AN: Hey guys! This is my first time ever attempting to write a fanfiction, so we'll see where this goes! I saw this fanart and I decided to write a story about it. milady666()deviantart()com/art/past memories 344356104 Just replace the parentheses with dots and spaces with hyphens and it'll take you to the fanart. Hope you enjoy!
It was just another cold winter's day in the small town of Burgess. Jack Overland slowly opened his eyes to hear his sister, Emma, giggling and saying something to him. "Wait, what?" He asked, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.
"Come on Jack it's time to get up! Oh and look outside IT'S SNOWING!" She exclaimed, jumping around his room. Jack giggled seeing her so excited over the simple thing of going outside to play.
"Alright, alright. Just let me have breakfast and maybe wake up a little first…" He said jokingly. He could tell she'd been waiting for a while to come and wake him up and she was about to burst if she had to wait any longer
"Nooooo Jack I wanna go now!" She whined, crossing her arms and pouting her lips. Did she seriously think that would work on him?
"Ugh fine. Just eating breakfast and getting dressed. Then we will go play. Okay?" Jack gave in. He wasn't going to make her wait anyways. He tried to hide it, but he was just as excited to go play in the snow. Even though he was sixteen years old he would never be too old for a good snowball fight. He rolled out of bed and walked out into the kitchen area to see his mom cooking and his dad crafting something out of wood but he couldn't quite tell what it was yet. "Hey Mom. What's for breakfast?"
"Leftover meat from last night." She simply replied. That's when he realized something wrong. His mom had dark circles under her eyes and looked like she hadn't gotten any sleep last night and his usually loud and obnoxious father wasn't saying a word. He didn't want to ask what was up because it didn't seem like anything he wanted to hear so he just sat at the table without another word. Emma then burst into the room trying to brush her hair and look for something at the same time.
"Mom, where's my other mitten?" She asked as she got down on all fours and looked under the couch but came back with nothing.
"Emma, you're kidding right? You just got that pair last week." Dad had finally spoken up and he didn't seem happy. Emma was always losing things but who was he to blame her? She's only eight years old. All eight year olds lose stuff constantly.
She just looked at her feet, embarrassed that she'd lost one already. "I know Dad I wore them yesterday when we went into town, but I know I had both of them when we got home…" She trailed off at the end, trying to rack her brain to remember where she saw it last. Jack started thinking too. Where could she have put the thing? Then he remembered where they found her mittens last time she lost them.
"Hey Emma, did you check the toy box?" Jack asked and his mom gave him a look.
"Why on Earth would it be in the toy box?" His mom asked, and she sounded like she was at her wits end with both him and Emma.
"I'm just asking because that's where it was last time. Jeez…" He'd said the last part under his breath but obviously his mother heard him and she shot him another death stare. My God, what was with her this morning?
Ignoring their little argument, Emma ran over to the toy box and fished out the other mitten from the bottom. "Found it!" She yelled out, completely unaware of the amount of tension in the room.
"See, what did I tell you? Let's go play now!" Jack said, unable to hold in his eagerness anymore. He got up from the table and started walking towards the coat rack until he felt a hand grab him by the shirt, pulling him back.
"Wait a second Jack. You didn't even eat your breakfast!" His mother nagged him. He just sighed and sat back down to eat a few bites of chicken.
"There, you happy?" He asked sarcastically and looked at her.
"I really don't like your attitude this morning Jackson."
"Since when do you call me Jackson?" The last time she'd called him that was when he'd fallen from a tree and almost broken his leg last summer. She was so mad at him for climbing up that high in the trees even though she knew he always did that. But that was months ago, so why was she so mad just because he didn't feel like eating breakfast?
"I just- it's nothing. Sorry. Make sure you bundle up good and be back for lunch. And no, you can't go back out after lunch because we have to go to a town meeting today. A new family came last night and is going to be living here." His mother said, already answering the question he was about to ask.
"Ugh, fine." It was already nine o'clock in the morning. That's only three hours, which is nothing for playing in the snow.
Jack and Emma put on their thick winter coats made out of bear fur. Sure they were warm, but they were so bulky and annoying that both of them took them off the second they got outside. Jack waved goodbye to his mother before opening the door and leading Emma outside with him. The snow almost reached Jack's knees and he laughed as Emma got buried in snow that went up to her thighs. She giggled and exclaimed "YAAAY SNOW!" Then she fell on her back into the snow to make a snow angel.
Jack laughed and fell next to her to make one too. He tried to get up and not ruin it but he stepped all over it trying to get up. Oh well, he could help Emma up so hers would look nice. He reached down and picked her up by the waist and she giggled the entire time. He put her down next to him so she could see the snow angels. She just laughed saying, "Jack yours looks so stupid!"
