Jack Frost
A/N: This is a background/introductory piece on both Andre about 10 years before the pact to carry out Zero Day was made with Calvin Gabriel. Both Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold had older brothers, and Eric is said to have been fairly close with his when they were younger. I got some ideas going and decided to explore what it might've been like if Andre had an older brother who, at least in his early childhood, was always there when needed and truly cared about Andre. I generally try to avoid inserting OCs into canon, but in this case, I liked the ideas it involved enough to try. Hopefully I've achieved a worthwhile end result.
December 22, 1990: 3:15PM
It sure was cold out today.
Mom, or "Mutti" as Andre had long since learned to call her, had showed Andre and his big brother Jonas the thermometer stuck to the outside of the kitchen window this morning. The thin red line standing straight up that told you what temperature it was sat right next to the zero for F, or Fahrenheit. Andre asked what zero degrees meant, and Mom, and Dad (Vater/Vati) said that meant there was no going outside today.
That was when Jonas had complained. "But Dad, Josh and Danny were gonna come by and we were gonna go out on the lake!"
"It's dropped to zero very fast," Dad said solemnly. "The lake ice is not going to be thick enough yet."
"But some of it has to be, right?" Jonas protested.
"Maybe," Dad had allowed, "but there will be just as many unsafe areas out there and I very much doubt anybody's had time to go out there and mark it yet. That ice only really started forming two days ago."
"How about if Josh and Danny and me find out where the thick ice is ourselves and just stay there?"
"No, Jonas," Mom had said. "You're staying inside today."
"I was gonna take Andre ice-skating!"
"You'll do it another time," Dad answered.
"But-"
"Jonas, do not make us keep repeating ourselves!" Dad had snapped. Jonas had looked like he wanted to go on arguing some more, but then Mom and Dad made him call Josh and Danny- right there in the kitchen- and tell them they couldn't come over today.
After that, Jonas had slouched around the house sulking for a while, shut himself up in his room, but after Andre asked him a bunch of times big brother came back out and agreed to put a VHS tape on for Andre to watch.
They were still doing that an hour later when Mom and Dad announced they were going out.
XX
"Jonas, Andre?" Dad called.
"Yes, Dad?" the boys answered back, getting up as their parents came into the living room of the house, already getting their winter coats on.
"Your father and I are going out. We'll be back in a little over an hour," Mom informed them. "Jonas, I want you to run the laundry I put out, and the dishwasher. We'll start making dinner as soon as your father and I come back."
"Then can we go skating?" Andre asked eagerly; the heavy snowfall from last night and the day before fascinated him, and the black-haired seven-year-old was eager to get outside and mess up those perfect, paper-smooth drifts. It was exciting to be the first one to set foot on a bunch of freshly-fallen snow. Andre couldn't wait to do it again.
But just like Jonas, Andre's request was met with disappointment, as both Kriegman elders shook their heads.
"Not today, Andre. We'll get you both heavier winter clothes when we go shopping tomorrow and maybe you can play outside after that."
"I wanna go outside today!"
"You have to do what we say, Andre," Dad said evenly. He cracked a smile. "Maybe someday you'll be Vater and you can be giving the orders, eh?"
Andre glared and pouted, but he must not have looked very intimidating, because Dad chuckled, Mom laughed, and Jonas looked away with a guilty look on his face when Andre glanced his way. That hurt a little; Andre adored his fifteen-year-old big brother and couldn't take being laughed at by him at all. The budding soccer star put an arm around Andre's bony shoulders, though, and gave him a reassuring smile when Andre looked up. The smaller of the Kriegman boys smiled back, felt warm and happy all over his insides, and everything was all right again.
"Behave yourselves, boys," Mom said, her final admonishment as she and Dad headed for the front door.
"Yes, Mom," Jonas and Andre chorused.
Jonas turned and flopped back down on the couch, giving every appearance of going nowhere for at least, like, a half hour. Or something else that Andre counted as a really long time. But maybe five or six minutes after the boys sat back down to keep watching the 4-year-old movie Ghostbusters- which Andre absolutely loved the theme song to- Jonas suddenly sat up, stood, and raced like a bullet to the kitchen window, looking out with a view of the front yard and driveway.
"What're you lookin' for?" Andre asked, chasing after his big brother and tugging at his shirt as he ran across the kitchen and grabbed the corded phone that sat on the wall.
"Let go, Andre," Jonas said tersely, yanking his shirt away as he started poking numbers on the square thing that had the numbers on it.
"Who you callin'?"
"Just some friends, little brother," Jonas said.
"Joshandanny?"
"Ding ding ding ding!" Jonas exclaimed, reaching out and ruffling Andre's black hair. "You win a trip to the lake."
"The lake?!" Andre almost shouted. "We're going to the lake?!"
"Yes, and you better get dressed. Schnell, schnell!"
