Chapter Two
Anna was twelve when she told Elsa her Big Secret.
"Why can't you come to school with me?" Anna said, lounging on Elsa's king-sized bed as the other girl bent over her desk in front of the windows. Elsa's room was the best room ever to hang out in. Her room was always neat and clean, and she had her own TV. Her bed was soft, and Anna could sleep in it forever; it also smelled like Elsa, and Elsa always smelled good.
Elsa sighed dramatically. "Anna, we've been through this. My parents feel…"
"That the school's curriculum will not be enough for the future CEO of Arendelle Corp, yeah yeah." Anna recited, having heard it so many times from Elsa before, though not exactly in those words.
Elsa sent her a look, half exasperated, half affectionate. Anna pouted. "I wish you'll go out more, meet more people."
"I have met more people." Elsa sighed, looking down at her essay mournfully because they both knew that she would not finish it in time as Anna continued to rumble on.
"Only those I've introduced you to. Kristoff and Merida and Hans and Flynn. There are lots more people to know in school, Elsa. You'll have tons of new friends, you're so pretty."
"Maybe I don't want tons of new friends. Maybe I like to be alone." Elsa said, flushing prettily at the word "pretty".
"No one wants to be alone." Anna said emphatically.
"I was just fine until you decided to sing at my balcony."
"Oh hush. You love me." Anna grinned.
"I'm going to hate you when I can't finish this in time for my mother tomorrow." Elsa said ruefully. "It'll be the fourth one this week."
"No, you won't. Just tell her you've been busy tutoring me in Math." Elsa was thirteen going on fourteen, and was academically far more advanced than Anna, and anyone Elsa's own age to be exact.
"You know that worked last year, she's caught on to us already." Elsa stood up, her gloved fingers laced together, "I need the bathroom. Anna, you need to get start on your homework too, or you'll get detention again."
"Aw. Will you miss me if I get detention and can't spend the afternoon with you?" Anna flopped onto the bed and grinned up at Elsa.
"Of course." Elsa laughed, and left the room.
Anna rolled around on the bed until she was comfortable, and closed her eyes, not caring that she'd made a mess of the duvet and pillows and stuffed animals on the bed. Who would have thought she would get so close to Elsa? The distant, cold, uptight Elsa Arendelle was really a big softie underneath. She was also painfully shy around people, and it had taken Anna months to get as close as she was now. Elsa's parents were the strict kind, but loved their daughter. They didn't hug and pat like Anna's parents, but Anna could tell they loved Elsa just as much when they smiled or spoke with her. There was a longing in their gazes that Anna felt strange; it was as though they wanted to be more affectionate but were stopped by something, or maybe Elsa herself.
Elsa did not like anyone to touch her, this Anna knew. Her hands were always gloved, too. Maybe she had a thing about dirt, Anna thought. She was always well-spoken, well-mannered, carrying herself like a princess, keeping everyone at bay… and only Anna could make her come out of her shell. Anna was quite proud of that. She had introduced Elsa to her friends, and while Elsa was polite and friendly with them, she was always reserved, keeping herself just a little apart. Too many people seemed to frighten her. But here, in Elsa's room, with only Anna, she was open and carefree; and Anna loved that she could see that part of Elsa.
Some part of her was thrilled that she was the only one who could see that part of Elsa.
A series of thumps, and a piercing scream. Anna bolted from the bed, her heart in her throat as the scream resonated, and burst out of the room. "Elsa! What happened? Did you scream? What…"
She paused at the top of the stairs, looking down in horror at Elsa sprawled at the bottom, her leg at an odd angle, shoulders heaving with harsh sobs, and spikes of frost shooting out in all directions.
Looking back, Anna didn't know how she managed to get to the bottom of the stairs so fast when the fear that catapulted into her was so debilitating. The scene revolved around Anna dizzily as she scrambled towards the other girl. Elsa's whole body trembled in pain and fear, tears pouring in rivulets. The frost spread, spasm uncontrollably from Elsa.
From Elsa.
"Elsa. Oh gosh."
"Anna." The devastation on her face was heart-wrenching, "Please… please go away. Please don't…" she tried to struggle, but movement made her cry out as a new surge of pain shot from her leg. It was broken. It had to be.
"Why is there… ice coming from you?" It was too much. Anna didn't know what to do, what to think. What to feel. Elsa was in pain. The leg was terrifying like that, and there was ice. Ice coming from Elsa. Ice. Frost. From Elsa. "What on Earth is happening?" she shouted, staying well beyond the perimeter of Elsa's ice.
Elsa curled in on herself and sobbed, entire body shivering. It was a low, keening wail, devastated and hopeless, a mixture of terror and excruciating pain. The frost spread, the air turned cold, and Anna's breath misted in front of her.
Suddenly everything was alarming clear to Anna. All the little accidents, the drop in temperature when Anna thought the heater was acting up. Elsa's insistence on wearing gloves. The way she seemed to long for contact but shied away from any. "Elsa." Anna breathed, heart aching; even as her head warned her away – stay back run run run she has ice coming from her it's not normal – she crept forward, dropping to her knees and shuffling closer to Elsa.
