After a tasty dinner of baked chicken with Brussels Sprouts and cooked carrots, Elena, Evan, and Yamilia decided to walk over to the school to go sledding. It was right on the base of a steep part of the mountain, and there was even a magic carpet-like thing that wasn't mechanical, but has the same grippy material, and was shoveled off frequently so that shedders could get to the top of the sledding area a lot faster than trudging up through the thick layer of snow in clunky snow boots.

"Hey, it was pretty cold out when we were walking home. Do you guys each want to borrow a light overcoat to go over your main coat?" Elena suggested. Evan and Yamilia were in front of her,, on their way out the door, but they stopped and turned around.

"Yeah, sure! Thanks, Elena!" Evan said.

"Hey, my mom packed hand and foot warmers for us in my bag!" Yamilia said as she rummaged around for anything else that would keep them warm.

Elena walked out of the storage closet, and closed the white doors. She leaned against the warm tan colored wall and tossed two black overcoats to her friends. Evan caught his, but Yamilia's fell right on her head, just as she was standing up after grabbing the hand and foot warmers.

"Here you go! Yamilia, that's an interesting way to put it on!" Elena laughed. "You guys can put your bags on the bench if you want! That way the snow won't get all over them."

Yamilia stood up and pulled the overcoat off of her face, laughing. She tossed her hair out of her face and pulled the stray hairs off one by one. She set the huge pink duffle bag on the white bench, careful to scrape off any dirt.

"I'm excited. We haven't gone sledding together in a long time!" Yamilia yelled. She put on the extra coat, and pulled on her gloves with the hand warmers inside. "Here, I have a whole bunch of hand warmers over here. Come and take some!"

"Okay! So, what sleds do you guys want?" Elena asked. She dropped the hand warmers inside her mittens and put them on.

"You know how much I love the blue super slider." Evan laughed. He plopped a hat on his head and stuck his tongue out, making a silly face. Elena giggled along with Yamilia, and straightened his floppy red hat.

"Sounds good! I CALL THE PINK ONE!" Yamilia hollered. "Sorry Elena. You get the brown one."

Elena grimaced, but gave a sarcastic thumbs up. She reached up into the closets top shelf and grabbed the three flexible sleds. She handed Evan the blue one and Yamilia the pink one. She pulled the door open and held it, soon stepping out herself.

"Let's go!" Evan yelled happily. They ran off down the dark streets of Highest Peak, careful not to slip on the ice, hidden underneath the freshly fallen snow.

The night air pierced their cheeks and penetrated their thin hats. Elena shivered. Evan put his arm around her to share a little extra warmth.

"Are you cold?" he asked. Elena nodded, tucking her chin into the high neck of her coat.

"I'm not! It's pretty warm out!" Yamilia said cheerfully.

The small group turned into the trees that lined one side of the street they were on. There was a small dirt path that cut straight to the school. The three went into a single file line, as the path was thin. The dirt path mixed with ice and snow, and was now a gross, muddy slush.

"This path sure is different at night." Yamilia commented in a voice that was quiet for her.

"Yeah." Evan agreed in a whisper of awe.

The trees loomed over them in a way that, to anyone else would've been menacing, but these particular three people had taken the path many times throughout their childhood, and they knew it like the back of their hands.

"So... it's February. We're over halfway through the school year. Ninth grade. Are you guys excited for high school?" Elena asked. She hoped that she wasn't the only one who was on the fence, but mostly excited.

"OF COURSE!" Yamilia shouted.

"Yamilia! You're gonna wake the little kids up." Elena laughed. Yamilia tossed her dark brown hair into Elena's face teasingly.

"Well, it's going to be... different. We choose our own classes. Thats gonna be interesting." Evan said. "But yeah, I'm pretty excited."

Yamilia's smile turned into a frown that Elena could hardly make out.

"And London will still be queen of the school." she grumbled.

Elena recoiled in shock. Yamilia normally didn't care what London thought. She was just a person, same as everyone else, to Yamilia.

Elena was the one that cared.

That didn't want to be scorned by her.

That just wanted to be accepted.

"Yup.'' Evan said quietly. "And you guys have to be with her all day."

London wasn't accelerated. Just like Elena and Yamilia. Evan was lucky. He had the opposite schedule of her. He didn't even have specialists with her. Besides, when he was around her, London always tried to befriend him, but push away Elena.

"I just... wish I knew why she is so superior to everyone except the other popular girls." Yamilia mumbled.

"Me too." Elena said.

A wet smell filled Elena's nose. She quickly sucked it in, enjoying the earthiness, how natural it was. The sound of crickets fill the small wood, their quiet chirps breaking the deafening silence that came with night. Elena slowly stuck her tongue out to catch the snowflakes that fell through the trees. The cold droplets stung, in a good way. In a refreshing way. Elena stopped walking. She bent down and scooped up some snow, balling it up, compressing it like her anger and confusion about school was balled up inside of her. She packed the snow down harshly. The cold leaked through her gloves, but the warm packets were there to steady the cold temperature. She rotated her arm back, and flung the densly packed snowball as hard as she could through the trees. A second after she threw it, she prayed that it wouldn't hit anyone's house.

Smash.

The snowball had hit a tree, a barrier. Elena sighed, and jogged to catch up with Evan and Yamilia. She had had her satisfaction.