It was shortly after the girls began their second semester of college that Jenny had her birthday. It was, like most birthdays, mainly an excuse to hang out with friends. Being the weekend, Jenny had a particular goal: to go sledding.
Sledding was the greatest thing in the world for her. Nothing quite matched the feel of the wintery air blowing in your face as you zoom down the hill. There were enough hills, but most of them saw heavy action. There were appropriate hills on campus, but they all emptied into streets or came dangerously close to buildings.
This would involve going off campus. Jenny played with Google Street View until she found the spot. She walked by during the week, and it looked safe and fast. There were no ruts, and it was public land. Now, she had to get her friends to go. There were a few trees behind it, but that was all.
"I'd love to!!" responded Joyce
"I have HW..." came from Bridget.
"Sure!" from Nichole.
"I would, but I have a lab to write," from Joy.
"Cool!" responded Lauren.
Jenny was a little disappointed that neither Joy or Joyce would be there, but she got them to both promise to come by later in the day to hang out. Three out of five is still 60%, so Jenny was happy with the outcome of it.
In the morning, Jenny went down and stuffed her and Nichole's clothes in the dryer for a few minutes. Soon, the clothes were toasty warm, and the girls put on their coats, hats, and scarves to go out into the snow. They grabbed their sleds before leaving.
They walked along happily even if they were quiet. Jenny had on black sweat pants, a pink sweatshirt, a pink coat, a white hat, and a brown scarf wrapped over her face with her hair in a pink ponytail. Nichole had pale blue sweat pants, a gray wool sweater, grey earmuffs, and a white scarf. Along the way, they talked about the hill.
"How tall is it?"
"Not tall, but it is steep."
"Good slope and grading."
"Oh, we will sweat just going up it."
"Trees?"
"None at all! It is perfect!"
"This is going to be awesome!"
When Nichole and Jenny got to the hill, there was a Jeep parked at the bottom of the hill with two figures in it. It was immediately recognizable as Lauren's Jeep, and sure enough she and Joyce came out of it. Lauren had on black sweats, a white long-sleeve t-shirt, a thick black jacket, and white earmuffs with her hair up in a bun. Joyce had on blue jeans, a navy blue school sweatshirt, a pale blue hoody, and a pale blue winter hat.
"Happy birthday, Jen!" Lauren said throwing an arm around Jenny.
"Thanks," she said.
"Do you have sleds?" Lauren asked.
"Yeah, why?"
"I don't... we don't have snow in Florida."
The girls stopped for a moment. They had never really contemplated this, but it was absolutely dumbfounding that there were people, fellow Americans even, who had never gone sledding before, and maybe never even seen snow! This left the girls speechless, and Lauren just shook her head and laughed.
"You should try to live in a place where freezing weather is an emergency!" Lauren warned them.
"Yeah, but it's summer all year!" Nichole responded.
"95 and feels like 1000 because it is so muggy!"
"That sounds nasty."
"It's gross."
There was now a mutual understanding: that the weather is awful eveywhere, and they were glad that Bridget wasn't there to be the all-knowing weather girl. The girls beheld the challenge before them of sledding down this hill. Sledding it was one thing, but there was another contest afoot: to see what person(s) could get the greatest distance.
The girls walked up the hill. They weren't at the top yet when all of a sudden Jenny felt a splat from behind that knocked her on her face in the snow. Bridget got one too. They both turned around to see Lauren laughing as she played with snow in her fingers. Suddenly, the game had changed.
"You are so dead!" Jenny shouted with a laugh as she gathered snow.
"Not if you can't catch me!" she responded.
Soon, Lauren was being chased in and out of the trees. Nichole laughed and took a video of her friends going berserk having a snowball fight. Lauren had the agility that comes from softball, and Jenny had the speed of an athletics person. Finally, Lauren came out of the trees toward the hill, with Jenny in pursuit.
"I'm gonna get you!" Jenny said jumping onto Lauren.
"Not here! Ohhh!" she cried out.
They landed on a sled and down they went. They didn't have time to get seated as the sled zoomed to its destination. As soon as it stopped, they sat up, looked around, and laughed.
"That was fun!" Lauren said.
"Wasn't it? But first!" Jenny said, pushing Lauren into the snow.
Lauren got more than she wanted of the white powder. Jenny got off Lauren's back, raced up the hill with the sled, and Lauren could only laugh. The girls kept sledding for well over an hour. No one could beat the distance Lauren and Jenny set on the first "sled," however.
When all was done, Lauren brought the girls back in her Jeep. Jenny texted Joy as they drove.
"Mind if we crash at your place? Our dorm is too loud."
"Nope, come on over, birthday girl."
"Tkx."
Jenny and Nichole grabbed their bags and hopped back into Lauren's Jeep. Lauren dumped them off near the building before going back to her place. The girls entered Joy's dorm room, where she and Bridget were doing HW. After birthday greetings, the girls settled in.
Jenny went into the bathroom, looked in the mirror, and took a photo of herself. She posted it on Facebook as her "birthday selfie." She couldn't believe that she was already 19! In birthday fashion, finished her HW first.
"Mind if I take a nap on your bunk, Joy?"
"Not at all. Go right ahead. Besides, that gives us time to prepare your surprise!"
"A surprise?!"
"You'll see!"
"OK!" she said and left.
"And what a surprise!" Joy muttered under her breath after Jenny was gone.
Jenny lay down on the bed. She was tired from the excitement. She would get herself a nice cup of mint cocoa later, and she'd put marshmallows and drink while it was nice and hot. She'd curl up under a blanket on her bunk then. Sleep overpowered Jenny, and soon she was snoozing away.