Crucial information pertaining the sequel: I decided that the title will be Forgetful Guardian. Here's the summary: Sequel to Powerless Guardian. Plot shall confidential until Powerless Guardian is over in order to avoid huge spoilers. Yeah, not the most helpful summary.

Sometime around 9:00 on Saturday morning, Jamie and Jack were sitting on a bench at the park. Jamie was curled up into a ball with his head in his knees, while Jack was awkwardly patting him on the back.

"Jamie, come on... It wasn't that bad..."

"How would you know? You weren't there to hear it..." Jamie mumbled.

"I was eavesdropping on the other side of your bedroom door."

Jamie's head shot up, his eyes clearly portraying fear and woe. "She said so much! Half of the stuff was unnecessary for me to know, no matter how old I am!"

Jack merely sighed. "I know, kiddo..." To be honest, there was a lot of information Mrs. Bennett had fed Jamie that he himself was unaware of.

Earlier that morning, Jamie's mother had suddenly decided that her son was ready for the "talk." Jack's mentioning puberty to Jamie in front of her on the day of the carnival most likely had something to do with it, and Jack was relieved that Jamie wasn't completely pinning the blame on him (although the younger boy had sent him some rather horrified looks as he was being escorted to his room). After it was all over, Jamie's outlook on the world had completely changed. In order to let him take a whiff of fresh air, Jack had taken him to the local park. However, Jamie wasn't about to let go of his lesson on life anytime soon.

"Jamie, come on. Just...just forget about it. Like you said, half the stuff you didn't need to know of," Jack tried to comfort the boy.

"That doesn't mean I can just forget about it! That stuff was disgusting!" Jamie whined, putting his head down again.

"You were going to hear it eventually."

"I could've heard it when I was thirteen if you didn't mention adulthood that other day! If I was thirteen, I could've taken it better!"

"Because then you would be less innocent. Which basically means you would know all of that stuff before she even tells you it," Jack deadpanned.

"I didn't need to hear all of that at once!"

"Jamie, don't act like this stuff will haunt you for life. The mental damage done to you will disappear over time."

"And how long would that be?"

Jack kept silent for a minute, and then threatened in a low voice, "Bennett, if you don't cheer up right now, I'm gonna have no choice but to execute my final plan."

Jamie, not taking him seriously at all, murmured, "What's your final plan?"

As fast as lightning, Jack reached forward and began tickling Jamie mercilessly. Jamie began laughing loudly, getting out of his fetal position and flailing around, trying to brush Jack off, which proved not to be an easy task since the latter was bigger than him.

"Really ticklish, aren't you?!" Jack said deviously, not stopping for a second.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA I... HAHA shouldn't have told you that... HAHAHAHA I WAS TICKLISH!" Jamie struggled to reply, on the verge of tears from laughing too hard. "Alright, alright, I'll cheer up! Haha... So STOP! You win!"

Jack immediately let go of him, smirking triumphantly, leaving Jamie gasping for breath. "As a Guardian, I always win."

Jamie glared at him, but was unable to keep it from faltering. "Why would you blackmail me with tickling?"

"You were being a stubborn fool." Jack shrugged casually. "Seriously though, you're making way too big a deal out of this. You were gonna hear her lecture anyway. Who knows, maybe my puberty mention really had nothing to do with it."

"I know, but..." Jamie sighed. "I'm gonna look at girls with a whole different light from now on. It'll take weeks for me to stop feeling awkward when I'm talking to Pippa or Cupcake."

"How do you think I feel?" Jack rolled his eyes. "I get chased by girls all the time. Everyday I find at least one love letter in my locker." He gave Jamie a knowing glance. "You might end up like that one day. You never know."

Jamie scoffed. "Yeah right, I don't think I'd ever have as many admirers as you. I have none so far, and I would like to keep it that way."

Jack snorted ungracefully, trying to stop himself from full on laughing. "Right. You have none."

Jamie looked at him weirdly. "Do you know something I don't?"

"No, that's not it." Obviously a lie, but he wasn't about to break his promise to Kayla. "I just find that unbelievable, since I personally think you possess the potential to catch the eye of plenty of women."

Jamie raised both eyebrows. "Was that sarcasm?"

"I don't know, you decide whether or not it is. Do you like anyone?" Jack asked abruptly.

Jamie looked totally taken aback. "Why do you ask?"

"Simple curiosity. Just answer the question."

"N-No..." That stammer and the slight blush creeping up onto his face completely gave away his lie.

"Liar," Jack accused.

"I-I'm serious! I don't!" Jamie's blush grew darker.

"Liar."

"I-I'm not lying!"

