On Monday before school, Jack saw Zander and Spencer engrossed in a conversation by the history classroom door. He approached them, only picking up the end words of Zander's sentence.

"...and it's best if he doesn't know about it, alright? He's upset enough as it is."

"What's best if who doesn't know about what because who's upset enough as it is?" Jack asked.

The twins apparently did not sense Jack's presence, because both of them jumped at the sound of his voice.

Spencer began stammering, "Um... We were just talking about...nothing! Yeah, I-I mean, nothing!"

Zander put a palm to his forehead. "Dude... Shut up. Just...shut up. Let me handle this." He turned to Jack. "It wasn't anything involving you."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Spencer was coherent enough to deliver that point across. But who were you talking about?"

"Oh hey, did you just hear that?" Spencer intervened quickly. "The bell just rang!"

"I didn't hear the bell ring—"

Zander, however, immediately agreed with his brother. "Yeah! We should get to class before we're late. I'll see you guys at lunch." He hurried off.

"Wait, are you guys sure you heard the bell ring?" Jack furrowed his brows in confusion. "'Cause I'm 80 percent sure I'm not deaf as I am blind."

"Well, me and Zander both heard it, so yeah," Spencer lied, secretly proud of himself that he wasn't stuttering. "And you're blind? How come I didn't know that?"

"I'm not literally blind," Jack explained. "It's that occasionally I don't notice something in my line of sight, even though it's standing right there out in the open. And you know how I sit in the back in history class? Whatever Mrs. Beemer writes on the board is slightly blurry."

"That's a bad sign." Spencer grew concerned. "You should go see an optometrist."

"Optomewha...?"

"An eye doctor," Spencer explained patiently. "I can recommend my own eye doctor to you if you're interested."

Jack shrugged. "Maybe I'll get glasses, but not right away. It's not that bad, and I can still tell what she writes on the board. It's just not that clear."

Spencer would've probably objected to that decision if the bell didn't just ring at that moment.

Jack looked at him flatly. "So the bell rang, huh? I knew it."

Spencer raised his hands defensively. "Hey, people make mistakes all the time. Besides, it's not a big deal. It's better if we're early anyway."

Zander and Spencer met Jack and Anton in the multipurpose room, where they were holding auditions for the play. Anton was looking through some sort of list, which contained all the names of people who signed up to take on a role.

"So who's up for auditions?" Zander asked.

Anton flipped back to the front page of the list and replied, "We got a decent amount of people for each part, except for the Sandman. I'm guessing it's because nobody wants to keep silent for 90 minutes. On the other hand, Jack Frost is getting a lot of people wanting his role, since he's the main character and all."

"Jack's an interesting guy, anyway," Spencer added.

"Yeah, can we just get this over with?" Jack griped. "I just wanna hurry up and go through this crap before I burst."

"What's up with you all of a sudden?" Zander questioned.

Jack sighed in exasperation. "I'm just having a bad day, alright? Cody isn't at school today, leaving the chocolates I asked Cici to make go to waste. I really need to talk to him and say that he shouldn't care so much about what happened on Friday."

Anton blinked. "I'm just gonna...talk to your two friends for a second." He dragged Zander and Spencer by their arms to the other side of the room, and asked quietly, "Did you guys not tell him about what happened to Cody?"

Spencer shook his head. "No. He was really upset when he paper first came out. He doesn't need anything else to bring him down further."

Anton looked down at his feet. "Right. It's probably best if he doesn't know what happened."

"You're acting funny," Zander frowned. "What's up with you?"

"You should know," Anton sulked. "After all, I'm Samson's best friend."

Spencer winced, quickly catching on.

"What does Samson have anything to do with this—" Zander put two and two together. "...Oh."

"Yeah. Oh. If Jack knows I had a part in this, he will kill me. Especially if he knows that Cody is in the hospital right now."

"Then why'd you do it in the first place?" Spencer questioned. There was no accusation behind his tone, simply genuine curiosity.

"I don't even know," Anton groaned and leaned against the wall, face in his hands. "I'm just a big pushover, I guess. I'm just his dumbass sidekick."

"Why are you even telling us all this anyway?" Zander crossed his arms. "We barely know each other."

