Survival Of The Fittest

It was cold, and it was quiet.

Precisely how she liked it.

4 PM on a Wednesday afternoon, or perhaps evening was the more appropriate adjective? It seemed too early for that, but for the orange tint of a sky threatening to turn dark. It was the one disadvantage to the winter- the disappointing lack of daylight hours. Well, there were quite a few other disadvantages to the winter- mainly that her parents put her excursions to the forest outside of Seattle on hold, citing the weather and the aforementioned lack of daylight- but Chitose liked to keep a positive attitude about these things. She did like the cold, anyway. A bit of a nip in the air never hurt anyone.

Plus it kept the park empty, mostly. The snow probably had something to do with that too- it was only a light flurry, but the weather reports had seemed to believe it was going to get much worse, very soon. Chitose never put much stock in weather reports, not when she could see the clouds and the snow with her own eyes, and it didn't look so bad to her. Besides, given her current position under a gazebo, it hardly mattered.

And if it started piling up before she left, well, one could hardly say she wasn't dressed for the occasion.

She even brought snowshoes! Just in case. Ignoring how impractically heavy they were and how virtually impossible it was that the sky would dump that much snow on her before the sky darkened completely and she had to go home...ignoring those things, it was brilliant. Chitose Sakuraba was prepared for anything. Like always.

None of that mattered right now though. Nothing matters when Chitose is reading. At least not to her.

Intrepid heroes march through an enchanted forest in a snowstorm in the dead of night...weirdly apropo! Dear snow: please snow more. Love, me. Does that make sense as a thing to say to snow?

Wait, saying things to snow doesn't make much sense.

Um, never mind, snow. Carry on snowing.

She returned to her book, wondering if her solitude was likely to last.

((Jenna Rhodes: Start))

Whilst most Aurora High students would see snowy winter days as an excuse to stay home and play video games, Jenna Rhodes saw it as the perfect opportunity to enjoy a nice and quiet day of school with the few people who bothered to show up.

Of course, the fact that Aurora High was only a twenty minute walk from where she lived also helped, but even then she liked to believe that even if she lived on the other side of Seattle she'd still make the effort to show up on time. She'd put a lot of effort in maintaining a 100% attendance rate, and she wasn't about to let a few feet of snow or a horrible cold hinder her. Even arriving late was something she tried to avoid at all costs. She remembered this one time when her alarm didn't go off when it was supposed to, so in order to make it to school on time her father decided to give her a lift in his police car. The looks on all her fellow classmates' faces was priceless.

Still, despite the snow a surprising amount of people still bothered to show up. Not that it really mattered, apparently Miss Gunderson and several other teachers was off sick that day, and with no substitute teachers to spare there didn't end up being a politics lesson in the end. So to make up for it, Jenna decided to spend the rest of her afternoon in the library doing research on past presidents of the United States, the idea being to do so until the bell went off so she could head home.

However, in the end she ended up getting so carried away that it wasn't until a janitor asked why she was still there that she realised that school had ended hours ago. So, feeling more than a little peckish, Jenna quickly put her orange winter coat and beanie on before heading out via the front doors.

The freezing temperature aside, it was actually a really nice day for a walk. There was always something about snow which made Jenna feel serene and at peace. Sometimes, whenever she was feeling mad about something or somebody, she just closed her eyes and thought of snowflakes slowly falling to the ground to calm herself down. The fact that it was only a thin layer also helped, seeing as it meant she could enjoy walking down the street without burying her feet with every step.

Best of all, seeing as she was walking home that evening rather than getting a quick lift like she sometimes did, it meant that she got to walk through the park as well.

It wasn't actually that long ago that she first realised that there was a shortcut to her house through the middle of Centennial Park. Before then, she always found herself walking around said park, adding an extra twenty minutes or so to an already long walk. Ever since she first realised this, she couldn't even begin to imagine why she would take any different route home. On that day in particular, the park looked especially beautiful thanks to the countless snowflakes that coated the ground around her. Whilst there weren't that many people around at the moment, Jenna could tell just by looking at the footprints around her that people had obviously been there earlier. There were a few snow angels here and there, and what looked like a failed attempt at making a snowman. There were even a pair of separate footprints either side of each belonging to who Jenna assumed to be a man and his dog.

Apart from that though, the park was more-or-less empty. It wasn't until she walked past the gazebo that she actually saw anyone besides herself, specifically in this case a young Asian girl around her age with pink...

Hang on... Is that Chitose?

She stopped by the gazebo and turned to face the girl again, and to her surprise it was none other than her friend Chitose. Seeing as she was in no particular rush to go anyway, Jenna decided to take the opportunity to stop and say hi.

"Oh, hey! Didn't see you at first..." she said, smiling as she did so before quickly looking about to see if any of Chitose's friends or family were about.

"Are you, uh, alright there? Seems like an awfully cold day to sit outside and read by yourself."

(Jack McDonald continued from Real Scientists Fight with Umbrellas)

Oh my god it's cold.

Jack tromped his way through the light snow, hands tucked into his sweatshirt pocket as he muttered a bit to himself. School was out, and for once, he didn't really have anything to do. Which was actually pretty fantastic. Deciding to enjoy his freedom a bit, the teen headed over to the local park, hoping to enjoy himself in the midst of good ol' nature. He had underestimated the cold, though.