"Jawohl!" Andre barked, snapping to the position of attention and rushing off to obey, to get his snow pants, boots, coat and gloves out of the closet in the hall. The seven-year-old, in his excitement, shoved both feet through the same leg of his snow pants, and immediately realized his mistake. He started hopping around as he heard his brother talking in the kitchen.
"Josh? Yeah, it's Jonas. Call Danny and get both of you over here. I gotta get my brother dressed. Yeah, he's going with us. Now, and hurry it up."
"Ich brauch hilfe! Bitte, bitte!" Andre cried out, yelping as he fell over.
"Was geht's los, Andre?" Jonas called, coming out of the kitchen. Seeing Andre stuck in a death battle with his snow pants, the older boy just shook his head and sighed, "What am I gonna do with you?"
"Gemme outta these snow pants?"
"Yeah, all right," Jonas shrugged, and came over to help wedge Andre out of his predicament. He worked patiently and calmly despite Andre continually getting frantic and putting on abrupt spurts of intensified struggling- done out of fear that he'd mess up the plan his brother was putting together, or better yet, annoy the older boy, disappoint him, and get left behind in the house… with all these dark, dark places…
But Jonas just spoke softly to him, and somehow even guessed Andre's mood. "Don't worry," he said, smiling as he finally got Andre's left leg out, "I won't leave you here."
"Promise?" Andre asked.
"Promise," Jonas agreed. He talked to Andre some more as they got him dressed the rest of the way, smart and assuring, like always. Of course he got himself dressed in half the time, but didn't seem to mind having to help Andre beforehand at all.
The man-in-charge whenever Dad wasn't around, Jonas had picked up a lot of Gerhard Kriegman's stoic, sensible nature- along with the athletic talent of his youth and his affinity for things military, as a West German soldier of twelve years. For as long as Andre had known him, Jonas was a protector, a confidant, an ally, and friend. And just about everything he did was just too cool.
Starting when Andre was just a toddler, he had commenced every Fourth of July marching around the house with an American flag, a white t-shirt, blue jeans, and a red baseball cap, banging away with two spoons on an overturned pot he hung in front of himself with what he called "bungee cords".
The racket had not gone over well with Johannes and Gerhard Kriegman- not at first, anyway- but Jonas had not stopped observing the Fourth of July in this way, so over the years it had quickly become a sort of Kriegman tradition. One of Andre's fondest memories- one he couldn't even really remember, himself- was a VHS taping of himself, waddling along on chubby legs with an expression of utmost seriousness as he followed Jonas in a circular trip around the rooms of the first floor of the house. Jonas was banging away on his first real drum, and Andre proudly carried an American flag upright.
"Okay, Andre, time for the mission briefing," Jonas said, using his best 'serious face'- which was pretty good.
"Yessir," Andre answered.
Jonas smiled, and it delighted Andre to see his brother so clearly pleased. "We're under orders to stay confined to the barracks but there's a lake out there to go exploring. The situation's clear that we gotta get out there and come back before Mom and Dad do. Are you with me?"
"Yes, sir!"
Just then, a knock came at the door. Once, twice, then three times close together.
The pale, handsome features of Jonas Kriegman revealed a yet wider smile as Big Brother said, apparently to himself, "Now who could that be?"
He stood and headed to the door, unlocking it and opening it wide. Out on the wet front porch, heavily salted by Dad and Jonas yesterday and again this morning, stood two grinning boys in puffy winter clothes.
"Trick or treat!"
"Smell my feet!"
"Come on, guys Halloween was two months ago- hold on. How do I know you guys are really Josh and Danny?" Jonas demanded in mock-suspicion.
"Aw, Jack, quit messin' around and get your ass outside, man! We got a mission to go on!"
In making his good-natured protest, Danny used a nickname that Jonas appeared to have picked up since starting middle school. Among his friends, he went by "Jack" and "Jonas" almost interchangeably and seemed just fine with either. Andre stuck to his brother's given name, preferring to use the one he'd always known him by.
Jonas laughed, and turned to Andre, pulling on his brown, black, and green cold-weather hat, one of Dad's old ones from the Bundesheer. "Ready, Andre?"
"Yes!"
"All right, let's go."
With that, Jonas led his brother outside into the cold. Immediately Andre felt the urge to zip his coat up righter, but upon trying to do so found he'd already done so. Jonas would not have left such a detail unattended before leaving. His big brother and his two friends, with Andre trailing along, headed around the side of the house, commenting that the additional snow that was forecast for tonight would be helpful in covering their tracks.
Andre, of course, stayed out of their Big Kid Talk, aware he should be careful and not do anything to make them regret bringing him along. He'd have his chance to be included once they got where they were going. Then they'd get to play, and Andre would show them how much fun he was to have around. Then Jonas' friends would want to play with Andre, too.
The snow was thicker and taller than Andre had anticipated, and that turned out to be a problem. Andre kicked and stomped at the snow, and as it tried to bog him down and make it hard to keep up with the bigger, taller guys, he got angrier, wanting to punish it for trying to mess up his day. The snow thought it could keep him from having fun with Jonas? Well, it had another thing coming!
