Author's Note: Augh, the guilt. It buuurns. Ok, so I have half a chapter so far. I kinda wrote myself into a small writer's block, but I know how to continue forward now, I just have to figure out who I want to focus on next as I was going to pause where I was at and skip to someone else, like Mother Nature or Pitch and The Guardians. But then I felt bad for the sort of cliffhanger and thought I should just continue on with Lillian and the kids, but then I wouldn't have time for Mother Nature's investigation, so.. Bah! SO. I decided to just post what I have and I will figure out where to go from there and THEN I will post a Jamie's story chapter and THEN HP chapter, and THEN another Child of Spring and it will go from there.
So this is Chapter 52 and 1/2 and the next chapter can be 52 and 1/2 Part 2 and that will be the end of that. Then there will only be full chapters! Or at least longer ones!
Now for reviews!
CrossoverJunkie guessed that the mysterious letter writer was Katherine and that Father Time was actually Ombric. I'm sorry to say that while Katherine would be an awesome choice, I had already had my mind made up as to who the impulsive letter writer would be. So.. hope you aren't too disappointed there!
SimpleWriter44 told me to keep up the good work, so thank you. :)
Roofscat, I'm glad that you like it even if I do tend to do little Interludes with random things.
Brenne, I'm curious too. Well, I DO have some idea.. Although now I'm wondering if I should draw things out to make it more miserable for poor Jack. What if Gethen actually got Jack to bend to his will?! Oh man, I can just imagine this horrific Winter spreading all over the world and everything in super chaos with Gethen in the middle of it all, and then.. EPIC. BATTLE. With poor Jack being a pawn and unable to help out much. Oh my gosh a showdown in a ginormous blizzard. I think I might have to do that.
The things my mind comes up with in review responses. Anyway, future plotting aside, let's get on with the half a chapter!
Chapter Fifty-Two and 1/2: Pen Pal
Jamie and his friends hadn't gone very far when they heard a sound that sounded somewhat magical, followed by a shriek and a loud thud.
They all stopped and looked at one another, puzzled, before they turned back and took off running. They stopped by Jack's lake, only to see Lillian sprawled out on the ground.
"Ugh, I hate portals," she groaned as she sat up. She brightened however, when she saw Jamie and his friends.
"Hey!" she greeted them cheerfully as she bounced up to her feet. "Have you seen Jack?"
Jamie looked surprised at that.
"Uh.. we were gonna ask you that. We found this cooler by his lake and it has.." Jamie hesitated as he thought of what to call them.
"Fairies!" Pippa interjected.
"Winter fairies, I guess." Jamie said. "They're all white and blue and can make snowflakes."
Lillian brightened at that.
"Those must be the Winter Sprites Jack was going to get from Jasper's!" she said.
"Jasper?" Jamie asked, confused.
"The Spirit of Fall," Lillian clarified.
"There's a fall spirit?" Jamie asked.
Lillian gave him her patented 'duh' look.
"There's a spring and winter spirit, so of course there's a summer and fall spirit too. But what happened to Jack? He wouldn't just leave his Winter Sprites behind."
"Uh, guys?" Pippa interrupted. "Winter fairies melting in the cooler?"
"Oh! Right!" Jamie exclaimed, looking embarrassed. "I was going to put them in my freezer. Come on!"
He hurried off with the cooler, and the other kids and Lillian decided to follow him. Lillian had a snow globe to return, but she knew that if she used it to head back to the Pole, Pitch would put her on lockdown and she'd never get a chance to sneak back out and look for Jack.
Soon they arrived back at Jamie's, and Jamie let them all into his house through the back door. His mom was busy doing whatever, but Jamie had a key to the house to let himself back in.
He knew she wouldn't mind that his friends had stopped by, as long as they didn't make a mess. He stopped by the kitchen to deposit the Winter Sprites' cooler in the freezer, and then they trooped off to the living room to check out the news and see if there were any strange phenomenon going on. Jamie insisted that if Jack could, he'd freeze something again to give them a sign of his whereabouts.
Lillian was a little doubtful, since it had taken both of their combined efforts to pull that off, and she knew it took Jack a lot of energy and time to do so, but she decided to humor the kids anyway.
After channel surfing a bit and finding nothing, Jamie looked a little deflated.
"How are we going to find Jack?" he said sadly.
Lillian frowned as she thought.
"Don't you have a computer thinger that gets news too? You could always look on there," she said to Jamie.
Jamie brightened at that.
"Yeah, I could look online!"
So with that in mind, he and his friends plus Lillian all trooped upstairs. As they were going upstairs, Lillian could have sworn she heard what sounded like footsteps, followed by a strange noise that sounded.. well.. magical, but when they made it upstairs to Jamie's room, they hadn't seen anything and the kids didn't mention hearing anything, so Lillian mentally shrugged and figured she had been hearing things.
With that in mind, Lillian decided to look around for Jamie's book that he was always reading, but paused when she saw a white envelope on Jamie's desk.
"Hey, what's that?" she asked as she went over by it.
