Dangit, I don't want these chapters to be so short. I'm sorry. I'm struggling, y'all...but I love this story and I refuse to end it!
Rather than entering the frigid weather again to get home, and since a meeting would be called the next day, Julius stayed the night at the North Pole. He'd shared Jack's initial wish of seeing the place at night, for hope of seeing the toys come to life or something. He was disappointed to find that aside from the prototypes that he'd already seen during the tour, all the creations were very inanimate.
Jack was back to laying on his bed, didn't feel much like sleeping. He watched Julius, who was sitting at the desk, toss around Jack's paper snowflakes like they were real flurries.
"You think we should do more than this?" Jack asked.
"More than what?" Julius blew the paper back up.
"I mean, we're kind of doing a peace-tour, right?" Jack traced the vine pattern on his pillowcase. "Going around to tell everyone we wanna be friends or something. We're the only group of spirits who actually enforce anything regarding humans, instead of just messing with them sometimes."
"Outside of reapers. And Cupid. And probably the Fates or something."
"Yeah. So, these one-on-ones would take forever if we did this for every group of spirits."
"I mean, yeah, but you're only visiting your personal friends." Julius turned to face him completely. "You're not doing anything super official yet. Don't you have a boss who makes those decisions for you?"
"MiM? The Man in the Moon?" Jack paused to think for a moment. "Well, he does tell us about things we need to do. But he's quiet most of the time." he glanced out the window. "Just sitting up there with a bunch of stuff we don't know about."
"So...he didn't say anything about what to do about this." Julius picked up the scissors and folded up a plain sheet of paper. "That means you're leadin' this thing, huh?"
"It's not that serious…"
"Do you want it to be?"
Jack didn't answer. He rolled over with a sigh. Julius clipped two more triangles out of the paper, put the scissors down, and started unfolding the craft.
"You're doing good as a balancer for this group. They're the CPS of the spirit world, which isn't a bad thing considering how many spirits harm children. But what happens after your friends? There are lots of spirits you don't know, and you aren't on the best of terms with."
"...I'll think about it in the morning."
"Sure. 'Night."
Julius blew his handmade snowflake over to Jack. He left the room and quietly closed the door behind him. Jack watched the paper craft drift down, swooping to the floor at the side of his bed.
Jack woke up to Julius nudging him. He sprang to attention and gently shoved him away.
"What is it?!"
"You were knocked out," Julius laughed. "North wants you to come down because everyone should be getting here soon."
"Jeez…" Jack scooted over to the edge of the bed. "I thought you were in the room next door."
"I was. I woke up early, explored this hall - which is nothing but guest rooms for some reason - and went downstairs. You're late." Julius tilted his head slightly. "I thought you usually got up early."
"I do." Jack mumbled. It was true; usually, he was up and about, watching the sunrise or adding mischief to someone's morning. He didn't sleep in unless he had something on his mind, which he definitely did.
"What is Cupid even doing at this time o' day, d'you think?" Julius asked. "Is it teatime?"
"Teatime is after lunch, genius." Jack grabbed his staff and started for the hallway. Julius huffed and stepped after him.
"How would you know? You can't even drink hot tea."
"But I know my meal times."
"Tea is a meal?"
"You have a light meal with your tea, Julius." Jack hopped over the banister to the first floor. Julius followed suit.
"And you know this...how? 'Cause of your British nerd phase?"
"Shut up."
"What's this 'bout a phase?" Bunny called, leaning into the doorframe from the globe room. Jack scowled at him, and he shot back a toothy smile.
"Can it."
Jack has some things to think about, and maybe the Guardians have some things to talk to MiM about...
So, I follow William Joyce on Instagram (he's the author of the original Guardians of Childhood book series,) and he posted a drawing about Jack resurfacing in Britain for a time. I imagined he got up to mischief still, but he looked so dapper! Perhaps he really got into British culture...