Snowflakes - Chapter 2

"Snow? It's snowing? Crazy, its still September. This must be the earliest snow we've had in a long time." thinks Tanner Miller as he walks into his two story house he shares with his father. The two of them live alone together and have done so ever since the year before with the passing of Tanner's mother. It was sudden, her death. No one was expecting it. One day Tanner came home and she was there cooking dinner, the next an ambulance was outside and his father was sitting on the porch, head in hands, crying. The doctors said it was her appendix. It exploded while no one was home to call an ambulance, and she died shortly afterwards. Since then, life in the Miller home has gone on, and things were just settling down into a normal cycle without her. From time to time things popped up in him and his fathers conversations and a tear would spring to his fathers eye, or the conversation would die and they would look around themselves so they wouldn't have to be faced with the feelings that were being displayed on each others faces.1

"Hey dad, i'm home!" Tanner hollers into the well lit living room from the doorway.2

"Tan-man! whats up big guy? how was practice?" his father calls from the kitchen. Tanner's dad called him tan-man one day when he was in little league and the nickname stuck. Though Tanner felt he was a little to old for it he still allowed his father to call him that, at least in the house.3

"Oh it was alright. Big game this friday. Northern Heights. It should show us how good we really are. Heights is a pretty good team."4

"Ahh they aren't too good for you. Your a Miller, it runs in your blood." Tanners father replies as he walks out of the kitchen, a baking mitt on his hands. "Shoot, your grandpa played college ball, your uncle played college ball. I could-"5

"Have played college ball except you tore your ACL your senior year and your knee has never been right since. I know dad you tell me this every week." Tanner interrupts, a look of patience on his face.6

"Yes son and you better believe it. I have no doubt that you will win this game Tanner. But i'm sorry, I can't make it to this game kiddo. I have to go down to Wichita on business. Some corporate office up there wants to have a park put in near their building. You know, make their building look more attractive on the outside, and give corporate workers somewhere pleasent to go on and eat lunch on a nice day. It's a big deal for me and if I don't make it, things are gonna be tight around here for a while."7

Tanners dad is a self employed Landscape Architect. He designs parks, golf courses, shopping centers, college campuses, and just about anything else that you can think of so that they are breathtaking and compatible with the natural environment. It was a tough job because there was alot of competition, and sometimes it made money a little bit of a cause for worry in the Miller household, but his father was good at his job and was usually able to land a job landscaping for something or someone.8

"It's alright pop. I understand. Maybe I can get the gamefilm from coach and you can watch it when you get back if you want. Anyways, what are you cooking in there?" Tanner says, a look of worry on his face. His father wasn't the best cook, and he liked to expirement a bit sometimes.9

"Oh its just a couple frozen pizza's, I was about to pull them out. Crap!" his dad says as he rushes back in the kitchen.10

After eating a few slices of slightly burnt pizza Tanner goes upstairs to his bedroom. He throws his bookbag onto his bed when he walks in and then makes his way over to his desk where he has his laptop set up. Sitting down he opens up the laptop and waits for it to turn on. As he's waiting he gazes around his room and memories start flashing through his mind. His first homerun ball sitting ontop of his dresser, with the signatures of his entire team. He remembers that whole summer he and his dad had practiced his swing trying to smooth it out and make it look as pretty as it would if Lou Gehrig were holding the bat. Above his dresser, mounted on the wall was a shelf holding several trophies. Baseball, Basketball, Football, Track. You name it, Tanner could do it. He was a good athlete and came from a very athletic family. His grandfather played college football at a small college in Kansas, Fort Hays State University. His uncle played division one college football for Texas Tech and then had a few stints on professional teams, but never made the roster. From what he understood, and what everyone told him, his father was the best athlete to have gone through Hilcrest High, and people were saying that Tanner was even better then his dad was.11

Moving from the trophies, Tanner's eyes scan over a poster of his favorite band, Hit The Lights, with their autograph on it; "To a cool dude, Tanner! Your the best man! Hit The Lights."12

After that his eyes roam over to his nightstand, and he see's a picture of him and his mother at Braums, where they went to get ice cream together with his grandma and grandfather the night before she died. The soft smile on her face, and the beautiful blonde hair framing her healthy looking face while Tanner sat next to her smiling, his fingers behind her head in a bunny ears motion. He even remembers her beautiful laughter after the picture was taken, and the way she playfully punched him on the shoulder when she realized what he had done.13

Tears were building up in Tanner's eyes as he turned back to the laptop. His mother was an amazing woman. So beautiful and nice to everyone. She always went out of her way to help people in need, and never turned anyone down unless she absolutely had to. It was a terrible day in Hilcrest when his mother died, and not just for him and his father.14

As Tanner began to mindlessly surf the internet, he began to think of a girl from school. Her name was Melissa. Melissa Jonas. She is in his class, and he doesn't understand why, after all the years he grew up with her, he's starting to notice her now. Its his junior year, he's had plenty of time to think about her before.15

"What makes her so special? I mean, I can have any girl I want from our school, not trying to brag or anything." Tanner thinks, smiling. And the truth is, he can have any girl he wants, and he knows it. He's modest about it, but Tanner was a very attractive person. 16

Standing at 6 feet 1 inch tall he was a pretty tall guy, though not too tall. He dark brown hair that had a bit of a shaggy look to it, and his eyes were a beautiful shade of hazel that he inherited from his mother. When he smiled, he'd flash brilliantly white teeth at you, and his whole face would light up. He had dimples, and his body was toned and well cut after working in the weight room since 8th grade. He wasn't huge by any means, but he was athletic, and weighed a healthy 175 pounds.17

Thinking about Melissa he began to realize what it was about her. It wasn't the fact that she is drop dead gorgeous, and is modest about it herself. It wasn't the fact that when she smiled, she lit up a room. Or that her auburn hair would glow when the sun hit it just right, or how her eyes could burn with a passion if the right subjects were brought up. It wasn't that quiet, soft spoken voice of hers. No, it wasn't exactly those things. Maybe they played a small part in it. Mainly, Tanner thought, its the fact that out of every girl in our school, she's the one who hasn't tried throwing herself at me. Or making suggestions of what we could do when her parent's aren't home this weekend. She's the one girl who hasn't tried to hard, or seemed to try at all. And it was intriguing. By doing nothing, she's done it all.18

"I think if she talks to me tomorrow, maybe i'll ask her to go get some ice cream or something this weekend." Thinks Tanner with a smile. He then realizes his laptop has been on the same google page for the last 20 minutes while he just stared blankly at it. Looking down at the clock on the computer he realizes its rather late and decides its time to go to bed.19

After getting undressed and turning the laptop off, Tanner crawls under his blankets and grabs the picture of him and his mom off the night stand.20

"Night mom." he says as his thumb moves over her face, then he places the picture frame back on the table. Rolling over he begins to think of the possibility of asking Melissa to go out and do something and he closes his eyes and smiles, his last waking thought was a picture of him and her eating ice cream at the same place him and his mother so happily did the night before she died.