So no love triangles! Got it!
###########
Hello.
I would just like to thank everyone who took their time to read this, and for the reviews, favorites, and followers. I really appreciate it! I finally have a written plot for this story, but it's still flexible, so feel free to give suggestions.
Warning: a few crude jokes and suggestive innuendos. and beginner's french.
Very unimportant fact- if you get the Phantom of the Opera (original 1986 London Cast) radio on Pandora, it'll give you Frozen and other Disney songs, which I guess makes sense because, you know, broadway. But it still surprised me because the first songs it gave me were "Let it Go" and "The First Time in Forever"
(I don't own anything!;)
###########
Chapter 6- Forever Is Overrated.
"...Juste un peu..."
###########
It was Tuesday afternoon at five o'clock and Jack was once again at the Summer's home, ignoring the ache in his legs from hockey practice. He probably smelled of gym socks. After practice he had planned to get himself home and cleaned up, or at least make a dent in the pile of homework shoved somewhere deep into his book bags, but he had been surprised to find Anna and the rest of his friends sitting in the stands with Elsa, insisting that he come over for a study group.
He and his friends had formed the usual circle in the middle of the livingroom rugs, accompanied by Eugene. Jack was seriously starting to doubt his claims of having any other senior friends by the amount of time he spent with Rapunzel and the other sophomores.
Hiccup and Elsa were chattering by themselves about perpetual motion or something. He ruffled his hair in annoyance as he walked by the pair to get iced tea in the kitchen. Their conversations flowed easily, while chemistry between Jack and Elsa came and went. And, normally, no one even bothered to join in their discussions because they were always talking about sciency-crap that Jack didn't see sense in wasting time on outside of class. He liked to comfort himself with the thought that Elsa could be bored out of her mind, too. But if Elsa liked that stuff, she was smart, at least. And she made smart really sophisticated. Sophisticated was sexy.
He might be a little biased.
Jack didn't even know he was being followed until another boy around two years his senior rammed through the kitchen door behind him. Eugene strolled to the sink with a slight swing in his strut and opened a cabinet above the counter, taking out a dainty teacup that looked fragile between his calloused fingers. Jack took it as a good sign that Flynn wasn't speaking to him yet and hoped it stayed that way. Wordlessly, the younger one rifled through the fridge to get the brisk out.
"Have you tried flirting with her yet?" Eugene inquired. When Jack didn't answer, he continued to pester him. "Don't be like that, you know who I'm talking about."
Jack smirked, "Oh, who? Hiccup? Not really my type but I'll give it a try."
He refilled his glass and was about to leave when Eugene pulled him back, making his drink swish and drip down the rim, "Not quite what I meant, Jack."
Flynn has actually cared to call him by his real name. This had to be good, Jack figured. "What- you're serious? You said so yourself, Anna would kill me."
Flynn released Jack's shoulder and returned to his former task, before he started meddling with Jack's love life again. He took a kettle off of the stove and poured some of the amber liquid into the teacup. "Yeah, sure, she won't take it well, but how Elsa reacts isn't her choice. Just go for it."
"Bros before hoes." Jack argued, watching the ripple in Eugene's muscular arms from lifting the kettle. "And since when do you drink tea?"
"It's for Elsa, and are you calling her a hoe?" He set the kettle down and took a quick whiff of the tea. The sour look on his face told Jack that he didn't like it. "Give it a shot. How do you think I got Zellie to go out with me?"
"Pity. I don't want to go out with Elsa. She's just cute, okay?"
"Just cute?" Jack didn't want to hear anymore, so he shouldered backwards through the door, flipping his middle finger up at the man and smoothly exiting the room.
###########
It was five o'clock, and Jack managed to write one sentence for the essay almost due for Mr. Jarfar's class. It was still progress, believe it or not, and an achievement when it came to working with his friends. Just when he was about to set his mind on actually finishing something, Flynn broke his train of thought by calling for a "much needed" break. The group spent their break arguing.
