Cold Resolve

I paced my room, deep in thought. I wanted to resolve all this Snowball stuff as soon as I could but I couldn't pinpoint how. I'd have to make sure I knew all that happened and why Ice Cube stopped hanging out with him. I guess the best way to do that would be to ask her. I stepped out and looked around. I didn't realize how loud it had become. Even as small as they are they all had their tiny conversations going on, and it added it into a loud bustling living room.

"There you are! What were you doing in there?" Teressa asked, I stared at her silently.

"...Sleeping?" They didn't look impressed.

"Around dinner time? You sick or something?" She asked, putting the back of her hand against my forehead. I promptly smacked it away.

"I'm fine! I was just figuring out how to solve this Snowball situation!"

"Just tell Ice Cube that Snowball is not evil or whatever was going on! Easy peasy!"

"It's not that easy! I'll just talk to her first and then plan from there." They smiled.

"Good plan, ICE CUBE!" She yelled loudly, making everyone go quiet. Everyone in the crowd stepped away from Ice Cube, who looked very embarrassed to be called out.

"I got it, thanks Teressa," I sighed and kneeled, putting my hand out.

"Let's go talk!" I tried to say positively but everyone still seemed rattled. I don't blame them of course, usually, this meant something scary.

I closed the door to my room and set Ice Cube on top of a book on my bed.

"Am I- um, am I in trouble?" She seemed scared.

"Oh of course not! I just wanted to ask you a few questions!" She looked even more nervous now?

"Ah..okay? What kind of questions?"

"About Snowball!" I tried to make myself sound approachable but she immediately looked even more afraid.

"Okay...that's fine." She slowly sat on the books and waited for me to ask.

"Well, to start, can you tell me why you guys stopped hanging out?"

"He...lied to me." I tried to think back to when that happened. It must've been back when they were barely just made.

"It was..about Golf Ball right?" There weren't many objects at that point so it wasn't hard to narrow down.

"Yeah, he hit her." She looked worried.

"Is that why you didn't want to be around him anymore?"

"Well yeah! He's violent! And a liar!" She shouted, previous shyness replaced with anger.

"Ice Cube, do you think Snowball is a threat? Like violent enough to worry?" Ice Cube thought for a moment.

"Maybe, it depends on what else he's done." I sat down next to her.

"Y'know he hasn't hurt anyone else, and the one time he did was an accident." Ice Cube looked up at me.

"How'd he accidentally hurt someone?" It sounded like she couldn't even believe that was possible.

"Foster had made Snowball very strong, and it kinda stressed him out a lot, I'm sure even if he meant to push Golf Ball away he didn't know he could hurt her, she's strong." She stared at me, then turned to look down at the ground again.

"Then...why did he lie to me? If it was an accident."

"Well I guess you'd have to ask him, I don't know. He didn't tell me that much." Ice Cube gnawed at her lip nervously.

"I can set that up if you want, you don't have to though, you can take all the time you need," I assured her.

"No you can set it up today, I'm ready." She stood confidently as she spoke, though she was only 3.3 inches tall so it barely made a difference. I clapped my hands together and stood too.

"Alright then! You can go hang out and I'll get you both when it's all ready!" I held out my hand and she stepped into it and I put her back with her other friends. Teressa stared at me from the kitchen table.

"Did it go well?" She whispered as I walked to her.

"Yeah I'd think so, she wants to talk to him, get some explanation."

"About...what?" They asked.

"Well it was mostly a misunderstanding so I guess about that." She stared into the crowd.

"I hope they work it out, Snowball seems so lonely." And she was right. He was alone. But I hope clearing things up would help him, and everyone else.

- - -

Snowball nervously sat outside on the small concrete ledge in Xaviers backyard. They waited until nightfall to make sure it was cold enough for him. He watched the slight swaying of the grassy backyard, jolting when he heard the glass door slide open. He turned and watched Xavier silently set Ice Cube down, before closing the door.

