A/N: Well I'm home sick so here's an update! I will try to make Mondays my regular update, so expect a chapter a week!

Illegal driving in this chapter. Please don't do this. Also, more sad Jack.

Chapter 3: Hot Chocolate

"This is awesome!" Tina yelled as Jack approached his friends at the front of the building. "It's snowing!"

Jack looked to the sky. Light gray clouds covered the whole sky, and small little flakes were steadily falling.

"I heard on the weather this morning that there's going to be a blizzard," North commented, glancing at the clouds warily.

"It's fine. You can all still come over. And if we get snowed in, then it'll be a sleepover!" Tina exclaimed. "Oh Jack, are you able to come over?"

Well, I didn't really get an answer from my mom... but she didn't say no.

Jack nodded.

"Yay!" cried Tina.

"Then let's go!" North said.

The five made their way to the school parking lot, where Tina stopped in front of a silver Mustang.

"Is this your car?" Jack asked. The car seemed relatively new, and it must have been expensive.

"Yep!" Tina chirped, taking out her key from her bag.

"I can drive if you want," North offered.

Tina had a puzzled expression on her face. "Huh? Why?"

"Are you good at driving in the snow?" Nathan replied. It was snowing heavily now, and the white flakes were piling up on the ground.

"Good point. Here," she tossed her keys at him after unlocking the car.

Evan quickly opened the door and jumped inside. "I'm f-freeezing!"

Sandy got in on the other side and Jack climbed in after him. Yet Evan was right though, it was freezing. Even in his dark blue sweatshirt, Jack was feeling the cold. But he didn't mind it as much as Evan seemed to.

Something suddenly occurred to Jack. "North, when did you get your license?"

"A couple of months ago," he replied nonchalantly, starting up the car.

"Then isn't this illegal?" There were five people in the car, after all.

"Only if we get caught," North said with a twinkle in his light blue eyes.

And with that, North took off in the parking lot, at a safe enough speed in the snow, and headed towards Tina's house. Jack looked out the window, watching the unfamiliar surroundings pass. Tina turned on some music, while she, Evan, and North started talking about how excited they were that it snowed this early in November. Meanwhile, the flakes continued falling, quick and heavy. After a few more minutes of driving, North finally parked in the driveway of a large house.

Judging from the outer appearance of the two-storey home, and the new car Tina owned, Jack guessed that her family was pretty well off. At least more so than Jack's family.

The entire neighbourhood was covered in snow, and it made everything look even more calm and beautiful. Jack wished that he could have lived in a nice place like this.

Tina grabbed out another key and unlocked one of the large double doors. "Mom, I'm home. With Sean, Nathan, Evan, and Jack!" she called upon entering.

Jack took a moment to look at the inside. There was a large staircase to the right, and the home gave off an overall clean and welcome feel.

"Oh, hi honey!" a woman responded, entering the foyer from a room on the left. Jack immediately knew it was her mom, as she looked like an older version of Tina. Minus the coloured streaks, of course.

"Hey Mrs. Fisher," North greeted. Sean gave a polite wave.

"Hello Nathan, Sean, Evan, and..." she paused for a second, glancing at the only unfamiliar face.

"That's Jack," Tina smiled as she introduced her new friend. "He's in my group for our new project in health care."

"Jake?" Mrs. Fisher asked as though she hadn't heard his name properly.

"Jack," he corrected. Seriously?!

"I'm still freezing!" yelled Evan, still noticeably shivering.

"I'll go make us some hot chocolate then," Mrs. Fisher announced before walking off to the kitchen.

"Thanks mom!" Tina called after her. "Let's go upstairs and start working on our homework," she told everyone, already heading up the stairway. Jack and the others soon followed.

"Ugh, I hate homework," complained Evan with a groan.

"It is always a lot of work," Nathan agreed.

"And we'll have to do a lot of research for our health care project!"

"Come on guys, it's not that bad," Tina interrupted their complaints, for which Jack was grateful. "I have a laptop we can look stuff up on!"

Evan grumbled, but didn't protest any further as the five made their way into Tina's room. It was exactly like how Jack expected it to look; the room was large and clean, with a diverse array of colours. The walls were different shades of green, and a bright pink bedspread covered her queen sized bed. Jack stood in the doorway in awe, there was so much colour, that it was almost hard to look at.