That plan didn't work out but so well, though. After a few minutes of stomping and kicking, Andre noticed the three teenagers' voices weren't so close anymore. He looked up. They were getting away! Andre cried out in fear, not wanting to be left behind, and forgot all about punishing the snow. He took the biggest strides he could, hurrying along awkwardly, not even noticing that his brother and his friends had stopped and were turning back to look at him. So consumed was Andre with trying to catch up that he didn't notice the long, 12-inch-wide lump running along in the snow as he headed downhill. That fallen tree had been in the backyard for years, and Dad had always liked how it marked one section of the boundary perfectly. Andre ran into it with one foot, then the other, and instantly was thrown forward and went down on his face.
"Andre! Andre!" Jonas cried out, and already Andre could hear his brother had gotten close to him, very fast. Well, it made sense, with those longer legs of his. Andre, who already felt guilty about making Jonas dress him again at seven years old, made himself pop up out of the snow. He jumped up and grinned- which was easy to do, since he was completely unharmed, just cold from getting a face-full of snow.
"I'm okay! Andre Kriegman's good to go, sir!"
The three teenage boys smiled, laughing in those deep, rumbling voices they were rapidly acquiring at fourteen and fifteen.
"Nice work on the recovery, Tiny Man," Josh said approvingly. He and Danny, two of Jonas' best friends, sometimes called Andre that. He was so-so about that name, but put up with it because he wanted to have a good image with Jonas' friends. There were a lot of them, and they all seemed so cool. Andre secretly wondered if he'd ever be able to be as naturally likeable as Jonas had always been.
All his life, Andre's older brother had been outgoing, easily making friends. He'd taken several moves in stride, rebuilding his social circle each time. Jonas was always trying to encourage Andre to make friends himself, never failing to mention when a friend of his had a younger brother or sister who was around Andre's age. But making friends had never come as easy to Andre as it had to Jonas. Nonetheless, Jonas never seemed to lose faith in Andre's prospects for getting a good circle of friends. He never seemed to lose faith in Andre at all.
"You sure you're okay?" Jonas asked, kneeling in front of Andre and brushing snow and bits of ice from his brother's face. Andre looked at his older brother, marveling once more at how much it looked like his own- the two boys were similar enough in appearance that had they been born closer together they might have been taken for twins.
"Andre."
The younger boy started; he'd 'spaced out' for a second there. "Yep, I'm okay," the seven year old said, nodding confidently.
"Nothing hurts, no cuts or anything?"
"Nope."
Jonas smiled. "Want a piggyback ride?"
"Sure!" Andre agreed at once.
"Come on, then, little brother," Jonas said, turning around. Andre promptly hopped up on his back and hung on. "Hey! Can I feel your muscles?" Jonas was pretty strong- he did a lot of exercise so he could be good at playing sports- and Andre thought the thick, powerful muscle of his big brother's shoulders was just so amazing.
Jonas laughed. "I don't think you're gonna be able to feel 'em under this snow jacket. Let's do that when we get back to the house."
"Okay."
The eldest of the Kriegman boys stood, Andre clinging tightly to him, and the procession continued downhill. Everything was so quiet, so still; the snow muffled everything. Andre's heart raced with excitement. He just couldn't wait to see the ice out on the lake. They made their way through the woods, moving more quickly now that Andre was catching a ride. Once again, Jonas had made the right decision, and Andre felt glad for having trusted him. It was, by now, a highly familiar feeling.
XX
It was as impressive as Andre had thought it would be. A virtually endless sea of white and gray stretched out into forever from the snow-laden, ice-encrusted shore. No other footprints could be seen. Nobody else had been out to this spot; at least, not today.
"Wow," Danny said.
"Fuck!" Josh exclaimed suddenly.
"Dude," Jonas said, in clear tones of disapproval, "Andre's still here, man."
Andre made a mental note
"We forgot skates!"
All four boys looked at each other in silence for a few moments.
"You gotta be kidding me," Jonas said. "Somebody tell me we didn't forget four pairs of skates."
"Nope," Danny said. "We forgot 'em all."
"Now what?" Josh burst out, angry and frustrated. "I guess all we can do now is stand here and piss on the ice!"
Jonas knelt and gently started to shrug Andre off his back. The seven-year-old took the hint and hopped off, and Jonas stood and looked at his blond friend.
"Josh, if it will make you stop saying bad words around my little brother, you got it."
And with that he walked carefully out on the first two feet of ice, fumbled around for a few moments as he pulled aside layers of winter clothes. Then Andre heard a zipper and saw a stream of liquid come pouring out on the ice. Jonas was standing there, both legs planted on ground he could slip and fall on at any moment, urinating on the ice.
"Wow," Danny said again.
"Awesome," Josh muttered, cracking a smile and shaking his head in disbelief.
Andre just stood there and watched the whole thing. This was indeed awesome. Jonas was definitely showing that lake who was boss.
