Chapter 7

(Outline ... Winter scenes ... ski slopes. More hot chocolate in the bedroom is the name of the game. Drillbum departs and Hans takes control again. Laura melts and Clarissa needs Laura after midnight. Studies interfere and learning French is a priority again. Gina admits she is being blackmailed by a pair of mafia types that demand her anal favors to remain silent about her illegal connections. She confesses that she enjoys the unnatural acts and only pretends to be shy about bending over for their enjoyment. Adrianna is all clueless but she manages to come out on top after Clarissa hooks up with Gina and drops her like a hot potato. Eventually Laura and Adrianna find true love on the ski slopes and they cuddle inside a single sleeping bag in an unheated cabin in the middle of a snow storm that leaves them stranded without food or water. They melt snow and Laura breaks out her beef jerky from the bottom of her bottomless bag to tide them over until they are rescued.)

The sudden snowstorm came up unexpectedly between the mountain passes. At first, it was soft and gentle and so light that the skiers all blessed it for adding a fine finish to the deep base that had been building for several months. Then, it became a chaos of blinding, choking huge flakes that added multiple inches each and every hour all through the after midnight hours. Skiers tucked away all snug and toasty warm snuggled together with skin on skin and throbbing flesh brought to ultimate “tingles” by youthful fingers desperate for expanded sexual experience.

Laura was buried deep inside a limited space sleeping bag with Adrianna to keep her company. She learned a great deal about the Russian girl’s anatomy and the location of those special trigger points that made her breathless with panting need. The girl was so simple and easy to read that Laura wanted to be inside her and become her to get away from her own stifling devious and secretive nature. Her previous infatuation with Clarissa was forgotten and in a way she was glad to see the dark-skinned girl form a close relationship with the Italian girl Gina. Their whispers and giggles from the other side of the room tended to depress poor Adrianna into a state of uncertainty about her attractiveness and sexual appeal. The fact that Laura literally bent over backwards to salve her hurt feelings mollified her sense of incomplete failure. Eventually, Laura and Adrianna gravitated to each other like two unanchored stars floating in a universe of hungry nocturnal needs doing their utmost to be quiet in their unmistakable quest for the explosive “tingle” that would make them sated fully for the remainder of the night.

The next morning, Laura looked out the small porthole of a window at the splendor of the white carpet over everything outside except those tiny areas that had been already shoveled or scraped clean to allow pedestrians to move about doing their everyday business. The sound of small children screaming with glee at the new layer of soft snow rubbed on her nerves a bit but she adapted to it quickly realizing it was only human nature to be re-vitalized by the fresh snowfall. It acted a bit like a sheltering shroud erasing the grime of a million sins better left out of sight and forgotten all things considered.

The new lines of students rushing to classrooms and to assignments unaffected by the snowstorm was enough to put some hustle in Laura’s spine and she ran to the bathroom to take a shower before the others hoping that she would make it to her class on time. This was the beginning of a national holiday period and after today the entire region would be all pleasure and very little business with school put off for the following week. That was quite all right with her because she needed the time finish her assignment on the historical importance of the century old regional conflicts that established the boundaries of the country and set up the political systems that was still in full bloom more than a hundred years later.

The other girls were moving slower than Laura despite her initial reluctance to get with the program.

She scurried down the icy sidewalk using caution because it would not help her agenda to wind up with a broken leg in the middle of her plans.

The French class was less boring than most days. The discussion was in using what they already knew in conversation with each other and Laura enjoyed using her new vocabulary to tease the pair of male German students whom she called Gunther number one and Gunther number two. They didn’t seem to get her joke but then her sense of humor left a lot to be desired in the midst of sane company. She giggled as they reverted back into German to berate her lack of logic and pretended to be completely ignorant of their studied affront to her intelligence. The class ended to the sound of several sighs of relief because most of the students were still virtually wordless in conversational exercises that required some knowledge of grammar and vocabulary to establish a means of communication.

The ice was melting fast now and she arrived at the little shop with the fantastic hot chocolate at the same time as Gina even though her classroom was a lot further away than the Italian girl’s classroom. She could tell from the frown on Gina’s usually smiling face that she was not a happy camper and she knew with certainty that the girl would be “spilling the beans” before the hot chocolate cooled down.

It was the first time that she could remember ever seeing real tears in the eyes of the Italian beauty. The steam from their hot chocolate was pungent and the taste of the cautious sip was sweet and addictive to Laura’s adventurous tongue. The hot chocolate slowly drifted to the back of her mind as Gina related her “news” to her in her version of heavily accented English with lots of Italian words thrown in for good measure.

The sky was clear now and the sun was melting the snow and ice all around them.

The hordes of skiers were growing thicker by the minute and Laura knew they would soon be surrounded by chattering fun-seekers boasting about their exploits on the slopes. She knew that most of them just dressed the role and acted like they were veteran ski experts but most of them would never take the risk of flying down the side of one of the steep slopes for love or money. It was all a game to them and they talked a good game but didn’t have the skills needed for real dangerous runs down the mountains. She didn’t mind the girls in their transparent pretense but the guys with the deep sun tans and seductive voices were no more than wolves circling and looking for prey in the gullible immature crowd of eager young females searching for a thrill navigating a mattress instead of a nicely packed slope that was far too dangerous for their liking.

The waiter with the trim figure asked them if they required anything else and Gina waved him off with one of her famous hand movements that was reserved for paparazzi and enemies of her clan. Laura felt sorry for him because he was one of the nice ones that usually slowed down long enough to say something interesting no matter how busy they were servicing the crowds of slope bunnies hoping for a romantic encounter with a tall, dark slope-master itching to take them for a ride down a dangerous path of passion and breathless memories.