Jack was bored out of his goddamn mind. He had nothing to do, nowhere to go, and his friends had abandoned him for the entire day. Andy had stupid Student Council duties to tend to, and Hiccup had set up camp in the Robotics room, geeking out with Hiro and Wilbur about whatever revolutionary shit they were up to now. And despite his friends' enthusiasm, Jack had to decline the invitation to join them. Because when those three talked nerdy, they talked nerdy, and Jack knew better than to pretend he understood the language they spoke. He had been tempted to find Violet even, but she was still recovering from her flu, and Andy reminded him that she should be excused from his idiocy for the time being.
So with no other companions to share his boredom with, Jack strolled through school alone, hands in his pockets and no destination directing his feet. He was in the middle of a yawn when he spotted a familiar face coming from the other side of the hallway. Not wanting to catch her attention, he turned around slowly and tried to leave her sight.
'Tried' being the keyword, seeing as he had barely taken three steps when her voice made him freeze.
"Where do you think you're going?" she asked.
He changed the scowl on his face into a radiant smile before facing her. "Your Majesty!" Jack greeted, opening his arms. "I didn't see you there!"
Elsa stared at him with an arched eyebrow and crossed arms. "Of course you didn't."
He continued to smile as he waited for her to catch up with him. "I'm surprised to see you outside, Your Majesty," Jack said as they walked down the hallway side by side. "Shouldn't you be tending to your presidential affairs?"
She laughed. "Are you accusing me of neglecting my duties, Frost?"
Jack pouted, faking indignance. "Who? Me? I would never do such a thing, Elsa..."
"If you must know, I'm in the middle of my rounds."
"Like you're some kind of vigilante on patrol?" he asked with a snort.
"Exactly." Elsa rolled her eyes. "It's my job to safeguard school peace and stop wrongdoers from corrupting the innocent."
"I feel like you're talking about me…"
She shook her head. "Gee. I wonder why."
He glanced at her from the corner of his eyes as a teasing smirk graced his lips. "Are you still jealous of Anna?"
"I'm not," she replied dryly.
His smirk grew as his eyes locked on hers, and they stopped. "Because I told you: There's nothing to be jealous about—"
"I said I'm not jealous," she interrupted him, narrowing her eyes.
"I just invited her to hang out with the rest of the team, Elsa dearest." Jack shrugged. "No biggie."
She pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a long sigh. "Again, Frost: I'm not jealous."
"Anna looked like she needed to have some fun—"
"Are you not listening to me, you idiot?" she hissed.
"—It's not like I'm trying to corrupt her or anything."
Elsa snorted. "That's hard to believe."
He frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"
She gave him a patronizing smile. "I hate to break it to you, dear, but you're not the greatest role model out there." She turned around to resume the walk. "And Anna is a very impressionable person."
He followed after her, shoulder brushing hers as they moved side by side. "Well, Your Majesty, I promise not to get her in trouble."
"Your promise is of little value in the matter."
Jack furrowed his eyebrows. Her words felt somehow familiar. "I think we've had this conversation before…"
She breathed in loudly and rolled her shoulders back. "My point is that you can't promise to not get my sister in trouble when you can't stay out of trouble yourself." Elsa let out a contemptuous laugh. "The way you act, 'trouble' might as well be your middle name."
He crossed his arms. "Now, Jack Trouble Frost doesn't have that nice of a ring to it, does it?"
"Can you be serious for a moment?"
"Can you be not for a moment instead?" He looked at her, and his eyes softened a little. "Piling up all this stress can't be good for you, Your Majesty. If you don't let your hair down, all the pressure you're putting on yourself is gonna swallow you whole."
She shook her head. "I'm being lectured by Jack Frost of all people..."
Jack abruptly stopped, making her turn on her heels to face him. He could see the annoyance growing on her face. "Look me in the eye and tell me I'm not even a little bit right," he spoke each word carefully.
She turned around with a roll of eyes. "Even if you were, the way I deal with things is none of your concern."
Elsa continued down the hallway, and for a moment, he considered letting her leave. But a weird pressure in the back of his mind unsettled him, and he threw his arms in the air, going after her. Deciding to take another route, he asked, "Do you want me to talk to Anna? Let her know you're worried about her?"
She didn't say anything for a moment, and he wondered if he had said the wrong thing again… He was trying to figure out how to remedy the situation when she sighed, wrapping her arms around her.
"No," Elsa replied, and her voice seemed so defeated out of a sudden. "I should talk to her myself."
"Would it make you feel better if I told you I'll take care of her?"
"Do you seriously think it would?" she said with a laugh, and he wasn't sure if the laugh was genuine or not.
Jack shrugged, nudging her arm. "I'll take that as a yes."
She stared at him with an arched eyebrow, and this time, he was sure he saw amusement in her eyes. "You have an amazing ability to distort reality and hearing only what pleases you."
He opened his arms and bowed in front of her. "Thank you, Your Majesty."
"... It wasn't a compliment."
