Michael Northrop - Trapped

It began falling in the morning. I noticed it at the start of second period, biology, but I guess it couldve started at the end of first period. Snow isnt really bound by a class schedule. There wasnt much to it at first, and itd been snowing a lot that month, so I didnt give it much thought. It was those small flakes, like grains of sugar. By third period, the flakes had fattened up and gotten serious, and people were starting to talk about it.

Think theyll let us out early? Pete said as we gathered our stuff and headed for Spanish.

I looked out the window and sized it up. It was really coming down and there was already an inch or two on the sill.

Could be, I said. Is it supposed to be a big one?

Supposed to be huge: Winter Storm Warning,' he said. Where you been?

School, practice, homework, whatever. Excuse me for not watching the frickin Weather Channel.

Yeah, well, you might want to check it out sometime, he said. Then you wouldnt be wearing Chucks in a noreaster.

I looked down at my sneakers. Well, if its as big as all that, theyll probably let us go.

I hope youre right, Weems, he said.

My name is Scotty Weems. I prefer Scotty, but most people, even my friends, call me Weems. I guess its easy to say, and maybe some people think its funny. It doesnt bother me that much. Im just glad that Snotty Streams never really caught on as a nickname.

Anyway, Im an athlete, so I made peace with my last name a long time ago. Since I was a little kid in T-ball, I heard it shouted every time I did something right and every time I screwed up, too. These days its on the back of my basketball jersey. I like to think that someday people will be chanting it from the bleachers: Weems! Weems! Weems! Chanting fans make any name sound good.

Anyway, thats me. Ill be sort of like your guide through all of this. Some of the others mightve seen things differently, and some of them mightve told it better, but you dont get to pick. You dont because, for one thing, not all of us made it.

It was a Tuesday, and before the sky started falling the main thing on my radar was the start of hoops season. The first game was supposed to be that night, home against Canterbridge. So when Pete said Think theyll let us out early? what I heard was Think theyll cancel the game? So we had different feelings on the subject right from the get-go.

Pete Dubois was one of my best friends, him and Jason Gillispie. The three of us were pretty tight. Pete was just, like, a normal kid. It was sort of his role. It might sound strange, being known for what you arent, but Pete wasnt a jock or a Future Farmer of America or a student council member, and he wasnt super hip or incredibly smart. He was just a normal sophomore. He listened to standard-issue rock music and wore whatever clothes hed been given for Christmas or his birthday. You needed some kids like that, otherwise all you had were competing factions of freaks, all dressed in outfits that amounted to uniforms and trying to play their music louder than yours.

So for Pete, early dismissal just meant more time at home, playing video games and eating pizza rolls. For me, it meant not collecting the payoff for all those hours of practice Id put in over the off-season, all those jump shots Id taken in the gym and out in the driveway and at the courts down behind the library. It meant time for the other shooting guards to catch up, to keep their minutes, or to take some of mine.

Theyre going to cancel the game, I said to Pete. Thats for sure.

Oh, yeah, said Pete. Bummer.

Pete didnt shoot hoops, not on the team anyway. Neither did Jason. They were the same friends Id always had, the neighborhood kids Id ridden bikes with in the cemetery when we were like nine. Our moms sent us there because it was better to ride around where everyone else was dead than out on the road where the traffic would kill you.

I guess its kind of weird to still have the same friends as when you were a little kid. Its not like youre expected to move on by high school, but youre definitely allowed. And most jocks run in packs, you know? But I was a sophomore on varsity, so I was kind of an outsider on the team anyway. There were only a few of us, and I wasnt a star like Kyle or buried deep on the bench like Joey.

So I was an outside shooter and just kind of outside in general. I didnt need to hang out with my teammates, though. Those guys would like me just fine when I was a starter, and that was my goal for this season. As for my real friends Pete, Jason, and maybe Eric on his good days I didnt have to prove anything to them. I didnt have to shoot 40 percent from downtown for them; I didnt have to shoot at all.