Normal P.O.V

The blonde haired girl sat up and looked around. Had she seriously fallen asleep? In the snow? She rubbed her forehead wearily. Damn, she needed to get better sleep!

She stood and scanned the surrounding woods cautiously. It was starting to get a bit dark out. Her eyes widened as she realized several things. One) She had to be at the house at eight so Sophie wouldn't be there alone. Two) Jack and Jamie hadn't seemed to notice she'd been left behind. She looked for footprints, but she noticed that a snow had fallen, erasing all means of tracking the two of them.

She started to breath unevenly. She was used to being left behind, whether it be at school, or when her mother died, but she'd never been left alone in the woods before. And not at night. And she'd never been in the forest before! She didn't know what to do.

She whimpered and grabbed her hair. She had lost track of Jamie. What if he got hurt? His mother would never let him near her again, and her dad would hear about it and beat her. She didn't want either of those! She liked Jamie, he was the first friend she'd ever had, even if he was twelve years old. And she certainly didn't want to be punished!

She had forgotten which way the two boys had left, so she took a guess and started running. She panted, snow flying up into her face and slowing her down a bit. Her jeans were soaked through, so was her coat, and she was shivering. The woods were now just background scenery as she dashed as fast as she could through the snowy underbrush.

'I'm so stupid! I knew I was tired, I shouldn't have lay down in the middle of a place I didn't know!' She scolded herself. It was getting dimmer by the second, and she was gasping for air, but she didn't stop running.

'They could be anywhere in these woods! How the hell am I supposed to find them!?' She mused, panicked.

Snap

Her head whipped towards the sound. She caught a quick flash of what seemed to be a shadow moving on it's own. She shook her head. Was she hallucinating? Or had she seen a cat? That was probably it. No, cats weren't that big, and they certainly didn't hover about a foot of the ground without leaving any marks!

Nicole edged towards the spot carefully. She didn't want to spook whatever it was. From what she'd seen, it had been very interesting looking, and she wanted to see it more closely.

As she approached the tree which the thing had disappeared behind, a chill ran down her body, and her muscles started quivering on their own, as if they were preparing to take off at a moments notice. She felt something touch her neck, cold, oily, and filthy she sucked in a breath and froze. She slowly allowed her eyes to drift to the side where the thing was touching her. When she couldn't look around any further, no matter how much she strained her eyes, she could only see the bare minimum of what was behind her.

It was... water. Dark, dark gray water. She felt a drop of it roll down her spine and she shivered. What the hell was this thing!? She tensed her legs, ready to run, when the water seemed to evaporate. She fell to her knees in the snow, dumbstruck and frightened. After a minute or two, she felt the chill again. This time, she didn't stick around. She stood up and took off, running from the scene of the dark, dirty water. She could still feel it sticking to the back of her neck and all the way down to her lower back. She felt tears pricking at her eyes and she wiped them away as she ran.

After a little while, she heard laughter coming from up ahead of her. Nicole, despite being scared and desperately out of breath, ran faster until she came out into a clearing.

BAM!

She collided with something cold, and she and it fell to the ground, hard. A large puff of snow clouded up from the crash site, and she coughed. She blinked open her eyes and found herself staring into a blue sweater. She blushed and scrambled back. Jack stood up, chuckling, and Jamie was cracking up. She gaped, panting and tired. She'd found them! Or, more like, bumped into them.

"S-sorry... you guys left me behind and I was trying to find you..." Jamie stopped laughing.

"We thought you'd gone back because it started snowing. We thought you were being a wimp." He snickered. Nicole grabbed his head and pretended to put him in a head lock.

"It would take more than a bit of snow to get me to turn back!" She retorted playfully. She let him go after his failed attempts to push her away. The girl stood up straighter, finding that her lungs had finally regained themselves.

"Hey, Jamie, do you know what time it is?" She asked, feeling a bit worried about the time. Jamie pulled up his sleeve, revealing his watch.

"It's seven fifty two. Why?" He answered. Nicole smacked her forehead.

"Crap, I'm gonna be late! I have to be home so I can be there when Sophie is dropped off! Oh... the world is out to get me... I have to run. Jack, can you pleeaasse make sure Jamie get's home safely?" She begged, her legs turned in a random direction. Jamie waved his hand dismissively.

"I know my way back to the park, we're not that far away, I'll be fine." He said, putting his sleeve back in place. Nicole cocked her head.

"Why can't Jack watch you until you get back to the house?" She inquired, feeling like she was missing something. Jamie grinned evilly.

"I hope you're not afraid of heights, Niki." He said, exchanging a glance with the spirit of Winter. They seemed to communicate silently. Okay, Nicole was definitely missing something here. She scowled.

