In math class the next day, Jack kept on sneaking side glances toward Cody through his notes. He tried to be as subtle as possible, but judging from everything he knew about Cody so far, the boy would notice, no matter how cunning he tried to be. Those thoughts were confirmed when the lesson was over, with a few minutes of class to spare. Without wasting a second, Cody whirled around to face Jack, his expression calm, though his right hand was grasping the edge of the desk so tightly, his knuckles were white.

"Can I help you?" he asked through gritted teeth.

Jack suddenly got a full understanding of what everyone was saying about Cody being the scariest guy in the school. The dude certainly had a gift of intimidation. Jack did his best to hide his nervousness (and he thought he actually did pretty well, for the record), and said back casually, "What? I just happened to be glancing in your direction, that's all."

"You've been 'glancing in my direction' for over the past half hour."

"Oh, have I?" Jack played innocent.

"You know you were."

"I can't help it," Jack shrugged, hoping he didn't just sound like a pervert (which he wasn't). "You're a rather intriguing character."

Oh boy. If that first sentence didn't prompt Mr. Antisocial to think wrong, that second one surely did. Now Cody was looking at him funny.

"I'm just curious about Carrie, alright?" Jack blurted out without thinking. Oops. Maybe he would've been better off if Cody thought he was a creepy guy who was into guys than bring up the topic of Miss Little Mystery Girl.

Cody's eyes widened, then narrowed after a second. "How do you know about Carrie?"

Shit, Jack swore in his mind. Thankfully for him, he didn't have to answer.

"Never say her name again," Cody spoke ominously, eyes still narrowed dangerously at Jack. "She's not someone you can just bring up and expect to get away with it. Don't ever fucking ask me that again."

He probably would've went on if the bell didn't ring at that moment. Cody got up and left the classroom sending one final glare in Jack's direction. Jack just stayed seated and put his face in his hands, wondering just how close did he cut to actually experiencing the wrath of the school outcast.

"Jackson?"

Jack raised his head to look at his teacher. "Yeah?"

"Aren't you going to go to the cafeteria for lunch?"

"Uh, yeah I am. I was just thinking about something." He stood up and went to the door. "Bye."

Out in the hallway, Jack tried to look on the bright side. He did learn one thing through that whole ordeal: A direct confrontation just doesn't work with Cody. Yeah. That would stop him from making that mistake again, at the very least. He probably shouldn't risk jinxing himself, but he felt as if the only other thing he wouldn't be looking forward to that day was going over to Anton's—especially that car drive. For just that one time, he was hoping that Zander was really pulling his leg when he was describing Anton's driving habits.

Jack suddenly shuddered at the thought. This earned him Baby Tooth's concern, who squeaked worriedly. Jack snapped out of it and turned his head to her. "Oh right, sorry. I was just thinking about what I'm gonna go through after school today."

Baby Tooth understood immediately at those words.

"Baby Tooth, do you have any advice on cracking that stubborn wall of Cody's?"

Baby Tooth shook her head for a second, but after realizing something, she simply shot Jack an unamused look, her eyes silently accusing him of being a hypocrite. Stubborn? You're calling him stubborn when you should really be looking in a mirror?

Jack, getting the idea, shot the same look right back at her. "Oh, shut it."

I'm not even saying anything, Baby Tooth thought bewilderedly as Jack finally reached his locker.

Luckily, Jack didn't jinx himself; his classes were all at least mildly decent. Now he was standing out in the student parking lot along with Zander and Spencer. The former was there to say his "final goodbyes to a great friend, even though he had only known him for a few weeks and had been periodically mad at him for being lovesick with the wrong girl." The latter was there just to make sure the former didn't scare their friend too badly.

Jack was currently in the middle of freaking out. "WHATDOIDOI'MSCREWED."

It took a second for anyone to pick up on what he just said. Spencer gave Zander a disapproving look, as if to say, I told you you went too far on warning him.

"How was I supposed to know that he would get so panicky?!" Zander retorted back out loud.

