Alaia Skyhawk: Here's the next part. Time to fix the plothole that is the sofa coming from "downhill" of where it actually should have come from XD
Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians, the Guardians of Childhood, or any related characters etc. This story is written purely for entertainment purposes.
~(-)~
Chapter 54: Rise of the Guardians ~Part 2~
It was Good Friday, the 29th March 2013, and two days before Easter. It was, by general standards, an early Easter compared to years when it would be in the third week of April. This was the kind of year that Bunny hated for just that reason, because there were so many more places where winter might still have a hold during the festival... And Burgess was one of them this year.
Which of course gave Jack the perfect excuse for one of his favourite sorts of things.
"Snow day!"
His whooping cheer rang out upon the wind, as he streaked down through the clouds to descend upon the town. The roads had been cleared, but just about everywhere else there was a layer and mounds of snow. Children ran around in it, played with it, and had snowball fights with it. For Jack, it was the best start to the festival weekend presided over by the most grumpy, in his opinion, Guardian.
Jack laughed, racing down the main street, bouncing off of buildings leaving bursts of frost in his wake. Numerous adults jumped in surprise when they happened near them, but then shook their heads in amusement and continued what they were doing. They knew it was nearly time for Jack to head south, and any last-minute exuberance by him was to be expected. It was the same every year.
Reaching the end of the street, where it met the edge of the park, Jack swooped back up into the air to clear the tops of the woodland trees. The winds then whistled as they followed him down again to skim the top of his pond while he slid across the frozen surface, startling the two boys who were also trying to slide across the ice.
Those winds came up behind Jamie, catching him off guard, and whipped the book he had out of his grip.
The boy scrambled to pick it up. 'It' being a textbook about myths and legends, and supposed evidence to support theories of their existence; 'Mysterious Times'. One of Jack's sprites had found it discarded last week, and so he'd given it to his nephew as a surprise.
It seemed he'd at last got around to reading it.
Jamie brushed the dirt from the pages, even as Jack landed near him.
"So, good book?"
The boy turned and started to grin when he saw his uncle, but was then nearly bowled over by the twins whose family had moved in just last week. Claude and Caleb were dark-skinned, energetic, and tended to rough-house a lot. It showed as they nudged Jamie playfully in passing, before then starting to jostle each other. Neither of them could see Jack, not yet.
"All right! Yeah!"
"Snow day!"
"You're welcome!"
Jamie chuckled at Jack's remark, giving him a glance before heading after his newest friends, and called out to them.
"Are you guys coming to the egg hunt Sunday?"
Caleb nodded, even as Claude nudged him.
"Yeah! Free candy!"
"I hope we can find the eggs with all this snow!"
Jamie dashed ahead of them, leading the way to the fence around the Bennett Family's yard. One pair of planks hung from a pivot, allowing them to be swung aside as a 'secret entrance' and all three boys slipped through.
"Whoa, it says here that they found Big Foot hair samples and DNA, in Michigan! That's like, super close!" He smiled. "I had no idea yetis came that far south!"
Behind him, Claude rolled his eyes. Both he and his brother were sceptics about pretty much everything that was 'myth', and they'd not been in Burgess for long enough to learn otherwise.
"Here we go again."
Jack landed, unseen by the twins, on the top of the fence and began to idly walk along it with his staff across his shoulders. Meanwhile Jamie was picking up his sled from where it leaned against the back porch, and his sister, Sophie, was running circles around the family dog, a greyhound, while pretending to fly using her wide-and-gauze fairy wings.
With her long blond hair showing signs she'd obviously cut it herself with a pair of scissors, her bright green eyes, and her childish grin, she was certainly a right little character for a two-year-old.
Jamie smiled as she continued to 'fly' around Abby, the dog, and then he turned to face the twins.
"You saw the video too, Claude. They're out there!"
Caleb snorted, as did his brother.
"That's what you said about aliens."
"And the Easter Bunny."
Jamie gave them both a knowing look.
"Look, the Easter Bunny is real."
Jack, arms hung over his staff, nodded to himself.
"Oh he's real alright... Real annoying, real grumpy, and really full of himself."
He jumped down from the fence, to instead sit on it casually as Claude and Caleb charged past to head out the back-gate.
