"Will, is it just me, or is this really hard?"

"I'm gonna go with really hard," he held onto Bella's shoulders to keep his balance.

"Ok, just making sure."

"Now, slide one foot in front of the other to move," the ski instructor announced.

"A lot easier said than done," Will mumbled, causing Bella to laugh and consequently the entire class of ten to twelve year olds to stare at the two oldest members of the group. "I can't believe the teenage beginning class was full. I was almost tempted to take Scout up on his offer."

"I'm never that desperate. Besides, living sounds too enticing to let Scout teach us how to ski."

"Ok everyone. Follow me, we are going to practice skiing now!"

Will scoffed as the teacher pointed to small hill with barely enough of an incline to be labeled a hill. The group followed Mr. Kennington, or Ski Ken as he liked to be called, to the small ski lift. It really wasn't a ski life, per se, as much as a moving set of poles, used to drag a person up the incline. Neither Will nor Bella found this concept very appealing. Though they were leading the pack, they soon found themselves falling behind.

"Will, help me? My skis don't work." Staring intensely at the ground, Bella tried to move forward, but each advancing step with one foot, would slide the other back, every time a little more than before.

"Bel...I don't think it's the skis that are defective."

"Shut up and get over here and help me!"

Gliding down to her, he grabbed her hands and placed them on his shoulders, allowing her to pull herself forward.

"Thanks," she brushed a strand on hair out of her eyes, "Hurry, we don't want those sixth graders to steal our place in line."

"God forbid! We might have to beat one or two of them up."

"Will, we're not playing 'Quickest Way to Get Sent to Jail' here, okay? Save that for a rainy day in New Rawley." With a grunt, she pulled him toward the ski lift.

After reaching the top of the hill, Ski Ken attempted to give them a pep talk/review. "Ok now. Go slow everyone - this is your first time. No one is ever perfect their first time, but I'm sure everyone here will do just fine! Remember, to slow down, just wedge your skis into the shape of what?"

"A slice of pizza!" the kids yelled enthusiastically. Will and Bella had also answered, but with a role of their eyes and a tad less vigor than the hungry children swarming in front of them.

"That's right! Ok...go!" Ski Ken encouraged.

Will leaned in to whisper, "Last one down's a rotten egg,"

She raised her eyes challengingly. "No running over small children."

"Of course not."

"Ok. Ready, set-" But Will had taken off early. "Hey, no fair!"

Pushing off, she tried to gain speed to catch Will, but that proved difficult without the help of ski poles and a steeper slope than the one she had been provided. At the bottom of the hill, a very smug Will waited for the approaching girl.

As that cheater came into view, Bella tried to wedge her skis together. Not succeeding, she began to pick up speed as she headed straight for Will.

"I can't stop! I can't stop!"

At first, he thought she was joking, trying to get even with him for starting early. But when he saw her coming closer, with her hands outstretched and her eyes closed, grimacing, he knew this was no scare tactic; she was really going to run into him.

He tried to shuffle out of the way, but was not proficient enough with the concept of moving to avoid her. The world spun before his eyes; he felt the impact of her body, mainly in his chest, as she knocked him to the snow, landing on top of him. Blinking several times, he realized what had happened, "Ouch." His brain pounded from the impact of the ground. "Thank God there were no ski poles involved or this could have been a serious accident."

He felt her body shaking from laughter above him and he couldn't help but smile himself.

"I'm sorry...I'm sorry Will. But I...I just...couldn't...stop." Since her words were interspersed with laughter, it took a fun two minutes to complete the apology.

"I think we better break for the day, before someone gets hurt." Ski Ken glanced at the two, who were now in hysterics.

"You know Bella, maybe it is the skis. Because no one should be this bad, even if they are a beginner."

"Shut up," she punched his shoulder as he helped her up.

"Come on Ski Demon, let's go get some lunch."


By the time they had returned home, they were exhausted, cold, and hungry for a real meal. Not some overpriced, greasy piece of pizza they sold at the restaurants surrounding the ski lifts.

"Food?" Scout mumbled, collapsing at the kitchen table.

"As in...do we have some? Yes. Is it cooked? No."

"I can make some spaghetti."

"You can cook, Ham?" Will was surprised.

"Well, it's really not that diffic-"

"That sounds good," Jake patted his hand and turned back to her friends, "He makes a pretty mean spaghetti. So how was your day skiing Scout? Make any close new tree friends?"

"For your information, I did not once fall down or run into any inanimate objects."

"That's great Scout! I do believe - wait a minute...Did you run into a person?"

"I said I didn't-"

"...run into any inanimate objects."

Smiling sheepishly, he hung his head, "No one was hurt!"

"How bad was it?" Bella implored.

"The equivalent of a four-car pile up."

"How did that-" Sighing, Jake shook her head, "I don't even want to know."

"Yeah, well, WE were stuck with a bunch of elementary school kids learning how to ski. All day."

"We know."

"What do you mean you know?"

"Well, we were coming down to meet Scout for lunch, and we saw you guys. So we kinda...took a picture."

"Great!" he sighed, "Why do I have to feeling I'm really gonna regret that?"

Jake laughed, "So how did you get put in that class anyway?"

"All the teenage classes were full. Yeah, so between ten year olds publicly humiliating me, realizing there are small children that can, in fact, ski better than I do, and being run over by Bella - it wasn't one of my best days."

"Okay, so stopping doesn't come naturally to me, I'm sorry."

"Don't worry, it doesn't come naturally to Calhoun either," turning to him, Jake teased, "And how long have you been skiing?"

He turned away from her, shaking his head.

"That's what I thought. So...it looks like everyone here managed to have their little wipe out today. Oh - except for me," pleased with herself, she leaned back in her chair, "Which would logically make me the best skier."

"Oh, your time will come."

"Yeah you keep telling yourself that, Scout."

"It will. And it will come big!"

"And I'll be there to catch it on film." Hamilton whipped around from cooking to take a picture of the four at the dinner table. "That's a promise."