Introduction:

'No

You'll never be alone

When darkness comes, I'll light the night with stars

Hear the whispers in the dark.' Hearing my alarm sounding, I groggily sat up in my bed and shut it off.

"Ugh, whoever decided that school should start at 7:30 needs to be shot," I grumbled as I looked at my clock. '4:00 am… so early..'Sighing, I got dressed for my walk. Pulling on my gray sweatpants and a black t-shirt with a dark blue hoodie, I put on my shoes and went downstairs. Before heading for the door I took a quick peek into the fridge and made a mental note to grab eggs and milk from the store. After closing and locking the front door, I started my walk and put on my music. 'Riot huh.. alright then!' I smiled at the song that started playing and bobbed my head to it.

'If you feel, so empty
So used up, so let down
If you feel, so angry
So ripped off, so stepped on
You're not the only one,
Refusing to back down,
You're not the only one,
So get up'

A half hour later, I walked back into my house and put the eggs and milk up, then proceeded upstairs to shower and get ready for the school day. About 15 minutes later, I started to make breakfast. Noticing the time I realized I needed to get my baby sister up and quickly raced upstairs. I woke Sophie and as usual, she was the definition of cranky. After she got dressed, I braided her hair and carried her downstairs to eat breakfast. By the time I sat her down to eat, her face lit up. I smiled at that and the two of us happily ate our breakfast.

Like every morning the grandfather clock rang 6:00. 'Time for school..yay…' I grabbed my bag, Sophie's, and helped her zip up her jacket.

"Ready for your first day, Sophie?" I gave her a little smile and led her out of the house.

"Yeah!"

"Okay, either I or Pippa will pick you up after school, okay?" I told her once we got to her daycare. After waving to the teacher who guided my sister inside, I checked the time on my phone. It read 6:15, so I went through my mental checklist, taking off back toward my neighborhood.

'Okay, Sophie will be fine, Ms. Davies will take her to school at 9. So I got 15 minutes to get to CJ and Cal's, then we'll go get Chi, Monty, and Pippa.' Arriving at the Johnson's door first, I knocked and waited for one of the boys to let me in.

"Come on guys, we got 3 more stops before the first bell!"

"Good morning, Jamie! The boys are eating breakfast, did you want anything?" Mrs. Johnson asked with a tired smile as she answered the door.

"No thank you, ma'am, I ate breakfast with Sophie this morning." I replied with a smile as she invited me inside. I sat down on the couch and felt my eyes start to close. Stifling a yawn, I felt a push on my shoulder and looked up to see CJ staring down at me, gesturing to the door with his head.

"Time to rock n' roll, Bennett." Seeing him and his twin walk out the door, I grabbed my bag. Right before I got out the door, I felt a kiss on the side of my head as I was handed a brown paper bag.

"Have a good day, kids! Make good choices!" Mrs. Johnson called as we walked to Monty's. After a good ten minute walk, I knocked on the door and Sheriff Greene opened the door with a tired smile.

"Good morning boys, Monroe and Mitchie are in the loft watching TV."

"Thank you, Sheriff Greene." I answered as I walked up the stairs and heard Mitchie talking to Monty.

"Quinn said that she got my gender edited on my school records since I got my name and gender legally changed on my birth certificate!"

I stood in the loft, smiling to myself; Quinn is Mitchie's foster mom, she was actually in the process of adopting her and her sisters; Mackenzye, Makayla and Madyson, but the papers hadn't been finalized yet.

Mitchie was wearing a shirt that read 'Respect gender identity, fuck gender roles'.

"Ya' know that shirt's gonna get ya' in trouble, right Mitchie?" I asked, making my presence known.

"And?" Mitchie asked with a raised eyebrow and a smirk on her face as she stood up and grabbed her bag.

"Oh, Jamie! By the way, are you gonna grow a pair this year and tell Hazel you like her?" She inquired, nudging my shoulder, still wearing that stupid smirk on her face.

"I- I don't know what you're talking about!" I stammered, blushing as we walked down the stairs.

