Every year, Jack returned to Burgess on the first day of winter, and every year he found Jamie waiting for him. Jamie grew taller over the years; his interests changed and he liked to do different things, but his faith in Jack never faded for an instant. One year, when Jamie was in middle school, Jack discovered that Jamie had a crush on a girl.

Jack was perched on top of Jamie's dresser with his staff in one hand, absent-mindedly allowing a light snowfall in Jamie's room. Jamie sat back on his bed and enjoyed the snow, while catching up with Jack about the past year's events.

"So this girl you like," Jack said, sitting on the dresser and swinging his feet back and forth. "Does she like you too?"

"I don't know," Jamie groaned. "I don't think she knows I exist."

"Really?" Jack said sarcastically. "Tell me how it feels for people to not know you exist."

"Did you ever like a girl, Jack?" Jamie asked the older boy.

Jack's mouth parted a bit as if to say something, but it devolved into his usual smirk he used when he was covering something. He looked away with the forced smile on his face. "Just once," he said at last.

Jamie waited expectantly, but Jack didn't volunteer any more information. "Just once?" Jamie burst. "You've been around three hundred years and there was just one girl in all that time?"

"I sort of gave up after that," Jack admitted.

"Why? What happened?" Jamie asked in burning curiosity.

"It didn't work," Jack said. "I mean, most people can't even see me, you know. It never would have worked."

"What was her name?"

"…Elisa," Jack said with a slight smile on his lips.

Jamie leaned back on his bed and folded his hands behind his head. "You're going to have to tell me the story, so you might as well get started," he said with a grin.

"Alright," Jack said. "But don't tell anyone!" He aimed his staff at Jamie threateningly. "Got it?"

"My lips are sealed."

"It was a couple hundred years ago," Jack said, leaning back on Jamie's dresser. "I was passing through a town called January Junction. That's where I saw Elisa, out in the snow. And she believed in me. At least, she knew the snow was my doing."

"So she could see you?"

"No, she couldn't. That was the problem. So I asked Father Winter to turn me human-"

"Whoa, what?!" Jamie demanded, sitting up straight. "You were human?! And who's Father Winter?"

"He thinks he's in charge of me," Jack said, rolling his eyes. "I report to him, and he reports to Mother Nature. Except of course I don't really report to him; he just gives me a lecture every time I fly too far south or cause too big of a blizzard or something. Somebody has to make sure I don't go spreading winter over the whole world," he said with a smirk. "Anyways, I convinced him to turn me human, temporarily."

"What did you look like?" Jamie asked curiously.

"Handsome," Jack joked. "Stop interrupting the story. Anyways, it was weird. All of the sudden people could see me, and hear me. That part was great. But I couldn't fly anymore, or use my staff at all. It didn't work anymore. I was just a regular human boy."

"And Elisa? Did she like you?"

"She liked me when I was Jack Frost," Jack said, "but she didn't know it was me."

"Why didn't you just tell her?"

"I don't know. I said stop interrupting. And anyways, it turned out she liked someone else. Some guy named Sir Ravenal. She married him and, that was that," he ended abruptly. He didn't want to tell Jamie the details of how he had actually wanted to marry Elisa, how he had run to her door and asked her father for her hand. He had been too late.

"The reason she didn't marry you is because you didn't tell her the truth," Jamie said. "If she had known it was you, she would have married you for sure. You just needed to be yourself."

"It doesn't matter now," Jack said, looking away. "Anyways, who would spread winter and make snow days if I had settled down, huh?" he asked with his smirk returning.

"Still Jack, I'm sorry that happened to you. But that doesn't mean you should give up," Jamie said brightly, ever the optimist.

"Jamie, most girls can't even see me," Jack said.

"I could get a girl to see you," Jamie said boldly. "I could make her really believe."

Jack laughed. "Sure, a five-year-old girl. Not one my age. Forget it, Jamie. But look, about this girl you like…" he said with a grin, changing the subject. "Let me tell you how to get her attention…"

...

A few years passed. Jamie was in high school now, and dating that girl he liked, with a little help from Jack of course. On the first day of winter Jack returned to Burgess to visit him, waiting perched in a tree outside the high school. He had brought the first snowfall of the season, covering the schoolgrounds with a fluffy layer of white. Jamie would know he was here as soon as he saw the snow. At last the bell rang and Jack spotted Jamie, now as tall as him, emerging from the school with the rest of the crowd. Jack waved at Jamie, who instantly saw him and gave him the biggest smile. Ever year, Jack was relieved to find that Jamie still believed in him. Jamie never let him down.

