Winter break was just 8 days away! My best friend, Stephen Lacy, was more than ready for it to begin, and he began to shout and sing about it last night – really - when we left the library after C.Q. As we were walking toward Beason, suddenly . . . . . a popping sound echoed across the snowy quad. Confused, I turned to Stephen to ask him if he knew what the source of the noise was but he was gone. I franticly looked in every direction but he was no sign of him. “Stephen, where are you?” I yelled as I checked under every bush and behind every tree. Anger surged through me like a bolt of lightning. “Stephen! It’s freezing out here, what the hell are you doing? This isn’t funny anymore. Where are…” a swift ruffle in the bush to my left caught my attention. He wasn’t so clever after all.
Pretending to be ignorant, I snuck over to the bush. I jumped behind the bush only to find myself equally shocked as the perpetrator. We were frozen with disbelief staring into each other’s eyes. He first recovered- a flash of green woke me in time to see the leprechaun make a feeble attempt to dart across the quad. But the snow’s depth knocked him off balance causing a small glowing bag to soar into my hands. The contents inside shimmered drawing me to the conclusion they were his Lucky Charms. “Don’t touch those” he screamed, I couldn’t help but laugh.
“You’re in no place to bargain. I want my friend back now or I’ll keep this shinny little coins.” My words cut through him ring of fire. His face glowed with furry- a second loud popping sound echoed through Culver and Stephen stood beside me bewildered. “Here you go” I said throwing him his charms. He vanished the second his fingertips made contact with the bag.
No one would ever know what happened. The only proof of his existence was to smashed snow before us. To this day Stephen and I have kept the leprechaun a secret.