Page 2 of Carved in Ice (Made of Steel 3)

I wasn’t going to let him ruin my snow day. He was such a meany face. I stomped my foot, hoping to get his attention. When he didn’t look up, I started walking back toward my yard, hoping the whole time that he’d ask me to stay.

“Summer?” My dad’s voice echoed into the silent snowfall.

“Over here,” I said. “I’m stuck.” I didn’t want to climb back over the fence.

My dad came running over to the fence. He wasn’t wearing a jacket. And he was wearing slippers in the snow. “Summer, you scared us. You can’t go running off like that.”

“I just wanted to play with Miles,” I whispered. I felt like I was going to cry, but my eyes were too cold. I sniffed instead.

“I see. You know what?” He leaned over the fence and lifted me back over it. “Sometimes the best way to get a boy’s attention is to give him a taste of his own medicine.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean if he’s ignoring you, you should ignore him too.” He carried me back into the house even though I was too big to be carried. I snuggled into his side. My daddy was my best friend, so it didn’t matter that I was too big.

***

I ignored Miles all day. Right in front of him. I played on his swing set without annoying him. I danced under the snow, catching flakes on my tongue by myself. I even built a bigger, better snowman. The sun was starting to set and the sky was doing that orange thing it did whenever it snowed. But even though I’d be able to see in the dark, my parents wouldn’t let me stay out much longer. Ignoring Miles hadn’t worked. And I was running out of time.

I ran over to him. “Do you want to play now?”

Nothing.

“Miles please, who else are you going to play with? We’re the only kids on the street.”

Nothing.

“You’re the meanest boy on the planet. There isn’t anything you could do that would be meaner than ignoring me. I’m not invisible!”

Miles lifted up some snow in his gloves and patted it into a snowball.

Him throwing that at me would be meaner. I swallowed hard.

He finally looked up at me. Our eyes met. And I would have smiled if it wasn’t obvious that he was about to throw the snowball in my face.

“Don’t you dare, Miles Young!” I gave him the most serious scowl I could muster when I was trying not to smile. I had been hoping he’d play with me all afternoon. How could I be upset when he was finally looking at me?

He tossed the snowball straight up in the air and caught it.

“Really, Miles. Don’t do it.” Please do.

“Don’t do what?”

I pointed at his hand. “Throw that snowball

at me.”

He immediately threw it right at me.

I screamed at the top of my lungs and tried to dodge it. But it made direct contact with my leg. Ow. I stifled a laugh. “I said not to!”

“No. You actually said, ‘throw that snowball at me.’ ”

“I did not!”

He stuck his tongue out at me.

I stuck my tongue right back out at him.

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