Chapter 1
7 Years Old
Flashback
Silence. My eyes flew open. It was only ever this quiet when it snowed. That could only mean one thing. Snow day! I jumped out of bed and ran to the window. Small flakes of snow swirled in the wind. A smile spread across my face. It was more than I had even wished for. There was no way there was school today, but I still had to check.
I ran out into the hall. My socks slid along the wooden floor when I stopped in front of my parents’ door. I was about to knock when I heard laughter outside. And not just any laughter. I’d recognize Miles’ laughter anywhere. It was my favorite noise in the whole wide world.
I didn’t want to miss one second of the snow or of playing in it with Miles. Maybe today he wouldn’t ignore me. I ran past my parents’ bedroom to the hall closet and pulled on my snow pants over my pajama bottoms. Miles had been pretending I was invisible for weeks. He wouldn’t even acknowledge me when I spoke. But today would be the day I convinced Miles I wasn’t invisible. I could feel it in my bones.
I heard my parents start to stir in their bedroom. If they came out to the hall before I was outside, they’d make me wash up and eat breakfast. But I didn’t have time to do such frivolous things. I was losing precious time. I shoved my feet into my snow boots, grabbed my jacket and hat, and pulled them on as I ran to the back door. Thinking better of it, I went back to the closet and grabbed my pink mittens that matched my hat. They weren’t waterproof, but they looked really cute. And if I was going to get Miles to see me, I needed to look my best. I adjusted my pink hat with the big poof on the top and opened up the back door.
I slipped outside before my parents could stop me and ran through the freshly fallen snow. “Hi, Miles!” I yelled from my side of the fence.
He didn’t respond. He just continued to build his snowman.
I pushed on the fence door but it was too hard to open with all the snow on the other side. “Miles, the gate is stuck!”
He ignored me.
A fence was not going to keep me away from the man of my dreams. I grabbed the top of the fence and tried to pull myself up. I lifted my leg up once, twice, until I finally got my boot on top of the fence. All the extra padding made it even harder. “Miles!”
He ignored me.
That was fine. I didn’t need his help. Come on. I finally hoisted myself to the top of the fence and unceremoniously fell into his yard on my butt.
Ooof. I slowly stood up and ran over to Miles. “Can I help build the snowman too?”
He didn’t respond.
“Please?”
Nothing.
Why did he keep doing this? It wasn’t very nice. “Miles, I’m not invisible!”
He ignored me.
“I’m not! I’m standing right here.” I ran around the snowman so he couldn't possibly miss me. “Don’t you see me?”
Nothing.
Maybe he was just tired of building the snowman. That was okay, I had loads of ideas for what we could do today. “Do you want to go sledding down the street instead?”
Nothing.
He was being especially mean today. “Do you want to have a snowball fight?”
Nothing.
I pressed my lips together. “Miles Young, you are not a very nice boy.”
Nothing.
I wasn’t going to let him ruin my snow day. He was such a meany face. I stomped my foot, hoping to get his attention. When he didn’t look up, I started walking back toward my yard, hoping the whole time that he’d ask me to stay.
“Summer?” My dad’s voice echoed into the silent snowfall.
“Over here,” I said. “I’m stuck.” I didn’t want to climb back over the fence.
My dad came running over to the fence. He wasn’t wearing a jacket. And he was wearing slippers in the snow. “Summer, you scared us. You can’t go running off like that.”
“I just wanted to play with Miles,” I whispered. I felt like I was going to cry, but my eyes were too cold. I sniffed instead.
“I see. You know what?” He leaned over the fence and lifted me back over it. “Sometimes the best way to get a boy’s attention is to give him a taste of his own medicine.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean if he’s ignoring you, you should ignore him too.” He carried me back into the house even though I was too big to be carried. I snuggled into his side. My daddy was my best friend, so it didn’t matter that I was too big.
***
I ignored Miles all day. Right in front of him. I played on his swing set without annoying him. I danced under the snow, catching flakes on my tongue by myself. I even built a bigger, better snowman. The sun was starting to set and the sky was doing that orange thing it did whenever it snowed. But even though I’d be able to see in the dark, my parents wouldn’t let me stay out much longer. Ignoring Miles hadn’t worked. And I was running out of time.
I ran over to him. “Do you want to play now?”
Nothing.
“Miles please, who else are you going to play with? We’re the only kids on the street.”
Nothing.
“You’re the meanest boy on the planet. There isn’t anything you could do that would be meaner than ignoring me. I’m not invisible!”
Miles lifted up some snow in his gloves and patted it into a snowball.
Him throwing that at me would be meaner. I swallowed hard.
He finally looked up at me. Our eyes met. And I would have smiled if it wasn’t obvious that he was about to throw the snowball in my face.
“Don’t you dare, Miles Young!” I gave him the most serious scowl I could muster when I was trying not to smile. I had been hoping he’d play with me all afternoon. How could I be upset when he was finally looking at me?
He tossed the snowball straight up in the air and caught it.
“Really, Miles. Don’t do it.” Please do.
“Don’t do what?”
I pointed at his hand. “Throw that snowball at me.”
He immediately threw it right at me.
I screamed at the top of my lungs and tried to dodge it. But it made direct contact with my leg. Ow. I stifled a laugh. “I said not to!”
“No. You actually said, ‘throw that snowball at me.’ ”
“I did not!”
He stuck his tongue out at me.
I stuck my tongue right back out at him.
He laughed.
And I laughed.
I wasn’t sure how long we stood like that. But all I wanted to do was tell him how much I loved him. And how much it hurt when he pretended I was invisible. My babysitter, Julie, had told me that when boys were mean to you it meant that they liked you. But I told her that it wasn’t true, that Miles was mean because he hated me. I hated that he hated me because I loved him with every piece of my heart.
This was the first moment where I thought Julie might actually be right. Miles wasn’t looking at me like he hated me. He was smiling out of the corner of his mouth. He was acknowledging my existence. It felt like my insides flipped over.
I had one chance to make him keep smiling. “Do you want to make snow angels with me?” I asked.
“No.”
Maybe I had two chances. “Do you want to go sledding?”
“No.”