Chapter 49 | Snowmen

Lucas:

Dear Diary, today was Lucas's bday. He turned 10 years old, that is double digits! For his birthday someone bought him a skateboard, I think it was Mr William from down the road. Anyways, Lucas and Dylan and Aidan were testing it out today whilst me, Grace and Mia sat outside on the porch and ate birthday cake. I wanted to go up and join them but the boys were already fighting over who's turn it would be to ride the skateboard so I didn't bother. Also I might break the board if I stand on it. I want to learn how to skate. Ethan who is a senior and who lives next, next door from me and his high school buddies all skateboard together and sometimes we see them whizz pass my house. Mia says she is in love with Ethan. Speaking of love, I made Lucas a birthday card today using the special arts and crafts kit abuela bought me last week. With the card I also gave him cookies that I baked (all by myself, but ma helped with the oven) and Mr Bellucas too because he was sad that his parents never came home for his birthday. Grandpa Eddie brought Lucas to his house from his house which is on the other side of town so he could have a bday party in his garden. When I gave him my presents with the videogame my parents bought him and the sneakers my grandma got him, he gave me the biggest hug ever and his lips accidentally touched my cheek which means he kissed my cheek! Anyways that hug made me feel like I was floating. Okay bye, I've gtg mom is calling me downstairs! - Peace out, Bella :)

I shut the notebook closed, placing it onto my bedside table. That had been the last entry of Bella's diary that I had read a couple of hours ago, just before messaging her to see if she wanted to hang out tonight.

That was the entry that had told me she wanted to learn to skateboard when she was younger and the entry that urged me to text her so I could do just that.

Yes, I had re-found her diary. After the shambolic thanksgiving dinner, I had completely forgotten about the little purple notebook, I must've dropped it in my car when I was driving to Ivy's house or something because when I was cleaning my car out today - that's where I found it. In my car, under the passenger seat.

If I were to be honest, I wasn't going to read the diary...it just...happened. I may have felt a little bad for stealing it, especially after I had told Isabella I would stop prying for information...but my curiosity got the best of me.

I had planned on cleaning my car and house after coming back from brunch earlier today but after finding the purple notebook, I had completely abandoned my to-do list.

I was a curious guy and the diary was consuming all my thoughts, the sparkly purple cover teasing me to open it and take a little peek, so an hour after discovering the little notebook, I found my eyes skimming the scrawly handwriting of 10 year old Bella and sitting in the backseat of my car reading the different entries.

I read the first three pretty quickly, they were quite funny, nothing particularly informative, just talking about Bella's day and how she went to the cinema to watch Frozen with Mia and Grace, then her sleepover with the two girls and how she was dreading seeing Maria the day after...oh and a whole entry dedicated to how she absolutely adored my 'beautiful fluffy hair' - that was quite amusing.

After that however, I had been annoyingly disturbed by an urgent call from Dylan and Aidan telling me to hop on the PS4 because there had been an update on call of Duty and wanted me to play with them...so I had spent the next 6 hours on that.

Then, after eating, I had continued reading the diary. Although the next few didn't have much else interesting included in them either, I had concluded a couple of things from what I had read so far: Isabella had the fattest crush on me growing up, an explanation as to why she's been acting so odd around me since she has been back - because she is embarrassed of the crush and that I was an absolute dickhead of a child.

Apparently I poked her stomach a lot which she didn't like and teased her for being chubby a lot, which she also didn't like and also said some pretty mean things to her which she obviously didn't like.

I wanted to bring up what I had discovered from her journals tonight but I didn't know how to go about saying it without revealing that I had stolen and read her diary.

We were just starting to get along and knowing Bella, she would probably hate me forever for snooping through her things even though its just a measly childhood journal and would probably never look me in the eye again after finding out I knew that she had a crush on me.

Maybe that would change however if she found out that I had the biggest crush on her, growing up.

But maybe not. She was stubborn like that.

***

"Oh my God, it's snowing!" Charlotte suddenly announces in the middle of History class that next Monday afternoon, causing my head to snap up from the desk where it had slowly been descending as I slowly fell asleep to the sound of Mr Carter's dreary voice.

Mr Carter stops mid presentation and pauses for a second before rushing towards the window, the rest of the class following suit.