When Jonas finished and zipped himself back up, he turned carefully around, planting both hands on his hips. "Josh, I want you to know that I got somethin' that's colder than you-know-what and I sure hope you're happy now."
"How 'bout you take a sh-" Josh started, but Jonas interrupted him.
"Josh!"
"Oh. Uh, sorry," Josh said, casting a guilty glance toward Andre.
"Bet you won't go further out on that ice," Danny said, in clear tones of making a dare.
"Oh, yeah?" Jonas asked skeptically. "How much?"
"I bet you my favorite book."
Danny, Josh, and Jonas all laughed; Andre frowned in confusion, unsure of what was suddenly so funny about a book, or why Danny had placed such peculiar emphasis on the word.
"Okay, you're on," Jonas said, turning carefully around, facing back out towards the ice.
Andre, aware that his brother was being dared now, hurried forward and got out on the ice too. He wanted to "do a recon" and go ahead as a scout. He'd make sure the ice was safe for Jonas. As Andre headed out there, he slipped, fell, but forced himself up again, and surprised himself by quickly getting the hang of sliding out on the ice by moving his feet along, keeping them on the ice the whole time. He slid past Jonas, who exclaimed in surprise along with Danny and Josh. Before he knew it, Andre was going farther than he'd meant to, and suddenly turned around and fell. As he looked around, he caught sight of Danny and Josh on the shore, and Jonas, who for once had been too surprised to move.
Then came a crack, a snap, the two sounds so loud, so close together, that he knew Jonas, Josh and Danny had heard them. Andre realized he was looking at fear on his older brother's face. Fear- from Jonas, who was the first to try anything reckless, first to take any dare. Fear and Jonas were not well acquainted.
When the second crack came from the ice beneath and around Andre, though…
Once that happened, the look on his brother's face was terror.
XX
The look vanished as quickly as it had come, though; the first time Andre blinked, the fear written all over his brother's face was gone. Jonas instead looked intensely focused, and he immediately began moving toward Andre on the ice.
"Don't!" Andre cried, standing absolutely still as the ice cracked again, going off like a gunshot. He knew he was going to go through the surface soon. With the frigid cold biting at him out here, what it was like below the water Andre didn't even want to imagine. Yet he stood rooted to the spot, frozen in place like the deer staring, immobile, at the lights of the oncoming truck that is bound to kill it. Andre couldn't seem to think of anything else to do.
"Don't worry, Andre," Jonas said calmly, continuing to edge slowly but steadily towards his younger sibling. "Hey, you wanna know a secret?"
"Wh-what?" Andre responded, trembling and sniffling, starting to cry.
"Come on, you love secrets, you always wanna know mine," Jonas said, cracking a smile and laughing. "So I'll tell you one. But only if you really wanna hear it. You wanna hear it, Andre?"
"Mm-hm," Andre nodded, abruptly deciding he didn't want to look anywhere but his brother's eyes. He was dead. He knew it. But maybe Jonas was going to get him out of here. It looked like he was going to try.
"I'm not just your brother. I'm Jack Frost. You know who he is, right? He's in charge of the cold. The ice won't break, Andre. Not while you're still out here. It's not gonna break because I haven't told it to."
"This is just another one'a your games, Jonas!" Andre suddenly shouted, wishing he could stop being so terrified, could stop crying so much because of the way the wind painfully stung his tears. "You're always playing games and it's not funny! It's not!"
"No," Jonas said, still making his way towards Andre, still speaking in that calm, assuring voice. "no game. My name's Jack Frost and I'm in charge of all the ice on this lake. I'm here to get you out of here."
"Make the ice stop cracking, then!" Andre cried out.
Jonas' smile turned nervous all of a sudden. "Uh, well, me and the ice are gonna have to talk about this later, okay? I want you to do something. I want you to take two steps towards me."
More cracks in the ice, multiple gunshots. Andre made a low, helpless whining sound. It was a sound of pure fear.
Andre's big brother abruptly looked down at the noise and saw the ice was rapidly starting to give way beneath his feet. Andre saw it too and screamed. "Get out!" he yelled, waving his brother back towards shore, where Josh and Danny stood rooted to the spot, jaws and eyes wide open. "Get outta here!"
"My job's not done yet," Jonas said tersely. He lowered his voice as he got closer still; he wasn't far from arm's reach now. Almost talking to himself, he said, "All I've ever wanted to be is a soldier. Nothing else. And soldiers, they protect people. You know that, don't you, Andre?"
Andre nodded again.
"Well, today, we're both soldiers. I'm gonna grab you and throw you across the ice in a second here. I want you to just try and land on your stomach and lift your feet and arms. Just do a smooth slide right towards shore."
Crack. Crack! POW!
Andre whimpered.
"Andre," Jonas said, and steel was now coming into his voice. "forget the ice. Forget it. Just listen to me." He edged closer still. Crack, crack, crack… Jonas' voice grew softer as he looked down at Andre. "I need you to make that slide for home plate like this is baseball. I need you to do that for me. All right?"
