Ashton-san is a bit formal for me. |3 Just Raiden would be fine, or Rai. But whatever.

It snowed today! The first snow of the season. Aaaaand I chickened out on telling him I liked him. I'm still trying to figure out how to bring it up...Yeah.

To celebrate, afternoon classes were canceled. Yay rich people! Students changed into snow gear and headed outside to build snowmen and the like.

It was perfect packing snow, and by the afternoon, a good five or six inches had accumulated. I waited, but no one started a snowball fight. So I decided to make a premptive strike.

Making a softball-sized snowball, I scanned the courtyard for my victim. There were several I could have chosen: Mori, perhaps, or the twins. But my quarry had to be someone I knew would throw back.

There. A student I'd been told about. His name was Kassanoda, I think. Lots of other students were scared of him. My guess was it's because of his permanent scowl.

That bright red hair was a perfect target. I wound up, hurtling the loosely-packed snow at him. It struck a little lower than I had aimed, hitting his left shoulder. He spun around, looking for the perpetrator.

When he looked at me, I waved, smiling and laughing. He bent down, scooping up a handful of snow and chucking it at me. I ducked, and it hit the boy behind me. Soon it erupted into an all-out every-man-for-himself brawl.

I stepped onto a bench, took a deep breath, and screamed.

The melee stopped almost instantaneously. I cleared my throat, looking at all the faces.

"If we want this to be a real snowball fight, we have to have teams," I explained. "Three of them. Who wants to be captain?"

Hands shot up in the air. Ah, you gotta love rich people. They have manners!

I scanned the crowd. "Kassanoda-san, Renge-san, and… Kyoya-san." Those three should be good captains. Especially Ootori.

They picked their teams, ending up with them divvied like so:

Team Flaming Flamingos: Kassanoda, Haruhi, Hikaru, and two boys I didn't know.

Team Otaku: Renge, Mori & Hunny (package deal), me, and the Chairman.

Team ?: Kyoya, Tamaki, Kaoru, and two more nameless guys.

"Mr. Chairman? When did you get here?" I asked as I counted the team members on each team. Luckily every team was even.

"I saw the teams were uneven, so I thought I might as well join in the frivolity," he replied. I got the sense he was just there to chuck snowballs at his son.

"All right, let's lay down some rules. No iceballs, head and face are off limits, and no leaving your team's territory. Taunts are okay, aiming for the fort is okay as well. No bringing in help from outside the school." I glared at Kyoya, whose phone was halfway out of his pocket. "Once one team gives up, it's a one-on-one deal. No rule. Everyone stops, facing off against ONE member of the opposite team. They then verse each other until all members of one team give in. The remaining players on the winning team turn on one another until there is one person left standing. In the last round, if you get hit you lose. Any questions?"

I looked around.

"What does the winner get?" Hikaru piped up.

"Eternal glory. Any more questions?" I scanned the fifteen or so faces.

"Good. You have two hours in which to build your forts. GO!"

Everyone scattered. The Chairman had called in the secretary, and borders of orange cones had already been set up.

I got to work building the fort with Renge and Mori. Hunny and Mr. Chairman were put in charge of stocking up on snowballs, after I showed them how to pack them right.

We dug down to the pavement, piling snow on two sides, facing both of the other teams. We made it big enough to house all five of us. It was hard to get the height we wanted, since Mori was so hard. Eventually, Mori and I split off, leaving Renge to finish up. We speedily built another fort to house Mori and Hunny. It was also just barely big enough to house most of us if the first one failed.

Hunny made a small wall midway between the two, piling the snowballs behind it.

I glanced at my watch.

"TIME'S UP!" I hollered. Everyone stopped, their forts complete as well. Another inch or two had accumulated.

"Ready! On your marks… get set… GO!"

Mr. Chairman, Renge, Hunny, Mori, and I hid in the first fort, discussing a battle plan.

"We should crush Kassanoda's team, since they are more of a threat. You know Tamaki won't want to hit a girl with a snowball, and Hikaru is much more of a problem than Kaoru. Kassanoda has been raised to lead, so we need to eliminate them as soon as possible," Renge said.

I was impressed. Renge was really into this!

"Right," I agreed. "Mori, Renge, you cover me from back here. I'll dash to the front lines and hit Kassanoda head-on. Mr. Chairman, hassle Team ? from a safe place. Hunny, we need you to keep our snowball stores refilled. Can you do that?"

