Ahahahahaha! Finally I got chapter 3 done! Happy Late St. Patricks day! Hope you guys over 21 didn't drink too much Guiness. Anyway I just got the Rise of the Guardians Blue-Ray combo pack! It's BEAUTIFUL! And I GOT A DIGITAL COPY TOO! *dances* Let's celebrate with chapter three!

I wish it hadn't taken so long, but I've been fighting a cold for the past week and updates might not come for a bit since I'm having trouble in one of my classes but they will come.

Now standard disclaimers apply, Read and Review please!

Enjoy!

"He's nipping at your nose,

You can feel him in your toes,

A shiver and a tear,

Lets you know Jack Frost is here!"

"Jack Frost is Here", Rankin/Bass Jack Frost

Chapter Three: Snow Day!

It was still dark when I arrived in Burgess on Thursday. Tomorrow on Good Friday Easter Break would start for the kids.

Why not have their break start a day earlier?

Just as long as I didn't start any blizzards I knew Flora at least wouldn't get on my case.

First thing's first, I need to make sure my pond is still frozen over. And as usual, my pond was my first stop in Burgess. Even though it had remained frozen for the past three hundred years I always had to be sure the ice was safe for ice skating. For some reason it made me feel better if I checked the ice before anyone went on it.

Sure enough my pond was just as frozen over as the day I emerged from it. But just to keep from worrying too much about a kid falling through I made several passes over the pond to thicken the ice.

"You know Jack," A girl's voice said, "If you keep doing that every time you come to Burgess that pond's going to become an iceberg wedged in the ground."

I whipped around looking for the source of the voice and, after a few seconds I saw her. Up in one of the trees surrounding my pond was Flora. She was lounging up in the upper branches of a tall oak.

"Better that than one of the kids falling in." I said.

Flora chuckled and catching a gust of wind floated down to join me on the ground, "Alright, alright Jack; just don't go over-board." She leaned in towards me playfully pointing her spade at me, "You'll only need to make some big drifts not a total coverage. Easter's this Sunday."

"Are you threatening me with a spade?" I snickered and leapt up into the air towards the clouds to begin working on the snow day. Since I didn't need to cause a total coverage of snow I made sure the best snow I could make was piled up in large fluffy drifts scattered all over town, and just for the fun it, dumped an extra large drift right in front of the school entrance, making my point that today there would be no boring school for anyone for the next several days.

"Well, it's official." The voice on the radio of a nearby house said, "Schools and businesses are closed, it's a…"

"SNOW DAY!" I rocketed down the main street past several passersby who pulled their jackets closer around themselves, bounced off a truck and shot up above town leaping onto my staff like a snowboard flipped, then landed on my pond making a sharp u-turn on the ice and flew past Jamie, who was walking by reading a book.

Jamie yelped at the sudden gust of wind I caused his book flying out of his hands and gave chase. I landed a few feet away from him as he stooped to pick up his book which was titled: They're Out There-Mysteries, Mythical Creatures, and the Unexplained Phenomena.

"Huh," I said, "That looks interesting, good book?" Jamie flipped through the pages trying to find his spot again until he came to a page titled "Bigfoot sightings". I leaned over his shoulder to get a better look; it was a small collection of various Bigfoot sightings.

"Hey," I said pointing to one on the right page, "That was a good one, that camper said he was actually kidnapped by Bigfoot in his sleeping bag."

"Jamie!"-"Hey Jamie!"

The twins, Claude and Caleb from Jamie's class came rushing by nearly knocking each other-and Jamie-over in their excitement, whooping as Caleb shoved Claude into a nearby snowdrift shouting, "YEAH!"

Claude then picked himself up clapping Jamie on the shoulder-making him lose his place. Again, "Come on Jamie it's a snow day! No school! You can read later."

"You're welcome!' I said throwing a hand up, "I figured you kids needed an early start with your break."

Jamie stumbled trying to keep up with his friends as they all hurried up to his house which was only a short ways from my pond, "Hey, hey guys! Wait!" he shouted trying to run and read his book at the same time nearly tripping several times, "Are you guys coming to the egg hunt on Sunday?"

Caleb grinned, "Yeah!" as if the question really didn't need answering, "Free candy! I'm getting twice as much this year!" If you had seen him at last year's egg hunt you would have a new definition for the phrase "sugar rush". After wolfing down several chocolate eggs he had then proceeded to run amok throughout the egg hunt until a sugar crash laid him low thirty minutes later.

Jamie had finally found the Bigfoot section of his book again and stumbling a few times as he tried to run and read at the same time. His eyes widened and his whole face lit up, "Wow! Guys! It says here that they found Bigfoot hair and DNA samples in Michigan. That's, like super close!"

