Chapter 62: Consequences of Being Overheard

I was surprised how much fun we all had. Lauren ended up spending the last hour coaxing many of us onto some of the intermediate slopes in the area. Erica was fearless on the slopes. Ashley, Jason, and I were the next group to start challenging the harder slopes. To my surprise Milli often joined us, although she was very tentative if there were moguls.

Maurice struggled with stopping and turning. He often crossed his skis and wound up crashing. Still he kept smiling and was willing to race anyone who challenged him.

Angelique had the most fun. She never seemed to go fast, but she quickly learned to turn, and her cheerful laughter rang out as she made her way down. Lenore watched her closely, clearly fearing for her daughter's safety, but no harm came to her.

We were standing at the lodge when Morgan raised a hand to summon everyone over. "It's about time we called it a day," he said.

"One more run?" I asked.

Morgan nodded. "I'm going to take the trolley down. I'm tired and my knees are sore, but we can meet you at the bottom."

"Angelique is asleep on her feet," Lenore said. "So I'll take her in the trolley."

"Sorry," Liz said. "This hasn't been my favorite activity. It's fun, but I'll sit down and relax rather than ski down."

"I'll try one more run," Ashley said as she came over to give me a hug.

"You know I will!" Erica said enthusiastically.

Jason and Maurice looked at each other. "No fear," they said together.

Matti and Milli raised their hands. "We'll do it," they said.

Jessica laughed. "Hey, I'm a brain. I'll hang with the healthy people while you all crash. Kathy, you're with me. I need someone warm to cuddle with."

Kathy giggled. I waved to Morgan and then pointed to the line for the Gold Coast Express lift. "That will take us up close to the ridge. From there we can race all the way to the bottom."

The group who was making a final run headed over. Once we reached the line we realized that six people could ride the lift at a time. I nodded to the others. "You go first and wait for me at the top."

They laughed at this, but agreed. I stood behind Ashley as the line moved slowly forward. My girlfriend held my hand to her breast as we waited.

The line moved quickly, and I released Ashley to board the lift. The attendant asked me how many and I raised a single finger. He asked if I minded additional people and I just shrugged.

My friends were picked up by the lift, and I was waved forward. Two boys and a girl followed me, and we spread out to catch the lift chair. I was on the right. The girl actually pushed one of the boys out of the way so she could be next to me.

When the chair picked us up, the girl reached out with her hand as if to steady herself. Her hand landed on the outside of my thigh. I used the back of my left arm to push it away.

"Oh, sorry," the girl said unapologetically. "I'm a bit nervous."

I looked more closely at the girl. She was nineteen or twenty and wearing a form-fitting designer outfit. As I looked at her, I noticed one of the boys leaning forward so he could look around her and glare at me.

I turned to look ahead at my friends. The girl next to me kept speaking. "I'm Hillary, what's your name?"

"Mark," I answered curtly.

"That's a nice name," Hillary replied with false cheerfulness. "Do you come here and ski often?"

"This has been my first day skiing," I replied.

"But you are heading to the top of the ridge?" Hillary asked.

"Last run of the day," I said. "Figured I should make it a good one."

"So, you some kind of super jock?" one of the boys asked.

"I played football," I replied. "But I'm not obsessive about it. What about you?"

"Played in high school, but I'm not good enough to play in college," the boy replied. "Besides, I'd rather ski."

"I'll admit this was fun," I said.

"So do you have a girlfriend?" Hillary asked.

"One of these two gentlemen with us must be your boyfriend," I replied. "Besides, I'm only here for the day, so nothing can happen."

Hillary snorted. The lift chair had reached the top of the hill, so I stood up and skied over to my friends. Maurice and Jason were looking down the hill.

"What's the plan?" Maurice asked.

"I say we aim to the right of the lodge and join the mountain run just below it. After that we take the mountain run," I said.

"Forfeits?" Jason asked.

