Prologue:
Eleven Years Ago
A smart, but adventuress eight-year-old girl named Irma Carr, with brown eyes and brown hair that went past the shoulders, decided to try out the new ice skates she got for Christmas. She learned how to ice skate when she was four, and she felt confident in herself to ice skate on her own without her parent's supervision.
With a jacket over her pajamas and thick socks, Irma snuck out of her bedroom around eight at night, with a flashlight in hand, and rode her bike to the pond near the woods.
Once at the pond, Irma sat on a rock to put her skates on, and as she does so, snow begins to fall slowly. She glanced up at the sky and smiled widely. Winter was Irma's favorite season.
Irma goes out to the middle of the icy pond. She smiles and laughs in triumph as she keeps herself from falling.
As she skates on, cracks start to form in the center. Irma is unaware until she trips over a raised ice.
She screams as she falls forward. She looks around to see small cracks slowly become bigger.
Irma froze with fear.
"Someone help," Irma screamed in terror!
"Didn't think anyone was going to be here at this hour," an unheard voice said. "But don't worry. I got you!"
All around Irma, the ice began to mend itself. Irma watched in astonishment and confusion.
As she sat upright as the last bit of ice froze back together, a snowflake fell upon her nose.
"Frost?" Irma's smiled.
"Jack Frost," She loved watching the animated Jack Frost movies every Christmas!
"Jack Frost," Irma repeated with a bigger smile!
A swirl of white formed in front of her as a man appeared from it and revealed to look as if he was still eighteen years old. He had short snow-white hair and crystal blue eyes. The man wore a blue hoodie with frost on most of it and tan-brown leather pants that went above the ankles with leather laces wrapped around the shins. The pants seemed to be torn and frost coated at the bottom as well. He was shoeless. He also carried a long wooden staff that curved at the top.
Irma's mouth hung open with shock.
"Hey!" Jack grinned from ear to ear. "You can see and hear me?"
Irma nods, still staring.
Forgetting she was on ice skates, Irma leaps up to hug him, only to more so fall into him but embraces him tightly in a bear hug.
Jack was surprised and hesitated a moment before hugging her back.
"How did you know I existed?" Jack asked with curiosity, now lowering himself to her level.
"I'm a fan of Jack Frost movies."
"You are, huh?"
Irma smiled with a nod. "You aren't a snowman, and you seem to be nice and not mean."
Jack chuckled. "No, I'm not a snowman, but I can be mischievous at times."
She laughed.
"So why are you a fan of me or those fictional Jack Frost's?"
"Because you all can control snow. I love the snow."
Snow from when Irma first arrived at the pond had stopped fifteen minutes ago. Still being down at Irma's level, Jack looked up at the sky, noticing that his snow had stopped. He bent his left arm in front of him, and a snowflake forms in his hand while it levitates above his palm. Once fully formed, it spun around his hand then traveled above them, exploding into hundreds of smaller flakes that fell upon them.
Irma watched the whole thing unfold. Once the lone snowflake became multiple, she reached up with both arms to touch the falling snow.
Jack watched as Irma laughed with enjoyment. He loved seeing the happy faces on kids whenever he brought the snow. They liked what he did, even though they never knew who gave them their snow days.
A minute passed, and as it continued to snow on them, Jack asked, "What's your name, kiddo?"
"Irma."
"It's nice to meet you, Irma." Then becoming serious asked, "now why are you here all by yourself and at this hour?"
"I wanted to try out the new ice skates I got for Christmas," Irma said, looking down at her feet.
"By yourself?" Jack asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No one wanted to go ice skating with me." She looked away saddened.
"You have to be more careful," Jack told her. "You put your life in danger by coming out here by yourself, and at this hour when no one is around to keep an eye on you." He laid a hand on her shoulder, his eyes showing worry. "What if I wasn't here or didn't hear you scream? Something bad could've happened to you."
"I'm sorry," Irma apologized softly.
Jack smiled warmly, "How about we get you back home?"
Irma gives him a look of disappointment. "But you're here now. Can't you be the supervisor?"
Jack chuckled. "All right. Two times around, then I'm taking you home. Deal?"
She smiled happily and nodded her head.
The two began to skate; Jack glides backward on the ice in front of her to keep a watchful eye. Jack was impressed by how well she was on skates at such a young age. "Wow! You're really good at ice skating. I'm impressed."
"Thanks! I learned how to ice skate when I was four." Then she added, "That's why I thought I could come here alone because I knew how to."
Jack stopped both of them to tell her what she needed to understand as a little kid. "Irma. Just because you know how to skate doesn't mean you should do it alone. Like I said earlier, anything can still happen even if you're good at something. Such as ice breaking from under you. That there, is always hard to get out of unless there's someone there who can help you."
Irma once again looked away, but this time she was embarrassed. Her recklessness didn't allow her little mind to think of how her parents would have handled it if they found out that their only kid drowned.
"I understand," Irma replied, looking at him.
Jack felt that she knew she did wrong but wanted to hear the answer from her anyway. "Do you promise me that you will not pull this stunt again?"
"I promise." Irma looked at Jack with curious eyes. "But can I come here and ice skate with you?"
Jack had to chuckle again. This young girl sure wasn't the type to give up on doing what she loves.
"I'll tell you what. How about on Wednesdays and Fridays I pick you up from your home after you finish your homework and we can go ice skating. How does that sound?"
Irma happily bounced carefully on her skates. "Yay! That sounds fun!"
Jack let her ice skate one more round then Irma told him where she lived.
Irma rode her bike as Jack flew beside her.
Irma and her parents live in a one-story house. When Irma and Jack got to her house, the window to Irma's room was still ajar. Irma parked her bike in the front lawn, then Jack helped Irma get back in through her window. He went in after her and put her to bed. Her ice skates were already off her feet before they left the pond.
"Now get some sleep, and I'll see you in a few days," Jack said, placing the blanket over her.
"Okay. Good night."
"Good night." He said sweetly.
"I had fun. Thank you for ice skating with me." She sat up and hugged Jack once more.
As Jack hugged back, he said, "You're welcome. I had a lot of fun too."
For the next several weeks of winter, Jack and Irma both kept up their promises and ice skated every Wednesday and Friday.
It was 10 a.m. on a Saturday, the winter after, and Jack went to Irma's house to visit. He looked through her bedroom window and saw that it was empty of everything. He went to the other windows and saw the same thing, nothing.
There was no note or anything to indicate where she and her family went.
He flew to the roof and sat down, he was sad that he wasn't going to be able to take her to their favorite pond anymore, and that he didn't get a chance to find out where they moved.
They had to have moved to another snowy state! He never heard anything about them being bored of winter. Jack decided to check every state and town that got snow.
There was no sign of her.
It took, 318 years, for someone to finally see him that wasn't another Sprite. Irma was his actual first believer and friend.
He was alone again.
