"Thank god that's over," Kate sighed as we waved to the ascending plane from the airport window. Aboard the plane were our relatives, all flying back to the States.

Sara sauntered over to the chairs and sat down. I sat next to her, wondering whether she was feeling ok. "I miss Dan, Bob," she said, confirming my thoughts. "It was good seeing him after so long. He had been in college and I rarely saw him. I missed just hanging out with him."

"I'm gonna miss KK," Olivia cried. She sunk into a chair and tears formed in her eyes.

"Liv, you do realize that your sister and cousin are gone, too, right?" Dave reminded her.

"I don't care about them. I only like the little one," She sobbed. The rest of the girls just rolled their eyes. I tried not to laugh. That's Liv for you.

Dad walked over to us all and looked around, "Are they gone? Are you ready to go to Germany?"

Kate and Nati started cracking up, "Go to Germany!" They both yelled. I don't think I'll ever understand them.

"Hey Dad, when we get there, will we be able to see Gil and Tal?" Scott asked. Oh, yeah we haven't seen them in a while.

"Gil?!" Olivia and Natalia's faces lit up.

"I'm sure we will, actually Sheila made plans with them the first week back I believe," Dad told us.

"Oh My GOD GIL!" Olivia shrieked. I looked at Sara who rolled her eyes and put her head in her hands.

"I never knew you were a Gil fan, Olivia," Clint said almost scared by her reaction.

"If you only knew," Liv and Nati sang out.

"Oh do we have to see them," Kate whined. "They are gonna be like this the whole way there."

"We'll talk about it on the bus, now come on. It's a long drive to Germany," Frank instructed us.

I stood up and put out my hand for Sara to take. She smiled at me and took my hand. I missed these public displays of affection. Our cease-fire when Dan was around took a lot of energy. It felt so natural and good to be touching her, kissing her without thinking. Now I felt I had to make up for lost time.

We all walked out of the airport and climbed on the bus; having already checked out of the hotel we were headed straight for Germany with nothing to stop us hopefully.

"How long of a drive is it, Sheila?" Kate asked. If she is going to whine the whole way, so help me God...

"About 8 hours, Kate. Why don't you get some rest? It'll seem shorter," Sheila suggested, already pulling the aspirin bottle from her purse.

"No, that's okay, I'll find something to entertain me," she said looking around.

"Or someone," Clint said laughing. Kate glared at him and hopped into her bunk.

Sara relaxed into the cushions of the couch with her newest book. I walked over and sat next to her. I was not going to waste a perfectly good bus ride with her reading the whole time.

"May I help you?" She asked pertly, not looking up from her book when she acknowledged my presence.

"Actually, maybe you could," I said.

"So... what do you want?" She asked, still not looking up.

"Well, you see I have this horrible pain in my back and it just won't go away," I said trailing off because she still wasn't looking.

We sat in silence for a minute. I didn't know whether she heard me or not. I snapped my fingers to get her attention.

"What?" She asked, annoyed, eyes briefly meeting mine before touching the book again. This was a lost cause.

"Never mind. Thanks anyway, Sah," I said, getting up and grabbing a controller for the video game and challenging Dave to a face off.

KATE

"Just a few days, then GIL! Just a few days then GIL!" Olivia skipped around the hallway. I am going to shoot HER; I am going to shoot HER. I'm tired.

"What time is it?" Natalia asked, taking off her earphones. The music was blaring. It's miraculous she can still hear.

"Two minutes from the last time you asked me," Clint growled. He was trying to sleep too. No change there.

"OOO! Snow! Luscious snow! Clean white, fluffy snow, just for us to play in!" Olivia giggled and smudged her face up to the window, distorting her features to see the snow. It had been freezing cold but no snow in Paris. At least it was freezing cold and snowy here. I slid out of my bunk to see the snow, accidentally kicking Clint on the way down.

"Ow! God, that hurt Kate," He said, kicking me and pulling the curtain across the bunk. I stuck my tongue out at him and held my hands to the cool window, surveying the white countryside.

"I hate snow. It's annoying," Natalia shouted over the music. She closed her eyes and the curtain.

"I can't wait to go skiing. I love skiing. And snowboarding, and sledding, and ice skating, and, and," I shouted, getting a little too excited.

