Jack walked beside Emma on the way to the bus stop the next morning. "You can't force people to see me, Em. I've been trying, but they have to do it on their own."
"I'm not going to stop trying! I can't let you be alone!" She said passionately.
Jack smiled. "I'm not alone anymore, I have you."
"Yeah, but what if…" She trailed off.
"What's up?" he asked, looking at her.
She looked down at her feet, one toe scuffing the sidewalk. "What if I stop believing?" She said quietly.
Jack wasn't sure what to say to that. After a pause, he said, "You won't. You're my sister and my best friend. I know you'd never forget me." But a tiny seed of doubt persisted. What if she did forget him? How could he go back to that loneliness? He shook himself. No use thinking about that. Better to savor this moment, when she did see and love him.
They reached the bus stop at the corner. This stop was the hub of the elementary, middle, and high school bus routes, so there were quite a few kids there. Jack noticed that this included Highland, who was early as always. But for once, he didn't care much. He had Emma now.
They sat together at the edge of the group, continuing to talk. Soon, however, a couple of Emma's friends approached.
"Who are you talking to, Emma?" Claude asked.
"Jack Frost," Emma said coolly. She and Jack had decided to keep it simple if anyone asked questions.
Claude and Caleb both laughed, and Pippa raised her eyebrows skeptically. Jack rolled his eyes and walked away a bit, looking to see if Elsie was at the bus stop yet.
"Jack Frost?" Jamie asked, looking both interested and slightly suspicious.
Emma nodded, seeming not to care about her friends' reactions. "I met him yesterday, but I wouldn't expect you to see him. He's usually invisible."
Her friends continued to tease her about her "imaginary friend", but Jamie was curious. He came to sit by Emma and asked her about Jack.
"Really," Jamie said, "Did you meet him?"
"Yeah," Emma said, excited. "He's actually my brother, but when he died he became magic. He's got white hair and blue eyes now, and you can only see him if you really believe he's real."
"That's what people say about Santa and the Tooth Fairy, but I still haven't seen them. I've tried."
"I think they're more sneaky about it. Jack's not used to being seen, apparently I'm the first one." She looked proud. "So he's not hiding. But everyone knows about Santa and the Tooth Fairy, so they have to be more careful."
Jamie nodded slowly. "I guess that makes sense. But are you sure-?" But Jamie was cut off by Highland, who had come up behind them.
"What were you saying, Emma? You saw Jack again?" he asked, looking imperatively curious.
"Sort of," Emma replied. The elementary bus pulled up and she and Jamie got up, gathering their stuff. "But he's magic now, and you can't see him unless…" Highland didn't catch the rest of her sentence as she was swallowed up by the crowd of kids getting onto the school bus.
Jack soared along beside the bus, hopping on the tops of cars as he sped through traffic. He was level with a window where Emma was peering out, watching him. Though Jamie was sitting beside her, he didn't seem to notice Jack as he flew just outside the window. Oh well. Jack bounced of the roof of another car, covering the top with frost and landing on the roof of the bus. He poked his head down over the window so he was looking at Emma upside down. She laughed in delight, enjoying the entertainment. He blew on the window, frosting the edges in his favorite swirling pattern, and flipped off of the bus and onto another car. He rode it like a surfboard as it kept pace with the bus, then launched himself into the air when the bus took a turn, spinning in the air. Emma clapped and grinned as she watched, and though Jamie gave her a quizzical look, Jack continued to accompany them all the way to school.
Meanwhile on the high school bus, Highland was thinking very hard. Emma had claimed to have seen Jack too. Highland was still obsessing over what he now termed his "vision" in the cave. He hadn't heard Emma's entire conversation, but her description of the altered Jack fit, and Highland had never told her what he had seen. Was it possible that some form of Jack was still out there?
Emma would think it magic of course, but Highland thought it more likely that something supernatural was going on. And he knew only one person to consult when it came to the supernatural.