front teeth and giant smile he kind of reminded me of a cheerful beaver He handed me my toque and I stuffed it back over my head and ears Keep your head down he warned I sat up and realized the mini ice bombs weren’t hammering us anymore That was because we were hidden behind the big snowball Koko and Lucas weren’t making a snowman They were building a snow fort What I didn’t know yet was that eventually it would become a gigantic snow fort And that someday it would protect us from things much worse than iceballs We were all wet and red-faced and the classroom windows were steaming up Our teacher Mrs Zink made us go sit on the carpet on the colored squares I avoided sitting near Jackson and Mattie and found a spot next to Koko We were too old for the carpet That was for the kindies But there we were All my thoughts were being sucked down to my butt and the only thing I could think about was how much it hurt I leaned from one cheek to the other trying to relieve the pain 5 MY BEST FRIEND IS EXTINCT
Henry stop leaning on Koko said Mrs Zink Remember rule number three Keep your hands to yourself I wasn’t touching Koko with my hands I said It’s true Koko said He touched me with his shoulder That’s beside the point said Mrs Zink Koko’s not going to be able to concentrate with you shoulder-checking her I don’t mind Koko said Ever since I moved here in September Koko is the only one who has always been nice to me Thanks Koko I said My butt was getting pins and needles from all this carpet time She laughed You crack me up Henry Mrs Zink shot me her laser-beam look of fire and said Henry Do not touch Koko at all Perhaps if you can’t sit still you would rather go to the prin cipal’s office Jackson and his friends all said Oooooooooooh and started to snicker I stared out the window at the chunky snowflakes that were still falling They made me feel like I was floating happy and light When we lived in Victoria back on Vancouver Island it almost never snowed Mom said it was because the ocean created a temperate effect That’s 6 REBECCA WOOD BARRETT
why she had to cut the grass in January and why I’d never built a snowman Every year from November through March I would wake up hoping it had snowed in the night I’d roll out of bed hold my breath and creep toward my window And then I would see it Moss green apple green grass green sea green People talk about getting the blues when they’re sad I got the greens But now we live in this mountain town I wish we’d lived here my whole life My new home has a forest out the back door bike trails everywhere and only one big road through the middle of the valley And a whole lot of snow Yes or no Henry asked Mrs Zink Yes I shouted The class laughed I had no idea what she was talking about Are you sure No Mrs Zink looked out the window She smiled at me like she’d read my mind Try to hang in there Henry It will be lunchtime before you know it and then you can go outside again I don’t know if I’m going to make it Koko giggled 7 MY BEST FRIEND IS EXTINCT
