Seventeen-year old Elsa stared into her locker, filled to the brim with books and binders. Just five minutes ago, she'd finished her last exam of the Winter Semester and was about to go on a three-week winter break. Why three weeks? Students had gotten so sick right before exams that the school wanted to make sure everyone got enough rest on break to come back to school "healthy and ready to learn."
She stared at the picture of her mother, father and little sister, Anna, which was tapped on the inside door of her locker, right below the light blue-edged mirror. She touched her father's printed face tenderly, sighing. He and her mother had taken a vacation to Florida for a week to "get away," they'd said. Elsa could only imagine that they were annoyed with their hectic lives and just needed a break, but she and Anna had both agreed they wished they could go with their parents.
He walked towards her -- moreover, sauntered. Elsa could spot his messy head of brown hair nearly a mile away. Jack Overland. She normally wouldn't call him a friend -- she had very few of those -- but he wasn't an enemy. He often came over to Elsa's house with his own little sister, Emma, because Anna enjoyed playing with her. Elsa didn't like children at all, so she would normally lock herself in her room, reading a book, while Jack sat outside her door, reading another book. It was a weird relationship. The two hadn't even exchanged 10 words to each other.
But now Jack was sauntering up to her, holding his brown hoodie hanging over his left shoulder, his floppy backpack dangling off his right shoulder. He stopped right behind Elsa's locker.
Elsa closed her locker and looked straight into his eyes. She would've been startled if she hadn't seen him sauntering up to her. Jack smiled.
"Hi," he said quietly, tilting his head.
Now Elsa was a little startled. They'd always made a non-official-mutual-agreement to avoid each other at school, and he was breaking the contract. She didn't know whether she should reply or not.
Some of Jack's soccer friends tore down the hall, hollering, whooping, cheering for break. Many of them slapped him on the back and pushed him around, trying to drag him with them, but he stayed planted, right in front of Elsa. Once they'd all passed, Elsa just picked up her backpack and looked up at Jack.
He was, undoubtedly, handsome. He had such defined bone structure, with a very straight jawline and high cheekbones to make any girl swoon. Elsa was not excluded from this group of girls, but she didn't normally show much emotion or affection to anyone, including her family.
A subtle word escaped her barely parted lips, "Hi..."
"Um..." he started, "...Nanny called me. She asked me to give you a ride to my house tonight. She told me Anna was going to a friend's house and she was busy away with working legal business... And the doors are locked and you forgot your key.."
Nanny had been included Elsa and Anna's family for a long time, and the family didn't want to fire her and force her to go to a new home when the girls didn't need to be looked after anymore, so they just accepted her as part of their own. She was very much a grandmother to the girls since their own had died. Nanny kept the fort down while the girls' parents were often away on work trips to distant lands.
Elsa looked down at her feet, her bangs coming down in front of her face. "Do you mind?" She asked hesitantly, looking up at his glossy grey blue eyes.
"Oh, uh, no! Not at all!" Jack seemed cheerful. "I can get that bag for you --"
"I'm okay," Elsa replied quietly, shouldering her backpack slowly. It was near empty, just like his. It slid on smoothly over her navy blue trench coat, but Jack had no jacket on at all. He was holding his own as they walked down the now empty hallway towards the front door. Jack rolled up the cuffs of his button-down polo and held the door open for Elsa, who trudged next to him very quietly.
