Thanks for reading!

I don't own Frozen, ROTG, etc.

Ev'ry so often we long to steal

To the land of what-might-have-been

But that doesn't soften the ache we feel

When reality sets back in.

~I'm Not That Girl, Wicked

Chapter Three: I'm Not That Girl

The little girl stood still in the changing room, staring at her reflection in the mirror. Her outfit sparkled where it caught the light, the powder-blue skirt flowing softly around her knees when she twirled.

"Why don't you go get changed so we can get pizza to celebrate?" her mother had told her.

She didn't want to get changed. She didn't want the safety of the fabric to leave her skin, even for a moment. She didn't want the fluorescent lights above to see her bare shoulders, the lockers to see her back, the floor to see her legs. She wanted protection from the cold, empty room and everything inside of it. She wanted protection from everything outside of it, too.

Her little shoulders hunched as footsteps sounded from down the hall but relaxed when she realized how light they were.

"Elsa?" her younger sister called, most likely skipping around. Elsa let a smile form, just as two shadowy hands snaked around her and covered her mouth, muffling her scream—

Elsa shot up in bed, her breathing hard and the blankets falling to the floor. She looked around in confusion for a moment at the unfamiliar room before she remembered: she was home. In Burgess. With her parents and Anna. Slowly, Elsa's heart stopped racing as she caught her breath. Glancing to the clock on her nightstand, she saw that it about a quarter after seven in the morning.

"So this is what it's like to sleep in," she muttered to herself. Her usual schedule consisted of getting up at four in the morning for practice from five to eight before classes. During the summer, Elinor was less lenient in her schedule. But for now—this week, at least, while Elinor and her family got settled in at their new house across town—Elsa was left to her own devices.

Knowing that she wouldn't be able to fall back asleep, Elsa decided to get up and get something to eat. Her stomach growled in agreement with her thoughts. She unplugged her phone from her charging station and got out of bed, rolling her shoulders to stretch out the kinks. As Elsa left her room, she did a quick check through her messages. There were two from Merida, Elinor's daughter and one of Elsa's closest friends, the first complaining about the mugginess during her early morning run and the second bemoaning the fact that she now lived in Virginia. Elsa chuckled at her friend's whiny attitude but did feel a twinge of guilt; it was her fault that the DunBroch's had moved to Virginia, though she did tell Elinor that it was not necessary. Unfortunately, Elinor listens to nobody except for herself.

The only other message Elsa had was from Marshmallow—Marshall's codename—telling her that he would be at her house at eight o'clock sharp. Elsa sighed, guilt churning in her stomach. Marshall likely had just as much moving in to do as Elinor, yet he insisted on being by her side.

That is what a bodyguard is for, Elsa, her mind whispered. Her mind sounded an awful lot like her mother. Elsa sighed again as she reached the bottom of the staircase. She had no idea what her family had stocked in the kitchen, but she needed something to eat immediately.

Elsa was so caught up in her hunger that she almost didn't notice the shadowy figure outlined through the morning light in the main door's window. Her heart stopped at the sight, the wispy fingers from her dream coming back to clutch at her shoulders. Quickly, she shook off the lingering effects of her dream and focused on the figure on the front porch.

The person made no move to knock on the door nor enter the house. They just stood there, almost unnaturally still. Elsa knew that, logically, she should call Marshmallow, or at the very least awaken someone else in the house, but her mind was racing too fast for her to think properly. Her body moving of its own volition, Elsa strode towards the door, unlocked it, and wrenched it open.

The figure, who had apparently been leaning against said door, stumbled inside, landing hard on his back. Elsa darted back in surprise, cataloguing information about the intruder. He looked to be of a lean build, around the height of 5'10, and had a shock of white hair. Elsa blinked as he looked up at her, eyes wide with surprise, and gave her a sheepish grin.

"Um, hi?"

"Who the hell are you?" Elsa asked, gripping her phone tightly in her hand. She tensed as the man rose up to his elbows, tipping his head back to keep eye contact with her as he slowly sat up.

"Jack Frost."

"What?" Elsa gave him an incredulous stare. At her side, she attempted to get into her phone without drawing the man's attention to it.

"Oh, sorry, you're not from around here. Everyone else is just so used to it—"

Elsa decided that being subtle was overrated: "I'm calling the police."

"Wait, no, no, don't do that! It's Jackson Overland Frost. Jack. I'm friends with Anna, I swear!" He got to his feet, hands spread wide as if to show Elsa that he had no weapons in his possession. It took a moment for his words to click.

"Jack…" she repeated, mentions of the name in Anna's emails slowly entering her mind.

"Yes. Jack Frost—it's my name, but it's also kind of a joke because I like the winter. You know, cold, ice, snow. 'Jack Frost nipping at your nose.'" Jack talked to her as if he was talking down a person with a bomb: one wrong move and everything would blow up.

"Why the hell are you talking like that?" His tone was starting to piss her off.

"Sorry. I didn't know if the police was still an imminent option," he said, rubbing a hand down the side of his neck and smirking slightly.

"What are you doing here? It's seven in the morning," Elsa said, still eyeing him warily.

"I have early morning practice, which is why it's so early. As for why I'm here, Anna asked me to come over. I warned her that I'd be early."

"From what I've gathered, Anna's not an early riser."

"That she is not, but she's used to my antics by now."

"Hmm." Elsa hummed non-committedly. She relaxed slightly, having decided that Jack wasn't a weird psycho; he was just weird.

"So, can I come in?" he asked.

"You're already in," she pointed out.

Jack laughed. "I mean, technically, but I would prefer more of an invitation? I'm like a vampire in that way."

