A High School Trip! What could go wrong? The students have a day of outdoor activities but how long until they get bored of that and seek other types of activities? Does the lone chaperone have her eyes peeled for any untoward situations?
PART V - BOARDING & SKATING
Alexander Calhoun is one might call a 'cuddler' in his sleep. When he was a boy, frightened of lightning storms and sought refuge in his parents' bed, they would note by morning their son would be latched onto one of them quite firmly. As he grew, he slept with body pillows that he ended up clinging to throughout the night.
As the morning of day two in Three Lakes approaches, Alex's consciousness ripples to attention because while he is huggling on something–it's too solid, too warm to be one of his body pillows. There's movement under his cheek, a rhythmic, shallow, rise and fall.
He slowly opens his eyes, for a moment forgetting where he is. Not his own bed, but a motel bed. He's in Three Lakes and Ryder Greystone is laying under him, which in any usual circumstance he would be content to lay there until the sun rose but that image of Ryder and his sister being so close, in the aftermath of a secret kiss seems burned into his memory, and causes him to jolt up from the perfect spot.
Ryder doesn't seem too disturbed by the movement and rolls onto his side to continue sleeping.
How long had they been in that position? All night? A half hour?
Alex runs his hand through his hair, finding his heart suddenly thrashing against his chest. He had told Ryder to sleep wherever he wanted, and still, Ryder chose to sleep next to him? To be fair, the floor looked cold and hella uncomfortable but still...he hadn't expected Ryder to bunker down next to him...
...especially after Alex had given him the cold shoulder. Which, he only did because he was afraid of Ryder telling him what he was most afraid of–that Ryder preferred his sister. Alice always got what she wanted, and now it seemed Ryder was added to that list of conquests. He didn't want to face that reality.
"Today is thee day," Alice mutters to herself in the mirror as she checks over her appearance. There's one in the bathroom too but it's tiny. Having an imbalanced mirror-to-teenage-girl ratio is problematic.
Alice obviously needs to use the biggest mirror. She needs the best because she is the best. She has the best hair, the best smile, best eyeliner, and she needs to look on point and be on her game if she wants any chance to win over Ryder.
"The day for what?" Lai asks, happening to catch Alice's little pep-talk to herself.
Alice whirls around and looks over Lai–Lai is naturally beautiful, and doesn't need much makeup, but dresses kind of like a nerd. April looks like she doesn't care how she's perceived, but that makes sense because she's not out here trying to attract the boys.
"Winning," Alice laughs off her determined mumbles with confidence.
Colleen doesn't bother to dress. What's the point? It's not like she's allowed to go anywhere. She has her books, and her solace which is the norm; the environment she thrives most in. However, missing new experiences and places does sadden her.
She absolutely loathes Alexander Calhoun for his years of teasing her, calling her a 'shut-in' or a 'princess' in that snarky tone, and cannot believe that all of that came from a place of actually liking her.
She lets out a heartfelt sigh, then nearly jumps out of her skin when there's an urgent knocking on the motel door.
She jumps up to answer it and finds herself stepping backward as the chaperone pushes her way in, chiding her for not 'being ready to go.'
"Wait, what?" Colleen is bemused, "I thought I wasn't allowed to do any more activities?"
"Only if you didn't apologize, and you did! Or did you forget that part?" the chaperone explains, "Now get dressed! We are all running late now because of you!"
Colleen gulps and nods, her eyes wide and brain racing to understand where the logic is in these statements because she certainly did not apologize to Alexander.
The chaperone nods curtly and leaves her to her privacy to dress.
She quickly pulls on a shirt and cropped sweater, dressed for the cold climate and runs out the door in order not to waste a moment more. She needs to get to the bottom of this! But she's also excited to be able to participate!
There's a scraping sound followed by silence as the snowboard gains air. It's kind of like skateboarding, at least that's what it feels like to Alex. He reaches out to nothing with one hand to turn the board so he can land again without crashing, as he passes two figures loitering on the ledge, waiting for their turns.
"He's gotten really good at this," Angelo remarks, seeming half impressed. Out of all three of them who frequent the skate park, Angelo is arguably the most skilled. Ryder notes that and agrees. Impressing Angelo is a feat in itself when it comes to their boarding.
The board slaps to the surface and Alex slides on the curve up the opposite side.
"What's going on between you two anyway?" Angelo asks with concern. He's seen the way they gaze sadly at each other when the other isn't paying attention.
Ryder sighs, "I don't know, but Alice tried to kiss me yesterday at the springs and I think he's under the impression I encouraged it or accepted it? He seems really pissed off about it and won't talk to me."
