Chapter Text
“This,” Vilde said excitedly, leaning over Eva to practically press her face against the bus window, “is going to be the best Christmas ever.”
Sana’s heavily unimpressed voice came from the seats behind them, followed by Chris’s snort: “Because that is so not the biggest cliché Christmas saying ever.”
Her lips pursing, Vilde turned to Eva and lowered her voice crossly. “Why is she so rude all the time? Does she not have any Christmas cheer or anything?”
“Well, she’s Muslim” Eva pointed out. “She doesn’t celebrate Christmas.”
“It isn’t because of that” Vilde hissed back, “it’s because she doesn’t believe in fun.”
For her part, Eva also felt excited- the bus had just pulled up in front of the huge traditional chalet hotel they were staying at for the week before Christmas. Dark fir trees created a scenic backdrop for the hotel, with curving ski slopes running down the mountains behind like ribbons through white fabric. Practically every kid on the bus was excitedly talking about the hotel and the slopes, their voices rising.
At the front, the teacher stood up and called for quiet. “Okay, everybody, I’m going to be telling you who you’ll be sharing a room with. I want everyone to go upstairs and unpack, and then we’ll be going to hire our ski equipment. A warning: there will be no arguing on who you’ll be put in a room with, our decision is final I’m afraid.”
There were groans up and down the bus. As the teacher read out the list Vilde leaned closer to Eva and whispered, “I honestly don’t mind who I’m put in a room with as long as it’s not-”
“-Vilde and Sana,” said the teacher, before continuing, “Eva and Chris, Jonas and Isak-”
It was almost funny to see the look of exasperation that crossed the blonde girl’s face, and to hear the soft groan from Sana behind them. Eva bit her lip, trying not to smile. She’d only been friends with Sana, Chris and Vilde for a few months- since everything had turned to shit with Ingrid- but Sana and Vilde’s bickering still never failed to make her laugh.
“Lastly,” the teacher went on, “we have one single room...”, there were eager shouts from various people asking if they could have it, “and that’s going to our new student, Noora.”
More groaning. “Lucky girl” Sana said irritably behind them.
Eva looked over the aisle- she could see the new student Noora sat on the opposite row one seat ahead of them, her eyebrows raised at all the commotion. She was wearing a dark grey woollen coat, her blonde hair just skimming the edge of her blue turtleneck. The same exact shade of blue as her eyes, actually, Eva couldn’t help but notice.
She’d been noticing a lot of things about the new girl lately, actually. She couldn’t seem to help looking at her.
Vilde noisily gathering her stuff, still complaining under her breath, bought her back to her senses. Focus, Eva. The students gathered their heavy suitcases and proceeded to stagger up the many flights of stairs to their rooms. Inside the chalet was warm and cosy, with log-burning fireplaces and thick colourful rugs.
Luckily Eva had a rucksack so she was able to make her way up the stairs more comfortably than some of her classmates- Chris, for example, had bought such a large case that she’d ended up sitting on it and collapsing into defeated laughter- until she spotted the new girl, Noora, struggling with case. Watching her for a moment, Eva darted up the few steps between them and smiled at her. “Hey, do you need any help?”
Noora paused, smiling back at her gratefully. “Thank you, that’s so nice. Do you mind taking this?”
She handed her a smaller bag so that she could use two hands to carry her suitcase.
“I’m, um, Eva, by the way” Eva added as they started climbing again. Smooth, Eva. For some reason her words felt all jittery in front of Noora, and she didn’t quite know where to look.
“Noora. Nice to meet you.” The other girl smiled at her again, and Eva was struck by how nice her red lipstick looked.
She ended up dropping the bag outside Noora’s door, which was right at the end of the girls’ corridor. She then went into her own room, where Chris had somehow managed to dump her case on the floor and spread out half her clothes around the room already. “Hey, roomie” she said cheerfully, kicking off her shoes and laughing when one landed on Eva’s bed.
“Hey.” Eva threw the shoe back at her. At home, her room was always fairly neat- she guessed that for this week she would have to forget that when sharing a room with Chris, who was way too laid back to care about something like tidiness.