"You cannot be serious." Merida etched a frown on her round face.
"I think it'll help you guys." Flynn necessitated.
Ariel cocked her head and with a curious smile, she asked him, "With what?"
"Getting dates."
Hiccup immediately protested, "I don't think perverted pick up lines are really going to help us. We've already wasted time doing... nothing."
Flynn shot back, "Well, it won't help you- you're a hopeless case. Jack?" This left Rapunzel's boyfriend to eye him expectantly. From the disapproving look Elsa flashed her friends from over her teacup, he would've said no, but the man was already typing away at his phone, searching and reading off the first site on his screen.
"Can I read your t-shirt in braille?" Eugene recited, and Jack flinched at the crude but lame innuendo. Rapunzel gave him a warning glance from behind golden hair, but if you looked closely, you could see the mirth in her eyes. Some of the girls giggled, including Merida, who quickly muffled her laughter behind her sleeves and spluttered out in a boom,
"What girl would want to hear that?"
"I don't get it." Ariel admitted.
Jack chuckled a bit, and looked up from his place on the colorful rug to give Elsa an encouraging smile. She only frowned back at his attempt to make her join in on the fun. Her eyes scanned the textbook in front of her as sarcasm left her lips in a snide remark, "Oh, that was very flattering."
Flynn glanced up at her innocently, "I bet I can make you laugh."
Elsa did a challenging eyebrow raise so similar to Anna's that Jack could finally see the family resemblance and past their contrast in personalities and clash of hair colors, setting down her homework with a steady hand and crossing her arms. She squared her shoulders, back as straight as a ruler. "Really? Try me."
Eugene's cheshire grin split his face in two and eagerly chanted the next line. "I'm afraid of the dark... Will you sleep with me tonight?"
No response from the platinum blonde.
"I love my bed but I'd rather be in yours."
Nothing but a daring smile.
"Do you like bacon? Wanna strip?"
She shook her head in disappointment.
"Is your name winter? Because you'll be coming soon."
Ice cold stare.
"Do you like soda? Because I'd mount-and-do you."
She took a nonchalant sip of her tea.
"Hi, my name is Milk. I'll do your body good."
Her eyes widened, and she choked on her swallow, some of the drink spurting out her nose. Horrified over what transpired, she all but lunged for the box of napkins on the coffee table. Eugene roared in victory while Elsa pressed a handful of tissue to her nose, her ears turning red. Jack's jaw dropped in disbelief.
"Milk. You laughed at milk? Seriously?"
Elsa didn't hear him over Eugene's cackle
"I made you laugh!" Eugene taunted her.
She glared at him when she wiped up her face, indignant. "Don't take all the credit, you're reading off of a website."
"Whatever, Summers. You think I'm funny."
A very awkward pause followed when Elsa Queen didn't answer. She got a sort of desolate look on her face and held her hands to her chest, shoulders caving in slightly. Her blue eyes bore down into the carpets. A few people flashed her sympathetic half-smiles, but she made it clear that she didn't want them when she refused to meet anyone's eyes, including Jack's. A very clueless Eugene looked around in confusion before it dawned on him that Elsa wasn't part of the family yet.
"God, sorry Elsa, I didn't mean..." Dumbstruck Eugene trailed off, for the first time, he had nothing to say.
Her wounded expression dissolved, and she fixed him a hard look, standing to gather her stuff for them to fill the empty spaces she would leave. With a face like stone she said,
"You're not funny."
###########
The next morning, September nineteenth, the morning sky was pale, and Jack saw a dejected Eugene walk to his first period without Elsa. The night before she had reassured the man before he left that she was fine and that it was an honest mistake, but it was obviously still a touchy subject for her and she needed some time alone. Anna had told Jack at lunch that that morning Elsa had skipped breakfast and left the house without her.