She looked at the envelope, but all it said on the front was 'Jamie Bennett' in a very familiar, neat handwriting. She froze as she saw it and stared it.
It.. couldn't be.
It was impossible.
Jamie was busy listening to the startup of his rather slow dial-up connection and didn't hear Lillian's question.
He sighed as he waited and waited for all the noise to stop and the voice to declare: "Welcome! You've got mail!"
Honestly, just because AOL spammed everyone with those discs, did not mean that they had to sign up for it. He tapped his fingers impatiently while he waited, and he hoped he'd be able to talk his mom into getting better internet soon.
"Jamie?" Lillian asked as she picked up the envelope, still staring at the incredibly familiar writing.
"Just a minute," Jamie said dismissively as it finally looked like AOL was finished connecting.
Lillian frowned at that and resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at him. She looked back down at the envelope and feeling defiant, ripped it open and pulled out the letter inside.
As she began to read it, her mouth dropped open in surprise.
It read:
Dear Jamie (and the kids if you're there),
DO NOT LET THE GUARDIANS, PITCH OR JACK FROST SEE THIS.
That said, I have something important to tell you. I'm not entirely sure what's going on at the moment, as my recollection of the timing of events is a little hazy. I think you might meet someone called Gethen soon.
Let me tell you, he is bad news.
Let the Lightning Lass know she should be careful in how she deals out her thunderbolt of justice in dealing with him. If she doesn't heed my warning, then Jamie, I'm sorry to say you'll have your biggest adventure yet.
Just make sure that you don't tell the Guardians, Pitch or Jack Frost about it. Because if they do find out, it will be a MESS.
Like this could destroy the fabric of time mess. (Thankfully we averted that!)
If you wind up on this adventure, you'll most likely be on your own. Make sure you take your jacket with you, since it will be cold. Do NOT take anything technological with you, like a cell phone.
Remember to aim for the year 1968, on Easter Sunday. You should wind up near Jack's lake. You'll want to be just outside the forest. DO NOT LET GETHEN SEE YOU. IF THINGS GO WRONG, DON'T PANIC.
You'll know this adventure is beginning when you get Ms. Parker as your English teacher. I know this doesn't make a lot of sense right now, but it will in time.
I hope you heed my warnings and advice.
Sincerely,
A Friend
P.S. Don't worry, Jack will be alright.
P.P.S. Pitch is going to freak out about Jack and Lillian, so if you don't see them for awhile, don't worry.
Lillian blinked as she read the name, Ms. Parker.
That name sparked a memory and she paused, then stared at the letter.
Parker was her last name.
Could Ms. Parker be a long-lost relative? Did she have any family left?
She wondered suddenly if this Ms. Parker wrote the letter. That would explain the handwriting, since she knew that some relatives had similar handwriting.
Her heart beating fast, she wondered how the letter writer knew about Pitch.. and the Guardians, as well as the Burgess kids.
And who was this Gethen?!
Lillian reread the letter, pausing at the part about the Lightning Lass. Jack was the only one who knew about their special superhero nicknames. She had never even told Pitch about that. She doubt he even remembered that he had once made them those costumes all those years ago.
Lillian bit her lip.
This was too weird.
"..Jamie.." Lillian said, her voice uncertain. "Um.. I think you need to see this."
At Lillian's tone, Jamie finally looked up from his frustrating weather search. The problem with looking up unusual weather, was that there was unusual weather everywhere right now. People were even saying that the world was ending. Not good.
"What?" he said as he looked over at Lillian, who he noticed was looking worried and pale.
Wordlessly, Lillian walked over to him and the other kids and held out the strange letter.
The kids all crowded around Jamie and read over his shoulder. When he and the kids finished reading it, they all looked at each other and then over at Lillian.
"What does this mean?" Jamie asked.
"..I.. I don't know," Lillian said, looking troubled. "But.. the thing is.."
"Yeah?" Jamie prodded her.
Lillian took a deep breath.
"The thing is.." she continued. "That's my handwriting. And I didn't write that letter."
Author's Note: Ok, so.. I dunno if any of you guys remember the horrible dial-up of forever ago, but in the late 90's my family got our first computer and it had AOL. I remember very vividly that my mom would zoom the mouse around the screen while waiting for that magically annoying dial-up sound to finish and for the screen to finally load. And since I had to suffer through it, I felt like Jamie should too. We had a moment when we were on cable internet and then had to go BACK to dial-up, so I figured Jamie's mom got some spammy AOL disc in the mail and decided to try it (not understanding the horrors of dial-up internet) and to Jamie's HORROR he suddenly had dial-up.
I also wasn't sure if anyone picked up on the super huge hint in the last Interlude about any last names, and since Lillian would notice that right away, I stuck that in there.
Also, if you were confused on what I'm going to be working on next, I will be doing Chapter 52 and 1/2 Part 2 next for sure and then continuing on with the other fics.
If you guys have any ideas about anything, especially if you have any input on what you would like to see next, please let me know! And I'm sorry the chapter was so short.
