The alarm clock blares loudly. A hand quickly shoots out and knocks it off the nightstand, effectively shutting it up. The hand retreats into the nest of blankets as the owner sighs in relief and settles back down to continue their blissful sleep. A mop of brown hair was the only thing that could be seen of said occupant. Suddenly, a loud knock interrupts the short silence and an irritable Australian accent could be heard. "Oi, Jack! Get up! Ya have school!" Jack grumbles and pulls the covers over his head to block out the noise. "Don't make me come in there and force you up!" The voice sounds again, this time louder. Jack sits up, hazel eyes glaring at the door. His hair was a mess and stuck out in all directions. He reluctantly gets out of bed and heads for his bedroom door. He opens it to find the person responsible for the racket; his adoptive father, Aster. "I'm up…" Jack glares sleepily at the tall man. Aster smirks and ruffles the boy's hair. "Good, now get ready and come down for breakfast."
Jack got ready for school and went downstairs for breakfast, as he was told. When he got to the kitchen a plate was on the counter. On the plate was the normal breakfast food, eggs with sides of bacon and toast. Jack smiled, "Thanks." "You're welcome. Now eat up or you'll be late." Jack sighed and sat down to eat his breakfast.
Aster sits across from him, reading the newspaper and drinking his fourth cup of coffee. Jack finishes quickly and puts his dishes in the sink. He runs upstairs to quickly brush his teeth and grab his school bag. Two minutes later, Jack came running back down, jumping the last few steps and running into the kitchen. He quickly grabs his lunch and hugs Aster before running out the door. "Bye, Aster!" "Bye, kid! Don't get into any trouble!" Jack laughs and heads towards the corner to meet up with his friends; Toothania, or Tooth for short and Sandy. Toothania, despite her odd name, was well-loved by her peers. She's sweet, funny, and always willing to help, but she can be a bit of a scatterbrain. Sandy, on the other hand, was a quiet individual. He rarely talks. You can tell how he's feeling or what he's saying just by his body language and gestures. He was pretty cool guy though. Easy to get along with, but can be quite scary when angry. "Jack!" Tooth smiles and waves. Her medium, multi-colored hair was in a small ponytail. She was wearing a tie-dye colored hoodie and a pair of faded jeans. Sandy smiles and waves in his usual silent way. His hair was in its usual spiked style and he wore a plain golden-yellow sweatshirt with dark blue jeans. Jack smiles and stops in front of them; catching his breath. "Hey guys!"
The bus reached their stop shortly and when they got onto the bus and sat down in an open seat, they could hear snickering in the other seats. Once the bus started moving again, one of the school bullies stood up, looked at them, pointed, and started laughing, "Hahaha! Look at those three weirdoes over there! One has different colored hair and that one never speaks! What is he afraid he'll wake the dead?!" The whole bus erupted into laughter and Tooth and Sandy looked down. Tooth tried to cover her hair and Sandy put a hand over his mouth. Their eyes were filled with sorrow and Tooth began to cry. Jack looked at them and immediate rage filled his heart. His teeth were clenched tight and he looked at the bully, "Stop. It. Now." The bully laughed again, "Oh, what are you going to do about it? Get your old man on me?" Jack was so angry he could no longer control himself. He walked up to the bully and punched him as hard as he possibly could in the face, breaking the kid's nose. The bully looked at Jack with his eyes wide with fear. He looked into Jack's eyes and it was as if he saw a raging flame inside them. Jack picked the bully up by the collar of his shirt, "I think you have something to say to my friends, and to me." "I-I-I'm sorry! Please don't hurt me!" Jack let go of the bully and let him fall to the ground. Jack turned around and walked back to his seat still upset about the bullying. He looked to Sandy and Tooth, "Are you guys alright?" Tooth wiped her eyes and nodded and Sandy nodded as well.
When the bus reached the school, Jack, Tooth, and Sandy were the first to get off. Tooth, still recovering from the morning's bullying, whispered to Jack, "Thank you, Jack. I'm sorry…" "Why are you sorry? You two were being bullied and somebody had to take care of the problem." "Well, he's probably going to go straight to the principal's office and get you suspended…" "Eh, don't worry about it. I'll worry about it when it happens. We need to focus on our classes for now." The three quietly walked to their first class.
