I'm just going to say this before I forget—MaddieSeth on deviantArt has agreed to make a comic version of this entire fanfic. She hasn't uploaded any pages yet, but she's working on it.
Oh yeah, and speaking of deviantArt, I have to give a shout-out to my writing bro Hatsu Yukiya, who also did some fan art on her account HatsuNeru. So to check that out, because it needs some love.
One more thing: There's going to be a bit (Okay, it's actually A LOT) of bad language here, but only because Cody ends up cursing up a storm (twice), and if he didn't do that, he would be horribly OOC. And Jack ends up sneaking in a profanity as well (GirlInTheShadows, I'm so sorry). That is all.
Jack agitatedly paced around the living room, throwing glances at the house's front door every five seconds or so. Jamie and Monty were sitting on the sofa, on the laptop and working on a biology project together. Jamie's biology textbook was lying open on the coffee table.
Jack groaned put both hands in his hair. "Ugh, where are they?! What's taking them so long?!"
"Why's he so jittery?" Monty asked Jamie. "He was like that already when I came."
"He called a couple friends to come over because he had this 'important business' to take care of," Jamie explained, inserting air quotes and not taking his eyes off of his laptop screen. "I don't know what's going on, but something probably happened with him and his friends. Again."
"You wanna know what happened? Okay, I accidentally ruined Spencer's life! I pushed his brother onto his potential girlfriend today at lunch!" Jack told them irritably. "And now I feel guilty to my stomach because now he's furious with Zander when it wasn't even his fault in the first place!"
Jamie and Monty only stared at him for a second, before the latter piped up, "I thought that kind of stuff happened only in media."
"Well clearly, it happens in real life too!"
Jamie stood up. "Alright, you need to calm down a bit for a second. If they're really taking this long, then maybe they just have trouble locating our house. I mean, the only friends of yours that have ever come over are the twins and Christine. It takes time finding the right address for a place you haven't been before."
At the end of this spiel, pure horror became etched onto Jack's face. "Oh..."
"You...did tell them our address...right?" Jamie questioned, not willing to believe that Jack was this stupid.
"Uh... Shit," Jack swore loudly before whipping out his phone and seating himself on the edge of the couch. He dialed a number in, and put his cell to his ear.
Baby Tooth, still sitting on his shoulder as she always did, only rolled her eyes at his density.
Jamie raised an eyebrow. "You have gotta be kidding me."
"Has he become a regular cusser nowadays?" Monty brought up.
"Hey, Anton!" Jack laughed guiltily, once the receiver on the other end picked up. "How's the search for my house coming along for ya?"
Anton began to shout, loud enough so even Jamie and Monty could hear clearly. "I'LL TELL YA HOW IT'S GOING FOR ME! YOU DON'T BOTHER TELLING ME AND CODY YOUR ADDRESS AND SEND US ON A HOUSE HUNT! WHAT THE HELL, MAN?!"
Jack winced and held his phone away at arm's length, mouthing to the two middle schoolers in the room something concerning a "fiery redhead." Once he was sure Anton was done screaming at him, he put it close to the side of his head again. "Okay... Listen, I'm sorry. Wait, how do you even know the same thing happened to Cody?"
Anton had lowered his voice, so nothing he said next was audible to anyone other than Jack.
"Oh, so you guys ran into each other on the way here? That's convenient."
Jack's eyes widened at what was spoken on the other end next. "Cody wants to say something to me? No, wait, don't put him on the line—"
Anton apparently had ignored his pleas (clearly because he was still a little annoyed with him) and given the phone to Cody because the next thing that came was a rant that was even louder than Anton's earlier outburst.
"YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE! DO YOU FUCKING KNOW HOW LONG I'VE BEEN STUCK WITH MR. SON-OF-THE-FUCKING-PRINCIPAL HERE, WANDERING THESE FUCKING STREETS?! FUCKING 45 MINUTES, THAT'S HOW LONG!"
"He's the vice principal!" Anton could be heard saying in the background.
Jack quickly held the phone away from his eardrum once more, thinking that he should've just settled with Anton's venting after all. He looked at Jamie, who now had both eyebrows raised, and Monty, who only had a priceless expression of, What kind of friends have you been making.
Jack, realizing that Cody had finished his vulgar scolding, put the phone to his ear. "Like I said to Anton, I'm sorry! Excuse me for being the dumbest living being on earth, but it just slipped my mind that you guys have never been here before! You know, because I've been to both your houses before and stuff..."
