I feel like updating. Now thank me, because To Have A Home hasn't been updated. By the way, a little warning: Jack is going to show some very uncharacteristic stupidity in the next two chapters.

I normally would put this at the end of the chapter, but what I'm about to say is important, SO READ THIS IF YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR YOUR SANITY. Guys, look, when I asked you if I should make Jack bi, I didn't think it would attract this much attention. I'm not sure who noticed and who didn't, but I took down that poll several weeks ago, indicating that THE DISCUSSION IS OVER. I already said that I was going to just imply that he's bi (I know what you people who want him to stay straight are thinking. Sorry, but I've actually already been implying it. Recall the Twilight and Fifty Shades bit, anyone? No? Okay). Just to make sure you'll listen to me on this, I have decided to give you guys an ultimatum: Quit the bisexual Jack talk, or else I'm buzz cutting all his hair off. I'm not joking. I've already thought up a good reason to why Jack should get rid of his hair. I will let him keep his hair if you guys stop all this stuff about Jack's sexual orientation. If not... You guys ought to kiss Jack's brunette locks goodbye.

And you guys thought Hatsu Yukiya was satanic.

Guys... It was pure hilarity watching you guys freak out over Jack's engagement. Headcanon time: At some point after he became a Guardian, Jack accidentally got himself engaged to Cupid, the Spirit of Love. Don't ask me how. It just happened.

Disclaimer: I'm not Dreamworks.

Jack's day was off to a pretty rough start. He had overslept (He had to thank Jamie for waking him up) and had to rush to get ready, and halfway on the way to school, he remembered that he had forgotten to feed Wynter, and had to text Mrs. Bennett back home so the cat wouldn't starve. Once he reached the front doors, on the same time the bell rang, Baby Tooth had suddenly caught up to him and started angrily chewing him out for leaving her behind (He wasn't sure what her exact words were, but he was almost sure she had used some profanity, which she had obviously picked up from him. He really needed to stop cursing in front of her, or else Tooth would have his head). Now that he was at school, he hoped things would lighten up. However, a number of students were pointing at him and talking at their peers in hushed whispers. He frowned. What was going on? Was there something on his body somewhere that was out of place? And would it kill the students to be slightly more discreet with talking behind his back?

"Jack!"

Jack turned around to find Cici, who was the one who had called him, Zander, and Spencer come up to him. He raised his eyebrows at the rare occasion when Spencer actually disregarded that he was standing within a five hundred foot radius near Cici. He bit back a snide remark, though, when he saw alarmed looks on all of his friends' faces.

"What's up?" he asked casually, trying his best to get rid of that uneasy feeling in his gut.

"Are you okay?" Cici frantically asked.

There it was again: her resemblance of Tooth, Jack thought. "What are you talking about?" he questioned aloud. Do I even want to know?

Spencer held up the newspaper copy he was carrying. "The school newspaper came out this morning," he began to explain. "There's an article written about you."

"And it's not about you being a new student or any of that harmless crap," Zander added.

Jack tentatively took the paper from Spencer. It was already flipped to the page where the article about him was located, so he immediately began to read its contents.

An Eating Embarrassment

Written by Erik Chou

Eating problems have always been a popular crisis for teens all over the country, and even the world, as the most important thing to them is their location on the weight scale. Furthermore, most of them do not realize that it is the wrong path to follow until it is too late and there's no going back. A perfect example of this calamity is new senior student Jackson Overland. In my opinion, his skinny arms and small stature are alarming, giving evidence that he has previously suffered from anorexia.

Jack decided that he had read more than enough. He just read the intro paragraph, but that was all he needed to know what was going on. There was also a black and white picture of him and Cici chatting that day at PE (He suddenly remembered that white flash he had seen at the corner of his eye). He shoved the paper back into Spencer's hands, his left eyebrow twitching slightly. Baby Tooth, who was resting on his head, began to chirp indignantly. How dare some kid make negative assumptions about Jack like that when he really stood superior over everyone in this school?

"I'm not anorexic," Jack said in the calmest tone he could manage. "Just because I look underweight doesn't mean I have an eating problem. Who is this Erik person, and how does he even have access to that picture of me and Cici when he's not even in any of my classes?"

