Sorry it's taken me so long, people! In way of excuses, I don't really have any good ones, so I won't even bother. I did write this chapter at work tonight, so there's that - it really helped pass the time, actually, I might have to start doing that more often - and I'm quite satisfied now about where this is headed. Anywho, hope this is worth the wait. Thanks, friends.

I haven't talked to Jack since our first meeting almost a week ago. I hope likes me…Clara, that is…I continue in this train of thought until I realize that I'm referring to my best friend like he's a complete stranger. The final bell has already rang, but I'm still by my locker, putting my books and papers in some kind of order. Tooth sidles up next to me with a huge smile plastered on her face. I smile back at her, but she doesn't say anything. After a full minute of being fixed in her disconcerting purple gaze, which I should probably be used to by now, I break the now-creepy silence. "Um…hello?"

She doesn't say anything, but keeps smiling at me. "Okay you're starting to freak me out. Out with it, woman!" I demand in an authoritative tone.

Tooth throws her head back in laughter. "Clara, Clara. I just heard from a somewhat unreliable source that you're doing the Interschool Music Exchange with Jack Frost! Is this true?"

I'm caught offguard for a moment. "Uhmm," I clear my throat. "Who told you?"

"So it is true?" She asks excitedly, her violet eyes shining.

"Yes."

"That's so awesome! Jack's a pretty cool guy, you know," she says with a knowing smile.

Now I'm suspicious. "Okay, first, how did you know that Jack's my partner, and second, how to you know of Jack in general?"

She waves my questions aside with a casual movement of her hand, as if she were batting a fly away from her face. "To answer both your questions at once: Bunny."

"Bunny?!"

"Yep." She doesn't really seem inclined to elaborate, but I press on. If she didn't want to talk about it, then she shouldn't have brought it up in the first place. I put my hands on my hips like Mrs. Overland – Mrs. Frost, I guess now, according to my mother – and fix Tooth with my sternest look. "Care to explain?"

Tooth immediately catches on to my drill sergeant tone and takes it a step further (as always) by clicking her heels together, standing at attention, and saluting me stiffly. "Sir yes sir! Bunny told me, sir. He and Jack are friends, sir. They met at a football game after North totally creamed Jack and felt the need to apologize to him after the game, sir. Bunny and Jack started hanging out, with North and Sandy too, of course, sir. I only met him once, sir, when you and your aunt and uncle were on vacation last summer sir. He seems like a nice guy, sir. He texted me over the weekend asking about you, sir –" I interrupt her as she's taking a deep breath to continue her word vomit.

"Wait wait wait. I'm going to ignore the fact that you're calling me sir instead of ma'am, but he asked about me? What did he say? What did you say?" She must have heard the catch in my voice, because she gives me an inquisitive look and drops her voice to a whisper.

"I'll tell you, Clara, if you tell me something in return."

"Deal," I say quickly, immediately regretting the agreement. What if she asks me about Burgess and my life before Clara? Am I going to have to lie, again?

"Why –" Tooth's question is cut short by a black-sleeved arm settling on her shoulder, while another comes to rest across my own shoulders. I don't even have to look to know who it is, but I flinch when he speaks all the same.

"Hello ladies." His voice is light, but it somehow drips with a sinister quality all the same.

"Pitch," I respond icily, keeping my eyes firmly looking forward. I will not give him the satisfaction of looking at him. My hands curl involuntarily into fists as he begins to speak. "So what are you two talking about so secretively over here?"

"Nothing that concerns you," I say curtly.

He chuckles under his breath, which makes goosebumps rise on my arms. I can see Tooth shiver slightly at the sound as well. "Tut tut. No need to be so cold, Snow Queen. I was only asking an innocent question."

Tooth rolls her eyes, and I copy her. "Yeah, right. What do you want?"

He shakes his head at me, as if my behavior disappointed him in some way. "So hostile. And here I was thinking that we could be friends. What did I ever do to you?"

