Chapter 1

Jamie's POV

Here I was again; it was the same place that I had come hundreds of times before. It had become almost like a second home to me, a safe haven. It was a place that I could go to be myself, to have fun, to be left alone, or to spend time with my best friend. It is a pretty place that has a calming effect on me, a small wood on the edge of Burgess, my hometown. Granted, it was just a small lake surrounded by trees, more of a pond really, but at a time like this it was all that I had.

Why was I here, sitting in the snow by a frozen lake you might ask. Two words, Santa Clause. Well, it wasn't the big man himself exactly; it was because I had gotten into another fight at school again, it was the last school day of the year too. When you are seventeen and still get in fights over whether or not Santa is real people think that you are insane, and maybe I am.

I had learned long ago, even during elementary school, that not everybody believes in the Guardians. During middle school I was teased relentlessly and soon realized that it was better to keep my opinions to myself. High school was the real shocker, to my dismay I realized that no one, not even Monty or Caleb believed anymore. I had found out the hard way that kids in their teens who believed in Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy or even the sandman were rejected. For all that I knew, I was the only seventeen year old in the entire world who still believed in the Guardians. I'm not saying that that's a bad thing, but it comes with its disadvantages.

As I said before, I usually keep my opinions to myself, but I make exceptions. When I saw another high school student tormenting a young girl, saying that there was no Santa Clause, I had to step in. I told the teen, who just so happened to be twice my size, to shut up and leave. He left, but not before making sure that I had a bloody nose. I had wiped my nose and talked to the little girl, telling her about my adventures with, not only Santa, but all of the other guardians as well. In the end my little story time just led to more public humiliation, once again reminding me why a seventeen year old boy should keep his opinions to himself.

The sun was starting to set and my fingers were beyond numb but I still couldn't leave, not yet, I had to speak with someone first. I rose from my slouched position where I had rested my back against a tree. I rubbed my gloved hands together, exhaling into them in a vain attempt to warm up. It began to softly snow but he still wasn't here. The sun was quickly making its nightly decent beyond view; soon it would be too dark to stay out. "Come on, where is he? He's usually here by now." I whispered to no one in particular, my voice now shaky and labored from the cold.

A cracking sound, emanating from behind me, echoed into the void of the night sky. I jumped, turning around I searched for the source of the noise. "Jack?" My voice cracked and came out squeaky. "Jack Frost, if that's you I swear I …"

Before I could finish a snowball was thrown at top speed at my back, skillfully landing on my bare neck and sliding down my coat. I turned around to see Jack burst out in a fit of laughter. "Yes! Ha, I can't believe that you fell for that one … again!" He shouted his victory, obviously pleased with himself.

I smiled, despite my frozen state. My teeth chattered and I wondered what Tooth would have to say about that. "You're late." I stated flatly, which might have been funny considering that we had never planned to meet to begin with.

Jack was still hovering in midair, yet seemed to be leaning against his staff. His eyes slanted, he cocked his head to the side, and a grin spread across his face. "Oh, I see. And you are early… right?"

"Ha ha, very funny." My voice was once again flat and, I hoped, sounded unamused. "Actually, I need to ask you something." With this he perked up, his expression changed to something close to excitement. Boy, I thought, one would think that he was a two year old instead of a three hundred year old guardian. "Well, we are going to my Grandmother's for Christmas; we're actually leaving in two days. I was wondering if you could follow us out there, you know, keep me company."

A chill ran up my spine, making me realize just how cold I really was. "You look cold."

"I'm freezing! Now do you want to come or am I going to have to brave the journey on my own?" I was beginning to get annoyed, he could be so immature.

He smiled ecstatically "of course I will come with you! Wait, how long have you been sitting out here?"

I rolled my eyes and began walking back home, knowing that he would follow. "I've only been out here for, I don't know, like four and a half hours." I stated, I really didn't mind. As I said before, this place was like my second home, and I had come to love the cold winter air.

Using his staff to command the wind, Jack sped ahead of me, hovering barely a foot away. "Jamie, what's wrong?"

"I don't know what you're talking about" I lied, not wanting him to know that I had received another bloody nose because of him and his fellow Guardians

"Come on, Jamie." He pleaded. "You've been out here since school let out, what happened this time?" He demanded, obviously seeing right threw my lies.

"Well, you can thank Santa for my bloody nose. Thank Bunny for all of the nasty comments received by all of my classmates." He looked upset, "Oh yeah, and tell Tooth to be extra nice to that little girl, I think that her name was Emily."

We were now at my house. I decided to take the shortcut and slide between the loose panels in our fence like I had been doing for years. Jack jumped up and sat down on top of the fence, twirling his staff in his right hand and waving goodbye with his left. I could tell that he was trying to appear carefree, but he was obviously distressed over my current predicament. He was a great friend to me, he had become like a big brother to me. There were times when his work didn't allow him to be there for me. But like he had once told me, he would always be with me. He would even manage to visit very briefly during the summer months.

"I'll be fine Jack, don't worry about me. I've gotten into these same fights before, I can handle myself." He just stared back at me doubtfully. I turned around waving over my shoulder as I walked up the front steps.

I walked inside, leaving Jack behind. I inhaled the smell of my mom's beef roast. "Jamie Bennet, where have you been? I've tried calling at least fifteen times!" She was talking so fast that I could barely understand her. Mom looked genuinely worried, which was entirely unnecessary, considering that I would often spend hours in the woods or having snowball fights with Jack with no word.

I ripped my gloves off and reached into my coat pocket, pulling out my phone. I pressed the on button multiple times before receiving the low battery signal. I gave mom an impish smile, I didn't use my phone very often, not having any friends means not needing to call anyone.

