Chapter 1: New Friends

Elsa was eight years old the day she met nine-year-old Jackson Overland and his three-year-old sister, Emma Overland. Anna, Elsa's own younger sister, was five years old.

They had gone out into the courtyard to play because their parents were busy in the throne room. At first, they didn't think anyone was around but a few guards, so Elsa created a snow day for her sister to play in. Anna began jumping around and laughing, and Elsa was laughing with her until they heard a gasp from behind. Anna paid no attention and kept running around, but Elsa turned quickly so she could protect her sister if she had to. What she saw was a little girl not much younger than Anna, with long, straight brown hair and brown eyes, running around in the snow, and an older boy who looked just like the little girl, with messy hair of the same shade and the same brown eyes filled with mischief and fun. Anna finally started paying attention and, seeing nothing wrong with Elsa using her powers around other people, ran over to the little girl to play. The two girls ran off to try building a snowman, leaving Elsa and the boy alone. He came over with a mischievous smile and watched the two young girls.

"Um, hello," Elsa started shyly. She didn't have any friends besides her sister. Her parents kept them away from the other children in their kingdom, so the two princesses only had each other for company, and whichever of the servants would agree to play with them. Usually it was just Kai or Gerda, since they were the two in charge of the princesses when their parents were busy, but sometimes they managed to play with the other servants as well. They still never had company their age, however, so a new friend never came into the equation. The boy turned his attention from their younger sisters to smile at her.

"Hi," he replied simply, still smiling. His brown eyes were warm, and it shocked Elsa how different they were from her father's eyes. Her father's eyes were green, and even though she knew her father loved her, they weren't always warm towards her. Jack's eyes were warm and different from any eyes she'd ever seen. None of the servants in the castle had brown eyes, so she'd never actually seen or met anyone with brown eyes before. After a few moments, Elsa realized she was staring, so she quickly turned back to the two playing girls.

"Is that your sister?" she asked him shyly. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him nod, and she knew he was watching her instead of the two girls.

"Yes. Her name is Emma. She just turned three, and our mother had to come into town to work today so we had to come with her, and we started exploring. She's the one who wanted to come see what the castle looked like from inside the gates," he explained. Elsa nodded slightly, not looking away from Anna and Emma.

"Anna's my little sister. She's five. She wanted to play, but our parents were busy in the throne room so we had to come out to the courtyard to play. We didn't see anyone out here so we figured it was fine since there were enough guards to watch us," she told him, and when he didn't answer she turned to find him watching her with surprise in his eyes. She tilted her head curiously, and he seemed to snap out of his surprise enough to bow to her. She quickly shook her head and nudged his shoulder to stand him up before continuing. "You don't have to bow to me," she assured him. "We're the same age, or almost. Please don't bow. It feels weird."

"As you wish. So, you're the princess?" he asked her, as if to reinforce this new piece of information. She nodded slightly.

"Yes. My name is Elsa. I just turned eight, and Anna is my best friend," she told him. He smiled and looked over at the girls, who had momentarily given up on building snowmen in favor of making snow angels.

"Anna is lucky to have an older sister like you looking out for her. I'm Jackson, but Emma and my mom just call me Jack—unless I'm in trouble—so you and Anna can just call me Jack too. I turned nine a couple of weeks ago, and I would give anything to keep Emma safe," he told her, and seemed to trail off thoughtfully at the end, or more thoughtfully than a typical nine-year-old should, and watched his sister protectively. Elsa understood immediately what he meant, because she knew that if she had to, she would even separate herself from Anna completely to protect her. Elsa never wanted to have to do that, but she knew in that moment she would be willing to if it meant keeping her sister safe.

Without warning, a snowball came flying from nowhere and hit Elsa in the shoulder, bringing her back to reality. She turned and saw Jack grinning mischievously with one hand behind his back, and knew he was the source of the rogue snowball. Elsa found herself smiling as she used her magic to create a sparkling snowball from thin air and threw it at him, hitting his left shoulder. His eyes lit up watching her magic, and he threw the snowball he had behind his back at her. She threw up her arms to block the incoming projectile, and when she heard peals of young, girlish laughter, she knew a snowball fight had officially started. The two younger girls came and started pelting their older siblings with snow, although Emma was having trouble making snowballs with her toddler hands, and Elsa paused the game long enough to use her magic to create two short walls of snow to hide behind, and the game restarted. Elsa and Jack hid behind one wall and made snowballs to hurl towards their younger sisters, and Anna and Emma hid behind the other. By the time Jack and Emma had to go home, Anna, Emma and Jack were soaked with snow and Elsa had snowflakes stuck in her braid, and Elsa and Anna had their first friends.