Chapter 4 - A Cunning Stratagem –
And so years passed slowly like the cold winds blowing softly the curtains near his window…
Until he heard that annoying noise which pulled him away from his calming rest…
He was semi-conscious; a part of his mind still in his dream world where he was enjoying his wind snowboarding tricks, namely his Backside Triple Cork 1620 and Half-Cab Quadruple Backflip in his own winter wonderland dimension, while the other part was waking dizzily from his mother's loud voice, repeating like a broken crow of a moon rooster as if the pitiful bird was being strangled by his uncle, Hail, in the Thorleif Family's grand training hall.
"Wake up, my sleepy head son, it's time to face a new day!"
"W-What…?!" The nine year old boy was forcing himself to rise up while his eyes struggled to open upon sensing that new day wasn't there yet.
"Do you want me to call for the servants to serve your breakfast in bed?!' His mother's sarcastic voice rang into his ears while Jack yawned and stretched lazily. "For three years, I thought you had been used to being self-reliant and reliable. Come on, up you go! A promise is a promise and you had to honor your word. We spoke about this yesterday, and you said you will be watching your sister for the entire day since I had to go to a meeting with the council of elders and your uncle, Hail."
Ignoring his white hair was more disheveled as he struggled out of his bed, Jack eyed his mother all dressed in a combined noble lady's formal sapphire colored attire, representing the Thorleif House, and her silvery upper armor, paired with her wrist guards as a Warrior of Ice. "You're going now?" Her son questioned her as she hurried to grab her long boots outside his room and headed down the stairs while he followed her, still barefooted and wearing his frost-designed navy blue pajamas. "But I thought you were going after lunch, how about my scheduled task to buy food at the city's market?"
"No, you will never again buy our food. I've regretted assigning you with that task. Last time you bought food, you bought the entire candy shop! You and your sister ended up hyperactive! I couldn't catch up with you two, especially you and your crazy obsession with sugary frostings and sweets, just like your silly reckless addiction to danger and fun with your wind snowboarding tricks. Sheesh, you're growing to be an adrenalin junkie and that's not entirely good at all." She paused, trying to contain her laughter as she reminisced. "Not to say, I became the receiving end of complains from the market sellers who were telling me how a cheapskate you are at bargaining and buying things. I can't believe my stingy brother had greatly influenced my son with such an ascetic trait. Just look at your very old pajamas, which you presently wore, and the ugly stitched patches you made."
"Well, at least I did bought the food, didn't I?"
"Don't act a smart ass like your ancestor Loki is! We're not presently living with his House. Besides, that is the reason I had to go, it's an emergency meeting, and believed me, your uncle is strict when it comes to time!"
"Does uncle Hail take it easy once in his life?"
"Well…no. He's the Leader of our House, and the Master of the Warriors of Ice. He breathes the very Code of being a Warrior, he's literally living by the Rule Book which makes him happy. So, we have to get along with my stoic and emotionless brother, unless you want him to go crazy, which I recommended you don't want him to go crazy. Because he is worse than me when it comes to nagging! You should have seen him in his wedding day, he just broke down chatting wildly with nervousness for the first time when he was totally enamored with his elvish bride-to-be. Unfortunately, that never happened again." Both mother and son chuckled.
Cornice finished strapping her boots, gave Jack a quick kiss on the forehead before proceeding to leave. Jack watched briefly his mother departing before he closed the door and turned to face his newly awakened younger sister who was approaching him while dragging her huge arctic hare stuff toy.
"Hi, kiddo, you know what this means…"
His younger sister halted rubbing her sleepy eyes that turned into a matching distinguishable impish look like her big brother's, giving a look she's ready to trash the entire place apart with her brother.
"When mom is away, we will play all day!" Jack gave a wide grin of mischievousness.
Ignoring the entire abode was filled with heavy snow and ice, Jack conjured frosted puppies for his little sister to play with him, halted doing so when hearing a snowball thrown near their window.
"More frost puppies! Then, snow bunnies, and ice dragons…" Giggling with joy, his little sister continued to chase and play with the frosted creatures he magically created for her.
"Yeah, yeah, will do, Baby Gee! Just wait a sec…" His royal blue eyes rolled towards the distracting noise nearby.
"Told you, I'm not Gee!" His litter sister complained, almost threw a tantrum in front of her big brother who always taunted her with the way she once struggled to mention her own name. She viewed her brother approached the window to take a look outside. Lying down on the thick snow-covered floor, she started to make a snow angel while waiting for him.