I'm done here. I don't have to do this with him right now. "You know what," I say, checking the clock that's hanging above the lockers, "I'd love to stand here and chat with you, but we've gotta get going." I take Tooth's hand, pick up my backpack with the other, and duck under Pitch's arm, dragging my companion with me. We get about halfway down the hall when I hear his oily voice call out, but I don't turn around.

"I'll see you around, Clara." The emphasis he places on my name makes me suck in a quick breath, but I just grasp Tooth's hand tighter and quicken my pace to the doors. Tooth doesn't say anything, but throws me a look that's somewhere between utter confusion and deep concern. He knows.

Our mutual silence continues until we're in Tooth's car, three blocks from the school building.

"What was that all about?"

"I don't know," I sigh. "Apparently that creep has taken it upon himself to make my life miserable."

"But I thought North and Bunny and Sandy had put an end to that."

"Mostly, yeah. But sometimes I can see him watching me out of the corner of my eye, or following me between classes. I wouldn't be surprised if he has done research on me, too. He's told me before that he would find out all my secrets."

Tooth gives me a wry, skeptical smile. "Now you just sound paranoid."

"I know."

I can tell she's thinking, so I don't say anything. "But," she finally says, "why does it bother you so much? It's not like you have any deep, dark secrets anyway."

Oh, Tooth. If you only knew, I think sadly. I've come close to telling her about my past before, but some irrational fear of my story somehow being overheard has always kept me back. I have the overpowering urge to tell her everything right now, though.

I respond to her quasi-question too quickly. "It just does. How would you feel if someone was doing this to you?"

"You don't need to be so defensive." She sounds a little hurt. "Unless…" she trails off, and I can almost hear the gears clicking and whirring in her brain. "Unless…" she starts again, "you do have a deep, dark secret that's worth hiding?"

I know the game is up. I'm not a good liar, and Tooth knows this. Besides, she's accepted all of the rest of my weird qualities without question, all my dissatisfying excuses for why I can't hang out with her and the guys. She may as well know this, too.

"Tooth, I'm gonna tell you something, okay? And you can't let this leave your car, because I've kept this secret ever since coming to Arendelle more than two years ago and it's not something I want spreading around now." She nods slowly and waits for me to continue.

"First off, my name's not Clara Robinson. It's Elsa Winters. I moved here because of the ice skating accident that Jack and his sister Sophie, and my sister Anna were all involved in. I got blamed for two reasons: 1) it was my idea to go skating, and 2) Jack's mom is a lunatic…" I tell her the rest of the story in as much detail as I can think of, ending with my mom's decision to make Jack and I partners only a few weeks ago. By the time I'm finished, Tooth's expression has become one of shock.

"So, wait." She says, and shakes her head a few times. "You're Elsa? What do you really look like?"

I smile. "Hold on," I say, and I turn the other way to remove my contacts, changing my eyes from green to my natural blue. I turn back to her and she gasps.

"Clara, I mean Elsa, your eyes…"

"And my hair is naturally a really really light blonde, but I can't really show that to you right now," I say, grinning at her. It's a fantastic feeling to have someone else know about my secret identity. It's very…liberating.

"Okay, Tooth, now you have to tell me about what Jack told you about me. Did that make sense?"

She laughs, and I can tell she's still coming to terms with the fact that I am not who she thought I was for the past two years. "Let me think…he wanted to know if I knew you, which I do, so I just told him about you. You're mostly quiet, but have become considerably more vocal in the past six months or so…your favorite subject is English, you're a fantastic writer and performer…"

"I am not a good performer!" I protest. "You're spreading lies about me!"

"Nonsense! Your performance of that Dickinson poem was fan-freakin-tastic, and don't you even try to deny it!" She shoots back at me.

"Fine. Did he say anything else?"

She cocks her head at me. "He asked me when you came to Arendelle. After what you just told me, I think he might be putting together the missing pieces of what happened when you left Burgess, Cla-Elsa."

"Shit."