_ walked slowly down the sidewalk to school, wrapped tight in a thick coat. She didn't mind the chill or the wind, but she still had to protect herself from the weather. It was the middle of November, and the cold temperatures had come earlier than usual- but she was fine with that. The crystal white snow blanketing the earth was the most beautiful thing in the world to her, more so than autumn leaves or the summer sun. Unfortunately, all that had come yet was the chill, and her neighborhood was still only dead leaves, all grays and browns.
She looked up and saw gray clouds gathering. The sunlight was dimming, and a halo was around the sun where it half-shone through the clouds. She smiled and thought to herself: "He's coming." A single snowflake fell from the sky, and she caught it between her thumb and finger. As soon as she did, a gust of wind carried down thousands more, and the season had begun.
_ stopped in her tracks, looking up expectantly. A pale boy in a blue hoodie coated in ice crystals appeared to be falling, but he landed gracefully next to her. He smiled lopsidedly, his snow-white hair ruffling in the breeze.
She smiled back at the blue-eyed teenager.
"Hey Jack! What brings you to town so early?"
"Wanna have some fun?" he asked, ignoring her question.
"I would, but I have school today."
Jack waved his crooked staff through the air casually, and the flurries were taken over by a thick blizzard.
"It's been cancelled."
She laughed and rolled her eyes.
"Alright, Jack. Where should we go?"
"It's a surprise!"
Jack grabbed her hand and leaped into the sky. _ shrieked and threw her arms around Jack's neck. They were moving so quickly, she couldn't even see the ground beneath them to figure out where they were. Her (h/l) (h/c) hair whipped around her face and the chill was unbearable. "SLOW DOWN!" she yelled into Jack's ear.
He stopped in midair and dropped into the forest, _ shrieking the whole time. They hit the ground much softer than she expected.
"Where are we?!"
_ looked around, and saw a large pond surrounded by scattered trees. It wasn't covered in snow yet, but the Guardian of Winter was already taking care of that.
"This is where I died," he said, as he touched the tip of his staff to the pond's surface. The whole thing froze in about a second.
"Oh... yikes... so we're near Burgess? That's, like, 300 miles from my house!"
Jack grinned and pulled a pair of skates from behind a rock.
"Aw, you had those prepared? You must've been excited to see me."
"Hey, winter only comes once a year. I need to make the time we have great."
_ sat on the rock and began lacing her skates. They sat in silence for a moment while she finished up.
"All done, let's go!"
She easily glided around he pond, Jack walking in pace next to her. They got into a little race, _ skating around faster and faster, trying to see when Jack couldn't keep up. Jack, having just flown 300 miles in about a minute, easily kept up with the human girl, but she soon lost control.
"Jack, help! I can't stop!" she yelled, frightened. _ was speeding toward the edge of the pond and was going to hit a large tree. At the last second, Jack hooked her around the waist with his staff and pulled her back towards him.
She looked up at him with wide eyes.
"Jack... thank you..." she gasped between breaths.
"We only have once a year anyway. I can't lose any more time with you," he told her, and pulled her into a hug.