"Psst! Home boy!" Squall's familiar jeering voice called out at Jack who opened the window, viewing his cousins outside had halted throwing snowballs near the window. "Stop being a baby sitter for once, and play outside with us!"
"Yeah, play with us, cousin!" Frain chimed in for Jack to join them, not forgetting the fun they all had. "Last time was a blast with you around!"
"Haven't we, three, all agreed yesterday, that we will be wind snowboarding again the day after tomorrow…"
"How stupid do you get, Cousin Jack? I really do believe you deserved the name - Jackson Overland Frost, because your brain was frozen by your own frosts! Since yesterday was a day and today is that tomorrow," Squall replied him back in his unchanged superior bullying ways while Frain's eyes widened once more at his brother's senseless statement, making Jack silent for a moment as he stared long and hard in disbelief at Squall and his air of stupidity coming out from his mouth. "I don't blame you, you're younger and thinner, your growth had stunted big time, and it affected the way you think." Saying seemingly intelligent words had made Squall smiled more in delight while Jack controlled not to have a migraine unlike Frain who seemed to be having a painful one. "Are you still not playing with us? You, kill joy, perhaps you want us to storm you out of your house like the story of the three little goats where the big bad fish farts out winds to destroy their houses." As if quoting a literary masterpiece, Squall gave a wink at Frain like he was a classy reader of highly intellectual books. "Then, I'll Huff, and Hufflepuff, and Powerpuff your house down." However, he halted his long idiotic speech of convincing Jack when the three boys were interrupted.
"They're not three little goats, they're three little pigs! And the big bad wolf is no fish that farts, but blows away the pigs' houses, dumb ass!" Jack's little sister tiptoed, peering out at the other side of the window, shouted at her cousins down below. "And my big brother Jack is no kill joy, he will accept your challenge!"
"Two of us against your puny brother!" Squall laughed out loud, added. "Your frost-thin brother doesn't had a chance against us!"
"Yeah, my brother has a chance! How about a snowball fight, he's good with snowballs! And he will beat the crap out of you!"
"Snowball fights are for helpless babies like you!" Squall smirked at the little brave girl with her tangled long white hair wildly scattered like a bush around her fierce face. "Besides, words from a girl doesn't scare me! A whiny crybaby like you could not even defeat me because of these!" Narcissistic Squall held out his arms and bended his arms to show his lean mean muscles to show brawns always wins. After showing off, he held up his same arms and pointed it towards the siblings above, sending his winds and destroying the magical frosted creatures around the little girl who started to cry when seeing them all gone, so does her snow angel on the once snow-covered floor inside their house.
"Hey!" Jack shouted with a twinge of anger at his cousin. "Don't you ever bully my little sister!"
That's it. Squall had crossed the line. Jack had enough of his cousin's nasty ways, and he had long remained cold and indifferent about his cousins' cruel insecurities for three years until now that Squall just made his sister cry.
"Fine, you wanna fight! I accept your challenge!" Jack turned into a protective big brother, leaped and landed down on the ground outside while Squall gave a haughty look.
"Finally, Cousin Jack had the courage to take our challenge and to fight us!" The other boy snorted before he faced his silent and stoic twin, Frain, who gave a very competitive look.
Seemed to be in his Warrior of Ice mode, and with an intention that he will never back out, Frain had been itching to fight Jack.
"Snowball battle it is!" Squall pointed his hands downward before punching the cold ground, making a brief ground blizzard to start their fight.
As soon as the winds ceased, the entire snowy place turned into a silent battlefield. Each opposite sides had magically finished building their own designed ice fortress.
He had no idea what kind of attack they will be doing, but he knows one thing - Squall and Frain had the advantage. Jack knew his cousins' combined powers of powerful snowsqualls and heavy freezing rains are enough to conjure terrible ice storms. Aside from this, they were known to be excellent in shapeshifting. And because of their known powers, they're the best when it comes to spying and fighting him in an ambush.
Damn, he's dead meat!
He shouldn't have let his emotions carried him away, but the way Squall treated his little sister was too much.
Besides, it was never in his own vocabulary to give up. No, not even in a million years would he easily surrender to anyone, he would rather fight!
Jack halted in his contemplation when sensing he was not alone underneath his fortress of ice, an underground bunker.
