A Sunny Day

The forecaster declared warm, sunny days in Burlington, Vermont. Temperatures were in the mid-60s, with only a gentle breeze coming in.

Warm, sunny days.

WARM. SUNNY. DAYS.

Those were a big deal during winter, and everybody at the Degrasso Manor was rejoicing. Maids and butlers zoomed across the long, elegant hallways and up the stairs, covered in a scarlet carpet. Most rushed to wear short sleeved shirts and shorter skirts and shorts, although some carried handfuls of clothes handmade by famous fashion designers and hung them in one mistress’s bathroom. Other servants were already outside, tending to the grand pathway and garden that led up to the manor, putting all their effort into trimming the hedges jousts right and not trample over Lady Degrasso’s favorite designer petunias. She paid the local botanist $30,000 dollars for this particular species, a crossbreed between normal petunias and one of the flowers from the local Feywild. How it sparkled like stars in the sky! How the sparkle of one of their lives would fade out if they ruined it…

One was more eager to seize the day than any maid or butler around. She spent hours upon hours working on her makeup. Foundation, blush, lipstick au naturale, mascara- Okay, maybe not mascara, but definitely sunscreen. Clothes? Why, none other than the highest quality sundress, with sunflowers all around! Hat?  A handcrafted straw hat, made with the finest materials! Everything was coming together, and as she walked out of the bathroom with a grin and her pink hair let down from her shoulders, her servants were right there to bow and curtsey for her.

“Good morning, Miss Valentina!” they said in unison.

“And good morning to you, too, my friends!” Valentina responded with a smile and a curtsy of her own. “Is it still warm outside? Please tell me you haven’t seen a single snowflake in the sky!”

“Not yet, miss!” replied one of the smaller maids, who whipped out a brush and started to run it through her master’s hair. “We did check the weather; there should be no sign of snow at all!”

The maid hardly began before Valentina’s hair was perfectly poufy. Valentina rushed downstairs with flip-flops, heading down into the pantry and gazing upon the world’s largest selection of food. She placed a hand on her chin as she pondered what to eat.

“Soup…?” She turned her head to the right. A tower of soup cans greeted her, as well as those ramen cups and bowls her mother despised with a passion. She turned her head to the left, and instead of soups, cereals of all types towered over her instead, both hot and cold. “Or cereal? I can never decide!”

“May I decide for you, mistress?”

Val looked behind her, and there stood a butler, holding a 20 sided die and a coin. “I don’t have THAT much trouble deciding! But make it quick; I have to bask in the glory of today’s sun!”

A flip of a coin and a roll of the dice later, and she was well on her way on making some extra fancy chicken noodle soup. Just as quickly as she made it, it was gone. Valentina simply had no time to waste! A butler whisked her plate away to the sink as she made a mad dash towards the front door, opening it wide and declaring over the top of her lungs, “FINALLY! IT’S TIME TO SAVOR THIS LOVELY WEATHER!”

Not even a minute after she said that, and dark clouds rolled in from seemingly nowhere. Valentina watched a single snowflake fall from the sky and onto her nose. And then another… and another… and dozens more.

Her eye twitched as she glared at one of the maids.

“Call the weatherman,” she hissed, “and ask him if this was in the forecast.”

When your master is glaring daggers and was one step away from maybe finding a winter spirit and strangling it in cold blood, that was a great time to distract yourself with the task you were given. A very, very good time.

“I can’t even believe it! It snowed! On my perfect day! IT’S STILL SNOWING ON MY PERFECT DAY, ELLEN!”

Ellen frowned as she poured Valentina a steaming hot cup of tea. She didn’t really expect her friend to visit her so soon, but now that she was here, Val was fuming on the couch beside Alan, swaddled up in a sweater with cats all over. Made with alpaca fur, last she heard. “Yeah, that’s a giant bummer,” she said with a sigh, taking a seat on the couch in between the two. “I actually wanted to go bike and see if they had any good deals on chocolate.”

 “And I wanted to go enjoy walking down the strip malls without needing to put on boots and several layers of coats, but oh, look, that precious Lottie person has probably shown up again to ruin it!” Alan scooted away as Valentina drank her tea in one angry gulp. “It’s not FAIR! I just wanted to enjoy the sun and the warmth and not be snowed in for once!”

 Ellen shrugged. “Gotta go with what you got. I might go out and make snowmen; do you want to go grab the local kendo team so you guys can beat ‘em up?”

 Val shot Ellen a dirty look. “How is that going to stop this stupid weather, Ellie?”

 “It won’t, but it might help you feel better! Getting some exercise and having fun with friends are bound to make you a little happier, right?"

 Valentina watched the snow come down in droves, wondering how being outside in the cold would make anyone feel better, wind howling as it passed by the window. For a moment, she thought she heard cold, harsh laugh outside, and she snapped her head towards the window with a scowl on her face.

