(Wow, I'm terrible at this thing. It's been forever and I don't even have an excuse other than my own laziness and slight writer's block. Anywho, here's the fourth chapter finally!)
(Hello, thank you in advanced for reading, and just so I never even get the chance to be sued: Disclaimer! I don't own Frozen or RotG!)
"Anna this is serious." My little sister laughed at my statement, causing me to turn to her. "Anna, I am asking you for help, but if you keep laughing I'll do it on my own." Anna shook her head.
"No you wouldn't, you have no idea what you're doing." She took my arm as we walked into the mall. "This is going to be so much fun!" After a thorough examination of my suitcase and its contents we both saw that nothing I had would be acceptable to wear on a date. We didn't think it would make the best impression if I wore pajamas or a leotard. "Okay, dress or skirt? Oh, or you could do a nice shirt with an adorable blazer and some nice pants. Although I don't know, that seems more of a business-y type of clothing."
She rambled on about colors and styles, and what mood we wanted to set. Was this my date or hers? Wait, this wasn't even a real date! This was forced!
"Anna, stop. Are you forgetting that this isn't real? His coach ordered him to take me out. So, what does it matter what I wear? Or what he's going to wear, or any of that?" I questioned her as we looked through piles of clothing.
Anna just looked at me like I had momentarily gone insane. She shook her head, and then a mischievous smile came to her lips. "It doesn't matter huh?"
"Well, no. That's kind of what I'm saying here if you would listen." That's when she started giggling. "What is so funny, I'm trying to be serious here Anna."
"If it's not a real date then why would he be shopping for nice clothes?" She turned me around and there he was. He was scanning a rack of black pants on the other side of the shop while talking to the Zamboni driver. "We should go over and talk to him!"
I shook my head and looked back at her. "No, Anna, are you crazy? They're obviously busy, besides I have to go try this on." I escaped into the nearest dressing room with whatever piece of fabric was in my hands. That just so happened to be a bright pink dress, ew. I watched Anna through the keyhole.
She walked over to the boys, hands clasped behind her back. "Hey there!" Jack looked shocked.
"Oh, hi Anna, we didn't expect to see you here." Jack spoke quickly, glancing around. "Is your sister here too?"
"Yeah, she's here. She's actually trying on clothes right now. Um, hi, I don't think we've met." She extended her hand to Jack's friend.
"Oh! That's right. Anna, this is Kristoff, Kris, this is Anna. She's Elsa's sister." Jack introduced them as Kristoff shook Anna's hand.
"Hey there, please, just call me Kris. The only ones who call me Kristoff are my family, well, really only my father and grandfather. But that's only because they're kind of hard headed, okay, and now I'm rambling, I'm going to stop talking now, hi how are you?"
Jack laughed. "Sorry, he's not used to actually talking to people. Anyways, I have a question for you. Where should I take Elsa tonight?"
Anna smiled at Kristoff, she thought he was kind of cute. But only kind of. She turned to Jack. "Gee, I'm not real good to that stuff. I don't really know what she likes, ummm, I'm sorry Jack. I honestly have no clue, but I hope it's somewhere fun." Jack sighed.
"That's alright Anna, I'll come up with something, and of course it'll be fun though. I'm going to give her the best night of her life."
"I've got an idea." Kris spoke after a few moments of awkward silence. He murmured something into Jack's ear.
"My God Kristoff! That's brilliant!" Jack seemed to jump with excitement, causing Anna to giggle. "That's perfect, and she'll love it. I mean, who wouldn't?" He used his hands at him exclamations. "I'd tell you Anna, but you might ruin the surprise of it. I'm sorry. Come Kris, we must be off!" He suddenly had a splash of energy as he walked up to the cashier's table with his black pants in hand.
I sighed and waited for them to leave. Once they were gone I met up with Anna. She was laughing. "He's like a little puppy dog!" She grinned. "Alright, now back to your outfit, it has to be awesome!"
We spent the next two hours in the mall, coming out with several shopping bags, filled with everything from skirts to dresses to heels and flats. Anna had claimed that she couldn't decide which outfits she liked best, so it was better to just buy them all. When we got back to the room Anna was full on make-up artist on my face, no matter how much I protested. I was like her personal Barbie doll.
