Chatoyant College Book 8: From the Earth

Chapter 37: Snowy Morning

Saturday, November 15

Dawn woke feeling, thankfully, refreshed and well. She was hungry, but that was just because it was morning. After her shower, she felt almost perfect; the snow had stopped, and outside everything was crisp and sparkling. Even the forest looked friendly in its white blanket. The only problems were that she was hungry and Naomi was nowhere to be seen.

She called Naomi's cell phone, but there was no answer. Dawn frowned at her phone for a minute, worrying, but finally decided that she'd probably just gone to Jerry's, or maybe to the art building, and spent the night there so she didn't have to slog through the snow.

She put the phone in her pocket, just in case Naomi called back, and went over to Corrie and Edie's room and knocked on the door. Corrie answered quickly. Her hair was wet and she looked very unhappy. "Hey," she said. "What's up?"

"They haven't shoveled the sidewalks," said Corrie.

"Really? I can't see the campus from my window..."

"Neither can I," said Corrie. "So I went out and got snow dumped on my head and didn't even get to run."

"Oh no," said Dawn, trying to keep herself from giggling. That wouldn't be very nice. "Sorry about that. I guess that makes my hopes of going to breakfast more difficult."

"There's cold pizza in the fridge downstairs."

Dawn made a face, imagining the squeakiness of cold cheese against her teeth. "No thanks. I guess I'll just stay in my room and eat bread and peanut butter. You want to join me? How's Edie?"

"I'm okay," came a muffled voice from inside the room. "I'm up. Really. Bread and peanut butter for breakfast sounds good."

Corrie held the door wide and gestured Dawn inside. "Come on, we have plenty. Ugh, I feel like I shouldn't eat today, though."

Edie was sitting up in bed, her curls a mess, and yawning. "Why? You're skinny enough already."

"I couldn't run! I feel... slow. Weighed down."

"The RAs might have shovels," Dawn offered. "Maybe you can dig out your own path."

"Good idea!" Dawn barely managed to turn around before Corrie was out the door. A moment later, she heard the fire door at the end of the hallway swing heavily closed.

She turned to Edie with a weak grin. "Sorry. I didn't mean to get rid of her."

"It's okay, she'll be back. And maybe she'll make a nice path for the rest of us to use." Edie looked out her window and smiled. "It is a nice day for a snowball fight, I bet."

After breakfast, it turned out that it was an excellent day for a snowball fight. Corrie had cleared a good space in front of the door to Gilkey—not enough for a good run, but she said she'd gotten enough exercise with the digging. And while they were throwing snowballs at each other, they saw the maintenance crew come out and start to clear the paths, so that by lunchtime they could actually go to the dining hall, and they were all ready for a good meal.

By then other people had come out of the dorms to play and enjoy the snow. There were even a few people sledding on dining hall trays down the slight hill at the front of campus. The snow wasn't melting in the slightest, and the sky was clear and blue. It was a beautiful day.

Dawn stopped as they reached Gilkey, thinking. "You guys go ahead," she finally called to her friends. "I want to try something."

"What are you doing?" asked Corrie, turning around.

Dawn looked around at the dead, dry grass that had been exposed by Corrie's vigorous shoveling. "I want to try some magic."

"Then I'll stay with you," Corrie said. "You need a spotter."

Dawn rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to try air magic again. Not until I'm sure I have control."

"I still want to stay with you. You could use the company. Or at least someone to protect you from getting hit by stray snowballs." Corrie leaned against the side of the building, crossing her arms.

"I'm going to stay too," said Edie.

Dawn shook her head. "Okay, fine. It's not going to be very interesting to look at, though."

"I'm getting out of the cold," said Roe. "See you later." She, Annie, and Lorelei went inside. Dawn looked for the driest patch she could find, ripped up some of the grass from it, and sat down, cross-legged.

"What are you going to do?" Edie asked.

"I'm going to try a fire," Dawn said, piling up her tinder. She'd rather have actual wood, but wasn't about to go into the forest to collect some. "It should be the safest, out here, with all the snow. If anything gets out of control, we'll just throw snow on it."

"See?" said Corrie, grinning. "You do need a spotter."