You know, as I'm writing this chapter, I've been going through ahead wave and humidity while complaining. Now the weather's cooling down and as much as I love fall weather and the fall aesthetic, I hate the cold winter and snow. As I'm publishing, it's the end of October and we just went from a day of summer weather to winter-esque weather.

Winter Wonderland: Part Four

Wolf regrets sleeping in for thirty minutes. He's done it before on many school days and it's never been a problem (and he doesn't give a spade about showing up to homeroom late), but he didn't factor in the snow. He wouldn't have an issue with driving in the snow since that's always his tardiness excuse and it works because the teacher's likely late as well, but not today. After hitting the snooze button five times, he woke up and saw so much snow that his view out the window looked like printer paper.

He looks at his phone for any alerts calling a snow day, knowing that would never happen and it didn't. It never does.

Wolf didn't think he'd have to shovel the driveway and clean off his car before leaving. He thought it wouldn't be a big deal since it would usually take ten minutes top, but it snowed so much he could barely find his car or the start and end of his driveway to the street. Forget being late to homeroom, he'd be lucky to get to school by lunch.

His curses get lost in the falling snow and the snow he's shovelling to make a path. All he needs is the snow off his car windows and a path from the driveway to the road. From there, it's hopefully smooth sailing. He wonders how his mom left for work without cussing to the stars. Hearing that would've woken him up and he might not be faced with this problem and a ticking clock. Wolf knows for sure that he isn't telling Cinder how he'd much rather be in Luna's eternal summers than this snowstorm.

Wolf stops shovelling when he hears an approaching engine that isn't from his running car. He stops shovelling and sees Throne driving a snowplow on the sidewalk. Shouldn't he be at school? Is that his car for today? Makes sense. Thorne wears a cheeky grin and waves at Wolf like a child as his snowplow blows heaps of snow on his face.

-o-

Kai has never been more miserable in the cold. He loves winter as much as the next person, but when he has to drive in the snow? Pass. Torin offered to give him a ride with the twins but he passed since that means Kai would have to get home on his own. Looking back, he could've gotten a ride from one of his friends.

He stops by his locker to take off his jacket and change into his dress code indoor shoes. The sounds of shoes sloshing against the wet floors remind him that it's winter. It was worse when he walked by a door that opened and a gust of cold air hit him. When he closes his locker, he sees Cinder and Winter waking up to him and his girlfriend looks angry.

"I got yelled at for wearing my construction boots," Cinder yells, lifting a foot out to show off her cuffed tanned yellow boots. She's offended they were deemed as construction boots.

"Welcome to winter," Kai says, kissing her cheek. Her face was warming up so she must've arrived a few minutes ago.

"I got yelled at for wearing my sweater but I'm freezing," Winter says, tugging on the sleeves of her chunky pastel blue knitted sweater.

"Because they wanted you to wear the paper bag uniform sweaters," Kai says.

"But they're literally paper bags!"

"Come on, Winter … that's an insult to paper bags. Get used to it since this school's heating isn't well-circulated, or existent."

-o-

Nobody could pay attention in class simply because the material is dense, boring, and debatably irrelevant for most future careers. They'll get yelled at for being on their phones so using those weren't an option unless they were sneaky. Looking out the window wasn't a choice either since the heavy snowstorm made it look like a white blanket was a curtain hanging on the outside. And to make matters worse, people couldn't focus since the lights kept on flickering. Some people had to put their heads down on their desks and close their eyes to avoid losing their minds.

But all heads rise when the lights go off along with the teacher's presentation. They look around, wondering if the lights will turn back on eventually. They still have some light from cell phones and people who have turned on their phone's flashlight. The whiteness from outside helps a bit as well.

"You think this is the end?" Wolf whispers menacingly to his friends. "That being in this geography class will be our last living moments before the storm eats us alive?"

The teacher has to shush them when the talking grows too loud, but everyone goes silent when the PA system makes its pre-announcement static scratching sound.

"Students, as you have noticed there seems to be a power -"

"The WiFi is out!" Someone in the classroom yells.

"Now we're dead!" Thorne screams before wailing on the floor.

Everyone screams in horror and the teacher has to smack a ruler on the desk to get them to be quiet again.

"As a precaution, students are dismissed for the day and are asked to make their way out as safely and as soon -"

Nobody cares for the rest of the announcement. They cheer to the stars as they pack their things and run through the dark hallways lit by emergency lights. It wasn't until they were outside in the blizzard and their winter apparel that they realized they should've stayed in class. Even when outside, they couldn't determine where anything is. It looks like a blank slate of snow with random dips and bumps along the way.