"Nice heavily shielded bunker to withstand against powerful snowstorms," His voice greeted Jack while his shadowy horned figure remained seated on the ice table nearby. "Hello, Jack, long time no see. Three years had gone away, isn't it?" The cunning god of mischief gave his familiar insane chuckle. "Didn't you miss me?"
"Loki…" Jack whispered his name in relief but Loki gave a look that he's not here to help or get involved, but to observe. Out of curiosity and excitement, he wanted to have the first row seat in this little fun game between Jack and his cousins from the House of Thor.
"I want to watch. It grabbed not only my own interest, but also the other gods so does Odin and Thor. My brother, the god of thunder, watches from Asgard with the help of Heimdallr to see what's happening now. And I have wagered against Tyr, the god of war, and Bragi, the god of poetry - I bet that you will win. Of course, you have to. You came from me and Thor, unlike those cousins of yours who came from Thor and from the elvish descendant of Freyr, twin brother of the Vanir witch…" Loki paused with his words trailing off, before he gave his signature sly look and mischievous grin. "Show them how my Royal House deals against its opponents, and how my Royal House had remained in the Crystal Throne of Power in Niflheim for as long as any immortal could ever remember. That anyone from the direct line of the Winter Kings always cleverly played every bloody battle in any brutal war like an easy child's game." Loki waved his hand, giving an illusion that Jack's back in one of the study inside the imperial grand palace.
Loki was seated in one of the chairs before the table where Jack's chess game board was. "In our eternal existence, we are only defined who we truly are - we are either kings or pawns." The cunning lord of scheming mischief materialized a particular white chess piece, representing the King, and then throwing it towards the winter prince who caught it in his right hand.
"Be the King."
He gave a certain look at Jack that the King is the most important piece in the game. Without the King, the entire game ends.
Memories crept back into the deep recesses of Jack's mind as Loki's first words of advice was remembered.
"If you are planning to win, think two or more steps before your enemy does…"
"I have to think ahead before they do," Jack whispered audibly for Loki to hear his own words he once advised the boy. "I need my own battle plans. I have to form my alliance, my own diversions, my traps, and…"
"…and a little bit of chaotic fun!" Loki gave a devilish smirk at Jack who replied with a very mischievous grin.
His keen eyes remained vigilant, watching from afar the fortress where their cousin is. Viewing his brother had taken the shape of a small icicle finch before he had landed down beside him, Frain turned to face and ask Squall who morphed back into his human form.
"Any sign of movement within the fortress?"
"After staying beneath his fortress for minutes, our cousin had decided to make things even, he had requested an alliance with his little sister, and now, she had flew to join him in there."
"As if it would be his advantage, when clearly she wasn't, but a liability to him. They do not equal our combined strength." Frain contemplated. "Strange, for Jack to let his sister join in the fray, don't you think?" He halted, narrowing his electric blue eyes with suspicion. "We need to be careful, our clever cousin definitely had a plan. We had to attack him at once before he will attack us. I'll take the skies, you take the ground, brother." Frain immediately shapeshifted into a white hawk while Squall turned into a large white tiger sprinting fast on the icy ground as his brother took off in the skies.
"My, oh, my…look at you, a little bundle of joy, mischief, and misery too!" Loki confronted the little girl whose eyes narrowed with distrust at the unfamiliar elder god as they stood inside Jack's bunker. "You don't know me, my little princess, of course, I am your other godly ancestor, Loki. Come here and give me a kiss…" Raising his arms to beacon the girl to come to him, the lord of mischief puckered out his lips with mockery but ended up with a snowball thrown at his face. Instead of being furious, Loki chuckled amusedly, wiping off the snow from his face. "My darling little monster! How very rotten spoiled you are! Another apple of my eyes indeed! "
"That means she doesn't like you," Jack informed Loki who was still grinning crazily at his other descendant. Viewing his little sister remained behind him and sticking out her tongue at the horned god who was clearly delighted at her, Jack spoke furthermore. "The only elder god she knows and likes is Thor." Jack smiled at his sister and asked her. "Why do you like the god of thunder again?"
"He's a dreamy beefcake."
"You see…" Jack laughed briefly while he was tinkering an ice crystal in his hands and packing them in his pockets after placing one on the ceiling just like he had done with some of the crystals earlier.
