What do you know, I actually managed to update this? Whaaaaaaaaat? Sorry for the long delay between updates. It's been a tough year and writing has been meh through most of it.

Anyway, I should probably warn you guys that I've introduced a lot of foreign languages in this chapter, and aside from the Spanish, I don't actually speak said languages. (Though I got a friend to help me with the Chinese, thank goodness.) The rest of them I was at the mercy of Google Translate, so forgive me any errors in wording or grammar or anything else. I had no idea what I was doing. Heck, forgive me if I messed up with the Spanish too. I'm still a beginner, haha.

In any case, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!

Disclaimer: Don't own nuttin' about ROTG.

As soon as I opened my eyes the next morning, I knew it was going to be one of those days, and I wasn't looking forward to dealing with it. I rolled over and buried my head under my pillow as I cursed under my breath. The only problem with this was that I wasn't cursing in English, but Norwegian. The night before had shaken me up enough that I had reverted back to my mother tongue.

But it seemed Fate wasn't satisfied with embarrassing me with making me revert back to my mother tongue this day, because I somehow realized that I was not in Norway despite my urge to speak the language I had grown up with. I knew that there were people just beyond my bedroom door who would not understand me if I spoke that language, so after saying a few more choice words to myself in Norwegian, I vowed with myself not to speak it for the rest of the day.

It didn't mean I had any concept of English, however.

Thus began a day that reveals one of the cons to being a polyglot. Knowing a lot of different languages usually is a blessing... but it can turn on you in an instant.

I opened my bedroom door and stepped out into the dining room. Sophie sat at the dining table, coloring an elephant that apparently needed to be rainbow. I smiled and said, "Nǐ hǎo." To this, Sophie giggled, but I brushed it off. Sophie giggles a lot.

I pulled up a chair and sat across from her so that I could witness the transformation of her elephant from white into rainbow. I wasn't sure how long she'd been up, but as I didn't see anyone else up just yet, I suspected she probably hadn't eaten yet. I figured I should ask her if she had. "Nǐ yǒu chī le ma?"

Sophie just laughed again as though I'd told her the funniest joke in the world. In answer to my question, she babbled back at me in Sophie-ese, a language I was unfortunately not fluent in. This didn't tell me much, but I rolled my eyes and stood up anyway, figuring that she probably hadn't eaten yet since no one else was around. I poured her a bowl of her favorite marshmallow cereal and set it before her, a gesture she appreciated as she pulled the the bowl toward her and scarfed down the first few spoonfuls of cereal.

Remembering she should be polite, she lifted up her face, choked out a, "'Tank you," then went back to devouring her marshmallowy goodness.

Meanwhile, I just ran my fingers through my hair in lieu of a response. I had understood what Sophie had said, but some part of my brain wasn't processing what language it was that she had spoken. I racked my brain for other words in the same language and drew a blank. My hands began to sweat, which then frosted over as I began to panic. What language was that? How could I communicate with these people if I couldn't even remember how to speak the language they conversed in? I did speak their language, right?

Just then, Jamie stepped into the room, and I pounced on him. Maybe if he could tell me where I was, I would remember the language of this country. "Jamie! Wǒ zài nǎ lǐ?"

Jamie's response to this was to raise his eyebrow and slowly shake his head as though wondering what was wrong with me, followed by a simple, "What?"

Again, I panicked at the spoken word that I understood but couldn't find the language for. Jamie observed me for a moment, asking me what was wrong and not getting a response out of me. After a while, something seemed to click in his head that this problem was beyond him, and he said, "Just a minute, Jack." He then ran off and returned a moment later with his mother.

Before I even got a chance to speak, she turned to her son and said, "Now, what was the matter with Jack?"

I figured I'd be able to answer her well enough on my own, and maybe get some clarity at the same time. I gulped, still a little awkward around her. But since she was an adult, I figured she'd have a better chance of grounding me. "Nǐn yǒu jiǎng huá yǔ ma?"

She blinked in surprise for a second, then slowly shook her head. "What language was that?"

Well, that answered that question for me. She did not speak Chinese.

