Snow Angels and Honky Tonk Angels- The Westwood School Sequel

Brass Monkeys

Magnolia:

Thank god I was a good driver, I thought to myself as Ruby and I sped around the curvy, snow and ice-covered roads in between the mountain range. We were driving the hour from Big Sky and our house there to the private airport.

I watched the snowfall down softly, my eyes flashing back and forth across the road in caution, looking for anything that could hit our car.

Or rams. They always were on the sides of the roads here.

"I'm excited to meet everyone you're always talking about," Ruby said while playing with a piece of her light blonde hair that was tucked under a mustard-colored beanie, "I have only ever met Rowen in real life."

"Real life?" I threw her a glance in confusion.

She huffed and rolled her eyes, "Ya know, I've seen em on the TV and stuff."

I nodded and laughed a bit, "Hey, I love Rowen, but no one can harmonize like you and me."

"Yeah but I won't sing rock if you paid me to," She said bluntly, "My dad's work is always filled with musicians, so I swear I thought growing up that that was the only job in the world."

I laughed, thinking back on little Ruby and little Magnolia, "Do you remember when we would sit on the table in your house and the entire neighborhood would come and have a little bluegrass party."

"You always were the better singer," Ruby said wistfully.

"And you could play any instrument you could pick up! I think everyone hated us constantly making noise as little kids."

***

I stood on the runaway of the private airport, my back leaning against the (dirt covered) car, watching the skyline. I am not sure if you're aware, but driving in the snow makes cars infinitely dirtier than you'd expect.

I was wearing a pair of red moon boots- matching with literally every other girl in our little party, some black jeans, a sweater, and my red and blue Patagonia ski jacket. I loved pom-pom hats, so I was wearing one from my favorite store in New Orleans, referencing my favorite Snowball shop.

I would kill for a snowball right now- preferably Cream Icecream, a Brown Pelican or Nectar.

Suddenly, I could hear and see the little plane come through the grey snow clouds,

"Here they come," I whisper to myself, catching the attention of Ruby who is dressed in her Ski bibs and her black ski jacket.

A seemingly short amount of time passed before the plan was skitting down the straightaway. It slowed to a stop right in front of us.

Thank god for private airports where you can hang out on the runway. The only bad thing is you can get a federal ticket if you mess up.

As soon as the door to the little plane opened, Rowen was the first to step out and down the stairs. I let out an ear-splitting shriek, and made my way, running towards him as fast as I could. He made it just down the stairwell when I reached him, jumping into his arms and wrapping my legs and arms tightly as I could.

I missed him so much. It had only been a few weeks since I last saw him. I found myself almost sobbing, and deeply inhaling his smell from his hair. His hands rubbed my back gently and held me to him.

We didn't have much of a nice moment together before I heard the disgruntled voice of Caspian practically shouting from the top of the stairs down from the plane.

"Bloody hell! It's cold enough to freeze the balls of a brass monkey!" Caspian almost screeched.

I peeled myself (reluctantly) off Rowen, and threw myself into a hug with Caspian and Ivy who was right beside him. The stairway had become cluttered with bodies, so we all made our way off onto the snowy pavement.

"Magnolia!" I heard India scream and I ran to her and Matteo, hugging her, and giving Matteo a "bro hug". Matteo taught me the bro hug, he always says- "two pats, never three".

I glanced at Laurent, noticing his red eyes and frown. I walked up to him and gave him a hug, while he stood there awkwardly for a moment, not hugging me back, before wrapping his arm around me slowly.

I pulled away to look at my little gang and wiped the tears from my eyes, "Ugh I missed y'all!"

I can see Rowen's green eyes meeting mine and my heart stops a big. I stare at them for a moment, noting something odd, and sad about his eyes. I would interrogate him later to find out what his problem was.

"Um, this is Ruby. She's my best friend," I offer awkwardly. Ruby threw up a gloved hand in a wave and winked her darkly lined eyes. It was weird to have the sort of flash of the two cultures meet.

"Ok we need to load up and head to the mountains, I can't drive in the snow in the dark," I laugh as we load into the car. It was just a white monster of a suburban, but it had nothing on Rowen's Volkswagen named Donna.

I drove because half of these idiots can't drive because they aren't even 18 and therefore can't drive in England, and sure as hell couldn't drive on ice. I knew Rowen and I think Matteo could drive and India could drive (ish) but not legally.

I sat in the front with Ruby (I considered Rowen, but hoes over bros), and Laurent, Ivy, and Rowen sat in the middle, with Caspian, Matteo, and India in the back. It was as close as we could get with good kids in the middle and bad kids in the back.

I turned on the radio and smiled at the song, Oh they were going to love this.