"I can't believe I'm saying this but we were safer inside," Cinder says.

"They're really letting us run wild in this?" Scarlet asks rhetorically.

Kai shrugs. "If they leave us there in the dark, it's a safety hazard. If they let us free, we're not their responsibility anymore."

Scarlet glances at him. "Okay, Mr. Politician, start fixing that for your future campaign."

"I thought you said Lunar Academy didn't have snow days," Winter says.

"It never did before you showed up," Wolf responds. He can't think back to a previous snow day and neither could the others.

Winter smiles proudly. "I have that effect on people and the weather, apparently. It's my namesake."

Scarlet nudges Kai. "Oh, and Kai, fix the school's uniforms because this skirt in a blizzard is ridiculous."

Wolf grins at her. "I don't mind."

He pinches Scarlet's butt and she shoves him into a snow pile, mocking his grin.

"Maybe we should wait for all the cars to clear out and so I could leave in peace," Thorne suggests. "I don't know where I parked and I can't even make out a single car in there so some process of elimination sounds good."

"Also, a lot of our classmates are terrible drivers so I won't feel safe," Cress adds.

Cinder huffs. "They can suck my spades. I'm warming up the car and getting out of here."

Cinder looks both ways before charging through the parking lot. She repeatedly pushes her keys to hear a constant lock-unlock sound to find her car. Winter scurries after her to help, holding down her hat to keep it from flying away.

"I'm pretty sure I parked Nainsi near them," Kai says as he follows them.

"I'm positive I parked near the entrance," Scarlet guesses. She walks ahead to the nearest row of parked cars and swipes snow off their hoods to first find the colour grey for her car.

"I remember almost fender-bending you," Thorne points out.

"Yeah, screw your spades for that."

Thorne narrows his eyes as he scans the snow-covered cars. His gut points him towards one so he follows it. Once he's there, he swipes off some snow and cheers. Always trust his gut. Thorne goes to the car parked in front of him and cleans off the licence plate, waving over Scarlet because her car was right there. Now Thorne remembers pulling into the parking space and nearly bumping into Scarlet's car.

Meanwhile, Cress scampers onto the parking lot, almost getting hit by someone backing out. She runs a little, slipping on a patch of ice and sliding down a few cars. As much as she thinks their skirts are cute, she probably has frostbite now. She's nearly underneath a back hood. Cress wipes the snow off the licence plate and almost laughs.

"Aces, this is my car," Cress exclaims with glee.

Cress rushes back to her feet to unlock and warm up her car. She can't wait to get home and into something warm.

Across the parking lot, Cinder gives Winter the keys to start the engine as she uses their brush to sweep all the snow she could. It doesn't help because they're in a blizzard so more snow keeps piling on, but it's better to at least clear off the windows and mirrors and to scrape off any ice.

Cinder turns her head when she hears Kai scream. She notices that he accidentally snapped his windshield wiper when lowering it again. Cinder sighs. At least it's a simple fix.

"Take over," Cinder says to Winter as she goes to help her boyfriend. She tosses her cousin the brush and Winter continues the job.

"I left my brush at home!" Thorne yells loud enough for everyone in Commonwealth to hear him.

"Here!" Cress says. She tosses him her brush and it hits him right in the head because he couldn't see through the blizzard which means he couldn't catch. Cress bites down on her lips, holding back laughter. "Sorry!"

Scarlet curses when she drops her keys in the snow. She shuffles around, kicking her feet and snow for them. They were right there! She doesn't understand how they just disappeared on her like that.

"I could get it started for you," Wolf suggests, "or Cinder could."

"I got this," Scarlet says.

Wolf kicks the snow once and her keys fly up.

"You did that on purpose," Scarlet says, narrowing her eyes at him.

Wolf grins. "Only for you, babe." He kisses her cheek before heading off to find his car. "Oh, by the way, I heard someone nearby. Traffic lights are out."

Cress groans. "I'm scared now. Nobody here knows how to drive with the lights."

"We should've carpooled," Thorne suggests. "Why didn't we?"

Everyone points at the blizzard.

"Why can't the spading sun come back," Cinder whines.

"Everyone text when they've made it back alive," Kai says.

They agree before getting into their cars.

Parts of this chapter came from my high school experience. Our uniform sweaters were paper bags. And one time, the power went out and nobody cared until the internet was gone and we got dismissed.