Januaries First Snow

It was a mid-winter day and the wind was blowing particularly hard. The temperature was 24 degrees Fahrenheit but the wind chill factor was well below zero. It had not snowed yet and it was unlikely there would be a first snow of the winter that year. For the past few years, it had snowed less and less in Dobson. Even though everybody knew why it had been snowing less and less with each passing year, nobody wanted to straight up point their finger at global warming caused big city pollution.

Surry Central had the same atmosphere around it that it always attracted after the Christmas holiday. The teachers, having had a break from the troublesome students were now refreshed and ready to give their days worth. The students not so happy about being back, yet still willing to go for their own sake.

At 7:25 in the cold Wednesday morning, the heart of the school was giving its first few good beats. With those few hard thumps warming the vast interior to those who arrived early. The buses would start arriving around 7:30 and with the arrival of the buses, the school would spin into full gear. Dozens of students would swarm the cafeteria for a warm biscuit and hot cappuccino, stuffing their mouths with second-rate food and warming their bodies with the hot foamy liquid.

Grayson Paton Piers (goes by Paton) was leaning nonchalantly against a pair of thin-brown hot pipes that ran from the radiator to the vent on the roof. On cold winter mornings, those pipes were the most loved objects in the eyes of Paton. The heat radiating off them was hot to the touch; but when wearing a hoodie, they provided a warm feeling on the back that warmed him.

Looking out past the frost glazed panes of glass, Paton could see a bright red Cardinal sitting on a tree branch. The Cardinal was not eating, it was not chirping; it was simply sitting on the branch looking beautiful like God had planned it to look. In his mind Paton imagined the ground covered with a layer of thick white snow, the tree branches lightly sprinkled and the Cardinal standing out clearly in all its glory; the red of its feathers sharply making a contrast to the white precipitation on the ground.

Captivated by the Cardinal, Paton did not see his friend slowly creep up once seeing Paton was lost in thought. Vester Waldo jumped in from of Paton, grabbed him by the shoulders, and shook him half to death. “Paton man, vhat in the world is you doing? Expecting that bird to lay a golden egg or somethin?” Vester was a foreign exchange student from Germany and talked English with a heavy German accent. Sometimes it was impossible to understand what he was saying but it added something to the conversation.

Paton snapped back into reality with a thud, banging his head against the hot pipes behind him. “No, no. I was just….I was just uh thinking.” Not the smartest way to lie out of the particular situation but it wasn’t like Vester was going to believe him anyways, Paton thought.

“Oh yea, u vere thinken about das Mädchen from physics class.” As he said this, Vester flashes his hugest toothy smile.

“What? I do not understand German. How many times am I going to have to tell you?” Paton was not bothered with Vester talking German; in fact, he enjoyed it when Vester talked German. It gave him a chance to learn something and making Vester repeat himself was priceless. Vester always got a “what are you stupid?” kind of look on his face that made Paton chuckle.

“I said the girl in class, you thinken about hur.”

“Umm sure Vester lets go with that.” Even though Paton had not been thinking about her at that particular moment, the mere mention of her get his mind whirling in a shrew of emotions.

Kendra Bryn was a slim, middle-height, junior in his Physics class. She had it all; she was blonde, had blue-green eyes, an IQ that easily out matched anybody who dared challenge her, everything. During the first day of class, they were allowed to chose their seat wherever they wanted. Not many teachers ever allowed that and Paton took full advantage of it. Even though he did not sit with Kendra, she ended up next to him either way. Paton had taken a seat on the third row from the back. It was a feeling of equality that he hungered that had ultimately won his decision of where to sit. Being right in the middle of the class gave him the best of both worlds. He was close enough to the front to hear every word the teacher said and he was far enough to where he could take an occasional nap. Little did he know when he chose that seat, Kendra Bryn also had a knack for being in the middle. Needless to say, Paton had not taken a nap in class once.

They talked often, in and out of class. He spent more time with her than he would have ever imagined. They were like two peas in a pod. They would always be together every chance they got. If you were to ask anybody from school, they would swear that they were going out. Yet, they were not. Paton was shy about expressing his feelings for her. He kept a notebook in which he would write love poems about her but never showed them to her. Paton had tried doing it once but decided she would think he was a loser for writing poetry. Instead of asking her out, he just went on contemplating whether she would say yes if he did ask her out.