"Bennett be real, you've had a crush on Jones since you were eight." Cal answered, rolling his eyes.

We walked out of the house and headed towards Hazel's who was just returning from dropping her sisters off at the daycare.

"Hi guys!" Hazel greeted as she swung her bag over her shoulder after checking to see if she locked the door to her house. I felt my heart beat faster in my chest and I could feel my face flush.

"Hi Hazel, how was your summer?" I asked, trying to ignore my feelings for her. Ya know, like anyone with a crush on their friend would!

"Jamie, really? How was my summer? You just saw me yesterday." Hazel inquired, with a smile that made my knees weak.

'Damn, there's just something about this girl. Her laugh is contagious and her smile lights up the whole town.' I thought to myself, not really noticing the gang walking off toward school without me. But luckily the sound of Monty's voice got me out of my head.

"Jamie, you comin'?" He called, I shook my head to clear it of those thoughts and I shouted back;

"Yeah! I just needed to tie my shoe!" If Monty knew that I was lying he didn't mention it as I raced over to them.

When we got to the school, Mitchie suddenly stopped and turned to face me, her eyes rolling to the back of her head.

"Jamie, Hazel, we're idiots!" She replied, smacking her forehead.

"Yes, but could you be more specific?" Hazel inquired, used to Mitchie declaring us idiots.

"We go to a K-12 school and they've got a safe-key program for the elementary kids, which means that we dropped the kids off at daycare for no reason."

"I talked to Ms. Davies yesterday afternoon when I picked the kids up from daycare. She said that she'd walk them to school, however, since we get out before the elementary school students, we're responsible for picking them up." I explained as I pushed my way through the double doors of our school.

The school was a large, red brick building that had three floors; the first floor was the elementary school, 2nd floor was for middle school, and finally the third floor was for high school.

"Can you believe that we actually get to go to the third floor?!" Hazel asked excitedly before turning to Mitchie.

"I heard that the high school students can leave campus for lunch." She replied, doing an excited little jump.

Mitchie nodded in agreement and walked towards the stairs. They were old and wooden and looked like they were one stampede away from collapsing.

"Hey, Hazel. Could you talk to your mom about replacing the stairs? I mean I know the budget is a bit tight at the moment, but surely they can squeeze together enough money to build a new staircase, or several." She asked. I had to think for a minute, but then I realized, 'Oh yeah, I forgot that Hazel's mom is the mayor..'

Hazel laughed, though her laugh soon turned into a frown.

"I'm worried that the stairs are going to fall on a student. I mean, not all of them are friends with a fairy tale!"

My ears perked up at the mention of Jack, he hadn't been around since early March, but the pond in the forest was still frozen.

"Hey guys…" I began as everyone looked at me with questioning expressions.

"Have you noticed that despite the fact that we haven't seen Jack since early March, the pond is still frozen?" They all nodded in agreement. You see, the pond is along a popular hiking path that leads into the forest, we never realized it was frozen until Jack came into our lives. We didn't pay any mind to it, then again we were eight when we first met Jack. Once he disappeared we had thought the pond would thaw. But it still hadn't.

I felt a cold breeze wrap around me in a comforting hug.

"We have, but Jamie, Jack doesn't necessarily have to be here to keep the pond frozen." CJ stated as he read over his schedule, before peeking at his brother's.

'Maybe… maybe not!' I heard Jack's voice whisper in my ear as if it was being carried on the wind. I shuddered, feeling a chill run down my spine after that.

'Wait.. Jack-'

"Hey! We have different teachers!" The younger Johnson twin exclaimed before realizing his mistake.

'What the fuck!? Shit, I forgot that my friends existed for five seconds.'

"Wait… never mind, I forgot that we're taking different electives." CJ stated.

"Apparently, I got both the brains and the looks!" Cal teased his twin while CJ gave him an unamused look.

"Well, it looks like we have the same homeroom teacher. Actually we have all the same core classes." Mitchie responded, looking over my schedule and double checking her own. I pulled the schedule closer to my chest, throwing Mitchie a glare.

"Why are you looking at my schedule, Chi?" I gave her a half-hearted glare, then my face softened and I burst into a fit of laughter.

