Off to the Cabin

"We drove up the snowy, winding road towards the cozy A-frame cabin; Patti, Skeeter, Bebe, Chalkie, Connie, and, of course, me, Doug. Bebe's father co-owned a great AirBnB and the six of us were off for an ALL-EXPENSES PAID Winter vacation getaway between semesters. Finally; we were six friends off to a Winter Vacation get away TOGETHER!"

Bebe's luxury SUV tooled down the roads into the mountains. Skeeter was behind the wheel as BeBe gave directions. Doug and Patti were both fast asleep in the middle row, resting their heads on one another's shoulders. Meanwhile, Chalkie and Connie glanced out the windows of the backseat and oohed and aahed over their surroundings.

"Not Bluffington, is it?" Connie reflected, dreamily.

"You said it!" Chalkie answered. "Hey, you guys, wake up; you're MISSING the sights!"

Chalkie's insistance finally DID wake Doug and Pattie from their comfortable slumber on one another's shoulders. Then, as they both came to and discovered that their hands were still entwined, the college couple blushed at one another; then each glanced out their own windows as the scenery passed by.

"Oh, wow!" Doug breathed.

"Beautiful!" Patti added.

"...and if you think that these trees and snow are a sight to behold, just right until you see daddy's all-seasonal Cabin!" Bebe gloated. "Central Heating, its own Christmas Tree, a T.V. with every digital channel we'll ever want to...Skeeter, you missed our turn!"

"Well, gee, I'm s-sorry, Bebe, but weren't you supposed to be giving directions?" Skeeter asked.

"Me; give directions?" Bebe huffed in reply, swatting at the SUV's instrument panel until what looked like a tiny satellite dish popped out of the dash.

"Cool!" Skeeter exclaimed, steering to follow the satellite dish's directions.

"You watch all of the TV you want, Bebe; I'm going to take in the skiing!" Chalkie declared.

"...and the snowboarding!" Patti added. "Right, Doug?"

"Skiing and snowboarding." Doug echoed as his imagination ran away to an image of he and Pattie traveling down a snow hill on skis, side-by-side, hand-in-hand, and...

"But, Doug, we can't do those things!" Skeeter's voice snapped the now college freshman's still-overactive imagination back to reality.

"But we do know how to taboggan." Doug insisted, allowing his imagination to shift to an image of he and Patti in a single-seater taboggan before he could kick Skeeter in the back of the driver's seat as he tried to steer.

"Oh; skiing and snowboarding are easy!" Patti insisted. "I'll teach you both."

"Yeah; it'll be fun!" Chalkie added.

Doug thought ahead to the next week of Wintery adventures with his friends. Skeeter, Patti, and Chalkie were right; this would be great...

==============================

Finally, the six friends from Bluffington pulled up to Bill Bluff's personal AirBnB.

"There it is!" Bebe declared, pointing. "Isn't it great?"

"It sure is, Bebe!" Doug answered as he and Patti filed out of the vehicle.

"Yeah; let's check it out!" Connie added.

"You'll all be so impressed!" Bebe added, fitting her key into the doorknob.

Before she could even turn her key, however, the door to the posh snow cabin fell open. Suddenly, Skeeter clung to Bebe from behind.

"B-Bebe!" he quivered. "Someone was in here before us!"

"Oh, Skeeter!" she answered, shaking him off of her. "It's not like they're still here now...are they?"

Chalkie balled up his fists as if in anticipation for a confrontation; then, promptly, stood in place quietly. Doug was the one who made his way forward between Skeeter and Bebe. Only Patti followed in his shadow.

"Is anyone in here?" Doug asked, glancing about the darkened abode.

Suddenly, the lights clicked on over Doug's head, thereby blinding all of the startled friends.

"Hey, Funnie!" came a familiar voice.

Doug, Skeeter, Chalkie, Patti, Bebe, and Connie all gazed into the sudden brightness as a quintet of harsh voices chuckled and chortled at their sudden bewilderment. Doug, Patti, and Bebe's eyes adjusted first (although their ears hadn't betrayed them before). Roger Klotz, Boomer Bledsoe, Willie White, Ned Cauphee, and Vanessa Van Holton were inside of the cabin and seemed to be waiting for the latest arrivals.

"Roger Klotz!" Bebe shouted. "What are you doing here? This is my daddy's property!"

Something about a college freshman still referring to her father by the perjorative struck Roger and his gang as even more hilarious. Even Skeeter hung his head in his hand as if he couldn't believe that she had just said that. However, Roger's voice soon returned and he returned to business.

"Sorry to say it, Beebs, but I think you mean my father's property!" Roger crowed. "He and your 'daddy' bought in on this slice of Paradise as a joint project; and need I remind you losers that we were here first?"

Doug and Patti could concede that Roger had a point that he and his gang had already arrived and Patti draped a hand on Bebe's shoulder to propel her right back out the door. Apparently, Connie and Chalkie saw Roger's point as well as they had already gone out to the vehicle again.

"Okay, Roger." Bebe sighed.

"Yeah, man; enjoy the place." Skeeter added.

"Hey; you all just wait one little minum!" Roger's obnoxious voice suddenly shouted.

Doug decided that Roger meant to say "minute" and he and the others paused in the vestibule for a moment.

"Yeah?" Doug demanded.

Roger threw up his hands in mock surrender.

"Well, I've just been thinkin..." he began.

"...Hey; Roger's been thinkin!" Willy interjected.

"Can it, will ya?" Roger demanded; then, back to business: "Well, I've been thinkin, you guys can roll up in a group of six and I was just considering that six people would be just right for this place!"

"So find a sixth tenant." Doug answered. "C'mon, Bebe; Skeeter; Pat..."

"Hang on, Funnie!" Roger interjected. "It would just be stupid for all of us to get free reign around here while all of you have to head back together; right, Patti?"

Since Roger had formulated such an argument, it didn't take too long for everyone else to see through it.

"Roger Klotz, are you telling me to hang here with you instead of with my friends?" Patti demanded.

"Well, yeah." Roger answered, matter-of-factly. "Whaddaya Say?"

Patti paused for the briefest moment and specifically glanced between Doug and Roger. Even her lifelong friend, Bebe (and the daughter to the cabin's coowner), seemed to be an afterthought for a moment. Patti literally stood in the middle of the room between Doug and Roger. Meanwhile, in Doug's imagination, he and his rival were bachelor contestants between Patti as she strove to make her final choice of...

"Bebe." Patti blurted. "and Doug, and Skeeter, and Chalkie, and Connie. That's who I traveled up here with, that's who I attend Bluff U with, and that's who I intend to spend my break with. Thanks but no thanks, Roger; we will find another ski lodge somewhere else."

With that, the last of the group stormed off and left Roger only with his usual pals and his brand new girlfriend.

"Well, we certainly showed them!" Vanessa cooed.

"I guess we get full run of this whole place now!" Boomer added.

Meanwhile, Roger was looking out the window as the six friends piled into the SUV. They were already laughing together again as though nothing had happened to deter their friendship.

"Yeah; yeah, I guess we do..." Roger answered absently as he turned back to his friends and half-heartedly turned a radio back on...