Ricky awoke one morning to an eery dull in his room. His alarm had turned off and it was just a little too quiet. His feet touched the ground as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. Stretching, he stood and took a few steps to the window to open the blinds. It was late October and he loved to look outside and see all the colourful leaves first thing in the morning. He pulled up the blinds and looked outside in amazement – his entire yard had filled with snow!

Ricky had never seen so much snow so early in the year before! He barely had time to process such a turn of events when his phone rang. He was delighted to get the news that the school he worked at had been closed for the day. Even as an adult, he loved getting snow days!

Ricky lazily went about his morning routine. He lounged in his pajamas for a long as he could justify it. He knew that eventually he would have to change and start shoveling.

The snow was heavy and wet, which gave it that wonderful crunch sound under Ricky’s boots, but made shoveling a tiring task.

“Hey Mr. R!” the shout came from Ricky’s next door neighbour, a student of his. “Isn’t this snow day great?!”

“Yes, Aiden! I love snow days!” Ricky chuckled.

“My mom says I can stay out as long as my boots stay dry, do you want some help? I have my own shovel!”

“That would be great Aiden! I can tell you all about the social studies lesson we’re missing right now.”

“I’ll help Mr. R, but no school talk today.”

“Haha! Deal.”

Ricky and Aiden worked together to clean the snow. First Ricky’s driveway, and then Aiden’s. As they were finishing up, Aiden’s mom came out and invited Ricky inside for lunch. Thankfully, they were close and being Aiden’s teacher didn’t make things awkward.

After lunch, the doorbell rang. Some kids had arrived with buckets and small shovels. They wanted to know if Aiden could make an igloo. Ricky decided it was time for him to leave as well. He barely had his boots on when one of the kids shouted, “HEY! Mr. R is here!!”

Ricky had always enjoyed being a teacher that kids liked. A chorus of “Hey Mr. R!” came from everyone followed by some whispers.

“Mr. R, wanna join us?”

“I’m sure you guys don’t need your teacher around on a snow day”

One of the boys in the backed sarcastically piped up “Ya know, we’ll probably need adult supervision. Just in case it caves in and kills us.”

Ricky laughed. “Well, I guess if it’s a matter of life or death.”

Aiden’s mom filled a thermos with hot coffee for Ricky and he joined the kids in making their igloo. Before the day was over, what had been built was practically destroyed by a block-wide snow ball fight. Even though it was a snow day, Ricky saw almost every single one of his students.