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quicksilversquared · 5 years

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A Mountain of Fun

A field trip to a downhill ski area doesn't sound that out of the ordinary. But add in two (only slightly) panicky dorks who have never skied before (and their very unhelpful friends), and you get a fun day, full of snow and laughter and hopefully not too many bumps and bruises.

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Everyone had been looking forward to this day for ages. Getting out of the classroom, getting out of Paris, and being outdoors for a day. It had been talked up for weeks, people checking with each other- can you come? Can you come? How about you?- to make sure that their friends would be there, too. They had talked about nothing else for the days leading up to it, and now it was here.

The school field trip to a downhill ski area. They had taken a train out of Paris early- too early for Marinette's liking, and she had napped for most of their time on it- and now a bus was shuttling them from the train station the rest of the way to their destination.

Despite the fact that most of the group had either never been skiing before or hadn't really skied much, the excitement levels were high. Kim and Alix boasted about what runs they wanted to do, each talking up larger and harder slopes until Ms. Bustier put her foot down and informed them in no uncertain terms that some of the slopes would be off-limits to them, since the teachers weren't comfortable with how potentially dangerous they could be and there was no way of knowing if their parents would be okay with it..

"We are not going to have any broken arms today," she told them sternly. "So if you want to go off on your own and do anything bigger than the bunny hill, we'll have an instructor go with you for a run or two to make sure that you can handle it."

"They could have asked our parents, too," Alya pointed out as Kim and Alix settled back down with nearly identical pouts on their faces. "I've been downhill skiing loads of times. I'm not going to do anything crazy, of course, but I can definitely move off of the bunny hill."

"Yeah, I'm mostly going to be on the blue slopes, and maybe some of the easiest red slopes," Nino agreed, and both Adrien and Marinette frowned.

"Red slopes? Blue slopes? What does that mean?"

"Intermediate and beginner slopes," Alya explained. "It's the classification system, so that people know what hills they'll be able to do safely before they get to the top of the hill. I'd be surprised if all of the red hills are open to us, actually. There's a couple that are easier and then a few that are more difficult even within the red classification, so people can choose what they want."

Marinette nodded nervously. She hadn't ever been downhill skiing before, so everything was so new. "Why don't they make smaller classification types, then? Wouldn't it make sense to mark hills as specifically as possible so that people don't get hurt?"

"That's what all of the waivers are for," Nino joked, waving the forms that they had been given to fill out at home. "We sign our lives away before we even get out there."

"Not helping."

"They usually have write-ups of the slopes in the brochure," Alya told Marinette, sounding tired. "Nora had a copy from when she went last year with some of her friends, so I've been looking at them and deciding which ones I want to try. I'll start on the easier slopes, I think, and work my way up."

Marinette nodded. She would be starting on the bunny hill, and in all honesty would probably be staying there. Even though her coordination had improved since becoming Ladybug, putting heavy boots and skis on her feet would probably throw all of that out the window. She probably wouldn't see Alya all day, which was disappointing. But she didn't want to hold Alya back, either, and being on the bunny hill when she was used to intermediate slopes wouldn't be fun at all.

"I wouldn't even touch red slopes in some places," Nino was saying when Marinette tuned back in. "The really big areas that are way out? Nope, not a chance. I like my neck too much. But this is a smaller area, so the slopes aren't as long or as steep as some places."

"There was one place I went to once- because my mom was catering for a party there, we got free passes- where I only dared touch, like, half of the green slopes," Alya agreed. "And then there were people whipping down the black slopes, and I was just like, are you nuts? You could die! And there were always accidents. Several injuries per day wasn't uncommon- but not necessarily bad injuries!" Alya added hastily, seeing the looks on Adrien and Marinette's faces. "Like, sprains and concussions. I mean, there were some broken bones, but-"

"Alya, just stop talking," Nino cut her off with a laugh. "The injuries were on the more difficult hills. The most you'll get on the bunny hill is a couple bruises, probably."

"I'm not liking these qualifiers," Adrien told Marinette. "And there seem to be a lot of them."

"It'll be fine, I promise!"

"So Alya, if you ski so much, why don't you have your own equipment?" Marinette wanted to know, changing the topic before Alya and Nino could devolve into debating all the possible injuries that one might be able to get on the bunny hill. "Nino does."

"I outgrew mine last year," Alya admitted grumpily. "And I'm not tall enough for Nora's old skis yet. So I'm renting this year and probably next year, too, unless my dad has an afternoon off and we can make it to a used equipment store or something."

"Downhill stuff isn't cheap," Nino added. "My family always buys used. Used, or deeply, deeply discounted, when the stores have old stock sales."

"I did bring my own helmet, though, since I don't really want to use the ones in the rental shop," Alya told them. "And my goggles. I didn't outgrow those."

Marinette's anxiety mounted as the bus continued down the highway, even as their conversation moved onto other topics. She could already see herself tripping and falling and somehow breaking an arm or a leg or something- or worse, breaking someone else's bones. Maybe she would accidentally stab someone with a pole while falling. Maybe…

Oh, gosh, what if she hurt Adrien? She'd never be able to face him again.

"They won't give beginners poles." Nino's voice cut Marinette's thoughts short. He was talking to Adrien, who looked about as concerned as Marinette felt. "It's just one more thing to trip over and worry about. You don't need 'em, really. Not for the basic runs."

"Oh, thank god."

The bus slowed and turned onto a smaller road, and the excited chatter in the bus turned up another degree. They wound through a tall forest of pine trees, branches brushing over the top of the bus.

"Oh, great," Adrien muttered. "If there are trees like this on the hill, we're going to end up running into them, aren't we?"

Nino whacked his shoulder. "Stop worrying so much."

"Sorry, that's impossible."

"Oh my god, you're such a downer, dude."

The bus continued through the trees for a bit, winding upwards. Slowly, the trees thinned out and bright white snow replaced their view, extending out in all directions as far as the eye could see. Automatically, Marinette peered out the window at the gleaming slopes outside. Immediately, though, she wished that she hadn't.

"That's small?" she demanded in a squeak, eyes bugging out of her head as she whipped around to face Alya. Behind her, she could hear Adrien expressing a similar sentiment to Nino. "And we'll be going down those? Alya-"

"Oh, relax," her (absolutely insane) friend told her, grinning. "It'll be fun!"

Adrien's nerves weren't going away as they were shepherded into the building and through the rental area. The hills were huge, super tall and long and steep. Almost no one else seemed surprised by that, which meant that they had probably gone downhill skiing at least once before or at least was more familiar with the concept than he was.

Well, almost no one except for Marinette. She seemed as intimidated as he did, which was honestly a relief. They could stick together and be terrified as a team.

The workers behind the rental counter worked together almost seamlessly, shuttling their class through the area incredibly quickly, considering that the entire lycée was going through at once and it looked like absolute pandemonium to him. Then they were bundled up and shuffled outside to meet their instructors.

Adrien did not see any hills that didn't look absolutely terrifying. They were all tall, all steep, and worst of all-

"Why isn't there any room to stop at the bottom?!"

-there were really only maybe a dozen meters between the bottom of the closest several slopes and the mesh fence right in front of the chalet. Marinette was staring at that space with a look of horror on her face, clutching at Alya's arm as though her friend could change that somehow.

"You start slowing down before you hit that bit," Alya told them. "Slow and then turn so that you run along the bottom instead of straight into the building."

"How?"

Adrien wanted to know that, too.

"They'll teach you," Nino reassured them. "You won't just hop on the hill without any idea of what to do. They'll tell you how to slow down and stop first."

"But we're just supposed to go up without any practice?" Adrien demanded, voice coming out embarrassingly high. "There's no short slope to practice on first?"

Nino gave him a disbelieving look. "Dude, that is the short slope."

Adrien made a noise that he wasn't sure was entirely human.

"Can the more experienced skiers come this way, please!" one of the instructors called. "We're just going to do a quick run or two down the hill before we turn you guys loose."

"Right, see you guys later," Nino told them with a grin. "Don't die on us!"

Alya slapped his shoulder. "Nino, don't joke about that!"

"I was just trying to be funny, I swear!"

And then Adrien and Marinette were left on their own. Adrien suddenly wondered if it would be suspicious if he vanished and Chat Noir appeared to ski in his place. He would feel a lot safer in a indestructible super suit, but somehow he suspected that his classmates weren't that oblivious.

They watched as their more experienced classmates hopped onto the lift, slowly ascending the slope before vanishing at the top. There were a few minutes of nothing, and then they started appearing, zipping down the hill like it was nothing.

As though there wasn't an entire freaking building at the bottom, solid and imposing and unmoving.

Someone was doing fancy zigzags, curving from side to side as they went down. They all started slowing down as they approached the base of the hill, though Adrien couldn't tell how.

Whose bright idea was it to strap bits of plastic and metal to their feet and go plummeting down a hill? Seriously, how did anyone find that fun?

The group piled back onto the lift and headed back up. Adrien would have kept watching, but the instructors had started dividing the rest of the students up into groups and he wanted to be sure that he stayed with Marinette. They could fall down the hill together.

And then their lesson started. Adrien listened as closely as he could, trying to soak up all of the information before they got sent down the slopes. He was hoping that Nino was joking, that the actual bunny hill was hidden away somewhere, but no such luck.

At least it wasn't one of the hills with the chalet immediately at the bottom. If they didn't stop or turn right away, at least they wouldn't go straight into the side of the building, just the mesh fence and all of the ski racks at the side of the building.

(Well. Unless they turned in the wrong direction, they wouldn't go into the side of the building. If they did, they would be in for a world of pain.)

"I'm honestly surprised that we're still doing field trips like this," Marinette said quietly as they were shuffled towards the lift. "What with Hawkmoth's akumas interrupting class so often…"

Adrien nodded. It was a struggle for the teachers to stay caught up on the curriculum when classes were interrupted, and although not all attacks caused interruptions (for the majority of the school, at least), the ones that did added up over time. He had only dared to leave the city because Hawkmoth and his kwami had been injured in the last attack, two weeks prior, and their magic hadn't recovered enough yet for him to be able to akumatize anyone. "Maybe they knew that people would complain if they canceled. I bet a lot of people were looking forward to it."

"Crazy people."

Adrien could only laugh and agree.

They were up next for the lift, and Adrien's knuckles turned white under his gloves as he sat down and gripped the bars. His feet felt awkward and heavy- a huge change from when he was fencing, or playing basketball, or being Chat Noir- and his skis clunked together and criss-crossed as they lifted up into the air. Marinette didn't look like she was faring much better.

They climbed up, and up, and up. The top of the hill grew closer, and Adrien gulped as he glanced back down the slope.

Could he just stay on the lift and go back down? He had changed his mind, he didn't want to do this.

Their instructor left them no choice. She met them at the top, ushering them off and into a haphazard line.

"We'll go two at a time, to make sure that we aren't tripping over each other," she told them. "Ready?"

"Nope," Adrien muttered under his breath, and next to him, Marinette let out a nervous giggle.

In pairs, starting with the people who had skied a couple times before, the group started down the hill. They wobbled, swerving unevenly back and forth as they made their way down the hill.

It didn't look any smaller from the top. Adrien gulped, watching the line get shorter and shorter as he and Marinette got closer to the front.

And then the first of the first-timers went, sliding haltingly down the hill.. They let out a screech as they fell, only a dozen meters or so from the top of the hill.

That was embarrassing. Adrien hoped that he wouldn't do that. He had a reputation as athletic and coordinated that he wanted to uphold, so hopefully he wouldn't be wiping out. Not right away, at least.

If he got to the bottom of the hill and wiped out, that would probably be understandable. Bottom or two-thirds of the way, at least. Of course, if he fell then, he would probably be going faster than he really wanted. Going faster and coming to a sudden stop would probably mean a higher chance of breaking bones or otherwise injuring something, right?

...maybe he could swallow his pride and be fine with falling earlier. He probably wouldn't have a lot of choice in the matter, after all. And the only people who might actually judge him- Kim and Alix, mostly, plus a couple people from his fencing team- were already scattered across the mountain, far out of sight.

And Marinette wouldn't tell anyone. She would probably be falling right next to him on their way down the hill.

"Okay, you two next," their instructor told them. "Snowplow the entire way down, so that you don't pick up speed, and then get out of the way once you reach the bottom."

Adrien gulped and glanced down the hill. Nope, it hadn't shrunk at all since the last time he had looked. Not even a little bit. Still, Marinette was inching her way forward, so he couldn't stall any longer.

His skis inched over the edge, and then he was moving downward in starts and stops, wavering uncertainly. Marinette had started making a noise that was not unsimilar to a teakettle as she moved down the hill, just a bit faster than Adrien was going.

He managed a smile at that. Even when flustered, Marinette was cute.

"Wait, how do I turn at the bottom again?" Marinette yelled as they reached the halfway point. "I've forgotten!"

"You do something else with your skis, I think!" Adrien hollered back from nearly a dozen meters behind her. "At least I hope that that's what it is, because that's what I was planning on doing!"

Marinette turned her head partway, clearly about to give him a dubious look, but then she wobbled alarmingly and whipped back to face the front, arms extended to try to keep her balance. Adrien winced, fully expecting her to fall, but she didn't. Surprisingly enough, Marinette made it to the bottom of the hill upright and wobbled across the flat part at the base of the hill, finally inching to a halt right before the plastic mesh fence.

Adrien was still a third of the way up the hill, inching his way down at a much slower pace.

"Are you scared of going faster?" Plagg asked, popping his head out of Adrien's jacket. "This is so slow!"

"I picked this speed and I'm sticking to it," Adrien insisted. He tried adjusting his skis and squawked when he jolted forward. "It's a perfectly good speed."

"Your friend is already at the bottom of the hill," Plagg pointed out helpfully.

"Yeah, she must have been doing something different." Adrien wobbled as he hit a bump in the snow, windmilling his arms to stay up. "I'll get there. Eventually."

