Elsa sighed despondent, sitting alone in the cold, somber room. The sun was just peeking out over the treeline beyond her window, gleaming light into her world in stark contrast to the drab darkness that crawled like a spider within her stomach.

"Being a bit dramatic, huh?"

"Mom!" Elsa snapped her journal shut with a thud, face flushing.

The woman just giggled at her daughter. "I'm sorry, Elsa dear, it's just so nice to know what goes on in that head of yours." Elsa curled her private notebook to her chest, cheeks burning. "And you know, the living room isn't the most private place to write."

The girl huffed and looked back out the window. Birds chirped in the summer dawn, trees a lively rich green, sky painted a soft pink and clear of clouds. Okay, so maybe I was being a little dramatic.

Maybe.

First days of school had never been Elsa's strong suit. Or second days of school. Or any days of school. Or having friends.

Suffice to say, Elsa was not particularly fond of school; the people there, at least. Her and studying got along just fine. Math? That made sense. History? She could memorize that. Literature? Reading was actually fun. Gym? Okay, no, she didn't like that one. It usually ended in her being the only person on one dodgeball team, and she couldn't aim for her life- or dodge. Maybe if she was more nimble, like a cat-

"Ready to go, kiddo?" Her father's voice refocused Elsa when he apparated into the room.

No. "Yes, dad. But, 'kiddo?'" She stood, deliberately placing her book bag over her shoulders.

"You'll always be my little girl," he grinned.

Elsa smiled and rolled her eyes.

"Have a good first day, sweetheart." Her mom gave her a tight hug, which the girl returned happily. A somewhat ungodly sounding half meow, half purr broke them apart. Elsa reached out just in time to catch the portly cat as it jumped up to her. He was a long-hair cat, almost three years old, with thick whiskers, snow-white fur, the most adorable little orange nose Elsa had ever seen, and a very pronounced, frilly, smiley mouth.

Elsa cooed and pet him in her arms, planting a kiss on his forehead, right between his rather fluffy ears. He didn't mind. He loved the attention, he was a big ham. "So when's our dodgeball lesson?" He just meowed and continued purring like a motorboat. "Wish me luck, Olaf," she said, more seriously than before.

And before she knew it, she was there. Her hand clutched the handle inside of the car door. The hum of the idling car and soft melody of the peaceful piano music she'd tuned the radio to challenged the rapid heartbeat she felt in her neck. Her knuckles were white.

Right now, she was in a safe place. She was comfortable here. But once she opened that door, she'd have to say goodbye to her comfort zone for the day. She'd have to brave the outside world, endure certain humiliation. She'd have to… go to school. "I- dad, I'm not ready, I'm scared." she choked out.

He pursed his lips, brown eyes focusing with concern. He took her free hand into both of his and made direct eye contact with his daughter.

Elsa looked at him, face pleading not to go, rich blue eyes glistening. He hated to see her so scared, he wished he could just take that fear from her and shoulder the burden for her, take it and make it his own, just so she'd be free. What must it be like for her, to be so frightened of people?

"Be strong, Elsa," he said with confidence, giving her hands a quick squeeze. "You'll be fine."

She gulped. Steeling herself, the trepid girl pushed open the car door. "I'll pick you up after school."

Elsa nodded once again, stiffly. She clutched her journal to her chest like a lifeline. She could feel her arms trembling and her palms becoming clammy. The school entrance stood balefully over her, aggressing her thundering heart. A constant stream of chatter from other students siphoning into the building rang in her ears. She wished she could do that; be social, normal. Rigid as an old-timey zombie, she marched. Maybe, this year will be different. Maybe, since I'm a senior everyone will leave me alone.

"Oh, look, the Ice Queen is back!" Elsa knew that sarcastic sneer. She didn't even look up.

"Tsk, tsk, Snowgirl. A senior and still being driven by daddy, like a wittle girl." Ariel chimed in with Eric, too. "Such a special wittle snowflake."

