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

After North left, Jack fiddled around with his new phone while heading upstairs alongside Jamie, who was sulking over having to wait to open presents. He was usually a patient person, but that didn't mean he liked waiting to do something he loved to do.

Jack, sensing the younger boy's moody aura, said, "It's fine. It's only until morning."

"I know, but it's so not fair how you get your present early!" Jamie retorted as he opened his bedroom door. He paused once his eyes landed on his bed. "...How are you going to sleep? My bed is designed for one person."

"No worries," Jack assured. "I'll just sleep on the floor."

Jamie hesitated. "Really?"

"Yeah." Jack smiled. "I don't mind. Sleeping on your carpet floor is nothing compared to sleeping in trees and on the ground, which I've done a million times."

Jamie looked convinced, at the very least. "Alright then." He got into bed while Jack lied down on the floor, and then turned off the light. "Good night."

"Night."

A few minutes later, when Jamie was just about to fall asleep, a voice pulled him away from dreamland. "Jamie?"

"Yeah, Jack?" Jamie yawned tiredly.

"I think staying in your guest room had affected my sleeping habits a little bit, so I feel less comfortable with sleeping on a hard surface now... Can I squeeze into your bed?"

Jamie probably would've thought about how crammed it would be first before reluctantly agreeing, but he was too exhausted to get his brain to work right. So he simply mumbled, "'Kay..."

"Thanks."

A few seconds later, Jamie suddenly felt a lot more stuffed now that there was an extra person in his bed. He tried to ignore the fact that Jack's freezing feet were making contact with his own smaller ones and how the older boy kept on tossing and turning. Thankfully, he eventually dozed off.

Jamie's alarm clock suddenly went off, and the eleven-year-old lazily cracked open one eye. He just barely noticed that it was still dark out, and before he could wonder why exactly his clock was sounding in the middle of the night, there was a loud, pounding sound and the clock was silent. Jamie, whose brain was still dead, didn't bother to ask himself what just happened with his alarm, and simply went back into sleep mode.

He woke up on the floor when morning came along. He blinked twice before recognizing his surroundings. When he realized that he was next to the bed instead of on top of it, he scowled. Jack's fidgeting in bed must have accidentally knocked him over the edge and onto the flooring . With a soft sigh, he sat up, and noticed Jack still sleeping, lying on his stomach. Unsurprisingly enough, one of his arms was limply outstretched as if he had been shoving something.

More like someone, Jamie thought bitterly before starting to shake the teen awake. "Hey, Jack. Wake up."

"Five more minutes..." Jack grumbled so quietly, that Jamie just managed to hear him.

"Oh, come on, it's already..." Jamie looked around for his alarm clock, so he could tell Jack what the time was. "Um... Do you know where my alarm is?"

Jack's reply was a series of murmurs. Jamie, not understanding what he was saying at all, just sighed and shook his head. "Never mind. But seriously, get up. The sun's all the way in the sky now."

As if to prove it, he walked over to the window and opened the curtains. The sun shined brightly into the room, and Jack's only response was to get a pillow and cover his head up with it. Jamie put a palm up to his forehead and sighed for the third time that morning. He swore that if this kept up, he would exhale like this a billion times before nightfall arrived.

Jack tried to fall asleep again, but that stupid sun was keeping him from accomplishing that. With a frustrated groan, he removed the pillow from his head and got up, glaring at Jamie. "Fine, I get it. I'll get up now. Why don't we go downstairs and open presents?"

After Jack got ambushed by Scott, he went upstairs to shower, and Jamie went to the kitchen to make some buttered toast. However, the younger boy sensed that something was very, very wrong when he heard a shrill scream come from the second floor, and he grew even more confused a moment later when Jack, moving very stiffly, appeared in the kitchen doorway, with a suspiciously red handprint on his left cheek.

"Jamie..." the former winter spirit began, tone eerily calm. "Why does your grandmother not lock the bathroom door when she showers?"

Jamie had to hold back his laughter, while Grandpa Joe, sitting in the dining room, did a spittake with his morning coffee. "You walked in on my naked wife?!"

"I wouldn't have done it if I knew she was in there!"

"Haven't you ever heard of knocking?!"