'Ring! Ring!' The bell went off and we all quickly scrambled to our homeroom class. I opened the door to find a tall and lanky middle aged man, with orange skin, like he had spent too much time in a tanning bed and spent his entire teacher's salary on cheap spray tan. He was wearing a hawaiin shirt with one too many buttons undone and by one too many I mean that only one was unbutton and he was wearing what was obviously a wig over his bald head.

"Take a seat, students when I call your name's."

"Anderson, Mitchel." He called, and the room went silent, I felt my heart stop,I looked over at Mitchie with concern.

'I was the first person that Mitchie told was trans, we were 9. I promised that I would stick by her side no matter what, even if it meant defending her from our teachers.'But Mitchie did nothing, she just stood still, not moving, her face was blank. The only time I remember seeing her like that was when we found out that her parents died in a car accident. It was her disassociating face, as if she wasn't quite there.

"Is Mitchel Anderson here?" the teacher asked, as he scanned the room, his eyes finally rested on Mitchie's, as she suddenly blinked and made a small "Hmm?" As if she hadn't heard him, but I knew that she heard him.

"You, Mr. Anderson, why did you not answer when I called you?" He asked, placing his hands on his hips wearing a smirk on his face, when Mitchie's face fell.

"Sir, that's because legally my name is no longer Mitchel Anderson and I got my name changed on my school records. So, legally Mitchel Anderson no longer exists. Therefore, I refuse to answer to that name."

"Mr. Anderson-" The teacher began.

"Ms." Mitchie stressed her face twitching in annoyance, she was usually patient when people misgendered her, especially people who didn't know that she was trans, but they usually apologized right away.

"Mitchel-" The teacher started once more only to be cut off by Mitchie once more.

"Mitchie. That's M-I-T-C-H-I-E." Clapping between each letter.

"Surely you know how to read, I mean you are a teacher aren't you?" She snapped, her patient had run out.

The teacher's face turned red and he angrily shouted

"TO THE PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE YOUNG MAN!" pointing his finger at the door, Mitchie shook her head, still stubborn as ever.

"Chi, please, you're just gonna make it worse for yourself." Hazel begged quietly glaring at the teacher with anger in her eyes. Mitchie and the teacher were in a stare-off, it seemed to last forever, her brown eyes blazing with anger and his ears had steam pouring out from them. The entire room was tense, everyone was uncertain about what to do, on the one hand Mitchie was right; legally Mitchel Anderson didn't exist anymore. On the other; this man was their teacher and it was expected of the students to give him respect.

Everyone let out a sigh of relief when the bell rang and dismissed the class, looking at my schedule once more, I heard Mitchie let out a loud sigh, resting her head on Monty's chest, who was a head taller than her.

"That was scary! I thought that Quinn had gotten everything changed." She whimpered.

I hated seeing her like this, my cousin was always the strongest person I knew.

"Everything will be fine cariad" Monroe said softly kissing the top of her head, in all honesty I was still trying to get used to the fact that they were dating, but Monroe was good for her.

We all walked to our next class, it was math; Algebra 1 to be exact.

"Ah, Mr. Greene, Ms. Anderson, need I remind you that PDA is prohibited on school grounds?" The teacher asked, she was an older lady, wearing a floral dress and a lilac cardigan, her silver hair was tied into a bun.

"Please take a seat, children when I call your name."

"Anderson, Mitchie." She called and I saw Mitchie let out a sigh of relief as she sat down.

"Bennett, James." She called and I felt my blood boil once more, I took a deep breath, she didn't know what my father did, the emotional, mental, and physical abuse he put my mother and I through, why hearing his name made my blood boil, I couldn't take it out on her. I closed my eyes momentarily before I calmly told her.

"I don't go by James, ma'am, I prefer Jamie."

"Yes, my bad. Jamie." She repeated and I sat down next to Mitchie, she quietly repeated the name to herself and made a note on attendance sheet

"Greene, Monroe." Monty took a seat, he normally went by Monty but he had no problems by being called by his actual first name.

