The Snow War Read online

  CONTENTS

  TITLE PAGE

  1 IAN JOHNSON

  2 SNOW

  3 MS. COLMAN

  4 RECESS

  5 HURTLING THROUGH SPACE

  6 SNOWFLAKES

  7 SNOWBALLS

  8 THE SNOW WAR

  9 THE SNOWFLAKE WAR

  10 IAN’S TOOTH

  11 IAN GETS MAD

  12 THE SPACEMAN

  13 APOLOGIES

  14 SNIP, SNIP, SNIP

  15 THE WINTER CARNIVAL

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  COPYRIGHT

  IAN JOHNSON

  Ian Johnson was sitting in a cave. He was very happy. He was drinking cocoa and eating a chocolate-chip cookie. And he was reading They Came from Beyond. It was a space story that Ian had gotten for Christmas.

  Ian had made the cave himself. He had made it by draping a blanket over the backs of two chairs. The blanket was big and heavy and dark, so there was not much light in Ian’s cave. Ian was reading by flashlight. Also, Ian was hiding.

  Ian was hiding from Chip. Chip was his fourteen-year-old brother, and he thought he knew everything. He especially thought he knew way more than Ian did. Ian was tired of being teased by Chip. He hoped the new baby would be a girl.

  Ian’s mother was going to have a baby in three months. And then, thought Ian, I will be smack in the middle. At least I will not be the baby anymore. And at least Chip will have someone else to tease. Little Duncan or little Julia. (Those were the names Ian’s parents had chosen for the baby.) But Ian was not sure he wanted a baby at all. He liked his family the way it was, even if Chip did tease him.

  Ian turned another page in They Came from Beyond. The story was about creatures from a planet in another galaxy. The galaxy of Xantar. The planet was called X, and the creatures were called X-ers. This was the only thing Ian did not like about the book. If he had written the book himself, he would have come up with much more interesting names than X and X-ers. Maybe the planet Seldak, with creatures called Seldites. Anything was better than X and X-ers.

  Still, Ian was enjoying the book very much. It was one of six science-fiction books his parents had given him for Christmas. Ever since Christmas, Ian had been reading and reading and reading. Now it was Sunday, the last day of vacation. On Monday, Ian would return to school. Ian liked school okay. And he liked his second-grade teacher, Ms. Colman, very much. But Ian was not ready to go back to school. All he wanted to do was read, and maybe play in the snow.

  “Hey, Ian!” yelled Chip from downstairs.

  “Yeah?”

  “Chris is here. He wants you to come outside.”

  “Okay!”

  Chris Lamar was one of Ian’s good friends. He was in Ms. Colman’s class too. Chris and Ian had gone sledding every day since Christmas. A lot of snow had been falling lately.

  Ian ran downstairs. He was sorry to leave his tent and his book. But he did want to play with Chris on the last day of vacation. Playing on vacation is always more fun than playing on a regular day, thought Ian.

  “Hi, Chris!” called Ian.

  “Hi!” Chris replied.

  Ian began to put on his snow pants and jacket and boots and mittens and hat. (Getting dressed during the winter took forever.)

  “Did you hear?” Chris asked while he waited.

  “Hear what?” replied Ian.

  “More snow tonight.”

  “Really? More snow? Cool. Maybe we will have a snow day tomorrow,” said Ian. “Hey!” he cried. “A loose tooth!”

  Ian put his finger on one of his front teeth. The tooth wiggled. Ian grinned. A snow day and a loose tooth. Not a bad way to end vacation.

  SNOW

  After dinner Ian listened to his new clock-radio. He listened to it all evening. Ian had tuned the radio to the local station. He wanted to hear storm coverage. (That was what Dr. G., the weatherman, called the weather report whenever a storm was on the way.) First Dr. G. said six inches were expected, then three, then just one. Ian hoped for six inches anyway. That might be enough to close school.

  Ian was still very hopeful when he went to bed that night.

  “Good night!” he called cheerfully to his family.

  “Night, squirt,” replied Chip.

  Ian paid no attention to Chip. He lay in his bed, wiggled his tooth with his tongue, and planned to spend the next day reading in his tent. (And maybe sledding with Chris.)

