Author's Note:

We get to see Jack be smarter than the average 318 year old (his canon age is 17 [check the RotG app], but now he is technically 318 due to his "birthday" being last week). And I have no shame in saying that I enjoyed typing this one out. I don't care if it seems OOC. I had fun making the winter spirit smart. :P

Post-movie.


Headcanon:

Jack is smarter than he is given credit for.


Jamie slammed his palms flat against his desk in utter frustration. This homework was going to be the death of him. How can six out of eight teachers assign homework on a Friday!? A Friday of all days! The only classes he didn't have homework in were PE and Choir - his electives - which sucked because those were the only two classes he was making As in.

Jamie swiftly slid every last piece of paper that was littering his desk to the floor and slammed his head down. He let out a long, loud groan. He repositioned his head, coushining it with his arm, and picked up his pencil. He aimlessly began rolling it back and forth. He was in such a trance that he didn't realize the temperature in his room had dropped twenty degrees.

Jamie was less than excited when Jack Frost finally appeared in front of him.

"Hey, Jamie! You wanna... What's with all the paper on the floor? And why do you look so angry?"

Jamie didn't respond. He just groaned again and forced himself to sit up.

Jack immediatley became worried. "Jamie, is everything okay? Why are you acting like this?"

The oldest Bennett child turned to look at his immortal friend. "Everything's fine. It's just this stupid homework! I don't understand any of it!"

"Whoa! Calm down, kiddo. I'm sure it isn't that bad. I've helped you with this stuff before, so I can do it again, right? No big deal."

Jamie hopped out of his chair and started picking up the scattered papers. He wasn't surprised that some of them were covered in frost. "You don't understand. This is harder. I don't understand the German, the Quadratic Forumla is a waste of time..."

"Jamie..."

Jamie paid no attention to his friend. "...I don't know what the heck present perfect tense is, I don't understand how you can reach terminal speed going 9.8 kilome-"

"Jamie!"

Jamie's mouth shut closed.

"Just let me see what you're struggling with and I can try to help. If this is harder then we'll work harder. Okay?"

Jamie nodded and placed the fallen papers on his desk. Jack pulled up a chair and sat beside his friend. They studied the papers together.

"Okay, let's try German first. What are you learning right now?"

"German 1. Dative case."

Jack studied the paper for a few moments then laughed.

"What's so funny?" Jamie inquired, exasperated.

"This is so easy! Gimme that pencil!" Jack wasted no time as he filled out the blanks and translated the sentences. He had the worksheet filled, front and back, in mere minutes. Jamie just stared, gaping at his frozen friend.

"How did... You... But, I... What?"

"You didn't know I speak German?" Jack asked incredulously.

"No! Why didn't you tell me earlier!? How long have you been speaking German?

"Uhh... About two hundred years? I spent a lot of time in Germany and just... learned the language. It wasn't hard."

Jamie stated that he could have used Jack as his personal cheat sheet for tests, which made the Spirit of Fun laugh. They moved on to the next subject, which was English. Jack had that paper finished momentarily as well. He received a jealous stare from his human friend but paid no attention to it.

After twenty minutes, the only homework left were the Algebra and Physical Science worksheets.

"Okay. So what exactly is the Quadratic Formula?"

"I don't really know," Jamie replied. "All I know is that it's confusing."

Jack studied the paper intently. He stared at the formula for a long while then back at the first problem. "Hey, kiddo, you got a calculator?"

Jamie responded by handing his graphing calculator to Jack. Jack was about to comment on how huge the thing was, but decided against it. He stared at the paper, then the calculator. After asking his small friend which buttons did which, Jack was punching away at the TI-83.

"The answer to number one is 6 and -2."

Saying Jamie was shocked would be an incredible understatement. He snatched the paper from Jack's frozen hands and stared at the problem then at the calculator. "Please exaplin how you got this answer. Please." His tone was more than aggravated.

"Okay. So you have to find out how 2x² - 8x - 24 = 0, right? Well," Jack began, "first you have to write out the formula. Then, once that's written..." Jack was scribbling numbers and letters as he explained to Jamie, whom was staring at him blankly. "... you plug in these numbers. See, a is 2, b is -8, and c is -24. So you plug all those in, then simplify the square root. So now that you've done that, you divide everything inside the square root by 4, which you got by multiplying 2 and 2."

Jamie just kept watching as the Spirit of Fun explained the problem to him. It seemed so easy when he did it! Why did it seem so difficult for the eighth grader to understand?

"And once you do that, you have eight plus and minus sixteen. So you do that, then you have two plus and minus four. That simplifies to six and negative two," Jack finished explaining. He circled the final answer. "There you have it. See? Easy as pie!"

Jamie just stared at Jack, his mouth ajar. "Why didn't you tell me you were this smart!?"

Jack ruffled Jamie's hair. "You never asked."

"But how did you know?"

"I've been around for a long time, Jamie."

The oldest of the Bennett siblings and the winter spirit continued working on Jamie's homework. With Jack's help, the homework was so much easier for Jamie to comprehend. He felt comfortable asking questions and listening to the eternally young teen explain. Jamie mentioned that Jack should be a teacher, to which the winter spirit laughed and responded that he enjoyed making it snow much more.

Lastly, the duo started working on Jamie's science homework. After an elaborate explanation of acceleration due to gravity and several homework problems, Jamie nervously asked, "Jack, you know how you said you like making it snow?"

Jack looked up from solving a problem. "Yeah. Why?"

"Well..." Jamie began, "I was wondering if you... you know... wanted to play in the snow," he finished sheepishly.

Jack's smile turned from inquisitive to impish. He slowly, neatly stacked Jamie's homework papers. He grabbed his staff and gestured to the window. Jamie did not have to look to see that Jack had made it start snowing. The preteen ran to his closet and pulled out his snow jacket and snow boots.

He ran to his bedroom door, called an invitation to his sister, and speedily got dressed. He finished dressing and ran out the front door, Jack following suit.

He was about to begin playing in the snow when his mother called to him from the front door, "Have you finished your homework?"

Jack laughed as Jamie replied, "Yes, mom! I finished it with Jack's help!"

His mother droned an okay as the youngest Bennett made her way to the two boys. The boys accepted her company and began a snowball fight.

Sophie went inside shortly after she arrived... but Jack Frost and Jamie Bennett played in the snow until the sun had almost completely set behind the trees, not a single thought of homework interrupting their fun.


A/N:

At my middle school, we had eight classes, each divided equally with a lunch break between fourth and fifth period. In this story, Jamie is in eighth grade; my middle school offered high school credits for the 8th graders and, just like I did, Jamie is taking some of them (those classes being German 1, Algebra, and PS).

Jack's a smart cookie. Makes him all the more attractive.