It wasn't in Astrid's nature to be whiny. Grumpy? Maybe. Easily irritable? Definitely. Judgemental? She'd argue that it was with reason, but yeah, sure. Whiny? She'd rather cut off her punching arm. Instead of complaining without ever taking action, Astrid was the kind of person who fought (sometimes literally) for what she wanted. She got things done. But after the week she'd just had, all she wanted was to curl up in bed and let somebody else take care of the clean-up. The day had barely started, and she already couldn't wait for it to be over.

One more day, she reminded herself for the umpteenth time. One more day and she wouldn't have to babysit that jackass anymore. All she had to do was endure it just for one more day… and then it'd be back to normal. Normal. Yay.

Being on the Student Council for two years was a living hell—all the paperwork, the patrols, the dealing with other people's problems like she gave a damn about them… but at least it kept her occupied. Not being a member of the Student Council anymore was boring. And when that stupid bet came along, at least, it gave her stuff to do. Still, that didn't mean she liked the idea of her friends switching places for an entire week. Had she known the amount of pain it would bring her, Astrid would've worked harder on convincing Elsa not to go along with that twisted excuse for foreplay.

But no. The mistake was made, and so she found herself in the middle of a war zone, minutes before the next bell, trying to make her way to her locker but having her plans sabotaged by a scrawny kid that had attached himself to her leg like an oversized keychain.

"For the last time, Gustav! LET GO OF ME!" Astrid shook her leg, but the boy would not release her ankle.

"You can't fool me, Astrid!" He tightened his grip on her. "I know you have it!"

She could imagine people like Elsa or Andy patiently trying to get to the bottom of whatever the hell was confusing the little brat, but that was Astrid, and Astrid had her own ways of doing things. "I have no idea what you're talking about," she said, "and if you don't let go of me right now, I will use your head for soccer practice."

"HOFFERSON! HEY!" she heard the shout, and then a hand was gripping her shoulder as if to stop her from taking any drastic actions. "What's up, beautiful?"

Seething, Astrid spun her head so she could glower at the silverhead. His eyes told her to chill, which only made her want to punch his dumb face instead. Her fists clenched, though she did not move, and through gritted teeth, she mumbled, "Get. This. Off. Me."

Switching into his practiced nonchalant expression, Jack looked down at the boy still grasping onto the blonde's body for dear life. "Gustav, buddy," he started amiably. "Would you be so kind as to let go of Astrid's leg?"

"Nuh-uh! Not happening—"

"Just get up from the dirty floor, will ya? I promise we'll listen to whatever you have to say."

Grudgingly, Gustav slowly rose to his feet and dusted off his trousers with both hands.

"Now how about a civilized conversation? Sounds good?" Jack's tone was reprimanding and gave neither of the other two room to protest. "Gustav, you first. Why were you licking Astrid's shoe like that?"

The boy checked over his shoulder warily then leaned forward to whisper, "Because of it."

"It?" Jack repeated, confused.

"Good luck making sense of that. Kid's been saying the same thing since he ambushed me outside Fredricksen's classroom," Astrid grumbled, crossing her arms. She saw a trio whispering and nudging one another and when one of them pointed at her, she narrowed her eyes. The ire she emanated was enough to keep them away.

"Please," Gustav snorted, "I know you're supposed to pretend you don't have it, but you're not even good at it! I got you figured out in like ten seconds!" He stretched out a hand and looked from one teen to the other. "Just give me the thing and we can all go on with our lives."

Jack laughed and scowled at the same time. "Buddy, you're not making any sense. And neither I nor Hofferson here are acting when we say we don't know what you're talking about." Lowering his voice, he added, "See, she's not that great of an actress."

A confused frown slowly took shape on the boy's face. "... You mean you don't have it?"

"I don't even know what that is."

"Man, I was so sure," Gustav mumbled as he ran a hand through his hair. "Wait a second… I see what you're doing!"

Astrid and Jack exchanged glances in a moment of mutual confusion.

"What are we doing again?" the silverhead asked.

