The Blizzard
Lucy was walking home from school with her good friend Ellie when flurries of crystalline water started falling from the sky. Thrilled by the sudden change of weather, Lucy and Ellie take off to Starbucks to get hot chocolate in celebration of the snow. With much content, the girls turn toward the Starbucks and plan to get gifts at the Starbucks target for their secret santa choices. Crosswalk after crosswalk, the snow seems to get more dense and the view ahead is becoming more and more unclear. Ellie, alarmed by the inclarity of the upcoming walk, speaks to Lucy about her concerns.
“I don’t think this is a good idea Lucy, my phone just died and I can’t even see past that stop sign”
Passing by the stop sign, Lucy and Ellie converse over the best decision.
“Come on Ellie!” Lucy begs. “When are we ever going to have the chance to shop for our secret santa choices while it’s actually snowing?”
Ellie finally agrees and the girls race ahead towards yet another intersection. They cross and arrive at their final destination. As they enter the target, they are greeted by the sound of shopping carts rolling and a warm embrace with the store’s heating. To their surprise, the line for the Starbucks was only 2 people. Ellie decides to hold the girls’ place in line while Lucy shops for her choice. On her way to the makeup and skincare section, Lucy stumbles upon a blush pink blanket that would match perfectly with Ellie’s room. Quickly picking it up with haste in efforts to avoid Ellies suspecting stare, Lucy hurries to check out before Ellie could hypothesize Lucy’s choice. Lucy proceeds to check out and when finished goes to the line in search of Ellie. Greeted with hot chocolate, Lucy waits outside for Ellie to finish her shopping. Meanwhile, even in the parking lot Lucy can hear the wind and snow whistling and contacting everything in its path. Soon, Ellie comes out with her own bag, her face expressive of the excitement she feels. The girls maintain a constant pace on their walk home but are interrupted by the overwhelming urge to walk up a hill covered in snow. On the way up, Lucy finds herself drifting to the left side of the hill and Ellie to the right. The visibility is getting poorer by the second as it starts to worry both girls. In hopes to take out her phone flashlight, Lucy sets down her bag to find her way around the hill. Wandering on, she sees a glint of light that looks like a lamp in the distance. Arriving at the source, she finds an abandoned paper bag. Lucy opens the bag and a gold finished Stanley rolls out. To Lucy’s surprise, it was the exact edition that she had put on her Christmas list earlier that week. Lucy’s thoughts wander to the only plausible solution to what this could mean, Ellie has her for secret Santa. Lucy, shocked at Ellie’s carelessness of leaving the bag behind, looks to her hand and notices she too had left her bag unattended. Fearing the worst, Lucy puts the Stanley back into the frigid bag and races toward her original place on the hillside. Nearly colliding into Ellie, who now was wrapping herself in the blanket, Lucy suggested it was time to take their stuff and get a ride home. With hot chocolate in their hands the girls enter Ellies car and talk of how instead of their presents chosen, they would purchase a snowmobile for their next blizzard endeavor.
