Violet thought it was going to be a relaxing morning. However, that was before Dash decided to ruin the peace in the house. "SNOOOW DAAY! Woohoo, no school!" Her younger brother, eager as always, began dashing around the house in rapid motions. Before Violet could even blink, her brother had changed back into his pajamas and was lounging on the sofa with a new cartoon on TV.
"Ahem," Mom cleared her throat, putting down the newspaper as she observed him from the dining table. "Regardless of the weather, you do still have responsibilities, young man."
"But Mom, snow days are supposed to be fun."
"Breakfast first. Then chores and at least twenty minutes of studying. Just because it isn't safe to drive doesn't mean you can slack off."
Scowling, Dash turned away and slouched down further. Mom stretched out her arm, using her powers to reach for the remote without getting up. Seeing her hand, Dash blinked and jolted out of the chair, seeming to see this as a game. He grinned, dashing out of Mom's reach each time she twisted and redirected her hand to get the remote.
With a sigh, Violet set aside her book and walked over. "Both of you are seriously overthinking this." Standing next to the TV, Violet reached over and pressed the power button on the screen.
Dash looked over at her, his grin vanishing in an instant. "No fair! I had the remote first, so I get to choose what's on."
"Yeah, well, Mom says we've got work to do. And I'm not going to be the only person shoveling out the snow like last time."
Muttering under his breath, Dash finally seemed to surrender. He tossed the remote aside, stomping over to the table. As he passed by Violet, she caught just a tiny bit of what he was saying. "…at least I don't use my powers for villainy…"
Narrowing her eyes, Violet opened her mouth. Yet, she belatedly thought better of commenting and stayed silent. Subtle jabs regarding the incident from two months ago were somewhat common from Dash these days. She just had to go and open her mouth with Dash close enough to hear. Now, he was constantly suspicious of her every move, finding small ways to accuse her of being Miss Terror. It wasn't like she had actually done any crimes either, but she supposed looking like a super villain was the whole point of the plan in the first place.
Either way, it was a relief to finally be nightmare free in this town. She'd quickly made sure that super suit was not connected to her in any way. Only one person could tie it back to her (excluding her accomplices) and luckily, her family had no reason to see Edna considering their suits were in perfect condition. Now, she was free to finally focus on being normal for a change.
Joining her family at the table, Violet reached for a box of cereal to begin enjoying breakfast with everyone else. "Thanks for the help, Vi." Mom smiled at her, taking a sip of coffee before returning to her newspaper.
"She didn't do anything that impressive," Dash complained.
"Both of you, stop it," Dad said. "Listen to your mother and stop fighting all of the time. Try and at least pretend you like each other."
"Whatever. Not my fault that Violet's out of control."
"Who says I'm the one that's out of control? You're the one refusing to help out Mom and Dad on our day off."
"Because it's supposed to be fun!"
"Yeah, snow days are supposed to be fun," a new voice joined in. Violet blinked, seeing a familiar face hovering over Dash's shoulder. "Your brother has the right idea, you know," Jack Frost continued.
She yelped in surprise at his sudden presence, unaware of where he'd even come from in the first place. The winter spirit began to laugh at her reaction, while her parents turned towards her with frowns. "Is something wrong?" Mom asked.
"Ah, no, it's nothing! Everything's fine." Violent responded quickly, waving her hands in front of her and quickly focusing on her cereal. She began to eat far more quickly than she needed too, shoving spoonfuls in her mouth without really tasting the food. "Mmm. Foods good, can't talk, gotta eat." She swallowed. "Breakfast is important and I gotta stay healthy for all those chores and studying today, yep."
"Boring!" Jack declared, while Dash groaned.
"Don't tell me you're going along with this. Come on, Vi, can't you be on my side?" Dash glanced between their parents. Then, he scooted his chair closer to hers, leaning towards her ear to whisper to her. "If you don't help me get out of this, I'll tell them that you're Miss Terror."
Narrowing her eyes, she turned towards her brother and found herself whispering back. "You have no proof of that."
"So? I know you were there."
"I wasn't. I was out with friends."
"What friends? Your boyfriend dumped you."
Glaring at him for that friendly reminder, Violet didn't see a reason to respond. "Getting out of this would give you a chance to actually have fun, you know. With me and the other kids in the neighborhood," Jack commented.
"Don't—" Violet broke off, just barely stopping her reply. Dash, however, seemed to be expecting her to finish. "Er, don't bring that up. I don't want to talk—"
"Violet, Dash, it is rude to have side conversations at the breakfast table. If you have something you want to discuss, we should be talking about it together, as a family," Mom interrupted.
"Well, if you insist." Dash grinned, raising his eyebrows over at Violet. He took a long, dramatic pause in an attempt to taunt Violet.
