Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. I expected that it would raise quite a lot of questions and it definitely did. For those, who think that the characters are OOC … yes, they are. I've made that clear at the very beginning of the story. Especially "my" Cameron and John, but also Sarah and Derek are NOT OC. Concerning other questions … please, be patient. Some answers are given already in this chapter, some will be answered later. Don't forget that the story is outlined for about 28 - 30 chapters and some answers could be given very late in the story.
For those, who think that John is acting too childish … well, I think that in first eight chapters he definitely didn't act like a 14-15 year old teenager. In the last one he did, but in this and some following chapters you should get explanation why.
Sorry, almost no Jameron in this chapter.
Chapter 10 – Things Going Wrong
Cameron was relentless. For the first time since her relationship with John improved so much, she was separated from him and at the moment she even couldn't see him anywhere. She was sitting on the chair of ski lift, together with Tim and two other attendants of the course, trying not to worry but worrying nevertheless. She constructed various scenarios and in almost everyone John got hurt because she wasn't there to protect him. It went even so far that she had to forcefully stop playing and replaying different simulations and command herself to stand down. Tim was talking almost all the time but she didn't really listen to him. Sure, she recorded everything but didn't pay any attention to him or anyone else for that matter.
After they have rented all necessary equipment, they returned to the meeting point and only few minutes later both groups were formed. After Derek and Sarah were gone, John suggested to Tim and Andrea to swap places, so that they could be together in one group, but they both were surprised to get a definitive 'no' as the answer with explanation that they wouldn't want to be together in one group. The reasons for such firm refusal were still a secret and neither Andrea nor Tim was prepared to explain them to Cameron and John. So they had to go through with Sarah's decision. Her group went to the ski lift as first, while John's group still remained at the meeting point due to some very clumsy attendants who didn't even know how to put the board on. In that moment she realized that both groups wouldn't stay together and she desperately tried to catch a glimpse of John in the other group. After she spotted his face, she frowned deeply. Andrea was already hanging on his arm and was chattering him up relentlessly. But her frown vanished and was replaced by a tiny smile as John looked at her too and she saw that he was quite clearly annoyed at Andrea's way of clinging to him and only after he noticed her looking at him he smiled back at her. After few seconds she had to return her attention to her group, for they were already in the queue in front of the ski lift and she was the next to take a seat.
"Didn't you hear me, Cameron?" Tim was sounding a little perplexed that Cameron obviously didn't listen to him.
Cameron abruptly stopped reviewing her memories and looked at Tim: "Sorry, I was thinking of something else. What did you say?" It was really unnecessary to request him repeating his words, for she had recorded everything. But it would appear more human if she'd ask him again.
Tim grinned: "Yeah, I noticed you've been somewhere else. I asked if you ever tried snowboarding before?"
Cameron frowned: "I wasn't somewhere else; I'm sitting here all the time." Then she realized that Tim mustn't have meant it literally, so she grinned: "Joke! No, I have never been on the board before. But I'm confident to master it in very short time."
Tim's grin widened: "Confident girl. I like confident girls." He couldn't continue, because they just arrived at the top of the lift and they had to pay attention to get off the lift somehow. They all had the boards on one of their feet therefore it would take quite an balance act to descend from the chair safely, especially considering the quite significant fall from the exit ramp to the gathering point.
Cameron looked at the slope and calculated the best position on the board. She had absolutely no idea what the correct position on the board would be, but she tried her best to find the position, which would make it possible to slide to the meeting point without falling. She put her other foot beside the binding and noticed how her sole slipped on the surface of the board. I forgot to calculate the slippery surface of the board. She quickly made a new calculation, giving her the correct position of her sole and the correct amount of pressure on it to stay on the board. One of her perfections was the completely balanced position of her body on any kind of surface so she was reasonably sure she'd make it to her first goal without crashing. She pushed herself from the chair with carefully calculated amount of force and glided in perfect position towards the rest of her group.
Tim, who had some minor experience in snowboarding before, was biting his lower lip, trying to find the best position of his feet. His tongue protruded from the corner of his mouth in strenuous effort to master this challenge. He pushed himself from the chair a little later than Cameron, but he couldn't calculate his force like she did, so instead of using his brain, he used too much muscle mass.
He felt how his balance began to waver and tried to compensate, but in doing so, he, as it was to be expected, overcompensated and instead of sliding straight ahead, he turned the other way. And that was the direction he shouldn't be going, because it lead directly into Cameron, who was gliding slowly but perfectly. In the moment of realization that he was going to crash into her, his eyes widened and he began to flail with his arms but to no effect. He could only count down the seconds before inevitable crash.
