Snow Kissed

by Jessica Clare

  Piece of cake. "This should be wicked easy," I told Patty, who stood to my side.

  Sure enough, a few minutes later, Chip put on his microphone, a Santa hat, and then proceeded to tell us the same thing. The first team to build their ladder and get to the top of the platform next to him would win a prize. He gestured at a gigantic wrapped present that sat under a Christmas tree.

  "There are a hundred puzzle pieces for each team," Chip told us, and I mentally filed that information away. "I'll give you a moment to strategize." Chip then pulled out a mirror, checking his hair.

  "So I think what we need --," I began.

  "No one cares, Luna," Owen said. He turned to the team, who gave him attentive looks. No one was looking in my direction at all. Assholes. I crossed my arms over my chest tightly and leaned in so I could hear what Owen was saying.

  "What we need to do," he said, "is have our strongest runners go into the field and grab puzzle pieces and bring them back. The faster we get them, the better, so if you're slow, you need to work on the puzzle."

  That would have been exactly what I'd suggested, if he'd have let me finish a thought.

  Patty raised her hand. "I'll work on the puzzle. I'm not the greatest at running."

  Owen looked over at me. "Clarissa's got long legs, so she can run. Not Luna, though." He looked over at me. "She's short, and the snow is deep, so she should work on the puzzle, too."

  I bristled. "I'm not that short, asshole. The snow isn't five feet deep. I can run."

  "We don't want to have to wait on you, Luna," he said in an irritated voice. "Just do this, all right? The other four of us will get puzzle pieces."

  "Fine, whatever," I said.

  Clarissa giggled. "She said ‘whatevah.’"

  I was really going to kill her. Maybe I could choke her with a puzzle piece. Mentally, I imagined stuffing those Christmas stockings into Clarissa's pouty, collagen-injected mouth.

  "Is everyone ready?" Chip asked, and all teams turned toward him, the time for strategy over. The host raised his arm in the air. Then, he swung it down in a sharp angle. "GO!"

  We sprang into action. I gritted my teeth as I ran through the snow. It wasn't that fucking deep. Owen was just all caught up in his own power. Fucking turd.

  It was a good call to have Patty do the puzzle, though. She struggled even through the ankle deep snow, and I ended up helping her keep her balance a few times as we made it to the far side. Then we were there, at the base of the platform, and turned around to wait.

  The field was full of people running around, grabbing stockings and hauling puzzle pieces. I looked for red team members as they ran about. Within a moment or two, Owen had so many pieces in his arms that he looked as if he was going to drop one. Instead, he jogged over to where we were and flung the armful at us, then ran off into the snow again. I gritted my teeth to keep my temper as I picked them up. Blowing up at Owen wouldn’t solve anything. I got to work on the puzzle, instead, hauling the pieces out of the stockings so we could see how they would fit together.

  Clarissa came up, offered us one puzzle piece as if it was a gift, and then ran back out into the snow.

  That, I decided, was Owen's fault. He’d picked her to run, and probably hadn’t anticipated that she’d suck at it. Not that Clarissa would have been any good at puzzles, either. I picked up two pieces. "Come on, Patty. Let's see what we've got here."

  There was a pattern on one side of some of the blocks, so we started with trying to lock the patterned pieces together. Eventually, we had a step. Using that step, I pushed it against the wall and began to calculate. "It looks like there will be three more steps after this one," I told Patty. "So I bet there's three more patterns." I looked over and the other teams were listening closely, comparing their blocks to ours. Damn it. I leaned in closer to Patty. "We should sort them into piles and then we can construct each step from there."

  Patty nodded, and we set to work making piles of blocks. Sure enough, this one had a candy-cane stripe pattern, this one had holly leaves, and the next one had a geometric snowflake design. We organized pieces as the red team dropped them in, and worked on fitting the steps together as we went.

  I noticed the other team watching us closely and nudged our stacks closer together. "We can't make it look like we know what we're doing," I murmured to Patty. "Or they'll catch on." From the looks of things, the other teams still hadn't figured out that there were different patterns.