"You two are trying to throw me off," Gustav shouted, pointing at them accusingly. "Well, you cannot deceive one Gustav Larson! I can see right through you!"

"Okay, I was kinda rolling with it until now, but this whole shtick is starting to get on my nerves."

Astrid scoffed, "Now you know how I feel about you."

"Can you not—"

"Astrid! Jack!" A rather flushed Anna interrupted their conversation. She stopped when she reached the trio, putting her hands on her knees to catch her breath. "Thank God I found you! There's something I need to show you—"

"Back off, sister!" Gustav jumped between Anna and the seniors and stretched his arms to create a barrier between them. "I was here first!"

Anna stared up and down at the boy with a raised eyebrow. "I'm sorry, but who are you again?"

"I'm Gustav," the boy replied, puffing out his chest. "And you are?"

"I'm Anna," the girl replied, deadpan. Surreptitiously, she glanced at Astrid and Jack for clarification, but the pair merely shrugged, which probably didn't help reassure the girl in the slightest. "I'm also the Student Council's new president, so if you don't wanna get in trouble, you're gonna let me have a little talk with these two alone."

"You can't force me," Gustav countered hastily.

"You're right. I can't." Anna sighed dramatically. "And if you're that eager to win yourself a VIP detention pass, there's nothing I can do to stop you, really."

Astrid smirked. At first, Anna looked like a ditz who did not have what it took to fill the Student Council shoes, but with time, the girl was proving to be a lot tougher than expected. And Astrid had to admit: the girl had style.

"Y-you—just to be clear, this is not over!" he shouted before turning on his heels dramatically. The boy stomped down the corridor, continuously throwing daggers at Anna until he was out of sight.

"Anna, you're a real angel," Jack said, ruffling the girl's hair affectionately.

"Yeah, as charming as you think you are, now's not the time for that," Anna grumbled as she pushed his hand away from her.

Astrid let out a snort. "Oof. That hurt."

Unfazed by the younger girl's turn down, the silverhead winked. "See? I knew you cared."

"You're delusional."

"Not to worry, Hofferson. My charm is as effective as ever. Just ask that beautiful friend of yours and she can tell you all about it—"

"GUYS WE DON'T HAVE TIME TO TALK ABOUT JACK STEALING MY SISTER'S VIRTUE!"

Anna's screech brought both the seniors to a halt. In fact, it had not only successfully caught their undivided attention but of those unaware passersby as well. A pin could be heard being dropped in that hallway and all eyes were on the strawberry blonde girl. One could only imagine the gossip avalanche that would come out of that single moment.

Exhaling through his gritted teeth, Jack tugged on Anna's arm and guided them to a side corridor away from prying eyes. "Alright, princess. Let's tone down, okay?"

"Sorry," Anna grumbled, shifting embarrassed. "But you guys need to see this—"

Anna was in the process of pulling something out of her pocket when a flurry of red tackled her.

"There you are!" A girl unceremoniously pushed Anna away from the seniors, her wild red locks bobbing furiously up and down. "Been looking all over for you!"

Anna glowered at her. "Merida! What the hell?"

"It's bad, lass," Merida said, placing both hands on Anna's shoulders and giving the latter a forlorn look. "It's… Rapunzel. She—she fell."

"What?" Anna gasped, expression contorting to convey utter panic.

"Sunflower girl tripped on her hair," Merida added with a shrug. "I told her to get a damn hairclip, but does anyone listen to ol' Merida around here? 'Course not!"

"Merida." Anna let a controlled breath in and out once. "Focus."

Merida clicked her tongue. "Right. So she may have twisted her ankle. And she could use some emotional support—"

"Yeah, 'cause that's gonna fix her ankle alright," Anna snapped.

"Just come with me, will ya?"

The redhead pulled Anna by the arm, not giving the girl any chance to do otherwise, leaving the pair of seniors with no other choice but to watch the two girls' disappearing form.

"Now that was weird."

"You think, Captain Obvious?" Astrid snarled.