Alex flies past them, into the air, and spins before catching the ledge and heading back to the opposite end.
"Well it doesn't help you let her hang around you so much," Angelo points out after marveling at the move they just witnessed.
"What am I supposed to do? Tell her to fuck off?" Ryder asks incredulously. He's always erred on the polite side of his personality.
Angelo laughs, "Yeah, that's exactly what you are supposed to do. Get out while you still can. Girls are nothing but trouble."
Ryder shakes his head, "Proving yet again, unsurprisingly, that you know nothing about them. Alice will not 'go away' even if I tell her to. She'll only do it when she decides she's had enough of me."
Lai and Caleb don't partake in snowboarding but enjoy watching what the others can do on the half-pipe. Caleb had offered to buy Lai a mug of hot chocolate at the nearby drink stand.
"Wow, look at him go!" Caleb exclaims, clearly impressed at the spin they just witnessed Alex do. Caleb can spin but not like that, not with a snowboard.
"Ryder could probably do it better," Alice mentions as they observe from below. She just wants Alex to be done so Ryder can take his turn.
April has never snowboarded or skateboarded but doesn't think it looks too hard to do. She wants to go ice skating, which they will do in a bit, the rink is just within walking distance from the snowboard park.
Colleen can't get in a word asking Alice if Alex would have lied to tell the chaperone she had apologized when she didn't. That does seem like something a guy who liked her would do.
Alex's head should be focused on maintaining his balance but he's plagued with thoughts of Ryder–kissing Alice, waking up cuddling him, knowing he is watching–the front of his board tilts forward too much on the descent and suddenly he finds himself tumbling down the half-pipe!
"Oof, that's gonna hurt!" Lai averts her gaze before Alex lands and comes to a stop in his final tumble. To Caleb's surprise, she buries her face into his shoulder to avoid the scene.
"It'll be okay, it wasn't that bad of a spill. He has on padding," Caleb assures her, wondering why grabbing around him like this was her first reaction. She could have just as easily covered her eyes with her own hands. Not that he is complaining about her doing it, it's just curious.
"Nice job," Alice says sarcastically as Alex lands in front of the girls who are watching from the sides. He makes a sound indicative of frustration, pain, or both before looking up at them.
He doesn't deign his sister's snarky quip with any response.
He sees Colleen looking down at him with a scrutinizing gaze and quickly unlatches his feet from the board, gets up, and walks away from them.
Cell service is just awful at Three Lakes. Alex has found a place to sit by himself and tap the reload button over and over when it times out on his phone's browser.
"Hey, Alexander?" he hears Colleen's diminutive voice and looks up with exasperation, not wanting to deal with her right now.
"What?" he responds curtly. After all, she did punch him, he doesn't really want to be around her in case she decides she wants to again.
He frowns. She's not even the least bit grateful he only lied to get her off the hook. Why was he kidding himself? She'd rather stay a shut-in and just read books all day. What were pages of text compared to that fresh-pine smell, or the crisp air in their lungs?
Ryder has taken the next spot in line to use the half-pipe. Alice is the only remaining sideline viewer but she makes the most of it by blowing kisses every time Ryder flies by. He doesn't notice, of course. Lai and Caleb do, but roll their eyes at each other. It seems everyone knows the truth but Alice: Ryder is just not that into her.
But he can hear her shouts of encouragement from below once the board is in mid-air. Shouts of "THAT'S SO AMAZING!" and "AWESOME MOVES, RYDER!"
He can't help but to smile a bit at the way Alice throws all of herself into whatever she is determined to do. Whatever this is. Her relentless pursuit of him doesn't have a chance of ever happening. She would no sooner be able to capture a cloud in a jar than Ryder's romantic attentions.
She's not completely awful to be around despite what Alex thinks. She is amusing to Ryder, if he happens to be paying attention she can certainly make him laugh though it is probably never her intention.
He finds that he too has lost his focus for balance and skids to a halt as he falls onto his side in the trough of the half-pipe
Alice calls his name with concern and falls to her knees beside him as he gingerly sits up. He feels a different pain form in his neck and winces.
Suddenly, he feels Alice's fingers at his cheek and looks up in wonder.
"Are you okay? You don't look too busted," she checks his face, after swiping back a piece of his hair. "Plumbobs, you had me worried. You're lucky that wasn't a bad wipeout. Alex comes home with bloody knees sometimes from the skatepark, he once even broke his collarbone!"
