Snow Queen (2 page)

“Don’t worry your pretty head about it,” Jim said, kissing Christie’s forehead. He cleared his throat and glanced at Rose. “It’ll all be sorted out soon.”

“Okay. As long as everything’s all right,” Christie said.

“Everything’s fine,” Rose assured her, running her hand over Christie’s braid. Something
in Rose and Jim’s tone gave Aubrey the feeling that everything wasn’t as fine as they were saying, but Christie didn’t seem to notice.

“Is Jonathan around?” Christie asked, trying to sound casual. Jonathan Price was the crush of Christie’s life. He worked at the Spotted Owl, and every year Christie jetted up to Vermont hoping to finally get him to ask her out. Every year she came home disappointed. Aubrey was dying to meet this guy who was oblivious to her best friend’s awesomeness.

“He’s not working today,” Jim said. “But he’ll be around tomorrow.”

“Oh. Okay,” Christie said, obviously disappointed.

“Hey, this way you get to clean up from the trip before you see him,” Aubrey said in Christie’s ear.

Her friend perked right up. “Good point!”

“So! It’s finally here!” Rose said, her blue eyes shining as she took both of Christie’s hands. “The year my little Christie girl here wins the Snow Queen crown!”

Christie glanced somewhat warily in Aubrey’s direction, which was odd. Aubrey had heard all
about the Snow Queen Pageant. Christie had been obsessed with the event for years. A girlie-girl to the core, Christie had been daydreaming about winning the Snow Queen crown ever since she’d first attended the pageant in first grade. Practically every one of her daydreams revolved around having that crown placed atop her head—and Jonathan kissing her under the moonlight afterward. Aubrey knew very well that Christie intended to compete in the pageant now that she was sixteen and finally eligible, and she had promised to help Christie rehearse or do whatever pageant girls had to do. So why did Christie look so nervous all of a sudden?

Then Rose turned and, still hanging on to Christie with one hand, took Aubrey’s hand up as well.

“I hope you girls have your gowns pressed and your interview skills sharpened.”

“My what and my what, now?” Aubrey asked, confused.

Christie stared at Aubrey pleadingly. Aubrey felt a nasty blush of realization start to creep up from her chin.

“Wait a minute—”

“I signed us both up to compete in the Snow Queen Pageant!” Christie announced, her voice strained. “Surprise!”

Aubrey took a step backward and Rose dropped both their hands. “Please tell me you’re kidding.”

Christie said nothing. She just looked as if she’d swallowed one of those lemons from the Chamberlain Ski Resort and Spa.

“Christie! I’ve never even watched a pageant on TV. I would never enter one!” Aubrey wailed.

“Oh, please, please, please just do it with me!” Christie clasped her hands together under her chin as she begged. “I’ve been looking forward to this forever but there’s no way I can get through all the rehearsals and everything by myself. I know I’d get too nervous and intimidated and I’d drop out.”

This was not an unfounded argument. It had happened when Christie had resolved to try out for cheerleading and lasted through one day of pre-tryout practice before deciding she wasn’t good enough. It had happened when she’d actually tried out for the musical, made the chorus,
and then chickened out before opening night. And it had happened when she’d applied to be a camp counselor and run away from the interview in tears when they’d asked her how she would handle an allergic reaction to a bee sting. She had managed to make the color guard as a baton twirler last fall, but only because she had been the lone new hopeful trying out. Plus, their school’s football team was awful, so there was never much of an audience for the halftime shows. The girl was not great under pressure, but she had always wanted to be Snow Queen.

“And, hey, you can win tons of money!” Christie continued. “The winner gets ten thousand dollars and there are prizes for second and third place, too.”

Aubrey blinked. “Wow. Where do they get that kind of money?”

“From those bastard Chamberlains,” Jim said with a scoff.

“Jim!” Rose admonished.

“I’m just saying,” he replied, lifting his hands. “They’re the ones who run the contest and they have that kind of money,” he explained. “But I have to say I don’t think you girls should bother.
Lillian Chamberlain started up this whole event ten years ago just so that her daughter, Layla, could win it when she turned sixteen, which she did a couple of weeks ago. The fix is in.”

“Oh, Jim!” Rose said, smacking his arm as she made her way back around the reservation desk. “Don’t discourage them.”