"Yes. I do, Astrid." Jack rolled his eyes. "You just love giving me hell, don't you?"

"Not everything is about you, jerkface."

"Then what is it about? You've been giving me shit all week and I don't even know why." He threw his arms up, indignant. "Elsa and I switched places so we could see what it was like to be in each other's shoes."

"How noble—"

"And it's hard to believe that this is how you treat your best friend," Jack hissed, gesturing between the blonde and himself.

"Yeah, well, that's just it: You're not Elsa."

Jack chuckled, shaking his head with contempt. "Really? What gave it away? My missing long flowy hair? My lack of poise and sophistication? Sorry for being a mere commoner, beautiful."

"You know what you're missing, jackass? Any positive trait that could make you a bearable human."

Jack's jaw clenched. His eyes narrowed. His voice lowered to a threatening growl. "What the hell did I do to you?"

"What didn't you do? You've been nothing but trouble since day one!" Astrid shouted, shoving his shoulder for emphasis.

"Yeah, but that's old news." He crossed his arms standing his ground. "What did I do now?"

"Let's see… You come up with a stupid bet that turns the whole school upside down, and you expect the rest of us to simply adapt to that. You, despite your greatest efforts, are an incompetent waste of natural resources who obviously can't handle the responsibility you were given." Astrid laughed, but the noise that came out of her throat was sour and did not carry a single drop of humor in it. "Now I'm stuck babysitting this fucked up wreck with a snowglobe for a brain because screwing up everybody else's lives is your brand of fun. And I'm supposed to be the one cleaning up after your sorry ass because I promised Elsa I'd keep you in line. So even a moron like you can see how that whole enchilada can be affecting my mood, can't you?"

Astrid was prepared for the insults he'd throw back at her, but they never came. Instead, she found him studying her intently, as if he could read something on her face that not even Astrid was aware of.

"You miss her," he said simply.

She scowled. "What?"

"You miss Elsa."

"We share a room, idiot. How could I miss someone I see every day?"

"Yeah, but… you can count on her. She understands you and you have each other's backs. That's how you survived the Student Council. You, Elsa and Andy. You guys are a unit, and I took it away from you."

Astrid's expression froze in utter bafflement, her brain having a hard time processing his words. Leave it to Jack Frost to come up with such a sappy response to her indignant tirade…

"I'm right, aren't I?" he continued. "That's why you're so mad. Because I took your best friend from you—"

"You need to stop talking."

"—I mean, I get you. All this new power is fun and all, but I miss those stupid goons too—"

"Your brain is a sad little place, Frost."

"—It's my fault. I should've thought about how this bet would affect the rest of you—"

"I'm gonna punch you if you don't stop talking right now, asshole."

"…I'm really sorry."

Astrid couldn't breathe. She was having a hard time letting air into her lungs. Her ears were ringing, and she felt like she could throw up any second.

"But, hey, we're almost done. One more day and it's back to your scheduled program." Jack gave her a sheepish smile. "What do you say we have a little truce so we can take care of whatever the fuck is going on now?"

Jack held out his right hand expectantly, but she swatted it away without a moment of hesitation.

"Don't get on my way or I'll run over you," she said.

"I'll watch my steps," he sighed and turned around to address the cacophony of antsy students they had managed to ignore whilst they talked. Hands on hips, he asked, "Now, what do you think of this whole situation?"

Astrid stared at him with crossed arms. "You tell me, you're the spokesperson for most things dumb around here."

Jack hummed, eyes moving from left to right as he assimilated the scene in front of him. "Okay, so from what I can see, it's some kind of treasure hunt, maybe? Like the candy thing they did?" Astrid nodded, so he continued, "Getting kids to run around like disoriented clowns after a pie fight is an easy way to start a mess. Classic move."

"But we don't know what they are looking for," Astrid added, her eyes scanning the hallway for anything suspicious and out of place.

"And for some reason, people thought we had it."

Astrid shivered, reminded of random students accosting her all morning. "But how did they spread the word? The candy flowers were pretty obvious, they were right on sight."

