Chapter Two

 The next morning I woke up when my alarm went off at 7:30 like it did every morning, though I noticed that Snow was curled up against me with her arms around my waist. I blushed softly and gently shook her shoulder. It pained me to wake her up when she looked so peaceful but I had to.

      "Snow, it's time to get up for school. Come on," I whispered softly in her ear. She groaned and let go of me as she got up, slowly trudging to the bathroom. I smiled and shook my head at her. Slowly getting up, I stretched my arms up as I walked over to my closet and tried to figure out what I wanted to wear that day. It's a B day. Maybe a skirt? Ugh. No. Not after dance. Or, yes. I will. I pulled out my white skirt that made a sort of bubble and then ended near my knees and a purple shirt that looked really nice. While Snow was in the bathroom, I got dressed and then started brushing through my hair. Humming, I got my straightener and made sure it was straight. As I was doing that, Snow came out and started getting dressed.

      By the time I had finished straightening my hair, she was dressed in a black shirt with red skinny jeans and her black and white Converse. I handed her the straightener and then went to the bathroom, put on my makeup, and brushed my teeth before I walked back and slipped on my black flats I wore with any dressy type outfit. Snow was done doing her hair and was dressed so we grabbed our bags and went downstairs.

     "What kind of cereal do you want?" I asked as I got down my favorite cereal, Special K with chocolate and strawberries.

      "Do you have any Frankenberry?" she said. I put down the Special K, my eyes wide as I turned around slowly to look at her. She arched an eyebrow at me as I just stared at her. Obviously, she didn't understand why I was so shocked by her question. Frankenberry is one of my most favorite cereals that normally you can only get around Halloween. She didn't know I have a secret stash of it in the back of the pantry. I have about, I don't know, five boxes.

      "How did you know I have a secret stash of that since you can only get it around Halloween?"

      "I didn't. I just wanted to know if you had any. Some people, obviously you, keep it in the house all the time.

      "Because it's some of the best cereal ever!" I said as I went to the pantry and got out the box. It was still almost full because I only ate it when I was super sad and I was alone. I poured her a bowl of it before putting it back in the pantry and listening to her pour her milk. We quietly sat down together and ate our cereal. After a few minutes, we were both done so I put our bowls in the sink and we walked to our bus stop, holding hands and walking just a few inches away from each other. I noticed a few of the kids giving us weird looks and saw Snow start to pull away, though I just held onto her a little tighter and whispered softly in her ear. "Ignore them. They don't matter. If we want to hold hands and walk close, then let's do it."

      She smiled at me and moved a little closer, causing me to smile. After a few minutes of standing at the bus stop, we got on the bus with me by the window while I rested my head on her shoulder. Gently, she reached up and played with my hair, causing my eyes to close. I felt really happy and comfortable around her. I wondered if she realized how comfortable and happy she made me, just being there.

      After a few minutes of silence between us, we got to school and she got off before me, offering her hand to help me down. I smiled and took it before we intertwined our fingers and started walking to our fifth period class. When we got there, we sat down together with our hands still together.

      "Who's that, your girlfriend?" One kid called out as we sat down. I turned and stared them in the eyes, unflinching and knowing I wouldn't regret my answer.

      "Yes, why? Jealous I have one and you don't?" I said, turning to look at Snow, scared of her reaction. To my surprise, she was smiling at me. Without any hesitation, she leaned over and kissed my cheek. I blushed and looked down at the floor while hiding behind my hair, apparently a typical girlfriend reaction. She smiled at me and hugged me close as we got out our stuff for class. "We don't really do much in here.... It's nice."

      "Then it won't matter if we talk all during class. Which is what we would do anyway."

      A smile formed across my face as I looked at her. She knew me better than I knew myself. She knew I loved talking with her. In eighth grade I stayed after school and kept her there for about two hours or so just talking with her. It made me so happy. Nodding a little, I got out a spare journal and started writing notes in it. All during class we passed notes. We talked about random things, honestly. When the bell ran, we got up and started towards dance class. They were cool with me sitting with Snow for the first few days.

      "Is it scary? Or hard? What's it like?" she asked as she looked at me. I smiled and shook my head, taking her hand gently in mine. Her skin was so incredibly soft.

      "It's kind of scary at first and hard if you don't pay attention. But other than that I suppose it's fairly easy. Just don't worry about it. I'm gonna be right there helping you through the dance. OK? Just don't worry. I won't let you fall or fail. Promise," I said as we walked to the locker room. I put my dance clothes into my locker then led her to the office. Quietly, I knocked on the door.

      "Come in!!!"

      Hesitantly, I led her in and smiled at my crazy dance teacher. She was funny and silly and yelled a lot of jokes in the middle of class, though she took dance really seriously. It was kind of hilarious. My teacher smiled at us.

      "This is my best friend, Snow. She's new at school and she has to stay with me or she'll have a panic attack."

