Snow Ball Fight
Written Fall 2007
YA Short Story
When the bell rang, I was first out of the girl’s locker room, making a beeline down the hall towards the back entrance. Finally! This stupid day was over.
“Lacey, you aren’t going upstairs to your locker?”
I turned and looked at Meg. She had stopped in the hallway and was like a boulder in a river, making the other girls walk around her.
“No. I’ll see you Monday.”
She frowned. “You’re sure your okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
I turned around and headed down the hall. No, I wasn’t okay. I’d had one of the crappiest days of my life. But I couldn’t let her know. I couldn’t let anyone know. I had to maintain at all times a calm, happy outward appearance. Had to smile and be genuinely friendly to everyone. That’s what I got for being the unofficial school princess. It was all on account of my family. My father had become head principal of the school the year before; my oldest brother was student body class president; my other brother was one of the captains of the football team and star of the basketball team. Somehow, as their sister and daughter, that made me school princess. Everyone loved me. At least, everyone was nice to me. Well until today. Today my glorious perfect world was crumbling apart. All because one person had been mean to me. If it had been anyone else besides him, I would have cared less. As it was, at that moment he was the person who mattered most to me.
The boys from my PE class came streaming out of the boy’s locker room. I stepped to the side and let them pass. It was odd that it had taken them so long to come out. Usually, they raced out at the sound of the bell and were at our locker room door before we came out.
“Hi, Lace!”
“Have a good weekend Lacey!”
“ Hi! You too!” I waved and forced a smile.
Neil, the tallest and strongest boy in the class came out. He thought he was the best looking boy in our class, which made him think we ought to go out. I didn’t agree.
He grinned at me. “Don’t worry, Lacey. That punk kid won’t ever bother you again.”
“What?” The smile faded from my face.
“No need to thank us.”
He smiled, waved, and continued down the hall.
What had they done? Where was Kyle?
Although we had only met at the beginning of Christmas break three weeks ago, we had become good friends. At least, I thought we were good friends.
The door opened again, and Kyle came out. He looked a little shaken. When his eyes met mine, his face darkened and his brow furrowed.
“Kyle, what happened?”
He walked straight on by, ignoring my question and my presence. My temper flared. He had been doing that since second hour—ignoring me. Every time I had seen him, he walked the other way.
“Kyle,” I called. “Kyle!”
He stopped but didn’t look at me. “I don’t want to talk to you.”
“You’re going to have to some time!”
He started forward.
“We’re giving you a ride home!”
He turned on me. “I’ll catch the bus.”
“Have you even found out what bus you ride yet?”
“No, but you know which one it is.”
“I won’t tell you.”
“Then I’ll go to the office and ask them.”
“By the time you ask and get to the bus, the bus will be gone.”
“Then I’ll find out for next week.” He walked forward again.
“But Kyle…”
“I don’t want to talk to you!”
“What did I do wrong!” I yelled. He turned the corner without a word.
My jaw clamped together and tears sprung to my eyes. What had I done wrong? I turned on my heel and ran down the hall. I had thought we were friends and close friends too. Kyle had been shy at first. But with consistent effort, my brothers and I had succeeded in getting him out of his shell. By the end of the break, he was always over at our home. When he wasn’t there, I was over at his house. Kyle’s friendship had been refreshing. I wasn’t school princess to him. I was just Lacey.
I entered the lobby between the two gyms and came to a stop by the doors. It was snowing again outside.
Kyle’s view of us had been without the prejudices life at school would have brought. There were no pretensions. No perceptions. No judgment. I don’t think I’d ever had as much fun with anyone else. I felt myself around him.
I stepped outside and paused to look up at the sky, watching the snowflakes fall. It calmed me. I shivered as I shifted my book bag on my shoulder and broke into a sprint across the parking lot.
Even this morning when we had picked him up for school, he had seemed excited to see us. He had been excited to see me. But something had happened between arriving at school and the passing period between first and second hour.
When I arrived at the car, Vince and Darius were already there, arguing, as usual, about who would drive.
