Chapter Nineteen Noah
Chapter Nineteen
Noah
“Everyone, please bundle up and come out to the front whenever you’re ready. We’ll be carpooling to the slopes shortly.”
Noah opened his eyes at the sound of Mia’s voice and shuddered. He was never going to get used to waking up like this.
“Rise and shine!” Matías called out far too cheerfully. “It’s two p.m.! You know what that means . . .”
For whatever reason, he trailed off. Curious, Noah sat up to see none other than Jack Miller leaning against the doorway of
their room.
“Hey,” said Jack. “Sorry, hope I’m not interrupting something.”
Matías bolted up from his bed and, at that exact moment, all three boys realized Matías was in nothing but his boxers.
“Sorry!” Matías dove back into the bed and pulled the covers over himself.
“I thought you weren’t going to nap,” Noah hissed at his roommate.
“I didn’t,” Matías hissed back. “My clothes were still wet from the snow, so I took them off before I crawled into bed earlier.”
Noah pressed his lips together, trying his best not to laugh. From across the room, Jack covered his mouth with his hand,
presumably to also avoid laughing out loud.
“Matías,” Jack said. “I was going to ask you if you wanted to head downstairs together . . . but I guess I’ll just see you
by the cars?”
From underneath the covers, Matías gave him a thumbs-up.
The crew split the contestants by cuffle, so that Shirin and Tiana were riding with Kallie, Jack and Matías were with Alex,
and Noah and Celine were with Mia in Damien’s SUV.
“Sorry for third wheeling,” Mia said as she got in the passenger seat. “I didn’t feel comfortable driving up here, so Damien
gave me a ride here from school. There aren’t any mountains where I live.”
No mountains? Noah gawked, wondering how Mia could live somewhere so flat. Then again, maybe he was just too used to seeing mountains everywhere,
since there were so many in Korea and in California.
Celine was uncharacteristically quiet during the drive to the slopes, and without his phone or smartwatch, Noah didn’t have anything to do besides alternate between staring out the window, glancing over at Celine, and looking straight ahead at the back of Mia’s seat.
He couldn’t see Mia’s face, but he could see the tension in her shoulders. Mia is always so tense, Noah observed. He could almost picture the hard-set line of her frown or even the way she sometimes bit her lip when she was
deep in thought.
He leaned back in his seat, resting his head on the upholstery.
You’re about to go on a date with Celine, he reminded himself. Not Mia.
When he turned to look at Celine again, she gave him a tight, awkward smile.
“Hey,” Celine said.
“Hi,” replied Noah.
“Um . . . so, we should probably decide if we want to ski or snowboard.”
“I ski,” Noah answered. “It’s what I have the most experience with, anyway.”
“I’m a skier, too,” she said. “That’s perfect!”
Noah waited for Celine to say something else, but she didn’t. His heart sank.
Is she still mad that I came in last for the race? he thought. It didn’t seem like that big of a deal to Noah, but maybe it was for her. After all, he’d been so put off by Celine
talking with her mouth full. So why not her with his complete failure with a shovel?
When they arrived at the slopes, Mia and Damien unpacked three small cameras from the back of Damien’s car.
“Since the school’s cameras are way too expensive to use on the slopes, we’ll be using these cheaper cameras to record this
segment,” Mia told everyone. “Damien, Kallie, and I will be recording each of the three cuffles, while Alex will be editing
some clips from earlier today in the cafeteria. Please don’t mind us and have fun!”
“I’ll be sitting with my back against the wall so people can’t see my screen,” Alex added, holding up their laptop and charger.
“But feel free to come to my table if you need someone to watch your stuff or if you just want to chill at any time during
the day.”
They split from the rest of the group to go to the cafeteria, while everyone else headed over to the rental cabin. Noah caught
a glimpse of Matías happily chatting away with a grinning Jack and smiled, silently wishing them luck.
