Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Rise of the Guardians.

Belief

Jack Frost had a broad smile on his face as he threw a snowball at a girl's back. She whirled around, her eyes filled with shock, then slight confusion. "Who are you?"

Jack froze. "What? You can see me?" He had only thrown the snowball because just earlier he had heard the girl say she didn't believe in Santa or the Easter Bunny; he hadn't expected her to see him, presuming she didn't believe in him either.

"Of course I can, dumbo," she snorted. "What's with your hair?"

He frowned, tempted to freeze the girl and be done. But his job as a guardian was to protect children, not snowball them to death. "I'm Jack Frost. What's your name?" he asked, choosing to ignore her question and the name-calling.

She tilted her head. "Hailey." She seemed slightly confused as to his good nature in spite of her words, which made the guardian smile.

"Hey, Hailey," he teased, plopping down on the step beside her. He looked out over the white world, children playing in the streets, having snowball fights that he wouldn't hesitate to go join if he weren't so intrigued by this girl. Was it possible to see without believing? He'd heard that seeing wasn't believing before, but hadn't expected it to mean something like this.

Hailey groaned. "I just met you, and you're already doing that?" she asked, rolling her eyes.

"Why, do you have a problem with a little friendly teasing?" Jack asked, quirking an eyebrow in inquiry.

She scowled at him. "Shut up."

"Okay, okay!" He held up his hands in surrender, raising his eyebrows at her hostility. "What's got you so moody? Or are you usually like this?"

Hailey pursed her lips and looked out at the snowball fights, then sighed. "The other kids think I'm terrible for not believing in Santa or stuff like that," she mumbled, "and now they won't let me join their snowball fight or anything. They didn't let me finish what I was going to say."

"Oh?" Jack was interested now. "What were you going to say, then?"

"That I do believe, just not in the way that the other kids do," Hailey sighed. "I don't think that Santa or the Easter Bunny or," she glanced at Jack, "Jack Frost or anything like that is what we believe them to be."

"And what do you think they are?" Jack was truly curious about this girl. He'd never heard a child talk like her before.

"They stand for bringing joy to others, and new hope, and, judging by how you look, teenage guys?" Hailey chuckled. "I don't know... I might be having this really wild dream right now. Mom always told me I had the wildest imagination she ever saw, and I would ask how she saw my imagination, because I wanted to see it too." Jack smiled at this, at the way her eyes were beginning to light up and her words were becoming more animated, highlighted by hand gestures. "But all the same, I do believe in those guys. They're important to the human race, to children. They give us something to look forward to, something to believe in when we don't believe in anything else."

Jack gazed at her in more than a little admiration. This girl had figured out what the guardians were all about without even knowing about them- she was truly intelligent. "How'd you figure all this out on your own?"

Hailey looked away, down at the ground. "My mom died when I was seven, and my dad has to work a lot. I had to grow up really fast. But my mom always told me that belief was the strongest thing of all, and even she still believe in the stories she was told growing up. I want to be my own person, but my mom will always be my greatest role model."

Jack was stunned. He didn't know the answer would be so solemn. He thought it would be something like, "I like to think a lot and have a lot of time on my hands." "Hey, I'm sorry," he mumbled. "I didn't mean to bring up a sore subject."

Hailey's head jerked up, her eyes wide. "What? No, no!" She laughed. "I believe that my mom is better off where she is now. I think she found what she believed in, and one day, I will too, and I'll see her again!"

Jack closed his eyes and smiled gently. This girl's mother sounded like her own person guardian. Maybe he, too, could meet Hailey's mother someday and thank her for giving him such an interesting new friend.

Opening his eyes, Jack stood from his place on the steps of the girl's porch. He carefully blew a few snowflakes toward the group of children still playing in the streets, scooping up snow to make their ammo and laughing, ignoring the lonely girl on her porch. But when the snowflakes landed on some of the childrens' noses, their eyes seemed to brighten, and they turned toward the porch.

"Hailey!" one girl called. "Come join us!" She waved a hand towards the group of kids.

Hailey looked more than a little surprised, looking at where Jack was only moments before, but he was no longer there. Only a set of footprints marked where he had stood. She whispered, "Thanks," before running off to join her friends in playing in the snow.

Perched in the boughs of the trees, Jack Frost smiled. "It's no problem. Go have fun," he replied, with only the whispering wind to listen and answer.

This has been playing around in my brain since I saw the movie last weekend, and I finally decided to write it. Not my best, I will admit, but I do like how it came out.