A Snowflake’s Powerful Urge

She always really liked the snow. She was 11 now, more grown up and mature, but the snow always had a sort of magic to it that Nothing else could give her.

She stared outside at a little girl and little boy making snow angels, just like she did a long time ago.

“WINNIE!”

“Sorry auntie, i was looking out the window to see the little kids playing around.”

“Well we don’t get anywhere without hardwork, so forget those childish days. Now, lets try again and figure Out your power.”

“What if i don't have a power Auntie?”

“Oh silly goose, of course you do! Everyone in the family has one of pure fire. You’ll find that fiery element inside of you.”

Winnie tried to forget the snow in its bliss like her aunt said, she really did. But she always seemed to be engrossed by it. Even as she got older, her fascination with the ice water falling from the sky seemed to grow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Please aunt, its only skating!”

Winnie was 15 now, and actually more mature. But she found her attention span was still one of a newborn baby.

“No.”

“But Estrella and Barney get to!”

“Your cousins already practiced their powers today, they get to skate outside.”

“That isn’t fair at all.”

“Well it isn’t fair that they worked hard but you get to go outside anyway.”

“...The snow is gonna disappear!”

“No its not, we live in Washington.”

Winnie made a peeved face and rolled her eyes as she walked out of the room.

She still had not figured out her powers, even though a bunch of people in her class already had. It was only her, a few friends, and a some other kids in the weird detention group that hadn’t figured out their powers. It was annoying how many looks she got from people that weren’t her friends, how they misjudged her as a slacker and weirdo. 9th grade was much harder than elementary was, when people could look at nature without using their powers to create something out with the earth before them. Powers were of course something to be used and enjoy, but when you didn't have them it wasn’t as fun.

Winnie tried to clear her head and not get mad About always being isolated in the cold empty house of her aunt’s. During that, she got a notification on her phone from her friend Diana, which explained the details of a small party happening at her house in 3 days. She brushed her brown hair out of her eyesight and looked at the screen, already feeling excited to go.

However, she doubted her aunt would let her go if her powers isn’t appear out of thin air.

But then again... she was the rebel of the family.

She tapped on the messages app and texted back her friend that she would be there.

She would sneak out at 8 when she was supposed to be asleep, since her crazy aunt was strict, and would turn off her lights and leave the window open. Its not like Estrella would tell on her anyway, she was too busy playing mariokart 8 with her nerdy friends to notice or care. She wasn’t a snitch.

Then she would climb down the red Adler tree outside where Douglas (Another friend of hers) would be waiting for her to get to the party.

She made the plan in her head, and started planning everything out to make the biggest trick of her life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Winnie yawned. “Goodnight aunt. I’m getting really tired.”

”Ok good night silly goose.”

She walked briskly up the stairs to her and Estrella’s bedroom to sneak out the window.

Estrella was seated on her bed exactly how she thought she would be. The plan was going perfectly.

”Hey Star.”

”Whats up?”

“Can you say that I’m asleep if Auntie knocks on the door and stuff? I need an excuse to get out of the house because your mother is insane.”

”Preach. Ill make a fuss, but only for you sister.”

Winnie still got a warm feeling when Estrella called her her sibling. It was nice because she often felt really alone and like no one cared for her. But Estrella did, and she always showed that with her words.

“Thanks Star. Ill see you later lil’ sis.”

Winnie waved goodbye to Estrella and she opened the window with a few tugs. She slowly opened her eyes to the view of the Adler tree and was prepared to vomit. She always hated this part of the plan.

She put her foot out of the window and stepped on one of the strongest limbs of the tree.

She tried to keep her balance, and placed her other foot on what seemed to be a branch hidden by leaves, ano she pressed down with her foot.

Turns out, she was wrong.

That was NOT a branch, it was merely leaves.

She started falling, and screeched on her way down, until she felt something warm and not hard like the snow covered lawn beneath her catch her in mid air.

She opened her eyes which had been closed previously, and saw that Douglas caught her at just the right moment. When had he become so strong?

She looked straight up at him and said “Thanks.”

“Yeah, of course!”

OK. This was getting awkward really quick.

She nearly toppled over trying to escape his grasp, and she walked ahead of him awkwardly.

“Okay! Let’s go!”

”Alright.”

They were both about to get out through the fence in the backyard, but instead saw a light flicker behind them.

It was her aunt.

“Who’s there?”

