Chapter 1
Holly
Holly Jones pulled out a red pen and started grading.
“Did you seriously bring your grading with you?” Aliyah asked, turning to look from the road to stare at her friend.
“Yes. And pay attention to the road, please,” Holly replied, motioning to the twisting mountain road in front of them. “It’s snowy and this pass is always slippery.”
“Yes, Ms. Jones,” Aliyah replied, sounding like one of their second-grade students. “You know this is supposed to be a vacation, right?”
“Yes.” Holly circled and marked the writing assignment of her student in front of her. “But I’ll only feel like I’m on vacation when these are done. I only have a couple left.”
Aliyah shook her head sadly. “You work too hard.”
“You work just as hard as I do,” Holly replied. She slid a finished page back into her folder.
“I’m not the one grading papers right now,” Aliyah said, turning on the windshield wipers to brush away the big snowflakes. It was snowing harder the closer they got to the ski resort.
“That’s because you’re driving.” Holly grinned at her. “So it’s a good thing you’re not grading papers.”
“You are going to have fun this trip, right?”
“Yes. I promise to have fun,” Holly replied, not looking up from her grading. She'd asked her students to write their three wishes for the holidays and wanted them ready to return to her students as soon as she got back from her trip.
“I’m serious. I don’t know the last time you did something that wasn’t work related.”
“I do fun things,” Holly insisted. “I did that 5k race in November. That was fun.”
“That was a school fund-raiser and you ran one of the check-in desks.” Aliyah gave Holly a disapproving glance. “Seriously, when’s the last time you went out on a date? Or did something not sponsored by the PTA?”
Holly opened her mouth, but couldn’t find an answer. “Uh...” She shrugged and tried to turn the question back onto Aliyah. “What do you do for fun? You’re just as busy as I am.”
“I went on a date with a fireman last week, remember? Captain McHotty?” Aliyah sighed with pleasure. “We played laser tag. We ate at a fancy restaurant that didn’t have a teacher’s discount.”
Holly clicked her pen a couple of times. “Fine. Your point’s made. I’m boring.”
“You’re not boring. You’re stuck. You’ve focused only on work. You need a life outside of work.”
“I know.” Holly sighed. She wasn't sure how she'd become boring. She'd just become so focused on her students that she'd become blind to the world around her. Her dad often told her that she gave too much of herself, and she had a feeling she was doing it again. “But, at least it got us this weekend, right?”
“Partly,” Aliyah acknowledged. “You've always been an amazing teacher. You earned this award. And you still deserve to have fun sometimes. It is possible to have both. You need some balance in your life.”
The entire reason Aliyah and Holly were driving up to the mountains was for Holly to be awarded with the Educator's Award. She'd been nominated by her students and selected by a committee as the best teacher in the nation.
As such, she and a friend got to go stay at Blue Aspen Ski Resort for a weekend and go to a fancy party. The party was as much to honor her as to raise funds for education scholarships, so she was happy to be there and assist.
“I’m going to remember how to have fun this trip,” Holly promised. “Just as soon as I finish these papers.”
“Sure.” Aliyah chuckled and rolled her eyes. “Will you hand me my sandwich?”
“Sandwich?” Holly frowned, looking around the interior of the car. “Where’d you get a sandwich?”
“At the gas station before we started up the pass,” Aliyah replied. She pointed to the backseat. “It should be right back there.”