“Ivy, would you stop bouncing already?” Jake whined.
We were sitting on the bus on the way to the Sugar Shack, and we were almost there. I was literally bouncing with excitement, and so were Jo and Leena. We all remembered how much fun we had in previous years, and we were anxious to start having fun again this year.
“If you think she’s hyper now, just wait till we get on the dance floor. She’s a party animal,” Jo said, from where she was sitting in the bench in front of Jake and I. "Keep her away from the tire or else she'll go nuts."
“Hey! I'm not the only one. Plus you couldn't keep me away from that syrupy goodness if you tried,” I grinned, remembering her crazy dance moves from last year. We all just about peed ourselves from laughing so hard when Jo started dancing. She had one too many tires (Author Note: tire is literally syrup on a Popsicle stick. I'll explain at the bottom but itsreally good stuff :P) and she had gotten a major sugar high.
“What about me?” Leena pouted, who was sitting across the aisle from me. I couldn’t reach her since I had the window seat, but I leaned around Jake to smile at her. “You too, Leena. We’re all crazy chicks when we come here.”
“Damn, your sexy bitch,” Jolene sang suddenly, bobbing her head. Tyler, who was sitting in the bench with Jo, shook his head.
“I’m regretting my decision to come here with you guys to the Sugar Shack,” Tyler groaned.
Jake made a face, “You’re not alone, Tyler.”
“Oh come on, Jakey,” I said, kissing his cheek, “Are you seriously regretting coming?”
He pursed his lips for a moment, his green eyes thoughtful. “Hmmm, I suppose not...at least if that good treatment continues.”
“Hey!” Tyler protested, “What about bro’s before hoes?”
“Tyler!” I cried.
“Not that you’re a hoe, Ivy, I was just saying that…oh, you know what I mean,” Tyler flushed.
“What did I do to deserve an asshole for a brother?” I muttered under my breath, Jake laughed but covered it with a cough when Tyler glared at him.
“Hey, we’re here!” Leena called. The bus pulled into the parking lot of the Sugar Shack, and everyone was quick to leave the buses.
“Everyone! Can I have your attention please?” A teacher asked, trying to get everyone to stay together for a moment and failing quite miserably.
“No,” I muttered, Jake grinned as he squeezed my hand.
“Lunch will be served in half an hour, so I suggest everyone make their way to the Sugar Shack. You can all climb the mountain after lunch,” the teacher called over the loud crowd, giving up on trying to get their attention. “Have fun and try not to cause too much trouble.”
Everyone immediately made their way to the Sugar Shack, and everyone’s wet winter boots squeaked and slipped on the rubber mats in the entrance to the shack.
I pulled Jake towards the left where the dance floor was. The dance floor had tables placed up against the walls so we could put our bags and coats instead of carrying them around all day. Most students had already dumped their stuff and were talking amongst themselves while they waited for lunch to be served. I draped my jacket over a chair, and Jo and Leena both burst out laughing at my shirt.
Momentarily forgetting what I had put on this morning, I looked down. I realized then that I had put on my Marianas Trench tee-shirt. It was all black and slim fitting, and the words ‘They slap you like a bitch, and you take it like a whore’ were printed across my chest in red and white.
I grinned brightly at them, humming the song. Jake just stared at my shirt in disbelief.
“Holy crap, Ivy. I have never seen you wear that before,” Jake said, still wide eyed.
“For obvious reasons,” I said, meaning all the swear words on my shirt, “I can’t wear it at school. So I figured I’d be allowed to wear it here since I can’t get in trouble for it.” I sat down on one of the chairs, and Jake sat next to me, taking my hand in his.
Tyler, Jake, Jo, Leena and I all chatted for about twenty five minutes before lunch was ready to be served, so we exited the dance floor and headed across the other side of the sugar shack. We waited in line for a while for people to go in and sit down at a table, before we were finally able to go in and find a place to eat.
We all sat together and had a yummy lunch before everyone was finally free to go out and do what they wanted. We went back to the dance floor as soon as we could as and it was filled with people. So we grabbed our coats and headed outside to start climbing the mountain.
Jo, Leena and I were describing the two different paths on the mountains you could take to make it to the top to the boys, as we walked across the short bridge and up a small incline. We all walked together for a while, chatting about random stuff until we reached a fork in the path.
Both paths seemed completely empty, and I assumed it was because everyone was dancing inside the shack or still eating. But very soon it was going to be crawling with teenagers.
