Dog Boy

1

The snow was perfect that day.

Not too soft, not too hard. Not too warm, not too cold. The bleak January weather had even been welcomed by the sun faintly appearing in the sky.

"So this will be our plan of attack," Douglas instructed, drawing in the snow behind our fort. "The enemy lies atop the hill, with the forest behind them and to the side. Behind them is not the best tactic, as the undergrowth will make too much noise."

"So you want us to go up to the road," Wendy guessed.

"Exactly. I'll go up to the road, within range of their fort, and rain fire down upon them!"

"Then I go in for the offensive," Wendy said.

"And I hold down the fort," I said.

Douglas nodded approvingly. "Fall back if Matt is overwhelmed, Wendy. And both of you, only throw the ice balls to scare."

"Of course," I smiled. "We aren't animals."

The three of us nodded in remembrance of the horrors of the past - when Ted in fury, seeing their flag was lost, hurled an entire shovel's worth of snow at Douglas in revenge. I did not like Ted. I would not have taken the experience in stride like Douglas had.

"Good luck soldiers," Douglas said. "By 4 o' clock, the flag will be ours."

The two left on their separate missions. Wendy hung back, pretending to head out into the forest, but hiding close to the tree line in case someone came near. Meanwhile Douglas began his long trip circling around the other fort to the road above them.

And I waited in solitude. My eyes tracked my surroundings, making sure to look in all directions, especially the forest. But that was too obvious. The empty asphalt of the nearby junior high had no cover - mostly. There were a few old trees.

I heard a commotion, and saw that Greg had been hit multiple times by Wendy. I readied my own ammunition. He retreated. We had less people today - far less unfortunately. Sometimes we were able to get larger amounts of our respective neighborhoods to join in, but today it was just our small group.

Most people didn't want to immediately go out into the snow after school was out, when they could just wait until the next day. And of course, most high school seniors were not interested in playing out in the snow. I could not imagine how someone could be so boring.

I heard the sound in the distance of Douglas attacking, including a poor victim's cry of "was that ice?"

I smiled. Perfect. Wendy would be going in for the flag soon. I wanted to be in the action, but I resisted the urge. Others gloried in the glamor of the attack. It was the resilience, the patience here however, that won the fight.

I heard the faint sound of crunching snow.

I began to fire.

I hurled snowballs as fast as I could before my mind even had a chance to recognize the figure. Even in the middle of me throwing as fast as possible, she withstood the fire, and dashed for the flag.

The moment they slid in, I knew who it was - Jackie.

She was the fastest person on their side, and she had pivoted in direction, gotten around me, and snatched up the flag, even as I got another hit on her.

"The flag is stolen!" I sounded the alarm.

I grabbed up ammunition as I made chase. As soon as I left the cover of the fort, to my relief, I spotted Wendy in the distance making a run for our side. I threw another snowball at Jackie, and missed. I threw again, and it flew in front of her, startling her for a second.