Author's Note: This story is kind of a sequel to Rise of the Guardians and may contain spoilers to the movie.
"Next stop: Burgess!"
Rapunzel Bennett was jolted wake by the conductor's voice coming over the intercom. It took her moment to remember where she was. She looked around the train car. There was a man in a suit a few seats a head of her working on his laptop, but no one else was in the car. It was an eight hour train ride from where Rapunzel goes to school in Corona to her hometown, Burgess, and she had slept most of the time.
It was the night after Easter and she was coming home to spend spring break with her parents, younger brother, Jamie, and younger sister, Sophie. As the train came to a stop at the Burgess station, Rapunzel grabbed her bag and quickly headed for the doors. When the doors slid open the first thing Rapunzel noticed was snow. It was covering everything as if they had just been hit with a blizzard. Rapunzel found this odd since it was now spring. She stepped off the train and shivered, wishing she had worn something warmer than just a t-shirt.
"Rapunzel!"
Rapunzel turned to see Jamie and Sophie running towards her. She dropped her bag and crouched down to hug them both at the same time.
"I missed you guys," she told them.
"We missed you, too!" Jamie said. "You won't believe what happened!"
"Calm down, Jamie," their mother said. "Let's get Rapunzel home and settled and then you can catch her up."
Jamie looked disappointed, but agreed. Their father took Rapunzel's bag and Rapunzel took Sophie's hand as they walked across the parking lot.
"How was the train ride?" Her father asked once they were settled inside the car.
"Long," Rapunzel replied with a laugh. "I'm not looking forward to doing it again."
"I don't blame you," their mother said.
The rest of the ride home the conversation consisted mostly of their mother asking Rapunzel about school. As soon as they pulled into the driveway, everyone piled out of the car and went inside.
"I'm gonna start dinner," their mother said.
Rapunzel nodded in acknowledgement and then went up to her room to unpack. Jamie and Sophie followed her and sat on her bed, telling stories of what happened since she had been there for Christmas.
"What did you guys do for Easter?" Rapunzel asked, pulling a Corona University sweatshirt on over her t-shirt.
Jamie and Sophie exchanged glances as Rapunzel sat down next to them.
"Well..." Jamie began.
"Bunny!" Sophie said. Sophie was only two-years-old and still didn't speak very well.
Rapunzel smiled at them. "The Easter Bunny came?"
Sophie nodded. "Jack, too!"
Rapunzel raised an eyebrow. "Jack?"
"Jack Frost," Jamie explained. "He was here yesterday."
It took a moment for it to sink in. "Oh, right. All the snow. He must have been really nippin' at your nose yesterday." Rapunzel gently tapped the tip of Sophie's nose and she giggled. "Did you have a hard time finding the eggs in the snow?"
"There were no eggs," Jamie stated. "The Nightmares destroyed all of the Easter Bunny's eggs. Everyone stopped believing in him because of it and he turned into a little bunny. Normally he's really tall with boomerangs and-"
"Whoa! Slow down!" Rapunzel said, laughing.
"Dinner!" their mom called out.
Rapunzel, Jamie and Sophie hurried to the kitchen and sat down at their usual spots at the table just as their mom was finishing setting out their plates of spaghetti. As soon as Rapunzel sat down, she felt a head on her lap. She looked down to see their Greyhound, Abby, looking up at her with pleading eyes. Rapunzel cut one of her meatballs in half and snuck it down to her.
"Can you believe all the snow we have?" their father asked.
"It's crazy," Rapunzel agreed.
"It was Jack Frost," Jamie said with a mouthful of spaghetti.
"He hasn't stopped talking about Jack Frost since yesterday," their mother said.
"We had a big snowball fight with him, the Easter Bunny, Santa, the Sandman and the Tooth Fairy after we defeated Pitch," Jamie continued.
Rapunzel couldn't help laughing. "You have quite the imagination, Jamie. Were Santa's elves there, too?"
"Yeah. Did you know the elves don't actually make the toys; the yetis do."
"Yetis?"
Jamie nodded, then stood up on his chair and held his arms above his head. "They're really big and covered in fur. And they kinda talk funny..."
"Sit down, Jamie," their father said. "Do you want to knock out another tooth?"
"You lost a tooth?" Rapunzel asked.
Jamie showed her the hole where his left front tooth should have been. "Jack Frost made an ice path in the street and my sled was flying down it until I crashed into a pile of snow. Then a couch hit me and I lost my tooth."
"When did this happen?" Rapunzel asked; secretly hoping the answer would have nothing to do with Jack Frost. Rapunzel loved her brother's imagination, but it was strange to hear him talking about a made up person as if he were real.
"A couple days ago," Jamie replied. "Jack Frost gave us a snow day so I was playing with Pippa and the guys."
Rapunzel twirled her spaghetti. "Pippa, huh? You still have a crush on her?"
Jamie blushed and looked down. "I don't have a crush on Pippa. She's my friend."
Their mother, clearly uncomfortable with the topic of her nine-year-old son having a crush, changed the subject. "Why don't you guys take advantage of the snow tomorrow?"
"That sounds fun," Rapunzel agreed. "You guys wanna go ice skating tomorrow?"
"Yeah!" Sophie exclaimed.
"I don't know..." their dad interjected. "I think Sophie is still too young to go ice skating."
"Oh, come on, dad," Rapunzel said. "I'll be watching her; she'll be fine. I promise."