Just Not Sure - Chapter 3 - What are you going to say?!

"It’s cold!" Kristin cried out as she stepped out of the warm car into Camelback’s chilly atmosphere. It was now Saturday, and the girls had spent the day in the community clubhouse, doing everything from playing pool to ice skating to swimming in the pool. Around 2, Mrs. McCartney called Courtney’s mom, and they arranged it so that the two groups would arrive around the same time, and they would spend most of the time together. Courtney had also convinced her mom to invite the McCartneys, as well as the Ballingers, Frankie, Greg, and Chris, for the small New Years Eve party they were throwing on Sunday night.

Sure enough, just as Courtney and Jenna were taking their snowboards out of the trunk, Mr. Ballinger’s car pulled into the parking lot. It took about thirty minutes just to get the lift tickets, so around 4:45, everyone (except the parents) headed for the slopes. Courtney, Jenna, Kristin, Chris, Frankie, Jesse, and Matt were all on snowboards, and Greg had skis. Jenna and Chris got down the beginner hill immediately, and moved on to harder trails. Greg also went to the novice slopes automatically. Jesse went down the beginner hill with a couple of falls, and decided to try it again. When he got back to the top of the hill, he noticed that Courtney was still sitting in the same spot she had been in when he had started down the first time. He approached her, and she cheerily greeted him.

"What are you doing?" Jesse asked, confused why she hadn’t moved.

"My butt decided it wanted to spend some quality time with the snow. And I’m not gonna stop it from doing so." She laughed. "Really, I don’t know. I just have a hard time getting up when I fall, and that happens a lot."

Jesse grinned. "You can’t be that bad. Here." He helped her up, and they began down the slope. It took a long time, and there were a lot of falls, but eventually both Courtney and Jesse got down. As they hopped on the ski lift, Jesse laughed. "OK, so maybe you are kind of bad, but you’ll learn. We have all night, and Tuesday too."

"What do you mean we? I have all night and Tuesday. You go on and have fun with Greg and Matt." She pointed to the two, who were waving at them from below the ski lift.

"Nah. I’d rather spend it with you. And besides, I’m with them like 24/7. You’re a lot more interesting than them." Jesse smiled and looked her straight in the eyes.

"Aww. Thanks." She smiled, and they got ready to get off the lift. "Watch out. I’m gonna fall, so you should get down before we crash." Courtney laughed and he nodded as they reached the end of the lift. Taking her hands, Jesse helped Courtney to successfully glide off the ski lift without falling.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was finally New Years Eve, and everyone was caught up in their own thoughts. The night before had gone well and all had had a good time.

Jesse couldn’t stop thinking about Courtney; he wasn’t exactly sure, but he thought he was falling for her. They had spent the whole entire evening talking, and he had found they had a lot in common. They shared the same love for music, NYC, and the Yankees; but at the same time, they were so different. She was quiet while he was outgoing. If there was anything he had discovered about Courtney, it was how reserved she was.

Jesse walked from the huge bedroom to the living room, right in front of the television, blocking Chris, Frankie, Matt, and Greg’s view of whatever they were watching.

"Hey! You’re in the way!" Chris said crossly at Jesse.

"Too bad. I need to ask you guys a question."

"Yeah?" Frankie asked, showing interest after hearing a tone of importance in his voice.

"If I ask Courtney out, do you think she would say yes?" His face tensed just thinking about it, obviously fearful of rejection.

"Dude, are you blind?" Matt asked, shocked that rejection had even crossed Jesse’s mind. "Of course she would! Have you noticed the way her eyes light up around you?"

Jesse let out a sigh of relief. " ‘Cause you know, I really like her," He said, as if they didn’t already know that.

"No Way! You and Courtney? We never could have guessed that!" Greg said sarcastically. "Man, I wish I still had a girl." Greg pouted and everyone directed sympathetic looks at him.

"Why don’t we set you up with someone? How about Jenna?" Matt asked.

"Um, excuse me, but I don’t think you’re going to set up Greg with my current girlfriend." Chris said, then clapping his hands over his mouth, realizing what he had just said. Everyone else’s jaws dropped about six inches.

There was a moment of silence when the guys struggled to form words.

"When?"

"Where?"

"What?!?"

Chris grinned, glad to finally let it out. "Well, we were on the ski lift and it seemed like the perfect moment. So I asked her out."

"And what’d she say?" Jesse asked in suspense. Chris rolled his eyes and laughed.

"Let’s see Jess. If I just said that she was my girlfriend, than that would probably mean she said yes."

There was another silence, and everyone thought for a second.

Chris’ mind was, of course, on Jenna. Her personality was unique and special; he had never met anyone like her before. Everything about Jenna made him want to melt. How passionate she was about life, like dance and music. And he absolutely loved the way her chocolate eyes lit up when they had had a heated debate last night. He didn’t even remember what it had been about.

Frankie couldn’t stop thinking about Kristin either. Last night, they had spent a lot of time in the lodge talking. To him, Kristin was the perfect girl. It was so weird how a mere 16-year-old could be so sure of this, but Frankie loved Kristin. There was an aura around her that made him want to be with her all the time. She was completely original and could care less about what people thought of her. When he had woken up that morning, Frankie decided that later on tonight, he was going to ask Kristin to be his girlfriend.

Jesse finally moved, realizing that he was still in the way of the TV. He plopped onto the couch and started to watch whatever was on.

*

At the Taylor’s cabin, the girls were getting ready for the party tonight. As they picked out their outfits Kristin spoke, breaking a silence.

"So girls, what are you going to say?" She smiled slyly and waited for an answer. v"What are we going to say to what?" Courtney looked up from her suitcase.

"Hello! You can’t tell me that Jesse and Chris aren’t going to ask you out! They’re crazy about you!" Kristin was shocked that Courtney hadn’t considered that. Then again, Courtney had a tendency to be completely oblivious. She was the typical blonde.

"Oh." Jenna smiled. "I said yes."

Courtney and Kristin’s reactions were similar to Greg, Frankie, Matt and Jesse’s.

"So you finally fit a guy to fit your standards." Kristin grinned. Recently, they had discussed the reason why Jenna had never had a boyfriend before. Courtney had concluded that it was because Jenna had high expectations. But Chris fit those expectations perfectly. He liked her for who she was, and didn’t care about her age, or looks, or anything like that. And she definitely liked Chris. He was so straightforward and open about everything, unafraid of getting what he wanted to say out.

"You have got to be kidding me. He asked you out LAST NIGHT and you conveniently FORGOT!" Courtney pretended to be mad. "Of all things not to tell me…"

"Are you really that mad?" Jenna asked, worried.

"NO! Jenna, you are going out with Christopher Trousdale, currently 1/5 of Dream Street. Why would I be mad at you? For saying yes?" She grinned. "This has to be the greatest weekend ever. Details, we need details!"

"We were on the ski lift, it was quiet and it was snowing. And he was like ‘You know, I’ve really enjoyed spending time with you. You’re sweet and funny and caring’-

"Oh my god, Awww!" Courtney interrupted.

"Wait, I’m not done yet! So anyway, he was like ‘and…would you be my girlfriend?’ and of course I said yes. And then he kissed me on the cheek. It was so cute!" Jenna said, glowing.

"What about you Courtney?" Kristin asked.

"Well, I’m not exactly sure." Courtney said, looking up from her suitcase, which looked like it had exploded. She still didn’t know whether she was ready to move on yet; it was still a little soon. Everyone went back to getting ready, almost silently, except for the occasional "what about this?" or "does this really match?".