"Oh no." Jack said as he watched Tooth shoot around the room, followed by a few of her mini-fairies. "Did she say 'coffee?'"
Jamie groaned. "Mom must've given her coffee! And if she gave the Tooth Fairy coffee, she probably gave everyone else coffee, too..."
Jack's eyes lit up. "I wonder if there's any for me!"
"No, Jack, wait!" Jamie cried, but it was too late. The winter spirit was gone. Jamie turned to Jack's sister. "Please tell me you aren't gonna have any?"
"Nah, coffee's a grown up thing." Mary said, making a face. "Papa let Jack have coffee once when he turned 14, and he got really hyper, and when that happened, he was worse than Tooth is right now." She gestured at the fairy, who was darting around the room spurting tooth locations almost too fast for her fairies to understand.
"We're doomed." Jamie announced, rushing downstairs to find absolute chaos. It seemed Mrs. Bennett had given everyone coffee. Jamie marched over to her, Mary rushing after him.
"Mom, you can't give coffee to immortals! They're all hyper naturally, coffee makes them go crazy!"
As if to prove his point, Bunnymund suddenly bounded past them, Sophie on his back, as North broke into song, dancing around the room.
"I know that now!" she replied. "How do we stop this?" Jamie thought for a moment, looking around for inspiration as Jack Frost started a snowball fight with a snowman he'd conjured in the living room.
"Sandy!" He cried spotting the little man in a corner, making sand images so fast they were incomprehensible. "Sandy can help!" He made his way over to the golden man, dodging snowballs as he did. "Sandy, can you make everyone fall asleep?" Sandy nodded, holding up a ball of dreamsand.
Nobody could remember what happened after that, but when they woke up, the place was in a state of disarray.
Jack groaned, blinking. "What happened?"
"Coffee happened, that's what, mate," Bunny replied groggily from his position against the wall.
By now, everyone was beginning to stir, except Sophie. She was still fast asleep beside Bunny. Jamie and Mary were lying near Tooth on the carpet. North found himself under the dining room table, and Sandy was curled up on a chair.
"Where's Mrs. Bennett?" Tooth asked, sitting up.
"Work, probably." Jamie mumbled, not bothering to move. "Woulda left a note on the fridge."
"North crawled out from beneath the table and walked tiredly over to the fridge. "Yes, she left note."
"What'sit say?" Jack yawned, sitting up.
"Says she is at work. And that you should stay out of trouble, Jack." North said.
Jack groaned in reply. "Sure."
"Hey, snowflake?"
"Yeah?"
"What're you wearing?"
Jack raised an eyebrow. "My clothes."
"I meant the hat, Frostbite."
"Wha- Oh! It's my father's hat."
"Why're you wearin' it, then? An' where's your hoodie? I don't think I've ever seen ya without it."
It was clear by now that Jack was not a morning person. It was also clear that Bunny was a morning person.
"I only got my hoodie fifty years ago... Momma sewed me this cape, it's mine, and I like it better than my hoodie." Jack grumbled, flopping back to the ground.
"What are you doing, Jack?" Tooth asked, watching as he closed his eyes.
"Sleeping."
"On the floor? Sleeping is for beds!" North laughed.
"Well, I spent three hundred years sleeping in trees and snowbanks, so how would I know that?" Jack mumbled. The others exchanged uncomfortable glances. "Besides, I'm too tired to move."
He'd almost fallen asleep again, and he would have if Mary hadn't woken up at that moment.
"Jack? Jack, wake up! Jack! Can we play hopscotch today like we used to? Ja-aack! Wake up!" She paused to hear his muffled reply.
"'M asleep, Mary. Maybe later." Her face fell, then lit up with an idea.
"Jack, remember how I used to get you up? 'Cause I do." She said sweetly. It took Jack less than a second to get to his feet.
"I'm up! I'm up!" He cried, rubbing his eyes. "Hopscotch, right?" Mary nodded, smiling. "I kinda promised Jamie a snow day tomorrow, and then I had coffee and made it a blizzard, so it's a bit too stormy outside, but we can still play hopscotch in here!"
"Okay! Can everyone else play too?" She asked.
"Of course!" Jack said, smirking. He'd like to see that. Santa Clause playing hopscotch? Totally happening. "Here, I'll draw the lines." He tapped his staff on the floor, freezing a familiar pattern into the carpet. And here's our stone." He said, forming an ice pebble in his hand.
"Jack, you go first!" Mary shouted.
"Okay, but you're going next!" Jack said, and threw the ice down.
It didn't land on the path, but it was near the six. Jack hopped to the three, pretended to fall, made it to the end, turned and hopped back to the six. He bent down and tried to reach the stone but lost his balance, sprawling on the ground. "I got it!" He called sheepishly, holding up the ice. He got up and handed the stone to his sister. "Your turn, little lady. Think you can do better?"
She laughed. "Of course!" She threw the little chunk of ice. It landed on the two. She hopped to the end, hopped back to the two, picked up the stone, and hopped once more to where Jack was standing. It didn't matter to him that she'd switched feet halfway through, she did it perfectly in his mind. "Bunny's turn," Mary called, handing him the pebble.
"What! Oh, no, sheila. I am not-" Jack cut him off.
"Yes, you are."
