Disclaimer: I do not own Frozen nor its characters, nor do I own any characters from other Disney works. Disney owns everything - including my heart, soul, and wallet.
Chapter 2 - Worlds Apart
Elsa sat at a small lunch table on the edge of the Quad. The first day of ninth grade was not very different so far, the only change was that she was now studying upperclassmen subjects instead. They were proving to be difficult already and she was determined to not fall behind. Elsa felt that she had a lot to prove being the youngest student in most of her courses. She had her Pre-Calculus book propped up against her bag, studying while she ate her lunch.
"It's the first day of school," Rapunzel said. "In fact, it's only halfway through the first day of school. What could she possibly be studying for already?"
Anna looked over to see the blonde girl sitting at the sunniest table on the lawn. She and her friends had specifically chosen a table in the shade. Today was considerably warm, at least for the Bay Area. Elsa didn't seem bothered though. She was nose deep in a textbook as usual, writing furiously in a notebook and holding her uneaten sandwich in her right hand. The small pang of sadness that always wormed its way into Anna's chest whenever she observed Elsa from afar crept in. She shook her head to both wave away the feeling and feign her distaste.
"Who cares?" Anna said, voice dripping with a false lightness. "Probably something too advanced for a high school freshman, but too dull for someone so freakishly smart."
"Well she's definitely freakish," scoffed Ariel. That elicited a laugh from Rapunzel and a small smile from Anna that didn't reach her eyes.
Anna let her gaze travel back to Elsa who happened to look up right at that moment. Their eyes met for the briefest second before Anna quickly looked away, suddenly engrossed in her chocolate pudding cup. It had been a long time since Anna could call Elsa her friend, but she still harbored deep seated hope that one day they would be close again.
"Come on, Elsa. Will you just tell me why? I feel like you're shutting me out of your life. Is it because you got placed in those accelerated classes? Am I just not smart enough for you anymore?"
"You're very smart, Anna. Don't pretend that you aren't."
"Then why?" Anna asked tearily.
"We just can't be friends anymore, Anna," Elsa said quietly.
"Well it's a good thing we're not just friends. We're best friends," Anna said pleadingly. "Sisters."
"We can't be sisters anymore, Anna."
"Anna? Hey, Anna!"
"Wha… What?" Anna said, breaking her train of thought. She looked around the empty table as she heard the warning bell ring for the next period.
"You coming? We've got English Lit with Ms. Beaufort," Ariel said.
"Yeah, sorry!" She hopped up from the table, spooning the remainder of the chocolate pudding into her mouth before tossing the cup into the trash on the way inside.
"What were you thinking about?" Ariel asked with concern.
"That I miss summer vacation already," Anna lied.
"Ugh! Me too. I just want to go to Monterey and lie on the beach," her friend whined. "It's almost fall, which means Karl is going to be rolling in daily soon. Once I'm done with high school, I'm moving to So Cal. Maybe I'll go to UCSD. I'm so done with the gloomy Bay weather. I need the beach and the ocean in my life everyday."
When they entered Ms. Belle Beaufort's class, Anna was surprised to see Elsa sitting front and center. Well, not the fact that she chose to sit there, that's where Elsa would have always preferred to sit and learn. No, she was surprised to see Elsa in this class. They hadn't had a class together since the fifth grade, the last year before they both started attending Ahtohallan Girls Preparatory School.
"Please have a seat, Miss Noruldra."
"Wait, what?" Anna looked around to see that the class was staring at her. She had only made it a few steps into the door. Ariel was frantically nodding her chin toward the empty desk next to her. Elsa turned her head to look at her, raising as eyebrow with concern. Wait. Concern can't be right, she thought.
"I'd like to begin class if you would take your seat," their teacher said again. Ms. Beaufort looked slightly amused. "Unless you'd prefer to stand for the duration of the period."
"No, no. I'm so sorry," she said and hurried to take the seat next to Ariel as the rest of the class giggled. Ariel fixed her with an incredulous look as she sat down.
What's up? Ariel mouthed to her silently. Anna only shook her head as she pulled out a notebook and pen.
Elsa kept her eyes glued to the board in front of her as Anna hurried by her, resisting the urge to take her hand and give it an encouraging squeeze as she passed. It had been a long time since she and Anna had drifted apart. Drifted apart? That's a laughable understatement, she thought. If Elsa was being honest with herself, she had forced their separation. There was no other way to put it. Elsa pushed Anna away, and now they were worlds apart. She hadn't realized when she'd chosen to take English Literature that she'd end up taking it with Anna. Elsa had heard from the girls in the grades above her that Ms. Beaufort was the best teacher on campus and she was eager for the opportunity to take one of her classes.
