It's My Life • Shawn Hunter

61| Stormy Weather

Zoey fluttered her eyes open and felt her feet cold under the sheets. Her bedroom is strangely quiet as she slipped out of bed and looked out the window. She saw the world covered in a sea of white snow. Zoey hurried to get dressed and dashed for the back door. Today she will walk through her snow-covered yard.

Zoey stopped at the door, silently watching the snow fall. The tiny ice crystal drift peacefully down from the sky, covering the world in white. The door creaks as she opened it, and she carefully step onto the back porch so as not to slip and fall. Zoey now has a full view of her backyard, a wintry paradise covered in snow.

As Zoey walked down the steps and to the sidewalk- the squeaking of the wooden steps combines with the crunch of the snow under her feet like two instruments in an orchestra, performing in the sweet silence all around her. The white, cottony powder cover the branches of the trees.

As she walked down the sidewalk, she saw the car resting under a thick layer of snow. She continued to the driveway and scrape some snow off the car window, looking inside. The powder chills her hand, so she placed her hands inside her pocket to warm it. The snow begins to fall harder. She wander around the car, crunching the snow under her feet.

Zoey could hear birds chirping as she walked to the bird feeder, where several small birds are hopping around on the ground. The snow is peppered with tiny holes where seeds have fallen from the bird feeder. The birds fly away as Zoey approached.

She continued walking and scooping snow from the ground into my hand. After shaping the snow into a rough sphere, she threw it at a tree trunk. The snow scatter. Zoey walked past the bird bath and see that the water was frozen.

The snow falls even harder, making it hard to see. Zoey closed her eyes and felt herself being bombarded with tiny pieces of ice. After the snow subsides, she continued through the sea of white. She brushed against a cedar tree, and the snow falls to the ground like powdered sugar, revealing the green needles underneath.

Feeling colder now, Zoey decided to get back inside and eat breakfast. She had decided that she was going to go to Mr. Turner's apartment and study with Shawn later today. As she reached the driveway, she saw that the car window is covered with another thin layer of snow. She ran back up the steps into the house, shaking the snow off the porch railing before walking into her home.

••••

At Mr. Turner's apartment, Shawn and Zoey sat on the couch doing homework.

Zoey flipped the page of the book she was annotating for her English class. Shawn was meant to be doing the same, however, he was about eight pages behind simply from getting distracted by his own girlfriend's beauty. And as he sat there and stared at her - he realized she must be it. Zoey must be the real thing for him.

"Do you believe in soulmates?" Shawn wondered.

Zoey glanced up from her homework, finding her boyfriend already staring at her. His eyebrows were furrowed very slightly, his brown eyes scanning her face for the slightest reaction or answer. A small giggle escaped her lips and she cocked her head to the side, smiling at Shawn in amusement. Shawn loved whenever she would do that.

Zoey shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know."

Shawn's face fell a little. "You don't know if you believe in soulmates?"

"I don't know!" Zoey repeated, giggling as she shoved him for the serious look on his face. "Why are you asking me this?"

"Well... I was just thinking, right?" He began. "Don't you believe that there's someone out there for everyone? That for every person that there is on this world, someone out there was made for them. And they match each other so perfectly and the universe pushes them together for a reason?"