Trespassing isn't really illegal, they just tell us not to do it. So when it finally stops snowing, and when the wind isn't turning over semi-trucks on the highway, and when the sun is streaming through the perfect baby blue sky, the only logical thing to do is to take the skates off the hook, ring all your friends, get in the jeep, and go to the lake. The lake might be located on Richard Sulley's land, but since we all know for a fact that Richard Sulley takes his family to Florida during the holidays, the lake is free. We just have to hide the two cars on the side road and on the off chance anyone drives on regional road 78, they wouldn't be able to catch a glimpse of us skating. The first time Lea and I skated on the lake was three years ago, when we didn't know how to test the integrity of the ice. She ended up falling into the shallow end of the lake, the memory makes me smile. I turn back around to catch her big green eyes. Yup, she was thinking about the exact same thing.
"You did it again!" Zach shouts from the seat next to her.
"Did what?" Lea asks, her voice is sugar and she's bundled up in a navy blue coat with a baby pink scarf.
"He means you two had an entire conversation with a single look." Isaac says from the driver's seat. He gives a squeeze of my hand and takes his eyes off the snowy road for a single second to shoot me a smile.
"I'd say that it comes with living together but honestly, we've been doing this since forever." I instinctively reach over to turn down the PTX Christmas album so that we can better hear Lea and Zach in the back.
"Remember when our bus took a wrong turn, like a billion years ago, and I was way at the front and you were at the back and we both looked at each other at the exact same time?" Lea asks.
"Yes!" I swivel in my seat to look at her and laugh. "What about the billion times that we've spoken at the same time? It probably comes from just being together all the time."
"Zach and I have been living together our whole lives, Lina. You and Lea are on a whole other level of existence." Isaac signals, even though we haven't seen another car in twenty minutes, and tucks my jeep gently on the hidden side road.
"Thanks for driving." I tell him as I let go of the warmth of his hand to slip on my gloves.
"No problem, gorgeous." He jumps out of the car to get my door, Zach does the same for Lea. We sit in the car and laugh at how adorable they are. My boots crunch the snow underneath them, and I kinda wish I had worn snow pants because the wind might have died down, but it's still negative 10 degrees Celsius. I swing my skates over my shoulder, tuck the drill into my backpack, and set off for the lake. Zach and Isaac each carry a shovel, and they bound in front of Lea and me to get to the lake first to start shoveling sooner.
"From behind, a stranger might think they were the same person." Lea points out. Isaac and Zach are nearly the exact same height, despite being a year apart, like Lea and I. But I know that we'd be able to tell them apart from any distance. Isaac's steps are longer, and Zach bounces with each step, his tell tale whenever he's super exited.
I link my arm through Lea's as we keep walking through the snow and the forest. "I'll miss our boys."
"Nope. Stop. It's like the last day before school starts again when we go to Fort Burwell and spend the whole day swimming and eating ice cream and not saying the s word. So today, no talk about tomorrow."
"Agreed."
Two minutes later, we make it to the lake, where the boys are already shoveling a small path. Lea and Zach sit on the little bench to lace on their skates while Isaac and I keep our boots on as we venture out a few meters onto the frozen lake.
"Want me to do it?" Isaac asks.
"You're cute." I laugh at him. He and I both know that there is no way I'm letting him drill into the ice for me. He laughs and takes a step back as I insert the five inch long bit and begin to drill. By the time I run out of bit, I haven't made it through the ice. Even though there was little doubt that the ice wouldn't be think enough, the fact still makes me smile.
"We're clear." I tell Isaac as I stand up. He takes a few steps closer to me now, assured by the fact that the ice is thick enough. His biggest fear is falling through, but he's still the one who comes out with me to test the ice. He towers over me, by a whole foot, but I still get a clear look into his smooth brown eyes as he smirks and plants a kiss on my forehead.
"Zach!" He yells over my shoulder.
"What?!" His brother yells back.
"We'll live!"
Lea and Zach jump onto the ice and start skating over to us, shovels in hand. We spend the next ten minutes clearing a large portion of the snow off to the side, while also initiating multiple snow ball fights. By the time we throw the shovels back on the shore, my toes are frozen and my hands are shaking, but that would never stop me from spending another four hours on the lake. Which is what we do. Four hours. What could we possibly have done in four hours with blades on our feet and wind in our eyes? Well, Zach plays hockey, so he totally just spent he whole time skating back and forth as fast as possible, only Lea was hooked onto his coat, laughing the whole time. Zach would come to a stop, and catch her as she kept flying, her pink scarf twirling along with her. And Isaac? He was content skating laps around our makeshift rink, his hand in mine as we died from laugher watching Lea and Zach. By the time my hockey skates started to hurt my numb feet, our stomachs were growling and our fingers were frost bitten and our faces were permanently frozen pink.
"Race you to the bench?" Isaac calls out to Zach.
"You fool." Is the response. They lock eyes and start skating for the bench.
"They do know that's not the one we were at right?" Lea snickers, calmly watching the boys skate in the opposite direction of our car. When Zach get there first, he quickly yells "Sucker! Wait! Y'all, someone stole our stuff!"
"Wrong bench you saltine crackers! Race you!" I yell back as Lea and I start skating. I don't look back, but I assume the boys waste a whole five seconds realizing their mistake before they try to catch up to us. Lea makes it there first, no surprise there, since she's half a foot taller and three track medals superior than me. But I still make it there before Isaac and Zach collide into us, throwing all four of us into the snow.
"Someone please tell me we're getting hot cocoa after this?" Lea yells into the snow.
"Damn straight we are."