"Uh, are you okay?" Zander asked carefully, sensing the aura of intense, masked rage that Jack was emitting.

"Fine, fine," Jack replied stiffly.

"Erik Chou is the president of the newspaper team. And maybe he was there at PE to take a picture of you but you didn't notice?" Spencer answered Jack's questions.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Zander butted in, absolutely sure that Jack wasn't behaving like himself.

"I told you I am. What makes you think–" He suddenly whirled around and punched the nearest locker, leaving a dent behind. "–I'm not?"

Zander didn't say anything back, but Cici said quietly, "That was Samson Fisher's locker."

"Wow, gee, thanks. That just made me feel a whole lot better on wrecking that thing," Jack replied. None of the other three could tell if he was being sarcastic or not. "Now I won't feel guilty when I do this." He punched the locker three more times. On the third punch, his fist actually went right through the metal, much to Zander, Spencer, Cici, and various bystanders' horror.

"Anyway," Jack said dismissively, turning to Spencer. "We should head to class before the late bell rings. Come on, Spencer."

"Call me Captain Crazy, but I don't think he likes it when somebody criticizes his lankiness," Spencer murmured to his brother before following Jack.

"What was your first clue? The stiff body language, or the locker vandalism?" Zander muttered back sarcastically.

"Samson's not going to be happy with Jack once he finds out it was him who put that hole in his locker," Cici whistled.

Erik walked into the classroom. "Hey, Mrs. Winston. You wanted to see me?"

The newspaper team administrator, without smiling, motioned for him to sit. "There's something I want to talk to you about."

Erik sat down, oblivious to what Mrs. Winston wanted. "What's the matter?"

The woman asked a question of her own. "You know why I put my trust in you to become the newspaper team president?" She didn't give him a chance to answer—not that he would've answered anyway—before saying, "You're one of the most dedicated students on this campus. I'm both shocked and disappointed that you would pull something like this."

Erik frowned. "Excuse me, but I don't know what you're talking about."

"I'm talking about this." Mrs. Winston pulled out a copy of the latest issue of the school paper, and flipped open to the page about Jack. "Erik, I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but criticizing other students negatively qualifies as a sort of bullying, and you know how harshly we take bullying."

Erik blinked, then looked down at the article Mrs. Winston was pointing at. His eyes skimmed through it, and they widened when he saw how his name was credited right underneath the title.

"I'm very disappointed," Mrs. Winston continued, though Erik had stopped listening. "I never expected you to pull a stunt like this—"

"I didn't write this."

Mrs. Winston sighed wearily. "Erik, please, you should at least admit it when you've done something bad—"

"Mrs. Winston, I swear to whoever's up there, I didn't write this. Somebody else on the team must have published this without my knowledge or consent."

"Then who did it?"

"I don't know who—" He abruptly stopped as realization kicked in, and he bit out quietly, "Fisher."

"Excuse me?" Mrs. Winston raised an eyebrow.

"It was Fi— Samson, Mrs. Winston. I instructed him to contribute to this issue of the paper, and was foolish enough to let him do whatever he wanted."

Mrs. Winston sighed again. "You shouldn't have done that, Erik."

"I know, I regret that now. Mrs. Winston, could you please do something about it? I'm not a teacher, but I don't think Samson should be let off the hook for something like this. I don't want anyone thinking that I really wrote that article either."

"Erik, I won't say that I don't believe you, because you seem to be telling he truth, but I can't enforce a punishment on Samson without exact proof that he's the true culprit." Seeing the look on her best student's face, however, she added, "Although I can keep an eye on him. I also could call the principal on the phone right now and have him delve into the situation at hand."

Erik frowned. "I don't want to sound like I'm disrespecting Mr. Kaka, but are you sure he's competent enough to do that?"

"...I'll call Mr. Suzuki."

"I saw you in the paper."

If it were any other day, Jack would've cared deeply at how Cody actually spoke without him prying (He swore to himself that he would find out why he seemed so gloomy the previous day after their terse conversing), but everyone (especially some lovesick girls and the Robinson twins) had been asking him if he was "okay" because of the little gossip article that was written abut him. It was already a bit of a sore subject for him already, and he was getting pretty agitated at the way people were trying to shower him with pity. In short, the fact that even Cody Gay was questioning him about it was peeving him.

