I look outside. There is a fresh blanket of snow on the ground, just as I predicted. I see the wind moving through the air. It is subtle, but it is most definitely there. Although to others the wind is invisible just as air, I see it as a tangible thing, an unpredictable force to be reckoned with. It curves slyly around trees and rocks, looking for something to jostle.
“It’s finally here,” someone whispers behind me. I turn around to see four other girl staring through another window with awestruck looks on their faces. They have been just as eager for this coming snowfall as I.
“Do you think we can...go outside?” Holly asks. For the past three seasons we have been stuck inside while others have been outside dancing and laughing in the sunlight. We are the only ones who cannot be in sunlight for very long without getting overheated and sick.
“I don’t know,” Mary replies, her eyes still glued to the window. Although the enormous house we are stuck in is anything but boring, we all long to be outside soaking in the crisp air and icy breeze.
Suddenly there are footsteps coming from down the hall and a water girl named Emma pokes her blonde head in. Her dark blue eyes gleam with excitement.
“You are allowed outside,” she says. That does it. Everyone stampedes through the door, down the long hallway, down the grand staircase, and finally out the front door. I am the first one outside. It is a great privilege to be able to leave the first footprint in the fresh snow. I lightly touch my bare foot on the snow then slowly let it sink through the full five inches of it. The cold, wet ice feels good against my skin. Having done this I hesitate no more and bound out into the yard, the others close behind me.
“Eve!” someone calls. We all turn and see five boys running toward us, Nicolas in the lead.
“Nick!” Eve squeals. She runs as fast as she can and leaps into Nick’s open arms. They don’t let go of each other for a full twenty seconds. Now everyone has caught up and we are all laughing and hugging and chatting excitedly. It has been months since we’ve seen the boys, and we all had a lot to catch up on. Nick and Noel, the twins, had grown another four inches, now towering at 6’2”. Gabriel’s hair had changed from pale blonde to light brown a few months back. They had all become more pale and skinny, but we had, too.
“We’ve missed you guys,” Joseph laughs as he gives us all hugs. Eve and Nick and Ivy and Jasper keep their arms tight around each other. I look up at Noel; he, like Nick, is almost a full foot taller than me now. He grins smugly down at me.
“Renee, you haven’t changed a bit,” he says to me. I stick my tongue out at him; mostly because it is true and I don’t want to admit it, but also because he knows I hate my name because it has nothing to do with winter or ice like everyone else’s. All of this aside, I still jump up and wrap my arms around his neck. It has been so long. Too long.
I let go and sit down on the ground. I let my palms sink into the snow then pull them out. Both palms bring up a pillar of snow with them, as if it is glued to them. I flick my wrists and suddenly the two pillars of snow are two snowballs resting in my hands. I chuck them simultaneously at Noel’s chest. He smirks.
“I’d start a fight, but I don’t want you to end up crying like last time,” he says.
“Yeah, remember how bad that was?” Nick joins in playfully. “She was screaming like someone punched her in the face.”
I snort. “As if,” I tell him. Everyone had turned their attention toward me when I threw the snowballs at Noel. Like myself, everyone had been eager to start a fight with one of their favorite elements.
