Advent '09 [8/25]
Advent 09
December 8th - 17 days to go
Now that they knew they had lessons in the morning Kyoko and Kanae left with plenty time to spare so that they didn't have to take the same shortcut as yesterday, much to Kanae's delight.
They made their way over to the ski instructor and got ready, banging the snow from the bottom of their boots before clicking into their skis.
"Okay." The instructor said, smiling brightly, "After yesterday's productive lesson," here he turned to Kanae, "I thought we would try a blue run. It's the easiest one we've got and pretty flat." He spotted Kyoko's nervousness and continued, "We'll take it as slow as we need to but it'll be fun! Come on, it starts just behind that ski lift over there. We'll ski over nice and easy."
Kanae started past him and headed in the direction he pointed with complete ease, Sho following her a few seconds after with just a little less grace.
Kyoko stayed exactly where she was. The instructor slid over to her.
"Come on, you can do it. Remember what I taught you yesterday? Keep your knees bent and lean forward slightly." He helped her into the correct position. "Right. Now just slide your feet like your shuffling and push yourself with your poles."
Kyoko followed his instructions, sliding forward a few feet and looking mighty pleased about the accomplishment.
"That's it!" The instructor enthused, "Now just do that again and work yourself into a rhythm."
It took a while but eventually Kyoko got the hang of it and made her way across the flat plain to where the others were waiting behind the ski lift queue. Both Kanae and Sho looked happy that she had managed to get that far without any disasters.
"Right!" The instructor said, clapping his hands together. "The blue run is pretty much the same as that, so just continue to do what you just did and you'll be fine. I'll be in the front, so just follow me. I'll stop every so often so you can catch up then we'll go on."
They all nodded their agreement.
"Kanae, could you take the back?"
"Sure."
"Right then, let's be off."
They took off and all was going well until halfway through the run where Kyoko seemed to have some trouble with her ski poles.
"Arg! They just won't...!" She scrabbled at the material looped around her wrist.
"Here," Sho stopped next to her, taking off his gloves so that he could untangle her better, "let me help."
"Are you guys ok? We're losing the instructor." Kanae called out to them from behind.
"Yeah, sure." Sho answered, "Kyoko's just having a little trouble with her poles. Why don't you catch up to the instructor and we'll follow?"
"I don't know...I'm supposed to stay at the back..."
"Yeah but," Sho argued, "You can see where he went. I've already lost him in all the other skiers. And I'm not exactly going to miss you in that jacket."
Kanae looked torn. On the one hand she was supposed to be behind Kyoko and Sho in case they got into trouble. On the other she had been skiing at a really slow pace all morning and Sho's argument did make sense...
"Ok then, but just make sure you hurry up."
She started off after instructor leaving Sho and Kyoko by themselves. There was an awkward silence for a moment before Kyoko pouted.
"I didn't need your help."
Sho smiled as his fingers nimbly untangled the knots.
"I mean..." Kyoko began again, "I guess...thanks." She grumbled out the last part, hoping he wouldn't hear her. The brightening of his smile told her she didn't try hard enough.
"It's no problem, Kyoko. Was just glad to be of help. There!" He fumbled the poles and dropped them on the floor. "Woops, I'll just..." he bent down to pick them up to present them to her when he noticed that she wasn't next to him anymore. "Er...Kyoko?"
A scream alerted him to the figure of Kyoko as she slid forward, down an incline that they had missed because snow seemed to hide these things.
Sho stared after her dumbfounded, as she seemed to speed up and disappear into the distance, unable to stop because he still held her poles in his hand.
"Crap."
-/-
Kanae was having a great time.
Unencumbered by the pace of the others and with quite a stretch to go before she had to stop by the instructor she had worked herself up until she was going quite fast, enjoying the cold wind whipping through her hair.
Before this she would have never thought that she would enjoy skiing so much.
She listened to the sound of the freshly fallen snow pass under her skis, the laughter of the children to the right of her, Kyoko screaming.
Wait.
She jerked her head around, Kyoko's name on her lips when a pink blur flashed past her.
"Kyoko?" She yelled after her friend, disbelief written across her face. Pushing herself as fast as she could she barely managed to catch up enough so that Kyoko could hear her. "What are you doing?"
"Oh God, oh God, oh God, I can't stop I can't stop helpmehelpmehelpmehelpmehelpme!"
"Kyoko! Hang on I'll..."
Unfortunately for both Kyoko and Kanae there was another incline just ahead. Usually this would not bother new skiers to much but Kyoko couldn't slow herself down at all and was just picking up speed.
Kanae reached out to grab her best friend, ready to sacrifice herself and bring them both tumbling to the ground. It was at the exact moment that Kanae's gloves grazed Kyoko's jacket that Kyoko sped up again and shot forward.
Kanae couldn't match that type of speed and she had to settle for watching Kyoko disappear off into the distance.
"Crap."
-/-
By the time both Sho and Kanae caught up with Kyoko, their instructor was pulling her out of a snowdrift she had landed in head first.
"I didn't know that you could pick up that kind of speed on a blue run." He mumbled to himself as he brushed the snow from Kyoko's hair. "You ok?" he asked her.
"Yeah," Kyoko coughed slightly, "No thanks to some people." She shot both Kanae and Sho a glare at that, feeling slightly vindicated that they both winced.
"Right..." the instructor said, "Well, after all that excitement, how about we call it a day? Or would you like to do the run again?"
"No!" Kyoko shouted, then caught herself and bowed slightly. "Thank you for the offer but I think I need a drink to warm me up. I swear I've got half that pile of snow down the back of my shirt."
Kanae looked like she wanted to protest but seeing the poisonous look Kyoko shot at her she subsided without saying anything.
The instructor chuckled. "No problem. We'll do this again tomorrow, ok? Same time, same place but I'll take you on a different blue run. Maybe one that's even flatter...if we have one."
"Thank you."
He pointed just a little further down the run. "That way leads to the village. You can get something to drink at the small cafe there. See you tomorrow."
They waved him off before slowly making their way in the direction he pointed. Very soon they were settled at a table, their ski equipment shoved in the snow outside, and drinking something hot and relaxing.
"Kyoko-chan?" Kyoko turned at the sound of her name as Ren walked over beside them. "Are you ok?"
"Ah! Tsuruga-san!" Kyoko said, just remembering their agreement to go out with him sometime that day.
"She had a little accident." Sho answered for her, glaring at the taller male.
Ren glared back before turning his attention back to Kyoko. He looked worried. "Are you hurt anywhere? Are you still wanting to go out this afternoon with me?"
"No. No I'm not hurt, it wasn't anything too serious..." she played down the incident, "but...could we postpone until some other time? I just...I don't think I can go back out on the slopes right now..."
"Of course," Ren stroked her hair, "I remember what it was like the first time I learned to ski. We can postpone. I'll see you tonight then."
"Er..." Kyoko said, her brain short circuiting at the feel of Ren stoking her hair. "Yeah, sure."
Ren smiled at her, nodded to Kanae and shot a glare at Sho before making his way outside.
The three of them stared at the closed door for a few moments before Sho turned back to face them. "Ok. What the hell was that?"
Kanae found herself wondering the same thing but Kyoko just blushed bright red and took another sip of her drink.
"Oh, shut up Sho and drink your hot chocolate."