"Oh," I said suddenly remembering my most recent attempt to get into North's workshop, "Oh yeah, I put that there. It was Yeti hair actually."

"Ah…" Claude groaned rolling his eyes, "Here we go again…"

I landed on the fence surrounding Jamie's backyard as he caught up with his friends and as his mom and little sister Sophie wearing her pink fairy wings came out chasing Abby the Greyhound in one of her many attempts to ride her like a horse.

"Come on that was not Bigfoot Jamie." Claude said, "That had to be some camper in a costume."

"You saw the video too Claude!" Jamie protested flipping back to the page on Bigfoot, "He's out there somewhere!"

Caleb began to laugh as Jamie finally caught up with them at the fence, "Didn't you say that about the aliens?"

"And the Easter Bunny." Claude added helpfully. I wasn't too surprised; he was starting to get to the age where he'd start to grow out of that sort of thing. In other words, the inquisitive age.

Jamie puffed out his cheeks in outrage, "The Easter Bunny is real!" he insisted, "I saw his tail a few times during last year's egg hunt!"

"Oh, the Easter Bunny's real all right." I said walking along Jamie's fence with my staff slung across my shoulders, "Real annoying, real grumpy, and really full of himself."

Claude let out a snort of laughter, "You guys will believe anything."

"Easter Bunny!" Sophie shrieked with delight and began to bunny hop down the porch stairs, "Hop! Hop! Hop!"

And then fell flat on her face on the grass letting out a muffled, "Ow."

"Mom!" Jamie shouted not sounding too worried as he fumbled with the sled he got last Christmas, "Sophie fell again."

Jamie's mom came out from the house with Jamie's cap in one hand which she set down on the porch before climbing down the steps to pick Sophie up.

"You okay Soph?" she asked with a warm smile. Sophie just nodded like nothing happened and brushed the snow off her clothes.

"Come on Jamie!" Caleb shouted, "Are we going sledding or not?"

Jamie's mom then turned to Jamie as she lifted his cap off the porch, "Jamie, don't forget your hat. You don't want Jack Frost nipping at your nose."

On impulse I turned to look, while his hat was being fussily put on his head Jamie was glancing around as if looking for someone.

"Who's Jack Frost?" Jamie asked.

"No one honey," Jamie's mom chuckled, "It's just an expression."

"Hey!" I shouted. I was sick and tired of being written off as "just an expression" most kids now didn't had never even heard of me. And don't even get me started on that movie with the snowman.

Angrily I leapt down to the snow as Jamie and his friends ran off whooping to go sledding with the rest of their class and scooped up a handful of snow.

"Who's Jack Frost?" I muttered forming the snow into a perfect snowball I held it up and breathed on it turning it blue.

Well kiddo, you're about to find out. I took aim and lobbed my snowball at Jamie.

It hit him square on the back of his head sending him tripping over a half finished snowman and face flat to the snow. Two seconds later Jamie sprang back up laughing as my magic worked on him.

"Okay, who threw that?" Jamie chuckled looking about for the snowball thrower.

"Well it wasn't Bigfoot, kid." I said hovering behind Jamie.

Jamie's search fell upon a group of kids building a snow fort, particularly the one wearing glasses, Monty. I had helped him out a bit last winter. I'll save that story for another time. Jamie immediately crouched down and scooped up a fistful of snow for a snowball and threw it as hard as he could at Monty.

"AGH!" the snowball knocked Monty's glasses off and right to the snow, "Owww…."

I quickly threw another one, this time at the red head girl, Pippa.

"JAMIE BENNET NO FAIR!" Pippa shouted throwing a snowball in retaliation which Jamie blocked with his sled.

"You struck first Pippa!" Jamie laughed.

Before Pippa could even start to think of a retort I sent another snowball at Caleb who thought Claude had thrown it and seconds later a full blown snow ball fight erupted.

"FREE FOR ALL!" I dashed through the growing snowball fight swinging my staff causing several snowballs to spring up ready to be thrown, "All right, who needs ammo?"

A snowball went sailing past me and hit Monty just as he managed to stand up again sending him back down to the snow. Jamie was using his sled as a shield against the snowballs Pippa and Claude were throwing at him. I ran around joining in on the fun.

Then Pippa's snowball hit Cupcake-the toughest girl in Jamie's class-on the back of her head.

There was dead silence as Cupcake slowly turned around looking for the culprit who dared interrupt her snowman building.

"Crud…" Pippa squeaked backing away fearfully, "I hit Cupcake…"

Cupcake's eyes narrowed as she growled menacingly.

"She hit Cupcake." Monty deadpanned pointing at Pippa rather unhelpfully.

"You hit Cupcake?" Claude gasped.

Cupcake lifted her snowman's head up over her head with every intent to throw it at Pippa who flinched and stumbled back.

