Our Mountain

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“Remember to listen to Arianna and Zane!” I called out as a group of five and six year olds followed my brother and sister out of the chalet to the slopes. My family runs a ski resort in Colorado. We have two winter chalets. Snow Bear is run by me because I’m the best at managing things between my siblings and I, and Black Ice is run by my parents because it’s the largest chalet we have and it gets the busiest. Our one summer chalet, used for mountain biking clients, is called Lion Claw.

Arianna and Zane, my older siblings, can do either personal lessons, or group ones. I can do them also, but I’m the only one of us okay with staying inside while other people are snowboarding and skiing. They’re antsy if they stay inside for too long. I’m the responsible one, who enjoys the business part of the resort while they just like the perks of living here.

“Savannah, Trinity flipped a burger onto the floor!” Dan called out. I laughed and headed towards the kitchen.

“Trinity, you’re going to be fired if you keep it up.” I taunted. She flipped me off. I love our staff. The resort has a unique system when it comes to the people we hire. Basically, we get the most employment opportunities in the summer because nobody has school, but some people are able, if they’re under eighteen with parent permission, to do homeschooling with my siblings and me and stay all year round. Others choose to only work summers, those who do that get the option of coming back the next summer before we hire new people. This way, we can all stay close and rarely have somebody unwelcome on the staff.

Trinity is a newbie. This is her first year and we all love her already. She’s a short girl my age, 17, with medium length blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She has the same humor as the rest of us and I share a room with her. Arianna chooses to have a room to herself, whereas I choose a roommate whenever my old one quits. We share a suite, my room is on the right side and hers is on the left. We’re separated by a tiny kitchen (Which is unnecessary considering there’s a perfectly good chef just down the stairs) and a living room.

Later on that night, after doing our homework, Trinity and I are in the dining hall laughing with a few of our guests. “The bear got up on its back legs and stuck its arms out like it was trying to hug me!” Albert, an elderly man with the energy of a teenager was telling us all about the time he was nearly attacked by a bear. It was more like a one man play. “He growled like the beast he was and moved down so he was back on all fours. I did the only thing I could think of, and that was to growl back at him. He tilted his head to the side and walked away.” He was nodding, as though that would convince us to believe him. We all just shook our heads and smiled at him.

“Is this anything like the time you wrestled a mountain lion for the last piece of meat from your campfire?” I asked, smirking at him.

“Why, upon my life, Miss Savannah you don’t believe me.” Albert declared, making me giggle.

“I’m sorry Al, but it just seems a little crazy to me.” I told him, smiling kindly.

“Of course it’s silly to you, you weren’t there! If you had just seen the beast.” He flopped down at the table dramatically.

I burst out laughing. “Okay Albert, did Marlene forget to hide the whiskey tonight?” I asked, knowing full well his wife did that every so often when they were here. Al and Marlene come every year for some skiing. They’re practically grandparents to us.

“Oh hush.” He flipped his hand in my direction.

***

It had gotten late and only a few of us were still up, sitting around the fireplace in the lobby, when the front doors opened and a man stomped in, looking like he was freezing. I jumped up, being the only person in my family awake.

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