Happy Birthday

When Jack Frost came to visit the kids in Burgess, they couldn't have been happier. They would play games, have snowball fights, go skating, and sometimes he would take them for a short flights. One thing the kids liked doing was asking Jack questions about his life. He had lived for so long and seen so much, he always had interesting stories to tell.

"...Then Phil threw me out a window, that's the closest I ever got to actually breaking into North's workshop" Jack was just finishing up one story, they were sitting on the platform in the forest. Well, Jack wasn't, when he told stories he got very animated. He had spent the morning telling the group about the many times he had tried, and failed, to get past North's yeti's.

After they finished laughing Pippa spoke up, "Okay, my turn to ask a question, you said you were human before you became an immortal, right?" Jack nodded and she went on, "How did you and the others become immortal?"

Jack thought for a moment, looking up at the sky, "Well, I'm not actually sure about the others, though I think it's because they battled Pitch when they were mortal or something, I guess I could ask them. As for me" He paused and looked at the hopeful faces of the kids, "I'll tell you when you're older"

"Come on, Jack! That's no fair!" Jamie said, and the others all chimed in to agree with him.

"No, I'm sorry, my mind is made up" Jack said, "Next question"

Without missing a beat Cupcake chimed in, "When's your birthday? It's in the winter, right?"

Jack thought for a moment, "Good question" He said, "I think... it was actually in the Fall, though for a while I thought it was in the winter."

"What do you mean, you think?" Jamie asked, "How could you not know?"

"Well, when you don't celebrate something for around 300 years you tend to forget the date." Jack said, not mentioning that for those 300 years he thought his 'birthday' was the day he came out of the lake, "Though that does remind me, when are your birthdays?"

They spent the rest of the day telling Jack about their birthdays in the past year, and he said that he would be sure to bring them all something at some point. It started getting dark and the kids had to head home, but Jamie had one more question for Jack.

"When are you going to come back next?"

"Well, I have a few places I am going to head to first, but I think I'll come back in about six days" Jack answered.

Jamie smiled as he climbed down the ladder, "Okay, see you on Saturday!" With that the kids said their goodbyes and ran off home, Jack flew off to bring snow and fun to other kids around the world.

-------

The next day Jamie met up with his friends outside the school. As he ran up he interrupted Pippa, who was talking about some assignment that was due that morning.

"Guys, we should give Jack a birthday party!" He exclaimed.

The group looked at him in confusion for a moment, not sure at first what he was talking about.

"But he said his birthday was in the Fall" Monty said, remembering the short conversation from the day before.

"Yeah, but if he hasn't celebrated for 300 years, I'm sure he won't mind it being a couple months late." Jamie reasoned.

"It would be really fun," Pippa said, "But think about it, as far as our parents are concerned Jack doesn't exist. They aren't going to waste their money on an 'imaginary' birthday."

Jamie's earlier excitement at the idea deflated, "Yeah, I guess that's true."

Cupcake looked at the sky for a moment before adding to the conversation, "We don't need to tell them what it is. We could just say we want to have a party at the lake, or the fort."

"Yeah, we could all bake a cake together," Caleb said

"And make gifts and decorations." Claude finished for his twin. The kids were starting to get really excited.

"We could put a bunch of decorations on the trees around the fort" Monty threw in, "And since Jack always meets us at our house, it would be a complete surprise!"

"Yeah, I knew you guys would think it was a good idea" Jamie smiled, in truth he hadn't thought beyond wanting to throw Jack a party.

"First things first though-" Pippa started just as the school bell rang, with a sigh she finished, "I guess we think about it until recess"

Which is what they did. In class Jamie doodled on a scrape piece of paper, showing the platform/fort with decorations hanging from the three trees. It was a crude drawing, but he ended up getting all his ideas on it.

Cupcake made a list of all the things she could probably convince her dad to let her borrow. It was short, but all the items would make the party better.

Monty jotted down ideas of how they could make money to buy snacks, since their parents would probably not want to.

Pippa made a menu of sorts, with all the things you usually had at a birthday party.

Caleb jotted down ideas for gifts, though he ended up crossing most of them out. What did you get a 300 year old, anyway?

Claude was thinking of ways to convince their parents that they should let them have a party on Saturday.

At recess, they all met up and listened to each others ideas.

"We need to have chips and chocolate, stuff like that" Pippa said, "No birthday is complete without snacks." The others agreed, and said they would raid their pantries at home after school.

Cupcake was the next to speak up, "We'll want a table to put those snacks on. I can probably get my parents to lend us one. Also, for music, I can borrow my moms I-pod."

