Chapter one: The Ad that Ruined my Life
Jay's POV:
It's not my fault.
Seriously.
I never wanted to be the only living daughter of Helios. I never wanted to meet Jack freaking Frost either! (OK. Maybe I did, but that's not the point.)
I still don't know who to blame. We were never sure who the prophecy came from-either Man in Moon or the Fates- and we probably will never know. Jack believes it's from Man in Moon. I think it's from Aphrodite. I'm not really sure why.
But I'm only wasting your time with my prophecy talk. I'll just start the story.
I may as well of been dead.
It was early October here in New York, but for some reason I was freezing cold. Jack Frost is trolling me, I thought. Then I cursed myself for my childishness, something I've probably been doing ever since I was 12. Now I'm 17. And I still think about Jack Frost.
If you think I believe in Jack Frost, well, there is no non-embarrassing way to say this, but yeah. I do. Feel free to laugh! Not. Seriously- don't. My life sucks as it is. Want an example of why I hate my life? OK then! (That was sarcastic)
My mom is dead. She has been ever since I was 10, when she had a heart attack. Ever since then, I've been homeless. Yup. I had friends, and possibly a bright future, but I lost all that. Sad, right? Oh yeah, and my dad? Long gone. My mom didn't even remember his first name. There are no pictures of him anywhere in our old apartment. But enough about them and back to the present, and me.
I was currently sitting on an old park bench, somewhere in the middle of Brooklyn. A strange looking old Italian lady was sitting beside me, feeding pigeons. She smelled like gasoline. Despite her smell, I had been following her for the past week. She was my cover up from the police. The way I saw it was that the police would ignore a petty old lady and her supposed grandchild. Smart, right?
She was humming something weird, like Simon and Garfunkel. Her frizzy jet black hair stood up on several directions, scaring me.I wouldn't be surprised if she could intimidate the police… then, I noticed the billboard. It was one of those high tech ones, the ones that had ads that changed a lot. I had seen it several times, with its large ever changing ads. But this particular ad had always ticked me off…
It was an ad for Good Life Fitness. I never really understood the ad, but it always got me mad. They apparently thought you could live a good life by working out. "Dumb ad. I've been running for at least half my life. That's my exercise. And you say it's a good thing to be homeless?" I muttered some curses. I can't live a freaking good life without a family or money, dammit!
Before I could go up there and give the billboard a piece of my mind, the breeze blue hard. It blew straight through my sweatshirt. I shivered. Oh yeah. About the Jack Frost thing…
when I was young, my mom used to tease me and say Jack Frost liked me, because I would always be cold at the weirdest times. Like in the summer, when people are usually half-naked, you would see me still wearing sweatshirts. And in the winter, I can barely wriggle my toes. It's like my body has no protection in the cold, which results in me almost freezing in the winter.
Ever since my mom started teasing me about that, I had always wondered who Jack Frost was. I searched him up on a computer, and got about a dozen webpages and articles for my pleasure. I read all of them. So despite the fact that I get cold easily, I still liked the concept of Jack Frost being a real immortal being.
My long, dark brown hair flew in the breeze. I couldn't help but scowl. When was the last time I had brushed my hair, or gotten a haircut? "If I do somehow find my ticket out of this awful excuse for a life, I'm gonna cut my hair so that it at least looks like hair, and not a legit rat's nest." I muttered to my worn out black Converse. My hands drifted to the pockets of my red sweatshirt to evade the breeze that was currently nipping my nose.
Then, I heard the sirens. I glanced again at the billboard, and realized the ad had shifted. It showed a Wanted poster (Since when was that still a thing?). I gasped and leaped to my feet. It showed a picture of me. Jay Swift. I couldn't be bothered to glance at the poster/ad again. I abandoned my old lady, dashing through the cluster of pigeons. They squawked, and the lady shouted something to me in Italian. Then she started trying to throw bird seeds at me, but only hit the pigeons. Her arms were weak.
I scowled and tore off into the busy streets of Brooklyn. Despite my speed, the cops were catching up. I wanted to scream. My legs felt wobbly, like jelly. It was like the cold was zapping up my strength… I tripped face first into the asphalt. I felt a jolt go through my mouth and reverberate in my teeth, and I spat onto the ground. I stood up, coughing up blood and one of my front teeth. I swore loud enough that the people in China probably heard me. I glanced back over my shoulder, and the cop car was approaching fast. I scooped up my bloody tooth and continued to run. I could still feel the aching pain in my jaw.
I turned into an alleyway, where the car couldn't drive in. I shoved the tooth in my sweater pocket and slowly began scaling a Wal-Mart wall. How I ended up in a Wal-Mart, I have no clue. I don't really care, I just had to escape. And find a washroom and wash my mouth.
