The Dancer

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     "Mom! I'm home!" I called, bursting through my door with Jack following close behind. I shut the door with some effort as the wind was refusing to let me close it. It made the situation even more difficult when the snow started blowing in, creating a sludgy mess of water and ice on the floor. After Jack and I left the park, the weather had quickly progressed into blizzard like conditions and we barely made it to my house before it was a full on blizzard outside.

     "Oh Mark!" My mom cried, rushing over and hugging me. "I was so worried! I was about to come out and look for you. You shouldn't be out there in such awful conditions!"

"I'm sorry mom." I replied. "We didn't expect it to get this bad." She pulled away and kissed my forehead.

"Oh, it's alright sweetie." She sighed. She turned and looked at Jack. She looked surprised for a second as if she didn't expect him to be there but that surprised look quickly turned into a warm and welcoming look. "And you must be Jack!" She said rushing over to greet him. "It's very nice to meet you!" She exclaimed pulling him into a hug.

"It's very nice to meet you as well Mrs. Fischbach." He said, hugging her back and smiling.

"Sorry Jack." I chuckled from behind them. "My mom's a hugger."

"Oh I'm sure he doesn't mind." My mother said pulling away from him. "My, my! You seemed very cold, and your clothes are damp!" She remarked. She gasped looking down at his feet. "And your shoes! They are filled with snow!"

"O-Oh I'm sorry!" He exclaimed. "I didn't mean to track the snow into your home." Jack said with and apologetic look on his face.

"Oh never mind that!" My mom said sternly. "You could have frostbite! Take your shoes off immediately and Mark go draw your friend a warm bath quickly. We might need to thaw his toes!" I rushed upstairs into my dimly lit bathroom and started running the water. I could still hear my mom down stairs, talking to Jack. "Oh you poor dear!" I heard her exclaim, over the rushing water.

     "Well, at least I know she likes him." I chuckled to myself.

     I finished running the water and as I turned the faucet off, I heard two sets of feet coming up the stairs. My mom and Jack burst through the bathroom door. She began commanding Jack to take off his socks and stand in the tub for his feet. He did as he was told and rolled up his pants. Once he took off his socks, you could see that his toes were slightly blue and a tad bit swollen.

     "It's probably going to hurt to thaw them out dear, but we don't want them to get any worse." My mom said helping Jack into the tub. He stood there, with his gray sweatpants rolled up and a painful look on his face.

     "T-thank you." He said to both my mom and I, wincing in pain at the end.

     "Don't you worry about it sweetie. Now how exactly did this happen?" She questioned.

     I opened my mouth to answer her, but Jack had beat me to it. "Well we kinda stopped in the park to have a snowball fight." He said, smiling.

     "Mark Fischbach!" My mom said, smacking my arm. "You should know better than to play in the snow in these conditions, especially with him wearing such non winter appropriate clothing!"

     "Sorry." I laughed. "But technically he started it so really it wasn't my fault." Jack found what I said funny and we both started laughing, while my mom just rolled her eyes at us.

     She looked down to Jack's backpack that he'd brought up here with him. "So Jack, did you bring any extra clothes that you could change into with you?"