One year since he had died. And how had he spent that? Completely uselessly. Playing pranks on random kids and freezing water pipes. He couldn't believe himself.
Now it was time to show them- he would show them all. What, he wasn't exactly sure… but he remembered how Highland had seen him in that cave. He was determined to figure out how that worked and make it happen again, hopefully when the person in question was a little more conscious.
His first attempt was on Emma. He followed her around all day, doing everything he could think of. He blew cold wind through her hair, frosted her bedroom window in the most interesting design he could come up with, and even iced the sidewalk as she walked along it. He didn't want to hurt her, but he was going to do whatever it took for her to notice.
Once he ran out of ideas, and with Emma still blind, he just followed her. Nothing notable happened until that evening, when his mom was talking to a friend on the phone while she prepared dinner.
Jack was sitting on the counter, trying to pretend he was back in his old life. Emma doing her homework, his mom gossiping away...
"Honestly, Maureen, I swear. Its gotten so cold around here that it's like Jack Frost blew into town."
Emma and Jack looked up at her at the same time. Jack had been noticing this. People talked about him like he was the north wind or something. Had that always been an expression?
"What'd you say, mom?" Emma asked.
"Nothing, honey. Oh, I know, Maureen..."
Emma had a strange look on her face. Jack wasn't sure, but he thought it was the look of an idea.
Next he tried Highland. A lot of the same techniques, all of them just about as successful as they were with Emma. Jack resigned himself to floating after Highland, mildly annoyed but not surprised. He followed him all weekend, to no avail. Maybe he needed to trap him in another cave if he was going to be this stubborn.
It probably wasn't helping that Highland had changed quite a bit since Jack had last seen him. It was shocking, but he had grown significantly taller, and more muscular (Was that possible?). In fact, when he followed Highland around school he noticed clusters of girls eyeing him interestedly. That was definitely new.
And Elsie…. He didn't even have the heart to try her. She was even more distant than she used to be, she stayed locked in her room and hardly came out for anything.
So he stayed near Emma, mostly. It would have been as unbearable as it was before, except that Emma seemed more… aware. She still couldn't see him, obviously, but when he made it snow she would look up in a way that she hadn't before. Her eyes shone with an undefinable wonder.