The morning bell rung, earsplitting clang that always made Paton’s ears hurt. He said goodbye to Vester and then went on the Physics, his favorite class of the day. Paton walked into physics class a few seconds before the tardy bell rang. He did it every day. His teacher, Sherrie McPherson, hated when students were not in their seats with the material for the day out and ready to go when the bell rang.

As he walked to his seat, he gave a couple of high fives to some of his friends along the way and then took his seat next to Kendra. He had not noticed it on his way in but Kendra was dressed up a little more than usual. She was always a sharp dresser, nothing formal but nothing shabby like ripped jeans. Kendra’s hair was up in a way that Paton did not know if it had a special name but if it did, it was surely some weird French name.

Paton took out his physics book and binder and then continued to ignore Mrs. McPherson. “Hey, why are you so dressed up today? Is something special going on today? It’s not picture day is it?”

“Oh this, it’s nothing. And picture day was two weeks ago.” Her tone was neither sad nor angry; it was a mix of the two. Paton had not realized it, but he had hurt her feelings by not remembering her birthday. Kendra raised her hand and without waiting for recognition from Mrs. Johnson, she blurted out, “I think I’m feeling sick. Can I call home?”

“I should make you stay after for interrupting my class, but since you say you’re sick I will let you off this one time.”

Taking no time to pack her stuff up, Kendra walked out with her books in her hands. Paton sat in dismay as Kendra left the room. She was not sick, he knew she was not sick. “I must have said something to piss her off”, Paton thought. He tried to pay attention for the remainder of class but in the back of his head, the last conversation he had had with Kendra was playing repeatedly. He just could not find anything wrong in what he had said. It must be something else, maybe she is feeling sick, Paton thought.

After physics class Paton had AP American History, Honors E-Commerce, and then finally Trigonometry. During American History, he had a test in which he struggled to finish. Paton’s head was not entirely focused in the exam. E-Commerce went by without a glitch. Creating websites was something Paton was good at doing and Mrs. York did not care what the students did in class. As long as they got their work done, she let them be. Trigonometry was the toughest of his classes and he hated it. The only reason he was taking it was that it was required for the college degree he was hoping to get into. Mrs. Chilton was a witch of a woman, taking nothing less than perfect as an answer. He still remembered his first day in her class. The night before he had went to sleep late watching a marathon of How Its Made on the Discovery Channel and was falling asleep during class. Mrs. Chilton had chewed him out saying that if he thought she was boring to leave the class because it was only going to get worse. Needlesstosay, math class passed slower than it had since the first day.

The afternoon bell rang to a welcome glee from all the students. If you were to measure the aura of relief around the students, you would get a high dose around Paton. On his way to the lobby, he took a few minutes to stand under a Dogwood tree and talk to his friends. He made plans to go to the Coffee Bean and then headed on up to the lobby. He usually waited up front with Kendra until her mom picked her up, but since she had left he did not really know what he would do. He could drive on home, the last place he wanted to be after school, or he could just hang out in the lobby until sometime passed. He settled on the latter.

Paton dropped his backpack on the concession stand. It was hardly ever open and everybody used it to put their duffel bags, book bags, and sit on it. He sat there for a moment, leaning his head against the side of the concession stand thinking about Kendra. When he saw Jessica Hanes walking towards the lobby, he waved at her and motioned her to go over to where he was. Jessica Hanes was a slim athletic girl. She played women’s soccer, volleyball, and basketball. She had straight brown hair to her shoulders. Her face had razor sharp features, her eyes a piecing emerald blue, her face was free of blemishes and she was proud of that fact. Paton had dated her when they were in middle school, before she had matured into the beauty she was now, but it had not worked out between them long. Even though many say you can’t stay friends with your ex’s, their friendship had not suffered at all. They were young kids back then. They were not really in love, they just liked being together.

“Hey, how you doing?” Paton got down from the stand and hugged Jessica. There was something about hugs that brought tranquility to him, even if for a second.