"I'm not betting on this," I said. "But we can call it bragging rights if you want."

"How do we start?" Jason asked.

"Now!" Milli shouted. "I looked over in surprise as Erica, Ashley, Matti, and Milli took off down the mountain.

"Cheat!" Maurice shouted as he tried to turn and give chase.

I pushed off with my poles and took off after the girls. They had gained a sizable lead with their quick start. I took a number of risks on the slope as I tried to pick up speed.

Milli got bounced by a mogul and slowed down to regain her balance. I zipped by her. Ahead, I could see that Erica was building a lead on Ashley and Matti. They ran into the flatter expanse near the lodge. Erica tried to use her poles to maintain her speed.

I was starting to gain on them. As I joined them on the flat section, someone passed just to my left. It looked a bit like one of the two boys who had been on the lift with me. He swung his pole at mine, but I was able to turn to the right and make him miss.

The flat section slowed me down. My poles helped keep me from losing too much speed as I continued to chase Erica and Ashley. Matti had stopped to look back. She waved as I passed.

I felt someone come up on my right and match my pace. I looked over at Hillary was there. Her form-fitting ski jacket was unzipped almost to her waist.

"See anything you like?" she asked.

I waved a hand towards Ashley. "Her," I said.

Hillary snorted as I pushed my poles into the snow several times, trying to generate some speed. I left the flat area about twenty feet behind Ashley. Hillary had moved slightly ahead of me and looked over her shoulder at me. "That girl? She can barely ski."

"We'd never skied before," I said. "She's doing great for a first day skier."

"I can rock your world," Hillary said.

Once again I tried to use my poles to speed up and get away from Hillary. I angled my route to pass to the right of Ashley, making sure that Hillary could not bother her. Hillary just laughed as the other boy from the lift caught up to Ashley and grabbed her around the waist.

"Hey!" Ashley called out.

I tried to turn back, but Hillary grabbed my arm. "Leave her," she said.

"No chance," I snapped as I pulled my arm from her grip. The boy who had grabbed Ashley was trying to pick her up and lift her from the snow. My blond girlfriend tried to free her arms so she could use her poles against him.

I swung the pole in my left hand to hit the boy in the back of his right thigh. He yelped and released Ashley. I turned to the right trying to burn off some speed and get between Ashley and him as she scrambled to regain some speed.

Hillary seemed unwilling to accept my rejection. She attempted to thrust one of her poles between my legs to trip me. I managed to fend it off and her friend began gaining on us.

"Where's Jason and Maurice?" Ashley asked over her shoulder.

"They were behind me," I said. "But they might be going slow with Milli and Matti."

"What do we do?" Ashley asked as Hillary attempted to grab my arm.

"Ski faster," I said. "I'll try to make sure he doesn't grab you again."

Ashley said nothing. She crouched in a tuck as she began to move faster. I was about to join her in a tuck when something hit me in the back.

"Bastard!" the boy said. "You get Hillary! You don't need the blond!"

"Keep Hillary," I said.

"What's wrong with this body?" Hillary asked from my right. I turned to look and nearly crashed when I saw she had removed her jacket completely. A white bra covered her breasts, but otherwise she was naked from the waist up.

"Nothing," I said. "But that doesn't mean I'm interested."

"That girl got healed," Hillary said. "I heard her say it. You have access to that. I want it."

"You heard nothing," I said. "And I don't care a lot about the package if the contents are rotten."

"You saying Hillary is rotten?" the boy growled at me. I could feel his skis bump into the back of my skis as we continued to head down the hill.

These two were so close that the skiing was becoming dangerous. Ashley had managed to ski off to the left and halt, allowing us to slide by, but I now had to figure out how to escape two determined individuals.

I decided to surprise them by heading to the right a bit. There was a small ramp of packed snow. I tried to use it as a jump, but only managed to shift to Hillary's right. Now both of my antagonists were to my left as I continued down the slope.