"Aside from two term papers, reading quizzes, and several in class essays," Ms. Beaufort was saying as Elsa tuned back into her introduction. "Twenty percentage of your grade will be based on a final creative project due at the end of the year which we will discuss more just before the winter holidays. It will be done with a partner on any book of your choosing."
There was a sudden shift in atmosphere as the girls began to try silently claiming partners amongst themselves. Anna and Ariel quickly looked at each other and nodded, the two red-heads easily deciding to work together until…
"Random partners," Ms. Beaufort clarified. She was answered by a collective groan from the class. Their teacher pulled up a randomizing generator on the electronic whiteboard and loaded the class roster into it. "Yes, yes. I know, how terribly provincial of me. Let's see how we do, shall we?"
Ms. Beaufort hit the 'Enter' key on her laptop and a quick animation of a cartoon mouse shaking a jar appeared before all their names appeared in a two column list.
"Oh! I got Aurora. Not terrible I guess," Ariel said from next to her. She gave the blonde at the back of the class a wave. Anna wasn't so sure that that wasn't terrible luck. Aurora had a reputation for sleeping through most of class. "Who did you get?"
Anna skimmed the rest of the list and her stomach did a quick summersault. Right there, smack in the middle of the list…
Anna Noruldra - Elsa Arendelle
Well, that's just my luck, Elsa thought as she looked at the screen. Right there in front of her, clear as day, a sadistic joke on irony created by the universe. And she had a front row seat.
She knew when she saw Anna enter the classroom that avoiding her this year would prove more difficult than before. They were on completely different tracks, their curriculums having very little chance of crossing paths. Elsa specifically chose the accelerated path focused on the hard sciences because she knew Anna would stick to the arts and humanities courses. This, however, was the universe's way of teaching her that life cannot be so simple when you choose to live a lie. Elsa fumed internally. For the first time in her life, she felt like a rebellious teenager. This was one lesson she refused to learn.
She raised her hand, along with a few other girls.
"I'll be happy to answer any questions besides, 'Can we switch partners?'" Ms. Beaufort said. She watched as all the hands, including Elsa's, lowered themselves again.
That's fine, she thought to herself. I'll find another way.
Anna could hardly pay attention to the remainder of the class. She was furious after watching Elsa raise her hand and then lower it after their teacher's comment about not switching. There was a time when they would have fought to be partners. It seems that those times truly were over. She didn't realize how much she still had been holding out for Elsa to be her friend again until this very moment. Anna felt crushed, and that made her illogically angry.
"What is she even doing in this class anyway?" Ariel said out loud as they finally left the classroom. Very out loud. Anna glanced in Elsa's direction, but she was already halfway down the hallway. "You would think she'd be taking AP Comparative Lit or something."
"Who?" Repunzel said as she approached. They had planned on getting ice cream after their first day of school together and Rapunzel had agreed to meet them outside of Ms. Beaufort's classroom after last period.
"Elsa," Anna said sullenly.
"She is. We had it together this morning," Rapunzel replied. She had been homeschooled until the seventh grade when her parents enrolled her in their prep school. They didn't own a television because her parents didn't really believe in having screens in the home so Rapunzel grew up reading two or three books a day. As a result, she was placed on the accelerated track in the school's offered English courses.
"No. We just got out of English Lit with her," Ariel said.
"Oh, yeah. I heard she's taking it as an elective."
"Elective?" Anna said incredulously.
"Yeah, you know? A class you pick, usually for fun," Rapunzel said sarcastically. "Like my art class and Ariel's two choir courses. What did you pick this year?"
"Art history," Anna said quickly. "But Elsa is in the Orchestra. Why would she take a freshman English course as an elective?"
"Oh, I heard from Midge that Elsa gave up her First Chair spot," Ariel said. Ariel was always deep in the gossip pools at school. Her depth of knowledge about all things juicy and rumor adjacent could fill the oceans.
"Why?!" Anna exclaimed. Several heads turned in their direction at her outburst and she lowered her voice before continuing. "Elsa is classically trained in piano and cello. Why would she quit the orchestra?"
"Beats me," Rapunzel said. "Why so interested?"
"She got paired with Elsa for the creative project," Ariel answered for her.
"Oh! I loved doing my creative project last year," Rapunzel said wistfully. "Mandy and I painted a mural in the community garden. We read The Secret Garden."
"Ugh," Anna sighed.
"I mean, yeah it's a bit on the nose, but the mural is beautiful."
"No, no. I know it is. I've seen it," Anna said. "I just don't know how I'm supposed to do a project with someone who wants nothing to do with me."