"Where are we going?" I ask as I bend down for my purse. I hadn't looked at him yet, but I could feel his gaze on me, taking in my outfit. Anna and I had decided that my color was blue, a baby blue but a bit darker than the sky so as to look more mature. That was the color of my skirt. It was just the perfect length, not too conservative, yet still not too short as to look trashy. I also wore a white satin looking blouse. It was a bit loose but I loved the feel of it. He was probably enjoying the v-neck cut of the top. I slipped into my grey and silver converse. Anna wanted me to wear heels, but I refused. Instead she forced me to wear silver eye shadow and mascara, even lip gloss! I straighten up and look at him.
"Um, hello? Earth to Jack?" I snapped my fingers in front of this stupid spaced out face.
"Oh! Right, you asked me something? What?" He blinked a few times, as if that would help.
"I asked where we're going." I repeated for him as I quickly remembered to stick my room key into one of the three pockets of my purse. I slung the handbag over my shoulder.
"Well, I can't tell you. It's a surprise!" He winked with a smirk on his lips. "Let's go Els." He shortened my name, I wasn't a fan.
"Don't call me that." I murmured as I accompanied him down the hall.
Jack was less dressed up than I was. He looked nice though, it matched his personality. From the bottom up he had on his Nikes that he had been wearing the night she first saw him, they looked like he had washed them though. His jeans were the same ones from the store. Black, no holes, no worn out knees, and they were quite fitting to his waist. His shirt was just a simple short sleeved tee shirt. It was royal blue in color. That's when I decided that he looked best in average clothes. It made special things, like his hair and eyes stand out. He also had a grey sweatshirt over his arm as he and I walked to the elevator.
"What's wrong with Els? It's only one letter shorter." He argued lightly as he hit the button for the lobby.
"I just don't like it, that's not my name. It would be like if I called Anna just Ann, or if I called you…Ja. It's not right." I loved my name. "Besides, my name is only two syllables, so why shorten it even more?" He listened.
"Alright, I see where you're coming from, but I disagree, I love nicknames. Heck, my real name is Jackson, do you see me going around being called that? No way. But fine, Elsa it is. Unless you want to be called Miss Carol, or maybe you prefer Ice Queen?" He feigned a bow, using my old stage name. I shoved him slightly.
"That is the last thing I want to be called, Mr. Frost. It's just Elsa." I smiled a bit as we walked out to the parking lot. Jack led her to his car, and old slightly beat up red and white mustang.
"I figured you wouldn't want to ride the motorcycle, so North let me steal his old car. Hop in."
"You have a motorcycle?" I sat slowly, putting my purse on my lap.
"Yeah…" Jack slid into the driver's seat. "It's the Frost-bike."
"Seriously? Is everything a play on your name?"
"Mmmm, no, not everything." He started the engine and pulled out of the lot, driving down the street. "Just a lot of things, I figure I have it, why not use it?"
"Wooow." I shook my head and looked out the window at the cars around us.
He laughed. "You're just jealous, because you're not as resourceful as me."
"Yeah, that's it."
He drove for a bit, listening to some metal/punk band on the radio. I could honestly say I wasn't a fan. After about fifteen minutes of driving he pulled around a dark building.
"Where are we?" I asked, not seeing any signs.
"I told you, it's a surprise." He responded as he climbed out of the car. For some odd reason a scene of horror ran through my mind. But I figured he wouldn't bring me here to mug or kill me…..right? He took my hand as he opened my door. "Don't worry, you'll love it."
"What exactly and I going to love?" I insisted.
"This is the fun-ist place in town." He took me inside.
"You mean most fun." I whispered. He laughed.
"Don't be a grammar-Nazi, relax." He opened the door to the building. "Welcome to Arcade Central! Formally known as Gamer's Pizzeria!" This was his brilliant idea of a date? I looked around. There were series of arcade stations, a foosball table, a pool table, air hockey, even whack-a-mole. He paid for out tickets and the attendant stamped our hands with glow in the dark ink. The air reeked with the smell of sweat, burnt pizza, and frustration.
"Wow Jack, I didn't know you were into this kind of place…" I muttered while trying not to sound too put off.
