Jack POV
I can't believe the nerve of that girl! All I wanted to do was talk!
My signature smirk was nowhere to be found as I frantically paced back and forth through North's workshop, trying desperately to maintain some form of control while I waited for him to appear.
I would usually indulge in creating a winter wonderland, but a certain human girl seemed to like my taste in staffs far too much. I mean really, I finally get a new believer, a teenage believer for crying out loud, and what does she do? She steals the one thing that makes me, well.. me!
I remember how I used to imagine the day I got a teenage believer soon after Jamie and his friends started believing in me. I thought "Well hey, if these kids can believe in me, maybe some older kids might one day?" It was a stretch, but the idea was enticing. Not to mention having a teenage believer would definitely add some points to the whole "newly initiated guardian" thing.
I remember leaning on my favorite branch smirking to myself when I tried to imagine Bunny's face when he realized that I would be the first guardian to have a teenaged believer. In his state of shock I would end up explaining how some things were just meant to be and how not everyone could not be as attractive, smart and funny as me. All the while Bunny would probably be sobbing at my feet. Yup, that's definitely how the situation would have turned out.. okay maybe not, but overall I'm not satisfied with the results of my little ex-fantasy. If fantasies mean you lose your staff, then fantasies need to give it back.
As I continued to pace, every step just added to my growing sense of dread as I tried to make sense of when the Guardian of Fun began to be considered some kind of dangerous figure. I mean, I might as well have considered myself one the way that girl was screaming bloody murder. Or I could always be..
I quickly looked at my reflection in the nearest window. Nope! Still attractive!
In the background the yetis eyed me, shuffling about and grumbling to each other in their strange language before turning away and snickering. Prying myself away from my reflection, I turned to look at them while raising a frustrated eyebrow. I'm sure happy someone or something thinks that this is funny!
In the midst of my misery, a lone elf made to scurry past me, cheekily carrying a plate of cookies. I would usually freeze the little thing to gain some momentary amusement, but wait, for that I would need a staff, which of course I happened to be lacking!
Before I was about to settle on just kicking over the elf, North burst through the doors, entering the room I was currently in.
"Jack! Vhat is vrong? Yetis told me that you vere here!" North bellowed.
"See for yourself" I blatantly stated before raising my hands to demonstrate what was missing.
"Vere is your staff Jack?"
In the background I heard a yeti groan as it handed a couple coins to another bystander.
I sighed looking at my bare, pale feet. So much for those guardian points.
"Well I met this girl today.."
This statement was met with another round of rustling as two yetis exchanged money.
"Would you quit it!" I yelled at the yetis in the background. One yeti, who had brought out an entire pouch of money, stopped mid-action as I turned my icy gaze to him. He in turn quickly put the pouch behind his back before whistling like nothing was going on. Turning back to face North, I returned to the matter at hand.
"Anyway, I met this girl today, but she wasn't just some kid, she seemed to be about my age, well my biological age that is." I looked to North who just stared intently at me with one hand holding his chin, before motioning for me to continue.
"Well soon I realized that she could see me! Can you imagine? Not only did I gain a new believer, but she's a teenager. I mean the chances of that are rare, right?"
"Yes, that is very incredible, and extremely rare, but how did you manage to lose staff in all this?" North replied.
"Right, so when she realizes that she can see me, she really freaks out and tries to run away (I'm not sure what a black hole is, so I'll just leave that part out). So I decided to follow her and.."
"Vait, so you chased her?" North stated raising his bushy eyebrows. At that moment I heard a few repressed "Booyas!" from the yeti audience, which had seemingly grown in number.
"Well more like followed, but ya.."
North took a moment to sigh deeply at this before motioning for me to continue.
"So just when I think I have her cornered, she tells me to put down my stic.. staff! I do this, but then she makes a grab for it and runs away, disappearing for good." I finished, swiping my hand through my white hair, trying to calm myself down.
North narrowed his eyes at me while stroking his beard, deep in thought.
"Vell then, you must return to Burgess and find this girl! If you do not retrieve staff soon, all the snow vill begin to melt!"
Wait, did North just say what I thought he just said? My snow will melt!? This is turning out to be far worse that what I had expected! I can't be Jack Frost if I don't make it snow, and if I don't make it snow..
"You mean my already few believers may stop believing?"
"Vell it is possible.." North began to explain while his usual wonder filled eyes were only occupied with pity.
"It's just that, I don't know where to start looking" I explained, desperation lacing every word.
"Vhat is her name?" North prodded.
At this statement I was rendered speechless, a rare feat for Jack Frost. A name? All I can remember is the girl screaming her lungs out the whole time. As my face contorted in concentration trying to remember something I missed, North took note of this.
"Jack, you did get her name vight?" North questioned.
"Well.." I muttered twisting my thumbs.
