Chapter One: The Girl On The Corner

Every day for the past week, he saw her. She would always be in the exactly same spot – between the crossing and the local bank. She would have her violin ready to go at the same time every day – a quarter past three in the afternoon. Her music always drew him into a trance. However, most people would simply walk on by without giving any notice to her. Some people would throw in a coin or two for her music. When six o'clock came, she would always count the money before leaving for the day.

Today was no different.

"Jack, you're staring again," the voice of one of his good friends, Tooth, brought him back to reality.

"Wha-?" Jack looked at her and grinned sheepishly. He may have been staring again.

Tooth had a sly grin playing around her lips. She knew what was going on his head. Jack turned again to look at the mysterious blonde girl. She was flicking through a music book as if to decide what song she should play first.

"Jack, we gotta do our set," Bunnymund tapped on Jack's shoulder with his drumstick.

"Right," Jack said slowly wrenching his eyes from the blonde girl.

Tooth was setting up her keyboard while Sandy was working on his base guitar. Every Friday afternoon their band "The Guardians" would play their music. Tooth played keyboards, Sandy was on base, Jack was lead guitar while Bunnymund rocked it on the drums. They all preformed vocals from time to time except for Sandy who liked to hustle people for donations. Jack started strumming on his guitar but his eyes never left the blonde girl. He even started to forget the lyrics to some of their songs.

Suddenly a sharp pain radiated through his foot. Jack let out a small gasp of pain that he managed to hide in the music. He looked around and saw Bunnymund was giving him a look. Jack felt a little guilty, so he quickly focused on the music rather than the blonde girl who was now fixing her violin strings.

Half an hour later, they were going through the day's take for their show. They waited impatiently while Tooth counted the funds up with Bunnymund.

"Well?" Jack said.

"Thirty-six dollars and nineteen cents," Tooth said. "So that's approximately nine dollars and five cents each."

"Not bad for half an hour's work," Bunnymund said as he took his share.

Jack grinned at his bandmates as they all took out their wallets and stuff their portion into them. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the blonde girl packing up. Jack hesitated. He wanted to go over and talk to her. He had been practically staring at her for the past week and never managed strike up an ounce of confidence. Tooth had a few short sentences with her the previous day while they walked to their usual spots.

"Go and talk to her," hissed Tooth. "You have been staring at her for days. Go talk to her."

It was now or never. The blonde girl looked like she was about leave. If he didn't do it now, his courage will go. In a few short minutes, Jack found himself in front of the girl. When she saw him, she smiled.

"Hello," she said. "Heard you guys playing, you guys are really good."

"Thanks," Jack managed to stammer out. "You are excellent too. You're like a pro or something."

"Or something," for some reason, a shadow passed over her face.

Jack wanted to ask her what was bothering her but he decided that would probably be prying which he didn't want. Instead he just rocked backwards and forwards on his feet for a few seconds until Jack plucked up more courage and barrelled on.

"I'm Jack, by the way," the words flew out his mouth.

The girl stared at him as she picked up her violin case. She had a small grin playing around her lips. Jack blushed a deep red.

"Elsa," the girl said.

"What?" her voice took Jack by surprise.

"My name is Elsa," she said as she giggled slightly. She took a few steps down the road before she turned around, flicking her braid as she did. "Hope to see you tomorrow."

Jack watched as she disappeared down the road. What an interesting girl. He sighed and turned back to his friends who were all wearing stupid grins.

"Does Jacky have a date?" Bunnymund said mockingly.

"Shut up," Jack playfully punched him but grinned.

"Uncle Klaus is gonna go ballistic," Anna said.

Elsa had just walked back into her house carrying her spare violin. Her sister had been waiting by the door with a smirk across her face. Elsa let out a sigh as she placed her violin by the stairs.

"I know," Elsa said as she removed her hoodie and placed it on a coat hook, grabbed her violin again and headed up the stairs towards her room.

"This is the fourth time you have missed practice," Anna had followed Elsa up the stairs and into her room. "Uncle Klaus is going to kill you."

"For missing practice?" Elsa rolled her eyes. "I am sure he doesn't really care about that."

"Well for someone who doesn't 'really care'," Anna held up her fingers to do air quotes, "he nearly grounded you for missing practice last week."

Elsa didn't answer but instead flopped onto her bed. Anna sat down on the end of Elsa's bed and gave her a concerning look. It looked like she wanted to say something but didn't. Elsa knew sooner or later she will. Her prediction came true within seconds.

"So, what are you doing all this time?" the words flew out of Anna's mouth. "And with your violin? Are you sneaking off to perform in the circus?"

"Yeah that's right," Elsa sniggered. "I have had enough of the classical music genre and decided to shake things up."

They both giggled for a few seconds before Anna looked series again.

"You know you can tell me anything right?"

Elsa sat up. "Yeah I know."

"So what is going on?" Anna pressed Elsa.

Elsa smiled. "Just performing a little experiment."

Anna could have jumped into the air. "You have to tell me more. Oh are we seeing how long you can stay out until Uncle Klaus grounds you for missing practice?"

Elsa laughed. "That sounds like something you would do, not me."

Now it was Anna's turn to laugh. "Yeah that is true. Okay, don't tell me, so if you are not running away to join a circus, maybe you are running away to join orchestra?"

Elsa laughed even harder now. "Why would I do that? Uncle Klaus has been dying for me to try out for the Royal Concertgebouw orchestra in The Netherlands for years now."

