"Justine, remind me once again why I'm in the Poconos, lugging a snowboard to a ski... lift... thinger." Tanis groaned as she sat down on the chair and was lifted into the air. She looked down, frightened. "Ok, I don't like this thing."
Justine laughed. "You need to chill. We're here because Beth invited Isaac and whoever else he wanted to bring. And Isaac of course invited Zac, Taylor, and Carter. Zac invited me because he secretly wants to have my baby." She thought for a moment. "Or. Whatever. And the Poconos are further east. We're at Ski Sawmill. They have to make their own snow because Williamsport keeps getting missed by all the huge storms that are drowning Philthadelphia and New Spork with snow." She nodded. "I had to listen to Beth yammer and complain all the way here."
"Ok. I repeat. Justine, why am I in the Poconos sitting on an unsteady ski... thinger...?"
"Because you love me."
"Not today." She looked ahead at the chair in front of them. Taylor and Melissa sat together, laughing and looking down at the snow below them. Isaac and Beth were on the lift in front of them, holding hands. "Have you ever noticed how feminine Taylor looks from the back?"
Justine laughed. "Ever notice how feminine Taylor looks from the front?"
"He doesn't strike me as much of a snowboarder."
"Neither do you."
Tanis rolled her eyes. "There aren't even any people here. It's pretty much just us and the ski Baywatch people."
On the lift behind them was Carter and Zac. They were throwing snowballs that they'd collected before they got on the ski lift at Tanis and Justine. They all fell about ten feet short of them. "Come on man. Get me off of this booger. I wanna fly down the hill!"
Carter laughed as she saw Tanis and Justine's lift hit the ground. Then... Tanis hit the ground. She rolled forward and Justine laughed as she glided back to help her up. "I'm really not liking this!" Tanis muttered as she pulled herself from the ground. "And whoever said this homemade ski snow was soft is full of shit."
Carter and Zac reached the ground and stopped. Zac smiled at Justine. "So are we gonna meet you at the bottom or do you need some pointers."
"You can snowboard?"
"Are you kidding me? Carter and I used to make our own snowboards and we'd ... dirtboard down the hill in the summer. We're pretty good."
"Uhm. I... I really have no idea what I'm doing. So I just... give myself a push and let Darwinism take it's course?"
"Yeah." Zac looked at Carter. "I think she needs some pointers. Do you mind?"
Carter shook her head and gave him a quick hug. "Of course not. I feel the need for speed. So you can help her out for a little bit and I'll board down... and come back up and meet you back here."
"Sounds good."
Tanis sat on the snow with her snowboard attached to her boots and watched as Zac showed Justine how to make it down the hill in one piece. "Ok... this is really fun." She spoke to herself. "But I'm outa here." She stood up and pushed forward a little bit, starting down the hill. "Ok this isn't hard. I'm a natural." She smiled for a second before falling on her face again. "Ok... that hurt." She crawled to a spot she thought looked a little safer and then picked herself off the ground and started again. Then she fell... again. "Dammit at this rate I won't be down the damn hill until midnight." She stood up again.
"Tell me about it." Taylor's voice echoed from next to her. He was sitting on the ground, pondering how he'd stand up again.
"Hey. Not having much luck?"
"Nope. But at least you've figured out how to stand after falling."
Tanis laughed and grabbed his arm, pulling him up but he just fell right back down again. "Dude you really do suck."
"Thanks." He finally made it up on his own.
"So what happened to your girlfriend?"
"My girlfriend? Oh. Meli. She's not my girlfriend. She's a little better than me at this. She's probably down the hill and on her way back up again. Fun stuff."
"So we're the snow rejects."
"Yeah. To be honest, I didn't want to come at all. But Mel begged me."
"You guys are really close aren't you?"
"We were a long time ago. Then we weren't. But she's grown up a lot in the past year. We're all digging her a lot more now that she isn't a mega psycho bitch. Wait no." He paused. "She never was. She was just..."
"Snob to the max." <>"Something like that." Taylor smiled. "Ok I'm trying this again." He jumped moving his board so that it was straight and began to glide.
