Tracey stomped down the hall and slammed her door behind her. Callie turned back to the window. The snow swirled and smacked against the glass with a sand-like sound. There were already two feet of snow on the ground. The windows frosted while Callie sat there, staring. Loud music emanated from Tracey's room and filled up the house slowly. Callie got off her bed and went downstairs.
The kitchen was cold. The downstairs furnace broke when Callie first came back. She hadn't gotten it fixed for some reason unbeknownst. She turned on one of the burners in the gas stove.

Tracey sat on her bed, sulking. She picked up the phone to dial her school.
"Hello? Arthur Middlebury Secondary School. Cathy speaking, how may I direct your call?"
"Hi, this is Callie McGrieson and my kid sister, Tracey, can't make it today. The snow's got us stuck up on the mountain. Will you please let know whomever it concerns?"
"Oh, well, hold on a minute or two. I'll switch you over to the Dean of Attendance, and you can take it up with him."
"That will be fine."
Arthur Middlebury Secondary School, known in short as Middlebury, housed the education for most of Nome's upscale youth. Overall, there were only about 100 students from around Nome, and the rest came from surrounding areas as far west as Ottawa. It had housing for the out-of-towners, but the locals mainly stayed at home with their parents. Tracey stayed in the dorms in the last two years of her father's illness, but wanted to come home when Callie came back. The school was for children 10-18, roughly sixth through twelfth grades. There were only about one thousand students in all.
When Callie graduated, she was first in a class of 120. It was the biggest class Middlebury had seen in its seventy years of existence. Tracey's class, seven years later, totaled only sixty. Tracey would also be at the top of her class. She wasn't proud of this fact, but pleased by it. She wasn't one to boast, and she always felt inferior to her sister. She never told Callie, but she constantly felt in competition with her concerning everything. She didn't care if Callie felt it or not.
"Mmyellow. Parish, here."
"Oh, hello, Boss."
Parish Barton was the Dean of Attendance and Curriculum. On the door of his office he had a sign that said 'DOA and C'. The Latin group made it for him. There was some inside joke about it that Tracey never understood. He thought it was the funniest thing ever.

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