"Haven't you ever heard of locks?!"

"You can't just expect my sweet Mary to lock the door and not let anyone in! The least you could've done was not stare at her body!"

"Just when did I say I stared?! The last thing I want to do is stare at some old bat's wrinkled, ancient figure! And yet, I still ended up with this angry, nasty mark on my face!" Jack pointed at the handprint. "And now you're yelling at me for accidentally walking in on her shower?!"

Grandpa Joe's face turned red with anger, and Jamie silently thanked the heavens when the doorbell rang. He hurried to get it, and when he opened the door, he saw that it was Claude, Caleb, Kevin, and Monty.

"Hey, Jamie!" Caleb greeted.

"We're here!" Claude announced brilliantly.

"Is something going on in the kitchen?" Monty cautiously looked behind Jamie's shoulder, sensing a very intense atmosphere radiating from the other room.

"You guys are just in time to see Jack and my grandpa have a brawl," Jamie replied flatly.

"You mean your grandpa Joe?" Claude said excitedly. "I have to see this!"

He and Caleb rushed inside and into the kitchen.

Jamie looked at Kevin and Monty. "Are you going to come in?"

Monty pushed his glasses up to the bridge of his nose. "I-I guess..." he muttered, and went in. Without a word, Kevin entered along with him.

Once they reached the kitchen, Caleb had already gained access to Jamie's house's pantry and was roasting popcorn in the microwave oven, while watching the epic staring contest that was currently going down along with his twin. For Jack and Grandpa Joe's part, the lightning between their eyes was almost palpable. However, once Jack noticed the kids, he immediately broke the gaze, much to the twins' disappointment. "Hey, guys."

"Don't 'Hey guys' us! What are we going to do with all this popcorn now?!" Caleb complained, opening the microwave door and taking out the now-edible popcorn.

Jack looked at it for a second before snatching it away. "I haven't had breakfast yet," was his curt answer.

"Hey, I was the one who popped that!" Claude protested.

"And now I'm the one who's eating it."

Grandpa Joe frowned. "You shouldn't eat anything someone else made without at least thanking them first."

Jack simply ignored him. And he thought Bunnymund was uptight.

"Hey, um, you have a huge, red spot on your cheek..." Monty spoke up, gesturing towards Grandma Mary's little addition to Jack's face.

Jack shot him a "You don't want to know" look.

Claude, recognizing what was the thing on his cheek, immediately started snickering. "Alright, who slapped you?"

Jack gave him an unimpressed glare and said, "Hey, the upstairs bathroom is unoccupied, so if you need to go pee, do it now."

"What? No! My grandma's bathing in there right now!" Jamie glanced at Jack as if reprimanding him with his eyes and said, "You know, just because you got pimp slapped by her doesn't mean you need to get everyone else in on that, too."

"Actually, it kinda does, in my book. Don't worry, man. You won't understand my mind until you reach the teenage phase."

"...Aren't you the one who broke my brother's nose?" Kevin finally spoke for the first time since arriving in Jamie's home.

Jack eyed him warily. "If you're Samson Fisher's brother, then yes."

Kevin blinked, but then smiled and nodded. "Good job on doing that. I could tell it was you from the black eye. He deserved it. You have no idea how long I've been waiting for someone to give him a taste of his own medicine."

"Kevin!" Monty protested. "I know brothers fight and all, but it's completely wrong to approve of a nose injury!"

Kevin shrugged. "Hey, he laughed at me when I fell off my sled and sprained his ankle. Which is ten times worse than getting a broken nose, by the way."

"Your bone only got sprained! His got broken!"

"I view my ankle as more important than my nose. I find that I can breathe perfectly fine through my mouth, even if I'll breathe in more germs that way."

Jack grinned. "You know what, kiddo? I like you already. You're nothing like your brother or cousin."

"Oh yeah, speaking of my cousin..." Kevin whistled. "I heard that he was on his way here to get back at you for breaking Sam's nose, so be careful."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Right. I normally would take your advice, but he just came here a few minutes ago. If only you arrived fifteen minutes earlier, I would've avoided a painful feeling in my crotch."

Caleb winced and put a hand to his own groin. Wow, he definitely didn't want to be at the end of one of Scott Kimberly's kicks...

