Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians.

On Monday morning, Jack exited his shower, shirtless (He had pants on) with a towel draped around his neck. He went to his room...

...To find Bunnymund, Tooth, and Sandy all waiting for him there.

There was a beat of silence (and a few of Tooth's mini-fairies fainting), before Jack shook out of his stupor, his face red with embarrassment. "WHAT THE HELL?! GET OUT OF MY ROOM AND LET ME PUT ON A SHIRT FIRST!"

He shoved his 3 visitors out of the guest room and slammed the door.

Jack opened the door again a few minutes later, now having on the exact same outfit he wore on Saturday. He seemed to have calmed down for the most part, but his eyebrow was raised in a way that showed that he still felt annoyed at the violation of privacy.

Bunnymund spoke first. "Mate, ya look different."

"I'm sick and tired of hearing people say that to me. The next person who tells me that gets shoved out the window, got it?" Jack, not amused, motioned to said (second-floor) window. "And anyway, where's North?"

"Busy with Christmas," Tooth explained briefly. "We came to check up on you and how you're doing with mortality. We can't stay for long though; we'll need to get back to work soon."

"And yer welcome," Bunnymund grumbled.

Ignoring Bunnymund, Jack shrugged. "Eh, it's pretty nice to finally be visible to someone who isn't a child, but it sucks how I have to wait for snow to come on its own now."

Sandy pointed at his new clothes and formed a question mark.

Jack looked down at his attire and sighed. "I know, Sandy. I'm going to Burgess High this afternoon. You know, to register for school."

There was another beat of silence, before Bunnymund deadpanned, "I hope that what I just heard was just me needin' an ear checkup, mate."

"If you heard me say that I'm going to school, then your hearing is perfectly fine," Jack said back with the same monotonous tone. "And before you start nagging me about how I'm just causing more trouble for all of us, I'll have you know that I didn't really have a choice."

"But still, couldn't you have asked Jamie's mom to home-school you?" Tooth asked.

"I actually didn't think that up until it was too late," Jack admitted begrudgingly. "And she probably wouldn't be able to do that anyway. She's gone from the house pretty much half the time, whether it's to buy groceries or to go to the bank or something."

The door then swung open to reveal Mrs. Bennett herself. "Jack, I heard you talking to yourself. Is something wrong?"

Jack held back a snort when Mrs. Bennett almost walked right through Bunnymund, though the rabbit jumped out of the way. "Oh yeah, things are going great. I'm just practicing what I'm going to say to the principal."

Jamie's mother seemed satisfied with that answer. "Well, just keep track of the time. Your appointment is at 1:15. And I'm almost done making lunch, so be downstairs in 10 minutes, okay?"

Once she left, Tooth piped up, "We all have to go back to work now. By the way, Jack..."

The next 3 seconds involved Tooth sticking her fingers into Jack's mouth and Jack prying her off, insisting that he had been flossing everyday.

"As sparkly as always," Tooth smiled in approval, and then turned to Bunnymund and Sandy. "Come on, guys, let's go."

Jack fingered with his new, light blue scarf nervously (Blue usually made him feel better. Not this time though). Now that he stood outside the principal's office, he suddenly began wishing that he truly was practicing what he was going to say instead of lying his head off to Jamie's mother.

"May I help you with something?" a young woman, presumably in her late 20's, opened the door and smiled at Jack. "You've been standing outside the office for the past 5 minutes."

Jack snapped out of his trance. "Huh? Oh- Right. Sorry. I'm a new student here. Is the principal in there?"

The woman's smile grew. "Why, yes. I'm the secretary here at Burgess High. My name is Miss Martinez. Why don't you come on in?"

Jack went into the office and hung his jacket and scarf up on the coat rack. He looked around, observing his surroundings. The heater was on, so it was fairly warm inside. The office itself was pretty big, with the main desk, and many other conjoined rooms off to the side, for the principal, vice principal, counselor, et cetera.

Jack sat in a chair that was placed next to the doorway leading into the door labeled for the principal, and Miss Martinez told him that Mr. Kankansala, or whatever the principal's name was, would be out in just a minute.