"Come on, you guys believe anything."
Sophie watched them go, and started down the porch steps as if to follow.
"EASTER BUNNY! HOP-HOP-HOP! Ow!
She tripped over and fell from the last step, Abby following her only to pick up a purple and pink tennis ball. The dog dropped it in front of the girl, expecting a game, but Sophie had instead started to cry.
Jamie called out.
"Mom! Sophie fell again!"
Laura came outside and set Sophie back on her feet, before she then went to Jamie and pulled a hat down onto his head.
"Jamie, hat? We don't want Jack Frost nipping at your nose."
She tweaked the end of his nose with her fingers, while behind him Claude laughed, as did his brother.
"Who's Jack Frost?"
"No one. It's just a saying."
"Hey!"
Jack eyed the two boys, looking somewhat miffed, and Jamie had to hide his smile as he carried his sled across the road after the pair of them. When he got to where they'd stopped, he then murmured too quiet for them to hear.
"Any second now..."
Jack jumped down off the fence, landing beside a snow-drift, and grabbed a handful of snow.
"Who's Jack Frost?"
He blew on the resulting snowball, charging it with the power of fun. And then he took aim, even as Jamie counted down using his fingers.
Three.
Two.
One...
"Hey, who threw that!"
Claude had turned to look when the snowball hit him, Jack's power already causing him to grin as the Spirit of Winter flew over and landed near them.
"Well it wasn't Big Foot, kiddo."
Jamie laughed, grabbing a snowball of his own, and took aim at another of his nearby friends. A bespectacled blond boy wearing a green coat; Monty.
It slammed into the back of Monty's head, knocking him face-first into the snow, and then a second snowball coming from Jack hit the girl near him. Pippa, yet another of Jamie's friends.
She yelped as she slipped and landed on her rear, but was already bubbling up with laughter from the magic in the snowball.
"Jamie Bennett, no fair!"
Jamie pointed at Jack.
"He struck first!"
And Jack struck again, this time hitting Caleb. His battle-cry heard by all, even the as yet unseeing twins, when he shouted out.
"FREE FOR ALL!" Jamie took cover, using his sled as a shield, while all around him it became a mass snowball fight. One that was added to by Jack dashing among the 'combatants' to conjure snowballs across the ground. "Alright, who needs ammo?!"
The children who could see him all cheered, grabbing the perfect spheres and targeting each other with them. Jamie found himself beaten backwards, still using his sled to block the hits, only to stumbled when his foot struck a half-finished snowman.
He fell over it, landing on his back, and the snowball that had been about to hit him, hit the heavy-set girl in a fairy-tutu skirt who was behind him, instead.
The girl turned, holding the head she'd been about to put on her snowman, and growled with soon-to-explode temper.
Pippa gasped, cringing.
"Crud, I hit Cupcake."
Monty pointed at Pippa.
"She hit Cupcake."
Claude and Caleb went still. Even after just a week in the neighbourhood, the twins had heard of the girl too.
"You hit Cupcake?"
Jamie, still flat on his back, peered up through his sled at Cupcake came to stand towering over him. But before she could do anything else, a blue-lit snowball came out of nowhere and hit her smack in the middle of the face.
Claude blinked, and Caleb started to look around.
"Oh!
"Did you throw that?"
Pippa and Monty looked at Jack, who had perched himself on the tip of his staff between them.
"No."
"Wasn't me."
Jack was grinning, and as Jamie had done, he counted down with his fingers.
"Three... two... one..."
Cupcake burst out laughing and broke into a grin, switching from opposing the game to joining in. All five other children raced away from her mock-pursuit, as the girl raised her snowman head up over her own and charged after them. All was going quite well, until Jamie slipped and landed on his sled.
"Whooaaooah!"
It careened down the slope, heading for the road, and Jack darted into the air and took off after him.
"Don't worry, Jamie! I gotcha!"
Jack got in front of him, laying down a narrow sheet of ice for the sled to ride on instead of hitting bare tarmac and tumbling over. The route skimmed the boy past the front of a removal truck which turned sharply to avoid him, causing the sofa in the back of it to slide out and begin down the hill towards the park.
