Whoever She Is

Shaun and Mason were arguing. Shaun wasn't nailing his move, and it was an easy move, or so he kept telling himself.

"Dude, maybe just get more air on the next run. You'll have more time to accomplish the twist." Mason said. Shaun was shaking his head. He was eying the half pipe menacingly. He would, and he could nail this trick. It's only a 900 Backside Rodeo...

"Oh shit." Mason breathed. Shaun looked up at his friend.

"What?" Shaun asked. Mason nodded back to the half pipe. Shaun turned and looked. A girl was hurtling down the pipe. She drew everyones attention, wearing a hot pink jacket and a black helmet. Shaun and Mason stood mesmerized as she soared upwards, nailing a straight air trick. She came back down swiftly, gathering even more speed.

Then, directly across the pipe from the boys she twisted. 900 degree McTwist, ending in a shifty. "Are you fucking kidding me?" Mason gasped. "She fucking ended that with a shifty? She must get just as much air as you do when you're flying like that. I've never seen anyone, girl or guy, go as high as you!"

Shaun didn't answer. He swiveled his head and followed the girl as she popped out of the pipe. She boarded over to a waiting friend in an electric blue jacket and a black helmet as well. The two stood, somehow communicating without removing their reflective helmets.

"Who was that?" Shaun asked Mason. Mason shrugged.

"Dunno. Why don't you give you Brodeo one more go? If she can do a stinking 900 McTwist with a shifty then I'm sure you can nail yours." Mason nudged Shaun towards the pipe. Shaun dropped in determined to beat this girl at his sport. He saw the shiny helmets watching the half pipe, watching him. He could do it. He could impress this girl, beat this girl. He mimicked the way she gained her speed.

"It's an easy trick." He breathed to himself. He shot up out of the pipe. He heard Mason shouting.

"AIR! SO MUCH AIR!" He knew he could do it. And he did. He heard Mason whooping. He did it. He whooped too. He met up with Mason. While Mason was chattering happily telling Shaun how he knew that his buddy could nail the "easy" trick Shaun looked toward the helmets. The pink jacket nodded once. Shaun knew somewhere inside the mask her eyes were meeting his. He nodded back, and then, in a flash, the bright jacketed pair was gone, heading down toward the lodge.

"Hey, let's go take a run down the mountain." Mason nudged Shaun in the direction of the chair lift.

"Nah, let's go get a frozen hot chocolate or something." Shaun said, slowly ripping his eyes from the direction of the lodge.

"A run, and then a frozen hot chocolate." Mason said. Shaun nodded and followed his buddy toward the lift. He wanted to make the run quick, to maybe catch the girl by the fireplace or something. How would he find her without the jacket? The run didn't go quickly though. He got absorbed in the fun of the run. He and Mason left their boards on the rack and entered the lodge smiling.

Shaun scanned the room. There was no hot pink jacket in sight, or an electric blue. He headed over to the cafeteria and grabbed a tray. Mason grabbed a tray and followed him down the line. Mason reached for a serving of fries and consequently bumped Shaun who's tray shot out from his hand on the slippery metal tray and hit the person's in front of him.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Shaun mumbled. He looked up when he heard a tinkle of laughter. He met the eyes of an exceptionally ordinary brunette. Her hair was wavy and curled around her shoulders. She wore a cream colored turtle neck. She had a pretty smile that made her eyes crinkle.

"It's alright," She graced Shaun with her smile. She turned and kept going, moving steadily down the line. She grabbed two giant cookies from the tower.

"Shannon!" A boy with her identical hair waved at her. She picked up her tray and headed over to him.

"Got you a Snickerdoodle!" She was calling as she made her way toward the boy and the register. Shaun bumped another girl's tray. This girl wore a hot pink ski jacket. This was her.

"Oh, sorry," Shaun said confidently, grinning. The girl turned to him. Her jaw dropped. She had straight red hair to match his, and a smattering of freckles all over her face.

"You're Shaun White!" The girl said by way of accepting his apology.

"Ha, yeah, I guess I am. What's your name?" Shaun asked. He heard Mason lean in close to eavesdrop.

"My name is Lauren." She answered. "Lauren Salko."

