Judging from the reviews, you guys seem to like the phrase 'cow poop.' Honestly, the only reason why I used those words is because at school on Thursday, I had a history test, and then my friend started asking me what questions there were, since she had the class right after lunch. I had to struggle a little bit to remember, and I ended up saying the S word when I couldn't think of anything, and she said, 'Just say cow poop.' So now I'm using 'cow poop.'

So yeah, that's my Cow Poop Story that you probably didn't care to know.

Sure enough, Cody was back to school next week. Stuff reverted back to normal, and people didn't seem to question him about anything that happened to him. This struck Jack's attention, and he asked Cody once math class was over and they were out in the hallway, "How come nobody's bombarding you with questions about why you tried suicide?"

Cody only shrugged nonchalantly as he replied, "It's all about social class. Nobody pays attention to me, remember? If it was you who did what I did, it would be like the talk of the century. But for me, it's only chatted about for a few hours before everyone just loses interest and moves on. That's high school for you."

"But still, you...you were in the hospital for a week," Jack insisted. "Don't you think by now, people should, I don't know, talk to you more? At least ask how you're doing."

"Like I just said, it's about social class. Most people here don't care about me. If I get stuck in a ditch and slowly rot to death, they would hardly notice. I mean, they'd notice, they just won't care." Cody turned to head off in the other direction. "Anyway, I'll see you around—"

Jack grasped his hand on Cody's shoulder. "Not so fast. You're coming with me."

Cody looked at Jack as if he was crazy. "What?"

"You're coming with me. You can sit with my friends at lunch." When he saw the look Cody was giving him, he begged, "Come on, it'll be fun! Don't you think it's time you should begin to pick up at least a couple of friends?"

Cody sighed in defeat. "Fine." He looked at Jack's hand on his shoulder and slapped it off. "And don't touch me. I hate being touched."

Jack rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Sorry. Anyway—" He grabbed onto Cody's arm and began dragging him towards the cafeteria. "—you won't regret this. I promise that nobody is going to look down on you if you're thinking they will, and—" He looked behind him and saw a murderous glint in Cody's otherwise passive expression. He nervously looked down at his arm, which was still locked onto Cody's, and swiftly let go. "Right. Sorry about that. Just making sure you were following me."

Cody rolled his eyes. "I'm right behind you. You don't need to think I'm gonna run off like some kind of miserable kitten."

Once they entered the cafeteria, Jack immediately led Cody over to the table the twins and Anton were sitting at. "Hey guys! I brought someone here."

Cody's eyes immediately fixed onto Anton, who suddenly seemed to be sipping the straw in his soda a lot more nervously. Cody, for his part, seemed to stiffen up slightly and he glared hard at Anton.

Noticing this, Spencer turned to Jack. "I don't think you really thought this thing through enough."

Jack cringed as he watched the staring contest between the two apprehensively. "I'll admit I didn't."

Suddenly, Cody lunged and tried to wrap his hands around Anton's throat. "YOU!"

"GAH!"

"Oh yeah, it was a great idea to bring Cody over here so he could be the one responsible for Anton's fast-approaching funeral," Zander stated sarcastically, as he and his brother stood up to get out of the way of the scuffle. "Great job with this."

"Shut up," Jack muttered under his breath.

Spencer tugged on Zander's sleeve. "Hey Zander, we ought to go buy some chocolate chip cookies. I heard they're better now that there's a new lunch lady."

Zander complied, "Sure." He and Spencer hurried off to the lunch line.

Jack glowered at his retreating friends. He couldn't recall any news about a new lunch lady, and nobody was saying anything about the cookies tasting better than usual, so he wouldn't exactly be very surprised if the twins only wanted an excuse to leave him to break up the fight by himself. You guys are the greatest friends a guy could ever have. Seriously.

"You and Cody need some friendship help," Jack deadpanned after lunch, as he and Anton headed off to English. "It took pretty much the rest of lunch to separate you guys! And I didn't get the chance to buy some lunch! Now I'm hungry." He put a hand to his empty stomach.

"You were the one who went ahead and brought him to me!" Anton shot back. "You've seen what the two of us are like when we're together. What gave you any idea that he would be okay with me being near him?"

"I didn't expect you guys to get along, but I didn't really think he would go and start attacking you like that," Jack murmured. "Why is he so mad at you anyway?"

"Look, he doesn't like me, and I don't like him," Anton said. "But I'll somewhat reluctantly admit that he's not stupid. He doesn't know Erik any more than you do, so if Erik really wrote that article about you guys, why would he want to hold that against you two? He also knows Samson is on the newspaper team, and that's pretty much a dead giveaway right there. And it's pretty obvious what association I had with Samson, so voila. Cody pieces it all together and he grows furious."

