The Slope Rules

by Melanie Hooyenga

  I nod, and his eyes grow wider. “Stay with your friends. I’ll have him text you when I find him.” Because I will find him. I have to.

  Joey gives me a wobbly smile and catches up with his friends.

  I reach the chairlift and am stopped by Ski Patrol. “Sorry,” she says. “All lifts are closed. You need to make your way to the parking lot.”

  “But my friends. Was anyone hurt here?”

  Her eyes soften and her jaw clenches. “Not here.”

  Fear grips my chest. “But people are hurt?”

  She blinks rapidly and I realize she’s trying to keep her emotions in check. “It’s too soon to tell.” She touches my arm. “If your friends were on the terrain park, we’ve already cleared them off. Go check in the lodge or the parking lot.” Her voice is sympathetic but firm.

  “Okay. Thanks.”

  I turn to leave as a snowmobile screeches to a stop next to us. “All clear here.”

  Exhaustion grabs hold of my legs but I have to keep looking. What if he didn’t come straight here?

  Stop it. He’s probably in the lodge.

  I make my way to the med station, numb to the shouts and cries around me. It’s like someone took our snow globe and with one violent shake, disrupted everything. Why haven’t I seen anyone I know? I try to text Blake but it won’t go through. Probably because everyone on the mountain is jamming the signal. Tears blur my vision. I flip up my goggles and wipe my arm across my face.

  Inside the med station, Mike’s lying on her back on a padded table, her elbows propping her up so she can see what the medic is doing to her leg. She greets me with a weak smile. “My hero!”

  I hurry to her side. “You’d be fine if I hadn’t made you take that run. I’m so sorry.”

  “Yeah, it’s totally your fault there was an avalanche at the exact moment I got a burst of courage.”

  The medic finishes wrapping a bandage around her knee. “This’ll have to do for now. We need to clear you out for when—” He stops, his face pale.

  For when they bring in victims from the avalanche.

  Mike nods, understanding.

  “Go to the hospital today. I don’t think it’s broken but you might have torn a ligament.”

  She gently swings her legs over the side of the table and I help her to her feet.

  “Be safe, girls.”

  We both murmur our thanks and head outside. “Can you walk okay?”

  “I’ll manage.” She takes in the chaos at the base of the mountain. “Thank you for not—” she takes a breath. “For not leaving me.”

  “That’s what friends do.”

  She shakes her head. “When I fell, all I kept thinking is that Brianna would have left me there.”

  I start to object, but she’s probably right. Brianna only does what’s in her own best interest. “Then it’s a good thing you weren’t with her.” I loop my arm through hers, swallowing back the panic that’s still bubbling in my chest. “Let’s go find Blake.”

  She looks at me, eyes wide. “You haven’t found him?”

  I bite my lip. “I haven’t seen anyone we know.”

  “Well, quit screwing around with me. Go find them.” She shoves me away from her and I stumble.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Get my poles and I’ll be right behind you.”

  I retrieve them from the rack, make sure she’s steady, then weave through the crowd as fast as I can.

  I’m on the patio outside the lodge when a shout stops me.

  “Cally!”

  I whip around. Evan and Austin are huddled around the fire pit with Brianna and Kenzie and some other kids from school. I’m relieved to see they’re okay—even the girls—but one very important person isn’t with them. “Have you seen Blake?”

  The guys look at each other, then turn to me and shake their heads.

  Brianna rolls her eyes.

  I resist the urge to pile drive her into the fire pit. “I need to find him.”

  Evan steps toward me. “Have you seen Mike?” His ever-present smile wavers and concern creases his brow.

  “She was with me. Ski Patrol had to carry her off Muleshoe.”

  His face goes ashen. “Were you near the avalanche?”

  I go still. The Ski Patrol who helped Mike were probably on their way to search for people when we waved them down. “Omigod.”

  He grabs my shoulders. “Is Mike okay? Where is she?”

