December 3rd

Just like everyone else in Wintersville, they were all snowed in for at least the night. When Skye woke up bright and early, she was pretty surprised to see how much snow was on the ground. Thankfully, school was called off until Monday after a reported fourteen inches of snow. It was safe to say that everyone was pretty excited to have a four day weekend, especially when it wasn't planned to happen in the first place.

After having stayed up late doing homework with Levi over the phone the night before, Skye groaned as she forced herself out of bed, throwing on a fuzzy jacket to keep her warm before heading downstairs. She looked at her phone real quick, seeing a text from Levi saying to text him back as soon as she saw the message. Unsure why, Skye messaged him back anyway, then she put her phone in her pocket and went downstairs to the sound of pancakes sizzling on the pan. It was just what she needed to get some energy in her after staying up so late and getting little sleep.

As Skye headed into the kitchen, her phone immediately rang, receiving a look from her dad as she went to answer the call, which was from Levi, by the way. "Hello?"

"Hey!" Levi exclaimed. "What are you doing?"

"What do you mean what am I doing?" Skye questioned, pacing from the kitchen into the living room. "I literally just woke up not that long ago."

"Um, I was going to propose that I come over and then spend today's snow day together." He said.

At the mention of the snow day, Skye remembered the little bet they had, one that involved a snowball fight. Now with a sudden burst of motivation, Skye was in. "Give me a half-hour."

"Oh, alright. I'll-" Levi began, but Skye cut him off by hanging up then ran into the kitchen to tell her dad what she would be doing.

"Hey." She said, standing right behind her dad while he flipped pancakes.

"Hm, I wonder what you're going to tell me," Scott said sarcastically.

"Would you kill me if I played in the snow with Levi?" Skye asked, getting ready to put on the puppy dog eyes if she had to convince him to let her go, but seeing as her dad was the ultimate number one fan of his daughter and Levi, there was just no way he could ever say no.

"Shit, maybe you can make him shovel all of that snow for me." He replied. "I'm too old for that shit."

"Dad, don't you remember?" She questioned, reminding him of Levi's injury that never failed to leave Skye's mind. "Levi injured his shoulder, he can't be doing that kind of stuff."

"What about his friends? I bet they don't injure their shoulders like dumbasses." Scott snickered. If only he knew how idiotic Levi and his friends were together.

"He got tackled by like ten guys at once, it wasn't exactly planned, but I'll say something to Levi I guess." Skye shrugged, making a mental note to text Levi about bringing the guys and maybe Nini if she was able to make the trip.

"Well, either way, I'll let you go, but you better eat this food before you head out." He warned, pointing at the pile of finished pancakes that sat on a glass plate.

"Don't worry, I will." She rolled her eyes. "I'm gonna go get out all of my gear, okay?"

"Alright," Scott said, then watched his daughter run out of the kitchen. "Don't forget about these pancakes!"

"I won't! They're too good to miss out on!" Skye yelled out from the stairs.

"I know that's right." He chuckled, then continued making what was left of the pancake batter.

Running into her room, Skye pulls out her phone and texts Levi, "Hey, why don't you bring the gang?", not getting a text almost immediately, which was pretty uncharacteristic of Levi, but she just shrugged it off and put her phone back in her pocket. She went to her closet, reaching for the dead-end of the closet, which mostly consisted of seasonal items like her snow boots, various hats, earmuffs, gloves, and scarves, the whole nine yards basically.

Skye got into an appropriate outfit for the weather, even busting out a snow bib that her dad bought her so she didn't have to ruin a perfectly good pair of regular pants. Although she typically avoided wearing them to prevent herself from looking silly, desperate times came for desperate measures, and there was no way Skye could get through fourteen feet of snow without them.

As Skye was putting on her snow boots, she heard a bunch of noise downstairs, which concerned her because as far as she was concerned, it was just her and her dad in the house. Saying "screw it" and not putting on her coat and the rest of her gear, Skye heads downstairs and into the kitchen to see what the hell was happening down there.

