A Long Winter Break

Chapter 1

It was a cold, boring winter break for Stella. Oftentimes she'd find herself scrolling endlessly through her phone, counting the days until school came back from break so she'd have some one to talk to.

Her home life was pretty dull, with the only other person in the home being her older sister, Lyla. Her parents had passed a few years ago, leaving Lyla with the responsibility to look after her. Though, despite the struggles, Lyla managed to keep it together and get her sister to school each day.

In terms of financial assistance, they had relatives who were willing to cover most of the household bills, but were out of state and thus, every other responsibility was left to the two of them. They stayed in a small home, and the nearest neighbors were a ten minute walk away. Everything around them, besides a road, was mostly trees.

Every now and again, something would break or stop working, and they'd call in a repairman. Though, it was tough to do this in the winter. But, just like Murphy's Law, anything that could go wrong, went wrong.

"Uhh... Hey, Lyla?" Stella yelled from across the house.

"What is it?"

"You should come check this out."

Lyla approached Stella, looking over her to see the issue. The issue, in question, happened to be a broken set of pipes connecting to their bathroom plumbing.

"Oh. Well, that's not good." Lyla stated.

"Yeah, definitely not. I tried running a bath and no dice, seems like the water is cut off to the entire bathroom."

Curious, Lyla went outside to the side of the house to check the rest of the plumbing. Unluckily enough, every single water pipe, besides from one connecting to their sink, had been broken as a result of damage done by the cold weather.

Running back inside, Lyla informed Stella on the situation.

"So, we literally can't use water until winter is over? I just got on winter break!"

"Look," Lyla began, "on the bright side, we have a working sink. We also have a store that's just a twenty minute drive away. We should be more than fine to last until winter passes."

"I hope so. In the meantime, what are we supposed to do about showering, or even using the bathroom?"

This stumped Lyla. She thought about it for a few moments, but struggled to give a 100% solid answer.

"Well, I'm not sure. But, when I head to the store later, I'll be sure to ask the employees if they know anybody who could come check out our pipes."

Stella agreed and decided not to make a fuss. After all, Lyla had a reputation of resolving all their issues.

Lyla headed to the store, as expected, leaving Stella home to relax. She arrived and headed inside, immediately coming face to face with an employee. She took this opportunity to ask,

"Oh, hey! I know it's an odd question, but do you know if anyone around here could fix our pipes?"

"It's no problem. Unfortunately, the closest person to here that could get those fixed is booked up all week fixing the plumbing to the city just an hour away." The cashier replied,