Chapter 2

Author's Note: Hullo again. Nice to see that you've kept on with me! Sorry this took forever to update. Writing this is hard sometimes; for some reason I keep making blockades for myself while I write. Heh. Silly me.

Once again, please enjoy.

When Mia arrived at her locker, there was a stylish young blonde waiting in front of it. She looked somewhere between steamed and exasperated, and Mia was pretty sure those emotions were directed at her.

They were.

"Mia!" she scolded as she came close enough to touch her. "What kept you? I was here as soon as the school allows people to come! Why weren't you? I would have thought that you'd be here sooner than I was but no! You had to be Miss Lazy Pants today! And what's the deal with that mane of yours? If I knew you would come looking like that - "

"JULIE!" Mia let loose all her exhaustion in her yell. The few students who were milling about in the halls stopped cold and stared at them both, but Mia didn't care one smidgimeter. "Sorry for apparently steaming your patience but my mom decided to play a prank on me this morning so SORRY. Now let's get going and I'll tell you on the way."

"All right. But you have to let me do your hair!"

"No. I'm doing my usual hairstyle."

"Fine." The two started down the hall.

Julie was quiet for a little bit. Then she said softly, "If our work doesn't come to fruit - fruish - ugh! If our work doesn't pay off, then what'll you do?"

Mia's lips tightened slightly. Typical of Julie to think of something like that. "I . . . " - she drew out the sound - ". . . really honestly do not know, nor do I care."

As they walked, Mia pulled her barely cooperative hair back into her usual waist-length French braid. She was so used to this action that by the time they had reached their first class, she was just tying it off with one of Julie's many available hair ties. At the moment they were both griping about the hair tie that was currently wound up in Mia's hair, as they had both forgotten about Mia's promise to explain everything. They lived their life in the moment, so this was also an everyday occurrence.

"Are you sure there wasn't any other stretchies that you could have given me?"

"I just like the way this one suits you!"

"It is a bear head. With a bow on its ear. And it is pink. PINK."

"Oh, is it even possible to please you?"

"Yes, actually it is very easy to please me. In fact the easiest way to please me

right now is to get me a hair tie that is, say, normal, and totally not pink and bear-covered?"

"Miss Martinez! Miss Robinson! How long are you planning to waste classtime?"

Whoops. Pissed off teacher equals not good. Both girls scrambled into their seats without a moment's hesitation. Their home room instructor was not one to tangle with.

Several long, tasteless hours later, and lunchtime rolled around at last. Julie and Mia clumped up and discussed their day so far:

"So in bio today, the new kid, you know Brandon? He was my lab partner and he totally freaked out when he spilled the dry ice pitcher and he practically hugged me, he was so scared!"

"I was in Spanish, right? And this weird kid with an almost-mohawk came busting through the door like ten minutes late asking if this was the Japanese class - "

"But that's like halfway across the school!"

"I know! So when the teacher told him that, he sighed and was like, 'Forget it! I'll just stay here today. Never mind!'"

After another bundle of bland hours on a plastic seat, both girls were home free!

"What are we going to do now?" came Julie's voice as soon as the two met up in the hallway. "All the business stuff is taken care of, so what next?"

"Well, I guess the only thing we can do is wait and see," Mia replied as casually as she knew how. Which was indeed very casual. Casualness was required if you had to lie to your mother every week about how those pastries managed to find their way into their tiny refrigerator.

"I've got a date after school today," Julie mused. She was always going out with some boy or another. "Can you Skype me at like five or something?"

"Sure thing, Jules." Mia pulled the pink bear scrunchie away from her mousy brown hair and handed it to the blonde, saying, "I snagged a rubber band from Mr. Applewhite today, so here." She re-tied her braid with said band while Julie snapped the pink elastic onto her wrist like a bracelet.

They paused, not knowing what else to mention. Then Julie smiled and the awkwardness shattered into glass, which turned to sand blowing away in the wind.

"See you at five," they called in unison as they turned around and walked off in opposite directions.

Several blocks later, Mia stopped in front of her two-story apartment building and sighed softly. It was small and rather rundown and the landlord was too old to care much about what became of it. Mia's mother believed in the saying "those who help others help themselves as well" religiously, so they were constantly giving gifts to the landlord and helping keep the place functional and presentable.

So basically, the place belonged to her.