Anna chewed her nails in stress, not radiating her usual confidence. "Elsa doesn't tell me things- I mean, she got here a week ago, I know. And she's not a Summer yet- but she will be! I-I just- I don't know what to do! I'm her sister, I want her to trust me with these things!"
It was true that Elsa had only been living with them for a week, but in that one week Jack could see how much Anna cared for her sister, and how much she craved for her attention. Anna had filled with a new strive and spark in her eyes, a part of her he'd never seen pre-Elsa. It made him wonder how lonely Anna was really feeling with the knowledge that she had an older sister in another continent.
Jack reconsidered his relationship with his own sister and decided that, annoying as she was, life wouldn't be the same without her- maybe even a little empty, incomplete. Siblings share a special bond that couldn't be compared to a friend's, or even their parents. They were always just... there. There in way where you didn't really have to say anything to communicate. Anna had been missing that since she was five. With her sister finally back, Jack couldn't imagine the confusion and stress within the Summer's household. Don't get him started on how Mrs. Summers might be feeling.
"Relax." Had it been another situation, Jack would have been amused at her normal rambling, but he knew he had to be a friend for her now and try to calm her down, "Elsa's taking in a ton right now. Give her some time."
He tried to make the air feel a little lighter by leaning back in his chair and flashing her a cocky grin, but she only brooded to herself, deep in thought while the chairs around them filled up with the rest of the gang. Jack shrugged and took a bite out of his pizza, twirling the hockey stick in his hand.
"Where's Rapunzel?" Tiana asked. She unscrewed a thermos that curled out steam and the smell of spices. Anna zoned back in and told her, "She's in candle making club."
Jack stopped chewing, recalling the smell of strawberries (or the Grand Canyon). He tried to imagine the tilt to a certain blue-eyed senior's lips, or even her girlish giggle that day. Maybe he could even ask Rapunzel to snag him Elsa's favorite rose scented one.
Hiccup hobbled up to their table awkwardly, looking a little lost. "Have any you guys seen Flynn and Elsa?"
No, Jack mused to himself, it probably wouldn't mean much to her.
Merida, mouth full of pizza, forced out, "Flynn is either in his photography club or at the track.
Anna's nose scrunched up, teal eyes flashing wildly, "Where's Elsa, then?"
"That's sort of what I came here for." Hiccup reminded her. He scratched a little at his rounded jaw line, to where his brown shaggy hair hung. They let him sit.
Everyone turned on Jack, "Do you guys have ballroom club after school today?" Tooth asked, albeit a little irritated, like dancing was a crime.
"No, only on Mondays and Tuesdays after school."
"So where is she?" Anna whined.
"I told you, just give her time to be alone." Jack persuaded her. She frowned, and barely spoke throughout break.
Jack couldn't deny the huge weight lifted off of his chest when he walked into his French one class and saw Elsa there with her magenta cardigan and teal gloves. He smiled at her, and she forced one back. He had been one of the last students to shuffle into the packed classroom and they didn't have assigned desks yet, so he sat down in one of the open seats in the back.
Didn't Elsa know french? She lived in Europe for half of her life.
Jack played with the pen in his hands, paying no attention to when it marked up his cream skin or brushed his brown t-shirt. The slur of his french teacher's deep voice thrummed in his ears and he watched Mr. O'Hara's mustache move from his speaking, "Bonjour class. Please welcome Elsa, our new teacher assistant. Be nice to her."
The students could tell he was trying to be stern, but it was a lost cause because no one could be scared of him and his bald head. Most of them didn't care. Jack didn't either,
Until his teacher said, "Elsa, would you please help me pass out the tests from last week?"
Oh no. Crapcrapcrap no. He prayed to any god out there that Elsa would not see the big fat F he got on his test. Oh please, no.
