Page 31 of The Artist
Thor straightened up. “No, of course we should announce the winning team. Mason, who was on your team?”
“Simon and Harper.”
“Good, the three of you stand over there and Freya can take your picture for the scrapbook. You’ll get your reward when we’re back at the cabin.”
“What’s the reward?” Simon asked while Harper turned to the other Motlanders and whispered loudly, “I hope it’s earplugs so I can get some sleep tonight. Indiana snores.”
The large man in question heard her comment and denied the accusation. “No, I don’t.”
“Not all the time, but you make these little grunts.” Harper imitated the sound and it made us all laugh.
“Aren’t Motlanders supposed to be sweet?” Indiana asked.
“Aww, the mean Motlanders getting under your skin?” Aubri teased him and shoved at his arm while giving a mocking pout.
He snorted. “Not fucking likely.”
“Okay, so for the next challenge we’re going to…”
Celeste interrupted Thor. “Please don’t say anything involving speed or strength. We know you want to show off, but we already established that you Nmen are the fastest and strongest. Can’t we do something where the rest of us stand a chance?”
“Whoa. I’m stronger and faster than Freya and Aubri,” Simon insisted.
“Yeah, me too,” Victor chimed in.
Aubri scoffed, “As if,” while Freya didn’t seem the least bit offended and spread her hands with a smile and admitted, “My strength is in my brain, not my legs or arms.”
That seemed to calm Simon a little but not Victor, who could never leave well enough alone.
Looking straight at Freya with a smug smile, he taunted her, “Which proves that I’m stronger than you in all areas.”
Her left eyebrow arched up as she kept her gaze locked with his. “Could be, especially if we count your ego. I’ve never met anyone with a bigger ego than you.”
“That’s right,” Simon exclaimed before Victor scowled at him and told him to shut up in French.
“I think we should all be nicer to each other,” Holly suggested. “People are getting their feelings hurt. How about a big group hug?”
Thor wouldn’t hear of it. “You five can hug if you need to; the rest of us are adults and don’t need to be comforted like children.”
“That’s not very nice,” Doreen muttered and hurried to hug Holly. The other three Motlanders were quick to join the supportive circle and talked in low voices among themselves.
“If we can’t do the climbing and building exercises that we planned then what do we do?” Thor asked the other Northlanders. “Should we go straight to the sledding?”
“Maybe we could do something easy like building a snowman,” Freya suggested.
Mason nodded. “Yeah, let’s see which team can build the biggest one.”
“Or we could compete to build the most creative snow sculpture,” I suggested. “That would be fun.”
Mason wrinkled his nose. “I liked the part about competing, but then you said the word sculpture and ruined it all.”
“I think it’s a great idea.”
Thor groaned. “Freya, stop! You’re just excited because Belle spoke up with an idea, but none of us are artistic and it would make us look bad.”
Around us the wind was picking up and making it colder. “Or we could go back to the cabin and have some hot chocolate,” I said.
“We’ll do that later. First we need to finish at least two challenges.” Thor looked toward the Motlanders, who had joined the rest of us again. Three of them were holding hands.