"Yeah? What about it?" He may or may not have meant to sound so rude.

"Just saying. The same thing happened to me once."

That piqued Jack's interest. "Really?"

"Of course, I wouldn't kid about something like that. It was my freshman year, my first year here, a little over a month since I transferred. I was accused of being homosexual."

I expected that it would be something like that, Jack thought to himself. Out loud, he asked, "And?"

"People started treating me the same way they're treating you right now. I either ignored it or snapped at whoever was trying to comfort me. They eventually all fucked off, and it was never spoken about again. Things went back to the way they were, and the only thing that changed was that everyone seemed far more distant. They tried saying hi to me during the first few weeks of my transfer, assuming that I'm just shy, but after a while, they realized that I'm just the emo kid. The emo kid who almost always wears black, the emo kid who lets his black bangs fall over his face, the emo kid whose skin is so pale that people would think he never left the house, the emo kid who wears his hood up in class, the emo kid who's too fucked up to give two shits about what the teachers think of him. That's the image I have here in school, and practically all of Burgess. It's never changed, and I don't want it changed. It's just that fucking simple. And if there's an ass out there that thinks otherwise, he's crazy."

I must be a crazy ass then, Jack thought.

"You talked with Cody?"

"Yeah," Jack frowned. "I told you that we talked yesterday too."

"That's different!" Zander retorted. "You had to snap at him for him to even open his mouth! But today, you were the one who kept your mouth shut!"

"Only because he can relate to me."

"How was it like, talking to him?" Spencer asked curiously.

"Uh, not as bad as most students here would think. Pretty rotten mouth though. Doesn't hold back on the language."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Baby Tooth, now perched on his shoulder, give him a You're one to talk look.

"Whatever, I'm done talking about this," Jack ended the subject. "I've got bigger things to worry about. Ariel's been ignoring me all day. I saw her multiple times, but she just avoided me like she's never spoken to me before."

"She's probably embarrassed by that little tabloid about you," Zander muttered. He was promptly ignored by Jack.

Spencer opened his mouth to offer his own input, but the bell rang at that moment. Everyone hurried to sit down in their seats, and Miss McCarthy cut right to the chase.

"Alright, so you know how I told you I would have my choices for our hosts today, correct?" She didn't wait for an answer though. "I've chosen Jackson and Anton."

There was a second with pure silence, then chaos erupted. The entire class was murmuring, but most of the noise came from the two chosen ones themselves.

"WHAT?!" Jack screamed.

"NOT HIM!" Anton fumed.

"Teachers... Love picking on the new kid..." Jack grumbled, kicking at nothing as he exited the classroom along with the twins.

"Come on, hosting isn't that bad," Spencer tried to assure. "They almost always enjoy themselves with it. Sure you have more work to do, but it'll all be worth it in the end."

"Right," Jack scoffed. "Me and Anton need to plan monologues, skits, the order of individual performances, and more." He counted that list off with his fingers. "And we have to do all that together."

Zander raised a brow. "So? What's the prob?"

"You guys see nothing wrong with that, since you're not the one he hates."

"I'm sure he doesn't hate you," Spencer contradicted. "He just hasn't gotten to know you yet."

"Just because he's Samson Fisher's best bud doesn't mean he's as bad as him," Zander agreed.

"Oh yeah, I didn't tell you guys what happened that day after cheerleading rehearsal, did I?" Jack sighed.

"No?" That came out of Zander's mouth like some kind of weird question.

"Never mind, it's nothing big." Jack stopped trudging. "McCarthy said that this whole middle school thing counts as 50% of our final grade." Not that I would still be attending this school by the time semester grades are over. Just pretend that you really do care about your educational career, Jack. "What if Anton pulls something nasty from up his sleeve and I fail?"

"I don't see why he would do that when both of you are going to receive the same grade on hosting," Spencer said skeptically. "And Anton cares about his grades a lot."

"Not surprising at all," Zander remarked.