  “I’m right here.” Mike’s soft voice stills him.

  He lets go of me and turns around.

  Mike’s standing on one leg, using the poles for balance. She starts to smile, then stops, like she’s unsure what to do.

  But Evan doesn’t seem to have that concern. He reaches her in two strides and pulls her into his arms. I can’t hear what he’s saying but based on the way he’s burying his face in her neck, I’m thinking it’s good. Her poles clatter to the ground as she wraps her arms around him.

  “What a soap opera.” Brianna’s mocking tone makes the hair stand on the back of my neck. I meet her glare and open my mouth to tear her a new one when her eyes flick over my shoulder.

  I turn around.

  Blake’s running from the parking lot toward the front of the lodge, away from where we’re standing.

  “Blake!”

  He stops mid-stride and looks around, following the sound of my voice.

  I shout again and his eyes lock on mine. In an instant he’s running toward me. I jump down the steps from the patio, my boots skittering on the brick, and my legs decide at that moment that they’ve had enough for today. They shoot out from under me and I land hard on my hip.

  Blake’s at my side in seconds. Instead of hauling me to my feet, he’s on his knees, folding me into his arms. “I didn’t know where you were. You said you’d been practicing the course and when I heard where it hit and I couldn’t find you...” He tightens his embrace.

  I bury my face in his chest. The adrenaline from the past twenty minutes drains out of me, leaving me shaking in his arms.

  “God, get a room.” Brianna’s voice sets my teeth on edge.

  I turn to glare at her and for the first time notice someone else who’s missing: Reece. I tug Blake’s arm. “Help me up.” He pulls me to my feet and I look closer at the group around the fire pit. In my panic to find Blake, I didn’t notice how still everyone is. “Something’s wrong,” I whisper to Blake.

  “You mean besides the avalanche?”

  “Reece isn’t with them. He’s usually joined at the hip with Austin.” I pull him toward the group. “Hey, where’s Reece?”

  Brianna crosses her arms and pointedly turns her head away from me, but I ignore her and lock eyes with Austin.

  His face is whiter than normal and his jaw’s clenched so tight the muscle ticks. “We haven’t heard from him.”

  Blake stiffens next to me. “Was he practicing?”

  Austin nods. “We both were. I wanted a break so he stayed for one more run. Said he might hit the back trails before coming in.”

  I cover my mouth with my hand and look in the direction of the Corona Bowl. From here it looks peaceful, just a fine mist of powder in the air, but who knows what’s actually happening up there. What the people who were there—a lump catches in my throat. Are people trapped? Could they already be dead? How long can you survive being buried alive?

  My legs buckle. Blake catches my arm before I hit the ground and pulls me to his side.

  “Have you texted your dad?”

  I shake my head. “I couldn’t get a signal.”

  “He’s probably freaking out.”

  I nod and dig my phone out of my inside pocket. I’m okay. Will call on way home. It finally goes through.

  There’s an unread text from Sophia. OMG AVALANCHE ARE YOU OK WHER
E ARE YOU?

  I smile weakly. I don’t know how she already heard. I’m ok. Was skiing when it hit. I’m safe.

  Are you sure?

  Some friends might not be.

  :(((((

  yeah.

  Call me later.

  xoxo

  I look up at Blake. “Did you text your parents?”

  “Yeah. My mom’s ready to come here and get me herself but I promised I’d be home soon.”

  I startle. That’s the first time he’s ever mentioned his mom. I knew his parents are still together, but he’s only ever talked about his dad and work. Even when he told me about Cody he didn’t mention his parents. “Should we go soon?”

  He glances at Mike, who’s still wrapped in Evan’s arms. “You wanna check if she’s still riding with us?”

  I can’t help but smile. I’d hoped that once she ditched the Bitches Evan would change his mind, but I didn’t know if it’d actually happen. I guess extreme situations really do show you what’s important.

