Disclaimer: Kaitlyn in Chinaland belongs to Anne and Godline. The characterization here may or may not necessarily represent the characters in the final product.
It was a stupid idea, a whim, a fancy. But at the time, it seemed oh-so delicious and oh-so good.
It began when Kaitlyn decided to spend lunch hour rolling around in the first fresh snowfall of the season (screw lunch; she could wait till she got home, besides which she had a huge breakfast that morning). There wasn’t a whole lot of snow, but it was just enough for her to dip her face in, and roll onto her back in.
Upon brushing her cheeks, the snow felt cold and piercing. But once the shock faded, she was showered with a delightful giddiness that overtook her whole body, and soon, she was skipping and frolicking through the snow. She didn’t even make that huge a deal out of snow back home, but she had hoped it would snow in China. At least then, she would find something that wasn’t an enormous culture shock, something that didn’t make her feel stupid from tripping over the words and trying to pronounce it.
And now, it had finally came.
“How old are you?” scoffed a familiar, irritating voice. “Stop this childish behavior at once and get back inside before you give yourself pneumonia.”
Kaitlyn spun around. Gao Hejia stood on the sidewalk with his lips drawn together, and his arms folded across his chest. “Oh, c’mon!” Kaitlyn insisted, dipping her frozen fingers in the snow. “Come out here and join me!”
“Absolutely not!” Gao Hejia insisted. “I was just on my way to the student council room. You would be wise to join me inside.”
“Woo! Snow!”
The two looked up at a sight so ridiculous that it almost made Kaitlyn double over in laughter: Zhou Wu was running around in circles, kicking up snow and doing hand flips. Giggling, Kaitlyn ran over and tackled him. They fell into a pile of snow together and laughed. Though their cheeks were red and their ears beginning to burn, there was something magical about this particular snow that made them want to stay out just a little bit longer.
“Childish, both of you!” Gao Hejia scoffed before he turned around.
And that was when Kaitlyn got the idea.
She and Zhou Wu shared an evil grin. Then, the two built a pair of snowballs, aimed carefully…
…and managed to get two direct hits against the back of Gao Hejia’s head.
…
“Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time,” Kaitlyn sighed as she and Zhou Wu sat in detention together. The detention room was warm today—too warm. In fact, it was almost boiling.
“It was still worth it,” Zhou Wu said, grinning. “Did you see the look on his face? And anyway,” he leaned back in his chair, “I can think of worse things than serving detention time.”
“Like what?” Kaitlyn scoffed. “Missing out on American Idol?”
“Heaven forbid we should miss out on American Idol,” Zhou Wu said dryly. Kaitlyn rolled her eyes. “I’m kind of surprised, actually,” Zhou Wu remarked as he wiggled a pencil between his fingers. “I would’ve thought you’d be like,” he took on a high-pitched tone, “’ermahgawd snow will, like, mess up my nail polish’!”
“It did, FYI,” Kaitlyn said, holding up three, chipped fingernails. “But you know, snow’s the one thing I don’t mind messing up my hair or clothes or fingers over. It’s just so…so there, you know?” She twirled a strand of blonde hair.
“I know.” Zhou Wu leaned back in his chair with his hands behind his head. “I’ll let you in on a secret: Gao Hejia loves the snow, too. No, really!” he added when Kaitlyn guffawed. “Every winter, whenever there was a snowfall, he’d always be out there ready to build an eight-foot tall Snowman or throw the first snowball of the season or whatever.” He sighed, “But then we got older and drifted apart…it happens.”
Kaitlyn slid a pack of cards out of her pocket. “Wanna play Go-Fish?”
Zhou Wu’s face brightened up. “Sure!”
And so the two of them spent the rest of detention playing Go Fish while watching the snow fall outside. As Kaitlyn gleefully stacked up each card, she thought to herself, I could get used to this snow.
End
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