The Tragedy of a Snowing Day- three side story

           Snow fills my sight- the world white, the ground slippery. I’m kind of in a trance, I need sleep. All through the night, I studied the stupid math quiz, which I literally messed up. God, I hate my life… why does it have to be such a mass? And literally, there’s only one that makes me feel happy... and there she is. She is about 10 meters in front of me, walking rhythmically. It seems that she is listening to music. It’s a bit early to go to fifth period, so there’s no one else around. What a great chance! I suddenly want to run before her and say hi. I can picture her face... smiling sweetly at me, but I know it would never happen. She will never recognize me; I’m a loser. I doubt she even knows who I am. I’m not tall, nor handsome, nor smart, nor funny… I’m just nobody. I stump on white snow, leaving clear footprints. 

           Suddenly, homework due next period pops up in my head. I completely forgot about it! Wait, it's only finding some Spanish words, I can and finish it if I go early enough- it shouldn't take that long. And meanwhile, I could show her how fast I am. I am pretty fast; wind will blow due to my speed, and she will look at me. I start spurting.

***

           You get out of the dormitory early for a chance. You don’t study during the extra 15 minutes anyway, so you decide just going to class early will be better than wasting time. The only problem was that there aren’t many people who are going at this time, so might have to go down alone. So you just put on the earphones and concentrate on the music. You are going by the stairs when something passed, causing your long hair to fly.

           It was K, a boy in the 16^th wave. You don’t know him very well, you never shared classes or anything, but at least you know who he is. You’ve heard people say things about him- he is always by himself and all; they say he has a unique personality. You can see the shape of him running; he certainly is weird. He runs as if the show somebody he’s running really fast, when he’s actually not. His body is not exactly slime and athletic… it looks a bit awkward; especially since the runner is a person who normally never moves fast and talks loudly.

***

       He is cleaning the snow that has piled up over his ankle. Because he didn’t get rid of the snow fast enough, some of the students already stepped on it and turn into ice. Now he has to be very careful, he might fall while cleaning as well! He struggles to push all the snow to the sideways. That is when he sees students coming down already; it wasn't the time to go to school yet! Now he’s all nervous that the students might fall down, since if they do, part of it is his fault!

        When the students- a girl and one boy- get half way through downhill, he lets out a relieved sigh. They seem careful enough, well aware the ground’s slippery. Thank goodness. But all of sudden, the boy rushes pass the girls at the stairs. He almost shouted at him not to run, but it would not get to the boy anyway. He just wishes the boy would be extremely careful. Nothing happened while the student was running down the stairs.

           Until where the stairs are there, I was okay. Stairs are not that a hard place to speed up. However, the slope was a little too much- I couldn’t control myself, and the stairs were over. The moment I stepped on the snow- ice, really- I realized it. I am going to fall, fall big! I strained my body, preparing for the collision. I was so embarrassed I didn’t even feel pain; I was so obsessed to get up quickly as if nothing happened, wishing hopelessly that she wouldn’t see me.

           And that was the problem. My mind was urgent, so I put more weight at the front than legs can follow. The moment I got up again, I fell down one more time! This time there would be no escape from the reality- there’s no chance she didn’t see me! I must look like a real fool right now… I want to go die. Or time-warp back a few minutes. I think I can hear her laughing...

***

           The three of you are halfway through the stairs when it happened- K trips off right below the stairs! You hear the big thud sound- it must hurt severely, but more than the pain, you know that he would be embarrassed to death right now. You feel pity for him. However, pity and fun are two different things- and you almost feel obliged to laugh, it is too much a funny situation, almost like it has been set up to amuse people. To your surprise, though, he got up faster than he fell down and started to run again right away, as if there was something really urgent. But then, he fell of immediately after! That was even more funny and, at the same time, comical.

           You try hard, but you just can’t help it. After waiting a few seconds of seeing him receding, you broke to laughter. All of the girls just stand there in the middle of the stairs, laughing your heads off. It is a bit uncomfortable though, since the sight of him reminds you of a time when you fell down on the corridor and a girl who caught my eyes sneered. Like him, you got up right away out of embarrassment. You think better pretend nothing happened if you ever get to talk to him.

***

           He spots the boy falling hard, just as he expected. He just hopes that the boy didn’t break his leg or anything, and soon realizes he doesn't have to hope for it because the boy is fine: he can even run. He thinks he better speed up the work since the students are going to come down any minute now. He merely shakes his head and gets working.