Snow Day

Chapter 1: Surprising News in San Francisco

After moving from Minnesota to San Francisco, Riley began to slowly adjust to her new life... especially after that one December morning where she met some of the most important people in the world.

It all started on that fateful December day, Riley slowly opened her eyes to see her wonderful new room.

The emotions from inside headquarters stared in awe. Man, they really had to pat themselves on the back for this one! The way they designed Rileys' room—it looked so good.

Riley jumped out of bed feeling joyful as always, gathering up the things she needed for school. Her homework was still placed neatly on her desk from the night before; her art book and colored pencils seemed to be a must to have. Placing them all neatly inside her blue backpack, she left her room.

"Morning Mom, morning Dad," she said, hopping down the stairs.

"Morning Sweetie," they both said, hugging their daughter.

Once she sat down at her place at the table, Riley's mother asked. "So Riley, how did you sleep?"

"I slept fine—why do you ask?"

"Well, because... a big snowstorm hit last night—it was kind of unexpected"

"Oh..."

"Anyway, your father and I didn't really have much luck sleeping... but it seems like you sure did".

"I—I barely heard a thing" Riley stammered nervously, though she secretly still hadn't gotten used to the weird and creepy looking shadows that came creeping in whenever those trucks and cars passed. They made her room rattle like crazy, which scared her half to death.

"Good, because your school called".

"Am—am I in some kind of trouble?"

"No, no absolutely not Sweetie" her mother reassured her.

"Then what...?"

"Riley..." her father cut in. "It's nothing bad I assure you—it's just, that the sudden snow storm... well, it... the schools are closed; they tried but the snow... it's too deep—so in order to protect everyone, students and teachers alike—and yes even parents... they called to declare that they were closing all San Francisco schools".

"So... no school today?"

"Yes, that's right—I'm so sorry Riley"

"What about the homework the teacher gave us last night?"

"Well, they did schedule a make-up day" her mother replied sweetly.

"They did! When?"

"Well... they didn't say when".

"Oh..."

"All they said was to wait and see if the storm clears up".

"Oh okay... hey what about work?"

"Well... the blizzards gotten so bad that they ended up having to close all the roads" her father sighed. "They still managed to get hold of me though".

"So... work is canceled?"

He shook his head, "no, no, not canceled—I'll be going back to work eventually... it's just put on hold for a little bit, that's all".

"Oh, so no school and no work?" Riley looked sad. Fear started to panic inside headquarters. He wondered how they were supposed to get food now; but Joy had other intentions, she ran over to the storage unit where they kept all of the ideas; plugging one in—she watched as Riley began to lighten up as the idea began to take effect.