Anna
It's Friday.
Almost exactly one week before Prom, which will take place next Saturday.
And guess who's going to be attending? Me!
I was so excited last night that I hardly slept.
I couldn't believe Hans had asked me to the Prom; I still can't!
I want to so much to tell Elsa the good news, but since I had already messaged her that night, I decide that I'll tell her when I get home from school today.
It isn't my intention to spam her inbox.
Olivia pounces on me as soon as I emerge through the school doors.
"It's Prom Nomination Day, Anna!" She claps excitedly as if it's all too much for her to handle.
I'm not sure why. She won't even be going to the Prom.
"Did you vote yet?" I ask her.
"Of course not! I wanted to wait for you!"
Looping her arm through mine, she tugs me along down the hallway until we reach the room set aside for the ballot boxes.
Long wood tables are lined up along the wall. Several ballot boxes have been set atop these table, waiting expectedly for slips of paper to be shoved inside.
The blue boxes are for Prom King and the pink ones for the Queen.
There's a small crowd of students waiting in line to make their nominations.
Olivia and I wait patiently for our turn. I feel like I'm waiting for Kristoff again.
When at last our time has come, I take one of the yellow, wooden pencils and a scrap of white paper.
I already know that Hans gets my vote for King; that's an easy one.
One needs a minimum of 10 nominations to get put into the running.
If he doesn't get any others, at least he gets one.
I scrawl his name down and shove it into the blue box.
Rachel Corona would be the easy choice for Prom Queen. We already know that she's going to win the crown regardless of who else gets put into the running against her.
That being said, if Rachel already has it in the bag, why would she need one more nomination from the lowly Freshman girl? She doesn't.
Without thinking twice, I write down the name of the Senior girl who is the true queen in my eyes.
Elsa Snowe.
Elsa
As much as I hate to admit it, I really liked riding home with Jack yesterday.
He didn't say another word about any of the things I didn't want to talk about.
He dropped me off at the Weseltons, saying he'd see me tomorrow.
My hand still feels tingly from where he touched me.
The warning in the back of my mind is still going off. Stay away from him, Elsa. He's getting too close. You know what happens to people who get too close.
My dreams drifted away that night to somewhere I'm not entirely sure I wanted them to go:
"It's ok, it's ok." Jack's voice was ever so gentle, but it wasn't quite gentle enough to hide the quivering fear. "Don't look down; just look at me."
The hair atop his head was dark brown, giving him an entirely different look from his bleached blonde. Surprisingly, it wasn't unattractive.
He stood facing a little girl who shared the same facial features as him. She was several feet away, trembling as she stood on the thin sheet of ice.
The pond wasn't frozen enough to hold their weight.
"Jack, I'm scared." The little girl cried as the iced cracked further around her feet.
"I know, I know," He took a few steps closer to her, pausing when the pond split the slightest bit under his own feet. "But you're going to be all right. You're not going to fall in." He struggled to conceal his inner panic, which he overcame by his usual playful nature breaking loose. "We're going to have a little fun instead!"
"No, we're not!" Tears were streaming down her frost-kissed cheeks.
"Would I trick you?"
"Yes, you always play tricks!" This seemed to get her mind away from the danger at hand. She sounded indignant, as if she endured many years as the victim of his silly jokes.
He laughed nervously. "Well, not this time. I promise, you're going to be fine."
He paused before saying, "You have to believe in me."
The girl looked up at her brother with big, scared eyes.
"Do you want to play a game?" Jack urged his animated self to kick back in. He was fighting to calm his sister down. "We're going to play hopscotch; like we play every day. It's as easy as one-" He stepped to the right. The ice weakened under the movement. "Two." He jumped again, in as silly a way as he could manage. The young girl laughed. "Three!" With one last leap, he made it over to where a long stick was lying on the ice. "Now it's your turn."
He grasped the stick in his strong, pale hands; the same hands that held mine.
"One, two-" The girl struggled on her skates to move closer to her brother. "Three!"
Faster than lightning, Jack swept the rod over to his sister, hooked it around her legs, and launched her away from the decaying ice.
Her little body slid across the slippery surface of the pond.
She laid there for several moments without moving.
Jack watched her, too anxious to breathe.
At last, she stood up to her feet. They locked gazes with one another, both smiling with euphoria. They each let out their own laugh of joy.
'We did it.' They seemed to say.
Without any warning, the ice shattered underneath her feet, plummeting her below the surface of the deadly cold waters.
"Jack!" I screamed, jerking myself up in bed.
It was just a dream, and yet it wasn't.
Jack's sister died.
I hate that I was dreaming about Jack. I hate that I had to see him that way.
Jack, the prankster and the trickster that I know him as, had never seemed quite so afraid as he did then.
As morning came upon me, I was glad to rise from bed and ready myself for school.
I didn't want to toss and turn a moment longer.
As I walk to school alone, I swear to myself that I need to distance myself from Jack.
It doesn't matter how much I love it when he drives me home.
It doesn't matter how much I love the tingly coolness of his hands when they touch my own.
It doesn't matter how much I love Jack.
Anyone who gets close to me always ends up getting hurt.
I can't let that happen to Jack.
Jack isn't at all like the monster that I am.
He tried to save his sister.
He might have failed, but he tried.
I almost double over retching on the sidewalk as I remember what I did to my own sister.
I'm not like Jack.