For some time now, Jack was happy with where he's at. It's been almost a year since the whole Pitch Black fiasco and children are seeing him more and more. It's not a whole lot like Bunnymund or Toothiana, but at least, he doesn't feel alone anymore. He makes special visits to Jamie and Sophie often since he grew attached to them, and they often play around. He's gotten used to the daily routine of playing with them and some of the friends. Of course, he makes an effort to visit North's domain to check in with his Guardian duties, but otherwise, Jack can say that he's quite comfortable with where he's at now.

That's why it was sorta strange to see someone pull up with their car at Jamie's home.

Jamie's mother did have some friends over every once in a while but he grew to recognize the cars that would pull up on the drive way. From the looks of the children's reactions when the person stepped out, she was no stranger. Actually, it seemed like they were fond of her. She was young, not much older than his age when he was alive, which also means she wouldn't be able to see him. North explained to him how it's normal for older kids and adults not being able to sense any presence from spirits like themselves since older folk think of their existence as fairy tales. That's why, every once in a while a light would flicker off on the globe at the North Pole, but for every one light that goes off, another would replace it.

Jamie was the first to greet the newcomer. He waved energetically, probably from his adrenaline going down the snow hill Jack made, and grinned widely, "Hey, [Name]!"

Jack thought it was interesting not hearing that name before, considering Jamie being awfully familiar with her. He heard her retort, "Hey, Jamie! Be careful there. We don't want a repeat of what happened last time, do we?"

Jack couldn't help but chuckle from the memory of when he first met the believer. His sledding through the town was the reason for his gaped tooth smile. It was adorable, and it was like a souvenir from that exciting time. Although it was fun, he did make sure to not do anything extreme like that again. Jack wouldn't hear the end of it from Bunnymund if he would to find out.

Jamie laughed and reassured the older girl that she didn't need to worry about it so much. She smiled feeling at ease about him being cautious. Sophie was the next one to greet the girl as she ran towards her. She had her arms reached out in front of her and leaning forward.

"Wait, Sophie—!"

"Uh-oh, that's not a good idea," Jack mumbled to himself. He readied his staff as it glowed his signature light blue.

He was about to send a pile of snow towards Sophie to soften the blow before she made contact with the ground, but the newcomer was quick enough to scoop up the small girl in her arms. "Gotcha," she said. She seemed relieved when she sighed and started scolding the young girl, "Sophie, what did your mom and I say about running on ice?"

The younger girl's bottom lip stuck out and her eyes casted down in an apologetic manner, "Sorry."

"It's okay," the young adult smiled gently, "but your mom and I would be sad if you got hurt. Will you promise me to be careful next time?"

Jack was impressed with the way the stranger handled the situation. Most adults would yell and leave a negative emotion in a child, but she seemed to understand her gentleness causing an impact more than leaving a child to cry. These are the few adults that Jack respected.

Because of the kindness Sophie was showed, she peeled up instantly and made the promise. [Name] put the little blonde down and steady her feet before she released her. "Good," her teeth chattered, Jack noticed, "let me talk to your mom first, then I'll come out to play for a bit, okay?"

Sophie cheered, "Sis is going to come play!" in which, everyone else joined. Jack smiled at the excitement the younger ones were in as she went inside. The kids continued to play on the slope as Jack went to Jamie.

"I didn't know you had an older sister, Jamie," he stated.

Jamie grinned, "[Name], isn't really my sister. We just call her that because we grew up together like siblings. She babysits is a lot."

"Oh," Jack trailed while it clicked in his head, "makes sense since this is the first time I'm seeing her."

"Yeah!" Jamie exclaimed, "I wish I can introduce you to her because she's awesome like you are, Jack!"

Jamie is aware of Jack's situation since there was some disappointing encounters with his mother walking right through him. Jack had to explain it to him. Though Jamie was sad to hear, he promised to Jack to help with having more kids believe in him. The albino was happy to hear the young boy cheer up quickly.

In a teasing manner, Jack pouted, "Is she more awesome than me?"

Jamie panicked, "No! I said, 'like you!' You guys are equally awesome!"

Jack chuckled and ruffled his hair a bit, "I know, I'm just messing around. She must be a pretty cool person, though if she's awesome like me."

Jamie's mother came out as she kissed him goodbye on the forehead, "I'm going to see your grandmother. I won't be back until tomorrow morning, but [Name] will taking care of you and Sophie until then."

"Okay, bye mom!"

Jack noticed [Name] standing on the porch  where she was waving the woman goodbye until she drove off. She went back inside for a few minutes then came back out where they were playing on the hill. Jamie ran to her and hugged her legs. She greeted back with messing up his hair even more so than Jack did.

"How have you been, kiddo?" she smiled with a small laugh.

"Good," Jamie replies, "my friend made this hill for us so we started playing on it."

Jack could have been mistaken, but he could have sworn she looked at him and saw that he was standing a few feet in front of her. He looked behind him in case he was missing something, only to realize that the hill was also right behind him. She didn't see him but was merely looking at the hill he made in her line of sight.

"Although it's a steep hill," she said out of concern. Even so, Jack takes pride in his work and treats them as master pieces.

When he was alone for the longest time, he made a habit of one-sided conversations and small retorts here and there without expecting to be said back. Carelessly, he said appallingly, "Hey! I've been watching them until now and they're all fine, thank you very much."

Jack might be hoping for too much, but it was almost like she rolled her eyes after he jokingly said that. He's starting to think whether she can hear him or not.

"But you know what would more fun, in my opinion?" she suggested.

Jamie waited patiently as he awaited what her answer was going to be. Jack could tell Jamie admire the girl very much so if he still had a curious twinkle in his eyes to see what she had to say.

The girl grabbed ahold of Jamie's hand and led him to some piles of snow that was swept away to the side for traffic to come and go as they please. Jack grinned when she said, "Let's make some snow forts."

She is pretty cool.

Word Count: 1305

Status: UNEDITED