"Hello?" Ryan answered his phone when Marissa's name appeared on his caller ID.
"Hey Ryan… So Oliver stopped by…" Ryan groaned inwardly. He had been praying that maybe Ryan could just disappear, but he had known that it probably wouldn't happen. Oliver was in love with Marissa, why was he the only one who could see this?
"And?" Ryan asked, he knew he sounded annoyed.
"And he apologized- for everything. He really wants us all to be friends. He invited us all to his family's place in Mammoth for some skiing."
"I don't ski,"
"Don't worry, it's easy! I'll teach you! It will be so much fun… Snowball fights, hot cocoa, snuggling up at night…"
"Mmm… that does sound like fun…" Ryan imagined Marissa's, her cheeks flushed, her smile sparkling… "Okay, when do we leave?"
"Friday, oh and I'm going to invite Summer and Luke, you should invite Seth and Anna!" Then with a click she hung up the phone. Ryan sighed and got up from his bed and walked towards the main house.
What had he gotten himself into? "Hey Seth?"
"What's up Ryan?" Seth looked up from his video game.
"We're going to Mammoth,"
"Mammoth what?"
"Mammoth, like… the mountain?" Ryan hoped he had that right.
"For skiing?"
"Yeah…"
"Dude, do you even know how to ski?"
"No, do you?"
"I went a few times with my parents, but it's really not a me kind of sport. All that cold air, and wet snow, really, just not me."
"Well, this weekend, it's going to be. I'm not going to be spending my time up on that mountain with just Oliver and Marissa. Oh, and Marissa said you can invite Anna…"
"Oh?" Suddenly Seth seemed much more interested.
Roll Main Credits
We've been on the road… Driving towards the sun… Looking out for number one…
California here we come!
"Kirsten, you really don't have to do this…" Ryan said, staring in slight horror at the price tag on a ski jacket.
"Well, what else are you going to do? You can't wear your hoodie on the mountain," Kirsten chuckled.
"How do I look?" Seth emerged from the fitting room, suddenly four times his normal body mass, dressed in a red and white ski suit. Ryan couldn't help laughing a little, but quickly covered his mouth with his hand.
"Looks great sweetie," Kirsten said, but she was also laughing.
"Yeah Seth, looks great."
"Skiiers are supposed to be brightly colored, or else you blend in too much to the snow or something."
"How about black?" Ryan asked, holding up a basic black jacket.
"Looks good to me," Kirsten smiled. Ryan, pleased with his find, made his way to a rack of pants to find his size, when he accidently bumped into someone.
"Sorry…" he muttered.
"Ryan?"
"Hey Marissa," Ryan smiled, surprised but glad to see her. "What are you doing here?" She was in the men's ware section.
"Oh, Oliver and I were just doing some shopping. He's around here somewhere…"
"Oliver's here?"
"Yeah, he insisted I come with him shopping. He wanted to pick up some stuff for Natalie, and wanted me to give him a second opinion."
"Oh, right…" Ryan couldn't really find anything wrong with this, but he still didn't like it. "So Natalie's coming?"
"Of course she is," Marissa frowned a little, "I mean, we're buying stuff for her aren't we?"
"Right…" Ryan said, not feeling entirely reassured. "Well, I'm here with Seth and Kirsten, they're probably wondering where I went..." And then he jetted off, wanting to avoid coming into any unnecessary contact with Oliver.
Commercial Break
Ryan looked in dismay at the enormous amount of stuff piled onto the front stoop. He had never been on a real vacation in his life, and he wasn't used to packing. Kirsten had to help him with a lot of it, but he had already decided that this was to be the first and last skiing vacation he ever took. It required way too much stuff.
Keith pulled his truck into his driveway, honking loudly, "Yo, let's go!" He yelled, hopping down from the cab, grinning like an idiot. Summer climbed down from the passenger seat, looking less thrilled.
"Cohen!" She spotted Seth, "Are you going?" She looked at him disdainfully.
Seth glanced at Ryan, "Well, yeah, Anna and me are going."
"Oh..."
"Alright, I got the beers packed, got my snowboard… Are you guys both on skiis?" He noticed the equipment that they boys had packed.
"No Luke, we're actually on snowboards, we're just gonna be riding one with each foot." Luke looked confused, Summer laughed, loudly.
"Ha ha ha, oh Seth, you are just too funny!"
"Dude, is she mocking me?" Seth asked Ryan quietly.
"You know, I'm not sure." Ryan answered honestly, slightly confused by Summer's odd outburst. "Where's Marissa?" He asked, looking around. As if in answer to his question, his phone started to ring. "Marissa? Hey, where are you?"
"Hey Ryan, so bad news, Natalie can't make it…"
"What?" Ryan asked, for some reason he had a bad feeling about this…
"Yeah, she and Oliver got into a huge fight. He's feeling pretty awful, so I told him I'd drive with him up to Mammoth." Ryan felt his mood sink lower.
"Well… Okay…" What could he say?
"We'll see you up there, Summer said they just got to your house."
"Yeah, see you up there." Ryan said, hanging up the phone.
"She's going up with Oliver?" Summer asked.
"Yeah…"
"I'm sorry," Her words seemed genuinely sympathetic, he saw her glance slide to Seth. In the interim of the phone, Anna had arrived, and she and Seth were greeting each other with an enthusiastic "secret" handshake.
"No Seth, it's clap then shake then clap!" Anna was laughing as Seth confused the less-than-complicated maneuvers.
"So Anna, Ryan and I will go up in the Rover, and Luke and Summer can go in his truck."
"Oh no, I am not spending six hours in the car with him!" Summer yelled.
"She makes me listen to Britney!" Luke whined.
"I'll go with them," Ryan offered. It would be better than watching Anna and Seth get all sappy with each other.