As the group walked into the kitchen, Christine's jaw dropped.
"Look at this kitchen!" Sylvia exclaimed excitedly.
"Look at the size of that oven." Even Bud was impressed. "You could cook a wooly mammoth in there."
Indeed, the oven was large, but maybe that was exaggerating it a bit. Still, Christine was in heaven. She loved to cook, and this oven was massive, she could bake so many cakes at once if she could! There were people scattered throughout the room, bustling about, bringing some treats to one section of the room and some to another, to assemble or to decorate.
"Incredible!" Christine grinned with an airy laugh.
"Let's have something to eat." Scott suggested, walking down the steps onto the kitchen floor, walking past these light red and green coloured pillars that spiraled from the ceiling to the dark, marble floor.
"You've got quite the operation here, you've been holding out on us." Bud stated as everyone followed him. "Why the secrecy?"
"Secrets? There's no secrets. I don't have secrets. Why would I have secrets? We're family, there's no secrets." Scott rambled quickly, in an oddly high voice.
"Heavens sakes, you must be the in-laws!"
A man approached the group. He was tall, with blueish-white hair that was spiked back, as if frozen. He wore a dark blue, velvet, pinstripe, three piece suit that looked as if the edges were lightly frosted over, and had what looked to be an icicle for a tie. He had very pale skin that could almost blend in with the snow outside, if it weren't for a slight redness in his face, and had piercing blue eyes.
"So very pleased to meet you." He took Sylvia's hand before bringing her knuckles to his face, lightly kissing her knuckles like a gentleman. He then had a wide smile, looking at everyone before taking Christine's bare hand as well, doing the same action he did with Sylvia. His hands were as cold as ice, and the kiss he placed on Christine's knuckle almost sent a painful chill up her arm. "Hi."
"Uh, Bud, Sylvia, Christine, this is-"
"Jack Frost." The man went to reach for Bud's hand to shake before Scott interrupted.
"No! Not Jack Frost." He laughed. "He's playing Jack Frost in our 'Yippee, it's Canada!' parade." The man, Jack, gave an almost confused look to Scott for a moment before smiling in realization.
"Oh, yes, of course!" He said with his toothy grin. "To bring frosty cheer to the workers." Jack said with a flourish of his arm. "I'm kind of like the team mascot, eh? Rah rah!" He chuckled lightly. There was a small moment of silence before Bud spoke.
"Who does your hair?"
"You like it?" Jack seemed happy. "It's...I freeze-dry it." He stammered. If it weren't for how real it looked, Christine was assuming it was a wig but she knew better. He must've had quite the hairstylist.
"Sir, can I borrow you for a moment?" Curtis walked into the room, directly looking at Scott with a look that spoke 'urgency'.
"Uh," Scott took a moment to think. "Yeah. Excuse me just a minute." He made his way over to Curtis as they seemed to violently whisper to each other. Was something wrong? "We have a small paperwork problem." Scott said to the family with a sheepish grin.
"You go right ahead!" Jack offered. "I'll make sure everyone's as happy as a lark." Scott took this time to start following Curtis out of the room, shooting Jack a thankful look. "For that's why I'm here, eh?" Jack then turned back towards the newcomers before asking, "Cocoacchinos, anyone?"
Christine tilted her head in confusion, furrowing her eyebrows. Giving a small shrug, she walked over to sit down at the granite table in the middle of the room, slipping off her coat and hat, placing the hat in her coat pocket before draping it over the back of the chair. As she sat down, she looked around the room in wonder, once more. After a few moments, her hunger pulled her away from her distraction and she waved over one of the workers.
"Excuse me, could I get something to eat?" She asked the small person in the apron and chefs hat that approached her with a gingerbread house in hand. She was short, like everyone else here it seemed, and had brown eyes and red hair, with some freckles on her cheeks that, if Christine didn't know any better, seemed to sparkle.
"Sure, I'll get right on it. What would you like, miss...?"
"Oh, call me Christine. And just a sandwich would be fine. Turkey and cheese, if it isn't too much trouble." Christine smiled lightly. She almost felt guilty because of how child-like this person was.
"Right away." She smiled back, blinking her deep brown eyes and walking away.
Christine then realized something. She forgot to ask for something to drink, too. Suddenly, there was a loud bang, as if some tin cans have been knocked over. She was about to get up to look at what that was until a voice spoke.
"Cocoacchinos, anyone?"
Christine looked up and saw Jack, who seemed to forego his jacket and now wore a small apron that had a snowman design on it. Sylvia, who also took her coat off and placed it on the seat directly across the table from Christine, also looked and notice him walking over. In his hands was a small, silver tray that carried three small mugs that made Christine think about a child's tea party set. He had a big grin when Sylvia agreed to having the drink. Christine only nodded with a light smile. Jack placed down the tray and pulled out Sylvia's chair for her to sit, to which she obliged. Christine hadn't even noticed the small plates of cookies on the table in front of them.