Mia hiked up the metal steps grudgingly, key in hand and very aware of the bulging weight in her backpack that she would have to return to school the next day completed and covered in pencil marks. Once inside, she went about opening all the windows in the stuffy rooms before plunking herself down in front of her desk which was pretty much a slab of smoothed and stained wood stacked on top of some bricks made by her dad, a carpenter. It had been the perfect size when she was little, but now it was pretty much a lap desk.

Mia's stomach complained loudly, but she always waited until her mother was home to eat, so she controlled her grumpy intestines with a drink of water before getting to the inventory of her overweight backpack. She unzipped the thing, removed its insides, and dumped the content all over her desk.

Several hours later

Mia lay on her back gazing absentmindedly up at the ceiling fan that took up a rather large part of her ceiling. It had been around 12:30 the last time she had checked the clock, and she didn't even know how long it had been since then. Honestly she didn't want to know.

Even though the windows were all open, it was still stuffy in the little room, so the fan was on. Mia's eyes were glued to a knot in the wood on one of the blades and they followed it around and around and around in circles. She was supposed to be thinking of an answer to the last problem of her impossible math homework, but as always she lost her concentration and so here she was, watching it go around and around and around. . . .

There were golden sparkles in the corners of her vision as she drifted off. A slight breeze brushed her skin, sending goosebumps leaping up to catch the cold. She smiled gently.

"Goodnight, Sandman. . ."

Jack's POV

I grinned as I watched the golden sand work its magic on the girl. I swept up close to her window, turned, and flashed a thumbs-up at the Sandman, who smiled and waved goodbye before leaving to give dreams to more children. "Thanks, Sandy!"

Once Sandy was out of sight, I came in to land inside her window. She was already asleep, so the sand leaped around her head, trying to create pleasant dreams for the girl. But for now, it lapped around shapelessly. Chuckling, I crouched down in mid-air next to her. She was, as I said, asleep, so she couldn't hear me when I spoke.

Or so I thought.

"Who are you, believer?"

The dream-sand swirled faster and faster until it created words:

Mia Martinez is pleased to meet you

I frowned. "Mia?"

That's my name, don't wear it out ;)

I let one eyebrow crawl upwards. "Can you hear me, Mia? You're asleep."

I know that, dum-dum

Both of my eyebrows dropped like storm clouds. "Hey!"

Hee-hee. You are funny, Jack Frost.

"Uh. . . thanks?"

Why are you here, Jack Frost?

"Ooh, harsh. Maybe I'm just visiting because I can, ever think of that?"

Well, maybe. How are you tonight?

"Pretty good, I guess." I let myself drop down onto her floor and sat cross-legged there. "And how about you?"

Sleepy. Zzz. . .

"Obviously, since you're sleeping and all."

That's true. Hehehe.

"Yeah." A sudden curiosity crossed my mind, and before I could stop my mouth, it blurted, "So how come you can have a conversation like this while you're asleep?"

I received no reply for a while. I was about to apologize and drop the subject, but before I could, Mia rolled over so her back was facing me and spelled out: Did you know, Jack Frost, that my mother is also a believer?

"What? No way." I was dumbfounded. An adult believer? Was that even possible?

Yep. It's one of the reasons why we live here, in this place. She was always an idealist from the beginning . . . I guess that's why I can see you too.

"Oh. Okay, then."

Mia rolled over again, this time towards me. You should get going now. My mom won't be pleased to see some random albino teen looking like he's about to do something suggestive to her 'widdle baby Mi-mi.'

I couldn't help but laugh. "'Widdle baby Mi-mi?' Is that what she calls you?"

Unfortunately, yes. Now get going or you're gonna to get caught!

"Sure thing, Snowflake." I hopped over to her still-wide-open window and crouched on the sill. "I'll see you later, widdle baby Mi-mi."

Please don't make this harder than it has to be. Now really, you have to GO!

"Okay, okay, I'm going! Sheesh, keep your skirt on, alright?"

I'm not wearing a skirt.

"Whatever. Bye!" And with that, I jumped out the window with a laugh and let the wind carry me to who knows where.

Author's note: A little bit on the short side, I know. And I'm sorry. It seemed like a good place to end the chapter . . . anyways, I've finally gotten over my writer's block for this fic! I know it's been a really long time, but please bear with me! Don't leave me alone in the dark! I'll give you a brownie if you do!

No seriously. I will.

-PKK