vii.

swiss alps, 1948

The rickety chairlift carries Percy up the mountain. Below him, the snow glitters in the morning sunlight, its glare nearly blinding, and Percy shields his eyes. Beside him, Jason swings his legs back and forth excitedly.

"I can't wait to hit the slopes." Jason says, pushing his goggles onto his face.

Percy sighs. "We both know I'll be on the bunny slope."

"You'll get the hang of skiing quickly, Perce. It's really easy. As long as you don't fall into a snowdrift and either catch your death or have the cold seep right through your pants and turn your ass to ice."

"What a reassuring thought."

Percy only agreed to stay with Jason and his family at their winter home because the alternative was spending the holidays with his wretched stepdad. The weather conditions yesterday and the day before were unfavorable for skiing, but they're perfect this morning, so here Percy is, halfway up a mountain while a bitter chill whistles through the thin air.

Maybe he'll get altitude sickness like Leo and won't have to ski. Leo and Jason's sister called him a sissy for hesitating when Jason begged Percy to strap on his skis and join him, but Percy's a little terrified and very much regretting his decision to forgo reading comics with Leo for this.

He nearly falls onto his rear trying to get off the ski lift when it deposits them at the top of the mountain. This isn't even the tallest slope, not by a long shot. It's only a few steps up from the baby slopes, which Percy refuses to ski, because he does at least have a bit of dignity.

Still, after he nearly crashes into a tree, he's forced to rethink things, and the next day, covered in bruises and sore as hell from the previous morning, he approaches the instructor at the damn bunny slope. He can hear Leo and Jason cackling as they travel farther up to try one of the more advanced drops.

Percy's the oldest person here, besides the instructor and a few parents. Most of the children are under the age of ten, and they seem to be more skilled than he is, which is extremely embarrassing. Honestly, this whole experience is embarrassing.

The instructor is a girl about his age. She's wearing a pink parka and her curly hair is in a high ponytail. This stands out to him because short hair seems to be all the rage at the moment, at least back in America.

"Hello," Percy says, clearing his throat. He leans on one of his ski poles and forces himself to make eye contact. "I…can you help me?"

She raises an eyebrow. "Aren't you a little old for the bunny hill?" she asks in a posh English accent.

"I don't know how to ski, and yesterday went so awfully that I thought I'd be better off starting with the most basic slope."

"Oh, I see. Though I don't understand why you'd come to the Alps if you've never skied before."

"I'm staying with a friend."

"Mmm. So, you want me to teach you?"

He shrugs. "That would be great. My friends won't stop poking fun at me."

"Well, you're a teenage boy on the bunny slopes. It's quite funny."

"That's rude."

She giggles, and steps closer. "For starters, you're holding your poles all wrong."

Percy looks down. "I am?"

"You need to keep your wrists straight. Use your arms and shoulders to move the poles."

"Oh?"

"Here, I'll help." She comes around behind him and adjusts his grip. She's wearing thick gloves, but Percy still burns up at her touch. A pretty girl's never been this close to him before.

He clears his throat, now tongue-tied. "Thanks."

The girl's gray-eyed gaze is sharp as she gives him a once-over. "Don't keep your knees locked, either. And make sure your elbows point out."

He fixes himself again. "Am I good now?"

"Better. Yes."

Percy fiddles with his goggles' straps. "Now do I just…push off and go? Because yesterday I just sort of threw myself down the side of the mountain and that didn't end well for me, so is there, like, a technique?"

She giggles a little again, then smooths out her expression, voice reassuming that crisp, instructive tone. "You'll want to make sure your weight is distributed correctly, and don't lean sharply forward. Also, keep your skis straight and never cross them over each other."

"Okay…"

She reaches out to pat him on the shoulder reassuringly. "You'll do great. It really isn't too difficult at all, once you've mastered the basics." She stares at him for a moment, bites her lip, then asks, "So, uh, how long will you be staying here?"

"The next week and a half, 'til the fifth. What about you?"

"I'm actually here all winter."

Percy nearly stumbles over his next words. "Maybe…I'll see you again? Sometime this week or next? When we're not on the bunny hill in the freezing cold in twenty layers of clothing?"

His awkwardness draws a full-bodied laugh out of her. It's a deep and rich laugh, like the dark chocolate truffles they sell at the candy store his mother works at. Percy would do just about anything to hear the sound again.

"I would like that," she says, and then Percy's smiling like an idiot.

"Okay, I-"

A screechy voice cuts through. "Is there an instructor here? My son needs help working his ski poles!"

"Well, duty calls," the girl sighs. She grins at him apologetically, then goes off in the direction of the mother who called to her.

Percy groans, a bit dreamy-eyed. Did he actually just talk to a girl and not make a complete fool of himself? Just wait until Leo and Jason hear about this, then they'll think twice about calling him a sissy–

There's a sound like glass shattering, only about a thousand times magnified. Percy looks up in confusion. The sky is bright blue, so it couldn't have been thunder…

Screams fill his ears. A white cloud fills up the space behind him. Someone yells, "AVALANCHE!" Percy tries to run, but his skis dig into the snow. It's like trying to wade through quicksand. He's faintly aware that he's going to die.

And sure enough, the bright white blankets Percy moments later, and then everything around him is absolutely silent.