"Okay," the seven-year-old managed to say, not feeling confident at all. He felt so horrible. He'd tried to be cool and daring like Jonas, reckless and defiant of the odds, and all he'd done was not only dig himself in a deep, dark hole, he'd forced Jonas, yet again, to come down and get him out of it. They were seconds from going in together. All he'd done was kill his brother, too.
"It's time," Jonas said, like it was just a normal day. Like it was time to go out to eat or see a movie, any number of regular things. How was he so calm when everything was going wrong?
POW. A big crack, one that seemed to go on for quite some length along the ice. It sounded as if it carried along the whole surface of the lake.
"Just land on your stomach and slide. Just be brave and do it. Can you do that, little brother?"
"Okay," Andre said, nodding. He didn't think he could do it at all.
Without another word Jonas picked Andre up like the seven-year-old weighed nothing, bent low, and tossed Andre clear through the air a couple feet above the ice. The terrified, crying little boy nonetheless tried desperately to straighten himself out and keep his legs and arms up when he landed. Hitting the ice after a few seconds, Andre instead landed in a jumbled mess, but he was going forward fast enough when he landed that he kept on sliding anyway. When he slowed down and finally stopped, he was almost to shore. Andre stood up, fell, stood up, fell again, and in a panic slipped and slid the rest of the way to shore.
Then he stood up, on solid ground once more, and turned to yell for Jonas.
"I'm here, little brother!" Jonas laughed, grinning easily, like he didn't have a care in the world. He had turned and was starting to inch his way back across the ice. "See? I told you the ice would hold for you!"
"Get outta there, man!" Josh shouted, snapping out of whatever trance-like state he'd been in. "Get outta there! Are you crazy?"
"Hey, man, it's no big deal!" Jonas said, still grinning. "Stay calm, guys." He stood to his full height for a moment, planting his feet wide apart and his hands on his hips. "You see, everybody? I'm-"
Then the ice broke beneath him and Jonas disappeared under the freezing water.
XX
They had to grab him and fight to keep him from going back out on the ice. Both of them. Andre wasn't as strong as Jonas, not even close, but that day, it took two athletic teenagers to stop him from going back out there to get his brother.
Jonas resurfaced after a few seconds, gasping and flailing, but his hands slid and slipped every time he tried to grab the broken edges of the ice.
"Oh, Jesus Christ, we're all fucked," Josh said almost calmly.
"What the hell do we do, man?" Danny asked.
"Shit. Shit, I-I dunno. I dunno what-what- I dunno!"
"Get offa me!" Andre suddenly yelled, elbowing one and kicking the other. He broke loose and bolted for the ice, throwing himself flat and sliding out to the wide hole in the shattered ice where Jonas had fallen in. Josh cried out and ran after him, and he felt the older boy grab onto his legs with both hands as he neared the edge.
"Get off!" Andre shouted again, looking back at him.
Jonas had gone under again. Andre looked back to see the surface smoothing out, unbroken by a struggling, desperate human, and bawled his brother's name at the top of his lungs.
Behind him, Josh was yelling at Danny to get his ass out here, grab his legs like he was doing with Andre. But the black-haired kid didn't care about that. He cared that Jonas had disappeared. He stared in horror at the dark water, yelling for his brother, willing him to reappear.
Suddenly an arm broke the surface, raising a knife high. Andre yelped and Josh jerked him back, but the knife slammed down into the ice safely away from the little kid, almost a foot from the water's edge. Jonas hauled himself partway out with one arm, looked to Andre, and held out a hand.
Andre frantically scrambled towards him, and the two brothers clasped hands with each other. One hand, then both, as Jonas let go of his knife.
"He's got 'im! He's got 'im!" Josh screamed over his shoulder at Danny. "Pull, pull, pull!"
The entire human chain was yanked backward as Danny Collins and Joshua Foster put all their strength into moving back to shore, and the moment Danny got both feet on solid ground, he stood and pulled them the rest of the way. Even when he'd crawled to shore himself, Jonas couldn't seem to stand. Every inch of him was soaked with freezing-cold water. He stared straight ahead, looking back out at the lake, arms wrapped around his knees.
Nobody spoke for a few moments. They all sat there, breathing hard, unable to believe how quickly this had gone from a fun, carefree and rule-defying venture to actively toying with death.
"I think we better call 911," Josh said, breaking the brief silence.
"But that's death-" Danny protested.
"We're dead already, Danny," Jonas broke in, speaking rapidly and tersely, as if he could not easily talk. Incredibly for someone whose clothes were soaked through- and in fact, getting tinged with white frost as the water in and on them started to freeze- Jonas stood slowly but steadily to his feet. "It's 1990. N-nobody c-c-carries phonesss in their p-pockets. We g-gottta get back to the hou-house."
Jonas started walking slowly towards the base of the hill, and when he reached it, surely knowing of the long and difficult walk it would be in this heavy snow, Jonas didn't even hesitate. He just kept plodding forward.
