Today is the Thursday before Spring Break and I, Annie, am sitting with four of the best friends anyone could ever have. Brice, Jenny, Spencer, Valerie, and I munch on our food while we sit at the same lunch table as every other day. We’re throwing out lots of ideas, but we still can’t decide what to do tomorrow. It’s the last day we’ll have to sit in a hot, stuffy classroom before Spring Break.
“Why don’t we go to the mall?” Jenny suggested.

“Too girly,” Spencer said, “and besides, I heard a lot of people from our school are going there after school tomorrow and my guess is that it will be too busy.”

“Okay then, let’s go to the skate park.” Brice chimed in. Even though Brice is a good skateboarder, the rest of us don’t really know how. Brice pretty much acts like his skateboard is some object as precious as a pile of gold.

“If the mall is too ‘girly’, then the skate park is too ‘boyish’,” I said, “Let’s just go to uh…Knott’s Soak City! Everybody likes that water park, including me.”

“Yeah!” My friends all said in unison. So it was decided; we would all meet each other at the entrance of Knott’s Soak City tomorrow after school. I couldn’t wait.

I woke up this morning in a ball, wrapped up in my thin blanket, shivering. I thought, this is odd, considering the night before I was in a tank top and on top of all my blankets. I went to my curtains and opened them wide. I looked outside, still half asleep. It took me a couple of seconds to realize that the ground was white, and snowflakes were falling lightly all over my back yard. I immediately ran into my parents’ room and woke them up. I wanted them to see the snow and to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. Sure enough, it wasn’t a dream. My dad told me to go turn on the T.V. to see if we still had school.

“In the middle of March, in Palm Desert, California, all schools in the Desert Sands Unified School District are canceled for today because of the snowy weather.” The news anchor announced.

I couldn’t believe my ears. Yesterday I was sweating, and today I am shivering! I ran to my phone and called Jenny right away. “Jenny? Can you believe this? No school! So much for the water park.” I exclaimed.

“I know!” She laughed, “I already called Brice and Valerie. Now I will call Spencer. We shouldn’t just sit at home, let’s go play!!” I hung up the phone and went to go put on my snow gear.

Ten minutes later, the doorbell rang. It was my four friends, all bundled up in their snow outfits. We all waddled into my garage to see what we could find to use as sleds. Brice found some boogie boards that my family uses when we go to the beach. The boards would have to do.

“Does anybody dare to race the ‘Spenster’?” We all laughed. I would have raced him, but I was too busy thinking this snow day in Palm Desert had to be a dream.

“I will!” Brice said as he ran out of the garage and onto the hill, “Get ready to lose!” The girls smiled and we ran to watch the race. When I stepped onto the snow, it felt soft, like a pillow. It brought back all of the memories I had when my family went to the snow and I’d play with my brothers and sisters. I love having that feeling again.

“Hello? Annie? Snap out of it!” I came back to and Valerie was standing in front of me snapping her gloved hands.

“Oh, sorry, I was just day dreaming.” I mumbled. I looked down the hill to see Spencer jumping up and down. Well I guess I know who won, I thought.

After the girls beat the boys in a snowball fight, the gang went into my house and had some hot chocolate. “You guys only won because you had one more player than us.” Brice complained.

“Sure, just keep telling yourself that.” Jenny teased. I looked out of the window to my backyard and it was like a light bulb practically lit up on my head.

“Hey guys, why don’t we play on the pond in my back yard? It looks frozen.” I smiled, happy that I thought of such a good idea.

“We don’t have ice skates or anything, but it would still be fun just to run around on.” Spencer replied. We put our empty mugs next to the sink and went out the back door. Valerie put her toe on the ice to see if it was frozen. It reminded me of times when someone would dip their toe into the pool to see if it was an okay temperature.

“It’s frozen. Come on!” Valerie yelled slip, sliding away.

By the time we had finished playing on the slippery ice, all of us were dead tired. I said good-bye to my friends, turned on the T.V., and slumped into my dad’s nice, big, comfy, chair.

As got ready for bed, I recapped what had happened today. It was one of the most fun days of snow I had ever had. Sure, I had gone to the snow, but to have the last day of school before Spring Break canceled, to have it snow in the middle of March, to have spent it with my best friends, no other snow day could compare. I went to bed dreaming what tomorrow would be like.

This morning I woke up sweating again. I thought, this couldn’t be a good sign. I opened my blinds to see that all the snow had melted and the sky was as blue as my eyes. I am sad to see the regular ground again instead of the white and fluffy beauty of snow, but I am also happy. I, Annie, am lucky to even have had this mysterious snow day in Palm Desert.