The Trail (MAJOR EDITING IN PROGRESS)

Vacation (Edited)

After school that following Monday, I was working on my online German course, and using Google Translate to help me. Cross Country was over for the season. At regionals, I placed twelfth and not fifth. Fifth was the placing I needed to make it to state, but I was glad I was done, my body wasn't very happy with me.

I had just typed out a sentence in German about running on Monday, or Montag in this case, when my mom called to me from far off,

"Lucy, can you come here please?"

I sighed and jumped up, scratching my head and tripping over clothes and empty boxes as I walked across to my door.

"Coming!" I hated it when she interrupted me in my study time; I study so rarely, that interruptions really tick me off.

I walked out the door and into the living room, and my mom was sitting sideways on our yellow patterned loveseat with her MacBook laptop. Our over-sized weimaraner, Star, was sitting on the floor beside her, begging for pets.

"What did you need?" I asked impatiently, as she slowly moved the computer to a comfortable position to gesture to me as she talked. The light from the large window behind her shined right through the apple on her Macbook, causing an apple to appear from behind the Vera Bradley lid-cover.

"I have been talking with you father and we have discussed something to do over Christmas break. Now, nothing is set in stone, but it may happen. We were thinking of going skiing in Colorado on the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth of December. And then to the Crown Center on the first, and I wanted to know your opinion on that."

My mom always planned the vacations in my family and my dad paid for them. She is good at finding good deals, and knows how to decisively choose which is the cheapest and best place to go to. Maybe, just maybe, there was a resort near the trail, and maybe Holland could go along with me.

"It sounds like fun, yeah, I'd like to go," I was a good skier. My family had been going since before I was even born and I became quite good at it. I usually did black, or double black diamond slopes. The last time we went to Taos, New Mexico, and skied there for four days. I worked hard on maneuvering around moguls, but couldn't get the hang of it before we left. Now I can.

The Crown Center is a large hotel and shopping area in the heart of Kansas City. There was something for everyone there and I actually hadn't been for several years.

"Would you like to bring Holland? I have talked to your dad about it, and all Holland will have to pay for is the lift tickets, most of his food, and any souvenirs he might want."

"Yes, I'll ask him, I'll try."

"Do you think he'll come?" She asked me. Her fingers drummed the pillow in beats of four, unnerving me, but not inhibiting my ability to answer her.

"No, no I really don't," I answered truthfully.

"Does that upset you?"

"No, it's his choice and I won't let it get me down."

She smiled and picked up her computer, "Lucy, that's something that really impresses me about you."

I nodded and then traveled back to my bedroom; my mom sometimes tells me what other people say about me. Adults like me for my spirit, unwillingness to conform to social normalities, and my expression of my faith. Up until that point I had never noticed it. I did what I felt was right, and I tried to understand other people and withhold judgment.

That usually isn't the case with people though. The media made it seem like anyone who is black or an outcast was a killer without conscience. Those people were a great minority. They would be like the amount of anime fans in a sorority for country girls. There were few.