Snowbound

When a freak blizzard traps you at school overnight with kids you barely know, you must work together to keep everyone safe, warm, and calm — and maybe find real friends along the way.

Riley Morgan was the kind of kid who ate lunch alone and pretended to like it. Eleven years old, new to Pinecrest Middle School, and exactly zero friends deep. Back in the old town, Riley had a best friend named Sam and a favorite seat at the corner booth of Rosie's Diner. Here in Pinecrest, Riley had a locker that stuck and a lunch table by the recycling bins.

'Two months,' Riley muttered, tracing a finger along the edge of the desk. 'Two months and not a single person has asked me to sit with them.' It wasn't self-pity — it was just math. Sixty-one days, zero invitations.

It was a gray Friday afternoon in January, and Riley was watching the snow fall through the classroom window. The flakes had been tiny all morning, but now they were fat and fast, piling up on the windowsill like cotton. The teacher, Mr. Hadley, kept glancing at his phone with a worried look.

'That's a lot of snow,' Riley thought. 'Like, a lot a lot.' Something about the way Mr. Hadley's jaw was set made Riley's stomach tighten. Teachers didn't look at their phones like that unless something was wrong.