His other friends simply walked in the room as if it was nothing special. Apparently they had been here many times before, and were used to the visual assault of colours.

Tina grabbed her laptop and climbed on the bed, with Evan and Sean following after her. North chose to sit in the desk chair.

"Come on, Jack. Grab a seat," Tina called when she noticed Jack wasn't moving from his spot in the doorway.

"Oh... uh, right, okay." Jack's face flushed when he realized that he had been standing there for awhile. He then moved to sit in the neon yellow beanbag chair in the corner.

Tina booted up her computer while the others made idle chat. Soon enough, Mrs. Fisher came in the room, bearing hot chocolate.

"Finally!" Evan cried in relief. "Now I won't be freezing my fingers off!"

Everyone grabbed a mug, and Tina's mom left with a 'good luck on your homework' statement.

"Let's go work in the office downstairs," North told Sean. "There's another computer in there."

Sean nodded in agreement, and the two got up, bringing their hot chocolate with them.

"Let's start working," Tina announced, scrolling through an article on her laptop. "Here we go, leukemia. It says here that leukemia is a type of blood cancer that starts in the bone marrow..."

"Weird," Evan commented, taking another sip of his hot chocolate.

Jack sighed and put his mug down on the desk. It smelled delicious, but he really didn't want to drink it anymore.

"I'll just go ahead and write some information down," Jack said, wanting to throw up.

"All right. Read this with me, Evan." Tina scooted the laptop in between them so they could both see the screen.

Jack pulled out an empty journal from his backpack and started writing down everything he knew about leukemia. The three worked for a good half hour at the least, mostly in silence, except when it was broken by Tina or Evan's laugh at something on the internet. Jack's stomach hurt just doing all of this.

"Okay, can I see what you wrote, Jack?" Tina asked after a while of working.

"Sure," he responded quietly, getting up from his rather comfy position on the beanbag chair. He then handed his notebook to Tina. Both she and Evan took a few minutes to read his writing.

"Wow, that's a lot of information," Tina remarked. "How do you know so much about leukemia? Evan and I were using the computer, so..."

"Oh... I just, um, looked it up on my phone?" Jack lied. When he first found out... about Emma... he researched everything there was to know about leukemia. Everything from the different types, to the different options for treatment... Jack knew everything. He wanted to know exactly what his sister was going through, and what he could do to help.

"Overachiever over here," Evan said, somewhat annoyed.

"Awesome. Good work, Jack," Tina praised before getting up from her bed and grabbing a poster board. Jack wondered when she got it, but he didn't really care at the moment. "Okay, so we can have the title up at the top, description on the left, symptoms underneath that, types and diagnosis in the middle, and cures on the right."

"There is no cure," Jack corrected her, voice blank and void of emotion.

Bright eyes flickered over to Jack. "What?"

"What do you mean there's no cure?" Evan asked, seeming confused.

"Well, there's treatment meant to reduce the number of affected blood cells, but..."

"How do you-"

"Excuse me," Jack said quickly, interrupting Evan from questioning him any further.

Jack rushed out of the room and down the stairs, taking two steps at a time. His head was throbbing badly and he couldn't think straight. All Jack knew was that he had to get out of that room, and out of this house. He went straight for the front door, and threw it open.

The outside world was white with fresh snow and the brightness only made Jack's headache worse. But the cold felt refreshingly nice, so he went around to the side of the house and slid down against the wall until he was sitting in the freezing snow. Jack brought his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them.

He just sat there, in the icy wet mush, allowing the cold to stab him, and even welcoming the numbing feeling. Jack would take the freezing pain over his current emotions anyday.

Warm, salty tears ran down his cheeks in large droplets. Wind buffeted his face, making the tear trails even colder. His arms tightened around his knees.

"You're so stupid Jack," he sniffed pathetically.

Jack slammed his head against the brick house roughly. "You're so stupid!" he repeated, this time louder. "Look what you did! Tina and her friends were being so nice and brought you to her house. But you act stupid and leave them confused, so you can go outside and cry..." he trailed off, his voice broken by an attack of sniffs and hiccups.

