A Beautiful Dark

bad.” Asher jerked his chin at the table of sophomores he’d left behind, all of whom were now watching us like hawks. “I actually stopped by to see what Skye was doing after school today.”
    “Why?” I asked suspiciously.
    “Because I wanted to see if you were free to hang out tonight.”
    Cassie whipped around to face me, her eyes just daring me to say no . Her vicarious interest in my love life suddenly made me anxious.
    I swallowed. They were all staring at me. The side of my arm was brushing up against Asher’s, and my mind raced at the possibility of more than just our arms touching.
    “I can’t tonight,” I lied. “Tomorrow’s the ski trip, and I take my skiing very seriously.”
    “Oh, so do I,” he said in mock seriousness. “How right you are.” He stood up and stretched, and when his sweater rode up, I caught a peek of his flat lower abdomen, tan, even though it was winter. I looked away. Ellie sauntered by, and Asher winked at us. “Gotta go,” he said, and he was off.
    “Ugh.” I turned back to Cassie. “Gross. Can’t he stay focused for like two minutes?”
    “Skye!” she cried, and threw a fry at me. “What is wrong with you? He is clearly so into you!”
    “No, he isn’t!” I could hear my voice creeping up the octaves. “He just thinks I’m like the other girls who fawn all over him the minute he winks at them.”
    “Do girls like winking?” Dan asked no one in particular.
    “Fine,” Cassie continued. “But it’s obvious you want him bad, so don’t get all moody and upset when he starts dating someone else.”
    “I won’t get moody and upset,” I insisted, but Cassie was too busy snorting to come up with a witty reply.
    I glanced over to where Devin was sitting. He was watching us, the corners of his mouth tilted up in a strange smile. It wasn’t a sweet smile, or a shy one like that day on the trail. It was almost smug.

Chapter 9

    T he sky was still black and the house was silent when I woke up the next morning. I had packed for the trip the night before, sticking carefully to the list that Ms. Manning had sent home with us on the first day of the semester.
    I spent a few minutes rechecking the list to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. Wool socks, check. Long underwear, gross, but check. Parka, ski pants, goggles, check, check, check. The list had recommended Gore-Tex gloves, but when I had dug mine out of my ski team gym bag, I realized that I’d ripped one during an intense moment in my last race and a long gash now ran down the thumb, rendering them totally useless. I’d thrown them into my overnight bag, along with an extra pair of fleece gloves, just in case. The fleece wouldn’t keep my hands dry, but since this was my weekend off from racing, I’d just do an easy run or two and then hang out in the lodge by the fire with my friends.
    I put on a pot of coffee. While I waited for it to brew, I stared out the picture windows into the backyard as the rich, earthy smell bloomed into the kitchen. The sky faded from velvety black to inky navy to the color of my favorite jeans and, finally, what those jeans would look like if I rubbed them down with sandpaper, stretching out frayed and raw above the mountains.
    When the coffee was ready, Aunt Jo joined me for breakfast. I poured a bowl of cereal and topped it with sliced bananas.
    “For once, our schedules are in sync,” she said. “You have this ski weekend, and I’ll be taking a group trekking through the Presidential Peaks.”
    “Still no luck finding a temporary replacement for Jenn?” I asked between bites.
    “None at all. I’m not even sure it’s worth the trouble of looking now. She’ll be back on her feet in a few more weeks, and life will return to normal.” I didn’t want to admit how happy that made me.
    When the sky was light and I was fully caffeinated, I gave her a huge hug good-bye, loaded my bag into my car, flicked on the radio, and drove to school. As I pulled my car into the lot, Cassie, Dan, and Ian were huddled together by the front steps. Cassie waved.
    “Hey!” she said gleefully as I flung my duffel onto the pile of students’ bags waiting to be loaded into the bus. Cassie’s excitement was so obvious that she was literally vibrating when I hugged her. She was wearing an outfit I could describe only as Ski-Bunny-Chic-meets-Elmer-Fudd: a huge fake-fur hunting hat with earflaps, black thermal leggings, and huge snow boots. Dan wore his Chilean knit hat from