Chapter One: The Fall

"You kids be careful now, alright? I don't want to get a phone call about one of you in the hospital just because you thought you were invincible. I'm looking at you, Jack."

I laugh as the white-haired boy next to me lets out an outraged noise at being singled out. As wild as our group of friends is, Jack is by far the worst. "Why are you just telling me this? I'm not the one who broke my leg three weeks ago," he says, shooting a look at one of our other friends, Hiccup, who is now sporting crutches and a hard cast that's been completely decorated with markers and paints, courtesy of my cousin, Rapunzel.

Mrs. Overland puts her hands on her hips and takes on a stern look. "Now you listen here…" I can hear the groans from behind me, where the rest of our gang is standing. There are eight of us altogether: me, Jack, my sister Anna, his sister Sophie, Rapunzel, Hiccup, Merida, and Flynn. It takes everything in me not to groan as well, but that would only make it worse. From years of experience in dealing with Jack's mom, I know by her stance that she's preparing to bombard us with a lecture about being safe and responsible, something that she claims we are incapable of understanding, let alone actually doing. To avoid our talking-to, I jab Jack in the ribs right when he starts to talk back again. Thankfully, it shuts him up and I give Mrs. Overland my sweetest smile. "Don't worry Mrs. O, we'll be as safe as safe can be."

She just eyes me warily. I don't think she's forgiven me yet for last year's incident, when Sophie got into that sledding accident. She hit a tree and had a pretty bad concussion. It wasn't technically my fault, but going sledding had been my idea, so I took the blame for it. Maybe she's giving us such a hard time today because it was my idea to go ice-skating, and she thinks that something bad will happen again.

After an awkward silence of almost half a minute, she sighs. "Go on then, but make sure you keep a careful eye on ALL of the kids, and don't forget that if anything goes wrong, I'll be looking at you, Elsa."

"You got it, Mrs. O. Don't worry, we'll all be fine." I give her a thumbs up before turning around and running after Jack, who immediately took off with the rest of our friends after the words "Go on" left his mother's lips. I'm going to ignore the fact that she still doesn't trust me. Once we all come back in one piece, she'll realize that I'm both safe and responsible, and that she doesn't have to worry about her kids spending time with me. Not that she could stop us from hanging out. Jack and Sophie have been best friends with me and my sister since I can remember.

"Jack! Wait up!" I yell at his back. He slows down enough for me to come right up next to him, but doesn't stop entirely.

"Nice job back there," he says, giving me a lopsided grin. "I didn't think we'd ever get away."

"I know," I retort. "We could've gotten out here a lot sooner if you hadn't risen to the bait and talked back though."

He laughs. "True, but I just can't help it. My honor will not tolerate being tainted with false accusations of recklessness."

"False?" I ask incredulously.

"Whatever." He just smiles.

After a few minutes of walking in comfortable silence, I feel like I have to bring up a more serious conversation. "But seriously, Jack," I say, "we have to be careful today. Your mom is still mad at me about Sophie's accident and I don't want to give her another reason to hate me."

He gives me a curious look but nods his head. "Yeah I noticed she's seemed a little snippy with you. She doesn't hate you Elsa, she's just worried about us. We'll be careful, I promise."

"Good." He smiles again, and I can't help but grin back. It takes me a moment to realize that we've stopped walking. The trek to the pond where we're going skating is only about five minutes away, so most of our group is probably already on the ice at this point. "Let's pick up the pace if we wanna skate before it gets dark," I say as I grab his hand and drag him forward. He resists, though, and stays standing in one spot. "What's up?" I ask.

He doesn't respond, but just looks at the ground. He's embarrassed about something. "Jack, what's wrong?"

He looks up at me, and his blue eyes are more solemn than I've ever seen them before. "When I was walking back from school…" he starts, but I don't let him finish.

"Were they bothering you again?"

He just nods, and I sigh heavily. A few months ago, two or three older guys from our high school started picking on Jack, pushing him around and insulting him, especially about his hair, which is naturally white. He tries to pretend that it doesn't bother him, but I'm not fooled. "You can't let what they say get to you, Jack. They're just trying to make you feel bad about yourself because they know you're better than them." Knowing that they're bullying him makes me angrier than I've ever been before.

"I know, but…" he pauses, as if collecting his thoughts. "I do know you're right. And it usually doesn't bother me that much, but the last time they came around they started saying things about you too."

I'm confused. "What about me?"

His face starts getting red, and I know that I'm starting to blush. "I'd rather not repeat them," he says, and I just nod. People have been calling us a couple for years, and for years we both just laughed and denied it, but for the past six months it's been different. For me, at least, it has been. I don't think Jack thinks about me that way.

"Okay." I can't think of anything else to say. How did our conversation get so awkward so quickly? After another minute or two of silence, during which I realize that I'm still holding his hand – but can't bring myself to let it go now – Jack is just about to say something when a shriek erupts from the direction of the pond.

"What the – " he starts, but I sprint towards the ice. We weren't too far away from the pond when we stopped, so it takes me less than a minute of flat-out running to reach the edge. "What's going on?" I yell at Hiccup, who is sitting on a stump a few feet from the shore.

"I don't know," he responds, "but I think someone fell through." He looks panicked, and I wonder why he's not helping until I remember that the combination of ice and crutches probably isn't a very good idea. Jack, who stopped long enough to hear Hiccup's response to my question, takes off across the pond to where several people are clustered. I start to follow, but turn around. "I'm gonna go out there. Do you have your phone on you?" He nods. "Call the police, or Mrs. O, or someone, and get help!" I command before running to join the others.

The first person I come across is Rapunzel, who is talking quietly and comfortingly to a very wet, obviously very cold Sophie. Great, it had to be her, I think. I kneel down next to the pair and am about to start questioning them when I hear Jack shout my name.

"Elsa! It's Anna!"

With those three words, my heart jumps to my throat and I spin around and hurry over to where he and Flynn are standing. "Where is she? Where is she?" Neither of them answer me, but Flynn grabs me by the shoulders and shoves me toward the woods. "Go help Merida. Find me a long tree branch." I hesitate, but the frantic look on his face gets me moving, along with a final shove. "GO!" he screams.

By the time I make it to the woods, Merida's returning, dragging a branch behind her. "Hopefully this'll be long enough. I didn't want to waste too much time looking. Help me," she demands, and I pick up the other end of the branch and move back towards the two figures standing on the ice. When we get back, I notice that Jack's taken off his heavy coat and thrown his skates and shoes on the ground close by. He only glances at the branch we've brought back before declaring that it's not long enough.

Tears start to make salty tracks down my face. "What can I do to help?" He ignores me and, to my surprise, dives into the icy water. "Jack!" I scream, but he's already gone. I can see Anna now, struggling to keep her little twelve-year old head above the water. The branch we brought definitely wouldn't have reached her.

Jack's head breaks the surface a few feet from where my sister is paddling. I can hear his voice, but I can't make out what he's saying to her. As I watch, she wraps her arms around his neck and he starts to make his way back over to where Merida, Flynn, and I are standing. I hold back my sobs as they approach. I don't want to make the situation worse by scaring Anna. By the time they get back to us, I can see Jack's lips turning blue. At least Anna had her winter gear on when she fell in, but he doesn't even have shoes on, for gosh sakes!

I grab Anna's arms and heave her back onto the solid ice as Merida and Flynn do the same for Jack. "Are you okay? Are you both okay?" Anna just nods at me, her braids plastered to her shoulders and her eyes with their frightened look. Jack doesn't respond at all. Merida looks at me in alarm. "Jack?"

The blare of the sirens is the last thing that I remember about that day.