"Why isn't it surprising?" Jack asked.

Zander and Spencer looked at him strangely. "Jack," Zander finally said. "If I were you, I would at least try to find out more about my cohost."

Jack was about to pry further on what exactly he didn't know about Anton, but a movement out of the corner of his eye that he immediately recognized spoke otherwise. "Uh, guys? Why don't you go on ahead, I just...remembered that I have to do something."

He didn't wait for an answer before running off after what he had seen. He turned the corner, to see Ariel walking away, her back facing him. "Ariel!"

Ariel turned around, but not all the way. Just one millisecond of the knowledge that Jack had found her was more than enough to make her break into a run. This was one of the many times she was thankful that she was a cheerleader. She didn't need to turn to realize that Jack was sprinting after her.

Jack ignored all the strange looks he may or may not have received as he ran after the girl. He was determined to find out why she had been staying clear of him, especially since she had treated him so warmly before. He finally caught up to her, and grabbed her wrist, which was decorated with two bangles. She tried to squirm herself out of his grip, but it was tight and not letting go soon. She stopped wriggling, and snapped wearily, "What?"

Jack wasn't fazed at all by her sharp attitude. In fact, he seemed more relieved than anything at how she was talking to him now. "You've been avoiding me for the whole day. Are you mad at me or something?"

"No," was the curt answer she gave. "Now let me go."

He loosened his hold, but didn't completely let go. "Ariel... I want reasons."

Ariel sighed. "Fine, stubborn." She pulled her hand free out of Jack's, and rubbed her wrist. "Look, you know about the newspaper thing, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"It's just... I don't think we should hang out anymore. You're the center of attention now that that newspaper came out with that article about you. I mean, it's good to be the center of attention, but not this way. I'm a pretty popular girl, and I don't know what people would think of me if they saw me with you."

Jack stared wide-eyed at her. "What about those carnival tickets you worked so hard to get?"

"We can still go," Ariel reassured. "It's not at school, so it's okay, even though chances are we might still run into one or two students."

"Oh..." Jack said quietly. "Right. Okay. I get it."

"Thanks. Sorry, by the way. If things turned out differently, it wouldn't be like this," Ariel said sympathetically.

"I...should go now," Jack muttered, and then turned to go. "Bye."

When Jack got home from school, he immediately stalked up to his bedroom and slammed the door shut. Jamie didn't know what exactly went wrong, but he assumed that the older boy was just venting after a very long day at school. He would be in a better mood by dinner time. However, when dinner time came, Jack simply came out of his room, fished some junk food leftovers out of the fridge, and went back. Needless to say, Mrs. Bennett grew concerned.

"Jamie, maybe you should go to his room and ask what's bothering him?" was what she asked her son to do.

Jamie went up the stairs and knocked tentatively on Jack's door. "Jack? Can I come in?"

No answer, so he cracked the door open a little bit. Right away, he was greeted by a series of desperate squeaks and chirps, and Baby Tooth suddenly appeared in front of him, looking very distressed.

"Oh, hey, Baby Tooth. What's up with Jack?"

She chirped again and pointed, which Jamie took as indication to go in, no matter if Jack objected of not. He opened the door a little more, and saw the unpleasant sight of Jack sipping up a fizzy drink (Since when did his mom approve of buying something that unhealthy? Maybe Jack bought it) with a straw. The winter spirit didn't even seem to notice the younger boy walk in until he looked up. "Sup, Jamie?"

"Mom's worried about you. Don't you want to come downstairs and eat with us?"

Jack sighed. "No thanks. I'd rather just stay here and drown myself in donuts and burgers."

Jamie's eyes widened in horror. "But you'll gain like 30 pounds if all you devour is junk food! You can't!"

"I'd rather be some fatso with a stomach full of lard than some emaciated guy who looks like he suffers from anorexia!" Jack exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the air in frustration. "Fat people are common! But how many other guys at my school only weigh 117 pounds? None!" In a much more quiet tone, he added, "People think skinny seniors like me are an embarrassment."

"Jack, you're not an embarrassment."