Jack was about to hop down from the tree to greet Jamie, when he spotted someone else strangely familiar in the crowd. A girl wandered away from the other schoolkids and came walking out into the snow, admiring Jack's work around her. A girl with blonde hair and bright green eyes. Jack froze and stared at her. "Elisa?" he spoke under his breath. It couldn't be, could it? Different clothes, and different century, but the same look of wonder and love of winter in her eyes.

Jamie was running up to the tree that Jack was still perched in, frozen and staring at the girl. "Jack!" Jamie called. His smile turned to confusion as he saw Jack staring into the distance. Then he followed Jack's gaze to the girl. A knowing smile spread over Jamie's face.

Jack snapped out of it and looked down to the other boy. "Hi Jamie," he said with an absent-minded smile. His mind was still on the girl. He hadn't seen Elisa's face in hundreds of years, yet there were some faces and moments in his long long existence that he knew he would never forget.

"Wait here," Jamie said. Then he turned and walked over to the blonde girl.

"Wait!" Jack called in alarm. "Where are you going?" He watched as Jamie joined the girl at her side.

"It's pretty, huh?" he heard Jamie say to the girl, gesturing to the snow-covered surroundings.

"It's beautiful," the girl agreed.

"You can thank Jack Frost," Jamie said, shooting a quick grin over to Jack in the tree.

The girl tilted her head and gave an amused smile. "Jack Frost?"

"Haven't you heard of him?" Jamie said. "Jack brings the winter weather every year. When you feel a cold gust of air? That's Jack flying by. And when you see frost on your window? That's Jack leaving drawings for you."

Jack bit his lip thoughtfully, then decided to let Jamie go ahead and try it at least. Jamie had faith in him, so maybe he should put faith in Jamie. And if anyone could make a believer out of someone, it was Jamie. "

You know, I think I must have heard that story before," the girl was saying to Jamie. "Because it sounds so familiar. I must have heard it when I was little." Her face was clouded in thought, as if she really was trying very hard to remember; Jack took that as a hopeful sign. Maybe she did remember him… from a past life? Was it possible? Well, Jack had been around for three hundred years, and there will still things in the world he couldn't explain. Was it possible for two people to meet again after hundreds of years?

Then again, it was probably just wishful thinking on his part. Still, it would be nice if…

Please, please, Jack thought to himself, watching Jamie talk to the beautiful, strangely familiar girl. Let her be able to see me. Let her believe in me.

...

Later that day, Jack was walking home with Jamie, swinging his staff and frosting the streets as he passed. Kids frolicked out in the first snow of the season, tossing snowballs and making snow angels. "Nice work, Jack," Jamie complimented him. Jamie didn't mind talking to Jack in public, even though to passersby it seemed as if Jamie was having a conversation with himself. But Jamie was cool; he didn't care.

"I can't stay long," Jack said at last. "I have to bring winter farther south."

"I know," Jamie said with a sad smile, shuffling with his hands in his pockets. "Hey, at least I get to see you once a year. Just take care of yourself, alright?"

"You too." Jack said. Then he stopped in his tracks in surprise. If he didn't have control of the winds he probably would have slipped on his own ice and fallen down. The blonde girl was down the street ahead of them. She had a camera and was snapping pictures of the freshly fallen snow, that look of wonder still in her eyes. Jack always appreciated that look. Most people grew tired of the snow as they grew older; some downright hated Jack and his work. But whenever he saw that look of delight in a kid's eyes, somehow it make it all worth it.

Jamie elbowed Jack in the side. "Catch up with you later," he said with a grin, before turning down his own street and heading toward home. He left Jack on the street with the girl.

She was bending over a flower bush, admiring the pink blossoms still thriving into the beginning of winter. Jack flew up behind her on a gust of wind and blew a puff of chilly air over the flowers, frosting them with a coat of white. The girl gasped in surprise at the flowers suddenly frosted before her eyes. "Must be Jack Frost," she said to herself with a smile, before snapping a picture.

As if to confirm what she had said, Jack blew another breath directly at her, coating her blonde hair and eyelashes in snow flurries. She was so surprised at the gust of chilly air that, as she shivered suddenly, the camera fell from her hands and clattered onto the street. She glanced around with wide eyes, searching the (to her eyes) empty street.

"…Jack?" she whispered with a smile. "Is that you?"

Before Jack could think of another way to make himself known to her, a voice called down from the nearest house. "Elisa!" the woman's voice called. "Come inside; you'll catch cold!"

The girl sighed and picked up her camera. "Coming, Mom!" she called, before hurrying up the stairs to the front door. She opened the door, but before she went inside, she took one last glance at the snowy, seemingly empty street.

Jack stood still and stared, as if he himself had been frozen. The girl's mother had called her Elisa.