"THAT DOESN'T INDICATE ANYTHING! JUST LIKE BEING CALLED GAY DOESN'T MEAN YOU ACTUALLY SUCK PEN—"
"WILL YOU TONE DOWN THE OBSCENITIES?! THERE ARE CHILDREN HERE IN THIS HOUSE AND THEY CAN HEAR YOU!" Jack finally hollered back. Let's see how you like it when someone screams into your ear. He paused before adding, "AND THAT ANALOGY YOU WERE JUST ABOUT TO MAKE WASN'T EVEN REMOTELY SIMILAR TO THE WHOLE HOUSE THING!" He breathed out hard through his nose before calming himself down. "Anyway. Do you want the address or not?"
Cody finally decided that yelling wasn't going to get him nor Anton anywhere, because whatever he said next was much quieter.
"You called Zander and got the address from him? Alright, that's cool. Wait, if you already know the address and are presumably on your way here, why are you cursing at me?"
"BECAUSE I WOULDN'T HAVE NEEDED TO GO TO SUCH TROUBLE IF YOU WOULD'VE JUST FU—"
Jack hung up before Cody could squeeze in one more swear word. He turned to Jamie and Monty, and stated, "If either of you repeat anything that guy on the phone just said, I will end you."
"Oh, don't worry. I've already gotten used to profanities because a certain someone tends to be a hypocrite and yell out curse words all the time," Jamie only deadpanned back.
"What? Who is it? Dear god, please tell me it's not any of your friends," Jack said, not catching on to who Jamie was talking about.
Jamie slapped his forehead, while Monty remarked, "That hypocritical humor is surprisingly hilarious."
"Who were those two guys you were talking to anyway?" Jamie inquired.
Jack shrugged. "Oh, just some classmates. I'm pretty sure you've seen them whenever you go over to the high school. Remember that redheaded guy that I hang around with sometimes and that really dark guy who always broods?"
"Oh, them? Yeah, I remember them. The dark one scares me a little though," Jamie confessed. "Let me guess, was it him who was dropping F-bombs all over the place just now?"
"Yeah. And before they come here, I just feel like I have to warn both of you that those two don't really get along with each other. At least, just not all the time. And their fights can get a bit out of hand, so you might want to keep your distance once you feel like an argument is about to surface," Jack advised. "Trust me, I've literally been stuck between one of their fights before, and it's not pretty."
"These guys sound suspiciously similar to these other two guys in this YouTube video Claude dared me to watch," Monty commented. "They were out in the hallway, and it was full fifteen-minute footage of them arguing up a storm! Words got pretty profane, now that I think about it."
"...They are those two guys," Jack told him. "They actually argued for hours on end, and missed class while they were at it."
Monty stared. "Wait, are you serious?"
"What video? I wanna see the video," Jamie piped up, feeling as though he should be let in on this YouTube thing as well. He finally sat down again and opened a new tab on his Internet browser. "What's the thingy called?"
"'Two High Schoolers Scream at Each Other,' I think," Jack informed. "Monty's right, the argument gets pretty vulgar, but at the same time, it's so entertaining."
"Found it!" Jamie announced. "Do you two want to watch it again?"
"Sure!" Jack immediately scooted over to them.
"We should really get back to our project—" Monty tried to protest.
"Aw, come on, Monty! It's only fifteen minutes! And it's not like it's due tomorrow or anything," Jamie argued.
Monty gave in. "Fine."
Jack turned the volume up. "Things are kinda quiet at first."
They only got to watch a little over two minutes of it before a fourth voice spoke from behind them. "What's that?"
Jack yelped, somehow irrationally thinking that there was a burglar in the house (In hindsight, he couldn't really see how a burglar could raid someone's home in broad daylight, let alone ask what they were watching), grabbed Jamie's textbook and whirled around, whacking none other than Cody Gray right in the side of the head as hard as he possibly could.
Cody collapsed in pain, clutching his head. "WHAT THE FUCK, DUDE?! AH, GODDAMMIT! FUCK! FIRST YOU DON'T TELL ME WHERE YOU FUCKING LIVE, AND THEN YOU FUCKING HANG UP ON ME WHILE I WAS BUSY FUCKING TELLING YOU OFF, AND THEN YOU DO THIS! FUCK, THAT HURTS!"
"Is that his favorite word or something?" Jamie questioned.
Jack stood frozen as he realized that he had just smacked someone in the head with a heavy, hard book. "Oh my god..."
Anton suddenly appeared from the bathroom and took one glance at Cody, still uttering a long string of curses and having a firm grip on his head. He looked up at Jack and pointed at the boy on the ground. "Cody's blowing a fuse."