"Do you know many ladies and other beings find me so irresistible and sexy too!" Loki reclined down on his side seductively on the ice table where he was comfortably seated earlier. "And someday, your big brother will be a chick magnet too! Why wouldn't he be - he's a perfect combination of Thor and me!"
"How do you know, I really like winter chickens with snow peas and ice cube squash!" Jack was thinking about food, heard his tummy rumbled loudly, "I'm hungry and I had to finish this battle before mom will return home, or else I'm history."
"No, I mean, females - the girls and the women! Of course, you are just a boy now, and had no interest towards them until you reach that certain age, and well, let's just say it's a different level, a new kind of fun …." Loki was laughing softly while reminiscing, whispered further. "Wait, until you met the one. The one who will be changed your immortal life forever. Then, she must be your equal, your future other half, and your eternal queen. I wonder how she would fallen deeply with you, knowing how hard to tame a wild troublesome winter storm, which you are, Jack. She must be more alluringly beautiful and powerful than anyone you had ever known that you had no intention of ever letting her go at all."
Jack gave a puzzled and disgusted look at Loki, couldn't understand a thing the elder god was muttering about. "You're gross and weird." The tousled haired boy ceased talking with his ancestor when one of the crystal he had buried blinked.
"Oh, goody! They're here!" Loki excitedly pull himself up to sit while Jack kneeled down to talk to his little sister.
"You know our plan," Jack calmly remained smiling at his sister. "You don't have to worry a thing, all you have to do is stand here. The ice crystals of illusions will duplicate and imitate your form. You'll be safe here. I'll do the rest. And when it's over, you could go out."
"And we could play again!"
"Of course, sis." Jack playfully messed his sister's shaggy hair, before he flew up towards one of secret trap doors to leave.
His eyes were sharp, as well as his smell and hearing, he had caught the glimpse of the little girl swiftly chasing her brother who had allowed himself to disappear inside his maze-like fortress of ice.
So he brought his useless sister here. Good! Just like younger kids, she easily gets scared. He was about to sprint and pounced at the girl, but his twin brother, Frain, morphed into his human form after swooping down in his hawk form. His brother caught and restrain him.
"Forget the girl, Squall, focus at Jack! We have to get Jack to win this fight!"
Squall angrily turned into his human form, and pushed away Frain, argued with his twin.
"You idiot, I almost got the sissy wimp! If I have that girl, then we can have her as a hostage to take out Jack!"
"Brother, we don't take hostages! Don't forget, we are from the House of the Warriors of Ice! It is dishonorable to take an innocent life! Our fight is with Jack, alone!"
"What's the difference? It's just a game! As if this is a real fight?!"
"That's the entire point of it?! Can't you see?! This is more than a game, more than a fight! This is how we reveal our true selves."
"No, but we need to win! If we win, we will never bow down to that lame royal cousin of ours!"
"And what if he wins? Remember, the House of Thor was always the protective shields and powerful swords of Niflheim. But the brilliant top minds came from the House of Loki." Frain stated the possibility, the truth, and the history of their realm. "The empire of Niflheim was never ruled by our House, but his other Royal House. You should know his line of Winter Kings were the ones who conquered and ruled the Northern Region and its icy wilderness. And the North is the known largest expanse than any of the other eight realms."
"Then, we will not let him win. Because if he does impress us by showing us that he was worthy to be who he claimed to be - we had no choice, but to accept him as our future Winter King, who also came from our House."
They ended their argument when hearing sounds of cracking and popping frosts speedily spreading and spiking around them.
"Yoo-hoo! Yes, you two!" Jack landed down at the other side, called out at them, psyching them into their own emotional upheaval. "I thought this is a snowball fight, not a session of flyting between two buffoons?! When all this time, you two baboons were quarreling loudly about me. Please, you don't need to fight because of me! It seemed everywhere I go, everyone wants a piece of me! What can I say, but I'm really flattered!" The mischievous boy pretended to give a coy look, recited a silly poetry like a plain annoying fool. "You hear that - pitter- patter, pitter-patter! Oh, be still my heart filled with folly!"
Enraged with his insults, the twin separated and morphed immediately into their respective animals forms to charge against Jack. But they just passed through vanishing Jack. Swiftly, they both halted in their tracks when chaotic winds from different directions blew out to confuse them, until another powerful wind materialized out of nowhere brought crystallized dry ice bombs. Exploding at every inch of space they were occupying, they were forced to be separated again.
