Threads of Summer

Anna Side Chapter: With Friends Like These

If Anna had ever bothered to sit down and trace back the source of all of her most embarrassing moments, she'd likely discover that most of them could be pinned back to Jane Porter in one way or another. Thoughtless, impulsive, and far too candid for her own good, and anyone else's for that matter, Jane was more like a benign tumor. Nevermind that Anna had endured the better part of her freshman year in high school being called Farmer Anna by most of the seniors in Jane's social circle; a nickname that had spread faster than the clap after Hans Isles had overheard Jane utter it at a party, and later glibly repeated it over the school intercom during bulletin announcements.

The nickname eventually died down, only to be revived once more at the end of the school year when she was voted "Most Likely to be a Farmer," the caption forever memorialized on page seventy-seven of her high school yearbook. She never figured out who was behind it, but Anna always suspected Hans' yearbook groupies had something to do with it. Adding oil to the fire was the fact that the picture used for the caption was taken from a news article Anna had posed for when she'd been competing in the Aarondale Rodeo.

Awkward cartoonish smile and all.

Anna was mortified but Kristoff couldn't have been more tickled by the whole incident. He never missed an opportunity to bring it up in conversation.

"I'm gonna kick your ass if you keep it up," she'd finally warned him.

"Oh, come on. Where's your sense of humor? How can you not see how funny it is?"

His friends certainly agreed, and she persisted as the butt of their jokes; her face perpetually fixed in a gritted smile through it all.

But the locker gag had been the straw that broke the camel's back.

Days before prom, Kristoff decided it would be hilarious to tape a photocopy of the yearbook page on her locker. The color in her face had drained as she stood frozen before her locker, aware of the muted laughter from classmates as they walked past. It was only when she heard Kristoffs heavy steps inch behind her, and his obnoxious cackle, that she felt inclined to move once more.

"Howdy, Farmer A-" he had begun to say smugly.

Before Kristoff could finish, Anna swung around and popped him hard on the nose, and she was more than a little satisfied when he cried out like a little girl.

His nose had swelled like a balloon shortly after, and a deep-set black ring had settled around his eye by the next day. It healed nicely, but not in time for prom. To his embarrassment, their prom picture hung prominently in the living room, showing off his swollen red nose and his black shiner.

"I can't believe your mom put up that god awful picture for everyone to see," he'd groaned.

"What's so bad about it?" She'd replied. "It's funny. I thought you of all people would appreciate that."

He never mentioned the yearbook picture again. Yet she somehow found herself back in that moment, along with several others, reliving little moments of embarrassment, all compounded into the present. With Jane right at the center of it again.

With friends like that, who needs enemies?

Back then, Anna couldn't help but wonder what Elsa ever saw in a friend like Jane. Snarky, thoughtless Jane, who seemed to be more trouble than she was worth. In fact, Elsa seemed to talk more with other classmates when Jane wasn't around. Class president Ariel Bailey was especially friendly. She'd even tried inviting Elsa out with some of her friends on a few occassions, but Jane butt in each time, shooting down each invitation before Elsa could respond.

"I really don't get why those two are friends," Anna had admitted to Kristoff one evening during her freshman year.

"Who?"

"Elsa and Jane. They're kind of opposites, and Jane's always butting into Elsa's business like it's her decision. I just don't get it."

"You're not being very fair to Jane. She's just quirky."

"Quirky? Oh please," Anna had scoffed. "She's nuts."

"And you're not? Besides, friends do that sometimes, you know?" he'd shrugged off. "They look after each other."

"Well, it doesn't seem that way to me."

But Anna couldn't have been more wrong. Just days later, after an especially stomach cramping burrito, Anna found herself in the end stall of the east wing girl's bathroom, unwittingly overhearing Ariel and Merida gossiping about her cousin and her aunt and uncle.

"Poor little rich girl," Ariel had uttered in a sickeningly sugary voice. "I'd just die of humiliation if word got around that my mother was the town tart."

The girls laughed, and Anna wondered if she would be stuck in the stall through all of lunch break, all the while feeling duped by the phony goody-two-shoes act that the class president put on.

"Her daddy's no better," Merida chimed in. "I overheard Flynn Rider's daddy say that Mr. Aarons was always accompanied by some pretty girl on his business trips. And never the same one."

"That family is such a mess. You wouldn't think it the way little Miss Ice Queen walks around, putting on airs like she's better than us. I would seriously just die."

There was another ripple of laughter.

Had Anna been a braver person, she would have kicked her way out of the bathroom stall and clocked Ariel Bailey into next Tuesday but, as luck would have it, someone with guts was already on it.

"Please do," a third voice glowered from the direction of the bathroom entrance, and the laughter abruptly stopped.

It was Jane.

"Do what?" Ariel huffed.

"Die."

A brief silence followed, by an exchange too difficult to hear over Merida's sudden shrieks. Then a loud scuffle exploded, shoes shuffling and screeching on tiles, and the disjointed sound of slaps, thumps, and clothing tearing as Jane and Ariel pounded at each other in the cramped bathroom. Anna could see little more than a blur of the scuffle through the crack in the door. Merida must have run out the bathroom, because moments later Anna could hear her distant voice yelling for the teachers.

Jane got suspended from school for a week shortly after. And when she returned from her suspension, Anna realized that it was thoughtless and obnoxious Jane who watched after Elsa. She was the one person that could truly make her laugh. Jane, as it turned out, was actually one hell of a friend and not the devil Anna had painted her to be. The following week when Jane caught her eye in passing, and greeted Anna ever so loudly with a, "Lookin' sharp, Farmer Anna," Anna had to remind herself of just that.

She reminded herself often over the years that followed. Most especially after their awkward morning exchange in Elsa's kitchen. Anna certainly had no words to formulate a reponse. Her head was like an echo chamber, and all she could hear was Jane's voice over and over, endlessly resonating in the while space of her mind.

"Well, you do have the whole lesbian farm girl look working for you. In a really good way, I might add."

Seriously though, with friends like these, who needs enemies?

A/N: So I wrote this months ago...it was originally going to be chapter 8, until I realized that I'd forgotten to switch over to Elsa's POV. (Gah!) So, rather than simply toss it into limbo, I decided to edit it and turn it into a side chapter. Anyways, thanks for reading! I'll be working on chapter 8 next!