Belleview Snowy Night and Snowball Fight

Belleview Snowy Night and Snowball Fight brings Lara Jean and John Ambrose McClaren together overnight at Belleview after an April snowstorm makes driving unsafe. The enforced stay gives them a private, playful interlude: a late-night invitation leads to a snowball fight, and a near fall leaves John holding Lara Jean at the waist. Yet their closeness does not resolve her romantic uncertainty. John acknowledges that he would kiss her if she were not still hung up on Peter Kavinsky, while their later conversation about the hot-tub video reveals both the humiliation Lara Jean feels and the reassurance she receives from John.

Following Genevieve to Belleview

Before the storm, Lara Jean follows Genevieve around town with John. Familiar observations about Genevieve return to her, including knowing without looking what she has ordered at Wendy’s: a small Frosty, small fries for dipping, and six chicken nuggets, also for dipping. The recognition is intimate but unsettled; Lara Jean knows old details even as she is conscious of what she no longer knows about Genevieve.

They lose Genevieve at a stoplight and head to Belleview, where Lara Jean has a planning meeting for the USO party. With the event approaching, the organizers are working harder to finish preparations. Belleview has become a refuge for Lara Jean: Genevieve does not know about the party, and Lara Jean can avoid encountering her and Peter there. The place offers relief in part because Peter is single again and, as Lara Jean understands it, free to spend time with Genevieve.

The storm makes Belleview a refuge

Snow begins during the meeting. The people gathered at the windows remark on the unlikely April weather, then return to decorating for the USO party. John helps with the banner. By the time the work is finished, several inches of snow have accumulated and turned icy, making the roads dangerous.

Stormy refuses to let John drive. When Lara Jean suggests that her father could pick them up, Stormy rejects the idea rather than risk the widowed man having an accident on the way. She also insists that Lara Jean call home and tell her father that they are staying. Lara Jean protests that she has brought none of the things she needs for the night—not even a toothbrush or pajamas—but Stormy takes charge and reassures her that she will be looked after. That is how John and Lara Jean come to spend the night together at a retirement home.

The snow changes the view from Stormy’s living-room window. Pink flowers have already appeared in the garden, but the falling snow soon covers them. Lara Jean compares the quick, heavy snowfall to powdered sugar being shaken over pancakes. Inside, she and John play oversized checkers; he beats her twice, and she admits that he is simply better at the game. Stormy makes blended drinks with a splash of rum to warm them and heats frozen spanakopita, which neither guest eats. Bing Crosby plays on the stereo. At half past nine, Stormy says she needs her beauty sleep, while Lara Jean and John exchange a look at how early it still is for them.

A midnight invitation

After John leaves for the night, he tells Lara Jean to keep her phone on vibrate because he will text. She lies awake in Stormy’s sleeping bag, playing Candy Crush and waiting. The room feels too hot: the high heating, the sleeping bag, and the peach satin nightgown Stormy has insisted she wear make sleep uncomfortable. Outside, icy flakes tap against the windowsill while Stormy snores.

John’s message asks whether she wants to play in the snow. Lara Jean answers at once. She gets up so quickly that she nearly trips over the sleeping bag, uses her phone to find her coat and boots, and runs out without her scarf rather than make him wait. John is already in the hallway. His hair is sticking up at the back, and Lara Jean recognizes how easily that small, familiar sight could make her fall in love with him if she let herself.

John sings the opening question from the snowman song, and Lara Jean laughs so hard that his warning not to wake the residents only makes her laugh harder. They run down the carpeted hallway, trying and failing to keep quiet, then pass through the sliding doors into the courtyard. The scene turns an inconvenient night indoors into a mischievous shared escape, with the empty, sleeping retirement home around them and the snow waiting outside.

The snowball fight and its pause

The play becomes a real snowball fight when Lara Jean throws a snowball that hits John in the eye. She moves to apologize, but he is already gathering more snow and lunging toward her. They chase each other around the courtyard; Lara Jean lands another hit squarely in his back. Their contest ends when she nearly slips and falls. John catches her, and for a moment he keeps his arm around her waist. A snowflake rests on his eyelashes as he tells her that he would kiss her if he did not know she was still hung up on Peter.

The near kiss connects this snowy night to Lara Jean’s earlier romantic memories with John: before Peter, the most romantic experience she recalls was with John, in the rain among the soccer balls. Now, although she has never dated him, he is present in two of her most romantic moments. The repetition gives their closeness the quality of a possibility that keeps returning, while the mention of Peter names the obstacle that has not gone away. John releases Lara Jean and points out that she is freezing; they return inside without kissing.

The video and the feelings between them

Later, a conversation about sexual intimacy leads John to assume that Lara Jean and Peter may have had sex. Lara Jean corrects him and realizes that he has seen the hot-tub video. John explains that someone showed it to him in homeroom, but that he did not recognize Lara Jean at first; only after the time-capsule party, when he worked out that she and Peter were together, did he connect the video to her. Lara Jean says they were only kissing and wishes he had not seen it.

What matters to her is not only that John saw the recording, but how he sees her afterward. She feels that people look at her differently now and had hoped John would still think of her as the Lara Jean he knew before. He assures her that she remains the same to him and that he will always see her that way. His response makes her feel warm despite the cold, and she wants him to kiss her—not only to discover whether it feels different from kissing Peter, but also to make the hurt recede for a while.

John does not make a move. Lara Jean senses that Peter remains present in her thoughts, so a kiss would not be only about John and her. The night therefore ends with tenderness rather than a new commitment: Belleview has offered shelter, laughter, and the reassurance that John still recognizes her, but it has not made her feelings for Peter disappear.