He was about ready to pull his hair out when he saw her approach his desk, the click of her velvety flats become five times louder and he questioned if there could be a more maddening noise. He resisted the urge to bury his fingernails into his scalp. Elsa walked along the aisle, giving him a polite smile as she held an upside down test out to him. With sweaty palms he took it from her, mentally hating on himself now that he was sure he convinced Elsa that he was stupid.
"Jack, please come here." His french teacher said after class.
Jack swallowed, feeling his adam's apple bob. It had grown a little larger over the few weeks, but now was not the time for him to be proud of it. He waddled over to the front row of desks, putting a good amount of space between him and Mr. O'Hara's bear belly.
Elsa had stayed behind with him.
"I've noticed that you haven't been doing well in my class over the last month." Jack tried hard to keep his eyes trained on his teacher's dead gray ones, but often strayed to the clock counting down the five minutes students were given in between periods to get to their next class. He gulped again, and did a single nod of his head. His heart dropped into his stomach as Elsa studied him carefully, but quickly looked away when they locked eyes. Jack noticed how stuffy the classroom was and the smell of... people. He had to hold his tongue to keep himself from asking to turn up the AC, even if it was below seventy degrees outside.
"It's nothing to be ashamed of, most students don't do well at the beginning of the school year. You're getting used to things. I just thought it might help for you to get a tutor."
Jack blinked once, twice, and Mr.O'hara pulled a smile before motioning for Elsa to come closer. "Elsa says she doesn't mind tutoring you at all, and that you are very good friends."
Well, we know each other, Jack wanted to correct the old man. Elsa referred to him as a friend. He didn't know when that had happened, but he was pretty glad about it. He shifted on his gray converse,
"Yeah!" Jack said a little too happily for his liking. "That sounds great! It's just that I have hockey practice after school almost everyday."
Mr. O'hara opened his mouth to talk, but Elsa beat him to it. "It ends at four, right? So we can meet up at six every Wednesday?" She solved. Jack thought the hope in her eyes was just his imagination.
"Yeah, sure, great!" He really needed to stop talking. "So I'll meet you at..."
"My house? That way Anna could study with us." She suggested.
Jack's heart fell just a tad, but what could he expect? It was Anna's house, too. And she would be glad to know that Elsa was okay. Why shouldn't she be there? And it might be weird for her that her friend was coming over to see her sister.
God, he'd mentioned it a hundred times by now but she was her sister. Why couldn't he get over that already?
He was an asshole.
###########
No one does three-way calls anymore. Except for Jack and his friends. The second he got home from practice he rushed himself to the shower without even a hello to his Pippa. He threw on a blue hoodie and jeans, ramming his finger into his home phone and summoning Nick and Tooth.
"You've been spending a lot of time with her lately." Jack couldn't tell if Tooth was annoyed or just stating a fact.
"Why does it matter?" Nick's gravelly voice said. He gasped, tone becoming deeper, if possible, "Jack, are you nervous? Do you like her?"
"No!" But Jack felt more like he was trying to convince himself. "I just don't want her to think I'm an idiot. "
"If she didn't, she wouldn't have offered to tutor you." Tooth pitched in.
"Thanks, that really helps." He could practically see her shrug her shoulders.
"Do you like anyone?"
"Not the point, Nick." Jack never tagged Nick as a gossip.
"How about you, Tooth? I've never heard... oh, wait, nevermind."
"Nick..." She sighed.
Jack was suddenly very uncomfortable, because, crap, he had to be the biggest jerk in the world because he knew exactly who Tooth's crush was and he actually called to ask about Elsa, for crying out loud. Why couldn't he just leave it alone? Maybe it was because he needed girl advice, and Tooth was a girl.
But so were another five of his friends.
"I have to go." He chickened out of the phone call, and he couldn't be anymore ashamed of himself.
###########
If there was one thing you should know about Jack, it's that he doesn't stop moving, ever.
