A/N: this was my first RotG fanfic, and I had it posted a while ago before accidentally deleting it, so here it is again. :)
It was truly a silly little game. Jackson knew that. Penny wasn't even his sister's actual name! Rebecca Overland was. But Penny had seemed like the perfect nickname for Jackson to give the girl after the little incident…
Six-year-old Rebecca 'Becky' Overland squealed with delight as she tugged her brother along, eager to reach the pond. "C'mon, Jack!" she whined in a high voice. "I wanna go swimming!"
Jackson chuckled at the girl's eagerness. "I'm coming! Stop tugging on my sleeve, though, you'll tear the arm right off!"
Suddenly, the tugging stopped; and while Jackson thought maybe she had decided to obey him for once, Becky dropped to the ground and screamed, "Yeah!"
"What?" Jackson looked down just in time to see Becky pop something into her mouth. Seconds later, the girl whimpered and gagged the flat, round object out. "Yuck, yuck, yuck!" she squealed, spitting and trying to get the foul, metallic taste off her tongue.
Jackson raised an eyebrow and bent over to see what she had spat out. Immediately, as soon as he saw it, his eyes lit up. "Becky, you found a penny! That's money!"
Becky, however, could care less, because that thing had tasted awful. "I thought it was a candy," she whispered timidly, frowning.
Jackson stared at her for a moment… and then burst out laughing hysterical. "Ha, ha! You tried eating a penny?"
"It's not funny, Jack!"
"Yes it is!"
"No it's not!"
"Yes, it is!" Jackson kept insisting. "You can use a penny to buy a whole sack of candy, but you don't eat it! You've seen money before, Becky."
Becky pouted. "But I'm hungry. It looked like candy."
"But it's not!"
"I know that!"
"Obviously, you didn't."
"Jack!"
Eventually, he decided the teasing had gone on long enough, and he ruffled his sister's chocolate hair. "Hey, I'll tell you what. We can swim, and then either do two things: we can buy you a whole sack of candy with this, or I'll show you a trick to make it really, really shiny, and you can save it for a special occasion."
The girl thought hard about this. It had been so long since she'd tasted candy; but at the moment, the penny's bad taste still burned on her tongue, and she thought about Jack teaching her about how to make the rusty old coin shiny. "Show me the trick, Jack!"
"Okay then. After swimming."
They spent the day at the pond, and when evening rolled around, Jackson took a spoonful of apple butter, and told Becky to leave it there until she fell asleep. Around 9pm that night, the Overland siblings were about to fall asleep when Becky remembered her penny. She took it out of the butter, and gasped with delight when the moonlight sparkled on the coin, which looked like new.
"Eek! Look at it, Jack! Look! Look! Look!"
Sleepily, Jackson opened his eyes and smiled at her. "Look's good, doesn't it."
Becky nodded, and then hopped back into bed, the coin tucked under her pillow so she wouldn't lose it. "Thanks, Jack." Her voice sounded tired as her eyelids finally began to droop.
Jack closed his eyes, but before he could sleep, Becky asked one more question. "Jack, would you rather have candy, or a bright, shiny penny?"
Jack peeked through one half-raised eyelid. He saw the bright, happy, content look on his sister's face, and replied, "A penny any day."
Of course, after that incident, it seemed only logical (at the time) that Jackson began calling Becky Penny instead. He liked that name better, loved the way it rolled on his tongue rather than Rebecca. And Penny always responded to that name too. She would follow her brother around as if he were just the greatest boy to walk the Earth, always listening to what he said – even if he did always prank and tease her.
The incident also hatched a new game for the pair. It was that silly little thing that children think up of on the spot. "A quarter or a penny?" the girl would ask, and Jackson would always reply, "A Penny any day!"
"New shoes or a penny?" "A Penny any day!"
"A horse or a penny?" "A Penny any day!"
But whenever Jackson spoke, he meant Penny as his sister, not a coin, and the girl would always know that her brother was talking about her. Because she was precious to him, she knew that, and he would always protect her. She still had that penny, too, even after six years.
She had it tucked into her dress pocket (it would bring her good luck, she believed) when she and Jackson headed out one winter morning to go ice skating. The whole way there, she hollered "A gun or a penny?" or "A ship or a penny?" and the answer was always, "A Penny any day!" The game hadn't grown old, even after six years. Just like the girl and her penny.
Jackson meant it. He would chose his sister over anything life threw at him. She was everything to him. So the fear that crawled up his spine and paralyzed his mind later on that day was understandable.