"And making snowmen!" Olivia grinned. Snow people, Natalia would say. But I don't agree. It's so wrong. It's a snowman. Forget being PC.

"Snow people..." Natalia murmured. A ha, of course. We ignored her. I jumped up and ran to the front of the bus, eager to get my way.

"Frank...FRANK! It's snowing. Can we go play in the snow?" I asked him. He and Sheila looked at me and laughed. Scott slipped his arm around my waist.

"Hey that's a good idea. Dad, we can't drive all the way to Munich tonight. We're gonna have to stop somewhere. Can we go skiing for a few days in the Alps?" Scott asked his father. Oh please, please, please?! Scott, oh my god I LOVE YOU!

"Sheila and I have to talk about it. We were thinking about that. But we haven't booked any space there, and we don't know if we can find a place to stay. We can't stay on the bus," Frank told us. Sheila started flipping through a travel guide of Europe, and then handed it to us.

"Why don't you two find some place we could all stay, preferably on the way to Munich so we don't have to get off course," Sheila smiled and we went back to the kitchen table to look over the guide.

"I don't care where we stay, as long as it has a big fire that we can sit in front of after we get out of the cold," I slid into the hard booth next to the kitchen table and faced Scott in front of me.

Scott nodded. "And a bearskin rug?" He said, making a face at me, ready to laugh. I was in such a good mood, I decided to laugh too.

"Actually that might be nice. Find us someplace rugged Scott," I ordered him.

OLIVIA

"Is this rugged enough for you, Kate?" Scott asked as we pulled the luggage off the bus. Kate nodded her head and dragged her duffel bag to the entrance. Yeah, thanks Scott. I hope it has running water.

"Come on, Liv. The faster we get in there, the more time we get to ski," Clint motivated me to move faster.

"You want me to pick up the pace? You pick up my bags," I told him. He shook his head and left my bags in front of me. Jerk. He's the man in the relationship, isn't he supposed to carry my stuff around?

Dave picked up one of Natalia's bags to help with her load. "So are you guys going to sit around for a while? Are you going to come skiing with us?" He asked Sara and her.

Natalia shrugged and looked at Sara, who shrugged as well. " I don't know. I can't ski, I don't know how to, so I doubt I would be much fun on the slopes. I think I might just keep you behind," She told him. Dave almost begged her to jump on his back as they flew down the mountain, but she missed the point and said she might just keep him behind. What the hell is up with that? Isn't this what she wanted?

I tried to clue Nati in by smacking her with my bag. "What the hell Liv? Jesus Christ, that hurt. What do you have in there? Taylor Hanson's dead body?" Nati shouted, loud enough for a few other vacationers to perk up their ears and stare. I glared at her under my snow hat. She just walked faster into the lobby with Dave sprinting at her side.

"You know Dave, I think I might just take the lessons or something. I don't want to stay in, but I really don't want to hit the big slopes yet. That's what you guys are probably going to be going on right away, right?" Natalia told him, shifting her weight from one foot to the other while she waited for the elevator doors to open.

"Um, ok. Well, maybe once you get the hang of it you can come join us," Dave offered, then turned to Sara. "Are you going to come to the bigger slopes with us or are you unable to ski too?"

Sara shook her head no. "Nope I guess I'll be joining Natalia on the bunny slopes with a teacher for a while. But I'll come watch you guys later. I'll laugh as you fall on your asses."

Dave snorted. The elevator doors opened and we got on.

SARA

"OK we'll see you later guys. Meet us back at the top of the hill at quarter to six. Do any of you have a watch?" Scott spat out his orders. Sara shook her head and showed her watch, so Scott, Kate, Liv, Dave, Clint and Bob waved good bye and ran to the big slopes.

Natalia and I waited patiently for our ski instructor to come. Well, I waited patiently. Natalia checked my watch every five minutes to see when he would come. She kept her spirits by cracking jokes at the visitors around us.

"Oh god," She said, pointing an inconspicuous finger at a woman dressed from the 80s. "Ok, see that one over there? That woman's wearing enough hairspray to kill a large antfarm. I hope she falls on her ass and gets snow tangled in the mesh of her hair," Natalia said, rolling her eyes and running her hands over her face. I tried not to laugh too loudly; the woman was less than ten feet away.

