Coloring Outside the Lines

Chapter Twenty-Nine

"I can't believe you dragged me out here."

Jacob, George, and Liz are sitting in the back of Ray's silver Honda Civic. I'm sitting in passenger and allowing Ray to drive this time, which he happily assured was more life preserving (to which I slapped his arm).

"Are you serious? This is gonna be fun!" I exclaim, turning around in my seat.

"I'm very serious," Jacob says. "This sounds like some type of foreign torture."

"Sledding is fun!" Lizzie says, pointing an accusing finger at him.

"No," Jacob shakes his head. "It's torture. 'Go stand out in the frozen land and ride these very hazardous objects down the hill and, oh, don't get a concussion when you hit a bump and get snow down your pants. Have fun, though!' Yeah, no thanks."

I roll my eyes just before the car lurches forward from a red light, and I go slamming back onto my seat.

"Uh, sorry," Ray says, and I rub the back of my head.

"That's fine," I say, frowning. "Only got a slight concussion, I'll live."

Ray laughs nervously, apologizing again for his 'terribly reckless driving skills.' I tell him to shut up because he's babbling on about being sorry and I honestly don't care, and wasn't hurt in the slightest.

"Here we are," I say excitedly. Sledding is a yearly event in our household, which obviously Jacob despises. Unlike him, I absolutely love sledding.

We all pile out of the car and grab our sleds from the trunk. It's snowing again, and pretty hard. I stick out my tongue to let some drip onto it. My earmuffs on the top of my head leave my ears toasty warm, and my fingers are stuffed into mittens. In snugly in a winter coat and snow boots. So ready for this.

My sled, a long one with a string to hold onto, drags behind me as I leave the others behind to get to the hill. There's almost nobody here, probably since it's snowing pretty hard. I find a steep part and set my sled down.

"Jordan, wait!" I turn around and see Lizzie running towards me with her sled behind her. "I want to go at the same time!"

I smile and nod. She climbs into her sled and we count down from five before pushing ourselves forward.

I fly forward and laugh as the wind blows over my face, successfully freezing it. Snow sprays back at me, forcing my eyes closed. My sled starts spinning out of control and in trying to pry my eyes open. I guess I hit a bump or something, because I end up going flying through the air. I hear a loud and terrified scream, only to realize that it's coming from my mouth. I think I'm going backwards now. My eyes are still glued shut. Luckily, I slow to a stop. And I laugh. And laugh. And laugh.

My eyes open and I see that I'm not the only one laughing. The three boys stand at the top of the hill, applauding me. Lizzie sits about ten feet away from me, giggling.

"Hey, Jor," Ray calls down to me. "That was pretty awesome, I think you should snowboard competitively."

I stand up and give a very graceful bow. Well, it is quite graceful until I trip over my own foot and faceplant into the snow. Smooth.

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"I think we should call it a day," Jacob sighs, sitting on the bench at the top of the hill.

"You, Sir Hate-All-Fun-In-Life, do not get to make the decisions here," I give him a pointed look.

He rolls his eyes and crosses his arms.

"I'm good with going now," George says, flopping beside Jacob.

"Me too," Ray sighs. "I'm pretty exhausted."