"Anyway, come on, Jamie. Let's go outside and play in the snow." Claude, pretending not to see his brother's odd reaction, grabbed Jamie's arm and proceeded to drag him out the front door, ignoring the latter's protests on how he was still in his pajamas. Monty and Kevin followed suit.

"Hi, Mrs. Bennett!" Kevin shouted happily as he waved to Jamie's mother, who was just coming inside the house, back from whatever she was doing.

Mrs. Bennett stared after her son's attire. "Jamie Bennett! At least put your coat on!"

"It's not my fault! Mom, heeeeeeellllllllllllpppppppp p!"

Jack pounded on the bathroom door urgently, his right leg crossed over his left. "Hurry up in there! I'm dying out here!" Wow, the elderly sure are slow in using the toilet.

"Use the one upstairs!" Grandpa Joe shouted from inside.

Or maybe he's just doing this on purpose since he hates me, Jack thought darkly, and then retorted, "Well, apparently your wife takes showers that are an hour and a half long, 'cause she hasn't come out yet!"

"Oh, teenage brats these days—" Jack heard Joe mutter. "Alright, alright, I'm coming!" Thirty seconds later, he was out, tucking a newspaper under one hand. "The toilet's clogged," he deadpanned, and then handed Jack a plunger. "Since you need the use it next, why don't you fix it?" He then strolled past the former winter spirit nonchalantly.

Jack, urine urgency completely forgotten, stared at the plunger in his hand. Oh yeah, he totally means to do this to me. However, during the unclogging, he had some second thoughts on relenting. Se vado a questo tipo di merda, mi sono pagati per questo.

"Jackson!"

Jack mentally groaned. He had been dealing with Grandpa Joe for a couple of days already, and the last thing he wanted was Grandma Mary in on his misery as well. But he decided that whatever she wanted couldn't be as bad, so he managed to reply courteously (although his teeth were a little clenched), "Yes?"

"Could you massage my back?"

What did Jack look like, a person who worked at a spa? Which, for your information, was the last place he ever wanted to work at. However, Mrs. Bennett had told him yesterday that Grandpa Joe and Grandma Mary were old and all their favors needed to be accepted. Jack did see the logic in that, but he couldn't help but think, I'm older than both of them combined, so when are my favors going to be accepted?

He muttered quietly, "Sure..." He sat down next to her and started doing what he was asked to do, and for once, it went without a hitch (other than Jack not enjoying any of it, but yeah). That is, until Wynter somehow got into the room and meowed, drawing attention.

Grandma Mary suddenly started screeching. "Cat! There's a cat in the house! GET IT OUT OF HERE!"

Jack, slightly raising both of his eyebrows at the lady's overreaction, picked Wynter up. "What's the matter? She's just a stray cat I picked up, and she's really tame."

Mary's eyes widened at the words stray cat. "Oh my goodness, GET THAT THING AWAY FROM ME!"

Jack, wanting to prevent more trouble by giving Jamie's grandmother a heart attack (As cruel as it sounded, he had no qualms to her having a heart attack anywhere else), carried Wynter outside into the yard again.

"Really... What's wrong with her?" he muttered as he set her down. "How'd you even get inside in the first place?"

Wynter's head turned to a different direction, and Jack followed her beeline. The back door had been left open by someone, and there was just enough space for a Turkish Angora like Wynter to squeeze into. Jack simply walked over to the door and closed it, grumbling as he did so.

"Jane, it was sweet of you to let us stay over," Mary smiled as she had her palm on the handle of a suitcase. She was currently standing in the front doorway.

"It's nothing, Mom. We're family," Mrs. Bennett smiled back. "You're always welcome here. Who wouldn't want you?"

Uh, me, flashed through Jack's mind, but he knew way better than to actually say that out loud.

"Yeah, bye," Jamie gave a small smile and waved.

"Bye!" Sophie giggled and waved, and then grabbed her stuffed Bunny's arm and waved that also.

"Yeah... See ya," Jack said flatly, and half-heartedly held up his hand, only to let it flop back down again. Or rather not. Hopefully, nobody would notice his poor acting skills; he was usually good at masking his true feelings, but the past week had been absolutely crazy, and he just wasn't up to it.

