A/N: So if you follow this story, you'll notice that the last chapter has been replaced with this one. I posted the wrong one. xD Figures, this is a crucial chapter in understanding future plots!

Anyway, enjoy :D

Natalia:

Over and over again ice cold blue eyes swept through my dreams, and the next few days saw me practically lose my mind trying to figure out if I had really seen the boy in the cold, or if my mind had been playing tricks on me.

I didn't hear my bedroom door open, nor did I hear the footsteps of the person approaching me with a peculiar look on his face.

My brother snapped his fingers in front of my face. "Nat? Whats up with you, you've been so spacy lately… Maybe you have a concussion." He started trailing his finger in front of my face, back and forth until my head started hurting trying to follow the digit so I smacked his hand away with a glare. "Oooor maybe not?"

He flashed me a grin and I rolled my eyes, shaking my head and debating on telling my brother about the boy I had seen, or at least thought I did.

I dismissed that thought as quickly as it came, because not only would my brother tell me I'm crazy, he would also tell my parents and I would be admitted into a psych ward as quickly as the words left my mouth, due to my mother's extremely paranoid ways and my father's tendency to 'just go with' whatever she says.

"Hey, Nat, there's this party tonight, and I was thinking maybe you could come with me or something? A couple of your friends are going!" I looked over at my brother and debated on it, maybe going would get my mind off of the boy… but then again I have an essay to edit and final print for my intro to literature class tomorrow that was nowhere near as good as I wanted it to be…

"I'm gonna pass, I have a paper to write still and I'm not feeling to hot anyway."

"Your loss, kid."

I turned back into my paper, dismissing any words my brother followed up with as well as any words my mind concocted to describe the boy in the snow.

Jack:

She seemed different since then, almost as if she was trying very hard to understand what had happened, or trying to figure out if it had even happened at all. During her classes she was unfocused, during meals with her family she didn't participate as much, and even when she was with her friends, whom I get the impression she's not all too great of friends with at all, she is completely distracted.

I made sure to stay out of her line of sight, always behind something when I watched her, or making sure I was concealed in the trees. She didn't catch any other glimpses of me, if she even could see me, which caused a war to rage on in my chest.

Do I approach her and find out, or do I continue on with my life?

Say she can see me, and we get talking, and things move in the direction I know my old soul is longing for them to… what would come next? She won't be seventeen forever, and as she ages, I will not. I will forever be twenty years old, and in this split second I see it as a curse rather than a blessing.

Regardless of if she can see me or not, she will not live forever, and should we become close I'm not sure how I'll cope with her aging. She'll find a man as she out grows me, she'll fall in love, start a family… She'll stop believing, as all children do. She has all kinds of things laid out for her that I couldn't dream of giving to her.

Maybe being in the mix of things would hinder that… maybe it would be better for her if she didn't see me at all…

Shaking my head, I decided to leave the serious thinking for the Easter Kangaroo and North, getting back to the task I had at hand… spreading fun.

Nat:

The phone call came at three a.m., and I could feel the fumes of rage steaming from my ears as I sat up in bed. I pulled the charger from my phone and saw it was one of my friends, and I slid the bar to answer after a minute of hesitation.

"Hello?"

"Nat, you need to come pick up Nikolas. He's doing drugs, Nat!" I rub the sleep from my eyes and sit up, waking instantly.

"Drugs? He's smoking pot again?" I whisper, careful not to speak too loud incase my mother happens to be on one of her Grey's Anatomy binges again.

"No, Nat… I don't know what they were doing, they had these small bags full of some kind of white powder, they went into the room and came out all fucked up… He can't even speak straight Nat!" Shock and fear ran through my veins, igniting me like lightning and I shot out of bed in my black fuzzy pajama pants and t-shirt, grabbing my coat and a pair of boots as I hung up the phone and exited my house as quietly as I could.

I started my car and drove to the house where they were having the party, killing the engine and getting out, ignoring all the looks I was getting for showing up looking like a bum. "Nikki?! Nikki where are you!" I'm calling as I shove through the crowd until I'm on the second floor of some rich kids house, and see my brother sitting on the couch with a joint in his hand and a group of people surrounding him as he puffs away, blowing the sickly sweet smoke into the air.

"Nikolas!" He stops dead as he hears my voice, unfocused eyes trying to see my face but not comprehending exactly who I am for a whole two minutes before I rip the blunt from his hand and smack him harshly across his cheeks, dumping the blunt into some guys cup as someone shouts protests at me.

"Nat? Natty what are you doing here?" Nikolas doesn't even register that I'd hit him, staring at me as if I were some kind of wild animal he'd never encountered.

"Saving your ass from humiliation, let's go. Mom is waiting for you at home."

"Mom? Fuck.." He leans back and I grab him by his arm, pulling him into a sitting position before a standing, and then dragging his heavy form behind me and out of the door.

It takes a whole ten minutes to get him strapped into the car, and I thank god that I didn't slip on any ice on the way there.

"What did you do, Nikki!?" Rage is free-flowing through my veins as I snap at my brother, looking at him for a few seconds before back to the road. "You were doing so good! Mom and Dad are going to flip!"

"No, Nat you can't tell them! Mom is going to be so disappointed in me!"

"Nikki I'm disappointed in you!" My screech silences him and he looks at me, with the same spaced out look I hadn't seen for months now. "You were doing good, you weren't hanging around with them anymore, why did you start again! You were finally starting to be my big brother again Nikki!"

He looks down, but doesn't say anything, and I drive the rest of the way home in tears with nothing but the radio playing in the background.

When I pull in to the drive way, Nikolas grabs my hand before looking at me, finally seeming as if he were able to look at me straight without struggling. "Natty, I fucked up. Don't tell mom about this it'll crush her, and I promise it won't happen again. I'm so disappointed in myself Nat, you have no idea!" Tears flood his eyes and I feel my lips begin to tremble, looking down at my hand which he had twined his fingers through.

"Nikki, this can't happen again. This is the only fuck up you get. Next time, I wont even come to pick you up, I'll just send dad." I pull my hand away and get out of my car, watching as he opens his door and steps out, instantly slipping and falling on his ass.

"Good luck getting in without waking them up."

I should have gone to the party. I should have put aside my essay, let loose a little bit, and maybe then he wouldn't have done those lines.

I ignore my brothers pleads to help him, and silently hope he wakes mom and dad up so that they can deal with this, not me.

Jack:

Addiction. I've seen it before, I've seen it tear families to shreds, take away mothers, fathers, and children. Nikolas wasn't the only person I'd seen struggle with an addiction, but it was the first time I stopped to consider that it didn't just affect the user, but the user's family as well.

Natalia's face had been furious, devastated, and crushed all at once and it was a look I had hoped to never have to see again after the first time Nikolas went to rehab. Clearly he needed to go back, and I felt my heart clench when Natalia agreed to avoid telling their parents after Nikolas made his empty promise that it wouldn't happen again.

I sat in her window as she cried herself to sleep, watching as Sandy's dream sand came in through her window, wrapping around her head and lulling her into a peaceful sleep. She was dreaming of her and her family, outside when they were younger. She and Nikolas were making a smaller ball of snow for the head of a colossal snow man, while their parents shaped the body with practiced expertise.

"Help them, Manny. Please just… do me this one favor."

Content that she was peacefully sleeping once more, I allowed the wind to carry me back to the frozen lake, my place of beginning, and settled into the tree I had made my hammock in. Sleep came to me soon, and in my dreams I saw Natalia, a huge smile on her face as she ran through the snow to tackle me.

A/N: Please review! So I know if you like it or hate it or love it or all of the above :x