The Freeze

It was a cold fall morning. Colder than any other morning I have had in a long time. It reminds me of home. I look up at the sky. It’s dark and pregnant with rain. I walk silently down the road. The leaves are changing, and the sidewalk looks damp. Farther down the road is my favorite coffee shop, well it’s a café, but I only get their coffee. When I don’t have time to make it at my house, I make time to stop there before my morning class.

I approach it. An open sign hangs crooked in the window. And the red trim around the windows looks like its chipping. I walk in and am greeted by the warm air and the sharp smell of coffee. I used to not like coffee that much, however my best friend, Torie, basically lives on it. When she gets it I usually steal a sip or two, and I guess I’ve developed a taste for it.

“Hello there Mary.” I say to the gray-haired café owner. We know each other well since I come here at least once a week.

“The usual Karter?” Mary says turning the volume up on the radio that sits on the table in front of her.

“Yup.” I reply. Karter isn’t my real name. My name is Kathrine, but it’s just too old and feminine for my liking. So, when I moved to Southern Utah to attend school, I told everyone to call me Karter. I’ve been down here for a few months now.

I hand Mary some money and she passes me my drink. I walk towards a table and sit. The clock on the wall reads 7:30 classes start at 8:00. I breath the wonderful smell of my coffee. It’s warmth on my cold hands feels so nice. Last year I was a Junior in high school up in Idaho. Now I’m a Senior, living with my grandma in St. George. It took a lot to convince my parents to let me come down here for school. Luckily my grandma helped me convince them. This school has so much more to offer me. I miss my old school, but the music program here is everything. My dream is to attend school at Julliard, and play for either Hollywood, or some amazing band in Salt Lake City. I know Hollywood is very farfetched, but so is Julliard. I want to stay positive about it.

My thoughts are interrupted by a pair of greenish-blue eyes peering at me questioningly.

“How long have you been there?” I ask.

“Not too long. Just long enough.” She says sipping her large coffee with a smirk, “You ready?”

“Yeah.” I stand and pick up my bag. We walk towards the door. Torie opens the door and walks out. Before I walk out I overhear something on the Radio.

Record lows have been recorded in northern areas. Meteorologists are confused but looking into it. We’ll have more information as it comes.

I should call my parents.

I climb into Torie’s car and we drive off to school. I don’t talk much on the way, but Torie’s talking a lot about this guy she’s dating. I’m not really listening. My parents live in Northern Idaho, if temperatures are already dropping this low in October. It’s going to be a cold winter. I just want to make sure they are okay, and that they are going to be okay if it gets any colder.

We park and get out. “I’ll see ya at lunch?” Torie askes.

“Sure thing.” I wave as I walk to my first class. Government class is first then Physics then Band and Gym. The bell rings. I sit, and the teacher comes in and starts the lecture. Today were talking about congress.

“Okay class everyone hand in your papers. You,” he says pointing at the student sitting in front of me. “Collect them.” He finishes, my classmate stands and starts collecting our essays. I reach into bag to grab my folder and pull it out. I open it and pull my essay out. I stayed up way late last night to make sure it was perfect. He grabs it from my hand, and I pull out a note book to scribble up some notes.

The next few classes go like that. Hand in assignments, lectures/notes, and the next assignment. Before I know it, it’s lunch. I close my locker with my lunch in hands to go sit by Torie.

“Hey! Did you hear about the one thing?” Torie askes.

“You’re gonna have to be a little clearer.” I state laughing.

“These weird buildings are going all over the world.” She pulls her phone out and shows me a picture of construction, and weird building. They are raised on posts high off the ground. They almost look tree houses. High beams, and ladders reaching doors with low ceilings.

“What are they going to do with them?” I ask.

“I’m not sure. It seems like all the ones that have been completed are just empty. Just sitting there doing nothing.” She says.

“That’s weird,” I say.

“Yeah! I don’t know what to think. I know that the U.S. Government is involved, but it’s weird that they are popping up all over the world.” She says.

“Just another thing the government is keeping from us.” I say. She rolls her eyes.

“Yeah I guess.” She says, and continues to look at articles, and conspiracy theories as she munches on a french fry. “Anyways,” She tosses the information to the side. “So, I’m going over to Jake’s tonight. What should I wear?”