"Johnson, Caleb and Claude." her glasses were falling off her nose, and they took a seat.

"Actually, Ma'am, we prefer CJ and Cal." Cal stated.

"Yes, of course, Cal." Ms. Teresa repeated jotting the name down onto her sheet

"Jones, Hazel." She finished the roll, and Hazel sat down next to me.

"Ah, Ms. Jones, do you know whether or not your mother has any plans for our lovely little town?" She asked, looking at her with curious eyes.

"With all due respect ma'am, my mother and I don't talk about her job a lot." Hazel explained quietly, she hated when people tried to get information out of her in regards to her mom. She didn't really understand why, her mom was just the mayor not the president of the united states, besides before her mom was elected mayor, the Joneses were just a simple family.

"Okay, students, my name is Ms. Teresa. I will be your math teacher this year." She passed out some packets for everyone to fill out.

"Now, students, I need these packets filled out and turned in by the end of the week." She called over the ringing bell as students fled out of her class and rushed off to the next class.

"Okay, so I've got Photography next, so I'll meet you guys at lunch?" I asked as I rushed off to my next class, I barely made it through the door as the bell rang, skidding to a stop, I saw the teacher looking at me.

"Mr. Bennett, while I appreciate your excitement for my class, running is not prohibited in school, and that was not the late bell but the warning bell. If I catch you running one more time, you will get a write up, and three write ups is a detention, do I make myself clear young man?" She asked, her lips pursed, as she motioned me to take my seat.

'Bennett, Jamie.' The place card read and I took my seat.

"Okay, class so your assignment this week is to take as many pictures as you possibly can by the end of the week, this can be of scenery, people, animals. I want them on a flash drive for me by the end of Friday." She stated then took roll, it was a quiet roll as everyone was already sitting in their assigned seats. The bell rang and I grabbed my bag, racing downstairs and met Hazel at the bottom of the stairs, her foot tapping impatiently.

"Hazel, I was gone for thirty minutes, what's gotten you so impatient?" I asked as we walked towards the cafeteria.

"So you know our homeroom teacher? The one who looks like Pitch with a really bad cheap spray tan?" She whispered

I shuddered at the memory of the battle of Burgess, it was scary as a little kid, but now as I was older I suddenly realized what he had meant to do. What Pitch Black; the Guardian of fear, the boogeyman had wanted to do. He had wanted to kill the Guardians, he had wanted to force Jack into joining his side, and worse of all, he had wanted to kill me. I thought back to what he had said the night I first met him.

"Well, there are other ways to snuff out a light." The nightmare king sneered as a lightbulb suddenly popped.I knew I should've been afraid at that moment and for a second I was, but Jack promised he'd keep me safe, and despite having only met the teen, I knew that I could trust him with my life, it was as if we had this connection.

"Apparently, he's trying to get Chi suspended because she disrespected him in class this morning." She hissed into my ear, bringing me back to reality

"Hazel, you can't believe everything you hear from the upperclassmen." I warned her, shaking my head.

"That's the thing, I hadn't realized until after my painting class that I had left my phone in his class, so I went back to get it and I heard him talking to someone that he was going to get her suspended, because he didn't want other people around her in fear that she might suddenly turn them trans. Which we all know is complete bull-" I cut her off, with a look.

"Hazel, please. As much as I don't like him either, we have no solid evidence that this is what he's planning on doing, all we can do is wait and gather more information."

I told her as we sat down, Mitchie's eyes were glowing and she was chatting happily with CJ. CJ nodded and smiled, his eyes shining as well. Apparently it had turned out that her drawing teacher was a former storyboard artist for Studio Ghibli, an animation studio in which we all enjoyed, but surprisingly it was the one thing that CJ and her had actually bonded over. They would often have small debates over whether or not 'Spirited Away' was the best Studio Ghibli movie or if it was 'My Neighbor Totoro'.

Hazel ate her lunch and I grabbed my sack lunch from my bag; it was a PB&J on wheat with some baby carrots, a bag of potato chips and two homemade chocolate chip cookies and a caprisun to wash it down. My usual Monday lunch.