"Oh yeah, well, this was kind of Kris's idea. It's awesome, don't you think?" He bought thirty dollars' worth of tokens. He was so excited about this that I felt bad about it. I gave him an encouraging smile; this would be a…eventful night. With a cup full of tokens we moved over to the air hockey table. The place actually had a lot of people in it but as I looked around I saw that there was only one girl, and at first I thought she was a boy. This was such a waste of an outfit.
I suffered through air hockey, only laughing because of how animated Jack was when he won, six times in a row. I was never that good at games like this. I watched him play space invaders, and some game where you shoot aliens, along with others. As he finished those games I saw on the highscore list that he dominated the board, well almost. Jack held 1-9, but 10 was owned by Kristoff. I sighed, completely bored, not having any fun.
Snap out of it Elsa, conceal don't feel, and do not let him know. Come on, he's having so much fun, you can at least pretend. Just put on a show. I thought to myself.
"You want some pizza? At first it's not that good, but if you put enough sauce on it it's terrific!"
I shrugged. "Sure?" He made it sound so appetizing. He ordered us a pepperoni pizza and two waters before getting us a table.
"So, Coach wants us to get to know each other, right?" He looked at me as we sat opposite one another.
"Yeah, that was kind of the point of this." I nodded, taking a sip from my lukewarm water.
"Alright, tell me about yourself then!" He sat up like he was ready to pay attention.
"I don't know, umm, what exactly do you want to know?" For some reason I was drawing a blank on everything in my life.
"Favorite season?"
"That's a weird one, usually people ask favorite colour. My favorite season is winter." This made him smile. "Here's a question for you, how did you even find out about this place? It's in the middle of nowhere."
"I went on an adventure one day when I was six, and it started raining so I came in here."
"Was your adventure trying to run away from home?" Why else would a parent let a six year old out on their own in a big city?
"Possibly, how many pairs of shoes do you own?"
I frowned. "Ummm, I don't know, does that include skates?"
"Mmm, no."
"Then probably about twenty, or maybe closer to thirty?"
"Wow, that's pretty ridiculous." He said as a waiter set the pizza down with two plates.
"Don't judge me Jack Frost, they're all necessary."
"Incorrect, the average person should only need three pairs of shoes; sneakers slash athletic shoes, dress up slash dance shoes, and leisure shoes." He actually said slash.
I rolled my eyes as he handed me a plate with a piece of pizza on it. At least the pizza wasn't burnt. "Okay, mister smart guy, how many teeth does an alligator have?"
"More than you, obviously." He answered quickly before taking a bite. He had asked for extra sauce on the food. He could do that, he was friends with the chef.
"Yes, but actually and alligator has 74 to 80 teeth."
"Okay and why do you know this?"
"Anna used to love watching the Crocodile Hunter, instead of Saturday morning cartoons. Some things just stuck."
"Alrighty then." He shrugged. We kept quizzing each other on random trivia, like if Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon with his left or right foot first. This lasted until the pizza was gone and we were both out of water. The pizza wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but definitely not the best I've ever had. As we stood to leave I caught a glimpse of askee-ball game.
"One random fact about myself, I am amazing at skee-ball." I told him, nodding over to the game. He grinned.
"You think you could beat me?" He challenged. I nodded.
"I don't think, I know." We promptly went to the two machines. We each took one of the last two tokens and put them in the coin slot at the same time. "Ready?"
"Set?" He raised a brow as if saying 'you can turn back now if you want.'
"Go!" I called as I threw my first ball.
"I should probably warn you Elsa, I have the high score on this too." He said trying to distract me.
"Yes, but you've never played against me." I retorted as I got 10,000 points from the start. A small crowd had gathered around us. "Is this when Jack Frost gets his butt kicked?" I asked him as he mis-threw, only hitting one hundred. We were on the last ball; He was only down by 5,000 points. We each took aim and threw. It sounded like the crowd held their breath. Jack's ball was the first to land. He got 10,000. To win I would need to get the same. I crossed my fingers as my ball flew up. It felt like time was going in slow motion. My ball landed in the 5,000 spot. I looked at him. We were tied and now out of balls.
