The next day passed in a blur.
Jack, normally an early riser, woke up at the last possible minute and rushed to school, arriving just before the morning bell. The rest of the gang joined him in this bad habit as they were all too sleep-deprived from the past few days to get up early enough for their morning meeting. They skipped the after school meeting too and, as soon as classes had ended for the day, Jack and Aster took off for Burgess and their waiting paint job.
They'd been at it for a few hours and were in the middle of working on the stage when Jack's phone started to ring. Again.
"If all you see is how I look you miss the super chick within."
Both boys groaned. Ana had been calling them seemingly non-stop to have them take measurements of things or to run upstairs to check on something with Mr. Kaufman. Couldn't she have just called his cell phone instead of pestering them? Yes, but, "It's so much more polite to ask him in person whenever we can."
Knowing there was no point in ignoring her, Jack set down his brush and popped open the phone, putting her on speaker. "What is it now, Ana?"
"Guys, you're not gonna believe what just happened? It's the most amazing thing ever!"
They exchanged amused looks and Aster started painting once more, figuring it wasn't anything that big since this seemed to be Ana's attitude about everything these days.
"Mr. Black just gave us five thousand dollars!"
The brush clattered from Aster's hands, splattering paint across a smiling black bear sporting an elegant top hat as Jack said, "Come again?"
"You heard me! After what Pitch did, his father decided that the only proper thing to do would be to give us a substantial donation to 'further our philanthropic endeavors.' His words, not mine."
Jack didn't look too comfortable with the idea. "Isn't that, like, blood money?"
He could practically hear Ana's eyes rolling when she replied, "It would be blood money if we were dropping the charges on Pitch or something like that, but we're not. Mr. Black is just embarrassed that his son used his donation to gain our trust when all he'd wanted to do was help us out."
Aster had notice Jack wince every time Ana said that name and made a mental note to avoid using it if at all possible as he said, "And what exactly are we gonna do with five thousand dollars four days before the fair, Ana?"
"For starters, I called the Burgess general store and they said that it would be no problem to double our apple cider order and throw in some extra hot chocolate mix. I called the rental place, too. They said we could get a second drink warmer and a popcorn machine for Saturday if we wanted them, which we obviously do. I also called the party store and got us two helium tanks and a bunch of snowflake balloons to match the theme, but we'll have to pick them up Friday since they don't open until ten on Saturday and that's way too close to start time. Obviously I had to call the stores before they closed, so you two are the last ones to find out. Sorry!"
Nick's deep voice joined Ana's now. "Hey, don't forget the best part!"
"What do you… how is that the best part?"
"Because it's like a dream come true, Ana!"
"For you!"
"Um," Jack interrupted, "what's the other good news?"
"It's nothing, really. The party shop just asked us if we wanted to rent a Santa costume they had and I said yes. Nick's super excited because I said he could play Santa and hand out balloons since we have enough volunteers to cover the game booths and since he's the only one with right proportions for the costume."
Jack laughed while Aster made a snorting sound and said, "I can't think of anyone better, Nick."
Then an idea occurred to Ana. "Hey, if Nick's gonna be Santa, you should be Jack Frost again!"
Jack's grin immediately turned to a frown and he looked over at Aster, expecting the Australian to be sporting a mocking grin. Instead, he was giving Jack an appraising look. "I'll support you on that front, Ana."
Jack gulped, so much for support from his best friend! Dress up in that outfit? But then, everyone would be able to see him. "I don't know guys…"
"Jack, I spent hours making that thing and you wore it for all of two!" This exasperated reply was followed by an, "Oooooh, good idea Sandy!"
"What now?" Jack asked nervously. He wasn't sure if he wanted to hear this new, brilliant idea.
"He suggested that you should do a storytelling event," Ana explained for her silent friend. "There's a big gap in the entertainment schedule from three to four and you'd be the perfect way to fill it. We have lots of extra money now, so you could even have props to use when you bring kids on stage, as I'm sure you will."
Wearing an outfit that would let everyone see him and making a spectacle of himself to make sure they did? This fell under the "worst idea ever" category. In a last ditch attempt to avoid his fate, Jack said, "Mr. Kaufman always told stories in the past, maybe we should ask him?"
"Oh, right! That was the other reason I called. I need you guys you to see if Mr. Kaufman will let us rent out the ice rink. We can pay for the staff and skates now and I think it would be an awesome addition."
