Looks like I did get another part uploaded! :)


~Jack~

A clump of snow flattened against Jack's face. Once a gasp of surprise left his mouth, he turned on the perpetrator and chuckled evilly. He flung several snowballs at Pippa, who squealed with a mixture of fear and enthusiasm and scurried away from his barrage of snow. Having a real snowball fight – with several people who could see him – was far more exciting than he ever could have imagined. Instead of questioning where it came from, they always retorted and that always made for a much more interesting time than looking around and staring. Most of all, he enjoyed having fun with people he cared about.

"Woo!" Sophie called as Jack missed Pippa, but knocked Caleb over into a snow mound. Cupcake laughed and Monty crept up behind him, adjusting his glasses first, and got her square in the back. He laughed, but ran around a snowman to hide from her aggressive attacks. There was a thunder of laughter from her as she formed a large snowball and aimed it for the snowman, lobbing off it's head and Monty ran away. Sophie was standing on the outside of the action, enjoying the scene of her brother and friends running around, trying to kill each other by execution of snowball.

"Don't think we forgot about you!" Jack warned, running right after her. She screeched and tried to jump away, but his icy fingers caught her in the middle and safely plunged her into a snowbank. Her mirthful cries pierced the air and Jack swore he felt a strange warmth rise up in his chest – even though he was nothing but ice and frost – at the sound of her voice. Her hands grabbed at snow and she attempted to form a lump from it. A sliver of snow with a bump in the middle was all she managed, but through her toddler eyes, she saw it as the greatest snowball. Jack slowly moved, but made it seem like he was really trying to escape, allowing Sophie's snowball to hit him in the chest.

"Uh oh! I'm hit!" he said and fell backwards into the white blanket that froze the ground. Sophie crawled onto him and poked his face.

"Silly Jack," she said. "You faking." He grinned ans shot his hands upwards, restraining her small body to his chest while she yelped happily.

"You got me," he said. "I was only pretending so I could kiss the princess!" And he smothered her with kisses all over her face. Sophie laughed in between her protests for him to stop kissing her. He eventually did, fluffing her hair while she clung to her neck.

"Sophie love Jack."

"Well, Jack love Sophie," he said, and pulled himself up with her. She climbed down from him and took his hand. They both watched the crowd pulverize each other with their frozen ammo. Jack leaned down into the snow and quickly created a couple dozen balls, gesturing for Sophie to take them. "Ready?" She nodded. "Go!" The two of them sent their friends running, screaming, and laughing all their way towards cover.

~Morgan~

Todd had printed out the long family tree per Morgan's request, and the sheet containing the info relating to Emma. She wished she knew what Emma looked like so she could draw her for him. It was so weird that Jack's friends, and his first believers, were actually his family. Distantly, but they were still his family. She released an exasperated sigh and fell back onto her bed, staring at the spackled ceiling above her head. What she had planned was going to take a lot of work and a lot of help.

Movement outside her window told her that Jack was arriving. She shoved the sheets of paper under her bed. She wobbled her way towards the window and opened it, but he didn't fly in. In fact, he seemed to just vanish. Morgan stuck her head out, searching the skies and streets for Jack.

"Jack?" she yelled into the wind.

"I'm around the corner of the house!" came his voice. "Come outside and bring Brad!" A little suspicious, she shut her window and called to her brother. The two hopped down the stairs and bundled up, Morgan stopping to help with his jacket zipper. Waddling from the weight of all their winter gear, they stepped out the door and Bradley cheered happily. In front of them, Jack was leaning very smugly against a familiar snowman.

"You brought him back!" Morgan exclaimed with surprise.

"Of course, I did," he replied nonchalantly. "I promised, right?"

"He looks exactly the same!" Brad said. "Jack, you're so cool."

"You're more right about that then you realize," he chuckled. "Now, to business." A white orb sailed towards Morgan who didn't even register what it was till it caused her to teeter around for a minute.

"Jack!" she squawked.

"What?" he said innocently, shoving his hands in his pocket. "I'm just minding my own business..."