Natalia opened her fingers to peek through. She spotted a tall man in a bright blue parka walking towards us, but not looking straight at us. He seemed to be putting more energy into strutting strangely across the snow. Natalia turned to me and with an ambiguous smile. I shook my head and laughed quietly to myself. The man continued to walk over to us.

"Hello ladies, I'm your instructor. My name is Hans, feel free to ask me any questions." Hans laid down a pair of expensive looking skis and put up one finger when a woman ran over to him. "One moment please. I'll be right back."

When the man was far enough away. I noticed the shocked look on Nati's face. "What? What's that face for?" I asked.

"Um...is it just me? Maybe I haven't seen him in a while. Does that guy look like Ben Affleck? He really does," She told me. I glanced over at him. He was tall, had a short brown haircut and small blue eyes. His jaw was defined perfectly.

"No it's not just you. Oh my god, what Kate is missing by staying with Scott." I grinned slyly. Hans walked back over to us and picked up the skis.

"If you'd be so kind as to follow me, we can go get you some skis to wear." His incredible smile convinced me even more of his resemblance to Ben. He led and we followed him.

CLINT

"Clint," Olivia whined. I rolled my eyes and pretended not to hear her.

"Cli-int!" She whined again, and pulled at my arm. I had no choice but to acknowledge her. I spun around, a smiled plastered on my face. Olivia glared at me and stopped in her tracks.

"I don't want to walk anymore. How much farther until we get to the ski lift?" She asked, brushing back her flyaway hair. I tried not to sigh too loudly when I pointed to the lift, less than twenty feet away from us. "Oh. Well come on, hurry up."

"Just sit there when it comes behind you. Pay attention. It's coming," I told her. We held hands and jumped onto the seat.

"Ah! I'm gonna fall! We're so high," she shouted once we had reached high enough on the lift. We were a good 100 feet above the mountain. The skiers looked like little ants.

"Clint! Hold me! I'm going to be sick," Liv shouted again and burrowed her head into my chest. Of all the times, she had to go crazy now.

"It'll be ok, Liv. We're almost at the top. Just be calm and look at the view of the mountain. It's really very beautiful." I couldn't take my eyes off the sloping mountain beneath us. I coughed, realizing I had been holding my breath.

"Clint..." Liv whispered, peeking out from under my arms. She faced the azure horizon and breathed out. "So what do I do when we get to the top?"

"When we get there, you're going to jump off the chair and onto the platform. Then just wait there and we can pick which trail we want to go down."

"Okay, whatever you say honey." Liv smiled sweetly and laid her head on my shoulder. She's not as bad as you might think. A bit sickly sweet at times, annoying bitchy at others, but I love her.

"Here it comes. Get ready to jump!" I said, shaking her to attention. She sat upright, her skis stretched out in front of her to jump off. We inched our way to the platform. Olivia jumped off first, but instead of stopping, she missed the platform and jumped to the side.

She completely missed the platform and began to slide down the highest hill, the summit.

"CLINT! HELP ME!" Her screams died down as she flew faster away from me. I jumped off the platform to chase her down the hill.

"OLIVIA! Dig your poles into the ground! They'll stop you! Olivia!" I shouted, catching the attention of dozens of skiers. They stopped to point and laugh, or get out of the way.

"CLINT!" She screamed, obviously not hearing about the poles. I tried to ski faster, to reach and stop her. There were too many people and I lost Olivia. She flew out of my view and I had to keep an eye out for her lifeless body by the trees.

"LIV! Where are you?" I shouted, past nervous and into the postal stage. I wasn't afraid that Liv was dead. I was afraid that when I found her, I would be dead.

I traced my eyes along the horizon, trying to calm down with the use of the majestic horizon. Something caught my foot and sent me flying. I landed on top of something warm and hard.

"Olivia? Liv? Jesus Christ, are you ok?" I asked, realizing the "something" I had fallen on was Olivia. I sat up, adjusted my sunglasses and helped her up. "Liv? Speak to me. Hello?" I waved a hand in front of her face.