Elsa clamped her eyes shut, shrinking into her large, light blue sweatshirt. She'd gotten it almost four years ago now, the first winter of her freshman year at high school. It had a big, white, stylized graphic of a snowflake on the chest. Elsa loved snow. She almost scoffed at herself. Elsa Snow loves snow. Go figure.

Sure, right now it was a little hot out to be wearing a sweatshirt, but the discomfort was well worth having something to hide in.

She started walking again, hugging herself tightly around her precious booklet of thoughts, and eyes dragging along the floor with her pride. It appeared as though this year would be a repeat of, well, every other year.

"Aw, come on," Eric's annoying voice again, "still giving us the cold shoulder?"

"Hey, hey now guys, relax. It's not her fault she's too autistic to talk anyone but her pervy parents."

The verbal assault continued, but at least this time there was no physical attack. That had really only happened once, but… well, it left a reminder on Elsa in more than one way. She subconsciously traced her ribs. That had been freshmen year. That had been when she first started wearing this ridiculous hoodie everywhere. As if it'd save her, like the kicks and punches were bullets and her coat was kevlar. At least Ursula had been expelled for that. What kind of name is Ursula, anyway?

Elsa's eyes began to brine as she recalled the day. She'd been taken to the nurse's office, but by who she did not know. She did remember a head of well-kept brown hair, but the recollection was fuzzy and she couldn't put a face to the it. She couldn't even remember what hairdo it was. The memory was just… brown.

One time. In nearly three years there, she'd been shown kindness one singular, solitary, lonely time.

Why? Elsa demanded internally as she slammed herself into her seat at homeroom. Why do they hate me? What did I ever do to them? Nothing. Nothing at all. She just wasn't social enough for them- wasn't social enough for anyone- so she was a soft target. There was a lump in Elsa's throat. She looked around the room. Everyone was chatting with their neighbor, or sitting on another's desk to talk until the bell signalled the start of class.

Elsa wanted that.

Instead she got- well she got what she got.

She slouched in her seat and pulled out her journal.

"Loneliness is a horrible thing," she wrote. "It sits inside you- latches onto you like a parasite and won't let go. The worst part about this parasitic malady that so cruelly seems to plague only me? I can't remove it myself. It's the nature of the disease. I need a doctor- a loneliness doctor- to come-"

"Okay class, let's begin," Duke Wessel interrupted from thirty feet away. Her business and finance teacher stood just over five feet tall, and at first glance appeared thin and frail. He was; however, a spritely old man, with the thickest glasses that Elsa had ever seen. Adorned also with a hilariously oversized nose and mustache to match it. His hair was obviously fake, and sometimes even bounced off of his head if he spoke too animatedly. He practically danced around the front of the class as he introduced himself.

He began roll call and the platinum blonde's heart clenched in her chest. Breathing was so hard, why was breathing so hard? At least, given her last name, she was close to the last person called, so she had time to prepare. She still found; however, that upon trying to simply speak up and say "present," her voice failed her.

The weighty stares of countless eyes all attacked her at once. The room began spinning around her.

Megara whispered something to her neighbor, and even though her voice was too low to understand, the tone was judgemental. Elsa had a good idea who she was talking about. What kind of pathetic person can't even answer roll call? She felt like sinking into the chair, or into the floor, or just vanishing. That way, no one could stare at her. Or judge her. Or hate her.

Wessel's enormously intense eyebrows didn't help, either.

She needed the attention gone. Away, anywhere else.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry I'm late- I'm sorry-" a thud startled the whole room as a girl came crashing through the door.

She was…

Gorgeous. Elsa stared wide-eyed, as if the bigger they were, the more of the sight she'd be able to drink in. Silken auburn locks of illustrious hair braided into two perfectly imperfect braids. Bright, teal eyes sparkled jubilantly under the normally drab florescent lights of the school. Somehow, the flat luminescence came to life dazzlingly as it reflected off her eyes, hair, and puffy, cutesy and preciously freckled cheeks. And…

Oh God.