  Patty nodded and shoved the holly leaf pile into the candy cane pile, making sure that the pieces were all in the same bunch, but still separated. The candy cane pieces were on the right side of the pile, and the holly leaf ones on the left. We'd know which stack to pick up from, even though it all looked like a jumble.

  Clarissa came up, dropped another piece - her fourth - and collapsed on the completed step. "I'm exhausted. It's hard running through all that snow."

  "Me too," said Pat-The-Guy. He took a page out of her book and sat down next to her. "There's hardly anything left, anyhow."

  "Are you guys serious?" Patty said. "This isn't all the pieces and you're giving up?"

  "Owen and Gary are still out there," Clarissa said, panting. "They'll bring the rest."

  But a few moments later, Gary dropped over to the platform and gave a dramatic collapse, even as Patty and I fitted our pieces together, working on another step.

  Then, Owen dropped in, throwing down six more pieces and putting his hands on his knees, panting.

  "Is that all of them?" Patty asked.

  I counted quickly, adding the pieces that Owen had brought. "Ninety eight. There's still two more somewhere out there."

  Owen gestured at me and Patty. "You go. We'll work on the puzzle."

  My brows drew together. "Excuse me?"

  He straightened, wiping his brow. "It's only two pieces. You two go get them, and we'll work on the puzzle while you do. It's clear you're not getting very far." He gave me a disapproving look, as if this was somehow my fault.

  Patty gamely trotted out into the snow, searching for a red puzzle piece.

  I didn't. Fuck that noise. We'd been working hard on the puzzle part of things. So I narrowed my eyes at him. "I'll have you know that we have a method--"

  "There's no time to argue," he snapped, and grabbed the puzzle pieces out of my hands. "Will you just go already?"

  I wanted to snap at him, to argue the point, but the others were staring at me like I was the problem, not Owen. So I bit back my comments and tromped off into the snow, looking for a goddamn puzzle piece.

  I found it several minutes later, half buried under a pile of churned snow. It had clearly been stepped on repeatedly and was soggy and muddy. Hauling it, I began to make my way back to the platform, puffing hard. Running through the snow was difficult as hell, but I would never tell that jerk Owen that.

  When I got back to the platform, though, I lost control of my temper at the sight of Owen and Clarissa trying to fit together a holly leaf piece with a candy cane piece. "What the fuck are you guys doing?"

  Our teammates turned around and looked at me like I was crazy.

  I shoved my way forward, flipping puzzle pieces, and groaned. Patty and I had carefully piled them into a semblance of order, but the order had been destroyed by a few minutes of grabby hands that didn't know what they were doing. There was no order to things now. None whatsoever. "You shouldn't have sent us out to find the pieces," I snapped at Owen. "We could have been here finishing our steps!"

  "Really?" He said. "It didn't look like you were doing too great a job of that."

  I turned and glared at him. "There was a method," I snarled, and jerked the candy cane piece out of his hands, shoving a holly piece at him instead. "Which you would have noticed if you didn't have the brains of a caveman."

  "Jeez," Clarissa said in a wounded voice. "You're being kind of mean, Luna."

  "Let's just work, okay?" I said, furious. I began to re-sort pieces as Patty trotted up and delivered the last piece
. "Now that we have everything, we can finish."

  A bell chimed. "Yellow team wins!"

  I jerked up, looking at the far end of the platform. Sure enough, while I'd been out merrily tromping through the snow, searching for a trampled piece of puzzle, the yellow team had surged ahead and won. They were at the top of the platform, hugging and screaming and bouncing with joy.

  Assholes.

  I threw down my piece in disgust.

  THE WALK BACK TO OUR BEACH-SIDE encampment told me a lot. Patty was silent, and when I looked over at her, I'd catch her surreptitiously wiping away tears. Poor Patty. She probably blamed herself.

  The rest of the team talked a little, but no one talked to me. That suited me fine - I was in a black mood after losing the challenge. I didn't like to lose. So I brought up the rear of our small group and ignored them as much as they ignored me.