"Cody is pretty smart when it comes down to it," Jack agreed. "But still, shouldn't you sitting with the rest of us be any indication that you kinda severed ties with Samson?"

"Cody doesn't care," Anton objected. "I'm not sure if you know this or not, but he's not exactly the kind of person to immediately forgive and forget and concentrate on the future."

Jack rolled his eyes. "He'll get used to you. Eventually, that is. He can't go on trying to strangle you forever."

Anton looked at him disbelievingly. "If that was the case, we would've stopped yelling at each other a long time ago."

Jack fixed him with a hard stare. "Hey. Have I ever been wrong before?"

An unfazed Anton simply answered, "Yes. Zander told me all about your temporary crush. Ariel Jaleen, huh? That girl's a wench, so be careful."

Thoughts on ways to kill Zander later were racing through Jack's mind. "He's a dead man. If you see him, tell him to prepare himself."

"Uh, I'm not going to be seeing him any sooner than you are," Anton pointed out.

Jack paused, then nodded. "You're right. Then he's definitely screwed."

"So this the list of people we cast for our play." Jack thrusted the casting list in front of Cody's face the second the latter walked in through the door. "It turns out that almost everyone here sucks at acting, so we decided to just wing our choices. Zander's playing the lead, so I'm hoping he's at least decent. If he isn't, I'm gonna kill him a second time." He said this last part just loud enough so Zander, who was standing only a few feet away, could hear, and shot him a knowing glance.

Zander, noticing this, threw his arms up into the air in frustration and exclaimed, "It was your own fault that you became stupid around Ariel!"

"Why's he playing Jack Frost?" Cody asked.

Jack shrugged. "Dunno. I kinda stormed out of the room before the rest of them made that decision. Anyway, Noah Dorsey is playing Santa because who knows why, Alex Goodman is playing the Sandman because he's usually so quiet in class, and Ethan Callahan is playing Bunny because he can fake a really good Australian accent."

"It's Evan!" "Ethan" shouted from across the room, somehow overhearing Jack.

Jack ignored him and added, "He's got really good hearing too. So basically, that leaves the spots for Tooth and Pitch open."

"What about Jamie and his friends?" Cody inquired.

Jack pointed to the side where the actual Jamie was chatting away with Zander, Spencer, and Cici. "Who do you think?"

"Oh yeah, him. How come he's here again? Wasn't he supposed to come over here for one time only?"

Jack shrugged again. "I guess he liked coming over here that one time because he's always here now. I told him he could stay if he could contribute to the play. Once he accepted, I asked him if he could ask his friends to play the other kids." He made sure to word his explanation in a way that won't give away that the kids were actually playing themselves.

"Why?"

"Because how awkward would it be if a high schooler pretended to be a much younger kid?" Jack pointed out. "I asked McCarthy if we could cast people outside of this class, and she said yes."

"Fine. So basically you're saying you want me to play a part in this?" Cody caught on.

"Pitch, more specifically," Jack affirmed.

Cody crossed his arms. "Why me?"

"Uh..." You're both dark and edgy, you both don't have too many friends, and you both can be scary at certain times. Besides, it's either him or Tooth. There was no way in hell Jack was saying all that out loud. After all, he wanted to live to see another sunrise.

"Is it because we're both dark and edgy, we both don't have too many friends, and we both can be scary at certain times?" Cody very correctly guessed.

Jack stared at him. "Alright, now that's really freaky, 'cause that was what I was thinking, word for word. How'd you do that?"

"Let's just say you're not exactly the best at masking your emotions," Cody answered. "Okay, by the way."

"Huh?"

"I'll play Pitch. You've got yourself a deal."

"Do I have to do this?"

"You agreed to it."

"That doesn't mean I have to like it."

"You still agreed to it."

Like Jack had promised Cody on Friday, they were heading off to the graveyard to go see Carrie. Apparently, even Cody could get the jitters, because he was having them right now. Jack had already gotten a pair of roses, as Cody has claimed they were her favorite kind of flower. Once they reached their destination, Jack wasted no time in entering. He looked behind him and saw Cody simply standing there, as if his feet were frozen to the ground. He beckoned him to follow, and Cody hesitantly obeyed. Jack led them to where Carrie's grave was erected, under the shady oak. If Cody wondered why Jack knew the location of his sister's tomb, he didn't bother to question it. They both sat down in front of the slate tombstone. Uncomfortable silence ensued.

"So... Was she pretty?" Jack tried to lighten up the atmosphere.

Cody gave him a side glance. "Are you trying to hit on a dead person?"

"What?!" Jack shouted, clearly disgusted at the thought. "Gross, no! I-I mean, I'm sure Carrie wasn't gross! I'm just...not necrophilic! I'm attracted to the living!"