Cameron concentrated on her target and didn't pay too much attention to what was going on behind her. Suddenly she registered something coming upon her but before she could react, she heard a strangled cry: "NOOOO!" and felt how someone crashed into her. She wasn't prepared for such interruption so she wasn't able to compensate on time and in the next second she was lying on her back in the snow, with Tim sprawled over her.
"What is that supposed to mean? Why are you assaulting me?" She hissed through clenched teeth, trying hard to bring her anger under control and glaring daggers into Tim's confused eyes, which were only inches from hers. She could feel him lying on her, his arms around her and she definitely didn't like it. "Get off of me! NOW!" She raised her voice, completely ignoring the laughter of the other group members, who were looking at them.
Tim stuttered: "Sorry C … Cameron. It wasn't intentional. I … I just misjudged the direction. I would never attack you." His eyes returned to normal and a smug grin appeared around his lips. Gee, I've got her under me even sooner than I could have hoped for. She smells so good … His arms not only didn't let her go, he even pretended to have difficulties with getting off her and hugged her a little tighter.
However, Cameron was less than thrilled with the situation and grabbed his shoulders in her iron grip. Without any effort she lifted him from herself like a small stray kitten and growled irritably: "I told you to get off of me!"
Tim was taken by surprise as he noticed how angry Cameron looked, but especially because she lifted him like a small cat without showing any effort at all. She's a lot stronger than she looks. He finally got on his knees to stand up and apologized again: "Really, I'm sorry Cameron. I'll try not to hit you again." He spoke meekly, like someone who found themselves in a situation which they liked, but shouldn't have liked at all.
Cameron sighed and calmed down significantly. She could see in Tim's eyes that he was really sorry and that he really didn't do it intentionally. So she gave him an impatient sigh: "I know. Sorry that I overreacted. Just don't do it again. Find a tree, find another girl to hug, just don't target me again, right?" She was still lying on her back and was just calculating what would be the most efficient method of getting up.
Tim, who was already on his feet, nodded again and offered her his hand. Cameron looked at it slightly surprised, but took it nevertheless. She definitely didn't need his help to get up, but it made her blend in more successfully if she acted like she'd need his help. He pulled her up and tried to help her dust the snow off her clothes but she stopped him defiantly: "Thanks, but no thanks. I'll do it myself." She absolutely didn't want to feel his hands on her body, even though it was covered with thick layers of clothes.
Tim just shrugged nonchalantly and grinned sheepishly: "As you wish." Then he decided that he could as well step into the bindings and tighten them to avoid falling stupidly again. So he sat in the snow and began to fix the binding.
Cameron didn't bother at all and carefully cleaned the snow off herself. As she raised her head, she saw Tim sitting and fixing his bindings and she decided that she should do it too. She plopped down beside Tim and began to work on her binding.
After they both finally managed to fix the bindings, they got up and joined the other members of their group, who were waiting for them about 30 feet away and still grinned at their small mishap. After they lined themselves on their respective places, the trainer began to explain the basics of snowboarding to them. Tim perked his ears up not to miss a single word of the teacher, while Cameron grinned at the thought that she was more than able to multitask, so she divided her attention between the explanations of the trainer and the ski lift, awaiting the arrival of John's group eagerly.
But she had no luck. The trainer finished his explanations and asked the first one in the line to try to glide to the other side of the slope. One by one every member managed to get over there with more or less success. Some with grace, some with less grace and some with no grace at all. Cameron was the last in the group and as her turn to get to the other side was closing in, she became nervous and her eyes remained glued to the ski lift. Still no sight of John!
"Cameron! You're next!" She heard the trainer calling for her and her eyes reluctantly left the ski lift and looked into direction of trainer's voice with slight annoyance written over her face. Everyone else was already on the other side of the slope and all eyes hung on her. If she were human, she'd definitely feel embarrassed, but she dismissed the feeling of being observed and simply calculated the best trajectory to join the group. "Are you going?" the trainer asked again.
Cameron didn't bother to answer him; she slightly jumped to turn her board in the correct direction and let herself glide away in perfect position. She managed to cross the slope without slightest balance problem and as she reached the group, she elegantly stopped and sat down in the snow beside Tim. She didn't miss admiring looks that Tim and also the other members of the group gave her. It didn't mean much to her, the only person, whom she wished would admire her, was not present. And yet she felt satisfied that she was obviously the best pupil in this group. A second later the trainer joined them and looked at Cameron: "Well, Cameron, I can't believe that this is your first time on snowboard. You aren't pulling my leg, are you? You mastered this like a pro and not like a beginner."
Cameron grinned at him self-satisfied: "I've never even seen the snowboard before."
Trainer smiled at her: "Then you're the best natural talent I've seen in my life. I guess you'll master everything in these three hours." Then he turned to the others: "You should try to do like she does. She has perfect balance and knows exactly what she has to do."
Tim grinned proudly at his neighbor: "She's with me, you know. Quite a gal, right?"