Spencer sighed. Time for him to come in and change the subject for the umpteenth time. Why did he always have to be the one to serve the distraction? He tapped Jack on the shoulder and pointed at something that hung off the second floor of the school building. Jack looked up and saw that the object his friend was pointing to was a flag hanging off the side of the building. He blinked, not getting whatever was interesting about it. "That's a flag," he said brilliantly.

Spencer rolled his eyes. "I know."

"Why are you showing me that? I kinda noticed that a couple weeks ago."

"Uh..." Okay, so maybe Spencer didn't think it through too well this time around. He looked to his twin for help.

"The pole that it's hanging off of is unbelievably sharp," Zander offered.

Jack squinted. "Oh yeah, it is. So what?"

"You know our school is one of those that can go up to the roof?"

Jack raised his eyebrows. "No, I did not know that."

"Not a lot of students do, especially the freshmen, but me and Spencer do," Zander explained. "You can go up through the hidden door on the side of the building."

"Uh huh," Jack said flatly. "And what does this have to do with our unusually sharp flagpole?"

Spencer scoffed. "Zander here is convinced that one day a student's gonna go up there and trip off the edge where the flagpole is, causing them to accidentally impale themselves by scraping their body against the sharp end."

"Hey, it's possible!" Zander insisted.

"Never said it wasn't. I'm just thinking that the chances of that happening are kinda small. Like you said, most students here don't know about the stairway that leads to the roof, and I'm sure the students who do know about it aren't stupid enough to stand on the edge of the roof on their tiptoes, and even if they do fall, what are the odds of them falling off at the very spot the flagpole is hanging from?"

"I'm just thinking hypothetically here. And even if they fall off a spot where the flagpole isn't hanging, they're still gonna die."

"You're the one who's always thinking of the flagpole, not even the considering the possibility of it not being involved in someone's death."

The surprisingly interesting debate was broken when someone honked a horn behind them. All three boys now had their backs turned toward the parking lot, and they all jumped at the noise. Jack, having a dreaded feeling on who it was, took a deep breath and slowly turned around. Sure enough, Anton had the car window rolled down, and he called out to Jack, "Hey loser, get in the car before I drive off without you!"

Jack silently mouthed a brief string of profanities to himself. He turned to the twins. "Right. I'll see you guys."

"Bye," Spencer smiled and waved.

"I'll see you at your funeral," was Zander's truly unnecessary farewell, prompting Spencer to kick him in the shin.

Jack's left eye twitched slightly, but he dismissed it. He took a few breaths to calm himself and approached Anton's car. He went in the passenger seat and closed the door.

"Took you long enough. Slowpoke," Anton grumbled.

"Just...drive," was all Jack could muster as he rubbed his sore temples.

Anton shrugged and clutched the wheel. "Whatever you say."

Jack realized that he chose the wrong words a millisecond too late. The next thing he knew, he was thrown backwards. "Wait, I haven't even put on my seat belt yet!"

"Too bad! You should've done that when I was still parked!"

Jack struggled to sit up and reached for his seat belt. This proved not to be an easy task, as Anton seemed to always be turning and slowing down at stop signs, sending him flopping in all directions. After a few minutes of risking banging his head on something, he finally got his seat belt done. He wasn't sure how he did it, but he really didn't care at the moment. What irked him the most was that Baby Tooth had lifted herself off his shoulder and was simply floating in midair, leaving herself completely unaffected by Anton's reckless driving. All she was doing was trying her best to hold in her laughter as she watched him suffer.

Once they reached a traffic light, Jack asked in short breaths, "How...do you not...get tickets?"

Anton frowned confusedly and looked at him. "What are tickets?"

Jack opened his mouth, most likely to shout some stuff at the ignorant driver. The thing that prevented him from doing so was the light turning green at that second.

In short, it was a long drive to Anton's house.

Jack couldn't express his utter relief when they turned up at Anton's driveway. Zander really wasn't exaggerating; this car drive had left him scarred for life. He doubted he could ever get in a car without getting carsick again. If not, then he would at least never look at cars the same way in the future.

