Elsa took a deep breath of the crisp cool air. Every spin and swirl she made on the ice released tension and made her smile for the first time in forever.
Forgetting her worries and her responsibilities, Elsa sped up, zipping neatly between the few people who were ice-skating in the early hours of the Saturday morning and making two quick laps of the rink in seconds.
She then skated to the center of the rink, doing a quick spin, relishing the moment of being airborne before touching back down on the ice. Elsa reversed, skating backwards as if she'd been doing it her entire life.
Unaware of the crowds she was gathering, Elsa gave a skip across the ice, followed by a series of energetic spins, so fast that she was a blur, until she slowed to a halt, breathlessly.
The crowd she had gathered burst into applause, startling the 16 year old girl. Flustered, she bowed and made her way back to where Jack and Emma were waiting.
Emma was beaming and hugged Elsa, taking her by surprise.
"When I grow up, I'm gonna be just like you!" She exclaimed. Elsa beamed and ruffled the child's hair.
"Thanks Em." She said, smiling at the younger girl, Jack came up behind her, commenteding "And i thought you hadn't skated in forever, Elsa."
"I haven't." She answered, smile fading as the memories returned. "Not since that day."
"Hey." Jack nudged her arm, "No frowny faces, okay? You're back on the ice and nothing bad happened, right?"
Elsa looked up, the doubt in her eyes fading and cracked a small smile. "Right..."
"Good. Now, are we ready for some hot chocolate?" Jack asked.
"I'm always ready for hot chocolate." Elsa responded, making Jack laugh.
"Then Oken's Cafe and Sauna is the place to go."
"Cafe and Sauna? That's a weird combination." Elsa commented as she took off her ice skates and stuffed them in the bag, before following the Overland siblings to the built in cafe.
"Well...Oken's a pretty weird guy...but he's nice." Jack promised. Elsa nodded, feeling her heartbeat slow to a normal rate after the exhilarating skating experience. She stopped for a moment to stare back at the ice, before spinning around to hurry after the Overland's, a big grin on her face.
-i-
Minutes later, Elsa sat in the cafe. It had an old fashioned wood cabin feel, with embroidery pictures on thd wall, and a warm fire blazing merrily in the background. She, Emma, and Jack sat at one of the tables, eating chocolate chip cookies and sipping hot chocolate, talking energetically as if they'd been friends for years. Elsa found it easy to be herself and let go of all her worries that were tagged to being around other people who expected her to be someone she wasn't.
As Emma drained her cup, Jack stood up to pay, heading towards the large man at the head counter.
As soon as he was out of earshot, Emma's face lost its smile and she leaned forward, hands clasped on the table.
"Listen up, Elsa. I have some questions."
"Q-questions?" Elsa stammered, focusing on the suddenly serious eight year old.
"Yeah. questions." Emma answered, brown eyes narrowing. "Like your intentions with my brother."
Elsa, who had been taking a nervous sip of her hot chocolate, choked and spluttered. "intentions"
"You know what i mean. I've had plenty of girls come and try to steal my big brother but it never works. Cause he's mine!"
Possessive much?
"Oh Em," Elsa said, struggling to hold back laughter, "Please, me and Jack are hardly friends, let alone...well... anything else."
"You promise?" The little girl still looked doubtful, and Elsa leaned closer.
"Would a magical fairy snow queen lie to you?"
Emma shook her head, breaking into a relieved smile and laughed when Elsa tapped her nose.
"Brrr. You're so cold!" Emma shivered, still laughing. Elsa grinned, realising that she wasn't worried about freezing Emma like she would have been, say a month ago.
Jack returned, and the three left the cafe and headed home. Since the ice rink was just up the road from where Jack and Emma lived, and because Elsa lived a stone's throw away from them, they had chosen to walk.
A good choice on the cool late autumn day. They passed a park, and Emma ran through the multi coloured leaves, while Elsa and Jack walked after her at a more leisure pace.
"So what you doing for your birthday?" The question startled Elsa, and she looked over at Jack who walked with his hands deep in his pockets, blue eyes focused on her.
"How'd you know it's my birthday?" She asked, surprised that he cared or even knew.
"Remember Pre-School?" He asked, causing her confused look to deepen. "Vaguely."
"It was your sixth birthday." Jack paused waiting for the sixteen year old girl to remember, but she shook her head, still mystified.
"Your mother brought a three tiered cake to school, and extended the lunch hour so that we could celebrate your existence."
