Hopefully this chapter clears up some stuff ^_^ Hope you like it.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own The Rise of the Guardians.

Chapter 4: Meeting Jack Frost

Everything is white, covered with snow. As I walk, there is a slight crunch as my feet break through a thin layer of frost. I inhale, cold air filling my lungs and burning my throat. Pain slams against my chest, only to be numbed by the cold. And yet, I don't feel cold.

I keep walking until I reach a snow-shrouded forest. Snow is falling gently; everything is so peaceful. Yet there is no one here. The landscape seems familiar; I let my instincts guide my feet as I turn to the left. A brisk wind blows, scattering snow into the air and stinging my lips. My eyes are watering as I reach a pond similar to the one that is behind my house. Standing by a boulder is the first sign of life I've seen so far: a person. I assume that it's a male. He is wearing a brown, hooded cape over a white long-sleeve shirt and brown vest along with brown pants that are slightly frayed at the bottom of the legs. He is carrying a staff and isn't wearing any shoes.

The boy notices my approach. "You shouldn't be here. You need to go back to where you came," he tells me over the wind.

"How can I go back? It's so peaceful here," I murmur softly.

"You belong in the other world. Not here," the boy says.

I shake my head as I walk closer. "If I don't belong here, then neither do you. What are you doing here?"

"I was sent to bring you back."

"By whom?" I narrow my eyes against the wind.

"It does not matter right now. It is my priority to keep you safe. I can't explain it to you right now. But I will. In time," he says cryptically.

"How can I know that I can trust you?"

I can see his smirk from beneath his hood. "You can't. You can only trust your heart."

"Where are we, though? I've never seen a place this beautiful."

"This is the place that special souls come before they pass on to the nether worlds," he explains.

"That doesn't make any sense," I tilt my head. "What you are basically saying is that this is where people come before they die. But…I'm not dead."

The boy smiles sadly. "You have been dead for several minutes. But there is still time for you to come back."

The wind starts to blow fiercer, stinging my skin and lips. The boy has disappeared in the snow.

"Please, please come back to me." The voice reminds me of the person that saved me from the snowstorm when I was ten.

The snow begins blowing into my eyes. Trying to blink it away, my vision begins to change; it alters between bright blue eyes and the snowy forest. The air I'm breathing is becoming warmer, and there is no pain in my chest.

Opening my eyes, I see Mr. Bennett standing by the door, speaking with the school nurse. I sit up slightly, looking around the room, still dazed from what happened. There is no sign of anyone else in the room. I frown, dangling my feet over the edge of the bed and hopping down, a little unsteady on my feet. I walk over to the sink and look in the mirror, slightly astonished. My lips look like they're either bruised or frostbitten. Touching my lips, they feel cold. I lick them, tasting a mixture of vanilla or mint, something crisp; I can't decide which.

Mr. Bennett finishes speaking with the nurse and comes over to me. I turn toward him. "Are you feeling okay?" he asks. "You're really lucky that you ran into me when you were trying to get to the nurse."

I frown. "Someone helped me walk. I didn't do it myself."

A twinkle appears in his eyes as he pushes up his glasses. "I see. And who was that?"

I blush. "I…don't know. I couldn't see." I hesitate "What…happened? After I passed out, I mean." 'Please don't tell me that I died. Just say that the weird dream I had was just a dream,' I silently plead.

"Well…," he starts pacing. "You had an asthma attack and passed out due to the lack of oxygen."

"Oh, is that all?" I laugh nervously. "I was afraid that I might have died. Glad that's all cleared up."

Mr. Bennett stares silently at me, making me shift from foot to foot. "By the time the nurse was able to administer the medicine, your heart had stopped, and you quit breathing. CPR and mouth-to-mouth had to be performed, not by me though," he murmurs as he glances out the open window. Looking over the top of his glasses, he says, "You almost weren't able to be revived. You're incredibly lucky; you were dead for almost fifteen to twenty minutes. You've been unconscious for longer though. It's almost time for seventh period." He nods at my backpack and jacket by the wall. "You're friends brought your stuff after you came here."

