“It’s not just a game. It’s a qualifier for the tournament in January. I have to qualify in three and this is my third one. If I get this one, then I don’t have to worry about it anymore.”
“I’ll do my best,” Dexter says, shifting the car in gear. He gets us back to the main road right as the rain shifts.
“Is that snow?” I ask, pointing to the windshield. “Is it?”
“Yes, I think so,” Dex replies.
I roll down my window and a gust of freezing wind blows in along with fluffy, white crystals. “GUYS! It’s snowing!”
“Close the window!”
“Are you crazy?”
“Starlee!”
I just laugh and roll the window back up. I can’t contain my childish excitement. “I know it’s not a big deal for you, but I’ve wanted this for so long. Real snow. Lasting now. Making snowmen and snowball fights and sledding and skiing and…”
“You know how to ski?” Jake asks.
“No, but out here I could learn, right?” I turn around and face the boys in the back. “Maybe I could snowboard.”
Dexter’s grown quiet and I notice his hands are both gripping the steering wheel. He peers through the windshield and I realize the wipers are making a skidding noise. His voice is serious when he says, “Star, I need you to chill, okay.”
I sit back. “What’s wrong?”
“It came up really fast and it’s hard to see.”
The snow is no longer whirling around the car but coming down hard. Night fell fast and there’s the sound of gritty pinpricks on the windows. “What’s that?”
“Ice,” George replies.
Charlie curses next to him and checks the time.
“Jake, get the GPS and let me know where we are.”
Jake turns on his phone and thumbs down the screen. “We’re about forty miles from home. Ten from June Lake.”
“I’m not comfortable driving up the mountain to Lee Vines.”
“We could go back to school?” George offers.
“Everyone left when we did.”
“Then we go into town and hole up? I’m sure one of the shops is still open or something, right?”
Dexter nods and makes the slow drive into town, but when we get there the whole place is closed up—everyone using the bad weather as an excuse to go home early. He slows the car in front of the dark Pizza House and thinks for a minute.
“I think I know where we can go.”
He doesn’t ask for directions and the car gets eerily quiet as he slowly makes his way through the storm. My excitement is gone—lost in the seriousness of the moment. The Jeep is not weather-secure. If we get stranded, we’ll freeze out here.
All three of the boys’ phones go off at the same time.
“Shit,” Dex says. “Someone answer that. She’s probably freaking out.”
“I’ve got it,” Jake says, and answers. “Sierra? Hello? Sierra? Fuck. It dropped.”
“I’ve got no service,” Charlie says.