The moment Lia Douglas stepped out of the car, she shuddered as a gust of wind hit her in the face. It was so sudden, it made her whole body immediately freeze up from the chill. When she could move, she shook her head as if to warm her body. Scowling, she hurried inside the main building of Kingsridge High to avoid the coldness. Normally she loved the cold, but today was too cold! How could anyone survive in this weather?

Thank goodness she could tell the cold weather was about to end. That means there will be lots of fresh air and green trees, not to mention the grassy hill to run around in.

Lia closed her eyes to imagine smelling the sweet scent of a warm sunny day. In her imagination, she could see the lovely view: the green grass all around, surrounded by trees crowded with fresh, green leaves and bushes blooming with beautiful flowers. Butterflies were fluttering around and cats and dogss playing with their owners while some adults sit on the bench to talk and little children, like her, run around, playing all sorts of lovely games. But when she opened her eyes again, she was facing the ice-freezing cold.

She ran up the stairs to the grey, familiar building and met with her friend Shervonne McGuire, who was wrapped in a snug, comfy sweater and winter pants which made Lia envy her, freezing in her summer jacket and skinny jeans. Not exactly an outfit for the cold. “It’s cold outside!” Shervonne exclaimed and Lia couldn’t agree more. “Why are you wearing your summer jacket?” She looked down at her scornfully. “And your skinny jeans!”

“I didn’t realize it’ll be this cold,” she muttered under her breath, hugging herself to keep warm. “I thought the weather would be warmer, not colder. Gah!” She frowned.

Shervonne pulled her into a big, warm hug. “You poor thing, come here,” she said with a light tease in her voice.

Lia shuddered once more as a light wind breezed by. “Ugh,” she muttered.

“All right, there’s still snow here, babeh!” a hyper voice said from outside the school entrance. That voice could only belong to one person. The two girls turned around and sure enough, there was their lovable, hyper, tomboy friend Rylee Thompson, with her arms stretched out in the snow as she spun around in a circle.

“How does the snow taste like?” Shervonne shouted at her. Lia just shook her head.

Rylee stuck her tongue out as a snowflake landed in . Making a face, she gagged. “Oh yuck!” she moaned, gripping . “It’s definitely not strawberry!” She paused. “It tastes like cherry.”

Shervonne and Lia burst out laughing. It was so typical of Rylee.

Suddenly out of nowhere a cry came out, “Snowball fight!!!” and a snowball hit Rylee on the back of her head. It melted down her back and she yelped in surprise.

Whirling around, Rylee saw that Paige Simmons was holding a snowball in her hand, grinning. “You’re on, Princess!” she said, grabbing a handful of snow.

“Give me your best shot, Sloppy Joe!” Paige called back.

“Sloppy Joe?”

A snowball fight broke out between the two of them and not being able to resist, Shervonne and Lia joined in. As other students arrived, they stopped in their tracks to watch in amazement as four crazy, headless chickens ran about through snowy grounds at each other. Some of them joined in, the rest just stared incredulously with total disdain by their childishness.

They knew they were being stupid and silly but they didn’t care. The girls were having too much fun. And it was their loss, for not knowing the meaning of ‘fun’.

Everyone could tell that they were best friends, although they are different yet alike at the same time.

Paige was a very outgoing but shy girl. She was always fun to be around and could always make her friends laugh. She was cute and girly at the same time. She always had the cutest clothes no matter what. She was easy to love and had a great personality. She would talk to anybody, being the social butterfly that she was. Paige’s shoulder-length blonde hair and twinkling blue eyes shows off the cuteness in her.

Shervonne was the funky, creative one among the group. She cannot sit still and always had to be on the go. She was very opinionated, blunt, and straightforward and she didn’t believe in ‘beating around the bush’ which sometimes can come off as tactlessness. Her taste in clothes was wild, due to her creative streak. Just look at her curly, red, bushy hair and her mischievous green eyes and you’ll know!

Rylee was similar to Shervonne except for the fact that she was more of a tomboy than Shervonne and she hated shopping. She hated school, although she got an average in her grade. She would spend a day shooting hoops than to hang out at a mall or to be in school. Her brown short, cropped hair made her look even more like a boy, especially when she dresses in sweats. But when she flashes that brown eyes at people, it’s a sign saying she’s pissed.

Lia, on the other hand, was a mixture of all three. She was bubbly, outgoing and very friendly. People feel comfortable with her almost immediately. No one dares to mess with her because she could be scarier than Rylee. She’s fiercely protective of her friends and would go out to do anything for them. She was compassionate but really stubborn and really impulsive. Her taste in clothes ranges from girly pink to outrageous to sloppy, depending on her mood; whatever that would match her black layered, shoulder-length hair, although her kind brown eyes say otherwise.