When Mr. Kankansala called Jack in, Jack couldn't really mask his surprise at the interior of the office. It was smaller than the main office (He expected that), but the walls had rows of shelves, and the shelves carried stuffed animals. As in teddy bears and lamb plushies. Also, instead of the vice principal being in his own office, he was seated in a chair off to the side, writing something down in a student record. Something like that. He only looked up at Jack for one moment without smiling, and resumed what he was doing.

As for Mr. Kankansala, he squealed once Jack came in through the door. "Oh my goodness, look at you! I've heard so much from Mrs. Bennett about you, and you're even more adorable than I imagined!"

Jack really didn't know what to make of that remark. "Um... Thanks?"

"Have a seat, have a seat. Your legs must be sore from trudging through all that snow!"

"The house I'm staying in isn't really that far away..."

"WHATEVER. SIT DOWN ANYWAY."

Jack sat down and waited to see what this apparently weird principal was about to say next.

"As you know, I'm the principal here at Burgess High, Mr. Kankansala. Though I would prefer it if you would call me Mr. Kaka," Mr. Kaka giggled girlishly. "And over here is my trusted assistant and your vice principal, Mr. Suzuki."

Jack gave a meek wave. "Hi."

Mr. Suzuki's reaction was the same as before when Jack came into the office: glancing up blankly for a second and resuming work.

"So Jack, tell me about yourself," Mr. Kaka propped his elbows onto his desk and smiled sweetly at who was soon to be his new student.

"...I was home-schooled up until now," Jack finally said rather lamely.

Mr. Kaka's smile grew. "I know, I assumed that when I couldn't find any school record of you when I did my research on you."

Jeez, could this principal get any creepier?

"What about any hidden talents? Any fun facts about you?"

"I know martial arts and how to use a rifle." Jack honestly stopped caring about what he shouldn't say to the principal, now that he saw how weird he really was.

Mr. Suzuki had looked up again, although this time he looked a bit weirded out at Jack's rifle mention. Catching this, Jack quickly added, "Not that I would use it here at school. It's just for tradition in my family." He didn't need the vice principal getting a bad impression, just in case Mr. Kaka got demoted (which seemed very likely) and he got promoted to be the actual principal.

Mr. Suzuki frowned. "Mr. Kaka, are you sure it's a good idea to admit this kid into Burgess High?"

Mr. Kaka laughed. "Of course, Suzuki. Why can't I be sure?"

"Why can't you... He owns a rifle. Which is completely illegal if the owner is under the age of 21, by the way."

"It's not my rifle. It's actually my dad's," Jack hurriedly said. "He's in the military. And I never really got to shoot anything with it. I just know how to use it. You know, like how to hold it and...stuff."

Mr. Suzuki seemed somewhat skeptical to believe him, but eventually nodded. "Well, just don't go spreading the word about that. A lot of our staff members are sore over the tragedy in Connecticut last Friday."

Jack was genuinely confused. "What tragedy?"

Mr. Suzuki seemed taken aback by this. "You really don't know? On Friday, a gunman entered an elementary school and shot 20 students and 7 adults dead."

Jack really didn't know what to say after that. "Uh... Okay, I understand..."

Mr. Kaka sighed. "Yes, that was a grim day that will always be remembered. Anyway, Jack, you're free to go. I hope you find Burgess High a nice school."

Jack blinked. Wasn't the principal supposed to delve into his privacy even more and ask him a lot more questions?

Mr. Suzuki seemed to be having similar thoughts because he shot a look at Mr. Kaka. "Mr. Kaka, you're already letting this kid go?"

Jack secretly wished that the vice principal would stop referring him as "this kid."

"Of course I am! He's an interesting fellow! Now tata, Suzuki, I have to go make a phone call to Larry."

Mr. Kaka waved and left the office. Once he was out of hearing range, Jack, still sitting, immediately said, "I personally think that it's really weird how he's your boss and not the other way around. And who's Larry?"

Mr. Suzuki ran a hand over his hair and sighed again. "I know, so do I. And Larry is his imaginary friend, who happens to be a goat."

