A December Snow Day

(Begriffe: Schokolade, Schnee)

#SaveTheSnowDay

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I woke up, and, seeing the world covered with white and a stream of snowflakes pouring down outside my window, immediately checked my phone for the special email.

"Due to inclement weather, Northridge Public Schools will be closed and all classes will be canceled today, December 3rd," read the email from the school.

I euphorically danced around my room as I quickly texted all my friends the good news. I also sent a message specifically to Mia asking if she wanted to spend the snow day sledding. If all went as planned, I knew she would invite me to sled on the hill behind her house, and hopefully I would be able to spend some quality time with my crush. Then I heard my sister's extremely loud alarm clock go off, and I rushed to her room to tell her the good news.

"Hey Erika!" I said excitedly as she sat up in bed, "we got a snow day today!"

"Oh thank God," she said, rubbing her eyes and sliding back under the covers to continue sleeping. She had been up very late the last few nights working on her college applications, and I knew she would be glad to catch up on her sleep, so I left her room and ran to my brother's room next door, knowing my sister's alarm clock woke him every morning.

"Hey Scott!" I said, a little quieter as not to wake my sister again, "we got a snow day!"

"Hell yeah!" he said, jumping out of bed, grabbing his Xbox controller and powering on his gaming system before getting back into the bed, positioned as to face the TV.

He looked at me and asked, "Hey, since you're up anyways, would you mind getting me some chips and soda from downstairs?"

"Just because I'm in a good mood thanks to the snow day, sure," I replied, smiling.

"Thanks bro," he said, turning back to his gaming.

As I went down to the kitchen to get my brother his gaming fuel, my phone vibrated.

"Yes! If you want to come over here, we have sleds and a big snowy hill behind my house!" texted Mia.

"Perfect! What time should I come over?" I texted back.

"Does 9 work?"

"Yes! See you soon! :)" I texted, smiling.

I dashed up the stairs to deliver the junk food to my brother, and quickly set about fixing myself some breakfast. I asked my parents if I could borrow one of the two cars in the garage to go sledding, to which they agreed on the condition I clear the snow from the walkway to the garage and drive carefully in the snow. I happily acquiesced and threw on my snow clothes and set out with the snow shovel.

By 8:30 AM, I had finished shoveling the snow from the walkway, and my father gave me the key to the car with his usual warnings that I had only just got my driver's license a few months previously, and that I needed to take it very slow.

As I slowly drove out from the garage, my father waved at me with a knowing smile. Maybe he was remembering all the fun he had enjoyed on his snow days so many years ago. I waved and smiled back, put the car into gear, and drove down the driveway, the car throwing up a white cloud behind it as the wheels turned through the inches of fresh snow.

At almost exactly 9 AM, I slowly drove up Mia's snow-covered driveway and found her waiting outside, dressed in her snow gear, sled in hand. I parked the car and got out.

"Hey! Happy snow day! Looks like you're ready to go!" I said.

"Hell yeah!" she replied, gesturing at the sled "just one thing: I only have one sled, so we're going to have to share. Luckily I think we can both fit on it."

"Not a problem," I said.

Sharing a sled with my crush? Not a problem at all.

I followed as she dragged the sled behind her and walked around the house to the top of the rather steep slope of a gully. She positioned the sled at the top of this slope, about 20 feet back from the edge of the gully and climbed onto it.

"Hop on behind me and let's go!" Mia said, gesturing behind her.

I squeezed myself onto the little bit of sled that remained behind her, and she lifted her feet onto the front of the sled, and held onto the sides, expecting it to start sliding down the hill.

But nothing happened.

"I think two teenagers are a little more than the weight this sled was designed for," I said.

"Probably," said Mia, "Maybe we can push it?"

We both put our gloved hands into the snow and tried to push ourselves forward and down the slope, but the sled barely moved.

"What if we bobsledded it?" I asked, "if I get off and start pushing it from the back, I can probably get it going enough I can just jump on right before we go over the edge into the gully. Kinda like a bobsled!"

"Ah good idea!"

I got up and began to push the back of the sled.

"No," said Mia, "Grab my shoulders. Otherwise you will never be able to get back on once we get going."

I happily did as she asked, and sure enough, the sled slid forward. As we got within 10 feet of the edge of the gully, I jumped onto the back of the sled, and held on to Mia, throwing my momentum into the sled's motion, and giving us enough speed that we slid over the edge of the gully. The extra weight on the sled now turned into an accelerating force as the sled rocketed down the gully slope, and by the time we reached the bottom, we had enough momentum that the sled pushed its way up some height of the other side of the gully before pausing momentarily and sliding backwards. We both turned our heads to see that we were now going in reverse at a high rate of speed back down the gully and up the side towards Mia's house. Then, again, the sled slowed and momentarily paused before sliding back towards the bottom of the gully. We turned to face forward again and the sled, this time much more slowly, crossed the bottom of the gully, climbing only a little bit up the side before sliding back into the bottom of the gully and coming to a stop.