"Because I feel guilty, as you can pretty much tell already," Anton admitted. "I wanna tell Jack what happened, but I don't know how he'll react when I explain my part in it. You guys hang out with him everyday, so you seemed like the next best option."

Zander uncrossed his arms. "Talk to him anyway. You can do it after the auditions. If he gets mad, then he'll have to cool off eventually. Trust me, he'll listen."

Anton uncovered his face. "Fine by me. Let's just go back now."

When they went back to where Jack was waiting for them, the latter questioned, "What were you guys talking about?"

"Nothing," Anton dismissed.

Jack frowned. "I get the feeling that all of you are hiding something from me."

Anton looked away. "Can we just start this already?"

Jack glanced at him for a few seconds, but then shrugged it off. "Okay then." He turned to Spencer. "Could you get the first person in here?"

Jack was pissed. Oh, so pissed. Why? Because it turned out that pretty much everyone who signed up for auditioning sucked at the roles they wanted. And for some reason that Jack couldn't care less to know about, they particularly sucked more at the Jack Frost part. Jack lost count of how many times he felt like his stomach came up to his throat when he watched boys utterly fail at impersonating him. By the time there were only a couple more people left, Jack had literally crawled out of his chair and was now laying on the floor flat on his stomach, hands clamped tightly over his face, desperately trying to hold in a frustrated scream.

Spencer looked at him in concern. "Should we help him?"

Zander waved his worry off flippantly. "Ignore him. He'll bounce back like he always does. Get the next person in here."

Anton got up and went over to the door. He opened it, letting the next person inside. "Hey, Fernando."

Fernando waved. "Hello. I'm playing Jack Frost."

Zander peered over at the newcomer. "I thought you didn't approve of Jack's play idea."

Fernando blushed. "I changed my mind! I'm not forbidden to do that." He looked over at Jack. "And why is he on the floor?"

Jack, not even removing his hands from his face, mumbled, "Jack Frost isn't Mexican."

Fernando scoffed. "I never expected you to be the racist type."

"I'm not racist, I'm just making an innocent remark."

"He's just cranky right now," Spencer assured, "and he's really picky when it comes to casting Jack Frost. So don't mind him. You think you got what it takes?"

Fernando nodded. "I hope so."

Zander picked up the script lying next to Jack's body. "Go ahead. Page 17, starting from the top of the page."

The next thirty seconds were never to be spoken of again. Fernando was the worst one, which was saying something. In order to avoid traumatizing anyone, details on what happened were strongly suggested to be kept secret, leaving the audience imagining what exactly happened.

He sucks, lay on the twins and Anton's minds by the time Fernando was done.

"So?" Fernando pried expectantly. "How was it?"

Jack still hadn't moved from his fetal position on the floor, so one would assume he had not been listening to Fernando's performance. However, he really was, as he was the first one to speak. "Jack Frost is a self-proclaimed little shit who does not act like that at all. You know what that means?"

"What?" Anton asked.

Jack finally uncovered his face and got up off the floor. "Fuck this shit. I can't take this anymore. I'm leaving. You take care of the last guy auditioning." He went over to the door and left.

"So...does that mean I don't get the part?" Fernando rubbed his left arm awkwardly.

Zander got up and ushered Fernando out the room. "We'll see soon enough. If you do, rejoice. If you don't, don't rejoice. It's that simple."

"But do I—" Fernando was cut off when Zander closed the door in his face.

"He's not getting the part," Zander deadpanned. "Unless if we want to further infuriate Jack. And Jack's one of those people who you really don't want to provoke."

"Have you experienced a really angry Jack before?" Spencer asked his brother.

"I have not. But I can just tell."

"Should we just cast Jack as Jack Frost?" Anton suggested. "He obviously understands the part much more than any of us combined."

"But he can't," Spencer objected. "McCarthy says that if you're a host, then you can't have any part in the play."

"Crap, you're right," Anton muttered. He looked up at Zander. "Maybe you could?"

Zander stared at him and pointed at himself. "Who, me?"

"Yes, you."

"Are you crazy?! I don't get the Jack Frost role anymore than anyone else does! Why me?"