"Don't you guys give up, or are you thirsty for more pain?!"
Frain and Squall struggled up to their feet after they heard Jack's taunting voice again.
Both brothers were divided by their clashing decisions, and were separated towards their different paths as they viewed and chased the little girl again.
This time Squall gave in to his stormy emotions, viewed the little girl was passing at the far right corridor. His thoughts was running wild with his rising temper, did not waited for his twin brother.
Screw his brother, Frain! His idea is better than his anyway! Besides, the means will justify the end, or is it the other way around, the end will justify the means?! Ah, just forget it!
Changing swiftly in his new frosty fox form, Squall gained more speed in catching up the little hyperactive girl who was leaving a trail of sugary frosted cookies which she was gobbling up.
What a slob?!
Squall contemplated silently, remained eyeing and stalking Jack's clueless sister, until he slowed down upon smelling the enticing food, and knowing how much his stomach was grumbling at him, reminding him that it's already lunch time. He stared to pick up the crumbs and ate it while he was still following the stupid girl.
Morphing from a white polar bear to his human form, Frain cornered Jack's sister.
"Look, I am not here to hurt you. Just tell me where your brother is, and…"
Frain halted talking when the girl just disappeared in his plain sight. It was nothing else but an illusion.
Shit! It's a trap! He should have expected that Jack knew winter spells and illusions, he was from Loki's House. And Loki is the lord of sorcery too.
Frain panicked with his thoughts. He almost morphed into his snowy owl form only to be hit by a snowball, making him roll down the snowy slope, and turning into a larger ball of snow every second he rolled away.
"Well, what do you know? One down and one to go…" Jack reappeared, floating in mid-air from the far corner, gave a more mischievous look before flying away and turning invisible.
Yes, one to go, and he reserved the best prank for the last deserving one.
Odd, he never felt so full in his life. Not that he ate that much. Now, he felt very strange, as if he wanted so much to pee.
Squall retained in his frosty fox form, hurried towards an ice wall, and then raised his leg to unload. He could not stop from urinating, even if the other side of the wall had collapsed down by a large snowball with Frain in it.
Seeing his twin brother, Frain shouted at Squall as he rolled away, passing by his twin brother. "The girl, she's an illusion!" He warned his brother before he rolled far away, further down the snow-blanketed mountain.
The white fox remained peeing, turned at the other side when hearing footsteps nearing where he stood.
"Little doggie, can we stop fighting? Can we be good friends?" She smiled, called out at him who wished she could mentally read his mind.
No, don't want to be your friend! Little doggie is busy peeing! Scram away, you creepy pest of a girl!
The frosty fox gave an angry growl to scare the girl away, ready to bite her, except that it didn't frightened the girl.
Suddenly, her eyes glowed with lightning and her smile turned mischievous that made Squall freaked out, knowing who that girl is, and she's not Jack's real sister, but Jack himself who let out streaks of lightning to flow out, electrifying the white fox in front of him before his powerful frosts froze Squall who was still peeing in his fox form.
Jack ended the game with a snowball appearing in his opened palm and throwing it at the frozen fox who fell completely motionless on the snowy ground.
Hearing a sudden boisterous laughter from Loki, Jack quickly returned back to his real form, while his real sister ran towards Jack who clearly had won.
"Little doggie's stiff!"
"Well, he's stiff alright, but he's alive. At least, he learned his lesson - don't be a bully, because sometimes, those you bullied are worse than you!" Jack replied back at his sister who rolled the frozen fox into a large snowball before pushing it away, going to the same direction where his other twin brother was heading towards a cliff.
It was a stroke of luck! The thick blanket of snow below them was soft, and now, they were free from their respective giant balls of snow.
"Fuck! I can't believe it! We lost against two younger weaker kids!" Returning to his human form, Squall complained.
"Shut up, Squall!" Frain slapped his hand behind Squall's head.
"I can't just believe our cousin could also shapeshift?!"
"Of course, he could. He is from the House of Loki, and Loki is a shapeshifter too! The horned god of mischief had proven he could shapeshift when he turned into a fly to steal the Brisingamen, the golden necklace of the goddess of love, Freyja."
"Shhh, do you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Frain asked Squall who bended down on his knees to listen. He placed his ear on the cold ground as the rumbling sound continued.
