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What a cute little peikko Aria is!<br />
“Welcome to Rocky Mountain High!” a tall, scrawny guy in a blue fleece pullover and baggy jeans said to Aria and Klaudia as they strutted through the ski<br />
store’s fake-snow-decorated double doors. “Is there anything I can help you ladies with today?”<br />
“We’re cool,” Aria said, strolling past racks and racks of down-filled coats. It was Thursday after school, and Aria and Klaudia were shopping for the<br />
Kahns’ ski trip to New York this weekend. But now that she was inside the store, which was decorated with posters of skiers and snowboarders spraying<br />
up rooster tails and wildly flipping in the air, she wondered if this was really a good idea. Honestly, Aria had always found skiing kind of . . . pointless. You<br />
rode a gondola to the top of a big hill, raced down at speeds that could kill you, and then did it over again. And, oh yeah, it was below freezing outside.<br />
“Are you sure you don’t need some help?” the sales assistant asked, his eyes fixed on Klaudia. Today, she wore a pink mini dress, gray tights, and furry<br />
Uggs that somehow made her legs look shapely and long. Those sorts of boots always made Aria’s legs look like tree stumps.<br />
Klaudia looked up from her iPhone, and batted her eyelashes at the sales boy. “Oh! I know how you help. There’s a jacket in back on hold for Klaudia<br />
Huusko. Can you go get?”<br />
“Klaudia Huusko?” the guy repeated. “Is that you? Where are you from?”<br />
Klaudia grinned at him. “If you get jacket, I tell you.”<br />
The guy saluted, spun around, and made a beeline for the back room. Aria gazed at Klaudia. “Did you really order a jacket?”<br />
“No.” Klaudia giggled. “But now he leave us alone! He be back there for hours!”<br />
“Nice.” Aria gave Klaudia a high five.<br />
“Okay.” Klaudia squared her shoulders and steered Aria to the back of the store. She promptly selected a purple down-filled jacket, legging-like black ski<br />
pants, matching purple-and-black padded ski gloves, a package of thick Wigwam socks, and orange goggles with a thick strap. Chuckling, she placed<br />
the goggles over Aria’s eyes, then put a blue pair on her own. “Sexy, ja?”<br />
Aria stared at her reflection in the mirror. She looked like a bug. “Ja,” she agreed. Then she spied a rack of jester hats worn only by the dorkiest band<br />
geeks or drama kids at Rosewood Day. “Those are sexier.”<br />
“Oh, ja,” Klaudia said. They galloped over to the rack of hats, trying each one on and making sexy poses in front of the mirror. Each jester hat, felted king<br />
crown, and oversized cloche was worse than the last.<br />
“Smile!” Klaudia cried, using her iPhone to snap a picture of Aria in a fleece pointed cap and an orange ski mask that made her look like a burglar.
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