Jack wasn't even going to ask. He stood up, left the room, put on his jacket and scarf, and left the campus.

"Even more adorable... Larry... Imaginary goat friend... Creepy, idiotic principal..." Jack muttered on the way home. Zander and Spencer had both told him that Mr. Kaka wouldn't like it if he showed up barefoot, yet after experiencing what he had just gone through, Jack really was suspecting the twins to have been lying.

A rustling noise interrupted his thoughts and he stopped trudging. He heard it again and it was coming from a nearby bush. Curiosity getting the best of him, Jack went over to the bush and peered behind it. A snow-white (More like it would have been snow-white if it didn't look so dirty) Turkish Angora was sitting there, licking her paw. She quietly stopped once she sensed Jack's gaze on her and looked right back up at him with huge, hazel eyes.

"Where's your owner?" Jack asked her. Not that she could actually respond.

The cat meowed once and resumed licking her paw.

Jack quickly caught on. "...Do you even have an owner?" He had a pretty good idea on the answer to that question, so he didn't wait for an answer before sighing. "I listen to my conscience way too much. You're coming with me."

He picked her up – she didn't even bother clawing at his face to break free – and carried her the rest of the way to Jamie's house.

"Hey," Jamie greeted, keeping his eyes on the TV screen.

"Oh, hey. Weren't you out sledding with your friends?"

Jamie shrugged. "Yeah, but Kevin fell off of his sled and sprained his ankle. So all of us went home."

Jack winced. "Ouch." He looked at the TV. "Whatcha watching?"

"I'm watching reruns of this old Nickelodeon cartoon called Danny Phantom. It's about this 14-year-old boy who has these parents with this ghost obsession. One day, they built a ghost portal and, long story short, Danny went in and became half-ghost."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Weird plot."

"His ghost form looks like you, though. See?" Jamie pointed at the TV.

"He does not," Jack griped after looking.

"Hey, what's that?" Jamie only then noticed the feline in Jack's arms.

Jack looked down at the cat. "Oh, she's a stray. I picked her up on the way home."

"You're not...planning on keeping her though, right?"

"Why can't I?"

"We have a dog, remember? Abby? And you know that tension dogs and cats have with each other?"

"Don't worry, I'll make sure both pets don't end up killing each other," Jack reassured. "And I was the one who took her, so I take full responsibility for her. Besides, your mom wouldn't mind, right?"

Jamie sighed. "She won't, but Abby will... Fine. Have you thought up a name for her yet?"

Jack frowned. "Not yet... I'm just gonna call her Wynter. Wynter with a Y."

Jamie stuck out his tongue. "Of course you would pick a name like that."

"What's that supposed to mean? It fits her! Just look at her fur!"

"Looks like she rolled around in mud all day long."

"...Look at her fur once I'm done giving her a bath! I'll be back down in about 20 minutes."

Jack ran upstairs, while Jamie shook his head in amusement. Sometimes, Jack seemed to be the more childish one out of the two of them.

...I wanted to give Jack a pet, and I thought a cat suited him better than a dog. And besides, Jamie's residence already has a dog. :P

I saw on the Rise of the Guardians Wiki that Jack knew martial arts, and in my opinion, that actually makes a lot of sense. I mean, do you see how agile he is?! And I included that rifle bit because I thought that if Jack lived in the colonial times, then he must have known how to use a rifle... Right? I suck at history, so I have absolutely no idea if sons of shepherds were trained to shoot stuff, but I included that anyway...

You know what's weird? I had the part with Jack confessing that he knew how to use a rifle all typed up before the Connecticut massacre yesterday. But after hearing about it, I couldn't help but mention it.

Speaking of the massacre, here's a little self-advertisement again. Go check out my Rise of the Guardians drabble that was specifically written for all those victims of the school shooting.

So I managed to put the other Guardians (except for North) in this chapter (and have them walk in on Jack's shirtless moment. Lol Teehee). 8D

Congratulations to this chapter for being the longest chapter of this story yet! It already exceeds 2,000 words without the author's notes. :D

Reviews will be appreciated now that my Boba-rant is over!