Summer Snow

Chapter 1

Greetings, good people of Wattpad! Even though I haven't gotten any comments on this story, I'm fairly certain that you are all still out there, so...GREETINGS! I hope to update Shifter sometime this March Break, but for the time being, the newest chapter isn't done. You're stuck with Summer Snow. Boohoo! Y'know what I just realized? 2 things: I must really have a thing for 'S' titles and you probably want to get to the chapter now.

It started normally enough: I woke up the morning after school ended, switched out of my blue and white shorts-and-tee pajama combo into signed blue jeans, a light peach t-shirt and black Converse sneakers and bounded down the stairs, where Dad was making cornmeal muffins with syrup for breakfast. 

“Hey, Dad!” I greeted him as I grabbed a muffin, the syrup bottle and sat down at the breakfast table. He nodded towards me with a big smile and watched me squirt syrup all over my small yellow muffin. Then all of a sudden, Jasper, my eldest brother, swooped over me and snatched the bottle out of my hands. 

“Sorry, Squirt,” he said with a grin as he dug into his own breakfast. “It doesn't make sense for the smallest person to take the most food.” Dad chuckled and murmured, “Jasper, don't tease your sister,” as I scowled at Jasper and wolfed down the rest of my breakfast. Then I stood and asked if I could go for a bike ride. Dad glanced towards me and nodded. "Just call if something changes, alright?" 

That was pretty much all I needed to hear. Before you knew it, I was speeding towards the park at the end of my street. That was the only place I could be away from Ringleader before I had to meet the gang in an hour at the Coral Springs junkyard. On the way, I noticed that this was possibly the hottest day I'd ever felt. It felt like my hair was crisping right off my head and it was only 10:00 in the morning. I made a mental note to check the Weather Network after I got home and pushed on. 

I pulled up on my bike in 30 seconds flat. I dropped my bike, left it where it lay and hurried over to my favorite swing set, the place where I always went when I needed to think. What I saw stopped me in my tracks. There was someone -a girl- on my favorite swing, swinging back and forth. Her blond hair was so long, it scraped the ground underneath her when she swung. 

My face turned bright red with anger. I stomped over to the swing, sneaking up behind her. Then my hand shot out and grabbed one of the chains attaching the swing to the swing set. By doing so, the swing immediately ceased moving. The girl went flying out of her seat. She'd never had a chance. 

Laughing, I walked around to where she was kneeling on the playground's sandy ground. “That'll teach you to take MY swing in MY park,” I said gruffly, taking my rightful place on the swing and glancing at the girl's face. Again, she startled me considerably. 

Her face was as white as the sand that surrounded us. Her insanely long hair was as beautiful and shiny as spun gold. She was wearing a bright yellow tube top and matching shorts with sparkly white trim. Her flipflops matched the trim. It amazed me that she wasn't part of the gang yet. I decided to make it my mission to recruit her: perhaps in my place. 

“You know, you can swing on this one,” I said, trying to casually point towards the other swing. It came out as sheepish rather than casual. But the girl got to her feet and showed no signs of wanting to swing any longer. She stared at me harshly. No, it was a glare. A hot, hot glare. It almost made me feel physically warmer. Wait a cotton-picking minute. It WAS getting hotter; much hotter. Hotter than it had been 3 seconds ago. 

I looked a little closer at the girl. Her facial features were slightly softer than anyone I'd ever met before, but her gaze seemed to be crisping me like a whole-roast chicken. Was it possible that her gaze was - No. No, I couldn't possibly allow myself to think that. No one could do that. No human, at least.