“You drove this morning, it’s my turn,” Vince was saying.
Seeing me, Darius stopped the argument. “Where’s Kyle? Aren’t you in the same class?”
“He’s on his way,” I said. “He had to go up to the office for something.”
“Hey, Lace, can I have the keys, please?” Vince asked.
I swung my bag around and fished through the front pocket. Even though I could not drive yet, I was keeper of the key. To forego conflict, Dad had made me in charge of who would drive. Usually I picked the brother I wanted to be on the good side of. Today, I did not care. Finding the keys, I tossed them to Vince. I said, “You did say please.”
“Aha!” He dangled the keys in Darius’s face.
“That’s not fair, Lace. I would have said please too, you know.”
“You didn’t ask first,” I snapped.
Awestruck, the two stared at me.
“You okay?” Darius asked.
“I’m fine. Open the door, Vince.”
He unlocked the door and I slid inside the back seat.
Vince and Darius delayed getting in the car. I heard their voices outside.
Like synchronized swimmers, Vince and Darius opened the door, slid into the drivers’ seat and passenger seat, and turned to look at me.
“What’s wrong?” they asked together.
The scene would have been comical if they had been twins. As it was, Darius was adopted and looked nothing like us. He had dark hair and blue eyes, whereas Vince and I were both blonde with brown eyes.
“Nothing,” I answered.
“Come, on, Lace. We aren’t buying that.” Darius said.
“Yeah, you’re usually so chipper,” Vince said.
I looked from one to the other. “You want to know what’s wrong? Kyle’s a jerk!”
Both of their jaws opened, dumbfounded. Comical? Yes. They really should have been twins.
“Are you sure?” Darius asked.
“What did he do to you?” Vince asked.
“After first hour, I went to talk to him, and he told me just to leave him a lone. And for the rest of the day he’s ignored me, even walking the other way when he saw I was coming towards him. At lunch, he didn’t even sit with us. And in PE, while playing a stupid elementary game of dodge ball he threw the ball at me. No one ever throws the ball at me! I don’t understand. This morning I thought he was my best friend. Maybe three weeks is too quick to be friends with anyone. Garr, he’s an idiot.”
Vince and Darius looked at each other as though they knew something that I didn’t know.
“What?”
They looked back at me.
“Well, he’s been causing problems all week.” Darius said.
“What do you mean?”
“Well…like today. He almost got in a fight this morning,” Vince said. “I went into the office to get something for him. I came out just in time to stop it. He’s kind of ignored me since then.”
“What? Who did he get in a fight with?”
“Henry Coulber, Pete Wilson, Lawrence Hampton. Just a few.”
“Are you serious? Is he crazy?” They were all well known upperclassmen—juniors and seniors. Kids you didn’t mess around with.
“And Thursday, he really got Frank and Joe angry. They were telling me about it in student council,” Darius said.
“How could Kyle make anyone angry?”
I jumped as the back door opened. Kyle had arrive and slid into the back seat by me.
Darius adopted a smile while Vince turned in the front seat.
“How was your day?” Darius asked.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Kyle answered. He slammed the door shut and looked out the window.
“That good, heh?”
“Christmas music everyone?” Vince said as he started the car’s engine.
Immediately Santa Claus is Coming to Town filled the car. My brothers had an obsession with Christmas music after the holiday. Never before Christmas could we listen to it.
I looked at Kyle out of the corner of my eye. He sat with his head against the window, looking outside. Why had he gotten into those fights? It didn’t make any sense. At the beginning of the week, he had fit in quite well. What had happened?
Except for jingle bells and other Christmas lullabies, the drive home was almost silent, until we reached the outskirts of town. We lived outside town limits and had to drive on several rural roads to get home. The plows had yet to clear the snow, making the roads slippery. But this didn’t keep Vince from driving fast. The fool seemed to think everything a game. Why had I given him the keys?
“Vince, slow down!” Darius yelled.
“We’re fine.” Vince answered.
“No! You’ll land us in a ditch.” We were approaching a four way stop. “Slow down!”