The cracks were barely audible at first, unheard over the sound of Penny's laughter as she skated around. Jackson had walked onto the ice, watching her do twirls around him as he prepared to strap on his skates. His bare feet were a bit numb from the cold, but being a rebellious fourteen-year-old, Jackson simply refused to wear shoes.
It wasn't until the twelve-year-old girl had skated only a few feet away from him when they both heard it. The blood-chilling CRACK! that sent both children gasping and looking down. A spider web of cracks had appeared in the ice underneath Penny's skates.
Jackson couldn't describe the fear that numbed him all over as he looked into the terrified eyes of the girl. Penny stood there, afraid to move even slightly for fear of falling through the thin ice. "Jack, I'm scared!"
"I know, I know." Jackson was so grateful that he could still talk despite his growing panic. He managed to keep his voice low, and his face void of any fear as he looked at his sister. "Don't look down, just look at me. Don't worry – you're not going to fall through." His mind raced as he tried to think of a way to keep the girl from panicking. "You know what? We're going to have a little fun instead!"
"No we're not!" Penny cried out, near tears. She didn't want to die, oh please God, she didn't want to fall through. She had never been so petrified in her entire life.
She couldn't believe that Jackson was actually smirking at her. "Would I trick you?" He was teasing her!"
"Yes!" she shouted, almost angrily. "You always play tricks!" She didn't want to joke around now. Could he see that the ice was cracking underneath her.
"Not this time." Jackson lowered his voice so that it was comforting and soothing – the same tone he used when he told Penny bedtime stories at night. He was so terribly, bitterly afraid inside, because he could feel tiny cracks beginning to form underneath his own feet as well; but he had to remain calm, for Penny's sake. "This time…this time…" He looked for the right words to say, when an idea popped into his mind. "…I know! Let's play hopscotch, like we do every day!"
Penny's eyes widened, and Jackson took a cautious step forward, wincing when a loud CRACK! emerged from his own weight – but he quickly plastered on a lopsided smile. "It's as easy as one!" He took another step. "Two!" He kept his eyes locked onto his sister, making sure her full attention was on him. He grinned and flailed comically, pretending to lose his balance. She giggled – it was working! For a few seconds, she forgot her fear.
"Three!" Jackson took a desperate leap, and then he was safe! On thicker ice. He didn't take any time to relish the thought, though. He reached down and grasped his shepherd's crook, which he had brought onto the ice with him. His eyes never left Penny's. "Now it's your turn," he told her, trying to sound confident. Suddenly, he heard a faint whisper in his mind; it puzzled him, but he quickly forced the thought away and refocused his attention on the girl.
Penny took a deep breath, and shifted her right skate forward. Another crack appeared, making her whimper as Jackson counted, "One…"
She moved her left foot, and cried out as the crack became three times louder, almost drowning out Jackson's, "…two!.."
"Three!" And then, suddenly, everything went by in a blur. Jackson lunged forward, wrapped the curve of the staff around Penny's tiny waist, and hurled her forward. She slid onto the thicker ice as Jackson was flung backwards from the momentum.
For a few moments both children lay on their backs, panting and shaking. And then, Penny looked up, and flashed him the biggest, brightest smile she could manage. He'd saved her! She knew she'd never doubt in him again.
Jackson returned the grin, almost faint with relief that she was safe. He'd saved his sister! He was a hero! He got to his feet, and took a step towards her.
That's when everything happened. The CRAAAACK! in the ice, the feeling of solidity disappearing from underneath him. He felt himself drop down into the below-freezing waters below, saw Penny reach out for him and scream, "Jack!" at the top of her lungs.
Jackson fell through the ice.
He had saved his sister!
It had come at a price.
And, as he felt himself being dragged underneath by the icy currents, felt his lungs scream for air that he couldn't breathe, he remembered what the strange question was that had filled his mind only minutes before.
"Your life or a penny?"
Your life or your sister?
Jackson knew he was dying; and it scared him. But it was also strangely comforting, because as the cold finished paralyzing his body and his heart finally stopped beating, he knew that his drowning was his final answer.
"Penny any day."
What he didn't know, though, was as his body lay drifting in the waters below the ice, a moonbeam shown down on him. The boy's hair was changed from brown to white, and the Man in the Moon smiled as he resurrected not Jackson Overland, but now Jack Frost.
He was pleased with Jack's final answer.