I recently posted, “Gifts Ungiven”, a story about a boy named Evan who can’t seem to work up the courage to give a gift to his crush. If you haven’t read that yet, you might want to stop right here and read that. You don’t need to have read it for this story to make sense, but the contents of this kind of spoil the ending of that. I’ll wait. You’re back? Okay, here’s the next chapter in the epic saga of Evan and his now girlfriend Renee. It involves a blizzard, sledding, and a campfire. Well, part one only involves the blizzard. Stay tuned later in the week for part two.

But first, a quick commercial break. If you’re reading this, it means you’re on my website. If you haven’t already done so, I’d deeply appreciate it if you’d sign up for my mailing list. And to sweeten the pot, I even throw in another short story. This one doesn’t involve an awkward middle schooler, but an awkward high schooler. This one has a crush too, in the person of an exotic foreign exchange student. Does his awkwardness prove too much for her? All you have to do to find out is go to my homepage–after you’ve read this post, please–and sign up for my mailing list. There will continue to be freebies and you’ll be the first to hear all major updates. Someday you’ll even get an early chance to order copies of my new book at a discount available only to you. I hope you’ll consider it.

Okay, without any more interruptions, here’s part one of “The Best Sled Ride Ever.”

For most 8th graders, the end of Christmas break is about as dreary a thought as anything in the world, with the possible exception of the first day of school after summer vacation. But for Evan, it was a day he’d been looking forward to since Christmas day, which, not coincidentally, was the last time he’d seen his new girlfriend Renee.  

Girlfriend. His girlfriend. His girlfriend, Renee. The words just didn’t seem like they should all fit together. Much like he felt he and Renee didn’t fit together. She was tall and smart and beautiful and kind and bubbly. He was none of those things. Okay, to be fair, he was tall and smart. But no one would accuse him, he thought, of being handsome. Nor did he feel particularly kind. And bubbly is the last thing he would ever think of to describe his personality. What word would he use? Awkward. Yeah, awkward was the perfect word.  

And yet, there she was, standing at the end of the walk outside the cafeteria, waving her swanlike arm at him, a smile as bright as the sun emblazoning her face. He had trouble swallowing. But then, as quickly as she appeared before him, she vanished again, along with the all but the vaguest outline of the large brick building. One moment it wasn’t snowing and the next, huge, wet flakes the size of tennis balls were pounding straight down as if they were being magnetically drawn to the ground. By the time he made it to her, he looked like a Yeti and felt just as cold. But he was quickly warmed by her lilting laughter. She helped him wipe away the caked snow as they made their way into the cafeteria to wait for the bell to dismiss them for first period.  

“Where in the world did that snow come from?” she asked, pulling a tissue from her purse and wiping his face. Her hand smelled of cocoa butter. It made him think of the beach. Which made him think of her in a bathing suit at the beach. Which made him blush. Luckily, he was red-faced already from being soaked with barely frozen snow.  

“I don’t know. It just came out of nowhere,” he said. “Thank you.” 

She smiled. “For what?” 

“Rescuing me.” 

“You made it out of the snow without any help from me.” She took his hand in hers and curled her slender fingers between his. His mother had told her when she’d come to their house the evening of Christmas day that she had pianist’s fingers. She promptly sat at their piano and played a lovely, sad, complicated song that he’d never heard before. When she finished and looked up, his mother was crying.  

Renee looked like she’d just run over a kitten. “I’m sorry, ma’am,” she’d said. “I should have asked before I just started playing your piano.” 

“Oh no, sweetheart!” exclaimed his mother, wrapping Renee in a hug. “It was just so beautiful and it’s been so long since I’ve heard anyone play this piano. Since my mother died.” 

Renee and his mother were fast friends from that moment on. Same for his father and sister. She seemed to be able to make a friend of anyone. Yet another trait of hers he both admired and lacked.  

As he came back to the present, he looked into her eyes, which were filled with mirth and congeniality. “I didn’t mean from the snow.” 

“Then what are you talking about, you goof?” 

“Nothing.” 

