Ski Trip 1

I was driving home from the store on Thursday, the first day of Winter Break when my brother told me the good news. I was 16, him 17. He was a senior in high school and I was a junior. He was excited for college, I was not. There were a lot of things that we didn’t have in common, but then again, when you were brother and sister you didn’t have to have anything in common, you had family in common.
"Mom and Dad said yes." he said, turning the radio down. I looked at him, confused for a moment, and then I remembered what he was talking about. Months and months ago, Trent and I asked our parents if we could go to Marquette, Michigan to stay at a ski lodge with Parvati (my best friend), Danny (my best friend’s boyfriend), and Seth (Danny’s best friend.) They had never given us an answer so I gave up on them.
"To the ski trip?" I tried to hold my excitement in.
"Duh! They just told me this morning!" he smiled, and so did I. I wanted this trip more than anything. I wanted to spend as much time as I could with Danny. He was going to college way out in Washington. Which was a long ways away from Dayton, Ohio.
"Awesome! Didn’t everyone else’s parents’ say they could go?" But of course they did. My parents took their sweet time deciding on everything. Including family vacations. They had to make sure that there was something for everybody.
"Yeah. This is gonna be the best trip ever." I turned the radio back up, and we jammed all the way home.

I woke up to the smell of coffee….sweet coffee.
"Morning, sweetie! I made you some coffee." I heard my mom’s voice. I thought she might be talking to me so I started to move, but then I heard my dad’s voice.
"Thanks." I could hear paper rustling as they exchanged it, and they the folding of the paper and the shut of the front door. Once, then another time.
"Hey, we’re leaving the day after tomorrow at the crack of dawn, in case you forgot! We need to clean the house some, and then you can drive me to the mall so I can pick up some stuff for the trip." Trent came into my room and announced.
"Like what? We bought a ton of Winter clothes right before Winter." But in the back of my head, I knew he was right. After we got home from the store, we called everybody, told them the great news, and ran frantically around the house trying to gather up things we knew we would have to take. As always in this family, we were a few things short.
"You know we need stuff. Don’t lie." he smiled. "Don’t worry, you can drive to see Parvati while I shop. I’ll call you when I’m done." he smiled. I loved days like these where I got his car.
"Sounds good. Let me get dressed and grab a bite to eat. I’ll only take like 15 minutes." On days like these, where all I did was go see Parvati, I didn’t dress up that much. Just some jeans, cami, long sleeve shirt, and a sweatshirt. I normally left my hair up, too.
"Fine. Meet me in the car." I did and quickly drove him to the mall, anxious to see Parvati. "I’ll call you when I’m close to getting done. I shouldn’t be long, do you need me to pick you up anything?"
"Yeah, here." I gave him forty dollars and a list of what I needed. "If I didn’t give you enough money go ahead and get it and I’ll pay you back when we get home."
"All right. See ya." He tapped the hood of the car as he left me, stalling. I made sure he got in okay and backed out of the lot and headed to Parvati’s.
"Hey, girl!" she welcomed me by opening the door. I could see her younger sister in the living room behind her, watching TV.
"Heya. You gonna invite me in?" I laughed.
"Duh, come in, come in." I shut the door behind me and took off my shoes. They had their carpet cleaned every Saturday, and shoes in the house were unacceptable, even if the carpet had not been cleaned that day.
"Are you as stoked for the trip as I am?!" I said.
"Yes! Oh my God, me and Danny stayed up forever on the phone last night talking about it! Can you believe it? We are packing tomorrow and in less than 48 hours we are outta here!"
"Thank God." I sat down on the bottom bunk of her bunk bed as she sat in her desk chair.
"I know. I can’t wait to spend an entire week with you! You must be really excited that Seth’s coming too. Don’t you guys go out?" I thought about this past Summer, but then shoved it out of my head. I would cross that bridge when I got to it.
