by: Arlet Schmidt
"Ouch! What the heck?!" Nick exclaimed, very sleepily. Nick opened his eyes and found himself staring up into a pair of dark eyes that made his heart flutter. It always did that every time he looked into those eyes and the person who owned them.
"Good morning Sleepy Head!" Said Arlet cheerfully looking down on him.
"What time is it?" He asked, yawning and looking out the window. It was still dark out.
"It’s 5:45."
"In the morning?!"
"No, it’s 5:45 in the evening!" She answered sarcastically. She rolled her eyes. "Duh! Now hurry up!"
"For what?" Asked Nick, scratching his head.
"Did you forget? Today is the day that each one of us girls take one of you guys and plan a special day. I told you yesterday." Arlet replied slight irritated though she had a grin on her face.
"Oh…yeah…I forgot." Nick responded truly embarrassed.
"Now hurry up! We need to leave early so we don’t get caught in traffic." She said, pulling off the covers.
"Where are we going?"
"Snowboarding! C’mon! Get up and get dressed!"
Nick groaned as he threw his feet over the side of the bed. Arlet started to giggle.
"What’s so funny?"
"Your hair. It looks so hilarious! Just like in the ‘As Long As You Love Me’ video when you guys dressed up all weird." She told him. "Wait! Don’t move! Stay right there!" She ran over to her computer desk, opened a drawer and took something out. "Say cheese!" The flash from the camera made Nick flinch.
"Hey! No fair!" Whined Nick.
"Oh yeah? What are you gonna do about it, eh?" She taunted.
"Oh, I’ll show you what I’m gonna do!" He told her, mischievously. He got from the bed and started forward. But, before he could take his first step, he fell flat on his face. Arlet burst out laughing. The object Nick tripped over gave a loud hissing noise and darted underneath the bed. "What the--"Nick said loudly, looking to see what he fell over.
"Oh Boots! Are you OK, Sweetie?" Arlet cooed reaching underneath the bed. She came back up holding an orange-colored cat.
"A cat? I didn’t know you guys had a cat." Nick stood up and brushed himself off.
"Yeah, he’s name’s Boots. He’s been hiding in the little room in the basement cause you guys scare him. Are you OK Boots?"
"Hey! What about me? I’m the one who fell on my face!" Nick pouted.
"Well, it’s not my fault you fell on your face and didn’t see an orange cat at your feet!" Arlet laughed harder. "It’s not my fault your blond!"
"Oh, that’s it! You’ve done it!" Said Nick as he slowly started to move towards her, with a devilish grin on his face.
Arlet sat her cat down and moved backwards with every step Nick made towards her.
"Nick? What are you doing? You better stay back! Nick, I’m warning you! Stay back! Nick—AAAAAH!" Nick grabbed her and started tickling her unmercifully. "Nick!…Stop it!…Nick!" Arlet tried to say between her laughter
"Take it back! Take it back and say I’m the smartest man ever!" Nick told her.
"N…Never!" He tickled her harder. "OK! You win! I’m sorry!"
"And I’m smart!" He demanded, smiling. He stopped tickling her and let her get up.
"OK, you’re smart." She replied. She walked over to the door and opened it. "A smart ass!" She quickly exited before another attack and closed it. "Now hurry! If we get caught in traffic, don’t blame me that we didn’t get to snowboard much."
Arlet smiled once more before she walked downstairs. She got everything ready and started to load all the gears into her Jeep. Nick came down shortly afterwards.
"You need help?" He asked.
"No, I’m fine. I just got to strap our boards in the back." Replied Arlet as she disappeared into the garage.
When she walked back into the kitchen, she found Nick dozing off on one of the stools at the island. She laughed.
"Don’t fall asleep on me now."
Nick jumped, startled. "Huh? What? Oh…right."
"Let’s go! I got all of our boots, jackets and boards in the car."
"Wait! What about breakfast?"
"We’ll stop by a drive-thru on our way up there."
Nick nodded and got up from his seat and followed her towards her car. He got into the passenger seat of her ’94 black Jeep Wrangler. Arlet jumped into the drivers seat . Nick chuckled.
"What?" Arlet asked, somewhat confused.
"I like your hat." Commented Nick.
"Oh…thank you." Arlet replied slightly blushing. She was wearing her "Frack" beanie. "Well, you ready to go?"
"Yeah, I guess. As ready as I can be."
Arlet started her car, backed out of her garage space and headed towards the Rocky Mountains.
"So, where are we going to snowboard?" Asked Nick.
"The best resort in the world, Winter Park." Arlet answered with a huge smile on her face.
