Bright Orange Gloves

Prologue

Snow covered the entire playground including the swings, rocking horses, teeter totters, and the sew saws. Except for the large hamster wheel where Fronnie Willoughby had made herself comfortable. The snow was lightly falling around her wheel as she tucked in her book Ribsy closer to her.  Her tiny body was practically folded together as she tried to keep herself warm.

The day before winter break and it's snowing! Normally this would excite her, but her best friend was in Cuba visiting family till after the new year's. When they were together, recess was indeed the best period of the day. They either climbing across the monkey bars, dominating four square, or battling the boys in tetherball. But now she was deep into Ribsy and wanted to avoid dealing with cold wet toes from the snow.

Besides. She was eager to get back to class to watch Rudolph, have a few slices of pizza, some frosted cookies, and even sneak a few more for the road. It's not that she hated the cold by any means. But there was pizza inside that was calling her name! So, it was all the matter of the time hurrying up!

"TAG! YOU'RE IT!" A boy screamed as Fronie looked to see a group of boys scattering all throughout the playground. There were snowballs being thrown all over the playground and a few being thrown through the hamster wheel.

Abruptly a boy climbed into the hamster wheel scrunching in to avoid being seen. Fronie merely peeked over her book as the kid had a buzzcut with a large red scarf around his neck, an old green puffy coat, and no gloves. She couldn't remember his name but saw him during lunch and recess a lot. Always playing tag with his tight group of friends or pretending to be Frodo when they're playing Lord of the Rings.  Which she found odd because he always reminded her of Tom Bombadil. Energetic. Maybe not as quick witted but just always seemed fun.

He was a grade or two above her if she remembered correctly. Not that it really mattered to her because they were all stuck in school together. Neither of them said anything to each other as he kept looking on both sides of the wheel from his friends he was hiding from. Fronnie looked to see that his fingers were red and almost shaking from the cold.

"I have an extra pair." Fronnie told him as she reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a pair of hand-woven bright orange gloves. He looked at the gloves then back at her. Confused at first till he took them from her hand and put them on.

"Thanks. I'm Eddie." He whispered making sure he was kept hidden.

"Fronnie." She gave him a small wave and tried getting back into her book.

"Your gloves are warm. A little itchy but I've never felt my fingers so warm in winter."

"My aunt knits them like crazy. You can keep them if you want."

"I couldn't..."

"I've got like a hundred back home Eddie." Eddie merely nodded to then rub his hands together.

"Do you wanna play tag with us? If you get hit with a snowball, you're it!" Eddie smiled for Fronnie to look out into the snow then shrug.

"Okay. So, whose it?"

"Gareth."

"Who's Gareth?" They both looked out the hamster wheel to see Gareth with a snowball in his hand, tossing it up and down in his hand.

"I SEE YOU EDDIE!" Gareth pointed with his free hand.

Eddie was the first one out of the wheel with Fronnie right behind him. They both dodged the first snowball as they hurried over to where the rocket climber was. There were icicles on the ladder, but they quickly yet carefully climbed up and hid inside. Gareth ran over with a snowball in his hand, he tried finding an angle but they both made it to the back of the climber where a snowball couldn't reach them.

"That's not fair Eddie! No hiding in the rocket climber!" Gareth yelled as he got frustrated and ran off.

They both high fived each other as they crawled over to the slide. Fronnie was down first to see Gareth was waiting for them behind the slide. Eddie came down the slide, almost flying off into the pile of snow. Gareth landed the snowball directly onto Eddie's butt as he ran off to the jungle jim.

Eddie scooped up a snowball to then aim it directly at Fronnie. She took a few steps back and saw a perfect path to the court where there were too many kids to get a proper shot at her back. Fronnie did attempt to make a run for it, but she felt the snowball smack against her shoulder.

"It's not personal Fronnie." Eddie smiled as he dashed off to the seesaws.

"Alright that's recess!" One of the teachers yelled while the whistle blew. Fronnie dropped the snowball to begin walking back to the hamster wheel for her book.

When she got there, the book was gone and wasn't around the wheel anywhere. Fronnie began circling around the wheel for it. When she found the book, it was buried underneath a good layer of snow and ice, along with footprints on top of it. She let out a tiny sigh as there were more kids accidentally walking over it. Fronnie began pushing kids out of the way so they would stop stepping on it.

She quickly brushed off the snow to see that the cover was completely soaked and already beginning to fall apart. Fronnie got up from the snow with her soaked book as two girls were following behind her with snow in their hands.

"FROSTBITE FRONNIE THE FROG!" One of them tugged on her coat, the other shoving snow down her back. It caused her to drop the book once again as the one who put snow down her coat laughed and kicked the book away from Fronnie.

"Poor Fronnie. Daddy in jail and all he does is send her a silly book." The one who grabbed her coat laughed and both continued to walk towards where the kids lining up to go back inside.

"I find it better to just be extremely sarcastic to them. Tends to get them annoyed and find someone else to bug." Eddie picked up her book to then hand it to her.

"Hey umm. Have a fun break! And thanks again for the gloves!" He ran off with the rest of his friends.