He shrugged. "They did it in a way that we were the only ones left out. I'm thinking maybe a note slipped under the dorm doors? Or massive text messaging? Word of mouth? That's what we'd do usually."

Astrid gasped dramatically. "The magic is revealed."

He laughed. "Yeah, sorry to break the illusion. Had to be done."

"We still don't know what the mysterious prize is. Easy to assume that having kids running after us was part of the plan," Astrid said as another boy attempted to approach them. Her wordless threat successfully made him reconsider and walk away, defeated.

"So in short, we know it's a game, and we know it's supposed to make us run around school like cockroaches high on bug spray." He tapped his chin a couple of times. "I'd say we have a reasonable idea of what's going on."

Astrid narrowed her eyes, taking note of his words inside her head. From what she had seen so far, their plan was working, but if she had a say in it, that would be not for long. By the end of the day, someone would definitely be paying.

"So…" Jack glanced at her, smirk on his lips and a hint of mischief in his eyes. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"We are not bonding, Frost," she said, shaking her head.

"Come on, Astrid," he whined.

She decided it was time to leave him and turned on her heels to start walking. "Stop wasting my time."

"Okay, since you don't wanna play, I'll say what we're both thinking," he said as he jogged after her. "We're gonna hunt down the culprits. And we're gonna give 'em hell."

"Why does it feel like you're enjoying this?"

Jack shrugged, interlacing his fingers on the back of his head. "We can play good cop, bad cop. Which one you wanna be?" He shook his head, laughing to himself. "Of course you're the bad cop, who am I kidding?"

"Jesus, Frost. You're a lost cause," she grumbled.

"Who could've thought that being on this side of the law would be this fun?"

"You know, the amount of people who actually believed in that letter concerns me," Elsa mumbled with her chin resting on her hand as she and Hiccup watched the lower floor from the stairs.

Hiccup hummed as he sat with his feet dangling off the landing and his arms wrapped around the railing. "You did a good job writing it," he reasoned. "Looked very official."

The blonde sighed. "Please. That letter was lousy and if you stop to think about it, very little of it makes sense."

Hiccup leaned back and chuckled as he glanced at her. "See, here's where our reputation comes in handy. People believed in that letter because they know what kind of stupid scheme Jack's able to pull off." Holding up a hand, he started numbering the items, "They've seen Jack giving free hot chocolate after a massive snowball fight; seen him performing a rock concert in front of the entire school; seen him make the fire sprinkles rain soda—"

Elsa abruptly grasped onto his shoulder and stared at him with narrowed eyes. "What sprinkles raining soda?"

"Right. That didn't happen yet, did it?" Hiccup chuckled awkwardly.

"Hiccup…"

"Don't worry, that was just an idea we had one day. We even did the math to figure out how many gallons of Coke we would need, but the plan never went farther than that. Forget I mentioned it."

Elsa was not comforted by his words and continued to glance at him from the corner of her eyes with suspicion.

Hiccup shrugged. "Anyway. The letter. People believed in it because they know Jack has a knack for making the impossible possible. Giving away a few gift cards is child's play, really."

"So you're saying that, without his knowledge, Jack himself is the one allowing our plans to succeed."

"Using his popularity against him," he mused, pensive. "Pretty ingenious, don't you think?"

"More like manipulative."

"Working with the tools you are given. Isn't that a useful skill for those young minds in charge of shaping the future?"

"Are you trying to use my own words against me?" Elsa challenged with an arched eyebrow.

Hiccup chuckled, then as he looked at the bustling and hustling downstairs, he frowned. "Uh-oh…"

"What?"

"Danger at two o'clock," he mumbled, getting up on his feet.

Elsa leaned forward, curious, and it didn't take long for her to identify the blonde threat and the silver-haired oddball marching across the hallway. "How refreshing, those two together."

With a tilt of his head, Hiccup asked, "Jealous?"

"Are you?" she threw back with an arched eyebrow.

Hiccup laughed, shaking his head. He rolled his shoulders back as he watched the other pair approaching in determined strides. "Crap. They're coming this way."

