I Froze
โJaxon Vega, huh?โ Flint asks as the cold slaps me in the face for the second time today.
โDonโt start,โ I say, giving him the side eye.
โIโm not,โ he answers, holding both hands up in mock surrender. โI swear.โ Heโs silent for a minute or so as the three of us concentrate on trudging through the snow toward everyone else. And can I just say that Iโm pretty sure Macy undersold the crowd when she said fifty people. Even in the weird civil twilight that surrounds us on all sides, it looks more like a hundred, maybe even the whole damn schoolโminus Jaxon and his friends, of course.
On the plus side, at least theyโre all wearing hats and scarves and coatsโฆwhich Iโm taking to mean that not everyone in this place is an actual alien. Thankfully.
โI just didnโt know โscrewed-up and obnoxiousโ was your type, thatโs all.โ
I shoot him a glare. โI thought you werenโt starting.โ โIโm not. Iโm just looking out for you. Jaxon isโโ โNotย screwed up.โ
He laughs. โI notice you didnโt even try to say he wasnโt obnoxious, though, did you? And no offense, Grace, but youโre new here. You have no idea just how fucked-up he
is.โ
โAnd you do?โ
โYeah. And so does Macy. Right, Mace?โ
Macy doesnโt answer, just keeps walking and pretends like she doesnโt hear him. Iโm beginning to wish I could do the same.
โAll right, all right, I get it.โ Flint shakes his head. โI wonโt say anything else against the Chosen One. Except tell you to be careful.โ
โWeโre friends, Flint.โ
โYeah, well, take it from someone who knows. Jaxon doesnโt have friends.โ
I want to ask him what he means by that, considering Jaxonโs got the Order, and they seem pretty damn close to me, but weโve reached the first row of trees, where the others are gathered. Plus, Iโm the one who just said I didnโt want to talk about Jaxon. If I start asking questions, that gives Flint carte blanche to say whatever he wants, and that doesnโt seem fair, since Jaxon isnโt around to defend himself.
Flint walks into the middle of the group like he owns the place. Then again, judging from the way the others respond to him, maybe he does. Itโs not that they all come to attention, necessarily. Itโs just obvious that they all really want him to notice themโฆand they all really want to hear what he has to say.
I canโt help wondering what that kind of popularity is like. I donโt want itโwould probably melt under the pressure of it in less than twenty-four hours. But I do wonder what it feels like. And how Flint feels about it.
I donโt have long to dwell on my thoughts, though, because Flint gets started giving a quick rundown of the rulesโstarting with one that sounds an awful lot likeย there are no rules, except itโs followed by the one that says if you get hit by five snowballs, youโre outโand then disperses the crowd. As the five-minute countdown starts, he grabs Macyโs and my hands and starts running with us toward a large thicket of evergreen and aspen trees several hundred yards away.
โWeโve got two minutes to find a good spot,โ he says. โAnother two and a half to get things together. Then itโs open season.โ
โBut if everyone finds a spot, who will we have to throw snoโโ
โThey wonโt,โ Flint and Macy interrupt me at the exact same time.
โDonโt worry,โ Flint tells me as we finally reach the trees. โThere will be plenty of people to wage war on.โ
Wage war? I can barely breathe. Itโs a combination of the high altitude and cold air, I know, but I canโt help feeling self-conscious about the way Iโm huffing and puffing. Especially since he and Macy both sound like they just finished a leisurely garden stroll.
โSo what do we do now?โ I ask, even though itโs fairly obvious, considering Flint is already scooping up snow and making it into balls.
โBuild up our arsenal.โ He gives me a wicked grin. โJust because I think Jaxon is a jackass doesnโt mean the guy doesnโt know strategy.โ
We spend the next couple of minutes making as many
snowballs as we possibly can. I half expect Macy and Flint to outpace me here, too, but it turns out all those years of making pastries and patting dough into balls with my mother paid off, because I am anย excellentย snowball maker. Totally kick-ass. And Iโm twice as fast as they are.
โComing up on five minutes,โ Macy says, her phone ringing with a fifteen-second warning.
