A Season of Firsts

Chapter 13

I have to say, I've seen better skiers.

Cara is currently making her way down the baby slope in snow plough, and I'm sat nearby watching in amusement as Hallie feeds her encouraging words. I don't think they're working very well though, because I can see Cara's legs shaking from here. I've never seen her so scared, and I'm an awful friend, but it's hilarious.

We paid a visit to Rory's family's store earlier to rent some gear for Cara, and I tried to make the visit as short as possible, because Cara was in interrogation mode from the moment she laid eyes on the poor boy.

Thankfully, Rory just seemed highly amused by the whole ordeal, even when she asked him – wait for it - what his biggest turn off in a girl is. It was at that point that my cheeks started flaming red and I dragged Cara out of the door before she could embarrass me further, not giving Rory a chance to answer.

I'm scrolling mindlessly through my camera roll on my phone when a shriek pierces the air, causing me to look up to find the source of the noise. It looks like Cara has finally had enough of skiing, because both her and Hallie's skis are off and a snowball fight is ensuing. I scramble up to my feet and run over, hastily scooping some snow off the ground on my way so I can join in. My first shot hits its obvious target of Hallie's bright red hair, earning another glass-shattering shriek, "That went down my neck! You're going to pay for that," Hallie yells at me.

She turns suddenly and starts running straight at me, and I feel genuine fear, because the look on her face is menacing. I set off running away from her, but I'm too late, and she gains on me before I can get far. She wraps her arms around my waist and rugby tackles me to the ground. I'm glad the snow is thick here, because if not, that would have definitely hurt.

I'm trying to catch my breath from laughing too much when Cara comes running over and jumps on top of us, and now we're a pile of bodies laughing hysterically while passers-by look at us like we belong in a mental asylum. But I don't care what they think, and neither do Hallie and Cara evidently, because they almost let me pass out before letting me up from the bottom of the pile-on.

"Okay," I say as I stand up and brush off my salopettes, calling it a day on the mountain before we get kicked off for unruly behaviour, "let's go shopping."

A few hours later, we pull into the bus stop nearest the huge shopping mall in Vancouver, where Mabel is meeting us. We pile off the bus and don't have far to walk before we reach the impressive glass front entrance.

As we enter through the rotating door, all of us squeezing into one tiny pod of the door, laughing as our faces are almost pressed up to the glass, I spy Mabel sitting primly on a bench a few metres away, legs crossed and distracted by her phone.

I make a shushing gesture to Hallie and Cara with my finger against my lips as I creep up behind the bench Mabel is situated on, then shout, "Hey Mabel," louder than I intended to and grab her shoulders. She squeals, jumps up off the bench at lightning speed, and starts cursing at me when she realises who scared her.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't resist," I say, laughing at her shell-shocked expression.

"You will be sorry when I get you back," she says, only pretending to be annoyed at me now. I hope.

"Hi, I'm Cara," Cara steps closer to Mabel, introducing herself.

"Hey, I'm Mabel! It's so nice to meet you, I've heard loads about you from that witch over there," Mabel says with a sideways glance at me, and instantly wraps Cara in a hug, in usual Mabel fashion.

"All good things, I hope." Cara replies sweetly, addressing Mabel but looking at me with her eyebrows raised in question.

"I only speak the truth," I say, neither confirming nor denying.