Snow Fight

It was late afternoon one Saturday in December. Jacob and Christine were busy making plans for Christmas. Their little home was playing host this season. Just as they were talking about giving Melissa, Christine’s ‘baby’ cousin, a call to see if she and her husband would be coming in from California, the doorbell rang. Ariel jumped up from the couch in the den where she was watching an old family favorite, or so her mom said, White Christmas.

“I got it!” She called to her mom and dad who were in the dining room planning things out. As she crossed to the door, she looked out the window. It was snowing, and pretty hard at that. She must have zoned out on the outside world, because it looked like it had been that way for a while. This made her grin as she realized who it would be. Sure enough, she opened the door to reveal Daniel’s grinning face.

“You ready?” He asked, shifting his snow shovel from one shoulder to another.

“Sure, just let me get my boots and stuff. But don’t wait out there! Get in here!” She laughed as he set down the shovel and came inside. Ariel shut the door and ran upstairs to get her boots from her room.

“Hi Daniel.” Nick said from his usual chair in the living room, doing his homework.

“Hello Nick. What class is that for?” Daniel asked, approaching the living room arch, but not stepping over in fear of getting the carpet wet.

“Social Studies.” Nick replied, making a face. Daniel’s smile just widened as he decided to take off his boots and help the eleven-year-old out.

Meanwhile, Ariel was up in her room, not only getting her boots and a couple of extra layers, but she also started to fix her hair. ‘Why am I getting so nervous? It’s just Daniel, after all! I mean, if it was Eric, it would be perfectly reasonable. Or would it?’ She thought. She wasn’t sure what she thought anymore. Instead of doing the elaborate style she was starting to work, she just pulled her hair up into a high ponytail.

Two sweaters, a pair of jeans, an extra layer of socks and a pair of boots later, Ariel came down the stairs to find Daniel helping Nick through his social studies work. The sight made her smile as he gently instructed her brother about the Revolutionary War. She leaned against the archway and waited. Nick had seen her, but could easily play a poker face. Just as he went to take a breath before continuing on his mini-lecture, she cleared her throat.

Daniel turned around at the sound of his best friend and found himself unable to say a word. The extra layers filled out her slim form and made her look much older. Her long, dark hair cascaded from her ponytail and she was smiling with almost every ounce of mischief she had.

“Are you done following in your father’s footsteps, or will I have to throw these boots of yours out into the snow?” Nick snickered at his sister’s comment and took his history book from Daniel’s hands. The dark haired boy snapped back into reality and ran to the arch to put his boots back on. He threw an apologetic look at Ariel who he knew would forgive him easily.

As she was pulling on her jacket and gloves, and he was doing the same with his boots, she thought for a minute ‘What was that before? Was he actually checking me out?!?!’ She shook it off as nothing and yelled back to the dining room, “MOM! DAD! Daniel and I are going out to shovel the walks!”

“Okay honey! Have fun!” Christine shouted back. The two teens walked out the door, Daniel waving goodbye to Nick.

It didn’t take long for the walks to be done. Daniel and Ariel strategically planned where to set their shoveled snow for what was planned afterwards. The snow was built up into drifts large enough to hide behind, if they knelt. They each had chosen different drifts and hidden behind them, packing snowballs.

Daniel, after figuring he had packed enough, peeked out over his drift. There was no sign of Ariel behind hers. He figured she was still packing and quietly threw a snowball at the drift, so that it should hit her, starting the snow war.

But it didn’t make the sound of snow hitting cloth that it should have. Instead, it sounded like snow hitting snow. ‘Uh-oh!’ He thought, knowing that meant she was somewhere around here, sneaking about to try and get him. Thinking he heard snow crunching softly behind him, he turned around quickly.

Nothing was there. Just the snow and the scenery. Then he heard a giggle from behind him and, before he could react, he felt something cold and wet land on his head. He yelled out at the sudden shock and turned around, grabbing some of his ammo on the way.