      "Well, I suppose we can work something out. Welcome to dance class. It's nice to finally meet you. I'll see you in a few minutes."

      I smiled at the teacher before I gently started to pull Snow out of the locker room towards the dance gym. When we got in there, people swarmed up. She immediately yelped and started to curl up though I held her hand tightly in mine to let her know she'd be OK because I wouldn't let anything happen to her. She squeezed my hand tightly and closed her eyes. Slowly, I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and she snuggled against my side.

      "Guys, come on. Leave her alone. She's terrified," I said. They nodded a little and backed off, going back to whatever they were doing before we walked in. She smiled at me and rested her head on my shoulder gently. I kissed the top of her head. "I promised that I wouldn't let anything happen to you, didn't I?"

      "Yes, but I didn't think you'd do something like that... You just pushed away all your friends for me. Why would you do something like that?"

      "Becuase you are so much more important to me than you realize. Honestly, I don't think you realize how happy you make me. You make me feel like I'm a completely normal person. Like I'm not insane. Like it's OK to feel sad. You make me feel happy when I'm sad, loved when I'm lonely. It's nice. I love how you make me feel. You don't realize how much you mean to me, how much I care about you. You just don't realize."

      There was a silence as she processed what I said. I pressed my lips together, just waiting to see what she would say to what I'd said. I didn't realize that I had just blurted out what I was thinking about her. Suddenly, she moved her hands to my waist, pulling me close. I blushed a little and wrapped my arms around her shoulders as I buried my face in her neck. 

      "You don't realize that I feel exactly the same. You don't realize how much I love you and how much I care and how I'd drop everything in the middle of the night just to help you if you needed me. You don't get how much I love you. You just don't understand that my love for you is so much bigger than the both of us. You honestly cannot comprehend how much I love you and care for you and how happy I want you to be. Even if I had to leave you for you to be happy, I'd do it, just as long as I knew you were happy."

      "You obviously don't know me. I'd never be happy without you in my life. I have to have my Snow Bear. I can't not have Snow Bear. It'd kill me," I said, slightly muffled by her neck. She tightened her grip on my waist and then we broke apart and went to go sit down.

      The class passed by with us hugging and talking while I explained what dance we were doing. After class, we went to lunch, sitting at a table in the back corner of the lunch room. We talked quietly as we ate our taco salad. I got chips, rice, beef, lettuce, and cheese. Snow got the same thing except she got chicken instead of beef. When the bell rang, we threw away and trash and started walking to choir.

      "You'll have to much fun in choir. The teacher is so nice and it's just great. Honestly, choir is so much freaking fun," I said, smiling as I held her hand. She nodded a little, seeming slightly nervous though I bumped her hip. "Don't worry about it." 

      Choir and then geometry passed by without any real incident. Snow had some problems in geometry since she was actually only in algebra, but I helped her out and taught her everything she needed help with. It was rather easy and I had fun. When the bell rang, we walked down to the bus, running into a few of my friends though I just kind of ignored them as I walked onto the bus. Snow sat down and I sat beside her, pulling my knees up and leaning against her as she wrapepd her arms around me. I closed my eyes and smiled as she kissed the top of my head. 

      "Do you want to go walking or biking when we get home? We can do one of those then we can get a little snack. Does that sound nice to you? I think it does. Then we can sit down and start on our homework. I think that sounds really nice," I said as I opened my eyes, looking up at her.

      "Yeah, that sounds nice. We can go for a short walk then go home and eat some bananas with chocolate and peanut butter. Then do homework. Ugh. Homework is so gross."

      Nodding, I closed my eyes again and relaxed against her. She pulled me onto her lap and rocked me back and forth, kissing my head as she did. I smiled and we got off the bus at our stop, walking to my house and putting our stuff away. Humming quietly, I put our stuff in my room and then we walked out of the house, leaving a note. Going for a walk. Be back in a while for bananas, chocolate, peanut butter, and homework. Love, Snow and Rayne. After we did that, we walked out, holding hands as we walked down the street. We talked quietly amongst ourselves, occasionally pausing to look at flowers.

      After a little while, we got back to my house and got out the bananas and chocolate and peanut butter as we sat down at the table and started on our homework. Working through each biology question together, we ate our bananas dipped in chocolate and peanut butter. Then once we finished biology we moved onto art, then French, then English. Sighing softly, I put our homework away and we walked upstairs to my room. Collapsing onto my bed, I snuggled against Snow's side and closed my eyes as she played with my hair, humming softly to me. It relaxed me and I didn't feel as stressed as she did it. Smiling, I opened my eyes to look at her. She was smiling at me with gentle eyes, causing me to smile even more. I hugged her tightly as she kept humming and playing with my hair, eventually getting me to fall asleep in her arms. I was glad to say that I did not have a single nightmare that night.