"You scum! You ass! I hate you! You let me fly down the side of a mountain, everyone laughing at me. You told me it was easy!" She beat me with her pole. Well, at least she was getting some use out of them.

"I also told you to jump onto the PLATFORM!" I shouted back at her, holding my arms up in front of my face to shield away the pole blows. She just hit me harder.

"Help me up! Now!" Liv shouted. I complied.

DAVE

"Dave, you clumsy bastard! Are you deliberately trying to trip me?" Bob accused. I glared at him and ignored the remarks.

"Don't get pissy with me cause Sara would rather read about a 15th century sex act then actually fool around with you," I shot back.

"Oh go to hell, you wouldn't know what to do if Natalia was receptive to the gay ass passes you make at her. She knows better than to believe you, so don't even start about Sara!" Bob yelled. Oh, touchy touchy.

"Wow, Bob, you haven't gotten any in a while? Huh? You only act this way when Sara is abstaining," I laughed. Bob snorted, but turned his head away. He was desperately in need of a little loving.

"Oh fuck off. You're so used to getting nothing you wouldn't know what it was like to get anything so just back off."

I shook my head and narrowed my eyes. "That was the most retarded comeback I've ever heard. Nice one," I told him while laughing. I laughed so hard I lost my balance. Bob pushed me with all his might and I fell backwards down the hill. My laughing stopped as I realized I was falling to my death.

"Help! Help me!" I shouted, tumbling skis over head down the side of the mountain. I crashed into someone and took them down with me. "OOF! Sorry! " I shouted and continued falling down the hill.

NATALIA

"Hey! Sara, was that Dave rolling past us?" I asked, breaking my concentration on our stopping lessons. She squinted her eyes to get a better look.

"Why, yes it was. Do you think we should do something?" She asked.

"Nah, something soft will break his fall. Like a tree," I said, laughing at my little joke. Ha ha. Ha.

"Girls, let's go down the hill and try out our stopping skills,” Hans suggested. He gracefully slid down the slope. We reluctantly (and awkwardly) followed.

“Dave! Dave, where are you?” I called. A few other skiers turned their heads. I followed the tracks of ripped up snow. It looked like he had been clawing at the ground to keep from tumbling.

“Over here…” I heard a low grumble. I rushed over to where he had kicked off his skis and was shaking snow out of his jacket. I stopped quickly, covering him with snow again. Sara came over to us.

"Ah you found him. Come on Nati, Hans is waiting for us at the bottom of the hill," She said to me. I shook my head and helped Dave up.

"I think I'm going to skip lessons. They're boring and I hate skiing anyway. I'll stick with Dave. You go finish." I held on to Dave for support. I was going to fall any second and I had a feeling I would take him with me.

"Suit yourself. I'll see you at 6," She called out to us, and flew down the rest of the way to Hans. I fell, Dave fell, and we slid a few more feet into a snowbank.

SARA

"I can't feel my feet. They are frozen," Liv complained. She limped dramatically to the hotel room the four of us were to share. I gripped my ski pole menacingly, ready to plunge it into her chest.

"Shove it. We're sick of your bitching. Take a warm shower and it will go away." Kate brushed the snow out of her hair and threw her jacket into the closet.

"We're going to have dinner then if you're still cold we can sit in front of the fire and work on some more songs," I said, trying to hide my annoyance and make friendly. Liv whimpered. Nati shoved her into the bathroom and locked her in.

"We'll see you later," Nati called. Liv complied, already turning on the shower. We turned up the heat full blast until the room felt like a sauna.

"We're supposed to be enjoying the crisp air of the mountains. Yet we could tan in here if we tried hard enough," Kate joked, throwing her dripping wet clothing onto the radiator.

"God this place is primitive. Radiator, no phone, bearskin rug..." Nati said. Hey that's a plus. I'm holding out for that bearskin rug tonight.

"Just a little reminder tonight. I want you guys to find someplace else to stay after dinner. Go to visit the boys, go ride in the ski lift, go do anything except come back to the room. It's reserved for Bob and I," I blurted out. Kate and Nati gaped at me. "What?"

"Riiight. We'll make plans. Don't worry," Nati smiled. Kate looked confused, but laughed anyway.

"Hurry, Liv. We're hungry. Move, now!"

