Chapter 2: Just More Complicated

That night Jamie was super excited. His mother and Sophie, plus Roxy and Bonnie had gathered in his room to hear about Jamie's day. He jumped all around his bedroom and up on his bed as he talked about what happened with his friends.

"It was awesome! Then I was flying down the hill and it was like whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh through cars. And then the sled hit this-this thing, and I went way up in the air, and then BAM!" landing on his back "the sofa hit me."

"Wow!" Sophie whispered.

"And-and see!" Jamie opened his mouth and pointed. "My tooth came out!"

Sophie laughed and pointed at the now empty space in Jaime's front teeth.

Mrs. Bennett smiled at her son's wild tale, but it was getting very late. "Alright you. Tooth under your pillow?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm ready" He set his toy on the nightstand in exchange for his flashlight.

"Now don't stay up trying to see her, Jamie. She won't come..."

"But I can do it this time," he insisted. "You wanna help me, Soph? We can hide and see the Tooth Fairy."

"Hide, hide, hide, hide, hide!"

"Uh-uh, straight to bed young lady." Mrs. Bennett gathered Sophie into her arms and threw her playfully in the air. Everyone laughed. No one noticed the hooded figure outside Jamie's bedroom window. Jack Frost smiled at the family he'd grown to watch over the past few years. That smile vanished as he remembered earlier, after Jamie's little sleigh ride, when Jamie's tooth had been knocked loose. All the kids believed their whole day had been the Tooth Fairy's doing. No one saw him or heard his protests; they just walked through him as they went on about the Tooth Fairy. Not wanting to look anymore, Jack crept away.

Soon Jamie got under the covers and Mrs. Bennett was about to carry her youngest child off to her room. "And Roxana, I don't want you and Bonnie up too late either."

"Okay Mom." Roxy watched her mother close the door, then turned back to Jamie. "Hey, let me see that tooth again." Roxy said, taking the tooth from Jamie.

Now that the tooth was free of gum and blood, Bonnie also admired the tooth. "It is pretty good Jamie. Have you been flossing?" she asked, smiling at the boy.

"The Tooth Fairy should at least give you a dollar for it bro," she said, handing the tooth back. Jamie gave her a toothy grin before placing it back under his pillow. Roxy tucked Jamie back in and gave him a quick kiss on his forehead. "Night Jamie."

"Nigh sis," Jamie said as he snuggled into bed. "If I see the Tooth Fairy, I call you."

"Okay." Roxy smiled. She held open the door for Bonnie. As she followed her friend out, Roxy stopped and turned back to Jamie. "Hey Jamie?"

"What?" he yawned, clearly tired from the day's adventure.

"About what Mom said earlier, you know about Jack Frost?" She saw him nod his head. "She's wrong, he's real. I've seen him."

"Really? How?" Jamie asked, awakened by curiosity.

"You have to promise not to tell anyone." Jamie nodded his head and Roxy laughed, recalling that night. "Okay, here's what happened: I was a little younger than you, and I went skating on the lake by the woods. I fell and got knocked out. When I woke up I was in our living room wrapped in a blanket. Mom still doesn't know how I made it into the house without her or Dad knowing. They found me on the couch in the living room, and the door was still locked. Before they came, I saw him. I only caught a glance because Mom and Dad scared him off, but I saw he had a long wooden staff and he wore no shoes. And his hair and skin were as white as new fallen snow."

"Wow! I wished I could've seen him," Jamie exclaimed.

"Maybe. It was rare for me to even see him. After all, he's invisible so no one can catch him in his mischief." Roxy smiled and winked. "Now, time for you to get some sleep."

Roxy quietly shut the door as Jamie fell back to sleep. She smiled and turned to join Bonnie in her room. As she turned she ran into her mom. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she was looking at Roxy with downcast eyes.

"I wish you wouldn't encourage that behavior, Roxana," Mrs. Bennett reprimanded her daughter. "Jamie's too old to be believing in things like that."

Roxy slightly rolled her eyes. "You are never too old to believe, Mom," she said, crossing her arms.

Mrs. Bennett smiled and shook her head. "Oh, Roxana. I wish you would start acting your age. You're almost eighteen."

"Mom, it's who I am." Roxy smiled and gave her mom a hug. "I'll see you in the morning." Roxy walked past her mom and into her room.

XXX

"I just feel silly doing this Bon. What if Jamie catches us?" It was around 11: 45 p.m. as Roxy walked to her younger brother's bedroom door with Bonnie at her side. The two girls had been up all night talking in Roxy's room when Bonnie had the idea to slip a dollar under Jamie's pillow. Roxy had dismissed the idea, but here she was, walking in her black and gray flannel pants and white tank top, going along with Bonnie's scheme. Funny. Usually it was her talking Bonnie into this sort of thing.

"If he does catch us, so what? WE still believe, so why should he care? Besides, maybe the Tooth Fairy will actually be there. Wouldn't that be exciting?" Bonnie replied, sounding bolder than she ever had before. Which was hard to take seriously, given that she wore her thick white cotton nightgown, cut off at the knees and thin spaghetti straps holding it up. Some lace and little bows were sewn along the sweetheart neckline, and there were ruffles along the hem at her knees.