"JP and Devin?" I ask.

He nods. "I believe that was them."

I sigh, running my fingers through my hair.

"Is something wrong?" Mr. Bennett smiles.

"It's…," I start, but hesitate. Should I really tell him? Taking a deep breath, I begin again. "It's the fact that there's this person that I keep seeing, but nobody else seems to be able to see him, and I'm beginning to wonder if I'm still sane, if it's just a figment of my imagination, a ghost or spirit of some kind, or if I'm completely mentally unbalanced. The problem is that I feel like I've seen him before and that I should know him, but I don't. He reminds me of somebody that saved my life before when I was younger, but I don't even remember or know much if anything about the person."

"Hmmm. I see." He rubs his chin. "I'd like you to stay after, after my class. There are some things that I would like to share with you. I'll okay it with your mother." His eyes gleam mischievously. "For now, we need to get to class before the herd begins stampeding down the halls." He shakes his head, laughing. "Kids these days."

Mr. Bennett hands me my jacket but carries my backpack. "So your mother told me you moved to Burgess when you were ten or eleven. How do you like it here?"

"It's pretty cool here. I've still had a pretty hard time adjusting and making friends." I shrug. "School's good. The teachers are nice." I pause, thinking. "The winters are the best part: ice-skating, sledding, snow boarding, snow ball fights, snow angels." I sigh, closing my eyes. "The best times of my life."

He chuckles. "You remind me of one of my childhood friends." He stops, opening the door to his classroom. The bell rings a few seconds later. "Well that was lucky."

I take a seat to the far right of the classroom after getting my backpack from Mr. Bennett. JP and Devin are the first through the door, talking quietly together until they see me. Devin drops his bag and runs over to me, lifting me off the ground and spinning me around in circles. "There's my favorite little Cupid. Almost thought you died on us, after you ran out of class."

"Dev," I gasp. "Stop before I get sick."

"Oh." He chuckles. "Sorry, Cupid." Devin sets me down in my desk, my head spinning. "Are you okay?"

"I will be. Especially when my head stops spinning."

JP gives me a hug from behind and kisses the top of my head. "Glad you're okay." They sit down by me. "You look really cute when you're asleep."

"Uhhh… I wasn't asleep, not for all of it anyways," I think to myself.

"So what exactly happened?" JP whispers.

"Well," I murmur, "I had an asthma attack because of how I had been singing. I was able to get to the nurse, but I passed out. They were able to get me some medicine, and I was fine…after I was dead for fifteen to twenty minutes," I mumble at the end.

"Okay. That's good." Devin smiles, before the realization strikes him, his smile falling from his face. "Wait. You were what?!"

"Dead. I was dead." I grimace. "What did you think I said?"

"What was it like?" JP asks.

"Well…" The bell rings. I clear my throat. "I'll tell you later." I turn around, facing Mr. Bennett's desk. He smiles at me before taking roll.

After finishing the roll, Mr. Bennett says, "Well, class. As all of you should but may not know, Mr. Grayson passed away on Friday-"

"That was on Cupid's blog!" someone from the back of the class bursts out.

I grin a little and sink into my seat.

Mr. Bennett clears his throat. "Anyways, since he passed away, I am going to be your new Mythology and Folklore teacher. My name is Jamie Bennett. I used to live in Burgess when I was younger. In fact, I graduated from this very high school. Regardless, I've recently moved back to Burgess and am happy to be teaching such a wonderful group of students. Do you have any questions for me?"

"Is there currently a Mrs. Bennett in your life?" one of the cheerleaders asked, popping her gum.

"Unless you count my mother, no." He narrows his eyes.

"Do you want there to be?" she asks, popping her gum again.

"No, and if you don't get rid of your gum, you'll be going to the principal's office to be suspended."

There is silence before someone asks, "How old are you?"

"I'm twenty-seven," he sighs.

I raise my hand.

"Yes, Val?"