I took a bite of my sandwich, and began to discuss my class with my friends. When all of the sudden Mitchie stated,

"I'm pretty sure that our homeroom teacher is related to Pitch." Stealing one of my baby carrots.

"Get your own food, Chi!" I scolded half heartedly, as she handed me one of her french fries

"Well, I mean he looks like him with a bad spray tan and he's also evil incarnated, so I do see the resemblance." Cal responded by taking a bite of cheap cafeteria pizza.

Hazel was picking at the pepperoni on her pizza, she despised pepperoni, something that I didn't understand. Then again my favorite pizza was a white sauce pizza with ham and pineapple, but that was neither here nor there.

The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. I quickly packed my bag and raced off to my next class, English. It was the same as all my other classes so far, the teacher called your name and you sat down, he'd give you an assignment that was due by the end of the week. This pattern continued until the end of the day. I finally walked out of my last class of the day, my bag heavy with all of the paperwork I had gotten.

"Welcome to the 21st century, we hate technology and we don't give a fuck about the trees." I grumbled to myself as I sat my bag down next to Monty who was texting someone on his phone. I wasn't sure who it was and I wasn't going to ask as it was none of my business.

"How were your classes Monty?" I inquired

"Jamie, the only class that we don't have together are our electives, so I think you know how my classes were." He replied irritably crossing his arms, I raised my eyebrow at him looking for more information.

"Well, my girlfriend was dead named and misgendered on purpose this morning, so that's something."

"I know, don't forget that I care about Chi as well." I told him, frowning at the memory of what happened.

"Not the way that I do." He sighed, shaking his head, his gaze focused on the tile floor. I wanted to argue, but he was right, I didn't care about Mitchie in the way that he did, they were partners. Mitchie was my cousin, but that didn't mean that I wasn't mad about what happened this morning.

We waited until everyone gathered, we said our goodbyes as Hazel and I headed up to the library to get some homework done; when asked why Hazel stated.

"Jamie and I have to pick up our sisters in a bit, so it's kind of pointless to make three trips when we can get our homework done here and just make it two trips." They all nodded in agreement and set off to their own houses. 3:30 came and the final bell for the elementary school rang. Making our way from the third floor library to the cafeteria where the elementary school students were waiting for their parents or guardians to pick them up.

"Sophia Bennett, Willow and Autumn Jones, your brother and sister are here to pick you up." the safekey instructor called.

The three of them raced over to us and nearly knocked me over.

"Jamie! Pippa! Our teacher is really nice and she let us sit together all day!" Willow stated excitedly, as she grabbed my left hand and Pippa's right, Sophie was holding my right.

We started to walk home when I heard someone call my name.

"Hey! Jamie, Sophie!" I continued walking then Sophie turned to see who was calling us and she paused before racing off.

"Boomer!" I paused at the name, and I turned to see my older cousin, a wide smile spread across my face.

"Noah!" I called as I walked over to him, Willow still holding my hand, as Autumn and Hazel stood behind me on the sidewalk watching closely.

"So, what brings you to Burgess?" I asked as Noah placed Sophie on his hip.

"We just moved here a few days ago." Noah explained, his brow furrowed in confusion.

"Didn't Aunt Marie tell you?" He asked, I shook my head and Noah sighed.

"Well, Lucas and Butch stopped by Mitchie's to say hi. Apparently there was an incident with a teacher this morning?" His blue eyes seemed to say; 'We will talk about this later.'

"What happened?" Sophie asked curiously

"A teacher was mean to Mitchie this morning." I explained carefully

"Why?" She asked, staring at me with her large green eyes.

"I'll explain more when we get home okay?"

Noah looked over at Willow and smiled "I didn't know that Aunt Marie had another child."

"Actually, that's Hazel little sister; Willow." At the mention of her name, Hazel gave a shy wave.

Noah smiled and whispered to me

"She's cute." I felt my face flush and my cheeks turn red, obviously I knew that Hazel was cute, no scratch that she is cute, smart, funny, kind.

