SCHOOL BLIZZARD
by Fi171
Our boarding school has two floors. It is modern with a whole wall of floor to ceiling windows in every room. There isn’t a single carpet in the whole school, and the
paint on the walls is peeling off so that you can see the bare brick behind it. The ceiling is made of a sort cork material and is so damp it looks like it will give way at
any minute. All the tables look like they were made for infants and stuffed inside a high school; the underneath of them seems to be made of chewing gum and the
chairs are wooden and give you splinters in your bum. On the way down the stairs there is a huge window that the students have painted, all the younger children
went in pairs and painted an animal each (each pair did the same animal,) and the teachers got the older students to do a huge ark at the top because, “the younger
students are too young to go up tall ladders!” All the bedrooms are quite small with four beds crammed into them. The dining hall is massive, but I suppose it has to
be to get in one hundred students at breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Now less about my school and more about me! My name is Leonora. I am fourteen years old and have long curly brown hair. I have green eyes and am quite proud to
say I am spot-free. I have very dainty lips and pierced ears, I have loads of freckles which I hate and I personally think I am quite slim. I love to wear pretty dresses,
but I can only wear them at weekends because I have to wear stupid school uniform. When we are thirteen we are allowed to get a part-time job, but we can’t be
late back because we’ve got a curfew of nine, which I think is so unfair! Anyway, last year I got a job in Woolworth’s from four until eight on Mondays and Fridays
and ten until three on Saturdays, I love working there because I get 25% off all items! That’s really good because I love shopping for anything and everything,
though my favourite thing to do is to listen to classical music and just relax. Sometimes people pick on me because I am top of every class, and sometimes people call
me a brain box, but I just either ignore them or take it as a complement.
Well that’s me and that’s my school, so lets get on with the story. It was a cold lunchtime in the middle of December (every lunch we have to go outside for an hour,)
it was very cold, I was walking with my best friend Lilly. Lilly has long blonde hair, so light it was nearly white, she has blue eyes that are so dreamy that if you look
at them for to long you fall into a day dream that almost turns into sleep, her face is just the same but it lulls you into a false sense of security. Lilly can be as ferocious
as she likes when she feels like it but she usually saves it for the boys, note keyword USUALLY, sometimes, very rarely, but sometimes she takes it out on me!
“I feel like I’m in the Arctic Circle!” shivered Lilly. “Are they purposely trying to freeze us?”
And then it started, just a little at first then it came faster and faster…
.
“What’s that?” I asked
“I said………”
“No, I just felt something on my nose, wait there it is again.”
“I felt it as well, what do you think it is?”
“I think it’s, I think it’s snow!”
“Whoa,” we both yelled together.
Then we both started jumping and screaming.
“It’s sticking,” I shouted.
We were jumping and shouting and we didn’t notice the snow getting heavier and heavier, and we didn’t notice everyone running inside, and when we decided to go
inside, it was too late.
“All the entrances are blocked.” I whispered in horror.
“What should we do?” asked Lilly.
“We have to find shelter.” I said firmly.
But where? That was what we were both asking ourselves but neither of us dared say it out loud.
“The bus shelter!” I yelled.
“Come on if we stay here much longer we’re going to freeze,” said Lilly.
“But where is the bus shelter?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” replied Lilly.
“There,” I said pointing to a pile of snow, “it’s covered in snow but the inside should be okay.”
So we ran as fast as we could through the already three inch thick snow towards the bus shelter the huge drops of snow thrashing against our bodies slowing us
down even more, the coldness numbing our hands and legs making it even harder to run. Suddenly Lilly stumbled and fell I grabbed her by the arm and pulled her
up,
“Come on Lill, you can do it,” I said trying to urge myself on as much as Lilly.
We kept on running for what seemed like hours, but it can’t have been more than two minutes. When we did find the bus shelter, we didn’t quite know what to
do.
“What should we do?” Lilly asked me.
“The only thing we can do.”
“What’s that?”
“Sit and wait.”
We sat down and then we started talking, I knew that we should from a program on TV, S.A.S are you tough enough, arctic.
“Lilly,” I whispered, “I just remembered, I’ve got work tonight.”
“Leonora, in this weather I don’t think any of the shops will be open, let alone woollies,” replied Lilly, and we both burst into fits of laughter so violent that I thought
my sides were going to split open! After that we continued talking for a while until Lilly said:
“At least we’ve got our lunches with us.”
“Ah, but I haven’t Lilly. We were just on the way to the dinner hall to get my hot dinner,” I gasped back. We stopped talking after that but
then I noticed Lilly dropping off to sleep.
“Lilly,” I was shaking her while shouting, “Lilly wake up! If you go to sleep, you may not wake up!”
“Wha, wa,” Lilly mumbled.
“You were going to sleep. If you go to sleep you may not wake up!”
“What are we supposed to d…” Lilly was cut of by the shook of what she saw. I turned around.
“Oh my.” That was all I could say. We were stuck, the snow had been blowing so hard and so quickly that the whole of the bus shelter was covered in snow, so
thick that it was like being in an igloo with no way in or out.
