Chapter one- First Snowfall

I woke up to my alarm clock ringing right from the table next to my bed. Filled with excitement unlike before, I threw my duvet hurriedly jumping out of the bed.

It's kinda funny right?…you set an alarm before you go to bed and you will never have thought whether you will be still warm or turn cold when the dawn rises. My blood hadn’t turned cold which meant my hopes and dreams were becoming a reality. I was never excited about going to school but it was different as my dream of going to my dream high school was knocking on the door, sending a rhythmic wave of ignition through my heart.

When I was in middle school, whenever I saw my dream high school boys and girls walking together talking and laughing, I wished to be like them and my heart swooped around them like a hopeful butterfly and finally, my dreams were coming true.

"Now I am a high school girl," I told myself with a smile, stretching my arms and pulling the purple window curtain to surprise myself.

"Wow!"

When I realized, my lips were left with an O shape while my eyes were blinking with utter awe.

Crystal white snow covered everything making the place look like a paradise and the snowflakes danced in the air like showering the world with enchantment.

"This is so beautiful!"

It escaped my mouth like a chant.

"Sweetheart, are you awake?"

I heard my mother's voice from behind the door.

"Yes mommy," I said with enthusiasm and huddled to open the door.

My mother stood smiling wide. She was a thin short woman in her early forties but she looked younger than her age. Her round face glowed like she was just in her twenties and her blonde haircut gave her a younger look. The sad thing was that nothing about me had taken after her. I was much taller than her which was a plus point but I have taken nothing after her that I love about her- her amazing eyes, lips, and her smile.

My mother was a successful jewelry designer and my father was a famous architect in the country. Both of them had their renowned business firm making them a rich successful couple in the country but they lived a simple and humble life.

"Mommy, it's snowing!"

I was so excited to see snowfall after such a long time.

"It's so beautiful to have it when we had almost forgotten it," Mom said smiling, walking inside the room.

"Sweetheart, I was expecting your school to have off today but they aren't," she said with a frown.

"Anyway, hurry up and get ready. It's your first day of high school and it would be fun to have to go to school on a snowy day," getting my face in her hands, Mom said cheerfully like a kid.

"I am happy that the school isn't calling off. I was waiting for this day and finally, my dream is becoming a reality. I will take a shower and come down for breakfast."

The smile that was glued on my face was the reflection of my glowing heart as my first day of high school in the first snowfall felt just awesome.

She kissed my forehead before she said, "I am happy for you. I am so proud that you could make it to the A+ high school in the country."

"It is all because of you and Dad that I could make it to my dream school," I said, grabbing her hands tight.

Being an only child, my parents gave me so much attention and treated me like a real princess.

I suppose every daughter is a princess to their parents but my parents had fulfilled all my wishes and desires, not ever making me feel the absence of anything in life.

As soon as mom left the room, I walked back to my window with a huge smile stretched on my face. My window was so huge that about five people could easily enter at one time and it was the favorite part of my room because I loved watching through the window, feeling the fresh air.

It was mid-February and it was the first shower of snow flickering in the air, indicating that winter had not ended. I could feel the cold morning breeze hissing through the slightly opened window.

People in Bumthang had almost forgotten the pleasure of playing with snow and its beauty as it had been more than five years since the last snowfall in Bumthang. I suppose snow had come to welcome me into my dream world.

I looked through the window to see people playing with snow in the streets and their lawns. They were wearing thick woolen clothes to protect themselves from the cold but I wanted to feel the coldness of the weather on the beautiful snowy morning. I opened the window and stretched my hand outside to catch the snow flickering in the air but it was out of my reach. I sprawled my upper body out of the window and stretched my hand to grab the snow when a snowball hit my windowpane hard, startling me.

"If you are so much interested in catching it, why don't you go down where you can bathe yourself in snow."

I instantly turned my head left to the window at the other side of the room to catch the glimpse of my nerd neighbor, ruining my mood. Noah Adams stood smiling crookedly on the balcony of his house with a cup in his left hand and a snowball in his right. Lately, I had noticed him spending most of his time on his balcony, which I could directly see from my window at the left of my room but I hadn't noticed him there at the moment.

I could not deny that he was a handsome hunk with a reserved attitude but there was no way that I would ever look at him. I always wondered why girls would go crazy for his looks and reserved attitude when he didn't talk a word with them and when he talked, it just killed them. But girls would still love him so much and it irritated me like hell.

"Why don't you go outside if you want to play with snow?" He said, still smiling.

I suppose I was the only girl he talked to. I mean the only girl he enjoyed teasing and humiliating but it wasn't that I always tolerated his humiliation in silence. Most of the time, I took my stand with my heart thudding with fear and the girls in school always asked me if I were not afraid to talk blatantly with him and I would lie that I was not when the truth was I used to shiver till death but I wouldn't show it.

Sometimes things aren't the way you see them but you need to pretend.

Noah and I were classmates from pre-primary till middle school and the worst part was being his desk partner for a whole year in grade ten. For other girls, he was a boy they dreamt of dating but for me, he was a weirdo who always picked on me and I knew the reason. I had been taking his academic position as a first topper from the fourth grade and he had been holding the second position every year. Actually, we weren't on good terms even before I wasn't taking his position. Perhaps, I didn't know the reason why he picked on me all the time.

"Why don't you mind your own business?" I shouted back with rage.

Though we had been neighbors and classmates for all those years, we never shared a normal conversation.

"I was just saying…."

"Fuck off!" I roared with resentment before he could complete his sentence.

He slowly lowered his head like he was ashamed of being caught looking at a girl like a pervert but it alarmed me. He never lowered his head not even once all those years. Nevertheless, he might be planning how to tease and humiliate me but I had promised myself that I was going to be tough with him and won't ever let him make me a laughing stock in front of my new schoolmates. The adrenaline in me surged throughout my body, taking away all the fear that I had until now.

'Pervert,' I mumbled, rolling my eyes and pulling the curtain closed off the left side window.