not quite a winter wonderland (summer & allie)

[alliejennings]

As Allie pushed the doors to the school open, a cold gush of wind slapped her in the face. Great. It was freezing. Just perfect. Allie pulled her heavy jacket closer around her, and headed out into the cold. The cold is notorious for not treating small people well. It always seemed that everyone could handle the cold just fine, but all Allie ever wanted to do was get back into the warmth.

Of course Allie was paying too much attention to the insane, ridiculous, inhuman cold and not enough attention to where she was walking. So before she knew it, she ran into a trash can and slammed face first into the ice cold concrete. Ouch. Allie ignored the weird looks and laughs of her fellow classmates who were all walking through the crowded courtyard, and picked herself up. It really wasn't all that unusual for her. Allie wasn't known to be the most...coordinated person. Plus, trash cans are hard to see. Especially in the snow. It could happen to anybody!

Allie walked through the heavy wind to a small blue bench, where she was set to meet Summer. She wiped the snow off with a fuzzy gloved hand, and sat down. Suddenly, she felt a small movement in her left pocket. She smirked as she pulled out a small mouse, wearing a little fortune teller turban. "I don't even want to know how long you've been in there, Luna," she spoke quietly to the mouse. She was met with a quizical mouse stare, to which Allie just smiled. Mice. Can't live with them, can't live without them.

Where the hell was Summer? They said they'd meet right after school. Allie looked down at her watch. It's been...3 minutes since school let out. Oh.

[SUMMER SINCLAIR]

Summer hadn't yet figured out why her and Allie had decided to meet outside. It was freezing. Heading out of her dorm (her last class was a free period), she pulled her gloves on before she'd get outside. She'd managed to grab her thicker jacket this time. She was certainly not going to make the mistake she made when going to work. Her scarf was wrapped around her neck and she had a hat on, one that covered most of her ears. If Summer was cold out there, this weather really was merciless.

Of course, as soon as she opened the doors, she shivered. Damn. Taking her time down the stairs, since they were probably slippery, she finally looked up once stepping off of them. To the courtyard, she'd go! Another shiver went through her and she shoved her gloved hands into the pockets of her coat. A sudden breeze of icy wind rushed by her and she was thankful that she'd tied her hair back into a braid. No tangles, today.

Summer arrived at the courtyard, finally, and looked around for Allie. She certainly wouldn't be late, she usually wasn't. She ventured further in, towards the bench they'd planned to meet at. And there she was! "Allie," Summer called, hurrying towards her. She seemed to be talking to something in her hand. Once she'd gotten closer, she recognized it as one of Allie's mice. Summer smiled and sat beside Allie on the bench. "Hey there."

[alliejennings]

Allie turned away from the mouse as she heard Summer approaching. "Hey!" she said, tucking a strand of long blonde hair behind her ear. "You've made me sit here in the cold a whole 3 minutes! Where were you?" Allie pulled her flowered knit cap down over her ears, and tucked Luna back into her pocket. The mouse poked its head back out immediately, making it look like a little white poof stuck to Allie's jacket.

"How was your free period? I hate you so much for having one." Allie asked, while rubbing her hands together. She watched all the other students walk by, casually talking or running to get out of the cold. It was a strange place, Baum Academy. Even though she'd been here for 4 years, high school still seemed odd. Allie never got used to the cliques and the gossip. It was just so odd to her that people could be so mean to each other!

All of a sudden, a gust of wind picked up, and Allie almost flew off the bench. Jeez, it felt like a freaking tornado! It's New York, not Kansas! What the hell, weather gods?

[SUMMER SINCLAIR]

Summer grinned and had to keep her teeth from chattering. "I'm sorry," she replied, hunching her shoulders against the cold. "I was in my dorm, doing homework." Summer paused, realizing she'd answered both of Allie's questions in one answer. "Math, actually," she added with a shudder that was more from the icy chill than the thought of the subject. She laughed and shook her head. "You oughta drop your last then, or change your schedule around," she told Allie. It'd actually been one of her best decisions yet. Less workload, more time to work on the workload.

Summer looked around to find that most students were hurrying to get where it was warm. That seemed like a good idea. She kept hoping that Winter would fly by and let Spring take over. The sun, flowers, trees that weren't dead and creepy-looking. Another shiver went through her at the sudden gust of wind. Allie moved next to her and she looked back, surprised to see that her friend had almost fallen off the bench. "Oh jeez, are you alright?" she asked, concerned. "Maybe we should go inside."