Danny and Josh both tried to make Jonas take off his jacket and take theirs, but the teen just shrugged them off, insisting they needed them. He had lost his hat in the water, and his soaking wet, jet-black hair was starting to freeze.
"You're gonna die out here, man," Danny said, pleading. "I'm dry at least. Take my coat."
"It's-s-s only a l-iiitle farther," Jonas said, stuttering badly as he walked. "I can do this."
"Not if you stay soaked like this! It's fricking zero degrees out! I'm freezing my ass off, do you have any idea what's happening to you?" Josh burst out.
"K-keep it c-c-cool, k-killer," Jonas said, laughing. "Es ist nicht so schlecht."
"What?"
Andre, who had stayed at his brother's side this whole time, knew that Jonas was thinking their best chance was to just get up the hill and get inside. He was insisting on letting everyone else keep their clothes because he was concerned more about their safety than his. The chattering of his teeth and that terrible stutter frightened Andre, but he knew Jonas was going to do this or go down trying. Somehow, he had faith that the cold wasn't going to win this one. Jonas would make it. So he grabbed Jonas' bare left hand- his gloves had also gone missing, possibly pulled off by Jonas himself as he made that last-ditch attempt to burst out of the water- and clasped it tightly.
"Du kannst es machen," Andre said.
They were about a quarter of the way up the hill. Jonas was pale, shivering, and visibly struggling to make every step. But his features livened up as Andre took his hand and offered that encouragement, and Jonas nodded. "Danke, kleiner Bruder."
"I wish they'd stick to English for Chrissakes."
"You g-g-guys weren't born in Germany," Jonas forced out, continuing to make his way through the thick drifts. He chuckled weakly. "You missed out."
There was an odd slurring to his words in that last sentence. Andre wished he could get Jonas to take one of his friends' dry coats, but he'd gone into that frigid water on a day where it was zero degrees out as the high for the day. What had that water done to him? What was it doing to him? Was it going to do any good whether he put on a dry jacket or not as long as he was outside in this dangerously cold air?
Jonas struggled uphill through the snow, saying less and less as the minutes went by, and what he did say became halting and confused.
Eventually, the shivering got bad enough that Jonas reluctantly allowed Josh and Danny to peel off his ice-encrusted coat and work on Josh's instead. Andre promptly offered to climb onto Josh's back and hold on to help keep him warm. Josh agreed, so Andre reluctantly let go of his brother's hand.
They had almost made it into the back yard, after a slow, steady walk that took close to twenty minutes. Jonas didn't seem to be able to look anywhere except where he was going, and responded to almost nothing his friends of brother said. He did, though, laugh when Josh asked what the hell the whole "Jack Frost" thing had been about.
"Just trying to b-break the t-tension, man," he said.
Then, as they got close to the back door, Jonas said, remarkably clearly, "Key's under that pot next to the door. You should get inside, guys. It's pretty cold out here."
And as Andre hopped down off Josh's back, Jonas, whose soaked black hair was almost frozen in place at that point, went down on his knees, dropped forward into the snow and passed out.
XX
December 31, 1990
Jonas was out for the next two days. He slept pretty much the entire time, while the hospital worked to undo the damage that going into the lake and then being outside all that time afterward had done. In particular, they had to make sure the frostbite he'd picked up didn't do any more than some surface damage, and that the hypothermia he'd picked up didn't get the best of him. The situation was pretty serious for several days, but Jonas was able to see visitors on the 27th, and he came home on the 30th.
There would be consequences for what Jonas had gotten everybody else to do. He'd be completely grounded for the next six months and partially for the next twelve. Both boys would get a stern talking to about doing what their parents said, how reckless and irresponsible Jonas had been. But after Danny and Josh and Andre had all told their stories, the way Jonas had saved Andre's life- it had been enough, at any rate, to keep anybody from going to the gallows. Josh and Danny were even allowed to stay friends with Jonas, though the Kriegman family moved another two times before Jonas graduated high school in 1993.
Jonas' nickname became nearly permanent among his friends after that, even following him to his next two high schools. After December 1990 he was "Jack Frost", the ballsy, overconfident, caring kid who took his brother out to go ice skating with no skates, walked across cracking ice and threw his brother clean to the other side, fell in himself, and came back out again. Andre, of course, worshipped the ground Jonas walked on after December 22. It was an impression he would never quite lose of his brother- the towering, fearless hero- but the two Kriegman brothers would grow apart somewhat as Jonas, after getting himself through college in three years instead of the usual four, made good on his word and threw himself into his career as a commissioned officer. He was rarely home after joining up, and over the next ten years Andre and Jonas would go on to live increasingly different lives. Just how different they became surprised both of them in the end.
But that was later, much later. Not now.
For today, the last day of 1990, everything was all right. Jonas had come home, though he was still pale and tended to fall asleep if he sat down anyplace comfortable. He was back, and for Andre, that was like being witness to the returning home of a rock star.