"Yeah, tomorrow."

"I don't exactly have a supersuit on right now," Adrien pointed out tensely. "If I fall or run into anything, I could actually get hurt. And if I get hurt, then I can't fight akumas as well as usual."

Plagg groaned loudly. "Oh my god, I can tell already why you don't have any downhill skiing experience, you're such a worrywart. I'm surprised that your parents didn't have you learn."

"Neither of them liked it, so why would they teach me?" Adrien let out a yelp as his ski hit a bump and made him wobble. "And I can see why they wouldn't like it, too!"

Plagg snorted and retreated back into Adrien's jacket as they finally got to the bottom of the hill. Adrien wobbled to a stop, then shuffled his way over towards Marinette.

"I thought that I wouldn't be able to stop," Marinette told him with a laugh. "I nearly hit the fence!"

"At least it wouldn't have been a hard hit," Adrien pointed out. "And you were going faster than I was. I was going at the approximate speed of a particularly tired snail."

Marinette giggled, and they moved over to join the rest of the group. "I wanted to go slower, but I didn't dare adjust my skis at all. By the time I was halfway down, I was fine with it. Mostly."

Adrien grinned at that.

It wasn't long before their instructor joined them. She waved them into a tight group, then smiled at them. "Okay! That was a nice first run. Now we're going to divide up a bit- people who didn't fall on the run will try doing a loose zigzag. Maddie will demonstrate- you want to go from one side of the run to the other and back, very shallow zigzags so that you don't go too fast. People who fell will do another snowplow run."

"Oh god," Adrien muttered as the assistant instructor started divvying them up. "Zigzags? That sounds like it requires adjusting the skis mid-hill."

He wasn't looking forward to that. There would no doubt be several seconds of the skis facing directly downhill while they made the turn itself, and if they weren't turned in time he could find himself zipping straight down the hill.

"I promise not to laugh if you fall," Marinette offered helpfully. "As long as you don't laugh when I fall."

"And I'll even promise to do my best to not fall on you if you fall," Adrien said with a laugh. "I'm not sure how much my best counts for, though."

They rode up the lift again, waiting anxiously in line for their turn. Their assistant instructor went first, making smooth turns before heading easily across the snow again. The first pair went, and Adrien was surprised when there was no falling.

Then he remembered that oh, right, some of the others have skied before. They just hadn't skied much, which was why they were in lessons with the rest of the beginners. They would be more confident than he and Marinette were on their skis, just not confident enough to head off without a review first.

"I can't wait for lunch," Marinette commented as they inched forward in line. "Getting off this hill and having a break? Eating food? That I can handle."

"I think we have to have mastered the basics before we can go in," Adrien said glumly, because now that she mentioned it he was remembering the food choices on the menu that he had looked up, and some of the offerings sounded really good. "And maybe it's a good thing. If they can make this at all enjoyable before we go in, maybe I'll go back out after eating instead of staying in and playing games on my phone."

Marinette made a face. Clearly she was in favor of just staying in. Adrien was leaning that way too, to be honest, but he had only done one run so far. Maybe it would get better.

Of course, maybe he would end up falling down on his face like the person who had just started their run down the hill. That didn't look comfortable.

And then it was time for him and Marinette to go.

Adrien gulped as their instructor angled him and then gave him a gentle push off the top of the hill. He started across the hill, at a shallow enough angle that he wasn't picking up too much speed, right at the trees that bordered the run.

He wasn't a fan of that bit. Couldn't the run be bordered by cushions or something? Maybe some pillows?

Behind him, Marinette's teakettle noise had started up again. Adrien chanced a glance behind him, spotting Marinette as she caught up to him.

Apparently she was going faster than him again.

Marinette took the turn before he did, letting out a tiny cheer as she successfully got herself turned around. Adrien tried to follow, and instead found himself angled a little too far down.

Oh, no. He didn't like this. Not one bit. Not at all. He wanted off, now.

"Adrien!"

"Shoot shoot shoot, what do I do?" Adrien yelped, wobbling as he picked up more speed. "Plagg-"

"Turn, kid! Turn or fall!" Plagg had stuck his head out again and was watching nervously as the opposite side of the slope approached quickly. "Or do that snowplow thing that you were doing earlier!"

Adrien tried. He pushed his heels out and his toes in, trying to put on the brakes. Instead, his skis got tangled up and he pitched forward into the snow. There was a loud click from the vague direction of his feet, and he had enough presence of mind to hope that it was his boot or the ski instead of his bones or something else important before he hit the ground face-first.

Nothing seemed to hurt, at least. Well, except for the sting of the snow against his face.

"Adrien, are you okay?" Marinette's worried voice cut through Adrien's mental groan (he couldn't have at least had a slightly dignified tumble? It had to be a complete and utter failure of a fall?) "Adrien- oh! Your ski!"

Adrien extracted his face from the snow in time to see one of his rented skis head down the rest of the hill without him. He stared after it for a few seconds- that explained the click, at least- then heaved a sigh and planted his face right back in the snow.

There was a distinct snicker from his jacket. Apparently Plagg was amused by the situation. That made exactly one of them.

"Adrien, can you get up?" Marinette pressed, and Adrien resigned himself to getting up. There was no point in needlessly worrying his friend just because he was embarrassed. "Adrien?"

"'M fine," Adrien assured her, pushing himself to his knees. To his surprise, Marinette was only a meter away and had somehow managed to grind to a near-halt without falling herself. He blinked at her, and after a moment realized that she had probably been headed straight for where his head had been before she had stopped herself.

Well. That was fortunate that she seemed to be doing better than he was at downhill skiing, at least.

Marinette's whole body drooped with relief. "Oh, good! I was worried! That looked like a nasty fall," she added. "And your legs kind of went at funny angles, too, so…"

"Everything feels all right," Adrien told her hastily. Then, just to lighten the mood, he added, "Well, except for my pride. But it'll recover."

Marinette was still watching him like a hawk. "Are you sure?"

"I promise." Adrien glanced down the hill, where his ski had settled against the side of the building. "I'm not sure how I'm meant to get down now, though. If downhill skiing sounded hard, downhill skiing with only one ski sounds even harder."

Marinette craned her neck and wobbled dangerously. Adrien winced, fully expecting her to topple over on him. Miraculously, though, she stayed up. "I think I see one of the instructors getting it. They'll probably bring it back to you."

Adrien briefly wondered if he could just bury his face in the snow again. No other student had needed a teacher to come down and help them mid-hill, so it was embarrassing that he did.

It didn't take long at all for the instructor with Adrien's ski to get up the hill and then back down to him, expertly sliding to a stop next to him.

"Marinette, please proceed down the hill," she told Marinette, who had managed to stay relatively close to Adrien. She hadn't been able to completely stop moving, so she had made a sharp turn and was now creeping past on Adrien's downhill side. "We'll meet you down there."

With one last look at Adrien, Marinette adjusted her skis and started moving down the hill again, slow but steady.

She was definitely getting the hang of this faster than Adrien was. He would have been jealous, but honestly he was proud of her. She was dealing with her nerves a whole lot better than he was.

"All right, Adrien," the instructor said, turning to him and holding out his ski. "Let's get this on and finish the hill, all right?"

Marinette got to the bottom of the hill and turned one last time to glide along the flat area, a grin on her face as she managed it. She had wobbled pretty badly on several- well, most- of her turns, but for once her clumsy tendencies had worked in her favor. She had plenty of practice in catching herself before she properly fell, and there had only been one time when she floundered enough to have to push off the snow to stay up.

It was really a miracle that she hadn't overbalanced and fallen the other way. A miracle, or just really, really good luck.

"Good job!" Tikki told her proudly. "I told you that you could do it!"

"I just had to do the same thing I did when I was learning how to use my yo-yo, just like you told me to," Marinette told her kwami. "The fear is there, but I have to not let it overtake me and stop me from learning and trusting my gut. And then I was worried about Adrien, too, so I had to act on instinct- and it worked!" She was a little giddy, to be honest. The entire way down, she had been convinced that she was going to mess up and end up zipping into a tree, but she hadn't. When she had tried to turn, she had actually turned, just like she wanted to.

Marinette wasn't going to be going any faster anytime soon- the lazy curves that she had been doing were the perfect speed- but she had done it.

"I hope Adrien is all right," Marinette added, glancing back up the hill towards where Adrien and the extra instructor were making their way down the hill. She seemed to be making sure that he wasn't going any faster than he wanted to be. "That was a really nasty fall. I didn't even see what happened."

"I think he tried to snowplow and angled his skis too much," Tikki told her. "And then they criss-crossed and he came to a faster stop than he expected."

Marinette winced.

Adrien's face was pink when he finally got to the bottom and shuffled over to join her in line for the lift. He looked distinctly disgruntled.

"You have snow in your jacket," Marinette commented, automatically reaching up to try to brush some of it off. "That doesn't look comfortable."

Adrien winced as he reached up as well, digging his fingers down the back of his jacket and pulling out several chunks of snow. "Yeah. That's what I get for being an idiot and falling."

"You're not an idiot," Marinette said immediately. "You're just learning."

"You're learning faster than I am," Adrien said, sounding discouraged. "I mean, the rest of the run went all right, I guess, but the instructor was pretty much tugging me into place every time. I keep not being able to do turns as tightly as I want to."

"I was nearly falling every time I did the turns," Marinette pointed out. "Except for that one time when I was barely moving at all. It's not like I was zipping down effortlessly."

"I'd rather nearly fall but make the turn right than end up not making enough of a turn and send myself zipping straight into the trees." They moved into position and sat down on the lift seat before starting their ascent again. "I wish we had a shorter slope to practice on. Shorter, and less steep."

Marinette nodded. That would be nice.

During the next run, she finally fell on a turn. It wasn't a hard fall, though, and most of the other turns seemed less wobbly, so she was going to count that as improvement. Maybe this would be fun after all.

Adrien seemed less convinced. He had nearly fallen once, but had also been snowplowing all the way down, except when he was turning. It was a surprise, really, since he was fabulous at every other sport ever, it seemed, but Marinette supposed that Adrien couldn't be good at everything. Besides, maybe he had had a steep learning curve for all of his sports but it had just been so long ago that he didn't remember it. She had heard that once somewhere, that little kids were less worried about getting hurt (or maybe they just couldn't know how badly they could potentially get hurt) so they didn't hold themselves back as much as teens and adults. Maybe that was what was going on with Adrien, too.

"Is it lunch yet?" Adrien asked as they headed up again. "It has to be soon, right?"

Marinette tried not to giggle at his exaggerated pout. "You just want to be done, don't you?"

"I mean- yeah, kind of," Adrien admitted. "It's frustrating that I'm so good at other sports and yet I'm at a complete loss here."

Marinette glanced over at him, curious. "Didn't you start out not so good at your other sports, too? I mean, you didn't just get thrown into fencing and immediately start winning trophies, right?"

Adrien laughed at that. "No, definitely not. But those sports are fairly safe, you know? If I ever felt uncomfortable when I was doing them, I could just stop. And none of my normal sports ever threw me onto a slippery hill with two bits of fiberglass strapped to my feet. It's that bit I don't like." He shrugged, wriggling his feet a bit and watching little bits of snow tumble off of his skis and fall to the ground below. "But there's also a part of me that wants to get at least one good run in, you know? Like, I have to improve enough for that, to make up for the mess earlier."

...well, if Adrien's pride was going to bring him out again after lunch, Marinette wasn't going to complain. She was intrigued now, just a little bit- and she wasn't going to lie and say that she wasn't also interested in making a nice, smooth run down the hill, free (or at least largely free) of wobbles and falls.

It turned out that the ski instructor had other ideas.

"Marinette, do you want to try going a little bit faster this time?" she asked, smiling at her. "Just a little bit! You can always snowplow if you decide that you want to slow down partway down the hill."

Marinette was sure that her whole expression dropped. Faster? Well, sure, she could try it, but wouldn't faster mean that she would be more likely to fall?

"And you can snowplow going into the turns," the instructor added, as though she was reading Marinette's mind. "So that you stay upright on them."

"You can do it!" Adrien encouraged her, beaming, and, well, there was no way she was going to say no after that.

"I bet you'll do great!" Tikki whispered as Marinette and Adrien joined the line. It was shorter than before, she noticed, and it didn't take long to realize that people were both going down faster and they weren't waiting for the full group to reconvene before having people go down again.

It gave her less time to really worry over the concept of going faster, which was probably a good thing. Hopefully it would be like when akuma fights had forced her to put aside her worries and focus on the moment instead of all the possible ways that she could mess up.

At least then she had had a magic super-suit to keep her from getting injured when the learning curve was a little too steep and she ended up falling or ramming into the side of a building.

When she and Adrien went up, Marinette started first. She did her best to avoid seizing up as her skis went a little bit faster than she had gone before.

"That's it, stay relaxed and move with the skis," Tikki coached. "You're doing well!"

"I'm repressing the urge to panic," Marinette ground out through gritted teeth.

"That's great! Keep repressing!"

For some reason, that made Marinette giggle. "And here I was thinking that repressing emotions was a bad thing!"

"Repressing is good- wait, no, that's not what I meant!" Tikki giggled as well. Then she gasped. "Oh! It's almost time to turn!"

Gradually, Marinette angled her skis in, slowing herself down until she was comfortable turning. It took a few seconds after the turn to readjust so that she would go just that little bit faster, and then she was off again.

It actually….wasn't that bad. She had slowed to a crawl, and had only really needed to work a little to keep her balance.

Huh.

She crossed the ski slope again, and this time when she turned she was confident enough to go a little faster, even. She had to give herself more time to slow down before the following turn, but it wasn't bad at all.

Cross the slope. Turn. Cross. Turn. Cross. Final turn-

"Why don't you go a little faster for the bottom one?" Tikki suggested. "It'll be fun!"