I smiled, and laid back, staring at the pictures of Danny and her that she had taped to the bottom of the top bunk. She had one of the two of them at Kings Island. One of them at a dance at school. One where he was kissing her and she was smiling. Sigh. I wish I had a guy like Danny. He was so sensitive to her feelings, and he was always there when she needed him. He was the perfect boyfriend if there ever was one.
"Sam? Sam!" Parvati stopped my thinking about her and Danny.
"Yeah?"
"Phone." she shook her head like I was an idiot, which I was, and I picked it up.
"Yeah?"
"Sam, hey. Are you about ready to come back and get me?"
"Are you serious?! Trent, I like just got over here."
"Sorry. I told you that I’d be quick. Come on, you can bring Parvati with you. I was kinda hoping we could stop for lunch, so bring her along."
"Fine. Bye." I hung up. "That was Trent. We’re going out to lunch, you wanna come?"
"Sure. For once my mom’s home so I don’t have to watch Lucy." I grabbed my keys and stuck it in my hoodie pocket and raced her downstairs. "I’m leaving! See you later!" Parvati called as we left the house. You see, Parvati’s mom was a workaholic. So, during the week when she constantly had to baby-sit, instead of getting paid, when her mom was home, she could go wherever whenever. Must be nice.
She slid into the backseat and I drove back to the mall to pick up Trent.
He only had 3 bags, all bulging with stuff.
"Hey, dork. Parvati." he smiled in the back seat at her, and gave me a jokingly smile. He was the real dork.
"What did you get?" I asked, looking into the bags at his feet.
"None of your business. I got what you wanted and what I wanted. Here, these two are yours." he handed me two bags and I set them in the back.
"Did I give you enough money?"
"No, but don’t worry about it, I got ya covered." he smiled.
"Okay, if you’re sure." I headed down the street to Panera Bread and there we sat in their little café of a restaurant and ate our lunch.
"What time are we leaving on Sunday?" Today was Friday, we had gotten out on Wednesday. I know, weird time, but we had a weird school. Tomorrow was packing day and we were rolling out on Sunday!
"I think we have to be checked in by 1, and it takes like 10 hours to get to Marquette, so we need to leave at 3 a.m., the latest."
"What?! Trent, are you insane?! No way. Why don’t we just leave tomorrow night, and drive halfway and then drive the other half on Sunday. We can get there before 1, ya know." I rolled my eyes and Parvati laughed.
"She’s right. There’s no way you’re getting my ass up before six."
"Fine. We’ll leave tomorrow at 3. Drive ’til whenever, stop and at a hotel for the night and leave the next morning and get there by one." Trent said.
"Great. It’s settled. I hate to break up our planning session, but me and Danny are supposed to be meeting at the movies, so I kinda need to get back home."
"I can drop you off. No need in me driving you home and then you going out again."
"Okay. Cool, thanks." So, we all piled back into the car and drove Parvati to her date. Once I could see that she was safe in Danny’s arms I drove off and smiled to myself.
"What?" Danny asked. He always knew when I had something on my mind. That’s why I called him my best friend, cause in a way, he was more than a brother.
"We need to decide on a trip song." I said. He looked at me and gave me that crazy grin of his when he thought he had the best idea ever.
"You’re right. What’s our favorite album right now that’s upbeat enough for Seth, Parvati, Danny, you and me?" he asked.
"Uh, well, not Secondhand Serenade." I joked.
"Yeah, that’s a no. How about that awesome rock band album that I just bought?" he said.
"Oh my god! Yes! We’ll pick a song off it tonight." I was so excited. This trip was going to be amazing!
"Seth will be psyched. That’s his favorite band right now." Trent said.
"Good. Anyway, seat arrangements for tomorrow. Me and you in the front, and Danny, Parvati, and Seth in the back?"
"Sounds good, sis. Stop worrying, we have planned everything that there is to be planned. Calm down. We’ll be fine, I promise."