"I can't even... you're so stupid!" he yelled, letting out a sob as he dropped his face into his arms. "Mom was right... it should've been me instead of her..." he clenched his fists furiously, but the anger left him as soon as it came, and the only feeling left was a hopeless one. "I miss you Emma...I miss you... so much..." Jack let his head rest on top of his knees for what seemed like forever. His crying eventually slowed to a halt, leaving Jack heaving dry sobs. The snow kept falling all the while.

"What-what do I do now?" he asked himself quietly. Jack was actually surprised to hear his own voice. It had been a while since he last talked to himself, though he used to do that a lot when he was younger. Though it only ever happened when he was alone. I guess that habit's back then... "I can't, I can't just go back inside acting like nothing happened. And I can't just leave because my backpack is inside... What do I do? There's no way I'm telling them about Emma. Ugh! You're so dumb Jack! Why don't you actually think things through for once?"

After a few more minutes of a silent and mental debate, Jack tried standing up. Which wasn't a really good idea, because his head began pounding again and Jack slid back down with a dizzied groan. Maybe sitting and crying in the snow for so long wasn't the best idea that Jack had ever had.

He tried again, slower this time, and brushed the snow from his shoulders and hair. Jack was literally frozen, and he figured that he could really go for some hot chocolate at the moment. His pocket vibrated, and Jack pulled out his phone. The caller id said 'mom'. Letting out a frustrated sigh, Jack tapped on the answer button.

"Yeah, mom?" He tried keeping his voice steady so she wouldn't know that he had been crying.

"Where are you?!"

Jack flinched from her tone. "I told you earlier! If you had actually listened to me you might have known-"

"Don't you dare talk back to me, young man!" she yelled. She sounded beyond furious at this point.

"It wasn't talking back, I was just explaining!" Jack rose his voice in order to be heard above her yelling.

"I asked you a question, Jack. So where the hell are you!" his mother shrieked, and Jack knew that he'd be in big trouble by the time he got home.

He tried keeping his voice strong and steady, which was a lot easier than it sounded. "If you actually listened to me you wouldn't have been wondering where I was!" Her yelling continued despite his attempts to explain. "Oh my gosh, mom, just stop," Jack whined. He hated it when he whined, but at the moment, he could really care less. He was so tired of dealing with his mother. "We're working on a project..."

"Whatever, I don't care."

Jack wanted to yell back at her, and ask why she was acting this way if she didn't even care, but he bit his tongue. She was still his mother, after all. No matter how annoying and impossible she was.

"Just tell them that you have to leave right now."

"What? No, I'm not telling them I have to leave," Jack tried to protest, but she began screaming again so he changed his mind. "Fine!" he yelled and slammed his finger on the end call button. It wasn't nearly as satisfying as slamming a flip phone shut, but that's what you get for smartphones.

Jack angrily wiped away the last traces of his tears, shoving his phone back in his pocket. He took a few deep breaths to steady himself before walking around the house to the front door. "Keep it together, Jack," he told himself quietly before opening the still unlocked door.

Upon entering, Jack realized that everyone was out in the living room, watching tv.

"Jack! Are you okay?" Tina called worriedly.

Jack rushed up the stairs to avoid confrontation. "Yeah, fine!" He quickly grabbed his backpack from Tina's room and went back downstairs. "My mom called me and wants me back home."

"Really?" Evan questioned. "That sucks."

"Yeah, too bad you couldn't stay longer," Nathan commented.

Sean gave Jack a concerned nod, agreeing with North.

"Do you want me to drive you home, sweetie?" Mrs. Fisher asked, coming in the living room from the kitchen.

"No, no, that's fine." Jack hurriedly declined.

"Are you sure? It's getting late and you shouldn't have to walk in the snow..." she remarked, looking out the window and seeing the sun setting in the horizon.

"No, it's fine, really. I live close by so it's no problem. I'll be fine." Jack re-tied one of his shoe laces before walking back to the front door. He was just about to open it when-

"Wait, Jack!" Tina called.

Jack stifled a sigh and turned around. He was surprised to see Tina right in front of him. Apparently she had gotten up off of the couch.

"I'll see you on Monday, okay?" she asked anxiously.

"Okay," Jack responded, turning back around and exiting the house.

