This random little story appeared in my head one day so I thought "Why not write it down?" Hope you enjoy it. Thanks for reading and a very Happy New Year to you all!  

Olympia's POV

"Otis, it's not that hard. Just try it. Please!" I begged Otis as he shook his head defiantly at me and crossed his arms. 

"Come on. Why not?" I groaned.

"Olympia, you want me to strap a pair of thin, possibly breakable boards to my feet and throw myself off the side of a snow-covered mountain!" Otis looked at me like I was crazy and honestly when he described it that way the whole thing did sound a bit insane.

"No, Otis I'm asking you to put on perfectly safe things called skis and slide gently down a small hill. We'll get to mountains some other day." I explained patiently.

We were at the Shmumber Ski Resort to spend the day there. Ms. O had given us a day off because of the Christmas holidays and on account of the amazing amount of snow outside and my barely-used ski pass I had wanted to go skiing for the day. The only difficult part was convincing Otis to go with me. I had a natural knack for skiing but Otis was absolutely against trying anything new or unknown to him. Because of this we were standing inside the ski chalet with me trying to convince Otis that he wouldn't die if he put skies on his feet.

"Please Otis just try it once. You'll love it I promise. Please!" I stared at him with my best wide-eyed pleading puppy-dog face.

He stared at me for a full ten seconds before finally caving in. "Fine, I'll let you teach me how to ski but just this once. And I'm not going to like it."

"Yes!" I pumped a fist of victory in the air before grabbing Otis by the arm and dragging him over to the ski counter to rent equipment for him. I already had my own skis and ski boots.

A guy who I estimated to be about eighteen or so looked smugly down at us from his position behind the counter. "What do you two want?"

"Um I would like some skis, two...two of them." Otis stammered awkwardly. He had never been very good when it came to social interactions.

The pimply faced teen smiled sarcastically, "Two skis? Are you sure you wouldn't like five?"

Otis didn't seem to think he was being made fun of and nodded seriously, "No thank you, two are all I need."

"What's your shoe size?"

"Seven." I blurted out before I could stop myself. I didn't want Otis to be teased again so I had answered for him.

The teen looked at me in surprise. "You guys siblings?"

"No...we're just really good friends. Is there anything wrong with that?" I stared defiantly at him.

The teen shrugged and turned around to find the correct size ski boots.

"Olympia, how do you know my shoe size?" Otis looked at me in surprise.

"I read a file once that Ms. O gave me right after we became partners."

For some reason Otis looked worried. "What else was on that file?"

"Just a picture of you and things like your shoe size and eye color and stuff. Why?" Why did he seem worried that I had seen a file on him?

"Oh, no reason." Otis suddenly relaxed once he heard the contents of the file. "I was just curious."

"Ok." I wasn't satisfied with his answer but now was not the time to focus on this. I could think about it later.

"Here are your boots and here are your skis." The teen slammed them on the counter. "That'll be twenty bucks."

I paid him and Otis and I took our equipment outside.

Once I had helped Otis get his ski boots on his feet and clip them onto his skis, I got mine own on and slid over to him.

"Olympia, how am I supposed to move in these things?" Otis stood frozen, suspiciously examining his new footwear.

"Well, first you kind of move one foot after the other sort of like rollerblading." I demonstrated by moving smoothly over the flat ground.

Otis tried to follow me. I couldn't help smiling a little at how ridiculous he looked bundled up in winter wear moving clumsily over the snow. He reached me at last partly out of breath.

"Good job, Otis."

"That was terrible."

"No, you did great. Now we should try a really small hill."

"There is no way you're getting me on a hill." Otis was determined not to budge.

"It won't be a hill, more like a really tiny bump. Come on." Quickly I grabbed his gloved hand in my own. He glanced down at my hand briefly before sighing, "Lead the way."

I led him over to the smallest hill at the resort. A wooden sign at the bottom of it was labeled "The Small Scoop"

The hill was well named for it did look sort of like a small scoop of vanilla ice cream. If only it really tasted like vanilla ice cream. I sighed, maybe someday there would be ice cream flavored snow.