"Uh huh." Jack was clearly not buying it. "Kid, you're stuttering and you need to look in a mirror, because your face has become a tomato. Just tell me! I promise I won't tell whoever it is. Do I even know her?"

"Yeah you do... It's Pi...a..." Jamie mumbled incoherently.

"Who?" Jack frowned.

"It's Pippa!" Jamie exclaimed loud and clear, then covered up his mouth once he realized just how loud he hollered. Luckily for him, no one nearby seemed to pay any particular attention.

Jack raised an eyebrow, not really that surprised by the revelation. "Right. You guys are cute together. I would say I ship you, but I don't wanna sound too much like a crazed fangirl."

"This is gonna sound really, really complicated, but Caleb and Claude like her too." Jamie put his hands behind his head. "A lot of guys like her. What makes you think I have a chance with her?"

"'Cause unlike most guys, you're actually good friends with her. Well, with the exception of the twins, of course." Jack paused. "What about Monty? Who does he like?"

"Don't tell him I told you, but it's Cupcake. Don't laugh either."

Jack didn't laugh, but that didn't mean he didn't seem amused. "Right. They seem compatible too. Leave it to the nerd to like the big girl."

"That's mean," Jamie protested.

"Hey, that wasn't meant as an insult," Jack defended. "Like I said, they're compatible. Anyway, good luck on your future love life. On the other hand, I'll stay single for as long as possible. I'm not taking my bachelor status for granted. Might as well enjoy it while it lasts."

"Are you saying that just because you're still sore over the Ariel incident?" Jamie asked suspiciously.

"Possibly. You can't blame me."

"I technically can, since you were the one being stupid," Jamie stated.

"...I can't argue with that," Jack gave in, wholeheartedly agreeing. "I don't know what was wrong with me... Not to sound arrogant or anything, but I'm usually pretty smart. That just proves how much infatuation can affect me."

"Jack?"

Jack looked up. "Oh, hey Cici."

Cici's eyes trailed over to Jamie. "Who's he? Your brother?"

"Oh, him. He's my child," Jack said nonchalantly.

"...What?" Cici stared.

"What!" Jamie shouted.

Jack grinned cheekily. "Ha, no he's not, I'm just pulling your leg." He turned to Jamie. "Seriously, if you out of all people actually fell for that, you're much more gullible than I thought you were."

Jamie flushed. "Shut up..."

Jack turned back to Cici. "He's actually my..." He eyed Jamie from the corner of his eye. "My cousin. My cousin, Jamie."

Fortunately, Jamie didn't say anything. He was probably still recovering from Jack's little father-son joke.

Cici visibly relaxed, being reassured that Jamie wasn't Jack's illegitimate offspring. "You really had me fooled there. I believe things real easily. So why are you two out here?"

"Jamie's mom gave him the grown up talk this morning and he was scarred for life," Jack told her bluntly. "I did him a favor and took him out here so he could escape his house. Why are you here? I thought you were in Italy?"

Jamie shot him a dirty look. You didn't need to tell her that much information.

Cici giggled, rather entertained by the story, much to Jamie's dismay (The "talk" was no laughing matter). "I just got back from the airport," she answered Jack's question. "I will admit I got a little homesick during the past week, so I decided to take a stroll the minute we got home."

"I'd like to see where you live," Jack stated randomly. "Sorry if that sounds too creepy. I'm just curious."

"You're curious about everything," Jamie told him.

Jack shrugged. "Bunny always said my curiosity was going to be the death of me. Not that I care."

"Who's Bunny?" Cici asked.

Jack stiffened, having momentarily forgotten that Cici didn't know about his secret. "Just a friend," he said, dearly hoping he didn't sound too forced. "An old friend I had before I came here." Judging by the way he worded that, it was actually the truth.

Cici raised her eyebrows. "That's an unusual name."

"It's actually a nickname, since he likes carrots and is scared of greyhounds." Still being surprisingly truthful. "His real name is Aster. He's Australian."

"It's too bad he can't come visit us, since we have Abby, our greyhound," Jamie piped up, catching onto Jack's coverup. "You guys still talk on the phone, right?"

"Yeah, when neither of us are busy." Okay, that was a little stretching it. As far as Jack knew, Bunny had no idea how to operate a mere telephone.

Cici nodded slowly. "Okay then... If you want to see my house, then go ahead and come with me. I was about to head home anyway."

"You'll let us do that?" Jack stood up from the bench.

"Us?" Jamie echoed. Since when did he agree to coming along?

Jack stared him down hard. "Yes, us." He wasn't about to walk in a friend of the opposite sex's house and meet her possibly overprotective dad without at least something indicating he didn't mean any harm. Jamie was a sign of innocence.