"We knew it'd be only a matter of time," Elsa reasoned.

Spinning around so his back was to the staircase, Hiccup stared at her, dead serious. "Don't look them in the eyes; they'll try to break you."

"Don't I know that?"

"Well, well, well…" An amused Jack strolled toward them with his hands on his hips. "Who do we have here?"

"Hiya, Jack!" Hiccup raised a hand for a hi-five but was left hanging as Jack's eyes slowly traveled from emerald green to sapphire blue. Sinking his shoulders and pouting exaggeratedly, he tried again, "So what's up?"

"You tell me, pretty boy—"

"Out of the way, asshole!" Astrid groaned, storming forth as she pushed the silverhead to the side. "Which one of you wants to start talking?"

"You guys playing nice with each other?" Hiccup asked, beaming innocently.

Jack smirked, shifting his weight from one side to the other. "Let's just pretend for a moment that we're humoring Haddock here, shall we?"

Elsa chuckled, shaking her head. "What can we do for you two?"

"You can start by explaining what the hell you promised them," Astrid snarled, waving to the crazy mob downstairs.

"You mean no one showed you yet?" Elsa asked with furrowed eyebrows. The platinum blonde then glanced at Hiccup, who mirrored her surprise.

"Worked better than expected," the auburn-haired guy said, nodding.

"Showed us what?!"

"Uh…" Hiccup scratched the back of his head, anxiously shifting his gaze from one friend to the other.

When he stopped on Elsa, the girl shrugged, muttering, "Might as well show them."

"You sure? We could probably run for it."

"I'm not doing that," Elsa deadpanned.

"Can either of you spit it out already?" Jack roared, throwing his arms in the air indignantly.

"Alright, alright. Sheesh." Letting his shoulders droop, Hiccup pulled a folded piece of paper out of his pants pocket and held it out for them.

"What's that?" Jack asked, suspicious.

Hiccup smirked. "A love letter from me to you, handsome."

"Aw, Third. You shouldn't have—"

With a groan, Astrid yanked the paper from the boy, nearly tearing it to pieces as she grumpily unfolded it.

"Yeah, yeah, shut the fuck up before I punch both of you…"

To the esteemed Leprechaun Academy's student body,

As most of you may already know, every year, the senior class is expected to work on a year-long charity project, a tradition that the Academy has conceived in its noble quest to shape the young and bright minds that shall change the future. You can see the yearly project as a final test to evaluate, among other skills, our seniors' innovative thinking, empathy, teamwork, and leadership.

Although this year's senior class graduation project's minutiae is still classified, we can gladly inform you that we're proceeding smoothly with our schedule. And to mark a successful milestone achieved, we seniors have decided to share our good fortune with the rest of the student body. As a teaser of sorts for the upcoming bigger events currently in the planning, we have prepared a game for you all.

Five $50 Miss Hattie's Cookies gift cards were donated by one of our patrons, and in consensus, instead of keeping them to ourselves, our class has decided to share them with some lucky students. The game is simple: five seniors are holding one ticket each. Your job is to figure out who they are and to convince them to give it to you. Here's where creativity comes in handy. If you get the ticket, it's yours. Enjoy your prize.

To make the hunt a little more fun though, we have come up with a list of banned words. We have assigned some of us the role of supervisors, seniors who will be walking around campus for the duration of the game paying close attention to the players' actions. The identities of those supervisors also won't be revealed. Using any of the words below, or their variants, shall result in instant elimination:

-Cookie

-Candy

-Dessert

-Prize

-Sweet

-Sugar

-Coupon

-Ticket

-Voucher

-Miss Hattie's

-Chocolate

-Biscuit

-Snack

-Food

-Treat

-Win

-Challenge

-Fame

-Reward

-Treasure

-Goods

-Gift

-Senior

-Graduation

-Project

-Charity

-Donation

-Certificate

(note: supervisors can determine whether any taboo words were used or not at their own discretion.)