Anna was late. And no, it wasn't on purpose. Anna was not avoiding meeting her supposedly new tutor. She just lost track of time! If she was asked about it, though, Anna didn't really see the need for that tutor—whoever they were! Anna was fine. Her school records were fine. Everything was perfectly fine. School administration was just a little too fast to jump the gun in her opinion.
Nonetheless, Anna headed to the study room she was supposed to meet her tutor at. She looked around the room and found a blond brick wall of muscles hunched over a book sitting in one of the desks. Not entirely sure of her tutor's identity, she approached the desk carefully.
Sensing her, the guy looked up and pulled his earphones off. He narrowed his eyes, and the harshness of his stare made her feel small.
"Are you Anna?" he asked.
"Y-yeah. I'm her—I'm Anna... Sorry, I'm late."
He continued to watch her, and she shifted her weight from one foot to the other awkwardly.
"Sit down."
Without moving, she asked, "Are you my tutor?"
"Yes. Why else would I be here?"
"You just don't look like—" Anna pressed her lips together before she could say another word.
He leaned back with an arched eyebrow. Gesturing to the chair across from him, he asked. "Are you gonna sit, or are you planning on standing the whole time?"
"Right." She clicked her tongue and dropped her backpack beside the chair. She sat down and continued to stare at her shoes.
"My name is Kristoff, and I was assigned as your tutor for the next term," the guy said. "If you could tell me what you think about the schedule I have set for us, that would be great."
He pulled a sheet of paper from inside his book and pushed it in her direction. Biting her lip, Anna took a tentative glance at it, but the colored blocks and scribbled notes made little sense to her. Her eyebrows furrowed.
"... Are you not okay with the schedule?"
She shrugged with all the nonchalance she could muster. "It's nice meeting you and all, Kristopher—"
"It's Kristoff," he corrected her.
"—But you see, I don't need a tutor." Anna laughed, but the sound was awkward even to her ears.
"That's not what your records say."
"Wait…" Anna pointed at him with suspicion. "You saw my records? What kind of invasion of privacy is that? Who do you think—"
He smirked, straightening up. "Easy, tiger. When your grades have a sudden drop, you're automatically signed to the tutoring program," Kristoff explained calmly. "I do not have access to personal information other than your name, class, and the subjects you're having trouble with."
He tapped on the paper between them with his pen. "Now can we discuss your study plan?"
She shook her head. "I told you, I don't need a tutor. My grades are fine. I was just… in a bad place before."
"What kind of bad place?"
His voice tone was a bit condescending to her ears, and Anna huffed, crossing her arms.
"I broke up with my boyfriend, okay?" she snarled.
"Hold on just a second…" Kristoff frowned, holding a finger up. "You're telling me you let a breakup mess up your grades? Aren't you still a freshman?"
"So?" shrugged. "I was in love with him."
He snorted. "Sure you were. How long did you date him again?"
"Almost four months." Most of which they hadn't seen each other, but Kristoff didn't need to know that.
"Four months!" the guy laughed.
She glared at him. "What do you know about love anyway?"
"More than you, apparently. You just started high school, and you're letting a child's play of a breakup screw you up. All because, in your words, you were in love with him."
"I was in love with him," Anna agreed. "And even if I wasn't, who are you to judge me? Am I supposed to believe that you're some kind of love expert now?"
"No…" he grumbled. "But I have friends who are."
"You have friends who are love experts?" she asked with her eyebrows raised. "I'm not buying it."
He cleared his throat. "Anyway… We can keep discussing your Shakespearean love life"—she was about to retort, but he held up a hand to silence her—"or you can show me your calculus homework, which is actually what I'm supposed to help you with."
Kristoff folded his hands behind his neck and smirked at her. "Either way, we're stuck together for the next two hours."
Chewing on her lower lip, Anna continued to stare at the blond guy. He had a point. Her attempts at reasoning her way out of tutoring had failed—she didn't even know if Kristoff could sign her out, to begin with. And if they were going to be together for the next hours, she'd rather not spend it talking about...
"Fine," she huffed, picking her bag and pulling her textbooks out.
Violet had finally gotten to the last dose of her flu medicine. She felt fine, but her dramatic friends would not hear about it. They said Violet wasn't above lying about her health situation, and that they'd better be safe than sorry. They ganged up on her, and she had no choice but to entertain their demands. Paranoid morons.
She gulped down the rest of the syrup straight from the bottle and cleaned the aftertaste with what was left in her water bottle. With great enjoyment, she watched the empty vessel hitting the bottom of the trash can.
She was still sniggering at the poor bottle when the door opened and Astrid came inside.
"Hey, loser," Astrid greeted. She carried a tray with a tall glass on it and had to use her hip to close the door. "Got something for you."
"Thanks," Violet said, accepting the beverage eagerly. It was sour and sweet and cold, and even though she was no longer sick, she still appreciated the treat. "I just drank my last drop of medicine," Violet informed with a grin.
The blonde sat on the edge of Violet's bed and leaned back on her hands. "Does it mean we can get you out of probation?"
Violet sighed, taking another sip of her drink and letting the taste of lemon inundate her mouth. "About time, really. I'm tired of staring at the walls."
Astrid rolled her eyes. "It's been five days. Half of which you came down for classes and food anyway. Stop whining."