Elsa finally recalled the event and cringed. "No way! You still remember that?"
"Vividly. I still have nightmares of 6 year old girls in pink ballgowns falling all over the place!" Jack said tragically, and Elsa laughed.
"I'm sure you weren't celebrating though." She commented.
"Are you kidding? I got free cake and i got out of colouring!" Jack exclaimed, and Elsa grinned.
"Preschool problems." She chortled.
"Anyway," Jack said once they had stopped laughing at the memories of Elsa's extravagant sixth birthday, with fancy dressed waiters around finger paint covered children.
"Is your mom planning your seventeenth?"
"No. I'm not having a party." The statement took Jack by surprise.
"But why not?" He enquired, perplexed.
"Cause I don't want one." She answered, refusing to meet his eye.
"Why wouldn't you want a party? They're so fun!" Jack exclaimed.
"Not mine." Elsa hugged her arms around her waist, looking at the leaf strewn floor.
"My Mama loves planning Anna and my birthdays... but their never what I want. Anna manages to get what she wants most of the time, but Mama expects me to be the sophisticated mature child, who likes to drink tea with Papa's friends and discusses politics."
"But why don't you just tell her that?" Jack asked.
"I wouldn't want to disappoint her." Elsa answered in a small voice, leaning against a large oak and watching Emma rush around jumping energetically in the piles of freshly fallen leaves with the other children of the town.
"So what are you going to do then?"
"We're going on a cruise. Thankfully my birthday falls in the holidays so we'll be spending it touring Europe."
"The whole holidays?"
"Yeah...why?"
"Nothing." Jack answered a little to quickly.
An awkward silence fell between the two as they watched Emma rush back to where they stood, lost in thought.
-i-
Holidays came, and the Winter family went for their cruise like planned.
Unfortunately, the trip didn't go as planned at all.
Elsa came down with a cold, and ended up sneezing tiny little snowmen up every two minutes, and to keep that from the rest of the passengers, Agnarr and Induna quarantined the poor girl to her cabin for the majority of the cruise.
Anna was disgusted when her parents flew Dr. Pabbie all the way to the cruise via the Winter helicopter, for him to only tell her that her now seventeen year old sister had to be kept away from any humans!
That wasn't fair! Mama and Papa were in Elsa's cabin all the time, but whenever she got near she was chased away.
Her only refuge, was Kristoff, who had joined his aging great great grandfather on the trip, and had stayed to keep Anna company. They spent the time pranking the members of the crew, swimming in the Caribbeans (where the cruise had docked for a week.) and having a good time.
Unfortunately, all good things come to an end, and they arrived home two days before the start of school. Anna immediately disappeared, saying she had stuff to do, and Elsa bitterly imagined that 'stuff' involved Hans Siles.
Elsa, who you can imagine was not in a good mood, plodded straight upstairs, and collapsed on her bed, fighting back tears of frustration, on the absolute flop of a birthday. But then fatigue overwhelmed her and before she knew it, she had fallen into a deep slumber.
-o-
In her crazy dream, Elsa was dressed in the largest most suffocating pink dress known to mankind. It was sparkly and had a wide skirt, with so many ruffles that Elsa gave up trying to count them.
She stood at the top of stairs, and below her, was the remains of the party. Remains, because now the guests had transformed into an army of knights, and were 'protecting' her castle from the attackers. But unfortunately they were losing. Kristoff and Astrid cowered behind a table, while Merida defended the two by throwing pastries and cakes at whatever moved. Hans was shielding Anna like the gallant hero he was, wielding a sword like a pro.
Elsa hitched up the irritating ruffles of her skirts, tripping as she made her way to safety, calling until she was hoarse for her parents.
Two of the invaders had closed her in, pressing her further back into a corner. Petrified, Elsa raised a wall of ice in front of her, to shield her from their arrows. But the ice served no protection. One of the men loaded his crossbow, firing at the 'Princess'. She ducked and the arrow was wedged in the walls behind her.
"We won't miss next time." One man growled.
"There won't be a next time." A new voice interrupted them. Elsa stared baffled as a knight in shining armor, upon his white horse. (I know white horses are technically called greys, but work with me here!) The men glanced at one another, then both began to reload their bows. The knight simply flicked his hand, and instantly, both men were encased in a solid brick of ice.
The knight climbed off his wonderful stead, and strode over to where Elsa stood. "Brave knight." She said, still rather confused. "You have saved my life, and for this I am ever in your debt."
