Juliana Q.

GIVEN TRUST

Beep beep! Beep beep! I woke up with a start, rubbing my eyes tiredly. I scanned my room, the curtains still closed shut. I then slowly touched the light, fluffy feeling of my furry carpet against my toes as I strolled towards my curtains, hoping to find beautiful, sparkly-white snowflakes dancing across the Saturday morning sky.

 When I carefully opened my colorful polka-dotted curtains, I gasped. My front yard was like a winter wonderland. The grass that used to be a lime green was now layered with blankets of gleaming snow, and the trees that used to be all different types of colors like reds, oranges, yellows, greens, and purples were now almost completely covered by the marble white snow.

As I was marveling at the ‘winter wonderland’, a thought popped into my head like I’ve known it for years. I was so busy admiring the beautiful and dazzling snow that I had forgotten what I could do in it!

I rushed down the stairs rapidly, like a lion seeing its prey. Thump. Thump. Thump. I watched as my bare-feet met each unwelcoming, frigid step as I rushed down the stairs. Thump. Thump. Thump.

When I reached the bottom of the stairs, I headed towards my kitchen. I couldn’t wait to get outside and have a snowball fight with my sister, Catherine. I plopped down onto the glossy-coffee brown swivel chair while pouring my white milk into my purple cereal bowl.

A few moments later, I hurried to get back upstairs, my feet squeaking against all the completely-wooden stairs as I dash into my comfortable and acceptable space.

I hurriedly changed into my snow clothes and bolted down the stairs as quick as I could. I was really sprinting out and onto the porch of my house. I collapsed onto the untouched porch, gasping for air as I felt the chilly winter morning’s breeze against my cheeks. I was pretty sure it was turning my cheeks a rosy pink.

 I suddenly felt a slight tap against my shoulder as I was about to get up from the porch, already placing both of my hands on the cold, porch ground. I slowly turned my head around to the right, my ponytail brushing lightly against my left shoulder. I found Catherine standing right in front of me, smirking. I could tell she was thinking the same thing that I was.

“Haha! Missed me!” I yelled, just moments later. Catherine was never going to get me, I thought confidently to myself. I watched as Catherine’s full extended hand moved into action. She picked up a handful of snow, rolling it into a white, lumpy snowball, and in about a second, she pulled her hand back and the next thing I knew, my face and body went completely numb and all I could see was white and coldness.

As I tried to get up, I fell backwards as if gravity was pulling me back. I couldn’t move. My face and body were numb. I couldn’t move.

I was angry at Catherine. Deeply frustrated. She knew that, too. Wow, and she doesn’t even apologize, I thought, crossing my arms irritatedly. I had never gotten hurt like this. My parents have always loved me and cared about me, and they would never allow any danger to occur to me. And when I go to my grandparents house, they would stop doing everything and put all their attentions on me.

 I’m used to being cared about. I’m not used to being hurt, not even slightly. That’s certainly what I had expected this morning when I got out of the house. But now, all that I got was pain. It suddenly seemed to be a dark, stormy afternoon. It was like the clouds suddenly turned rusty grey, the sky seemed to turn an oak brown, and the ‘winter wonderland’ had just disappeared.

Without even noticing my tears were streaming down my face like a river. They left two tracks of freezing coldness on my face.

Just seconds later, there were footsteps. The next thing I knew, I was being pulled out of the cold, numbing snow, someone’s cold, bitter hands brushing lightly against my hands, pulling me up to my feet.

I gasped for the chilly, fresh morning air, making sure that I got every breath of it. I observed the yard and the person standing next to me. Her hair was as long as a waterfall and her eyes were like melted chocolate. She was wearing a stylish jet black sweater with denim blue jeans and camel brown uggs. It was Catherine, standing there right next to me, a guilty look on her face.

Then, something hit me. Even though Catherine hurt me, she didn’t do it on purpose, it was only an accident. I locked eyes with Catherine in a sudden moment to see her guilt. I knew that I shouldn’t have gotten so irritated that I wouldn’t even talk to her. I regretted why I had to be angry at one single thing that didn’t happen on purpose.

I smiled warmly, giving her a truthful, heartwarming hug, and said with no lie, “That’s fine.” And then, she smiled back. Right at that moment, I knew I have learned an important lesson in my life. Accidents can happen but you have to know when to forgive people and move on with your life. Forgiveness.