All of a sudden, the door burst open and Vilde entered looking irritable. “Oh! Your room is so much nicer than ours!”
“Really?”
“Yeah, it’s tiny. And Sana insisted on having the bigger bed.”
“I did not.” Sana had walked in, looking indignant. “Besides, they’re both the same size, Einstein.”
As Vilde opened her mouth to furiously reply, Eva jumped up. “Guys! Please can we not fight this week? Let’s just have one awesome week of skiing and fun, yeah?”
“Hear, hear” said Chris solemnly, raising a hipflask she seemed to have produced from her bag and taking a sip.
Vilde took a breath before fixing them all a bright smile. “Sure!”
Behind her, Sana just rolled her eyes. Turning away, Eva tried to hide her smirk and ended up catching Chris’s eye, both of them turning their laughter into hasty coughs.
Vilde was right. This was going to be the best Christmas ever, however cheesy it was.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
Eva turned- she had been staring out the cable car window at the trees and the snow as they travelled slowly up the mountainside- to see her boyfriend Jonas grinning at her.
“Very! I love the mountains. Makes you feel so small, doesn’t it?”
“I was talking about you, actually” he grinned, leaning forward to kiss her.
Eva laughed, pushing him away when he snuck a kiss onto her neck. “Now that’s just too syrupy, even for you.”
The cable car was full of students all making their way up to the top of the mountain, expectantly holding their skis and snowboards. Her eyes fell on Noora, talking to Chris and Sana by the doors. Their eyes met for a second until Eva forced her attention back to Jonas standing in front of her.
“What?” he said teasingly, raising his eyebrows. “I thought girls loved that sort of crap.”
“Maybe if this was a romcom movie, Jonas.”
“Woah!” Isak had appeared from nowhere, somehow tripping and bumping heavily into Jonas, who cursed and rubbed his shoulder.
Eva laughed. “You don’t even have the skis on yet and you’re already falling over?”
“It’s a talent” he replied with his usual easy grin, curls poking out from under his hat. He nudged Jonas. “So, are we going down the black run first? If you can keep up with me, that is.”
“No! Don’t do the black run first” Eva said quickly.
“Why?” Jonas turned to her with a grin. “Scared?”
“No! I just…” she took a breath, “well, I’ve never actually been skiing before.”
For a moment, they just blinked at her. Eva felt herself blush- it seemed like everyone had skied before in their class but her. They would all be shooting expertly down the steepest runs whilst she stood paralysed at the top, or made a complete fool of herself by falling over and rolling halfway down the mountain. In fact, the only other person she knew who hadn’t skied before was Vilde.
“Never?”
“No.” When would she have got the chance? Her dad hadn’t been around for a long time, and it seemed like her mum was forever away working. Sometimes it felt like she’d missed out on a lot of things like this.
“You’ll pick it up quickly” Jonas assured her. “Just like riding a bike.”
Isak snorted.
Eva hoped Jonas was right.
At the top of the mountain, the teacher gathered everyone together. Eva was struck by the view- there were dozens of mountains surrounding them, with the valley spread out far below like a map of tiny trees and grey roads. “Every morning you’ll all be having lessons in groups depending on your ability” she told them, “however this afternoon we don’t have much time, so you’re all free to split up and do what you like. I suggest that the less experienced skiers join up with those who are more advanced.”
“Go and do your black runs” Eva told Jonas and Isak, “I’ll be fine with the girls.”
“You sure?” Jonas said, whilst Isak was already eagerly putting on his goggles.
She nodded, waving as they both rapidly disappeared down the side of the mountain, already whooping and yelling to one another.
For the next forty minutes Sana patiently tried to teach Eva and Vilde the basics of skiing- well, she started out patient and quickly started rolling her eyes as they fell over again and again or skied into unsuspecting groups of people. Chris was trying to help, but she laughed so much watching Vilde ski right into a group of schoolboys from another school whilst squealing, “I don’t know how to stop!”, that she ploughed right into a snowdrift herself.
As she spat out another mouthful of snow and heaved herself up off the floor for what felt like the tenth time, Eva concluded that she didn’t like skiing very much. Or maybe she was just particularly awful at it.