"Hey, what's all the comm-" Skye's eyes widened to see Levi and the rest of the gang sitting at her dining room table, feasting on what was supposed to be her pancakes while her dad stood by the now turned off stove with a cup of coffee in his hands.

"Yo, Skye, we didn't know your dad would be making these fire pancakes," Xavier said with food in his mouth, which made Skye want to throw up a little.

"Hey... guys..." she furrowed her eyebrows, crossing her arms in an attempt to hide the fact that she was wearing a snow bib, but oddly no one was laughing at her for it.

"Hey." Levi waved. Even while she was getting ready, he didn't ever text her back, so frankly she was a little mad about this surprise as she didn't know for sure that they would actually be coming over.

"Levi, you never answered back to my text, I wasn't fully expecting this." Skye whisper yelled so her dad didn't fully hear her.

"Oops." He awkwardly laughed.

"Levi was too busy giving me instructions to your house," Nini said in defense, as she was the one driving so Levi didn't have to.

"Yeah, she drove," Levi added.

"Well, luckily, I made enough pancakes for everyone." Skye's dad announced, which made the group very happy, especially Xavier.

"Hell yeah!" Xavier exclaimed, receiving a discreet punch from Danny. "I mean, heck yeah."

"Well, it's safe to say I'm pleasantly surprised to see everyone," Skye said. It's not like she didn't want to see everyone, she was actually glad to have a group of friends to hang out with, but Skye would've appreciated a proper warning.

"Oh yeah, pumpkin-" her dad began.

"Pumpkin?" Hunter interrupted, letting out a snicker. Danny obviously knew better not to laugh, and Xavier had already learned his lesson on saying the wrong thing in front of Skye's dad, so Hunter was the only one dumb enough to make a mockery out of one of the many nicknames Scott had for his daughter.

"Shut up!" Skye yelled.

"Yeah, shut up, dude," Levi said, glaring over at Hunter to cut it out. He was already on Skye's shit list, so he might as well not try to make it any worse.

"Anyway, this kind man Hunter who I don't like as much as Levi has offered to shovel the driveway!" He exclaimed.

"Really?" Skye raised an eyebrow, looking over at Hunter who tried to look at innocent as possible.

"For free." Her dad whispered. Yes, Hunter was really trying to be a kiss ass right now. Knowing that Skye knew what happened on the day that they met, he figured that kissing up to her father might work in trying to seem like a good guy again, but it wasn't going to work. Scott would definitely take advantage of this though, even if he didn't know what happened. He would kick Hunter's ass if he knew, so Hunter was pretty lucky he wasn't a dead man already.

"Wow, Hunter, I wonder why you'd try so hard to be back in my good graces again." Skye sassed, giving Hunter a death stare that made him scared shitless.

"I said I'd do it." Xavier raised his hand.

"Yeah, for two hundred dollars." Scott rolled his eyes.

"I'm trying to get the new PlayStation before Christmas, can you blame me?" He whined.

"Just wait," Danny said.

"I'm impatient, bro, you know that," Xavier replied. From wrecking the band room to running over Skye's bike, it was safe to say that Xavier was a full-blown weirdo.

"I'll be in the living room." Skye's dad whispered to her, swiftly making an exit and leaving Skye to what he would call "those idiots".

"Come on, Skye. I saved you a seat next to me." Levi said, patting down on the seat that he may or may not have told everyone to avoid so she could sit next to him.

"I mean, this is my house, but thanks?" She furrowed her eyebrows, then sat down next to Levi with a plate of pancakes (that he got for her) right in front of her.

"Man, these pancakes are so good," Xavier said, chowing down on what would be his fifth pancake. "I wanna marry your dad, but like, no homo."

"How did you guys even get here? Did they pave the roads already?" Skye asked, completely ignoring what Xavier said about her dad.

"Yeah, plus there was literally no one out, so it was less nerve-wracking to drive," Nini replied.

"Oh, good." She said, letting out a sigh of relief.

