Viva Vermont! Read online

  16

  IT FELT SO GOOD TO RIDE. DJ spread her arms as she imagined herself flying down the slope. She felt free like a bird and strong again. Yet she knew she needed to be careful. The last thing she needed was to hurt her leg again. As a result, she encouraged Conner to go his own way and hang with the more experienced riders, which was a group of mostly guys plus Taylor and Casey. Okay, DJ felt slightly envious because she knew, without her bad leg, she’d have not only kept up but could’ve possibly led the pack. Still, there was no point in moping. Besides, she was having fun.

  “It’s really nice of you to hang with me,” said Rhiannon as they rode up the beginner hill together for about the sixth time. “You’re a good coach.”

  “And you’re really improving,” said DJ.

  “Thanks to you.”

  “Maybe you’ll be ready to try the intermediate hill next.”

  “Yeah … maybe …”

  But after Rhiannon did what looked like a painful face-plant at the foot of the easy hill, she was pretty rattled. “I’m sorry to slow you down,” she said as DJ helped her up, brushing the snow off her face.

  “It’s okay,” DJ assured her. “I really do need to take it easy. In fact, I think we both could use a break.”

  As they sipped cocoa in the main lodge, DJ asked about last night. “Sounded like a wild party going on,” she said to Rhiannon. “But you guys weren’t there? Where were you?”

  “We were there for a while,” admitted Rhiannon. “But it got too crazy. So Bradford walked me back to General Harding’s lodge, and we just hung there. Isn’t that a beautiful house!”

  “Yeah.” DJ nodded. “It’s amazing. I can’t believe he invited a wild bunch of girls up here to use it.”

  “Did you know that the art on the walls is real? And the sculptures are old and valuable. Bradford and I were checking it out. The general must be really wealthy.”

  “My grandmother said his family is one of the oldest and wealthiest in Connecticut.”

  “Do you think he and your grandmother would ever get married?”

  DJ laughed. “It’s hard to imagine. On the other hand, I know my grandmother is very attracted to money. Who knows?”

  “Hey,” said Casey as she joined them. “Are you two done for the day?”

  “I think I am,” admitted Rhiannon.

  “I wouldn’t mind another run or two.”

  “You guys go ahead,” said Rhiannon. “I’ll head back to the general’s lodge and get a shower before it gets too busy.”

  “Good idea,” said Casey. “Four of us are sharing one bathroom.” She made a face. “Of course, Eliza and Kriti have their own.”

  “Of course …” DJ laughed.

  “Oh, yeah,” said Casey to Rhiannon. “Everyone is planning to come back up here after dinner. There’s a band playing and stuff. Bradford asked me to let you know.”

  Then they went their separate ways, and soon DJ and Casey were riding up one of the more difficult runs. “Isn’t it beautiful up here,” said DJ as she looked out over the trees and snow and blue sky.

  “Yeah … pretty amazing.”

  “It’s so good to get away.” DJ took in a deep breath of cold fresh air.

  “Speaking of getting away,” said Casey. “I just remembered something.”

  “Huh?”

  “Did you get any mean text messages yesterday?”

  “Yeah, duh. I get them every day.”

  “What time of the day?”

  DJ considered this. “Well, there are usually several at night, and a couple waiting for me in the morning. Naturally, I dump them. Then I turn my phone off at school. But by the end of the school day there are usually one or two more. Why?”

  “Because I think I know who’s doing it.”

  “Bethany, right?”

  “Wrong.”

  “Huh?”

  They were about to get off the lift now. “It’s Haley.”

  DJ slid down, moving away from the lifts to wait for Casey to join her. “Haley?”

  Casey nodded. “I noticed her in civics yesterday. Then I remembered she’s usually at the computer at the end of each class—and I wondered why. So I looked over her shoulder in time to see she was on one of those sites.”

  “What sites?”

  “The ones where you set up an anonymous account to text people.”

  “Seriously? She does it at school?”

  “Apparently.”

  DJ shook her head. “That’s so weird.”

