A Midsummer Morning's Snowstorm

In regards to the typical sort of weather that one would experience during the expected summer months, unless they reside within a country in the southern hemisphere, snow isn’t an exceedingly common occurrence. Within the confines of these warmer months, the climate tends to shift towards the more balmy ends of the spectrum, typically displaying, at the very least, warm temperatures. However, there would be no sort of established rule without at least one exception. One specific exception would come to fruition on an average day in late June, as two vivacious young children awaited for the perfect time to head off to the beach.

Summer had always been the season that Annabelle considered to be her favorite. Always a fan of warmer weather, as well as the excess in free time that had been provided through a lack of an education, the stars had clearly aligned to provide the young girl with an experience to look forward to each year. The same could not entirely be said for her younger brother, Theodore. In stark contrast to his sister’s own beliefs, Teddy was not entirely fond of summer; at least not to the same extent. Although he did not despise the concept of summer as a whole, there definitely were a few aspects of it that had left the young boy somewhat unsatisfied. With that being said, despite his own qualms regarding the matter, Theodore was always open to spending some quality time with his older sister.

All of these traits had quickly accumulated in the sibling’s current predicament: waiting for their mother to awake to grant them permission to head out for the day. Annie, having woken up roughly an hour or so prior to her brother, had already managed to fix herself a quick breakfast. In addition to this, the brown-haired girl was already changed out of her pajamas, clearly more than equipped to head out and seize the oncoming day at the beach. In stark contrast, Theodore, who likely had woke up mere moments prior, was sleepily gnawing away at the bowl of corn flakes presented in front of him. 

“You’re way too energetic at eight in the morning.”

The boy tiredly mumbled, haphazardly shoveling more of his breakfast into his mouth. In response to her brother’s words, Annabelle could merely scoff, not taken aback in the slightest.

“You’d be a lot more lively if you didn’t stay up so late playing video games, y’know!”

Following her quip, the young girl merely stuck a tongue out towards her brother, resulting in a lazy eye-roll emitting from Theodore. Despite his own action, however, the male could not entirely argue against her point. 

For the remainder of the following half-hour, nothing of notable substance had occurred within the walls of the sibling’s shared home. Theodore eventually finished his breakfast, as well as managed to get himself dressed. Following suit, the young boy joined his sister in eagerly awaiting for their mother to join them in the dining room, as soon as she awoke from her slumber. Soon enough, the older woman had been spotted entering from the main hallway of their abode, letting out an audible yawn as she did so. Taking no hesitance in greeting her, Annie excitedly stood up from one of the chairs in the room, which she had previously sat upon.

“Mom! Hey, mom! Can we-”

Rather quick to cut off his sister’s sentence, Theodore stood up as well.

“Good morning!”

Initially pausing for a brief moment, aiming a short glance of annoyance in the direction of her brother, Annabelle followed suit in providing an actual greeting.

“Good morning, I mean! Now that the arbitrary salutations are out of the way, can we go and play at the beach? Pleeeease?”

Clasping her hands together in front of her chest, Annie aimed a wide-eyed, intentionally innocent looking expression in the direction of the older woman. While the young girl knew full well that a positive answer was almost certainly expected, she could not help but muster up her best puppy dog eyed look.

“Honey, I don’t think so. Have you listened to the weather report for the week? They’re talking about a big cold front blowing in, and it’s not looking pretty. I think we’re just gonna play it safe, and stay indoors for today.”

Contrasting against any of their expectations, as soon as the words of denial had managed to emit from their mother’s lips, Annie’s previous expression of cheerfulness had been rather quick to fall.

“A cold front? What the heck is that? How cold could it possibly get, it’s June! Almost July, even! Just yesterday, it was super hot outside! How could the weather change that quickly!”

Before either Theodore or their mother could produce any form of response to the words of the disgruntled girl, Annie was rather quick to bound off towards the direction of their front door.

“I’ll show you! When I open this door, it’s going to be a hot summer’s day, like it’s supposed to be! Then, we can go to the beach!”

With that, Annabelle’s hand gripped firmly on the doorknob, fast in her movements to twist it in hand, allowing for the entrance of their home to open up. Almost as soon as she had done so, however, a clear drop in temperature was more than evident within the home. 

In contrast to the image that had previously been envisioned within the heads of the children, the environment outside had not been that of a warm, typical summer’s day. In fact, it had been quite the opposite. The ground was covered in a thin, yet growing layer of snow, signaling that the predicted cold front had not been merely a work of fiction.

“Close the door! You’ll let in all the cold air!”

The sibling’s mother had come to exclaim, resulting in Annabelle replicating the desired gesture, a shocked look plastered onto her face. 

“That’s impossible! There’s no way that it’s snowing! It’s June!”

As much as she had wanted to argue against it, almost entirely in disbelief, Annabelle was met with an incredibly undesirable reality. Her day of potential fun in the sun at the nearby beach had been snatched from her grasp, replaced with a scene taken straight out of a typical christmas snowglobe. Theodore, on the other hand, was quite pleased with this turn of events, although he made sure to keep his own opinions to himself.

While the sudden change in weather had been entirely surprising, and a bit of a downer on Annie’s part, this didn’t stop the two siblings from having fun in their own, indoor way. From baking cooking with their mother, to curling up in warm blankets in front of the television for a marathon of cartoons, Annabelle and Theodore made sure to not allow themselves to let the day go to waste.

It had not been a normal day of wading within the lukewarm waters of the beach, but it was fun nonetheless.