Marinette made a face. It was tempting, but… "We'll see."

She slowed down to a crawl, then re-angled herself, at a tiny bit steeper of an angle. To her surprise, it didn't feel bad at all.

Maybe she was getting the hang of this after all-

"Hey! Coming through!"

Marinette yelped and veered as someone went flashing by. The sudden movement threw her off, and then she was going much faster than anticipated down the remainder of the hill. She struggled to get back under control, but then she was at the bottom of the hill and skidding towards the chalet. Marinette angled her skis the best she could, altering her course enough that she wasn't headed directly at the building. There wasn't enough time to snowplow first before her turn, so she took it too fast and too sharply.

It really wasn't a surprise when she went tumbling into the mesh fence moments later. Marinette sighed at the sensation of finding herself on the ground (not that it was a new feeling, really), pushed herself back up, got herself untangled, and moved out of the way so that Adrien wouldn't hit her once he reached the bottom of the hill.

Adrien, who no longer had his ski instructor chaperone helping him. Marinette frowned, glancing around, and almost immediately spotted the instructor headed right for the man who had nearly hit her, a scowl on her face as she chased him down.

It took another minute for Adrien to get down. He seemed much steadier this time, and there was a small smile on his face as he drifted to a stop near her.

"That wasn't bad," he told her with a grin. "But that guy nearly took us out, didn't he? He knocked me over, too. What an ass."

"It looks like he's getting chewed out now," Marinette commented. "Hopefully he'll move to the other hills. Clearly he's good enough to do it."

They watched the man argue with the ski instructor for another minute before he suddenly conceded and stomped off, red-faced. The instructor glanced around, spotted them, and headed right over.

"We'll not have to deal with him again," she told them. "He had no business being on the bunny hill."

"What was he doing there in the first place?" Marinette wanted to know.

The instructor laughed. "He's from the US and didn't think that that was the bunny hill. He was raging on about how they shouldn't let beginners down the intermediate slopes, and I had to inform him that it was our bunny slope. I pointed him towards our intermediate slopes, though, and I think he maybe isn't quite so keen on them."

They both laughed.

"I'm guessing that he's from somewhere flat, where their expert slopes are our more basic intermediates," she added with a giggle. "And he probably didn't bother to look up the rise on our slopes before coming."

"So wait, what would their bunny hills look like?" Adrien wanted to know. "Not like this, apparently?"

"Very short and very flat." The instructor glanced at her watch. "On a more cheerful note, I think it's time for the lunch break! You can re-join us after lunch or ski on your own," she added. "I think you two might be interested in that slope over there. It's longer, but there are large portions that are a gentler slope than the bunny hill."

Marinette and Adrien gave the hill in question a slightly dubious look. It was taller than the bunny hill for sure, and longer, but at least it didn't have the chalet or a fence directly at the bottom. There was plenty of room to slow down.

"You can do it, I'm sure," she assured them. "And you don't have to decide right away. Think about it over lunch."

She headed off, and Adrien and Marinette shuffled towards the building. It took a bit of wrestling before they got their skis off- it was not straightforward- and then they headed in. The cafeteria area was already busy, and so the two of them dug out their money and headed over to get in line. Some of their group was already getting food, but most of the people around were adults, people who were serious skiers taking the day off to tackle the harder slopes. Still, it didn't take too long for them to get their food, and the two of them wound through the main part of the chalet to grab a table by the windows that were facing the mountains.

"I can't believe the instructor thought that I should be going anywhere near a hill that's not the bunny hill," Adrien commented as he dug in. "You, sure, since you seem to have gotten the hang of things, but she was still pulling me back on track."

"But the other hill isn't quite as steep," Marinette pointed out. Now that the instructor had suggested it, it stood like a challenge. She wanted to try it. She probably wouldn't have felt the need to do it before she became Ladybug, but now? "So you wouldn't be going as fast, right?"

Adrien glanced over at her and suddenly his expression turned thoughtful. Maybe he saw the pleading and hope in her expression- she didn't want to go down by herself, that would be no fun, and so far they seemed to have some sort of unspoken pact to stick together for the day- and was thinking about it. After a few seconds of thought, he spoke up again. "Maybe we could do the bunny hill a couple more times first? I'd- I'd be willing to try it after getting a little more practice with my turns."

"Sure!" Marinette wouldn't mind more practice, either. She needed that one good run without wobbles and falls. But more than anything, Marinette was glad that Adrien was willing to join her, despite his misgivings. It was really nice of her, and there was a tiny part of Marinette that wondered if he was going along with her because they were friends, or if maybe, maybe it was an indicator of his interest extending a bit more…?

"Oh, there's still a few people from our lesson out there," Adrien commented, pulling Marinette out of her thoughts. "I guess they wanted to try the bunny hill a few more times?"

"Maybe they just sent us in earlier because of that man who almost hit us," Marinette suggested, watching as two people slowly criss-crossed the hill. "I mean, I was a bit shaken after nearly getting hit. It was nice to get a bit of a break after that."

"Yeah- oh, look at that guy!" Adrien exclaimed, pointing, and Marinette looked. One of the other students was flailing a bit, and suddenly their skis were pointed down the hill. "Oh no! Look at them go!"

"They're not going to be able to stop!" Marinette gasped, leaning forward to watch. "At least they were most of the way down the hill when that happened, but oh! They're not snowplowing at all! And- oh, no, turn the other way!"

"Panic makes people forget all of their lessons," Adrien pointed out. He was leaning forward, too, a frown on his face as the skier slid across the flat. They hit the mesh net and went down in a heap, tangled with the plastic netting. They slid a little further before hitting the building with a low thud.

The instructors were on them in an instant, trying to untangle net and skier and then get the netting back up before anyone else came in danger of hitting the building. Somehow the skier was unharmed, and he was soon scooting off across the snow.

That did not make her want to get back out there on the hill.

"At least he didn't have poles," Adrien commented. "If he did…"

Marinette winced. Sharp, pointy objects and flailing combined? That would have been bad.

They settled into a comfortable silence as they ate lunch together, and Marinette thanked her lucky stars that she had gotten better about keeping her composure around Adrien. She only really stuttered and flailed around him now if she was trying to ask him out or if he startled her (and who knew that Adrien could be so sneaky?) but the rest of the time, they could hang out normally. The two of them had even exasperated Nino and Alya on occasion with their pun-offs, and giggling with Adrien was fun.

If she had still been getting all flustered around Adrien like she had the previous year, this trip wouldn't have been nearly as much fun. She would have been too busy tripping over both her words and her feet to be able to enjoy herself.

"Ready to head back out?" Adrien asked as they finished up their food. He scraped one last bite off of his plate and popped it into his mouth. "I'm done."

"Sure!"

The rest of the afternoon positively flew by. Adrien and Marinette hadn't returned to skiing right after lunch, instead opting to wander around and explore the area for a bit. They had watched snowboarders and skiers alike pull off crazy tricks on the terrain park hill, only leaving after seeing a particularly nasty tumble. Then they stumbled upon the trailhead for a few cross-country ski trails, which had Marinette grumbling that they hadn't been told about that.

"I mean, I've only done cross-country once and it was years and years ago," Marinette told Adrien as they headed back across the flat area. "But it was fun! And the hills were a lot smaller, too."

They stopped at the bunny hill next. Three runs later, Adrien was more confident with his turns and Marinette was celebrating a run that had been practically perfect.

And then Ms. Bustier informed them that their group would be leaving in just under an hour, and if they wanted to try any of the other hills, they would have to do it now.

"Wow, time really flew!" Adrien exclaimed as he and Marinette shuffled over to the hill that the instructor had pointed out earlier. "We haven't been here for that long, it seems!"

"Well, part of the day was taken up by getting here," Marinette pointed out. "It took a while. And then we had to get our stuff."

Adrien nodded. That made sense. Still, they had had to get to school early to get going on their field trip, and they weren't even trying to make it back by the normal end of the school day. It would have long since fallen dark by the time they got back to school and could go home.

This time, the lift ride was longer. Adrien's knuckles turned white again when he glanced back and saw how far off the valley floor they were getting.

It wasn't anything like the big slopes, the ones Adrien could see vanishing into the distance- the ones where there could be twenty or thirty people or even more people going down and they would still look pretty empty- but he could tell that they were going farther than before, and also just a little bit higher.

Hopefully the angry man from earlier had moved on to completely different slopes. Adrien didn't exactly want to get yelled at again. Or run down, either.

"Okay, what's the plan?" Adrien asked with a bit of a breathless laugh as they got off the lift and moved across the top of the slope. "Any preferred route down?"

"I was planning on pointing my skis straight downward and seeing how fast I could go," Marinette said, and Adrien's vision practically blurred with how quickly he whipped around to stare at her. His (confusion? Mild panic? Extreme panic?) quickly dissipated, though, when he saw the amused grin that she was (unsuccessfully) trying to hide.

"Ha-ha, you really got me," Adrien deadpanned, trying to not sound as amused as he felt. "Very funny."

Marinette's smile turned smug. "I thought so, too."

Surprisingly, their first run down the hill went better than Adrien had expected. He had fallen, sure- there had been one section that switched from really gentle slope to a slightly steeper slope, and there had been enough of a change that he had toppled- but it really wasn't bad at all. Longer, yes. It took longer to get all the way down and he and Marinette couldn't criss-cross the entire slope or they would get in someone's way, sure. But it hadn't been bad.

They went down twice more before they were called in. Adrien felt a bit bad for the workers in the rental area as an absolute pile of equipment was returned all at once as their school packed up, boots and helmets filling the counters and skis absolutely everywhere, but they didn't seem to be bothered by the complete and utter mayhem.

"Oh, gosh, my feet," Adrien groaned as he finally pried his boots off, feeling blood rush back into his feet. He could walk again! "I didn't even realize they hurt that much."

"I've got pins and needles," Marinette agreed as she hobbled towards the counter to give her boots back. "Ow ow ow."

One hasty gathering-up of their things later, and their group was bundled out the door and onto the bus, sweaty, tired, and a little bruised up. Apparently Alix and Kim had ended up on the Terrain Park later in the day and had tried a few tricks that they had really never learned. They had both wiped out pretty hard, and Alix was nursing a bruised wrist while Kim had gotten a sprained ankle. Needless to say, the teachers were not happy with them.

"So did you two ever move off the bunny hill?" Alya wanted to know as she and Nino piled into the seat in front of Adrien and Marinette. She was flushed and sweaty from skiing and her hair stood up on end as she pulled her hat off. "You must have been out a lot, Nino and I didn't see you at lunch!"

"Well, it was busy," Adrien pointed out. He tugged off his own hat- and wasn't it fabulous that Marinette had managed to find yarn in the exact shade of his favorite scarf and made a hat to match?- and did his best to tame the wild mess that his hair had turned into. "And we weren't in for long! It was nice outside."

"So the slopes weren't quite as scary as you thought, huh?" Nino asked smugly. Adrien just shook his head.

"Oh, they were just as scary." He turned to Marinette with a smile, reaching out to give her head a friendly squeeze. "But you know what? They're not so bad with a friend to keep me company."

#Miraculous Ladybug #My writing #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng #I found iiiiiinternet

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porchwood · 5 years

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Fic Bits 2018: The One That Got Away

Modern AU; Madge POV. Jude/Madge, Gale/Madge.

They say you can never go home again, and yet here I am, packing to do just that.

The second autumn after you graduate from college is when the niggling feeling starts, like you left town without returning your library books or forgot to put the new insurance card in your glove compartment. When the first one comes around, you’re elated that you don’t have to think – let alone worry – about registering for classes, mapping your daily routes across campus, or buying school supplies of any kind, but by the second you’re starting to feel like something’s wrong. It’s easy to understand why so many people fall into teaching. Your body gets set on that routine, so that going back to school in fall is as instinctual to humans as seasonal migrations are to birds.

Ironically, it was the school year that determined this move – or rather, the school year that necessitated it, though the fall semester is already several weeks underway. Beginning in January, Dad will be teaching again for the first time since I was in elementary school – and, doubt it not, loving every minute of it.

At twenty-three my life could and probably should be independent of my parents’, but no matter which way I turned the situation around in my mind, there was no truly good reason not to move back with them. As badly as I don’t want to go back to the small town where I grew up, there’s nothing substantial enough to keep me here if my parents are gone.

We’ve always been thick as thieves and, oddly, moreso since moving to the capital city. The fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue that kept my mother to a quiet routine in our hometown made her a veritable recluse amidst the constant bustle of squealing brakes and blaring horns, and everything was so blindingly expensive, we rarely partook of the concerts and boutiques and exotic restaurants that had sounded so exciting from our living room back home.

Moving here as a family had been the result of two somewhat predictable stars aligning perfectly: after twelve years as mayor, Dad was elected to the state legislature and I was accepted into the music program at a small private college, a short bus ride from the capitol building. My parents rented a spacious loft halfway in-between the two, which enabled me to keep tabs on my mother while enjoying the independence of living off-campus all through school, while our place back home was loaned out to visiting professors and the like – short-term rentals to keep the utilities running and keep an eye out for any maintenance issues that might arise. I’m told I missed out on the “full college experience” by not living in a dorm, but from all accounts, it’s a party I’m glad to have skipped.

For all intents and purposes, home has been 37 Ash Terrace for the past five years. Four-and-a-half hours isn’t the longest drive, but there was always one reason or another to stay here through the holidays – which is not to say we’ve never gone back, of course. Our family revisits can be counted on two hands, but I’ve made a few extra trips on my own for special occasions, the last of which – the baptism of Katniss’s son Janni – was more than two years ago now.

I look up at my bulletin board, now stripped of everything but the central photo, and have just tugged out the tack when my phone rings. It’s a local cell number – local to our hometown, not to here – but doesn’t pull up a contact, and I cross the first two fingers of my free hand, hoping one of my cover letters has snared an interview as I answer, “Hello?”