  “Ready to rock and roll?” asked Casey as she zipped her coat up higher.

  “You go ahead,” said DJ. “I need to pace myself.”

  Casey whipped down the hill, and DJ paused to consider this. Haley was the one writing those mean messages. For some reason this seemed way more disturbing than if it was Bethany. DJ usually tried not to read the messages, but it was hard not to miss the gist of them. And some of the language and insinuations … well, it was pretty nasty. She felt sad to think that Haley was full of such hate and anger.

  “Focus on the ride,” DJ told herself as she took off. “No more broken bones.” Then DJ bent her knees and carefully glided down. When she got to the bottom, it had been a safe ride, but some of the fun seemed to be gone.

  “You okay?” asked Casey.

  “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  “You don’t look fine.” Casey frowned and peered at DJ.

  “I just feel bad knowing that it’s Haley.”

  Casey patted DJ on the shoulder. “Sorry. Guess I should’ve kept my mouth shut. Don’t think about it, okay?”

  “That might be easier said than done.”

  “Want to do another run?”

  “Nah, maybe I should stop while I’m ahead.”

  “I’ll join the others then,” called Casey as she took off to where several of their friends were getting in a line for the most difficult run.

  “Have fun,” called DJ. “I’m heading back to the lodge.”

  Once again, the general had ordered a catered dinner. But the agreement was that the girls were in charge of cleanup. DJ thought that seemed a small price to pay, especially considering the caterers prepared real food and not the normal rabbit food the girls were used to having back at Carter House.

  “This is the plan,” said Eliza as the girls put things away in the kitchen. Eliza was sitting at the island, acting like she was the queen of the kitchen, but doing nothing. “We’ll hang with the general and Mrs. Carter for a while—you know, play games or watch TV or whatever. Then we’ll kind of trickle off to our rooms, saying how tired we are and whatnot.”

  “But don’t be obvious,” added Taylor. “Like if everyone starts yawning and making these stupid excuses—”

  “Definitely,” said Eliza. “Then we’ll sneak off in pairs to go to the lodge.”

  “What if we don’t want to?” countered DJ.

  “Then don’t,” snipped Taylor. “Stay home with Grandmother and knit.”

  DJ made a face. “I was just saying.”

  “Anyway, Kriti and I will go first.”

  “Why do you get to go first?” asked Taylor.

  “Fine,” snapped Eliza. “You go first, Taylor. Who’s your partner?”

  “Me,” said Casey eagerly.

  “So Casey and Taylor will lead the way. Just be quiet. Then Kriti and I will go, and last—and possibly least—Rhiannon and DJ can come, that is unless you guys want to be the goodytwo-shoes of the group.”

  “I want to go,” said Rhiannon. “The band is supposed to be good.”

  “I’ll go too,” said DJ. “But I don’t see why we don’t just tell them what we’re doing.”

  “We don’t want to worry them,” said Eliza.

  “Besides, this is more fun,” added Taylor.

  “And we all know where the key is hidden, right?”

  “I don’t,” said DJ.

  “Back door underneath the carved bear,” said Taylor.

  DJ felt a little guilty as she a
nd Rhiannon finally slipped out the back door. Oh, she was pretty sure they wouldn’t get caught since both her grandmother and the general had already turned in. But at the same time, DJ wondered if—as a Christian—she shouldn’t be sneaking out. As they walked toward the main lodge, she mentioned this to Rhiannon.

  “I kind of wondered that too,” admitted Rhiannon. “Sometimes it’s hard to know. I mean, no offense, but your grandmother … well, she’s not exactly a moral compass.”

  DJ laughed. “No, not exactly.”

  “But God is,” said Rhiannon.

  “So, what does God think of this?” asked DJ.

  “Well, I know that God doesn’t want me to drink,” said Rhiannon. “But I sort of feel like it’s okay to hang with our friends. Maybe I’m hoping that something we say or do will rub off, you know, like they’ll see what we have and want to change.”

  “Like that night you talked to me at Harry’s beach party?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Right now I’m mostly worried about Casey.”

