~6~

The next morning, I woke up to find a winter snowsuit and a pair of ski's laying next to my bed. I remembered my trip with Aiden. I quickly pulled on my snowsuit and ran downstairs. I found a note on the stairwell. It was from my mom:

Renesmee,

We left for our hunting trip. Have fun skiing with your friends. I will be here when you get back!

Love, Mom

I heard the honking of a truck. I grabbed my backpack and stuffed my mother's note into my bag to let her know I got it. I ran out of the house to find Aiden waiting beside a pickup truck.

"Hey!" he called to me.

"Hey, where's everyone else? I thought you were having millions of cousins coming too" I laughed at him.

He laughed at me and looked down. "They're gonna meet us there. My cousin Eric is gonna drive us there. Come on!"

I threw my skis into the back with Aiden's and climbed into the car. I squeezed in between Aiden and Eric, who was around 20, big built and had the same color hair as Aiden's. It surprised me at how stocky he was considering how scrawny Aiden was. I just smiled at this comparison.

"How ya doing? I'm Eric" he said to me.

I smiled. "I'm good and I'm Renesmee."

"But I like to call her Remy", Aiden butted in.

"Well, Remy it is," he chuckled.

The whole way down all three of us talked about their past experiences with skiing and how much fun I was going to have. I sat there in anticipation. I couldn't wait to try out the slopes.

Once we arrived, we met Aiden's other 3 cousins. All of them appeared to be older than me and Aiden, around 18 and 20. Eric then went off to rent skis with the one of the girl's, Gloria, while me and Aiden stayed and chatted with Sandra and Jim.

Once Eric and Gloria came back, we made our way to the mountains. The sun was beginning to break through the clouds, so I pulled my goggles over my eyes and my jacket over my mouth. The only part of my skin exposed was my cheeks and nose. I figured I would be okay. Me and Aiden went on the beginner hill while everyone else went on the more advanced ones.

The whole time, me and Aiden just laughed with each other and at the many times I fell. I don't think I ever made it down the hill, except for the last time, and we jumped for joy hugging each other at my finally being able to master the kiddy slope. The whole time, the sun shone down on us, but I tried to stay as directly out of it as I could, but Aiden never even noticed my glinting cheeks and nose.

We made our way back to the lodge and sipped hot chocolate as we waited for the rest of our party. The hot chocolate burned by tongue and wasn't very appetizing to me. I would have much rather been drinking the blood of a deer, but I drank it anyway to be polite.

As we drove home in the pickup truck, Aiden and I watched out the window as the sun began to set over the mountains and the stars began to come out, brightening up the sky. That was Aiden to me. When my sky was dark at night, his star brightened it up. I looked over at his face as the moon illuminated it and wished I could be where he was. An innocent boy having the time of his life staring at the stars. I longed to be in that place, but as we pulled into my driveway, reality came into play. I waved goodbye to Aiden and ran inside to tell my mom what fun I had. It was funny how throughout the whole day, I had not thought of Jacob or my dream once. Aiden was again transforming my life into something full of excitement and fun.

I ran so fast into the house, that I had to stop dead in my tracks to see the familiar stranger looking down at me from across the room, melting everything inside of me.