Snow Day

It had been snowing heavily all week – heavily enough to stop anyone from going out; even the villains weren't stupid enough to contend with the weather and goodness knows they were certainly not the smartest berries in the bush.

"I'm bored." Maria whined, stretching over the sofa. The snow had finally let up but it was still too deep to go anywhere.

"Wh-Wh-Why not go on a treasure hunt?" Keswick asked, reading his book.

"Nwo, there's nothing to find." The girl turned over with a bored sigh.

"Detectives?" Keswick licked his finger and turned the page.

"I've already detectified the house." Maria turned again, flopping her face into the pillow. Keswick looked up and spotted the snow had stopped falling. With a decidedly cheeky grin Keswick wordlessly leapt up and crept away. He knew just how to keep the girl busy.

After about a minute and a half the girl glanced up, wondering why she hadn't had a response. Noting the guy was gone, she looked around curiously. A sudden blast of cold air made her shiver and she looked over to the door to see it had been opened slightly.

Maria threw on a winter coat, waterproof boots, a pair of woolly gloves and a nice hat before opening the door. Finally she could go outside! Her gaze drifted down and she saw footprints.

"So that's why Keswick didn't answer." Maria said to herself. "He's gone outside." With a playful grin she followed the prints out to the front-yard and all the way to the gate. A confused frown quickly appeared as she saw the prints stopped at the gate. How was this possible?

"Maybe he opened the gate?" Wondered Maria, but it became quickly apparent the gate had not been disturbed. With a frown she opened it and looked out. "Maybe he jumped over it?" But there were no boot-prints on the other side of the gate. Rather, there were no prints anywhere for that matter.

"Maybe he learnt to fly?" Maria said, obviously at a loss, closing the gate and looking up. There were no clouds or planes, no snow or indeed anything. And there definitely wasn't any Keswicks up there.

Maria's frown deepened – where could he have gone? She heard a noise, almost like giggling and whirled around. Standing at the door with hot chocolate was Keswick.

"I knew you'd cah-cah-come looking for me so I walked out to the gate then walked back inside again – backwards – taking care to ste-ste-step in my footprints." Keswick chuckled. He barely closed the door again before a snowball hit the spot he was moments before. When he opened the door to ask if Maria wanted hot cocoa she was there with a kiss – and revenge.

"Oh it's cold, so very cold." Keswick squirmed as Maria put her cold hand down the back of his shirt, depositing snow there with a devilish grin. The girl laughed loudly, only stopping when Keswick shoved some snow down her top in revenge. This went on for some time before Keswick held up a hand to tell the girl he surrendered.

"I'm all cold now." Maria whined, shivering in the living room barely moments later. She sipped her hot chocolate and whimpered slightly. In a moment Keswick was at her side.

"Your bath awaits, my dear." He smiled sweetly, shivering himself slightly. Maria shook her head with a coy smile.

"Don't you mean our bath?" Before the boy could react he was whisked into the bathroom where the real fun could begin.