"After listening to all of Jack's angry rants when going through all those people wanting to play Jack Frost, I think you kinda have at least a vague idea on how to make this right," Anton insisted.

"How about him?" Zander pointed at Spencer.

Spencer flashed a look of betrayal at him. "Are you throwing me under the bus?"

"Nope, I think you would suit Jack Frost better than him," Anton waved Spencer off. "Jack Frost is a fun-loving hellion. How should I put it... You're more fun-loving and...hellionish? Spencer is a little uptight."

"I can't tell if you're insulting me or just pointing out one of my personality characteristics," Spencer remarked.

"Me neither, except for your description of me," Zander agreed. "Fine, I'll play Jack. Unless if some kind of miracle happens and this last guy is like a professional." He opened the door again to let the last person in.

Jill Underhill waved. "Hi!" she giggled girlishly.

"Goodbye," Zander said back flatly and slammed the door. He turned back to the other two. "It's official. I'm playing Jack."

"Who was that girl and why does she look so much like a female, ditzy version of Jack?" Anton inquired, utterly perplexed.

"The real question is why is she here?!" Zander shouted. "She's not even a student here!"

"Ah, that may have something to do with the giant posters I put up at the front of the school this morning," Spencer confessed sheepishly.

"Bro... YOU FREAKIN SUCK."

"Stupid math test..." Jack muttered while storming down the hallway.

It was Tuesday, and it was lunchtime. Jack had been held up in the classroom finishing a geometry test he had completely forgotten he was going to have. As if that wasn't enough to irk him, Cody still wasn't at school. At this rate, Cici's chocolates aren't going to be fresh anymore, Jack thought quite bitterly.

He ought to head on over to the cafeteria and join Zander and Spencer. When he met them earlier in the morning, he had forgotten to ask them who they ended up casting for the play. He was too busy imagining the worst and ended up bumping into someone.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry—"

"No, it's okay—" The boy Jack had collided into did a double take and began staring with wide eyes. "Jack Overland?"

"Um... Yeah," Jack affirmed rather uncomfortably. "Do I know you?"

The other guy shook his head. "Oh right, sorry. My name's Erik. Erik Chou."

It was Jack's turn to stare. "Wh-Wha...? Erik as in..." God, the atmosphere just dropped down to an awkward level.

Erik rubbed the back of his own head, a little sheepishly in Jack's eyes. "Right... So you remember that stuff in the newspaper and all that..."

Jack could only nod weakly. "It wasn't you, was it?" he asked, once he found his voice again.

Erik shook his head. "No."

"It was Samson Fisher, wasn't it?"

Erik blinked, mildly surprised at how Jack seemed to know about this stuff. "I'm sure it was him. How do you—"

"—know this?" Jack finished his question. "I can figure stuff out on my own."

Erik nodded approvingly, feeling relief wash over him when he heard Jack say this. "So...you don't hate me or anything? Good. I promised myself that I would apologize the next time I saw you. But it seems like there's no need for that. By the way, when Cody comes back to school, could you tell him that it wasn't me who wrote that thing about the two of you?"

"Sure, I can do that." Jack paused, soaking Erik's words in. "Do you know why Cody isn't at school?"

Erik looked at him, visible surprise on his face, much to Jack's confusion. "You don't know what happened to him?"

Jack shook his head no. "Does everyone know?"

"Yeah, it's huge and it spread like wildfire yesterday. Even the freshmen know what happened."

"What happened?" Jack let go of all vows to stay away from school gossip. Something had happened to Cody, and he felt like he needed to know this.

"You know how Cody is a little...mentally wounded from all the rumors about him?"

"Yeah..." Jack didn't know what Erik was going on about, but he knew he didn't like what this was leading up to.

"I guess that newspaper article was the last straw for him. He finally reached his breaking point. Jack, over the weekend... Cody tried to kill himself and is now in the hospital.

This news struck Jack like lightning. He was struck speechless and was unable to move any part of his body.

Erik rubbed his arm. "It's a good thing he didn't succeed. But it's really what most people seem to be talking about now."