"I’ve never been there. In fact, to tell you the truth, I’ve never been snowboarding."
"I kind of figured that out. I mean, since you’re from Florida, I’m pretty sure Florida doesn’t have any good resorts. And I know you’ve been busy touring that you wouldn’t have the time too."
"Yeah, we don’t really have much time to do stuff like this. That’s kind of why we decided to spend Christmas here."
"Cool. We’re actually going up to Winter Park for New Years with a bunch of friends. The girls and I have a condo there and so do a lot of our friends. Some have them close by also. We rented a hall there so we could have our party. We’re taking you guys up there with us."
"Awesome. Hey, thanks for letting us stay with you guys. We really appreciate it. I’m pretty sure this break would of been awesome even if our car didn’t break down in front of your house but I know it’s going to be so much better with you."
Arlet blushed. She couldn’t help it. She knew that Nick liked her and he knew she liked him. So for the past six days they have known each other, they were always goofing off with on another and were constantly flirting. Her friends made fun of her about it but she knew they have been flirting with their guys just as much. But nonetheless, Nick and Arlet definitely got closer and learned a lot about each other over the past few days. The knew each others dreams, goals for the future, fears, stuff they love to do on their free time and sports they loved to play.
Nick watched her blush. She didn’t looked at him and that made him smile. He really did like her a lot. He’d never met a girl quite like Arlet. He’s never seen anyone with so much energy and spirit in one person. And he was amazed at the amount of strength a girl as small as Arlet had. As he slept in her room, he would look at the many trophies she had for Tae Kwon Do. She was a tough cookie and that certainly impressed him. He was also impressed at how smart she was at just 18. She knew a lot of things that were going on in the world and around her. But he loved the most was when she would try to act even smarter by using bigger words and then have them sound completely stupid. He though it was cute when she would realize what she just said and would shot him her "oops" look.
After a few hours, Nick and Arlet made it to Winter Park Ski Resort.
"Woa…" Nick breathed. The place took his breath away.
"Beautiful, right? I love it here. That’s why we love coming up here. But you should see the view from our balcony at the condo. Talk about magnificent." Arlet told him, taking in the scenery herself. The place still took her and her friends’ breathes away. "C’mon, let’s get our stuff and get started. I guarantee by the end of the day when I’m through with you, you’ll be almost as good as my friends and I."
"Almost, eh?" He said, lifting an eyebrow.
"Yeah, almost. No one could ever be as good as we are. We are the best snowboarders in the world." She chuckled.
"You seem to be sure of yourselves there."
"Well, we were taught by the coolest guy in the world."
"Who?"
"Shawn Harris. The guy the girls went to visit the night you guys arrived on our doorstep. He’s so awesome."
"That’s cool."
Arlet went around the back of her Jeep and unstrapped the boards on the back and opened it. She took out their boots and jackets and started to put them on.
"How’s the new gear working out for you?" She asked.
"Pretty good, I guess. Thanks again for taking us shopping for this stuff and to rent the boots and boards. We wouldn’t know what to do without you guys." Replied Nick, very gratefully.
"Hey, no problem. We pretty much knew that you guys didn’t come to Colorado to just look at the Rocky Mountains. You guys wanted to be up there and be riding them."
When they were ready, and after Arlet had to tie Nick’s boots for him because he didn’t know how tight they needed to be, they walked over to the almost flat bunny hill.
"OK, the first thing you need to do is obviously to get on your board." Arlet told him when they reached the top of the small hill.
Nick nodded as he dropped his board on the snow and sat next to it. Arlet chuckled as Nick struggled with the straps. Finally, Nick was strapped onto his board and looked up at Arlet.
"OK, I’m strapped in. What next?"
"Next, I’m gonna teach your how to do you toe edge. I think that is one of the most important things you need to know how to do or you won’t be able to turn very well and run into things."
"What’s toe edge?" He asked, getting confused already.
"It’s where you snowboard on your toes."
"So…how do you do that?"
"Like this." Arlet smiled at him as she laid on her back and turned till she was on her stomach. She got up, turned her head so she could see behind her and slowly made her way down the hill on her toes. She stopped at about 10 feet away from Nick and fell on her knees. "Now you try."
Nick nodded as he laid on his back just how Arlet did and attempted to turn on his stomach. He had a hard time but managed to do so. Arlet giggled at him as she watched. Slowly, Nick pushed himself up and looked behind him. He slowly made it down towards Arlet but didn’t realize he was putting of the weight on his toes and started to fall back. Nick landed on his back with a thud and slid the rest of the way down to Arlet. He stopped and saw her looking down at him, with a silly, amused grin on her face.