Vince laughed. “We’re fine!” He slowed the car, but we hit ice, and the car fishtailed as we went through the four way stop.
I screamed. “You’re an idiot!”
The car came to a stop.
“No one was coming,” Vince said, stepping on the gas. “And we didn’t go into the ditch.”
“You shouldn’t have been driving so fast!” Darius said.
“You all need to have more fun,” Vince said.
Kyle laughed.
I glanced at him. He was still staring out the window but a smile hovered on his face. I rolled my eyes and looked back out the window.
“Oh. I forgot to ask. Kyle, do you want to come over or do you want us to drop you off at your house?” Vince asked.
“Drop me off at my house.”
“Are you sure? It is Friday and with the new layer of snow I’m sure the hill would be awesome to sled down.”
“I want to go home.”
“You should come over later,” Darius said.
“Nah, I think we’re going to be busy.”
“All right. Well you’re welcome to come over any time tomorrow,” Vince said looking at us through the rear view window.
“I think we’re going to be busy tomorrow too,” Kyle answered, still avoiding looking at Vince..
I watched Vince in the mirror. He looked annoyed and appeared to be talking to himself about something. His hand flew to the radio dial and off went I’ll Be Home for Christmas.
After this, the silence in the car was almost tangible. Usually, we had the radio roaring with music, and we would have contests to see who could sing the worse. Or, we would tell stories about all the stupid things we’d seen throughout the day. High School was a constant joke by our standards. This was usually my favorite part of the day. But there sat Kyle, like a virus, infecting the entire car. We didn’t even turn the music on. My crappy day was ending crappy, and he was the reason for it. If this was how it was going to be from now on, I was glad he was going to take the bus. The less I saw of him the better. I turned and hit my head against the window. We were driving up Kyle’s driveway. “Crap.” What had happened? Why was he so mad? Despite everything that had happened today, I still wanted to be friends.
Kyle got out of the car without a word.
I wanted to know what was wrong.
The door slammed.
I wanted to make everything right.
Vince began to back the car down the driveway.
I couldn’t just let him walk away without an answer.
“Vince, stop!” I shouted.
“What?” He slammed on the breaks.
“Thanks, I’ll walk home.” I jumped out of the car.
“Hey Lace,” Vince called.
I poked my head back into the car. “What?”
“Never mind. I’ll make hot chocolate when you get home.”
I smiled at him. Slamming the door shut, I ran up the driveway.
Kyle stood on the porch to his house, watching me. “Go home, Lacey. I don’t want…”
“Don’t say you don’t want to talk to me.”
“I don’t want…”
I had stooped to grab some snow and quickly compacted it into a ball. I threw it at him, but it hit the frame of the porch, splattering all over him. He shielded himself with his arms.
“I said go home!” he yelled. He turned and inserted a key into the front door.
I made another snowball and threw it at him. This time, it hit him on the back. “You’re a jerk, you know that!” I yelled. “What’s your problem?”
Kyle had unlocked the door, but he did not open it. He stood with his back to me, not moving or speaking.
“I thought we were friends,” I said.
Kyle turned around. He still wouldn’t look at me.
“You honestly don’t want to be my friend?” I asked.
“I can’t be your friend, Lacey. So go home and don’t come back.”
“What?” His words stung like a bee. I didn’t know what to answer. I didn’t believe him. So I stooped and made another snow ball and flung it at him. My fingers were cold. I wanted another snow ball.
He ducked this time and the ball hit the door behind him. “Would you quit that!” he yelled.
I walked closer. “Why can’t we be friends?”
“Ah, jut go home and forget about me,” Kyle said.
He turned to go inside again.
I grabbed an armful of snow from the porch railing, walked up the stairs, and dumped it on his head. Last week, that would have got us laughing.
“Hey!” He turned around quickly and grabbed my arm. “I said, go home!”
“Why can’t we be friends?”
“Do you want the truth?” he snapped. “It’s because you’re popular.”
