Aella: age 12 years
and 3 month.
Jack wasn’t sure why he was drawn to the
sobbing little girl, but when he passed her hiding place at the bottom of the
playground, he felt like he had to try to cheer her up somehow. Not that it
would be an easy task when she couldn’t see him but he felt like he should try
at least.
He knelt down at her level, growling as he saw
the cuts, bruises and spectacular black eye she sported. “Easy now.” Jack
tried, though it was useless to try to talk to someone who couldn’t hear him,
placing his hand against her painful looking cheek and becoming slightly
frustrated when she pulled away from his cold skin, but did not react to
anything else.
The girl, who looked maybe ten or eleven, with
long chestnut brown hair and wide brown eyes, though one was closed since her
eyelid was swollen, continued to sob, both frustrating Jack and upsetting him.
He had never been good with crying children and a couple of hundred years with little
interaction with anyone but other spirits, all of whom were older than him, had
not helped there.
Instead of trying again to talk to the girl, he
stood, snowflakes swirling around him as he did so, disturbed by his movement,
confusing the child, who looked around, hiccupping her words as she asked, “He...Hello?”
Jack let out a sigh as she looked straight
through him, trying to calm herself as she did so, obviously embarrassed to be
caught crying.
“I know you’re there.” The girl continued,
watching the spot the snow had moved away from carefully, as if trying to see
what couldn’t be seen, “Come out! Please?” She hesitated for a moment, then
whispered, “I believe in you. Please come out.”
Jack stopped and stared at her. She couldn’t
see him, so obviously she didn’t really believe in him, but her words were enough
to strike a cord with him. He couldn’t help himself, wanting to at least get
her smiling again, taking the time to draw out the shape of a cat in the snow
and put his hands over it, lifting them slowly and bringing an ice-form of a
cat out with it.
The ice-form feline rubbed against the little
girl, leaving trails of ice behind in its wake, letting out a noise that
sounded like a purr as she petted it, giggling as she did so. Jack grinned as
the cat bounded around the girl and then leapt up and exploded into snow. The
little girl let out a gasp of delight and clapped her hands, looking around and
pausing as her eyes settled on him. “You’re...”
“Hi.” Jack waved, then paused and stared at the
girl. “You can see me?”
She nodded, watching him carefully, “Are you...
Jack Frost?”
“It’s been forever since someone your age has
seen me...” Jack stared at her even as he nodded, shock coursing through him.
He was taken aback as the girl tackled him, hugging the snow spirit tightly. It
took him a moment to register that he should be hugging her back and follow
through.
“I knew you were real.” The girl sobbed, “I
knew it!”
“Hey, hey.” Jack pulled her away slightly,
confused by her reaction, “What’s the matter?”
“No one believes that you and Santa are real
anymore and they’re horrible about
it.” The girl explained softly, her hand going to her cheek. Suddenly Jack got
an idea of why she was hurt. He’d seen children get into fights over whether
Santa was real or not before.
“Well we are.” Jack promised her. He looked her
over, allowing some amusement to show through as he asked curiously, “What’s
your name?” He refrained from asking her how old she was, too many years of
interacting with female spirits had taught him much better than to ever ask
that of a girl no matter how young they looked.
“I’m
Aella,” She informed him as the school bell went off, trying to calm herself
down before she went, looking like she felt vindicated now and more able to
face whatever trouble she would be in for fighting, “And I’ve got to go back to
class.”
“I’ll wait for you at the gates, okay?” Jack
asked, trying to reassure her and becoming relieved himself when she nodded,
obviously willing to continue talking to him. “And you probably shouldn’t
mention me around the boring kids. Only really cool kids get to see me after
all. They’ll get jealous.”
“Okay.” Aella smiled at him brightly at the thought of being classified as a ‘cool kid,’ though Jack could see that doing so hurt, “Bye Mr. Frost.”
“Jack. Call me Jack.”
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