In his mind, Jamie gulped. Why was Jack being uncharacteristically controlling all of a sudden?

Cici's home was located right in the center of Burgess (not as far as it seemed), uncomfortably near the bustling streets of downtown. Jack took notice of this.

"Is your family okay with living practically right next to the noisy part of the city?"

Cici shrugged. "We weren't at first, but we got used to it after a while. Now suburban homes seem way too quiet for any of us."

Jack took notice of the way the house was furnished once all of them were inside. "Your house is like three times cleaner than Jamie's."

"Yeah — wait, what?" Jamie questioned. "It's true, but really?"

"Oh, stop it," Cici dismissed all possible compliments that could be spewed out towards her. "My mom's just a neat freak."

"She's good at it too." Jack looked around. "Where is she anyway?"

Cici didn't have a chance to reply before her mother appeared from the adjoining room, probably the kitchen. "Back already?"

Jack immediately noticed how young Mrs. Sanders seemed. She only seemed to be in her late 30's, at the most.

Cici nodded. "Yup. I brought friends." She motioned to Jack and Jamie.

Mrs. Sanders smiled warmly. "Nice to meet you. Are you Jack?"

Okay, so she recognizes me. Jack gave a small smile back. "Yes, ma'am. Has Cici told you about me?"

Mrs. Sanders nodded in confirmation. "She has. The news of a new student tends to be an interesting topic to discuss among high schoolers."

"I'm here too," Jamie reminded everyone.

"My cousin Jamie," Jack said simply. "We know you're here, nobody forgot about you."

Mrs. Sanders nodded again. "Nice to meet you as well. From what I've heard from my daughter, I presume that you're good friends of hers. Feel free to come over and stay as often and long as you like. I work though, so don't expect me to always be here."

"I understand. Thank you, by the way."

"Okay, enough dawdling." Cici began pushing both boys up the stairs. "Let's go upstairs."

Once they were up in her room, Jack immediately inquired, "What's your mom's job?"

Cici shrugged. "Only a waitress. It pays pretty good, at least for a restaurant, which is good."

"What about your dad?"

Cici fell silent and didn't answer, leaving Jack pondering whether or not he said the wrong thing. "You don't have to answer me if you don't want to," he covered up quickly to ease the tension that had suddenly built up inside the room.

Cici seemed relieved at that assurance. "Thanks. Anyway, change of subject, what'd I miss out on for the past week at school?"

"Not much. We haven't made a lot of progress with our performance. Me and Anton are doing our best, but it hasn't been easy," Jack filled in for her. "Still no great ideas for our play."

Cici frowned. "That really sucks. We need to think of something soon."

"I know," Jack sighed dramatically. "It's not anyone's fault that all of us suck at thinking up an original play synopsis."

"We had a pretty creative team last year though. We didn't have nearly as much trouble as last year."

"I thought you have the class with us?" Jack questioned.

"I do. I just decided to take it again as my elective this year, because I really like the class," Cici explained. "I didn't think we'd be struggling like this though."

"You can choose to take the class again?"

"Sure you can. You can only take it for two years max though."

"I am so lost," Jamie stated flatly, having seated himself on Cici's bed. "What are you two talking about?"

"Did your teacher tell you about some high schoolers going over for a fun little play they're going to be doing? Those high schoolers include both me and Jack. Jacky's one of the presenters for it too," Cici offered an explanation.

"What?!" Jamie shouted, enraged, then whirled on Jack. "Why didn't you tell me I was going to be seeing you at the middle school?!"

Simply ignoring the furious question, Jack's dull reaction was simply, "I assume your teacher didn't tell you about it then?"

Jamie sat back down on the bed and began sulking with an unhappy pout on his lip. "At least tell me that much..."

"You were going to find out anyway when the day actually comes," Jack pointed out. "Not a big deal."

Cici rolled her eyes. "You two."

"Anyway, I'm gonna have to go to Anton's house again later today. We've been attempting to figure out what our banner should be. Neither of us are really that artistic."

"You drew that bunny on my windowpane that winter day though," Jamie argued, careful to choose the right words so Cici wouldn't be suspicious of anything.

Jack rolled his eyes. "Just because I drew it doesn't mean it looked good. There are better drawers than me out there. Way better."

"You could ask someone from the school's art class," Cici advised. "That's always an option."

"But I don't know anyone in art class. That's the problem."

"Really? Zander and Spencer do. They have a friend—a sophomore—who's in art class and is really good at it. What was her name again? Christina? Christy? Something like that," Cici waved it off. "I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out. At least, if you know her too."