"Oh, hi Jamie." Sophie said, leisurely strolling into the living room. Her normally unruly thick blond hair was pulled up into a single braid. She was now eleven and she still believed in the Guardians, but even I could tell that she might that she might not believe for much longer. The thought saddened me, but none of her friends believed anymore and to her, our adventures with the Guardians were nothing more than distant dreams.

Mom had retreated back into the kitchen, so I turned back to my sister, who now had an amused grin on her face. "What Soph?" I asked, knowing that something must be really funny.

"You should have seen mom!" She squeaked in an attempted whisper. "She literally freaked when you didn't answer your phone! I totally told her to chill, and that you were probably just hanging out with Jack again. But then, she was like 'which jack do I know him?' I was like, you know, Jack Frost, the winter spirit, Guardian of fun?" I rolled my eyes at her choice of words. She wanted nothing more than to be part of the 'in crowd' at school, after all she was "almost a teenager, meaning that she was almost in high school", her words not mine. I looked at the clock hanging above the couch, it was nearly eight thirty, on wonder mom was so worried.

I left for my room; it hadn't changed a bit from when I was only nine. I still kept a flashlight strategically placed on my night stand for when Tooth and occasionally Sandy came to visit, provided that their work sent them to Burgess. Realizing that my teachers didn't assign any homework over Christmas break I decided to pack for our trip. I began shoving some of my t-shirts into a bag when I heard a tapping at my window. I turned around to see none other than Jack Frost. With Baby Tooth/ I opened my window allowing them to come in, the temperature of the room instantly dropped, but I didn't mind, it was a nice cold.

"I'm all paced and ready to go." Baby Tooth chirped her agreement.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait, first off, why is Baby Tooth here?" I asked in confusion.

Jack just wore his mischievous grin, "You said that you needed company, so here we are."

What about Tooth? Wont she miss Baby Tooth?" I was now completely confused.

Baby Tooth shook her head and began to chirp rapidly. I looked to Jack, hoping that he would be able to translate. "It's all under control Jamie. " He said with a smirk "we're going with you to keep you company. Now when did you say that you were going?"

I rolled my eyes, starting to see why Bunny hated him so muck. "We're not leaving for another two whole days, come back on Monday morning." Baby tooth hung her head and looked rejected. "On second thought, she can stay. Jack, you goo make it snow somewhere."

Baby Tooth chirped her excitement, but now it was Jacks turn to look rejected. I chose to ignore him and turned around to stuff an extra pair of socks into my suitcase before a large ball of compacted snow hit me in the back. Pieces of snow flew all over the room, half of it sliding down my shirt for the second time tonight. Baby Tooth made an adorable sound that could only pass as a giggle. I wheeled around, glaring at Jack, secretly thinking that it was funny how he was now giving me sad puppy eyes in order to persuade me.

"You're pathetic, you know that, Right?" I tossed him an extra pillow that was lying on the floor next to me, I couldn't help but laugh, he was after all, my best friend. "Fine, you can stay too, but you have to sleep on the floor." I told him, suppressing yet another laugh.

He jumped up from where he was perched on my bed and fist pumped the air. "What did I tell you Baby Tooth, he's a sucker for the puppy eyes" He smiled ecstatically while throwing the pillow on the floor at the end of my bed.

Baby Tooth flitted over, landing on my suit case. I grabbed my iPod and set it on the charger, allowing it to play my favorite music, most of it is country. Jack began walking out of the room.

"Hey, where are you going?" I wanted to keep an eye on the mischievous winter spirit.

"I'm going to the kitchen, I need a drink" he called over his shoulder.

Big joke, being a spirit he didn't need to eat or drink. "leave Mom and her stuff alone" He turned around and smiled at me. More than once he had water, supper, or even the entire kitchen. On one occasion he filled the sink with snow, at the time it was funny but Mom was very upset.

I left Baby Tooth to do her own form of dance with the music, and headed after Jack. I eventually found him on the living room couch talking to Sophie. I rolled my eye and began walking top the kitchen to get a very late supper. Mom walked past me, pausing in the doorway with a strange look on her face. "What is Sophie doing?" she asked in confusion.

I now realized why she was so confused; Soph was now carrying on more than her fair share of the conversation with Jack. I still forgot that Mom didn't believe in the Guardians, no matter how much we tried to convince her that they were real. To any normal person the scene going on in the living room would seem as though Sophie was carrying on an animated conversation with herself, Mom being the only one unable to see Jack. I decided to leave for supper and let Sophie explain herself.

Around ten-thirty I found myself lying flat on my back staring at my bedroom ceiling. Jack was sleeping soundly at the foot of my bed. Baby Tooth was in Sophie's room, it took nearly half an hour of begging to convince Baby Tooth to leave Jack's side. As I stare blankly at my ceiling, I wondered if I too would have a fan club someday. Okay, so maybe I didn't want thousands of mini-fairies swarming me like they do Jack. But there is some form of longing deep inside of me, an unknown emotion that has been slowly building up. I know it sounds silly, but it's a want to love and be loved.

I dismissed the thought immediately from my mind and tried to focus on something more relevant, in two days we would be at my Grandmother's for Christmas. In two days I would be starting a whole new adventure. With that thought playing in my mind I drifted off to a deep dreamless sleep.

wreckItRalphFan: Thank you so much for reading this! I would like to dedicate this to SuperDarthKitten123, she was the one who asked me to write a story about a romance between Jamie and an OC, and without her this story would never have been written. :) She has been very encouraging throughout the entire writing process and I would like to say thank you!

I really enjoyed writing this chapter, so you will probably be seeing chapter two up soon. If you could take a minute to review I would greatly appreciate it, and it would really encourage me to continue writing faster! :)

God bless you all!