“Is this Madeline Undersee?” asks a young male voice.

That was one of the best things about moving away, and one that I’m particularly loath to leave behind: finally getting to be Madeline, not Madge. That a young professional back home is addressing me as such, however, gives me hope.

“It is,” I affirm, and there’s a brief, quickly stifled sound from the other end before the caller goes on, “I was wondering if you might be available to play a wedding in November.”

The pieces snap together in my mind. It’s probably a local boy who went to college in the capitol like myself – it’s a common enough path – and found himself a fiancée, though it is a trifle odd for the groom to call ‘round for an accompanist.

“I’m sorry; I’m actually moving out of the area this weekend,” I reply, “but I can refer you to several other musicians who would be excellent choices.”

“I’m afraid it really has to be you,” he says with what sounds far more like mischief than regret. “What about a wedding in your hometown? Would that be a little easier to manage?”

“In –?” I break off, mind whipping through the possibilities. It’s hardly a secret that the Undersees are moving back after five years in the big city, but we’ve kept radio silence on my own return except where potential employers are concerned, so there’s no way some random local groom could even know about me, let alone want to hire me for his wedding. “Who is this?” I demand more than ask, a shy fifteen-year-old bookworm all over again, bristling in anticipation of the prank.

“You really don't know?” the young man responds, sounding genuinely surprised, and for a half-second my heart skips in hope, never mind that his voice bears no resemblance whatsoever to Gale’s rough, smoky timbre. “I’m wounded, mädchen,” he laments, and my heart trips halfway through its skip and somersaults clumsily forward to faceplant onto the concrete below.

“Jude?” I squeak.

“You haven’t forgotten me entirely, then?” he teases.

“Don’t be daft,” I retort, my stunned heart now flailing in shock. “So…you’re getting married?” I almost ask if it’s Columbine but that crush is surely ancient history now, never mind that last I heard, she was headed to some fashion design or modeling program out east.

“Don’t be daft,” he throws back with characteristic self-deprecation, but the affection beneath it wraps about me like a blanket – or one of Jude’s incredible lingering hugs. “But I do need a wedding accompanist,” he goes on, “which as I said, really has to be you, but I want to tell you about it in person. When are you back?”

“Well – tomorrow,” I reply, and the whole thing suddenly feels surreal. “Well, the day after, really,” I clarify. “Tomorrow’s the drive up and the U-Haul unload. Mom and Dad hired movers but you still want to go through everything, you know?”

“Of course,” he assures me. “Want to meet at Primavera for Saturday lunch – say, 11:30? My treat.”

“Primavera?” I puzzle. There’s never been an Italian restaurant in our hometown – it’s too small and rural to sustain any such – but the nearby city has a few shopping malls and a much wider selection of eateries; it makes sense that Jude would want to go to one of them. “What – where is that?” I ask.

He gives a little choke of laughter in reply. “Have you really been away so long, mädchen?” he wonders, but something about my ignorance seems to amuse – even delight – him. “It’s Italian – awesome Italian – right next to Mellarks’.”

“There’s nothing next to Mellarks’,” I counter, because our tiny historic downtown has never been able to keep shops for long, not with countless department stores and discount stores not twenty miles off. “Unless…are we having a sidewalk picnic, Judah?” I venture, almost hopefully, and he laughs.

“If the first date goes well, we can do whatever you want on the second,” he replies, and I miss him so much that I snatch up a pillow with my free hand and hug it to my chest as hard as I can. “But I promise: there is a legit Italian restaurant next to Mellarks’,” he says. “I’m going to buy you lunch there on Saturday, and you’re going to love it so much that you’ll refuse to live out of takeout range ever again.”

“Color me intrigued,” I tease. “As much about your mysterious wedding as this new eatery.”

“They’re both worth the wait,” he promises, and I can hear the grin in his voice.

“I missed you,” I blurt and Jude falls suddenly, uncharacteristically silent. There are any number of well-deserved retorts he could hand me, ranging from You didn’t have to to I didn’t go anywhere, but Jude is the sweetest boy I’ve ever known – on a level with Peeta, really – and even in our most frustrated moments, he never addressed me half as harshly as Gale would on a good day.

I think I hurt him a long time ago, though he’s never said as much.

“I missed you too,” he murmurs, and the corners of my eyes prickle hotly.

I don’t want to go home – you can never go home again, everyone says as much – don’t want to explain why I have a music degree from a respectable college and am looking for any old day job in my hometown and living with my parents. I don’t want to see Gale Hawthorne – never mind how wildly I do want to see him – to face all the inevitable jibes about how I “couldn’t make it in the real world.”

But if Jude – sweet, funny, precious Jude – is coming back into my life, it just might be bearable. He’ll have a job and new friends now – a girlfriend, to be sure – and he may not even live in town any longer. But we can grab lunches together here and there and laugh about stuff that happened in high school. Maybe we’ll find new things to laugh about.

“See you Saturday?” I say.

“I’ll be the one with the red ribbon,” he replies.

As always, I’m the one who hangs up.

Jude always let me end our calls, always hanging on in case of one last thought or lament, one more drawn-out Night-night or See you tomorrow.

Looking down at the phone in my hand, I remember the incredibly idiotic reason Jude isn’t saved as a contact anymore and sit on my stripped mattress, both arms curled around the pillow and my chin resting on its edge. It was stupid and childish – and ultimately pointless, because he didn’t try to get in touch at all after that. Oh, he did the usual friendly Facebook stuff – comments on my posts and the like – because Jude is that kind of sweet, but he’d never do anything to make me uncomfortable.

And also, maybe, he was hurt.

It’s not as if I shut him out – there were no calls or texts or emails to ignore – and you could hardly call my across-the-state move for college “avoidance,” but it certainly aided me to that end, especially five summers ago.

I bite my lips together for a long moment, silently call myself an idiot, and save the number as a new contact: Judah Tolliver. Neat, professional, and objective, like a grown-up. After all, if he’s hiring me for a wedding we’ll be exchanging calls and texts over the next few months; there’s no reason not to add him to my phone.

Returning to my call history, I dial Rue, the high school friend I’ve stayed closest to by virtue of us attending the same college. Our courses of study and career veered apart over the past few years as Rue set aside music to pursue dance full-bore and is currently spending her days with a traveling company that does famous ballets in a pared-down, intimate contemporary style, with dreamlike costumes that I suspect her father has a hand in, but we’ve stubbornly kept in touch all this while, meeting for a meal and a chat whenever her schedule allows.

She’s halfway across the country dancing Swanilda in Coppélia this season, so our farewell supper took place about two weeks ago. I don’t expect her to answer and am beyond surprised when she does.

“Hey chickie-babe!” she cries. “Are you home? I’ve only got a minute but I want to hear all about it. How did your house hold up?”

“We haven’t left yet,” I tell her. “We’re loading the U-Haul tonight and driving back tomorrow.”

“So where’s the fire?” she teases. “Don’t get me wrong, I love you to bits, but why call now? Are you getting sad about leaving – or going back?”

Rue understands my misgivings, even if she doesn’t share them. After I told my parents I’d move back with them, I curled up on Rue’s couch and cried myself into a stupor while she nestled her tiny fairy-form around me in a supportive hug. Going home is not failure, she told me over and over again, her husky voice sounding so like her mother’s as she rubbed my back in soothing circles. You and your parents have always supported each other; it makes sense you’d go back with them, at least for a little – and it’s not forever, not if you don’t want it to be.

Rue’s parents – a costumer and a choreographer – left the capitol when they started having kids and heartily embraced small town life in the heartland, but they both had vibrant careers behind them and were ready for quiet inexpensive living, for Piggly Wiggly and the county fair and a fixer-upper farmhouse, and they quickly found avenues to exercise their talents on a smaller scale.

I’m a year and a half out of college with eleven wedding gigs, five funerals, and a teaching slot at the local conservatory to show for twenty years at the piano and a B.A. with high distinction.

“Jude just called,” I reply by way of explanation. “He wants to hire me for a wedding –”

“His?” she interjects impishly.

“No,” I quell, “but he wouldn’t tell me who it is over the phone either. We’re meeting for lunch on Saturday to discuss it.”

“Meeting for lunch to discuss a mysterious wedding right after you move back to town?” she presses slyly. “Maybe it’s yours!”

Rue knows there’s nothing of that sort between Jude and me and never has been, but she’s equally convinced that there must be, or should’ve been. He adores you, you know, she’s told me time and again. Like, Peeta-and-Katniss level devotion. Couldn’t you just kiss him once and see what happens?

“Be serious,” I snort.

“I am,” she insists. “I never understood why the pair of you never got together, or why you fell out of touch after graduation. Jude was crazy about you –”

“He was like that with everyone,” I counter. “The sweet, funny thing – that’s just his natural demeanor.”

“And did he ask everyone to marry him if their respective crushes married other people?” she wonders.

“He said we should go on a date, not get married,” I remind her, the edge of a snap creeping into my voice. “It was a low moment and a long time ago. We were both feeling angsty.”

I don’t mention the other thing, the thing I’ve never told anyone – not even myself when I can help it.

“Well…maybe it’s time, sweetie,” she posits quietly. “Maybe Columbine finally found a husband and Jude wants to give the pair of you a chance.”

“I really don’t think that’s it,” I tell her, oddly wearied by the subject, but judging by the increasing volume of background noise, Rue’s about to be pulled away anyway.

“Sorry, I have to go,” she admits at the selfsame moment. “I’ll be back in a few weeks myself, but call me ASAP after your lunch with Jude, okay?”

“You got it,” I promise, and we hang up. I set the phone on my mattress, next to the photo of Gale Hawthorne from the state hockey finals seven years ago, and sigh.

I haven’t seen him since the reception after Ashpet’s baptism, and it wasn’t the most auspicious encounter.

I’d never struck a man before – or since – and certainly never in a church basement.

“Magpie?”

My father pokes his head through the open doorway. “Movers just got here,” he says. “Is your room ready to go?”

I tuck the picture of Gale inside my battered paperback of Jane Eyre, just behind the Candygram with the red ribbon threaded across the top and tied in a perfect, pressed, bow. “This is it,” I affirm, and slip the book into my purse before following my father downstairs.

As a tween I was enamored of the 1995 remake of Sabrina and resolved to head off to school with a photo of Gale – obligingly supplied by Jude, who worked on the yearbook – to pin on my bulletin board and systematically cover with playbills, flyers, ticket stubs, and the like. But I could never quite bring myself to obscure him completely, and when I went to London for my semester abroad I brought him there too, to try and forget in a foreign land.

The book is a Gale token too, also obtained for me by Jude.

I finagled to take Senior Lit in spring of my junior year in order to free up an elective senior year and as a result took the class with Jude. The first book on the slate was Jane Eyre – which I loved, somewhat to my surprise – and in true high school fashion, each copy had a log card inside the cover for the present user to write their name on, beneath the names of the book’s previous readers. Of course, neither Jude nor I got Gale’s but we knew someone had it, and at Jude’s graduation party – months after all the books had been checked back in – he stole me away to his room to press the prized copy into my hands.

I think you were looking for this, he said as I opened the cover, frantically scanned the names inscribed therein and threw my arms around him with a shriek.

But Jude, I realized, pulling back with a start, you swiped this; what if they won’t let you graduate-?

I just did, he reminded me gleefully, and the diploma is signed, sealed, and securely secreted in Mom’s wall safe as we speak. Anyway, it wasn’t my copy, so even if they do notice it’s missing, it’s not me they’d come after.

I looked back at the last name on the card – Annie Cresta – and shook my head at him. If she gets in trouble for this, I warned.

She won’t, he promised. They don’t care that much about one of twenty-three beat-up paperbacks, and it means a whole lot more to you than to the school.

I hugged him again, fiercely this time, and he curled his arms around me with a little sigh. I’m so glad you like your present, mädchen, he murmured. I know it’s not you graduating, but I wanted to beat the rush.

I spent most of Senior Lit associating Gale with Mr. Rochester, to Jude’s clear chagrin, which was curious as he didn’t seem to like the character any more than he did my sullen, dark-haired crush. I’ll grant you similarities, he agreed, but can you imagine Gale delivering that beautiful string speech in any universe?

We took our Jane Eyre final on Valentine’s Day, and in the class directly following I received an anonymous Candygram with a strawberry lollipop affixed, a red ribbon painstaking woven through neat holes punched across the top and tied in a small bow, and the handwritten message:

“I sometimes have a queer feeling with regard to you – especially when you are near me, as now: it is as if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame. And if that boisterous channel, and two hundred miles or so of land some broad between us, I am afraid that cord of communion will be snapt; and then I've a nervous notion I should take to bleeding inwardly.”

I wished so badly for it to be from Gale – never mind he wasn’t even in school anymore, let alone inclined to quote Charlotte Brontë – or maybe that I had some other mysterious tall-dark-and-handsome admirer, but I knew exactly who it was from and let my head fall against his shoulder as we sat next to each other in the choir room, his literary Valentine cupped in my hands.

Jude’s breath caught a little at the gesture, then leveled out in a long slow sigh.

Thanks, Jude, I whispered.

We both knew it wasn’t a real love note but I treasured it as one just the same, pressed between the pages of my student planner until finding a worthier setting inside Gale’s copy of Jane Eyre. The book and Candygram went everywhere with me – every summer camp and weekend trip during my senior year and in college, on every choir tour, every visit back home, all across Europe on my backpacking trip with Rue and then on to my bedside table in England. If I couldn’t lay hands on it at a moment’s notice I’m not sure I’d be able to breathe.

The movers are quiet and efficient and the truck is loaded in a fraction of the time we anticipated, prompting Dad and me to hash out the pros and cons of setting out tonight instead, but there are plenty of last-minute little things to wrap up and we’d all prefer to make the drive on a good night’s sleep – which unfortunately, is not to be had for me. Dad booked us a hotel room in the suburbs for convenience, so we could check out of the loft as soon as the truck was loaded and leave in the morning without having to wait for one last walk-through with the landlord, but while he and Mom drift off quickly in their queen bed, I frown up at the ceiling from the sofa sleeper, contemplating Jude and Jane Eyre.