'Snap out of it Jamie!' I thought as I heard the sudden jingle of keys.

"Get in, I'll drive you guys home, would you and your sisters like a ride?" Noah asked Hazel who just rubbed her arm.

"You can say no; it's not going to hurt my feelings. I mean we did just meet, I'm basically a stranger to you." Noah smiled

"It's not that, it's just I don't know if there's room for all of us in your car." Hazel stated as she looked at the small 2006 Hyundai Elantra.

"Okay, I could just take the girls home and you two can walk?" Noah suggested, Hazel nodded before saying.

"You can just drop them off at Jamie's." Hazel told him and watched as Noah buckled her sisters into the car.

"Why did you let Noah take them? You don't know him?" I was confused, Hazel wasn't this irresponsible when it came to her sisters, especially when it came to her sisters.

"You're right, I don't know him but I do know you, and I know that if there was something off about him you wouldn't be so comfortable with him holding Sophie, so I expect to find three kindergarteners eating an after school snack and watching cartoons the minute I walk into your house." Hazel explained as we started to walk home, we made small talk about our electives.

"So do you like your classes?" I asked after a moment of silence, not quite sure what to say.

"They were okay, I just hope that we don't have to deal with that teacher again tomorrow." Hazel stated as we continued to walk to my house, we continued to talk some more about everything and nothing all at once, when we got to my house I spotted a note on the kitchen counter;

'Jamie,

Pick up milk

-Mom.'

I sighed, I could've sworn that I had just bought milk at the store this morning, or was it eggs? Either way, it seemed like I was making another grocery run.

"I'm gonna run to the store, you can stay for dinner if you want." I told Hazel as I put the note in my pocket and my wallet as well.

"Thank you, Jamie, but it's lasagna night at home." Hazel answered with a smile, before turning to her sisters who were indeed watching cartoons and eating string cheese.

"Willow, Autumn! It's time to go home, say bye to everyone." She instructed.

"But, Pippa! It's Spongebob!" Willow whined, her lips forming a pout.

"Willow, what did I tell you about pouting?" Hazel gave her a pointed look.

"Put away the eyes and the lips, because it doesn't work on you." Willow sighed feeling deflated.

"That's right, now we've got a tv at home." Hazel told her as she grabbed her bag.

"Pippa, are Willow and I done with school forever now?" Autumn asked sweetly.

"No, sweetie, this was just day one." Hazel replied calmly

"Wait! We have to go back, for how long?!" She asked

I replied "For five days a week, for nine months for the next 12 years."

"Eww." She grumbled under her breath, her nose wrinkling with disgust.

I turned to Hazel and stated;

"You know that your sister is a mood, right?"

Hazel nodded biting back a smile, as she assisted Willow with zipping up her jacket. With that I left for the store, listening to music;

What's new Scooby Doo?

We're coming after you

We're gonna solve that mystery

I see you Scooby Doo

The trail leads back to you

What's new Scooby Doo?'

I bobbed my head to the music,

"So I listened to the Scooby-Doo theme song, sue me. No, wait don't, I'm broke."

I stopped walking when I saw a flyer;

'Missing -

Name: Sara Michels

DOB: 08/16/2013

Went missing on: 08/19/2019

Last seen: Sleeping in her bed'

It was a flyer for a missing child!

I shrugged my shoulders, not really paying attention to the flyer. As I arrived at the store, I pulled out the post-it note, and headed straight to the milk. I grabbed a two gallon jug and walked up to the counter.

"I'll trade you five dollars for this two gallon jug of milk." I replied as the cashier placed the milk in a plastic bag.

"I can just carry it, it's not that heavy." I told him, as I carried the jug of milk out of the store.

I walked past the flyer one more time when the name caught my attention, I didn't know why but it seemed familiar. I just wish I knew why.

"I know that name, why do I know that name? Come on Bennett, think, ponder. Other words for thinking."

I closed my eyes to help myself think, that's when it suddenly hit me; my eyes flew open and I dropped the gallon of milk.

"This wasn't a flyer for a missing kid, it couldn't be! Sara Michels is dead!"