Cameron heard him and her face got darker but she didn't want to embarrass him so publicly, so she decided to keep quiet for the time being.
Tim's neighbor couldn't help but to look at her admiringly and nodded to Tim: "You're a lucky guy. She's really first league."
Their further conversation was stopped by the trainer, who continued with his explanations about further elements of snowboarding. Luckily for them, for Cameron's face was getting darker and she was just preparing a poisonous answer for the both self assured boys.
John was still fuming because his mother separated him from Cameron. But he was even more furious at himself for letting her treat him like a baby, just because he was trying to avoid a fight in the public. After she told them that they would have to be in different groups and he decided not to openly oppose her decision, he somehow managed to convince Cameron not to try to challenge Sarah. Immediately thereafter he decided to suggest to Andrea and Tim to swap their places later. He knew that a very loud discussion with his mother would be the result should he directly oppose her decision. Tim's and Andrea's rejection of his suggestion was quite a surprise for him, but he had to accept their decision. He was trying to see where Cameron was and as he found her near the ski lift, he could see that she was looking at him. At the same time he was more than little annoyed that Andrea clung to him in such an intimate manner. But he was too polite to openly shove her away, so he tried subtly to get out of her grip. Annoyance could be well seen on his face and as he looked at Cameron again, he saw a small smile on her face and understood that she saw his annoyance over Andrea so he smiled back at her. But in the next moment, Cameron turned away to get on the ski lift and John quietly sighed as she sat down on the chair, turned away from him. He couldn't help but feel disappointed that he wouldn't be able to learn together with Cameron.
His group was still waiting at the ski lift and the trainer was trying to explain to some members how to step into the bindings and how to fix them correctly. If this is how we're going to learn then it's going to take a whole week before we'll even get to the ski lift for the first time. They should have organized a special course here on the flatland for such jerks who don't even know how to put the snowboard on. John was getting slightly annoyed at the clumsiness of some of the group members. So he almost missed how Andrea pressed herself against him and stretched to his ear: "Do you think we'll even get started today, John?"
Her voice woke him out of his thoughts and he suddenly felt uncomfortable with her body pressed to his. If it had been Cameron … He tried to move a little away from her and even managed it without being too obviously annoyed: "I guess they should take these jerks out of the group and let us start the course." He groaned frustrated. Cameron had vanished uphill a long time ago and he was really getting annoyed. He sighed and after realization that he couldn't do anything to accelerate the learning process of his fellow attendants of the course settled in, his only option was to be patient and wait for as long as it would take.
After few minutes everyone was finally ready to go to the ski lift and John sighed relieved as the group began to move. In the meantime he managed to extricate himself out of Andrea's grasp pretending he had to fix something on his binding and while ducking down, he carefully distanced himself from the too invasive girl. But, after the queue began to move, he found himself again close to her and she smiled at him goofily: "Will you help me get on the seat, please? I'm not exactly the best snowboarder."
"Well, neither am I." John groaned in frustration and recognition that he was obviously doomed to have the more and more annoying Andrea at his side all the time. "But I'll do my best to help you."
As they finally took their positions and waited for the seat to approach, Andrea grasped his hand tightly. John sighed inwardly, but didn't shake her off. After the seat finally approached and they succeeded to sit on it without accidents, Andrea let his hand go and grasped for the safety bar: "I'm a little afraid of the heights. I'd better not look down." She exclaimed and looked at John, while squeezing the bar tightly.
And I'm a little afraid of your invasiveness. If you were Cameron, I'd be delighted, but so … John suppressed his feelings and smiled back: "It's nothing to be afraid of. Just hold the bar tight and nothing can happen to you."
After they arrived at the top, John first scanned the surroundings for Cameron's group and was disappointed that he couldn't see them. Well, no wonder that they're already gone. The way we were preparing for this … it was to be expected. He sighed and decided that he'd better pay attention to the course than to look around for Cameron. Andrea's voice brought him out of his thoughts again: "Could you please hold me as we disembark? I'm bad at it. Really bad."
Is this never going to end? What's her next problem going to be? Fix my bindings? Hold my gloves? Why on earth did I want to spend a day with them? John groaned in thoughts at Andrea's behavior and decided that tomorrow they'd ditch the siblings and enjoy the day alone. "Yeah, sure, why not." His voice, as well as his face, was seriously lacking enthusiasm. But it obviously didn't appeal to Andrea that he was getting more and more annoyed with her, even though they haven't started the course yet.
Cameron was beginning to really enjoy snowboarding as she quickly mastered everything the trainer taught them. It went even so far, that he showed to her much more than he did to the others. He saw that she was an extremely fast learner, so in the next two hours he showed her everything he knew and she absorbed everything like a sponge. Not only absorbed, she also executed everything perfectly. Finally, after two hours, the trainer turned to her with a wide grin: "Well, Cameron, there's nothing more that I could teach you. Now you know everything I know and you're even doing it better than me. If you need a job … we could use a new instructor."