"Well nice to meet you Lauren, Lauren Salko. Would you like to join me and my friend Mason while we eat?" Lauren nodded eagerly.

"Smooth," Shaun heard Mason in his ear. Shaun swapped at him over his shoulder like Mason was a fly. Lauren followed the friends to a table. Shannon and the boy from earlier were seated two seats over.

"Patrick, ahh, that can't be true," Shannon was saying.

"I'm your twin brother, why would I lie?" The siblings didn't acknowledge the new arrivals.

"So like, why are you on this mountain in Maine? Don't you usually go to Vermont or something?" Lauren asked. "And this is like mostly a ski mountain, too. You don't get many snow boarders."

"A friend of ours had a couple of free passes." Shaun shrugged. "I'll go where there's snow. So we snowboarders are far and few between, huh?"

"Yeah, you are." Lauren nodded. "Most of the time I don't like running into you guys. Sometimes snowboarders are inconsiderate on this mountain and like, ruin my run and stuff. I don't think I would mind sharing the mountain with you though." Shaun nodded and smiled. He and Mason exchanged a look. This wasn't her.

"Hmm, want to go back out there?" Patrick was asking Shannon.

"Well, I didn't make the mistake of taking off my boots this time. I've got like two, maybe three runs left in me. Let's do a double black diamond. I'm up for challenge." The twins picked up their trays and headed toward the drop off. On the way Shannon's boot caught on Lauren's chair. She fell forward and caught herself, but couldn't stop her tray from hitting Shaun's shoulder.

"Ha, I guess it's my turn to say sorry." Shannon's laughter tinkled in the air. Patrick was waiting, tapping his heel against the wooden floor.

"It's alright." Shaun said, looking up into Shannon's face. He heard Patrick's boot tapping. He looked at them. They weren't typical ski boots but He was turning and walking away, Shannon following before he could figure out if they were special or anything.

Mason had been busy concocting an elaborate plan to escape this skier. He and Shaun grabbed their boards and headed toward the lift.

"Back to the pipe?" Mason asked. Shaun nodded. They headed towards the lift that would bring them to the half pipe.

"Man, I want to find that girl!" Shaun said, slapping the bar.

"Well, whoever she is, she's ripping it up right there!" Mason pointed upward and toward the left. The neon jackets were on a run, flying down the mountain's moguls, nailing tail grabs.

"Shit, we need to catch them!" Shaun said maneuvering to slip under the bar.

"Are you crazy?' Mason asked as Shaun nearly slipped under the bar.

"Are you coming?" Shaun asked. Mason sighed and the two committed a cardinal sin of chair lifts and dropped down to the powder.

"I could've broken my leg!" Mason shouted as they powered down the mountain, parallel to the shiny helmets of the boarders with the neon coats.

"Shut up and board!" Shaun shouted back over to him. The end of the run was nearing. The run was extremely fast. He saw the neon coats giving each other gloved high fives he boarded over to them.

"You nailed the McTwist on the half pipe." Shaun said without introduction. Mason hit him when he came over, slowly, tiredly.

"Yeah, I guess I did." The muffled voice came out of the helmet. Shaun couldn't see inside.

"It's kind of her thing." The blue jacket, obviously a boy said. The helmets turned toward each other. The pink jacket shook her head. The blue jacket nodded. And then Shaun heard it. The unmistakable tinkles of laughter from the pink helmet.

"Shannon?" He held back a gasp. The pink jacket stopped shaking her head abruptly and turned toward him. Her hands flew up to her helmet and then it was off. Her brown hair tumbled to her shoulders.

"How do you know my name?" She asked. Her twin brother's helmet was off now too. They exchanged a look.

"I heard it somewhere once." Shaun smiled at her. Shannon smiled back, her green eyes twinkling. "You two really rip it up out there."

"Thanks." Shannon said, throwing an arm around her brother. "You do too."

"Do you want to hang out? Maybe go get dinner or see a movie or something?" Shaun asked. Mason muttered smooth again. Patrick chortled a deep laugh, completely different from his sister's.

"I don't know..." Shannon trailed off. "Maybe if you can catch me..."

"What?" And before Shaun could blink her helmet was on again.

"C'mon Shaunny White! Catch me and I'll go on a date with you!" And with that Shannon took off down the slope, with Shaun following close behind her.