“I’m popular?” I paused, confused. A week of school and he had become prejudiced. Tears popped into my eyes. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Everything!” Kyle snapped. “You and your brothers are different people at school—always putting on shows, relishing your popular image.”
“I don’t like being popular!” I interrupted.
“And you never once told me you were like school royalty.”
“And would that have made a difference? Would you not have hung out with us if we’d told you?”
“Maybe.”
“I didn’t think you were shallow, Kyle.” I turned and walked down the stairs from the porch.
“I’m shallow? Do you even know what it’s like?” Kyle said.
“What what is like?” I snapped and turned to look back at him. He did not look mad anymore.
“To be the one ignored? The one who gets picked on? The one who gets nasty comments thrown at them?”
“I…it…” I folded my arms, shivering. He had ignored me all day. That had hurt a lot. “I don’t pick on anyone.”
“No. You have a crowd of people who do it for you.”
My mouth dropped open as I thought of Neil and the boys in our PE class. “You brought that on yourself. If you don’t want people picking on you, I’d suggest not picking fights with them.”
“It was dodge ball. Aren’t you supposed to throw the ball at people? They harass me and shove me against the lockers because I threw a ball at you.”
“You deliberately threw it at me!”
“I would have deliberately thrown it at everyone else had Mr. Fisher let me keep playing.”
I looked down at the ground, shifting on my feet. “Vince said you were picking fights this morning.”
He was quiet for a moment. I looked up at him.
“I wasn’t picking fights. I was trying to stick up for a friend who was getting picked on. I thought your brother would back me up. But he just pulled me away and told them to ignore me. I got so mad at him. I guess that’s why I was mad at you. And it wasn’t just today…there were other things throughout the week. This morning I just snapped. To be honest…I…I can’t stand the popular crowd.”
He hated us?
He sighed and seemed a little frustrated. “I like you and your brothers. I do. Everything I’ve said may seem to contradict that but…I…it’s hard to see others getting picked on…and see people you admire part of it.” He sat down on the porch steps and covered his head with his hands.
Had he been picked on before? Was that it? I didn’t know what to say. “Kyle?” I stepped over to him and sat down by him. “Kyle? It’s cold out here. Maybe we should go inside.”
He shook his head.
“Do you want me to leave?”
He shook his head again.
I was shivering. My sweater was not keeping me warm. I rubbed my hands together and blew warm air on them. “I’ll be right back.” I arose and went into the house. Kyle’s Mom had told us to make ourselves at home, so the house was already familiar to me. I heated up two mugs of water, found the hot cocoa tin and stirred in the hot chocolate. Carrying the two steaming mugs, I returned to the porch. Kyle was still sitting in the exact same position I had left him.
I sat down by him again. “Here, I made hot chocolate.”
He sat up and smiled a little as he took the mug from me. His eyes were red and his cheeks glistened with tears. I looked away from him towards the thicket of bushes across the driveway. I sipped the hot cocoa. My fingers were beginning to warm up again
“I may not know what it’s like to be picked on, and I don’t know what you’ve been through, Kyle, but I’m sorry about today. I’m sorry Vince is an idiot. I’m sorry I’ve got body guards who think they can do whatever they want. No one is perfect. Not even my brothers and I. But if you need a friend, we’re always there, just across the street.”
I looked back at Kyle. He was wiping the tears from his cheeks.
He nodded.
I drank the rest of my hot cocoa and set the mug down on the porch and then stood up. “Well, Vince said he would make hot chocolate.” I paused there for a moment, looking down at Kyle. I was hoping he would come with. Seeing no response, I began walking down the driveway.
“Hey Lacey!” Kyle called. It was a few moments later.
I turned to look at him.
“Let me put my stuff inside.”
I bit my lip to prevent myself from smiling as he disappeared into the house. A minute later, he came out, carrying an extra jacket and a beanie. He hurried over to me and handed me the coat. “It’s cold out here.” He pulled the beanie down over my head. “I’m such a jerk.”
I laughed and pulled on the coat. “Glad we established that.”
