Puffy snowflakes fell from the grey sky, coating the ground in a fine layer of white. The window from where I was watching from was icy cold to the touch, my breath fogging the glass with every breath. It was a beautiful scene. Almost straight out of a movie.

WHAM!

"Ah!" I cried, jumping back from the window, my heart jumping into my throat.

"What is it?" Chris's concerned voice called. A few seconds later he appeared next to me, eyes wide.

I turned to the window, where snow was splattered against the pane. "Someone threw a snowball at your window!"

His eyes narrowed. "What?"

THUMP!

I started again as another snowball slammed into the window. "It happened again!"

He moved toward the window, cupping his hands against the glass and peering out. After a second he scowled. "Holly, put on a hat," he ordered, abruptly walking away from the window and into the living room.

"What? A hat?"

"It looks like we're going to war."

I hurried after him, frowning. "You're not going to beat up that person, are you?" With the gang gone, he wasn't looking for other ways to be violent, was he?

"We're going to beat up that person," he clarified, smirking.

"Er, what?"

"Dress warmly," he ordered, coming back over to me and yanking a Laplander over my head, pulling it over my eyes so I couldn't see.

I pushed it back up, blowing my now staticky bangs out of my face. I looked into the reflection on the window, seeing Scooby Doo looking back at me. "Scooby Doo?"

"It's old," Chris told me, digging through his closet. "Did you bring you winter jacket?"

I thought about the thin sweatshirt I brought. "Yeah."

"Don't lie to me, Holly."

"Don't ask questions you know the answer too."

"I don't understand what you have against winter coats," he muttered, pulling out a black Northface.

Another whump! came from the window and I jumped yet again. Annoyed now, I strutted back over to the window and looked out, but couldn't see anything. Who the heck was throwing the snowballs? They were going to break a window!

Chris threw the jacket at me and I put it on, still unsure of why we were going outside. Or why I had to go with him. I was pretty sure whoever was doing it would take one look at him and run in the other direction.

After zipping up and having a pair of gloves forced onto my hands, apparently I was ready. Chris slipped into his jacket and threw on a scarf, trying it around him until it reached his chin.

"Aren't you going to put on a hat?" I asked.

"You have my only one."

"Oh, you can take it—"

"Keep it, I'll feel better if those cute little ears are covered up."

I blushed a little, pulling the hat further down on my face. How could he say such cheesy things so easily?

With a serious look, he cracked his knuckles. "Ready?"

"For what?"

"War," was his answer.

Still completely confused, I followed him out of his apartment and down the hallway. When we reached the doors, he motioned for me to stay quiet and follow him. I did what I was told, giving him a wary look. Just what was he planning?

It was freezing outside. Even with the jacket on, I started shivering immediately. I was glad to have a white Christmas, but the cold sucked. I stuck my tongue out and caught a few flakes, letting them melt. Chris snuck against the side of the building, gaze straight ahead. My footsteps crunched in the snow and he turned and gave me a deadly look. I froze, blinking at him in surprise.

Looking back and forth, he bent down and scooped up some snow. I watched him form a snowball with it. Was he planning on throwing it? If he threw it at whoever was targeting our window, that person would die! Chris's strength was almost inhuman. Suddenly I felt a sense of dread.

"Keep your eyes peeled," he murmured to me. "And stay close."

"What are you doing?" I whispered. "What if it's a little kid?"

"Oh, it's a little kid alright."

We came to the turn of the building and Chris suddenly jumped out, chucking the snowball blindly. A smug expression was on his face but it quickly disappeared, turning to horror as he turned back to me. "Holly—"

"OW!" I cried as something cold and hard slammed into my rear. My hand went to my butt and I turned, only to see another snowball flying at me.

"Dodge!" Chris cried, lunging at me.

My legs gave in under his weight and I fell. The snowball flying at me hit me in the chest on my way down, causing me to lose my breath twice, because Chris landed on me like a brick.

"Are you okay?" he asked, hovering over me. His cold nose brushed against mine from our proximity.

"What's going on?" I turned my head and gasped. "Jeremy!"

"That's two already, Heywood!" Jeremy taunted, tossing a snowball up and down in his hand.

Suddenly I heard a thwack and Chris grunted. "I see you have backups," he commented.

I turned my head to the other side and saw Lance and Casey. Both of them had snowballs in their hands.

"You should've been more prepared, Topher," Jeremy said smugly.

"It's cowardly to use a surprise attack."

"You call it cowardly, I call it strategic."

I glanced between him and Jeremy, confused. "What's going on?"