Thinking that Jack had used his inherent royal powers by conjuring the strongest winter storms, Squall spoke out nervously. "By heavens' sake, he summoned a very powerful thundersnow against us! Jack, we surrender! Just don't fry us!" Squall cried out, stood up and faced up at the skies while Frain also looked up and shouted his surrender too, not realizing behind them that a humongous snowball was being rolled by Jack and his little sister on the same cliff where the twins had fallen off.
"Didn't I promise you that we will be playing afterwards?" Jack faced his younger sister who smiled and nodded repeatedly. "How about we build two snowmen! That would be fun, right!"
"Aha, fun! But I like to build two beautiful snowwomen instead!"
"As you wish, little sis." Jack allowed his sister to give the last gentle push, making the gigantic snowball fall down on the twins down below.
He hadn't heard such sweet symphony of terrified cries before as if they were tortured to death! Loki remained pondering and chuckling as he sat comfortably near the cliff, glancing down where Jack and his sister were playing with their cousins who they were shaping into snowwomen.
"Now, you both looked so pretty!" Jack's sister created a small ice mirror in her hands, and showed to the horrified screaming boys their reflections.
"How many times, do we have to say, we had yielded!" Frain and Squall begged at Jack and his sister while Jack deafly ignored them, allowed his sister to magically paint more make-up and to place ice ribbons and frost flowers all over their cousins who were stuck frozen as snowwomen.
"But you smelled awful! Like you two never bathed for ages. Do you want me to give you both a bath? A bath so that you two will smell like fragrant ice lilies…"
"No! Please! No!"
"I think they already had enough." Jack told his little sister. He then ceased watching with his arms crossed in front of him before he summoned away his powers of frost and snow to free his cousins.
Stepping away, Frain and Squall kneeled with exhaustion, composed themselves in front of Jack who was waiting for an apology.
"We're sorry. We promised – we will never oppress anyone who is weaker than us. "
Upon hearing their sincere apologetic words, Jack uncrossed his arms and gestured at his sister that it's time for them to go home and let their cousins be. But when he was about to turn away from them, he stood motionless in silence when hearing his cousins pledged their eternal loyalty at him who they will follow even before he will become the Winter King. He closed his eyes briefly, shoving away his discomfort of his possible destiny before he proceeded walking with his sister to return back to their home.
"Wow! I'm impressed about everything! You're really great when it comes to guarding and taking care of younger children like your own little sister…" His mother peered inside his sister's room while Jack wrapped the blankets around his sleeping and resting younger sister in her bed. "The house was sparkling clean, and you never trash the place as if the winds just blew every mess away. And now this…" She entered and drew near, placed her hand on Jack's shoulder, smiled at her son after hearing briefly his bedtime stories with his little sister. "I'm fascinated, really. But I never read and heard a story that Red Riding Hood was an outlaw heroine, a long lost sister of Robin Hood, who also fought alongside with her outlaw brother against the cruel and corrupt king, and how they freed their people. And that the Wolf who dressed as Red Riding Hood's grandmother was nothing more, but a misunderstood and lost fashion designer who later became Pinocchio's business partner in their newly opened Puppet Theater Business Venture."
"Well, we both made it all up." Jack smiled at his mother, referring to his little sister and him. Besides, Jack was bored of reading princess stories to his sister when his sister was already a princess on her own right. "The important thing is that everything ended well."
As she heard her son's words, Cornice remained concealing the sadness in her sky blue eyes, holding preciously Jack's hand. And for the first time in her life, she gave a hopeful and persuasive lie to her son, hiding her own fears of their uncertain bleak future.
"Yeah, and everyone lived happily ever after."
A/N:
Hi my dear readers!
I would like to end everything with a lighter and happy note in this last published chapter.
This was my gift to you this upcoming Christmas. And I intend to put smiles in your faces for the sake of this Merry Season. And comedy is the best way to narrate this chapter. I was inspired by some of the funny situations from the recent Thor Ragnarok Movie, and of course, I based the last two chapters from the madcap slapstick comedic adventure of the 90's and early 2000's movies, namely Billy Madison Movie and Home Alone Movie. When I was writing this, I was imagining Jack was doing the same mischievous things that Home Alone's Kevin McCallister did.
I would like to thank the people (you know who you are), especially the latest reviewer, Keryna, and other followers who kept on following, liking and reviewing my stories. I will never forget you. Again, thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. For a brief time, you, handful of people had become my muse.