Her nose. A cute, adorable, ambrosial, cherubic, little button nose. Did Elsa mention that it was cute? Probably not, she couldn't remember. Point is, it was perfect on the new girl's stunning face- which had a horrified expression on it, mouth agape.

Elsa couldn't help the small smile that crossed her own lips. One of those strawberry blonde braids- the right one (which had a curiously pretty streak of blonde running lengthwise down it)- rested on front of her shoulder. Which was also freckled.

The other pigtail hung behind her left. Her tank top was bright green, such that it could probably be its very own neon sign. Combined with form-fitting jean shorts, the outfit flaunted just how splendidly curvey her hips were, antithetical to her thin waist and petite chest.

Elsa may or may not have been drooling.

She'd never seen this girl before, but she certainly wanted to see more of her.

Pervert.

Good thing they were in the same homeroom, right?

Pervert! As if she'd ever talk to someone as socially inept as you, anyway.

But I can still look, right?

Christ you absolute, leering perve!

"And you are…?" Duke questioned dubiously, pointing his nose at New Hottie like a finger.

"Umm, Anna," she said- well, no, questioned- taking a cautious step back. "I'm in this class, right?" Anna. Elsa made a mental note.

"Hmm," the teacher drawled, dragging his eyebrows down the student list. "Nope!" He proudly proclaimed.

Anna looked taken aback, eyes widening and cheeks bright pink. "Oh, um, eh-heh," her chuckle was forced and airy as she retreated. Elsa found herself more disappointed than was reasonable. "Well, I've gotta, I'm just gonna- oof-" she'd backed into the door frame. Clumsy. Cute. "-I've gotta go, uhh, find my… eheh- bye!" And she was gone.

Door shut behind her, Anna slammed her back against the cold cinder wall and took a breath. Good start. New school, new class, wrong class. Really, truly efficiently making a proper first impression here, huh? She couldn't help but laugh at herself. "Well, at least they know I'm being myself," she shrugged. Grabbing the shoulder of her very light backpack- no she totally hadn't forgotten all of her books at home- she pulled out her map again. A giant, clearly marked yellow line snaked through the hallways, pointing to several rooms. "Mayybe I should've written down which room to go in first," she mused.

Off she went to try again.

"Christopher-"

"-it's Kristoff-"

"-Would you be so kind as to guide our new friend, Ms. Anna, to her classes for the remainder of the day? So she can get properly oriented to the school?" Wow, that was a polite way of calling her stupid.

"But then I'll be late for all my classes," the blonde boy stated, pointing his thumb at his own chest. His own muscular chest. He was built like a mountain. A sexy, blonde, muscular, sculpted mountain. If Anna squeezed his biceps, what kind of rock would they feel like? She wondered. Probably marble. So smooth, so dazzling. Her leg was bouncing. Why was it bouncing? Stop bouncing.

"I'll write you a note, you needn't worry about that."

Christopher crossed his marble arms and raised an eyebrow incredulously. "For every class?"

"Yes."

"Yes!" Anna cheered before realizing. She cleared her throat and slumped a little "I mean, uh, yeah, okay." It was hot in that room, wasn't it? Yeah, that was it. The air conditioning just wasn't on.

This only earned a glance from the brown-eyed mountain. Amber eyes. Strong eyes. "Fine," he shrugged, "but only if Sven can come."

"So, what brings you to Arendelle?"

Christo-fine, Anna, and a rather large, also exorbitantly built looking guy walked abreast down the not-so-clean looking off-white hall. The buzzing chatter of students betwixt classes wasn't forceful enough to cloud their conversation. Who Anna assumed to be Sven (though he hadn't given verbal confirmation as to whether he actually was Sven) had dark brown hair, shorter than his blonde buddy's, but still shaggy.

"Oh, you know, work. Not my- I don't work, not my work. My uncle's company work. His work-company moved. Not- not that I'm lazy, I just- I would get a job, but I- well, I haven't been here long." Okay, stop vomiting, no one wants to see you blow verbal chunks. He probably already thinks you're some sort of alien. "That's ah- that's all, nothing exciting. Work. Just, work. Eheh." She awkwardly tucked some hair that probably wasn't out of place back behind her right ear.