Tyler studied both paths seriously for a moment.
“I’m taking that path!” he declared, pointing at the steep right hand path.
I sniggered, “Have fun.” I knew from experience how hard it was to climb the bloody thing.
“I’m going with Tyler,” Jo said. I’m pretty sure she would have gone anywhere on the mountain as long as Tyler was going. I saw Leena frowning at the paths, uncertain of which to take.
“I think I’m going with Tyler and Jo,” she said finally.
“I’m going on the left hand path. I rather not spend half my day just trying to make it up the first hill.” I said, eyeing the steep snow covered hill.
“I’ll go with Ivy then,” Jake said, smiling down at me.
“So we’ll all meet up later in the shack?” Tyler asked, looking from me to Jake with worried eyes. I rolled my eyes at him. It’s not like we could do many bad things up on a freezing cold mountain.
“Yup, we’ll all meet at the dance floor,” Jake said, before pulling me along to the left path. We walked slowly for a moment, before I stopped him and grinned.
“What?”
I turned around and peeked through the trees. We hadn’t walked very far, so we could see the steep incline of the right path through the trees.
A snort of laughter bubbled up as Tyler, Jo and Leena struggled to climb the incline. Jake followed my gaze and laughed as Tyler almost made it to the top but lost his grip and slid all the way down the hill, taking a screeching Jo down with him.
“Come on,” I said after five minutes of watching them fall down the mountain. “Let’s see if we can get farther than those losers.”
We took another last look at them clawing their way up before setting off up the hill, still snickering.
After about half an hour of climbing, I stepped sideways over to a stump and sat down on it, panting. “I need a break,” I said, struggling to catch my breath. I had never been the fittest person around, but even Jake looked exhausted.
I pulled off my gloves and stuffed them into the pocket of my winter jacket. We waited a moment to get our breath back before continuing up the mountain.
“Jeez, this mountain is freakin’ huge,” Jake panted after a while. We walked cautiously around a sharp corner. It had no fence, no wall, absolutely nothing. It was just the end of a cliff; if you fell off you’d go tumbling down half the mountain, hitting trees and rocks.
Not a comforting thought.
We continued up the mountain though, but took a break near a rocky wall.
“Sheesh, Ivy. And I thought the steep path was bad. Holy crap, I think this one might be worse.” Jake panted, bending over with his hands on my knees.
“Trust me; the path that Jo, Leena and Tyler took was so much worse than this one.” I unzipped my coat and fanned my face; welcoming the sudden gust of fresh winter air that blew across my warm skin. I groaned, and took my coat off completely, inhaling the fresh winter air deeply.
“You’re crazy,” Jake said, eyeing my coat in my lap.
“So?” I said, closing my eyes.
“You’re going to get sick,” Jake warned me.
“No, I’m not. Germs grow and live in warm humid places. As far as I’m concerned, this mountain is the furthest thing from warm and humid.”
“Are you a doctor now?”
“No, my elementary school gym teacher used to tell me that when we whined about having to go outside on chillier days.”
“I see,” he said, and I heard the rustling off his coat. I opened my eyes and saw him taking his coat off and dropping it onto a rock.
I smirked, “Aren’t you afraid of getting sick?”
“According to you, I can’t get sick, so I should be fine,” he said, sticking his tongue out at me.
I stood up, leaving my coat on the rock I had been sitting on before walking towards Jake. I stood on my tip toes and wrapped my arms around his neck, burying my face in his neck. I felt his arms wrap around my waist. I smiled. It was nice to be alone for once. I barely had a chance to be alone with Jake since we got together because of the tons of homework I had. Plus Tyler and my parents were always around.
He spun us around and pressed me against a tree as he kissed my forehead. I felt butterflies burst into life in my stomach as I realized just how close Jake was to me.
He brushed my black hair behind my ear, cupping my cheek with his hand. I leaned my cheek into his warm palm, closing my eyes with a smile. His lips brushed across my jaw, and I inhaled sharply.
“Jake,” I whined. That wasn't very nice.
He chuckled, and his lips pulled into a smile up against my neck. His head lifted again, and he stared straight into my eyes. I played with the soft brown hair at the nape of his neck as he leaned forward. I felt myself leaning forward slowly, eyes fluttering shut. He brushed lips gently across mine, before pressing them more firmly against me. My heart thudded erratically in my chest as he pressed me against the tree, kissing me so passionately I thought my head was about to spin off. I tangled my fingers firmly in his hair, holding him tightly to me. I didn't want it stop any time soon.