“It’s on!” He called as Ariel just laughed and sped away from him, firing snowballs over her shoulder. He dodged them and went chasing after her, pelting her with snowballs from behind.

After a few minutes of the chase, he had taken refuge behind a drift to rebuild his arsenal. As he did, he could hear Ariel catching her breath behind a nearby drift. Likely, she was also doing the same as him. Once he had packed a few more snowballs, he looked for the drift she was behind. The only one near his was about five feet away, so he quietly snuck up on the girl hiding behind it. She was too focused on packing snowballs to even notice that he was there.

Silently, quickly, he leaned over, pulled open the back of her jacket, and stuffed a snowball down it! Ariel jumped up and shrieked as the cold snow made contact with her skin. Daniel laughed and went to run away. But either he had laughed too long, or she recovered quickly, because she tackled him into the snow before he could get away. They wrestled for a bit, before they finally stopped. They were frozen, it seemed, as they stared at each other.

Ariel watched her best friend, who had been pinning her to the ground when they had stopped, just taking in the snow sticking to his black hair, the bright shine in his eyes of what had been mirth just a minute ago, but now were replaced by something else entirely. She realized how much they had both changed since they were the children who had started this ritual. In two years they would be separated, for the first time in their whole lives. For some reason, she had no clue why, but that scared her deeply, the idea that she wouldn’t see him again. Then, it hit her what it was. She didn’t want to be without the one person who she could really be herself with. He made her feel at ease, comfortable. Complete. She realized, then, that it was because he had her heart.

Daniel had frozen looking down at his best friend, the girl- no, the woman- who had been around with him his whole life. She wasn’t a little girl anymore. Her bright sea-colored eyes (a color he had always loved on her) were glinting with pure, unadulterated, happiness. Her dark brown hair was speckled with the bright snow. Her cherry-colored lips (naturally so, because she would rarely wear makeup) were just slightly parted as she caught her breath. He hadn’t realized it until that very moment, but she had caught his heart long before. He couldn’t pinpoint exactly when, but it was quite a while ago. That’s why he always strived to protect her. In the gentle light from the setting sun, she looked absolutely gorgeous to him.

They didn’t know who started it, the gentle motion towards each other. Slowly, her head moved up and his moved down. After what seemed like an eternity and a second at the same time, their eyes closed and their lips met. It was the first time either one of them had ever kissed anyone. It was soft, gentle and chaste. But it was perfect in its simplicity. They pulled away almost as slowly as they approached, looking at each other for another eternity that lasted a second. Their eyes said the little that the kiss hadn’t. Ariel quietly reached up and rested a hand on his chest to feel his heart beating.

Then, Ariel suddenly smiled a million-watt smile and flipped Daniel over, so that she was now the one pinning him down. Her eyes were sparkling with mirth, his with surprise. The kiss had broken down a barrier in her that was holding her back and she kissed him, making up for what she was realizing she could have had years ago.

After breaking the kiss (which words could not describe in any language, no matter how good of a linguist you are), Ariel whispered in his ear playfully “I win.” She pulled away, only to see a huge grin on his face, likely enough mirroring her own. They then got up, her helping him off the ground. He held onto her hand, murmuring “I think my mom has some cookies ready for us.” She giggled as he led her in the back door of his house, never letting go of her hand. She was honestly on cloud nine for the rest of the night.

What neither teen knew was that both sets of parents were watching from their respective windows.

Caroline and Matthew Carter watched them from the kitchen windows, as the cookies Daniel had predicted were baking. Interestingly enough, the radio in the background was playing their song. They smiled at each other and knew that this would last.

Christine and Jacob Barber looked out of the window in the dining room, having stopped to check on the teens when the sounds of merriment had ceased outside. Jacob had expected this for a few months now, but was still surprised to see it happen right before his eyes. But Christine was happy for her daughter, happy that she was happy.