"Don't worry Pippa I got this!" I stuck my staff into the ground, leapt up onto the crook magic snowball in hand and threw it at Cupcake. It hit her right on her nose. Cupcake froze in place as blue sparkles flitted around her eyes and slowly, her snarl turned into a big smile and she began to laugh, much to everyone's great surprise.

"Who threw that?" Pippa asked.

"Wasn't me." Jamie said holding up his sled as evidence.

No matter who the snowball thrower was exactly five seconds later they were all rushing to find a good spot for sledding, Jamie in the lead, Cupcake bringing up the rear with her snowman head still over her head.

"Come on!"

"Hey lemme have a turn!"

"Whoops, bit slippery!" I shot past Jamie and his friends icing the snow under their feet. Pippa, Monty, Claude, Caleb, and Cupcake all tumbled to the snow in a pile while Jamie landed on his sled and shot forwards towards the street.

"JAMIE!"

"THAT'S THE STREET!"

"TURN RIGHT! TUUUUURN RIIIIIGHT!"

"GO JAMIE!"

I quickly flew after him as he made a sharp turn right and rocketed off a slope almost mowing over some guys loading a sofa into a moving van. They dropped the sofa and more furniture came tumbling out of the truck causing a pile up behind Jamie and me.

"Don't worry kid I got ya!" I caught up with Jamie's sled causing a slick of ice on the street to keep Jamie's sled moving, "Hang on, it's gonna be alright!"

It was hard to tell if Jamie was terrified or having the time of his life.

Personally I think it was both.

Jamie held on to his sled for dear life as we zoomed down the street sending any pedestrians scrambling for the safety of the sidewalk.

"Keep up with me kid! Hang a left!" I made the ice curve around the next intersection and Jamie shot through on his sled earning an angry outburst from some guy walking his dog. Jamie shot off a pile of dirt and zipped down to sidewalk yelping in fright but he was starting to enjoy the ride too.

Even more of the grownups scattered away as Jamie and I came zooming down the street for fear of being run over by a kid's sled.

"There you go!" I landed in front of Jamie as he started to run out of ice to sled on causing more ice the form under my feet then leapt up to follow Jamie down the street. He quickly glanced over his shoulder at the guy he almost knocked over then ahead, a hug smile on his face.

Mission accomplished!

"Yeaaaaaah!" Jamie cheered I was ready to take him down the whole street!

Until the plow showed up.

"Whoa!" I quickly touched down to the ice swerving around to the left towards the statue of Thaddeus Burgess to prevent Jamie from being squished by the plow bearing down on us. Jamie screamed as he just missed the plow which changed to a cry of delight as he shot off the ramp at the end of the ice path. He sailed through the air in a perfect arc and landed neatly in a large snowdrift at the base of the statue.

"Yeah! Alright Jamie!" I cheered leaping up onto the statue as Jamie's friends came rushing over to see if he was okay.

"Jamie are you okay?"

"That looked serious…"

"He's not dead is he?"

"Whaoha!" Jamie popped up to his feet, "Did you guys see that!? It was amazing!" He whipped his arms around, "I made all these jumps and turns and then I went under this guy, and the ice where-."

WHUMP!

The runaway sofa from the moving van shot by knocking Jamie to the snow.

"Oops…" I cringed as Jamie's friends groaned.

"Jamie are you okay?" Pippa asked as she and the others rushed over to the sofa.

Jamie's hand shot up into the air and the rest of him soon followed.

"Cool!" he gasped, "A tooth!"

"Dude!" Caleb said, "That means cash!"

"Tooth Fairy Cash!"

No. Not now? Why did that stupid sofa have to come and knock Jamie's tooth out?

"Oh no, no!" I leapt off the statue as Jamie and his friends started to leave babbling about how much the Tooth Fairy would leave this time. Did they just up and forget all the fun we had today?

"Come on! Wait!" I shouted catching up with them, "What about all the snow? Our snowball fight? All the fun we had? That wasn't the Tooth Fairy; that was me!"

"Hey did it just get colder?" Cupcake shivered.

"Come on,' Jamie said, "We can get hot cocoa at my house." Caleb and Claude then began arguing over who'd get the most marshmallows. I leapt up catching a gust of wind and landed in front of Jamie.

"Come on, what's a guy gotta do to get some attention 'round here?" I said reaching my hand to Jamie.

He walked right through me.

As usual, just like everyone else.

The snow began falling thicker as I pulled up my hood and flew away.

I was trying everything I could think of.

Why? I did everything I could to try to make the kids happy but they never saw me. The closest was occasionally they would sense I was there but then write it off to their imagination mere seconds later.

It was almost like I didn't even exist.

Soon I found myself back at Jamie's house. Why was I always coming here? I visited Jamie's house more times than I could count. It was like I had some sort of attachment to this place.