All seniors were instructed to pretend the game does not exist. Your goal is to challenge us. Catch us in our own lies, make us break character, convince us that you deserve one of the winning tickets. For each ticket found, a flag will be hoisted in the entrance's flagpole. The game starts today at 7 a.m. and ends at 6 p.m., or as soon as the five tickets are found.

We're looking forward to seeing everyone participate in the game.

Godspeed,

This Year's Seniors Class.

It was kind of tricky reading that tiny handwriting from over Astrid's shoulder, but from what Jack could get, that was a letter from the senior class to the rest of the school. And he was a senior. But he had not heard of no letter. Which weirdly explained enough.

"What… the fuck?"

The paper started crumpling in Astrid's hands so he hurriedly took it from her so he could continue reading what he bet was a very elucidating letter. Did he mention that it was handwritten?

"Huh." Jack carefully folded the paper again and put it in his pocket. "I must say, I'm impressed, Your Majesty."

"Please don't be," Elsa mumbled with a frown.

"Don't you get tired of pulling these stunts?" Astrid roared, crossing her arms and looking way more intimidating than should be possible with that minuscule frame of hers.

"Nope, not really," a grinning Hiccup replied with his hands behind his neck.

"That's my boy," Jack commended, nodding.

"I hope we didn't cause too much trouble," Elsa said, looking directly at the other blonde.

And like magic, just one look was enough to diffuse the raging ire of one Astrid Hofferson. "Nothing we can't handle," the girl said, nonchalant.

"You know, I'm starting to feel really underappreciated here," Jack grumbled, flicking his finger from one girl to the other.

"Whatever do you mean, Frost?"

"Here I am, busting my ass to keep my side of the deal, then two words from Elsa, and we're all gonna ignore the fact that she's the one who's been pulling the strings all along?!"

"Your hard work is appreciated, Jack," Elsa said, patronizingly.

"Doesn't look like it from where I'm standing," he grumbled back. "And you having the time of your life going wild with my crew is just rubbing salt into my already necrosing ghastly injury."

"Gross," Hiccup mumbled under his breath.

Elsa let out a heavy exhale. "Just because that's your definition of fun, doesn't mean everybody else shares the same sentiment, Frost."

"Right." Jack rolled his shoulders back, standing a little taller, and glanced at her with a raised eyebrow. "Look me in the eyes and say you didn't enjoy it even a little bit."

The girl rolled her eyes, but there was no denying the mischievous smirk on the corner of her lips.

"Okay!" Hiccup clapped, putting both hands on Elsa's shoulders and gently pulling her back. "Let's keep you guys apart for one more day, shall we?"

"Hey, hands off my girlfriend—"

"That's not the point right now, asshole," Astrid interrupted the silvehead, throwing a pointed glare at him. She then proceeded to divert her glare toward her boyfriend. "Does your little scavenger hunt even have a real prize?"

Hiccup huffed with exaggerated indignance. "What, you think we'd lie about that?"

"I mean, you had no trouble lying about everything else—"

"Answering your question, Astrid," Elsa chimed in, "yes, the gift cards are real and they have been put under the care of five key figures."

"I'll give either of you five bucks if you figure out whose," Hiccup said with a snort and earned himself three sets of pointed looks with escalating degrees of 'I will kick you on your good leg'. Clearing his throat, he continued, "Anyhoo, the cookies hunt should end on its own. Wilbs and Hiro are in charge of hoisting the flags, and they should all be up and flying by the end of the day."

Spinning Elsa by the shoulders, Hiccup winked at the other two teens.

"Hiccup? What are you—"

Hiccup guided a reluctant Elsa around a corner and from over his shoulders, he said, "North already knows about the gig, so all you gotta do is make sure no one is resorting to violence while the game is going. Toodles!"

"Third! Get back in here!" Jack shouted back but the pair was already gone. He looked back at Astrid and shrugged. "You heard him. No violence."

"I'll show you no violence—"

"I gotta say though, not being able to charge it all on them is kinda pissing me off."

Astrid laughed, jerking her head back. "Welcome to my fucking world, stupid."