"That's awesome!" said Mia, as we climbed off the sled and began dragging it back up the hill.

"It's like one of those amusement park water slides," I said, showing the oscillating trajectory with my hand.

"Exactly!" said Mia.

We repeated this sled run a couple more times, but then Mia had an idea. As we she got on the sled at the top of the hill, she asked "What if we try to turn the sled as we go down the slope so that we will continue the run along the bottom of the gully instead of going up the other side. We should be able to get a much longer run. Maybe we can make it all the way to the pond at the end of the gully."

"So you want to truly go bobsled-style and try to turn just by leaning to the side?" I asked.

"Exactly!"

"OK!" I said, grabbing her shoulders and starting to push.

"Push harder!" she yelled, "We've got to give the Germans a run for their bobsled medals!"

I pushed with all my might, and, when I reached nearly a running pace, I jumped onto the back of the sled and held onto Mia as the sled vaulted over the edge of the gully and went flying down the slope. Seconds later, as the bottom of the gully rapidly approached, she yelled, "lean to the left!"

We both slowly leaned our torsos off to the left side of the sled. The sled turned ever so slightly to the left.

"Lean more!" yelled Mia.

We both leaned more to the left, and, almost in slow motion, the sled rolled to the left and I felt it separate from under me as we rolled face-first into the fresh, powdery snow. Instinctively, I kept holding onto Mia and our momentum carried us through three complete rolls through the snow before we finally came to a rest.

"Are you OK?" I asked, after a moment of silence.

She turned her snow-covered face towards me.

"Yeah I'm good. You?"

"Yeah I'm fine," I replied, as I blinked some snow out of my eyes.

"Think I can unbuckle my seat belt?" asked Mia, tapping on my gloved hands that still held onto her.

"Oh, sorry," I said, letting go of her.

"Don't be," she said as we got to our feet and wiped the snow from our faces.

"I think I got some snow down the back of my neck," said Mia, as we moved to go get the sled that now sat motionless at the bottom of the gully, "want to come in and warm up for a bit?"

A few minutes later, we sat on the couch in Mia's living room, our snow jackets and pants drying in the mudroom, and ourselves drying in the warmth of a fireplace.

"This sure beats a day of school," I said.

"Yeah," said Mia, looking at the time on her phone, "and to think right now I was supposed to have a physics test."

"I mean, we did definitely get a real world lesson in physics, gravitational acceleration, static vs kinetic friction, and momentum and stuff from the sled."

She smiled and lifted a box from the coffee table.

"Want some chocolates?"

"Sure!"

She opened up the box to reveal a collection of stuffed chocolates and held it out for me. I grabbed one that looked promising and bit into it. It seemed to have walnuts in it.

Mia grabbed one, popped it in her mouth, tried her best to conceal a look of disgust as she quickly chewed it and gulped it down.

"Not a good one?" I asked.

"Tasted like somebody filled a chocolate with dirt and grape soda," she said, grabbing another chocolate, but this time tentatively biting into it.

"This one is really good," she said, "but I can't quite tell what the flavor is."

I picked up the box and looked at the underside of the lid, mentally lining up the labels with the slots in the tray containing the chocolates.

"So the first one you got was apparently a concord grape truffle," I said, "and the one you have now is a lingonberry preserve."

"Lingonberry?"

"Yeah I don't know either."

"You should try one," she said, finishing the rest of her chocolate, "they have a really interesting flavor."

I looked at the underside of the lid and found that only one slot was labeled lingonberry.

"I think that was the only one in the box," I said, putting the lid back down on the coffee table.

"Oh, sorry," said Mia.

She paused a moment, her mind evidently deep in thought before making a decision. She scooted over closer on the couch and put a hand on my shoulder.

"Do you want to know what Lingonberry tastes like?" she asked.

"Yeah, definitely," I said, smiling knowingly, as I put my arms around her and we pulled each other in for a slow, deep kiss.

As we finished and slowly moved our faces apart, I said softly, "You know, I'm really glad we got a snow day today. I'd been looking for the perfect excuse to be with you for a while, and I remember you saying once that there's a great sledding hill behind your house, so I figured if I asked to sled, you'd invite me here," I said, smiling as I gently ran a hand through her hair and down her back.

Mia looked at me and grinned, "I also have a bit of a confession. We actually have three extra sleds in the garage. I just needed an excuse to get you to hold me."

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