"Alright, so this is a towrope." I gestured to the quickly spinning rope and pulley system that was carrying skiers to the top of the hill and then winding it's way down for whoever else was in line. "All you have to do is grab on to it really tightly and it'll carry you to the top. Simple."

"Not simple." Otis stared in horror at the quickly moving rope.

"You'll be fine." I grabbed his hand and dragged him the rest of the way to the rope. "I'll be right behind you, just remember to keep your skis pointed straight and to let go when you get to the top."

Otis nodded with a panic-stricken look in his eyes and very cautiously his hands hovered over the rope before he gave a final nod of consent and clenched it tightly. Like an arrow being shot from a bow Otis began to fly up the small hill. I clamped onto the rope and followed him to the top. I was impressed that he kept his balance the entire time and got off at the top without much difficulty.

"Great job Otis!" I slid up behind him and helped him away from the towrope where other people were exiting it. "Now all we have to do is slide down. It's easy."

"Olympia I really really don't want to do this." Otis's voice cracked and he griped my arm tightly.

"You'll love it. Come on." Without further discussion I gave Otis a push. Well, I wouldn't call it a push. Maybe more of a small nudge. He slide down the hill quickly without making a sound. I couldn't tell if his silence was a good sign or a bad sign. As he neared the bottom I heard him shout "How do I stop!?"

I grimaced. Maybe I should have told him that before I pushed him. I raced down the hill after him and was able to help him stop before he ran into too many people.

"What did you think?" I asked once we had come to a halt.

"To be honest, it wasn't horrible." Otis let no emotion enter his face.

I beamed at him. That was as close as Otis got sometimes to saying that he liked something.

"It would have been helpful if you had taught me how to stop though." He frowned.

"Yeah, sorry about that. Well, now you know what happens if you don't stop so at least you'll never be tempted to not stop again." I skied away toward the towrope before he could reply.

Our next few hours were spent on the "The Small Scoop" and I totally enjoyed myself. Yes, the hill was a bit small for my skills but it was awesome getting to ski with Otis. He mastered the art of skiing pretty quickly although he was still rusty when it came to stopping. After what felt like our hundredth time sliding down the tiny hill I suggested to Otis that we try something a little bigger. After a moment of hesitation he agreed and before long we were tightly squished between two random strangers as we rode a chairlift to the top of a muuuuuch larger hill labeled "The Large Scoop."

"Olympia, are you sure this is safe?" Otis was trying his best not to look down as the completely open chairlift carried us slowly upward.

"Totally safe as long as you don't jump off or anything." I smiled reassuringly at him. I couldn't help noticing how uncomfortably close our faces were. Being sandwiched in-between two random strangers hadn't left us much room for personal space. Blushing, I made myself face forward.

After what felt like hours we reached the summit of the hill and exited the chairlift.

"Are you ready for this?" I glanced at Otis who once again was starting to look frightened.

"Yep. Are you ready for this?" He seemed to swallow his fear and glanced at me with the smallest hint of excitement behind his eyes.

"I was born for this!" And with a skyward yell I plunged forward down the hill with Otis close behind me. Those last few hours on the smaller hill had really paid off because in seconds Otis had shot passed me and was flying down the hill with incredible skill.

I raced after him and was soon gaining. I was close behind him as we neared the bottom of the hill when something highly unexpected and slightly painful happened. As I said before, Otis was not the most skilled at stopping and even though he seemed to have some sort of natural talent when it came to skiing he was still a beginner. The combination of hitting a roughly groomed patch of snow and trying and failing to stop sent Otis tumbling to the ground.

I, following much too closely behind him, was also sent tumbling to the ground. In general simply falling down is not too painful and it's easy to stand back up and keep walking. But when you have skis attached to your feet and are moving down a steep slope of snow at a cheetah-paced speed falling down hurts a lot more and standing up can become impossible.

