The fifth grade classroom was full with children talking and messing around. They all wore warm clothing like hoodies, sweaters, and long thick pants, as outside it was a forever winter. The weather ranged from low negative twenties to negative fifties. There were two months where the winter ceased and the weather ranged from negative five to positive ten, but that was the nicest it ever got. Eryi, a ten year old boy with black hair covering his eyes sat in the back of the classroom. He was drawing a spiderweb on the side of his loose leaf and glancing at the groups of kids. One group in particular caught his eye, not because of their silly antics, but because of one boy named Andri. Andri, per Eryi’s opinion, was the coolest kid in class. Andri was friends with everyone, played hockey, and always raised his opinion in class. Andri could talk without any worry if he was wrong or right, and that’s everything Eryi wished to become. But, ever since preschool, Eryi was too shy to talk to others and looked as though he were ignoring them, so he was outed as a rude weirdo. No one wanted to be near him, let alone talk to him. All except Andri.

A pencil hit Eryi on the forehead and rolled to the ground, and Andri rushed over. Andri and his friends had been throwing it around, and it just happened to go too far. Andri picked up the pencil and smiled sillily.

“Sorry, Eryi. Haha! Is your head okay?”

Eryi felt his cheeks flush from embarrassment and he nodded. He wished for Andri to go away before he said something stupid and Andri never spoke to him again. Andri reached out, pulled back Eryi’s bangs and hummed.

“It left a mark! Dang, I’m really sorry.”

Seeing that his bangs were pulled back and he had no ability to hide his face, Eryi’s eyes widened and he tried to slump down.

“It’s okay,” he mumbled.

Andri didn’t look convinced, and another boy who was throwing the pencil around with Andri named Alba walked over with his hands in his pockets.

“He said it was okay, Andri. Leave him alone.”

Andri looked distraught but left anyway, leaving Eryi by himself. Eryi leaned down over his desk and thought, “But I didn’t want to be alone.”

The school day ended and children rushed out of class and waited by the bus doors to leave. This day was especially cold, and the clouds were thick.

“I think there’s going to be a snowstorm,” Andri stated.

Alba put on his sunglasses to protect his fair eyes from being burnt from the blinding white outside the window and said, “It said so on TV this morning.”

The buses pulled up and Eryi got on the bus after Andri and Alba did. He worried that they might think he was following them, but it was purely coincidence that he happened to be behind them. Andri and Alba sat in the very back and Eryi sat in the middle. When all the kids took their seats, none of them sat next to Eryi. Eryi hugged his worn and torn backpack in his lap and looked out the window. He leaned against the glass, and shivered from the cold captured air within the bus. Once the bus hit a bump his head slammed against the glass and he whined in agony. It would have been funny if he had someone to joke with about it. The bus made it to the Snow District and Eryi, Alba, and Andri got off. It was one of the more middle class districts, with one half being low-middle class and the other half being high class. It was at the bus stop where Eryi could no longer be near Andri and Alba, and he listened to them talk as he walked away. The world was far too silent without other people’s chatter. It took five minutes for Eryi to reach his townhouse, but there was a truck in the driveway. His mother could not drive, and Eryi didn’t recognize this truck. A worried feeling rose within his gut, but he put up the courage to put in the door password. The door lock clicked open, but when he turned the doorknob it didn’t budge. He tried to turn it again and again, but he was sure of it, whoever was inside had locked the door knob. Eryi knocked on the door, each time louder than the next. And then he heard footsteps and the door creaked open. His mother only showed her face and hid her body behind the door.

“Hey, sweet Eryi! Don’t you remember me telling you I had a friend coming over?”

Eryi shook his head and his mother said, “Go play at the park.”

“But, it’s going to be a blizzard,” Eryi argued.

“Go to the park, Eryi. You need to play outside more often anyway.”

“But.” Eryi was cut off, as the door in front of him closed shut and locked again.

Defeated, Eryi waited on his steps for a while. He waited for fifteen minutes and found it was only getting colder. Annoyed, he took off his backpack by the door and walked to the park. The park was a long way away, around five minutes. If his mom had really told him about her supposed friend, then he could have continued following behind Alba and Andri.