Other than recently facing Pitch and becoming a guardian, I had never experienced so much in all my 300 years. First I become a guardian and have to save the world from nightmares, now I have to find some strange teen that took away my means of creating snow. Couldn't the staff-stealing incident have occurred in another hundred years when I was bored?
North took a long moment to sigh before returning a determined gaze to me. Despite his disapproval of my constant trouble making, I knew that he wouldn't abandon me on this one.
"Do not vorry Jack, ve shall keep zee children believing. Therefore you must return to Burgess, perhaps Jamie may know her."
Oh that's right, I totally forgot about Jamie!
Realizing this discovery, I quickly turned and made to fly out of the nearest open window. However, North stopped me with his thickly accented voice.
"Just remember that vhen you see girl again, handle this more.. delicately."
"Please North, I can be delicate." And with that, I jumped out of the window and proceeded to fly to Burgess. Delicate? I could be as delicate as a snowflake if I wanted to!
Selena POV
It was early Saturday morning when I was awoken by a small ray of light that made its way through an opening in my curtains. The fact that the light even touched the interior of my room was highly surprisingly considering I securely closed every opening to the outside world yesterday (To keep out certain white haired anomalies). Remembering this I sighed, burying my face in my pillow. For a moment I wondered whether everything that happened was a dream or not, then again, maybe I was just going crazy.
Feeling the uncomfortable light coating my face, I flipped over onto my other side hoping to catch another couple hours of sleep. Unfortunately things were just not working out for me.
"Ouch!" I yelped. I instantly regretted this decision when something hard poked right into my ribs. Yup, definitely not a dream.
Clutching my side, I quickly sat up, groggily looking for the source of my current discomfort. I found the oversized candy cane laying in all its glory upon my bed, tucked in like a child would tuck in their teddy bear. "..the hell" I muttered before quickly grabbing it and chucking it across the room, hearing a satisfying bang when it hit the wall and fell to the floor.
How did it get in here again? Oh right.
(flashback)
"Why was science failing me now?" dominated my thoughts as I fingered the strange weapon.
Okay, just think Selena! I just have to figure this out like I would anything else, right? Okay… I just have to do go into that thing like Benedict Cumberbatch does in Sherlock, what did he call it again.. oh right! My mind palace. I guess I'll just give this mind palace thing a shot...
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, mentally preparing myself. With my slow exhale my gray eyes fluttered open as I commenced my internal dialogue.
"So a strange boy with white hair meets me on a sidewalk. I would estimate his age to be anywhere from sixteen to eighteen and the white hair could be attributed to albinism, or personal expression."
Okay this is good, I just need keep listing the observations.
"So he wears a blue hoodie, brown pants, and happens to be able to fly… " At that moment I blanked out and stopped my mental reasoning.
Do you ever just stare into space when you don't want to think about something anymore? It's like suddenly you prefer to just let your mind fall into a big fat blank. Well that's what I did for a solid ten minutes, just looking at the coffee table in front of me. Some mind palace this was turning out to be.
I knew I was supposed to be thinking (it's what I'm good at) but I would later realize that anomalies were something very dangerous to my mental state, especially when it stopped working altogether. It seemed easy to just not think about anything at that moment, in a sense not thinking was my only salvation from my current dilemma, like when the starving do not hunger in their sleep. However, pretty soon everyone has to wake up.
Lucky for me, my wakeup call was in the form of an insistent buzzing noise. Sure enough, the owner of it decided to park right on my nose. "That's it!" I yelled as I slapped myself across the face. I still can't remember whether this course of action was solely for the purpose of killing the bug, but it sure as hell got my mind working again.
It hit me at that moment. There was something very wrong with me, and that something meant I had schizophrenia! Oh to think after all these years of PCES my mind would ultimately take a turn for the worse! Oh the horror!
My mind continued to scream bloody murder for another minute or so before I suddenly stopped, taking a deep breath.
What's wrong with me? Well nothings for sure, right? I know! I'll just do some research! No theory can be proven without first instigating a great deal of research.
Propelling myself from the couch, I sprinted up to my room dragging that goddamn stick behind me. When I opened the door I threw it onto my mess of bed sheets before quickly plucking a couple books off my bookshelf. Plopping back down on my bed, I crossed my legs and crouched over my book. As I began to read I scanned the pages like my life depended on it (which of course it did). This was going to be a long night.
(end of flashback)
"But not a long of enough rest" I quietly muttered before stifling an insistent yawn. Mid-yawn I looked around my room suddenly noticing the books scattered all over my floor. Great, not only is my mind conjuring things that aren't really there, but I'm losing my sense of order. I really am becoming a wreck.