“What? Those people even put their son on the judging panel a couple years back. You can’t tell me they’re not fixing the results,” Jim argued, picking up a perfectly stacked pile of magazines and restacking them. “If she doesn’t win I’ll eat my hat. No offense, Christie. You know I think you can wipe the stage with that girl.”

“None taken, Jim,” Christie said with a fond smile.

“Girls, do not listen to him,” Rose instructed. “Jim has a conspiracy theory for everything. He’s decided our lack of snow this season is due to some Canadian scientists who’ve figured out a way to keep the weather north of the border so they can steal all our tourists,” she added, rolling her eyes.

The girls laughed.

“What? It’s possible! I read an article!” Jim protested. “And do you know how much snow they’ve had in Montreal this past month? Three feet!”

The door behind Aubrey swung open, letting in a blast of cold air. A girl in black spandex snow pants, a black snow jacket with plush fur lining, and huge sunglasses had just stepped into the lobby. Her brown hair, streaked with blond highlights, bounced around her shoulders in big, lush curls, and her lip gloss sparkled even from across the room. She looked around with obvious distaste, sighed loudly, and removed her sunglasses.

“Is my brother here somewhere?” she asked, with no greeting whatsoever. “He’s not picking up his cell.
Again
,” she added in an exasperated tone.

“Hi, Layla!” Christie said brightly, stepping forward.

Layla looked Christie up and down, her expression blank. “Oh. It’s you again.”

Hello, rude
, Aubrey thought.
Who
is
this rhymes-with-witch?
No one was ever rude to Christie.
Probably because she was the sweetest person on earth.

“Layla Chamberlain, this is my friend Aubrey Mills,” Christie said, gesturing at each of them.

So she was a Chamberlain. The Chamberlain who was going to win the Snow Queen Pageant, according to Jim. Interesting.

“Hi,” Aubrey said.

Layla looked Aubrey over and said nothing. Aubrey was starting to understand why Jim didn’t like this family.

“How’ve you been?” Christie asked in the same friendly way. “How’s school? Are you still on the cheerleading team?”

That was Christie. Always nice to everyone, no matter what.

Layla heaved another sigh and pulled a sleek cell phone out of her pocket to check the screen.

“Fine, fine, and yes,” she said in a bored way as she quickly typed in a text. “I heard you and some other FL chick are competing in the pageant.” Her eyes flicked toward Aubrey. “You, I assume? Too bad I’ll be winning it,” she added,
before Aubrey could even open her mouth to respond.

Christie laughed. “I think we all have a good chance of—”

“I tried to convince my mother that it wasn’t fair, you guys competing,” Layla continued. “I mean, it really should only be open to people who
live
here.”

Christie’s face drained of color. “What? No. You can’t—”

“Now, now. Christie’s been a part-time Darling resident for years,” Jim said defensively, putting his arm around Christie.

“Whatever. My mom said it was too late to change the rules now anyway, so I guess you two are in,” Layla said. “If you see my brother, tell him I’m looking for him.” Then she snapped her phone closed and sauntered out, her hair bouncing behind her.

“Oh. My. God,” Aubrey said, splaying her fingers out in front of her. “If that is the kind of girl competing in this pageant then I will
definitely
not be participating. I’ll help you beat her, but if I had to go up against that girl, I might have to kill her. So thanks anyway, but I’m out.”

Aubrey had a serious competitive streak, which had only grown stronger playing on an all-boys team in an all-boys league. She knew that if she were to go up against someone as clearly egotistical as Layla, things could get ugly. Fast.

Jim laughed as he turned and walked back behind the reservation desk, where he started to sort through some papers. “Smart girl.”

“She’s not
that
bad,” Christie said.

“Oh, please!” Aubrey replied, picking up her luggage again. “She was totally rude. She looked at you like you were the mud stuck up in the treads of her overpriced boots.”

“No! That’s just the way her face is!” Christie said, earning a laugh from both her grandparents.

“Oh, Chris, I so love how you always see the good in everyone,” her grandmother said.

Christie shrugged and Aubrey sighed. She loved her best friend more than almost anyone, but the one thing that had always bugged her about Christie was her lack of self-worth and backbone.

“One of these days I am going to get you to
stick up for yourself,” Aubrey promised.

“Hear, hear!” Jim cheered, raising a fist.

“But right now, I want to see our room and change into something
a lot
warmer,” she said.