Ryder remembers that nasty tumble of Alex's. He's surprised Alice seems so genuine right now, she's dropped that calculating lilt from her voice and is talking normally like they are having a real conversation.
She stands and allows him to unclasp the straps from his feet, then holds out her hand, "Here, I'll help you carry that."
"It looks like Alex finally got Colleen to talk to him," Ryder notices as he stands and hands the board to Alice. Ryder has been acutely aware of Alex's attempts over the years, though he thought his friend went about it in a non-helpful way. The truth was Alex wasn't a mean person, but he could come off a bit abrasive and wasn't the best at picking up social cues.
Alice seems unconcerned, "Good for him."
Of course, they can only see the two are talking from their vantage, but are not close enough to hear the exchange.
"Yeah, I lied," Alex admits. Colleen frowns, she doesn't like liars. His hands try to find something to do while he looks for words to explain why he even did it in the first place and ends up pulling at the fingertips of his gloves.
"Look, I'm sorry you got banned from all the activities on account of punching me."
"It's just, I think you have more personality behind all those books and was trying to get you to come out of your shell and interact with people," he says and Colleen's frown lifts at his honesty.
"Making fun of me isn't the way to achieve that," she finally states, pointing out his clearly misguided techniques, "In fact, it made me not want to talk to people at all."
Alex looks struck, then ashamed.
"Yeah, I get that now. You literally knocked some sense into me," he runs his tongue over his bottom lip where it has scabbed over. "Anyway, it wasn't fair so I told the principal so she'd let you join us again because being stuck in your room the rest of this trip sure isn't going to help."
With that said, he leaves her.
And it leaves her wondering if he really did like her, as Alice had suggested.
She's still mad at him, but at least now she understands why he kept teasing her all these years and appreciates him for explaining it, and even though he lied there was a benefit to it; she's no longer being punished.
Did he really just want to know her better? Boys...were kind of dumb. If he'd just talked to her like a normal person from the start, that would have been enough.
Finally, it's Angelo's turn to hit the half-pipe. They all gather around to watch as he effortlessly kicks off the edge to gain momentum. The board flies past them as he ascends up the curve and back down with double momentum...
He goes airborne and does a double flip before balancing himself in midair. They can hear even the locals hum with admiration. He looks like he is flying; he is the King of boarding. Most importantly, he avoids any falls or spills.
It's mid-afternoon by the time the group reaches the ice skating rink. The students that hadn't spent the morning rigorously snowboarding are enjoying the ice. Some are more agile than others.
April is probably the best of them, skating circles past every student like a speed skater. She often tried skating on the small pond where she lived on the farm. Winter had fewer chores, and less farming so more time to pursue other activities.
Ryder seems to get along skating well enough for crashing out earlier. Alice skates behind him, wondering if her plan for tonight will go off without a hitch.
The place they are at also has a sort of clubhouse, with indoor activities out of the cold. There's also a giant tree section on display but only Noire seems interested in it.
Angelo isn't one for skating, besides his legs are so tired out. He dominated that half-pipe and now just wants to rest his feet.
"I love skating!" Colleen admits to April as she glides past with a knowing smile of agreement. Colleen had figure skating lessons when she was a little girl. Her mother thought maybe she could get good enough to compete when she was older but Colleen ended up not having the stomach for participating in any kind of spectator sport and froze up. She just enjoyed the fluid movements.
Caleb, unfortunately also had figure skating lessons along with his sister which he couldn't wait to get out of, but the silver lining to it was now he could skate confidently without worrying about falling. Lai was a bit more shaky, wobble-kneed, and stop-and-go with her skating.
All of a sudden Lai lets out a shout of surprise as she flails and loses her balance. Caleb glides up next to her and lightly puts his hand on her lower back to keep her from falling on her rear end.
"Careful there," he smiles as she corrects herself and then skates past her.
"Thank you..." she replies from behind him, wondering how he's so good at skating. They've actually never been ice skating before together. She's known him for a long time but this mystery eludes her.
Ryder hopes he can talk to Alex soon. Maybe they can go inside and play some darts, he just needs to catch up first and make sure he is far enough away from Alice so she can't interject herself.
However, Alice somehow has read his intentions and she's already speaking to her brother. Ryder continues to skate, but is curious about what they seem to be arguing about.
Alex makes a rude gesture and swirls around on his blades, looking to exit but ends up falling forward.
Ryder grimaces, today is not Alex's day for staying upright, poor guy. He is about to offer a hand to help Alex up and ask him what he wanted to but...