 There was no one one there. The laugh echoed in Valentina's mind, and her blood boiled as a memory came to the surface: A cold, wintery day like this one, but with snow halfway up to her knees and more falling fast, her layers of coats barely protecting her from the harsh winds. Alan and his puppet, launching strings and flames towards a woman robed in white, while  Ellie tried to sneak  behind her and strike with a lolipop blade.

 She remembered how Alan struggled to keep his powers up when he felt as if his fingers would fall off from frostbite. How bitterly cold it was as the spirit laughed and laughed, distracting them with illusions. How that witch knocked Ellie out cold and tried to drop two feet of snow on her body. The room seemed surprisingly warm as Val’s anger and hatred peaked, remembering how she barely managed to get a team of firemen to rescue Ellie and retreated before the Winter Spirit did something nastier. She would never forget that sneer, that condescending look, that blatant disregard for human life, and that… that THING she said to her…

“Oh, if you didn’t care for winter, maybe you should have moved further south, you frail little butterfly~”

  She noticed that Alan and Ellie were scooting as far away from her as possible now. With a little concentration, she could hear their thoughts.

 “I hope she’s going to be okay.”

 That was enough to snap Valentina out of her vengeful mood, instead plunging her deep into regret. “S-sorry,” she said meekly, holding her teacup close. “I, um, yeah, that was…” She looked down at her tea cup, then back at Ellie. “ANYWAY, more tea, please? It was quite scrumptious!”

 Val was relieved when Ellie sprung right up and said, “You got it! And I’ll bring you some chocolate truffles I got the other day, just you wait!”

As Ellie headed towards the kitchen, Val turned towards Alan and noticed that he was wearing not his usual grimy robe, but a stack of different sweaters, the very top one a pink sweater with hearts all over. “I love your sweaters, Alan,” she said with a timid smile. “They go well with your eyes. I suppose Ellie got them for you?”

He shook his head. “It was… a trade,” he said, voice thin and wispy, as if he were a winter spirit himself. “I made a doll… he made a sweater… and we traded it. I think his name was Sol.”

“Sol Stanton, right?” Excitement ran through Valentina’s veins, but she wasn’t going to let it get the best of her quite yet. “He’s a good writer and a good knitter, it seems! Ah, have you read his latest book, ‘Dancing with Daisies’? “

“No.” Alan looked at her and tilted his head. “What’s it like…?”

Okay, now was the time to let her excitement go. “I’m SO glad you asked! You see, it’s about two women who support each other, since both have mental disorders, and they take up dancing as a new hobby and together they strive to win a dance contest! It’s fantastic, you can really imagine those dances, feel the tension, and ooh, those CONFLICTS with other dance teams and their own lives and flaws and… OOH, so GOOD! I’ll give you my copy if you want to read it! I can always buy another, you know, and I swear you need more books to read and enjoy and-“

“I’m baaack! Hi, guys!”

Val paused, looking behind her and seeing Ellie carrying an armful of chocolates: from Hershey’s to Russel Stover to even Lindor! Ellie set them down and handed Val a bag of Lindor chocolates and said proudly, “I got these for a discount somewhere! I forget where, but it was a really good discount! And they taste as good as any expensive chocolate, promise!” Ellie then pulled out a Hershey bar and tossed it over to Alan. “And there’s your chocolate. You wanted Hershey’s, so you got some!”

Alan nodded his head and opened his chocolate before eating it bar by bar, while Val grabbed a truffle, unwrapped it, and gently placed it in her mouth. Ah, how it melted in her mouth. That was good chocolate. So good, half the bag was gone before she knew it. Not before Alan’s bar was gone, though. Or even before Ellie demolished half of her chocolate stash.

Valentina couldn’t help but savor this moment, reaching her arms around her friends’ shoulders and pulling them in close. “You two are simply the best,” she said with a gentle smile. “Thank you for being here.”

“Aww, you too, Val!” Ellie was eager to hug right back, while Alan just smiled and slumped deeper into the couch. All of them turned towards the window, watching as the snow fell harder and faster. Ellie looked over at Valentina and asked, “Hey, it looks kind of bad out there… want to stay here for a while and play card games? I’m telling you now, I am the local Man Bites Dog champion!”

“Oh, are you, now?” Val grinned, putting her hands together and steeping them like a villain. “Perhaps I should ruin your streak! Or maybe I’ll just show you how good I am at Cards Against Humanity!”

The two girls’ eyes met, confident in their own abilities.

“You’re on!”

“Good, because I wouldn’t leave here without a good fight!”

Although the winds howled outside the door, and Valentina swore she heard the callous laughter of the Winter Spirit, she basked in her own little happy place as if it were the sun’s rays, enjoying the various games she played with her friends.

Her perfect, sunny day was here, and not even a blizzard would take it away.