Chapter Text
A freak snowstorm had transformed Camp Kikiwaka into a winter-like wonderland in the middle of summer. All of the summer activities had been canceled for the snow day and everyone was making the most of the odd weather. Emma had been building a snowman with Jorge and Griff when Ravi had asked her to go on a hike through the forest. Emma had agreed since the snowman was nearly finished and she hadn’t seen her boyfriend or bestie all morning to hang out with them instead of her brother. She had told him as much and he almost left her at the Great Lawn.
“Surprise!”
Xander shouted as Emma and Ravi walked up to a horse-drawn carriage in the snow. He was bundled up in two layers of hoodies with the Grizzly symbol on the front. Behind him, Lou sat at the front of the sleigh with a red jacket on that matched the red of the sleigh and the bows on the horses.
“O.M.G.” Emma gasped excitedly. She rushed up to Xander and leaned into his arms. “What is all this?”
“I know we haven’t been able to get much alone time together this summer, so I figured a snow day would be the perfect chance to do something romantic,” Xander explained.
“And what could be more romantic than a sleigh ride through a snow-covered forest?” Lou said dreamily. “Especially with your bestie on the reins.” She lifted the reins with her mittens as she smiled at her best friends from the coachman’s seat.
“Hello! Good morning, Lou!” Ravi shouted as he waved his hand enthusiastically and walked forward. He stumbled over a branch in the snow but kept his balance. He cleared his throat and awkwardly lowered his hand.
Xander and Emma gave Ravi amused looks, but he ignored them and walked up to the back of the sleigh to inspect the inside. “Blankets. Matching earmuffs…” He sniffed the air and then pointed at two thermoses. “Is that hot chocolate?”
“Yep,” Xander answered proudly. He guided Emma to the sleigh and helped her up. He climbed in after her and snuggled into the blanket she had already fluffed. “Even a random overnight snowstorm is better with you.”
“Aw, Xandy,” Emma cooed as she placed a pair of earmuffs on her boyfriend. She wrapped her arms around his neck and sweetly kissed him.
“Seriously,” Ravi said flatly, able to keep the jealousy out of his tone. He sighed dramatically as he stuck his nose in the air and looked away from the couple. “I suppose this means I’m walking back on my own,” he said out loud. “Even though I was not aware of this when you asked me to bring Emma out here…”
He waited for a response, but his sister and his bunkmate continued to kiss in the back of the sleigh. New snowflakes began to lightly fall all around them. The scene in front of him looked like all of those holiday romance movies that played non-stop from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day.
Ravi cleared his throat. “And the forest looks much different in the snow than in the typically sunny weather…” He gave the couple a pointed look and said in a louder tone, “I certainly hope I do not get lost!”
Emma leaned away slightly from Xander so that she could put her own earmuffs on. Xander pulled her closer and brushed his nose against her nose. Emma giggled and captured his lips in another kiss. Ravi felt a pang of jealousy over the way his sister got to so freely smooch the person she cared for and he couldn’t even ask Lou on a date.
“Forget it,” Ravi grumbled as he crossed his arms.
Ravi looked over to Lou, who was leaning forward and talking gently to the horses. She had a blanket wrapped around her shoulders and snowflakes in her hair. Ravi’s frown turned into a small smile as he watched her with the horses. She must have felt him staring because she leaned back and looked at him over her shoulder. She gave him a bright smile that made him heat up even though it was so cold outside.
“You wouldn’t need help guiding the horses, would you?” He asked as he walked to the front of the horse-drawn sleigh. “Not that I would be much help. But I would be willing to try…for you.”
“You should know by now, Ravi. You can always chill with me.” Lou pointed up at the falling snow and chuckled at her own joke. “Get it? Cause of the snow. Cause it’s cold!”
Ravi forced out an overly eager laugh and clapped his gloved hands together. “Good one, Lou!”
She feigned annoyance and said, “That laugh was as fake as the box labeled organic in the camp pantry.” She scooted to the edge of the coachman’s seat. “But I’ll still take you with me.”
She offered him her hand to help him up. Ravi gazed at her mitten and his heart beat wildly in his chest. He looked up at her and instantly regretted it because her beautiful eyes made him dizzy and lovesick.
