Shattered Dreams

"I could do with a little less exploding."

Pitch's POV

The Moon interfered with everything. He had never understood me, never understood my goals, and so he stopped me with his Bright Immortals. He picked his heroes and gave them everything he could. Everything to stop me. And they had succeeded.

Well, he had one that battle, but there was still the rest of the war.

The Man in the Moon wanted to let the children be mortal again? He wanted to reset the board? Fine.

But he shouldn't expect me to play by his rules.

Elsa's POV

It was a gorgeous autumn day. Birds were singing, the trees were changing color, and everything was perfect.  I was sitting at a picnic table surrounded by my family and best friends. I still couldn't believe we were all here together, free at last. Jack, Noah, Rapunzel, Hiccup, Merida. The only person missing was Anna, but I could forgive her for that. She was with Kristoff, after all.

"I can't believe yesterday was the last day of summer," Rapunzel said.

"And we're back to the crazy school life again," Merida mumbled.

"But this isn't any different for Noah!" Jack teased, giving his best friend a poke. Strangely, his hair had been white ever since the incident with Manny and the Darklings.  It was as if the darkness had been scared right out of him, leaving nothing but light.  "He's been at school this whole time!"

"A whole summer of make-up school!" Noah moaned, burying his face in his hands. "Couldn't you guys have waited until after final exams to free me from Pitch's curse?"

"I bet you'd have liked that," Jack replied. That earned a few snickers from the group.

A lot had changed over the summer. It turned out Noah wasn't such a bad guy.  Pitch's spell had taken the worst part of him and made it even more horrible.  Ever since he woke up Noah had been apologizing and doing things for me to make up for everything.  I kept telling him he didn't have to anymore, but he didn't seem to care. He was the brother I always needed. No, the brother I always wanted.

Jack and I had spent a lot of time together as well, but without any immortals trying to turn us evil our relationship was on uncomfortable ground. We didn't know how to act together, much less what to say. And I still didn't trust Rapunzel not to try and steal him away from me.

At least Anna's relationship seemed to be going well. She and Kristoff spent a lot of time volunteering at the local animal shelter. They had fun, and it was good for Olaf too. He made plenty of new kitten friends.

"Hopefully this school year is better than last year," Hiccup said. "I could do with a little less exploding."

"I heard that they made a new set of double doors where you blasted a hole in the wall," Rapunzel told Jack. He held his hands up.

"They could do whatever they want with it.  I don't care, as long as they don't figure out it was me."

"Technically it wasn't you," I pointed out. At the time Jack had been completely under Pitch's control, forced to do his every bidding.

"Trust me, it was me," was Jack's solemn reply. I frowned in his direction, but the bell ringing cut me off. All around us kids started filing through the double doors and into the building.

"Check those girls out!" Noah hissed. We all followed his eyes. The girls in question might have been way out of Noah's league, but it was hard to tell. I didn't exactly look at Noah like boyfriend material. That would have just been wrong.

"You're not seriously doing this again, are you?" Jack asked. Noah grinned.

"Hey, the ladies need me. I'm going to go introduce myself.  See you guys later!"  Noah stood up and began marching towards the girls, doing something like looked almost like a rooster's strut. I hid my smirk before anyone could see. That was another thing about the real Noah. He was a hopeless romantic.  Jack rolled his eyes.

"I better go save the girls," he said. My heart sank a little.

"Weren't we going to find our new lockers together?" I asked. He shook his head.

"I think he needs me more right now. I'll catch up with you later, ok?"

He stood and took his backpack, quickly melting into the crowd. Hiccup, Rapunzel, Merida and I watched him leave.

"Should we get going?" Hiccup asked. "We wouldn't want to be late."

"Probably a good idea," I said. I took my backpack and stood, but I couldn't shake the nagging feeling inside of me. So Jack didn't want to hang out right now. That wasn't a big deal, was it?

No, of course it wasn't.