Jack was no longer listening. Cody...attempted suicide? He knew he was a little emo and more than a little testy, but he never expected him to never try a feat like that. Suicide... Jack hated suicide. He lived for more than 300 years and he had to admit to himself that he had considered killing himself more than a couple times when he was first discovered to be invisible. He had tried to starve himself, fall from a tall tree, and even overheat himself by going near the equator in the summer. Obviously, none of that worked, considering that one of the only things he couldn't do was die. However, after 50 years or so of being emotionally unstable (even more so than Cody), he had just given up and decided to see where life would lead him. And things had gotten better. And Cody's life would get better, as long as he didn't attempt to assassinate himself a second time.

"Um, hello?" Erik snapped his fingers in front of Jack's eyes. "You still on earth?"

Jack snapped out of his daze. "Uh... Yeah. Thanks, Erik, for the info."

He hurriedly walked off, not looking back. Once he reached his locker, he immediately hit his head against the hard metal before slowly twisting his locker combo while staring off into space. He just couldn't bear with Cody hating himself enough to try to end his own life. Why? Because Cody was Jack's friend, and he wouldn't have it any other way. Cody was snappish, but Jack did not care. Cody was an outcast, but Jack did not care. Cody was a target of ridicule, but Jack did not care. If Cody never had friends, whether as a teenager or child, Jack would fix that by being the first to break down those icy walls. But Jack hated himself right now, for he only realized this when Cody had already done the worst that could possibly be done: attempt suicide. He may have survived, but it still wasn't something that could be excused. If only Samson hadn't—

Samson. Just thinking this name made Jack's blood boil with rage. It was his fault that Cody was in the hospital. Sure, nobody did anything to prevent him from doing what he did, but Samson was the predominant cause of it all.

Something snapped inside of Jack, and it was the complete opposite of anything good. He was more furious than he had been in a long time. He remembered feeling this way when Sandy had been temporarily eliminated from the battle with Pitch. He could barely hear Baby Tooth, who had been unusually quiet lately, chirping at him in concern, trying to bring him back down from space.

He, who had just begun opening his locker, slammed it shut again, its metal resounding across the hallway loudly, showing off the anger and force Jack had taken out on his poor locker. He trudged, almost breaking out into a sprint, into the cafeteria just down the hall. He scanned the room for Samson, and his eyes darkened once he did so. The bastard was eating some sort of cheeseburger, and Anton was sitting across from him. During any other time, Jack would've wondered why Anton was still with Samson, but right now, he simply didn't care. He stalked over to them and slammed his hands down—hard—on the table.

"FISHER!"

This echoed across the entire cafeteria, and everyone else in the room quieted. In the background, Zander and Spencer exchanged horrified looks. Anton had a similar expression on his face.

Samson gave Jack a WTF face. "...Yeah? Whaddaya want?"

"You know what I want," Jack growled. "Come on, fess up. I know you were the one who did it."

Samson scoffed. "Did what? Your mother?"

"I'm fricking talking about you ruining Cody's life!" Jack yelled. "Who the hell gave you permission to do that?!"

"Who the hell gave you permission to become involved in his life?" Samson retorted. "You were sticking your damn head somewhere where it doesn't belong, so why do you even care?"

"I care because he doesn't deserve to be beaten down, unlike you," Jack spoke through gritted teeth. "You're the one who needs to get a hold of yourself and stop this drama."

Samson banged his hands down on the lunch table and stood up. "And why are you blaming only me? Why not Anton?"

Jack looked over at Anton. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Anton here was the one spying on you and Cody and told me what you were doing," Samson said smugly. "Come on, if you're gonna start shouting at me, at least be aware of who else had a part in it."

Shocked, Jack stared at Anton. "Is... Is that true?"

Anton also stood up. "I wanted to tell you, but I never got the chance to! I didn't want to do it and I'm so—"

Samson cut him off. "But he did it anyway. My point is that I don't see you mad at him."

As if Jack wasn't enraged enough, this was what truly set him off. First off, he found out that Cody was in the hospital from a failed suicide attempt. Now, he found out that Anton was partially the cause of it all. But Jack couldn't tell for sure if he was mad at Anton or not. He seemed genuinely regretful of what he had done, and Jack understood that Samson could be a pretty controlling friend. But he had still done it. And Jack felt conflicted over that. But that conflict was overshadowed by fury once more.