  “Me too.”

  DJ sighed. “She’s really glomming onto Taylor lately.”

  “I’ve noticed.”

  “Talk about missing a moral compass.”

  “Tell me about it.” Rhiannon pushed open the door to the lodge, and they began to hear the music.

  “Anyway,” said DJ. “It’s nice hanging with you at times like this.”

  Of course, it wasn’t long before Rhiannon was hanging more with Bradford, and naturally, Conner gravitated toward DJ. It’s like everyone was pairing up. And this probably made sense because a lot of the couples were dancing. But, even so, it aggravated DJ.

  It aggravated her even more when Conner put his arm around her. They’d gone out of the lounge to search out a soda machine and some fresh air. They’d been standing by the fire when he’d pulled that little stunt, and, naturally, she moved away and gave him a warning look.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “You know,” she hissed at him as she looked over her shoulder to see if anyone was watching. “We’re just friends, remember?”

  He laughed. “Not according to the rumors flying around the mountain today.”

  “What rumors?”

  “The ones you started.”

  Now DJ remembered how her tongue had slipped with Taylor earlier.

  “So everyone thinks we slept together last night.” He winked at her in a teasing way.

  “We did sleep together,” she admitted. “But that was all, Conner. And that’s exactly what I told Taylor. I made it perfectly clear.”

  “Well, that’s not how Taylor’s replaying it.”

  “Taylor is a well-known liar.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, but people still listen to her.”

  DJ let out a long sigh of exasperation. “You know what?”

  “What?”

  “I wish we were at youth group right now.”

  He kind of frowned. “Really? You don’t like it up here?”

  She considered this. “I do like it up here. But I don’t like all these games. I don’t like that we sneaked out of the house tonight.”

  “You sneaked out?”

  “Yeah … sort of.”

  He chuckled. “We just walked out.”

  “You guys don’t have chaperones.”

  He frowned now. “Yeah, and I think some of the guys could use one.”

  “It bugs me that our friends are in the lounge right now—and they are using fake IDs to drink. I mean, isn’t that illegal? Duh.”

  “Yeah. It bugs me too.”

  “I mean, other than you and me and Rhiannon and Bradford … well, it’s crazy. And that’s why I’d rather be at youth group. At least we know where we stand there. Everything up here feels … well, kind of slippery.”

  “Do you want to go home?” He studied her. “I mean, back to where you’re staying?”

  She nodded. “You know, Conner, I do.”

  “Let me go tell Bradford I’m walking you back.”

  But when he returned, both Bradford and Rhiannon were with him. They, too, were glad to get away from the whole bar scene.

  “People get so stupid when they drink too much,” said Bradford.

  “Yeah,” agreed Rhiannon. “I spent most of my life taking care of my mom while she was either drunk or high. I think I could use a break.”

  “It’s too bad,” said DJ. “Because they’d have more fun without the drinking.”

  “For sure,” agreed Rhiannon. “You should’ve seen Taylor and Casey this morning. They were both pretty green around the gills.”

  “You guys should see Harry’s cabin,” said Bradford. “Or maybe not. It’s pretty disgusting.”

  “And smelly,” added Conner. “Last night’s party must’ve been messed up.”

  “Will Harry just leave the place like that?”

  “No way,” said Conner. “He told me that housekeeping will come the day after we leave and put it all back to rights.”

  “What money can do,” said Rhiannon sadly.

  They were back at the general’s lodge. “I wish we could invite you in,” said DJ. “And it might be okay, but I’d feel better if I’d checked it out with the general first.”

  “Yeah,” agreed Rhiannon. “It’s such a nice place, Conner. I’m sure you’d like to see it.”

  “Maybe tomorrow,” said DJ.

  Then Rhiannon and Bradford kissed goodnight, and DJ stuck out her hand to shake Conner’s. He shook it, but looked slightly disappointed.

  “Goodnight, friend,” she told him, waving as the two guys walked away. Then she found the hidden key and unlocked the door.