Right now, it was an hour before midnight. Andre knew it for sure; he'd just looked at the clock. The family had agreed to stay up just long enough to say farewell to 1990, and welcome in the new year. Dad was in particularly good spirits, being surprised but pleased to have witnessed both the reunification of his birth country, West Germany, with the communist-dominated East, and the end of the Cold War.
It was an optimistic time, said the reporter guy on the color television Mom had set aside the money to buy last year. 1990 had gone well, and there was every reason to hope 1991 would be even better.
Andre wasn't really listening, though. He was busy listening to Mom conversing cheerfully with Dad in German in the kitchen, and to Jonas, head leaned into one of the soft pillows, snoring quietly with his pale features lit colorfully by the warm glow of the towering tree set up in the living room.
It was a real one, standing in a bucket of water, stabilized one way or another by some stuff Dad and Jonas had done. Andre wasn't too sure how it all worked. But the tree stood up just fine, and the dozens of white electric lights Jonas and Andre had draped it in looked beautiful. Everything was as it should be.
Not quite everything, though. Andre nudged his brother, who started and sat up. "Hey, I was just closing my eyes, man," he said, smiling a little.
"For half an hour?"
"Sure."
Andre looked up at him, still worried for Jonas but unsure how to say it. He'd been fussing over Jonas ever since he'd come home, trying to bring him cookies, strudel, orange juice, another pillow, crackers, or anything else he thought his brother might need every half hour.
"What's on your mind, kleinen Bruder?" Jonas asked. "You're thinking of something."
"It's just- I gotta be the big brother right now. Cause you're really tired and everything." Andre looked away, sighing. "It's hard work."
Jonas put an arm around Andre's shoulders, and smiled warmly when the black-haired seven year old looked up at him.
"Habe keine angst, Andre," he said. "You do fine."
"Why'd you do all that for me?" Andre asked suddenly, keeping his voice down- he wanted this to between just him and Jonas. Him and the hero and idol of his life, Jack Frost.
Jonas, of course, immediately knew what Andre meant. With a little encouragement, Andre scooted closer and put his head on Jonas' shoulder, thickening with the muscle of a growing athlete and soldier. Jonas seemed to know how to do everything. Andre just hoped he'd be even half as cool, half as confident, when he got to middle school and high school and turned into a teenager.
"I'll tell you why I did it, Andre," Jonas said, also speaking quietly. "You're worth it. You're gonna be something amazing someday. Everybody'll know who you are."
"Aw, come on," Andre said, burying his face in his brother's shoulder, his face red with embarrassment.
"It's true, kleinen Bruder," Jonas said earnestly, gently turning Andre's face up to look into his. "You're gonna really be somebody. One day. I just hope I'm there to see it."
"You will be," Andre said fiercely, humbled and flattered by praise and confidence from a supercool brother whose faith he probably didn't deserve. At seven, Andre had no idea whether he'd amount to anything. Making it to the next grade was more than enough to keep him busy. But maybe Jonas was right. He sure seemed sure of himself. Andre frowned, and said, "Why wouldn't you be there when I get all famous?"
Jonas turned more solemn. "Being a soldier's a dangerous job, little brother."
"And you'll be the best at it," Andre said hotly. "Nobody'll ever hurt you 'cause you'll schlag them good and-"
"Okay, I believe you," Jonas said gently, easing Andre down from his tirade. "Thanks for believing in me."
"Zu immer," Andre said.
"Thanks," Jonas responded, smiling, both at his brother's affection for him and for the seamless way the brothers could switch between languages without even thinking about it.
"Anytime," Andre told him, also in English.
"It's early, but Happy New Year, little brother."
"Happy New Year, Jack Frost."
The two brothers smiled.
They sat there for a while like that, having not a care in the world. Eventually, Mom and Dad rejoined them, and they all raided the tray of sugar cookies. Nestled up against his brother with a bunch of warm cookies in his belly, Andre started getting a little sleepy himself. He made it until 11:45, when his eyes began closing increasingly often, and by midnight he was sleeping soundly.
A/N: I make a number of references here. For one thing, the movie itself gets alluded to a few times. The introverted, even generally angry person Andre becomes is hinted at with the way he gets sort-of actually angry with the snow for getting in his way and decides to kick it in retribution. I also make some general references to how he grows up to be a much more introverted, less social person than the OC older brother of Jonas- and Andre is not a particularly social person in Zero Day. The 2012 film Rise of the Guardians is alluded to here; Jonas Kriegman earns his nickname in much the same way that the character of Jack Frost assumed that role in the movie. And like the Rise of the Guardians character, Jonas gladly put himself in mortal danger in order to save his younger sibling. An ironic difference is that the character of Jack Frost had been out skating with his parents' permission; Jonas Kriegman knowingly disregarded his parents' instructions and led Andre out onto the ice anyway. The irony is that Jonas Kriegman made it out and the character of Jack Frost, whose original name is unknown, did not.