The manager came out. "Tie-breaker? Here we break ties with the flip of a coin. Who's calling it?"
"He is." I said, looking at the overweight man who produced a quarter from his coin belt.
"Okay Frost-man." That was Jack's username. "Call it in the air, heads or tails." He tossed the coin up.
"Heads!" Jack shouted. I held my breath. As the coin came back down and was flipped over onto the back of the manager's hand.
"Sorry Frost, but…you win!" The man said as he showed the coin, heads up. I sighed. "But hey, you two still got the high score so you both pick out a stuffed toy or something."
Jack took me over. "Told you I was good." He said. I rolled my eyes.
"Don't tell me you're a sore winner."
"Don't tell me you're a sore loser." He countered. "Here, pick whatever you want, actually, pick two. You can give one to Anna." They actually had a wide selection of stuffed animals. I picked out a dolphin for Anna, and a little polar bear for myself. Jack laughed. "And here I thought you'd pick the penguin."
"No, polar bears are much better than penguins, but nothing beats a snowman." I smiled. Okay, maybe this wasn't as bad as it could have been. Jack went and pulled on his sweatshirt before we left. We drove with the radio on again. We got to the hotel and he walked me up to my room. I began fishing out my key from my purse.
"Isn't it kind of inconvenient to be renting a hotel room? I mean, competitions are still a few months away, I know that sponsors pay a lot to skaters, but still, this has got to be expensive."
I shrugged. "We don't have any family here, it's just Anna, Carmen, and I."
"You know, I could probably talk to North, Aster, and Andman. They're three out of four of the owners of the ice rink; Oothry is out on a recruitment offer. They would probably let you three use the living space above the rinks. You'd get full access to the ice anytime, plus you'd be able to use the gym whenever too. Would that be okay?"
"Okay? That would be heaven! Do you people realize how perfect your center is? It's better than the Olympic stadiums that I've visited! Do you really think they'd let us stay there?"
He laughed. "Yeah, well, at least I know that North will, but I'll talk to them and let you know." I couldn't help myself so I hugged him. He squeezed back before letting go. "You should probably get inside now. Good Night Elsa, never Els or Ice Queen, Carol." He bowed once more, causing me to laugh. "I'll see you tomorrow at practice."
"Yeah, see you Jack, not Jackson, but sometimes Frost-man, Frost." I smiled and went into the room as he walked back toward the elevator. I raised a hand to cover the smile on my lips.
"So, how was it? What did you do? Did you kiss? Where did you go? How did you get there? What are those in your arms? Why are you so smiley? Oh my god you kissed him, didn't you? Come on Eeeellllssssaaaa, teeell meeee! Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Pleasepleasepleaseplease!" Anna begged. She was sitting on the edge of her bed, clearly eager for details. "Did he like your outfit? Why didn't you wear the heels I set out for you?" She fired question after question. I sighed and gave her the dolphin.
"Let me get ready for bed then I'll tell you." I quickly got changed and sat on my bed, holding my polar bear. I took a breath and told her everything. She gasped and oo-ed and aww-ed at the correct moments. Then I told her about what Jack had said about living at the rink. She grinned, loving that idea too. She squealed.
"That would be sooo perfect! You and him are completely adorable! If you were on tumbler you would be shipped so hard!"
"I don't even know what that means but get it out of your head. Jack's adorable, but he's irritating too. We're just friends, Anna." She rolled her eyes.
"My dear dear sister, that's what they all say then next thing you know it's wedding bells and baby carriages. " I threw my pillow at her.
"Shut up, it's not like that!" I shouted with laughter as she threw hers back at me. Then Carmen burst into our room and scolded us, telling us to go to bed. I think she also murmured something about us being worse than five year olds. Anna and I laughed some more as we lay down and turned out the lights. "Good night Anna."
She laughed. "Good night Mrs. Elsa Frost." I groaned. It would only get worse from here, I could just tell. We both went to sleep. Now, I didn't exactly dream of Jack, but that didn't mean he didn't make a cameo appearance in my subconscious film. I hugged the polar bear. Tomorrow ought to be interesting.
(Alright, I'm not going to promise, but I'm going to hope that chapter five will be A. longer and B. sooner than this one was. Thanks for reading though!)