It had been roughly a year since Jack Frost had joined the Guardians of Childhood, and that meant that there would be an annual meeting that he had to attend. Previously, the meetings had not been incorporated into the lives of the Guardians, however the arrival of their newest member inspired the group to become more social, meaning that organized events and social outings were in order.
Everyone had arrived by the break of day, getting prepared for the meeting. There was nothing for any of them to actually discuss, so North had devised a plot to force all of the Guardians to get to know each other better. He had party games that the five would play (or, if it came down to it, him, Frost, and Aster because Tooth and Mansnoozie might have to depart in order to work), and he had snacks and drinks that didn't not have alcohol in them. The event would be quite enjoyable – after all of the presentations were done.
North had each of the other Guardians write something short about themselves that was rather anonymous, typed the papers up and printed them out, and had the Guardians trade. Then they would spend their time guessing who was who – there was a twist, however. Every other word was deleted from the original text, and the names of holidays were not mentioned.
Bunny tapped out first when he noticed the word 'bicuspid' and pegged Tooth as the author. Sandy figured that his was North's after a couple turns because it talked about giving and joy and warm fires and winter and trees. Tooth found that hers was Jack's paper because he just wrote the word 'snow' a hundred times instead of actually writing about himself. North knew he had Sandy's but didn't say anything.
That left Frost sitting in his chair, squinting at his paper. It was obvious that his paper had to be about Bunny, however he simply could not read the paper. He tried his best to hold the paper away from his face, craning his neck and squinting visibly. He was starting to get rather irritated by the process, the only telltale being the frost that crept from where the base of his staff was, icicles sliding down the side of the table and forming on the bottom of Jack's chair.
After several long moments of the other four Guardians staring blankly at Jack, Aster finally piped up, starting to get annoyed by the cold that was reaching towards him. "If you can't read it then just tell us! It's my paper for grass sake!"
"I would, but it's all blurry," Jack replied coldly, the paper suddenly being covered by a sheet of ice in the boy's hand. He groaned and dropped the paper, watching it shatter to the ground. "Look what you made me do, you oversized show rabbit!"
"How is your inability to control you power my fault? If you can't even…" Bunny was cut off by North's raised hand, groaning to himself and sitting down.
"Jack, if you need glasses why not just say so?" North said in his resounding Russian accent, taking off his own reading glasses. Jack stared at him, shaking his head.
"We couldn't afford glasses," Jack responded instantly. There was a flicker of déjà vu in the back of his mind, this conversation reminding him of one he had had long before. "I don't really need to read, anyways, I just have to hunt," he added, smirking a smile that didn't exactly reach his eyes.
"What the plaque are you talking about," Tooth asked suddenly. Baby Tooth gasped and one of the other Teeth fell over also, shocked at the language used by their deity.
Sandy caught their attention suddenly, making all of them look up. He was signing to Jack a picture of a clock going in the wrong direction. It took Jack a second, but when he understood the meaning he nodded.
"Yeah it's something from before, Sandy. I guess I could… use some reading glasses or something, I'm not sure. Let's just get going with our games. Who's up for Truth or Dare?" Jack responded, quickly changing the subject. The others let it slide, Sandy pointing to his watch before tipping a hat and walking out of the window to attend to some business of dreams.
Tooth sighed and smiled. "I think I can go a couple rounds or something. As long as we don't get too crazy – and no eggnog while I'm here, Nick."