12 years seemed to pass by in the blink of an eye. I made some new friends and left quite a few old friends behind as I grew up. So many things had changed for me. My mom got remarried several years after my dad died and I know she's happy which is all that matters to me. Also I now have a little brother, named Jamie, and a little sister, named Sophie. We are all really close, I always feel so loved whenever I'm around them. I'm in college now as well. I'm studying to be a kindergarten teacher, because I love working with little kids and watching kids grow right in front of your eyes is such an amazing thing to see. Part of me wishes I hadn't gone to a college so far away though because I miss my family so much. Another part of me knows that moving away was the right thing because it gives me a chance to be free and explore new things, also it means that whenever I do see my family, moments with them are more special and more meaningful. Whenever I get homesick I always remind myself
"It's good to be homesick because that means you have a good home to go back too"
Now it's Christmas which means it's time to see the family again. It's been forever since I last saw them. The last time I did see them was Christmas last year. I couldn't come back on Easter because of some freak snow storm which meant no planes could get in there and I couldn't come during the summer because I had spent all of it with my friend's family. So now I'm on a plane heading home too Burgess. Words cannot describe how excited I am.
The first thing I saw when I got off the plane was my mom. I nearly tackled her in a hug.
"You're not going back to that terrible place ever again, because I never see you. I'm kidnapping you and keeping you here," she joked.
"Oh I missed you too Mommy!" I grinned at her.
"Let me take this," she said as she grabbed my rolling suitcase from me. We exchanged conversation as we made our way to the car. The weather felt amazing here. Snow practically covered the ground and the wind bit you as it blew your hair back. I found it fantastic. Once we had reached the house I skipped up to the door and slipped on the steps on my way up.
"Don't laugh" I smiled at my mom. She covered her mouth to hide her smile. I opened the front door and found the living room empty. And I of course knew why considering that it was 7 am on a Saturday.
"Everybody asleep then?" I asked. My mom walked past me and smiled at something behind me. She stayed silent and brought my luggage up to my old room. I heard the bouncing of springs from the couch behind me. I knew what was coming right before it happened and sadly I couldn't stop it.
"WENDY!" Sophie's voice screamed in my ear as she jumped on me from behind. I quickly turned around and placed her back on the couch and heard her giggling.
"Why hello there Sophie," I smiled at her as I tickled her. She smiled at me and I saw she had a missing tooth.
"Did you lose your first tooth?" I asked her excitedly. She nodded.
"And I've got another loose one" she stated pointing to it. I wiggled the tooth and it felt weird. She laughed at me as I retracted back.
"She's been awake since I left the house at five this morning to pick you up. I told her she could watch cartoons, while everyone slept, and wait for us to come back," My mom stated as she leaned against the kitchen threshold.
"I missed you sissy!" she said.
"I missed you too!" I kissed her. Suddenly we heard pounding footsteps as Jamie dazedly walked down the steps.
"Can I have some pancakes please?" he mumbled over at mom as he hobbled over to the couch, plopped down on the cushion next to me, and laid his head down on my shoulder. After all of that he let out this huge yawn.
"Um hi Jamie,"I smiled at my baby brother.
"Hi Wendy," he mumbled as he closed his eyes and then opened them up with this huge shocked look on his face.
"Wendy? WENDY" He shouted as he hugged me and then proceeded to tackle me.
"You're back," he said.
"Yep I came here just for you guys, don't tell mom and dad though," I whispered to him and Sophie which made them laugh.
"We have so much to tell you, you are not going to believe what happened to us. We can't believe you missed Easter! So much happened!" they all seemed to say at once.
"Alright what happened?" I asked as I listened to them.
"Breakfast!" our mom shouted for us.
"Later," Jamie said as he ran for the kitchen. Sophie and I chased after him and gladly indulged in my mom's amazing pancakes. It felt so wonderful to be back home with my family and then suddenly it all seemed to pass by so quickly. Christmas came and went in the blink of an eye and the next thing I knew it was new years and there were only a few days left of my vacation. I flipped through the channels on the tv in the cozy light of the living room. The whole room was illuminated by our Christmas tree and it gave it a sort of magical feel in the air. I could hear my parents getting ready for their New Years eve party as I tried to stay up before they left.
"Alright I don't know when we'll be back but you are free to fall asleep once Jamie and Sophie are asleep. I just laid them down so check on them in awhile," my mom informed me. I nodded as I wrapped a blanket around me.
"Don't party to hard while we're gone," my stepdad joked.
"Oh you make me laugh," I joked back. They both kissed me on the top of my head and said goodbye. I got up from my little nesting place to get myself a glass of water. While I was in the kitchen I heard the faint sound of Sophie and Jamie giggling upstairs. Obviously they weren't trying to go to sleep at all. I walked up the stair's to where the noises were coming from and found they were coming from Jamie's bedroom. I pressed my ear to the door to hear what they were laughing about.