Tables and chairs scrape across the floor as our entire class scramble towards the side of the classroom where the windows are situated.

There is a chatter of excitement and the entire class murmurs in awe as if none of us have ever laid eyes on snow before.

People clamber on chairs to watch the first snow of the year descend from the sky, Isabella included, her mouth falling agape in awe. I shove past a couple of people to reach where she is perched on the chair, staring out of the window.

"Why are you acting like you haven't seen snow before?" I chuckle, my eyes trained on the snow falling heavily from the cloudy sky, layering every surface outside with a thin coat of white.

"The last time I snow was in 2018," she replies absentmindedly, concentrating on the sight in front of her.

This time it's my mouth that falls open. "2018? Are you serious? That's two years ago! Does it not snow in the UK?"

She nods her head. "It snows in the north a lot every year but in the south, where London is, it barely does." This causes her to frown. "It's a shame because I love snow."

"Doesn't everyone?" I quirk an eyebrow before nudging her side. I found it funny how even standing on a chair, she was only just about a little taller than me. "And it doesn't matter now because now you're back and it snows here like crazy every fucking year."

Bella nods, her attention still outside the window, her hands pressed against the glass. Her chin was tucked into the turtle neck collar of her black, woolly jumper dress.

I liked her outfit today.

Her hair was gathered up by one of those claw clips and she had a golden chain around her neck on the top of her dress, the only pop of colour of her full black outfit. She had black tights on her legs and black pumps on her feet and she looked...cosy. I couldn't help the smile that drew its way onto my face when I saw that she still had her nails painted the way I had painted them on Friday evening.

I glance down at my nails that were still painted the same too. Memories of our 'sleepover' flicker in my mind at the sight.

"Have you heard of that myth where if you watch the first snow with someone, your love will be fulfilled?"

Well that was random Lucas.

Bella snaps her head to glance at me again. "Really?" She says amusedly. "You're quoting Crash landing on you?"

I shrug my shoulders, the grin on my face broadening.

"Well if that's really the case, that means my love with Rio here well be fulfilled," she add a cheekily, nudging my team mate who is perched up on the chair next to her. "Isn't that right Rio."

Rio's mouth curls up into a little smirk, but one glance at me and that smirk drops promptly.

"Ehem, I don't think your buddy over there would be quite happy with that," he mutters, motioning to me with his head before turning back to face the window.

I mask my glare with a look of innocence just as Isabella turns her head back around to face me.

"I don't know what he's talking about," I tell her nonchalantly. She rolls her eyes.

"Well in order for your love to be fulfilled with whoever you watch the first snow with, the love has to be there in the first place," she stops to lean down so she can whisper in my ear. "So I don't think that rule works out for us because a I can barley tolerate you."

Her voice holds no emotion as she tells me that so I can't tell if she's joking or being completely serious but knowing Bella...she's being completely serious. Nevertheless, I still shake my head and suppress a smile as she jumps off the chair and heads back towards her desk.

"That's not what your diary says," I murmur under my breath, quiet enough so she doesn't hear what I say as I watch her retreating figure weave through the room to get back to her seat, the same time Mr Carter claps his hands together to grab the attention of the class.

"Okay everybody, back to your desks," he announces, ushering everyone to get back to their seats from where they're plastered against the window. "We have a lot to go over before lunch."

He heads back to the front of the room and shakes his mouse to wake up his computer before continuing with his lecture on God knows what.

I sit back in my seat at the front and lean back in my chair, extending my legs out in front of me as I make it seem like I'm listening intently to whatever Sir is speaking about when in fact I'm not paying attention at all.

As I promptly zone out of the class, my mind wanders back to the entries of Bella's diaries, my brain swirling with the passages I had read more of yesterday night.

I don't know why this seems to be preoccupying my thoughts, for some reason it had been since yesterday evening and seeing Bella just triggers my mind into going back to what I had read, trying to make sense of it all.

Last night, I had finally read all the way up until the last entry where Isabella had written about how she was leaving for London. All the pages after that were blank so I don't think she had written in her diary since.

Overall, there were about 6 entries in this notebook. I wanted to get my hands on the others to make more sense of 5th entry.

The first three had just been about her day as a whole and of course the one about me but the fourth and fifth one were a little different. They were written about two months before the last entry.

