Don't Judge A Book By Its Cover

Chapter 3 - Frozen

excuse my lack of povs, i've only really watched joel, lizzie and scott on empires so far lmao
(also scott's elsa arc is awesome and I wanna write about that)

scott's pov (like a week later):

Scott was really hoping Jimmy's dorm room didn't have water in it.

On one hand, it'd be a cool place to be, especially for the son and daughter of The Little Mermaid. It'd probably make them less homesick, and happier settling in.

On the other hand, if they did have a pool or something, Scott had probably frozen it by now, and he relied on Xornoth to unfreeze things for him— who was, inconveniently, on a trip to their hometown of Rivendell to collect more books for Scott about their folklore and myths.

Scott had only found this out after Xornoth had already left, via a note on his bed, so he couldn't even stop him from going. Needless to say, he was freaking out a little bit. And when that happened, things tended to freeze over.

Luckily, one of his best friends was a very powerful witch. She might know what to do.

"So, you're saying you can't stop it?" Gem asked as Scott finally caught up with her at the end of lunch. "I thought your gloves were enchanted against your powers?"

"They are but the enchantment isn't strong enough." Scott clasped his hands together. He'd started doing that unconsciously, like it'd stop any magic from sparking out accidentally. "I don't know what to do."

"Well, I'd say the first thing to do is practice how to melt things." Gem said matter-of-factly. "That way, if you loose control, at least you can clean it up."

"The thing is-" Scott started, but the bell rang, signifying the start of 4th period.

"Sorry, Scott, I gotta go." Gem said, gathering her things. "I'll see you around, bye!"

Scott nodded, unsure of whether he would be able to do what she'd suggested but determined to try.

So he spent most of his lessons trying to unfreeze an ice cube he'd created. It only succeeded in making him more and more frustrated, and in his final lesson, he accidentally froze his book where he was taking notes. He pushed it away and sighed in annoyance, folding his arms. Jimmy, who sat a row in front of him, looked behind at Scott, apparently worried.

As the lesson ended, Jimmy caught up to him.

"Hey, are you alright?" He asked, putting a hand on Scott's shoulder, making him jump.

"Yeah, I'm okay." Scott stepped backwards, clasping his hands together again.

"You sure?" Jimmy persisted, unfazed by Scott's apparent worry. "You seem kinda stressed. You haven't taken your gloves off for the past two days."

And, well. Scott may or may not have felt touched that Jimmy had noticed, but he certainly hadn't got butterflies at how much Jimmy cared. "Ah, w-well.." He fiddled with the cuffs of his sleeves, backing away automatically before realising what he was doing and stepping forwards again.

"If you like, you can come over to my dorm." Jimmy suggested. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't wanna, but it's always nice to be around someone." He smiled.

Scott thought about it. If he could avoid getting too close to anyone or anything that could be injured by his magic, he should be okay.

"Um, okay." Scott agreed. He just wouldn't take his gloves off. He'd be fine.

—-

Lizzie was at Joel's dorm, so it was just the two of them. As Scott looked around, he saw that there was a large tank with two codfish and three axolotls by the end of the room. He made extra care not to touch anything or go near Jimmy. The 'seablings', as most people had started calling them, were probably more susceptible to ice magic— being closer to water than other people.

"You can sit down, you know." Jimmy grinned, watching Scott standing awkwardly in the middle of the room.

Scott nodded but remained standing, glancing worriedly around the room for anything he had to avoid.

Jimmy's smile faded slightly. "Scott, are you okay? You don't have to worry about your ice so much."

"I- uhm." Scott was regretting coming. He was dangerous enough in his own dorm, he should never had actually gone into Jimmy's.

Jimmy stood up and, before Scott could react, walked over to him, placing his hands firmly on Scott's shoulders. "You're fine, you're not gonna do anything bad."

Scott was starting to panic slightly. He was tall, but Jimmy was taller and, surprisingly, quite strong. He couldn't back away. The floor under his feet began to freeze over.

"Jimmy, I have to go-" Scott started, glancing down at the ice.

"It's okay." Jimmy gave him a smile. "We can clean it up later, it's not a big deal."

"I don't- I can't stay, I might do something worse." Scott repeated, trying to move away.

"Scott, it's alright." Jimmy let go of his shoulders, instead holding his hands. If the situation was different, Scott might have blushed, but all he could think was if his gloves would hold up.

"It's not, because I can't fix it." Scott exclaimed, bending his head and squeezing his eyes shut as tears began to well up in them. "Xornoth isn't here for another week, if I do something it's permanent."

The ice was spreading faster under his feet. "I really have to go, Jimmy, I can't risk hurting you."

"If- if that's what you want, then you can. But you won't hurt me, you know." Jimmy let go of his hands. "You're my friend."

Scott looked up at Jimmy, seeing him smiling—still smiling.

"I'm sorry." He said, and he ran out of the room, leaving Jimmy quite alone.

i'm fully invested in this mini story now