Chapter 3

Days went by much more quickly than Anna had expected. Anna's mother got a job as a librarian in an elementary school near the city. Kristoff started going to his new school. Every morning, Anna's mother would take the boy on a one-hour ride to school, and head to work herself. Anna would stay home, with almost nothing to do. Her mother didn't pressure her over her studies. She could do whatever she wanted. To Anna's relief, Elsa never left her corner. All she did was to stare intently, eyes moving in every direction, while she fiddled with the No.2 pencil that used to be Kristoff's. When Kristoff and Anna's mother returned home, Anna would finally get out of her room and help her mother unpack. Every evening, Olaf would come over, crying out from the front yard, "Kristoff! Let's go and play!". And the two boys would run off, baseball in hand, to the large vacant lot right next to the woods. Once in every two days, Anna's mother would force Elsa to the showers. And every night before bed, Anna would ask her mother, very unenthusiastically, for any news from the police.

"Mom, did you check on the police today?"

"Yes, Anna. I call them every day. They said they're still waiting for orders from the authorities… What are you doing in the kitchen? It's almost midnight," said Anna's mother, as she entered the kitchen. Anna was digging inside the fridge, looking for anything to eat.

"I'm hungry,"

"Then you should've eaten dinner," Anna was now groping for something on the upper shelf. She fished out a bag of chocolate chip cookies, and glanced at her mother.

"I'm never eating at the same table as her," Her mother sighed. Anna ripped open the bag.

"Hon, you haven't eaten a proper meal for the past three days-" before her mother could finish her sentence, Anna simply walked out of the kitchen, munching on a cookie, walked into her room, and shut the door behind her.

The next morning, Anna was pouring milk into her cup when her mother placed a small plate right next to her.

"Corn on the cob," she said, "you used to like them when you were little."

"I'm fine with milk," Anna answered, "and I got my cookies." Her mother frowned.

"At least eat something healthy."

Holding onto the corn with one hand, she watched as her mother's car pulled out of the driveway. Today, instead of slumping onto the couch like she always did, she started for the heap of cardboard boxes still piled on one side of the living room. Ignoring Elsa's piercing blue eyes that followed her every move, she started searching for the box labeled, "Anna's books". She groaned as she found the box stuck in the bottom, with three more boxes on top of it.

Okay, okay. I can do this.

She bent down, grabbed the boxes that were piled on top, and tugged on it so hard that her face flushed a deep red. After several attempts that all resulted in failure, Anna straightened up, hating her horribly weak arm muscles.

Right then, her eyes widened in alarm as she saw a shadow deeming over her. She turned, to see Elsa, her back hunched, walking slowly towards her.

"W…what… what are you…" Anna stammered. The blonde girl was only a few feet away. As Anna staggered backwards, her feet got caught on one of Kristoff's beanbag chairs that sat right next to the pile of boxes that she had just tried to lift, making her fall backwards on it. Elsa didn't stop. Not raising her pace, she stepped forward until she had reached where Anna sat terrified. Anna couldn't think of anything else. All she could think of was that this girl, who had almost killed her on her first night here, was now poised for another attack. As the blonde bent down, leaning over Anna's body, Anna finally found her voice.

"B…back off, go away! MOM!" She screamed, only to realize that her mother was at work.

Now she could actually feel the girl's breath on her skin. Terrified, Anna grabbed handfuls of the girl's blonde hair, desperate to get her away, her eyes sealed shut, screaming something that even she couldn't make out herself-

Then she felt nothing. She only felt the girl's blonde locks pulling away from her grasp. Confused, Anna carefully opened her eyes.

The blonde had backed away a bit. She just stood there with her hair horribly disheveled from Anna's assault, and in her hands, the three boxes that Anna had tried so hard to lift. Anna bolted upright, trying to regain her senses as best as she could. Elsa seemed to be glaring at her, and a low growl escaped her lips. Anna jumped as the blonde dropped the boxes that she had been holding to the floor without even moving a muscle.

"Uh,, sorry, um… I didn't know… that was… that was very awkward… uh, sorry," Anna said meekly, as she blindly pushed her hair over her ears. "You're… you're really strong."

Elsa only stared. Unsure of what to do, Anna reached for the plate nearby and held out an extra corn cob.

"Would you like-"without waiting for her to finish her sentence, Elsa snatched the corn from her hands. After glancing briefly at Anna, she began furiously biting at the corn as she turned and started for her corner.

Anna, very taken aback, stared blankly at the blonde who was now feasting on her treat. However, she quickly shook her head and started taking off the duct tape from the box, which was now easily accessible thanks to Elsa. Hastily ripping it off, she opened it and began digging inside for her textbooks. Algebra 2, US History, Brave New World, The Cookbook, Literature, Biology, The Hunger Games, How to Train your Dog, Chemistry… The books were all mixed up, but she could see that she had all her textbooks safe and sound in the box. She was finally gathering up all the books when she heard a knock at the door.