"Vampires can't enter a home unless they're invited in, and, as we've established, you're already in," Elsa said primly. Then, she sighed. "But yes, I suppose you can come in. Close the door behind you, please." Elsa turned on her heel and made her way to the kitchen to find something to eat.

"So, uh, Elsa, right? What are you doing up so early?" Jack asked, following her into the kitchen. Elsa sighed as she opened the fridge, glancing over her shoulder to see him seat himself on a stool at the island.

"I thought you were here to see Anna," Elsa said, grabbing the carton of orange juice and shutting the refrigerator.

"Yeah, but also to meet her sister. Anna talks about you all of the time. It's nice to put a face to the name," he said. Elsa paused and looked at him. He had a nice smile, she decided. Like that was the only expression that really fit him. He was quite handsome, which took her by surprise.

"You too, I guess," she said and went about getting herself a glass. Unfortunately, she had no idea where the cups were kept. After two unsuccessful attempts opening cabinets, Jack stood up and went to the one beside the sink. He opened the door, took out a short glass, and held it out towards Elsa.

"Here," Jack said. With the sleeve of her shirt wrapped around half of her hand, Elsa accepted the cup, careful not to touch his hand. Safely in her hands, she grasped the cup between both of her hands and kept her attention focused there.

"You should probably go wake Anna up," Elsa said after a moment of silence. "I assume you two have plans for today?"

Jack chuckled. "We're not really the type to plan our days. Drives our other friends crazy."

"Yes, well… it was nice to meet you," Elsa said, managing to look up into his blue eyes and give him a tight smile. Jack hesitated, then nodded and left the kitchen. Elsa let out a sigh of relief once he was gone, willing the tightness in her chest to go away.

Jack made his way up the stairs of the Winters' household, replaying his conversation with the elder sister in his head. She was much prettier than he expected—he knew that she would be pretty, if Anna was anything to go off of, but not… beautiful.

He could see the family resemblance between the two sisters: heart-shaped face, high cheekbones, upturned noses, blue eyes. But Anna was colorful, with reddish hair and a warm skin tone and freckles sprinkled across her cheeks; Elsa was like a negative of her sister. Platinum blonde hair pulled back into a low ponytail. Pale, nearly translucent, skin without a blemish in sight. She was like a china doll.

And Jack could already see the differences between the two sisters in personality. Elsa stood straight and carried herself with an elegance that could only be wrought from years of training where Anna tripped on flat surfaces. Elsa was reserved and poised where Anna was energetic and friendly. Jack almost couldn't believe that his best friend was related to the woman he'd met downstairs.

He reached Anna's door and shook himself out of his thoughts. You really shouldn't be so quick to judge her, he told himself, it is only seven in the morning. She was probably tired. He entered Anna's room and saw the girl spread across her bed, her hair doing its best imitation of a bush. Jack laughed out loud at the sight.

"Anna, come on. Wake up," he said, sitting down on the mattress and shaking her shoulder.

"Huh?" Anna snorted, sitting upright, eyes still closed. "I'm… I'm awake."

"Anna, come on. Let's go get breakfast. I'm starving."

"Hmm… chocolate chip pancakes?"

"Sure, but you might want to get dressed."

"Jack?" Anna finally opened and her eyes and seemed to register his presence. "How- how did you get in?"

"Your sister."

"Oh… Wait, you met Elsa?" Anna exclaimed. She threw her blankets off and jumped over Jack to the floor, turning back to look at him wide-eyed.

"Yeah, kind of," he said.

"What… it's seven thirty in the morning…." Anna turned to him and hit him in the shoulder. "Why the hell would you wake me up at seven thirty in the morning?"

"For fun," Jack told her, smiling cheekily. Anna groaned and made her way into her bathroom. Jack pulled his phone out and began checking his Snapchat.

"So, what did you think of Elsa?" Anna called. Jack checked to make sure the door to the hallway was closed. He didn't want the woman in question to hear them talking about her.

"She seems… nice. Kind of quiet. And jumpy," he answered honestly.

"Jumpy?" Anna asked, poking her head around the bathroom door to give him a questioning look. Only half of her hair was flattened and Jack tried to secretly take a picture of the sight.

"Yeah, I mean, she seemed really freaked out when she saw me on the front porch. Like, threw the door open. And then she was like 'this close' to calling the police until I explained that I knew you. And then she kept wringing her sleeves around her hands," Jack said as Anna disappeared again.

"Well, I suppose she does have a reason to be jumpy."

"What do you mean?"

"I'll explain later. For now, I believe that I was promised pancakes." Anna appeared once again, this time with her hair completely under control but still in her pajamas.

"One, the word 'promise' or 'pancakes' was never mentioned by me. And two, I still think that you might want to change," Jack said.

"Give me a minute. Jeesh, have a little patience," Anna said, disappearing this time inside her closet. "Hey, do you think… could we maybe invite Elsa?"

Jack raised his eyebrows in surprise as his heart did a little jump. "Uh, yeah, I don't see why not." He cleared his throat, hoping to get rid of the squeaky quality. What was his problem?

"Awesome!" Anna said, jumping out of her closet in shorts and a t-shirt. "I'll go ask her right now! Be right back!" Anna ran out of the room before Jack could respond. Hopefully, breakfast would be his chance to make a new first impression. And maybe to figure out the weird feeling that he felt anytime Elsa's name was mentioned.

Sorry for the iffy ending, but I really wanted to get this posted for you guys! I'll hopefully have a new update for this weekend, especially because Elsa and Jack have blessed me with a giant snowstorm so I won't have any excuses (except for homework)!

Let me know how you guys are liking the story, please! I hope that you're all enjoying! Please review, favorite, follow, etc. I appreciate it so much!

Thanks, loves 3

~Isabelle