His hands or feet always need something to do, whether it was tapping out a tune or ruffling his hair, or wringing his sleeves or pencil or whatever sorry thing he happened to be holding. So, after school at six o'clock, he sat at a little table in Elsa's room, twisting one of the tiny empty teacups she always drank from in his hands and not even thinking of the possibility of breaking it until it had already been done. The handle snapped off when it hit the floor, making Elsa stop talking and both sisters and stare at the mess around Jack's legs.
"Sorry." So much for not looking like an idiot.
Anna pursed her lips, and Elsa said in a voice that made him feel like a child, "It's okay. Anna, can you get me a towel, please?"
The ginger pouted, and left the room.
When Jack got up to aid her, Elsa stopped him as soon as he took his first step, "You're going to cut your feet." She cautioned him. He only looked down at his feet in response, but stayed still, something very difficult for him.
"Sorry for breaking your cup."
"It's fine." But he wasn't sure if that was true by the way she looked at the porcelain in mourning.
The last time he was in Elsa's room, when he met her, he had been so flustered from the bra incident that he hadn't taken a good look around. Now that he was there again, he could say it was very blue, and so organized, and so different from Anna's messy pink one, where on some days he couldn't see the floor. It was a nice change, not that he was planning to get used to it.
"Anna was really worried about you earlier."
That was not what he was planning on saying.
Elsa's thin lips parted, taken back and eyes revealing guilt. She looked like she had something important to say, but Anna came in with rubber gloves and a chick- printed rag.
"Elsa!" Anna beamed, "Can you teach us a few phrases in french?"
Elsa quirked an eyebrow in amusement, disregarding Jack's earlier comment. She took the supplies from her little sister's recently manicured hands. "Isn't that what I was doing before?"
"Teach us sentences and stuff."
"Okay?" Elsa omitted a fond laugh reserved only for Anna. The girl she sat down, braiding her red hair while giving Elsa her full interest. Elsa thought for a moment, and took off her turquoise gloves. Jack internally groaned when he saw that her hands were completely normal, and smooth. At least when he didn't know that he could have told himself that they were deformed or covered in warts or pretend that there was at least one thing imperfect about her. Either way he knew he would still like her.
"N'importe quoi!"
Oh, that was hot. Really really attractive.
"What does that mean?"
"basically, it means 'whatever'." She crouched down and answered him with her now rubber gloved hand hovering over the glass.
"Another one?"
Elsa shook her head with a smile. "Tu t'en sors ?"
The blonde explained,"'You doing okay there?' Or, 'Are you doing okay?'"
"And je t'aime. It's an easy one." Elsa concluded.
Anna nodded, one of the first times Jack has actually seen her make an effort to learn, most likely in favor of her sister. "I love you?" Anna translated with ease.
Jack's heart pounded uncomfortably in his chest as he tested it on his tongue. "Je t'aimé."
"No." Elsa corrected him, "Not je tem- ay. Just je tem. Je t'aime. And it can also just mean 'I like you'."
Jack tried again, pokerfaced, looking straight at her for approval.
"Je t'aime."
She smiled at him, looking content with her pupils. Very faint blush colored her cheeks, and this time Jack didn't think it was only in his head. And if it was, well, he would take it.
"Juste un peu. Quasiment."
###########
They spent some time after the tutoring just working on homework, but Jack wasn't surprised when Anna pulled out the next movie of the Twilight saga: "New Moon". Both Jack and Elsa voted against it, even trying to use homework to get out of it (which never happens for Jack), but Anna had said that they "have to finish the series" because they saw the first one last week. After a lot of going back and forth, they all agreed on a horror movie.
By the end of the banter, Anna had them seated in front of the tv with mounds of blankets and mugs of swiss miss hot chocolate. She buried her self into a thick green comforter, while Jack kicked off his own. Elsa neatly cocooned half of her body in a thin gray one. She lay stomach down and propped up by her elbows, reading glasses nestled on her pointy nose and another comic book stretched out in front of her. The younger girl's hair could barely be seen under her blankets piled around her on the couch, but every now and then Jack would see her green-blue eyes and freckle kissed face peek out.