Jack screeched and tackled Samson to the ground.

"Holy shit!" Anton shouted and moved a safe distance away from the tussle. "Someone do something! Where the hell are the teachers on lunch duty?!"

As if on cue, the said teachers were now hurrying over to the fight, and were doing their best to separate Jack and Samson from each other's throats, to no avail. Samson was now firmly pinning Jack down on the lunchroom floor, and the latter retaliated by kneeing him right in the stomach.

"Holy crap, dude!" Zander suddenly appeared next to Anton.

"This is getting way out of hand!" Spencer popped up next to his brother.

"Spencer... If I don't make it out of this, please finish that English report due tomorrow and turn it in for me. I need to at least have my grade raised up by the time I die. If Mom sees the current C+ I have, she'll kill me a second time at my funeral," Zander said.

Spencer simply looked at his brother in confusion. "Wait, what?"

"I'm going in." Zander let out a battle cry and ran into the fight, which was escalating in violence by the minute. He tried to pry Jack off of Samson, resulting in his friend absentmindedly kicking him in the face.

Zander winced. "Ow!" He rubbed his already-swelling eye. "Now that's what I call a black eye."

"You okay?" Spencer asked.

Zander nodded. "Totally." He then rushed back into the physical altercation, ignoring his brother's protests. He eventually managed to grab a hold of Jack's waist and held on tightly. He took Jack, all in his thrashing glory, away and out of the cafeteria, followed by Spencer. Anton probably would have went after them if Samson didn't grab him by the shoulder and drag him away.

"Let go of me!" Jack screamed, not giving up on trying to rush back in and continue knocking the lights out of Samson. However, when he was flailing, his left arm was noticeably not moving as violently as his right.

Zander, having absolutely enough, threw Jack roughly onto the floor and crossed his arms.

After rubbing his sore bottom and getting up, Jack blinked and came back down from Insanity World. "Oh... Uh, hi."

"Yeah. Hi," Zander answered crossly. "What the hell was that about?"

Jack looked away. "You know full on well what that was about."

"Yeah, but none of us really expected you guys to end up duking it out on each other physically," Spencer argued, peeking over from behind Zander's shoulder.

"I couldn't help myself," Jack defended. "You guys would probably do the same if you were me. It was completely justified."

Zander rolled his eyes. "Justified my butt."

"Hey, don't act like you're not at fault here at all! Why didn't you tell me Cody tried suicide?"

"Because we were afraid you wouldn't take the news well, which you really didn't," Zander deadpanned.

"But still, I probably would've taken it better if I heard it from one of you than from the guy who was framed by Samson," Jack muttered.

"You met with Erik?" Spencer asked. "When?"

"Like right before I stormed into the cafeteria," Jack stated that as if it was the most obvious fact in the universe. He looked at Zander's face. "And where'd you get that bruise on your eye?"

Zander glared at him hard. "Ask that again and I'll give you a black eye."

"Hey, I already got one over winter break," Jack protested, rubbing his sore left arm. "That's really low."

"Jack, it's February 5th," Zander pointed out. "Your black eye healed about a month ago."

"...So? I don't want a black eye anymore," Jack mumbled. He began to catch on to what Zander was implying with the mysterious cause of his facial bruise.

Suddenly feeling the atmosphere in the hallway grow extremely awkward, Spencer commented, "You know, Anton was the most surprised out of all of us when you ended up tackling Samson to the floor. It may or may not have something to do with how he was standing the closest to you guys."

Jack looked at him. "I know. I may not remember what I was exactly doing when I was fighting Samson, but I do remember him yelling out a few curses when I first slipped into battle mode."

"First slipped into battle mode..." Spencer snickered. "That's an amusing way to put it."

"Whatever." Jack rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I'm going." He began walking off.

"Where?" Zander called out after him.

"The school office!" Jack shouted back. "I need to get my arm patched up because I swear I heard a joint pop when I was fighting and now it's sore! And I need to clear some stuff up with the vice principal!" He rounded the corner, but then poked his head out again a second later. "Oh yeah, and, uh, sorry about the eye."