  “Don’t forget to put it back,” Rhiannon reminded her.

  DJ chuckled. “That’d be funny, huh?”

  “Yeah, funny until they started pounding on the door.”

  “And I know that Grandmother is a sound sleeper and General Harding’s hearing isn’t so great.”

  “So we’d probably be the ones who’d have to get out of bed and go let them in.”

  “Although we could let them chill a bit first.”

  They both laughed, but then DJ did put the key back under the bear. For one thing, she knew she was too tired after last night to get up and let cranky and possibly drunken girls in after midnight. For another thing, she really didn’t want to get up in the morning to find their frozen corpses on the back porch.

  17

  “WHERE ARE THE OTHER GIRLS?” asked the general as he flipped a pancake. DJ and Rhiannon and Grandmother were the only ones at the breakfast table on Sunday morning, and Grandmother did not look pleased.

  “They’re sleeping in,” said Rhiannon.

  More like it sleeping it off, thought DJ. Casey and Taylor had both been totally wasted when they made their noisy entrance last night—make that early this morning. DJ was surprised that they hadn’t woken up the general and her grandmother. Just a little while ago, DJ had stuck her head into Eliza and Kriti’s room and was convinced that both of them had overindulged as well. Kriti surprised DJ since she never used to drink. But, of course, Kriti was under Eliza’s influence as much as anything else these days.

  Really, DJ felt like things were getting more and more out of control, and she intended to have a talk with Grandmother. She just wasn’t sure when. It almost seemed unfair to bring it up here at the general’s place.

  “Why not wait until we get back to Crescent Cove,” suggested Rhiannon as they put the breakfast dishes into the dishwasher.

  “You’re probably right.”

  “Then you and I can speak to her together. I’ll back you up.”

  DJ smiled. “That’d be great. I really want her to understand that it’s serious. I mean, Taylor’s parents might not care what she does, but I know that the other girls’ parents would be furious if they knew what was going on.”

  “But, don’t kid yourself, DJ. This could be going on even if they were at home. In Casey’s case it was.”

  �
��Yeah … I guess. Still, it seems wrong. And even more wrong to sit back and say nothing.”

  Rhiannon nodded. “Totally.”

  As it turned out, the guys, other than Conner and Bradford, weren’t in very good shape either.

  “That house is even more disgusting today,” Conner told DJ as they rode a lift together. “Man, I don’t see how even the best housekeepers can get it clean again. I won’t go into details, but just imagine a dozen drunken guys sharing two and a half bathrooms. It ain’t pretty.”

  DJ made a face. It sort of reminded her of the horrid “shared” bathroom back in Everett Falls. She had considered using it the morning after she and Conner had “slept together” but was so disgusted by the smell that she had waited until they went for breakfast at the café to relieve herself.

  “Sorry,” said Conner. “Guess I should spare you the details, huh?”

  “Well, to be honest, it’s no walk in the park sharing accommodations with Casey and Taylor either. One of them, I’m guessing it was Casey, must’ve gotten sick last night. She partially hit the toilet. But Rhiannon cleaned up the rest of it.”

  “It’s too bad.”

  “Well, let’s not think about it,” said DJ as they got off the lift. “Let’s not let those losers spoil our day.”

  He nodded as he pulled down his goggles. “That’s right. Bad enough they’re spoiling their own.”

  DJ glanced up at the gathering clouds overhead. “It looks like weather’s coming. The best riding might be this morning.”

  “Viva Vermont!” he yelled as he shot down the slope ahead of her.

  “Viva Vermont!” she cried even louder as she took off.

  About midway down the slope she pulled over to the side and paused to take in the beauty all around her. Really, it was incredible up here—truly God’s country. But it was too bad that some people were too blind—or too wasted—to even see it. Still, she was determined not to allow the stupidity of others ruin this day for her.

  Rhiannon’s skills seemed to be improving, and she finally felt brave enough to attempt one of the more difficult runs. “I’ll stick with you,” promised DJ at the top of the hill, “and the guys can go ahead if they want.”