no this didn't happen to me

He shivered and shuddered as the snowy ice went into the gap between his hat and his shirt. It slivered down his neck mixing with sweat. It felt horrible, all hot and cold and sticky and wet. And he was too tightly bundled up to take off any of his many layers. Too many layers. Thick and heavy and slow. That was why he had been hit by the snowball. Too slow and hot.

He wanted to cry. His nose was running and his eyes were wet from the cold anyway. Instead he bent down and scooped up his own wad of snow. Cupping it close he formed it into a hard smooth ball. His gloves were sodden from previous attempts, hands wet and wrinkling, growing number. He breathed hot air onto them and tried to suck out some of the wetness.

He looked around for a target. Everyone was running and screaming and skidding and falling. Most had formed into gangs, temporary alliances in the heat of battle. But he had only been at school a few days. He didn’t know anyone and so he didn’t know who he should throw the snowball at. Not a girl obviously. Most of them had stayed inside anyway. Not anyone much bigger than him either, or much smaller. He stood dumbly with the ball growing wetter and colder in his hand, wandering what to do.

Smack! This time a snowball hit him on the ear that was poking through his hat. It burned cold pain into him. He burned too, angry and furious red. He saw who threw it, a big kid with a stupid grin. I hated you I hate you I hate you. He threw his missile with all the strength the cold cold day hadn’t sapped from him. It sailed towards the big stupid kid and his big stupid face.

But the big stupid kid was fast. He ducked, still grinning and laughing. The ball sailed past and smacked someone else right in the face. They fell to the ground and let up a wail. It was a little girl, small and pretty and crying. She was so loud that the playground monitor quickly ran over and scooped her up. She shot him a disgusted look and took the loud crying pretty small girl inside.

He got hit by a lot more snowballs after that.