Now he was wandering aimlessly, having to stop every ten seconds to wipe the drops of snow from his glasses. It had only been ten minutes or so, and he was already getting miserable.

He tilted his head up at the sky. "At least it's kind of pretty," he said to no one in particular.

The response was more snow on his glasses.

Sighing and proceeding with another wipe, Jack trudged on, trying to find something to do. Most people were at home due to the cold (as the teen thought that he should too), so it's not like there was anyone to talk to either.

A quick, absentminded look to the right revealed a gazebo.

Or maybe...

Jack changed direction and started heading towards his new destination.

Yeah, I definitely see people in there. That's nice. Wait, what if they're total strangers? Well, they'll probably be total strangers, unless other kids from school were crazy enough to head out here. Plus, either way, it might be slightly warmer in there.

By the time he had finished his thoughts, Jack was almost at the gazebo, and the figures were much clearer. There were two of them, to be exact, and better yet, they appeared to be Aurora students too. One was Chitose Sakubara. Jack couldn't help but smile a bit. He knew her from anime club, and they had partaken in a few conversations. She was quiet, but still pretty nice. The other girl... Jack recognized her, but couldn't place a name. Probably just outside his social circle.

Jack climbed up the small steps, probably a little more enthusiastically than he realized, and walked in. The two girls were already talking just a bit, which made Jack freeze up a bit (well, more than the cold was already doing). He didn't want to be rude and shove himself into the conversation. However, upon his first step onto the wooden floor, the loud creaking hit his ears, making him impossible not to notice.

"Uh.. hey Chitose."

((Chase Rodriguez continued from One Step Forwards, Two Steps Back))

As Chase trudged towards the park, hands in coat pockets to prevent the cold, he wished that he had gone out in the snow more often. Pretty much every time it had snowed in the past, Chase had stayed at home to complete a piece of artwork, read something or try and beat the current Gym Leader in Pokemon Sapphire. Whenever Audrey asked him to come outside too, his response was usually a mumbled "It's too cold."

Chase always seemed to forget that whenever he did go out, he enjoyed himself much more than if he'd stayed inside. For one, the whole city became twice as beautiful under a blanket of snow. Everything looked different; Chase could walk the same path when it was sunny and snowing and he wouldn't recognise a thing. He'd once brought a sketchbook with him, but the snow kept falling on the page, and then Audrey managed to hit it out of his hands with a snowball. So that idea had been scrapped.

On this snow day, Audrey had indeed managed to convince Chase to go to the park with her. Wrapped up in a dark blue coat and light blue scarf, Chase walked at a casual pace, watching Audrey dash on ahead, shouting at Chase yet still looking ahead; "You'd better get ready for a snowball fight, Chase! You're not gonna win this time!"

By the time Chase reached the park, Audrey was already crouched down near the gazebo, busy packing clumps of snow into balls to throw at him. As Chase walked over to her, he noticed that there were other people in the gazebo. He supposed he should have worked that out sooner, by the footprints leading towards it, but he hadn't really been paying attention to the ground. He was still a fair distance away from them, and although he thought he recognised them, he wasn't too sure.

Chase considered going over to talk to them, but he didn't know whether they'd pre-arranged this meeting or not. Even if they hadn't, he wasn't sure whether he should interrupt their conversation or not; he didn't know how long they'd been here or what they were talking about… Better to be safe than sorry; they might not appreciate someone barging in on their conversation, especially if I don't know them...

Chase's train of thought was suddenly derailed by a snowball hitting him on the side of the head.

"C'moon Chase, stop getting so distracted!"

Brushing the snow from his face, a small grin appeared on Chase's face. Grabbing a handful of snow, he prepared to throw it at his sister. Before he could, however, another snowball flew towards him, hitting his hand and destroying his own snowball. A second came soon after, hitting Chase on the chest. Looking up, he saw Audrey a fair distance away, laughing, a small pile of snowballs at her side.

For the next few minutes, the sblings hurled clumps of snow at each other, with Chase missing most of his, and Audrey getting almost all of them. He'd also managed to slip whilst throwing, and land face first in a small snowdrift. That had lead to a short break from the procedings, and also allowed Audrey to clean off some snow that had stuck to her glasses.

As he was brushing himself down, Chase felt a vibration from his trouser pocket. Chase hurriedly took out his cheap, battered phone to answer the call.

"Hey, Chase, are you doing anything that can't be stopped right now?" Chase heard his dad's voice coming down the line. He replied with an "Uh, no, not really."

"Good. I need some help in the garage. Harry wasn't able to come in today, so we're gonna need another pair of hands. Can you try and come over as soon as possible?" Chase shrugged, said "Sure thing dad", then hung up. He ran over to Audrey, who was still cleaning her glasses.

"Hey, Audrey? I'm really sorry about this, but dad needs some help in the garage right now. I need to get back as soon as possible." Audrey looked rather crestfallen, so Chase hurriedly added "Look, I'll try and finish as soon as possible, okay? Then, I promise you, I'll get back here. And, hey, isn't that Alice over there?" Audrey turned to look in the direction Chase was pointing in. Sure enough, one of her friends from school had just entered the park.

Audrey sighed, then looked back up at her brother. "Alright, fine. You'd better come back though! I still want to beat you!"

Chase made his way to the exit, but not before one last snowball hit him in the back.

((Chase Rodriguez, continued in Shake and Stutter))