They ended up receiving over a foot of snow that day; they did have access to a frozen lake to go skating on too. Jackie ended up being the one to have to shovel again, and of course she still despised doing it.

She did enjoy the fact that she earned around $1 an hour for shoveling.

     Besides Jackie's duties, Cole and Finn always helped Mr. Vandel with the wood every other day. They only helped because if they didn't, the cottage would be extremely drafty. The boys knew that if they wanted to survive at all this winter, they were going to have to suck it up and get to work. Towards the the end of the day. Mr. Vandel decided to bake some cookies for the children as a reward for their hard work around the home.

     When Jackie walked back into the petite cottage, she looked around for a second, as if she was still adapting to the environment. Suddenly, her blue eyes landed on a platter full of cookies sitting on the kitchen table.

     "Oh, cookies!" Jackie exclaimed, her smile reaching her ears.

She swiftly tore off her boots and her snow pants and ran over to grab one.

     Finn smiled at Jackie from across the room as she ran towards her chair and reached for a chocolate chip cookie. She looked over her shoulder as she reached and offered him a smile back. Finn liked watching Jackie because she was so graceful. The outfits she wore made every movement she made so perfect.

She took a large bite and felt the chocolate melt on her tongue like a snowflake does when it touches her skin. Mr. Vandel suddenly emerged from the bedroom adjusting his tie. He spotted Jackie snarfing down the cookies.  

     "Wow, I'm happy you like them-fresh out of the oven." He explained, "I'm not the best baker..." He admitted with a hearty laugh as he scratched his gray mustache.

     Jackie, Finn, and Cole both ate the cookies within five minutes and gulped down their milk. Shortly after, the children went to their rooms to prepare for bed. 

As Jackie was picking out her clothes for tomorrow,  she realized that over half of her clothes were still covered in dirt and reeked of smoke. She and her brother had only been with Mr. Vandel for a few days, but most of her clothes had been burned by the fire.

     Jackie had picked out one of her favorite, but dirty, pair of pants and a navy blue polo shirt her mother had given her for her twelfth birthday. After she was done picking out her clothes, Jackie lay down in her bed quietly. The room was completely silent besides Cole's soft breathing. Soon, Jackie fell asleep herself.

###

     "Jackie, Jackie....Jackie!" Cole whisper-shouted into her ear.

Jackie could barely make out his voice, but she blinked a few times to get rid of the grogginess.

     Her eyes slowly opened, but her eyesight was still all strange and foggy. "What?" Jackie asked groggily, continuing to blink in hopes that she could regain her full eyesight.

     Cole examined Jackie as she slowly sat up, "I just remembered that today is our birthday!" Cold exclaimed, his eyes glowing with pure joy, "September 14th, doesn't that ring a bell?" Cole inquired his sister.

To his surprise, she showed no sign of acknowledgement.

     Jackie looked at Cole with an annoyed expression and instead of replying something like, "yay!" she said, "What time is it?"

     Cole smacked his forehead in disagreement and replied," um, four thirty." Coles face went a little pink because he knew Jackie was going to be mad. Cole looked back at Jackie who had somehow fell asleep again in the two minutes they were talking. Cole felt slightly relieved and tip toed back to his drawer. He stayed awake because he wanted to give Jackie a birthday surprise.