Sven wore what was proving more and more to be a perennial, dopey smile upon his sorta droopy looking face. He had a sorta big nose. But that wasn't important. Probably. Can he smell stuff better than me? Can he smell me? Sven was listening to every detail of the girl's minced words, but he was commenting exactly zilch.

"You live with your uncle?"

"Yeah, um," Anna turned her gaze, focusing away from the conversation while subconsciously nibbling on her bottom lip. "It's a long story."

The marble dude got the hint. Why's dumb blonde even a stereotype in the first place? "Yeah, Arendelle's been a growing market for those giant glass eye sores they call office buildings for the past few years."

"What're you, some kind of tree hugger?" Anna joked.

"I do like my time in the woods, I'll have you know." He crossed his arms, chin elevated by pride.

"Tree huggerrr!" It sorta turned into a growel, the rolling R's. Very un-ladylike. Very unattractive. Nice one.

"Tree hater," he countered flatly, raising a challenging eyebrow.

"I do not!" Okay, punctuating myself with a stomp was a little much. The girl didn't spend every waking hour of her life in the woods or feel some sort of magical kinship with strange animals, but she didn't hate nature. In fact, she quite loved reading under a tree, or running around a park. And zoos! She was… was totally not a hypocrite for teasing Chris for liking the woods. "I'll have you know I think trees are fantastic things." She crossed her arms, like him, oozing mach pretension.

Sven elbowed his friend, eliciting a sickeningly satisfying thud.

Christopher smirked. "He called you a tree hugger."

Stunned, Anna let her mouth hang ajar while her eyes bounced between the two. What? Just happened? Eventually, giggles bubbled up like foam and frothed from her mouth. "At least I'm not an alien!"

To his immense credit, the blonde boy furrowed his brows, but let the last comment slide with a well-natured roll of his eyes.

Anna felt light after her first day. Like her entire body had been filled up with helium, letting her float graciously along the seared black pavement of the parking lot. Except her voice. That felt normal. Her muscles felt no jolt, and there was hardly a clack as she skipped merrily along to her car, humming brightly to herself in one major scale or another. She wasn't really listening- or paying any attention for that matter- to the universe around her. Could a first day of school get any better? Aside from all the embarrassing parts, of course.

Unbeknownst to the cheerful strawberry blonde, Elsa was hustling to her father's car after a much, much less amiable first encounter with senior year. She skitted away, tail between her legs, and in contrast to the featheriness of Anna's step and mind, felt the pound of every rushed and careless step against her crying joints. Like her backpack was full of rocks, she was tired. Exhausted. People were exhausting. Being singled out was exhausted. Trying to ignore the world was exhausting. Being Elsa was exhausting; and for that reason, she too paid no mind to the goings on surrounding her.

Anna hit a high note in her hum, the near pitch-perfect buzz in the back of her mouth spurring her feet into a trot-like jog. She-

"Oof!" Out of the blue, by devices entirely irrelevant to her destitute attention, she was slammed sideways, crashing unceremoniously to the pavement below. Directly on her rump. Ow! A dull ache was already echoing around her glutes and lumbar. "Hey!"

"I'm so sorry- I- are you hurt?"

You've got to be kidding me. Anna blinked. Just once. She pinched herself. Ow! Then her face wouldn't move. Her backpack slid off her shoulder, taking place next to her on the ground. Was everyone at this school required to be a model? Was there some rule she was unaware of, that each and every person here had to be gleamingly beautiful?

There had to be. Yup. She's not in school. She's in modeling school apparently. As evidenced by the absolutely blazing auburn head of hair in front of her: a dashing hairdo in the heavy sunlight. Stunningly chiseled cheekbones, and eyes that were the color of dreamy. It can get better!

