A New Beginning

Snow

Snow was falling softly to the ground, covering the whole town of Levingston. It was finally Christmas break, and Shane was busy shoveling the driveway. Instead of letting him sleep in that Saturday morning, Shane's dad had found work for him to do.

In spite of that, he was relieved that finals week was over. Everyone in his class seemed to struggle with finals, but he was the one who was most well-known for pulling all-nighters and binging on caffeine. Unfortunately, catching up on sleep seemed near to impossible with the busy Christmas season ahead of him.

So far, Shania's plan seemed to be working. Shane had only lost his temper four times in the last month. Before, it was almost every day that he would encounter something that would trigger an angry outburst.

At school, he grew closer to his friends, especially Adam and Savanna. They seemed to enjoy his company more, now that he was a much calmer person. In fact, he hadn't gotten in a fight with Trip (except for legal wrestling matches, since they were both on the wrestling team) at all that month. Maybe it was because Trip was now dating Lorie and was no longer jealous of Shane, or maybe he finally figured out that Shane didn't lose his temper so easily anymore.

Even his family noticed a difference in him. "Shane seems to be controlling himself better," his dad had stated. "I think all the hard work I'm making him do is finally teaching him a lesson."

However, it wasn't always easy for Shane to suppress his anger, especially when he was deprived of sleep. As he threw another shovelful of snow on the grass, a snowball came flying out of nowhere and hit him right in the face. Taken by surprise, he dropped the shovel and turned around.

"Who did that?" Shane yelled, wiping the snow from his face with the sleeve of his jacket. He looked around and spotted Kaden and Heidi hiding behind the evergreen tree which separated their yard from the neighbors'. They were dressed in their heavy winter coats, snowpants, mittens, and boots. Both had winter hats covering their heads and scarves wrapped around their necks. In contrast, Shane was wearing only a light jacket.

Heidi giggled as she reached down, scooped up a handful of snow, and patted it into a ball. "Snowball fight!" she cried, chucking the snowball at her older brother.

Shane ducked, and the snowball flew over his head, smashing onto the newly shoveled driveway. "What the hell are you doing?" he yelled, forgetting all about his agreement with Shania. "I just shoveled here, and you guys are throwing snow all over the place!"

"It's a snowball fight!" Heidi replied innocently, packing another snowball together with her mitten-covered hands.

"Yeah!" Kaden agreed with her. Following his sister, he made a snowball as well.

Shane put a hand on his hip. "Go play somewhere else," he ordered. "Unless you want to be cleaning this mess up." He bent down and picked up his shovel.

However, as soon as he resumed his task, Shane heard Heidi and Kaden yell, "Attack!" At the same time, he was pelted with several snowballs at the same time.

Shane turned around, facing his siblings. "What is your deal?" he shouted, banging the shovel on the ground. "I told you to stop!"

"We're just having fun!" Heidi protested. "And apparently you're trying to ruin it."

"Ya, having fun destroying my work!" Shane retorted sarcastically. "Get out of here, or I'll throw a snowball at you!" He reached into a pile of snow with his bare hands and packed a snowball together.

"Go ahead," Heidi replied, undauntedly. "Kaden and I are more prepared than you are."

"Yeah right," Shane snapped. With a powerful throw, he hurled his snowball at Heidi, striking her in the face.