The three guardians stared at the Sandman sheepishly. Bunny was rubbing his ear uncomfortably, Sandy's grainy fingers had definitely left a sore spot.

"Vell ve had better go looking for him then." North said trying to break the stare down there shorter friend was giving them. "I'll take the twins house."

"I'll go to Piper and Monte's houses." Tooth added quickly.

Sandy created the image of Cupcake.

"Guess that leaves me with the Bennetts, Jamie and Sophie."Bunny groaned. Though he loved Sophie and cared deeply for Jamie,he had a feeling that Jack was having an unwanted effect on The older Bennett. The kid acted more and more like the winter spirit every time Bunny saw him.

Jack was currently displaying, model style, what Bell bottom pants look like when worn correctly. He personally had never owned some Bell bottom pants but one of Mr. Bennett's old pears actually fit him. Jack was strutting his stuff to the absolute amusement of the family.

"Those may have been in style when you were in school uncle Albert." Max told Jamie's dad."But those would just invite people to pick on me. Like a giant target on my back."

"Max are you having bully troubles?" Sarah asked worried.

"Nah, I'm good, I mean I did when I was younger, but I've basically become the least interesting person to pick on now a days."

"How'd you do that?" Asked Sam.

"Well for me it was just a matter of becoming invisible. I didn't antagonize them and I didn't put myself outside of the average group. I just became another face in the crowd."

"Wasn't that kind of lonely or at the very least boring?" Asked Candace.

"At times, but I figured it was better than having people looking for any excuse to attack me with words or mean pranks."

Max's mom put a hand on his shoulder. She hadn't witnessed her sons difficulty with bullies. Seeing him struggle with what was said to him and what the bullies did when they knew the teacher wasn't looking. She had complained to the school but unfortunately the bullies only found new ways to torment Max. She had felt completely useless, unable to help her child.

"I'm proud that you didn't lash out at them or anyone else for that matter!" Jack said coming into the conversation, Bell bottom pants now safely folded and headed back to Mr. Bennett.

"What good would it have done?" Max stated with a shrug.

Jack smiled and nodded. "You'd be surprised how many kids, and adults for that matter, don't realize just how true what you just said is. They take their hurt out on other kids or even worse let that hurt build and…." Jack didn't want to finish that sentence, or that thought. Having lived 300 years he'd seen more than he ever wanted to of what bullying could cause.

The adults all nodded, various news stories and Memorials flashing through their minds.

"Jack?" Jamie asked.

"Yeah Jamie?"

"Were you ever bullied?"

Jack heaved a sigh. "Oh yes, back when I lived with my family in early Burgess there were a few high-end kids who like to push around the farm kids."

"That's when you would stand up for your sister our great, great, great, great, etc. grandmother right?"

"You got that right!" Jack's staff was on his shoulder and he had quite the pleased smile on his face.

The kids started jabbering about how cool there unkle was to have stood up to bullies and how he protected his sister! James me was equally as excited however having gotten to really know Jack he also noticed the smile didn't quite reach the winter spirits eyes. It seemed he wasn't the only one.

"Jack would you help me in the kitchen for a moment?" Mrs. Bennett cleverly found a way to pull Jack away from the crowd. Jamie quietly snuck away and followed. Listening carefully from the doorway of the kitchen he found that his mom had noticed the look in Jack's eyes as well. "Something else happened didn't it?" She whispered to Jack.

Jamie could just see Jack getting into his uncomfortable stance, one hand at the back of his neck and staff clutched tightly in the other hand. "How could you tell?"

"Mother's intuition. What happened?"

"Well, I've had some pretty rough run-ins throughout my 300 years as Jack Frost."

"Run-ins?"

"Being chased off, being associated with the death of winter, and there's been a few times where I've been attacked. I kinda, sorta, acted like Max. I isolated myself a lot. But, I also have a… Prank rap sheet, um, 10 miles long if not longer!"

"ATTACKED!" Jamie jumped right along with his mom and Jack when he noticed that Aunt Greta had come over to listen as well.

Jack looked half way between terrified and self-conscious. Jamie had no doubt right now Jack wished he was off flying over the Atlantic Ocean or something rather than staring down aunt Greta.

"Don't try and avoid the question, answer me, what do you mean by attacked!?" Aunt Greta had her arms crossed over her chest and she was staring Jack down.

Her shouting and angry tone of voice had gotten all of the families attention, it wasn't long before every single member who had originally been in the living room was now staring into the kitchen wondering what was going on. Now Jack found himself surrounded by curious and concerned faces. He had known that Mrs. Bennett had taken him aside to talk to him privately but that intention was now up in flames. He honestly did not see any way out of this, he had a sneaking suspicion that if he tried to laugh his way out of this or shrug the question off he'd be in trouble.

"Well when I first woke up from the pond I had absolutely no idea of the hierarchy or rules of the spirit cultures. I was also really freaked out because I couldn't be seen by humans. So in my ignorance I wander into another's territory, or come up and try to talk with any spirit or creature that I realized could see me. However for a lot of the Beings I met ignorance was no excuse for my actions."