"You know, I'm sure that's not true," Rapunzel said as they headed down the main corridor toward the front exit. "You've told me before that you two used to be close."
"Attached at the hip is more like it," Ariel said. At the irritated look on Anna's face, she continued. "What? You were. If I saw one of you, the other was never far behind. We used to call you Elsanna because you were more like two halves of one person."
"See," Rapunzel pushed on. "I think this is just what you two need to bury whatever it is that got between you in the first place."
"I'm sorry, Miss Arendelle, but you know the rules," they heard a voice coming from the front office as they passed. "The deadline for schedule changes was Fall Welcome. I'm afraid you'll just have to stick it out in Ms. Beaufort's class."
"Or not," Ariel said, stopping next to Anna who had stalled in place just passed the doorway where Elsa was standing speaking to the vice principal.
"Surely there's room for an exception, Vice Principal Anders?"
"No can do, Miss Arendelle. If I made an exception for you, I'd have to for everyone, and then where would the rules be?"
"I understand. Thank you for your time."
Elsa came through the door and nearly walked right into Anna. How long has she been standing here? She looked at the other two girls with Anna, Repunzel and Ariel. Ariel was who Anna had clung to after she put the distance between them. Elsa wasn't really a fan; she always felt that Ariel was a childish gossip who spent more time thinking about boys than her studies. Rapunzel, however, was a newer addition to Anna's life, but one that Elsa approved of. Not that she had any place to approve of anything for Anna these days.
Anna had that look of disappointment on her face. The same look that she had when Elsa essentially broke up with her. Elsa sighed and moved to pass them.
"You hate me that much, Elsa?"
She froze. It was the first thing Anna had said to her in nearly four years and the pain in her voice broke Elsa's heart. She turned her head slightly to look over her shoulder. No, of course not. I could never hate you.
"Gerda is probably waiting for me," she said instead and continued out the front door.
"Shh," Elsa whispered, slipping on her snow boots. "Quiet down or Gerda will hear us."
Anna was just bursting with excitement though, practically hopping from foot to foot as she waited impatiently for Elsa to get ready. It had started snowing outside and Anna woke Elsa up to go frolic in the fresh powder.
"Come on, come on, come on!" Anna shouted with glee as they snuck into the backyard of the cabin their mother's had taken them to for the week. "Let's build a snowman!"
"Excuse me, young ladies," a stern voice called from behind them before they could even get ten steps out of the door. The girls immediately turned to find Gerda's angry figure back lit in the doorway. "It is the middle of the night. I'd already said you can play in the morning. Except now, as punishment for being out of bed, that will be after you've completed your winter holiday homework."
"Yes, Gerda," they said sulkily as they trudged back into the house, allowing Gerda to guide them into their shared room. Once Gerda closed the door, Anna jumped out of her bed and into Elsa's.
"I'm sorry I got us in trouble."
Elsa turned over to look at her. "We both got us in trouble."
"But you warned me to be quieter," Anna said, tears in her eyes. "Do you hate me now?"
"What!? Of course not. Nothing you ever do could make me hate you."
Anna ran out of the school, shouting after Elsa as she went. She could care less if people were watching. "What did I ever do to you?"
"Enough, Anna," was all she got as Elsa continued to walk toward a black sedan parked along the curb. She could see Gerda waiting next to it.
"Why do you shut me out?" She insisted, still shouting even though she had caught up with Elsa. Anna grabbed her hand to keep Elsa from getting into her car. She was startled slightly by how cold it was despite it still being the tail end of the warm summer weather.
"Ah, Miss Anna. It's nice to see you," exclaimed Elsa's childhood Nanny, Gerda. "Are you coming over for a play date?"
"No, Gerda," Elsa said as she pulled her hand out of Anna's and yanking open the passenger door. "Please just take me home."
Gerda gave Anna a sad smile as Elsa slammed her door shut. "I'm sorry, Miss Anna. I hope you've been well."
"Fine. Thanks, Gerda," Anna said trying to look at Elsa through the tinted windows. Resigning herself to more of the cold shoulder, she sighed and turned away.
"Miss Anna?"
"Yes, Gerda?" She asked as she turned back to look at the matronly woman standing on the driver's side of the car now.
"I know it's been a very long time, but have patience. Miss Elsa is…" Gerda hesitated. Her eyes suddenly got a sad, distant look to them.
"Elsa's what? Cold hearted?" She said, voice dripping with bitterness.
Gerda gave her a pleading look. "Don't give up on her just yet, Miss Anna."
"She gave up on me first."
A/N: Thank you for reading!