Even though Jamie had walked through me more times than I cared to recall I could never bring myself to resent him for it. He just probably never heard of me until his mom mentioned my name. That's how it was nowadays. I just fell through the cracks somehow. No more overhearing parents telling their children: "Jack Frost won't come to frost your bedroom window until you're sound asleep."

Maybe a visit to the library was in order. I think I remember there was book of fairy tales there. Maybe I'd leave it for Jamie tomorrow morning.

The rest of the day went by in a blur. I mostly just hung around at my pond or ran along rooftops watching the aftermath of my snow day and everyone trying to puzzle out how all the ice I made just appeared in the street.

Amazingly, Burgess was well known for this kind of stuff. And the Humans spent so much time and money on all these complicated reasons when it was really much simpler. If I decided the day was a snow day, it was a snow day. And there they were talking about "global warming".

By nightfall I was back at Jamie's house. Usually Baby Tooth came to collect his lost teeth. I hadn't seen her for since the 80's maybe I'd wait up for her to come. I had arrived just in time to see Jamie getting ready for bed. He was telling Sophie all about his sled ride from earlier with his toy robot and jumping all over his bed re-enacting his sled ride.

Jamie peeked under his pillow to make sure his tooth was safely stowed underneath then pulled out his flashlight. I chuckled, he was going to try stay up for the Tooth Fairy again like the last time he lost a tooth. He would fall asleep at ten, right on the dot, with the flashlight still on.

Jamie's mom took Sophie out of his room as Abby jumped up onto his bed licking his face trying to squeeze in some last minute play time before bedtime.

Sighing I leapt back up onto the roof pacing a few times before looking up at the moon.

"If…If there's something I'm doing wrong, could you just tell me what it is?" I asked, "Because…"I gulped, "Because I've tried everything and…and…no one ever sees me."

If just one kid, just one could see me and hear me. That would mean the world to me.

I waited, hoping for some reply.

None came.

"Look, you put me here! The least you could do is tell me…tell me…why." My voice cracked slightly as I struggled to get the words out. I waited again.

Again, the moon stayed silent.

"Why do I even bother?" I muttered turning away and leaping off Jamie's roof to the nearby power lines. The wires froze as my feet touched them and I slid along a few inches dragging my staff along the adjacent wire freezing it too. Probably tomorrow I'd head off for the Southern Hemisphere and hang out with Leaf until Winter started down there. Maybe bring an early snow day to New Zealand. Maybe check on how The Hobbit movie was coming along.

I continued on the power line and freezing the other, no doubt causing a power outage somewhere for a few minutes. I stopped as a gold strand of Dreamsand streaked by me, and then another, and another. In seconds the night sky was full of Sandy's Dreamsand sending out all kinds of dreams to everyone.

"Right on time Sandman." Then laughing ran along the wires and leapt up to touch one of the strands of Dreamsand. A dolphin burst out and swam around me leaping and cackling happily before zooming off to a nearby house. As I watched the Dreamsand began to take on various shapes, giant manta rays, dinosaurs, fish, birds, and even a Dragon who did a few loops with me before gliding into Monty's bedroom window.

I walked along the power lines watching the Dreamsand and keeping an eye out for Sandy's cloud. Maybe I'd tag along with him tonight; at least until he knocked me out with some Dreamsand insisting that I get a proper night's sleep. Eventually the Dreamsand faded from sight as each strand found a sleeping child.

I was just starting to think about finding a place to crash for the night when something rushed by behind me. I turned, just barely catching a glimpse of a large dark figure vanishing into the shadows between two houses.

A Nightmare? I hadn't seen many of them for some time but every now I'd find a Nightmare running amok. I leapt off the power lines giving chase over the rooftops landing in a tree. I glanced around looking for any kind of movement. I nearly jumped out of my skin as a something came streaking past me.

Leaping off the tree and catching a gust of wind I followed it towards the main street area. I ran along several cars setting off the alarms and along another power line before leaping up onto the roof of a shop and leapt down to a truck.

Several trash cans suddenly were knocked over as something big streaked by them. Gripping my staff in a more ready position I leapt down into the alley. Cautiously I stepped forwards ready to frost over whatever it was. The alley seemed completely deserted except for a few rats living under one of the dumpsters. But I couldn't shake the feeling I was being watched.

"Hullo mate." A familiar gruff voice said from behind me.

Muahahaha cliff hangers how I love 'em.

You know, if Jamie hadn't been hit by that sofa, I was pretty sure he'd start asking where all the ice had come from and chances are he might have been able to see Jack then! But then we wouldn't have that "MY FEELS!" scene we all love. Still, pesky sofa.

Oh and who was able to guess what Monty was dreaming about?

Well, my art history class is about to start soon so later!

Chocobo_Scribe signing off!