Samson was angry, though not to Jack's extent. However, he still gripped tightly on Anton's arm as he dragged him down the hallway.

"—and who the hell does that bastard think he is?! He beat on me, so I beat on him! It's that simple!" he rambled. "He thinks he can treat me like that piece of suicidal trash he shared chocolates with?!"

"Well, Cody was his friend," Anton said quietly.

"What was that? Whatever, I don't care." Samson turned to Anton. "You think you can do me one more favor involving Overland?"

"...What." Anton's tone sounded as flat as a desert. What could Samson possibly want now?

"Would you mind continuing to be my little dirt catcher for Overland?" Samson smirked. "It's not like last week's paper was the last issue." He expected Anton to submit to his wishes like usual, so he was completely caught off guard with what happened next.

"No," Anton simply said. There was no hesitation in his voice. "I'm done with that job."

"...What?" Samson asked again in order to make sure he heard right.

"I said I'm done," Anton reiterated. "I'm not doing this anymore."

"What the hell? What are you talking about?" Samson grew annoyed. This wasn't the Anton he usually hung out with.

"I'm talking about being done with involvement in the newspaper. Hell, I'm not just talking about that. I'm pretty much done with this entire friendship we have. You know what? He was doing something right when he tackled you to the floor, and he was definitely doing something right when he punched you that day you met him," Anton finally let Samson know how he truly felt. "And Jack didn't deserve to be gossiped about or have one of his friends in the hospital."

"Uh, since when did you start calling him Jack?" Samson questioned, growing more and more agitated. "And I thought you hated Cody."

"Well at least I know I'm going too far if I'm part of the cause that led to him landing in the need of medical attention," Anton shot back. "And I started calling him that once I realized that he's a better friend than you'll ever be." His voice raised slightly. "Don't you even realize what you did back there?! You totally threw me under the bus! Jack was yelling at you and you let out the fact that I was part of it!"

Samson scoffed. "I only spoke what was true."

"It may have been true, but you could've at least kept your damn mouth shut about it!" Anton exclaimed. "You just blurted that out without even thinking how I would feel! Now I can't even tell if Jack hates me or not!"

"And you care about what Overland thinks of you now because...?" Samson raised an eyebrow.

"Because I want to be his friend!" Anton yelled. "And now that chance is likely ruined because of you! I can't believe I stayed friends with you for this long! Well guess what?" He chuckled dryly. "Not anymore. We're officially done, Fisher."

He began walking off in the direction he and Samson came from, but stopped in his tracks when he heard the other boy remark dangerously, "You know you can't just come and go as you please, right? You'll end up paying if you just leave now."

Anton turned his head back towards Samson, and said coolly, "Then so be it. See ya, Samson." And then he was gone.

"It seems fine to me," the school nurse said as she examined Jack's sore arm. "Whatever you heard pop must've been unimportant. Though I would advise you to go easy on this arm for the next couple of days, just to ease the pain you might possibly feel."

"Thanks, Miss Ivy." Jack, sitting on a cot, slightly winced as he rubbed his bad arm. "Oh shoot, I don't even remember how this happened."

"Hey." Mr. Suzuki appeared in the doorway. "You wanted to see me?"

"I know you know what happened," Jack immediately stated. "Can we talk in private?"

Mr. Suzuki nodded and motioned for Jack to follow him. Jack got up off the cot and proceeded to head off to the vice principal's office. Once they were both there, Mr. Suzuki closed the door slightly, but not completely. "You seem to have gotten several minor injuries," he commented. "Your arm and that little cut above your eyebrow."

Jack fingered the newly placed bandaid that was located right above his right eyebrow. "I really don't remember how I got this. I can barely even remember what I was thinking."

Mr. Suzuki sat down at his desk. "So what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Whether I'm in trouble or not," Jack delivered this information bluntly. "I mean, I most likely am, since I went into the lunchroom and almost right away knocked Samson Fisher to the tile floor thereafter. So what is it? Detention? Or even suspension?"

Mr, Suzuki stared at him for a moment then sighed. "You're the first student I've ever met who would be willing to face their punishment head on."