"You're funny," Cody stated, expression as neutral as ever, not bothering to take his eyes off the gravestone. However, after a moment or two, a corner of his lips twitched up ever so the slightest, the only sign of mirth he showed. That tiny movement was so subtle, it was almost invisible. Even Jack could barely detect it.

"What was she like?" Jack was genuinely curious.

This time, Cody didn't try to stop a smile from fully becoming visible on his face. "Best sister anyone could ever have. She did everything for me." His smile dropped. "I just wish I could've done the same for her."

Jack began to see where Cody was going with this. "Cody, it wasn't your fault that she died. The cause had nothing to do with you. And there's no way you could've seen it coming."

"But I saw her come home crying." Cody's eyes glazed over, becoming unseeing and unblinking. "I should've asked her what was wrong. But I didn't. I just thought something stupid must've happened and she would get over it. If I had just asked her what was the matter, I could've at least stopped her from doing what she did. She might've still been alive. But I didn't do what I was supposed to, and now she's gone."

"It wasn't your fault. It really wasn't," Jack protested. "You were, what, ten back then? You were too little to understand that she would have suicide running through her head."

"But I could've at least done something about it," Cody choked out almost robotically. "But I didn't. I didn't do anything. I couldn't even cry at her funeral. I was the youngest one there, but I was also the only one who didn't shed any tears. I just couldn't bring myself to force the tears out, even though I was the one who barged into her room and saw her dead body first. No ten-year-old should ever have to experience that. She left a suicide note, and explained that guy she liked. And the only thing I could think of was how much I'd like to go over to the high school and stab that...that bastard to death. No ten-year-old should ever have those kind of thoughts... It should've been me."

Jack stared at Cody in shock. "Don't say that!"

"But it's true!" Cody finally turned to look at Jack helplessly, beginning to breathe more heavily, on the verge of hyperventilating. "One of the reasons why I didn't go see why she was crying was that I was always jealous of her because my parents preferred her over me! They paid more attention to her than to me! We may have been close, but that doesn't mean I didn't feel irritated at her sometimes! And then when she came home, I remember feeling satisfied at the sight of seeing her upset, knowing that she could have negative emotions like me! If I had known she was going to do what she did, then I wouldn't have felt that way!"

"You were ten years old! Again, you couldn't have understood the full extent of the situation! And your parents may have paid more attention to her, but you're their only child left! They care about you and don't want to lose you like they lost her! Cody, there will always be people to care about you! Do you want to put your parents through that rollercoaster of emotions again by killing yourself like Carrie did? It's not the right way to go! You may miss her a lot, and I'm sure you do, but would she want you to do this to yourself?" Without thinking, Jack laid a hand on Cody's shoulder, paying no heed to what he had said earlier about hating being touched.

Instead of being agitated at Jack's hand making contact with him again, Cody reacted in a way nobody—not Zander, not Spencer, especially not Anton, and not even Jack—would've expected. He burst into tears and clung onto Jack.

Jack froze. He may have gotten much more used to physical contact as of late, but he never could bring himself to get used to people hugging himself whatever purpose they had. After a minute or so, he cautiously hugged Cody back comfortingly. He gently patted him on the back, letting him sob into his shoulder, not caring in the slightest if his shirt got soaked with salty tears. He almost winced when Cody hugged him even tighter, which didn't seem possible before. However, he still did not care. Cody claimed he was the only one to have dry eyes during Carrie's funeral, and if these were the tears he was finally letting out after eight long years of holding them all in, earning a damaged spine was something Jack would gladly accept.

After minutes of nonstop crying from the seemingly emotionless Cody, his grip finally loosened on Jack. The latter took this as a sign to let him go. Once he did, he smiled softly and asked, "Feeling better?"

Cody nodded as he wiped the corner of his right eye. "If... If you tell Suzuki about this, I will personally track you down and murder you in your sleep."

Jack couldn't help but roll his eyes. He remembered Anton saying something similar just two weeks ago. And little Andy had said they didn't have anything in common. "Don't worry about it, I won't. You wanna go home now?"

Cody nodded again. "Yeah... That'd be a good idea..." He took the roses, which Jack had put off to the side when they sat down, and propped them up against the hard gravestone. He looked at it for a brief moment, then got up, Jack following suit.

"Come on, let's go," Jack said and began walking towards the exit. Cody was right behind him, but he seemed to find interest in looking closely at other graves as they passed by them. They passed by a particular one, and Cody couldn't help but double take at the name that was engraved on there.

Pippa Overland

April 14, 1702 – November 3, 1784

Wasn't Jack's last name Overland? Cody shook his head. It must just be a coincidence. That was likely. And if it wasn't a coincidence, this Pippa could be Jack's ancestor back from the colonial times. Yeah, that was it. Cody was getting worked up over nothing. There was hardly anything special about sharing a last name with someone who was born over three hundred years ago.