"What you mean?" Asked Jamie unable to curve his curiosity despite Jack's obvious discomfort.

Jack's posture slumped, " why don't we go back into the living room and sit down this may be a story you don't want to be standing up for." Everyone followed his suggestion even Jack himself sat down not feeling quite comfortable with being in a standing position."Well I guess one of the best examples would be when I was two years old-as a spirit-I found a water fary who was creating dewdrops on the leaves. When I came up to her she spun around and screamed in my face, in my shock a small bit of my power escaped my control and all the dewdrops froze into little pellets of ice. She flew away so fast it was like watching a hummingbird! I didn't see her until the next day and unfortunately she wasn't alone. She had a swarm of other water fairies with her and they decided that I was a danger to their work and their home so they went after me to defend themselves. You wouldn't think fairies would be too dangerous, but you'd be wrong! Though they were small there combined strength in a swarm was like being stung by millions of bees. I skedaddled out of their area as fast as I could!"

Jamie remembered being stung by a bee once, to think about a swarm made his arms sting in phantom pains.

"I once ran into a Minotaur when I took shelter in a mountain tunnel system. The thing thought I would be a delicious snack, so he knocked me out and dragged me to the very center of his labyrinth like home. It was obvious that I wasn't his first visitor for dinner, there was even a fall spirit that had made the same mistake, there with me at the exact same time. When the Minotaur came close enough I was able to give them a solid kick to his cow jaw and the fall spirit and I ran for our lives! Unfortunately as soon as we got out of the tunnel the fall spirit hit me in the back of the head. Disoriented as I was I still caught his words as he fled 'better you than me.'"

"Did the Minotaur get you again?" Asked Sam in a worried voice.

"No," Jack assured. "I was able to get away!"

Jamie was honestly astonished, the happy-go-lucky Jack he knew had never mentioned anything like this to him before. He didn't understand how someone could have had such scary encounters and still be so carefree.

"And of course there's always the yearly tussle when winter comes to an end. It's getting harder and harder for winter to stick around when it needs to, and because of that the warmer spirits seem to think I should let go of my seasons hold sooner and sooner. They show up at whatever time they want, and try to get me to leave by any means necessary. Getting to the point where having a white winter is nearly nonexistent, and because of that there is an imbalance that needs to be corrected. And of course I get blamed for that imbalance."

Aunt Greta was downright fuming. She wasn't angry at Jack but at the way that one of her family had been treated for so long.

Bunny hopped out of his tunnel in the backyard of the Bennett house. He walked over to the back door and peeked in, the kitchen was completely empty. He opened the gate and walked around the perimeter looking in windows and trying to find the elusive Jack Frost. He finally found him in the living room and tapped with his foot twice on the ground. He came up out of the tunnel beside a table full of various foods. His nose twitched at the scent of steamed carrots but he focused his attention on the winter spirit.

"Well I for one think that something should be done!" A a strong faced woman was saying.

There were murmurs of agreement and questions of "how?" being thrown about by the rest of the large group of people. Bunny was honestly curious why Jack would want to sit and listen to a family conversation, Is he that lonely that he has to spy on Jamie's family? I swear it doesn't matter how long I exist I will never understand this kid!

"Maybe we can keep an eye out for him." A little girl suggested. "If something happens he can come to one of us or if we see something happening we can go to him."

"It's a sweet idea Tiffany." The girl's mother, bunny assumed, said smiling down at her. "It makes sense."

"Except for the part where we don't see them." Said Jamie's mom.

There were groans and nods of acknowledgment to that statement. Bunny thought it was time to grab Jack and go. This was obviously a really important family discussion not something anybody, especially a guardian who should hold themselves to a higher standard, should be eavesdropping on. He walked up behind Jack who was still perched on a chair, grabbed his hoodie and gave a firm yank!

"Hey!" Jack yelped as he found himself dangling above the ground, feet kicking out of instinct. "P-put me down!"

Bunny paid no attention to Jack's squabbling and instead started pulling him back towards his tunnel. That is until he felt the weight on his leg. Sophie had attached herself to bunny's right leg and was holding on for dear life. "Come on ankle biter let go."

"Bunny stay! Put ukle Jack down!" Sophie said in a whiny voice.

"Ukle Jack?" Bunny looked between the young girl clinging to his leg and the winter spirit who was still clawing at his hood and windmilling his feet. Then his eyes strayed to Jamie who now stood in front of him with his arms crossed over his chest and a look of protective anger on his face. As if the two kids, one clinging to him and one staring directly at him, gave a silent que the rest of the large group of people seemed to suddenly surround him.

"Whoever you are I suggest that you put our family member down this instant!" The stern faced woman said. Even though her eyes were focused off to the left of bunny her stern gaze was nonetheless intimidating.

Sorry for such a long wait! Long story short: computer broke, had to buy a new one, took a while to learn new system.

Hope you like the chapter! Review or P.M, I'd love to hear from you!