"I'm aware I'm special," was Jack's terse reply.

The door suddenly swung open again and Anton stepped in. "Hey, Dad."

"Anton, can't you see I'm busy?" Mr. Suzuki motioned towards Jack.

Simply ignoring that question, Anton simply said, "Don't punish him. Just let him go."

Jack blinked. "What?"

"Anton—"

"Come on, please?" Anton pleaded. "He really didn't do anything wrong. He had his own reasons for his actions. And I know you don't like Samson any more than the rest of us."

"Son, I can't just let my own personal opinions of the students here influence my job—"

"Dad, please, just this once." Anton's desperation was beginning to show through. "It's just this one time, and I doubt it would hurt anyone. As far as anyone knows, Mr. Kaka isn't competent enough to even rat about this to the school district or whoever is his boss. That is, if Mr. Kaka even will find out about this at all." He paused. "And honestly, if there's anyone who needs to be in trouble for this, it's me. If I was able to stand up for myself in the first place, Cody wouldn't even be in the hospital right now."

Mr. Suzuki sighed and covered his face with his hands. He stayed like that for a while, but then finally muttered, "I'll think about letting him off the hook."

"Great! Thanks Dad, you're the best guy ever." He grabbed Jack's hand and pulled him out of his seat. "Come on, let's go."

Once they were out of the office and back out in the hallway (before Anton's dad could change his mind), Jack piped up, "You know he just said he'll think about it, right? There's no guarantee behind those words."

"And you do realize that that's my dad's way of agreeing to something, right?" Anton smirked for a mere second, but then his expression became sober again. "Seriously though, sorry about what happened. For Cody too. Are you mad at me?"

Jack scoffed, then grinned. "What? Dude, no way. You just convinced your dad to let me off the hook. How can I be mad at you after that?"

Anton blinked twice. "So... You're not mad? Even though I kinda...you know. I was really expecting you to hit me or something."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Please. Seriously, I'm not mad at you. I'm not even upset anymore... Okay, I am a little. But not at you."

Anton nodded. "Good." Feeling an awkward silence ensuing, he added, "I split up with Samson, by the way. Finally."

Jack's grin grew. "That's great! You could hang out with me and Zander and Spencer now!"

Anton simply stared. "You're acting like some kind of little kid who just got a giant lollipop for his birthday."

Jack flushed embarrassedly and coughed. "Right. Sorry about that."

Anton shook his head. "No, it's perfectly fine."

More awkward silence.

"You're very awkward to be around," Jack voiced his thoughts.

Anton sputtered, red tinting his cheeks. "It's not me, it's our relationship. We didn't exactly start off too smoothly with each other, remember? And now we mutually decide to officially start off being friends. It's only natural if this seems awkward."

"True," Jack agreed. "But just wait until Cody joins us."

"...Cody's joining us?" Anton cursed himself for sounding ridiculously dumb.

Jack gave him an unimpressed look. "Did you really think I'm giving up on him? Yeah, right, that's the last thing I'm gonna be doing. I'll try talking to him at the hospital sometime. See where that leads to."

"Aw, come on!" Anton whined. "Awkwardness would increase tenfold if that happens."

"So?" Jack wasn't caving in. "You two should just give each other a chance. I'm sure you can become friends, even though you might not exactly get along all the time. Besides, don't think I've forgotten about what you said how you two have nothing in common, 'cause I haven't. I actually think you're just like each other, but you don't know that."

"Oh, really?" Anton crossed his arms. "Name one way we're like each other. Just one is fine, in case you're gonna start listing a whole bunch of ways."

"Well the biggest reason is that you're both lonely," Jack supplied. "Cody's the outcast, while you're the guy who was a mean guy's slave up until now. Both of you don't know how to make true friends."

"Is that an insult?" Anton questioned.

"Only if you take it to be one. Anyway," Jack continued, "I know you said to just name one way, but I can't help myself. The second one is that I consider both of you my friends now. Maybe I won't live up to your expectations of what a real friend should be like, but this is something I'll try my best on. And hopefully, I'll show both of you what it's like to have someone by your side."

