I got considerably less reviews on the third chapter, and I'm assuming that it's because I updated on a weekday.

Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians. You disclaimers annoy the hell out of me.

Saturday had arrived, and, much to Jack's delight, snow had fallen the previous night. However, Jamie wasn't as happy as his friend, as Saturday meant that he had to go to school for the sixth day in a row to serve a one-hour detention. He had griped to Jack, "This was not how I planned for my break to start. And on a snow day, too."

As for Mrs. Bennett, she had to drop Jamie off at school and then go across the street to register Jack into high school, leaving Jack at home with Sophie.

Jack, having been cooped up in the house for the past couple of days with absolutely nothing to do, took Sophie out to play in the snow. He had brought his staff out, and Sophie was currently using it to draw pictures in the snow, while he crouched down next to her and watched. This had been going on for a while until two boys, looking to be around Jack's age, came down the sidewalk.

"I don't get why Mom made us come here," the one with black hair was sulking. "If she wants to make a delivery, she should do it herself."

"Aw, come on, Zander! She has work, and besides, you like the Bennetts," the brown-haired boy wearing these huge, black-rimmed glasses insisted as he rang the doorbell with one hand, carrying a big sack in the other.

A minute or so passed before the one called Zander said flatly, "Ring it again."

The other boy rang again, but still no one answered.

Zander, growing frustrated, started banging on the door. "For the love of– OPEN UP ALREADY!"

"No one's in the house."

Both boys turned toward the new speaker: a barefoot, brown-haired boy seemingly around their age. He was crouched next to a little girl whom they recognized as Sophie Bennett, unblinkingly watching the 4-year-old construct a drawing of a rabbit. Although he wasn't looking at Zander and his companion, it was clear that the amused smirk playing at his lips was meant to be directed at them.

"Wow, okay, thanks for not saying that like, 3 doorbells ago," Zander said sarcastically.

"You only rang the doorbell twice, unless if you're counting pounding on that poor door as a 'doorbell.' But anyway, you're welcome."

"That's beside the point. And I was being sarcastic! Seriously, dude, you made us look like idiots."

"Sorry," Jack said in the most unapologetic tone ever, standing up.

"Sorry-" Zander sputtered, and then went back to his sulky attitude. "Bastard..."

"Ahem, sorry about him," the other boy smiled sheepishly ("Why are you apologizing for me?!" Zander had exclaimed). "Um, do you know when Mrs. Bennett will be back?"

"She'll be gone for a while," Jack replied. "She went to drop Jamie off at detention and to go register me into high school."

"Goody-two-shoes Bennett got detention? That's rich," Zander snickered, all traces of a bad mood gone.

Glasses Boy (Jack officially decided to call the other boy that until he figured out his real name) rolled his eyes. "Ignore him. So are you registering for Burgess High?"

"Yup. Just moved here, and I'm living with Jamie and his mom for now. It's a long story," Jack added before either of them could ask.

"Oh, that's cool! We go there too," Glasses Boy smiled.

"We're the Andersons from across the street," Zander nodded in greeting. "I'm Zander, and this nerdy loser here is Spencer."

Glasses Boy, or Spencer, frowned. "Hey! I may be a nerd, but I am not a loser!"

"I'm Jack," Jack said. "Are you guys seniors? 'Cause I am."

Spencer nodded. "Yeah."

"Just as a heads up, being a senior sucks. At Burgess High, most of the drama at school involves the students who are graduating this year," Zander muttered, receiving a look from Spencer.

"Zander! Give him a break! Don't let him think that Burgess High is a bad school!"

Zander shrugged. "I'm just giving him a heads up before he ends up being disappointed at how much crappier his life will be once he starts."

"I'm standing right here," Jack interrupted flatly.

Sophie, looking up from her drawing, tilted her head curiously. "Crappier?"

Jack's head slowly turned to Sophie and then back to the brothers. "You geniuses just taught Jamie's little sister the word 'crappy.' Great job." He glared at them.

"What?!" Spencer cried. "I had nothing to do with that! Zander was the one who actually said it!"

"Well, how should I have known that Sophie's hearing was that good?!"

"She's a freakin' 4-year-old! Of course her hearing is good! What, did you expect her to be deaf or something?!" Jack yelled.

Their dispute continued until Mrs. Bennett suddenly appeared (When did she come back?) and interrupted the argument. "Boys, I could hear you all the way two houses over," she said disapprovingly. "What were you fighting about?"

"How Zander taught your daughter a word that means poop," Spencer tattled, ignoring the "I'm-so-gonna-kill-you-later" look his brother was shooting him.

Mrs. Bennett sighed. "Oh, Zander..." She knelt down to look at Sophie. "Sophie, darling, whatever word big brother Zander taught you is not a good word to say, okay? Promise Mama that you won't say it again."

"I pwomise, Mama." Sophie looked up at her mother with innocent eyes.

Spencer sighed. "She's so cute."

Mrs. Bennett stood up. "Zander, Spencer, why are you two visiting?"

Spencer held up his bag. "Our mom cooked hot pot last night, but she accidentally made too much. So she decided to give all the extra servings to you."

Mrs. Bennett smiled warmly. "Well, isn't that just sweet of her! We'll be having hot pot for Christmas dinner then."