"We're here," Anton announced. He got out and went over to the front door. Just as he was turning the doorknob, he looked back at Jack, who was still in the passenger seat, having a tight grip on the armrests as if they were his lifeline, his skin pale, his eyes wide open and his breathing shallow. To sum it all up, he looked about ready to have a major heart attack.

"Overland, are you just gonna sit there and not enter my house? I didn't drive you here just so you could have a stroke!" Anton called out to him.

Baby Tooth pecked Jack on the cheek roughly, jerking him out of his trauma. He refused the urge to yelp out (because Baby Tooth's nose really was painful) and turned to Anton. "Excuse me, what was that?"

"...Get out of the car," Anton deadpanned, opening his door and going in. He left the door ajar, leaving Jack to close it once he entered.

Jack sighed and opened the car door as Baby Tooth made herself comfortable on his shoulder once more. As his feet touched the ground, he almost immediately collapsed, the only thing saving him from doing so was his left hand holding on to the car door handle. "Ugh, jelly legs," he muttered. "I hate jelly legs..."

Ultimately deciding not to let Anton wait for him any longer, he didn't give his legs any time to regain feeling. Instead, he got down on his hands and knees and crawled his way to the front door, not being able to care less if he looked weird to Anton's neighbors (not that there were any out in the yard or anything like that).

It turned out Anton was waiting for him inside by the entrance, and once his eyes got a load of a crawling Jack, his face contorted to some kind of funny expression. Jack noticed this and was reminded of the similar look Cody gave him just earlier that day.

Jack felt the numbness leave his legs once he had fully made his way into Anton's home. He got up and shut the door, then looked around. It really was a nice house, he had to admit. "Can I use your bathroom?" he asked, abruptly having the urge to go pee.

"Down the hall, first door on your right," Anton gave the directions.

A woman's head suddenly appeared from the kitchen. "Anton, it's much more polite if you would actually escort your visitor to his point of interest," she commented.

Anton groaned. "Mom, our bathroom hardly counts as a point of interest. Besides, the way you worded that made it seem like I'm on a date with him."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "So you're..." Crap, he still didn't know Anton's last name. "Anton's mom?" He dearly hoped that didn't sound too juvenile nor casual. "I'm Jack. Jack Overland. His classmate." Frankly, he was quite impressed with himself at how fluent his introduction went. His mind briefly flashed back to his own introduction to Mrs. Bennett, which included profuse stuttering and almost saying Jack Frost instead of Jack Overland. He really was getting better at this.

Anton's mother smiled. "Yes, my little Andy's talked a lot about you. He talks about you a whole lot. Like one time during dinner—"

"MOM!"

Jack suppressed a snort. Andy?

Anton seemed to have noticed the hidden amusement, because he moodily snapped, "I thought you needed to go use the toilet."

"You heard what your mom said. Best to escort the visitor," Jack smirked.

Anton visibly bit back a low growl as he roughly grabbed Jack's arm and pulled him toward the bathroom, which was like he said, down the hall and first door on the right. The door was closed shut, and Anton let go of Jack's hand. "I'm just gonna warn you right now. I own a couple of dogs, and they're really rowdy and hyper. They usually run around in there, which is why the door's always shut."

"Um... I have a white cat as a pet, which I guess pretty much establishes I'm more of a feline person..." Jack said uncomfortably. "Don't you have an upstairs bathroom that I can use?"

Anton must've sensed Jack's uneasiness and took the chance to torture him, because he shook his head mildly. "Nope. It's got plumbing issues."

Jack was sure that was not the case. But before he could speak his mind about it, Anton opened the door and pushed Jack inside. "Good luck," he said coolly before closing the door again.

"Good luck—" Jack sputtered, then turned around. Two identical terriers were glaring at him with their sharp, beady eyes. Jack had an intense staring match with them until the one on the left broke the silence by beginning to bark viciously. The other one followed suit, and two seconds later, they were both trying to jump him.

Jack groaned. He sent silent prayers to the Man in the Moon that he would survive this, breathed in slowly, and tried his best to keep Anton's wretched dogs down.

For his part, Anton had the hold back the temptation to begin laughing when he saw Jack, looking like a zombie, exit the bathroom. The poor boy was very, very distraught from the canine attack, and if you add that to the scarring car drive, then... Jack was forever changed. He really was.