The fourth had been all about how her grandmother had bought her a new dress and how she hated it or hated how it looked on her or something like that which was a quite weird topic to write a whole diary entry about, but then again she had written a whole entry dedicated to my hair.

The fifth however I was really curious about. It had been about how she hated when I called her by her nickname, Belly, which sort of surprised me. I didn't know she disliked that. She had referenced to an entry that I could not find in the diary where she wrote about the reason why she hated that nickname because of 'what it meant'.

I didn't exactly know what she meant by the apparent 'meaning' of that nickname because I hadn't given it any meaning except that it sounded like a funny version of 'Bella'.

Eventually, I completely doze off whilst being in my thoughts, only to be awoken by the shrill sound of the bell at the end of the lesson.

Rubbing my sleepy eyes, I shove my stuff into my bag before swinging the strap over my shoulder and filing out of class. I don't catch Isabella when leaving, she probably left as I had been packing my stuff.

I head towards the canteen to see that it is completely empty and quickly realise that everyone is probably outside playing in the snow and I am completely right.

As I exit the building, I'm not even the slightest bit surprised to see that the entire high school population has suddenly turned into a bunch of elementary school kids.

Everybody seems to be outside, throwing snowballs at each other, making snowmen and snow angels and someone is every attempting to ice skate on the frozen fish pond.

I get ambushed by a ton of girls as I walk across the snowy grounds, in search of Aidan and Dylan and I mean a ton. A group of sophomore girls weakly throw snowballs at me, giggling as they promptly run away straight after, probably hoping that I would retaliate and chase after them or some shit.

This would not have happened before, not with the wrath of Ivy around. I sort of missed her overbearing self, breathing down my neck and scaring away other girls because now, without her presence, every girl at this school has suddenly become bold.

Lately, lunch time has become agonising. The amount of girls that crowd around mine, Aidan and Dylan's lunch table is not fun, especially since they're all mainly freshmen girls. I mean, I'm still a minor but it still makes me fucking uncomfortable having a bunch of 14 year olds trying to to sit on my lap or touch my arms or my hair any chance that they get.

It annoys Aidan and Dylan even more. The amount of times Dylan has gotten screamed at by one of the staff for making freshman girls cry after telling them to fuck off or 'accidentally' shoving them out of the way so he can get to his seat and Aidan doesn't even have the heart to tell the girls firmly to get lost when they try and clamber all over him also.

His 'excuse me's' and 'sorry can you move please's' go unnoticed and it often has to take an angry looking Grace to scare away the younger girls.

Ignoring the constant ambush of snow thrown my way, I squint my eyes, trying to find my friends but I finally spot them however, near the benches at the corner of the outside lunch area.

They're with Mia, Grace and Isabella, making what seems like a...snowman? I think it's a snowman anyways.

"Meet Hamish Bob Steven Junior the third!" Mia announces as they see me approaching, pointing to the pile of snow they've given that atrocious name to, Aidan making a trumpet noise in introduction.

I almost step on Isabella, Grace and Dylan as they're laid across the white ground making snow angels.

"What is that supposed to be?"

Mia's mouth drops in disbelief as does Aidan's.

"It's a snowman you bastard!"

"It looks nothing like a snowman." l

"Yes it does!" Aidan argues back, pointing at the...face? Or is it the arm of the snowman? Maybe the body? "Look that's the face and don't you see the eyes we made from rocks and the arms from twigs!"

"It's the ugliest snowman I've ever seen in my life." I respond, poking what I realise is the nose of the snowman. It's a baby carrot that no doubtedly is from Aidan's lunch that has currently been abandoned on the bench beside us.

They both gasp in unison, slapping my hand away from Hamish.

"I don't think you could do any better!" Mia accuses, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Is that a challenge?" I quirk an eyebrow.

Mia looks at Aidan. Aidan looks back at Mia.

"Snowman competition?" They both ask simultaneously.

I nod. "Yep."

"Okay." Aidan taps his chin in thought. "We get 20 minuets and whoever makes the worst snowman has to buy all the snacks and ugly Christmas jumpers for the Christmas movie marathon we're having at your house tomorrow."

