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Chapter 3
Before I knew it, Matthew was assassinated by an enemy snowball.
"Ough.." he groaned.
"Matthew! Are you okay?"
He groaned again. "Esie.. I bequeath to you.. my lime-green.. glow-in-the-dark.. yo-yo.."
"-Matthew, I don't want your yo-yo."
He sat up. "Wait a second. What do you mean? It's a great yo-yo."
"It's lopsided and the string has knots in it."
"But I-"
His sentence was drowned out by the sound of more oncoming snowballs whizzing around our heads like hailstones.
"We're under attack!" I yelped. "Quick, which way to the fort?"
"This way!"
But just as we scrambled to get away, a long range snowball hit scored a direct hit on Mister Smiley. Vegetables flew everywhere. It was not pretty.
Matthew stopped abruptly in his tracks. "Mister Smiley!"
"Matthew- he's.. gone."
A cannon-like sound erupted from behind us. There was another barrage of snowballs on its way.
"We've got to get out of here!" I shouted over the noise, urging Matthew to continue.
"This way!"
At the snow fort..
"Wow! Cool snow fort, Joshua!" I praised.
Joshua adjusted his glasses and looked up from his notebook. "Thanks! Matthew and I did the architectural renderings."
"And I did the interior decorating," piped up Zoe.
"Nice!"
"Thank you. I thought the calico curtains were a welcome touch."
Joshua then noticed what I was carrying. "Whoa, Esie! The golden cookie tin! You brought your mom's cookies?"
"All right!" Zoe whooped.
Matthew saved me the explanation. "They're for her grandma," he said.
A sigh escaped both of them.
"Speaking of disappointments- Joshua, Zoe," I cleared my throat. "Mister Smiley.. isn't with us anymore."
Matthew chimed in again. "To put it gently, he was decimated by a sniper snowball."
Right on cue, a whistling noise shot through the air and dug into the side of the fort. Another snowball.
"That was too close-"
"And look!" Matthew observed, "It's the same kind of slushy snowball that struck Mister Smiley."
I promptly took command. "All right, I don't know who we're up against, but we've got to pull together to protect ourselves. This is an act of war! This is a day we will always remember! I am Captain Esie and you are my faithful troops. We may be in for the toughest battle of our lives, but are we warriors or are we wimps?"