"Mrs. Bennett, how did registration go?" Jack asked.

"Good, but Jack, you're going to have to go meet the principal yourself this Monday. It's part of your registration completion," Jamie's mother replied. "I bought some new clothes and some shoes for you to wear as well."

Jack looked taken aback. "Whoa, wait, what? New clothes? Shoes?"

"Of course, sweetie. You weren't really planning to wear what you're wearing right now, were you?"

Jack looked down at his hoodie, pants, and bare feet. "Actually, that was my agenda."

"Dude, you're not gonna make a very good impression on the principal if you wear that," Zander spoke up. "He doesn't exactly aim for you to show up in a tie and dress pants, but he does expect you to at least cover up your feet with shoes."

Spencer nodded. "For once, he's right."

"But I don't like wearing shoes," Jack simply said. "In fact, I don't own a single pair of shoes."

"And your old school was okay with that?" Spencer questioned.

"I was home-schooled," was the answer Jack gave.

"Well, that explains a lot," Zander muttered.

Mrs. Bennett looked surprised. "Jack, you never told me that."

"I didn't think it was important at the time. And besides, my parents were already planning on enrolling me into an actual school once we moved," Jack said before he could help himself. Damn myself.

"But seriously, about the shoes, how do your feet not get numb? You're standing in snow," Zander persisted on.

"I'm very well aware of what I'm standing in," Jack replied caustically. "And it's a beautiful miracle called getting into the habit of it."

At least that one wasn't really a complete lie. Back in the 1700's, Jack, having been from a poor family, didn't own any sort of shoes (or even moccasins), leaving him with no choice but to leave his feet to adapt to the nature of walking on the hard ground.

"Okay, enough about the feet," Spencer said, changing the topic. "What we're all trying to say is that the principal would want you to wear something other than what you're wearing right now."

"But this is my only outfit."

Both Zander and Spencer couldn't prevent themselves from gaping at that.

Mrs. Bennett just sighed. "I knew I was right when I bought you clothes. Let's go in the house, shall we? I'll have you try on everything I bought for you."

Her cell phone rang at that moment, and she picked up. "Yes? ... Oh, Jamie! Right, I'll be right over." She hung up, and said, "I completely forgot that I have to pick Jamie up from detention. Change of plans. Zander, Spencer, the clothes I bought for Jack are in the storage closet, and you know where that is. Get Jack to try on some of the outfits I bought for him. As fellow teenage boys, I trust you to have a good fashion sense when it comes to this." She eyed them knowingly before heading off.

Zander and Spencer both looked at Jack with smug and slightly evil expressions on their faces. Before Jack knew it, there was one brother on each side hooking arms with him, and they swiftly carried him inside the house, much to his protests. Sophie, wondering what the three boys were doing, simply followed suit, dragging Jack's staff behind her.

Jack definitely didn't feel used to being out of his hoodie and actually having shoes on for the first time in his life. He tugged at his new, red, short-sleeved, unbuttoned flannel shirt that he wore over a long-sleeved, black V-neck, which he had rolled the sleeves up to his elbows. He wore dark blue jeans and black combat boots. On top of his head was baseball cap, with the bill pointed forward. He had to admit the clothes themselves were comfortable, but the sensation of wearing something so different from what he wore for the past 300 years was not.

He, Zander, and Spencer were currently all sitting in the Bennett guest room, where Jack was staying in for the time being. Sophie was also in the room, playing with Abby the greyhound.

"I still don't get why shoes are necessary," Jack spoke up.

"What's your big deal with shoes?" Spencer asked.

"The only shoes that were ever offered to me in the past were these light blue elf shoes. And they had bells on the tips."

Spencer wasn't even going to bother asking. Neither was Zander. But the latter couldn't help but retort, "At least we didn't make you wear these giant clown shoes. I swear I saw a pair of those in that giant bag with all your new clothes in it."

Spencer nodded. "Yeah, I think I saw them too..."

The front door was heard opening, and a few seconds later, Jamie came into the room. "Hey, Mom said the Anderson twins are here, so– Whoa, Jack, you look different..."

"I've heard," Jack replied sourly. "...Wait, twins? What?"

"Yeah, we know we don't look like each other," Spencer shrugged.

"Sure explains a lot about our personalities, doesn't it?" Zander dismissively said.

...I don't like this chapter as much as the three previous chapters. It sounded so much better in my head.

So if you're wondering where I imagined up Jack's new outfit (which I doubt you are, but I'm going to tell you anyway)... I had a dream about him, okay? Something about him going to a baseball stadium with the other Guardians disguised as humans. Yeah, it was pretty weird(I myself wasn't even in it). I ended up making a few modifications though. In my dream, Jack's flannel was buttoned and I think he was wearing sneakers. But after thinking about it for a bit, I decided to make his shirt here unbuttoned and I like combat boots more than sneakers.

So by the looks of it, this will be updated faster than Fate. It seems pretty unbalanced, but if my predictions are correct, then this will have many more chapters than Fate. And Fate's next chapter is about halfway done (You Powerless Guardian followers are lucky that I decided not to wait and complete Fate's next chapter and then upload this along with Fate).

Rant is now over. You know what that means? Hint: It's got to do with the review button below. ;D