Chapter 3
It is cold. I can feel it through the blankets Mom piled on me before I went to sleep last night, seeping into my bones. I drowsily stand up and look out the window.
It's snowing! Karo is already outside by the time I get dressed and run downstairs, playing with another girl named Lada. Sonya and her friends Rina and Tanya are playing tag. When I was littler, I wanted to play with them. But I'm five. I'm big now. Besides, girls have cooties.
Before Mom can see me and make me eat my breakfast, I'm sneaking out of a window into the street to go find Alexei and Feliks. By the time I can see them, they have gone to Sergey's house and back. We all race back to my house to make a snowman, because the other kids have brothers hogging all the snow.
I'm so glad it's Christmas. I'm so glad school is over for a while.
We get there and start building, the girls around us. Karo and Lada must have gone somewhere else, because they're not here anymore. Sergey is in charge of piling up the snow, and Alexei and Feliks start making snowballs while I run in to get a carrot and some buttons from Grandma Yeva, who is locked in her room. Mom went out to the market for a while – that's what the note on the kitchen says. I think. I can't read very well yet.
I just found the broom. Now all I need is to find that carrot…
But then someone screams. Loudly. And I can tell it's a girl.
"Sonya?" I run back outside and see my sister's friends crying. Some of the big boys had a kitten, and they smashed its head in with a rock… The snow is all red.
Then they're taking another baby cat out of the bag, and Tanya covers her and Rina's eyes. Sonya tries to yank the kitten out of the boy's hands and he pushes her down. Another boy laughs and kicks her.
And before I know what I'm doing, I'm hitting them. The broom is still in my hands – and, though the boys are bigger, I can hit harder than them with it. Someone yanks away the broom and all I have left are my fists and my legs, but it doesn't matter "Don't you ever touch my sister again!"
Suddenly, Mom is there and the big boys are running away. Sonya is alright – she wasn't too hurt, and she's not crying anymore. But my eye hurts. Maybe someone punched me. Then it'll get all black and blue. Cool.
"Wow!" The twins chorused.
"That was awesome" Sergey gave me a high five before my mother kneeled down before me.
"Dimitri! What were you doing?"
I smiled "Just taking care of my sister, momma"
Karo's ten, Sonya's eight and Dimka's five. Aren't they cute?
R E V I E W