“Who on earth is that?” Vilde said in awe, coming to a wobbly stop beside her.
They both looked to the top of the slope- a figure in a dark blue coat was whizzing elegantly down the mountain, curving in and out of the traffic with ease. As they came closer Eva spotted a perfect bob of blonde hair and felt her stomach do something weird. “It’s Noora. The new girl.”
Vilde was open-mouthed. “She’s amazing! Do you think she would teach me?”
As she reached them Noora glanced over and smiled before shooting past them. “She looked this way” Vilde exclaimed, before shooting Eva a curious look. She lived for gossip. “Are you two friends?”
“I don’t really know her” Eva replied honestly. Yet, she added in her head.
Two hours later Eva was lying prone on her bed, wincing. “Chris, I think my legs are gonna fall off.”
“Yeah?” Chris was crunching on some crisps as she sat cross-legged on her bed, texting.
After peeling off her damp clothes from spending half her time lying on the snow, Eva had showered and collapsed onto her bed. And now she ached. Everywhere. It felt like she’d used leg muscles she hadn’t even known she’d had. “Definitely. My muscles are on fire.”
“Worse than after sex aches?”
“Way worse.”
Chris whistled, shooting her a grin. “Woah, that is bad.”
Gritting her teeth, Eva sat up and checked her phone. Scrolling through Facebook, she pretended she was interested in what everyone was posting until she told herself to stop stalling. Her heart beating a little faster, she typed Noora Sætre into the search box. When Noora’s profile popped up, she scrolled through her pictures- Noora with friends, Noora holding a puppy, Noora in a bikini on the beach. Oh God. Quickly, she clicked off and, before she could lose her nerve, sent a friend request. So that she didn’t sit there staring at her phone like a dork Eva stuffed it under her duvet and fell back heavily onto her pillow, her arm thrown over her face.
Barely a second later, she heard a faint buzz. Jerking upright, she grabbed her phone eagerly to look at the screen.
Jonas, 16:51: Do you want to come and hang out in our room later? Miss you x
A small sigh escaped her mouth, causing Chris to look over with raised eyebrows. “Waiting to hear from someone in particular?”
“No” Eva said vaguely, before texting a response.
Eva, 16:52: I thought girls weren’t allowed in boys rooms? (And vice versa)? x
A few minutes later her phone buzzed again and she glanced it, expecting Jonas’s name to fill up the screen. But instead:
Noora accepted your friend request on Facebook
Something flipped weirdly in her stomach again as she clicked back onto Noora’s profile and then the messages button, her hands hovering over the keyboard. What should she say? Hey, I saw you skiing today and you were awesome, do you want to teach me? No, that was way too needy- she hurriedly deleted it. Hey, do you maybe want to hang out? Too vague, and definitely too random- she deleted that, too.
Eva, 16:58: Hey, I really admired you
Somehow, in the middle of hurriedly texting her latest idea- hey, I really admired your skiing skills today haha, do you think you might be able to help me and my friend Vilde?- her clumsy fingers touched the send button. In the middle of the sentence.
“Holy fuck!” she burst out, horrified. I really admired you. Noora was going to think she was a complete psycho.
Oh my god oh my god oh my god
This was a complete disaster. She might as well just pack up her things and leave now, to save herself the mortification.
“What?” Chris demanded, sitting up straight, her expression keen. “Tell me!”
“It’s nothing…”
“Nothing? You look like you’re losing your mind with panic! And you’re blushing!” She winked, dropping her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, “did Jonas just ask for a boob pic or something?”
“No!” Eva could feel her face getting even hotter as she panicked, typing furiously.
Eva, 16:59: Haha sorry, typo mistake! I meant that I really admired your skiing skills today and wondered if you might be able to help me and my friend Vilde?
Chris crowed. “Whoo, there is definitely dramaaa going on here! When I tell Vilde she is so going to get it out of you-”
“You don’t need to tell Vilde! I just accidentally deleted this app I really wanted to keep, that’s all.”
“Sure you did” Chris replied with another wink.