No more than ten feet ahead, Jack had noticed Cody had stopped and called out, "Hey, you coming?"

Cody snapped out of his daze and hurried over. "Right. Sorry about that."

"You alright?" Jack asked skeptically.

Cody waved his hand. "Totally. It's... It's nothing. Don't worry about it."

This is the only way I can write this chapter without things going horribly cheesy ._.

It's Saturday, May 11 right now, and the reason it's not uploaded yet is because FanFiction is being a little shit again and isn't sending out any emails for anything. And most of us depend on our alerts to be sent out to keep on being up to date on chapter updates, so until it's fixed, this will stay here saved in my very private documents. (Q: Why can't you just upload this now and the alerts will be sent out once FanFiction decides to stop being a bitch? A: Because this is the third time this has happened in like one and a half months and I'm starting to grow annoyed and I did not appreciate having to sift through my review page and my favorites list to catch up on who reviewed and who updated their fanfics today. I also don't want to get my readers to go through the same thing and/or wait for me to update when I already did so, so thank me for being considerate. Plus, it's a pet peeve of mine when alerts aren't sent out immediately. The last reason is that I'm paranoid that there will be a time when even though the alerts thing is fixed, it won't send out the alerts it missed out on during its temporary BSOD.) Besides, the next chapter is currently being started on so you guys will have a fast update.

Moving on to stuff related to the actual story: If anybody here is beginning to ship Jack/Cody, I'm just going to warn you guys right now before anyone gets too sucked in into this pairing – Cody's gaining a love interest in the sequel. I mean, you guys can continue shipping Jack/Cody if you want, I'm just warning you guys ahead of time so nobody will go all, 'NOOOOOO!' when the sequel comes.

Important: There is a sequel. It's been way too long since I spoke of this.

Preview for next chapter: Valentine's Day dance and...some other BS because the dance is the only thing I have planned for next time.

Replies:

PuppetMaster55: Ah. If you meant the popping noise in his arm, it's nothing important. I just felt like making him go to the school nurse for some medical help, so I just made him say that. I do that with a lot of the stuff that happens in here. Like with the Guardians' phones (which I still think was dumb) and Jack's accidental hair malfunction. All of that was only for my own personal amusement/entertainment, and I wanted to experiment and see what Jack would do/how Jack would react to that type of situation. I'm really not sorry for that. And there's still more to come (tattoos/glasses/DEAD). As for Jack's vision, it's totally fine. Now that I really think about it, there would be a bigger chance that he would just go and borrow glasses from somebody who has the same eye degree as him than go and actually pay for something he's sure he won't need. Cheapskate.

RandomKrazyPerson: The author's note is longer again. Happy now? So you follow me on Facebook? I didn't know that. But then again, other than Hatsu Yukiya and Laughs4life, I have no idea which readers liked my page XD

FireRaven99: I'm afraid Zander's audition won't be seen, as I doubt he's even auditioning in the first place XD He was just cast because he's a sucker and everyone else has had enough of seeing terrible auditions :P

akizaki14: :O :D I'm glad you think this fills the gap To Have a Home left when it ended, though I don't think I could ever be as good as Hatsu XD And... I don't think the Guardians will be appearing in the next chapter. Jack won't be dancing with anyone at the dance (Yes, he's going after all). Just to answer your question, I'm neutral for FairyFrost. As a matter of fact, I'm neutral for pretty much all the pairings involving the Guardians, although JackRabbit makes me a little uncomfortable. Not that there's anything wrong with that pairing, it's just not something that appeals to me. BUT... I kinda sorta ship Jack and Mother Nature together because...I can just picture Pitch being an overprotective father... And out of all the pairings in the Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons fandom, I ship Jarida the most.

Guest (1): If Jack's going to wear glasses, he's not going to wear them 24/7. More like the most minimal amount possible XD

ImagineMusic: ...When I hear another girl say that, I automatically love her. I love you forever and ever. -doesn't sound creepy at all-

Lovepuppy316: HEY I LET HIM LIVE, DIDN'T I. Seriously though, he's lucky he's my favorite OC out of them all because if he wasn't... AND STOP TICKLING ME.

Arkie: ...You're weak. Lolololol Just kidding, don't take offense XD I do like imagining Jack wearing Victorian high heel boots... Don't ask. I don't even know.

Hatsu Yukiya: Aw, thanks :D But I do like your ramblings, and I honestly think I would've thought my chapter was a little on the crappy side even if I didn't read them, which was why it took an entire week to be put up. And it wasn't really your ramblings at all, it was the...stuff in bold that I was talking about.

Guest (2): Hm... That's an interesting idea. The only problem is that I strongly doubt there would be a wolf wandering around the streets of Burgess.

Review!