Sadly, her brother's pause was more effective than she would have liked. "Dash and I were just discussing how much…easier it would be to 'get along' like you requested if we had some time for, ah, sibling bonding today." Gosh, this sounded so awkward and forced. Hopefully, her parents were as ignorant about social queues as always. "And so, we were hoping we could, um, maybe go out with friends together instead of. Well, chores."
"And studying," Dash added. "Don't forget she wanted us to do school work on a day with no school."
"Yeah. That too." She looked down at her bowl, rubbing her palms on her pants as she avoided her parents' eyes.
When Mom spoke, Violet was expecting a refusal. "Alright." Violet blinked, looking over at her. "You have a fair point. I can't remember the last time you two asked to go out and do something together - I think it's a great idea to get to know each other better and find something you'd both enjoy for the day."
"Make sure you stay together though," Dad added. "I'm not going to have to deal with you two getting lost and running into some sort of villain's scheme—"
"Bob, we haven't seen any villains in weeks now."
"But that doesn't mean they're gone! They're still children. They're not ready for solo hero work."
"Come on, Dad, we're not going to go out to find criminals." Violet rolled her eyes. "Unlike you, we like to be normal in our free time." At least, she wanted to try to be normal. Considering she still was figuring out how to stumble along through high school, Violet wasn't certain how successful she was. Sure, she had more friends now she supposed, but Violet still couldn't bring herself to approach people she wasn't familiar with. She was far more comfortable as the silent observer in the crowd.
"Have fun, and stay safe." Mom smiled. "And Violet, keep an eye on your brother. I'm not giving you the day off to do whatever you want - this is meant for you to spend more time together, alright?"
Dash's smile faded slightly. Looking over at him, Violet sighed. "Alright, fine." Getting up, Violet brought her bowl over to the dishwasher. The chill from behind her kept her informed that Jack was following her around in the process.
"Well, this wasn't quite what I had in mind, but I suppose we can still find something to do. Does your brother still like snowball fights? They're the best winter activity ever, I promise you."
Turning on the faucet, Violet hoped the sound was enough to drown out her voice as she spoke to Jack. "More like snowball wars. You're crazy if you think that's a good idea with anyone in our family these days." Jack only grinned, twirling his staff as he leaned back against the counter. "Why are you here anyway? Don't you have better things to do? Snowstorms to bring to other people?" She figured he had a busy job, but Violet wasn't certain if she'd gone a week without seeing him ever since she first realized Jack Frost was real.
"But they're not as fun as you." Jack swung his staff over his shoulders, restless and finding ways to constantly stay in motion. "Don't get me wrong, kids are great, but really, there are times when I want to have just a conversation to have just a tiny bit more…maturity?"
"What, you looking for dating advice or something?"
Jack laughed. "Nah, nothing like that. If anyone's looking for that, I'd say that'd be you, Violet. Unless there's been some new updates on what's going on with you and Hiccup…"
"Shut up!" She glared at him, feeling her cheeks grow warm. "He's just a friend. I mean, sure, he's kinda funny, cute, smart, understanding…but that doesn't mean anything!" Violet rushed before Jack could interrupt. "I can mean all of that about a friend. I mean, Tony broke up with me just a few months ago. Clearly, it is far too soon to move on. It'd leave him heartbroken if I just, started dating someone new, without like, recovering first."
"Right." Jack blinked, pausing for a moment. "So, you're not dating…because it'd hurt the guy who dumped you?"
"Well, that and because we're just friends! No feelings at all beyond friendship, I swear." The water was still running, ignored as she poke.
Jack just kept watching her with a glint in his blue eyes. Before he could respond, Helen shouted towards her. "Violet, if you're going to take that much time washing dishes, at least plug the sink and stop wasting the water."
Quickly, Violet spun around and turned off the faucet. Jack remained behind her, hovering and shaking his head. "Come on, let's get going," Jack said. She sighed, moving to go get her brother and apparently find some sort of 'bonding activity' to do with him. Why did she let him rope her into his schemes today? "And just so you know, snowball wars are even better than snowball fights. They were awesome with you two when you were kids."
Well, he hadn't gotten the chance to do the same with them as adults. Violet wasn't certain if Jack was ready to handle both of them with their improved control over their powers, but she supposed it was a better plan than nothing. Maybe she'd be able to relax with her book later. Hiccup had recommended it to her and she wanted to talk to him about it before the week ended.
And we're back with Violet again for the second chapter. I'm thinking this story will probably have about one update a week, based on my current schedule. If any of you readers have a preference on which day updates come, feel free to let me know in a review and I'll take do my best to choose the most popular day. As always, if you have any comments or feedback on the story, I'm happy to hear your thoughts as well.