The day was cloudy, rain was coming. The clouds blanketed the sky in gray and, yet, I am still cold. I wonder...is the sky? Is the sky cold even with it's blanket? Perhaps it doesn't matter. I walked to the bus stop. It was stiil early but the bus seemed to be coming earlier than it had in middle school. Whatever, it didn't matter. I was always here early enough that I didn't miss the bus, though sometimes I wish I did. They were cruel. The juniors always pushing me around. They didn't care about any other freshman, just me. Was I fun to pick on? I hoped not. I wasn't exactly easy to mess with either. I won't sit there and take it. Maybe that's why they enjoy giving me crap because I'll fight back. I tried telling them t back off. I warned them nicely at first then more seriously and then more harsh. They never learned. So they messed with me and I played hard ball. I threw all their crap right back at them. I know it wasn't neccesarily right but this was my fight. I actually didn't get too involved for a while. It was when they decided that messing with my friends was fun that I really started fighting. They coulds mess with me, I can handle myself, but not my friends, that's just too far. This went from a junior/freshman fight, to a full blown war. We fought every day. The ride on the bus to school and back home were non-stop war. Things got more serious as the year went on and they continued the next year too. The fight only got worse. Each hit I took hurt more than the last and every puch I threw grew more in power. Things were bad and I'm not just talking school. Everything. In fact parents had to work the day before Christmas. Teachers too. Which meant we had to go to school. Not good. There was a snow storm coming. It was easy to see. The snow started to fall and at the end of seventh period, when I walked outside, I saw that around the perimeter of the school there was snow piled seven feet high. Peole were punching it, only to find that the snow was hard as ice. We were snowed in, at school. We all always hope to get a snow in day so that we wouldn't have to go to school. I'm pretty sure none of us ever thought we'd get snowed in at school. Everyone was required to be in a classroom or the gym. We were numbered off and sent to a room. Sadly, I ended up with the juniors who were always at war with me. Okay, so I was at war with them too, but whatever.
The snow just kept falling. We had to stay the night.



***
I woke on Christmas morning only to find myslef at the end of a gun barrel on rapid fire. The juniors were constantly throwing insults and curses at me like this was all my fault. Which, in a way, I guess it was. I didn't fight back. I was done. I didn't even renember why we were fighting in the first place. You want to know why I don't renember? Because there was no reason.

"Stop." I said. They kept shooting.
"Stop." I said louder. They kept firing.
"Stop!" I shouted. They halted.
"Would you guys listen to yourselfs? It's Christmas for ***'* sake. Just stop. I mean, why are we even fighting? There's no reason for it. You guys just want to chew someone's head off adn I got tired of it. And even you won't stop for forever, at least stop for today. It's Christmas."
"So?" One of them asked.
I sighed. " I once heard about this war that went on till Christmas and they stopped fighting, for just the one day, to celebrate the holidays. The night was quiet. One person started to sing, and another, and another till everyone on both sides was singing. If soldiers who were actually fighting a war can stop for one day, for Christmas, than we can too."
The fighting stopped that day and it never started again. We were friends. Not close friends but friends all the same. We must learn from our past. I did. Did you?