The siren sound died down. Thank god for Wal-Mart! I thought. I was about to climb off the roof when I saw something flying in the corner of my eye. I whipped my head around, and almost fainted. I scrambled backwards, watching the… the thing land in front of me. I cried out. I should of climbed down while I still had the chance…
It was a jet black horse with wings. On its back sat two boys. A gothic looking one and a blonde. The blonde glanced at me. The corners of his mouth began to twitch. Meanwhile, the Goth was looking down, as if he wanted nothing to do with me. I would've found that offensive, butI looked at people like that a lot.
The blonde boy hopped off the… Pegasus. It was a Pegasus. I jumped up, suddenly remembering myself. I was supposed to be as feared as possible! "Who are you people?" I asked fiercely. But instead of looking intimidated, I noticed the Goth boy was glancing at me, giving me a ghost of an encouraging smile. The handsome blonde was full-on smiling. He stuck out his hand, like he was greeting a grandma, not a teenage girl with a missing tooth. "I'm Will. Will Solace. The other kid is Nico." He paused to glance back at Nico. Then he turned back to me. "And you are?"
I wanted to sock him, but I held out my blood stained hand. "I'm Jay." I muttered. He shook my hand, surprisingly. Why would he shake my hand if it was covered in blood? Then, as if magic, he pulled a water bottle from his grey pants pocket. He tossed it to me as I stood up. I caught it with a shaky hand and unscrewed the cap cautiously. "I think you need this more than we do," he said.
I downed the water gratefully, and then washed my mouth, letting the taste of blood disappear. "Thanks," I said to him quietly, almost forgetting he had a Pegasus and was a complete stranger. Not to mention Nico had a black blade at his belt-WAIT WHAT? He glanced back at me. "Why are you here? On a roof, I mean?" he asked. I felt a stirring in my gut as I realized the Pegasus again. "Can you please explain the winged horse first?" I asked.
Will just chuckled, as if this was a common question. "This is BlackJack. I borrowed him from my friend, Percy." I blinked. Nico's face was contorted with worry, and his glance flitted at Will and back to me. He hopped off the Pegasus, who snorted. I could swear he said donuts.
I realized how short and sickly he was; he had to be at least 15. He tugged on Will's sleeve. The two bickered for a few seconds, and I tried not to eavesdrop. But of course, they were only a metre in front of me.
"Why are you telling her this?" Nico whispered furiously.
"She's the one we're looking for!" Will replied.
By then, my impatience and curiosity got the better of me. I coughed loudly, getting their attention. Will gave her a handsome smile. "Sorry about that Jay. Um… I just have to ask you this, but, did you ever know your father?"
The question hit me in my heart. And my brain. "Why do you wanna know?" My social barriers were building up around me again. Will just sighed. "I have a lot of explaining to do." He murmured to himself. He adjusted the sleeves of his t-shirt, and I noticed a look in his eyes. Almost… nervous? But then it disappeared and Will returned to his supposed perky self. "OK Jay, have you ever heard of... demigods?"
Jack's POV:
It's been a while, hasn't it?
It's been like, what. Three years since you believed in me?
But here I am, at North's workshop. You can see me, freezing the Kangaroo's Easter eggs to the ground with my staff. See me? Of course you do!
My hands tingled with excitement. It had been a while since I've been doing fun stuff like this. Ever since I became a Guardian, I mean.
"Oh, good ol' kangaroo is gonna love this…" I whispered. I tried puncturing one of the eggs with my staff, as a tester. It was frozen solid and glued to the ground. The elves around me began to giggle in excitement. I flitted around childishly, doing a little happy dance in the air. This was gonna be hilarious…
Suddenly, I heard an alarm go off. North was calling me and the rest of the guardians (Or is it the guardians and I?) to a meeting. I groaned and flew out of the room to join the rest of them. "This better be important," I said aloud to a random elf as I passed by him. He nodded in agreement as he messed around with some Christmas lights.
I barged through the gigantic doors to our meeting place. The other guardians were already assembled around the large globe as I hovered down to sit between Tooth and Sandman with my usual 'laid back vibe'. Bunny faced me with a sneer. "OK Snowman. What'd ya do this time?" he asked. He had clearly noticed the huge grin on my face. I just continued to smile, so I could get him to act up even more. No words needed.
The glare receded from Bunny's face when North pounded his fists down on a table. The other guardians looked startled. I was still the only one used to Santa. To be fair, I loved messing with big dudes like him. I had been on the naughty list for the longest time…
The room remained silent, except for the constant buzz of baby teeth around Tooth. I swear I could hear her say someone had just lost their tooth in New York, a teenager. A dozen of them flitted off somewhere to do her bidding, but one stayed behind, one of my good friends. I broke the almost-silence with a happy exclamation of the name, "Baby Tooth!" The cute hummingbird creature flitted up to me excitedly and perched in my hair. Tooth supressed a small "Awww…"
But then North pounded his fists on the table again. Baby Tooth squeaked something and buried herself into my frosty hair. I chuckled inwardly and reached out to grab her. I nestled her in my hand, and she squeaked happily. I watched North with a smirk. "Easy big guy. You scared Baby Tooth here," I said, tickling her feather-clad stomach.