The capitol is a long way off, mädchen…

My junior year – Jude’s senior year – was like high school is in the movies: a charmed, wonderful dream that feels like it’ll never end. In October Peeta finally plucked up the nerve to ask Katniss out, and their relationship brought both her and I – and to a lesser extent, Rue – firmly into the Mellark circle. Jude and I had been friendly before that, but he’s both cousin and close friend to the Mellark brothers, and as a result he and I were thrown together almost constantly at meals, school events, even youth group outings. We jokingly called these “triple dates” or “quad dates” sometimes, since the rest of our group consisted of fast-and-firm couples – Peeta and Katniss, Luka and Johanna, and often Finnick and Annie as well – but no one ever seemed to take the idea of Jude and me as a couple seriously.

We were madrigal seat partners that December, which necessitated all kinds of marriage banter throughout the dinners, then after Christmas came Senior Lit and Jane Eyre and auditions for school’s production of Fiddler on the Roof. Determined not to miss out on a role when my best friends were undeniable shoo-ins, I dyed my hair a deep chestnut-brown the night before my tryout – solidly shocking everyone in my acquaintance, but it served its purpose when I was cast as Tzeitel. I’d had my hopes set on playing any one of the sisters and forgot until the read-through that I was playing the one whose wedding is a major showpiece of the play – and that I would be marrying Jude, made even more endearing in little round glasses.

I’d never had so much fun, before or since.

I left most of my high school mementos at home when we moved to the capitol but the Fiddler album has stayed with me, and from time to time I page through the photos, the notes that came with flowers from my parents and teachers, the programs that we all signed – and the subsequent ridiculous everyday notes from Jude addressed to “Wifey” and “Mrs. Kamzoil.”

Prom came around in April and our school required everyone to attend in pairs, so it was effectively decided over youth group pizza after a highway trash cleanup that I would be going with Jude. I’d nourished a pipe dream that Gale might magically materialize and ask me to go with him – you could attend with someone who had graduated and it happened now and again, with college freshmen coming back to escort their girlfriends – but when he actually did appear at the dance it was with Leevy, his flavor-of-the-month girlfriend, if the rumors were to be believed.

I still had my brown hair at prom-time, which Jude lamented to no end while alternately telling me that I was “gorgeous just the same” and making me laugh at the silliest things. The dance was a blast for the first two hours, and then Katniss and Peeta quietly revealed to our group that they were engaged, with plans to marry the following spring after graduation.

Their courtship had been rapid and intense – emotionally, not physically – and no one was surprised that marriage was forthcoming, but the timetable was shocking to say the least. None of us believed that Katniss was pregnant or anything of the sort but they were both barely seventeen, and neither had any interest in going on to college. Peeta had a career waiting at the bakery he loved and Katniss was supremely adaptable to almost any kind of work – and neither was closing the door on trade schools or vocational degrees, if a good fit should present itself. They had decided – rather practically – to spend their senior year planning the wedding and finding a home rather than fretting over the ACT and college applications, and they would get married at the end of May, before the weather got too hot and everyone headed off to college.

It was a preposterous and entirely sound plan.

Peeta and Katniss skipped the school-sponsored after-prom party, unsurprisingly, while the rest of us splintered off into contemplative pairs. Finnick and Annie and Luka and Johanna both seemed as good as engaged to me, but the announcement had rattled them as well, and Jude and I wound up watching the smarmy stage hypnotist by ourselves in a subdued sort of silence.

It wasn’t that either of us was unhappy at the news, exactly. While I considered Katniss my best friend, we had never been chatty in typical girlfriend-fashion, and yet her impending marriage struck my stomach like an icy stone. You’ll be going to college anyway, I reminded myself, and you’ll stay in touch, but none of this served to soothe.

Jude absently wrapped his tux jacket around my shoulders and then his arm, resting his cheek on the top of my head. He’d barely spoken since the engagement reveal and I couldn’t begin to guess what his uncharacteristic silence meant.

It sounds really nice, he said suddenly, softly. Staying right here, getting married, coming home to a wife and babies.

I wanted to retort something dry and mildly caustic but couldn’t find the words for any reply at all because it was nice, this future Peeta and Katniss were setting up for themselves. I wanted to continue with music as long as I could; to study abroad, to live in the capitol and maybe other cities in due course,, but that wasn’t the future either Katniss or Peeta wanted, and why should they force themselves through the college mold, going eyes-deep in debt for degrees they had no interest in and possibly jeopardizing their relationship with the distance and other, inevitable, obstacles when the future they both craved was easily within their grasp?

Madeline, Jude continued in that same soft tone – I was always Madeline or, affectionately, mädchen to him – if Columbine and Gale marry other people, will you go on a date with me?

Almost as long as Jude and I have been friends, we’ve been aware of each other’s hopeless longing for an oblivious sweetheart and openly commiserated about it, with no fear – or even thought – of annoying each other or hurting feelings. Butcher’s son Jude was in love with Columbine Wilhearn, all black curls and lovely voice, whose mother was a small-scale – if highly in-demand – clothing designer and I was in love with broody, breathtaking Gale, whose mother managed the local laundromat and who despised my very existence because, as the mayor’s daughter, I had surely been born to privilege – never mind that my father had been a music teacher before his election and that as mayor he served a rural town of some 8000 people and dealt with weighty matters like dog waste ordinances and ribbon cuttings for tiny antique shops.

We’d both made periodic, futile attempts to elicit our respective crush’s attentions, but somehow for the course of that year – the year of madrigal seat partners and Jane Eyre and getting married on-stage in Fiddler – the longing had felt a little less pressing. Jude still ordered flowers for Columbine on opening night – she was playing the female lead, after all – but in other circumstances he would’ve done so for every performance, not just the first, and he brought me flowers too – a vaseful of red tulips from his mother’s garden to brighten my corner of the greenroom. And while I knew he’d asked Columbine to prom their junior year – and been turned down, of course – I don’t think he even tried the next time around, just cheerfully stepped up to escort me when the opportunity arose.

In fact, to the outside observer, Jude and I probably appeared to be dating for the past year.

The realization left me cross, embarrassed and oddly weary. Jude and I were just friends, everybody knew it, but could we have inadvertently sabotaged each other’s crushes by spending so much time together? Would Gale have emerged to ask me out if I hadn’t been so immersed in the Mellark circle this year – and in Jude’s company in particular?

We’re at prom, I reminded him, my tone shorter than he deserved. I’m wearing an evening gown and your tux jacket. How much more of a date do you want?

I want to pick you up at your house, he replied without hesitation, a brush of lips against my lilac-threaded crown braid. Just you and me and maybe your dad on the porch, to shake hands and talk about the weather and remind me to have you back by 10:00, and I’ll tell you how beautiful you look as I slide an orchid on your wrist. We’ll go to a fancy restaurant and trade bites of our entrees and steal a pepper shaker when we leave, just to see if we can get away with it. We’ll hold hands under the table and slow-dance like it means something, not just because we came together and it’s obligatory, and when I drop you at home, you might let me kiss you under the porchlight.

I pulled away to look up at him, at those gentle smoky eyes – gray like Gale’s and yet absolutely, utterly, nothing like Gale’s – and tried to decide whether to throttle him or burst into tears, because I knew he didn’t mean any of this the way it sounded but it was still the sweetest thing I’d ever heard – and remains so to this day. But I didn’t want Jude – I didn’t, I was sure of it – and he didn’t want me, he was just getting broody – in the hen fashion, not the Gale fashion – because of Peeta’s engagement and Columbine had remained stubbornly indifferent to him, even in a tux or stage makeup or a doublet and tights.

Please, can I go home? I whispered. I’ll call my parents so you don’t have to leave.

Don’t be daft, he said lightly, but his eyes were sad. There’s nothing left to stay here for anyway.

Out of the corner of my eye I spotted Columbine at the soda table laughing at something Gale had just said and was inclined to agree.

I didn’t go home, though Jude was more than willing to make the detour: I went to Rooba’s, because she had a spacious house and had invited our whole group to stay over after the after-prom party, to sleep till noon and enjoy a lazy brunch before going home. We were a remarkably well-behaved group of teens so it felt more like a church lock-in than anything else, except for the fact that I changed into my pajamas from an evening gown and slept in Lettie Wilhearn’s bedroom – sans Lettie, of course, Rooba having given her older kids the weekend off work and banished them to the lake cabin.

Jude didn’t say a word on the drive. When we got to his house he asked if I wanted anything to eat or drink, then obligingly disappeared after retrieving my overnight bag and directing me to the nearest bathroom.

I belatedly recalled that I was still wearing his tux jacket and intended to hang it on the back of Lettie’s desk chair when I turned in, but somehow I ended up taking it to bed with me as an additional makeshift cover, my nose burrowed in the comforting scent of his collar.

I dreamt about orchid corsages and hand-kisses and sneaking a pepper shaker into my purse and woke with sore, slightly puffy eyes, as though I’d cried myself to sleep. Lettie’s alarm clock read 11:18am in the blaring midday sun and in the papasan opposite me was Jude, curled up like a child with a pile of throw pillows under his tousled head. His eyes were open and contemplative and very carefully focused on the pillow adjacent to me.

Hey, I greeted him in a sleepy croak.

Hey, he replied softly, eyes flickering to mine. Do…do you hate me, mädchen?

I blinked rapidly, trying to think what he might have done to make me hate him or if he was just referring to the fact that we’d ended up sleeping in the same room, which didn’t bother me two pins. We’d fallen asleep on each other on the bus back from Knowledge Bowl tourneys and music competitions more times than I could count.

Why on earth would I hate you? I puzzled.

Because I…asked you out, he reminded me with a wince while still firmly maintaining eye contact, as though determined to stay strong for his sentencing.

At prom, I confirmed, a smile creeping irrepressibly across my mouth. It’s a bit like being in love with one’s own wife, Sir Percy. Demmed unfashionable.

The Scarlet Pimpernel was second on the Senior Lit slate and Jude had loved it just as much as I loved Jane Eyre.

Consequently, my remark won a grateful, crooked smile and I patted the bed beside me: an invitation Jude accepted without hesitation, stretching out his lanky frame with a groan and a breathless oof! as I flung my arms around his waist and pillowed my head on his chest.

I liked the smell and feel of Jude beneath my cheek. It felt like home – or going back there – and I think in that moment I finally realized those moments were numbered and swiftly counting down.

I’ve never been asked out before, you know, I reminded him. It was sweet; the sweetest thing anyone’s ever said to me. And anyway, you potentially asked me out, under a very specific set of circumstances.

True, he agreed, and that seemed to set everything to rights. Want go find some breakfast? he wondered, tracing my braid with a fingertip.

No, I replied firmly and nuzzled deeper into his t-shirt, hiding my face from the sun.

Me neither, he agreed, and curled his arms around me, hugging me snugly to him.

Jude had clearly passed a rougher night than me because he drifted off almost immediately and was still sleeping hard at 12:30, when the savory smells of Rooba’s thick-cut bacon and handmade sausages roused my belly and brain respectively. (I learned later that Luka and Johanna had commandeered Jude’s bed, not for anything sketchy, but that they were curled together and sound asleep by the time he finally made it there, hence being relegated to Lettie’s papasan – a fine place for reading and cat-naps but miserable for a night’s worth of sleep.) On my way to the bathroom I practically collided with Jenny, Jude’s fourteen-year-old sister, noshing on a bacon sandwich and voracious for gossip.

So are you and Jude together now? she demanded with all the cheerful frankness of their mother. I saw you cuddling in Lettie’s bed.

I had always adored Jenny Tolliver more than I would ever let on. She and Jude were the only full siblings among Rooba’s five children and the similarities were endearingly obvious, despite the fact that Jenny inherited their father’s stunning black hair where Jude was a tow-headed, gray-eyed hybrid.

That was snuggling, I corrected her. Small but crucial difference.

You should think about leveling up, she advised gravely. He adores you, you know, and I hear teenage weddings are coming back en vogue.

Go away, imp, I teased, unbothered by her implication. She’d wanted me and Jude to get together since our first season of Knowledge Bowl and stubbornly refused to acknowledge that we didn’t like each other that way. I need to find some coffee and then we can argue this further.

I’ll be waiting, she said gleefully, stepping aside to let me into the bathroom.

But Jenny and I never reconvened for that argument, because that afternoon was the start of the slow crumble of the perfect high school year. Not because of anything to do with Jude or prom or Katniss’s engagement: because of something I overheard on my way to the kitchen that ended up being far more significant than I could’ve imagined.

Rooba and Marek – the Mellarks’ bachelor uncle – were preparing all the cooked food for the sleepy teenage brunch binge but Peeta’s father had stopped by with an assortment of pastries from the bakery and was on his way out again, talking to Rooba on the back porch, when I passed by en route to the kitchen.

So they’re young, she was saying. They’re hard workers with good heads on their shoulders, and they both went through the wringer at a young age. They know how to provide for a family and will do whatever it takes to put food on the table. They’ll do fine – better than fine, if we help them out a bit.

Janek Mellark’s response to this wasn’t clear – something about waiting – and Rooba replied in a strange, edged tone: Would you wait if Alys was willing?

I moved away before I could hear his reply, if indeed he made one, and enthusiastically engaged burly, cheerful Marek in a debate as to which of his offerings – stuffed French toast, chocolate chip pancakes, or Belgian waffles – would be the best to start off with, but there was a hot thudding in my ears and my eyes couldn’t seem to focus.