“Okay! Let’s go up!” Christie said cheerily. She led Aubrey over to the stairs. “But you are going to reconsider the pageant, right?”

“Um, no,” Aubrey said.

“Please? I need you! You have to do it!” Christie begged as they mounted the creaky old stairs. “Please, please, please, please, please?”

Aubrey rolled her eyes. It was going to be a long couple of weeks.

O
w! Okay, that one’s gonna leave a mark,” Aubrey said as the cold wetness of the ice seeped through the rear of her jeans. Pain radiated up her back as she reached her hands up toward Christie. “Is it just me, or is ice way harder than asphalt?”

After dinner with Rose and Jim, Christie had suggested a skate on the lake at the center of Darling, and Aubrey had jumped at the chance to try out her new ice skates. What she hadn’t realized was that the lake was going to be kind of a scene. Kids of all ages were gathered in packs on and around the ice, and a bunch of mom types were selling hot chocolate and snacks through a window in a quaint log cabin just off the lake.

Christie gave her a sympathetic look. “Are you sure you want to keep doing this? You’re going to be bruised beyond belief.”

She hoisted Aubrey up, and Aubrey fought to keep her feet beneath her. Once she felt steady again, she let go of Christie’s hands. “I’m fine. I’ve only fallen three times.”

“Try eight,” Christie corrected.

Aubrey laughed under her breath. “Gee. Thanks for keeping such good track of my klutziness.”

“I’m just a good friend like that,” Christie joked.

From the corner of her eye, Aubrey saw a guy skating toward them at top speed. He was on a collision course with Christie, but he was moving so fast Aubrey didn’t even have time to warn her. Christie turned around and flinched, but the guy managed to stop short right in front of her, spraying up ice chunks all over their ankles.

“Hey, Christie. I thought that was you,” he said. His cheeks were all flushed, and his brown eyes sparkled happily as he looked down at her. He was handsome in a boyish way, his head
covered by a leather aviator hat with wooly earflaps.

“Hi, Jonathan,” Christie said.

She bit her lip as she glanced at Aubrey with wide eyes. So this was him. The boy Aubrey had been hearing about nonstop since she was twelve. Aubrey could totally see the attraction. Jonathan was tall, obviously athletic, and had an easy smile. The boy didn’t
look
stupid, so why hadn’t he asked Christie out yet?

“I’m Aubrey Mills. Christie’s best friend,” Aubrey said.

“Oh, right. Sorry!” Christie said, smacking herself in the head. “Aubrey, Jonathan, Jonathan, Aubrey.”

Jonathan laughed. “Welcome to Vermont,” he said in a friendly way, tugging on a pair of chunky knit gloves that looked as if they’d seen better days. “I’ll be working all day tomorrow, and Rose and Jim told me to take good care of you guys, so let me know if you need anything.”

He looked at Christie. She blushed and stared at her feet. This was not normal for
Aubrey’s gregarious BFF. Why was she acting like such a doof?

“Okay. Thanks!” Aubrey said.

Jonathan hesitated a second, clearly waiting for Christie to say something. When it became blatantly obvious that she was going to remain mute, he skated backward a bit. “Okay, then…See ya!”

He skated off toward a group of guys on the other side of the ice, all of whom greeted him in a raucous way.

“Okay. What the heck was that?” Aubrey asked.

“Nothing. That was nothing,” Christie replied, skating ahead a bit. She turned around to face Aubrey and offered her hands. Aubrey tucked her own hands under her arms.

“That was not nothing,” Aubrey said. “Why didn’t you talk to him?”

The blush deepened. “I don’t know! I just…I get all nervous around him.”

Aubrey was starting to understand why these two had yet to hook up. If Christie always acted that way around him, he probably thought she was a kook.

“Why? He clearly likes you,” Aubrey said.

“No! He does not!” Christie replied with a scoff. Then she glanced over her shoulder at Jonathan and his friends. “Does he?”

“Oh my gosh, yes! He came over here just to say hi to you, didn’t he? He wanted to talk to you, but you barely said two words!” Aubrey pointed out. Over Christie’s shoulder, Aubrey saw Jonathan glance back at her friend, checking her out. “I am so getting you two together on this trip. It’ll be fun to have a little romance to talk about.”

“No! Aubrey! Promise me you will not say anything to him. It would be so humiliating,” Christie whispered.