Once he sat down next to her, he offered her and Christine the small cups.
"Is this like a mocha cappuccino?" Christine asked curiously, wondering about the mixture of hot chocolate and espresso.
"I hope you like it." Jack said, watching her take a sniff of the aroma coming from the warm drink. "It's my own recipe."
The three took a sip of their own drink, Christine couldn't help but moan lightly in at the delicious taste that lasted on her tongue.
"Mmm. Minty." Sylvia praised with a smile.
"Doesn't it make you feel fresh?" Jack asked excitedly, to which the both of them agreed with delighted laughter.
"Normally, I'm not one to like chocolate and mint, but what you just concocted, Jack," Christine paused to put down her cup and clap her hands a few times. "Bravo!"
"Thank you, thank you." He grinned, bowing his head to her, to which she nodded back before taking another sip of her drink. He then turned to Sylvia. "Oh, my, I just...I love your hair." He complimented her.
"You do?" She asked in shock, and he nodded in reply. "I love yours."
"Really?" He almost laughed, not expecting that.
"I've never seen anything like that." Sylvia said, looking at his hair again.
"And you said you 'freeze-dry' it? You have got to give me the name of your stylist." Christine gushed. His hair looked like fresh ice, so whoever did his hair was incredible.
"Oh, you're so adorable." Jack said, looking between both Sylvia and Christine. "You divine little kittens, you." He made a small growl, which made Sylvia chuckle and Christine almost spat out her drink giving an incredulous laugh. "And I bet you sing, too." He said before taking another sip of his cocoacchino.
"No, no, no," Sylvia shook her head in denial.
"Oh, go on. I bet you can sing." Jack insisted.
"Mmm, maybe a little bit." Sylvia smiled nervously, pinching her fingers a bit.
"I knew it, I knew it." Jack chuckled. "What about you, Christine? You've got to have the voice of an angel."
"Oh, I wouldn't say that," Christine trailed off. She did think she sang well, but not that well. It was just part of the extracurriculars at school. Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment when he kept looking at her with a smile, as if begging her to sing, so she turned her gaze to her drink and took a sip, all the while smiling nervously.
"Sing something." Jack insisted, turning to Sylvia since Christine didn't look up again.
"What would you like to hear?" Sylvia quietly asked.
"How about," Jack trailed off to think before he sang in his own deep, musical voice. "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire..." He waited for someone to continue, which Sylvia did in her airy voice.
"Jack Frost nipping at your nose." Jack seemed to shiver and smile at that as she continued the lyrics. "Yuletide carols being sung-"
"No, no, go back to the other line," Jack interrupted with a grin. "The part before..."
"Jack Frost nipping at your nose." Sylvia laughed as Jack sighed.
"Gives me chills."
"Jack Frost nipping at your nose." Sylvia sang once again with a flourishing of new notes before giggling.
"Oh, what a lyric." Jack whispered, impressed. Christine couldn't help but giggle and shake her head. It was almost as if he actually was, indeed, Jack Frost and wanted to be more well known. Which how could he not be known? In the stories, he makes the cold weather, the snow, the ice, the frost. Which was the main reason Christine loved this time of year, the cold was welcoming to her.
"What's going on over here?" Carol walked over with a smile, noticing the laughter.
"Your mother is fabulous!" Jack exclaimed as everyone joined in the laughter. Sylvia playfully pinched his nose before picking up her cup again. "Would you like to be my elf?" Jack then suddenly asked, causing the laughter between Sylvia and Christine to stop short.
"Huh?"
"You heard me." Jack said, ignoring the confusion.
Before anyone could reply, to which Christine was just only going to ask what he meant, a fire burst through one of the ovens and a siren to go off. A flurry of motion went through the room as people scattered, backing away from the flames. Christine gasped and stood up, quickly making her way over to shield anyone nearby from the fire. Bud rushed through the kitchen with some sort of strange pack on his back and an apparatus attached to it in his hand.
"Heads up! Coming through!" He ran over, pointing the apparatus at the fire and pulling some sort of trigger, which sent a strange, pale green goo out of the pack and into the flames. Some sort of fire extinguisher, perhaps? "Back off! Back off!" He was trying to wave people away. "We got a dangerous situation, back off!" He then covered his mouth and nose with his hand. "Don't breath. Don't breath in." Once the flames finally died down, he turned towards the crowd that gathered. "What's wrong with you people? We were an inch away from Armageddon!"
"I'll get a mop!" Jack went to put down his drink and rush to the broom closet.
"I'll go help." Christine quietly said, slowly following Jack in the direction he was going. As she chased after him into the factory, she froze in place.
All around her were the small people, who she would think is children, all of which had pointed ears and sparkles on their faces. Pointed shoes, colours of red and green, working on toys and what-not. A large, globe-like statue sat in the very middle of the room before two sets of stairs. She could only guess this to be one place after putting two and two together.