Secret of Frost and Moon

Arrival at Yale

Alaia Skyhawk: We've reached 2000 reviews! Whoa... Seriously, WHOA! This fic has totally blown my next most-popular out of the water. I just want to say a HUGE thanks to all of you for your support, and that I hope you continue to enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing it :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians, the Guardians of Childhood, or any related characters etc. This story is written purely for entertainment purposes.

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Chapter 97: Arrival At Yale

Northern Summer came and went, fading into the first throws of Northern Autumn with the coming of September. As that time passed, the world continued its inexorable change thanks to David, Jamie, and several other relatives that had taken up roles as speakers and ambassadors. One place where things really hadn't changed all that much, namely because an immortal had been universally believed in there for centuries, was Burgess.

Sophie had departed from the town with both anticipation and nervousness. The first because she looked forward to seeing new places, the latter because in Burgess she'd been treated normally despite the revelation of her kinship to Jack Frost. There had been understandable surprise from everyone at first, but that had settled down in the wake of her stories to her friends about the fun times and mishaps of Jack's that had involved the family. She'd painted a picture of a normal family who happened to have an unusual relative, and who made the very best of it. What was strange about that? Nothing at all.

But outside Burgess, away from the people who knew the Bennetts well and accepted them, things would be different. She would be starting over with strangers. People who would have heard stories of the Bennetts and so be unsure of how to react. It would be a wall she'd have to get over.

Nearing New Haven in Connecticut, her green eyes idly tracking the passing scenery, Sophie gazed out through the tinted windows of the armoured car she was stuck riding in. She'd flown from Pittsburgh to New York on a scheduled passenger jet, but her status as a member of the Bennett Family had meant a compulsory although thankfully discrete government escort through both airports and during the flight. She'd been ushered through Business Class, kept separated as much as possible from the other passengers, and those over-the-top precautions would continue until the changeover point outside New Haven. Only there would she be put in a normal car, although the driver would still be a protection specialist. It all seemed so incredibly excessive, especially given the fact that Bunny would have happily allowed her to travel to the changeover point via the Warren.

Except to avoid accusations of favouritism by the Immortals, she'd been lumped with the mundane method of travel... Or at least as mundane as the government was willing to allow. She'd have flown to Connecticut directly if her mandatory escort wouldn't have risked alienating her future university peers. In arriving by car, at the very least she could hide the fact she'd been escorted at all.

Which was her one solace during the changeover to the normal car, which thankfully was as 'average' a vehicle as she could have hoped for. No one would give it a second glance, or think twice about the young woman that would emerge from it. A whisper of relief in her heart as the journey now took her via the New Haven turnpike and at last approached the region of the city where the south campus of Yale University was located. That area would be her main home for the next four years, or three years if she really pushed through the required coursework and thesis needed to be granted a degree as Master of Fine Arts.

The degree could be conferred after a minimum two-year residency if everything was completed, but she didn't want to rush. Her time here was important, and would serve a dual purpose in allowing her to spread her knowledge of the Immortals to her fellow students. With her self-sustained immortality, it wasn't like staying the extra time would affect her future plans.