"You're going to get it!" Two were flung towards Jack, each Kenter flailing one at Jack. He dodged the both of them, but never saw the one that actually wasn't aimed for him. He felt to the ground and Bradley guffawed at the wide-eyed Guardian. Mrs. Kenter, unaware that she hit someone, groaned at what looked to be a failure.

"Ugh! I was aiming for Bradley!" she yelled.

"Mom?" Morgan said. "What are you doing?"

"Having fun, what does it look like?" she asked as she balled up another wad of snow. She was charging to get out of the way, but Jack had other ideas. He sprinted to the girl and moved her right in the line of fire, ducking behind her.

"Jack Frost!" Morgan snarled to the boy behind her. Mrs. Kenter raised her arms in the air and yelled triumphantly. Another white clump exploded on Morgan's head and she stared up to see Todd leaning out his window, scraping what was left of the snow on his window sill into a ball. "Todd, that's not even fair! You're not outside!"

"I have snow, I can still participate!"

"Yes you can!" Jack said, hurling a ball in his direction. The snow smacked right into Todd's face and they watched him fall backwards in his room. Brad's laugh was now louder than ever, until Peter surprised them with a three-in-one, pinning Brad into the snow. He wailed at first, but then laughed and started on a snow angel.

"Kids!" Mrs. Kenter called. "Look!" She pointed to the blue Lincoln rolling around the corner. They looked at their mother for confirmation on what she was suggesting. When she nodded, they gave her more looks of confusion.

"What if we hit a window?" Morgan screamed, not forgetting her own history with windows.

"Are you kidding? I hate that car! If we break the windows, maybe I can convince your father to get a new one!"

"I'm on board!" Jack agreed, and began a pile of ammo, quickly forming spherical shapes in the snow. As it moved closer, the kids that were outside, and their mother, formed as many snowballs as possible. As the car turned into the driveway, with Mrs. Kenter's command, they launched their creations at the blue clunker. In a matter of seconds, the car began dotted and lined with snow, Jack, failing the most at the trunk of the car. Mr, Kenter ran away from the car, grumbling but a small laugh escaping from him. He charged into the crowd and instead of throwing snow, pushing a wad of it right into his wife's face. She laughed and then pulled him in for a kiss. The kiss ended the fight, as Peter groaned, Morgan rolled her eyes and walked away, and Bradley just made a sound that sounded like throwing up.

Jack met Morgan in her room a few moments later, watching her squeeze frozen snow out of her hair.

"You are really lucky," he said too her, sitting with legs crossed on her bed, his staff spread across his lap. "Your family is amazing."

"We have our times when we enjoy each other at all once," Morgan commented, wincing at the pulling of her hair. "It's rare though. But it was fun. Why did dad have to ruin it? Ugh, I hate it when he kisses her in front of us like that."

"I guess I don't understand what's so wrong with an expression of his feelings for your mom." She set down her brush and sat by him on the bed.

"It's because it's my parents. It's yucky. If it were your parents, you would be the same. I bet you even did."

"When I was really little, maybe, but I don't actually remember truly being grossed out by it." He shrugged.

"Of course, you've been fifteen for over 300 years now. You're stuck in an age always thinking about girls."

"That's not even true," Jack teased, grabbing her pillow and lightly tapping her with it. "Thinking about girls that way is a little different now. Dating pretty much will never happen."

"Why?" Morgan asked curiously without understanding.

"You really have to ask?" he scoffed jokingly. "The only people who can see me are those who can believe me. The only people who believe in me are kids under the age of twelve. Even if I could get a girl my age to believe in me, it would be difficult. I stay this way forever. She would grow into an adult and go on with her life. Dating me would be strange. I don't think that way because I gave up on it."

"But when you were human..." Morgan prompted.

"There was a girl I had my eye on..." Jack remembered after a moment. "Yeah she... was redheaded." Morgan raised her eyebrows. "A year younger than me. She was the minister's daughter. He thought I was a little too troublesome though."

