Frostbite (On Hold Until Further Notice)

Chapter One

“All right! We got a full foot last night! Sophie, do you have any idea what this means?!”

I watched as little Sophie ran over to her brother. Well, not so little any more. She had been six when our crazy adventure happened last year. Now she was nine, and her brother Jamie was almost fourteen. But even though he was nearly a teenager, the light we Guardians put inside kids after Christmas, or Easter, or after a night when one of your teeth fell out, had never left him.

Oh yeah. That’s right, I’m a Guardian now. But like I said, all will be explained. Just not right this second.

Jamie and Sophie ran into the hallway and grabbed their coats, boots, scarves, mitts and snow pants. Then they ran out into the flawless piles of fresh snow that had come almost up to the door (thanks to yours truly). I don’t think they heard their mom yell that they had forgotten to eat breakfast.

They’ll go back inside when they’re hungry. Or drop-dead tired. Or both.

Sophie looked over at her brother. “You bet your Tooth Fairy money I do, JayJay!” she called back.

“Snow day!” they yelled at the same time, and I flew over to the telephone lines going over the neighbor’s yard and sat down to watch them from closer.

"Now what do we say when we get a snow day and school off, sis?” he asked her, bending down a little. Then I noticed that his voice was deeper. As much as I hated to admit it, he was growing up. He counted to three on a gloved hand.

Then at the same time, they called, “THANK YOU, JACK!” at the top of their lungs. With all this screaming, they would probably both be home with strep throat tomorrow. But that would make them miss an extra day of school, so that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. After all, it was only your voice that wasn’t working, so you could still play in the snow. Being almost fourteen was tough.

He looked in my direction. He almost always had the ability to guess where I was if I was within sight of him, but I guessed that it was because of the frost that was appearing underneath me. “Are you going to show yourself, Jack? We used to have so much fun when you would come to play with us.”

I found it touching that he still used the word ‘play’ when he was around Sophie and me. His inner kid always shone through when it mattered.

But he knew my answer. I sent a little frosty gust in his direction. It flew into his and his sister’s eyes, and they got what I call ‘the Sight’. It pretty much means that you can see me, if you mix in a little belief. He blinked, then his face lit up.

“Jack! You came!” he said as I flew over and landed in front of him.

“Of course, Jamie! I know that your snowball aim is better than most. You can almost hit me!” We all laughed.

“Speaking of snowballs…” I realized too late what it was he was holding in one hand. “Sophie, attack!”

He threw the first one, which came a few inches away from my arm. Then they began to pelt snowballs at me. “You rascals, you were waiting for me!” I yelled as I dove for cover behind a snow bank.

“We were tricking a trickster! What’s wrong with that?” he shouted. Jamie really had no idea what he had gotten himself into…

A wave of my hand and two-dozen snowballs appeared beside me. I angled my special stick in such a way that the crook-like end of it was next to the pile, then I flung it sharply back towards Sophie and her brother. Twenty-four snowballs suddenly flew through the air towards them…

…and some of them nailed them straight in the face. Not hard enough to hurt them, though, I’m not mean enough to do that to kids. “Hey!” Sophie cried, brushing the snow off her face, while her brother laughed and did the same.

Another round of throwing the snowballs (and I was fair that time, I used my power to make them some ammo too, and I let them hit me a few times) we collapsed on the ground, shaking with laughter and completely exhausted. Well, they were. That’s the thing about being an immortal Guardian. Unless you get seriously injured or defeated by another one of us, you’re never really tired. You can fall asleep, but you don’t feel very tired after snowball fights, no matter how epic they were.

“That…was…the best, Jack. But why didn’t you come earlier? I mean, if we have this much fun, then why don’t you come to see us more often?” Jamie asked. It was the question that I was dreading

“Um, yeah, about that. You wouldn’t believe it, but I’m actually pretty busy, kids. And anyway, I’m not supposed to show myself to people. But you’re special, so I come to see you sometimes.” I tried to dodge the question, trying to bring the talk back to them.

“This is about Tooth, isn’t it?” He and Sophie gave me the same stare. So she was in on it, too, then. Leave it to siblings to gang up on someone.

I jumped. “What? No! What makes you think–”

“Come on, Jack. I’m not blind. Can’t you see that she likes you?”

“Yeah. I noticed.” I sent a silent prayer to the Man in the Moon – the all-powerful being who elects the Guardians – to not let one of Tooth’s fairies be close enough to hear this. “But it’s complicated, okay? She a colleague, and I don’t think that we–”

“Could be a couple?” Sophie asked, looking disappointed. Great. So she was a matchmaker.

“Sorry, Sophie, but no. That would make things really weird with the other Guardians, and…”

“Okay,” she mumbled.

There was an awkward silence. I was just considering magically hurling a snowball in Jamie’s direction when his face lit up. “Oh, Jack! I have to tell you something! There’s this amazing new movie out called Frozen that you absolutely have to watch! It’s about a girl who has ice powers like yours!”

“I…really? That’s cool. But I have to get going. I can’t exactly go to the movies with you. Um, the heating and everything. It’s a little uncomfortable. Sorry.” I tried to brush it off in as nice a way as I could.

“That’s okay, Jack, the town is going to have an event tomorrow, and they’re renting a big screen and playing it outside. You’ll be in your element – literally.” He smiled really big. “Can you come?”

“Please say you can!” his sister said, clapping her hands together. She was still such a cute little kid.

They launched into one of those ‘Pleasepleasepleaseplease’ rants, and I gave in. “Okay, fine! I’ll see what I can do.”

Right on cue, Jamie’s stomach growled, and he turned around to go inside. “That means it’s time to eat. The screening’s at four PM. See you there, Jack!”