"My princess." The knight answered, bowing. "it is my honour to serve the royal family, and help where i can."
"To who do i owe my life to?" Elsa asked, as the knight rose. In answer, he lifted his hands and took of his helmet, revealing blue eyes and a shock of white hair...
-i-
Elsa jumped as she felt something grab her shoulder. Opening her blue eyes, she found herself staring up at Anna, who had some sort of secret, because she was dancing around madly.
"Come on! You have to hurry!" Anna exclaimed to her half asleep sister, who stumbled off her bed, yawning and rubbing her eyes.
"Wha-?" Elsa groaned, running a hand through her tousled blonde hair. Anna was now rummaging through her closet, throwing various items over her shoulders.
Dodging a flying heel, Elsa tapped her sister's shoulder. "What's going on? What happened?"
"Papa invited a couple of his work friends over for dinner and he wants you there... now!"
"Why didn't anyone tell me?" Elsa exclaimed, while Anna continued to trash her cupboard, searching for the perfect outfit.
Anna halted her task to look back at her sister surprised. "You slept through all that noise?"
Confused, Elsa asked. "What noise?"
"Nevermind, this is the one!" Anna held up a dress and Elsa looked at it doubtfully.
"To one of Papa's dinner parties? Are you sure he would approve?"
"Yes! Now put it on, you're going to be late!" Anna practically shoved her older sister into her en suite, and slammed the door so hard, the golden handles rattled.
Sighing, Elsa did as she was told, slipping into the dress and looking dubiously at her reflection in the full length mirror.
Her sister had chosen well. The dress had been a gift from a family relative, and was a shimmering blue. The dress was long sleeve, amd hugged her slim figure, showing off her curves without being too suggestive for the girl's innocent nature.
Elsa touched up her makeup and exited the bathroom, alerting her sister who had been sitting impatiently on her bed.
"Well it's about time!" Anna huffed, stepping back to analyze her sister's outfit.
"Perfect. Now, hair."
Elsa usually kept her hair in a tight bun, but today Anna brushed it out, and braided it, tying it up and hanging it over Elsa's left shoulder.
"And finally. Shoes." Anna disappeared into the cupboard and returned seconds later with a pair of blue heels, decorated with snowflakes.
"You look great." Anna beamed, and Elsa gave her a small nervous smile back. "Isn't this just a little dressy for one of Papa's business parties?"
"Nevermind about that, they're waiting."
Anna led her sister down the stairs, almost skipping with impatience. She also spoke really loudly, something Elsa should have seen as suspicious, but she was to busy convincing herself that the dream didn't mean anything.
"Look out world!" Anna practically bellowed as they started climbing down the stairs.
"The Winter sisters are here! The Winter sisters are HERE!"
"Anna shush!" Elsa was trying in vain to quieten her little sister, when they reached the foyer. Elsa looked around confused.
"Anna why are the lights out?" She questioned suspiciously. But Anna didn't respond.
"Anna I knew it, this is a trick so come back here now, or i'll-"
But she never got to finish that sentence because at that very moment the lights flickered on, and she was confronted by a large group of people, all yelling
"SURPRISE!"
-I-
I know! SURPRISE for me to! sorry for taking soooooo long (it wasn't that long) but this chapter was quite difficult to write.
And yes, Lol at my hideous attempt of writing them in the Middle Ages! Like, who spoke like that? :D
Now, let me tell you, that the amount of reviews i am getting is insane! Thank you all so much! But it's kinda hard to address you all if you're all 'Guest', but i shall do my best.
(Except for Nikolai :-D )
Anyway, I've had a Guest ask for villainess!Anna but unfortunately I cannot make Anna the villain of this fic. The story line doesn't work out that way, but Anna is definitely going to be a bit OOC, and you're going to see why soon :-D
I've also had a Guest tell me it's Disney Frozen all over again, and well, yes and no.
I try to add in bits and pieces from all the movies, weather it be characters or settings, to even similar storyline. This AU has also been used multiple times, as I'm sure you know, High School Aus are popular in general. But i try to keep this as unique as i can.
Then to the guest who told me that Elsa has to put up with persistent people all the time. What exactly do you mean? And who is being persistent?
And to our spanish reviewer, Gracias, espero que disfruten este capítulo. (Did i type that right? I'm busy learning spanish!)
And last but not least, to our newest reviewer who reviewed on every single chapter! Your support is greatly appreciated.
I hope you like this chapter, more soon.
Adios, goodbye
-Foreverafangirl101