Violet ignored the other girl and started munching an ice cube. She popped another piece in her mouth before she asked, "So what good news do you bring from the outside world? How are things going with your boy toy?"
"Don't call him that."
Violet kept crunching the ice with a raised eyebrow, and Astrid sighed.
"Things are fine," the blonde said. "I think we're doing something together in the next city trip."
Violet smirked, placing a hand on her cheek. "Aw, baby's first date. I think I'm gonna cry."
Astrid snorted. "Don't. You'll dehydrate, and we can't risk you relapsing."
Violet's smile widened. "Is that your way of saying that you care?"
"Don't get too cocky. I still think you're a pain in the ass."
"Love you too, babe."
Anna was avoiding her. Elsa became suspicious of the fact after several attempts at approaching her sister had failed. It was like Anna disappeared into thin air every time Elsa managed to spot the younger girl roaming around campus. She had her suspicions consolidated when their eyes met in the rec room, and Anna stormed out of there before Elsa could utter a single word. Almost a week had passed, and Elsa had yet to be in the same space as her sister for more than two minutes.
Not one to be defeated though, Elsa's quest continued. She was set on talking to her sister, and help her God, that was what she was going to do. Having the advantage of knowing her sister's overall schedule, Elsa corned Anna on the way to the choir room that day. Then, bothered little with dilly-dallying, Elsa led her sister to an empty corridor where they could talk in private.
As she turned to look at Anna, she found the girl playing with the ends of her braids, eyes glued to the floor. Elsa watched Anna for a long minute, figuring out what should be said first. After a long sigh, she asked, "How have you been, sister of mine?"
"I've been well—good." Anna scowled. "I mean good... I've been good."
Elsa hummed, eyes scanning her sister's fidgety stance. "I saw your name on the tutoring sheet."
"You… have access to that."
Elsa crossed her arms. "I do. Would you care to tell me about it?"
Anna chuckled, rolling her shoulders back and waving with a hand. "Look, there's no need to worry—"
"You have barely entered high school and your grades are already dropping," Elsa stated. "Teachers have complaints about your behavior in class, and it looks like you and your new friends have turned the detention room into your new hanging out spot."
Anna frowned. "That's not—I've only been there three times, and one of those times, it wasn't even my fault—"
"You're not helping your case—"
"—Jack made me hold his backpack. How was I supposed to know he was smuggling thirteen cans of Easy Cheese in it?"
Elsa arched an eyebrow at her sister, curiosity making her fingertips tingle, but decided she was better off not knowing any more details about the ordeal. She shook her head. "Honestly, Anna, what are you thinking?"
Anna shrugged nonchalantly. "I'm just having a little bit of fun. Isn't high school supposed to be about trying new things and making memories?"
Elsa laughed with contempt. "Oh, I'm sure you'll make delightful memories once you're expelled."
"Jack hasn't been expelled yet—"
"Jack Frost is not a reference in acceptable behavior," Elsa stated reprimanding. Her blue eyes were hard on the younger girl's. "And you should know better than to follow in his footsteps."
"So what? I should follow in your footsteps instead?" It was Anna's turn to scorn. Anna heaved, color rising to her cheeks. "You're so locked up in your perfect little world that you forgot what having a life really means, and God forbid I ever become like you."
Elsa's lips moved but no words came out. Her mouth felt suddenly too dry. "You think I want you to be like me?" Her voice remained calm but held a hoarse undertone to it—an unnerving sound somewhere between vulnerable and enraged.
Anna threw her arms in the air, and her eyes burned Elsa's with accusation. She laughed, but there was no humor in her laugh. "Don't you? You're deadset on what you believe is the right answer, and you can't accept anyone taking a path that is not yours."
Elsa was silent as Anna's words sank in. Her ears started to ring with her blood boiling. She took a deep breath and let it out through her nose. She did it once more for good measure. Calmly, she said, "If you tell me that in a few years, you are gonna be truly satisfied with the choices you're making now, then be my guest: I will personally congratulate you then." Elsa scoffed, shaking her head. "Get over yourself, Anna."
Anna's eyes narrowed, and she bit the inside of her mouth. Her tongue clicked. "Message received loud and clear." She looked away and brushed her hair with her fingers. "I gotta go, I'm gonna be late for rehearsal."
Elsa didn't look at the other girl. Instead, her eyes focused on a spot in the wall behind Anna. Her hands clenched into fists. "Right."
Anna's arm brushed against Elsa's as she passed. She had barely taken three steps when she stopped in her tracks. With her back turned to her sister, Anna started, "You know what, Elsa? Let's make one thing clear: You don't get to control who I see, or what I do. Like you said, it's my choice, and it's my damn life. You choose how you live your life, and I will do the same with mine."
Elsa had to gulp down the lump in her throat before she could speak. "Whatever suits you, Anna."
"See you around."
A million words flooded Elsa's mind, making her head spin. She pressed her eyes shut as she listened to Anna's steps growing distant. Her chest ached. She couldn't find her voice, and even if she had anything else to say, her sister didn't stay to hear it.