When Anna clocked out halfway through the movie, either from exhaustion or from shock, Jack fished the remote out from somewhere in her bundle of pillows and paused the movie. Elsa, who had hidden herself behind a large pillow as if it would protect her from the images on the screen, uncovered herself timidly. She kicked away her things and shivered, making Jack grin wickedly.
"Did you cry?"
She glowered at him, but her mask didn't last long as she broke into a smile. Her carefully ironed blouse was wrinkled and a few strands that had come loose from her up do framed her face nicely. Jack noted that she had failed to pull on just one of her gloves, and he admired her lovely skin and filed nails. She shook her head, and went back to reading her beloved comics.
"Calvin and Hobbes?" He plopped down next to her, so close that their shoulders bumped, but she didn't freak or distance herself like he would have expected her to a few days ago. She only did short seconds later because she shivered when his mussed hair accidentally tickled her neck as he leaned in to read with her. She spoke softly as not to wake snoring Anna, "When do you have to be home?"
"When you want me to leave."
She was silent, as if contemplating whether or not to say what she said next, "That won't be for a long while."
That statement made him want to fist pump, but he kept still. He wondered if he should bring up what they were talking about earlier in her room before Anna interrupted them, but decided not to when the picture of her sad face and guilty eyes came to mind. "Thanks again, for helping me in french."
"Don't thank me yet. We still have a lot of work to do. Your oral test is in a week, and he's going to test you on grammar and pronunciation." She teased.
"Okay, test me." He stood up, rocking up and down on the balls of his feet.
"Right now?"
"Yeah, allez!"
She hushed him and got up when Anna stirred, but she smiled. "Okay? Start."
Jack obnoxiously cleared his throat, "Bon-jour. Je m'appelle Jackson Overland. Et tu?" (Hello, my name is Jackson Overland. And you?)
"It's actually supposed to be 'Et toi', and bonjour, Je suis Elsa Queen. Enchanté." (Hello, I am Elsa Queen. Enchanted to meet you.) She held her right hand out for a handshake, but Jack had other plans. He caught her uncovered hand and held it to his face, inches away from his mouth while he bowed forward slightly.
Bros before hoes.
Screw it, he guessed he could try flirting once. "Enchanté." He murmured, looking up at Elsa through his lashes. He gently pressed his lips to her cold knuckles. The feel of her milky skin against his chapped mouth seduced him. He let go and brought his head back up, taking in Elsa's surprise. He was glad that the low lighting hid the blush surrounding his smirk, which deepened when she hadn't shown any offense to his actions. Her voice was almost a whisper, "You are... very polite."
"Would I have passed the test?"
She sighed, bordering on dreamily, and sat back down in front of her book. "As long as you don't plan on kissing him like that."
"But the kissing was okay?" He sat next to her again.
"For future reference, friends kiss cheeks. Not hands."
"Well do you want me to-"
"No! No, You're fine."
It was the first time he'd seen her like this and it was adorable. He should do this more often.
"So which strip is your favorite?"
"Pardon?"
"Your comic."
"Oh!" She flipped a few pages and pointed to the right bottom comic she stopped at.
He read, so close to her again that his breath ghosted over her skin, "Childhood is short and maturity is forever."
This new revelation had him so deep in thought that he failed to notice their close proximity, the fall in her smile,
and that she had slipped her second glove off- a break in her façade.
###########
Sorry for the late chapter... I had this one planned out and all, but every time I tried to pull it together it fell apart. I don't really like how this one turned out, either. I hope it's not too terrible!
Also, if you have the chance, you should look up the lyrics to the song "Faint" by Linkin Park (is that how you spell it?) , if you don't already know it. Once you read it, tell me just what character from "Frozen" you think of.
Thank you for reading!
-Mawhn