“I don’t know what you see in him.” I shake my head.

“What? He’s cute, funny, and he actually likes me.” She said.

“It’s not hard to find a guy who likes you, Torie.” I say with a jealous note in my voice. I wish it wasn’t there. However, it’s true. Everyone likes Torie. We really are just opposites. Torie is gorgeous. She’s tall, but not too tall. Somewhere around five foot nine inches. She’s got dirty blonde curly hair with pale skin and bright eyes. Then there’s me. Short about five foot five inches, long brown hair that never stays straight and never stays curly just some ugly mix in between the two. And my brown eyes. I have to wear glasses to see, and my nose is huge. Torie is also a lot skinnier than I am, and for some reason that’s important to look beautiful. Even though she’s my best friend I find myself very inferior to her.

“Guys like you too, Karter.” She reply’s hesitantly.

“Name one.”

“That’s not the point. Your still gorgeous. You just need to wait until the right guy comes along to sweep you off your feet.” Sometimes I wish it were like the book where the main character gets everything she wants at the end of her book.

“Maybe if my nose wasn’t so ginormous.” I reply.

“It’s not even that big! Are noses are basically the same size.” She exclaims.

“Yeah, but yours is actually cute on your face.”

“So is yours.”

“Your obligated to say that.”

“No. I, as your best friend, have an obligation to tell you if things work for you or don’t. like how I helped you with your eyebrows when you first moved down here.” She states matter-of-factly. It’s true she tamed the beast that is my eyebrows. “You know I’m right.”

“Yeah, I know. To answer you questions on what to wear, wear that one black shirt with the ripped jeans. You look dang hot in it.”

“Oh, my God. I was thinking the same thing!” we laugh and continue the rest of our lunch. The bell rings, and we head off to our next class. We share the rest of our classes together. Art, Calculus, and lastly English. We stand together and throw our bags over our shoulders. We throw our garbage away, and head to our lockers.

“Hey, what are you doing this weekend?” I ask. I fumble the fob on the locker and get it to open.

“Homework. My parents are pissed because my grade in Calculus is terrible.” She says.

“Well, maybe if you listen instead of playing on your phone.” I tease. “I can help you with it if you want? I was hoping we could have a sleep over.”

“Dude, hell yes. Please.” She pleads. “I desperately need it.” Our sleep overs are always fun. We go into town buy a whole bunch of junk food and face masks and watch stupid romance movies online. We also talk till the morning about anything and everything. It’s really a good time.

“It’s a plan.” I say as we close the lockers and walk to Calculus. We walk through the doors and see that we have no teacher today. It’s a substitute, and that basically means good luck because they don’t know calculus and they can’t help you with the terribly large assignment that the teacher wrote on the board. “Maybe she’ll explain it tomorrow because we’re screwed.”

“We can pray.” She raises her hands in a fake prayer. I laugh, and we don’t do anything except talk about the Jake, and the sleep over this weekend.

When the bell finally rings we pack up and head to art. We love this class, and the project we’re working on is loads of fun. I go grab the paint, and Torie grabs our canvases, and we start painting.

“Hey, you should add a little bit of this lavender color to your sky for some clouds.” She points.

“Good idea.” I’m not the best at art, but I needed another credit, and wanted a class together so I took this one. Torie is a great artist, and she’s really helped me out this trimester. It’s been a lot of fun. I’m painting a snow mountain scene, and Torie is painting a beautiful coy pond. This is one of our first big assignments for the class. We’ve been working on them for about a week and a half. We’re both almost done, but it’s not due until Friday. Today is Wednesday. We’ll for sure have it done by tomorrow.

Today has just been an ordinary day. I like days like this. No stress, easy, relaxed. The rest of my classes went on just as usual, and Torie is driving me home.

“Now you be sure to text me all the juicy details after your date with Jake. Promise?” I say as we pull out of the school driveway.

“You’re my best friend. I’m going to call you the second I get home.” She smiles. “Wait! Will you please do my makeup for tonight? You could come over and use my make up and make me look all cute and stuff.”

“Yeah, sure. You know how much I like that kind of thing.” I reply. Torie may be the better artist, but I’m a better makeup artist. We pull into her driveway and hop out. We head in dump our bags off in her room. She changes, and we laugh as I do her makeup.