"Thanks kiddo. I wish everyone else thought so too." Jack put a hand to his stomach. He cringed when he felt how small, how flat it was. "I'm from the late 1600's and he early 1700's. My stature used to be qualified as normal, but not anymore. I think you should head back down and tell your mom that I'm not hungry. Your food might grow cold."

Jamie left, Baby Tooth trailing behind him. Jack didn't even notice.

"Did something happen to him that I don't know about?" Jamie whispered to the tiny fairy once Jack's bedroom door was closed completely.

She just shrugged and chirped.

"I don't think we should worry too much about it. I don't think he would like it if we start fussing over him like a baby. And knowing him, he'll bounce back. Am I right?"

Baby Tooth smiled. Right.

...

...Oh, SUCK IT UP. It was only 2 weeks. I've gone 2 weeks without updating this before. I spent all last week working on my other stories which I have not updated in ages (One of them is a RoTG fic, so -cough- you should check that one out -cough-). Besides, this is a long chapter.

ANYWAY, I told you Jack was going to seem uncharacteristically stupid in this chapter. I did my best to do this without making him OOC, but apparently that's impossible. Prepare for more of this somewhat bulimic Jack next chapter. And I think most of you are starting to catch on to my plans with Anton.

I'm aware that about half of the people here are also following Hatsu Yukiya's To Have A Home, so listen up: Just because she used to update daily doesn't mean it's a required commitment of hers. She's been stressing out about school a lot more than she was a few weeks ago, and has been focusing on her actual grades more. So don't go thinking the story's discontinued/finished or anything like that (Why would you even think it's finished? Jeez). Some people have already started reviewing her story asking her to hurry up and update and how they're worried that there has been a supreme lack of writing from her lately. I understand why they would grow impatient like that (Heck, I'm dying for the next chapter of her story too, but I'm at least waiting), but if anything, it's just rude. Yup, I said it. You know, even we writers have lives sometimes, no matter how motivated we are. In fact, the reason why I was working so hard on my own chapters these past couple of days was because I didn't want to fall victim to that as well. She told me that she'll have the next chapter around today or tomorrow, so don't go fretting your butts off. Sillies. If you're wondering why the hell I know all this stuff, it's because I'm following her page on Facebook. Maybe you guys should too (Just don't forget about my own page -wink wink-).

Alright, I'm finally done venting. Time to reply!

RandomKrazyPerson: Hatsu and I are so similar, it's almost scary. I'm starting to suspect that she's my non-Asian twin who lives in Montana and is two years older than me. And in case anyone who reads this takes offense to my Asian comment, I'M ASIAN TOO.

Kaylee: Ariel has nothing to do with Jack's little paparazzi. Anton was the one who took that picture, because he was helping Samson.

Mystery Girl Who Writes: I don't believe that I have ever mentioned Jack kissing anyone in this story. At least, not yet.

agent000: Your reviews always make me happy. I am now requiring you to review every time a new chapter comes out.

Guest: I will bring the Guardians back in when they're supposed to come back in. Patience.

Maddie Seth: YOUR ART DESERVES TO BE ACKNOWLEDGED. Seriously, it does. By the way, I understand the whole projects thing, so it's cool. XD I'd just like to point out that his name has no P in it.

Sassy Shota: Zander deserves a hug. I'll let you give him a second hug if you go on deviantArt and look for MaddieSeth's drawing of him.

HotPink: Um. Please tell me you're not really asking me that lol.

Lovepuppy316: I'm NOT turning this into some lovey-dovey fic, 'cause I'm not one of those writers who likes to pair the main character up with a female OC in every story. And even when I do write romance, I tend to not make everything all kiss-kiss-kiss, because I have this thing for tsunderes (Look that up if you don't know what that means) and tough women who know how to handle a gun. SO HAVE MORE FAITH IN ME. And yes, Jack can have a shotgun. It just adds to his list of weapons which include a chainsaw, a mallet, and a bazooka. Don't worry, that last one will make an appearance at some point. AND I LIKE TO TORTURE YOU, SO NO.

Nika Nicolette: If I made Jack read Percy Jackson instead of Fifty Shades, I don't think it would be as amusing watching you guys freak out over that.

Review AGAIN.