"Oh I'm going to get you back for saying that." He ditched his coat in the snow and picked up a handful of snow and started making a snowball out of it. Emma ripped off her coat too and started to run away as he began pelting her with snowballs. They laughed and threw snowballs at each other all morning until they were sitting under a tree trying to catch their breath.
Jack glanced at the lake in front of their house which was completely frozen over but he and Emma never stepped onto that ice. He knew he was just being paranoid, but all winter he would overhear his parents talking about someone falling into ice and drowning in some nearby town. He was snapped back to reality by his little sister talking to him.
"Jack, do you think its noon yet?" She asked, looking up at the sun.
Oh crap, Jack thought. He'd totally forgotten their little curfew and by the looks of it had to be closer to one. Jack groaned inwardly. Today was about the worst day to forget because his mom seemed so irritable today. He just sighed and looked over at Emma. "Pretty sure. Let's head back."
They got up and trudged through the snow back toward the house. They grabbed their coats, which were now soaked through from sitting in the snow for so long, and put them on. Jack opened the door to see that the clock on the mantle read 1:04. They were so dead.
"Where have you two been?" His dad asked, sounding calm but Jack could see in his eyes that he had been worrying about them. Their mother was not in the room, probably doing laundry or something, and Jack was relieved that he wouldn't have to listen to her nag him.
"Sorry…we got into a snowball fight and I guess I just lost track of the time." He said as he started to rub the back of his neck nervously. He really needed to stop doing that.
"Jack, if you can't be responsible and-" His dad started but Jack cut him off.
"Look Dad, I said I was sorry. Can we just drop this, please?"
"No we cannot. It's about time you stopped acting like a little child and acted more like an adult." His dad responded, obviously angry with him.
Jack rolled his eyes. His dad was always nagging him to grow up even though he was only a teenager. Pretty soon he'd be talking about how Jack should be looking for a wife just like he always did.
"Don't you roll your eyes at me boy, this is serious. If you ask me you should be looking for a good wife at your age, but I'm cutting you some slack since there aren't that many young ladies in town…" His dad continued rambling but Jack was tuning him out. He didn't want to think about marriage. It wasn't even legal for him to get married until he was seventeen anyway, so why did he always have to do this?
Jack just sat down on the couch and started picking at his nails. He noticed then that Emma had run off somewhere. She was here a second ago….
"JACK ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?" His father boomed from across the room.
He jumped at the sound of his father's yelling. "Uh…yeah. As you were saying?" He couldn't wait for this conversation to end. He hated when his dad ranted like this. Luckily though Jack's mother walked in and saved him.
"Alright Harold, that's enough. He's only sixteen you know."
Jack took advantage of the distraction to go to his bedroom. While brushing past his mom he whispered "Thank you" to her so that his father wouldn't hear. She just rolled her eyes at him as he went back to his room. He sat down on the bed and realized that there was absolutely nothing for him to do in here. Jack had only been sitting there for a few minutes and he was bored already. He opened the window and started to climb out in his bare feet and no jacket or anything to keep him warm. He had always been fond of the cold and didn't mind the below freezing air at all. But soon his luck ran out as his mom walked past his room in the hall and saw what he was doing, placing her hands on her hips. Jack froze, still standing in the window. His mom couldn't stand when he snuck out, especially underdressed like he was into the snow.
"Jack, didn't we agree you weren't going to sneak out anymore? Not to mention that we have to go to a town meeting in less than an hour." She said in an accusing tone. He knew he was totally screwed because she hadn't even started on what he was wearing.
"Yeah I know Mom but there's nothing to do here an-" He started trying to explain but she was having none of it.
"You could play a game with Emma or, I don't know, maybe spend some time with family? Would that kill you Jack?" That shut him up. He closed the window slowly and sat down on his bed staring at his hands in his lap.
"Sorry." His voice came out so quiet. He always hated that he would feel so guilty over the stupidest things. His mom came over to him and gave him a kiss on the forehead. She then opened up his dresser drawer and started rummaging through his clothes.
"You're going to have to change out of those soaked clothes and put on something warm." She said, and he gave her a scowl. She knew he hated wearing bulky warm clothes. "No buts." She added at the end. He fell back onto his bed and let out a puff of air. He could see his breath from keeping the window open for so long and got lost in his thoughts, watching the puffs of air appear and then dissipate. He really didn't want to go to this stupid meeting, but he still put on the outfit his mother laid out and got ready to leave.