It's a Sunday where I'm at. But I'm sorry I didn't upload yesterday. I was planning to finish this chapter yesterday but my aunt needed the pc so I wasn't able to finish. :D I hope you enjoy!

Jackunzel 673824: hahaha not in other countries xD I mixed a bit of our culture here since modern Corona is a fictional town… and, yeah xDD :D

I do NOT own Tangled, Rise of the Guardians or any of the brands/companies and the like in this fan fic.


Chapter 7: Visit to Corona University

Rapunzel looked at him. She was confused and happy at the same time. It confused her because how can he go to college? Doesn't he have duties to attend to? Doesn't he have anything better to do? Not that college is a bad idea, but still. On the other hand, she was happy because he'll be with her even at school. More questions popped up in her mind but most of it left unanswered. She held her spoon and fork and stared at her plate. Things still didn't sink in. There's a question in her mind that she wanted him to answer. She inhaled and looked at him with her eyes. She tried fixing her question structure so it would be easy for him to understand. She bit her lower lip. What if he doesn't know?, she asked herself. I'll have to fix it myself then, she thought then she swallowed. She looked at her plate then back at him.

"How will you enroll in CU?" she asked.

Jack looked at her then slowly looked at his plate. She's right. How do I get in?, he panicked a bit. He played with his lips, trying to think of a way but his mind was only malfunctioning the more he thought about it. Actually, the more he thought about her question, the more things popped in his mind that he didn't need right now. The things he wanted to remember before but couldn't and now keep showing up. It almost drove him mad. He sighed in frustration. He doesn't have an answer.

"I.. don't know, honestly. Manny didn't say anything about how I'll get in." he frowned, staring aimlessly at his food.

Rapunzel's heart skipped a beat and she swallowed again. Her habit when she was nervous was taking over again, "I-I… I can help you with that." She muttered, trying to stop her habit.

He looked at her with a questioning expression, "You could?"

The corner of her lips tugged upwards, forming a small smile, "Of course!" she said with a little bit of enthusiasm, "You just need an application form, medical certificate and a lot of one-by-one sized picture, and you're all set!"

He felt relieved but he wasn't sure, though. He still wanted to have fun with the snow he makes as a spirit but Manny said he can go to college. The Man in Moon wasn't forcing him to go, he just can go to college any time if he wishes but something inside him said that he should take a break and experience life he never had for the second time around but this time, as a human. He also thought that maybe going to college with Rapunzel was a good idea and that it was fun. He'll get to learn a lot of things get new experiences. After all, he was born a long time ago and that the things he will be encountering were still not yet invented. So why not give it a shot?

He let out a small sigh and smiled, "Alright. So when do we fix this application?" he asked.

Rapunzel's eyes rolled up as she pulled her lips in a bit and tilted her head, "Hmm.. how about tomorrow before we put up the Christmas tree in the living room?" she said as she turned her gaze at him, her face showing an expression of excitement and happiness.

He nodded and smiled back at her. They continued to eat dinner then helped each other wash the dishes and watched a bit of news before going to bed. Rapunzel changed her clothes to her pajamas. Jack glanced around the room, trying to look for something. He looked under the bed, under the pillows and on the window seat but he didn't see it. When Rapunzel was going to lie down, she noticed him. He was almost panicking.

"What's wrong?" she asked, her head moving as she stared at his figure, pacing back and forth at the foot of her bed.

"I can't find my hoody or my capris!" he said, stopping himself from pacing and threw his hands down in a way that made him look like he just lost his wallet containing a few hundred dollars.

Rapunzel's expression turned to a very apologetic one. Her eyes were almost teary, "I'm sorry! I placed it in the laundry basket because I thought you wanted it clean when we get back." She cried. He stared at her in disbelief, not that he was mad or anything. "I was planning on washing our clothes after we build the Christmas tree tomorrow… I'm sorry…" she pouted down at her hands.

He continued to stare at her. Man, is she thoughtful… not to mention responsible, he thought. He saw that her eyes were forming tears, threatening to trickle down any second so he went to the side of the bed and placed a hand on her shoulder, "Don't cry, Goldilocks. It's fine. I just panicked 'cause I thought I lost it." he gave her a genuine smile, assuring her it was fine and that he wasn't the least bit mad.

She didn't look at him and only nodded. Jack felt a pang of pain strike his chest and frowned at this. Why was he feeling that way? Probably because I over reacted earlier and didn't bother asking her about my hoodie… and I scared her, he thought as his frown worsened and tightened. He took his hand and went to the window seat when she turned away from him. There was silence between them. He looked outside the window, looking up at the stars. Not too long, he heard a dragging sound so he turned his head and saw Rapunzel dragging a single-bed mattress. She was pinning it in-between her arm and waist with one hand and held the front side with another.