When I thought about it, I couldn't figure out why I had automatically jumped to Chinese in the first place. The Bennetts didn't look even remotely Asian, and the chances of them speaking an Asian language were minimal. I rubbed my forehead as I thought really hard for a moment. Hadn't she said recently what their ethnicity was? It was Dutch, wasn't it?

I cleared my throat and said, "Spreek je Nederlands?"

Susan shook her head like she was shaking off an oncoming headache. "What? What are you doing, Jack?"

This was baffling. She'd said she was Dutch. Couldn't she understand what I was saying? I figured I'd ask her. "Begrijp je niet wat ik zeg?"

Her response was to huff and say, "What are you saying, Jack?"

In truth, I didn't know. My grasp on language was lost to me that day. And even though the Bennetts kept speaking to me in their own tongue, I still couldn't grasp what that language was. I understood every word they said but couldn't speak it back, and the realization of this only made my panic escalate further.

My breathing hitched a couple times, but I forced myself to slow down long enough to catch my breath. I could get through this. I was sure I could. I just wasn't sure how since I had never had to learn how to pull out of one of these days before, what with my constantly being alone and having no need to communicate. I decided to try speaking any random language I could think of. The Bennetts might know at least something of one of them, and just a slight understanding would be enough to help me pull out of this.

"¿Dónde está este lugar?"

I was met with blank stares, which almost frustrated me more than having them asking what I was saying. It didn't seem I would be able to get them to tell me where I was no matter which language I asked it in, but even if they couldn't answer the question, the least they could do was keep talking to me. I feared I might lose the ability to understand what they were saying to me if they didn't keep talking.

"¡Por favor, háblame!" My voice cracked as I repeated the last word. "¡Háblame!" But despite my request, they still didn't speak. It was like they were too spooked to utter even a peep by this point. I hiccuped, then closed my eyes and shook my head as I whined out one more Please. "¡Por favooooooor!"

Begging didn't help me one bit, and so I figured I would have to try something other than Spanish, considering how poorly it had been received. Finding a language to connect with the Bennetts seemed to be taking too long with the method I had been using. It was time to rapid fire languages at them until one stuck. All one needed to be asked was whether they spoke the language in question anyway.

"Talar du svenska?"

No response. Apparently Swedish was a no go.

"Türkçe biliyor musun?"

Blank stare. It seemed Turkish wouldn't work either.

"An bhfuil tú Gaeilge a labhairt?"

More blank stares. So much for Irish.

"Beszélsz magyarul?"

Blank stares for Hungarian as well.

As ridiculous as it seemed, I figured I might as well break my vow and try my mother tongue, because it didn't look like I had anything else to lose.

"Snakker du norsk?"

Of course, I got no reply. But it was a relief to speak such familiar words.

Perhaps giving in and speaking a comfortable language was what did it, because Susan then cleared her throat and said, "Parlez-vous français?"

I about squeaked from surprise and excitement and it took me a moment to make my mouth cooperate, but I finally managed to stutter out, "Oui! Oui! Je parle français!"

Finally, the look that met me on her face wasn't blank, but showed a weird sort of understanding, like one who had not exercised a muscle in a long time finally daring to try using it again. I had no idea when she had studied French, or how much she knew of it, but I was grateful that she seemed to know it at all.

Susan then asked me what was going on, and I proceeded to pour out my heart and my panic in my poorly thought out French. I told her that I couldn't remember how to speak her language, and how panicked I was over this. I couldn't make myself take the time to speak like a native right then, but it didn't matter. Susan wasn't a native French speaker, and she was likely making as many mistakes in her speech as I was. Not that I noticed in my frenzied state.

I asked her where I was, and she smirked and said, "Burgess, Pennsylvania." When I struggled with trying to remember where Pennsylvania was, she laughed and said, "The United States of America," not even bothering to translate that into French. Not like it mattered. If I hadn't been able to recognize country names regardless of the language, I would have been much more panicked than I already was.

As I pondered over the language I was supposed to be speaking in the United States of America, Susan led me into the living room, gestured for me to lie down on the couch, and then told me to just rest for a bit. She grabbed a couple cold packs from her freezer and laid them over my forehead and my stomach, probably to help me further calm down.