"We want it to be a surprise, right?" Jamie asked, they all nodded, "So we'll have to set it up the day before, and since Jack always brings some snowfall with him, we'll need a make-shift roof"

"No problem man," Claude said, "Our dad has been saying we should put a tarp over it anyway. We have one in our garage we can use. We just got to have him put it up"

"Okay, that will work" Jamie said, what else?"

"Decorations, we'll have to make them. Or find them around our houses" Caleb said.

"I have some streamers at my house" Monty said, "And we could cut out a bunch of those paper snowflakes"

Pippa had been writing down what everyone had said, and read out her list, "We have money, which we need to get for snacks and stuff. Decorations, I like the paper snowflake idea, what do you guys think?" She asked.

"Maybe that silver tinsel we use on Christmas trees," Jamie added, "I bet I could find some at my house"

"That's a good idea, and we could all look through the stuff at home for things we could use." Monty said, "Also, I don't know about you guys but I've been saving my allowance. How about tomorrow we all bring in our money to see how much we have all together?"

The group all agreed, and Pippa continued down her list, "Food, I bet we could raid a lot for our houses, so everyone should make a list of what their parents say they can bring. We can probably buy anything we miss. What else?"

"The most important thing, gifts!" Caleb said, loudly, "But I have no clue what we could get him. I mean, he doesn't need anything."

The group lapsed into silence as they all thought. Eventually the bell ringed, and they headed back inside. By the end of the day, the group had all the details figured out. They went back home and got it worked out with their parents, then the next day they met to discus it again. On the Thursday, they all met at Pippa's house and make a cake. On Friday, after the twins and Jamie's fathers had hung a tarp over the platform, they decorated. They knew Jack would love it. Only one thing was left to do, have the party!

-----

As usual Jack arrived at Burgess a little before sunrise, bringing a fairly large snowfall with him. As he sat and waited, ready to throw a sneak-attack snowball from Jamie's roof, he was knocked off balance when one hit him in the back of the head.

Turning around he got a face full of snow. "Jamie!" He exclaimed, "Your awake? How did you get on your roof?"

"Climbing's not that hard." Jamie said, sitting on the snow-covered roof, "I figured I'd join you to watch the sunrise"

Jack looked at the kid, confused, "Uh, okay" he replied. As the two sat and talked about nothing in particular, the other kids left their houses unnoticed by Jack.

As the sun rose, Jamie made a suggestion, "We should go for a walk to the fort, I'm bored"

Jack laughed, "Don't you think we should wait for your friends?"

"They'll still be asleep for an hour or more, it doesn't take that long to go for a walk." Jamie replied. Jack shrugged and flew the two down to the ground.

On the way through the trees Jamie could barely contain his excitement. Though Jack didn't notice, as usual he was frosting trees over. Finally they reached the fort.

"Surprise!" All the kids yelled, as Jack was still taking in the sight.

The platform was a bit more like a fort now. A tarp was hanging from tree branches high above, a table and some chairs had been lifted onto the platform. On that table was a cake, pop, chips, cookies, and some 'healthy' snacks the kids parents had told them they had to include.

Tinsel was hanging from the branches of the trees, or was wrapped around the trunks. Streamers had been thrown between the trees. Dozens of paper snowflakes hung from the branches, off the edges of the platform, or from the tinsel and streamers. Some glass and plastic icicles, normally seen on Christmas trees, were hanging here and there. Not all that much had changed, when you thought about it, but somehow it made the place feel... magical.

Jack was dumbstruck, using the wind to fly up to the platform he didn't know what to say, so Jamie explained, "You said you hadn't had a birthday party for 300 years, so we decided to throw you one. We spent the last week putting it together after school"

Jack looked at each of the kids, even Sophie had come, despite her reluctance to wake up in the morning. "I-I don't know what to say" He finally replied, "Thank you. This really means a lot."

With that the group started celebrating Jack's first birthday party in 300 years. Jack used the camera that Bunny had given him earlier in the year and took a lot of pictures, this would be a day he remembered forever.

Around noon, Jamie pulled a small present out from under the table. "We weren't sure what to get you, but we all pitched in and hope you like it" He said as he handed it to Jack.

Jack gingerly pulled the wrapping paper away inside was a long silver chain with three charms attached, a snowflake, a blue dolphin, and a crescent moon.

"You can attach it to your staff, near the top, and you can add charms whenever you get more" Jamie explained, as Jack examined the gift.

Jack did just that, "It's awesome guys, thanks" He said, and all of a sudden he felt Sophie hugging his legs.

"Group hug?" she asked, looking at everyone. The others shrugged and went to join in, Jack really didn't know how to respond at first, but he was defiantly happy.