"What's the first thing that we will be learning about in this class?" I ask. Groans rise from half the class.

Mr. Bennett smiles. "I thought that we could learn about the Guardians, but first, we need to take a pre-test to determine what you already know about common Mythology and Folklore before we begin to cover any material." He grabs a stack of papers before passing them out. "I want each of you to fill out this paper and turn it in at the end of class. You may not work in groups or with partners." This earns more groans from the class. "Try to fill out as much as possible for each question. You may begin."

I look at the clock: only about thirty minutes until the end of class. Looking over the paper, I realize that the questions are really broad and simple. I smile. I'm starting to really like this teacher, even though I do have the suspicion that he might be lying about not giving me mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

I quickly finish the so-called "quiz" and turn the paper over, drawing curlicues on the back. The teacher calls time when only five minutes remain in class, asking me to help gather the papers while he phones my mom. I hand the papers to him as the bell rings.

As JP and Devin are about to leave, they notice that I'm still sitting at my desk. "Come on, Val. Whatcha waiting for?" Devin asks.

I clear my throat. "Mr. Bennett needs to speak to me…about the earlier incident I had."

"See you later, I guess," JP says. They bid their farewells, and I am left alone in the room with Mr. Bennett. He stands up and locks the door. My eyes widen.

"I'm not going to hurt you. I just have a few questions I need to ask you, but first," he says, sitting down at his desk, "I'm going to tell you a story. You may chose to believe it or dismiss it as a fairy tale if you so desire."

I nod my head. "Okay."

He smiles, beginning his story. "Some time ago, there was a boy who believed in the Guardians, the ones from the fairy tales: Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, Sandman, and the Easter Bunny. He believed in them fiercely, and never stopped believing in them. One day, however, the Boogeyman, also known as Pitch, began to make the world's children stop believing in the Guardians, despite how the Guardians fought against him. There was finally only one boy left that believed in them, since he had met them. However, he was beginning to doubt whether they existed or not. The boy did not stop believing, though, because one person was able to prove to him that they did exist, re-establishing his faith in the Guardians and allowing him to believe in the person that proved this to him. The boy went with this person to help his friends re-believe in the Guardians so that they could fight Pitch. It was because of the person, the boy, and the boy's friends that the Guardians were able to defeat Pitch and allow the world's children to safely believe in the Guardians again." He stops, leaning forward on his desk. "Tell me what you think of this."

"Well…it's…certainly plausible that it could have happened, though it does seem a little far-fetched," I say, biting my lip.

"Well, let me ask you this. Do you believe in the Guardians?" he asks.

"I mean, I did when I was little."

"No. Do you believe in the Guardians right now?"

I gulp. "Well, kind of, sort of…yes." I sigh. "Yes, I do."

"Do you believe the story I told you?"

"Yes."

"That story is indeed true. I was the boy that helped the Guardians along with my friends and someone that is very important to me."

I tilt my head to the side, confused.

"What is your opinion about the existence of Jack Frost?"

"Jack Frost?" I raise my eyebrows. "Well, I do believe he exists…but I don't see how any of this is relevant."

Mr. Bennett smiles. "Everything I asked you is relevant." He pauses. "I'd like you to meet somebody important to me. A friend of mine."

A cold wind blows a pair of windows open behind me. The boy with the blue hoodie and no shoes lands beside Mr. Bennett's desk.

The boy pushes back the hood he is wearing, revealing snow white hair and ice blue eyes that I've seen several times before.

"Valentina Aster Johnson, I would like you to meet my friend. Jack Frost."

And thank you to everyone that has been reviewing, following, or favoriting this story.

Lover chocolate, you were correct about the two people at the end of the last chapter being Jack and Jamie, but you aren't quite right about Ian using Kristi. There is a reason for her apparent betrayal of Val. That comes into play and is made evident further in the plot. I didn't just do that to make Kristi and Ian seem like bad people and to hurt Val. Everything has its purpose.

I'm glad that everyone's liking the story so far :)