“Hurry up, Ravi!” Emma shouted from the back of the sleigh.
“Um, right,” Ravi nodded.
He placed his hand in Lou’s and climbed up beside her. There wasn’t much room, so his shoulder was pressed against hers.
“Cozy?” She asked brightly.
Ravi had never been so happy to be in such a confined space. “I’m fine. Thank you.”
“Alright, fellas,” Lou announced to the horses, “We don’t have long until the farmer down the road wants his sleigh back.”
The horses pulled the sleigh at a leisurely pace. The air was cold but there was a calmness and beauty to everything as they moved through the snow-covered forest. Ravi lifted his chin and closed his eyes as the snowflakes fell. For a moment it reminded him of winters at the ski resort where he and his family vacationed during the holidays. The only thing missing was Zuri and Luke chucking snowballs at him while Emma critiqued his choice in snow boots.
“Isn’t it so pretty?” Lou asked as she looked around the forest.
Ravi opened his eyes and nodded. A chill went through him that caused him to rub his hands together and frown. “But I didn’t exactly bring my warmest coat to summer camp,” he said.
“Here.” Lou shrugged off the blanket that had been wrapped around her shoulders so that it fell onto Ravi’s shoulder.
“Oh, thank goodness.” Ravi wrapped the blanket around his head and shoulders and hummed at the warmth. “Oh, this is much better. I thought I was destined to become a Grizzly counselor icicle.”
Lou chuckled as she continued to guide the horses. She said sweetly, “Not while I’m around.”
It took a moment for it to cross Ravi’s mind that Lou might also be cold, especially when she had so selflessly given up her blanket. He glanced over at her and saw how rosy her nose and cheeks were. For the briefest of seconds his eyes lowered to her lips, which caused thoughts of kissing her to flood his brain. Worried that she might somehow be able to read his mind, he looked away so fast that it caused a pain in his neck.
“It’s terribly cold out here, Lou. Are you sure you don’t want your blanket back?” He asked without looking over at her. He focused on a curved tree ahead of them that had snow dusted on its green leaves.
“Nah,” Lou answered with a small shrug. She smiled and kindly looked back at her best friends, who were snuggled up and sipping from their cups of hot chocolate in the sleigh. They were gazing at each other lovingly and whispering to each other. Lou sighed happily as she turned back to say to Ravi, “I’ve got their love to keep me warm.”
Ravi looked over at her and teasingly rolled his eyes even as he smiled back at her. “That is very sweet. But you still look a bit cold.”
Lou opened her mouth to protest, but then a breeze blew by and made her shiver slightly. Ravi readjusted the blanket that he had cocooned himself in and wrapped it so that it covered both her shoulders and his. She looked at him in surprise for a moment but then relaxed her shoulders. She swapped one of the reins in her hand so that she could link her arm with his arm.
“I guess I have you to keep me warm too,” Lou said as the sleigh moved past the trail that led to the lake.
Ravi looked down at their linked arms and then up at Lou’s pretty face as the cold weather made her nose as red as Rudolph the Reindeer’s from the storybook Bunny cabin had been reading that morning in the mess hall. Again, he had an urge to kiss his friend.
“Did you hear what I said?” Lou asked with her voice raised slightly.
Ravi blinked. He shook his head no because he hadn’t even realized that she had been talking. “Sorry,” he apologized. “This cold weather is making it difficult to…think clearly.” He didn’t mention that it had less to do with the snowy weather and more to do with Lou’s arm tangled with his arm and her shoulder pressed against his shoulder under a cozy blanket on a romantic sleigh ride.
Lou playfully narrowed her eyes at him and repeated, “I asked how was your date the other day? With Megan?”
“Right! Yes, of course. Megan…” He watched a group of tiny birds hopping around in a patch of snow as the sleigh rode by. “It was…”
Ravi shuffled his feet as he thought over his next words. The truth was the date had been a disaster. He had spilled his drink on Megan at the movies and sneezed in their shared popcorn. The movie was entirely in French, which neither of them spoke. But the body language of the characters indicated that it was an extremely sad film that ended in numerous heartbreaks, so not the kind of movie you asked a girl on a date to go see. But what had been worst of all was that even though he had been elated to be on a date with a nice girl, the only person he could think about was Lou.