  When we got back to camp, I headed for the now-dead fire and began to layer new wood into the fire pit. First on the agenda, something to drink.

  Clarissa watched me work for a moment, then shrugged her shoulders. "I think I'm going to take a walk down the beach."

  "I'll join you," Gary said.

  They disappeared. Yeah, I could guess what they were going to do. Anyone that had seen a single episode of Endurance Island knew that people got up and went on walks together because they were plotting.

  Owen got up a moment later. He wasn’t subtle at all. He didn't even make any excuses, just got up and left, heading down the beach in the same direction Gary and Clarissa had gone.

  "I, uh...I'm going to go use the bathroom," Pat-the-guy said, and bolted to his feet. He practically ran down the beach after them.

  There was clearly a team meeting going on down on the beach and I wasn't invited. I guessed they were talking about how I had ruined the challenge for them. Or something. And because I was short and couldn't run through the snow, and I pronounced my words weird, I'd be the first one to go.

  I mean, heck, you didn't have to be a genius to see the writing on that wall. But I wasn't at camp alone. I looked over at Patty, my one and only friend here on the Red team.

  Patty sat on the edge of the shelter and sighed, dejected.

  I tossed a handful of kindling down at the base of the fire pit. "You not going to go with them, Patty?"

  "I'm tired. I think I'll just wait for the fire."

  Was she being deliberately dense or did she not get it? "I think they're probably having a team meeting."

  "Oh?" Her big eyes blinked for a moment, and then she began to sniff. Again.

  Ah, hell. I was getting sick of the tears. I got up and sat next to her, then patted her on the shoulder. "Why don't you go join them?"

  "I don't think they like me."

  "They like you just fine," I told her truthfully. "It's me they don't like. You need to go show them you're with them and not with me."

  She gave me a wounded look. "But we're friends. You've been nothing but nice to me, Luna."

  "I know. I'm a nice girl." I nudged her with my arm and grinned to take the arrogance out of my words. "But this isn't a game for nice people. This is a game for money, and you've got to play as cutthroat as the rest of them. So go down on that beach and go talk strategy."

  She looked uncertain. "What about you?"

  "I'm going to stay right here and build a fire." I wagged a finger at her. "Don't you worry about me. I can play my own game."

  Reluctantly, she got to her feet, and then she headed down the beach after them. When no one came back after a few minutes, I guessed that Patty had been included after all.

  Which was fine. I mean, hell. It didn’t take a psychic to read minds around here. Owen and I didn't get along. Owen was clearly top dog. I was the short, loudmouth Boston girl that kept contradicting the handsome (albeit douchey) leader. They thought I'd fucked up the challenge for them.

  If I wasn't the first person voted out of this shitty team, I'd be shocked.

  THREE

  Peace and quiet, at last. – Owen MacIntosh, Day 4, Endurance Island: Alaska

  4 Days Later

  "SO, LUNA, WHY DO YOU think you were the first one out of Endurance Island: Alaska?"

  I stared at the camera-man in front of me as if that were the dumbest question I'd ever received. Heck, maybe it was. Hadn't he watched the first three days of footage? The tribe had been against me since we'd landed our canoes on the woodsy shore of the Alaskan island.

  But maybe this was one of those 'spill your heart' moments and I was supposed to open up and confess all my sins and make some good TV.

  Ha.

  But since it couldn't hurt anything, I beamed my sweetest smile at the camera. "I can credit my failure in the game to one person, and one person alone: Owen."

  The camera shifted. "Can you talk some more about why you think Owen is responsible?"

  "I don't think Owen is responsible—I know he is. As soon as we landed on the island in the canoes, he had it out for me. When I suggested we build fire first, he decided we needed shelter. And then, of course, when it rained and we had neither, it was my fault for dividing the tribe." My smile was tight. "I guess because the weather has something to do with me? At any rate, Owen is one of those chest-beating alpha males that thinks that just because he has a penis, he's smarter than any woman, and refuses to listen to common sense. There was no way I was going to win in that scenario. And as soon as I saw the tribe was siding with him? I knew I was out. I figured I might as well enjoy myself while I was there."