Jamie was going much faster than it, clinging to his sled even as Jack used his ice to direct him around the thankfully small amount of traffic. But it didn't change the fact that the passage of a boy on a sled was wreaking mayhem, and yet as the seconds passed both boy and immortal started to laugh at the rush of it all.
They approached the far end of the park, where the statues of Thaddeus and Jack were, but instead of being able to bring Jamie to a controlled stop on the grass, the advent of a snow-plough coming up the road forced Jack to veer the sled to the side early... Up it went, Jamie included, over the resulting ramp of ice. Both boy and his runaway 'vehicle' landing in the pile of snow that Jack hastily conjured to catch them.
Jamie's friends reached the edge of the park, having dashed down the hill after him. All of them wide-eyed even as Jack whooped in success. He knew his nephew was unhurt.
"Oh my gosh!"
"Wow, that looks serious! Jamie!"
"Jamie, are you alright? Is he okay? Did Jack stop him getting hurt?"
Jamie stumbled up out of the snowdrift, pulling his hat back on straight and laughing in exhilaration.
"Whoa! Did you guys see that? It was amazing! I slid! I did a jump after I slid around all the cars, and then I-"
The sofa, which had got caught on and directed by the same path of ice that had guided the sled, came out of nowhere. The 'oof' as it hit Jamie, making Jack wince where he stood on the plinth of Thaddeus' statue.
"Whoops."
There was a moment of silence as the children inched forward to see it Jamie was ok, but then the boy's hand and arm shot up into view from behind the sofa. Quickly followed by the rest of the boy in question, as he grinned and revealed a gap in his teeth. One that had until this moment held the tooth he had in his grasp.
"Cool! A Tooth!"
Claude came forward, laughing.
"Dude, that means cash!"
"Sure does!" Jack landed beside the twin, peering over his shoulder. He'd felt borderline belief kick in with both brothers, and like any experienced immortal he didn't let the chance to cement that belief pass him by. "It's in good condition too. Good brushing habits, and you've flossed. You're going to get a dollar from her, for sure."
Claude stumbled backwards away from Jack, staring at him as wide-eyed as Caleb.
"Whoa... Who- Who are you?"
Jack glanced sidelong at them and grinned before pointing to his nearby statue.
"I'm Jack Frost... You know? The one who is 'just a saying'."
He laughed at the looks on their faces, and took flight. Leaving them to talk about him with Jamie and the others on the way back to The Village.
Jack arrived back at the Bennett House to see Laura on the front step talking to Mrs Werrin, and it took only one look at the expression on Laura's face to know he was going to be in for some trouble.
He waited until the old lady had gone back across the street, before landing sheepishly in front of Laura and following her when she frowned and discretely pointed for him to go inside. She then rounded on him.
"Where's Jamie?"
Jack cringed back from her glare.
"He's fine! He's fine! I sent him into a snowdrift at the far end of the park. He'll be back here in about five minutes."
"You took him, on his sled, through traffic!"
She was right up in his face now, and he was still cringing.
"Look, it wasn't on purpose. He slipped and landed on his sled, and ended up in the street on his own. All I did was go after him and make sure he didn't hit or be hit by anything."
Laura placed her hands on her hips.
"And you and I both know you could have just grabbed both Jamie and the sled, and carried them into the air and back up the hill!" She held a finger right in front of his nose. "You did it because you thought it would give Jamie a thrill. That it would be exciting... If you do anything like this ever again, I will ban you from taking Jamie on any outings to Santoff Clausen for the rest of the year!"
Jack gaped at her, at the injustice of that.
"But that's like punishing him, not me!"
Laura backed up, and only now was it visible that she was shaking from concern for Jamie's safety.
"Then think of it as incentive to think up safe games for the children from now on. I don't care that it was by chance that Jamie ended up in the street. You didn't have to take him through town, and leave me to hear from the neighbours that my son has gone careening through traffic and that they didn't see where he ended up!"
Sophie peered around the edge of the living room door at that moment, frowning her little child's frown.
"Mommy?"
Jack hurried over, putting his arm around Laura's shoulders and directing a smile at his niece.
"It's ok, we were just talking. Do you want me to tell you a story about the Easter Bunny?"