I felt him smile against my lips, which of course made me giggle. I pushed him away a bit so I could laugh properly.
Jake shook his head at me, chuckling. “Only you would laugh when I’m trying to kiss you.”
“Sorry, but it’s your fault. You smiled first!” I protested, still giggling against the tree.
“Yeah, because you were just so eager and didn’t want to stop. It was adorable.”
I scrunched up my face, “Ew. Now I know how you feel when you get called cute.”
Jake chuckled and picked his coat off a rock, sliding it back on with a shiver. “I thought girls liked being called cute.”
“Not girls that wear shirts with the words ‘They Slap You Like a Bitch and You Take it Like a Whore’ on their chest” I said, grabbing my own coat. I shuddered when I pulled it back on. It had gotten colder while Jake and I were resting….and kissing.
“What do you say we head back to the Shack?” I said, zipping my coat up firmly, trying not to squeal too much at the thought of kissing him.
“Yes, please. I’m exhausted,” Jake said, exhaling.
“Alright then, let’s go,” I said, grinning, “Last one down the mountain has to treat the other to dinner!” I shouted before turning and starting to half-slide, half-walk down the mountain. The snow made the trail slippery, and I had to hold on to trees as I made my way down. Jake and I raced the whole way down, shouting insults at each other as we slid. As soon as the trail leveled off near the bottom of the mountain I took off running. I could hear Jake sprinting behind me, and I sped up.
Just as I ran off the bottom trail of the mountain, I slipped on a patch of ice and fell right on my butt, sliding across the ice on my ass.
I snorted with laughter, rolling on the ground after I stopped sliding. I heard Jake laughing far behind me, and I was sure he had stopped to watch me as I slid.
“Jake!” I shouted, still laughing as I tried to get up. “Help me up!” I slipped again and fell on my knees. I tried a few more times, but I kept slipping and falling.
“Nuh uh! I’m not going on that ice. Just crawl across it till you reach the end of the patch,” Jake advised, and I saw him giving the ice patch a wide berth as he walked around it.
I did as he said, and I crawled on all fours till I reached the end of the ice. I stood carefully, feeling a throbbing pain in rear end and my knees. My hands were numb from touching the ice and my butt was frozen from the snow I had landed on that clung to my jeans.
Jake stood in front of me, still chuckling as he extended one hand towards me.
“Thanks for the help,” I said sarcastically.
He winked. “Anytime,”
“I hate you,” I said, turning my head so I wasn’t looking at him.
His arms wrapped around me, pulling me close to him and he kissed me again. “I’m sure,” He said, smirking at me.
I blinked up at him, still a bit dazed from the kiss.
“Come on, it’s freezing,” he said, keeping one arm around my waist as he led me back to the Sugar Shack.
Huh. Should be called the Love Shack, I thought dazedly, and only a moment later I had Love Shack in my head.
When we made it back to the Lo- I mean….Sugar Shack, Jo, Leena, and Tyler were already there and they were dancing. Apparently they had given up after ten minutes of trying to scale that first hill and had come back to the dance floor while they waited for us.
I could see Tyler eyeing us suspiciously, and I only smirked at him before we all started to dance.
We had to leave a few hours later, but in the few hours we had spent there, we had so much fun. We all danced, laughed and sang loudly, albeit horribly, and ate way too much tire.
All in all, I think the Love Shack trip was a success. I sure wasn’t going to be forgetting today anytime soon.
********
When I woke up this morning, I had a big goofy smile on my face. My good mood still hadn’t faded from when Jake kissed me, and that had been yesterday afternoon.
I got up out of bed, and hummed throughout my entire routine, and I continued to hum until I went outside with Tyler. During the entire morning, Tyler was eyeing me suspiciously. He was probably wondering how I managed to wake up early, and why I was in such a good mood when I wasn’t usually a morning person.
But if he thought I was in a good mood before, when I saw Jake parked in the driveway, my grin grew even bigger and I skipped down the driveway.
I got into the backseat --Tyler had forever dibs on shotgun-- and I slid all the way to the driver’s side of the car. I wrapped my arms awkwardly around Jake and the driver’s seat, and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
“Goodmorning!” I chirped happily.
“Uh….goodmorning?” Jake said, and I saw his confused face in the mirror of the car. “What put you in a good mood?”
