Broken Hearts and Homework

Chapter 2: Artsy Fartsy

"Ok, so I haven't been kicked out of seven schools, per se."
"I knew it!" Punzie shoved the white haired boy, "A pretender! I'm disappointed in you, Jack."
Jack laughed and ran his hand through his hair. That morning, annoyingly early, in Jack's opinion, Punzie had turned up at his door, wearing his favourite faded blue hoodie, and declaring that they were walking to school together. Jack had tried to protest, after the incident with Pitch the day before, but then Tara had taken Punzie's side, and he had been forced to relent.  But now, he had to admit, it was fun to walk with Punzie.
She always had something to say, and was excellent at cheering someone up, even from early-morning-grouchiness.
"So spill, how did that rumour start?"
"Well, I have left seven schools, I just wasn't kicked of them. Well, I was kicked out of one, but that wasn't my fault!"
"Of course it wasn't."
"It wasn't! I didn't mean to freeze the pool!"
Punzie burst out laughing, "You didn't!"
"I mean, how was I supposed to know that putting the AC on the lowest setting would make stuff freeze? It's technically the school's fault for not teaching me that kind of thing."
"Why did you leave the other six?"
"Well, the first was when I was seven, I- uhh- I had to go to a children's home and, um, it was too far from my previous school to work out. Then the rest were mostly that year, different foster parents meant different schools. Then Tooth and Bunny adopted me and I was on number five, then the pool incident, then at the beginning of summer, Grandpa North got sick and Bunny and Tooth moved back here to help take care of him and Sandy. And voilà! Seven!"
"Why do call your mother Tooth?"
"Well, she's an orthodontist, and she used to get these sugar free sweets from work that were shaped like teeth? Pretty weird, I know. She'd give them to the neighbourhood kids and they started calling her the tooth fairy, or just Tooth. That's what they told me, at least, it was before my time."
"And Bunny?"
"Well, if he was gonna marry the tooth fairy, he had to bring joy to kids too and someone realised that if you add an 'E' to the beginning of his name, you get Easter. So he became the Easter Bunny."
"That's so sweet!" Punzie said, there was a brief silence before she said, "You know, the Artsy Fartsies has this thing, every Saturday, where we meet up and do something together, and this week, it's a movie night at Mavis's. We always have a classic horror movie marathon when we're at her house and her dad dresses up as Dracula, if he's there, and we get themed food, it's really fun. And, well, I'm sure no one would mind if you wanted to come along..."
"I'd love to!" Jack grinned. "If everyone's ok with it, that is."
"Of course! Yay!" Punzie did a little twirl.
"Hey, Jack! Punzie!" They had already made it the school and Punzie's movement had caught Hiccups eye.
"Hey, Hic!" Jack replied.
Punzie and Hiccup hugged and she rapidly told him about inviting Jack to movie night. Hiccup immediately agreed and said that he had invited Merida to come, too.
"Though, I still haven't asked Mavis if we can bring +1s."
"She's always got enough food to feed an army, it'll be cool."
Then Merida came up, soon followed by Mavis and Sandy. And they chatted till the bell rang then ran to their various classes.

~~~~

The week went by, filled with laughter and gossip and finally, Saturday afternoon came.
The movie night didn't start till 6, but Jack was fidgeting by 3:30.
"It'll be fine, Jack! Stop worrying!" Tooth had said as she kissed his forehead on her way to work.
"She's right, ya know." Bunny's Australian voice rang out from the living room. "Lots of kids have probably never been to sleepover before."
That was Jack's biggest worry. What if they judged him for never having been at someone's house overnight? What if he did something weird like going to bed too early? What if...?
Finally, Hiccup knocked on his front door.
"Ready to go?" He asked.
"As I'll ever be!" Jack said farewell to his dad and hopped into the passenger seat of Hiccups car.
They drove by Sandy's house, who was grinning widely as he slid into the back seat. Then to the Arts District to pick up Punzie, who was rapidly talking to them before she had even gotten in.
"This isn't the way to Mavis's house, where are we headed?" Punzie asked after a few minutes.
"Merida's place, she wanted me to pick her up so her driver didn't have to."
"Oh." Surprisingly, that was the last Punzie said until they pulled up in front of a massive house with a pristine yard and three young boys playing in the grass.
"She lives here?" Jack asked.
They all knew she was rich, but this was on a whole new level.
"Won't know till we ask." Hiccup climbed out of the car and started walking toward the front door. The three boys stopped playing and ran over to him.
"Are you Merida's friend?"
"Is she having a sleepover at your house?"
"Are you her boyfriend?"
"Are you in high school?"
"Why are you so runty?"
"Woah, woah, woah, kiddos, I can't answer questions if you don't give me time to!"
They silenced and Hiccup explained that he was Merida's friend, not her boyfriend, she was not having a sleepover at his house, and he was in high school, but hadn't hit puberty yet.
This seemed to satisfy the triplets and they ran back to their game, after one of them yelled inside to Merida that her friend was here.
Within seconds the door slammed open and Merida ran out.
"Hiccup! Finally! Let's go!" She grabbed his arm and started pulling him back to his car. "My mom's a nightmare!"
"Oookay, then."
A woman with greying hair appeared at the door, "Merida! I am trying to talk to you!"
"Bye, mom!" She called over her shoulder.
Once they were a good distance away, Jack broke the silence.
"So, what was that all about?"
Merida sighed, "My mom wants my dad to do a full background check on every single one of my friends before I can hang out with them."
Punzie burst out with laughter, "Really? That's so weird!"
"It's annoying, is what it is. How am I supposed to make friends if it takes 3 business days for my parents to agree to a sleepover?"
"Tell me about it." Hiccup muttered.