Everyone nodded.

I snatched up a big, well-formed snowball, peeking around the corner. I jerked my head back to avoid a snowball to the face.

I leaped to my feet, bolting into the fray. Most people were firing from the safety of their forts, but I could spot the flaming red hair anywhere. Snowballs whistled past me, a few striking me, but they weren't very hard.

There he was!

I slid to a stop at the boundary line, hurtling my precious ammo as hard as I possibly could.

He saw it coming, and ducked.

Angrily, I scooped up another snowball, packing it tight ant letting it fly at the place he disappeared.

Perfect timing. He stood up again, only to take it full-force in the chest.

He stumbled back a few steps, looking at me. I punched the air, chucking another snowball in his direction. He dove for his fort, but it hit him in the stomach.

However, as I was celebrating, I was struck in the side. I whirled around to see Hikaru grinning at me from a few feet away. He tossed a snowball up and down in his hands.

I smirked, raising my hand. Mori tossed me a snowball. The second it hit my hand, it was redirected at the smiling twin. It hit his shin, and he frowned, winding up to hit me with another. I ducked at the last second, causing it to whiz harmlessly overhead. I stuck my tongue out at him, fleeing back to the safety of my fortress.

About a half-hour later, Kassanoda caved. He threw in the towel, leaving Team Otaku to face Team ?

We had lost Renge a little while back, so we were outnumbered. One of Team ?'s boys I didn't know volunteered to sit out.

The rest of us were paired up by Kassanoda:

Kyoya and Hunny

Tamaki and Chairman

Me and Kaoru

Mori and nameless dude.

"You should just give in now," Kaoru, warned, smirking evilly. He obviously thought he was going to win. No way was I going to let that happen. Kaoru was going down. "One hit KO."

I winked at Kaoru. "Wild Reiko uses Extremespeed!"

As soon as I said that sentence, Kassanoda yelled for us to start. I turned tail and ran.

"Hey!" I heard Kaoru yell as he took off after me. "This is a snowball fight, not a marathon!"

I slowed up a bit, until he had nearly caught me. Leaning down, I flung snow up in the air. By the sounds he made, it hit him full in the face. I skidded to a halt, scooping up more snow and making a snowball as he shot by. He tried to turn, but slipped on a patch of ice, falling face-first into a snow drift. He started to get up, but my snowball knocked his elbow out from under him. He face planted again.

"I give up," he groaned into the snow.

Grinning from ear to ear, I turned, looking for everyone else. Mori was sitting on a bench, nameless guy on the ground a few yards away nursing a forming bruise on his shin. Hunny had gotten distracted by someone walking by with a cake, so Kyoya had beaten him. He didn't seem to mind though, as the tiny senior munched o his sweets next to Mori.

As was to be expected, Tamaki was done for. Mr. Chairman had practically murdered the blond youth, who was now in a corner of the courtyard, growing mushrooms.

So it was Mori, Mr. Chairman, and I against Kyoya. Wait, make that Mr. Chairman and I against Kyoya. Since Hunny was out, Mori decided to resign honorably.

Faced with a 'girl' and the head of the school, Kyoya decided it was in his best interest to follow in Mori's footsteps.

So let's revise that sentence one more time. It was me against Mr. Chairman.

"I hope you know I'm not going to go easy on you," Mr. Chairman warned, smiling at me as we faced off.

"I wouldn't dream of it," I replied, returning the grin.

"GO!" Tamaki yelled, and I spun on my heels, bolting off. As I expected, Mr. Chairman had learned from Kaoru's mistakes and did not pursue me.

This is where part two of my evil plan comes in.

I hurdled the small wall surrounding the pond. It was completely frozen, as I expected. My feet slipped on the ice, and I fell backward. My shoulders hit the ice with a cracking noise, and I hurriedly laid my head down. I needed him to think it was my head that hit the ice, even though I really had just bruised my shoulder blades.

I peered out from half-closed eyes as everyone ran over, circling me. The chairman was there, 'helping' me sit up.

"Are you okay? How many fingers am I holding up?" he asked, three fingers up.

I blinked slowly. "Doesn't matter…" I announced, eyes flying wide open as I smacked him in the face with a handful of snow.

"I win!"

Everyone thought it was hilarious.

~Rai