The next morning Ryan awoke feeling more optimistic. During dinner the night before, Marissa had sat next to him, and had spent most of the night talking to him. Although, sleeping in separate beds still left something to be desired… But she had snuck down and cuddled for awhile.

He spirits dimmed when he noticed Marissa putting on a new fleece, with the tags still attached, one that he had noticed her holding during her shopping trip. "Got some new gear?" He asked.

"Oh yeah…" Marissa blushed slightly. "Oliver bought it for Natalie, but since she's not here he said I could wear it, since it fits me. He didn't want it to not get used, you know?"

"Yeah… Okay…" Ryan couldn't really think of a reason to object, but he wanted to. He sighed, and got ready to dress in the thirty layers Kirsten had bought for him.

"You slow pokes almost ready yet?" Summer yelled from another room. "Spring is gonna be here before you two get ready!"

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"You have got to be kidding me," Summer eyed Luke as he picked up a snowboard and got ready to put it on. She was standing next to one of her own, it was very pink. "Does nobody else snowboard?" Summer eyed the rest of the group, and sure enough she and Luke were the only one's with snowboards.

Cohen was attempting to put on skis, and kept falling over. Anna was trying to help him, but he kept pulling her down and they landed, laughing together in a heap. Oliver was helping Marissa, which was odd, because Summer knew that Marissa knew how to ski. Ryan, meanwhile, was struggling to get into his ski boots, and sneaking brief glares at Oliver. Summer actually felt bad for him. Not as bad as she felt for herself, but still…

"Wanna take a run together?" Luke turned to her and asked. "I mean, we both got boards..."

"Sure, if you can keep up!" Summer said as she launched herself down the mountain. She just wanted to get away from Seth and Anna, far, far away!

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Ryan was trying to keep his act together and not look like too much of a fool, but right now he was definitely losing his cool. The ski boots were hard to get on, he felt like he was breaking his ankle as he struggled to pull them over his feet. Marissa was no help, even though she had promised she would help him, but it looked like she was having trouble with her equipment. Finally he had the boots on and buckled, then he had to get into the skis, and judging by Seth and Marissa that seemed to be the hardest part. Then he realized all you had to do was stomp down and click in, really it wasn't so difficult.

"Can we go?" He asked impatiently, Marissa was leaning against Oliver and giggling, still missing a ski.

"Oh right," She blushed and quickly snapped in. Ryan help back a strong desire to punch Oliver squarely in the face. As if to avoid the situation further, she pushed off quickly with her poles and disappeared down the mountain.

"Catch me if you can!" She called over her shoulder.

"Oh it's on!" Oliver said, launching after her. Ryan stared at them with frustration, he didn't know how to skis, but he mimicked what they had done and pushed off with his poles. Suddenly he was moving, the thin ski blades gliding over the snow, gathering speed as the ground dropped out from under him down a steep hill. He was gathering too much speed now, and he didn't know how to stop. Suddenly a kid made a sharp turn in front of him. Ryan tried to skid to a stop, moving his feet in separate directions, and instantly tangling his ski blades and falling to the ground, he rolled a few feet, and his skis snapped off.

He let out a sigh of relief, when he realized he had come to a stop. Suddenly, he felt himself covered in a white shower of snow. "Woah, nice yard sale!" Oliver skied up to him, laughing. Marissa was right behind him, also laughing. Ryan didn't see what so funny, he had never been in skis before and he could have been seriously injured. He glanced up the hill and saw Seth and Anna making their way down the hill at a much slower and more reasonable pace, Anna seemed to be giving Seth some instruction.

"You know Ryan, you really shouldn't ski so aggressively, you could really hurt yourself!" Oliver lectured him. If there had been any chance of him managing to untangle his legs and get to his feet, Ryan would have jumped up and punch Oliver right then and there. The slipperiness of the slope was the only thing that kept that nose of his safe.

"Alright, let's get you up…" Marissa sighed, as if she was speaking to a child. "Oliver's right, you really shouldn't ski like that until you've had more practice. You could have been killed!"