After indulging in one final stretch, I got off my bed, careful not to step on anything. Going to my bathroom I turned on the sink letting the cool water leak through my fingers before hastily drenching my face and slapping it a couple times for good measure. Next I brushed my teeth and strawberry-blonde locks before proceeding to my closet to find something to wear. After about five minutes I was dressed as I made my way down the stairs in search of sustenance.
As my feet proceeded along the cold tiles of my kitchen, I noticed a sticky note on the fridge.
Dear Selena,
Sorry I had to run to work early this morning and didn't get a chance to say goodbye. I did make you some breakfast though! Just make sure to check the fridge and heat it up. Enjoy your day and I'll see you later tonight.
-Dad
I sighed. There goes my chance to quickly deal with this situation and talk to him about seeking some professional help.
Dad began picking up more hours after my mom died and just never seemed to be around much anymore. Having time alone was nice, but sometimes I wished I didn't lose both my parents when my mom passed.
Swallowing down a pang of sadness, I walked to the fridge in search of breakfast. When I opened the door, I was greeted with a lone poptart on a plate.
He does know that poptarts are already cooked right? All you have to do is heat it up..
Just as I was about to close the fridge door and settle on making some toast, I heard an urgent rapping at the door. Ugh, now what?
"Selena! Are you in there? Get the door, it's Jamie!"
Jamie? What could that kid want this early?
Heading over to the door I wrapped my hand around the doorknob but immediately stopped. What if the strange boy is hiding in the bushes, waiting for his chance to attack me? Stop it Selena, that's your mentally ill brain telling you that. I made him up, so he won't be there, he can't be there.
With a renewed sense of confidence I opened the door.
That sure was a mistake.
"Hey Ja- AHH!" I yelled as I ended flying backward when a strong gust of cold wind knocked me over.
"Where is it!"
Ugh my own mind made me launch myself backwards and onto the floor.
"You know for a figment of my imagination, I am highly surprised it turned out to be some weird boy. I mean why couldn't it be a unicorn that poops rainbows." I muttered while lying uncomfortably on the floor.
"Everyone knows that unicorns are fake! Now where is my staff?" The boy demanded.
Jamie, who had been standing outside, walked in and kneeled beside me.
"Please Selena! Jack needs his staff or he can't make snow. Look!" Jamie yelled.
Jamie grabbed my arm and pulled me up so I could look outside through the open doorway. Expecting to see the earth covered in a blanket of white I was instead greeted with nothing more than a snow lacking lawn. Huh that's weird.
"See! You have to tell us where you put Jack's staff or he can't make it snow anymore!"
"Jamie stop that!" I responded.
"Stop what?"
"Stop playing with my head by talking about figments of my imagination."
"Hey I'm real I'll have you know!" the white haired boy interjected who was seemingly forgotten. "And I'm not just a figment of your imagination, I'm Jack Frost."
"Jack Frost? The person that nips people's noises? Wow, who knew my mind would like to conjure folklore" I explained to the anomaly, or more likely myself.
"If I'm fake, then where did you get the staff?"
Well I got it from the boy, who isn't real, so I must have just picked it up.
"I found it" I stated confidently.
"No you took it, so just give it back" the boy exclaimed becoming increasingly impatient.
"Come on Jack! I bet it's in her room." Jamie stated before making his way to the stairwell. Noticing this I quickly got up and went to follow the boy and fake existence.
"Hey! You can't just go in my room. I've got.. uranium in there!"
The taller boy suddenly froze and paused in his ascent up the stairs.
"Jamie, what's uranium?"
Jamie turned towards the anomaly with a disturbed look in his brown eyes.
"It means that she urinated all over the place!" Jamie cried while the older boy turned to me with a horror stricken gaze.
"What! No I.." Wait Selena, this just might work "Yes I peed all over the place knowing that you would find me!"
Jamie turned to the white haired boy. "What do you say Jack? Do we turn back? Selena sure is a crafty one."
"For the sake of the world, and the snow that must fill it, I'm going in." he responded.
Are you kidding me!? My imagination is taking on theatrical characteristics!
Jamie didn't utter a word as he saluted before pulling his shirt over his nose and following the taller figure up the final few steps and into my room.
By the time I entered, the two boys were already turning it upside down looking for the damned stick.
"You know Jack, female urine doesn't smell so bad, it kinda smells like flowers." Jamie announced while digging through one of my drawers, failing to notice the air freshener plugged into the wall right next to him.
"You know what, you're right Jamie!" the strange conjuring of my mind replied before emptying my pencil case's contents onto the floor and looking inside of it.
Oh come on, like I would really hide the stick in there. Where is that stick anyway? Daring not to move due to the increased debris on my floor, I just stood with my arms crossed glancing around.
Just as I was about to turn around and leave the room wondering if there was any stick to begin with I noticed something out of the corning of my eye. Bingo.
Oh they were going to just love this.