"Woo hoo! And Taylor Hanson is up for 3 seconds."
He kept going. "Dude... I'm doing it! There must be a good wind or something!" He yelled back at her, smiling.
"Tay! Watch where you're going. Geez you aren't that good!" But before he even got the chance to turn around, he hit a dip in the hill and began to go much faster. She could almost see it coming, one of those falls that makes you turn away from the tv and cringe when you're watching the winter olympics. After speeding a few more feet, he hit another dip. But this time, his board didn't take it so well. He flew forward, his entire body leaving the ground, and he fell hard, landing on both of his arms. Then, he rolled down the hill about ten feet, out of control, before finally landing on his back.
Wincing in pain, he tried rolling over. Tanis didn't know what to do. Being the "avid" snowboarder that she was, she sat down on her behind and slid down to where he was. She stopped and crawled to him. "Tay, are you ok?"
Taylor shook his head and tried rolling over onto his side again.
"No. Don't move. What hurts?"
"Everything." He groaned and held onto his left arm. "But this hurts most." He looked as if he had tears in his eyes.
"Dammit. And I'm not even good enough to ski down to get help like they do in movies."
Taylor mumbled. "Don't make me laugh. It hurts."
"Ok." She held onto his head with both of her hands, trying to keep him still in case he'd hurt his back. She looked around her to see about 4 people from the ski patrol heading their way. "Ok good. People are coming."
"Great. So I caught a lot of people's attention as I barreled down the hill uncontrollably."
"It looked good. Especially the part where you flew really really high." She laughed.
"Thanks."
A tall man with bright orange hair and purple ski goggles stopped his snow mobile five feet away from them and sat on his knees next to Taylor. "Hey man are you ok? That looked really bad."
Taylor shook his head.
"I think he broke his arm. He landed really hard."
"I saw. We were all watching the two of you. We took bets to see how many times you'd fall before you got to the bottom."
Tanis rolled her eyes. "Gee thanks."
Within minutes they were surrounded by the entire ski patrol, each of them poking and prodding Taylor, trying to find out exactly how badly he was hurt. It took them two hours to actually get him in an ambulance.
"I'm never snowboarding again." Taylor mumbled as he sat propped in an overstuffed couch. Beth's mother had hooked them up with great accomodations in the ski lodge. Since there weren't many people on the mountain, they were pretty much by themselves again.
Melissa sat down next to him and leaned against his good side. "After one broken arm and two broken ribs, I'd say you made it a memorable trip." She smiled.
"So you never answered me. Did you catch my big air?"
"Nope. I was on my way back up the hill."
"I knew it." He laughed. "You're better than me at everything, aren't you?"
"Most likely." She smiled. "But hey, Tanis came to your rescue. At least that's what the ski dudes said."
"Yeah. But after a while she was drooling over the guy with the orange hair. They kept making 'dude, sweet' jokes. I think I blacked out after that."
"Well at least you didn't have to stay in the hospital." Meli had sweet talked the doctor into letting Taylor stay comfortably in the ski lodge for the rest of the weekend.
He nodded. "So where is everybody else right now?"
"Last I checked, Tanis and Justine were outside having a snowball fight with Carter and Zac. And Ike and Beth were ... yeah."
Taylor rolled his eyes. "Who's beating who?"
Meli raised an eyebrow and stared at him.
He laughed. "No. I meant the snowball fight."
"Carter and Zac were kicking some ass."
"Never a doubt." He smiled.
"You just have to get better soon so we can hang out."
"Hang out?"
"Well, you know. I'll be pretty bored with you in bed waiting for your stupid ribs to heal. And the arm you can handle. It's not like you haven't broken your arm before."
"You wanna hang out with me?"
"Uhm. Yeah." She blushed.
"You'll be bored without me?"
Meli nodded and leaned against him more. She placed her head on his shoulder. "Besides, I'm in the mood for some Wal*Mart Roller Derby and nobody else will do it with me."
"Oh God. Carter taught you how to play Wal*Mart Roller Derby."
"Hell yeah." She laughed and closed her eyes. She planned on staying with him for the rest of the night in case he needed anything.
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