  We walk over to them and I clear my throat. Mike looks up, tears still running down her face, and the lump in my throat gets worse. I can only handle so many emotions in one day.

  “We’re gonna get going. Are you still coming with us?”

  She nods. “They’re waiting for Reece.”

  We fall silent. No one mentions that it could be a really long wait.

  Evan runs his hand over her arm. “Where’s your stuff? I’ll bring it to the car.”

  “I’ll grab it. It’s still where Ski Patrol brought her in.”

  Blake follows me to the med station. We have to fight our way through groups of people clustered together, all waiting for news from the mountain. I find our skis leaning against the building just as the loudspeaker fires up again.

  “Please make your way to the lodge or the parking lot. All runs are closed. Please make your way...”

  People around us start talking all at once.

  “I heard people are trapped.”

  “Do they know if anyone died?”

  “They’ve already got the dogs up there.”

  “It’s too soon to know.”

  A shiver travels down my spine. I grip Blake’s arm. “Let’s get out of here.”

  We haul our gear to his Jeep, where Mike and Evan are already waiting. I give Evan a hug while Blake straps everything to the roof. “He’s gonna be okay.”

  He shakes his head against me. When he steps back, his eyes shine with unshed tears. Mike leans into his arms and I climb into the front seat to give them a moment alone, and the past half hour catches up to me. The trembling starts in my hands, then works its way up my arms and shoulders until my entire body’s shaking. I rest my face in my hands and rock back and forth. I’m okay. I’m okay. I’m okay.

  The driver door opens. “You okay?” Blake’s voice is low and full of concern, but I can’t help but smile. At least the chanting was all in my head.

  “I’m ready to go home.”

  He tilts his seat forward so Mike can climb in the back, then gets in the car. We wave at Evan through the open window.

  “Text as soon as you hear anything,” Mike says.

  He nods once, his lips tight.

  Blake joins the line of cars snaking toward the exit and I twist around in my seat. “Should we bring you to the hospital? The medic guy said you need to get your leg checked out.”

  “My mom’s gonna take me as soon as I get home. I want to change first so I’m not stuck in my Pokemon long underwear.”

  Blake snorts and I can’t help but laugh. “Believe me, I get it.”

  The ride home is quiet. The longer we don’t hear from anyone still at Eldora, the worse it gets. No one wants to say out loud what we’re all thinking: we might never see Reece again.

  That night, news footage shows a candle-light vigil at the lodge and the search team still on the mountain, long after the sun has set. “Crews will continue to search until everyone is accounted for. At last count, there are twelve people missing. Officials say—”

  “Twelve? Omigod.” I clap my hand over my mouth and Dad squeezes me closer to his side. We’re on the couch, our half-eaten pizza growing cold on the coffee table.

  “—may cancel the Eldora Dash, the annual race scheduled for the end of the month. But right now the focus is on locating the missing skiers.”

  “Did she say?”

  Dad presses a kiss to my head. “Don’t worry about that now.”

  “But—” A ski competition is silly compared to what’s happening. I know that. But I want this so bad and I’ve worked so hard.

  We watch the news until they switch to a more uplifting story, then Dad puts on a movie and I fall into a restless sleep on the couch. I dream that I’m with Reece, buried under ten feet of snow, then that I’m the one trying to dig him out and no matter how deep I go, I can’t get to him. When Dad finally sends me to my room I’m an exhausted, sweaty mess.

  A text from Blake came while I was sleeping. Still nothing.

  :((

  Still on for tomorrow?

  Yeah, noon at the brewery.

  Night.

  I start to write xoxo, then delete it. “Ahh, screw it.” xoxo. I press send before I can change my mind. Time stops until my phone finally dings.

  <3

  I hug my phone to my chest, glad that no one can see my goofy smile. It feels wrong to be happy when Reece is buried on the side of the mountain, fighting for his life, but I chalk it up to appreciating things more in the face of tragedy. Or something like that.