During class, while their teacher Mr. North was teaching, the phone rang. Mr. North walked over to his desk and answered the phone, "Hello? ... Yes he's in here." He had a look of concern on his face when he hung up the phone, "Jack, you've been called up to the principal's office." Jack nodded at his teacher and left for the principal's office. When he got into the office and the door was shut, the principal stood up, "What did you think you were doing?!" She pointed to the bully Jack had dealt with earlier, who now had a bloody tissue held against his nose and a tear stained face, "You broke his nose!" Jack looked at her with eyes that said that he regretted nothing, "I stood up for what was right." "You call breaking a kid's nose standing up for what is right?! Sit down while I call your father!" The principal picked up the phone, dialed Aster's phone number and waited until he picked up, "Yes, Mr. Aster? This is the school principal speaking. There's an issue with your son, Jack. He broke a kid's nose today and I need you to come get him. He's being suspended." They waited for Aster to get to the principal's office and when he did, he did not look happy, "May I speak with my son alone for a moment, please?" The principal nodded and led the bully out of the room and when they were gone Aster looked at Jack, "What caused you to think that breaking a kid's nose was the right thing to do?! What even led you to do that?! You have embarrassed not just yourself, but me as well! Well?! Explain yourself!" The principal flinched as she heard Aster raise his voice. Jack looked at the ground, his voice low, "I was standing up for my friends." "Repeat that, I couldn't hear you!" "I was standing up for my friends! That big jerk with the bloody nose was bullying my friends! I'm not just going to sit there and watch them get hurt! He made Tooth cry!" Aster was surprised to hear this and lowered his tone, "I'm sorry. Please, go tell that so called principal to get in here so I can give her a piece of my mind." Jack smiled, hugged Aster and walked outside to get the principal. The principal walked back into her office and looked at Aster, "What can I help you with?" "First things first, I have a question for you." "Yes?" "Did you actually take the time to hear my son's side of the story?! On the phone you made it seem like he had some kind of random anger strike and decide, 'Oh! I think I'm going to break this kid's nose today!'" The principal gulped as she found her mistake, "No. I didn't hear his side of the story and I didn't ask him for it either." "Then maybe you should have asked him before taking time out of my busy work schedule to come out here and hear that my son broke a kid's nose for no reason, when he was actually standing up for his friends! They were being bullied by that idiot out there!" "That still doesn't change the fact that he broke the child's nose." "That doesn't matter right now! What matters is that my son is getting punished for no reason at all! Do you think I'm going to just sit here and let that happen?! NO!" "Sir, please calm down." "NO! I will not calm down until you figure out that you have no reason to suspend my son!" "Yes, I see that I made a mistake." Aster pointed at the paper that was filled out for Jack's suspension, "Then why aren't you doing anything about that?!" The principal sighed, picked up the paper and tore it into little pieces, "Anything else you need me to do for you to calm down, sir?" Aster smiled, "No. Thank you." Aster walked out of the room and looked at Jack, "No need to worry about that suspension son. Now please don't make me have to come back. I really don't like your principal. She's quite the stupid one." Jack and Aster laughed. Aster waved to his son goodbye and left the school.
The principal sighs and looks at Jack. "Alright, Jackson, back to class," she looks at the bully, "as for you, you are being suspended. I'm contacting your mother right away." The bully whimpers and tries to protest. Jack raises an eyebrow at the full name basis, but shrugs and heads back to class. Mr. North looks up from his desk and smiles. "Ah, welcome back, Jack! I assume everything is okay?" Jack smiles and nods, taking his seat. "Yep! Everything is all worked out." Mr. North chuckles and stands up. "Good to hear! And since you're back, we can get started with notes, yes?" The class groaned, causing the teacher to laugh good naturedly. "Oh come on! You know me, I make everything fun and interesting, yes?" Some students smiled and nodded in agreement, Jack being one of them.
The rest of the school day went by in a blur. Jack meets Tooth and Sandy on the bus and sits down in the seat in front them. "Hey guys! How was your day?" Tooth smiles and giggles. "Much better! We heard you didn't get in trouble. The whole school could hear Aster!" Sandy chuckles softly. Jack laughs and the three of them continue to talk about their days, well, two of them. Sand just listened intently. He loved his friend's stories. The bus was soon at their stop and the three of them filed off. They waved and said their goodbyes, returning to their respective homes. "Aster, I'm home!" Jack yells as he walks through the door, dropping his bag in front of the door. "In the kitchen…." Aster's voice was soft, which was not like him at all. A sudden feeling of unease consumes Jack as he makes his way to the kitchen. Aster was leaning against the counter with a piece of paper in front of him. "Sit down, Jack." Jack complies and sits down in the nearest chair at the breakfast table. Aster turns around to face him, eyes glazed. "You're not going to like this….but you need to know." He takes a deep breath and slowly lets it out. "Jack... I'm being deployed."
Author's Note: Hey guys! Just wanted to let you know that these next couple of chapters are something we haven't tried before. We hope you enjoyed this chapter. Just letting you all know we are still up for ideas and if we need any help with specific details we will send you a message about it so if your chapter idea isn't up yet it means we're still trying to form a general idea of how to write it in our heads. Thanks again to all of you who have read it, followed it, reviewed it, and all the other good stuff!