by a big guy walking up to their group.

"Bunny! Tooth!" he exclaimed in a heavy accent.

"Hey North!" Tina says, smiling. "Are you and Sean in a group together? What cancer are you doing?"

"We are doing brain tumor," North replied, and Jack decides that his accent is Russian.

"Why did he call you Bun-" Jack tried to ask, but was interrupted by the new guy.

"Who is this?!" North bellowed loudly. He apparently hadn't heard of the 'use inside voices' rule.

"His name is snowball head," Evan comments.

"His name is Jack," Tina says with a roll of her eyes at Evan's horrible nickname. "Jack, this is Nathan, but we like to call him North."

Nathan was a really big guy. He was tall and buff, with light brown hair. Jack had seen him around the hall a couple of times, and was pretty sure he was a senior.

"Jack! Nice to meet you. Like Tooth said, I'm Nathan, but you can call me North. This here is Sean," Nathan finishes, pointing to the smaller guy beside him.

Sean waved, smiling happily. He was short and round, with blonde hair and blue eyes. Around his neck was a necklace with a tiny jar, filled with sand.

"Jack, you tried asking why Nathan called Evan 'Bunny'?" Tina says for confirmation. "Well, as you can probably tell, we all have nicknames. Evan gave them all to us. They all have to do with something about us. Sean's is Sandman, because he likes the beach and mine is Tooth, because I love teeth."

"Mine is North because I love Christmas. Plus, Santa Claus lives at the North Pole, and people say I kinda look like Santa, so my nickname is North," North adds.

"But I guess Evan didn't give all the nicknames, since obviously he didn't give himself one. So we all gave one to him. He loves painting and every Easter he makes coloured eggs. So we called him the Easter Bunny, or Bunny for short."

"Oh," Jack says, quietly taking in all the information.

Sean and Nathan sit down next to their group, and everyone begins chatting. Jack quickly learns that Sean is mute, since the other teen didn't speak and made hand gestures, which Jack recognized to be sign language. Jack merely sat there, catching a few snippets of the others' conversations about what they're doing this weekend, the upcoming winter break, and hoping that it will snow sometime soon.

Jack was only half listening, and only spoke when the others asked him something. He hadn't really talked to anyone since coming to Burgess High. Jack really only spoke a few words throughout the day... 'I'm leaving for school', 'I'm sorry I'm late to class', 'Goodnight'. But that's about it. Today was actually the most he had spoken since coming back to this school.

Needless to say, Jack felt a little awkward and out of place with his new 'friends'. Luckily, the bell rung not too long later, so he gathered his things and headed out of the class. School was finally over, and Jack would be able to go home...

"Hey, Jack!" Tina's chipper voice sounded from behind him. "Do you want to come over to my house after school so we can work on our project?"

Jack winced from her volume, but turned around to face his friends.

"We're all coming over," North added. "So we can hang out after working."

"Yeah! Just call your parents and ask them," Tina suggested.

No. No. No... It wasn't that Jack didn't like Tina or the others, but he just wanted to go home. It had been an extremely exhausting week and Jack was tired of interacting with others. He especially didn't want to create a project about a disease that took away so much from his family.

"I don't real-" he tried declining the offer.

Evan interrupted. "C'mon snowball head. It's Friday! Just call your parents and ask."

Jack thought about it for another moment. Sure, he was tired, but he could catch up on some sleep over the weekend. Besides, he was even more tired of dealing with his mom...

"Okay, I'll ask. Can you guys wait outside the front of the school so I can call my mom?"

"Sure thing!" Tina agreed quickly, and led the others to the front of the building.

Jack made his way down an empty hall, so it could be quieter and pulled out his phone. Taking a deep breath, Jack clicked on his mom's contact and pressed the call button. She picked up on the last ring. Jack could barely tell that she answered the call, since she didn't say anything.

"Um mom, are you there?" he asked cautiously.

"What do you want?" came the harsh reply.

Jack flinched from her tone. He could tell that she wasn't in a good mood. Then again, she never was anymore. "Well, um, I was just wondering if I could go to my friend's house and work on a project..."

There were a few tense moments while Jack waited for a reply, before it was broken by her yelling.

"Mom! Please don't do this... No! Just listen to me, mom." Jack tried to calm her down, but her screaming only escalated.

"You're such a horrible child! How can you not be affected by this!"

Jack felt his heart break. Of course he was affected. Both of them were. "Mom, I am, but please, I'm trying to get past this..."

"So what, you just want to forget about her?" she sobbed uncontrollably, and Jack had a hard time making out her words.

"No mom!" Jack felt tears pricking his eyes. "Never, I never want to forget about Em-"

"Don't you dare say her name!" she shrieked. "This is all your fault!"

"It's not my faul-"

"Why couldn't it have been you instead of her?!" And with that, the call was cut off as his mom hung up on him.

Jack slowly lowered the arm that he was using to hold up his phone. "It's not my fault..." he whispered, and finally the tears spilled over, and came dripping down his cheeks. It had been awhile since he last cried, so Jack let it happen for awhile. He then sniffled and quickly tried to wipe his face with his sweatshirt sleeve.

Luckily, no one else was in the hall to see his mini breakdown. He was suddenly very glad that he sent his friends to the front of the school, otherwise they would have seen him in this state.

Walking over to the nearest bathroom, Jack checked his face in the mirror, and decided that no one would be able to tell that he had been crying. His eyes weren't red or puffy, so that was a good sign. Jack figured that he had kept his friends waiting long enough, so he headed to the front of the school, trying to push his conversation with his mom out of his mind.