"Heyy," she purred, sitting up just a smidgen. "Uhh ye- no no, I'm oh- I'm okay."

"Are you sure?" He advanced, leaning over to offer her a hand up, his abashed face studying her person, checking for injuries. Or just… checking, Anna hoped. Ooh, a gentleman.

"Yeah, I- I just wasn't looking where I was going, but I'm great, actually."

"Oh, thank goodness." His voice was low and calm. And he grinned at her in an omigod kinda way and summer was hot enough why did he have to make it hotter?

Anna slowly took his hand and they shared an entirely too long, histrionic gaze into each other's "dreamy" eyes. The girl, once again, found herself omitting the entire outside world from her little bubble of dazed daydreaming.

"Oh, I'm Hans, it's nice to meet you…"

"Anna!" She said entirely too earnestly-

-And she tripped again, falling back and yanking him on top of her in the process. "Agh!"

He was close to her. So very close. Like, touching her close. All over her body. She flushed, sure she looked more similar to a lobster in boiling water than a person laying on a roadway.

"Um…"

"Eheh, hi, um, again." She made an attempt at slithering out of under him at the same time he tried to help her back up.

Needless to say, they fell. Again.

Once more, her chest was pushed to his and his absolutely immaculate face was so near hers that she couldn't even see all of it.

"Oh, boy-"

"This is awkward-" Anna made short work of weaseling her way out of under him this time, ending up right where she fell in the first place. On her now sore backside. "-Not you're awkward, but just 'cause we're- I'm awkward. You're gorgeous." She went stiff. "Wait what?"

Model #2 pulled her to her feet. "I'd like to formally apologize for hitting the newest addition to Arendelle with my car, and for every moment afterwards."

"No! No no, it's fine. I'm not- I'm not the new girl- I don't want to be at least- it's just- I want to be just... me."

"Just you?"

"Hmm," Anna sighed, blushing and once again getting lost in the endless landscape that was Hans' cedar eyes. They simmered with the burning fire of the sun's reflection, an endless pit with the flames of attraction enkindled in the backdrop, obscured by the clouding lack of true personal connection.

That can be changed.

It was only when a car stuck behind them and their staring contest honked for passage that Anna realized just how long she'd been unabashedly staring and dazedly smiling. Directly at Hans.

"Oh, I better go, I gotta go- oof!" she bumped into his mustang amid her withdrawal- wait what? His mustang!? Anna considered it somewhat unfair for someone to be so perfect. What a jerk. A wonderful, awesome, beautiful jerk. She wanted to jerk him forwards and- Ohhkay that's enough of that! "-I better go." She swiveled to dash to her own car, sparing one last glance and a teeny tiny little wave. For good measure. Yeah, good measure. That's why. Not because I'm an awkward alien and he's a gorgeous model. "Uhm, bye!"

Hans smiled endearingly at the girl's unpolished, unrefined, and gawky exit and waved back, twiddling his fingers.

Elsa was finally home. At long last, back in the clutches of safety, where she could just be herself. She exhaled deeply, feeling her entire body relax and droop under gravity as she expended, the cold of the bench beneath her pressing freshly back at her. There was an arid silence that hung in that room. A beautiful, large, circular alcove in the house, with a ceiling about twenty feet high. Subdued glass let a constant glow of natural light illuminate the area, making each feature in the room appear more sensitive to sight, touch, and sound.

Especially sound. The acoustics were impeccable, the reverberant echo expertly tuned to embellish auditory stimuli. Even Olaf, who perched lazily a couple inches from his owner, seemed to understand the importance of stillness in that room. He neither bathed nor meowed, purred nor yawned. He was just still, with the atmosphere in company with Elsa.

Placidly, she stretched her dexterous fingers, finding cool ivory keys beneath her touch, and began her gentle flourishes along the grand piano.

A/N: Soooo enter the cast of Frozen, to summarize? How exciting and expository of a first chapter! I have a feeling we'll be in for a long one, let's see where this takes us!

Thank you for reading :) Reviews are much appreciated!