Alys, of course, was Katniss’s mother Alyssum – my mother’s best friend and confidante from childhood to the present – and I knew through my mother that Alys and Janek Mellark had been high school sweethearts on the very cusp of getting engaged when she unexpectedly broke up with him to get together with Jack Everdeen. Janek married Raisa Brognar – Rooba’s younger sister – on the rebound and everyone had gone on to produce their respective children and find varying degrees of contentment in their lives, but by all accounts, the Mellarks had rarely if ever been happy together, and of course, Katniss’s father died six years ago, leaving Alys bereft and in a stupor of grief, not unlike my own mother when her twin sister died at sixteen.

According to my mother, Alys Everdeen and Janek Mellark had carefully avoided each other since their breakup in high school, but when Peeta and Katniss began dating, they were thrown together to a certain extent and forced to interact socially. Further, in an unguarded moment that winter, Janek had admitted to Alys that he was still in love with her – feelings, Alys confessed to my mother afterward, that she was troubled to find she returned.

Of course, I discussed this with no one but my mother, though many a time I’d ached to confide in Jude, since we were similarly on the fringes of this relationship – not directly involved but connected through our mothers and their own relationships with the couple in question.

Something about Rooba’s remark that morning after prom implied that things were changing or had done, maybe irrevocably, and when I asked my mother about it that afternoon she gave a long sigh and kissed my forehead as though I were still a little girl. Do you really want to know, petal? she wondered. It might be easier to be ignorant till it all comes out.

Of course, I wouldn’t be me if I hadn’t wanted to know, and that’s how I learned what happened after the newly engaged Peeta and Katniss left for prom. About the argument that ensued when Alys furiously confronted Janek about his son’s proposal – and what happened after the argument.

I suppose it shouldn’t have come as that great a shock, but when you hear about a classmate’s parents getting divorced, you don’t think about his father sleeping with another classmate’s mother – or getting her pregnant. But it was some months before all of that came out, months when I could almost forget the secret burning in the back of my mind as the perfect year wound down to its inevitable, poignant end.

#the one that got away #fic bits #jude/madge #jude tolliver #modern au

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mnranger5 · 4 years

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“Falling” in the NorthEast, Boston, MA, Portland, ME, Boothbay, ME, Whitefield, NH, 9/27/19 – 10/1/19

More than once on this trip, we heard people say they “SUMMER” in the Boothbay, Kennebunkport and in the rolling mountains of New Hampshire and Vermont. One older gentleman, with a sweater draped over his back, sleeves tied around his chest, explained it on our evening ocean sail, as “Summering, as a verb.” Well, we here in the Midwest have our own term - it’s called “VACATIONING.” And since it is no longer summer, this trip is VACATIONING IN THE FALL. But, in the spirit of rebranding words to sound like an East Coast Hoity Toity, this blog is all about Dyan and I FALLING across the northeastern United States.

One of our bucket list trips was an east coast roadtrip which included indulging in an obscene amount of lobster and taking in the brilliant fall foliage in the White Mountain National Forrest. So, for Dyan’s birthday, I booked this trip for her. This turned out to be a wonderful getaway as we wandered around the NE with no real agenda. Having no plans really allowed us to get creative with the journey and we ended up stumbling on some very interesting locations and activities. And the people watching on this trip was priceless. Surely worth more laughs than the best SNL skit.

9/27/19

Like all our trips, we were up early. Our 6:50 flight took off just after sunrise and we surfed the clouds at 35,000 feet all the way to Boston. A quick little 2-hour flight of smooth sailing is my kind of travel!

We Uber’ed over to the Courtyard Marriott hotel in downtown Boston. This hotel is directly across the street from the TD Boston Garden, the venue for the concert we’d be attending later that night. With the room not being ready yet, Dyan and I ventured out into downtown, in search of a lunch-time lobster roll. We settled on Luke’s Lobster. We ate at Luke’s on our first visit to Boston, and we both recalled it being delicious. We ordered the lobster rolls, drizzled in warm butter and a side of clam chowder. The lobster rolls were fabulous, albeit pricey. At $25 for a hot dog sized sandwich, it’ll leave you wanting two more.

After lunch, we walked around a bit more seeing some of the Freedom Trail sites. We walked the entire Freedom Trail on our first visit in August of 2016, so this time we hit one main exhibit that had been closed for restoration. Old Ironsides, also known as, the U.S.S. Constitution. We toured the ship for nearly an hour. An absolute highlight for me that I had been hoping I’d get to see since our trip in 2016.

For dinner, we chose Bell in the Hand Tavern, American’s oldest tavern. This storied establishment has been around since 1795. Obviously, it’s been renovated, but the bones and stonework of the building are original. Of course, their specialty is cold drinks and seafood. Yes please. We got the best seat in the house, the table at the point of the restaurant.

Obviously, we ordered oysters and lobster rolls and beer. While we ate absolutely everything on our plates, they were probably our least favorite lobster rolls of the trip, and most expensive at $28/roll. The lobster was a bit dry, the buns weren’t griddled and the shredded lettuce under the lobster was wilted. Complaining about having to eat lobster…first world problems.

After dinner, we walked a couple of blocks over to an establishment where everybody knows your name. And they’re always glad you came!

Yep, the original Cheers! bar. It was here Dyan fell for unfiltered, “chunky” cider beer called DownEast Cider.

From there, it was over to the Boston Garden, home of the Boston Celtics and Bruins. A storied facility, like its well-known brother down the street called Fenway Park. But tonight, was not about Larry Bird’s basketball team or Bobby Orr’s hockey team. Tonight, was a different kind of birthday gift for Dyan. Tickets to The Chainsmokers & 5 Seconds of Summer (5SOS) concert! We had great seats too, sitting low on the side just off stage left. Opening act, Lennon Stella, was underwhelming, as she played to about 5,000 fans that were in the process of filtering into the area. Her set felt very small on the massive stage and worse, all her songs sounded the same.

The second band of the night were the Ausie Punk Rockers, 5SOS. These guys were full of energy from the moment they hit the stage. Easily could be headliners of their own show, they rolled out all their hits including their hard rock version of Easier, one of my favorite songs. They did a sweet cover of Blink 182’s What’s My Name and closed their set down with an amazing rendition of Youngbloods. 5SOS was amazing, and we agreed we’d both go see them again.

The headliner was the DJ duo, The Chainsmokers. This is one of our favorites. While we aren’t part of the stereotypical rave or EDM crowd, we do love a good Chainsmokers remix on then Sonos while we’re cooking dinner for the kiddos! Anyway, the show was more like a spectacle. There were more laser lights, smoke, pyrotechnics, flaming drumsticks, motorbikes, giant suspended metal globes (which the bikes rode in), and great music than any show I have ever been to. The show was probably the best show either of us have ever been to. They opened the set with Takeaway (with Lennon Stella) before hitting just about every hit they’ve ever made, like Paris, Something Just Like This, Don’t Let Me Down, Call You Mine, This Feeling, Who Do You Love (with 5SOS) before closing with Closer. From 5SOS to The Chainsmokers, Dyan and I never sat in our seats. Boston got to see all my best dance moves! It was an incredible concert.

9/28/19

By 8AM, we were checked out of the hotel, and Uber’ed back to the airport to pick up our rental car. We rented from Alamo. Just our luck… Alamo had the ONLY line in the entire rental car reservation area. We waited in line for about 30 minutes before reaching the counter. Obviously, I rented as cool of car as I could get my hands on. Afterall, this was going to be a roadtrip and we needed to drive in style! So I selected the Mustang convertible class several months earlier. When it was our turn to approach the counter, the attendant asked me the car class I was looking for. I told her we reserved the standard convertible. She shot me the most dead serious look and told me the last couple at the counter had just upgraded to the last convertible. My jaw dropped as I searched for words. Then she flashed her pearly whites at me and said, “Just Kidding!”

Within minutes, we were headed out to the garage. Sitting right up front were two gorgeous Mustang convertibles. One was bright red car under the “Standard Convertible” sign, and the other was silver under the “Premium Convertible” sign. The silver was the 5.0L Mustang GT. The lot attendant was a 16 year old gal who likely had no idea the difference in the cars. She lead us over to the red car. I asked if we could take the silver car. She shrugged her shoulders. We picked the silver GT and got out of the garage before anybody knew any better.

Our road trip had officially begun! First stop, Salem, MA. Salem is a cute little town that 100% plays to tourists coming to learn about the town’s history. Specifically, Witches and the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 – one of the most tragic events of early American History.

There were dozens of historical sites to see in a one-mile radius stretching from downtown Salem to the waterfront. We only had time to hit a couple of sites, so the first site we visited is the Witch House, widely considered ground zero in Salem’s eerie history. In 1692, the home was owned by Jonathon Corwin, a wealthy merchant and politician. He was also the magistrate and judge in Salem who presided over the Salem Witch Trials. In short, Corwin oversaw the imprisonment of 150 people (witches, thought to be practicing witchcraft) and the death of 19 (18 of which were hung, and one pressed to death. Our second stop of the day was at The Salem Witch Trial Memorial, just blocks from Corwin’s residence. Each of the 19 killed in 1692 have their own granite slab indicating their demise.

Our reaction to Salem was mixed. Interesting, yes. Creepy, yes. Sad, yes. It is too bad all those people had to die because a couple of kids were acting out (acting like kids when they don’t get iPad time) and their parents thought somebody was casting a spell on them. Time for people to die. Sheash! Obviously, the story is tragic and cruel, but the entire town plays to the story. Virtually every shop in the historic area has to do with spooky costumes, Halloween decor, dark presences and witches. It really is a bizarre place to visit with a creepy vibe. Doubtful we’d ever go back.

Next stop on the roadtrip was Kennebunkport. This little gem of a coastal town is quaint, yet insanely overcrowded with tourist milling around. The two hotspots, The Clam Shack and Arundel Wharf Seafood had very long lines, so we settled on Alisson’s Restaurant because it had immediate seating. Talk about a sleeper! This place gets none of the seafood hype but delivers up some fantastic lobster rolls! Dyan got the regular lobster roll, while I ordered the lobster roll trio “sliders.” Finally a lobster meal that was filling!

Back on the road! By 3PM, we reached Portland. Our hotel, the Westin Harborview, sits beautiful perched up on the hill overlooking the Fore River dumping into the Atlantic Ocean. While waiting for our room, we had a couple of drinks at Top of the East, the rooftop hotel bar.

Later that evening, we walked from the hotel to the waterfront as we evaluated all the seafood restaurants. Obviously, we were having lobster again, but there was a lot of restaurants to choose from. The Fisherman’s Wharf had at least a dozen piers, all of which appeared to be working docks. They all had shops, businesses, seafood markets and a few restaurants. So many signs stating “Best Lobster Roll”, “Freshest Lobster”, “Most Lobster”, “Affordable Lobster”. How do you choose? We were drowning in choices. We took a walk down Portland Pier seeing neon lights at the very end. Must be another lobster joint… As we got closer, the establishment’s sign came into view. It wasn’t just any lobster joint. Nope, this was Luke’s Lobster’s flagship location – a brand new facility that just opened in June of this year. Winner-winner-lobster-dinner! Dyan and I got seated waterfront on the patio. We had an amazing view of the sunset at low tide.

9/29/19

It was another gorgeous autumn morning. After a delicious breakfast at the Westin, we headed north. With the heater blasting, and Dyan covered in our jackets, we cruised with the top down through the Maine Points.

One of our stops was at Bath, ME. Prior to the trip, dad gave me a tip that this is the location of Bath Iron Works (BIW), the defense contractor that builds the United States elite warships. While we really couldn’t get close to the ship, we did have a couple vantage points of the USS Daniel Inouye (DDG-118), and Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. This destroyer is widely considered the world’s most advanced surface warship.

As we crossed the Kennebec River, we got a different view of BIW, and saw a different ship currently being fitted. It was the USS Lyndon B Johnson (DDG-1002). The Lyndon B will be the third and final Zumwalt-class destroyer. With out of controls costs, and 29 canceled orders, the total project costs were spread over the three ships at a staggering price of 7.5 billion dollars per ship. Yikes!

On our way to Boothbay, we made a wrong turn and ended up at Knickerbocker Park, a small island on the Black River.

What a hidden gem this little park is. We used this pit stop to walk a bit in the sun, and warm up!

We arrived in Boothbay around 11:00, and proceeded to shop around the small town for about an hour. Dyan picked up a new wooden lobster marker for the family room picture shelf and also booked us a three hour afternoon sail to the nearby lighthouses on the Atlantic Ocean coastline.

But first, lobster. We needed some in our bellies. We had it narrowed down to two options. McSeagulls or Mine Oyster. Both on the water, both with seafood on the menu. However, McSeagulls had this great cover band on their patio belting out some 80’s hits. This was my kinda place. Mine Oyster on the other hand seemed to be known for their oyster menu – not my thing. I remained silent, hoping Dyan would succumb to the great tunes bellowing from the bar. Dyan chose Mine Oyster. Of course, she did. But this is her birthday extravaganza afterall, so whatever makes mama happy makes me happy! We were promptly seated at the patio overlooking the Boothbay Harbor. Full disclosure, other than for breakfast, we had lobster for every single meal thus far. We kind of wanted to try some other fresh caught seafoods. First up, Dyan got a small order of Oysters Rockafeller (sambuca flambéed spinach, garlic, shallots, bacon, cream and Swiss cheese) – the same style of oysters her and dad fell in love with while we were in Florida Keys for Alissa’s wedding. I tried one, but it just reaffirmed that oysters are not my thing! Dyan on the other hand was in Heaven. We also got an order of fresh Maine squid, fried up into delicious calamari.

But oysters and calamri weren’t very filling. The waiter told us that if we ordered the woodfired lobster dinner, he would personally guarantee that we’d never have better lobster in our life. EVER. That’s a hell of a guarantee. Obviously, there was no saying “NO” to that claim. And so, we had lobster for lunch, again.

