#mostlypoptarts

Octavia’s no more impressed, but at ten, she isn’t great at presenting arguments or making her case. “It’s going to be cold and I don’t want to go,” is the extent of her objections, and while Bellamy doesn’t disagree, he doesn’t think it’s going to convince their mother.

Nothing is going to convince their mother, honestly. That’s part of the problem; they’re kids, and the decision has been made, and they have to live with it. That’s how adults always make decisions.

His grandfather, of course, is pragmatic. “Maybe it won’t be as bad as you think.”

“It can not be as bad as I think and still be bad. Are you sure I can’t live with you?”

“Are you kidding? I don’t want you around all the time, cramping my style.”

He has to smile. He and his grandfather have always been close, and they understand each other pretty well. His mom probably saw this coming and already intervened. And it is a big deal, taking care of a kid. Even if he’s sixteen and mostly self-sufficient, it’s probably a pain.

“I always regretted not going more places,” Lolo continues. “I haven’t traveled as much as I’d like. When you live on an island, it can be hard to get in other places. So you can take some time, see what the mainland has to offer. We’ll still be here when you’re ready to come back.”

“I’m ready now,” he says, but he knows it won’t do any good. The decision is made, and he’ll have to live with it. Maybe he can go to New York City sometime, that might be cool.

Maybe there’s something good in Vermont. Stranger things have happened.

Unfortunately, whatever good there is in Vermont is slow to present itself. Mom decided the best idea was to go at the beginning of summer, just a few weeks after Bellamy and Octavia finished with school. The idea was that it would be warmer and they’d have time to settle in, but as plans go, Bellamy thinks it left something to be desired. It’s warmer, sure, but without school, he doesn’t really know how to meet people. He’s never been great at making friends, and while Octavia manages to find some kids playing in their yards and get immediately involved in some sort of intense, preteen turf war, he has more trouble.

At least the town has a library, but it’s not the same. At home, he’d be doing plenty of reading, but he’d also be at the beach every morning, catching waves and honing his skills. Professional surfer might not be a realistic career goal, but it’s not like he wanted to do it forever. He just wanted to keep up the family legacy, and then move on to something else.

There aren’t a lot of opportunities to surf in Arcadia, Vermont, though, so reading it is.

It’s mid-July when someone sits down across from him and says, “You’re new.”

He looks up, sees a guy about his age with dark skin and hair and a surprisingly decent beard. He’s wearing a white t-shirt and has some sort of weird board next to him, which is enough to pique Bellamy’s interest. Boards are kind of his thing.

“Yeah, and?” he prompts.

“You’re the one from Hawaii, right? You into surfing?”

He’s reading one book about surfing and has another next to him, so it’s not exactly a stretch. Still, he frowns. “How did you know I’m from Hawaii?”

“Dude, you’re in small-town Vermont. I hate to break it to you, but anyone moving in is big news. I’ve heard every bad take on the whole thing you can imagine.”

“Yeah? Like what?”

“Someone told me Mr. Pike bought a mail-order bride on the internet, that was my favorite.”

Bellamy snorts. “Jesus. Seriously?”

The guy shrugs one shoulder. “He’s a teacher, that means more rumors. I bet he’s getting you into the academy.”

“The academy?”

“Alpha Academy, the private school.”

“Oh, uh, yeah. He said something about that.”

The guy nods. “So, this might make it awkward for you at school, but I’ve always kind of wondered how similar surfing and snowboarding are. I’m gonna do some mountain boarding later. You want to check it out?”

There’s a lot of interesting stuff in the statement, but Bellamy focuses in on what strikes him as the weirdest tidbit. “Why would that be awkward at school?”

“Come check out mountain boarding and I’ll tell you,” he says, and it’s not like Bellamy has anything else to do.

As it turns out, the guy’s name is Nathan Miller. Like Bellamy, he’s sixteen and a rising junior, although he’s at the public school. His father is the chief of police, which means he doesn’t get away with anything, but he seems pretty cool, from what Bellamy can see.

He also explains that the teenagers also have their own intense turf war, between the academy kids and the public school kids, and Miller is crossing enemy lines to try to get Bellamy into snowboarding instead of skiing.

“Seriously?” he asks.

“What?”

“You guys have a rivalry about what winter sports you like better?”

Miller shrugs. “Small-town Vermont, like I said. We have to make our own fun. You still want to check out the boards?”

“I’m pretty sure the academy kids will have a better reason to hate me than snowboarding,” he says. “Show me how it works out.”

As it turns out, he’s right about that, not that it’s particularly good news. Even if he hadn’t spent his summer getting a feel for mountain boarding in preparation for trying it with real snow come winter, he wouldn’t fit in at Alpha.