North snorted unbelievably. "I don't have time for that, Jack. We have bigger matters on our hands."
Bunny snorted. "I bet those matters are based off of Snowman over here." he muttered with a wave of his hand, gesturing at Jack.
North nodded. "Eh… They sort of are."
I leaped up in annoyance. "Santa!" I whined in complaint. Since when did all matters have something to do with me?
North spread his hands in apology. "It's not my fault young man. It's your fault."
I swung my staff over my shoulder. "I don't get you, Santa." I said as I drifted back down to my seat and motioned for North to explain furthermore.
North leaned back into his chair and folded his hands together. "Well don't just sit there! Tell me what I did!" I exclaimed. North sighed impatiently. "Your impatience and antics annoy me. But this is life." He muttered. Bunny snickered in agreement. North shook his head. "Look Jack. I am sure you are aware of the tales of Greek Mythology, right?"
"Uh huh," I said. "Like, you mean all those gods and monsters?" The others nodded. Tooth was still smiling. I could tell they had a whole other meeting about me, probably determining my fate. But what did my fate have to do with Greek Myths? North snapped me back into reality with another pound of his fists. If I had fifty cents for every time he did that…
"Look Frost. I don't really know any easy way of saying this, but-"
"They're real," finished Bunny as he examined the tip of his boomerang. "True and everything. Living in New York, somewhere off of Long Island Sound." Sandman, who hadn't said a word (naturally), glanced at me worriedly, as if expecting I was going to faint.
But I just snorted as I twirled my staff lazily. "YEAH. I know. There's a camp of their children. Demigods. I've tried giving them snow days, but they have some weird magic protecting them or something." I was met by an awkward silence and glanced up hesitantly. I met eyes with North, who was gawking at me. Everybody seemed surprised, except for Sandy.
Tooth leaned towards North and whispered, "He's taking it better than we thought." Now was my time to snort again. "Being a winter spirit has its perks. I know a lot about the world!" I explained.
Santa began to chuckle. Soon he was laughing uproariously, slamming his hand down onto the table, startling a dozen Baby Teeth and elves, and not to mention two Yeti's. "Frost!" he exclaimed, sounding downright jolly. "Frost, you are PERFECT!" I gulped, floating up to the air to perch up on the large globe of glowing dots. My feet were in Hawaii, and my butt was in Canada. He sounded so jolly I was scared he'd start kissing me or something. The others seemed slightly unnerved too, even Bunny.
Then he stopped laughing. "We'll send you to Camp Half-Blood!" he exclaimed. My senses began to tingle. He had to be joking, right?
"Ha ha, very funny Santa," I said teasingly, but his face was serious. I slid down the globe so that my butt was in Rio de Janeiro and my feet were in some ocean. The others looked pretty serious too.
I was tempted to slam my staff down and freeze stuff, but I realized that wasn't the answer when it came to the Guardians. "WHA- WHY!" I exclaimed. The other guardians just smiled. "You actually look like a human teenage boy among us. You can easily blend in." Tooth explained. "The Man in the Moon is asking you to go there Jack." An image of the moon appeared above Sandy's head for emphasis.
"Manny said your fate was sealed there, somehow." said Bunny, his voice thick with an Australian accent. I scowled. "At least I look more human than you, ya filthy old kangaroo!" I muttered grumpily. Bunny hopped up, as if he was gonna say some things to me that no child ever wanted to hear, but he was held down by two Yeti's standing off to the side. I smirked triumphantly.
Sandy suddenly slammed his down on the table. Huh, he beat Santa to it. "Jack, we're being serious now. You can't disagree with Manny." said Santa. "So will you do it?" The Guardians leaned in towards me in anticipation, waiting for my answer.
I scowled. He glanced at each Guardian in turn, except for Bunny. They were all pleading me. I could tell. I didn't wanna let them down; after all, they had taken me in. I glanced around for Baby Tooth, who had once again nestled in his hair. I scooped her up. "What do you say Baby Tooth?" I asked her excitedly. "Wanna go on an adventure with me?"
She chittered excitedly. I sighed, sliding off the globe. I spread my hands like a show person. "Guess the two of us are going to Camp Half-Blood!" the Guardians cheered. I got a hi-five from Sandy, a sneer from Bunny, a kiss on the cheek from Tooth, and a pat on the back that almost sent me flying from North. I groaned inwardly. What had I gotten myself into?
I did it. WHOOOOOOOOO!
so that, my friends, was the very first chapter of my story. I really, really, really, hope you liked it!
Please like, favourite, or review. and stick with me for the next chappie! :3
PEACE!