"Elsa. Oh gosh. Shh. Shh. It's gonna be alright." She reached out for Elsa, but as her fingertips touched the top of Elsa's blond head, the other girl tried to spring up, only to cry out in pain and collapsing in a pile. Frost spread uncontrollably and Anna began to shiver, from the cold, from the terror. What was happening? She could not think, but this was her friend. Her Elsa, who had smiled and talked and shared her life with her just minutes ago.
"It's okay. You're okay, Elsa; I've got you." Anna whispered, running her fingers through white blond curls. Elsa shuddered. "Go… go away Anna. Please… please. I can't… the ice…"
"Tell me what to do." Anna felt tears welling in her own eyes and rubbed them away furiously. She had to be strong now, because Elsa needed her. "I… I don't know what to do. Your leg… gosh, Elsa. I'm gonna call my dad, okay? You need… your leg…"
"You can't! No one can know." Elsa cried in anguish. "No one! Please Anna. Just leave me alone!"
"I'm not going to leave you!" Anna shouted, "Your leg's broken, Elsa! You need a doctor. My dad… he won't say anything, to anyone. Trust me. Trust me, Elsa, please!"
Elsa looked up at her from the fetal position she had assumed, her eyes flowing, wide with pain and terror. Without thinking, not caring about the frost that was creeping up her knees, Anna bent her head and kissed Elsa's forehead, damp with sweat. "It's going to be alright, Elsa."
She called her dad. Never had Anna been so grateful that her father was a doctor. Then she called Elsa's parents, who were out on an errand. The ice had receded somewhat when Anna went back to Elsa's side. With each spasm of pain, it would advance and retreat. Tenderly, Anna moved Elsa's head into her lap, trying to dry her tears and crooning to her mindlessly.
"You're okay, Elsa. I've got you." She whispered over and over. "It'll be over soon, you'll be alright."
She stayed there with Elsa's head pillowed in her lap when her father came barging into the house. Helped soothed Elsa when the girl tensed up against bewildered questions regarding the ice. Anna stayed there when Elsa's parents came rushing in, fear etched into their faces. She refused to bulge from her position as her father gently began re-positioning Elsa's leg.
At last, worn out from the ordeal, Elsa fell into a troubled sleep.
"She was born with it." Adgar Arendelle said heavily. The grownups were gathered around the Arendelles' kitchen, Gerda had come over and whipped up some simple macaroni and cheese. Under the circumstances, no one had much of an appetite.
"We don't know how, or why. She had slip ups when she was younger. Scared some people. But she's not dangerous." Adgar's eyes flashed angrily, as though daring anyone to refute him.
"We had to leave. Take Elsa away. Too many little accidents, and people were getting suspicious." Idun's eyes were wet. "We were hoping for a new start here."
"We kept her away from people. We know that's wrong, but what else can we do?" Adgar looked around the table helplessly. "If word got out, our daughter will be feared, be looked upon and treated as a... a science experiment. She'll be locked away." His hand found Idun's and gripped tight. "She has ice powers. But she's just a little girl, a normal child who loves the piano and geometry, and hopes for a puppy of her own one day. She's our little girl. We won't let anything happen to Elsa."
"You're right, we won't." Kai said gently, and Gerda gave a firm nod. The adults grasped hands over the table, as though making a vow; and Anna slipped away from the kitchen to look for Elsa in her bedroom.
Elsa was lying on her bed, her leg in a cast. In sleep she looked achingly vulnerable and fragile under the covers. Without thinking, Anna climbed up beside her, slipped under the covers, and being careful not to disturb Elsa's leg, put her arms around the older girl and just clung.
Elsa's eyes opened, tired, sad. "You're still here?" she whispered, as though it was hard to believe.
Tears clogged Anna's throat. She would remember for a long time the way Elsa had looked at the bottom of the stairs, sprawled there like a broken toy. She had not known how much the older girl meant to her until she had been hurt; the fear of losing her friend was very new, very real, and devastating.
"How can I be anywhere else?" she whispered back.
"You know now." Elsa closed her eyes tiredly, "About… everything. Why I can't go to school. Why it's best for me to be alone." When her eyes opened again, it was shining with an old pain, a sad acceptance. "It's dangerous to be around me, Anna." She didn't look at Anna when she said that, speaking to the wall instead. "My ice... I don't know how to control it."
Anna sat up, untangling herself from Elsa. She caught the flash of hurt, of dismay on the older girl's face, the glimmer of tears in her eyes before Elsa shut them and turned her face away. Anna climbed from under the covers, sitting on them instead beside Elsa. she needed to be close to Elsa for this, but not too close.
"I have a secret too." She whispered. "Merida and Kristoff and the gang know… but they were sworn to secrecy. It's kind of hard for them to not know, we knew each other since we were toddlers, and we didn't feel the need to keep anything from each other then, besides… we even went skinny dipping together, so it's kind of hard for them to not know…" she trailed off, aware that she had gone too far ahead, and Elsa was looking at her, confused.
Anna took a deep breath. "I'm a girl, Elsa. Make no mistake about that. But there was some genetic anomaly… and I ended up being born with some… extra parts…"