Someone else's hand pops in front of Alex to aid him.
Alex looks up in slight surprise to see Angelo there, and thanks him for the hand.
"No problem. This is why I'm not skating. Aren't your legs tired?"
Alex didn't realize it before but yeah...they really are. He supposed he just wanted to do the next activity to keep himself distracted.
"Hey, we didn't get to finish our game of darts last night, I think there's some boards inside the club house. Wanna finish it?" Angelo offers, and then smiles, "I think I was at 40 points when we stopped."
Ryder hears all this from the edge of the skating rink and lets out a sigh of disheartenment. There Alex goes again, another chance to set things right, gone.
Alice doesn't say anything but notes that he looks sad. She must find a way to cheer him up!
"I'm gonna go to the bathroom, you can skate without me," Ryder finds an excuse to get away from her for at least five minutes.
Colleen stops skating at notices Noire is still over by the large tree display. How many carvings were in that thing exactly?
After the bathroom and removing his skates, Ryder pokes his head out and sees Alice has used this opportunity to also go to the restroom, so he uses that free time to talk to someone else. If not Alex, there's always...Noire. She's not that occupied.
"Hey Noire, it's been a long time..." he approaches her. He used to live next door to her when he was a kid. She still had the same gloomy demeanor he remembered as her dark eyes slowly turn to look at him.
"Yeah," she agrees.
"Sorry I didn't keep in touch," he apologizes.
"Not your fault. No one wants to keep up communication with a girl whose mother is criminally insane," she says as-a-matter-of-factually, not betraying any emotions about Ryder's lack of friendship. He wasn't her friend per se, but they had enough of a rapport as kids to be friendly acquaintances.
He doesn't know what to say to her about it. He can't deny her words. But he feels bad for her. He remembers his mother's shock when she read in the newspaper what had happened to the Denholm family.
She looks at the ground and clears her throat, "How's your brother?"
"Which one?" Ryder asks, because he has three brothers, but he has an idea which she is asking about. His elder brother, Noah, was Noire's best friend growing up. Ryder would always try to hang around them but he had a feeling Noire just got annoyed with him back then.
"Noah," she confirms, "is he still living on your uncle's farm?"
"Yeah, I see him almost every weekend though."
"Is he happy?"
"I think so. He has a girlfriend now..." Ryder mentions thoughtlessly and joins her in pretending to study the tree carvings.
She makes a small noise he almost doesn't catch, a quiet, quick sound of something akin to anguish and it startles him; he looks up quickly but Noire turns her back on him. It occurs to him that Noah probably hasn't kept in contact with her either. After the whole thing with Noire's family, the Greystones sort of...disconnected from them.
Last Ryder heard, Noire lived with her brother who was a young adult and they had moved to a smaller apartment.
He still feels bad about it.
"Ryder!" he involuntarily hunches his shoulders as he hears Alice call him and sees her saunter around the rink, sans-skates as well. "Whatcha doing?"
She throws a suspicious look at Noire who isn't even facing them.
"Oh, well....I was just checking out these carvings."
"Maybe we could carve something in it ourselves?" Alice suggests. He doesn't see how she could, it's not like she carries a pocket knife or anything.
He finds himself sighing again, as they walk away, without bidding Noire goodbye.
Noire is quite startled when Colleen, quiet as ever, manages to sneak up right in front of her. "You said the other night you played chess, wanna play me? I saw they had a table in the clubhouse."
Caleb and Lai are still doing laps around the rink. Lai is starting to feel quite tired. Her legs are shaking.
"I might have to stop soon," she huffs out and to her surprise, Caleb easily flips around with no signs of struggle and starts backward ice skating?!
"What's wrong?" he asks, facing her while seeming to expertly weave the blades of his skates to and fro, to get the perfect momentum and stay upright while not even looking behind him.
"I need to just...stop moving for a moment and catch my breath," she says and finds the closest edge of the rink to balance herself. "By the way, since when can you skate so well?"
Caleb belts out a laugh; so she doesn't know everything about him like she claims. He backs up and then says, "You think that was good? Watch this!"
Caleb executes a textbook twirl with no wavering, the tip of his blade holds all of his weight. Lai's jaw drops open, "Whaaaaat!? Caleb! That was amazing!"
"Here I'll show you," he offers, holding out his hands for her to take, and guides her out into the middle of the rink. The rest of the students have gone inside besides April who, opposite of Angelo's uncontested 'Boarding King' title, is the 'Ice Skating Queen.'
Noire and Colleen find their way indoors to the chess table Colleen mentioned.