“Why? If I can help, then I want to help!” Aubrey said.

Christie fluttered her knees nervously. Aubrey could see that her friend was getting agitated by the pressure and decided to back off. But she would never understand why Christie didn’t go after the things she wanted. “Can we talk about something else?” Christie asked. “Why don’t we skate?”

Aubrey sighed and let Christie take her
hands. “Fine.”

Up ahead, Layla Chamberlain and one of her girlfriends stepped out onto the ice. They took off around the circle, gliding like pros, chatting and laughing and not even paying attention to where they were going. They made it look so easy they may as well have been walking. Aubrey gritted her teeth, forgetting all about Jonathan and Christie for the moment. If Layla could do this, so could she.

“Okay. I think you can let go of me now,” she said, suddenly feeling like a moron being tugged along by Christie.

“You’re sure?” Christie said.

“Definitely,” Aubrey replied, even as her ankles wobbled. “I’m ready.”

“Okay,” Christie said, carefully releasing Aubrey’s hand. “It’s all you!”

In a moment, Christie’s fingers were gone and Aubrey was on her own. She felt a twinge of trepidation but brushed it aside.

You can do this
, she told herself.
Just take it easy
.

She took two tentative glides and felt pretty secure on her skates. Behind her, Layla’s voice
grew louder. Aubrey forced herself to tear her eyes off her feet and watch where she was going. She wanted to appear as if she knew what she was doing. When she looked up, she looked right into the eyes of the single most gorgeous guy she had ever seen in her life. He was tall—definitely over six feet—with blond hair that was parted to the side, but in a messy, spiky ’do. He had a tiny bit of stubble all over his chin and a slight tan, probably from skiing the slopes all day. He was standing across the lake, but he was watching her, and when her gaze caught his, he didn’t look away. He merely smiled and lightly clapped his hands in her direction, as if he’d been watching her all night and realized these were her first steps on her own. Aubrey’s heart caught, and she smiled back.

That was when her right foot slipped forward and her stomach swooped. In a nanosecond, the gorgeous boy was gone and all she saw was the starry sky above. Aubrey winced, anticipating the crash as her feet flew up in the air. Her back and butt slammed into the ice while the hood of her brown puffer jacket flew up to cradle the back of her head before it could crack in two.

“Ow,” Aubrey whimpered.

Already the wetness was seeping through her jeans again and clinging with its freezing-cold fingers to her bare skin beneath. She could hear the laughter coming from all corners of the lake and her face burned.

He saw that happen
, she thought miserably.
Just kill me now
.

Within seconds Christie’s face hovered over hers. “Are you okay?”

Aubrey heard a loud laugh growing louder as it bore down on her. Suddenly Layla’s face appeared next to Christie’s. Her hair tumbled over her shoulder and hung toward Aubrey’s nose.

“Yes,
are
you okay? That looked
so
bad,” Layla said with a grin. “There’s an ambulance in the parking lot. Want me to get them to bring the stretcher?”

“That won’t be necessary,” Aubrey said.

Layla’s friend joined them. She had a long nose and dyed-blond hair pulled back in a high ponytail. “Maybe it was that jacket that threw you off. It looks like it weighs a ton. Did you borrow it from your dad or something?”

Damn. She had
told
her mother this was too much coat. But her mom had been all stressed out about her being cold. Which, she had to admit, she was not, thanks to the coat. Except for the moments in which she was lying on the ice.

“Rebecca!” Layla said in a faux-scolding tone. Then she laughed as she looked Aubrey over again. “Actually, it
is
rather lumberjack-y,” she said, wrinkling her nose. “Did it come with a free chainsaw?” Her friend giggled, and the two of them slapped gloved hands.

Aubrey hoisted herself up, shrugging off Christie’s offered hand, and turned over onto her knees. Her kneecaps instantly froze, but she didn’t care. She was getting up off the ice by herself if it killed her. She pressed her frigid fingers onto the lake surface and managed to push her way up to standing without falling on her ass again. Taking a deep breath, she willed her feet to stay in one place as she tugged down on the hem of her admittedly oversized coat. One glance over Layla’s shoulder told Aubrey that the gorgeous boy was gone. He’d probably convulsed from laughter and passed out somewhere behind the skate rental counter.

“Maybe I was
going
for the lumberjack look,” Aubrey said confidently.