Jack didn't speak, trying to think. Did he know any sophomores? Not that he could remember... But he felt like he was forgetting someone. Okay, Jack, think back to when you first became human. Who did you meet? Zander and Spencer, obviously. Who else? Samson and Scott, yuck. Did you meet a girl? Cici says it's a she. There was that one girl who came over for Christmas dinner. Jack's eyes widened. "Christine!" he yelled out loud. "Christine Lee! I know her! She lives in the same neighborhood as me! Thanks so much, Cici! Come on, Jamie, let's go!" He grabbed the boy's arm and pulled him to his feet. "We have to go now! Bye Cici!" He hurriedly left the room (with Jamie in tow) and exited the house, leaving Cici blinking, wondering what just transpired.

Jack pretty much dragged Jamie all the way from Cici's house to the high school. It was at the high school where Jamie finally spoke up, panting, "Where...are we...going?"

Jack abruptly stopped, almost causing Jamie to bump into him. "Oh, right. I'm still dragging you. Jamie, why don't you go ahead and go home? I've got some...important business to take care of."

When the teen let go of him, Jamie rubbed his sore, possibly bruised arm. Jack hardly contained any muscle, but he sure did have an iron grip on things. "Alright then. Don't do anything rash," he said cautiously.

"Yes, Mother," Jack said back sardonically. "I promise I won't."

When Jamie left, Jack immediately whipped out his cell phone and dialed a number in. It rang for a few times and when the other person picked up, Jack cut right to the chase. "Hey, Anton? I know what we should do for our banner. Meet me at the front of the school."

"So this is it?" Anton asked as they stood in front of Christine's house.

"Yup," Jack nodded.

"...What are you waiting for? You go first."

"...Why?" Jack raised an eyebrow.

"'Cause you've met the chick before. I don't even know what she looks like. Don't tell me what she looks like, by the way."

The way Jack saw it, Anton was being ridiculously shy. However, he consented to his wishes and went up the steps first. He rang the doorbell and a few moments later, Christine answered. She stared for a second at Jack (who waved), and then closed the door again.

"Good job," Anton snarked, suddenly up next to Jack.

"Hey, why don't you try?" Jack snapped back. "You were the one who told me to ring the bell!"

Christine opened the door again, wearily running a hand through her hair. "Sorry about that. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't hallucinating you with a stranger standing at my front door. We stopped talking after that night at dinner."

"I have a name," Anton said irritably.

"It would help if I knew it," Christine said, equally moody.

Anton scoffed. "PMSing," he muttered.

"Hey, enough," Jack stepped in. "Christine, this is Anton. We have a bit of a favor to ask you."

"What do you want?" Christine stepped aside and let the other two in, closing the door behind them.

"You're in art, am I right?" Jack asked. "We're both from performance art class and we were hoping you could draw us a giant banner for our middle school event."

"Wait, wait," Anton interrupted. "Before she even says yes, I want to see her drawing style. I have a right to veto anything I don't like."

"I have an art notebook upstairs in my room, but if you're gonna go get it, go find it yourself. I'm not helping you."

Anton scowled, but headed upstairs anyway. When he was out of hearing range, Christine turned to Jack. "Is he sure I'm the one PMSing? Because I have a feeling that he's not too easy to get along with."

Jack shook his head and sighed. "He's not. That's what sucks, since we're partners and all that. He's the one being all deadpan and I'm just the poor guy who tries to tolerate everything I don't like about him. Plus, he's the vice principal's son, so it's best not to get on his bad side. He never really liked me, but I try to preserve whatever mercy he imposes on me."

As if on cue, Anton came out of the room holding a big, black spiral notebook and flipping through the pages as he made his way downstairs again. "You have a lot of scenery pics in here," he remarked casually.

"I like nature," Christine replied curtly.

"Not saying that's bad. It's just that—" Anton stopped whatever he was about to say when he turned the page again and saw what was drawn on there. "Uh..."

Jack looked on in confusion as Christine turned as white as a ghost. She hurried over to Anton and looked at the page he was staring out, turning even paler (which didn't seem possible at first). She snatched the notebook and closed it tightly, clutching it against her chest. "That drawing is a bit personal." The color returned to her cheeks and she blushed profusely.

"How was I supposed to know that?" Anton raised his hands defensively. "You were the one who let me look through it in the first place."

"Do you want me to draw you a banner or not?" Christine snapped, suddenly very touchy.

"Sheesh, sensitive," murmured Anton.

"Yes, we want you to draw for us," Jack intervened before Anton could convince Christine not to accept the offer. "Just ignore him." He thought for a moment, then inquired, "What was the drawing in the notebook? Just curious, so you don't have to answer me if you don't wanna."

