One Month Later

"Mae"

"Mae, Wake up."

"Ugh. Bea it's four in the morning. We don't have to be at work till seven. Now let me sleeeeep." Replied a still half asleep Mae.

"You know its Winterfest today. Unless you want to lose your job you better be downstairs ready to go in a half hour or you're walking. Oh, and it's snowing pretty hard." Said Bea

"Alright, fine. I'm up. Just make me some toast so I can eat in the car. I'll be down in a minute." Said Mae. Bea then left, turning on the light on the way out, despite the angry moans of Mae. She then got up, went and showered and got ready for the day. About ten minutes later she booted down the stairs and grabbed a slice of toast Bea tossed to her as they both walked out the door and into Bea's car. Bea wasn't joking about the snow. It was really coming down, Mae could still see but not that far.

"So this is what a nor'easter is huh. Erik was talking about it last night. Should die down a bit later today but the snow won't stop until Tuesday." Said Bea.

"Tuesday?! Thats in four days!" Exclaimed Mae in a worried tone. She hated working in the snow. Sure, It was pretty, but being up hundreds of feet in the air trying to fix a motor on a ski lift in the blinding snow basically cancelled out any good feelings she had for it.

"Yes Mae, It is. Congrats on finally figuring out basic mathematics." Replied Bea, lighting a cigarette.

"Oh come on, you of all people shouldn't be scolding me. I mean, you're starting to smoke before then sun is even up. You're lungs are gunna shrivel up in like a year if you keep that up." Said Mae, crossing her arms in protest.

"It helps me relax. Im stressed out that I might eff up on the most important day for the resort and lose my job and have to go back home alone to Possum Springs. Besides, I can quit whenever I want." Said Bea as she pulled into the resort's parking lot.

"Ouch that first part. And the day you stop smoking will be the day I go back to college." Said Mae, looking out the window. She could already see preparations for the festival were hastily underway. She spotted Ray unloading boxes of potatoes at the delivery bay, Andrew working with seven other nerds trying to instal the new massive wifi antenna that just arrived. She remembered how pissed off he was after getting told by Erik that the sponsors of the event wanted the reception of the entire mountain improved so guests could easily share on social media the "Amazing experiences they were having at the Geep Automotive's WinterFest" Because it apparently might "May lead to some milleneilas feeling that they have to then buy a Geep in order to keep up with their friends" or some garbage. But the real thing that got him mad was the fact that they would only give him a hundred bucks to do it. After he personally called the CEO of Geep (We still don't know how he got his number) and saying that Honde was willing to give the resort ten thousand dollars to buy a new Wifi antenna AND take over as the main sponsor for WinterFest. The CEO then personally promised to buy the resort a 50 thousand dollar top of the line antenna if they promised to never talk to Honde again. The whole stunt almost got Andrew fired, but I really don't think he cared.

Bea found a good parking spot and stopped the car. The two got out and Bea headed off to the rental shop to help Toby manage the huge amount of people that would need rental equipment for the day. Mae headed in the opposite direction towards the Control Room. All the lifts were running smoothly, so she just had to wait till one of them broke and needed to repair, or really until anything in the resort broke and Talis needed her help. Mae always loved the path to the control room. The control room itself was built where an old ski run used to be. The resort had to abandon it along with a couple other ski runs because they didn't have enough money to maintain them. According to Erik it wasn't all that bad, as it meant they didn't have to clear land to build the control room, as they could just build it on one of the runs. Mae could tell exactly where the run used go based on the sea of evergreens that took its spot. It was weird, seeing so much green in winter, however for the first time all season, Mae couldn't see almost any green. All of the trees were completely covered in snow from last nights storm. They looked like snow pyramids growing from the ground.

As Mae approached the door to the control room, she noticed a piece of paper tapped to it. She pulled it off and started to read it, "Sasha is asleep inside. You'll need to boot everything up on your own, ill be over as soon as I'm done with the antenna. Thanks hamburger helper." Mae then gently opened the door and turned on the lights. She then saw Sasha on the couch, lying down listening to something on her phone.

