As Ruby looked down the slope in front of her she couldn’t help but gulp in fear. The small forest was bad enough, but what made it all worse was that she couldn’t see the bottom through the haze.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” She asked her older brother Ollie.

“Ehhhh.” The brother said nonchalantly. “It should be fine… probably.”

“Probably!” Ruby yelled.

The teenager just shrugged. “Medical science has improved greatly in the past years.”

“Come on Ruby,” Sally yelled, already sitting in the sled, her green winter coat blending with the color of the sled. “What are you, a chicken?”

“I’m not a chicken,” Ruby replied. “It’s just…” It’s just that she didn’t want to die. But she knew saying that wouldn’t help.

Besides, Ollie said it was safe, and he was pretty reliable most of the time, not to mention Sally seemed confident. So with some hesitation, Ruby took a seat behind her older sister.

“Nope,” Sally said, turning towards her. “You’re going in front.”

“What! Why!” Ruby replied, subconsciously scooting backward in the sled.

“Because I had a great idea on the way up,” Sally said, her eyes sparkling. “We can mix this with your lessons today and kill two birds with one stone.”

Ruby looked at her sister in disbelief. How in the world did Sally expect her to learn while sliding down a hill at high speed? As if reading her mind, Sally asked. “What better way to learn multitasking?”

Ruby gulped, so not only did she have to deal with steering a sled, but she also had to decipher Sally’s ramblings at the same time. Part of her wanted to argue that there were better ways to learn multitasking than this, but Ruby knew there was no point. It seemed that she really was going to die today.

Standing up from the sled, Ruby slowly moved in front of Sally, wondering if they would be the last steps she ever took. As soon as Ruby sat in the sled, it lurched forward from a kick from Ollie, and any plans to ask to start out slow were thrown out the window.

“The first thing you need to know about the yarrow flower.” Sally began, her voice completely calm. “Is its relation to the legendary hero Achilles of Greek mythology.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Ruby had no time to wonder why Sally was starting with such a topic, as she was already about to hit her first tree.

Guessing that controlling a sled was as simple as pulling on the rope attached to the front, Ruby pulled them to the left, narrowly missing the tree.

“Of course.” Sally continued, seemingly unaffected by the rapid change in movement. “We can hardly begin a discussion on Greek mythology without understanding the history surrounding it.”

Ruby’s heart pounded as she maneuvered past rocks and trees. She feared she would lose her grip on the ropes as her hands were already covered in sweat.

She was just starting to feel confident in her control when she felt a hand bonk her on the head. “Are you even paying attention?” Sally said with irritation in her voice. “What is the square root of six hundred and thirty-two?”

“Thirty-seven,” Ruby called out with instinct, knowing from experience that any answer was better than none.

“Well.” Sally scoffed. “It seems we will have to put the subject of the corvus to the side and focus on basic mathematics. Despite expecting as much, I’m still disappointed.”

The trees thinned, but Ruby didn’t have time to sigh in relief as the next obstacle became apparent. The snow before her was not in any way flat. Bumps of various sizes spread in all directions, and Ruby had no time to make any plans before she hit the first bump.

Ruby’s heart skipped a beat as she found herself in the air.

This was how she would die, she just knew it. She wondered what they would say at her funeral. Would they call her death heroic? She hoped they would, she felt she earned that title by living with her siblings.

With a loud thunk, she landed, only barely keeping hold of the rope in her hands. Stunned by the landing she was unable to do anything before the sled was thrown into the air again.

She screamed this time, the times she wasn’t screaming were actually rather rare. But despite the shrill sound, she could still easily hear her sister continue her lecture. “Addition is, of course, the simplest mathematical function, but it is by no means the most significant. After all, how could any function compare to the beauty of the modulo.”

Ruby wasn’t sure how she survived the bumps. It was all a blur at this point. But what gave her hope was that she could see the bottom of the hill, she was so close. And yet her hopes were instantly dashed when she saw her next obstacle. A sheet of ice that covered the ground all the way to the end of the hill.

“Fifty-nine,” Ruby said in terror, after getting hit on the head again, not even hearing the question.

“I expected you to say that,” Sally said with scorn. “With an attitude like that the sine wave will forever be a mystery to you. But I’m getting ahead of myself, we haven't even started to discuss quantum tunneling.”

As Ruby feared the ice only made the sled move faster, all her attempts to turn the sled only made it rotate. Before long the sled was spinning as it slid down the hill. Ruby felt herself become nauseous as she closed her eyes, letting go of the rope, not that it mattered.

Ruby wrapped her arms around herself. Waiting for it must surely be the end of it all. Would it be painful? It probably would. Maybe she’d be able to come back as a ghost, then she’d be able to haunt her siblings in revenge.

With a wumph, the sled impacted a bank of snow, launching Ruby forward into the snow’s white embrace. Ruby groaned, but the pain was a sign that she didn’t die.

“I’m alive,” Ruby mumbled, her face still in the snow.

“Of course you're alive,” Sally said, her tone suggesting Ruby was stupid for believing otherwise. “Have you not been paying attention to my lessons on physics?”

Ruby didn’t answer, instead, she decided that her time was best spent where she was, face down in the snow. Sadly, it seemed the universe had other ideas.

She was barely given a moment’s peace before Ruby heard the words she dreaded most. “Ruby, there is no time for your characteristic laziness.” Sally said, her voice accusatory, “My lessons for the day have barely started. Grab the sled and start up the hill. I’ll quiz you on the way.”

Ruby’s sigh was barely audible through the snow, but she stood up and did as she was told.

“Maybe it will be better the second time,” Ruby mumbled in vain hope.

It wouldn’t be.