"Ow." He said, continuing to stare up at Arlet.
She laughed. "It’s going to be OK. Don’t worry about not getting it right a way." She told him. "I didn’t get my toe edge for the longest time. I just kept using my heel edge. Just a few years ago was I able to get my toes down. But I think you’ll get it faster than I did."
"My butt hurts." He said, sitting up and trying to rub his backside. He gave her a smile that made her heart melt.
"Let’s try again. By the end of the day, you won’t be eating it much."
"Eating it?"
"A boarding term me and my friends use. It means taking a fall. Every time we see someone fall while skiing or boarding, we always say ‘They ate it.’"
"That’s cool. OK, let’s try again."
For the rest of the day, Nick made great progress. They worked on his toe edge, then his heel edge and then putting them together so he could do turns cautiously and was gradually picking up speed. He didn’t fall much but took a huge Superman fall right before lunch that knocked the air out of him. After lunch, they stayed at the bunny hill for awhile until Arlet decided to teach Nick how to get off of a ski lift.
"OK, the key to getting off the lift is to try and keep your board as straight as possible and wait until the board is flat on the ground completely before getting up. If you get off too early, you’ll jump and fall. If you get off too late, you might have to ride the chair all the way back down and then come all they way back up or end up stopping the whole lift to try and get you off of it. Many people won’t be to happy if they have to wait on the ski lift." Nick just nodded as he pushed his board with his feet, careful not to trip. They got in line and Arlet showed Nick how to get on.
"Hey! I did it!" He exclaimed after they pulled down the bar in front of them on the chair lift.
"Yeah, you did. Good job. Now, the getting off part will be harder. It took me about 4 times before I got off without falling. Luckily it’s just us on the lift so you don’t knock them down. If you fall, you’ll just knock me down."
After 10 minutes, they were about to reach the top. Arlet showed Nick he needed to turn on his side slightly to make the board point straight ahead. They lifted the bar and placed their boards on the ground when they reached the top. Both of them placed their foot on the stomp-pad and stood up.
"Hey! I’m doing it! I got off the lif—Woa!" Nick fell backwards and crashed into Arlet. They hit the ground with a loud thumping noise. Fortunately, they weren’t in the way of the other people behind them cause they didn’t get up real quick.
"I’m so sorry." Nick apologized, slowly getting off of Arlet.
"Don’t worry about it. That was kind of my fault. I should of sat on the other side." She told him reassuringly.
"You sure?"
"Yeah. I did the same thing when I first got off the lift. Luckily, Michelle rides regular and had to sit on the left anyways. So when I fell, I fell on no one." She gave him a smile. He returned it. "Let’s go over there. This is a nice and easy green run. It’s a good beginners trail." He nodded as he followed her over to trail.
Nick stopped and looked out on the wide trail in front of him. People went past him as he watched the many skiers and boarders going down as well.
"This is just slightly a bit steeper than the bunny but I think you’ll be OK." She informed him. He sat down and strapped his feet into the board. Nick looked at Arlet. "You go ahead. I’ll follow behind." She told him.
He got up on his board and at a leisurely pace inched his way to the edge of the tiny hill. When he started going, he moved his board carefully and did everything Arlet taught him.
Arlet followed behind him very slowly, not really snowboarding herself. She watched Nick snowboard very carefully down the run but with good speed for a beginner. The whole time, an impressed smiled was on her lips.
When Nick reached the bottom, he stopped. He didn’t fall once. He looked around to make sure he was at the bottom and cheered. He unstrapped himself from the board and jumped up and down excitedly.
"I did it! I did it! I made it to the bottom without falling!" He saw Arlet smiling when she approached him. He ran up to her and hugged her before she had a chance to take off her board.
She laughed. "You did it! See, I told you."
"Thank you so much! I love you!" He hugged her again.
She smiled bigger. "Wanna go again?"
"Hell yeah! Let’s go!" He grabbed her wrist and started to drag her towards the ski lift.
"Wait! Hold on! Let me get my board off!" She chuckled at his energize spirit.
"Oh…" He waited for her to take off her board, then dragged her again over to the lift.
For the rest of the day, the 2 of them went down many different green trails and worked on Nick’s form and speed. Towards the ends of the day at their last run, Arlet upgraded Nick to a blue trail, the intermediate level and was impressed how well he did that. Nick still had trouble with getting off the lift but knew he could try again the next time they come up. After they reached the bottom of the blue trail, the resort was closing and the 2 decided to head home. They packed up all their stuff and left the resort. Nick slept the whole way home, tired of all the excitement he had.
CHAPTER SEVEN
TABLE OF CONTENTS
MY STORIES
MAIN