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The drive to the Hollow Ski Resort was long, but fortunately, Evangeline had Lala, Castor, and Jacks to keep her company. Driving down the same path they had driven for years; when Evangeline had first joined their friend group, they dragged her around all week and bugged her to come with them skiing—although Evangeline was certainly not an expert—and Evangeline had eventually given in. This was only her second time driving to the ski resort, but already she felt she knew the road like the back of her hand.
“Lemonade is clearly better, you nicompoop!” Lala yelled at Castor.
“What? Ew, no. Orange juice is literally the best, I don’t know what’s wrong with you. Tell her I’m right, Jacks.”
“Uh, no. You both are wrong, apple juice is literally the staple.” Both Lala and Castor cringed at that, Evangeline only chuckled.
“Evangeline, what do you like?” Lala turned to face her. There was really no room to face anyone in this car, with their stuff piled high in the trunk and blankets piled on their legs.
“Um… I think pink lemonade is my favorite, mostly because of the color.” Lala laughed and retorted something back to Jacks and Castor, but Evangline was too distracted to focus on what they were bickering about, all she noticed was Jacks cracking a small smile in the rearview mirror.
Outside, the sky was dark, quiet filled the car as everyone slept on throughout the night. Only Jacks and Evangeline remained awake. Evangeline found herself constantly dozing in and out of sleep, dreams of far-away fairytales and magic would come and go, pushing waves of drowsiness over her until she finally gave in.
When Evangeline awoke, she was surprised to see the sky a warm shade of orange as the sun peeked over the horizon, no one else was awake yet—except for Jacks. His eyes were focused on the long road ahead, hands gripped so tight around the leather steering wheel it was sure to leave prints; but his eyes also looked exhausted, a slight tint was beginning to form underneath his eyes—he had clearly not slept all night.
“Do you want to trade spots?” Her voice carried the burden of sleep, trying to tug her back into its sweet serenade. He startled—surprised that anyone was awake this early—and his grip on the steering wheel tightened.
“I’m alright, Little Fox… you should go back to sleep, it’s still a long way to the resort.” His voice sounded weary and exhausted, she had guessed he had driven all night, but it still hurt her heart a little to know that he hadn’t slept even a little bit.
“Isn’t that why I want to trade with you? It is a long way to the resort indeed, and I don’t think either Lala nor Castor would be pleased if they woke up in a car crash. Let’s just switch places for now, ok?”
“...okay.” He drove the car to the side of the road, frost piling along the hardened, exposed dirt.
Evangeline got out of the car and let the cool air lash across her face violently; she had the misfortune to walk outside without a suitable coat, which she had shucked off in the car. Evangeline got into the driver’s seat and slowly pulled onto the road, it had only been a couple of minutes before she looked into the mirror and saw Jacks dozed off peacefully, his golden head of curls resting against the chilled window.
The road was indeed long, but that was alright for Evangeline, she liked the quiet.
Soon everyone had started to wake up, everyone except for Jacks, of course, who was still slumbering with his head against the window. The snow had started to pick up, swirling winds caused snowflakes to flutter around the car. Evangeline started to worry there might be a snowstorm; snow storms weren’t uncommon in Canada, they were actually very common, but that didn’t mean that she wanted one, especially right now.
There was still an hour left before they would reach their Airbnb, which gave Evangeline the motivation to keep going; one more hour and this slippery road would be gone, instead replaced with slip-on slippers and hot chocolate, just one more hour.
The snow was now picking up rapidly, strong gusts of wind throwing powdered snow onto the windshield. There was a fog that cast around the car, encumbering it to see only what was directly in front of them. Evangeline had to follow the faint lights of the cars ahead just so she could drive safely. By now everyone was awake and talking over each other; Castor and Lala with their usual bickering and Jacks defending Castor over god knows what. It was nice, Evangeline thought, that they had such a connection. She had never had that connection with her own stepsister Marisol, their relationship only seemed to degrade every time they were together. It had been going downhill since the day she met Marisol and her mother, when her tears still fell fresh over rosy cheeks; she hadn’t gotten over the loss back then—she hasn’t even gotten over the loss now—but seeing Marisol made it better. They had gotten along well enough at first, but things changed the moment her boyfriend cheated on her with Marisol. Of course, Evangeline forgave her stepsister, she couldn’t have done it on purpose, but it still hurt her to look at her ex-boyfriend and stepsister being so happy together; she knew it was selfish of her to think so, but she wished that they would break up so that, maybe, things could go back to the way they were. That was stupid, she’s being stupid.
“Oh god this snow’s really coming down, huh?” Lala leaned across the dashboard. “You think we should stop?”
“Yeah, I don’t know how long I can drive in this.” Evangeline pulls over to the side of the road, by this point the snow is blasting onto the windshield so hard she was scared it might crack. She hands the phone to Lala, “Find the closest motel on here.” By this time, Jacks had already started to slowly wake up.
“What’s going on? Are we there?” He slowly opened his eyes and blinked at the bright snow swirling across the window.
“The snow’s gotten pretty bad, we’re probably not going to get there tomorrow even if we keep going.” Lala explained. “Closest motel is four minutes away, but this snow might make it a bit longer.”
Evangeline had only gotten her license a couple of weeks ago, so this weather had more reason to taunt her than not; and soon enough, it was chaos. She had almost crashed twice and skid more times than she could count. She was a horrible driver.