It all started when Jack passed by the Burgess cemetery. And for the second time on the same day, something overtook Jack. It wasn't fury like last time, but it was more like bittersweetness. The next thing he knew, he had bought a bouquet of lilies from the nearby floral shop and had successfully found the grave he was looking for. He was now sitting cross-legged in front of the tombstone.

"I'm sorry I haven't visited at all lately. It really has been way too long, hasn't it?"

No answer was given. Not that he expected one at all.

"Really, I'm sorry. I've just had way too much on my mind these days. Being turned human was bad enough, but now I'm stuck in a predicament involving one of my friends. You can understand that, right?"

The wind blew softly, lending an answer in place of the grave.

Jack smiled softly. "I knew you would. Hey, if any of your friends, like Stephen or Marianne, tried and failed to commit suicide, what would you do to cheer them up? Would you go see them, or would you just leave them be for the time being so they could have a chance to collect their thoughts?"

Silence.

Jack sighed. "You're right. This is something I have to decide, not you. I have to make my own choices. Although..." He gingerly touched his sore arm. "You can probably tell that I got caught in a really bad fistfight today. Maybe you even saw it from up there in heaven. Anyway, this visit isn't just all about me. What about you? Anything new?"

Still silence.

"So everything's stayed the same? Same as usual? I totally get that. Being buried six feet under isn't exactly the most eventful situation, is it?" He took the lilies and laid them on the ground in front of him. "I brought you lilies again. Or are they not your favorite type of flower anymore?"

And there was the reassuring gentleness of the wind again.

Jack chuckled and stood up from his position. "Good. Sorry about the short visit this time. I promise to come back soon and stay longer. My schedule is just way too tight nowadays. Bye, Pip."

As he turned to go, something caught his eye. He didn't know what it was exactly, but he knew that his curiosity was piqued enough for him to go investigate (He swore that one day his curiosity would be the death of him). He looked in the direction where he thought he saw something, but then realized that it was just another gravestone. Shaking his head at himself for getting all worked up for another grave, he muttered to himself, "Jack, you're getting way too jumpy."

But... He had never seen that grave before. Maybe because of the tree looming over it. It provided excellent shade, so the gray stone would naturally blend in with the dark area. And for some really weird reason Jack couldn't explain, he felt compelled to go see whose it was. It seemed creepy, but Jack's gut feeling was not about to be ignored.

He approached the stone and stole a quick glance at the name carved into it.

Carrie Gray

January 11, 1989 – October 24, 2005

Oh, okay, so it was a girl named Carrie— Wait. Jack did a double take. Carrie. Wasn't that the name of Cody's mystery girl who was mentioned once and never brought up again? Okay Jack... Calm yourself. Carrie isn't that much of a unique name. There are tons of people in this world named Carrie...

But it was Carrie's last name that prevented him from fully dismissing this discovery. Cody's last name was Gray, wasn't it? So if this wasn't just some kind of really bizarre coincidence, then that would basically mean that Carrie was Cody's...

Jack looked back at his own sister's grave. "Sister..."

Number of words: 6,514. Now thank me.

So this was the dark chapter I was talking about. Okay, so maybe it's not that dark. Dark is the wrong word for it. It's more like an emotional rollercoaster of a chapter. And that's why I enjoyed writing this one so much. The first half possesses the usual comedy I put into this story, but then things just turn bad when it's revealed what happened to Cody. And then Jack goes up and then goes down and then goes up and then down

And Rise of the Spies is currently winning on my poll.

Not too many replies this time... See, you guys got a long chapter and a short author's note. Ya got lucky.

PuppetMaster55: Choose Possessed. Parental Care is going strong, but Possessed only has one vote so far, which depresses me. And yeah, the whole Jack-forgetting-thing contributes to the sequel. Yeah. Jamie's a sucker :P

CGryffindorGrimm: YOU. I DON'T SEE A POLE-DANCING PICTURE FROM YOU D:

Lovepuppy316: Well it would only make sense if she thinks curses are like cavities, right? And Bunny will be some...minor OC, I suppose. It was supposed to be Zander, but he's already playing Jack.

YandereGoddess: ...YIKES, that sounds scary. Well, hope you feel better soon! And you'll see what's up with Cici soon enough ;P