Jack nodded stiffly. "I know that."
"Why, did he see that video he wasn't supposed to find out about?" Anton asked rather offhandedly, seemingly not caring that Cody was currently in extreme pain.
"Yeah, but that's not really the reason why he's like that on our carpet floor right now," Jack answered, still staring at Cody.
"Why then?"
"I...may have taken Jamie's bio book and used it as a weapon against him."
Anton stared at Jack for a brief second before shrugging it off. "Oh, alright. Let me just say that if you had just given us your address in the first place, none of this would be happening right now."
"I believe Cody has given me enough of that over the phone already, thank you," Jack replied sourly. "And what's up with you guys suddenly here? I thought you would take longer...or at least knock first."
"Why would either of us bother to knock if we know someone's home?"
"...Because it's, I dunno, polite?"
"Well you weren't being too polite when you forgot to give us your address."
"Will you stop bringing that up already?" Jack snapped bitterly. "I was being stupid, I get it. But you don't have to keep reminding me every other second."
"Fine by me. Anyway, you left your door unlocked, so we both figured that you were totally cool with us just walking in like we did."
"I wouldn't have been okay with it if you were some sort of thief, like I thought Cody was when I smacked him."
"What kind of idiot would strut into someone's home during the day when they're not even sure if anyone's inside?" Anton questioned.
"I don't know, don't ask me!" Jack exclaimed in frustration, throwing his arms up into the air. "Look, I wrecked Spencer's heart, alright?! And I've been distracted by that whole thing at lunch for the past few hours! I didn't invite you guys over here just so we could have slumber parties!"
"Whoa, Jack, are you okay?" Jamie spoke up cautiously. It had been a while since he had seen Jack that jumpy.
"Just stellar," Jack quickly covered up, remembering that there were other people in the room. He turned to Anton. "Can we talk in my bedroom?"
By now, Cody had cooled down enough to reassure himself that the earth was still perfectly in tact, but was still lying on the floor for reasons unknown (probably because he found it comfy). He snarked up at Jack, "What're we gonna do in there? Hit each other with our textbooks until we pass out?"
Jack glared down at him. "You shut it. It was an accident."
"Oh sure, you accidentally swung a bio book at a small fly and ended up missing it and hit me instead."
"You dumped a milkshake on Samson's head and you're talking to me about false accidents?" Jack questioned.
"Samson had it coming."
"I never said he didn't. But how do you know whether or not you did?"
"Because I didn't wrongly accuse anyone of being bi," Cody pointed out.
"Can we just go to his room now?" Anton intervened, before this banter could continue on any longer. "Eleven-year-olds are staring at us." He motioned to Jamie and Monty, who were watching the three of them as if they were part of an intense soccer game.
"Thank you," Jack sighed and headed upstairs, followed by Anton and Cody, after the latter finally got up off the floor.
Once Jack closed the guest room door behind him, he dropped the nonchalant exterior he had maintained for the past few minutes (not counting his little outburst on Anton downstairs) and completely lost it. He grabbed Anton by the shoulders and shouted at the top of his lungs, "I AM A MORON AND I WANT TO KILL MYSELF FOR CAUSING THAT TENSION AT LUNCH TODAY!"
Anton blinked, then stated meekly, "If you're just gonna yell like that, I don't see why we headed up here in the first place. Those two down there are gonna hear you either way."
Jack groaned and let go of Anton. "Sorry, it's just that... I feel really bad about this, you know? Over the weekend, I went out of my way to convince Cici to give Spencer a chance, and today, I pretty much blew all my efforts. And now, Spencer and Cici are both depressed, and Zander's forced into all of this when it's really me who should be."
"If you feel this terrible about it, fix it," Cody told him, lounging on the beanbag chair the twins had given Jack for Christmas. "You've fixed everything wrong with everyone here so far, so I don't see why this time should be any different."
There was a minute of silence, before Jack asked, "You know that beanbag chair was fished out of the twins' storage and given to me for Christmas?"
"Is that why there's that huge piece of duct tape on the side?" Anton inquired. "It's not exactly inconspicuous."
"Yeah. I admit it's still a pretty comfy chair though."
"Why do the three of us keep straying away from what we're really supposed to be discussing?" Cody questioned. "Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that this situation isn't gonna fix itself. Somebody's gonna have to do something about it."
