The Change
Rapunzel
Yes, I will admit it; I am in love with Jack Frost. I cannot help it. In fact, I do not even want to love him. It was just instantaneous.
It all started on my seventeenth birthday, a few months ago. Mother was having a party and she invited all of the neighbors. That meant that Manny and Jack came over. All of my friends were there dancing and laughing. We had an awesome time. We gathered around the cake, ready for the birthday and song. Everybody belted it out as off key as possible. I laughed as they sang the last few words.
"Make a wish!" Mother yelled. I gulped in as much air as possible and blew it out while whispering my wish repeatedly in my head. Everybody cheered and cameras went off. I looked up, my eyes caught Jack's, and immediately everything dimmed and slowed as I stared into the Albino's beautiful blue eyes. I only looked away as Anna, one of my friends, put a cake slicer into my hand. I cut up the cake and searched for Jack at the same time. He was gone and my heart ached. Stop it heart, it would have never had worked out anyway, I had thought. My heart pounded with sadness anyways.
Therefore, it was almost like magic. Almost like God had ignored my birthday wish and instead gave me this one. I stare out the window, now in present time, staring right at Jack's window, my traitorous heart begging him to see me.
God decided to grant that wish, as Jack came to the window and stared out. Crap, I thought as Jack's eyes met mine. I awkwardly waved and he waved back. I sighed, left the room, and went downstairs. Why can't you ever be cool, Punzie? I thought bitterly. I grabbed a drink and sat on the couch. Outside, snow fell in delicate small bunches. It is odd to have snow already, because it's only November. With a sigh, I pulled on my wool jack, put a beanie over my knee length blond hair, and stepped out into the cold. With a laugh, I dropped onto the snow-speckled grass and stared at the gray clouds above me.
A door slammed behind me and I looked up to see Jack walking to me in his signature blue hoodie. He had no shoes.
"Won't your toes freeze, Frost?" I asked sarcastically.
Jack chuckled, "I'm used to this crap." He lay down next to me.
I stared at his blue eyes, "Why are you here?"
He put his arms behind his head, "Depends on what you're doing here."
"Staring at the sky and watching the snow fall down. Your turn."
"Well, I'm staring at the sky, watching the snow fall down while talking to you."
I smirked, "Clever." After that, we just stared at the sky, not saying anything. Jack kept looking at me, but I ignored him.
He looked like he wanted to say something. Finally, I whispered, "What?"
Jack looked up and did not say anything. Really? I thought.
"Have you every wondered," Jack whispered. "Why you look nothing like your Mom and why I look nothing like Manny?"
"Yes, lots of times."
"Well, my case could be of genetics, you know 1 person in a crowd of 17, ooo could turn out to be an Albino. Yours is different, you don't have a father, your Mother looks nothing like you, and you don't sound the same," Jack said. I nodded, confused by why he decided to talk about this.
I spoke up, "But don't normal albinos have gray eyes and not blue? They also don't have gray shadows on the eyes either."
"Yeah, I'm the weirdo of science," He said with jazz hands. I giggled. What a dork.
"So is Manny your real father?" I asked. "I mean you two look nothing alike, features wise." I added quickly, I did not want to offend him.
"No, Manny isn't my father," I looked at Jack inquiringly. "He told me a few weeks ago that sixteen years ago, while Manny was working here, a woman walked up to his apartment door. She rang the doorbell and Manny opened the door. The woman had a jacket pulled over her head and you could only see the tip of her nose.
"She said, 'Mr. Frost, I can't look after my baby anymore. If you could please take care of him, I would be eternally grateful.' She handed the baby over to Manny, he asked for the baby's name, and the woman said 'Jack'. After that, she left. Manny never saw her again," Jack said angrily. He turned and bore his blue eyes into my green eyes. "You know the part that I hate? She never shed a singled tear. Not a sob came out or any sign of regret. After that, Manny left Burgess and went on to other places with me at his wake."
Jack's voice had hardened throughout the story. I flinched when I saw tears in his eyes. I felt like I needed to his see a smile, a laugh, or a smirk.
"If… if it makes you feel better, the day I met you, I swore to never ever like you," I smiled. "Yet here we are seven years later, a foot away from each other and talking like old friends." To my relief he smiled. A breeze picked up and chilled me to the bone. I began to shiver but I did not want to leave.
Instead, Jack decided to, "Well I'd better go before hypothermia sets in."
"Hey, Jack," He turned.
"What?"
I gulped, "Why did you tell me that?"
He paused for a moment, "…Because everyone else wouldn't have been as genuine as you." He left then, leaving me in shock on the grass.
I finally left when the shivers made my whole body shake. I retreated into the warm house where Jacks parting words sat on my mind as heavy as an elephant. He called me genuine; he called me genuine. I cursed myself for freaking out over the smallest things.
I thought to myself, Maybe I will forget it by morning. Therefore, I fell asleep with an empty hope on my mind.
This morning I did not want to go to school. Only I have to. Grrrr, I thought as I ate breakfast. I was done with my shower in minutes, done with air in the same time, makeup was easy since I only wear a little bit, and clothes were a no-brainer. As I was brushing my teeth, I remembered the night before. He called me genuine, I thought. I shook my head. No1 No! Think of fifth grade, goldilocks, something to piss you off at him. I could not. He was too damn nice all of a sudden. I looked at my watch. Crap! I was late.
I ran out of the garage and started my car, or at least tried. It stuttered, clicked, and died.
"No! Don't die car, please don't die on me!" I tired again but it was useless, my car was dead. I sat back in my seat and breathed through my nose. You can make it Rapunzel, run fast. Therefore, I did, while taking shortcuts through alleys and dodging crowds.