“I keep thinking about yesterday,” I said just as Tyler opened the door and sat in the car. He stared at us both before shaking his head.
“Unless you deflowered my little sister, I really rather not know what happened yesterday,” Tyler said, making a face at me in the mirror.
Both our jaws fell open in shock.
“Oh my God, Tyler!” I cried, punching his shoulder.
Jake shook his head at Tyler and backed out of the driveway, and took off towards school without bothering to comment on Tyler's remark. We spent the car ride in silence, and my good mood slipped from there. I slouched in my seat with my arms crossed until we got to school. Tyler practically sprinted away from the car as soon as it stopped, while Jake and I took our time going to school.
He held my hand as we walked into school, and I have to say that raised my spirit. Plus, it was bloody freezing this morning and his hand was nice and warm. But that wasn’t really surprising considering it was December in a week from now.
We walked into school together, and we went our separate ways to our lockers, promising to meet up before first period. I hurried to my locker, dumping all my stuff quickly in effort to get back to Jake. I slammed my locker door shut and turned around.
I screamed when I was suddenly pinned against my locker.
“Chad!” I screeched, “I’m going to kick you so hard you will never ever be able to have kids!”
“Good, then we won’t need protection,” he said, smirking.
“Allow me to rephrase that,” I spat. “I’m going to chop off what makes you male if you ever do this again.”
I gave him a hard shove on the chest, and he stumbled backwards in surprise. I may be short and tiny, but I was stronger than I looked. I had Tyler to thank for that.
The smirk was back on Chad’s face, “I like ‘em feisty.”
I smiled sweetly at him, “Too bad I don’t like you, eh?” I said before stomping off down the hallway, my gym bag in hand.
“Oh come on, Ivy. Can’t you feel the sexual tension between us?” Chad teased, catching up to me easily with his long legs.
“Nope.”
“Liar, liar, pants on fire,” he sang in my ear.
“Chad! Would you just-UGH!” I practically shouted in frustration. I wanted to tear my hair out in annoyance and scream at the top of my lungs at him. But I bet if I did he would just smirk at me.
I hated that smirk. I loathed it with every single cell of my body.
“Oh, chill,” he said, rolling his eyes at me. He slung his arm around my shoulder and started walking me to first period.
I felt myself bristling. How dare he touch me!
I grabbed his hand, which was hanging over my shoulder, and gave it a light squeeze before giving Chad a sweet smile. He frowned down at me in confusion, and I tightened my grip on his hand before spinning swiftly on my heel. I twisted his arm behind his back and pinned him face first against a locker.
“Ooh, dominant. I like that in a girl,” he gasped, twisting his face so his right cheek was against the lockers.
I pulled him away from the locker before shoving him back into it again.
“Don’t you ever touch me again, or I swear to God you will regret it,” I hissed, yanking on his arm until he let out a yelp of pain. I released him before stomping down the hall.
Okay, that’s it. My good mood was completely, 100% dead. And if I had my way, Chad would be too. Jerk.
*********
I spent the rest of the morning feeling incredibly aggravated, but I was able to take my frustrations out in first period gym class. We were playing volleyball, and normally I really suck at it. But I was so angry and frustrated that I would just slam my palm, or forearm, against the ball. I would imagine it was Chad’s face and it gave me a grim satisfaction every time I hit the ball.
Jolene and Leena just stood on the court and watched me in awe. Even my gym teacher was surprised and complimented me on how well I was doing. She even told me to try out for the volleyball team.
Ha, so not happening. No way in hell was I trying out for a school sports team. Way too much effort involved there.
By the time gym finished, I had expended so much energy that I dragged my feet to second period. I dreaded History, mainly because Chad sat next to me. Plus, my arms were in absolute agony from hitting the ball so hard and so frequently. They were a throbbing red and when I ran my hand over them, they were uncomfortably hot and burning I knew I was going to be sore and bruised tomorrow, but I didn’t care. I had relaxed considerably since gym and I hoped Chad got the message this morning to leave me the Hell alone.
I was surprised when the bell for second period rang and Chad still hadn’t shown up, but I was incredibly pleased as well. He was skipping, and I hoped to God that he got caught. That would just make my day.
But halfway through class, and the teacher’s boring lecture, there was a knock on the door. The teacher looked annoyed at being interrupted, but went to answer it. And in walked my little buddy. I glared daggers at him. His clothes looked rumpled, his lips were swollen, and his hair looked suspiciously like ‘sex hair’ as Jo would put it.