Aster stood up and brushed off some dried flakes of paint as he said, "Sure, I'll go ask him now, if he's even still here. You go ahead and convince this gumby to do your show idea, Ana."
Jack looked after Aster helplessly as Ana started to plead with him to help out. When they realized Jack really wasn't interested, Nick joined in, telling him how much fun it would be, but Jack still wouldn't budge. Then a tiny, excited voice came from the phone's speaker. "Jack, are you going to be the winter prince again and tell us stories?"
Jack glared at the phone. This was playing dirty and they knew it. "I don't know, Baby. I don't think I'd be very good at it."
"You would! You would!" He could just see her little face, formed into a tiny pout with her violet eyes all big and pleading. He knew exactly who had come up with this idea, too. He was going to have a word with Sandy about using children to make people do things.
"…alright, Baby, I'll do it for you, but you have to help me out up on stage if I get scared, okay?"
"Okay!"
"Alright, sweetie, give me back the phone now." He could tell Ana was grinning just from the triumphant tone in her voice.
"But I wanna talk to Jack more!"
"You can talk to him all you want next time you see him, but right now he's got work to do." Ana's voice was growing louder, meaning she probably had the phone again. That notion was confirmed when she quickly said, "Thanks again Jack. We'll talk to you later. Have fun painting!" and hung up before he had a chance to reply.
When Aster came back from talking with Mr. Kaufman, who had said yes to the ice skating idea, he found Jack working furiously at painting the stage with a huge scowl on his face.
"What happened?"
Jack glared up at him. "You abandoned me and they used underhanded tactics!"
Aster cocked his head to the side and treated his friend to a puzzled looked until Jack sighed and explained.
"They used Baby to get me to say yes."
Aster grinned and started to chuckle. Good job Sandy.
Jack's glare just became fiercer and he went back to painting while his amused friend refilled their paint trough, still chuckling as he did so.
The repainting job was finished that night and Wednesday found the whole gang working on last-minute preparations of various sorts until they were ready to collapse, which is what most of them did they second they got home.
Thursday, they met up after school, piled into the sleigh, and headed to their base of operations – Ana's house – for another day of work.
Just the sight of the house made Jack feel tired and he had to muffle a yawn as he got out of the car and followed Ana towards the building. Four o'clock in the afternoon and he was already exhausted. That didn't bode well for the coming weekend.
Ahead of him, Ana threw open the door to the house where, surprisingly, the mini's weren't waiting for them.
"Where are the girls?" Jack asked, listening for the patter of little feet.
"I don't know. Come on, let's make sure everything's okay." Ana replied, looking worried as she headed inside.
Once were all in, they walked down the hallway to the playroom, a worried Jack leading the way and thereby missing the grins the others were exchanging.
Inside the playroom, five little girls were waiting amidst a sea of frosty-blue balloons and snow-white streamers with party hats on their little heads.
"SURPRISE!"
The cry came from both the girls and the gang, all of whom were grinning at the gaping Jack. Hearing her cue, Mrs. Romoli entered from kitchen with a large cake decorated in blue frosting with the words, "Happy Birthday, Jack," written in silver lettering. On top of the cake were two lit candles: one in the shape of an eight and the other in the shape of a one. Ana flicked out the lights for her mother and everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to the still-shocked Jack.
When the song ended Jack didn't blow out the candles. The little girls looked at him worriedly and came to surround him.
"Jack, are you okay? Did we do something wrong?" Lea asked, tugging on his shirt.
Jack shook his head and sunk down to his knees, grinning at them. "No, you guys did a great job. I'm just being silly. Now, who wants to help me blow out the candles?"
Mrs. Romoli bent down, allowing the girls access to the cake. With excited giggles, they blew out the candles for Jack and Mrs. Romoli took the cake back to the kitchen in order to serve it onto plates. It was a small party, lasting only half an hour before the gang had to get back to work on the fair, but it was the best birthday Jack had had in years.
"Ready for tomorrow, guys?" Jamie asked as the twins sat down and joined their friends for lunch lunch.
Claude swallowed the bite of sandwich he'd been chewing and grinned. "You bet! Free candy!"
Pipa laughed and said, "I'm more excited to hear Mrs. Jones sing with her group."
"Yeah, that'll be cool, but the ice skating is going to be the best," Jamie countered.
Others joined in, each adding what they were looking forward to the most. It was clear that Mr. Kaufman had done a good job getting the children of Burgess excited for the fair. Now, all that remained was for the gang to actually pull it off.