Cameron smiled thankfully at him but shook her head: "I already have a job. Very important job and one I really love doing. But thank you for your invitation."
The trainer shook his head: "No problem. But I have to tell you, that you're by far the best pupil I've ever had."
Cameron smiled and nodded. Then she turned to see Tim beside her and smile vanished from her face, making place for annoyance. I really should have convinced John yesterday that these two are bad news. She shook her head as she remembered Tim's behavior over last two hours. He was constantly trying to hit on her, he never missed a chance to get close to her, to touch her and sometimes it made her wanting to yell out in frustration. The more she tried to avoid him, the more he pushed after her. There were times, she even considered the thought to terminate him, but discarded it for it would draw too much attention should she damage him or even kill him. So she suppressed her urge to hit him hard and expressed her feelings with clear annoyance written all over her face. It all worked fine until he tried to kiss her and that was too much; that was the drop which caused the bucket to overspill. She pushed him away forcefully but controlled, so that he fell backwards and glared at him with murder in her eyes: "Don't you ever try to do this again, do you hear me? Next time I won't be so polite and gentle!"
Tim was so shocked that he only managed to nod and gasp for air. Regardless of the definitely violent reaction it was obviously effective, for since that moment, he really behaved himself and didn't try anything more.
After two hours John eventually mastered snowboarding so far that he was able to get down the slope without falling and without having too many problems. He was inwardly grinning at the thought how he would be enjoying snowboarding with Cameron. He had no doubts that she would be much better than him and they could really enjoy their vacation from now on. His face darkened a bit as his eyes fell on Andrea. She was getting quite good in snowboarding too, but the problem was that she was so obviously trying to seduce him that he was maintaining distance from her at any cost. The end of the course and reunion with Cameron couldn't come soon enough for him.
The trainer gathered the group at the side of the slope. Even the clumsiest members have by now mastered at least that much that they were able to get to the bottom of the slope alone, although some of them with many problems and leaving many deep holes in the snow behind. John waited patiently for his turn to line himself in the row and after he was on, he managed to take his position in one elegant swing. Andrea came after him but she missed the correct timing and crashed into him slightly. Not enough to make him fall, but she had to clung to him to steady herself. In order not to fall himself, he had to clasp his arms around her too.
John sighed irritably but, before he could say anything, her lips were on his and his eyes widened uncontrolled in shock over what she just did. For a few seconds he went completely stiff and couldn't react at all. After he finally managed to get out of his stupor he grabbed Andrea at her shoulders and pushed her away forcefully: "What the hell are you doing? Are you insane?" He yelled at her and glared into her shocked eyes.
Andrea looked into his furious face and realized that she had made a mistake. No matter what Sarah told her before, she realized that John didn't want to have anything with her. At least not in a remotely romantic way. She never felt more stupid and ashamed in her entire life. She'd just made a complete fool of herself. She stuttered: "I … I'm sorry John. I thought … I believed … I'm so sorry." Tears began to well in her eyes and she sniffed: "I'm really so sorry."
John's anger cooled down significantly after seeing how distressed Andrea was. She probably just misjudged our relationship. Maybe she's a good girl after all. He sighed: "Andrea, what the hell were you thinking! I enjoyed our evening yesterday, hell, I even enjoyed it today, although you've been a real pain in the ass, but I never gave you any encouragement for anything else but a friendship."
Andrea looked miserable, first tears already making their way down her cheeks and she just shook her head: "I'm so sorry. Your mother said that you would need someone and so I thought …"
She was cut off fiercely by John, whose anger rose exponentially upon hearing her words: "What did you say? My mother? What does she have to do with it?"
Andrea looked into his face a little scared and answered quietly: "On our way from the hotel she told me you'd be lonely and after losing Riley …" She stopped in the middle of the sentence and gazed helplessly into his eyes.
John drew a sharp breath and tried to control rage that was threatening to take the better of him. He could see that Andrea was probably telling him the truth. She looked too distressed to be able to act so perfectly. Mom! If you're really behind this I swear you'll get to know what it means to be betrayed by the one you love. Why do you have to interfere with my life that way? He calmed down enough to be able to talk normally: "OK, Andrea, I believe you. But … please, don't try anything more. There's someone in my life … and it's not you."
Andrea nodded, relieved that John calmed down significantly. She also understood that he was talking about Cameron. Suddenly everything made sense; their closeness yesterday in the pub, the looks and smiles they gave to each other. She managed: "Thank you John. I promise I won't try anything. I swear on my scout's honor!"
John suddenly felt the urge to laugh as he saw Andreas' eyes, full of remorse and downcast face.
TBC