"But does it really have to be me who does everything?" Jack retorted. "Ever since I came to this school, I've been the one making sure nothing ever goes horribly wrong with anyone, and no matter what, it does anyway. But when things take a turn for the worse, I make sure it gets better. Like with you and Carrie, and you and Samson. And frankly, as much as it makes me happy to see that I have such a positive effect on people, I get sick of it sometimes. I just wish there was someone else who can fill my shoes for once." He sat down on his bed, face in his hands. "I have my own problems, but there's always something that I have to put before them..."
Cody and Anton shared a glance before the latter took a seat beside Jack. He hesitantly rubbed his back comfortingly before saying, "Listen... The reason why you're always the one who has to take care of everything is because you're good at it. If the rest of us try to fix something, we're undoubtedly just gonna make things even worse. But for some reason, you're different. Everyone can relate to you. It's like you're some kind of center for all the issues that exist in the world. And I have no idea why, but you seem to have gone through so much in the past. You understand things more than any of us ever could. It's like you've actually lived for the past couple of centuries instead of just eighteen years."
Jack flinched at that last sentence, noticing how true it really was. Then he was hit with a shocking thought: Did Anton know? He was pondering the answer to that when Cody got up off the beanbag chair and sat down on the other side of him.
"In this very rare moment of vulnerability, I really have to say that he's right. You're so much more experienced than all of us combined, and that's what's so intriguing about you. You try your best to be nice to everyone, no matter how they treat you. If I were you, I wouldn't have went to see me in the hospital, and I wouldn't have been so civil with Anton either. Someone like you in this world is hard to come across. I have no idea what these 'problems' of yours are, but if it helps, you could tell us. None of us are you, but you've done so much for us. We'll all try our best to understand."
Jack let his hands down slowly, and after a moment's hesitation, shook his head. "No. I can't. I...just can't. At least not right now. Maybe some other time..."
Anton nodded in understanding. "So. You want us to help you with Spencer?"
Jack managed a small smile. "Yeah. Yeah, I'd like that. So what should we do?"
"We storm over to their house and force him to listen," Cody immediately said. "Unless if either of you have anything better."
They didn't. So in the end, Jack decided that no matter how aggressive Cody's plan was, it was for the best. Spencer needed to understand what really happened at lunch, or Jack wouldn't know what to do.
Just like he didn't know what to do about his own secret. Once everyone's problems were resolved, including his own...what would happen?
NO LINE BREAKS IN A CHAPTER FOR ONCE AWESOME
I don't know what this ending is. Recently I've been finding myself terrible at ending chapters.
Everyone was supposed to make up in this chapter, but then I decided that this was a good place to cut it off. Things will become okay next chapter.
And all of you are really going crazy about this confrontation thing... To that, I say IT'S COMING SOON.
Replies:
Faliara: No, it's more like Cici decided to try going on a date with Spencer, mostly because of Jack's persuasion, but then had second thoughts. It's complicated, I know. And they probably didn't talk to him over the phone about it because they felt that this was something they needed to talk to him about in person.
Anonfangirl: Sure! What fun thing should Jack do?
Lamae Martin: I personally think that Spencer really is stupid, no matter how sane he seems compared to the other guys. And Cici's pessimistic, while Jack's just pushy.
Dude: Hello, British person :D I heard that Nicholas shaved his head because he's filming this movie called Mad Max: Fury Road. No, it's not wrong to find it funny. I find it hilarious. And if you want to switch the contacts in your brother's phone, be my guest. It wouldn't hurt, you have nothing to lose XD
feathered moon wings: I actually didn't mention Samson's hair color at all in this story. I just kind of randomly decided that he should be blonde because none of the other guys are blonde. And Spencer's just an idiot.
Lovepuppy316: I like to think that Jack wears his hoodie like half the time. The other half, he's wearing what Mrs. Bennett bought him. Either way, he has a slight sense of fashion in his blood. He's never going to dress up as Justin Bieber or anything like that XD I wasn't really worried that it would offend you, I was just worried that you would end up being paranoid that Jack is watching you from the window :P
Cirruz the Night Elf: No, no! Keep reviewing, I like long reviews :D But anyway, don't worry about unprofessionalism. I've seen much worse. Much, much worse. And I don't like OCs either, at least not the Sue kind. And Ouran, yyyeeessssss. One of the best animes I ever watched. Even finished the manga.
Frosty3.0: I'm seriously considering it. Probably not here, but in the sequel.
lotsofdrama: oh stahp it you make me blush And no need to be embarrassed, because like half of these people came from one of Hatsu Yukiya's fics XD
Anaklusmos: I don't really know... I will update Fate eventually, but this story is currently my top priority.
Review~!