"Snowball fight," Chris said, rolling off me and then hopping to his feet. He then offered his hand to me and pulled me up.

"Uh-huh, no way, I'm not doing it," I said immediately. Snowballs hurt. Especially from Jeremy! I felt a bruise forming on my butt already!

"It's too late, you're already in it."

I thought about just leaving them behind and walking inside, but the little glint to his eye told me he was having fun. And I never really got to see Chris having fun. Especially while doing childish things like snowball fights. "Fine," I agreed. "But the teams aren't fair."

"Holly, Heywood totally counts as two people," Lance said, pursing his lips. "I think this is more than fair."

"If Chris counts as two people, so does Jeremy!"

"What? I'm way more intimidating than Jeremy!" Chris contended.

"You're just complaining because you're scared," Lance snickered. "Don't worry, I'll go easy on you— ow!" He bent over forward, bringing a hand to the back of his head. "What the hell, Casey?"

Casey shook her head, eyes wide. "That wasn't me."

I looked beyond Lance and saw a familiar pecan hair. "Aaron's on our team!" I cried immediately.

"I always knew you wanted me!" Aaron replied, bringing his arm back and hurling a snowball at Casey.

"Get down!" Jeremy yelled as he made an attempt to run to her.

Just as she turned to avoid the snowball, she slipped, sending it straight into her face. I grimaced and she fell into the snow dramatically. "Are you okay?" Jeremy asked, dropping to his knees beside her and placing his gloved hand on her cheek.

"Ah, Jeremy..." she whispered.

"Don't die on me!"

"You have to live... the children need you..."

"Casey! No, please!"

"Jeremy, just snow I love you."

He lowered his face, pressing his cheek against hers. "You're so cold."

My hair suddenly whipped into my face and then the next thing I knew, Jeremy was crying out in pain as snow exploded on his back. I turned back to Chris, who was already forming another snowball. Did he throw at 100mph or something?! It was terrifying!

"Stop fooling around, or you'll end up decimated," he warned, tossing the snowball up and down in his hand. "Holly. Move out!"

"Wait, aren't we going to set rules?" I asked, but it was too late. Chris was already sprinting around the building, Aaron following right after him. I turned back to Jeremy, Casey, and Lance only to be faced with all three of them holding snowballs.

I immediately put up my hands. "Uh, guys, let's be diplomatic about this...

Ah!" Casey —my best friend— was the first one to throw the snowball. The pain of her betrayal almost felt worse than the pain in my hip.

"Take her hostage!" Jeremy ordered.

"Roger, sir!" Lance and Casey responded.

"Who takes a snowball fight this seriously?" I shouted back at them before running to find where Chris and Aaron had gone.

As soon as I turned the corner of the apartment building, I was yanked down. Both Chris and Aaron hovered over me, arms full of snowballs. Chris shoved a snowball into my hands and silently motioned for me to throw it when any of them got into eyesight.

My sight was set on Casey. As soon as I glimpsed her blonde hair, I lobbed my snowball, catching her right into the chest. The look of betrayal on her face could've rivaled mine.

"Pay back is a bitch!" I called.

"So is this," I heard and then Jeremy popped around from the corner of the building tossing an armful of snow into my face, effectively blinding me.

Someone grabbed the back of my coat and began pulling me backward, moving in front of me to use their body as a shield. I rubbed the snow out of my eyes and gasped as I saw Aaron's pained expression as he was pelted with snowballs from behind. "You're protecting me!"

"Heywood would beat me up if I didn't."

"Ah, I guess that's true."

"Now stop being a sitting duck and start throwing some snowballs!"

I nodded, pushing myself to my feet. My eyes scanned over the battlefield, locking onto Jeremy who was trying to white wash Chris. I knew it was up to me to save him. I scooped up some snow and rolled it into the perfect sphere.

Breathing in, I steadied my body and aimed for his neck. Using all my force, I threw it at him. It hit perfectly, making him cough and giving Chris a chance to escape. He hooked me a thumbs up before disappearing into the forest.

I raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't have time to question it before I narrowly avoided an incoming missile.

Lance.

"What's wrong? Not enough snow in London for you to practice your aim?" I taunted him.

"I'm from Polperro!"

"Same thing!"

"What? That's like saying Boston is the same as Tallahassee!"

"That's two different states!"

"Yeah and Polperro is— woah!" he jumped back as a snowball shot by him. I turned to Aaron, who was already throwing another.

"Don't get distracted," he warned me. "Heywood has disappeared. It's me and you against these three."