"We're having a Christmas movie marathon at my house tomorrow?" I repeat, the first time I'm hearing about this party I'm apparently hosting at my house tomorrow.

Aidan nods. "Yeah we have a snow day tomorrow and the Christmas movie marathon happens at your house every year, it's tradition."

"A snow day?" My face lights up.

"Yeah, the weather forecast says the snow is gonna get worse by tomorrow so it's a possibility that school will be closed until break starts."

"Okay," I nod excitedly at this new piece of news, glad that school is ending early. "We have a deal."

"Alright," Mia smiles, clasping her hands together. "Dylan. Grace, Isabella! Get your asses over here!"

"Huh?" I protest, my eyes widening. "Why do they get to be on your team?"

"We baggsied them before!" Aidan smirks and the betrayers that are Grace, Dylan and Isabella shrug their shoulders.

"How is that fair!"

"No one said this was going to be fair."

Both Aidan and Mia raise a challenging brow and I finally huff.

"Fine, I'll do it solo," I sigh, pointing my finger at their monstrosity that is a snowman. "But you have to destroy...whatever that is first."

They nod and after they've broken their original snowman, our groups, well more like their group and me, move forward to a more open area where there is more fresh snow.

We count down from three and begin frantically building our individual snowmen. Grace has set a timer on her phone for 20 minuets which takes us all the way until 10 minutes before lunch ends, which will give us enough time to get one of the freshmen girl groups to judge our creations.

Fine by me, they'll probably be biased and pick mine as the winning snowman anyways. I smirk to myself at the thought.

15 minuets fly by and as there is five minuets until the alarm rings, the opposing group announce that they're finished.

"Haha you still have half of yours left to do!" Mia taunts just as I glance up from where I'm rolling the head of the snowman.

"There is still 5 minuets left," I respond through gritted teeth.

I hear Isabella speak as I'm hauling the head onto the body of my snowman. "Nah we're still not completely done," she whispers before saying something else even more quietly so that I can't hear. I ignore them.

A few minuets go by and as I'm distracted by pressing the two equally sized stones into the face of the snowman I suddenly feel my beanie being yanked from my head.

"Hey!"

"Sorry we need the hat for Hamish Bob Steven Junior the fourth," Isabella smirks, waving my beanie in front of my face.

I promptly grab the hat back. "Sorry yourself, the hat is mine."

She jumps up and yanks it back from me. "Sorry it's mine!"

"No, it's mine!"

"Mine!"

"No mine!"

"No," she says, grabbing the hat from me one last time. "It's mi-OUUUF!"

I freeze. As do Aidan, Dylan, Mia, Grace...and Isabella who is currently lying face flat on Hamish Bob Steven Junior the fourth.

"Oh."

"...You killed Hamish," Dylan says softly.

"I-"

They all stare at me mortified as I try to find the words to explain what had just happened. I blink. It all had happened very fast.

One minute she had been trying to grab my hat...then the next she had been flying across the air and promptly toppling over Hamish the fourth and squishing him back into a pile of snow. I must've accidentally shoved her, but definitely not hard enough to make her go flying.

She had done this on purpose.

Mia let's put a defeaning scream. Her shrill voice alerting the freshman girls all around us.

The promptly run over in frantic worry.

"Lucas are you alright? We heard screaming!"

"Oh my God, are you hurt? We have to check for wounds!"

As they scramble around me, clutching into my jacket sleeves and trying to find 'wounds', I see Mia's face light up in anger.

"That's it! You're disqualified!" She shouts and the freshmen girl flinch at her loud voice. "You're buying all the snacks and jumpers for the movie marathon and I'm never speaking to you again!"

She grabs her gloves from off her hands and chucks them angrily into the snowy ground and then storms off, Grace and Dylan following suit.

Aidan on the other hand helps Isabella get up from off the floor.

She wipes the snow from her face, a cheeky smile playing on her lips. "That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you successfully win a snowman building competition."

"I hate you."

"Okay."

━

AUTHORS NOTE

GUYS, get ready for the next chapter, you're in for a ride ;) Cough, cough but it's something to do with the diary and Lucas being a dumb as fuck drunk teehee. Also, if it's snowing right now where you live, consider yourself lucky, you lucky bastards :( I haven't seen snow in 2 years.