Winnie relied on instinct to take her away from this mess she created with her screech, and ran with Douglas through the hole in the fence. They did not look back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They eventually stopped running to catch their breath. Diana’s house was only a 10 minute walk from her house, and with running with Douglas it had only felt like 3.

“Ok, we are almost there. It’s just around the corner.“

“Oh thank god, i didnt know the address.”

Winnie simply laughed at this remark and they both made it to the front door of Diana’s house.

They were about to knock on the door, when a few other people That included Diana nearly hit them when they swung the door open.

“Oh hey peeps, your here!”

Diana always was a chipper and spontaneous person, but what in the world were her and the others doing going outside with their coats on For a party?”

“Hey Diana. What are you guys doing?”

“We were about to head to the old brook to have some fun over there. We were going to text you both the change in plans as soon as we got there, but here you are! So, wanna come?”

Winnie sighed and almost said no, as if saying no to the powers the others had instead of the invitation.

”Sure.”

“If Winnie’s going, i guess ill go to.”

“Alright! This is going to be so much fun guys!“

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They all walked down to the brook, which was only fifteen minutes down the neighborhood.

It was already getting close to 10, but everyone was still rowdy and excited to go, even Winnie.

She might hate the part about powers, but she loved the snow and ice that laid on the brook ahead of them.

“We’re here guys! Now Isaiah, show us a bit of your earth power!“

Isaiah (Diana’s boyfriend apparently?) nodded and narrowed his eyes as if he was focusing, then showed a bit of the rock under the stream floating up into the air. He then let it go back into the river where it belonged.

Everyone showed off their powers, whether they be a cold winter air like Tina’s, or water flowing around them like Diana. Then it was down to Douglas And Willow. The good thing was that Douglas was before her, even if his power seemed weaker than others.

Douglas closed his eyes and touched the ice floor beneath him. He started to grow little flowers and sprouts from the ground and underneath the ice around everyone. Winnie thought his power wasn’t weak, but astounding.

“Hey Douglas, can your plants save you from my fire?”

Winnie looked questionably at the dumb girl, Astrid, who said that.

Astrid then started to melt the ice around where Douglas was into a small circle that floated Into the stream.

He started to try balancing on the little ice block he was stranded on, too far from the ground the others were standing on. If he fell in, he might get hypothermia from how cold the water was.

Astrid proved herself to be even more evil by making the ice block smaller, nearly burning off Douglas’ toes.

Douglas was starting to freak out, and everyone was telling Astrid to cut it out.

Just when Diana said she‘d decided to float him upwards back to them using as little water as possible, he started to slip.

“Oh my god Douglas NO-”

“IM SO SORRY.”

“He’s gonna fall in man!” Was all the others spoke.

Until...

The tiny block of ice turned into a large slate That was fully solid. Douglas was about to fall into the stream, but one of them with ice powers saved him-

wait a minute.

None of them there had the ability to freeze things. Who-?

Winnie had her hands outstretched, the tips of her nails almost looking- blue?

Everyone looked at Winnie in shock. Did she really do that? Was the one question everyone thought at that moment, especially Winnie.

“OH MY GOSH WINNIE! YOU GOT YOUR POWER!”

Everyone yelled and told her how cool it was, how it was finally time for her to get her power, and other things. All Winnie could do was leave her face looking slack and her eyes wide.

“You saved me.”

Winnie looked up from her frost colored nails that were now painted her favorite color. Douglas had stepped off the ice now, and was back on the ground safely. He had an adoring, and almost loving- wait... loving?! Never mind. - look on his face.

“I thought i should return the favor...“ was all Winnie could speak out of her mouth, it was all that her brain could process.

That’s why she loved snow so much, the snowflakes, the colors of white and blue, the chill the breeze would give you during winter. It was all clues.

Ok so maybe Winnie could also process ”I’m so gonna show up my aunt” in her mind.

“Well, show us your powers Winnie.”

“Show it off dude! Show us, show us!”

”Yeah, i totally only did that to Douglas so you could reach your full potential.”

Everyone turned to stare at Astrid. They all looked at her unbelievably and shook their heads.

“Okay okay! Never mind.“

“Show us what you can do Winnie.”

She looked up at Douglas and smiled. Wow, she really did have a crush on him. Great. People did care for her though. It was nice to know.

She took out her now blue tipped fingers and thought, “So maybe powers don’t completely suck when you can do them too.”

She stepped uncertainly on the ice, and awaited what was to come from her newly founded powers.

After all, she always really loved the snow.