He actually didn't live close to Tina. Jack just didn't want Mrs. Fisher driving him home. He would rather walk and try to sort out his problems by himself.

The cold was very numbing, and it helped Jack forget about his mom and friends for a moment. But then he blinked back to reality, and Jack knew that he was still very troubled by everything that happened with his sister. He wished that he had a father who would be able to keep his mother in check. But then, it wasn't her fault that she acted that way. It was all Jack's fault, because he was still alive.

No matter how long he tried to deny the awful truth, Jack knew deep down that it was all his fault. His mother was so happy and supportive before, and her drastic change was all due to Jack.

All because he was alive and his sister wasn't.

Jack hardly registered the tears falling down his face until they clouded his vision and he couldn't see the snow covered sidewalk directly in front of him. He blinked hard, trying to push the tears away. It had been a while since Jack had last cried this many times in a day.

He thought back to his earlier words to Tina's mom. 'I'll be fine,' he had said. But how can I be fine? My mom hates me, and I wish I was dead instead of my little sister... A heavy sob erupted from Jack's chest, effectively bringing him out of his thoughts. He tried wiping his tears on his hoodie sleeve, but new tears formed as quickly as the others were wiped away. Instead of fighting it, Jack just let it go, and let all of his rush tears out.

Eventually the tears stopped flowing, though Jack kept sniffing constantly. The cold air was making his nose runny. Yet he kept on walking despite how terrible he felt.

"I'll be fine," he repeated to himself. I'll be fine, just like every other day.

The sun sunk even lower on the horizon, and the sky turned a dark purple. Jack finally realized that it had stopped snowing, and the heavy overcast clouds had parted, revealing the beautiful night sky.

After a long hour of walking in the freezing cold, Jack arrived at his house around 8:00. It was a small house, but then again, it was just Jack and his mom living there. He pulled out his key from his backpack and unlocked the door, dreading his mother's reaction after their earlier phone call.

"I'm home," he called, his voice scratchy from all the yelling and sobbing. "Are you happy you ruined my day?" Jack whispered under his breath, but then thought about it. No, it wasn't his mom who ruined his day. It was me...

"Finally, what took you so long?" his mother came striding into the foyer, pulling on a coat.

"I walked home in the snow," Jack told her honestly. At least she wasn't yelling at him.

"Oh." She seemed indifferent. "I'm going out. Watch the house while I'm gone."

Seriously? Jack thought angrily in his mind. Did she seriously make me leave my friends on a Friday night just to watch the freakin house?!

"Okay," he replied, irritation leaking into his voice. "Bye."

His mother didn't bother replying before she was out the door, slamming it shut behind her.

"At least I don't have to deal with her yelling," Jack sighed, taking off his sneakers and going down the hall. Jack then stopped by the washroom to look at himself in the mirror. He pulled up his shirt, and looked at his fat, pudgy stomach.

Jack sighed again. "No dinner for me tonight."

After leaving the bathroom, Jack went back out to the living room. It was littered with trash. Old takeout containers were strewn about the coffee table and side tables, while empty beer and wine bottles were scattered throughout the room. He supposed that the room was cleaner than it had been in a while. Jack went to the kitchen, grabbed a new trash bag, and began picking up the garbage. Once the living room was clean, Jack threw out the trash and went back to the washroom.

Shedding his clothes, Jack took a quick shower before going to his bedroom. The room was small, and barely had any personal possessions. And unlike Tina's room, Jack's bedroom was dull and boring. But he guessed that it suited his personality.

He jumped on his bed, deciding that an early sleep would be best. Shutting his eyes, Jack had peaceful dreams of times when Emma was still alive and well.

Does anyone know where the last name 'Fisher' came from? Kudos to the person that gets it! :)

*Original author's note from xKizzyy!*

Do you guys like sad angsty Jack? :3 You'll be seeing more of him, so I hope you don't mind. Can I just explain a few things about Jack real quick though? I feel like after reading this chapter people will get mixed emotions about him.

He really is a good kid and he's not rude to adults, only his mom because he has the right reason to.

He does appreciate the things he has but he doesn't think it's fair that the best thing to him was taken away.

He doesn't like being alone and not having friends, but he doesn't want to open up to people so he's kinda stuck. But when he has the opportunity for people to care about him, he goes for it.