  And I had.

  I'd relaxed on the cold, rocky beach or lounged near the fire (that I built). I went out and foraged for berries and not shared them with anyone. I fished - and while I didn't catch anything, if I had, I wouldn't have shared it. In short, I was no longer playing a team game.

  Owen had killed that for me. So, screw him, and screw all of them. This experience was supposed to be fun, but as soon as I'd arrived, I'd been dead in the water.

  Endurance Island was supposed to be fun, right? But combine that with snow and all this Christmas bullshit - and Owen to boot - it had been anything but.

  Now, heck, I'd been voted out and was currently residing as the first member of the Loser Lodge. And I had to admit, the Loser Lodge was pretty damn sweet. I'd expected a crappy little cabin not much better than the junky shelter I'd left behind on the red team’s beach.

  Nope. When the Endurance Island crew relaxed, they relaxed in style. We were staying at a large resort cabin tucked into the woods. It was just me and the film crew, who cycled in and out for their shifts, and the producers.

  Since I was the first one out, I got to have an all-expenses paid vacation for the next month while the others fought and froze on the cold, rocky Alaskan beaches. I curled up with my mug of hot cocoa in front of the roaring fire and tried not to feel too smug about where I was.

  So I didn't have the million dollars. I had my pride, and if it couldn't pay the bills, well, I was no worse off than I was when I started.

  "Who do you think will be the next to go?" The cameraman asked me as I sipped my cocoa. He was filming one of my exit interviews for the ‘Lodge Home Movies’ that they peppered the Endurance Island website with to encourage traffic. People liked to see the contestants relaxing after the fact, he told me. It made the audience feel better that we were happy and well-adjusted after being voted off. Plus, the website spammed the videos with ads, and that made the producers happy. So despite being voted out? I was still on camera.

  I considered things. "The next to go? If the red team loses again, I'm guessing it'll be Patty." She was small and cheery, and determined, but she wasn't very strong. And she'd been friendly with me, which was a big strike against her. "I'm guessing Owen's going to go for strength over anything else, if he's in charge of the team. And if he does, he'll end up with a bunch of clueless meatheads at the merge and they'll fall to pieces."

  "And what do you think of that?"

  I smiled blithely. "I think it's b
eautiful. And serves him right."

  "So you don't want him to get voted out?"

  "Not right away! I don't care how far he gets in the game as long as I don't have to spend my lodge time with him. I actually hope he makes the merge so he can be on the jury and I don't have to look at his smug, grinning asshole face for the next month. So, yeah, I'd be happy with Patty showing up next. I liked her." She'd been the only person that had come close to being my friend while I was out there - which meant she'd probably be a target for that, too.

  Poor Patty.

  "What about the other two teams?" The camera-man asked.

  I thought, and shrugged. "I wasn't there long enough to get a good impression of them. Just that the red team was a hot mess, and they'll probably fall apart on themselves...which is exactly what they deserve."

  "Bitter much, Luna?" the cameraman laughed.

  I pinched my fingers and grinned, indicating that I might be bitter just a little.

  I'D HAD THREE DAYS OF peace and quiet all to myself. Three days of cozying up by the fireside with a magazine and a cup of hot chocolate. Three days of doing yoga in the main cabin of the lodge, taking long, hot bubble baths, and blocking out my next horror movie script while I relaxed. I had three relaxing days of snowy hikes in the woods surrounding the lodge, and three days of enjoying all the foods that the show's personal chef created for the crew.

  It was heaven.

  It was bound to come crashing down, of course.

  The night of the next vote off, I had a bowl of ice cream in my hands and paced the lodge, waiting for the next arrival. To be perfectly honest, I liked having the place to myself, but I was ready for someone new to talk to. The crew wasn't really supposed to talk with the contestants, which left me on my own. It wasn’t so bad for a day or two, but going on day three, I was ready for some conversation other than the ones in my head.