  As soon as his alarm went off in the morning, Ian jumped out of bed. He pulled up the window shade.

  Not a flake of snow had fallen.

  The road was clear, and two cars were whizzing by on it.

  “Rats and toads,” muttered Ian.

  Ian listened to the radio while he got dressed — just in case. But of course Dr. G. did not say a thing about any schools being closed.

  After breakfast Ian picked up his lunch and They Came from Beyond. He put his lunch in his backpack. Then he walked out the door reading his book. He read all the way to school. He read as he walked through the door to Stoneybrook Academy, and while he walked along the hall to room 2A. In his classroom he stopped reading long enough to hang his coat in his cubby. Then he sat at his desk and read.

  “Ian!” called Chris. “Come here!”

  Chris was standing in a corner in the back of the room with Omar Harris, Bobby Gianelli, and Ricky Torres. They were looking at something Bobby was hiding in a paper bag.

  “Later,” said Ian.

  Ian poked his nose back in his book. He was reading about the X-ers’ plans to travel to the fourth planet from their sun. He did not look up for a long time. He did not look up when Tammy and Terri Barkan came into the room. Tammy and Terri were identical twins. He did not look up when Hank Reubens came in. Hank was another friend of Ian’s. He did not look up when Karen Brewer, Hannie Papadakis, and Nancy Dawes came in. Karen, Hannie, and Nancy were best friends. They called themselves the Three Musketeers.

  The Three Musketeers stood in the other back corner of the room. They looked at Chris, Omar, Bobby, and Ricky. Then they looked at each other and began to giggle.

  Ian kept on reading. He read while Jannie Gilbert and Leslie Morris arrived. Jannie and Leslie were best friends. But they were the Three Musketeers’ best enemies.

  The X-ers were climbing into their spaceship when Natalie Springer, Audrey Green, and Sara Ford showed up. The X-ers were just about to blast off when Ian heard someone say, “Good morning, class! And welcome back. I hope you had a nice vacation.”

  Ms. Colman had arrived.

  Her students scrambled for their seats. Ian turned around. He looked at the Three Musketeers in the row behind him, with Ricky. They were still giggling. Then he looked over at Chris. Chris had returned glumly to his seat.

  That was how Ian felt. Glum. He frowned. He put They Came from Beyond in his desk. He would have to wait until recess to read it again.

  MS. COLMAN

  The sixteen kids in Ms. Colman’s class sat quietly at their desks. They looked at their teacher.

  “Hello, girls and boys,” said Ms. Colman.

  “Hi,” replied the kids.

  Ms. Colman smiled. “I wish we were still on vacation, too,” she said.

  Ian began to feel a bit better. He remembered why Ms. Colman was his favorite teacher. It was because she said things like that — that she wished she were still on vacation, too. Ms. Colman was honest, thought Ian. She understood kids. Plus, she made school (pretty much) fun. And she hardly ever yelled or got mad.

  Ms. Colman took attendance. She asked the kids about their holidays. And then she said, “Class, I have an announcement.”

  Ms. Colman was smiling again, so Ian knew it would be a good announcement. He decided he felt even better.

  “Since you are feeling sad
about vacation,” Ms. Colman began, “I will give you something to look forward to. At the end of January, Stoneybrook Academy will hold its winter carnival.”

  “The winter carnival!” exclaimed Jannie.

  “Cool!” said Omar.

  “What is the winter carnival?” asked Sara. (Sara was new to Stoneybrook Academy.)

  Ian shot his hand into the air. “Can I tell her, Ms. Colman? Please?” he cried.

  “Of course,” said Ms. Colman.

  “The winter carnival is the most fun carnival ever,” said Ian. “We have it at school every year. You can play games and win prizes. You can buy cookies and hot chocolate. And sometimes they have a raffle and you can win a bicycle or something.”

  “Wow,” said Sara.

  “The money that is made at the carnival,” added Ms. Colman, “is used to buy new books for our library and classrooms, new equipment for our gym, and things like that.”

  “And every class has its own booth at the carnival. Right, Ms. Colman?” called out Karen.