Major General George S. Patton, IV, the largely-unknown two-star general and son of the legendary American general of World War II fame, George S. Patton, Jr. (technically the third George Smith Patton, hence his son's name), once said "Ever since I was a child I never wanted to be anything else but a soldier." I have chosen to make Jonas Kriegman the same type. Independent-thinking, given to selflessness and athletics, and always self-assured. Some people really are inclined to be soldiers, sailors, Marines or airmen from an early age. If there is such a thing as a born soldier, these guys are it. So while Jonas recklessly gets himself and his brother into trouble, he also does a masterful job, all told, of getting them out of it.
The German teenager Martin Peyerl, who shot himself on November 1, 1999, after going on a shooting rampage from the bedroom window of his house in Bad Reichenall, Bavaria while his parents and sister were out of the house, left evidence that he was inspired by what Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold did. Nothing exists in canon that Mr. Kriegman was in the military, or that he's even originally from Germany. But with an accent like that, I decided to go ahead and make him a former West German- though for all I really know about accents, he could be Austrian, Swiss or some kind of French. But anyway, the connection to Martin Peyerl is that I made Gerhard Kriegman a twelve-year German Army veteran, same length of time as Rudolf Peyerl served. Unlike Herr Peyerl, Herr Kriegman is not a firearms enthusiast, or else Andre would have stolen his firearms for Zero Day instead of those of his cousin, Chris.
Probably the most significant hint at the future, a reference- totally unknowingly- to what Andre Kriegman will become, is at the end, as Jonas makes that glowing little speech to his brother about how confident he is that Andre will become someone famous and significant. Jonas may just have a hunch about that somehow, but mostly he's simply expressing supreme confidence that Andre will make something of himself in life. By expressing genuine faith in Andre, Jonas is encouraging his brother to get out there, even at seven years old, and take life head-on, work hard to become whoever he wants to be. It is ironic and even a bit chilling that Andre does become something so extraordinary that Jonas could never have imagined it. One wonders if Jonas would remember having said this as a middle schooler when Andre kills himself 10 years later.
The Harris family has some military history- Eric's father was career Air Force while his older brother commissioned into the Army at some point- so I have both my OC of Jonas and Herr Kriegman be military. Andre's father being a former soldier doesn't need to be seen as changing canon at all. Many veterans, including those who have served 10 years or more, do not wear their service on their sleeves and you might not ever guess that they were in at one time unless they bring it up. Whatever he does in America (I deliberately left that unspecified, like the film does) Mr. Kriegman has put his service behind him and doesn't make a big deal about it.
This is meant to be both a serious and a sentimental story, showing Andre Kriegman at a simpler time in his life when he was genuinely happy- much more so than he would be later on in high school. Both Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris had pretty normal and happy childhoods. In elementary school, they did well enough overall and were pretty much like any other kids. It was around middle school onward where things started to change. I've depicted Andre and Calvin the same way.
The presence of such a caring and outgoing older brother, one might think, would quite possibly cause drastic change in Andre's personality, social life, and his eventual fate. But keep in mind Eric Harris' older brother was much more outgoing and athletically talented, and it does not at all appear to have much rubbed off on Eric. Jonas Kriegman, as much as he cares, will turn out to be a very different person from Andre in the end. Even in 1990 I show them as being different, with allusions to Jonas being the outgoing, confident, "cool" one, while Andre mostly keeps to himself- certainly that's what his more natural inclination is. And once Jonas leaves the house and is no longer a part of Andre's daily life, Andre will develop on his own into someone who could hardly be more different. I doubt either Eric's older brother or my OC of Andre's older brother ever saw that coming. I do not think you can fairly blame them for that.
I am no expert on what exactly the effects on water are when its near or at zero degrees (exactly how quick and rapidly ice forms on a lake, namely), on frostbite, or on the effects of falling into a lake in that kind of weather. I don't even know if Jonas' way of saving himself- getting out his pocket or survival knife and plunging it hard into the ice (which luckily holds him)- would even work. But I did the best I could to make it all believable enough, one way or the other. I apologize for any inaccuracies.
Some German is used here and there, less than could have been used. I did my best to make the German accurate but couldn't really provide translations in the story itself. You can either figure meanings out from context or use a translator. Andre is shown in the film to speak fluent German as his parents do. The Kriegman elders presumably come from Germany, as would Jonas given how much older he is.
Andre remarking "It's hard being a big brother," in light of taking care of a briefly weakened Jonas, and Jonas' response, "You do fine," is a reference to a strip in the Calvin and Hobbes comics series by Bill Watterson, when Calvin's mom gets sick briefly and Calvin tries his best to help take care of her. He remarks that "It's hard to be a mom," and she response, "You do fine, sweetie."
The boys forgetting the ice skates was not intended to be written into the story. I wrote it up to the point where they get to the lake and the skates are brought up, realized I had forgotten to mention them being brought along by anybody, and made an on-the-spot decision to have all the pairs of skates forgotten at home by all four boys. It was abrupt and not at all planned to have it happen that way in the story, but I kind of liked the idea of going forward with it like that, so I did.