They stared at each other for what felt like an eternity before Ice Cube walked to the ledge of the concrete and sat down next to him.

"So..." he started awkwardly.

"So...is that stuff true? About Golf Ball I mean."

"Oh. Yeah, it is." Xavier caught him up on the convo they had with Ice Cube.

"Then why didn't you tell me? You didn't have to lie." She stood her ground.

"Because that was violent! I hurt her! If I told you I thought you'd leave me, and when you did find out you did leave. So I had something to worry about, right?" He explained defensively.

"But I didn't know it was an accident! If you had told me you could've explained it and I probably wouldn't have reacted the way I did."

"Probably." Ice Cube bit her lip. He was right to be conflicted. The second she found out he hurt anyone her mind wandered to an image of a violent brute. No one called her friends evil and violent when they dropped her on accident. She was a little quick to fear. But to be fair she was told he was a violent murder, and she was with him alone every day, she thought he was something to fear.

"Snowball, you don't have to forgive me, you have every right to be mad at me!" She clarified, standing up.

"What? No, I want you to forgive me! I want to hang out again!" He said, reaching out and placing a hand on her head.

"Of course I forgive you! If you really and truly only lied because you didn't want me to think of you wrongly and if you only ever hurt Golf Ball once on accident."

"Of course!" She looked at the floor.

"...you promise?" She asked quietly.

"Yeah. I promise." He responded with a smile.

"Then that's settled!" She stared at the glass door.

"...what about everyone else?" She added quietly.

"I mean I've had to deal with how they acted for most of my life, I'm sure I'll be fine," Snowball said hopefully, standing next to her. They both walked to the door and waited for someone to notice and let them in.

When they were set with the others everyone's eyes immediately landed on them. It overwhelmed Ice Cube, she wasn't the biggest fan of the attention. Surprisingly though, most of the faces looking towards them seemed sympathetic. Xavier leaned down next to them.

"I kinda explained it to them too, just to make sure the rumors weren't going around still." He said with a joyful smile.

"What'd you tell them?" Snowball said, knowing he'd be embarrassed if everyone knew how upset he was.

"Just that it was Foster's fault and you never were a crazy violent murderer!" Snowball's eyes widened and he looked back towards the crowd. They weren't...mad at him? They weren't looking at him out of fear and disgust? It was new for sure. In a few seconds, everyone's eyes were back on their conversations. Snowball began his conversation with Ice Cube before being quickly interrupted.

"It's Snowball right?" Lightning asked, full well knowing his name. Snowball looked nervous.

"Yeah?" Snowball said warily. Lighting smiled.

"We were wondering if you wanted to hang out or something!" Snowball looked around.

"We?" To Snowball's confusion Lightning also started looking around.

"Fan? Where'd you go! You said you'd come with me!" Lightning yelled loudly, garnering attention.

"Shut up Lightning I'm right here! No need to yell!" Fan yelled, suddenly appearing from wherever she was hiding. Snowball recognized her, she was from his room, just like lightning. She was the one who almost talked to him once. It made his chest feel funny like he was sick.

"I mean well- really? You wanna hang out with me?" He sounded unconvinced. Lighting still kept a nice smile.

"Yeah! Makeup for lost time!" He offered. Snowball glanced at Ice Cube, wanting to gauge her opinion. She leaned over to whisper.

"It sounds fun!" He smiled at her response since he did like the idea.

"Okay, we can hang." He said as casually as he could.

"Okay good! I already had a great idea! Those building blocks the other kids used before we got here looked really cool! We gotta build a house!" He yelled gleefully, already detailing a plan. Snowball was trying hard to contain too much excitement as Lightning described a house building plan. This was the most friends he's ever had.

Omg...hi 😋

Ignore that this took 6 months

I basically just didn't work the whole summer and I started school recently so motivations back up! 💪💪

Anyways Snowball chapter!! My beloved 😻

:•)