The slopes were quaint compared to the ones Noah was used to. But they were nice enough, with small log cabins at the bottom
that housed the cafeteria, the equipment rental shop, and souvenir stores. After Celine and Noah had gotten their equipment,
they met up with Kallie, who silently waved at them from behind her camera.
Celine remained silent as they put on their skis, and Noah shifted his attention to Damien, who was filming Matías and Jack
as they started snowboarding. Impressively enough, Damien skied backward while recording the cuffle, somehow maintaining a relatively steady grip on the camera. How Mia found such talented individuals to be on her crew, Noah had no idea.
Speaking of Mia . . . A flash of panic shot through him when he looked around and realized she was nowhere in sight. All the other contestants and
crew members were either on skis or on snowboards out in the snow. Where was Mia?
But then Mia stepped out of the rental shack in pink snowshoes. With a happy grin, she trotted up to Tiana and Shirin and brought the camera up to her eyes as they headed to the slopes
with their skis.
“Cute!” Tiana exclaimed. “Wait, sorry, you’re recording us, aren’t you?”
Mia’s smile widened, but she didn’t say anything. The girls giggled, and Noah’s mouth quirked into an amused grin.
“Um, Noah,” Celine said. “Are you ready to ski?”
Noah turned back to see that Celine and Kallie were watching him. And so was Kallie’s camera.
“Oh, my bad,” he said. “Yeah, let’s go down the hill together.”
“Sure.” Celine gave him a smile that was just as fake as the ones he himself practiced.
Noah winced. So that’s what it’s like to be on the receiving end of one of those.
With Kallie trailing behind them, Noah and Celine headed to the lift. A group of kids and their parents stood in line, and Noah waited for a bouncy five-year-old with a unicorn helmet and her father to properly latch themselves in before grabbing ahold of the lift rope himself.
Once again, Celine was quiet for the entire ride up.
Frustration built up inside of Noah, not because he was mad at Celine, but because of their current situation. Celine’s shoulders
were tense, and her eyes downcast. Noah had no idea why Celine was so guarded now. He wished they could just talk it out,
both the good and the bad, like he did with—
Noah stopped himself from following that train of thought. How did he always end up thinking about Mia?
“Do you go skiing often?” he finally asked Celine when they had gotten off the lift. That seemed like a safe enough question
to ask.
“No,” she said. “This is only my second time.”
“All right, so no black diamond slopes. Got it.”
“Definitely! It’s going to take all my concentration to just avoid hitting trees.”
Maybe that’s why Celine is being so quiet, Noah thought. She’s nervous about skiing.
A part of him knew he was being willfully na?ve, but at the same time, now that he was observing her more closely, he noticed
Celine was unsteady on her skis. Her legs were even shaking a little.
“Remember to keep your skis parallel like French fries. And make a pizza with your feet if you want to stop.”
Celine laughed. “I know that much.”
“In all seriousness, anytime you want to stop and do something else, just let me know. I’m a fan of snowshoes, too. And sledding.”
“Sounds good.” Celine smiled at him, genuinely this time. Noah let out a sigh of relief. There she was.
By the time they finished skiing, Celine had laughed several times, even while falling on her butt. Noah was glad some of
the tension between them was gone, but he was emotionally spent. His shoulders ached, not just from all the physical exertion
but also the stress of having to carry the conversation. He wasn’t like Matías, who talked like his life depended on it. Conversations
took effort for Noah, especially when they weren’t reciprocated.
They were on their way back to the rental cabin when Noah spotted something that made him do a double take. At the edge of
the forest, Damien stood with his camera pointed into the woods. Noah followed his line of sight.
Underneath the cover of the snow-covered trees, Jack had his arms gently around Matías. The two boys sweetly smiled at each
other, their foreheads touching for a couple beats. Then slowly, gently, Jack tilted Matías’s chin up with his hand, and they
kissed. It was like watching a gay Hallmark movie.
Noah smiled. At least one date was going well.