Of course, it didn't help how he found out later that night that Joe had left his briefs behind in the guest room right next to the bed.

A few weeks later, the same day Jack discovered Baby Tooth and taught Jamie how to speak a little bit of Italian, Jamie suddenly remembered something after all his friends went home. "Hey, you remember when my grandparents stayed over?"

Jack rolled his eyes. "How could I forget?" Good riddance forever to them.

"On that first night, when you slept in my room, do you know what happened to my alarm clock?"

Jack blinked. "Huh? Oh, yeah I do."

"Really? What happened to it? 'Cause me and my mom are stressing our brains trying to figure out why it suddenly disappeared."

"I, uh, got really grumpy, since it rang in the middle of the night, and I really don't like having something startle me awake—I prefer to wake up by myself—so I got my mallet and pounded it. I stuffed the remains under your bed."

Jamie stared. "So those metal pieces I found there the other day while I was cleaning my room—you destroyed my alarm?! I depend on that thing to wake me up for school! My mom's getting sick of having to call me up!"

Jack shrugged. "Buy a new one. Those aren't too expensive."

Jamie sighed. "Fine... Where'd you get a mallet anyway?"

"The same place where I got my chainsaw."

"You said there were only that and prison chains under your bed!"

"I never said it was under my bed, but it was in my room. In the bottom drawer of my dresser, to be exact."

"...What else is there in our guest room?" Jack opened his mouth to talk, but Jamie cut him off. "Never mind, I don't want to know."

Se vado a questo tipo di merda, mi sono pagati per questo = If I'm going to deal with this type of shit, I better get paid.

Anyway, I realized that I barely touched on Jamie's grandparents visit, so there really was no point in putting that in there. And then I bring you this.

Completely unrelated: Hey, so my friend Jauntues Tigerwolf uploaded a Naruto fanfiction called The Adventure of a Lifetime. The two of us and three other friends at school collaborated on this, we created our own OC's and we used our real first names and personalities for them (The girl named Bethany is the only one who's completely fictional). So basically, my OC has the same name as me. Guess what that means? If you want to know what my first name is, just go to that fanfic and then it's right there. And I know I said we used our real personalities, but I think my character is a bit OOC, since Jauntues wrote my part (I don't think I'm evil enough), and the only part that's in character is the author's note at the bottom, since I was the one who actually typed that. If you like Naruto, check it out, and if you don't like/don't watch Naruto, check it out anyway (It's been up for a full 24 hours, but there are still no reviews). I myself don't even watch Naruto, yet I managed. Some stuff in the fanfic is true in real life, like Stephanie's cursing and Rigoudon3's chocolate addiction. Some stuff is not true, such as my friends forcing me to start watching Naruto.

Also, I finally replaced that bisexual poll on my profile (It reached 50 unique voters), and in its place is a much more sober poll asking which story should I start in the future. So go vote on that.

I don't have time for answering questions this chapter, so I swear that I will answer all of them in the next. However, I do have time to talk about SecretWriter's review for chapter 9, and she said she felt slightly offended during the part where Samson thinks Those damn Asians, since she's Asian and lives in Singapore. First off, I would like to say that Singapore is a nice place; I've been there once. Second, when I typed Those damn Asians, that was what Samson was thinking, not me. I would never say that, at least not offensively. Third, I was born here in California, but both of my parents came here from Taiwan. So, in other words, I'm an Asian too (I'm also the first in our family to speak English this fluently, but that's beside the point). Fourth, I'm not sure if Singapore is also like this, but here in California, we say stuff like Asian fail and Quit being such an Asian. But we don't mean anything serious by it; it's meant to be taken lightly. Personally, I don't make those Asian comments a lot, but I occasionally do. So to sum it all up, you shouldn't take any offense to the Those damn Asians bit (I believe that all races are equal), and I'm sorry that I didn't clear it up earlier in the chapter 9 author's note (I meant to do that, but I simply forgot. I don't think you guys believe me, but I really did).

I guess I could say the same thing for the part where Zander said Jack sucked because he was a senior in geometry. There's no offense to be taken in that statement either.

So please review!