For one thing, he’s never been a private-school kid. The only reason he is now is that Charles works there, and Charles got him in. Which doesn’t help either. Not only is he a new kid, but their only point of reference for him is that he’s dubiously related to one of the teachers. No one needs to know about the snowboarding thing; they’re dicks all on their own.

Well, except for Clarke.

To be clear, Clarke is absolutely a dick. There’s no doubt of that. But she’s a dick whose mother is the principal of the school, and whose step father is an English teacher on top of that, so she’s about the last person who’s going to be a jerk about Charles. Instead, she’s cute and smart and kind of sarcastic and angry all the time, which is the kind of dick he likes. She’s totally his type.

But when winter rolls around, she’s also definitely a skier.

“Is that actually a thing?” he asks, dubious.

“Skiing? Yes, Bellamy, skiing is real. I thought you had that in Hawaii. Just, like, on the water. I’ve seen pictures.”

He snorts and elbows her. “Shut up. Miller told me there was some sort of intense rivalry about skiers versus snowboarders and I was going to get stuck in the middle.”

She frowns. “Miller? Which Miller?”

“Nathan. The police chief’s son. He’s been teaching me to snowboard.”

Considering Clarke is his normal friend, it’s mildly alarming the way her eyes widen like he’s said something scandalous. “You’re snowboarding.”

“Holy shit, this is actually a thing. You guys have a fucking winter sports rivalry.”

“It’s more a school rivalry that manifests as a winter sports rivalry, but yeah. That’s a real thing.”

“And am I betraying my school by being a snowboarder? Because, honestly, snowboarding is cool and I don’t give a shit about anyone at this school except you.”

“Smooth,” she teases.

“I’m a real charmer.” He cocks his head at her. “How can I expect this to affect my life? Am I going to get even more shunned than I already am? Do I get to use the cool side of the mountain because I go to Alpha, or does being a snowboarder override that? Is there really a cool side of the mountain?” he adds. “I honestly thought most of this was Miller fucking with me.”

“You wish,” she says. “There’s definitely a good and bad side of the mountain, and probably if any of the academy kids see you snowboarding on the good side, they’ll probably tell you to leave.”

“So, the same thing they always do when they see me.”

“Pretty much.”

“Awesome. I’m gonna grab Miller and go check out some trails. You want to come?”

She grins. “Definitely, wouldn’t miss it.”

Between Clarke and Miller, he was already taking the whole thing fairly seriously, but he still wasn’t entirely prepared to be on the slopes for less than half an hour before Finn Collins, his least favorite Alpha asshole, shows up to start making trouble. Finn seems to be jealous because he thinks Clarke likes Bellamy better than him, which from what Bellamy can tell, she should and does. But it means he’s even more of a dick about the whole snowboarding thing than he probably would be otherwise, and Bellamy’s always kind of a dick and has been looking for an excuse to fight Finn for a while.

“So, in conclusion,” he tells his grandfather that night, “I need tips.”

“Tips?”

“I’m not saying snowboarding is exactly like surfing, but you’ve been in a lot more competitions than I have.”

“I think you need to explain this to me again. Slowly.”

“Vermont has stupid sports rivalries too, pretty much.”

“See? You can be happy wherever you go.”

He snorts. “Yeah, thanks.”

“So, you’re having a snowboarding contest with some rich kid so you can use the mountain like you want to and get the girl? That’s the plot of every beach movie I’ve ever seen. It really is like you never left home.”

“You just say that because you don’t know how cold it is.”

“I’m sure you’re fine.”

“It could be worse,” he admits. “At least if I win this thing, I’ll do some good. So, what have you got? What’s your secret?”

“I believe in myself.”

“And?”

“And I’m better than everyone else.”

“Great,” he says. “Really helpful. Thanks a lot.”

“Any time. You’re going to be fine, Bellamy. You’ve got this.”

“You think?”

“You’re better than everyone else too,” says Lolo. “What more do you need?”

It’s not that comforting, but it’s all he’s got. He’s a good athlete, and Finn is putting all this time and effort into cheating, which is theoretically great, except that all it’s really doing is distracting him.

So, as villains go, he’s kind of inept, but that works for Bellamy. His grandfather might not actually give great advice when he’s asked for it, but he taught Bellamy plenty over the course of years of surfing lessons, and Finn kind of sucks. So he wins, and gets the right for everyone to play whatever winter sport they want, or something, and Miller hugs him, and Clarke hugs him, and then Clarke kisses him, and overall it’s really quite a victory, even if it’s fucking freezing.

“You didn’t do that just to piss Finn off, did you?” he asks Clarke, brushing his nose against hers.

“Would that be a bad thing?” she teases.

“Clarke.”

She grins and tugs him down again, mouth so warm in the icy air. “Just like half to piss off Finn,” she murmurs, and he laughs.

“I can probably live with that.”