"Did she like you back?" Morgan asked with a childish innocence. "What was her name?"

"Sybil," he recalled, and there was a small flash in his eyes of fond recognition. Saying her name seemed to stretch his smile. "And yes. She said she had something she wanted to tell me, and kissed me behind the church. Emma saw and told my mom. She was a little annoyed." He laughed at the memory, but then he stared at Morgan's bedspread. The memory was a little hard for him, in a different way than remembering his sister was. The pattern on the blanket iced over where he clutched it. He missed his sister because he knew what she was like, but he longed for something that would never happen, with a girl who was now dead.

"What about other guardians?" Morgan inquired.

"That's... I don't know, it's a complicated matter," Jack explained. "There's not a lot of us. I mean, there's a lot more than you know. I mean, spirits of childhood, not Guardians. There's about thirty of us around. That's not a lot to pick from."

"So there aren't any your age?"

"Age is a little different with us... Mother Nature is... well... she's a little terrifying to be honest, but she's just so motherly it would be strange. If anyone dated her it would be..." he shuddered at the thought. "She can be kind, but not always. She's unpredictable. Katherine is actually about my age. I mean as far as what I'm frozen as but... we don't really interact. Plus, Nightlight would never let anyone near her, I don't think. They're best friends. Lucy... well, she's pretty. Gorgeous in fact but she's... a light-bearer. About warmth and lighting up the dark. I'm... cold. We're too opposite."

"And Tooth? I can tell she likes you..."

"She only likes me for my teeth..." Jack teased, but touching his mouth with a flicker of fear in his eyes. "I would like to be appreciated for more than my teeth!" Expecting a laugh, he sighed a little when she only rolled her eyes at his joke, but he figured maybe she didn't quite understand. He smirked and pulled her towards his lap. "Why are you asking about this, huh? Why do I need a girlfriend when I have you, wonderfully weird Morgan? You're better than a girlfriend."

"I'm your sister," Morgan said while poking him in the nose.

"Yes you are." He pressed his lips to her forehead and then moved away from her, towards the window. "Going to head out for the night, but I'll come by and see you later. Promise."

"You don't need to say promise all the time, you know? I believe you now." Jack smirked and stepped on the window sill.

"Oh, when I was getting that snowman at the North Pole, North talked to me. He got the letter you sent him and he said you'll be very happy." Morgan's cheeks fattened from her grin. "Also... stay up looking for him. He's planning a visit." A buzz coursed through Morgan and caused to her to be jittery. Santa was going to visit her! There was still two weeks til Christmas! How was she going to handle it? She wished Jack would have waited to tell her, this was also she was ever going to be thinking about now! Her mind ran through what it would be like to be the Santa Claus as Jack jumped away from the window.

She had the greatest family in the world.


Mother Nature, Katherine, and Nightlight are all additional guardians in William Joyce's books the Guardians of Childhood (for those who haven't read the books or know of their existence. I haven't either, but I am doing lots of research for this story. I would like to though) Lucy however is not, although her folklore I think makes her a very good candidate so she's one of my own additions. She was a martyr for refusing to marry, having been burned at the stake. Dec 13 is her day and Scandinavia typically celebrates her, although other places around the world have smaller celebrations for her. She is associated with Light, and after she donated her wedding dowry to the poor and died, legend says she was later seen on a ship, with a wreath of candles and robed in white, delivering food to the poor. Apparently she is also the patron Saint for the blind, which I did not know, because since she wouldn't burn, her eyes were removed so it was easier to burn her . I apologize if my knowledge on this is skewed, my church celebrates Santa Lucia day and so my knowledge is mixed with a little research and what I have learned over the years. I really think she would be a great addition because she cared about people and died (indirectly) for doing so. Not only that, where Jack became in control of winter and ice after falling through that very thing, she also is associated with light, the thing that killed her, as well as light being associated with seeing.

I have big plans for where this is going and I wish I wasn't so busy so I could type, like, ten chapters a day! I am as dedicated, excited, and anxious for what happens in this story as you guys, my wonderful readers!