I ran up the Burgess High stairs and through the hallway.
"Wait Mrs. Collins, wait!" She was shutting the door. Wit a gasp I collapsed into my seat. I must have run at least two miles nonstop.
The rest of the day was pretty boring and tedious. I would every now and then catch myself looking for Jack. The only class that I knew he was in was Biology at the end of the day. I kept staring at the back of his head, waiting for him to turn his head and look at me. Mr. Burke kept calling on me to trip me up and most of the time he did.
"Rapunzel, how many cellular nuclei does the pollen tube of angiosperms have?" Mr. Burke asked.
I looked down in desperation, "Uhh…."
"Does anybody else know?" Mr. Burke asked. I saw many hands go up and one that I dreaded would be chosen. "Yes, Kelsey?" Damn, I thought.
Her annoying voice floated through the room, "Three, sir. There is one tube cell and two sperm nuclei."
"Good Kelsey! Thank you for being on task," The last part was directed to me. I cringed. I looked up to see Jack staring at me.
"What," I whispered.
He looked like he was going to say something but then said, "Never mind."
When the bell rang, I sat in my seat, still unsure how to get home. Finding no conclusions, I decided to walk.
"Rapunzel, do you need anything?" Mr. Burke said. Yeah a ride home, I thought. "Rapunzel?"
"Oh I'm fine Mr. Burke," I said as I gathered my books.
"You seemed fairly distracted today; Rapunzel is there anything bothering you?"
"I'm okay," I walked to the door. He said good-bye and I did too. When I looked out the door, the hallway was deserted. Wit a sigh, I shouldered my purse and my book bag and I walked out of the school.
I was taking all the short cuts I knew and it was not long before I became lost. The streets were unfamiliar and I turned into an alley. After turning the corner, I realized that I would come to a dead end. Crap, I thought. A freaking dead end. I turned around to see three people in my way.
I tried to walk past, "Excuse me." One obliged but the guy next to him grabbed my arm. With a squeal, he twisted me around so that I was once again blocked.
"Give us your purse, honey," The man's voice was gravelly and under his beanie, I could see red hair. Same with the guy next to him. "And we won't hurt you." The man at the far end pulled out a gun. I screeched and scooted back. The man that moved aside for me spoke up.
"Maybe we shouldn't do this, guys. She is just a kid in high school," The man said. Underneath his hoodie was dark brown hair with a lot of hairspray.
"If you don't like it then leave, Flynn," The man, Flynn, nodded and left me alone with the two redheads.
"Please, please, just take my purse a-and m-my wallet too," The talkative one grabbed my arm and I screamed, sure I would die. "Help somebody, please! Help me!" I screamed. The man slapped me and I whimpered. He pushed me on the ground and searched through my purse. The one with the gun pushed through my books.
"Jackpot!" Yelled the talkative one. He held up my wallet with all my money and credit cards and school IDs. The quiet man pointed the gun at my face and grunted.
"I could careless, Elliot. Go ahead," Said the talkative one. Elliot, to my surprise, put away the gun, but then pulled out a knife.
"Please! Stop and think for a minute about what you're doing!" I begged. He stalked closer and with each step, my heart raced faster. He was foot away now. I shut my eyes tight and screamed when I heard a flat banging noise. I looked up in surprise to see to blue eyes the color of the ocean.
Jack
My heart had stopped cold when I heard a scream. It was not just any scream; it was a scream of the girl who had hated me for seven years.
The only way I recognized it was because, one night three years ago, she had had her friends over for a party and they watching a movie. I heard her scream at a scary part and it stuck with me since then. I ran to where it was coming from and saw Goldilocks on the alley floor with two people looking through her bags. From where I could see, one had a gun and the other, I am not too sure.
A grunting sound appeared and a voice said, "I could care less, Elliot. Go ahead." Rapunzel began to scream and beg. I noticed something on the ground, a frying pan, and picked it up. I watched the two brothers but went after the one named Elliot.
He clicked the gun and with a bang! I hit him on the head. He crumpled to the ground unconscious. Rapunzel stared at me; her unnerving green eyes followed me as I picked up the gun.
"What the-!" I heard from behind. I pointed the gun at the thief.
"Got anything to say now?" I asked. The man backed up to the wall and I tossed my phone to Rapunzel. "Call the cops please."
The man kneeled to the ground where he sat while Rapunzel talked.
"Hello? Is this the police? Listen w-we have some people that tried to mug me… There were three guys… One was named Flynn, one was named Elliot, and I do not know the last guy… A boy from school found me, knocked one of the people out, and took his gun… Right now, we have the conscious guy up against the wall….
"I don't know where we are, somewhere near the hood of Burgess. Alright then… bye." She hung up.
Somewhere far away we heard sirens. They stopped nearby and the cops came rushing down the alley. They took the gun I was holding and hand cuffed the two people. Rapunzel broke down in the questioning and I had to tell the rest of it.
After two hours of this, Manny finally came by.
"Hey Rapunzel, you're Mom can't come get you, she's stuck in traffic," Manny said. Through the ride back, she was quiet. Not cracking a smile when I said funny jokes and only mumbled a thank you to Manny. She ran across the street and rushed into her house with me feeling bad behind her.
The time that I fell in love with her was unspecific; as if she came into school, one day and I could not stop staring, not that she noticed. I guess it was in the seventh grade. Since then everything changed for me. Except at her seventeenth birthday party, I was sure that we had shared something. Apparently it was all for not. Now I feel heart broken and forgotten.