Ray was sitting in his third period class, pencil in hand, and supposidly working on an in-class handout that had been passed out and was due at the end of the period. The dragon had worked his way mostly through it, but unfortunatily there was a current situation stuck in his mind that was making it hard for Ray to get his work done quickly. Glancing up at the time, the dragon noted that he only had about twenty minutes left in the period and hurridly went back to his worksheet. He managed to get a couple more problems done before his thought process returned to that of the situation at his house and once again the dragon found himself unable to work. He was barely able to finish up the worksheet as the period rang and the teacher collected the papers. Rubbing the back of his neck thoughtfully, the dragon made his way out of the classroom and down the hall to catch Lucy on her way to the cafeteria.

"So," the dragon turned to the windian next to him as they headed through the halls together. "How's your day been so far?"

"..."

Ray paused in his walking, and then reached a hand out to stop the windian as well, turning her to face him. The lack of her response immediately sent a worried alarm off in Ray's head, and he studied Lucy for a moment. She refused to bring her eyes up to meet his gaze. "Lucy?"

"The weirdest thing happened to me this morning..." her voice was quiet and hollow as she began to talk. "I woke up today... and I could have sworn, I mean... sworn to Landon himself, that when I was waking up, I felt Brandon shaking me and telling me I had to get up for school." Lucy still didn't bring her gaze up to meet Ray's but her voice was slowly become a bit quicker and more bewildered as she spoke. She shook her head. "And it was weird... because I opened my eyes to see him there... and... he wasn't. And I sat up and looked around, and then I heard the door to my room opening and I looked up and Mom was standing there... and she said 'oh good, you're up. I didn't hear your alarm go off and I was afraid you were going to sleep in.' And after she left I looked over at my alarm... and I hadn't set it last night. I had forgotten too... it had been about five minutes after it was supposed to go off and then I felt Brandon and..." Lucy finally looked up at Ray, a single tear slipping down her cheek. "Ray... it was so creepy, and comforting at the same time, but it made me miss him so much more..."

Ray waited while Lucy sniffed and brushed away a few more tears. She shook her head and continued. "It's been horrible... Mom hasn't been as cheery. She just keeps pacing around the house, looking at old family pictures. She's been counting down the days until Dad gets home... she's been so worried about him. I mean, now she's lost her son, she's paraniod that something will happen to him before he gets home, and she doesn't want to think about having to tell him when he does get home..." Lucy sniffed again and let out a loud and almost enraged sigh. "Ray! I want my brother back and I want him back now!" The windian then buried her face in the dragon's uniform shirt and stood there, sniffing and fighting back the tears that came to her. Ray put his arms around her and stroked her hair lightly.

"Lucy... I know I've said this before, but just hang in there. It'll get better, I promise it will."

"But what if it doesn't get better, Ray? What if it doesn't?" Lucy raised her eyes up to look at him, her tone echoing a mixture of anger and loss. "How would you feel if one day you lost Britney? Huh? Do you think it would 'get better' any time soon?"

"If I ever lost Britney..." Ray hooked a finger under Lucy's chin and spook to her in a soothing voice, hoping to calm her down. "It would devistate me. I admit that. I probably wouldn't be the same for a very long time, and honestly I don't want to think about ever losing my little sister. But at the same time, if I ever did lose her, I know that I have people I can turn to that can help me get over that... people like you, or even Jason. It would take me a long time to get over it, but as long as I had those people there to help me I know I could do it. Lucy, you have people here to help you. You have many friends who would do everything they could to help you get through this, you just need to stop hiding everything from them... you need to get rid of those cold masks that you keep using..."

Lucy wiped her eyes again and turned her gaze away from Ray. "It's harder then you think..."

"I'm here to help." The dragon offered her an assured smile. "Lucy, please don't try and hide anything from me... I'll help you. I'll always be here to help you."

"Ray..." Lucy sighed for a moment and brushed a few strands of hair from her face. "... we can... talk about this later, maybe?" She gave him a look that enforced the fact that school was the last place she wanted to be talking about her brother. Ray nodded.

"Alright, let's get to the cafeteria." The two headed down to the first floor of Windian High and out to the cafeteria to find their friends. As the two waved a hello to Frank and company and sat down, Ray's mind wandered back to the situation that had first been plaguing him. "Hrm?" The dragon looked up, startled from his thoughts as Frank called his name. "What?"

The Persona User studied him for a second. "You seem really distracted. What's on your mind?"

"Oh. Just wondering if it's going to be snowing in the house again today when I get home."

This managed an odd look from everyone sitting around the table. Ray glanced at the confused eyes that were trained on him and then rubbed the back of his neck uneasily.

"Excuse me?" Brad was the first to speak up. "Did you just say it had been snowing in your house?"

"Yea." Ray nodded. "I walked into the house yesterday after coming home from the library, and was hit by a snowball from Britney."

"Um..." Frank exchanged glances with a few of his friends. "Did you ever find out what happened?"

"Yea." Ray nodded again and opened up his thermos. "Some little white thing that was running around?"

"Little white thing?" That almost sounds like... Yuki shook her head for a moment before crossing her arms thoughtfully. "Ray... could you give a better description of that little white thing?"

"Um..." The dragon rubbed his neck again as he thought. "Well... it was smaller then Brat was... and of course it was all white... and it worn this weird little blue outfit..."

By now, Frank was thinking the very same thing that Yuki was. There was something awfully familiar about the description that the dragon was giving him, and the Persona User sighed as he took a wild guess at what the little white thing in question was. "Ray? Did it say things like, 'hi-ho' a lot?"

"Come to think of it, yea it did." Ray nodded. Immediately after he said that, Yuki and Frank let out a groan. "What?" The confused dragon looked at the two Persona Users. "What is it?"

"That sounds just like a-" Yuki started, but it was Frank who finished the sentence.

"JackFrost. Lovers class."

"What?" Ray gave Frank a hopelessly confused look. "I've never heard of anything like that?"

Yuki shook her head. "It's a demon from back home. But... what would one be doing here?" The Japanese teenager thought for a moment before Frank sighed again.

"One followed us back to Windia, Yuki. Ray?" Frank grinned at the still confused dragon. "Don't worry, I'll stop by your house today and help take care of your little problem, alright? I've had to deal with this kind of thing before... although snowing inside a house is a bit different..."

"Eh... right... Thanks, Frank." Ray chuckled. "Oh! Hey, and after you help me out a bit, maybe I can return the favor by taking you fishing after that?"

"Fishing?" Frank grinned at the dragon. "Sure! But hey, let me grab my sandals first."

The two teens exchanged huge grins before they busted up laughing, once again leaving everyone around the table with a confused look on their face.

"Um..." Diane's ear flicked lightly as she turned to Kate. "Ya have any idea wha' they're talkin' about?" Kate just shrugged and shook her head.