“Lilly,” I whispered in horror, “What if they never find us?”
“I don’t know. I don’t even know if the snow has stopped yet!”
“Neither do I, but I have a plan. We’ll wait for another hour, then we’ll dig a tunnel up through the snow and break through the surface,” I said, quite proud of myself
for thinking it up.
“But what if it’s still snowing?” asked Lilly.
“We’ll just have to face that problem when we come to it.”
“But what if we get tired?”
“Already thought of that,” I announced. “We’ll take it in turns. I dig a bit, then you dig a bit. That way we’ll both get a rest, and we both get out.”
“But…”
“No buts Lilly. It's better than staying here and freezing to death!”
“Oh Leonora, don’t say things like that.”
“But it’s true Lilly. You’ve got to admit that to yourself, or you’ll never be free of this experience, you could die, I could die, we could die!” I was shouting not wanting
to believe it myself but I had to it. So that was that. We waited for an hour, then we started digging it was a little hard at first as the snow had a crisp layer of frozen
snow beneath the soft upper coat. I started first. I had to use Lilly’s lunch box to break the ice. I got covered in snow I was freezing cold, and then, to make things
even worse if possible, a huge lump slid down the back of my neck. It took me a while to get over the shook with Lilly giggling away behind me, but I realized what
I had to do. I dug and the snow numbed my whole hand with one touch, but still I kept on digging,
“Lilly?” I asked. “Do you have a chocolate bar in your lunch?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Split it in half, and we can have half each.” Lilly looked at me weirdly.
“For energy.” I replied.
Lilly was still looking a bit confused but she broke up the chocolate bar and gave half to me and kept half to herself.
“Save yours,” I said, “for when you have to dig.” Lilly did as I told her, but she looked a bit annoyed. So I dug for about half an hour, then I told Lilly to take over. She
was reluctant.
“Remind me why we’re doing this,” Lilly had said.
“Well you may want to freeze to death in here, but I certainly don’t!” I replied.
“If we had gone in with every one else we wouldn’t have to dig, we’d be in lovely warm rooms with hot drinks and blankets and..”
“Lilly don’t think like that.”
“Then how should I think?”
“You, you should be thinking that we’ll be in there, if we get this lump of snow out of the way.”
“Oh I’m fed up with digging,” Lilly said throwing her fist up in the air. “Ouch,” she said as her fist hit the roof of the snow.
“Lilly, watch out,” I shouted diving into her pushing her out of the way of a small avalanche. “Lilly, I do believe you just found us a way out.”
“Really? I mean, yes that was the plan.” (Lilly can be so big-headed sometimes.)
“Come on, let’s get out of here.” So we crawled out through the small hole that Lilly’s outburst had caused.
“At least it’s stopped snowing,” I said
“Yeah, but the doors are still blocked 5 feet thick!”
“Oh don’t exaggerate Lilly,” I said
“Don’t pester me. I’m weak.”
“Then lets eat your packed lunch, half each, before we move on.”
“On to where?” Lilly asked.
“Somewhere,” I replied simply, “Somewhere.” So Lilly shared out the lunch between us. I thought Lilly was giving herself more than she was giving me, but I choose
not to say anything, not in this weather. I needed her and she needed me.
“Got any smart ideas of where to go?” Lilly asked.
“Shush, I’m thinking,” I snapped.
“I forgot, never disturb a genius at work,” muttered Lilly.
“And quite right too,” I replied. “Oh come on Lilly, perhaps we can get in through the window.”
“Which one?”
“Any one!” I screamed, “Lilly, I need your support if we’re going to do this, so please stop being so sarcastic.”
“I’m sorry, I’m just under a lot of stress at the moment.”
“So am I.”
“No, you don’t understand.”
“Then make me understand, Lilly. I’m all ears.”
“I’m, I’m leaving.”
“What do you mean your leaving?”
“My mum’s moving to Holland, and I’m going with her.” There was a long silence until I finally said, “Come on. We’ve got to get out of here.”
MEANWHILE IN SCHOOL...
“Miss, there’s somebody out there.”
“Oh my. Jessica go and get the headmaster.”
“Yes Miss.”
“Who is it?” asked the headmaster.
“There’s two of them. I think it’s Lilly Weaver and Leonora Laker.”
“How will we get them inside, Martha?” asked the headmaster.
“They're coming towards the school.”
“Okay, Jessica go and put two towels on the radiator, run two hot baths, and Rebecca go and tell the cook to make two hot dinners, then make two drinking
chocolates.”
“What do you intend to do, Albert?” asked Mrs Loams, who the headmaster knows as Martha.
“Come with me to the second floor. They will be able to climb up the snow and in through the window.”
“Lilly, Leonora,” called Mrs Loams through the window, she then told us what the headmaster Albert had said.
Later on I said to Lilly,
“Are you really leaving Lilly?”
“Why would I joke about something like that?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well I was.”
“LILLY!” I screamed.