Aspen Holiday

Chapter 6 - Ice Skating

Six days until Christmas. 

I laced up my skates and went to stand up, but wobbled slightly, holding onto the railings to support myself.

Today our daily Aspen activity was ice skating! I was super excited because I know tons of people who love ice skating and it does seem like a lot of fun. It's been on my bucket list ever since Jess's 8th birthday party.

We were in 3rd grade and it was at a roller rink. Before that I had never ice skated nor roller bladed so it was a completely new thing to me. But Jess and her family had done it forever which is why that was her birthday. I was pretty scared because of that since everyone seemed to know how to rollerblade already and I was so scared I wasn't even sure if I would go out onto the rink.

But when we were in class one day Ezra convinced me to go by saying he was going and he'd never skated before so we could hang out — this was the first party Ezra Thorton actually accepted Jess's invitation as well so she was naturally ecstatic. Yes, this was also the same time Jess had a crush on Ez, and yes she harassed him the entire party.

When it came party time Ezra stayed true to his word and helped me to roller skate without falling on my butt a million times. But he also lied — Ezra had skated before and was just naturally decent. I was fine once I had practiced a little bit, maybe around average?

Overall, I had a ton of fun and put ice skating on my bucket list as well because they were similar. I think I also just told myself that I loved roller skating but in reality I loved the party. It was the first birthday party I ever went to in California and everyone was super kind and nice.

Jess and I went roller skating a couple times after her party since I was convinced I loved it and it was fun. But definitely not how I remember it. Maybe it's just because Ezra wasn't there?

"Ready?" Caleb clamped to hands on my shoulders and pulled me away from the railing that I was holding on.

I pulled a tight grin. "Yeah. But if I can't even walk on the ground how am I supposed to skate on ice without falling on my ass?"

"First of all, watch the language." Cal pointed out, disappointedly, but the smirk tugging his lip and the amusement in his eyes paired with the little wink he sent me says otherwise.

Ace hit him upside the head for his obvious lack of scolding me for my language.

"Second of all," Caleb pouted, rubbing the back of his head while fixing Ace with a glare out of the corner of his eye. "You're going to be fine, skating is easy."

"You're good at it?" I questioned, skeptically, one of my eyebrows going up in confusion.

"I played a couple seasons of hockey back in my day." He responded, casually, fiddling with something on his jacket.

"Did you?" I turned to my brother. "Are you good at ice skating?"

This is not happening to me again!

I am not going to be the only one who isn't good at something or doesn't know how to do something. First the sledding and now this! Plus, I was the only one who hadn't gone roller skating before at Jess's party.

This is my luck. I groaned in my head.

Ace nodded his head to my first question. "M'okay." He responded to my second question.

The problem with Ace though is that he is literally amazing and has a very distorted view of reality. If he says that he's good at something he is insane, if he says he's okay at something he's good, and if he says he's terrible at something he's average.