A moment later, she left the room and started shuffling her kids around to get them ready for school. I heard Jamie ask whether I was going to be okay, and she chuckled and explained that I was having a small meltdown, but that I would be fine by the time he was out of school. I hoped she was right.

Soon she rushed out the door with her kids, assuring me she would be right back. Now the house was quiet, and I finally had time to think in peace. So what did I do? I drifted off to sleep instead.

It was several hours later when my eyes fluttered open again. The ice packs didn't feel so icy anymore, so my first order of business was to grab them off of me and plop them on the floor while I moved to sit up. Susan was sitting in the love seat on the other side of the room, reading a book. She'd probably sat there just to keep an eye on me. I chuckled and bowed my head. I had sure made this turn out to be an awkward day.

She looked up from her book upon noticing my movement. "How are you feeling, Jack?"

"Better," I said, then blinked in surprise as I realized I had spoken an English word. I chuckled again. "Seems I got my English back."

Susan smiled and shoved a bookmark in her book, then laid it beside her. "I'm glad. I was worried for you for a bit."

I hung my head, feeling stupider by the minute for even having this problem. "Yeah, sorry."

"No, don't be sorry," she said. "Everyone has bad days."

"Heh." I shook my head. "But I doubt most people have a hangup like that where they completely forget how to speak a language they use almost every day."

"True," she said, nodding and rolling her eyes in response, "but I don't recall ever meeting anyone who could speak that many languages either. Where did you learn them all?"

I shrugged and scratched my head, not sure how to answer that question, even though I had suspected it would get asked of me eventually. Most humans only knew one or two languages, so they were likely to consider my knowledge a bit excessive. "I'm over three centuries old, Susan. I just wanted so badly to talk to someone that I started listening to everything everybody said, and I acquired some languages here and there."

She snorted and rolled her eyes at me as she repeated my phrase of "here and there" in a mocking tone. "You forget how to speak the one language you need, so you run through like nine different languages just to try and find a temporary replacement for the one you lost. But that's nothing special, just a language 'here and there'." Her fingers made quotes in the air as she drove the mockery even deeper. I slunk down as I pondered trying to hide, but had nowhere to run to. This was awkward.

Finally she stopped mocking long enough to turn to me and say, "Out of curiosity though, how many languages do you know, Jack?"

I shrugged. "I haven't kept track. I know almost every language I need to know, which pretty much means I know most of the languages spoken by people in countries that I freeze over in the winter."

Her eyes widened as she tried to process that idea. I guessed she was trying to count how many languages that meant I spoke, but she soon gave up on the quest and shook her head. It wasn't an easy question to solve just by counting, since a lot of countries spoke multiple languages. I probably wouldn't have even learned Chinese if it had been limited to China since I rarely visit there.

After a few moments of quiet contemplation, she broke the silence. "I hope I wasn't at fault for you melting down like that."

I bolted upright and stared at her. If she had been trying to get my full attention, she had gotten it. "I-I..." I coughed to try and get the words unstuck in my throat. Then I shook my head. "It's not your fault, Susan. This whole thing..." I gestured at everything around me. "This whole arrangement, this whole program, it's just hard for me. I don't think it was intended to be easy for me."

"I'm probably making it harder than it has to be," she said, then sighed and looked toward the ground. "Wouldn't it have been easier if you had moved into a household full of strangers where you wouldn't be so worried about upsetting them?"

My mouth pressed into a thin line as I pondered her words. I couldn't deny her point. "Maybe," I said. But her having a strong point didn't mean her point was relevant. "But I'm not sure it would have been as rewarding as training with my own family."

There. I'd said it. I'd admitted that they were my family. I could already feel myself shaking a bit at the mention, though I took a few deep breaths and forced myself to calm down. I had already had one neurotic fit that day. Heaven knew I didn't need another one.

"Heh." She hid her face behind her hair. I wasn't sure if I'd embarrassed her or offended her, but I couldn't see anything for me to do besides wait. Eventually, she took a deep breath and raised her eyes to look at me again. "You really think putting up with us is that rewarding?"

I allowed myself to smile a little bit. "I think so. It's difficult at times, but isn't family always like that?"

