Chapter Text
Andrew woke up unusually early. The room seemed strangely bright. He slipped out of bed, ran to the window and gasped.
It had snowed overnight.
The white powder covered the cars and the branches of the trees. Everything looked like someone had covered the world with a soft blanket.
He walked over to his brother's bed.
"Aaron, wake up. It snowed!" He shook him.
At first Aaron seemed disoriented, but when he understood what Andrew meant, he jumped out of bed.
Excited, he looked out the window.
"Snow, finally!" He shouted.
They ran downstairs, where they found Betsy making breakfast.
"Hi boys! You're up early today," she said when she saw them.
"Mom, did you see? It snowed!"
Betsy laughed.
"I did. Now come on, you have to eat breakfast."
And despite their protests, she wouldn't let them go outside before the meal.
They finished at lightning speed and went to get dressed.
They put on warm jackets and waterproof boots. Betsy pulled hats onto their heads and tied scarves around their necks.
She handed them each a pair of gloves.
"Go to Neil's, I'll clean up after breakfast and join you."
When they knocked on the house across the street, the door was opened by an equally excited Neil.
"It snowed! The first snow of the year!" He said.
"Wait, I'll get dressed real quick," and he put on his jacket and boots. Stuart shoved a hat into his hands too, and they went out into the snow.
They threw themselves onto the soft powder and made snow angels.
Andrew could feel the snowflakes on his face.
After a while Stuart and Betsy joined them.
"Should we have a snowball fight?" Aaron asked.
Andrew and Neil agreed.
Andrew was the first to form a snowball, took aim and...
The snowball hit Stuart right in the middle of his back.
The man jumped in place.
Andrew held his breath, unsure how Stuart would react.
The man bent down, scooped up some snow in his hands and threw it their way.
"That’s for that snowball!" He answered, laughing.
Andrew breathed a sigh of relief when he realized Stuart wasn’t mad.
The fight was on. Everyone was throwing snowballs at each other. At some point Betsy called for a break (which was actually good, because they were already tired from defending themselves).
"We can build a snowman," Andrew suggested.
"Awesome!" Neil replied.
Together they rolled the biggest ball for the bottom, and Aaron looked for pebbles under the snow. Betsy brought them a carrot from the house.
When the snowman was done, they stood next to it with cheeks red from the cold and let Betsy take a picture of them.
After playing they went back inside.
Their gloves were soaked and water was dripping from their boots.
"Go get changed!" Betsy ordered.
Once everyone was in warm, dry clothes, they sat on the couch under blankets with mugs of hot chocolate.
The cats were purring curled up on their laps, and outside the snow was still falling softly.