Paper Stars

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Three

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"Hey Tony"

I slowly turned my head over to the voice.

"Yeah?"

"It's frozen"

"Yeah..."

Trudging through the snow, I stopped right at the edge of the lake, pressing my foot on the ice to test its strength. After a couple hesitant taps, I nodded my head, completely sure that it was safe enough to walk on. 

"How are we supposed to fish when, it's, you know...frozen?"

She stood right next to me with a fishing pole in hand, bundled up in several different types of wintergear I could scavenge for her. My red windbreaker swallowed her up until she looked like a giant round apple that was lost in the snow. 

Grinning, I shrugged at her confused face.

"Well what people usually do is they walk out over there," I said pointing out to a distant part of the lake, "and set up, dig a litlle hole and ice fish."

Jackie's nose crinkled in disaste but quickly smoothened out her features.

"Oh! Well that sounds, uh, exciting", she mumbled into her scarf, making it sound as if she was chewing something. 

I bit the smile the was forming onto my face and held onto the medium sized box that was in my hands. 

Before we could get to the lake, we had to swing by the nearby post office where Jackie touched every single thing in there gushing about how 'incredibly small and authentic' everything looked. By the end of our trip she already befriended Lisa who was in charge of the postoffice and about three other people who found her chipper attitude amusing. 

It was good she was busy socializing since it gave me time to slip in my apps before she could ask about it 'cause another  thing I've learnt about Jackie is that she's curious as heck. 

"How many people actually do this?" Her head tipped in my direction, purposely stalling the whole fishing ordeal. She waved the fishing pole around awkwardly and almost slipped in the process, her face turning a light shade of pink. 

"Ah, no one really. It gets really tiring just sitting there with nothing to do...waiting for one small fish...after hours of waiting."

"Oh" Her voice was flat as she bravely stepped onto the ice. 

I held in my excitement and acted as nonchalant as possible, placing the box that I had on the ground.  Standing up, I briefly scanned over the lakes landscape, feeling a slight pang of nostalgia at the sight of the soft white blanketing the pine trees. I used to come here all the time.

"Or we could always go ice skating if you want," I finally mumbled out, my early boost of confidence gone as she huffed about. 

What if she doesn't want to go ice skating? Or she's never been because she's deathly afraid of skating on ice. Or what if in the inside she really does think I'm a creep and now she's uncomfortable because I'm asking her to put on shoes with blades. 

With my arms crossed, I waited as what little of her face remained stoic.

"Ice skating?" she asked dubiously.

I nodded, holding in a groan. She probably thinks I'm childish and supid. What do city girls do for fun anyway?

"But where are we going to get ice skates? There's no shack or rentals around here."