“Whatever.” She looked around to make sure no one was watching and, to his great surprise, gave him a quick peck on the lips. He would contemplate that first kiss many times over his lifetime. For the moment, though, he was too shocked and elated to contemplate much of anything. He just stood there with a big goofy grin on his face. Luckily, before she said anything he would have to respond to–he was aware enough to suspect he would be tongue-tied until at least lunchtime–the bell rang, signaling to the sad lovers that they would not see each other again until 4th period.  

They walked hand in hand out of the cafeteria and down the hall, stopping long enough to open their lockers, which were just a few dozen feet apart from each other, and meet in the middle of the hallway. He was too self-conscious to kiss her in the midst of the wild throng of students, so he started to just wave and walk away. Happily, she felt no such restraint. 

She grabbed the collar of his coat, pulled him to her, and planted a longer kiss on his lips, after which she playfully slapped his cheek. “You weren’t going to give me kiss goodbye? Don’t you love me?” 

“Aww,” was all he could manage to say in reply. 

“I take that as a yes. See you 4th.” 

Somehow he made his way to first period. At least he thought he’d gone to the right class. No one told him to leave and the teacher looked vaguely familiar. Put a gun to his head, though, and he would have been completely incapable of telling you one word spoken the entire period. Luckily, it wasn’t a subject, like science, that required him to pay attention lest he blow himself up.  

By the time second period rolled around, he had gathered himself enough to actually know what room he was supposed to go to next. He even remembered  his math teacher Mrs. Hartline’s name. He hoped ardently, though, that she wouldn’t call on him, because no matter what the problem was, he was pretty sure the result he would come up with would simply be Renee. What’s two plus two? Renee.  

Somehow, he made it to Mr. Beck’s fourth period science class. He knew he had a class in between, but he was at a loss to remember what it was. The excitement of seeing her again was just too much for his fried circuits. He was going to kiss her this time, crowd or no crowd. But he was distracted from his goal when Mr. Beck stepped out the door. 

“You seem a lot happier than you did before Christmas break. Glad you finally worked up the courage to ask your lady friend out.” 

Before he could respond, though, he smelled the unmistakable scent of cocoa butter, turning just in time for her to plant yet another kiss on his unsuspecting lips. Would he ever get to kiss her first? He wasn’t sure, but he was even less sure that he cared, as long as she didn’t stop.  

The windows in Mr. Beck’s room faced out across the long front lawn of the school, so Evan saw clearly for the first time that the snow hadn’t let up since that morning. The pale greenish tan of the grass had been replaced by a heavy blanket of white, and the blanket was getting deeper by the minute. 

“Think we’ll have a snow day?” was the first question asked of Mr. Beck, who was widely acknowledged as the best predictor of snow days on the entire staff. Legend had it that one year, he announced in September every single snow day they would have that year and he was right every time. No one ever asked him if it was true; most preferred to just believe it because that was more fun than finding out that it was nothing but a story.  

“Definitely no school tomorrow,” said Mr. Beck, gazing out the window. “Maybe not the rest of the week.” 

For a moment Evan was elated, but then it struck him–no school meant no Renee. For the first time in his young life, Evan found himself praying for a thaw. But then, even the idea of missing his new lady love was slowly supplanted by a thought almost exciting enough to get him to hope for more snow. Sledding. It was the one thing he loved most about winter. The one thing he looked forward to every single year. Maddeningly, where they lived, it was often too warm. Some winters it was cold enough, but too dry.  

“I can’t wait to go sledding!” he said, not really aware that it had been out loud. 

“I’ve never been,” said Renee. “Is it fun?” 

“Fun? Only the most fun thing in the world. You’ve never been sledding? You have to go sledding with me!”  

A smile crept across her lips. Then she frowned. She was even adorable when she looked sad. “I don’t have a sled.” 

Coming soon: the exciting conclusion of “The Best Sled Ride Ever.” Will it truly be the best ever? Or might something get in the way of their fun? Probably wouldn’t be much of a story if it didn’t. Stay tuned to find out.