***3 Months Later***

"Happy Birthday, Amberlynn!" A voice broke through the covers over my head and into my eardrums. Before I could even react, the covers to my bed were off of me and on the floor. My eyes shot open at the sudden breeze that filled my body. I lifted my body up off the bed and glared daggers at who disturbed me from my sleep. I saw the black-haired Piper, her face lit up with excitement. "You're seventeen years-old now!"

I looked over at my alarm clock. It was 7:30 am on the 26th of March. Yep, she was right. It was my birthday. How could I forget? It was also only three days until Easter Sunday. My eyes widened. It was also a Thursday. "We're gonna be late for school!" Piper laughed.

"No school today! A huge blizzard came over night and it lasted until 5:00! There is feet and feet of snow out there!" She squealed in delight. "It's like a birthday present for you!"

I stood there glaring at her for about 2 minutes straight. None of us moved. Neither of us said a word. I decided to break the silence.

"You mean to tell me," I started, my voice struggling to stay calm. "That you woke me up at 7:30 in the morning on a snow day." She was starting to back away from me, but she turned and looked to the frost-covered window.

"Huh? What's this?"

"What? What's what?" I asked, confused. She took a few steps toward the windowsill and examined the window. I hurried to stand by her side, looking at the words that were scratched into the frost. The words were clear and neat. The words said:

'7:00 tonight, the lake behind the school. Be there.'

Both Piper and I only could stare at if for a few minutes. There was no dialogue between us and it was silent besides the children outside screaming and laughing. Soon, Piper spoke up.

"Seems legit," she said with a giggle. "Guess you'll be seeing your secret admirer at six!" She winked at me. The heat rose to my face leaving my cheeks tinted pink.

"H-Hey!" I started with a stutter. "This is Jack! Who else could it be?!"

"I know it's Jack!" She grinned. I flicked her in the ear rolling my eyes. She winced, but laughed nonetheless. She took the boots she was holding in her hands and jammed her feet into them. "Well, I'm going out for the day! Sorry to ditch you on your birthday, but you seem to have a date to catch," she smiled as she tied her boots.

"It's not a date," I growled. "Just a little birthday surprise, I'm sure."

"Whatever you say," Piper said in a sing-song voice as she left the room.

I rolled my eyes with a sigh and began to change. I snagged a blue and black top with intricate multiple white snowflake designs. They all shimmered in light. I grabbed a black skirt that fell just above my knees. My socks went up below my knees and I slipped on my brown moccasins, as usual. I kept my auburn bangs out of my face with a blue clip. I ran down the stairs and slipped out the door before Claire and Mark even noticed I was up. It was my day, and I wasn't interested in being pestered to put a coat on.

It was really hard to walk down the streets of Burgess. The snow was knee-deep and the streets that had been plowed were slippery. I could barely walk without tripping over my own feet. I enjoyed listening to the sounds of the kids cheering and playing in the deep snow. Their facial expressions were purely filled with joy and happiness that made me smile. They enjoyed life and wanted to use if for the better. A yell of frustration and anger broke through the joy, grabbing my attention. The voice was so familiar.

"I know they're real, you guys! Get off my back already!"

My eyes scanned the area of children. I saw three boys who looked about thirteen standing above the crowd. They were all surrounded around one boy in particular. One with brown hair and amber eyes. Jamie Bennett.

I narrowed my eyes and walked over in that direction in an angry manor. The same three kids have been teasing the same boy for the past month. Jamie was one of the few kids who believed in Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, and the Sandman. I had stopped them plenty of times before, and I wasn't going to let them pester Jamie anymore.

I angrily began to stomp through the snow over to the group of boys. I have to watch both Jamie and his little sister, Sophie when their mother isn't home. The boy and his sister were practically family to me. I had a fire burning inside me, feeling the snow melt beneath my feet as a trudged through the knee deep snow. I was know around my town for my temper and anger. Usually these kids that were pestering Jamie would back off one I showed up. I guaranteed they'd do the same thing this time.

"Hey, you little rats!" I shouted at them once I got closer. There eyes shifted toward me from the boy in unison. There was an extra pair of eyes that didn't quiver at all. The boy looked about my age too. He must've been new. This kid was a big guy too. He looked very strong. What was a guy like that doing with shrimps like them? One of the older boys was holding a book that had all sorts of supernatural creatures on the cover of it. It probably belonged to Jamie. That kid's eyes widened as he back up behind his buddies. I put my hands on my hips, stepping in front of Jamie. "I'll take that," I scowled, snatching the book out of his hands. Before I could hand it back to the rightful owner, a new voice broke into the air.