It was served, pre-split for us. The shells and edge of the lobster were a bit blacked from the wood fire. But the meat glistened with a garlic/lemon butter. It was obvious this place knew how to prepare lobster, and from bite #1, they made good on their guarantee. We had had some great lobster on this trip, but the smokiness of the woodfire put this lobster in an entirely different category. There literally was no comparison to this lobster. The meat literally fell out of the shell and into your stomach…not sure if I ever chewed. Dyan and I spent 30 minutes peeling every tiny shred of meat out of every tentacle, tail orifice and claw. This was one of the best meals I have ever had in my life. And the fingerling potatoes served with it would have stolen the show on any other entrée except this one. They were roasted perfectly in a butter glaze. Crispy skin and soft creamy middle. This restaurant This meal could easily be the ONLY reason necessary to visit Boothbay. Just wow. We sat on the patio for two hours drinking cold beers and watching lobster boats coming and going from the harbor.

Next up, was our sail boat ride on the Schooner Eastwind. A perfectly relaxing sail for Dyan, but a working sail for me. Within 5 minutes of boarding, we broke dock and were out into the harbor. The captain and 1st officer needed assistance raising the sails.

Obviously, I volunteered. Me and another guy hoisted the main sail to full mast. Immediately, the wind caught the sail and we were heading south out to the ocean. The trip took us past Burnt Island Lighthouse and Cuckolds Lighthouse.

While no whales were spotted, some on the boat claimed to see multiple porpoises. We did see a seal swimming through our wake which was pretty cool. It was a perfect day for sailing – bluebird skies, temps in the 60’s with some decent wind. At the midpoint of our sail, we passed Cape Island, better known as Witch Island. This island was owned by Margret Hamilton, better known as the Wicked Witch of the East from Wizard of Oz. Apparently, she was a lovely woman and was known in the area for the being such a kind and sweet natured person!

After our sail, we headed out to Spruce Point Inn, our resort for the night. Our cabin had a front row seat to a gorgeous Boothbay/Atlantic Ocean sunset.

We had a very comical end to the night that Dyan and I just could not stop laughing about. It was 8PM and we were famished. We took the shuttle back into Boothbay for dinner. There was a quaint Italian restaurant, The Ports of Italy, that seemed to be the local favorite. We didn’t have reservations, so it was a bit of a wait. Great people watching, however. Like, better than the state fair or airport. Lots of old money and tourists made for an entertaining dinner. Because this restaurant is quite small, the tables are virtually on top of each other. After being seated, a younger couple was sat directly next to us. They kept looking over at Dyan and I, clearly judging what we were eating. I had this GIGANTIC plate of spaghetti in front of me and Dyan an equally large portion of lobster ravioli. We chowed like nobody’s business. We even ordered a second basket of bread just so we could mop up the sauce left on our dishes. Meanwhile, the other couple was eating dainty salads with their glasses of vino. They obviously could not believe how much food we had consumed. They didn’t disguise their non-verbals very well. Then we ordered dessert…not one, but two! Cheesecake and lemon cake. Obviously, those plates didn’t last long. And the looks from our neighbors just kept on coming. I could have eaten another basket of bread, but I refrained.

After dinner, we walked around town. Most of the shops were closed. It was cold, as temps had dropped into the 40’s. Neither of us had brought our jackets. There was a shop that was open a couple blocks ahead of us with people streaming in and out of. It was an ice cream parlor, and our hope was that they’d have some hot coffee. We walked in, stood in the long line and glanced at the menu. No coffee. We turned around and guess who was right behind us in line. Yep, the couple from the Italian restaurant. They must’ve really fallen off their rockers when they saw us in line – probably thought we were ordering our second desserts. What a riot!

9/30/19

As beautiful of a resort as Spruce Point Inn is, we didn’t stick around long in the morning. We were headed for the hills of New Hampshire by 9AM. We stopped for a quick breakfast-on-the-road at Dunkin Donuts which brings me to a rant about the Northeast. I am a pop drinker. At several locations in the NE (including this Dunkin), we stopped to get pop – Dr. pepper for Dyan and Diet Pepsi for me. Everytime we cracked a 20oz. bottle, there was no “PSSSSST”. The pop was perfectly flat - no fizz, no bubbles, absolutely void of any carbonation. It was like this nearly everywhere.

By the end of the trip, the common denominator for the carbonation-less soda was bottles with this symbol on the cap. Bizarre and disappointing because we probably wasted at least $10 on bad pop before figuring out not to buy pop with that cap.

The drive into New Hampshire was stunning. We drove winding mountain roads as we climbed in elevation. The fall foliage went from early signs of fall to full blown peak colors in a matter of an hour. Brilliant reds and oranges cascaded down the mountains. These are the colors that people rave about on NE fall road trips!

With the top down, we cruised along New Hampshire backroads that aren’t even recognized by the GPS. Around noon, we arrived at our stately resort, Mountain View Grand Resort, perched high on a hill in the White Mountains.

The resort, built in 1865, is a massive, sprawling compound complete with a golf course, farm (with animals), mountain trails, pools, tennis courts and axe throwing. The place is magnificent.

We were too early to check in, so we had a great lunch in the restaurant before heading outdoors to rent mountain bikes. Yep, we were about to go mountain biking dressed in our Sunday-best. And for the record, we aren’t bikers. Renting bikes had as much paperwork as buying a new car. The Activities Manager, Mike, asked us our skill level, which prompted a response like “This is our first bike ride in 30 years.” He laughed. He was planning to send us on Trail 1. He assured us it would be easy. He built up how much fun we’d have. “It’s a nice scenic view of the White Mountains.” We were sold! His parting words were, “Stay right on the Old Farm Road (OFR) until you see a sign for Trail 1, then take a left.”

Great! We were off. OFR is a significantly long downhill dirt road out the backside of the resort. Within moments, Dyan and I were going WAY too fast on the loose gravel.

At this point in the story, I should mention that OFR has no clear signage. There are several forks in the road to other dirt roads. I recalled Mike saying “stay right”, so I called out to Dyan to take the right fork. It led us into the resort maintenance area…a dead end. We retraced our path uphill to the fork, walking the bikes up the steep road. This was the first moment I regretted jeans and a sweater.

We headed back down OFR approaching another fork. This time Dyan called out the right fork. The road meandered into the woods and abruptly dead ended after a quarter of a mile. Ugh, backtrack again. This was annoying.

As Dyan walked her bike uphill, I rode my bike hard in a standing position, to get more power. SNAP! My pedal flew out from under me as my foot slipped off causing me to nearly lose my balance. The chain had popped off.

Frustrating. I spent a few minutes getting the chain connected again, leaving my hands black with oil and nowhere to clean them off. After backtracking, we continued down OFR looking for Trail 1. We came across a an unmarked trail. Feeling like we had gone WAY TOO FAR on OFR, we decided to take it. It turned out to be Trail 3, and Intermediate blue rout full of up/downs and rocks to dodge. We obviously had gone the wrong way, but whow would we have known since the trails were not clearly marked.

As we huffed and puffed on Trail 3, we approached a fork in the road. To the right was Trail 5, but straight was unmarked. The unmarked trail turned out to be Trail 4, the most difficult trail on the mountain. It was So steep, there were points we had to stop and walk our bikes. My chain continued popping off, and Dyan’s bike wouldn’t shift into higher gears. She was stuck doing uphills in very low gear settings – which made the challenging ride virtually impossible!

Trail 4 was the most challenging because it was super steep. I swore under my breath a few times at the long meander downhill that OFR tool us on. This was the payback. An intense uphill with seemingly no end in sight. After 30 minutes on Trail 4, we arrived at a junction with a sign that said, Trail 1! Finally. Trail 1 gave us a nice easy ride out to the paved Mountain View Road where we could enjoy some of the beautiful scenery without having to worry what was over the next hill! By this time however, Dyan was beat from her gear shifter not working, and I was a filthy mess from fixing my chain a half dozen times. When returning the bikes, Mike made a comment about how greasy my hand were. I told him of our chain and gear shifting problems which caused him to react oddly. He actually blamed the problems on us stating that while Dyan’s bike was gear shifting hard, it must have been user error because “it worked for him.” He went on to tell me that I was obviously riding the bike wrong if the chain kept coming off. He was quite defensive, so Dyan and I headed to the front desk to check in to the room – we had lots of plans this evening!

First up, we had a wine tasting in the 1865 Wine Cellar. I can’t tell you the kinds of wine we tasted, but they were pretty tasty. They also served cheese, crackers and fruit, which was a nice little snack before dinner.

And speaking of dinner, we had reservations at Stickney’s Steak and Chop Pub, in the iconic Omni Resort at Mt. Washington – a quick 15 minute drive from our resort. This place is supposed to be a world-class steakhouse, but it ended up being anything but that.

We aren’t wine drinkers, but thought we might try it with our steak dinners. We asked the waiter for a sweeter red wine. Dyan and I chose differently based on his recommendations. Neither ended up being sweet at all. Mine tasted like jet fuel, and Dyan’s was like a glass of red vinegar (although, she didn’t complain about hers). After one sip, I ordered a Diet Pepsi.

For starters, we selected the crisp fried mozzarella, which was a giant brick of mozzarella with little fried coating. We also both got the filet mignon. I don’t know how you mess up a filet, but they surely did. No seasoning not cooked very well and just overall a tough piece of meat. That would be the worst $150 we spent on the trip. Dinner was a bust, but at least we got a good laugh!

10/1/19

I had expected today to be a boring drive on the interstate back to Boston to catch a flight home. However, the drive turned out to have some really fun impromptu stops which ended up being highlights of the trip.

Being that we were only 10 minutes away from the Bernie Sanders territory, we decided to make the trip west to the N.H./Vermont border town of Lancaster for breakfast. Then, we crossed the state line into Vermont and made our way down highways through the sleepy towns along the Connecticut River. Just outside of Lunenburg, VT, we crossed the Mount Orne Covered Bridge. This was our first covered bridge of the trip!

We continued south winding along the river and valleys, taking in the vibrant red and orange foliage that canvassed the mountains. It was the most beautiful fall colors we had seen the entire trip.

We joined up with I-93 in St. Johnsbury and headed southeast toward Boston.

It didn’t take long for us to start gaining elevation as we made out way out of Franconia and up Cannon Mountain.

Just past the very intense black diamonds of the ski area were signs for Flume Gorge. I recall seeing the first sign for the area and turning to Dyan and saying something like, “That sounds like a cool place!” Dyan looked at me and said, “I was thinking the same thing!” Neither of us knew what a Flume Gorge was, but we took the next exit, because we were now on an adventure to find out. The Flume Gorge could have been a trail, an amusement park ride, a historical site, a logging mill or maybe even a hotel or restaurant. We didn’t even know where it was. It could have been an hour away or maybe longer? Just off the interstate we got our first idea what and where the Flume Gorge was. On the exit ramp was a state park sign for Flume Gorge telling indicating it was less than a mile away. Sweet!

The parking lot was in the middle of the mountainous forest, and it was packed with cars. Hikers were milling around in their big boots, rain gear and cold weather clothes. Dyan and I looked like we were dressed for a summer day on the water. Shorts and flip flops. The cold damp weather was not going to stop us from doing or seeing whatever this Flume gorge thing is…

We approached the visitor’s center where mountaineers stood in line for tickets. When it was our turn, we asked, “What are we standing in line to buy tickets for?” The ranger pulled out a map with hiking trails leading to Flume Gorge. It was deep ravine with rushing water running through it creating multiple cascading waterfalls. It was a 2-3 hour round trip hike, but if we used the shuttle, to the base of the gorge, it was a 1.5 hour hike. The ranger told us it would be wet, slick and muddy. I looked down at my flip flops, and Dyan’s cute canvas shoes. Our eyes met, smiling, knowing there was no chance we were leaving that place without experiencing the Flume Gorge. We bought tickets.

Because we were pressed a bit for time (we did have a flight out of Boston in 6 hours, and were still a solid 2 hour drive from the airport), we opted to take a shuttle to the base of the gorge. The shuttle ride is super cool because it took us across the Flume Covered Bridge – the most photographed covered bridge in all of New Hampshire.

After a .5 mile hike up a steep trail, we reached our entrance to the gorge (which is actually the exit because it’s where the water flows out of the gorge). The granite walls shoot straight up in the air nearly 100 feet. The pathway through the gorge is a narrow platform that has been constructed to walk above water level. The water flows through the gorge, which is never more than 20 feet wide. If you have claustrophobia, this is NOT the place for you. The walkway raises alongside the gorge wall as it zig zags across the water giving visitors the best views of the waterfalls.

It took about 45 minutes to make our way through the 800-foot long gorge. And by the end, we were way up on top of the gorge, where the creek dumps in. This was one of the coolest stops on our trip.

By noon, we made it to the Mustang and were about to get back on the interstate, but first needed some fuel. We were in the run down resort town of Lincoln, NH when we stopped at Irving Oil. A Gas Station that will certainly leave an impression on you. This is ground zero to the Betty and Barney Hill alien abduction. The gas station is full of newspaper articles, pictures and documents explaining the events that had taken place. Complete with alien blow up dolls and visitor t-shirts this gas station was an experience that caters to the tourists.

The remainder of our drive into Boston was not nearly as eventful. We actually arrived a few hours early, so we sat at Constitution Beach Park and watched jets land over Belle Isle Inlet.

Around 6PM, we were wheels up en route to Minneapolis. There were some pretty good lines of storms over the NorthEast and upper Midwest, so our flight path diverted us way north over Sault Saint Marie in Canada before finally bringing us home. The flight was over 4 hours, which was nearly double our flight time to Boston.

This trip solidified Boston as our favorite Big City to visit.

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clarencevancleave · 5 years

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Meet the Real Estate Tech Founder: Brian Davis from Spark Rental

In our latest real estate tech entrepreneur interview, we’re speaking with Brian Davis from Spark Rental.

Who are you, and what do you do?