The look on Christine's face gave him the correct feeling that he wasn't going to get an answer to that question.

"Okay, I think our business is done here." Anton seemed eager to leave. "We should go now. Come on, Overland." He opened the door and left without looking back to see if Jack was following him.

Christine looked at Jack. "Are you two on a last-name basis with each other?"

"Just him, not me. I've never heard him call me by my first name once," Jack said flatly. "Like I said, I'm trying to be as tolerable as possible."

Anton happened to be waiting for him outside. When Jack came out, he asked with no hesitation, "Have you ever pole-danced?"

Jack paused, then skeptically asked back, "Depends. Are you talking about recently or..."

Anton momentarily had this weird expression on his face as a reaction to Jack's implicative answer, but recovered and replied, "Ever since you met what's-her-face. Christine."

"No... Why?"

"No reason. Just wondering. It's got nothing to do with the drawing you don't know about. Just...forget I ever asked," Anton dismissed the topic. "You coming tomorrow?"

Jack was tempted to say, I never said your weird question had anything to do with Christine's drawing, but he held himself back. "Yeah. Sure, I'll be there."

At least they were starting to make some progress.

Remember all the way back to chapter 5 or something (the dinner chapter) and it was mentioned that our friend Chrissy drew a picture of Jack in her notebook? Yeah. What happened in this chapter was a call back to that.

Also, I broke my swift updating streak. It's mainly because I'm back at school now and I have state testing to take care of. Cue the boos now.

One more thing before I head on over to review replies. One reviewer called me out on the author's note at the beginning of the last chapter. Just in case anyone else found it unnecessary, I just want to clarify that I wasn't angry and yelling at anyone, though I admit I was getting a little testy back there. It's just that I really hate it when someone doesn't bother reading something when I'm trying to offer an explanation so I kind of lost my patience and got annoyed. I'm actually way nicer than I seem to be at times, though I'll admit that my temper varies at times. It kind of depends on what time of the month it is XD ...Too inappropriate? Sorry.

NEW POLL BY THE WAY

Replies:

YandereGoddess: I love human Jack, you have no idea asdfghjkl. There just so much fanfiction potential for him.

Randomness: Haha, it's okay. At least you caught up eventually ;D

feathered moon wings: Sanderson? You mean Samson? Lolwut Isn't Sanderson Sandy's full first name? XD I really hope you didn't mean Sandy or it'll be messed up at how he's trying to get dirt on Jack. ((By the way, I haven't worked on my angsty assignment at all D:)

Dude: Jamie isn't in orchestra; Kayla just wants to impress him by joining orchestra, since she thinks he would pay attention to her then. I don't know why she would think that would happen, but I just wanted to place somebody in orchestra, so.

Mystery Girl Who Writes: Obviously someone he's close to, but it's just that... It's kind of hard to explain. The best way I can say it is that I don't think I'd be good at writing something like that.

likhitata: It was the same exact face he had when Jamie hugged him. BOOM! You know what that noise was? That was my feels combusting...again. Oh god, I doubt I can feel anything after this... Anton would live in shame if Kaka was his dad XD

CGryffindorGrimm: I'm assuming that the black-and-white thing of a shirtless Jack holding onto a pole Hatsu Yukiya found on Tumblr and sent me isn't yours then? Okay.

Lovepuppy316: You're close on guessing the play. Very close. The only problem is that Samson isn't part of that class lol.

Guest: They are, they're just having trouble and I didn't show them doing so. Plus, they need to spend time on their regular jobs as well. It's not like they can just drop everything and track down Mr. Immo Blobhead.

Maddie Seth: In Response to Your Response to My Response to Your Review: Is that how the name Emma for Jack's sister started up? Teehee JK. I'm obnoxiously hilarious. I try my best to make the characters realistic, even though I realize I might possibly be failing at that otl. I'm gonna pop some tags only got twenty dollars in my pocket~ I'm hunting, looking for a come-up... THIS IS FUCKING AWESOME (I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself) Can I tell you this really sad story? I feel like telling it when you talked about your cousin and you going to see the movie. Okay, yesterday my friend and I were discussing good and bad movies that came out this/last year. For her, she either really likes a movie or really hates it. She started it by saying she hated Cars, then she said she loved Finding Nemo, and then she asked me if I watched Argo (The answer was a no if you're wondering) and then she told me, "You BETTER not have watched Rise of the Guardians," saying it was the stupidest movie ever and Jack Frost is so ugly ...You know, I take what I said back. This story isn't sad, it's more amusing than anything else. The way she said all that was pretty funny. Teehee. I respect her though, for being so open with her opinion.

Review please :3