"Definitely. It'd be nice to see what she really looks like, instead of those dumb stereotypes where she's some ballerina princess–"

"YEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAW!" A loud shout was heard from inside the bedroom. "Hey, did you hear that?"

Bonnie gulped. "Maybe this was a bad idea…" she said, clutching her rabbit closer to her body.

XXX

Earlier, after leaving the Bennett house, Jack had been taken to the North Pole and told he was to become a Guardian, and help stop Pitch Black from endangering the children of the world. He refused until there was an attack on the Tooth Palace. Pitch had captured all but one of the Tooth Fairy's mini fairies and the tooth boxes of every tooth lost by a child. Without the fairies, teeth could not be collected, and without the teeth, the most memories of childhood would be lost, including Jack Frost's memories. It was the reason he agreed to help the Guardians. If he got back his memories, then he would finally know his life before becoming Jack Frost and finally know why he was chosen.

Since Pitch had captured Tooth's mini fairies, the other Guardians — North, Sandman, Bunnymund, and Jack Frost — had agreed to help Tooth gather the baby teeth of children all over the world. And of course, the boys had to turn it into a competition of who could collect the most teeth. Tooth and Jack had just collected Jamie's tooth when the others joined them. Jack and Bunnymund instantly got in an argument about who had the most teeth.

"You think I need help to beat a bunny?" Jack whipped out his bag. "Check it out Peter Cotton-tail."

"You call that a bag a choppers?" Bunny sneered and took out a larger bag. "Now that's a bag a choppers!"

"Gentlemen, gentlemen. This is about Tooth. Is not a competition. But if it was–" North just couldn't resist rubbing in his own success as he set down his sack of teeth. "I win! YEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAW"

North's loud cheer woke Jamie. Thinking the Tooth Fairy had come, he grabbed and aimed his flashlight, hoping to catch the Tooth Fairy. Instead he got something better.

"Oh no!" North whispered.

Jamie gasped. Using his flashlight, he named off everyone he saw. "Santa Clause. The Easter Bunny?" Bunnymund waved and gave a nervous laugh. "Sandman." Sandy smiled and waved. "The Tooth Fairy! I knew you'd come."

"Surprise! We came," Tooth laughed.

"He can see us?" Jack asked in amazement. Jack waited hopefully as Jaime scanned all the Guardians. Well, all but one.

"Most of us…" Bunnymund corrected.

"Shh, you guys. He's still awake," Tooth reminded the arguing Guardians.

Bunnymund quickly turned to Sandman. "Sandy, knock him out."

"Huh?" Jamie stared in conferment as Sandy nodded and then walked toward Jamie pounding one fist into his other hand.

Bunnymund shook his head. "With the dream sand, ya gumbies!" He was cut off by a low growl. All the arguing had woken Jamie's dog, and she was none to happy to see strange people in her boy's room, especially Bunnymund.

"No stop, that's the Easter Bunny. What are you doing, Abby? Down." Jamie tried to reassure the dog that the strangers were welcome. The dog just continued to growl.

"Alright, nobody panic," Bunny stated, setting his tooth sack on the ground.

"But that's a, umm…that's a Greyhound. Do you know what Greyhounds do to rabbits?" Jack asked with slight sarcasm.

"I think it's a pretty safe bet he's never met a rabbit like me," Bunny stated confidently. Hearing the uncertainty in his friend's voice, Sandman prepared a rather large ball of dreamsand to use on the dog. Meanwhile Bunnymund started sizing up his opponent. "Six foot one, nerves of steel, Master of T'ai Chi, and the ancient art of–"

Jack leaned his staff over and nudge Jamie's alarm clock, causing it to go off while also setting Abby off.

"Crikey!" Bunnymund took off with Abby right on his tail.

Poor Jamie tried to calm the dog down but it was useless. Bunnymund jumped all over the room. Even the Guardians tried to help. North encouraged Sandy to use his dreamsand, but while the Sandman was aiming for a shot Abby jumped on him, causing him to loose his grip on the dreamsand and letting loose about the room. North managed to dodge the glowing orb but it smacked Tooth Fairy and Baby Tooth, causing them to fall asleep with visions off teeth dancing in their heads.

"This thing's rabid! Get this dingo off of me!" Bunnymund yelled before the out of control dreamsand hit him in the face. Bunnymund fell backwards against the bed, dream carrots floating above him. The ball then hit Abby with a bone dream before knocking North in the back of his head.

He stumbled backwards in a daze, mumbling "Candy canes" before falling back onto Jamie's bed. His large weight propelled Jamie into the air and landing in Sandman's arms. He looked at Sandy just as the Dream Maker nodded, sprinkling dreamsand into Jamie's eyes, and causing him to fall back asleep, along with three of the Guardians.

"Whoops," Jack said. He turned to look at Sandy.

"What the heck?!"

Both Jack and Sandy froze and turned to see Roxy and Bonnie standing in the doorway, slack jawed and eyes wide.

XXX

GodlyJewel: Ooh, suspense. What's gonna happen next? You'll have to read the next chapter.

Cosmic Horse: Sorry for the cliffy so early on, but this chapter was getting painfully long