"No way!" It yelled, taking the book back. I turned to see the new boy looking through the book again. His younger friends looked at him with wide eyes, like he was clearly going insane. I narrowed my eyes once again and snatched the book back. The older guy looked shocked, like no one ever had the guts to do to him. No one probably ever dared to, being the big guy he was. Some of the kids took a few steps back as I raised a hand to slap the boy silly. Before my hand made the collision with his cheek, he fell over, snow covering his face. I was taken aback for a second. I turned around and met the icy eyes of my good friend, Jack Frost.

He wore a goofy grin and he was laughing. Jack had left sometime in January to go bring winter joy to other parts of the world. This is the first time I had seen him in months. He was playing with a snowball in his hand throwing it up into the air and catching it in the same hand. I took another look at the kid he just pelted with the ball of snow. He stood up and began to go into war with his friends.

I had to admit, I was relieved to see my friend again, but I was also clearly agitated. I wanted to knock some sense into the teenager who had took the book from Jamie! Speaking of Jamie, my eyes peered over to him. He was grinning and laughing. He looked to me and our eyes locked.

"Thanks, Amber!" He grinned up at me.

The poor kid must've thought I threw that snowball. I looked back to Jack quickly. He looked a bit upset that Jamie couldn't see him, but he kept the smile on his face. I wanted to tell Jamie about Jack Frost. I wanted to tell everyone I could, but it takes more than that to get someone to believe.

The rest of the day was filled with fun! I was going to go sledding with Jamie and his friends after we all had an awesome snowball fight! I was mainly shooting at Jack, because he pelted me first and I needed my revenge. Before we could begin sledding though, Jack tried to get Jamie to see him by making a trail of ice through the city. Jamie slipped on the ice and went for the sleigh ride of his life. I had to run after him of course because he was my responsibility at the time. At the end of the path, he fell into a giant snow pile. Everyone was worried, I heard loud gasps and murmurs, but he came out laughing! He lost a tooth in the process making all of the kids including him start to talk about the tooth fairy. Jack became so aggravated and I felt bad, but what was I supposed to do?

It was around 5 o'clock when I got back home and Claire had a birthday present for me waiting. She bought me more sketchbooks and colored pencils. I was also thrilled to see a few pairs of jeans in my size. I hastily changed into a pair of them before rushing to my room to get a few more drawings in.

I got lost in drawing. If I do say so myself, I'm a pretty good artist. I'm not the best, but I take pride in my drawings and I've been told I'm good. However I hate people looking through them. It's a weird thing of mine. I finally finished a second drawing and took my head op from my sketchbook. I shifted my eyes over to the clock on my desk. 6:59. The frost on my window still stuck out to me. My deep gray eyes widened. "I'm gonna be late!" I whispered to myself angrily. How could I have forgotten?!

Jumping from my chair, I grabbed my gray jacket and slipped my feet into my moccasins. I also grabbed my drawing bag, shoved a sketchbook and a box of colored pencils in it along with my cell phone. With that, I sprinted down the stairs and out the door while texting my adoptive mother. I didn't want her worrying if I wasn't home until late, so I told her I'll be out with a friend.

I had to stop myself from slipping on my ice-covered driveway. Once I reached the bottom of it, I missed a spot of black ice and I braced myself for the hard fall. Before I collided with the concrete, I felt two cold hands grab me by the arms. I opened my eyes and looked up at my helper and saw no other than Jack Frost floating inches off the ground. He grinned.

"You should be more careful, Sunshine!" He chuckled. "You're late, by the way." I narrowed my eyes at him, as he helped me onto my feet.

"Thank you, Captain State-the-Obvious," I replied with a straight face. He pouted.

"Aw c'mon, Amber! I knew you were heartless, but I didn't realize you'd even ditch me on your own birthday surprise!"

"I lost track of time," I mumbled, glancing at my drawing bag.

Jack looked at me up and down. He smiled, seeing my jeans. "I see that!" He laughed. "They look good!"

I smiled. I was just happy someone saw it my way for once.

"Well," I started, trying to avoid any awkward silences. "What did you want to do?"

Jack grinned. "Come on!" He replied cheerfully, welcoming me onto his back. I was a bit confused, not sure where I was going to be taken, but I did so. He locked his arms underneath my legs so I wouldn't fall. He jumped into the air and I frantically wrap my arms around him not expecting the abrupt movement. He chuckled lightly.

"Have you seen the dream sand?" He asked curiously. I smiled. I had always watched the glowing grains of sand fly into the windows of children blessing them with sweet dreams. It was a beautiful sight at night, it stood out so well and chased the darkness away.

"Yeah! It's amazing! I watch through my bedroom window almost every night! Why?"

"Well, then you're in for a treat," he replied with a smile. "You get to see it up close."