Changing the subject, Hunter brought up the snowball fight that Levi mentioned on their way to Skye's, which he wasn't supposed to mention. "So, when are we going outside? Levi said something about a snowball fight."

"That's supposed to be between just-"

"Let's have a competition! Boys versus girls!" Xavier interrupted. Guess there was no going back on having that snowball fight. Skye assumed it wouldn't be so bad having more people involved, but the idea of it being the guys versus her and Nini scared the shit out of her. Levi and Danny would definitely go easy, but Xavier and Hunter? You might as well plan the girls' funeral already.

"There's only two of us!" Nini whined. "That's so unfair!"

"Not if you include Hunter." Danny laughed, receiving a high five from his girlfriend.

"Hey!" Hunter pouted.

"I have an idea," Skye announced. It was definitely a better idea than the incredibly unfair two versus four fight that's for sure.

"Oh?" Levi raised an eyebrow. "Do tell, Simmons."

"Three versus three." She said. "Team Skye versus team Levi. Who's in?"

"Oh, you know I'm in," Levi replied.

"Me too." Nini grinned. "I gotta stick with my girl Skye over here."

"I'll join Skye's team so I can be with Nini," Danny said, mostly because he would feel so bad if it had to fight his girlfriend even if it was just for a snowball fight, but Nini had a different idea in mind.

"Awe, I kind of wanted to kick your ass." She frowned. It was pretty clear who wore the pants in that relationship.

"Ain't no way am I joining the girls." Xavier protested.

"I'll join Skye's team so Danny doesn't have to!" Hunter exclaimed. Of course, the ass kisser would volunteer.

"Fine, Blondie, you're in." Skye sighed, not exactly wanting Hunter to be on her team, but she was willing to please everyone for the sake of getting things over with. "Sorry, Danny."

"No worries," Danny said with a soft smile. Plus, it would give him an excuse to throw as many snowballs at Hunter as possible.

"So the teams are settled?" Skye questioned.

"Yup." Levi nodded. "Xavier and Danny are with me and Nini and Hunter are with you."

"Perfect. After breakfast, the snowball fight of the century is on." She replied.

"I like the sound of that." He smirked.

"God, the sexual tension right now is through the roof," Xavier said out of nowhere. He always had to be the one to say something about Skye and Levi's interactions, although he was basically speaking for everyone else as they too could all see the ever-growing tension between them.

"Eat your pancakes, weirdo." Skye cringed.

After finishing their breakfast and prepping for the show, the group all stepped out, trudging through the bitterly cold snow. Due to Skye's backyard being too small, they decided to take the snowball fight to the streets, having plenty of room to destroy each other with all the snow that laid on the ground, especially with the snow that was paved being pushed over to the sidewalk.

"Jesus, I have to practically march through this snow." Skye groaned. Compared to those who were taller than Levi and Hunter, they didn't have as much of a hard time walking through the snow compared to the shorter folks.

"Don't give me marching band flashbacks," Xavier said.

"Too late." She laughed. Although Xavier's marching band stint was short-lived, it would always go down in history as one of the funniest things he had ever done.

"Alright, how are we doing this?" Levi asked.

"Um, my team on this side of the street and your team on that side," Skye replied, explaining the rules. "Once you're down, you're out of the game. Hiding behind cars and whatnot is allowed, but you can't just hide forever."

"Is surrendering an option?" Xavier questioned, about to start regretting that he agreed to this game.

"I suppose." She shrugged.

Going to their respective sides, each team hid behind the parked cars on each side of the street, prepping their snowballs before the game started. Once prepared, Skye asked if everyone was ready to go. "You guys ready?"

"Ready!" Levi yelled from the other side of the road with his teammates beside him.

"Alright, in five, four, three, two-"

•••

MARIA TALKS!

hate my cliffhangers all you want, but this shit over 2000 words 😩 i can't have like 30 page chapters damn

btw if you want a good cry two slow dancers by mitski is skyevi's song (among many others, but this one hits the most rn) you're welcome

as always don't forget to vote and don't be afraid to comment yup yup