  I stay up later than I mean to, not wanting to go to bed until there’s been news. The unknown is almost worse than knowing. My brain won’t stop running through everything that could be happening, and the longer I don’t hear anything, the more I come to terms with the idea that Reece might be dead.

  The next morning, I drag myself out of bed early to head to the brewery with Dad, and there’s still no news about Reece. We set our bagels and coffee on a table near the bar, and I make a mental checklist of what needs to be done while we eat. He claims he needs my feminine touch for the opening.

  I nod at a stack of boxes pushed up against the bar. “Glasses?”

  “They came in yesterday.”

  I wipe my hands on my jeans and rip the tape off a box. The looping, whimsical Calliope Brewery logo is etched on one side. “Dad, they’re gorgeous.”

  He smiles, and his eyes glaze over to a faraway place. “I’ve always liked that logo.”

  The story is it was inspired by my large, loopy handwriting from when I was a child—prettied up, of course—and Mom insisted that if they were naming the brewery after me, it may as well have my mark. “She’d be proud of you.”

  He looks at his hands, the smile lingering. “I was going to say the same thing to you.”

  We sit in silence, both lost in our memories of Mom, when the door opens.

  Dad turns, wiping his eyes. “We’re not—oh.”

  Blake’s standing in the half open door.

  I glance at the clock over the bar. It’s not even nine. “I thought we were meeting at noon?”

  He shrugs and steps inside, sealing the cold air outside. “You said you were getting things set up so I thought, I don’t know, maybe I could help?”

  The uncertainty on his face makes him even more adorable.

  I look at Dad, who frowns. “Sorry, you need to be twenty-one to come in here.” Blake pauses, and Dad laughs. “Come on in. Who am I to turn down free labor?”

  Blake relaxes and slips out of his coat. “Where do I start?”

  Dad puts us to work filling the shelves behind the bar with the tear-inducing glasses while he does something in the office.

  “Thank you for coming.”

  Blake turns a glass so the lo
go is facing out, then slides another next to it. “I had ulterior motives.”

  I raise an eyebrow.

  “Well, I wanted to see you, but I’ve been curious about this place, too. And,” he looks over his shoulder toward the office, “I figure it doesn’t hurt to let your dad see what a swell guy I am.”

  I snort. “Swell?”

  He pushes his hair out of his face. “You know, clean-cut, straight-laced. All that stuff.”

  I take in his hair that’s tousled so perfectly I want to run my fingers through it and laugh again. “I don’t think that’s how I’d describe you.”

  “Oh yeah? How would you describe me?” He rests his forearm on the edge of the top shelf and I want to tuck myself into the space beneath his arm.

  “Let’s just say clean-cut and straight-laced isn’t it.”

  He reaches for a strand of my hair and twists it around his finger. “Now I’m really curious.”

  Sexy. Funny. Mischievous. “Well, you’re not so bad to look at, and you’re pretty funny most of the time. And I guess you’re fun to be with.”

  He moves closer. “You guess?”

  I look up at him through my lashes. “From what I’ve seen so far.”

  His lids grow heavy and he trails his finger along my cheekbone, sending shivers down my back. I’m closing my eyes to kiss him when a drawer shuts in the back room. I jump away just as Dad emerges from his office.

  “Those glasses look great! Blake, how are you at moving tables? Cally doesn’t seem to think the way I’ve arranged them has the right flow.”

  Blake crosses his arms and puffs out his chest. “Just tell me where you want me.”

  I press my hands to my cheeks. Dad doesn’t seem to realize what he almost interrupted but I still feel like we were caught with our tongues down each other’s throat. Blake smiles so his dimple shows and I swat his arm. “You’re not helping,” I whisper.

  Blake leads me out from behind the bar and stands with his hands on his hips, surveying the room. “What are you thinking?”

  Tables. He means the tables. I weave through the tables to the front door, then turn and face them. “You want to create a path that sucks people to the bar.”