There was still snow on the ground in February, I don't know if it was the fact that Jack was around more often, but it made things a little better for me.

Except that school started again.

Walking home from school in the snow isn't the best, since the bullies have a whole arsenal around them.

Which included the pair in front of me. I didn't care to learn their names. They weren't important, as much as their actions made them seem to think so.

"Hey Davies! Enjoying the snow?" asked one of them, throwing a snowball up and down. I
ignored him and pushed between the pair.

"Hey don't ignore me!"

Haven't I since day one?

A snowball landed on my back as I walked, to which I merely kept walking.

"Oi, Davies!"

Why are they still bothering?

I wondered as another snowball landed between my shoulder blades.

"Hey, leave her alone!"

I looked to my right to see Jamie, looking as angry and threatening as any nine year
could when faced with a pair of guys who had gone through puberty and were on the football team. Behind him were a bunch of other kids who were staring at him, a little confused. I guessed these were his friends from his elementary school.

"Jamie, don't get involved." I said calmly. I wasn't bothered by these idiots, so there was no reason for him to be.

He ignored me and continued glaring at the bullies as they walked up to him.

"Aw, the small fry's trying to protect his girlfriend, is he?"

Jamie went red with indignation, "She's not my girlfriend!"

"Yeah, the little loner's never had a friend in her life, it's not like she'll know the difference." One of them laughed.

"Say, how about we teach both of them a lesson?"

Realising this could get ugly, I decided that now was a good time for a little rule breaking.

While they were facing Jamie I used my power to form a snow ball, I then flung it with pinpoint accuracy at the back of one of the bullies heads.

They both froze and turned as one, to see me throwing another snowball up and down in my hand.

"So, you wanted a fight?" I asked.

"You've actually got some guts Davies." One of them growled. "Didn't think you had it in you."

"Maybe, but I didn't think you'd have so little down below that you'd pick on a kid. So I guess we're learning a lot about each other today."

The pair of them scowled and took a step towards me as Jamie took a step back.

I raised my arm to throw the snowball, then yelled loud enough for the kids behind us to hear.

"SNOWBALL FIGHT!"

I launched by snowball at one of them as people around me screamed with joy and began throwing snow at each other, including some of Jamie's friends.

The two bullies got doused with snow and I decided that now was a good time to make a quick exit. I wasn't quite ready to join in on a duel school snowball fight.

I ducked into a gap between two buildings, brushing off the odd bit of snow that had managed to hit me. The gap here served as shortcut home and it was just wide enough for two people to walk side by side, but they'd either have to be really close or be very attracted to brick wall.

To my surprise someone else was walking down the alley in the other direction. He was tall, easily around twenty, with dirty blonde hair and black clothes, any normal girl would have probably noticed and cared that he was actually rather good looking, I sort of noticed, but didn't care.

I was not at all prepared to get even slightly friendly, so I decided the brick wall was more bearable.

As we came closer I moved slightly towards the wall so that I wouldn't bump into him, only for him to move towards the middle.

My eyes narrowed, what was he doing? I moved even closer to the wall, my shoulder now running slightly painfully along the brick.

Finally we got to a meeting point, to which he held out his hand and blew something in my face!

I coughed and turned away slightly, my back hitting the wall with a thud as my bag was pressed between the wall and my back.

"W-what the heck man!?" I coughed.

I looked over to see him just standing there slightly off to my left, smirking as I coughed.

I looked down at the hand I was coughing into to see black specks all over it. My eyes widened as I realised what it was, and who this person was, a Descendent of Pitch, using black Dream Sand.

I coughed again as I allowed my power to gather in my hand and flared my fingers to send an ice ball his way.

Which sailed straight past him.

He hadn't moved, and I missed, I never miss.

My vision began to blur as I sent a blast of ice his way, which he didn't even have to dodge.

I stomped my foot allowing ice to quickly spread and I swept my arms to guide the ice towards him as it formed into spikes.

In response he took a step backwards towards the other wall and seemed to disappear into a shadow, only to re-appear to my right, just a little too close for comfort.

At this point my eyesight was fading to black and my arms seemed so heavy. All I wanted to do was...

Sleep.

Jamie looked around as the snowball fight began to die down. Snow was plastered to various people, windows and the pavement, but in the snow covered crowd there was one person he couldn't see.

"Hey, where'd Jackie go?"

Everyone within earshot just shrugged, possibly because they didn't know who he was talking about.

He wandered around trying to see if he could find where she went.

He leaned around the corner to the ally way, which he knew she sometimes used as a shortcut, and his jaw dropped.

Almost the entire alley way was coated in ice, with spikes near the edge of the ice and what looked like the remains of a burst ice ball by his feet.

"What happened?"

He turned around to see Pippa standing behind him.

"It looks like Jack Frost had a fight." She commented, looking around at the scene.

"I don't think it was Jack." Said Jamie walking forward. His eyes were drawn to the burst ice ball.

"But neither of them miss, but it must have been either Jack or Jackie."

"Who's Jackie?"

"Someone I know." Jamie bit his lip, unsure if he should tell Pippa about Jackie's ice powers. On one hand he had promised not to tell anyone, but he had no other way of explaining it.

"Hey, is that someone's bag?"

Pippa stepped around Jamie and carefully into the centre of the ice, avoiding the spikes
surrounding it.

In the centre was a dark green plain backpack, but to Jamie it was a flashing siren.

"Oh no..."

With that Jamie sprinted out of the alley and back towards the main part of the town.

"Jamie? Jamie where are you going?!" yelled Pippa, but Jamie was already gone.

Jamie scanned everyone he passed, hoping to find a certain large man with craftsmanship skills.

"Nigel! Nigel!" He yelled, people turning to look in confusion for a second then moving on with their lives. After what felt like hours, but what was probably only half an hour, he ran headfirst into the very person he was looking for.

"Whoa, slow down there Jamie, what's the hurry?" Said Nigel stepped back to allow Jamie to catch his breath.

"Something's happened to Jackie!" He cried, trying to pull Nigel back with him.

"Are you sure?" asked Nigel his face creased with concern.

"Yeah, follow me!"

The pair ran back to the alley, with Jamie taking every shortcut he knew, and once they arrived Nigel had a good look at the scene.

Nigel looked around, accessing the scene carefully, and his frown only deepened when he saw the backpack on the ground. He stepped across the ice and picked up the bag. As he picked it up a small stream of black sand poured off the bag.

"I see." Nigel said, trying not to let his voice show his worry.

"What?" asked Jamie, his own worry growing at the older man's vagueness.

Not looking up from the bag Nigel said.

"Jamie, I suggest you go home, I'll handle it from here."

"Huh? But she's my friend!"

"I know, and I'm sorry, but this is something that you can't help with."

Nigel gave to bag to Jamie from across the spikes and began to walk away with his phone in hand. It was time to round everyone up.