"Morning Mae." Said Sasha, not opening her eyes. "Oh good, you're awake. I thought id have to wake you up." Sad Mae, as she put down her backpack and sat down at the main computer. "You would have if i didn't have this podcast to listen to. I was working all night with the snow cat snow plow. Had to keep all the runs clear enough so the smaller snow plows wouldn't get stuck in all the snow. But the guys are here now though to plow for me, Im pretty much free till tonight when I have to double check the terrain for the freestyle competition. You on the other hand are going to be the busiest person here, Hamburger helper" said Sasha. "You know the rules, I'm not substituting or helping you, so you can't call me that." said Mae.

Mae earned that nickname about a week after she first started working. After that first week Erik told her why she REALLY was brought on. Talis could basically repair everything but the Ski lifts. Well, he couldn't legally at least. Their was a law that prevented him from doing so, as it said that it could only be repaired by someone who took a advanced lift mechanics class. Mae completed the class before dropping out of college, so technically she was qualified. Erik told her that corporate however, didn't like the idea of paying not only wages but also housing for someone who only could repair ski lifts. So she was basically assigned to be a helper or replacement if possible to anyone who needed it. Thats why everyone called her hamburger helper, and was why she was doing Andrew's job.

Mae turned the main computer on, made sure all the walky talky's were charged so employees could call in problems to her from theirs and checked the Problem map. It was an entire map of the Ski resort with little L.E.D. lights on it. Although the mountain itself was fairly small vertically, (really being 2100 feet tall at the top and 1500 at the bottom, which meant you really only had about 600 feet of skiable elevation) it was almost 2 miles long horizontally, which meant the resort could fit in a ton of trails and runs. The far left side was where the resort first started and the most dense. It had tons of small trails that led into each other and they were really only separated by a couple of trees. Most of the lifts were over there as well, so Mae knew the area pretty well. The middle had longer trails and a couple of "Runs" which were specialized trails known for their steepness and difficulty, while being pretty short. It also was where all the terrain parks were. Two of them were just regular trails with grinding rails and small jumps built on then while another was just four massive jumps. The fourth one though, was the Resort's crowning jewel. It was called BlueBull park and boy was it fancy. BlueBull basically funded and built the thing themselves. It had a ton of features in it. several grinding rails that led to snow clips for snowboarders to jump off of, three huge jumps for people to pull of some crazy tricks off of and to top it all off the largest half pipe on the east coast and the only one in the state. Every year at WinterFest they had a televised competition on it which was the main event of WinterFest. But after BlueBull park there really wasn't much. Out of the seven lifts and twenty six ski trails that were on the right side of the Resort, only two lifts and 11 trails were open. Sure, they were long but only by a bit compared to the other runs. It was nicknamed "The wild lands" due to the neglect the Resort gave it. It was densely wooded and barely groomed as well, but that wasn't always the case. Erik told her at the Christmas party that a month after the right side had its grand opening (which apparently kinda sucked because they hadn't cleared out all the trees on the paths so the paths were incredibly tight)last year and then for no reason that entire part of the park was closed. Some of it reopened, but not much. Corporate never said why, but Erik said it probably had something to do with money problems, as the recession hit the resort hard. Mae really didn't care though, as it just meant less work for her.

She powered up the map and smiled, as all the lights were green. Green meant no problem, Red meant that their was a problem and it needed Mae or Talis to come fix it, Orange meant that their was a problem but that the staff there was trying to fix it on their own, Blue meant that they needed help from someone other then Mae or Talis and Purple meant that the place was over crowed. Purple lights meant that Mae had to go on the computer and take power away from somewhere in the resort and temporarily feed it to the lift that was overcrowded to make it move quicker, thus solving the overcrowdedness.

"Hey Sasha, can you wake me up if one of those lights changes color?" Said Mae, as she yawned and grabbed one of the blankets off Sasha and wrapped herself around it. "Sure, as long as I get your pay and my blanket back" Said Sasha. "Partner, the only thing a true American shares is his liberty and freedom along with rapid pew-pew guns." Said Mae in her best country accent as she closed her eyes. "Ha ha, I'm a foreigner. Funny joke. Ill cover for you until Andrew comes back, but Its your fault if anything catches on fire or dies while you're asleep." Said Sasha. "You are truly the master of the deal. Ill take it." Said Mae, trying to find the best position to go back to sleep in."

"Sweet dreams or something Mae"

"Thanks, will do."

"No, Mae you're supposed to say you to, i'm from Russia and even we know that."

But it was to late, Mae had already passed out.