  “That’s right,” replied Ms. Colman.

  “Last year when I was in first grade,” said Hank, “our class had a booth called Go Fish. You could fish for prizes with real fishing rods. I caught a deck of cards.”

  “Once I played a ring-toss game and I won a whole set of markers,” added Natalie.

  “What will our booth be this year, Ms. Colman?” asked Sara.

  “We will have a fortune-telling booth,” said Ms. Colman. “A winter fortune-telling booth. We are going to cut out lots and lots of paper snowflakes. On most of the snowflakes we will write silly fortunes. But on a few of the snowflakes we will write ‘prize.’ We will sell the snowflakes for fifty cents. People will buy them to find out their fortunes. But if they happen to buy a prize snowflake, they will win a prize instead.”

  Ian was grinning. This sounded like fun.

  “We are going to be very busy this month, class,” Ms. Colman went on. “We must cut out hundreds of snowflakes. We must write the fortunes. We must choose the prizes. And we need to make our booth.”

  Ian looked around at his happy classmates. For the moment, he had forgotten about the X-ers.

  RECESS

  By lunchtime Ian was thinking about the X-ers again. He just had to know if they were going to be able to blast off. And if they would reach the fourth planet from their sun. So he stuck They Came from Beyond into his pocket before he left for the cafeteria.

  At lunch Chris said, “Ian, sit here!”

  Ian carried his tray to the table where the boys in his class were sitting. There were only six boys in Ms. Colman’s class. Six boys and ten girls. This was not fair, thought Ian. He wished it were the other way around. Ten boys and six girls. But it was not. So the boys stuck together.

  “Want to see what we were looking at in the paper bag this morning?” Chris asked Ian.

  Ian did. But even more, he wanted to find out how the X-ers were doing. He did not want to be rude, though. So he said, “Sure.”

  Bobby pulled out the bag. “Go ahead. Look inside,” he said. “But do not take it out.”

  Ian looked inside. “Cool! An ant farm!” he said softly.

  “It is a miniature one,” said Bobby. “I got it for Christmas. But we cannot let Ms. Colman see it.”

  “No,” agreed Ian. “That would not be a good idea.”

  When the boys had finished their lunches, Omar jumped up. “Okay! Let’s go outside now!” he said.

  “Yeah, let’s throw snowballs,” said Ricky.

  “Are the ants coming outside?” asked Ian.

  “Hmm,” said Bobby. “I do not want them to get cold.”

  “I will keep them warm for you,” offered Ian. “I could put the bag under my coat. Then I could just, you know, read or something. So I would not bother the ants.”

  “Really?” said Bobby. “Okay. Cool.”

  Yes! thought Ian. He took the paper bag and carefully zipped it inside his coat. Then he went outside. He headed for a big rock under a tree at the edge of the playground. Just as he had hoped, there was no snow on the rock. It had melted away. And the rock was warm from the sun. Ian hopped onto the rock. He leaned against the tree. For a moment he looked out at the playground — at the swings and monkey bars and slides, at the playing field, which was now covered with snow, and at the hill that sloped gently into the far end of the playground.

  Then with a happy sigh he pulled out They Came from Beyond. He began to read.

  The rest of the kids in Ms. Colman’s class played in the snow. They built snowmen and snowwomen and snowcats and snowdogs. They even built a snowteacher.

  “Ian, come help us!” yelled Hank.

  “I can’t,” Ian called back. “I have to keep the ants warm.”

  “Oh, yeah,” said Hank.

  But Ian heard Ricky say, “He just wants to read. That is all he does now. Read.”

  “He is a brain,” added Leslie.

  “Hey, Brain! Don’t you want to build a snowfort?” called Hank. “Put the ants in your pocket.”

  “No thanks!” called Ian.

  Ian’s classmates all decided to build snowforts. They began three of them. By the time recess ended, the forts had just been started. But Ian could tell they were going to be very wonderful.

  HURTLING THROUGH SPACE

  That evening snow began to fall. Ian went to his room after supper. He looked out his window and watched the snow in the light of a street lamp. He tried not to feel too excited.

