Over the River and Through the Woods

Chapter One

Chapter One

"Oh my gosh! I can't wait to go home for Christmas break tomorrow. It's going to be so much fun!" Noelle, my roommate, exclaimed as the two of us packed our suitcases in our dorm room. "All the parties, family, food, fun, and presents—it will be a blast."

"I agree. My whole family will be there too. I can't wait to play with all my nieces and nephews. It's kind of like a loud, crazy circus; but it's still so much fun being together." I was interrupted by the phone vibrating on the bed next to me.

By the time I ended my phone call with my mom, my mouth was watering. She told me all the wonderful things she'd been cooking in preparation for our arrival. "I can't wait for some of her cherry cheesecake and Christmas pie. Those are two of my most favorite things to eat. Well, unless you count Aunt Sally's brownies. Those are pretty awesome." I attempted to close the top and zip my very over-packed suitcase, full of clothes and presents, as well as toiletries for my two week vacation. "Of course, I won't get to enjoy any of it if I don't survive the ride home."

Noelle glanced at me and rolled her eyes dramatically. "Please, you will survive just fine. It was nice of Micah to offer to take us after Christian's truck broke down. We could've been stranded."

Christian was Noelle's boyfriend, and Micah's best friend. We'd gone to the same high school before heading off to Ivy College together. We had all been good friends until I caught Micah kissing one of the cheerleaders, at school. It wouldn't have been such a big deal, except he was my boyfriend at the time. We'd been steady dating for two years and I'd fancied myself in love with him. Not anymore, though. I'd hated him ever since. He never even tried to apologize to me; so we'd spent the rest of our senior year avoiding each other, the animosity between us growing steadily stronger.

Now I was going to be stuck in a car with him for two and a half hours. Thank goodness Christian and Noelle would be there as buffers. Otherwise, I might have considered slitting my own wrists to get out of the trip.

"You two really should try talking to each other to see if you can come to some sort of agreement and get along. Chris and I hate having to bounce between the two of you all the time, worrying we might offend one of you." She crawled onto the bed and sat on the lid to her suitcase, attempting to zip it closed.

"He's had plenty of opportunity to apologize to me. Besides, I think he's enjoying being the campus Casanova. I swear I see him making out with a new girl every week."

"You sound jealous," Noelle replied, grunting as she dragged her suitcase off the bed and over to the door.

I scoffed. "Not jealous, grateful; ecstatic even, as well as a bit sad for the poor girls. They'll all find out what kind of guy he is, sooner or later."

Noelle sighed heavily. "Micah is an amazing guy, Felicity, not to mention gorgeous. You can't deny it, because you used to see it, too."

"Yeah, well, I was wrong. We all know how that turned out." Placing my suitcase beside hers, I turned to face her. "So, what else do we need to do? There's that party my teacher is throwing for the music students, tonight. I promised I'd help out. She's counting it as the rest of my work study hours, which will give me a little extra money for next semester."

Noelle quickly glanced around. "I think we are done here."

"All right." Grabbing my white coat, I slipped it on before shoving my feet into my tall, fur-lined snow boots. "I'll see you later tonight, then. It will probably be after eleven, so don't worry if I'm late." I wound my white, cable knit scarf around my neck and dug my matching gloves from my pocket.