My name is G. Brian Davis, I’m a landlord and co-founder of Spark Rental.

Our mission is to help everyday people reach financial independence and retire early with real estate. If that sounds specific, it actually covers a wide range of disciplines. We teach people how to invest in rental properties, of course. Our blog and free videos cover topics like how to buy property with minimal money down, financing options for rental properties, some of the best cities for rental investing based on a range of data, and so on.

Because rentals are long-term investments, they need to be managed. So we focus heavily on property management education, and we offer free landlord software to help mom-and-pop landlords manage their rentals.

But there’s also the personal finance side of the equation – to reach financial independence at a young age, you need a high savings rate. The more of your income that you save, the faster you build wealth and passive income. So we get into budgeting, tricks like house hacking, how to handle health insurance if you retire early, and dozens of other lessons. We even cover how stock investing and where stocks fit into your financial independence plan.

What problem does your product/service solve?

Our business solves two problems. First, we want our audience to understand that they have complete control over their finances and retirement horizon. You can design and live your perfect life, but it usually involves short-term sacrifices to create your perfect life long-term.

Want to retire in five years? You can do it, but it requires radical lifestyle changes and aggressive investing. Most people simply spend almost everything they earn, and then complain that they don’t earn enough to invest. Few people acknowledge that their current budget represents a choice, even if one made thoughtlessly.

Second, we help landlords and smaller property management companies automate their rental management. Our online landlord software lets you syndicate your rental listings to platforms like Zillow and Trulia, collect rental applications, run tenant screening reports with one click, create lease agreements, collect rent online, and track income and expenses.

What are you most excited about right now?

What I’m most excited about right now is a new co-investing program we’re preparing to launch. We’re going to help new investors earn while they learn, by partnering with us on rental property deals. They become true partners with an ownership share, and get access to see behind the scenes of finding deals, renovating properties, screening tenants, and so forth.

It’s a bit tricky, as we have to tread carefully to avoid the label of real estate syndication by the SEC. Even trickier is making the numbers work, as there’s a lot of labor involved on our part and little direct compensation for that labor. But education is a priority for us, and we’re determined to give everyone, not just accredited investors, access to directly partner on rental deals for as little as a few hundred dollars.

What’s next for you?

Deni and I have several large projects on our plate in the coming year. We’re planning a major overhaul of our software, to vastly improve usability and reduce pricing even further if we can do so profitably. We’re also constantly updating and expanding our FIRE from Real Estate course, designed to help middle-class earners reach financial independence and retire early (FIRE) with rentals.

Finally, we’re looking to scale and grow our team to keep expanding our business. My co-founder Deni Supplee and the rest of our team are stretched thin at the moment, so we’re gradually systematizing and scaling our business to grow without losing our vision. We’ve never been interested in the Silicon Valley model of gobbling up as much cash as possible. We want to maintain complete control of our business and serve our audience as best we can for many years to come.

What’s a cause you’re passionate about and why?

We’re a family business, and want to stay a family business. That’s actually something I’m quite passionate about: supporting other family businesses. Whenever possible, we choose family businesses and small businesses as our partners. In my personal life, I shop at family businesses and avoid mega-corporations whenever possible.

Despite what the naysayers will tell you, I believe now is a better time than ever to launch and grow a small family business.

I’m also a huge believer in financial literacy. They don’t teach personal finance in schools, yet we’re all expected to manage our own budgets, investments, and retirement planning? And it only makes the problem worse that our culture has a taboo against talking about money. Most parents can’t or won’t teach their kids personal finance, so adults end up having to learn it on their own. Except of course most never do. It’s an enormous loss of potential in our economy.

Finally, I’m a travel fanatic. My wife Katie and I spend the majority of the year overseas and visit an average of ten countries a year. Katie’s an international school counselor, and as a digital entrepreneur, I simply rent an office in a local coworking space. Our home base for the last four years was Abu Dhabi, and we recently moved to Brasilia, the capital of Brazil.

Which is one way I practice what I preach – my wife and I live entirely on her modest salary, which is comparable to a teacher’s. We invest 100% of my income, and plan to be financially independent in the next four or five years. Yet we still live a relatively luxurious life because we house hack, live without a car, and pay very little in US income taxes. It all comes down to intentionally designing your perfect life!

Thanks to Brian for sharing his story. If you’d like to connect, find him on LinkedIn here.

We’re constantly looking for great real estate tech entrepreneurs to feature. If that’s you, please read this post — then drop me a line (drew @ geekestatelabs dot com).

The post Meet the Real Estate Tech Founder: Brian Davis from Spark Rental appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

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cathrynstreich · 5 years

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Meet the Real Estate Tech Founder: Brian Davis from Spark Rental

In our latest real estate tech entrepreneur interview, we’re speaking with Brian Davis from Spark Rental.

Who are you, and what do you do?

My name is G. Brian Davis, I’m a landlord and co-founder of Spark Rental.

What problem does your product/service solve?

What are you most excited about right now?

What’s next for you?

What’s a cause you’re passionate about and why?

Despite what the naysayers will tell you, I believe now is a better time than ever to launch and grow a small family business.

Thanks to Brian for sharing his story. If you’d like to connect, find him on LinkedIn here.

We’re constantly looking for great real estate tech entrepreneurs to feature. If that’s you, please read this post — then drop me a line (drew @ geekestatelabs dot com).

The post Meet the Real Estate Tech Founder: Brian Davis from Spark Rental appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

Meet the Real Estate Tech Founder: Brian Davis from Spark Rental published first on https://thegardenresidences.tumblr.com/

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ayz8yf9q-blog · 5 years

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0745hl · 5 years

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Residents share struggles of trying to return to Bay County after hurricane

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PANAMA CITY — Bay County may still be a storm-torn county, but to thousands displaced from the area, it is still home.

Three months after Hurricane Michael, many residents — stunted by financial troubles, legal issues, and lack of housing options — are still desperately struggling to return.

Here are four stories of families struggling to return home.

GRACE HALL

Grace Hall, a lifelong citizen of Panama City, was 36 weeks pregnant when Hurricane Michael swept the county on Oct. 10. When she began having slight contractions a week following the hurricane, Gulf Coast Medical Center recommended she travel to Tallahassee to give birth.

Hall has been unable to return to Panama City since due to lack of housing. Her former home, which she was renting, is no longer livable. Even in Tallahassee, Hall struggled to find someone willing to rent to her due to an eviction on her record placed after the hurricane, which she has been unable to fight because she can’t return.

Initially, Hall received some assistance from FEMA, which she planned to use to travel back home. However, she estimates about 90 percent of the funds have already been used up on hotels, food, and diapers for the new baby during her housing search, until she was finally accepted into a women’s home that had a space for her and her baby.

“The most challenging part of everything is leaving everyone I know after the storm,” Hall said.

Despite now living in a women’s home, Hall has a case of survivor’s guilt, knowing she is taking hot showers while loved ones at home are struggling without utilities and a shortage of food.

Still, Hall wishes to return to Panama City, which is her home and has been her entire life.

“It’s where all of my memories are,” she said. “I know every road like a Google Map in my brain. It’s home.”

Hall has also had to send her 14-year-old son to Texas. Though Hall’s partner was able to be there for the birth, he has since had to return to Panama City, as he cannot stay with her in the all women shelter. Following the return to Panama City, he slept in his truck for weeks before he was able to find space in his brother’s home.

Now with a 2-and-a-half-month-old, the hurricane has left her with no transportation, no income to find housing and no family.

SHERRY COTTERMAN

Sherry Cotterman was renting a home in the Callaway area with her three family members prior to Hurricane Michael.

“We did decide to stay for the storm, which is my biggest regret in all of this. We went to bed for the night on the ninth of October thinking that it wouldn’t be too bad,” she said.

Cotterman, a native of Florida, said her prior experience with hurricanes misled her into believing the family would be safe even as Hurricane Michael barreled toward the coast. On the morning the hurricane made landfall, four more family members and one coworker joined them to hunker down in the brick home.

As the second half of the storm tore though the town, the family’s kitchen window finally blew in. Cotterman’s children were placed in the bathroom, an interior room, until water began leaking through the light fixtures. Then, the ceiling in each room began caving in.

One of the adults in the house grabbed the kids and ran to the neighbor’s house, who let them stay inside until the winds finally died down. That night, the family slept in their cars.

Cotterman, her partner, and their children spent the next week living in a hotel in Destin, then hopped to a friend’s home in Panama City Beach for the next two weeks as they fervently searched for a new place to stay.

“We would drop our kids off every day to my sister’s and drive to real estate companies who were still open, and apartment complexes. All of them were either destroyed or had no openings or were so expensive,” she said. “Most of the places we looked at were asking upwards of $2,500 a month for a house smaller than what we were previously living in.”

After no luck finding a suitable place in Panama City, the family began a search in the surrounding areas. They were able to find housing immediately in Fort Walton Beach.

“I want to return to Panama City so bad,” Cotterman said. “Panama city is the only home I’ve ever known up until hurricane Michael. I wanted to raise my children in Panama City like I was.”

Though the family continues to search for a place in town, Cotterman says it looks more and more like they will have to stay in the Fort Walton Beach area for at least another year before they will be able to come home.

“The most challenging part of this ordeal has been completely starting our lives over in a place where we know no one. Sure, it may only be an hour and a half to two hours away, but we can’t go visit everyday,” she said. “We never thought any of this would have happened to us.”

Cotterman’s partner still works in town, where he drives two hours each way to work as a general manager of a restaurant. The rest of Cotterman’s extended family is still living in Panama City.

Even after donations were given to the family, plenty of small expenses have eaten away at the family’s funds after losing everything. The family was denied FEMA assistance due to having renters insurance, but when the insurance money finally came in, the family was shocked by how little they received.

“You don’t realize all the small things you have lost until one day you’re doing something as simple as trying to cook dinner and you realize you don’t have a measuring cup,” she said. “All of those little things have added up tremendously.”

ALISSA PELHAM

Panama City has been home to Alissa Pelham for 25 years.

Nine years ago, she moved into a rental in the Cove with her husband, Sean, near her family.

“The possibility of upheaving our lives to go anywhere else, is a tough pill to swallow. Our support system is here in Panama City and in the Panhandle,” Pelham said. “We are currently commuting from the west end of the beach and that is exhausting.”

In the early hours of Oct. 10, Alissa, Sean, and their 5 and 3-year-old girls, Hannah and Sophia, scrambled to the shelter at Rutherford High School for safety.

Alissa Pelham described the shelter conditions as deplorable, with people using buckets in the hallway as toilets when the bathrooms became unusable. However, she has no regrets about evacuating to the shelter because she is certain their vehicles would have been destroyed in the storm, had they stayed.

The family hurried back into the Cove as soon as they could, driving as close to their home as possible before dozens of fallen oak trees blocked their way.

“Our home was destroyed in the storm, but we were able to salvage most of our belongings and move them into three storage units,” she said. “Two in Niceville and one in Miramar.”

The winds of Hurricane Michael suctioned the roof off the home, allowing water to pour inside. After only three days, mold blanketed the interior walls of the rental.

The Pelhams were also spread far and wide, first staying in a Pensacola hotel for three days and then a bit closer to the city by moving into an Airbnb in Miramar Beach, graciously provided by Alissa’s company.

“I was able to work from the rental and we enrolled my oldest daughter in daycare through the holidays,” Alissa Pelham said. “We kept an eye on the rental market and even homes for sale in Panama City. We had considered buying a home before the storm, but now we are very weary.”

The family has finally been able to move into the west end of the beach, but are hoping for a more permanent solution soon, in part because the family has had to foster their two cats until they find suitable housing.

Soon, Alissa Pelham said, the family will likely move into her parent’s two bedroom, one bathroom home until something opens up. While the housing situation will be a tight squeeze, the family says renting a place at the rates they are finding, in addition to the cost of childcare, is simple unaffordable.

“We have no other choice. The thought of buying a home has really been taken off the table,” Pelham said. “No matter what, we know insurance rates will be going up and property taxes will also rise due to the debris cleanup bills in the city and county.”

Every day, Pelham fears when a future storm inevitably as strong as Hurricane Michael, and every night her daughter Hannah prays for the trees to regrow.

“Now that things have settled and we don’t have that adrenaline/survival mode to aid us, the hardest part is making decisions, both short term and long term,” she said. “Looking at the market now, we can’t find any rentals that are even slightly comparable in standards of living and price. Everything is over our budget, and we don’t foresee anything going down for a long time.”

LAURA JOHNSON

By the time Laura Johnson’s family realized they needed to evacuate, it was too late — with only an hour until landfall and less than a quarter tank of gas, they had no choice but to hunker down.

Johnson’s family lived in an apartment complex before the storm. Though her unit in particular was relatively unscathed, the rest of the complex sustained major damage, which forced all occupants to leave their units.

Formerly a resident of Lynn Haven, Johnson spent two weeks searching for housing to no avail before transferring to Dothan, AL.

Still struggling to find permanent housing, Johnson is about to give birth in as little as seven weeks.

“The biggest struggle has been medical,” she said. “The most challenging part of everything has been finding a place to stay and getting everything transferred over.”

Now the rising cost of housing, combined with the lack of housing, is keeping the Johnsons from their return.

Living in Dothan has forced Laura to job hunt simultaneously to make ends meet.

“Panama City is home. Our family is there, and I personally have dreams of my children growing up and experiencing the things I experienced when I grew up,” Johnson said. “We want to go home badly but it’s just not possible soon.”

The Johnsons have been impacted financially in a huge way. Because Johnson has been unable to work, the family has almost completely depleted their disaster assistance funds and is paying double the rent they were in Panama City.

“It has all just put us in a financial mess.”

Johnson hopes to refocus on returning home once their main concern is no longer on having a healthy birth.

“I understand that most people believe that Panama City is fine now, but it’s not,” she said. “Panama City and surrounding areas are still struggling to get their lives back together.”

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