"True, that would just be playing into his hands," Anna paused to think. "Let's see, you miss practice, take your violin…. are you walking your violin?"

Both sisters dissolved into giggles at this. Elsa knew that Anna wasn't being serious. She thought maybe it was time to let Anna into her little secret.

"Um, have you ever heard of a violinist Joshua Bell?"

"Who?" Anna looked as confused as she did whenever someone placed a maths problem in front of her.

Elsa didn't get a chance to respond. Her door burst open and in there was their Aunt Greta. She beamed down at the two sisters.

"There you are Elsa," she said in a relieved tone. "I was beginning to think you would miss dinner."

"And miss her favourite dinner?" smirked Anna which earned her an elbow from her sister.

"Dinner will be served in half an hour," Aunt Greta ignored her nieces. "Please be prompt."

Anna swiftly got off Elsa's bed and headed to the door. She hovered at the doorframe for a few moments and bit her lip slightly. It looked like she was going to ask Elsa further questions about what she was up to. A thought struck Elsa; if Anna asked and she told her the truth, would Anna approve? It wasn't as if going a busking on the streets wasn't exactly the best idea she ever had but she liked being out on the streets. It made such a great change from her usual audience. There was something more real…more freeing about it.

Elsa opened her mouth as if to ask what was on her sister's mind but Anna quickly darted out of the door. What had caused her to jump ship like that? Based on their conversation earlier, Anna seemed very interested in what Elsa had to say. Something told Elsa, that Anna didn't want to know. Their uncle liked to grill her about where she went every day. She was sure that he would ground her into the next century if he knew what she was doing. Aunt Greta would surely side with her husband. That came as no surprise.

So, she decided to flop back down on her bed. Today had been fun. She didn't think she could have such a thrill from preforming on the streets. There was something very different out there on the streets rather than in a stuffy music hall. She didn't want to stop just yet. It was almost as if she had a need to continue. There was also something else playing on her mind. That boy… Jack. He played lead guitar in that band The Guardians. Their music was actually pretty good. It usually got a crowd pulled in. However, that was not what on her mind. There was something about that Jack. She didn't know what it was but she was determined to find out what that was.

Elsa let out a groan. What was on with her head? First, she was rebelling against her family and now she couldn't get Jack out of her head. What was happening to her? She used to be so poised and precise. Now, she thought she was starting to act a little like Anna. A small smile crossed her face. Maybe that wasn't such a bad thing.

Dinner time came at a faster pace than what she was used to. Elsa sat down opposite her cousin Ida with Anna sitting to her left while Aunt Greta was on her right. There was silence as they ate their curry. It seemed like everyone was waiting for the explosion that was due to come from the man in the room who was quietly reading reviews in the paper. His eyes were carefully examining so much that he didn't notice his curry dripping onto his lap. There was a pause as everyone looked at him. He seemed to realise this as he began to read out loud from the newspaper in front of him.

"The National Academy of Music begins it's highly anticipated tour of the United States with its orchestra featuring pianist Evgeny Kissin, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinist Itzhak Perlman," Uncle Klaus folded the paper neatly and placed it next to him – all through this time not looking at his family. "If someone had been with me at the luncheon the National Academy of Music put on, then maybe that someone's name would be in the paper."

Elsa gulped. She had completely forgotten. Her eyes quickly darted back to her curry as she gulped it down, not caring that it was very spicy and her mouth felt like it was on fire. The eyes of her uncle could be felt boring into her skull.

"Well?" he thundered. "This could have been great publicity for your career, what do you have to say for yourself young lady?"

"I…er…" Elsa's eyes flicked to the sympathetic gazes of her aunt and sister. What was she going to say? She couldn't very well tell the truth, he would explode and ground her for the rest of time. "Sorry," she ended up mumbling.

"Hmph," her uncle went back to reading the paper. "I expect you to be at practice tomorrow."

"Yes, Uncle."

Jack had just finished putting back his guitar when he saw her. She was standing at the back of the group of onlookers who had come to see what the noise was all about. She was leaning against a mailbox and grinning at them. He grinned back at her and walked over to see her. His palms were sweating while his heart was hammering. Why was he like this around her? He rocked back and forward on the balls of his feet while he tried to come up with something cool to say.

"Heard the last of your set," Elsa said, breaking the awkward silence between them. "Sounded good.

"Thanks," Jack pushed some of his hair out of his eyes as he beamed at her. "Hopefully a record producer will hear our stuff and wanna sign us."

Elsa smiled. "Maybe one day."

"So anyway, you free after this? I heard there was this cool new Asian fusion restaurant that just opened if you wanted to go grab some lunch."

The words were out of his mouth before he could stop himself. He mentally slapped himself. Did he just ask her out? Where was the thing that was supposed to stop saying stupid things when you need it? However, instead of laughing or running away, Elsa widened her smile.

"I would be keen," then her face fell, something was obviously bothering her, "but I can't today. Maybe next time? How about tomorrow? Same time?"

"Yeah, sounds great!" Jack gave her the thumbs up. He mentally slapped himself again. He was doing it again. Why can't he stop being a fool?

"See you tomorrow!" Elsa quickly gave him the thumbs up to and she sprinted off.

Jack headed back to his gang of friends – all of whom had smirks plastered all over their faces.

"Shut up," Jack said to all of them but grinned as he sat down to count the day's take.

A/N: This is an idea that I have been toying with for a while. Hope you guys like it! I have two more ff stories I am hoping to publish soon, so stay tuned for them as well!