โMove, move, move,โ Flint calls out, even as he shoos me behind the closest tree.
Just in time, too, because as soon as Macyโs phone screeches out the five-minute mark, all hell breaks loose.
People drop from the trees all around us, snowballs flying fast and furious in every direction. Others run by at breakneck speeds, lobbing them kamikaze-style at anyone within range.
One snowball whizzes right past my ear, and I breathe a sigh of relief until another one slams into my sideโeven with the tree, and Flint, for cover.
โThatโs one,โ I hiss, jerking to the right to avoid another snowball flying straight at me. It hits Flint in the shoulder instead, and he mutters a low curse.
โAre we going to hide back here all day?โ Macy demands from where sheโs crouched at the base of a nearby tree. โOr are we going to get in this thing?โ
โBy all means,โ Flint says, gesturing for her to go first.
She rolls her eyes at him, but it takes her only a few seconds to scoop snow into a couple of giant snowballs. Then sheโs letting her snowballs fly with a giant war whoop that practically shakes the snow off the nearby branches, before running toward our arsenal to reload.
I follow her into the fray, a snowball clutched in my gloved hands as I wait for a perfect opportunity to use it.
The opportunity presents itself when one of the large guys from Flintโs group comes barreling toward me, snowballs hidden in the bottom of the jacket heโs turned into a carrying pouch. He sends them flying at me, one after another, but I manage to dodge them all. Then I throw my snowball as hard as I can, straight at him. It hits him in his very surprised face.
Weโve built up about a hundred snowballs in our arsenal, and we use them all as more and more people pour through the forest, looking for a place to hide as they catch their breath and try to make a few extra snowballs of their own.
Iโm a little surprised at how close-knit the groups areโand how alliances transcend snowball teams and seem to revert back to the factions I noticed at the party yesterday. Even though members of Flintโs clique are divided into duos and trios, they all seem to come together and watch one anotherโs backs when someone from one of the other factionsโwhether itโs the slender group dressed in bright jewel tones or the more muscular group that Marc and Quinn are currently fighting withโthreatens one of them.
I also notice that one group is missingโJaxonโs. Not just
the Order, which is definitely not here, but the whole black- clothed designer faction that presided over the party with such obvious disdain. Guess Jaxon was right when he said Flint didnโt want him here. Part of me wants to try to figure out what is up with that, but right now Iโm too busy dodging snowball volleys to do more than give it a passing thought.
Itโs total guerrilla warfare out hereโfast and brutal and
winner takes all. Itโs also the most fun Iโve had since my parents died, and probably even longer than that.
We exhaust our supply of snowballs pretty quickly, and then weโre just like everyone else, running through the trees, trying to find cover as we fling snow at whoeverโs within reach.
I laugh like a hyena the whole time. Macy and Flint look bemused at first, but soon theyโre laughing with meโ especially when one or the other of us gets hit.
Itโs after an ambush that leads to Macy getting her fourth hit and Flint and me getting our third ones that we decide to get serious. We find the biggest two trees we can to hide behind, and we drop to our knees, packing snowballs as quickly as possible. After weโve got about thirty made, Flint yanks off his hat and scarf and starts piling them inside.
โWhat are you doing?โ I demand. โYouโre going to freeze to death out here.โ
โIโm fine,โ he tells me as he turns his scarf into a kind of carrying pack. โThis is our chance to win.โ
โHow?โ I ask. Thereโs chaos all around us, and though the others havenโt found our hiding spot yet, itโs only a matter of timeโprobably a minute or twoโbefore they do. And while weโve got ammunition, thereโs also a lot fewer of us than there is of them.
โBy climbing the trees,โ Macy tells me.
Before I can express my utter incredulity at the thought of climbing one of the gigantic, leafless aspensโthe lowest branches are more than fifteen feet off the groundโshe runs straight at the trunk of the closest tree, then jumps and kicks out hard enough to send herself soaring up several
feet at an angle, arms extended, to grab the branch of a neighboring tree. She hangs there for a few seconds, swinging back and forth to gain momentum, then thrusts herself up and onto a nearby branch.