“I’m good, but these tests are killing me.”

“I know what you mean. Fowler is about to burst my kidney with his history tests.”

“Yeah, so I can’t believe you forgot.”

“Forgot about what? Was I supposed to call you or something yesterday?”

“No, about today being Kendra’s birthday.”

“Her birthday is not today, I would have remembered.”

“Well apparently your memory is smaller than a goldfishes. I saw her this morning in the lobby; she said she was waiting for her mom to pick her up. I said happy birthday to her and she started crying. I wondered for a minute why she would cry, I figured it was because she thought it a nice thing to do or something. But then I asked her and she said that you forgot. It really hurt her you know.”

“But today is not her birthday. Her birthday is not until the 13th.”

“No, that’s her sister’s birthday, hers is today.”

“No wonder…” Paton was talking more to himself than to Jessica but the words were still coming out of his mouth.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, Jessica chirped in drastically changing what they were talking about with an irrelevant remark. “So did you hear that it’s supposed to snow sometime soon?”

“Jessica I uh got to go. I need to do something very important.”

As he got his stuff and headed out the doors, Jessica screamed at him. “You better not make her cry anymore.”

On his way over to his house, Paton kept thinking how he was going to pull a miracle off and get Kendra to forgive him. He thought about just apologizing and saying he was sorry for forgetting but that wouldn’t work. He needed to do something special for her, something she had never had done, something that would flatter her off of her feet and into his arms, something that would stun her and melt her emotions.

Paton pulled into his driveway, said a quick “I’m home” to his mom once inside, and headed to his room just as fast. He threw his stuff on his desk and then did what he did best; he wrote. Words had never been quicker in spilling from his pen onto the paper. They flowed like an overflowed river on a steep incline. With every inch forward, it sped up as gravity pulled it by the reigns. As he wrote he hummed along with the lines. Laying a music infused bed of cotton for the words to lay upon.

When he was done writing, he opened his closet and took out his guitar. It had once belonged to his grandfather, an expert at playing it, but when he died he passed it on to Paton. Paton took it upon himself to try to be just as good as his grandfather had been with the guitar. He practiced every day and night for a few months after his grandfather’s death but never thought he was getting as good as him. Pretty soon he came down to just occasionally playing it when he felt down. He played just as well as his grandfather but he would never admit to it. Again he hummed his beat in his head as his fingers glided over the frets, encompassing the room in a melodic harmony many could only dream of doing.

With his heart thumping louder than ever, he took his guitar and went to his car. He felt his stomach coming up to his throat, nervousness crawling up through his spine and immobilizing him and blurring his vision. Paton drove to Kendra’s house and parked in the driveway. Just like in a romantic fairy tale story, Paton picked up small pebbles and threw one by one at her window. He might have stopped throwing them for fear of breaking the window, but fear was not able to surface. Nervousness was dominating the battlefield of his emotions.

Kendra opened her window, sticking her head out enough to be seen clearly, and said. “What do you want?”

“I just wanted to uhh tell you something.”

“Well spill it. It’s cold outside and the air is coming in.”

“Listen I am sorry that I forgot your birthday, I would have never dreamed of doing it. I know that it hurt you and I really want you to know how sorry I am.”

“Sometimes sorry just doesn’t cut it.”

“I know, I know, that’s why I came here with my guitar. I wrote a song for you that I want you to hear.”

Paton reached into the car and pulled out his guitar. Without saying another word to Kendra, he started strumming the guitar. With eyes wide shut he sang. The last words in his song where the words he had been wanting to ask since the first day he had meet her. “Will you go out with me?”

Unaware to Paton, Kendra shut the window and went to the front door. She missed a part of the song but it still held its meaning. The song hit hard at heart and brought more tears to her eyes. Nobody had ever written a song about her much less sung it to her before. He had given her the best present she could have asked for, though it was a bit late. As Paton opened his eyes, Kendra wrapped her arms around his neck, whispered “yes” into his ear, and kissed him as the first flakes of snow started to fall from the sky. Januaries first snow, melting around the radiance of their love.

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