"Your dog jumped up onto the counter and bit me on the ear," Jack said numbly.

"Was it the boy or the girl?" Anton asked.

"Does it matter?!"

"Kinda, yeah."

"I don't know, the girl?"

Anton's eyes flashed. "If you don't know, don't go randomly guessing that it was the girl. That's not fair to her."

Jack rid himself of the urge to groan out loud. Yup, this was going to be a long afternoon.

"I think I should go now," Jack said stiffly, trying his very best to hold in the rage that had gradually built up over the past one and a half hours.

"Oh, okay, cool. You want me to drive you home?" Anton asked, not taking notice of Jack about to blow up. Either that, or he just pretended not to.

"NO! I, um... I don't want to trouble you anymore or anything. I'll just walk. I...live nearby." That was obviously a lie, but he'd rather journey all the way to the other side of town on foot than step foot in a car with Anton as the driver again.

Anton seemed to buy it. "Alright. So you wanna meet up on Friday again after the class meeting?"

"Uh... Sure, I guess..." Now Jack had something else to not look forward to on Friday. "But you don't have to pick me up again. I have another ride." Hopefully, Jamie's mother wouldn't mind driving Jack to Anton's.

Anton looked suspicious, but thankfully dropped the subject. "Okay then."

Jack exited Anton's bedroom and went down the stairs. He opened the front door, and standing on the other side was Anton's mom and a girl who seemed to be around Jamie's age. The girl's hand was slightly outstretched, most likely because she was about to open the door before Jack beat her to it.

"Oh, Jack. You're leaving?" Anton's mother asked.

"Yeah. Anton already said goodbye. Um..." Jack's eyes fixed on the younger girl, who looked back at him curiously in return. "Who's this?"

"I'm Kayla!" the girl introduced herself. "I'm Andy's little sister."

Anton has a little sister? Well that certainly was an interesting development. "I'm Jack, Anton's..." Jack struggled to find the right word. "Acquaintance."

Kayla nodded. "I know, Andy talks about you a lot."

Jack really didn't want to know what Anton said about him, even though he presumed it couldn't have been that bad, since his family didn't look too wary of him. "Right. I really have to go now. It was nice meeting you. Bye."

Jack exited and looked at the time on his phone: 5:38 PM. He mentally sighed, then dialed a number. He waited for the person on the receiving end to pick up, and once she did, Jack spoke, "Hey, Mrs. Bennett? I'm gonna be a little late for dinner."

"So it's true..." An astonished Pitch Black levitated on a little nightmare cloud as he watched Jack walk down the sidewalk below him. What an interesting turn of events.

Just the day before, one of Pitch's nightmare horses had gone to give a little sick kid at the hospital a terrible dream that would not soon be forgotten, only to come scurrying back around fifteen minutes later. Unsurprisingly, Pitch wasn't too pleased at first, but after he got what his minion was trying to tell him about a humanized Guardian, or more specifically Jack Frost, he had to see for himself. He had a busy schedule going around giving kids bad dreams, and once he found himself spare time to go see if what his crony was saying was true, he didn't hesitate to go find the winter spirit. So there he was now, staring after a mortal Jack, who failed to look up and notice him.

Once the shock faded, a sinister smile made its way onto Pitch's face. This provided an excellent advantage for him, considering that Jack's intervention was pretty much the entire reason why that last (and very annoying) child Jamie refused to stop believing in the Guardians. If it wasn't for Jack, he actually would've won the battle. Now that Jack was pretty much out of the way, it wouldn't really be that hard to plan revenge against the other four.

The grin fell off his face, replaced with a thoughtful scowl. The problem was Jack's stubbornness. He was no doubt trying to get his powers back, and although Pitch wouldn't admit it out loud, the kid had enough potential to succeed in that.

He took a handful of nightmare sand from his floating cloud and played around with it, eventually creating the shape of a teenage boy. The smile returned. Jack's being human left him more vulnerable, so it wouldn't be too difficult to ensure he wasn't going to interfere this time around. With a tiny flick of his finger, the silhouette of the teenager was destroyed, and the dusty remnants scattered slowly back into the cloud.