The girls call themselves the Four Seasons because they were all born in each different season of the year. They thought it was better than calling themselves the Cool Girls or something.

 “All right, that is quite enough,” their principal Mrs. Forbes said.

The Four Seasons stopped and ran inside the school building before they were considered late. They hurried to their homeroom and quickly sat down in their seats. But they couldn’t stay quiet. They chattered on for a bit, not realizing when Ms. Payton, their class teacher entered the room.

“Whoa, settle down! Or I’m not telling you my special announcements,” she said and everyone hushed up. Ms. Payton was a sweet, young teacher at twenty-four and everyone adores her. She was always hyper, energetic and she always knows how to get the class into the lesson. She makes school fun, unlike the other teachers who just drone on and on for an hour or more. And when she says she has a special announcement, it’s not those boring announcements but really cool ones!

“What is it?” Toby McGuire, Shervonne's stepbrother, wanted to know.

"I spoke to Principal Forbes a couple of months ago, suggesting an idea to her. She didn’t think it was a good idea at first but eventually she came through. She has finally agreed to let me carry on with my plan. Furthermore, all your parents had given you permission and signed the form, plus paid the fee so you don’t have to bother about asking them.” She smiled, pausing dramatically.

“Don’t keep us in suspense! It’s not fair that you should!” Shervonne begged and there was a murmur in agreement.

Their teacher laughed. “All right all right.” She grinned. “We’re going to Korea!”

Everyone squealed and began to talk again. This was exciting! Korea! They’ve never been on a field trip overseas before! This is definitely something different.

“Why, Ms. Payton?” Toby asked.

“Who cares?” his friend Ned Blankenship called out. “We’re going to Korea!”

“I’ve been to Korea before!” one kid said.

“Then you don’t have to come,” another shot back.

“We’re going there because I think you kids deserve a break for all the hard work I’ve been seeing,” Ms. Payton went on. “Plus, this is a good chance to learn about other countries’ cultures. Furthermore, I managed to get Mr. Hayes to come along to chaperone the boys while I chaperone the girls.”

“How long will we be going for?” Dylan Chiu asked.

“Sadly, one week,” Ms. Payton replied and the class groaned, wishing they could have more time. “We’ll be leaving next Monday, so start packing!”

Lia, Shervonne, Paige and Rylee all exchanged glances. This was going to be so COOL! They couldn’t understand how they have to concentrate on their work now that they have heard the extremely good news! In fact, nobody could pay any attention to the class. They were too excited to listen.

During break, the Four Seasons were fervently discussing about the upcoming trip.

“Can you believe our good luck?” Paige sighed dreamily as they sat down on one of the tables in the cafeteria. “We’re going to Korea, where SHINee, 2PM and all those K-pop bands live. And we’re going there! Ohmaigosh!”

Shervonne laughed, taking her food out from her lunch bag. “I know what you mean. This is great!”

“But I doubt that we’ll even get to meet them,” Rylee said.

The others agreed. “Fat chance,” they said.

“Never mind,” Paige said. “We still have a lot of things to do!”

“Sightseeing and all,” Shervonne chimed in, getting hyped up about it again.

“And fooling around in the parks,” Rylee said. “I heard it’s very beautiful.”

“And to think that our parents have already agreed to this and already paid for the trip is even better,” Lia added, beaming. She paused. “Do anyone know how long would the plane flight be?”

“Roughly ten hours,” Paige, the brains of the group, spoke up.

“Ten hours?!” the other three girls shrieked in disbelief.

“Man, that kills,” Lia grumbled. “We’re going to be so jetlagged.”

“Agree,” Rylee nodded.

“Hey, let’s not grumble,” Shervonne spoke up. “We got a bigger crisis.”

“What’s that?”

“We need to go shopping for new clothes!” she gushed.

Paige nodded enthusiastically, Lia rolled her eyes and Rylee muttered, “Kill me now.”

Shervonne frowned. “Don’t tell me you’re going to Korea without any nice clothes?”

“Sher, we’ve got clothes, nice ones even. We don’t need to buy more. We probably might not even be able to take all of it,” Paige replied patiently. “But we’ll come with you to go shopping,” she added hastily at Shervonne’s disappointed face.

Lia and Rylee sighed reluctantly. No matter how much they protest, they would end up following Shervonne to every shopping mall there is before next Monday.