World War Youth

Snow Day Beginnings

1

"Cold cold cold cold COLD!!" Yelled Sareah Micheles. She had awoken to find her blankets all heaped on one leg, her window blown open by an icy wind, and her stomach covered in a layer of snow that was starting to melt through her worn, blue, flannel pajamas. Sareah leapt up, still groggy and looked at her aqua clock on her wall and nearly had a heart attack. She was late for school. 

Running around getting her hair and teeth brushed and putting on her uniform, her mind started to wake up. Living in Raleigh, North Carolina meant that it didn't snow as much as Maryland but more than South Carolina. This meant that snow meant there was a snow day at school. 

The phone rang downstairs while her cellphone buzzed furiously on her dresser. Running downstairs she answered that phone because it wasn't equipped with texting abilities. She picked it up off of the receiver and placed it to her ear. As an automated voice conveyed the snow day school closures in am monotone drone Sareah went to her messaging screen to text her mom, whose call she had missed. 

She placed the phone back in the receiver when it named her school. Her phone jittered in her hand with a very long text from her mom. It said the usual "I love you" and "be safe" and "don't burn the house down". She was also told that she was to use the food that was almost to the sell by date. 

Sareah sighed. Her parents always did this: buy all this food that was advertised as "healthy" or "organic". This also meant that it didn't have too many preservatives and as a result went bad a bit too fast. This lead to what she personally called the "Healthy binge" when her mom or dad would cook all the food that was about to go bad and they had that for dinner. The next week was full of exercise and liquids. 

Her phone vibrated again "Why don't you make a breakfast buffet and have the Keyholders over in the clubhouse. I'm kind of stuck at work until the snow clears up so I could either work overtime or try to dig my way home." Sareah laughed and got to work on breakfast.

The Keyholders were her and a few other kids from the neighborhood whose parents left for work early and came back after the kids got home. This meant they were "latch-key" kids. Each of the kids were skilled in different areas. Izi Tate was a beautician/ cosmetologist and was always trying out her skills on the girls of the group. On Halloween even the boys came to her to get makeup to match their costumes. Donny was the treasurer of their club. They did a bunch of summer helping around the city and they put it in the club fund. The summer before middle school they built a clubhouse in the clearing in the forest behind the neighborhood. Sam "Screen Saver" Willis was a computer nerd and had a blog for the club about their activities. Other skills such as archery and writing and even engineering. 

The clubhouse was another big part of their club. This was no plywood hut falling apart at the seams. This was an actual club-HOUSE. Their many years of babysitting, tutoring, lawn mowing, and lemonade stands amounted to running water, hydroelectricity, tiled flooring, an archery range, a swimming pool, and a second floor. There was a mechanics garage, a computer array, and a gym with equipment. This was their symbol of hard work and achieving their goals. Sleepovers, homework helping, and just hanging out was the purpose of this house. The best part was that since they designed, built, and wired up the house all with their talents they had done some budgeting and had enough for splitting up the leftover money with $150 each. This showed how much work they did. And it was equal distance from each of their houses. It was an amazing feat of youth accomplishment. 

Sareah's thumbs flashed across her keypad on her phone sending a breakfast invite to the clubhouse (which also had a stove.) While texting she piled the food with the sell by date close at hand into the kid size solar powered car she built with her earnings. She also piled herself with jackets and hats to protect herself from the biting cold she had run into that morning. Then she was on her way along a path to the clubhouse. A few of the Keyholders responded that they would bring utensils and plates.

Five minutes later she pulled into the mechanics garage and brought everything into the kitchen. Turning on the stove Sareah got some pots and pans out of the cupboards and started making porridge, eggs, turkey bacon, smoothies, and much more. By the time she was done 95% of the twenty Keyholders were sitting at the table set with paper plates and utensil packs from the local Chinese restaurant. Setting out the plates the last member ran in, Sam, covered in snow sat down and started explaining about some tree he ran into that had dumped snow on him.

They started eating after the giggling had subsided. Within an hour the food was gone. 

Then they started planning the day. The snow day was full of possibilities and the Keyholders were eager to use every opportunities.