"Who is it?" She called out, but rolled her eyes as she saw through the peephole a large man wearing sunglasses, with his hands inside his pocket, waiting outside the door.

"It's me, Hans," when he heard no answer, he added, "hey, I got the keys to this house, so just open up when I'm being polite."

At that, Anna slammed open the front door, making Hans howl in pain, clutching at his left foot which had been struck full-force by the wooden door.

"What do you want?" She asked with her arms folded. Hans, having recovered, was back to his arrogant self.

"I just wanted to talk to you. Are you gonna make me stand here the whole time?" Anna glared at him for a moment, and stepped aside to make room for him to pass through. Hans smirked, and walked into the living room. He stopped as he spotted Elsa, who was now eyeing the newcomer intensely with the corn in her hand.

"Hey, you still keep that thing?" He asked. Anna merely nodded. With both his hands shoved into his pockets, he walked closer to Elsa. Elsa tensed, and let out a deep growl.

"How does it even make that sound? It's so weird. Just like a dog," Hans jeered, but flinched and backed away as Elsa crouched down threateningly at his direction. He cleared his throat, and turned to Anna.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" Anna asked coldly. Hans walked closer, raising his eyebrows.

"Hey, I just came to say goodbye 'cause I'm going back to Chicago tomorrow morning. You don't have to be that cold to me," He remarked, but only received an icy glare from Anna.

"Oh, if that's all you needed to say, you can just go now, I gotta go catch up on my schoolwork."

"Schoolwork? I thought you dropped out!"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I should stop studying," replied Anna, "my mom wants me to go to college, and I do too."

"Oh Anna," sighed Hans with a crooked smile, "you don't have to study. Just learn how to cook and marry me, and we'll live happily ever after."

"What? Excuse me, I've only known you for like, three days!" Anna exclaimed as she tried to pull away, but Hans was a bit quicker and grabbed her wrist.

"Come on, I know you like me, well, who wouldn't? I'm the heir of one of the largest companies in the state, and I'm also pretty hot," Anna frowned.

"That logic is insane. Hey- let go!" She tugged in an effort to free herself from Hans' grasp. His grip was tighter than she had expected. A moment later, however, his face distorted in a silent scowl as he lost his grip and staggered backwards. It took a moment for Anna to register what had happened. Elsa, with the corn in her mouth, had her fingers locked on Hans' arm that had been holding onto Anna. She didn't let go until Hans had staggered all the way to the front door.

"What the- You fucking-"Hans started as he clenched his fists and attempted to take off his jacket. He was cut off by Elsa's loud growl, which was now closer to a bark. As she stepped forward threateningly at him, he desperately swung open the front door, swearing loudly, and drove off in his SUV without even glancing back at the two girls.

Elsa stood there for a moment, staring at the front door which was still wide open. This time, she went back to her corner, without even glancing once at the redheaded girl, absorbed entirely in eating the rest of her corn.

All Anna could do was to stare at Elsa's retreating form.

"Okay, who stuffed this cob behind the sofa?" called Anna's mother after dinner.

"Not me," Anna answered absentmindedly as she got ready for bed. Her mother turned to Kristoff and raised an eyebrow. He furiously shook his head as he tried to hide behind his reindeer. The older woman simply shrugged, and tossed it into the garbage can. Anna was the first to go to bed.

Anna lay on her bed, staring blankly at ceiling. She couldn't sleep. Normally, Anna could sleep through almost anything. But there were some nights, when she just couldn't close her eyes. These nights Anna hated. These were the nights when the dreaded, depressing thoughts hit her with full force. And when this happened, there was only one thing she could do to calm herself.

Anna sat up, and took out a diary and a pen from under the pillow. She turned on the small lamp sitting on her bedside table. The pale light made the white letters written on the cover stand out even more from the black background.

'Sweet Sorrow', the words that Anna had written herself gleamed in the light. This was where Anna found relief from in her depressing nights. She wrote about all she could think of- death, her heart, her father… And after spilling everything in the diary, she would cry herself to sleep.

She opened up to a clean page, and uncapped her pen. Today, however, she hesitated. With a shake of her head, she closed the diary, and put it back into its usual place.

No, not today.

She stood up from the bed, and scooted to the corner of her room where she had placed the box with her books that morning. Her eyes shone in anticipation as she found the book she was looking for- 'How to Train Your Dog'. She took the book back to her bed, and started reading intently.

She didn't cry that night.

A/N : I'm sorry about the absence. This isn't that much of a long chapter, I know, but I wanted to upload as fast as I could, so… well, here it is. Hope you enjoyed it. But wow, 56 followers? I didn't even expect that much! You guys are awesome. Totally. I'll keep it up.:)

Leave me reviews, guys, I love reading them! :)