  Ian lay on his bed. He wiggled his loose tooth with his tongue. He read They Came from Beyond.

  “Ian!” called his father. “Are you doing your homework?”

  “Um … yes,” said Ian.

  Ian stuffed the book under his pillow. Then he found his spelling list. He studied it. When he thought he knew how to spell every word on it, he put it away. He took out his book again. The X-ers were now hurtling through space.

  Hurtling through space, Ian said to himself. Hmm. What does that mean?

  Ian carried the book across the hall to Chip’s room. “Chip?” he said. “What does ‘hurtling through space’ mean?”

  Chip grinned. “It means barfing. Barfing while you travel. Oh, no. Wait. That would be hurling through space.”

  “Very funny,” said Ian. He took the book downstairs. “Mom, what does ‘hurtling through space’ mean?” he asked.

  “Well, it means speeding through space,” she said. “Rushing through. Going so fast it would be hard to stop.”

  “Oh. Cool,” said Ian. “Thanks.”

  Ian wished he could hurtle through space himself.

  The last thing Ian did before he fell asleep was look out his window. The snow was still falling. Ian crossed his fingers.

  The first thing Ian did when he woke up the next morning was look out his window. The snow had stopped falling. Two or three inches were on the ground.

  Ian turned on his radio.

  Not one single school was closed.

  “Oh, barf,” said Ian.

  Ian walked into his classroom that day reading They Came from Beyond.

  “Hi, Brain!” called the kids.

  Ian did not mind. And when it was time for recess, he headed straight for the rock, even though he did not have an ant farm that needed to be kept warm.

  While Ian read about the X-ers, the rest of the kids worked on the snowforts they had begun the day before. The boys — Bobby, Chris, Omar, Ricky, and Hank — worked on one. Karen, Hannie, Nancy, Sara, and Natalie worked on another. Leslie, Jannie, Audrey, Tammy, and Terri worked on the third.

  Every now and then Ian looked up from his book and admired the forts. The boys’ fort looked a little like an igloo. It curved upward. But they could not figure out how to keep the top on. The fort that Karen and her friends were building looked like a castle. The fort the other girls were building looked like a tiny house. The girls had even made windows in it, and carved out a doorway.

  “Excellent fort,” Ian sa
id to Chris as he walked by the igloo later.

  Recess was ending. The kids would have to wait until Wednesday to work on their forts again.

  “Thanks, Brain,” replied Chris. “Don’t you want to help us with it?”

  Ian shook his head. “Not while the X-ers are still hurtling through space.”

  “What?”

  “Never mind. Come on. I’ll race you to the door.”

  SNOWFLAKES

  “Okay, class. Settle down,” said Ms. Colman as Ian and his classmates ran into the room. “It is time to start working on our snowflake project.”

  “Let’s put sparkles on the snowflakes!” Karen called from the back of the room. (She did not remember to raise her hand.)

  “Indoor voice, Karen,” Ms. Colman reminded her. “And please raise your hand next time.” She paused. “Sparkles are a nice idea,” she added.

  “No, they are not,” Ian heard someone whisper crossly.

  “But there is something we need to do,” Ms. Colman was saying, “before we start making the snowflakes.”

  “We need to tell Bobby how stupid his stupid fort is,” whispered Sara Ford. “Ours is much better.”

  Sara was sitting on one side of Ian. Omar was sitting on the other side. “No we do not,” hissed Omar. “We need to kick in your stupid snowf —”

  “Class,” said Ms. Colman loudly. “Listen up. Please pay attention. This is important. Each class has been given forty dollars to spend on its project. That is our budget.”

  Ian looked around at his classmates. Why were they so crabby? This was supposed to be a fun project.

  “What do you think we will need to spend our money on?” Ms. Colman asked her class.

  “Paper?” suggested Jannie.

  “Sparkles?” said Karen.

  “We will probably need to spend a little money on supplies,” agreed Ms. Colman, “but we already have most of the things we need here at school. What else?”

  Ian raised his hand. “I know!” he said. “We have to buy the prizes.”

  “Right,” said Ms. Colman. “How many?”