Pitch was going to be extra careful that Jack did not hold him back. That was guaranteed.

"And you decided not to call my mom to go pick you up... Why?" Jamie inquired after dinner. He and Jack were both sitting cross legged on Jamie's bed.

"'Cause I told her Anton would be driving me home. Besides, she doesn't know his address. I'm gonna have to tell her it if I want her to drive me on Friday though," Jack explained, then grabbed one of Jamie's pillows and buried his face in it. "I suffered back there..." was his muffled speech.

Jamie half expected Jack to jump up and suddenly cheer himself up like he did last time with those carnival tickets, but he did no such thing. The younger boy sighed and patted Jack on the back comfortingly. "It'll eventually get better..."

Jack peeked an eye out at him. "You sure?"

"Of course I am..."

Not.

I don't underline stuff a lot, but when I do, it means it's important. Important: Remember the flagpole conversation Jack and the twins were having. Believe it or not, that flagpole will serve its purpose in the sequel. Important: There is a sequel.

Lookie here, I didn't put a disclaimer for once. I'm trying to rid myself of that habit.

So now I've introduced the subplot with Pitch. He has a purpose as well, and he also has a purpose in the sequel. Important: There is a sequel.

You guys are actually really lucky that I'm warning you guys about the flagpole. Yup, you're so lucky. You're even luckier since I almost pulled an April Fools joke.

Important: Part 3 of my story poll is up on my profile. To those who are wondering, there's a total of 4 parts.

Headcanon: Look at my reply to Polish's review.

Reply time!

Novanto: You have absolutely no idea how much I laughed at that the first time I read it.

feathered moon wings: Uh... Sure, why the hell not. I don't think I'm gonna be able to work in an angsty chapter in this story, but I actually have been working on a separate (angsty) RoTG one-shot that I...started two months ago...and didn't finish it... Crap. Maybe I should work on it. I'll give you a shout out when it's finally up.

likhitata: Long review asdfghjk. Oh come on, my story isn't that great... XD Although I do have to admit that I try my best to make my dialogue as vivid as possible. :P And I automatically love anyone who offers me boba tea. Thank you! -drinks-

snowflake13300: ...Duuuuuude, you have it way worse than me. And I'm assuming this Brown person is your school's Mr. Kaka?

Maddie Seth: You're the only one who actually wished me a happy early birthday, so THANK YOU SO MUCH. And I'm not just gonna leave Zander and Spencer hanging when Jack gets back to normal. That's just wrong.

Lovepuppy316: You are allowed to hug it. Maybe I should nickname Ariel that from now on... You find pole-dancing Jack creepy. Really. I should just send you the thing I found on Tumblr.

PuppetMaster55: Thank god I'm not the only one who forgets about Baby Tooth. I was pretty worried about my attention span for a second there.

Mystery Girl Who Writes: I would do that, but I don't really know how...

Nika Nicolette: Well, there are nude beaches, so I figured that a nude clown would...you know... He was stuffing himself because of the effect it had on his friendship with Ariel. He was mad about it, but he got even more upset when he had confronted her.

drawolftiger: It didn't upset me since I hadn't cleared it up at that point, but now that I have, I will say that I won't be the happiest person on earth. Luckily for all of us, nobody has asked anything after I talked about it.

LaylaFrost: Just a little side remark, you seem to like changing your username a lot :P Fun fact about me: My username used to be RimahikoLuver until last year. Anyway, as an answer to your question, I asked for fanart of a pole-dancing Jack two chapters ago. And I want the art NOW.

Polish: You see, I have this really weird headcanon that Jack looked a little adorkable (combination of dork and adorable) as a child until puberty hit and he became a poor, poor victim of pimples, zits, and a cracking voice, and then he got the smallpox so he had to stay in bed for a few months since medicine hardly existed back then (He was lucky that he didn't die), and then all of that left at the same time, and that is how he ended up looking the way he is now.

Review! (Underlining because it's important. Remember that)