[samskye1995]

I woke up to the sound of Meg's alarm going off on her phone. I pulled my head under the covers and tried to block it out.

'Meg?', Phoebe said, shaking her shoulder.

'Meg?', she said again a little louder. Still no response.

'Meg?', this time she virtually shouted. Meg rolled over, reached for her phone on the shelf and turned it off.

'What time is it?', I asked, conscious that we could have slept longer than we should have.

'6', Meg said as she rolled over.

I had woken up in the same position as I had fallen asleep last night, lodged between Phoebe and Meg. Phoebe was spooning me, with her arm over my side. Meg was lying on her front. I thought about going to sleep, but I was wide awake now and decided it wouldn't be worth it. My hangover symptoms were nowhere near as bad as I had imagined, but I had a dull headache and my ears were still ringing a little from the loud music last night.

'Oh man, I need to get up', Phoebe said. She jumped out of bed and grabbed a bottle of water from her handbag. She was still wearing the clothes we had crept back to the room in last night - her t-shirt and thong.

'Wanna grab breakfast together Shan?', she asked.

'Sure thing', I replied, and swivelled my legs out of bed and sat on the side. Meg was fast asleep again. 'Should we wake Meg up?'

'Nah, she's not working until 11 today so she can sleep off her hangover. Hang on, where's Rhiannon?'

It was evident that Rhiannon wasn't in the room. From the looks of it though, she had been back at some point in the night as her sheets were not as they had been left.

We each pulled on some sweatpants and walked to the staff dining room. 'How did you sleep?', I asked Phoebe as we walked.

'Like a baby, but I had some weird dreams', she replied.

'Me too, must have been the alcohol right?', I said.

'Yeah, must have been', Phoebe said. We entered the dining room and I was glad to see a huge buffet style breakfast spread out in the middle of the room. We helped ourselves to pancakes, waffles, bacon and coffee, and sat down together on a table for 4.

'Perfect hangover food right?', Phoebe said as she tucked in.

'Uhuh, Meg's missing out', I replied.

'She wouldn't eat all of it, she's a vegetarian', Phoebe said matter of factly, 'but yeah, she's missing out!'

'Alright girls?', came a voice from behind us. I turned round and saw Ryan approaching with a plate piled high with pastries, cheese and meats. 'Did you have fun last night?', he asked as he sat down with us. Was it my imagination, or did he just wink at me?

'Yeah, you?', Phoebe asked. I got the impression that she was suffering badly from her night of drinking, and not in the mood for conversation.

'I did, I'm sorry we got separated, I would have bought you a welcome drink if we'd stuck together Shannon', he said, 'next time?', he added.

'Thanks, you don't need to though', I answered politely. 'Where did you go last night then?', I asked.

'Oh we stayed in Snowshack all night, it was a pretty good night to be honest, everyone was having a good time. I thought I saw you girls from across the bar actually, looked like you were having a good night too?'. He grinned with a mouthful of croissant. I felt myself blush. Did he see us kissing?

'What time did you leave?', Phoebe asked.

He laughed, 'like when the place closed?'. I was relieved that, although he may have seen us kissing, he almost certainly hadn't seen us skinny dipping in the pool.

Phoebe and I finished our breakfast, and walked back to the room. Although it was only 6:30, we needed to be ready to start our jobs by 7. In the room we put on our ski pants, thermals and jackets, while Meg slept, and Phoebe told me what I would be doing today.

'So today you're just on the ski-lifts', she said, 'and tomorrow I think you're giving some private lessons'.

'Cool, who am I working with today then?', I asked. She checked her rota.

'Ah, you're actually with Ryan!', she said. I was glad it was someone I knew. We left together and walked down to the bootroom, and grabbed our boots and skis.

'I'll take you to the ski-lift if you like, you're on number 5, which is halfway up the mountain, so you'll need to get the lift up to the top and ski down, I'll show you'.

We skied gently to the main ski-lift, which was already being de-snowed by some fellow workers, took it up to the top of the mountain, and prepared to ski down. It was a bright sunny day, with almost completely blue skies. Down the valley I could see low-lying cloud. It was bitterly cold though, and I was glad I had worn thermal leggings under my ski pants. We set off down the mountain. It felt great to have the cold air in my face, and I could feel my hangover symptoms lifting. I followed Phoebe all the way. I was impressed that she was equally good at skiing as snowboarding. The snow was untouched, and the run we took down was ungroomed. It was a powder-skiers paradise.

When we arrived at the lift, we stopped and Phoebe unlocked the control room. Inside we fired up the lift and put the radio on.

'Right, the lift I'm working on today is on the other side of the mountain, so I need to get to the top of this one and then ski down', we walked outside together. 'You know what to do with the chairs right?'. I nodded. 'Cool, I guess I'll see you tonight? Message me!', she said as she prepared to mount a chair. As it swung round, she dusted off the snow, sat on it and pulled the bar down. 'See ya!' she said.

I swept the snow off the chairs as they came round for 10 minutes, listening to pop on the radio until a skier came down the mountain. I could see it was Ryan from about 100 yards off.

'Hey Shannon, didn't realize I was working with you today!', he said as he pulled up outside the wooden structure.

'Yep, you've got the newbie today', I said with a smile.

'Cool, good to see you've made a start', he motioned to the chairs.