She ran her fingers through her hair and chuckled in lieu of a response, so I took that as an affirmative. Besides, I had seen her dream last night, which showed pretty clearly how she thought of her mother. Family was not an easy concept for her, but she loved her kids dearly. I figured even she would agree with me that at least some members of your family are worth fighting to keep, even if the rest of them made you want to bury your head under a rock.

"I just find it so hard to believe that Jack Frost is a member of my family." She sighed and shook her head, then turned and looked at me again. "So you're really Jack Frost? As in the Jack Frost? The one they sing about and..."

"...and the whole nipping at your nose thing and everything, yeah." I smirked at her in a way that suggested she shouldn't tempt me if she wanted her nose to remain un-nipped this day, which seemed to effectively lighten the mood. Good. She was getting entirely too morose. It didn't suit little Susan. Or big Susan, for that matter.

"But... how?" She began tormenting her hair again by running her fingers through it repeatedly. Poor hair. It hadn't woken up that day asking to be tormented. Susan seemed to be trying to come up with more words to say, but she struggled. She eventually said, "I mean, you're like a celebrity," but I knew that wasn't what she'd been trying to say.

Still, I thought it politest to just go with it as though I couldn't see her struggling with words at the moment. I laughed, then kicked back and said, "Really? You expect me to go three hundred years without being seen and not kick up some dust somewhere to try and remedy that? An extrovert like me?"

To this, she had to laugh. I supposed even she could see the ridiculousness of my not becoming infamous if I'd had three hundred years to do it. I couldn't understand why my new believers were starting to look on me with a sense of awe whenever they would see me for the first time. From my perspective, I was just a child throwing a temper tantrum for the past three hundred years and finally got someone to hear me. They should have been meeting me with death glares, not revering me as some sort of god. I didn't know what to make of my believers at all.

Susan placed a hand over her mouth and attempted to stifle her laughter as she addressed me again. "So, what I hear you saying is that you're only famous because you wouldn't have had it any other way." I shrugged and then nodded in amusement as I fidgeted with some frost on my clothes. I wasn't anybody special. I was just like that kid in every school that people hate because the teacher tells him to stop and he refuses to. I was the sort who would kick the desk in sheer boredom all through the teacher's lecture, then get sent to detention only to do the same thing. If I were to then get sent to the principal's office, you can bet that I would find yet another thing to kick. And if I got suspended, you can bet that I would have partied all the way home. I was a terrible kid.

Susan rested her chin in her hand as she regarded me for a minute or two in silence. I would have been awkward by this, but she had developed a little smile on her face, which made me too curious about what she was thinking to bother with feeling awkward.

Eventually she decided to let me be privy to her thoughts. "You know, I never would have expected Jack Frost to be so... well, you know... human."

I threw my head back and let out the biggest laugh I had managed all day. Perhaps this arrangement was really difficult at times, and perhaps I kept letting my emotions get the best of me, but somehow I felt it could work out. This family was starting to see their way down into the core of my very being, a place I hadn't been able to reach on my own. This could be very beneficial for all of us involved.

I snapped my attention back to her. "Oh no, I'm not human, Susan." I struck a dramatic pose. "I'm... SUPERHUMAN!"

Her resulting laugh was the only response I needed, and I soon lost myself as I joined in my own laugh with hers. Perhaps this day had started out rough, but it was starting to feel better now. Maybe I could just kick back and enjoy the remainder of the day, because what good is a Guardian of Fun without a little fun?

"You know," said Susan, "I do have an ice cream maker buried somewhere in the pantry. We could always pull it out and experiment with concocting some strange ice cream flavors."

I didn't think she had any idea I could run so fast until I left her in the dust as I bolted to the pantry to locate the elusive machine. Oh yes, this day was already looking brighter, and it was about to get better. Much, much better.

Anyway, hope you guys were at least slightly amused at poor little polyglot Jack having polyglot problems. *chuckles* I might keep bringing his language skills up if people like it enough. Anyone out there who speaks another language, feel free to contact me if you want to see your language represented well in the future of this fic. There's only so far I can get with Google Translate, so I'll need your help. ;)

In any case, take care, and I hope to see you all next time!