Young and Foolish

Chapter 30: Reigning Ice Queen No Longer

Sarah's POV

Annie had teared up. I hadn't ever seen her this close to crying before, and honestly, it made me feel a bit teary as well. But I brushed off the feeling as I explained my plan to bring Teddy home for the holidays. 

And I guess I hadn't really thought that through at all because the second I mentioned it, Annie immediately scoffed at the whole 'infiltrate the prison camp and kidnap Teddy' thing. 

"How about we try to get in contact with him first?" she proposed. I mean, I guess that was a better idea. I still had to figure out why he didn't want to come home in the first place. And I figure he'd get really upset with me if I even managed to kidnap him against his will. 

"He hasn't been answering his phone," I replied. I hadn't been able to get in touch with him since he hung up on me the day we left him there. He couldn't have been still upset; it was like over a week ago. But then again, I was still upset over it and I'm not even the one that's alone in a juvenile detention boarding school. 

"Then we've got to find out some other way to get through to him," she declared, lightly banging her fist on the table. 

She glanced off to the side with an unfocused gaze before telling me Colby and Ryder were on their way. The both of us schooled our expressions, hiding the fact that we were nearly about to start crying literally moments before. We changed the subject topic to the art supply store I visited this morning. 

"Hey," Colby greeted, planting a sweet kiss on Annie's forehead before sitting down. Ryder offered a half wave, so I greeted him cheerily in response. 

"Ready to get your game on?" Annie challenged, "Boys against girls!" She held her hand out to me, and I took it, offering them a playful glare. Colby jokingly glared back, but Ryder simply rolled his eyes. Oh, I was surely going to beat him. I just had to get him into the competitive spirit. 

We went about the arcade, messing around in aimless fun. Colby and Annie played against each other, but whomever won between them would console the loser with a kiss. Ryder rolled his eyes at them the first time they did that, and by the sixth time, even I was light-heartedly booing them for PDA. 

Unfortunately, Ryder was significantly better than me at most of the arcade games. I lost to him in everything except for the claw machine. And yes, I absolutely used that opportunity to gloat as best as I could. 

"Take that, Stinkface! Suck it!" I taunted, giggling wildly. 

"At least I didn't lose at everything else!" he retorted sourly. 

"Tell that to all the toys you won. Oh wait, you've got none!" 

He grumpily shoved my shoulder when he couldn't come up with anything more to retaliate. I could tell he wasn't too upset by my jesting, just a tad upset that he lost his winning streak. 

I managed to win a couple small plushies. I gave one to Ryder who was pouting after all my harsh roasting, and though he pretended he didn't like the fairy princess I gave him, he didn't once let it out of his sight for the rest of the day. 

And when we were all done with playing games, we grabbed some burgers and fries and sat outside on the sidewalk curb to eat them. 

"So how'd you used to spend your free time in your old town if you didn't have an arcade?" Colby asked. 

"Most kids hung out at the park in the summer. During winter, my friends and I would spend all day skating," I replied, smiling softly to myself at those fond memories. 

"Like ice skating?" Ryder inquired. 

"Oh! I totally remember those little ice skating competitions the town held for New Year's," Annie piped up, so easily excitable. 

"You're talking to the reigning gold champion of six years," I flaunted in a mock grandiose manner, but then faltered. I didn't let the happiness fall too far from my expression though as I continued, "It was silly to bring along my skates when I moved, I guess, because of the warmer climate here."

"Yeah, we don't get any snow here," Annie added, frowning at all the wintry fun we would be missing out on. 

"Have you tried roller skating?" Ryder suggested. I stared at him in thought for a moment. 

"No, actually. I don't think it's quite the same as ice skating, but I suppose the feeling is similar enough. I might even have to relearn a few tricks." I tapped my foot as I thought about it deeper. It was actually not a bad idea at all. But I guess it would just remind me of everything I left behind. 

Danny was my skating partner–ex-partner–and, I don't know, skating without him just sounded so lonely to me. He had been the one to win gold with me every year, but now that we were separated, neither of us would be able to participate in that anymore. At least he had hockey to fill that void. I didn't have any ice here to replace that. 

My family had so many wonderful snowy themed memories that I'd never be able to recreate now that my family had broken apart and we didn't live anywhere near snow. All the sledding and snowmen and hot chocolate I had bonded over with friends and family now seemed like miles away. So much of my life seemed like it was miles away. 

I shook the sad thoughts away. 

Annie handed me the last of her fries, and I put on a wide grin as I ate them from her hand. 

Who needed to snow when you had bright, sunny skies and endless summer heat, right?