"Make it snow again Jack! make it snow again!" I heard Sophie say on the other side of the door. I felt my heart drop to my stomach.
There's no way? I thought as I suddenly remembered that I had said those same words 12 years ago. I felt a familiar chill on the door and before I knew what I was doing I slammed the door open and found snowflakes falling to the floor. Jamie and Sophie were alone in there room and they looked at me with wide eyes. They then seemed to have this telekinetic conversation with each other and agreed on something.
"Wendy remember when we told you that something big happened this Easter?" Jamie tried to explain. I saw Sophie looking off to the side at something or possibly someone.
"Yeah," I answered Jamie trying not to look where Sophie was looking.
"Well you believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and all those other people right?" he asked.
"Sure," I answered.
"What's wrong?" Sophie asked whoever she was looking at.
"Well one of the people we met was Jack Frost and he's our best friend," he continued.
"Who's Wendy girl, Jack?" Sophie asked.
"Wendy girl?" Jamie pondered. Then they both looked at me.
"Wendy you know Jack?" Sophie asked understanding now and out of the corner of my eye I saw a tuft of familiar Snow White Hair. I didn't know how to react to all of this so I did the only thing I could do. I opened the door behind me, slammed it shut, ran downstairs, and started pacing.
No way is this happening. No! I told myself. He was my imaginary friend that only I could see. You made him up. You're just reverting back to your childlike ways cause you don't want to go back to school. You hallucinated the whole scene. Jamie and Sophie are just up in there beds sleeping. No he's not real I assured myself. I collapsed on the couch and shoved my head in a pillow. What was going on? Was I going insane? I clearly was because how else could I picture my imaginary friend in my little brother's bedroom. Several seconds later I heard footsteps coming down the stairs.
"Wendy? Jack says he knows you and he wants to know if you can see him? Wendy?" Sophie nudged me. Oh god I knew I was a terrible sister for doing this but I pretended I was asleep.
"Wendy?" Jamie nudged me.
Make no sudden movement I thought.
"She's asleep or she fainted," Jamie said to someone. I heard no answer. Which meant clearly that my little brother and sister were the insane ones not me and they just happened to name their imaginary friend after mine. Maybe my mom told them about him? Yeah that's gotta be it.
After a while I seemed to drift off to sleep. The next day. I pretended like nothing happened last night and apparently so did the kids because they didn't mention it once, when our parents were around. Although they did seem to look at me differently. It felt weird having them look at me like that.
"Hey guys wanna go ice skating?" I offered to see if that would cheer them up. They looked at each other and shrugged.
"Everything ok with you three?" My stepdad asked as he took a sip of his coffee.
"We had a slight misunderstanding last night," I told the slight truth. A couple minutes later Jamie and Sophie came back down with their ice skates and mine as well. I gladly drove them to this one pond that I liked to go to because it was nice and secluded.
"This isn't the ice rink?" Jamie pointed out.
"Yeah it's a little private spot I found awhile back it's fun," I told him as I helped Sophie lace up her skates once I got mine on. Jamie and Sophie looked at each other for a moment.
"What?" I asked them.
"Jack said it's not safe to skate here unless we're with him. Bad things happened here," Sophie said.
"Well I've known you longer and I say it is safe so who are you going to listen to?" I snapped at her. She looked completely shocked when I said that and I felt this huge amount of guilt.
"I'm sorry," I apologized. Once we got our skates on I went out onto the pond for them.
"See it's completely safe," I assured them as they stood to the side. I saw them look away from me and at this empty space next to them.
"Jack says you need to get off the ice, he's says if you fall he can't save you, cause you don't believe in him," Sophie warned me. I shrugged as an answer and started skating around.
"Jack want's to know why you're mad at him and not believing in him?" Jamie asked. I sighed I guess I was going to have to face my childhood problems at some point, although I always pictured telling this to a shrink and not my brother and sister. I spun around and looked at the empty spot where Sophie and Jamie were looking at.
"I'm not mad at him. And if he wants to know why I stopped believing in him, it's because every time I thought of him I thought of my dad and it hurt to much to think about him, because my dad was the only one who believed in him with me," I admitted feeling a small tear roll down my cheek. I quickly wiped it away and when I looked back up I saw him standing there.
"Hi" I said to him. And he smiled at me and held a hand out to me.
"Come here Wendy girl" he joked. I smiled at him and I began to glide towards him and the others but that was when I heard the ice start to crack.
"Wendy!" I heard Jack, Sophie, and Jamie shout as the ice broke from underneath me and I fell into the water.
Oh look I left you with a cliffhanger there guys mwhahahaha!