KATE

"Mmmm this looks wonderful." I sniffed the air, relishing the scent of roasted whatever that was. My mouth watered and Scott pulled out a seat beside him for me to sit down.

"You really did a great job, Sandra," Frank complemented the cook as she brought out some string beans. Sandra smiled her thanks and bustled back to the kitchen.

"What is that anyway?" Olivia asked. Some kind of meat.

"Um...venison I think," Sheila told her. Olivia's face went pale.

"You mean DEER?" She demanded, hands already flying to her hips, her mouth pursed in contempt.

"Yeah, Dave crashed into one and we figured, waste not want not!" Scott joked. Liv smacked him upside the head.

"HEY! Stop that, only I get to smack Scott," I laughed, smacking him again.

"Ow...thanks Hun. I owe you one," He smiled through his teeth. No problem, my pleasure.

"I don't eat meat. The harsh treatment they use in slaughterhouses, it's not fair! They die in horror while we can eat other things," She rattled off her lecture. Again.

"Yeah haven't we had this discussion before? And this coming from the girl that still wears leather sandals," Bob teased. Liv rolled her eyes and got ready to fight.

"I can't help it! My mother bought them for me, they were a gift and I'd feel bad if I didn't wear them. I'll never get another pair. I'm SORRY!" She yelled back.

"Can we just eat please?" Dave asked innocently. My head pounded from the conversation and we hadn't even begun to eat yet.

"Yeah well can't eat the meat. I guess I'll just have the string beans and potatoes for dinner." Liv fished for some sympathy.

"Of course. Meat is murder," Clint told us all. He took a big bite of venison and swallowed it. "And murder tastes pretty damn good."

BOB

"So exactly where are you taking me, Sara?" She led me back through the hallways. I had a dim hope that somehow wherever we went there would be a bed. But I had a feeling I wasn't thinking with the right head that night. We all knew Olivia was bad, but now I realized, Sara's just more discrete about it.

She opened the girls' room, dragged me inside and slammed the door shut. I fell backwards onto the bed. Ooh. How timely.

"Well now that we have all this time alone, it's up to us with how we want to spend it," Sara whispered, far over me. I felt her hot breath and it prickled my skin. She knew just how to get to me.

"Mind narrowing down our options? Or do you want to keep it totally free?" I questioned. I'd never seen Sara so forceful. I liked it. I was completely ready for whatever she had planned.

"Oh you'll find out soon, " Sara murmured, her whispers tickling my ear. I felt her tongue trace the lining of my lips.

Good god.

SCOTT

“The sun’s gone. The sky looks so boring and dead now,” Dave sighed. “There’s no more sun to light it up.”

“On the contrary, now that the sun is gone, I think the twilight sky is alive with colors you can’t find in the sky when the sun is out,” Natalia told him. “Violets, salmons, indigos, crimsons. You can’t see these colors when the sun is around.”

“Right. Um. Yeah,” Dave said, quieted into submission. Get away. Go away somewhere. Clint and Liv got the hint. Why can’t you?

“Scott,” Kate tugged on my sweater. We were all sitting in front of the fire, basking in the heat.

“Come on, Kate,” I said, pulling her to her feet. I grabbed my coat and Dave’s. She could use that instead.

“Where are you going? Can we come?” Dave asked.

“No,” I replied pertly. Kate and I left the main lodge as quickly as we could. I dodged her questions until we had reached the ski lift.

“Come on,” I said, pushing her onto the chair, then hoisting myself beside her. “I had a feeling you wanted to get away for a while.”

Kate nestled her head onto my shoulder and I slipped an arm around her. The sun was gone, the colors were fading. Twilight gleamed around us and the sky issued its first stars.

“Look, I think that constellation is Orion,” I said, pointing to the cluster of stars above us. Kate glanced up before turning to me.

We were silent in each other’s arms. I desperately wanted to kiss her, but I didn’t know if she would let me.

I was chicken shit for the first time in my life. I could barely move an inch when she reached over to stroke my jaw line. I could feel her fingers tremble. Was it the cold? Or was it something else?

I couldn’t let myself be numb any longer. I grasped her hand in mine and kissed her softly. That wasn’t enough for her. Her mouth sought out mine again and again. I never let go of her hand.