It was painfully obvious why he was so late to everyone in class, and either the teacher was trying to ignore it or she was just plain stupid.
“Why are you late, Mr. James?” she asked in her boring, flat voice.
“Trust me Miss, you really don’t want to know,” Chad said smugly, and the guys in class hooted and whistled.
The teacher rubbed her eyes and pointed vaguely in the direction of his seat, “Just take your seat, Mr. James. You’ll stay half an hour after class to make up for the time you missed.”
I grinned openly at this little turn of events, and Chad sat down next to me.
“Hello, Ivy,” he sneered.
“Hey, dumbass,” I snickered, “I think you’ve got a hickey.”
His blue eyes popped and he clapped a hand to his neck.
I sat back chuckling, “Oh, you are too easy.”
“I’m not, but I bet you are. So what do you say? My place or yours?” he smirked, dropping his hand from his neck.
“Both.”
I saw his jaw drop in surprise. What a moron. “I’ll go to mine and you’ll go to yours.”
“Fine, I guess I’ll just have to please myself,” he whispered, since the teacher had re-started her lecture on God knows what.
I gaped at him, “You’re disgusting.”
“You love it,” he said, “And do you know whose name I’ll be calling while I do it?”
I didn’t answer. I glared at the teacher at the front of the class.
“Ivy, oh Ivy!” he started to moan, “Harder!”
I ground my teeth together and crossed my arms, digging my nails into my arms through my hoodie to keep from slapping him right then and there. I focused on the sharp points of pain that my nails caused and tried to ignore Chad.
“Oh yes, Ivy! Faster, faster!” Chad continued moan, but he accidentally (I doubt it very much) said it a bit too loud and everyone turned around. The teacher stopped mid-word and glared at the two of us.
The whole class burst out laughing at the same time, while the teacher was shaking with anger.
“Mr. James! Principal’s office right now!” She thundered, pointing a shaking finger to the door.
I smirked and waved at Chad as he walked out of class. A few guys hooted and cheered, while girls either giggled or gave me the death glare.
They were so stupid. Its not like I did anything. He was the one harassing me, I've been trying to deflect his attention since I met him.
The teacher took a few minutes to calm the class down and return to the lesson, but no one was paying attention anymore after Chad's moment in the spotlight.
Inside I was dying of laughter, outside I was struggling to maintain a neutral expression. But a big goofy smile kept flashing across my face every time I thought about Chad getting in trouble.
My good mood suddenly re-appeared, and when I walked out of History I was in high spirits. I hummed and danced and skipped down the hall to my locker.
And when I got to my lunch table and gave everyone a huge dorky smile, they all raised their eyebrows at me.
“What happened?” Leena asked immediately.
“Yeah, and where’s Chad?” Jo asked, she knew I had second period History with him, since she had somehow managed to memorize his entire schedule. It was a clever ploy to ‘conveniently’ bump into him in the hallways.
I had to admit, her dedication was admirable. But also borderline obsessive.
“I don’t know,” I shrugged, smiling so much my cheeks were starting to hurt.
Everyone at the table was giving me weird looks but I ignored them and bit happily into my sandwich. I started humming again and Jake took my hand. I grinned up at him and he smiled down at me.
I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy before. I relished the feeling of being there with Jake, and of not having Chad around to bother me, since I knew tomorrow he’d be back to annoying the shit out of me.
----------------
Alrighty so I don't know if this is just a Canadian thing or not, but here in Canada we have these things called Cabane a Sucre and basically its a sugar shack. Its all forest and its where they get syrup and whatnot. Big barn looking places, with mountains and horse drawn carriages, and delicious lunches with sugar pies, curly fries, and yum yum yummy things. And we usually visit this place in winter/spring ish, so usually around March, when there's still snow on the ground nad its still cold enough to freeze some bits off if you're not careful.
So tire (I'm not entirely sure if thats how its spelled, I've never seen it written down before but it sounds like the word 'pull' in french) is one of the delicacies of sugar shacks, and basically you have this sort of trough/counter thing and its got a layer of snow on it. Then the people that work there come around and drop some warm syrup onto the snow. Then, you can go with a popsicle stick, stick it in the syrup, twirl that shit like spaghetti till you've got it all and then you can eat it.
Like a yummy syrupy lollipop that you can make yourself. Its hella rad and if you havent tried it, you're missing out my friends.
Anyways, I gotta go now so see y'all later!
Much love and good vibes,
xxLaura