Layla and Rebecca exchanged an amused glance. “Honey, no one is actually
going
for the lumberjack look,” Layla said. Then she and her friend hooked arms and skated off together in perfect synch. “See you at rehearsal!” Layla sang over her shoulder.

Aubrey rolled her eyes and carefully slid over to the edge of the lake, where a bench had just been vacated by a couple and their young kids. She sat down gingerly and took a deep breath.

“What happened?” Christie asked. “You seemed fine for a second there, and then
bam
!”

Aubrey winced. Was it that bad? “I got distracted.”

“By what?”

“The
perfect
boy,” Aubrey said, glancing across the lake again. “Unless I imagined him in all the head trauma.”

“Where?” Christie sat up straight, her head swiveling around like an owl’s.

“He was over there, but I don’t see him now,” Aubrey replied, pointing. “He was tall, chiseled, blond. Total ski-instructor type.”

Christie deflated slightly. “You just described every other guy on this mountain.”

Aubrey sighed. “I figured.”

“But don’t worry. If it was meant to be, you’ll see him again,” Christie said confidently. She grinned in a sly way. “Maybe we
will
have some romance to talk about on this vacation.”

Yeah, right
, Aubrey thought miserably.
As long as he doesn’t mind dating a bruised, balance-impaired lumberjack
.

After all the traveling and skating and falling, Aubrey should have been exhausted, but she had a restless night. Every hour or so she woke up and found herself staring at the glowing green numbers on the digital clock, which sat on the nightstand between her bed and Christie’s. She had never been good at sleeping in strange places, and the fact that Layla’s taunts kept echoing in her head did not help.

Normally Aubrey didn’t let other people get to her, so it bothered her even more that she was letting Layla get under her skin. Maybe it was because she had thought she would pick up ice skating with no problem. It was frustrating that
she had found it so hard, and it put the whole hockey shot competition in jeopardy. If she didn’t learn to ice-skate before next week, she wasn’t going to be able to compete, and she’d been so looking forward to it. Maybe that was why the fact that Layla and Rebecca were naturals on the ice, and the fact that they felt the need to rub that in her face, was really bothering her.

Not to mention the fact that Gorgeous Boy had seen her deck.
That
was painful to think about.

Although maybe it was better that Gorgeous Boy had seen her fall. The last time she had tried the romance thing, it hadn’t worked out too well. She had been crushing on David Markson, a guy on her roller-hockey team, forever. Last summer, after months of pining, she had finally gotten up the guts to tell him. Much to Aubrey’s shock, he said he felt the same way, and they spent the rest of the summer playing video games in his basement, going surfing together, and stealing kisses on the beach. But as soon as roller-hockey practice started up again, David began to act all distant, and three days into the season he told her he thought it would be better
if they went back to being friends. Aubrey was devastated, and she could only imagine that he had taken a beating from the guys on the team for dating her when she was essentially one of them. One of the guys. Another roller jock.

She tried to talk to David about it again. After all, she wasn’t
that
tomboyish. She wore light makeup and bikinis and denim skirts and the occasional pink T-shirt. And he hadn’t thought she was so masculine when he was kissing her under the boardwalk all those evenings as the sun went down. But David avoided any further explanations, and by the end of September he’d started dating Jenna Warren, one of the perkiest cheerleaders in school.

In fact, Layla kind of reminded Aubrey of Jenna. Big hair, big attitude, annoying laugh. And just like that, Aubrey was right back on the ice, with Layla mocking her. She balled up the well-worn quilt under her chin a little bit more, just as she’d been doing all night whenever her spectacular fall came to mind. By the time the sky was turning pink outside the Spotted Owl’s windows, she had balled it up so much her wool-socked feet were exposed.

“That’s it,” she said to herself, sitting up straight. Adrenaline rushed through her veins, just as it always did when she was presented with a new challenge. The next time those people saw her skate, she was going to be a pro.

She shoved the covers off and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Moving as quietly as possible so as not to disturb Christie, Aubrey dressed in clean, dry jeans, a wool sweater, and sneakers. She put on her black wool hat and grabbed her skates, but hesitated as her hand hovered over her brown coat. With a glance over her shoulder at Christie’s slumbering form, she picked up her friend’s stylish red jacket instead. Not that anyone was going to see her, but maybe Layla’s friend had been right. Maybe the puffer was throwing off her equilibrium.