“Well, uh… I had a blue raspberry slushie,” Ravi said without much enthusiasm.
Lou’s eyes brightened and she gasped, “Oh! That’s my favorite!”
She turned toward him for a second, so her breath was warm and visible as it danced around Ravi’s face. His heart was aching from the need to kiss her. He inhaled deeply and it felt like his lungs were going to burst from the cold air. But he didn’t care because the burning feeling kept him from saying or doing anything stupid.
“So, does that mean you had a good time?” Lou asked.
“It could have been better.”
“What? They ran out of butter flavor for the popcorn when you went to the movies or something?” She joked.
“She was not y-” Ravi’s eyes widened and he shut his mouth tight. He couldn’t believe that he had nearly revealed his crush. He should have never allowed himself to get this close to her. In fact, it seemed like she had leaned in closer than she had been a moment ago. And there was a look in her eyes that he didn’t recognize but couldn’t look away from. He should have known it would be hard to keep his feelings under control in such a romantic setting when she looked so adorable and kissable.
“Hey! Do you two want hot chocolate?”
At the sound of Xander’s voice, Ravi unlinked his arm with Lou’s and leaned away from her as much as possible without falling out of the sleigh. He coughed awkwardly before looking back at Xander and his sister, whom he had forgotten were in the sleigh.
“It tastes awesome,” Xander said cheerfully as he lifted a thermos of hot chocolate toward Ravi. “Lou makes the best hot chocolate.”
“It’s true,” Lou stammered. She made a sound like she was catching her breath. “Hot chocolate good.” She focused on guiding the horses around a bundle of logs on the path.
Xander waved the thermos at Ravi. Ravi tried not to look annoyed as he plucked the container from his bunkmate’s hand. He murmured his thanks.
“No prob,” Xander said as he patted Ravi on the back and then returned to the back of the sleigh.
Lou chuckled softly. She whispered, “I had forgot they were back there canoodling.”
“Me too,” Ravi whispered back. “I liked it better when it was just the two of us. I always do.”
And this time Ravi was sure he had said too much. He was flustered as he calculated the chances of injuring himself if he hopped out of the slow-moving sleigh ride. He felt like a specimen under the heated microscope of her stare. He tried to speak to fill the silence between them but he could find no words. Suddenly, she bunched her eyebrows together and then unbunched them just as suddenly. Her jaw dropped slightly.
“You,” Lou said above a whisper. She looked away from him to the snow-covered path the horses pulled the sleigh along, but only for a moment. She turned back to him and spoke in the same hushed tone. “‘She was not you.’”
She bit her lip as she gazed at him, which all but put Ravi on the verge of a heart attack. Not only had she figured out his secret, but she had managed to be even cuter than she was a second ago. He regretted ever agreeing to bring Emma out to the forest at Xander’s request. For now on, all plans must be reviewed before he agrees to participate so that he doesn’t end up blabbering on romantic sleigh rides through the snow with his crush.
“Lou, I’m sorry. I…” Ravi began, but she interrupted him.
“Well, you know…” Lou spoke again, but this time her eyes were focused on the path ahead of the horses instead of Ravi. “...I might be able to keep the sleigh and horses a little longer…And then maybe the two of us could go on a sleigh ride together…But just the two of us. Um, like a date.”
Ravi was dumbstruck. Again, he tried to speak but no words formed. Lou looked over at him expectantly, but all he could do was stare at her.
“Or I totally just got all of that wrong,” she said in a nervous rush. She scrunched her nose and pouted. “Dang it, Lou! You never know how to read a room.” She sighed. “Forget I said anything.” She downcast her eyes, about to look away from him.
“No!” Ravi exclaimed as he cupped his hand around her cheek. He nervously gulped, but held eye contact and her face. “I would love to go on a date with you, Lou.”
“Good,” she exhaled and gave him a relieved smile. She glanced at his mouth and bit her lip again. “But I should probably focus on guiding the sleigh right now.”
“Oh, right!” Ravi said as he let go of her face. “Sorry! I um…”
“It’s alright,” she giggled. She linked her arm with his again. “Best summer snow sleigh ride ever.”
“Agreed,” he said dreamily as the snow continued to lightly fall.