[alliejennings]

"I wish I could. I love my classes though." Allie responded, after briefly considering Summer's suggestion. After all, she was taking quite a few electives. Cooking, Art, Chorus, Robotics, and Yearbook. Plus the required Math and English courses. Which left her barely any free time at all. But she could never figure out which elective she would drop. She loved all of them equally for all different reasons. And when she got tired of one, she always had another thing she was interested to fill in the empty space. But she adored all of her classes now. She couldn't bear to drop one!

Allie laughed at the expression on Summer's face. It was like she'd never been almost blown away by a gust of wind! Psh, doesn't that happen to everybody? "I'm fine. It's just the usual, right?" Allie said, giving a quirky smile. She pulled her jacket closer to her as she added "Yeah, I assume we should go inside before Dorothy's house falls from the sky." shegiggled, and patted her jacket pocket to make sure Luna was still there. She was. Good.

[SUMMER SINCLAIR]

Summer nodded, completely understanding. She'd loved her last period and hadn't really wanted to drop it. But if it meant working on math and bringing her grade up, okay. Passing an elective didn't matter if she failed math. Still, though, she usually ended up reading during her free period. That's why she'd decided, today, that she'd start going elsewhere to do her work. Staying in her dorm wasn't a good idea since she had a bookshelf full of her favorite novels.

Summer grinned and rolled her eyes. True, Allie was often pushed around by even the slightest of breezes. Summer couldn't imagine being that tiny and delicate. She laughed at the Wizard of Oz reference and nodded again. "Most definitely," she replied. "I don't want anybody stealing my shoes."

(haha, i don't know if that made sense.)

[alliejennings]

Allie did decently in school, usually. She excelled in her electives, of course. But only if she was good at it. She got frustrated easily, and if she wasn't praised on her performance she gave up. And she was stubborn enough that she would ignore her teacher's pleas to make her stay. If they didn't tell her before, they obviously didn't want her, right? She liked some parts of English, the creative parts. The grammar stuff just confused her. As for Math? That was just completely over her head. Numbers were never her forte.

Allie giggled at Summer's Wizard of Oz response. "We should have probably thought it through before deciding to meet in this frozen wasteland." Allie looked up and realized that there was a giant icicle right above her head. Perfect. It had been slowly dripping, and Allie soon realized it had seeped through her hat and into her hair. "Yeah, this isn't working for me. Where do you want to go?"

[SUMMER SINCLAIR]

Shivering again, Summer stamped her feet in hopes to warm up. It wasn't working. At all. Why did Winter even exist? Keeping her shoulders hunched against the cold, Summer looked around to realize that they were the only two still outside. Except for some straggler a few yards from them. What were they even doing out here? Other than freezing their butt off? Another cold breeze swept by them, this one not as bad as the others, though. It was no use now, she'd realized. Her teeth were going to chatter no matter what she did.

Summer nodded, shaking. Why had they decided to meet outside? "Frozen wasteland is the perfect term for all of this," she agreed, glaring at their surroundings. Looking back to Allie, she followed her friend's gaze up. An icicle hung above her and had been dripping water onto her head the whole time. She couldn't help but to snicker at Allie's bad luck. Now that was lame. "Inside," she answered, vaguely. "Your dorm?" she said after a moment. "I haven't seen your mice circus in awhile," she added, wondering how the gang was doing.

[alliejennings]

Allie shivered and batted a snowflake off an eyelash. Just as she completed de-snowifying herself, yet another breeze came along and blew all the snow back onto her. Well, that was convenient. Thanks, wind. She looked down at her pocket, where Luna was also completely covered. The mouse now had a little white afro, which was fairly amusing. Allie giggled and continued to wipe off snow.

"Yes, my dorm sounds good! Lawrence has been missing you. You're his favorite, you know. Even more than me! I'm jealous." Allie smirked and took her hat off her head. It was no use having it on now, it was sopping wet anyways. She squeezed the water out of it as she stood up. The water immediately froze as it hit the ground. Yes, it was THAT cold. "Should we head off?"

[SUMMER SINCLAIR]

Summer couldn't help but to laugh as her friend was covered in snow just as she'd brushed it all off. That was more bad luck. Summer stood and stretched, barely, though, as she felt like she'd end up falling. Or something. What? The ground was slippery. The last thing she wanted was to fall on her butt. Falling hurt. She knew that from quite a few experiences back in Michigan. She was actually surprised that her back was permanently messed up.

"Awww, really?" she asked. She'd never been somebody's favorite. She giggled and put on an apologetic expression. "Well, I'm sure there are plenty others that love you most!" Summer watched as Allie wrung the water out of her hat. It froze as soon as it hit the ground. Wow. Why were they still outside? "Most definitely," she said with a definitive nod.