The whole thing takes about ten seconds.
โDid she just do parkour against that tree?โ I ask Flint before turning to Macy. โDid you just parkour that tree?โ
โI did,โ she says with a laugh, then reaches down to catch the hat full of snowballs Flint sends flying her way.
โThatโs freaking awesome. But if you guys expect me to be able to do that, I think weโre all going to be disappointed.โ
โDonโt worry, Grace,โ Flint tells me as he thrusts his snowball-packed scarf into my arms. โJust hold on to these for me, will you?โ
โOf course. What are you going toโ?โ I let out a screech as he grabs onto me and throws me over his shoulder.
โQuiet down or youโre going to give away our hiding place,โ he tells me as he starts climbing the tree like some Alaskan version of Spider-Man, hands and feet practically sticking to the treeโs bark as he carries me up the gigantic trunk. โAnd donโt drop the snowballs.โ
โYou should have thought of that before you decided to hang me upside down,โ I snark at him. But I tighten my grip on the scarf.
I donโt know how heโs doing it, and I wouldnโt believe it if I wasnโt witnessingโor should I say experiencingโit for myself. But thirty seconds later, Iโm straddling a tree branch, snowballs in hand, as I wait to ambush the first people who come by.
Flintโs on a branch several feet above mine. Itโs high enough off the ground to make me whimper just looking up at him, but heโs standing there with a huge grin on his face, like balancing on a snow-packed tree branch is the easiest thing in the world.
Which, to be clear, it definitely is not. And I know that because Iโmย sittingย on one and I still feel like I could slip off at any second.
โSomeoneโs coming!โ Macy hisses from one tree over.
I glance down at the ground and realize sheโs rightโ Quinn, Marc, and two other guys are heading our way. Theyโre moving stealthily instead of quickly, almost like they know weโre here. And maybe they doโitโs not like I was exactly quiet while Flint hauled me up this tree.
Either way, it doesnโt matter, because all we need is for them to get a few steps closer andโ
Bam. Flint sends a snowball soaring straight into the leaderโs chest. Macy follows up with a one-two shot to the guy in the back. Which leaves Marc and Quinn. Which Iโm definitely not going to complain about. I send a volley of snowballs straight at them, one after another. I hit Marc twice and Quinn at least four times, whichโif their curse- laden complaints are anything to go byโknocks them completely out of the game. Something Iโm also not going to complain about.
Flint is all but crowing in triumph as he dispatches a
second group that made the mistake of coming this way, and Macy takes care of a couple of loners trying to sneak in from behind us. I restock from the thick snow on the branches and wait for whoever comes next.
Turns out itโs a couple of girls dressed in teal and navy outerwear, who look like theyโre having about as much fun as I do at the dentist.
I think about pulling my punchesโno reason to make them even more miserableโbut I figure itโs only putting off the inevitable. The faster I knock them out of the game, the faster they can head back to the castle. And the faster we can win this thing.
I reach for my last three snowballs and am just waiting for them to come within range when a powerful wind comes up and knocks me off balance. I make a grab for the tree trunk and manage to hold on while the wind shakes the whole tree.
Flint curses and makes a grab for the trunk, too. Then calls to me, โHold on, Grace! Iโll be there in a minute.โ
โJust stay there,โ I call back. โIโm fine.โ
Then I turn to look for Macy, worried my cousin might be in worse shape than I am. But just as I turn my head to look behind me, another gust of wind hits the tree, hard. Itโs an eerie sound, and as the trunk starts to sway under the windโs assault, I get more nervous. Especially when another gust comes through and hits me hard enough to threaten my grip on the tree.
Above me, Flint curses again, and Macy yells, โHold on, Grace! Flint, go get her!โ
โWait!โ I shout back to be heard over the wind. โDonโt!โ
But then Macy screams, and I spin around, terrified that Iโm about to see her falling to her death. At that moment, the strongest gust of wind yet hits, and I lose my grip on the tree entirely.
I scramble to find somethingโanythingโto hold on to, but the wind is too fierce. The branch beneath me cracks ominously.
And then, Iโm falling.