After rolling a few feet or maybe it was a few miles, I groggily opened my eyes and tried to stand only to find that I couldn't. Something like a large sack of potatoes was pinning me to the ground. When I was able to focus better I saw that the sack of potatoes was actually Otis. Somehow we must have gotten tangled together when we fell and Otis had ended up on top of me. If our faces had been close together on the chairlift that was nothing compared to right now.

Each freckle on his face was more then clear enough for me to make out. Tiny snowflakes had latched themselves to his eyelashes making it look as if he had been sprinkled with powdered sugar. For some reason Otis's eyes were squeezed tightly shut.

I felt that I had to say something. We couldn't just lay here in the snow forever. "Um, Otis are you alright?"

Slowly Otis opened his eyes. Man, his eyes are blue. I mean I knew they were blue before but seeing them this close up they're like a thousand times more blue.

"What happened?" Otis must have hit his head pretty hard because he didn't seemed to have registered the fact that he was pinning me down.

"We fell and now I'm kind of stuck. You wouldn't mind standing up would you? Whenever you have time you know." I felt my cheeks heating up. We were so close.

"Oh." Otis became suddenly aware of his surroundings, "Oh!" Our eyes locked and he stared searchingly at me for a few seconds. Those few seconds had to be the longest few seconds in my entire life.

Abruptly Otis broke eye contact and tried to stand. It took a few attempts (trying to stand up with skis on is practically impossible) but at last his skis were untangled from mine and he reached down a hand to help me up.

"Thanks." I stood, brushed off my coat, and smiled up at him only to find that he was already staring at me. Embarrassed he turned away quickly. "No problem."

"Do you want to call it a day?" Night was closing in and a light snowfall had started. Also, I think both of us had quite enough of skiing for one day considering everything that had happened.

"Sure. Let's go."

We each unclipped our skis and slowly trekked back to the ski chalet. Once inside the cozy shack Otis returned his ski gear and I packed mine.

By this time it had grown quite dark and as we stood outside to say our goodbyes the lights from the Christmas decorations lit up the snow around us, bathing it in multi-colored twinkling lights. It was breathtakingly beautiful, almost like something out of a fairy tale.

Ms. O was allowing us to ride the tubes for personal use tonight because of the holidays and so Otis and I would part ways here.

I tried to say goodbye but my voice caught in my throat. In the semi-darkness Otis's eyes reflected the dazzling lights all around us and something in me refused to look away from their glowing brightness.

"Thanks Olympia...for a great day and teaching me to ski." Otis's voice sound hoarse for some reason.

"No problem. Anytime. I enjoyed myself. We should totally do this again some day." I beamed at him. Neither of us broke eye contact.

"Yeah. Although, I could do without the falling over part." Otis smiled.

"Agreed." My smile widened.

A silence followed in which neither of us spoke or moved. I could see the clouds of our breath in cold darkness as they rose and mingled with one another. Snowflakes gently fluttered down around us. Otis's gaze seemed to intensify and he began to lean closer to me. My breath quicken. Was this it? Were all my long days of daydreaming finally going to come true?

Then, at the last second, Otis creased his forehead and drew back; breaking our eye contact. He seemed suddenly resolved about something as if some unknown decision had drawn him back. The horrible feeling of disappointment rose inside me but I tried to respect his decision.

"See you tomorrow, Olympia." Otis's voice was quiet and he seemed to be struggling to talk.

I placed a comforting hand on his arm, "See you tomorrow partner."

Otis gave me one last smile before stepping into the tube entrance hidden behind a pair of abandoned skis. In a burst of blue light he was gone. I felt so many emotions racing through me. We had almost kissed! And then we hadn't...but still the fact that we almost did was good enough for me. I glanced once more at the dancing lights behind me before walking toward the tube entrance. I couldn't stop smiling for some reason and when I finally went to sleep that night a huge grin was still present on my face.

I had never before appreciated just how truly beautiful the Christmas season was.