Everywhere Lily looked there was snow and more snow. As she bundled up for a buggy ride to school, Papa told her that last night’s snowstorm had brought snow more than two feet deep.
As much as Lily liked how beautiful everything looked covered in snow, she knew it would create a problem at school. The children wouldn’t be able to play Fox and Geese at recess. That was Lily’s favorite winter game.
During the first recess, the girls stayed inside to play games or piece a puzzle together rather than try to play in the deep snow. The boys, naturally, were excited about all the snow. Levi, Aaron Yoder, and Sam Stoltzfus had each brought a shovel along to school. They took turns digging a cave in the big drift of snow beside the schoolhouse.
Lily and Hannah stood at the window, watching those silly boys dig, but they soon grew bored and joined the girls.
At lunch, the only thing the boys could talk about was the snow cave. “We should get it done today,” Aaron said, “and then we can have fun sitting inside of it.”
“I get to have the first turn,” Levi said. “After all, I brought the biggest shovel to school. It’s only fair that I get to go first.”
Lily was surprised that the boys readily agreed to let Levi go first. She was glad they were getting along and not letting Levi’s endless bragging become too aggravating. Though, even to Lily, it was.
At the window, the girls watched the boys finish digging out the cave. After the boys were satisfied that the cave was finished, they stuck their shovels in the snow. They huddled together for a moment to discuss something, then Levi ran to the stairs of the schoolhouse basement and disappeared. He reappeared with a flying saucer. Lily watched as he placed it carefully in front of the cave. A door!
The boys stood back to admire their work. Then Levi yanked the flying saucer away and crawled into the cave. The second his feet disappeared from sight, Sam Stoltzfus repositioned the flying saucer at the opening. Aaron and a few other boys started shoveling snow in front of it as fast as they could.
Lily knew they were up to something! The boys hadn’t been nice to let Levi go in first—they did it so they could trap him inside of the cave.
Hannah and Lily ran to Teacher Rhoda to tell her what the boys were doing. Teacher Rhoda hurried to get her coat on, but before she could get her arm through a sleeve, a loud yell filled the air. They ran to the window and saw the boys stampeding over the cave so the roof would collapse on Levi.
Teacher Rhoda ran outside to rescue Levi. Lily watched at the window, horrified. He was completely buried in the snow. Finally, a gloved hand emerged, then an arm, and Teacher Rhoda yanked hard and Levi’s head popped up. He looked dazed, blinking like a newborn owl. Teacher Rhoda pulled him out of the snow pile and helped to brush him off. Once he was safely inside the schoolhouse, she rang the bell. Thanks to Aaron Yoder and Sam Stoltzfus, recess would be cut short today.
The students slipped quietly to their desks. Aaron and Sam had goofy grins on their faces but Teacher Rhoda did not look amused at all. The air in the schoolhouse felt dreadful to Lily, heavy and threatening, like right before a tornado touched down. Something terrible was about to happen.
Teacher Rhoda kept her eyes on her desk for a long, long moment. Then she lifted her chin. “Put your books away for school dismissal.”
Lily looked at the clock. It was much earlier than usual and Mama would be surprised to see them. But Lily was glad to get away from this heavy atmosphere.
Teacher Rhoda stood. “Everyone may go home except for Aaron Yoder, Sam Stoltzfus, and anyone else who was involved in trapping Levi inside that snow cave.”
Lily quickly got her shawl and bonnet, grabbed her lunch box off the shelf, and followed Hannah out the door. There was one good thing about this terrible ordeal: finally Hannah had seen for herself how awful Aaron Yoder truly was. Lily would no longer have to listen to Hannah go on and on about how wonderful and cute and smart Aaron was. Her dearest friend and cousin had a horrible and completely un-understandable crush on Aaron Yoder. She thought he was a hero. Lily knew he wasn’t. He was a terrible, awful boy.
The two girls trudged slowly through the snow. “I don’t think Teacher Rhoda should have made Aaron stay after school,” Hannah said.
Lily stopped in her tracks. Wait. What? “Aaron trapped Levi inside that snow cave and then helped jump on top of it to make it collapse on top of him.”
“He was only going along with what the other boys were doing.”
Lily couldn’t believe her ears. “Levi is your brother!”
“Still, I don’t think Aaron meant to be mean.”
“You must be crazy!” she exclaimed in her most understanding way. “Of course he meant to be mean! Everything he does is mean!”
Hannah dismissed Lily’s complaints with a wave of her hand. “I still think he is the nicest boy in school.”
That was the last straw. Lily slapped her on the cheek, hard. Hannah’s eyes widened and her mouth opened to an O. A red handprint appeared on Hannah’s face. Then she started to cry.
Lily was horrified. She had slapped Hannah! It was all Aaron Yoder’s fault.
Hannah started toward home, tears running down her face. When they came to the fork in the road where Hannah turned off to head to her house, she split off without a word, still crying. Lily was grateful Joseph had run ahead with Levi and had not seen what had happened with Hannah. She walked slowly the rest of the way home, feeling ashamed. Why, she was almost as bad as mean-hearted Aaron Yoder. Not quite, but almost.
She wiped away a tear before she walked into Papa’s woodworking shop. He looked up when he heard the door open, but his cheerful smile faded away when he saw Lily. “Sit down and tell me everything.”
How did Papa know something was wrong? Lily sat on the stool and told him all that had happened at school. She described how the boys had tricked Levi to trap him. “All Hannah ever talks about is Aaron Yoder and how wonderful he is.” She dropped her chin to her chest and mumbled, “So then I might have given Hannah a tiny little slap.”
Papa lifted his dark eyebrows. “Slapping Hannah didn’t really solve anything, did it?”
Tears pricked Lily’s eyes. “No. It made both of us cry.”
“Take your lunch box to the kitchen. Then we’ll go over to Hannah’s and you can apologize for losing your temper.”
Lily wished she had not slapped Hannah, but she wasn’t sorry enough to want to apologize. She took her lunch box upstairs, placed it on the kitchen counter, and took a long, slow drink of water. Then another. As slowly as she could.
Papa appeared at the top of the stairs, wondering what had happened to her. “Ready?”
They trudged through the deep snow to get to Hannah’s house. Papa knocked on the door. Aunt Mary came to the door, surprised to see Papa standing beside Lily. She invited them to come in out of the cold.
“Lily has something she wants to say to Hannah,” Papa said.
Aunt Mary asked them to take a seat in the living room. She called up the stairs to Hannah and then went back to work in the kitchen.
Hannah came downstairs and stopped abruptly when she saw Lily and Papa. Lily rose from her chair. “I’m sorry that I slapped you.”
Hannah rubbed her cheek. “That’s okay. It stopped stinging after I got home.”
They stood, awkwardly, looking at the floor. Hannah took a step closer to Lily. In a low voice, she said, “I won’t talk about Aaron anymore. I like you better than him.”
Lily was so happy to hear that! She threw her arms around Hannah.
Papa cleared his throat, then coughed, then finally clapped his hands. “I’m glad you girls got everything patched up. It’s never good to let the sun go down on anger. But now it’s time to go home. Mama needs Lily’s help with supper. You girls can play with each other tomorrow.”
On the way home, Lily’s feet felt light and happy, even though the snow was just as deep to trudge through. She and Hannah were friends again. But she did hope that Hannah’s taste in boys would improve as she got older.