He immediately stood up and helped her. They laid it on the floor by the window seat. Rapunzel opened a drawer under her cabinet and got a bed sheet and covered the mattress with it. Again, he helped her. He was wondering why she got another bed and if she wanted to sleep on the floor without any support to the mattress or something. He stared at her. He saw that she reached for two of her pillows and placed it on the mattress and crawled back up her bed and got her other blanket (she had two blankets because it was still cold with only one blanket) and placed it properly on the bed on the floor. She tucked herself in her blanket and smiled at him, "Sleep." She said.

His eyes travelled down the bed then at her, "I'm going to sleep there? But I thought I'll be sleeping on the window seat?"

She chuckled, "You'll get cramps and feel weird in the morning if you do."

So very thoughtful.

He wanted to reject but she gave him puppy-dog-eyes and pouted so he gave in. It was cold anyway, he told himself so he wouldn't feel shy about lying on someone else's bed but it didn't help. He just tossed and turned for at least an hour before he fell asleep. Once or twice he woke up in the middle of the night, still feeling shy about the bed. He wanted to shift to the window seat but he thought that Rapunzel might get upset if he did so he just lied down with his hands under his head and the blanket messily lying on top of him. The room was lit with a dim light coming from the street. He thought about what had happened just yesterday. So many things happened, he thought. Experiencing playing in the snow as a human, eating in a restaurant, being seen by people, being bumped on to by people—it was all new to him. For a long time, he was only regarded as an "expression" or anything but a being that makes people happy, too like his four guardian friends.

Jack smiled at the memory of meeting Jamie and his friends. He couldn't believe someone could actually believe in him. Then his smile faded. He remembered his first encounter with Rapunzel. His smiled crept back up when he remembered how she threw things at him and how she held her sketchpad in defense, how her eyes glowed when she found out it was him and how her cheeks would turn a lighter shade than scarlet whenever she smiled at him. His smile grew wider at the memory of her pouting at him. He thought about their day the day before and thought about what was going to happen later that morning. His mind was so busy that he didn't know when he fell asleep again because his imagination when he was awake turned into a dream when he fell asleep.

They next day, they went to get Jack's one-by-one pictures from the mall after they shopped for some school materials for him. He told her he could manage with a pen and a compiled scratch paper or a notepad but she didn't like the idea and said that every student must have his or her own notebook and other school stuff, aside from some miscellaneous, but generally, a student must. He could only sigh in defeat and let her buy it but he felt so awkward because someone buys him his own things. He wished he could buy them on his own because the money she uses should be used and only be used by her for her and not for anyone else. But who is he kidding? He doesn't have cash with him. Heck, he doesn't even own a wallet. He frowned at himself, I'm gonna get a job, he thought, but what job?, he frowned some more.

They walked around the mall, ignoring the girls staring at him again and got his one-by-ones. Rapunzel opened the small envelop and looked at his pictures and smiled at him, "Wow, you don't need photoshopping." She chuckled.

"Photoshop?" he asked and got a copy. He stared at it. He looked the same, "What do you mean Photoshop?" he asked.

She smiled and looked at his picture, "Photoshop is a photo editing software. It's actually obvious when a face is photoshopped or not. Yours didn't even need editing, it's amazing!" she said, still looking at his picture for a while then returned it to the envelope. Jack returned the copy too and they walked to a bakery in the mall and ordered Marble Bread. Jack carried the plastics of school supplies they got from NBS while Rapunzel ate her piece of the Marble Bread. They went out the exit and waited for a cab.

"Hey, Goldilocks, don't you have school today? It's Monday, isn't it?"

She grinned at him, "Nope. The school allowed three days of preparation for the campus-wide Christmas party."

"Oh. So, what are you going to do in the party?" he asked.

A cab came and they went in at the back. They continued talking.

"Well," Rapunzel started as she leaned back, "Me and some classmates of mine were assigned to do a dance, which we are already done practicing last week." She smiled and when he didn't speak, she continued, "I was also assigned to do the lettering for the "Merry Christmas" thing but I'm not done yet."

Jack had nothing better to say so he just asked again, "Can I help?"

Rapunzel looked down at her hands, still smiling, "Yeah. But it's in the theatre arts room back at school so…" she trailed off, looking at him with her eyes, "I'm going to school tomorrow after getting the laundry to the laundry store. Wanna come?" she asked, looking at him this time.

He nodded, "Yeah. I don't have anything to do tomorrow the whole day until 7 p.m. so, I might as well come along."

She blinked twice, "7 p.m.? What are you going to do by then?"

"I still have to check on places even though I'm relieved of my guardian duties. I still have to. Christmas day is near so I must." He said as he looked outside.