"No, I'm not but why-" Jack grabbed her around the waist and she shrieked.

"What are-" The white haired teen smirked.

"Hold on tight." Nicole's eyes widened at the sudden realization, but when she opened her mouth to say, 'let me go,' it was too late.

She gasped and wrapped her arms around his neck as they shot up into the air, faster than a bullet train. Okay, maybe she was over exaggerating things, but whatever. The problem at hand was that she was who knows how many feet in the air, the wind whipping her hair around her face, and clinging to a teen aged boy as a fucking BIRD PASSED BY! Jack was laughing at her terrified expression. She'd had enough of horrifying experiences today. He could be sure that Nicole wasn't talking to him for about three days after this.

"What the hell!? You put me down right now!"

"I thought you said you weren't afraid of heights!"

"Being afraid of heights and being afraid of flying through the air without a parachute or anything are not the same fears! Ah!" She screamed as another bird flew inches from her foot. She made the mistake of looking past her sneakered toes and at the ground. Her breath caught in her throat.

The town was spread out like a jigsaw puzzle below her. Little curls of smoke drifted out of some chimneys, she could see two adults sitting on a bench in the park and saw a small figure come out of the woods.

'Jamie...' She resisted the urge to wave, like a small child waving to an airplane... except, the opposite. She felt the temperature grow slightly less cold as they started to descend. She looked directly below her and saw that their destination was the Bennett's house, the backyard to be specific. Nicole vaguely hoped that no one was looking in this direction. How would she be able to explain the fact that she was floating down from extreme heights? Nope, she was just going to have to hope for the best.

Her feet hit the ground before Jack's did, probably because she'd been slowly slipping out of his grasp, which kind of scared her, but at least this was just a one time thing. Right? She hoped so. It had looked amazing, seeing the town from that high up, but if she had a choice, she wouldn't do it again. She backed away from Jack and scratched the back of her head.

"Thank you... I'm sorry I screamed in your ear." She apologized, feeling a bit sheepish for doing something like that. She scolded herself for being so insensitive. But Jack waved it off like it was nothing.

"It's okay, it was inevitable. See you!" He said, jumping into the air again. Nicole stretched a hand towards him.

"W-wait! Where are you off too?" She stammered.

'What the hell, Nicole? Why do you want to know?' She pondered, confused with herself. Jack raised an eyebrow, smirking.

"You wanted me to make sure that Jamie got back safely, right? Bye!" He said, flying off with a gust of cold, snowy air. Her hair blew up with the draft and she stood, shocked.

She'd just flown. In the air. With Jack Frost himself.

She wandered, dazed, into the house, when a knock on the door sounded from the mudroom. She shuffled over, opened the door, and smiled at Sophie and her friend's mother. The mother told her that she'd fed Sophie already, and she was getting tired. She thanked her and wished her a good evening before bringing Sophie back into the house. She helped her get out of her snow pants and went into the kitchen to get a drink of water. As she sipped her glass, she glanced at the clock. It was eight thirteen now, and Mrs. Bennett would be back at around eight thirty. And Jamie wasn't back yet.

Nicole was just about to tell Sophie to stay put while she went to go get him back from the park, when he burst through the door, snow sticking to his hair, making it look white. He took off his boots, coat, and hat while Niki marched over, arms crossed.

"Why didn't you come straight back?" She asked, a bit miffed. He looked up at her, surprised.

"I did. It takes a while though, and it's started to snow really hard outside. Jack decided that this place could use a snowstorm before he left." Nicole clenched her fist.

"The nerve... he sent you home in a snowstorm? At night?!"

"He made sure I was okay. Anyways, I'm back now, right?" Nicole couldn't argue anymore, she didn't have the energy. She went and sat down on the couch before realizing that it was way past Sophie's bedtime.

. o O o .

After making sure that Sophie was in bed, Nicole said good night to her, checked in on Jamie, who was in his room, drawing, before going back downstairs and resuming her job of sitting on the couch. She felt her eyelids getting heavy, but she forced herself to stay awake. She had to wait until Mrs. Bennett got home, and then she could go back to her own house. She didn't really want to go back, but she couldn't impose on them anymore. They'd already given her some of the best memories she'd ever have.

Nicole smiled and allowed herself to close her eyes. Not to sleep, but just to rest a little bit. She'd been moving a lot today. She wasn't used to the action, she'd always been either grounded and stuck in the house, at school (up until she quit), or in a city where there wasn't much to do. She liked running around though. She liked the rush of adrenaline, the way she got out of breath. They were all like new experiences, and even though some weren't the most pleasant, she'd enjoyed them.

She felt herself drifting off, and before she could wake herself up, she'd already crossed over into a deep, dreamless sleep.