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Teens care for siblings as adults go back to work

LYNN — And on the third snow day, the teenagers were left in charge.

Thursday, was a day of transition. Adults had to report to real life, but many children did not, as dozens of school districts remained closed after the blizzard.

In Lynn, Christina Alcalde’s parents had gone back to work, so the 17-year-old senior at Lynn Classical sat atop the steep hill at the Northern Avenue Playground on Thursday afternoon, making sure her three younger siblings — ages 9, 8, and 6 — didn’t kill themselves.

They had already created their own slides in the big mound left by the snowplow in their backyard, the monuments to the absolutely massive amounts of snow that were dropped on the region this week. And they had done a million other tiny things since the storm started — Minecraft and homework and cupcakes — so on Thursday Alcalde took them to the top of the hill and hoped they would slide their way to a nap.

“I’ve been really enjoying spending quality time with my siblings before I go to college,” she said as her 8-year-old sister, Yamilette, yelled “Watch out” and nearly took her out at the knees.

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Northern Avenue Playground had been well packed from thousands of sled rides over the previous three days. It’s kind of a perfect little slope, steep but not too steep, with no trees to hit and a good long flat area to run out at the bottom. The only thing that wasn’t flat and white were the jumps and the broken pieces of sleds.

Carissa Snow, a 15-year-old, had an eye on her younger brother and sister as they tore down the hill again and again, but the Snows live right on the park, and their mother can see them from the window, so Jayden, 8, and Adryanna, 10, are the unofficial mascot of snow days. “I call this invention ‘penguin-style,’ ” Jayden said as she slid down on her belly with her arms back.

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“They come in for something to eat every three hours, then they go back out,” Carissa said before she tried a snowboard for the first time — an event that involved a lot of screaming.

Tianna Lozzi, 17, was leaving the park with her 9-year-old brother and a few other kids, taking them for pizza.

“This is our second day here, because after being stuck in the house without anywhere to go, my parents kicked us out and told us to go sledding,” Lozzi said. “My mother just needed a break.”

The kids themselves admitted that they were feeling like they needed a break as well. The cabin fever, which can come on quickly and fill the room, was wearing on them. There are only so many games of Minecraft they could play.

“I can’t understand how they play it for hours,” Christina Alcalde said of her younger brothers. “I’ve tried to understand it, but I can’t.”

Everyone was tired of the ritual of keeping themselves occupied, but still, the alternative, a school day, had no backers. There was snow in the forecast Thursday night, and the kids on the hill hoped it was true.

“I really hope we get more snow,” Christina Alcalde said. “My AP Calculus teacher said we’re having a quiz the day we go back, so I never want to go back.”

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Nearby, Jayden Snow went down the hill for the umpteenth time. The boys threw snowballs at each other. It was good snowball snow.

“I don’t ever want to go back to school,” she said after losing her sled and going over a jump sideways. “The only bad thing about a snow day is having to walk back up the hill.”

Billy Baker can be reached at billy.baker@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @billy_baker.