"Chris hasn't come back out yet?"

"He's planning something. We have to distract them."

I glanced back at the woods. Chris was nowhere in sight. How were we supposed to distract all three of them?

"Grow some balls and throw some balls!" Aaron yelled as he sling shot a snowball straight at Jeremy's face.

The blonde dodged it was easy, locking his eyes onto me. I picked up some snow and prepared to defend myself. Just as he threw his, I threw mine and they collided in mid-air.

"Use that aim to win," Aaron urged me.

I nodded. I could do this. I had to distract them for Chris.

For a full ten minutes, Aaron and I braved the front lines of war and threw out snowball after snowball. Of course, we took our fair share of hits, but my arm grew stronger and stronger with each launch. Jeremy took one snowball down the back of his shirt and began shrieking about how cold it was. My laughter at him was instantly silenced by Casey's direct hit to my esophagus.

Suddenly a whistle ripped through the wind. Aaron paused, becoming alert. "He's ready."

"What? Who? Chris?"

"This way!" Aaron demanded, tearing off along the edge of the building.

I followed after him, confused. What were they planning? I was actually having fun defending! I glanced back and saw that Lance, Casey, and Jeremy were all chasing after us.

We turned along the far corner of the building and came to a dead halt. In front of us stood Chris, next to a giant, fat snowman. He greeted us with a head nod. Aaron nodded back.

"When did you have time for that?" I asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. It was pretty dang big to be built in only ten minutes.

The trio behind us also stopped as they took in the creation. "Nice," Casey said.

"Why did you build a snowman?" Lanced questioned.

"That's not a snowman," Jeremy said in a tense tone. He looked spooked. Ready to bolt at any second. "IT'S A SNOWMAN-SHAPED SNOWBALL, EVERYBODY RUN!"

Aaron pulled me aside and threw me down into the snow, landing close next to me. The next thing that happened was something I never thought I would ever witness in my life. No, more than that. I never even dreamed of seeing it even in my dreams. It was the end-all of all end-alls. This was a memory I would carry with me for an entire lifetime.

The memory of Chris picking up a six-foot snowman and crushing each and every one of our enemies in one blow with it.

It was hard to focus on what happened after that. I couldn't take my eyes away from the carnage— snow everywhere, bodies half buried by it. Chris laughing evilly as he stood over the five of us.

"How...?"

"Don't question it, Holly," Aaron said, sounding more serious than I'd ever heard him sound. "That wasn't something a human was capable of."

I swallowed nervously.

Casey was the first to push herself off the ground. She'd lost her scarf in the attack. Instead of being terrified, she grinned at Chris. "Nice one. You win."

"That's not fair!" Jeremy whined from where his spread-eagle form lay. He thrashed around a bit, pouting. "We had Lance on our team, that should've been a handicap!"

Lance's mouth fell open. "Hey!"

"We had Holly," Aaron defended.

Now it was my turn. "Hey!"

"Don't be sore losers," Chris said, looking smug.

"I want a rematch," Jeremy demanded.

"I won fair and square."

"We won," Aaron corrected.

"I'm too cold for a rematch," Casey complained, giving a visible shudder.

I agreed with her. Now that the exhilaration of the snowball fight had worn off, I was freezing again. "Let's go inside. Chris can make his famous hot chocolate."

"The losers should make hot chocolate," he argued.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "You threw a snowman on them. A snow man."

He seemed to debate about saying something back for a moment, but then sighed. "Fine."

Jeremy finally pushed himself off of the ground. "I'm not happy about it, but I guess we can have our rematch another time. My pants are soaked, anyway. I might need to borrow a pair."

Chris grunted noncommittally.

"And some underwear."

"Gross," I muttered.

"Holly, you hypocrite. I've seen you wearing Chris's underwear before!"

My cheeks flamed and I gave him a dirty look. "W-what!"

He grinned at me and winked. "I'd know Chris's underwear from a mile away!"

"Dude. That's weird," Aaron said.

"Stop talking about it," Chris snapped. "No one is wearing my underwear!"

"You're not wearing underwear right now?" Casey asked.

"I will kick all of you out."

Lance sniffed. "Technically we are already out."

Chris rounded on me and I gave him the most innocent smile I could. "So, er, hot cocoa?"

"You owe me big time for this," he muttered. "And I know exactly what I have in mind."

My smile dropped. I didn't like the sound of that.

Well, maybe I would.

_______________

EDIT: Sorry I had to-repost! I wanted it under APR and it wasn't lol.

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