Make My Way

Chapter Forty

Stella's POV

I opened my eyes and saw the light seeping into the room through the the crack in the curtains. Xavier was on the other side of the bed, on his side, facing away from me. I slid out of bed and changed clothes as quickly as I could. I pulled a striped shirt over my head and slipped on the overalls I had packed with some fuzzy socks before sneaking out the door and downstairs into the kitchen. Aurora, Blake, and Easton were already up and talking in the kitchen.

They turned and smiled at me when I walked in. "Where's your flour?" Aurora asked, "I want to make pancakes." I rolled my eyes and smiled. Typical Aurora. My parents must have had everything stocked up with the basics for food but they also left us with money for other food and stuff if we wanted to go into town. I helped Aurora find the ingredients she needed almond with a pan and soon, the smell of cooking pancakes filled the kitchen and must of reached upstairs.

Xavier came down the stairs, looking for the source of the smell. When he found it, he made sure he got the first one. He drenched it in syrup and dug in. Merrick and Vivian came slowly trudging up the stairs next. They sat down next to each other at the table groggily and Aura carried over a plate of pancakes for each of them. When we were all done eating, it was noon. We decided if we were really going to have some fun, we should wake up the others. Xavier was the first to volunteer.

I walked just behind him but let him go in. He went to the door of Willow's room and knocked softly. When nothing happened, he knocked louder. A third time. Nothing. He opened the door and ran over to her curtains. He wrenched them open and she simply rolled over and pulled a pillow over her head. Xavier decided he had no choice. He took a step back and got a running start before jumping on her bed. She squealed and slid out of bed. "Fine. I'm up."

Xavier smiled to himself and went to the other room. He knocked first and got a groan in response. He opened the door to find Aria laying in Adrian's arms, both still fully clothed, but in pajamas. "Wake up sleepyheads. We've got stuff to do," Xavier announced. I was not aware of this stuff we had to do.

Two hours later, at 1:30 PM, we were all finally dressed and ready for this 'stuff we had to do.' Xavier gathered us all in the kitchen and started his speech. "Okay, so, for those of you who don't know, we are in the Black Hills. A few miles away is Terry Peak, a ski resort. Not far from there is Deadwood, a huge tourist centered town. They barely have any full time residents but a lot of people go there to gamble and stuff. There's a trolley you can take for really cheap around town between Deadwood and another small town, Lead. So, our options for not only today, but the week are skiing slash snowboarding, spend the day in the town, or sit at home and do nothing." Xavier looked around at us expectantly.

I piped up, "I'd be up for skiing tomorrow and then Deadwood the next day if that's cool with you guys but today I'm feeling more of a sit around and do nothing kind of day, you know what I mean?" We all agreed to stay home today but go out and ski tomorrow.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

The next morning, we all set an alarm for 6:30 so we could make it to the slopes by 8. I pulled on some leggings, followed by jeans. Then I pulled on my thin snow pants with a light jacket and was ready to go. When we got there, we split up into groups. Aura, Blake, and Easton had never skied before and we're all going to take lessons together. The rest of us had but Willow, Adrian, and I decided to try snowboarding and were taking lessons. That left Aria, Xavier, Merrick and Vivian to ski right away this morning.

Lessons started at nine but the slopes opened at eight so the four who weren't taking lessons took the lift up and went over to the other side of the mountain. We agreed to meet down at the lodge at 12:30 for lunch, half an hour after lessons ended. Then, that afternoon, we'd all meet up and try to go out on the slopes together.

I got my board situated and got on the conveyor belt thing to get to the top of the Bunny Hill. I put my other boot on the board and tightened it in. I stood up and made it a whole three feet down the hill before I fell flat on my butt. Willow made it almost ten. Adrian, however, seemed to be a natural. He slowly eased himself down the hill with out falling once. I just rolled my eyes. This would be interesting.

We met our instructor in the place they had told us to at nine. He was a young guy in his early twenties and, let me just say, he was HOT. His dark blonde hair fell slightly into his blue eyes, falling out from wear it was tucked in his hat. And his jawline! Holy crap.

He talked about the basics and we figured out which foot was our dominant one. Then we went back to the bunny hill. Again, Adrian nailed it. Leaving Willow and I in the dust. Or snow....

Then, after Willow and I managed to make it down the hill without falling, we headed for the lift that led up to the green slopes. Although they were supposedly the easiest slopes, they seemed crazy hard to me. At the end of our lesson, our instructor took us through the terrain park. Willow and I stuck to the straight path down but Adrian tried a few small jumps. Our instructor on the other hand, was all over the place. He was jumping off of things, grinding railings, and going over ramps like crazy, and I think that might've been the hottest thing I've ever seen...