"You sure?" Noire asks. She's wiped the floor with other classmates when it comes to chess.
"Oh, I don't mind," Colleen doesn't seem at all intimidated by Noire's expertise. Noire wonders if this is some kind of trick.
"It's your loss," Noire says, "Five moves and I bet I'll have your queen captured."
"Bring it on," Colleen taunts with a nervous giggle. She may not be the kind of champion Noire is but she has read up extensively on the plays. She knows how to play the game and she knows how to do it more than well.
"Okay, I'm going for the 20 point mark, that will put me ten away from winning!" Alex calculates and lines up his shot. He is in a much better mood now that he is doing something competitive. Skating and boarding is all fine and good but those are more solitary activities. Thank goodness for Angelo, a true bro full of good distractions...
...well, maybe not one hundred percent of the time as Angelo asks rather bluntly and out of nowhere, "Hey man, what's the deal with you and Ryder. You've been really prickly toward him since after the hot springs yesterday."
Alex misses his shot and curses, before looking at Angelo coldly, "I don't want to talk about it."
"You just seem really off and bothered. Wondering if there's anything I can do to help?" Angelo shrugs and offers and goes up to collect the darts for his turn.
Alex thinks and says, "I mean, just playing darts is helping. That's enough."
"Okay, whatever you say. Glad to help but I'm here if you wanna talk or anything," Angelo says casually. He steps back and lets his dart loose. It flies a bit too close to Alex who has to jump back with slight surprise. The next two fare much better and bring Angelo closer to Alex's score.
"Hey, thanks," Alex steps a bit closer than is needed for what he is saying, "I appreciate your offering, I really do."
Angelo smiles and it makes Alex consider something he had never noticed before about his friend.
Angelo has a really nice smile.
Noire severely underestimated Colleen's skill at chess. The game just got interesting, it's been years since Noire has played anyone who has offered her a challenge.
"I see you've studied Karvinakov's plays," Noire mentions.
Colleen nods, "And the career of Kashmire's Grandmaster Shea Mackenzie."
"So, let me get this straight. You and I have known each other since we were in kindergarten and I'm just now learning you took figure skating lessons for five years?" Lai is more than bemused, "Why didn't you tell me?!"
They talk as they slowly spin around, Caleb lets her put as much weight as she wants on his arms since her legs are tired.
"I mean, I didn't much care for them so I didn't think to tell anyone about it. However, if you ever wondered why I couldn't come over to play after school on Wednesdays it was because of those lessons."
That makes sense; she's always assumed he had some kind of club to attend. His father was always making him join clubs at school even back then. He always said it was to set a good example, as a child of Kashmire's Minister of Education.
"And what's stopping you now?" Lai asks, not really sure why. She giggles after asking. They are sixteen, what would they even play after school now? Tag and hide-n-seek were so overdone.
Video games? No, she is horrible at them. Board games? No, Caleb can be a sore loser. Chess? Perhaps, they both know their way around a board but it would probably end in a draw. Billiards? Caleb's home has a pool table but she won't be so rude to invite herself over. One activity brushes past her thoughts so fast she barely has time to blush before Caleb responds.
"Nothing, I suppose. Just a lot of homework."
He gives her a curious smile as if to ask her why she asked such a thing, "Why? Do you want me to come over after school on Wednesdays again?
"If you can spare the time," she rolls her eyes; he can't be seriously offering that now. He definitely has way too much homework. She relinquishes her hold of his hands, "Come on let's go get warmed up like everyone else."
There are four glass fireplaces that are radiating warmth around the club house. There's a variety of indoor activities, they can already see Colleen and Noire at the chess table while Angelo and Alex are playing darts. April is last to come in while Lai and Caleb thaw themselves.
Alice flits around with a bottle in her hand, telling everyone to gather around. Who knows where the chaperone is right now but this proves that maybe more than one should have come on the trip as Alice is the very essence of conspiracy.
"Are you drinking beer?" Alex asks with concern, seeing the label of the bottle in his little sister's hand is not a simple 'root beer'.
"Relax!" Alice gives him a slight frown, "It's an empty one I got out of the trash, probably from the wet bar upstairs.
"Okay but what are you doing digging in the trash?" Alex demands. This is very unlike Alice. Is she turning into a hobo?
"Well I propose tonight we play a little game–you know, to get to know each other a bit better," her eyes dart to Ryder who is gazing at Alex, which Alex is ignoring, and then back around everyone who has gathered around, "Let's all meet in the boys' suite after lights out."
Comments
Post a Comment