It was an unusually cheery morning in the halls of Virginia state university. The first snow of the season was falling in soft, fluffy clumps. In the courtyard, people were dancing and throwing snowballs at each other, their laughter carrying all the way into the dorm of one Jack Frost.
Despite the fun atmosphere outside, Jack couldn't find it in himself to be apart of the winter cheer. He was staring at a pile of paperwork on his desk, next to several beer cans that his roommate Loki had left laying around. Loki was a senior here at Virginia state, it was his last year and he was almost ready to start up his own restaurant. He, along with Jack were trying to major in the culinary arts. Loki had big dreams of becoming the owner of a five star restaurant and had recently quit his old job to take on a better paying job at a more well known restaurant. Jack however wanted to open up his own bakery, ever since he was little he had loved baking. He was just starting out at college and he definitely hadn't anticipated all the money. His good grades had gotten him a couple scholarships, but even with that money he still had to take out student loans. He had $12,000 to pay back now and he had no idea what he was going to do. He had to move away from hometown of Burgess and with that his old job (Which wasn't much anyway) and now no one would hire him. He supposed it was because of his hair.
When Jack was about fifteen he had been in an ice-skating accident. The ice had broken and he had fallen in and almost drowned. He had been so terrified, that his hair had turned completely white. Now most places think he was a delinquent who dyed his hair strange colors for attention. Every place he could find locally wouldn't hire him.
While he was busy sulking, Jack didn't notice when Loki slipped back into the dorm with an advertisement in hand.
"Hey Jackie. I think I've found the perfect solution to your problem!" Jack looked up and stared at Loki, who was still wearing his new chef outfit even though his shift had ended two hours ago. Loki shoved the ad in Jack's face so he could read it. Jack took the paper and glanced over it. In a flowing script were the words 'All Hallows coffee shop, now hiring!' Jack threw the ad on the floor and went back to glaring out of the window.
"You forget that I still have freaky hair. No one wants to hire a 'delinquent'." Jack made air quotes while he talked, mocking what the many businesses managers had whispered to their coworkers as he had walked out of their establishment. Jack's attitude did nothing to deter Loki's enthusiasm.
"That's just it though!" He exclaimed leaping like a gazelle over to Jack's chair.
"I'm such a genius, I have no idea why I didn't think of this earlier but that's the place I used to work at. I can ask the owner to give you a chance." While Loki was jumping around and looking pleased with himself, Jack's eyes widened.
"Really? You could do that for me?" Jack usually never had reason to be thankful for his mischief causing roommate, but if there was ever a time for it, it was now. Loki lost his smile and shook his head.
"No Jack, I can't do that...Because I already did!" Loki's chaotic laughter filled the dorm room and Jack could do nothing but stare at the crazed maniac he shared a room with.
"What do you mean you already did?" Jack had a sneaking suspicion he wasn't going to like the answer.
"Well on my way back from work I stopped in and saw the sign, so I talked the owner into letting giving you an interview, as the cook, might I add." Jack stood up from his chair, the Winter spirit finally catching up with him.
"When's my interview, then?" Loki just smiled and held up a finger.
"It's in one hour!" Jack stopped moving all together before him and Loki looked at each other in realization.
"I didn't think that through did I?" The next twenty minutes were filled with screaming and running around in panic. Jack ran to take a shower while Loki rummaged though the closet for something that would look nice. Loki let out a war cry as he barreled into the closet, fighting against all the shirts and pants that had fallen onto him as he searched. Jack walked outside of the bathroom with just a blue pair of boxers on.
"What am I supposed to wear?" He was trying to keep his voice level but seeing Loki buried in their closet wasn't helping the nervousness that was building u pin his stomach. Loki grunted and pulled a hand out from under the pile of clothes. He had managed to find a nice, plain dress shirt and some black slacks. Jack grabbed them as quick as he could and slid them on. Loki got out a pair of dress shoes that had found a hiding spot in the back of the closet and threw them to Jack with some socks. While Jack was tying up his shoes, Loki was tying a blue tie around his collar.