Sophie gasped with delight and started to jump up and down.
"Bunny! Bunny!"
As he sent Sophie back into the living room, Jack murmured to Laura.
"You're right, I should have been more responsible and not gone overboard like that. I'm sorry."
He was still with Sophie when Jamie got back, the sky outside now starting to darken. Jack kept out of the way until it came to eight o'clock, and then he slipped outside to watch the family through Jamie's bedroom window.
The boy's room was a treasure trove dedicated to all things mysterious, and his walls were covered with posters, charts, and with drawings he had done. Pictures of the handful of immortals that he'd met, of Ombric and the others in Santoff Clausen. And right now he added a new one, of him playing with his friends and Jack, while shooting up into the air on his sled.
He was bounding on his bed, acting out the scene using the robot he'd gotten from North for Christmas. Sophie watching him with rapt attention.
"
...I did this jump and it was amazing, after I slid around the cars and
it was awesome! I was flying down this hill and I was like whoosh, whoosh, whoosh! Through all these cars, and then the sled hit this, this thing, and I was like way up in the air!" He jumped up, landing with a thump back on his bed. "And then BAM! The sofa hit me, and, and see? My tooth came out!"
Jamie pointed to the gap in his smile, causing his sister to giggle and try to poke her fingers into that gap.
Laura, who had been putting away a couple of stray toys, glanced at her son. She'd calmed down now, and even managed a smile at Jamie's story.
"Alright you, tooth under your pillow?"
Jamie nodded and grabbed his flashlight, which had been on his bedside table beside a camera. He tested both.
"Yeah. I'm ready."
Laura ruffled his hair.
"Now don't stay up trying to see the tooth fairy, Jamie, or she won't come."
He held his flashlight close, determined as he turned his attention to his sister.
"But I can do it this time! You wanna help me, Soph? We can hide and see the Tooth Fairy!"
Sophie started to bounce in increasing excitement. Not exactly the best thing when it was time for her to go to bed.
"Hide, hide, hide, hide, hide!"
Laura picked her up, even as Abby clambered up onto the bed and knocked Jamie flat as she licked the boy's face.
"Uh uh, straight to bed now, mister. And turn your night-light on."
Jamie pushed Abby off him, grinning.
"You want a night-light, Sophie?"
He cupped his hands in front of his mouth, whispered a couple of words, and blew into them. He held the resulting ball of light out to his sister, who eagerly reached for it.
Laura intercepted the ball and snuffed it out, giving her son a long look.
"You use a normal night-light at home, you know that. No using the magic tricks Ombric taught you, around the house."
Jamie let out a sigh.
"But Mom! It's not like anyone can see them in here except us! It's just a little Light Charm!"
Laura tugged his blankets up over his legs.
"And you are a big brother, who needs to set a good example for his little sister. Sophie isn't old enough yet, to understand that there are things we need to keep secret. A story that she 'confuses her Uncle Jack with Jack Frost, because their names are both Jack', won't work to cover for stories about spells. Wait until she's older, and then I'll let you start using your Light Charms around the house at bedtime."
Jamie let out another sigh and gave in, at last lying down.
"Ok, but you remember that that's a promise, right?"
Laura tucked the blankets in around him, smiling.
"It's a promise."
Outside the window, from where he watched, Jack smiled to himself in both amusement and contentment. He knew Jamie would hold her to that.
~(-)~
Alaia Skyhawk: Yep, Jamie has picked up a couple of 'magic tricks' from Ombric, because lets face it... If the Jamie in the film ever went to that village, he would pester Ombric to teach him magic, hehehe.
And for those who are disappointed that Jack still hasn't gone to the workshop yet, I'll be attempting to get a second chapter up today. If not, it'll be posted tomorrow. So you won't be waiting long for 'that scene' hee hee :)
And now for a random lol from the Screening Script of the film, for the part where Sophie cutely says "Hide hide hide hide!" The script doth describe it like this:
~()~
SOPHIE
(crazed)
Hide, hide, hide, hide!
~()~
...
O_o
Crazed?
lol, if I find any more really daft bits like that in the Screening Script, in the coming chapters, I may put them at the bottom again for you guys to see hehehe :)