Merry Snow Day

Snow blankets Roseville and Lucy is ready to celebrate, until the morning news announces that every school is open. Cue a mournful walk to class, a one-dog boycott from David, and a talking snowman with a death wish.

Merry Snow Day
Chapter	3 of 127 (list of chapters)
Published	May 8, 2006 (2006-05-08)
Page count	4
Major characters	Lucy, Mike, Yashy, Daisy, David
Locations	Lucy's house, Neighborhood sidewalks and streets
Collected in	Volume One, Omnibus 1
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Synopsis

Lucy wakes to her alarm dreading another day of school, until she spots the snow falling outside and joyfully declares a snow day. Mike shows up at her door, but the TV soon announces that every school in the area is open, and Lucy bursts into tears. Mike does his best to console her, but when he reaches out she stops him with a quiet "Don't touch me..", and he shyly pulls his hand back.

On the walk to school they pass David, sitting in the snow and boycotting class until everybody gets their snow day. He invites Lucy to join the cause, and she agrees it's a pretty noble one, but she rebuffs him, claiming she doesn't like smelly hippies.

Further down the road, a huge snowman calls Lucy fat, and she punches its head clean off — only for Yashy to pop out of the snow, revealed as the prankster, and get stomped right back in. Daisy catches up and fawns over Mike, and Yashy earns a toss into a snow pile for accusing her of "trying to steal her man", though Daisy still locks in a study date with Mike for the evening.

Talking snowmen should watch their language around Lucy.

The last stretch of the walk is a sheet of ice, and when Yashy glides past like a figure skater, Lucy gets an idea and skates off ahead. Daisy makes the most of the moment, faking a slip of her own so that Mike will catch her. Lucy pulls off a whole skating routine and drops into a triumphant pose right in front of a teacher, and a hastily faked twisted ankle doesn't buy her a trip home: "Very funny. My classroom. NOW."

Trivia & observations

• Lucy's quiet "Don't touch me.." is the first time she turns down comfort from Mike on-page. Her aversion to being touched was already on display in Simple Pleasures.
• Snow days are "completely foreign" to Oliver, who is Australian. His commentary wonders, "I think it's from cartoons. What's snow?"
• Veronica's commentary points out the absurdity of David staging his protest "in the middle of nowhere. Not even in front of the school!"
• Per Veronica's commentary, Yashy is "saying what certain people are actually thinking", and Lucy gets flustered not because she thinks Yashy is wrong. In a much later Tumblr post, Veronica added that Yashy "sorta represented Lucy's mean intrusive thoughts a lot of the time, but when push came to shove Yashy's obnoxious self would advocate for Lucy when she couldn't." The "steal her man" outburst is also the first time on-page that Yashy pushes Mike and Lucy as a couple.
• Veronica based the final page on an old comic she made "long long ago, before 'Bittersweet Candy Bowl' was a thing," and she would have liked Lucy to do even more stunts if space had allowed.
• The poodle teacher is the first teacher to appear in the series. A poodle teacher shows up again in Unfit for Education.

Related chapters

• Unfit for Education: The very next chapter picks up in the classroom Lucy gets marched off to, and the whole thing is about Yashy tagging along to school with the gang.
• Pillow Talk: The snow-day flashback in this much later chapter follows the same shape as Lucy's morning here, with a playful moment in the snow between Mike and Lucy ending in her pushing him away.
• Under Pressure: Daisy's staged slip gets an unstaged sequel there. She genuinely goes under in the pool while distracted by Mike, and this time he rescues her for real.