"Alright little man, go get em'" Loki ruffled Jack's hair and pushed him out of the dorm room. Normally Jack would have argued about how '5,6 isn't small, he was just freakishly tall.' but he realized that he was a bit pressed for time at the moment and let it slide. For this time at least. Jack dashed outside, his car was in a parking lot just off campus. He inwardly cursed that freshmen couldn't have their cars on campus. He was out of breath by the time he reached his car and could see he looked a mess in his reflection. His shirt was only halfway un-tucked and his hair was splaying everywhere. He unlocked his car as fast as he could and checked his phone. It was 3:35 which meant he had only twenty-five minutes to get to a town that was thirty minutes away. Driving as fast as he could without getting pulled over, Jack sped out of the city and to Season city. It was an odd place that Loki had told him many stories about, apparently all the stores in town were based off of holidays. Then again Loki wasn't that much of a trustworthy source of information. Using his phone Jack got the directions to the to the coffee shop.
He pulled up to a dark looking restaurant, a black and orange sign hanging above that read 'All Hallows coffee shop'.
"This must be the right place." He muttered, parking his car behind a line of other cars on the other side of the street.
He walked though the front doors, desperately trying to make himself look presentable before the interview. There was a decent amount of people in the shop, all sitting down and enjoying their food.
Jack made his way to the front of the store, and at the register was a tall man who had dark spiky hair and...Grey skin? Jack ignored this feature for now, he hated when people talked about his hair, so asking about his skin probably wasn't the best idea if he wanted to get on their good side.
"Can I help you?" The man had an almost silken voice, that dripped with an authoritative tone.
"Umm yes I'm looking for a Mr. Black about a job intervie-" He hadn't even gotten the entire sentence out when he was stopped.
"Sorry you're not what we're looking for in an employee." The tall man behind the counter drawled in a tone that suggested he knew all too well why Jack hadn't been able to get any other jobs. Jack's eyes narrowed and he placed his hands on the counter. Leaning forward in an attempt to intimidate the man who was nearly 7 inches taller than him, he began to speak.
"You know what? Well you probably do since you seem to know everything around here, but I don't care. I don't care if I'm not the 'type of employee you're looking for' How would you know? You never even talked to me! I was promised an interview and I am going to get one, even if I don't actually get the job." Jack had worked himself into a frenzy and could have continued with his rant but the man stopped him by holding out a Grey hand.
"My name is Pitch Black, and you are hired." Jack, who was collecting breath for another rant, deflated.
"What?" He couldn't believe what he was being told. Was this man insane?
"You heard me. You've shown that you have the passion to work here, and I'm going to trust Loki when he says you've got the talent. So here." Pitch handed Jack a menu and shooed him away.
"Study this menu. You start tomorrow at this same time, I expect to see you here on time." Jack walked out of the shop in a daze. They hadn't even discussed pay, but he supposed he could ask Loki about that. Loki did work there for three years after all. Jack walked across the street to his car, examining the menu. It seemed that everything on the menu was Halloween related. Taking a minute to look at the other shops around the area he saw that for once Loki hadn't been yanking his chain. Every store down the street was based on a different holiday. He could see a store a couple blocks away that was decorated with giant four leaf clovers and a shop that was directly across from his new place of employment had a bright neon sign that read 'The Christmas cafe'.
Speaking of Christmas, a man who looked like Santa Claus himself was making his way towards him.
"Hey you, kid." He called out, he had a Russian accent that made him seem just a little bit scarier than he already was. Jack wasn't sure whether or not to run or stay and talk. The man seemed safe enough, and it was bright out and people were walking by.
"Would you like a job?" It seemed like the oddest question to walk up and ask a stranger and Jack backed away, closer to his car.
"Oh! No, no, nothing of the bad kind, I assure you! I own the Christmas cafe and our janitor just quit. If you wouldn't mind a minimum wage job at the graveyard shift, come to the Christmas cafe at 9 tomorrow night." The Russian Santa walked back into the Cafe leaving a bewildered Jack back at his car. Jack got into his car and turned up the volume on his radio. Jack pushed the gas pedal and drove away from the crazy holiday obsessed town that gave jobs away without a second thought, wishing for the first time that his parents had payed for his first year of college instead of buying him a car.
AN-Well what do you think? This was an idea that came to me the other day while I was talking about how I suck at writing serious stories. This will probably be the most serious chapter, the others are just gonna be as crazy as I can make them. Please review and tell me what you think! (And you might know me from Fanfiction.net, where I already posted this story. Just wanna get some new imput on it!)