// A W2S Fanfic //
If it is true that "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results", then Alex had been living in insanity her whole life.
Alex feels like she as been going through the motions for way too lo...
Alex had her hand on the seatbelt buckle, anxious and just about ready to jump off the shuttle as soon as it stopped right in front of the queue.
Leaning into Stella, she hissed, "For fucks sake! Could this guy drive any slower? He didn't even pass the oversized trucks at all. We were supposed to get there 2 hours ago. I swear, didn't we leave Calgary at 5 AM?"
"We'll get there, it's gonna be fine!" Stella laughs lightly. Alex likes to think that she's not really one for envy, but she wished she had a fraction of her best friend's chill instead of being all nerves and anxiety all the time.
"I just hate being late, you know that." Alex was struggling to keep her voice down.
"It's not a job interview," Stella smiled, trying to keep things light, "we're off to cross out numero uno on that ever-growing list. You should be excited."
And she was. Alex was very excited. They've been planning this trip for the last two months--pretty much as soon as Stella finished writing her final semester exams, they had started making concrete plans. And had Stella not called her out on her incessant need to control and plan everything, Alex would've had an itinerary that would've accounted for every minute of their big adventure.
Now, they were finally in Banff and Alex was equal parts excited and nervous about snowboarding for the first time.
But it wasn't really just about snowboarding or the list, it was more about what it signified for her.
This was her first step to try and be who she had always wanted to be. Instead of miserably and aimlessly flailing about as if she had taken the backseat in her own life's story.
And finally, between checking the time for what must have easily been the hundredth time in the shuttle and switching to google maps to check and see their ETA, they had arrived at the Sunshine Village.
Everything looked blindingly bright as the sun reflected off of the powdery white snow on the ground. Alex would've loved some time to stretch and take this moment in, but looking at her phone to check the time again, they literally had 15 minutes to get their pass, take the gondola up the mountain and make it to their snowboarding lesson.
"Take a breath Alex." Stella nudged while taking her time to get off the shuttle and gathering their stuff.
Meanwhile, Alex was frantically looking through her messy wallet for the two Sunshine cards she got so she can get their day pass. "Do you want to grab the boards or the pass?"
"The easier option." she laughed.
Alex exhaled a light laugh, "Okay get in the queue for the pass and I'll grab the boards."
She went to the back of the shuttle to grab all the snowboarding stuff, taking her winter boots off to quickly switch to the rental snowboarding boots. For a second her mind wandered and thought about all the anxious, sweaty feet that have been in the same boots. Gross.
She shook the idea off of her head, pausing to look for her friend in the queue. Thankfully, they decided to go on a Tuesday so Sunshine Village wasn't too busy and the queue wasn't bad.
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Unable to figure out how to properly lace up and fasten her snowboarding boots, Alex started to walk with them loosely on her feet. Definitely not the smartest idea when you're also holding 2 boards, 2 helmets and another pair of boots for your friend.
She paused for a breath, setting one of the snowboards against one of the metal stands while the other was still tucked under her left arm. "Now where did she go?" she was talking to herself, a nervous habit.
"Alex!" she heard Stella yelling.
She whipped around to the direction of her friend's voice.
*Thunk*
As she turned she hit something with the tail of one of the boards and it did not at all sound like a metal rail.
A low, "Ow." confirmed that she had hit accidentally hit a someone, rather than a something.
Alex froze before she could muster a panicked, "I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" In front of her was someone crouched down, looking like they were in the middle of fiddling with their boots before the tail of her board met with his head.
"You're alright." came the mumbled response, as he rubbed the right side of the back of his head.
A repeated "I'm so sorry!" was all she could say as she drowned in the perfectly dreadful mixture of panic and anxiety.
At this point he stood up offered an awkward half smile, while continuing to focus on the ground in between the two of them, "I'm alright, lad."
She offered a fourth, "I'm so sorry." Touching then patting his arm awkwardly before taking her awkward hand away, but not before a fifth, "I'm so sorry."
"So it's true then?" he asked grinning, still only really making eye contact with the ground.
"Pardon?" Alex was confused.
"So it's true then?" he repeated.
"I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean."
"That stereotype about Canadians saying sorry a lot."
It took a second before her worried expression slowly broke into an anxious smile, "I suppose." It was only then that she really noticed the accent. Some UK accent? Maybe Aussie? She was absolutely horrible at telling the difference. She looked at the time on her phone again which read 8:52 AM, "I'm sorry I really gotta go. Sure you're okay?"
"You're alright lad," he points at the now goggles already on his face, "Got safety goggles on and it's not even the hardest I've hit my head today."
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Okay so what do we think of the direction and pace of the story? Are the chapters too short? I was thinking of making it a bit longer but couldn't wait to share the first chapter and see what everyone thinks so far.
And truly, I appreciate any feedback. So please vote and comment and let me know what you think?