She really wanted to spend time with him that day but she thought she had a lot of time with him yesterday. I can't be selfish, she thought. Her throat ached and she tried swallowing whatever is inside so she could speak without her voice obviously faltering. She mentally slapped herself and inhaled. Smile, Punz, smile, she told herself. After a few twitches from her lips and a few hardships on the way, she was able to smile, "Be careful, okay?" she said in a soft voice. He looked at her with a smile. It took away some of the ache from her throat. Her cheeks felt sore from holding her smile. She never really faked a smile. Whenever she was sad, she'd cry on her friends', telling them her problem but this was different. She didn't want him to see her crying.

He's going to think I'm annoying and ugly. He might not like me anymore, she thought.

Hell, she was paranoid. Her whole life, she never thought she was near pretty. She always thought men do not like girls crying and that girls should be pretty to be likable and appreciated. She noticed that in most of the men since her high school. She only talked to a few boys she was afraid that having a lot of guy friends would make a wrong impression of her.

That evening, Rapunzel was alone in her room, sitting by her study table. She left Jack watching the F.R.I.E.N.D.S. series in the living room. She was thinking about designs on the lettering she was asked to do. She couldn't choose between garland and glitters as the border. She thought it might be exaggerated if she chose garland but the glitters weren't enough and the glimmer wouldn't reach so far. She set aside the problem first and thought of the layout of the lettering. She made a couple of drafts for the layout. She thought that she should put it on the wall up the stage in a curvy way but she still needed second and third opinions. Her mind went back to the outline.

"Garland is too expensive…" she muttered to herself then she grabbed her red and green coloring pens and dotted on her lettering design. She made diagonal stripes across each letter and dotted it with red in one stripe and green on another stripe. She finished every letter and tapped her cheek with the end of her green pen.

"Hmm… What if I made the stripes glitters?" she asked herself, "And stick Christmas lights on the borders!" she said, her face lit up with a wide grin. She draw Christmas lights at the border of the letters and encircled it with her red pen.

The door flew open revealing a yawning Jack. It was already 10 p.m. and he was tired from all the shopping, waiting and building of the Christmas tree earlier that evening. Rapunzel smiled at him, "How was the show?"

Jack smiled back and went to her bathroom, "It was funny. I was laughing for a good two minutes."

She stood up and grabbed a towel from a nearby drawer and gave it to him, "Here. You can take a shower if you want."

He blinked, "Yeah. I think I already smell bad."

She chuckled and opened her door, "I'll get some clothes for you." She said and she went out. She went to her parents' room again and got another set of her father's clothes and placed it by the sofa near the bathroom door and knocked on the door, "Hey, I placed your clothes on the chair by the door." She said and went downstairs to check on the doors, windows and the tree they made. She stared at the Christmas tree. The Christmas lights that were wrapped over the red and gold garland flickered. She looked under the tree. There were no gifts yet.

I'm gonna put my gift for him there, she thought and smiled. She went back upstairs and saw that Jack was half naked and he had his towel by his head. The both of them fell silent. Awkward…

Rapunzel slammed the door shut and stood outside with her back pressed against the door. She was blushing madly! It was her first time to see a guy wearing only boxers. On the other hand, Jack stared at the door. It shocked him. It was his first time to be seen half naked by a girl. He quickly wore the shorts and shirt she placed on the chair and hanged the towel on the towel rack behind the bedroom door and opened it.

Rapunzel was still leaning back on the door, replaying what had just happened then suddenly, the door opened and she fell back. Jack caught her, wrapping his arms around her waist. He pulled her up and helped her straighten herself. Another moment of awkward silence filled the room.

"I'm sorry!" they both said in unison. She turned to him and he was rubbing the back of his neck.

Still awkward…

"I-It's fine…" Rapunzel said and rushed to the bathroom and locked the door before Jack could even say anything.

That night was a very awkward night. So awkward that even the morning after was affected. They went to Corona University without talking to each other. That is, until they went to the theatre arts room. The room was huge. Jack was looking up at the ceiling, appreciating the designs on it and the old-looking style of the venue. Rapunzel rushed to the stage and he followed. He saw the lettering she was making. It was twice the size of a short bond paper. He looked at her.

"What did you plan on doing about the letters?" he asked. He knew she was planning last night.

"Glitters on the letters—stripes of glitters and Christmas lights as the border." She smiled as she fixed the letters.

Then they heard the main door open and a few people entered. It was her female classmates.

The two of them gulped a bit.

Uh-oh..

End of Chapter


Yay! Finally done. Took me two days to finish. xD Hope you liked this chapter… Okay, maybe not because it's boring : I had to rush this one -_- bro kept on bothering me about borrowing the pc.