We set about preparing for the day and getting the lift ready.

'So you're from nearby?', I asked Ryan.

'Yeah I'm from about 3 miles down the valley, born and raised here'

'So what do you do for a living?', I asked, slightly confused at how Ryan could sustain himself for so long without an education or a full-time job.

He laughed, 'In the winter I work here, from like November to April when the season ends, and then I usually move down to Vancouver and work in bars and restaurants'.

'What do you want to do with your life in general?', I asked, inquisitive.

'Hey, I'm only 21, give me some time! I guess I'd like to eventually have a place up here, and run a ski-hire place or something. What about you?'

'I have no idea really, my dad owns a real-estate company in Boston and New York, so I imagine I might end up working for him'. I was always loathe to admit that, for fear that it might be color people's perception of me. The truth was that I had actually worked hard at school and ended up with great grades, and won a deferred place to study at Yale law school. Ryan just shrugged.

'Not the life for me, but hey it'll be well paid right?', he said in response. 'How old are you by the way?'

'I've just turned 19, last week in fact'

'You should have said! I think that's an excuse for a party!', he said.

We made small talk for the most of the morning. People came and went on the lift without any incidents. I took the time to study the rota for the next 2 weeks, and noticed that I had shifts with Ryan, Meg, Phoebe and Rhiannon, among other names that I recognized, and others that I didn't. I took a photo of the rota on my phone.

As I talked more to my Ryan, I realized that, despite his tough-guy image, he was actually pretty smart and sensitive. He was also very attractive, there was no doubting that, but he wasn't my type.

Before I knew it, the phone in the cabin rang, and the instruction to close the lifts down came. We took note of the last chair that had people on, and waited for it to come round again.

'Good work today Shan', Ryan said as we closed the cabin door at locked it after shutting everything down.

'Thanks, I did nothing though right?', I laughed.

'True, but you did great anyway', he said. We clipped into our skis and pointed down the mountain.

'So last one down has to skinny dip right?', he winked at me.

'Wait, what?!', I asked, not realizing that he was joking.

'Relax Shannon, I'm kidding!', he said, 'did Meg do it though?'.

I wasn't sure what to say. Should I say we all did it? Might he think I'm flirting if I do? 'Yes she did, brave girl!', was all I said. His eyes widened and he seemed to be genuinely surprised.

'No way!' he said, 'and you watched?'.

'Err, yeah, me and Phoebe watched', I said. I wasn't wrong, we did.

He chuckled, 'wow, wish I had got separated from you guys now!', he said with a cheeky grin.

We set off and skied down the mountain, down to the base, and up to the entrance to the hotel. By now it was nearly 5pm. 'Guess I'll see you tonight then?', he asked.

'Sure, I don't know what Phoebs and Meg have planned but I'll let you know!'

We left our skis in the bootroom and waved goodbye to Ryan. I walked up to the room and opened the door, to find someone I didn't recognize chatting to Meg.

'Oh hey, you must be Shannon!', the girl said as she stood up and walked towards me. 'I'm Rhiannon, nice to meet you!'.

She gave me a hug as I returned the greeting. She was a pretty strawberry-blonde-haired, brown-eyed girl with a few freckles across her face. She stood around the same height as me, and had a similar build - skinny but athletic.

'Rhiannon was just telling me about her date last night', Meg prompted.

'Oh yeah I heard, how did it go?', I asked, taking off my ski pants and jacket and my thermal top. I sat down on Meg's bed wearing my grey thermal leggings and sports bra.

Rhiannon laughed, sitting down on Phoebe's bed, 'it was painful!', she explained, 'he was kind of boring, a bit weedy, and definitely not my type! I don't think he'll be getting a second go!'.

'You stayed out a long time though, you won't here when we got back last night?' Meg asked.

'No our date finished around 10, then I needed to get some enjoyment out of the evening, so I found Zoe and Charlie and we went out drinking. I got back at about 2pm, by which time you were all passed out on the bed', she smiled. 'So what's the plan for tonight then guys?', she asked.

Meg groaned, 'I think I need a quiet one after last night, I wasn't in a good way this morning'.

'How about we have a girls' night then?', Rhiannon suggested. Meg and I both agreed.

'We could watch a movie on my laptop and just chill out', she said.

Some time passed before Phoebe returned from her shift. When she did, she questioned Rhiannon on her date night, refused to believe that it went as badly as it actually did, and said that the girls' night sounded ideal.

Before dinner, we all decided to take a shower. We all went down together to the dining hall, smelling clean and fresh and sat and ate dinner as a 4.

'So what should we watch tonight?', I asked as we were finishing our desserts.

'I'm not fussed', said Meg.

'I've got the new Magic Mike?', Rhiannon said with a giggle.

'That sounds like an appropriate one!', Phoebe said, 'or should I say inappropriate?' she winked at no one in particular.

We returned to the room in a good mood. In the room we took a blanket from my bed, and took our pillows and propped them up against Phoebe's bed, and put the blanket over us.

'Oh wait girls!', Rhiannon said. She produced a bottle of white wine from her rucksack.

'Perfect!', said Meg, 'but we don't have glasses?'

'Let's share', Phoebe said, seemingly unworried.

Rhiannon pulled her MacBook out and opened the film.

To be continued