"You guys remembered to grab the shorts, right?" Abigail asks, as she stacks the head of their Lewis snowman onto its body. They'd woken up bright and early for the Festival of Ice that morning – mostly because Abigail's mom had come in to double check that the boys weren't in bed with her. (Abigail wonders if her mom noticed that Sam and Sebastian were actually snuggled up with each other.)

Sebastian produces the boxers from the pocket of his hoodie. "I'm going to have to burn this sweater now," he mutters.

"No you won't," Sam argues, adjusting the snowman's yellow tie, "you almost never take that thing off."

They drape the silky purple boxers over the lower half of the snowman, and secure it in place with some tightly packed snow.

"Hold on," Sebastian says, stepping backwards to study their work. "I have an idea." He pulls the carrot they were using as the nose out of the snowman's head, and inserts it behind the boxers, tenting the fabric.

Sam laughs. "Holy fuck, Seb; you're a genius."

"We're going to get about twenty extra hours of community service for giving it a boner, I hope you guys know that," Abigail says. She can't help grinning, though; it's probably the best snowman they've ever built.

Sebastian shrugs. "We're doing him a favour; I could've used a baby carrot."

Sam laughs harder, and Abigail has to elbow him to get him to shut up. She glances over her shoulder to see if anybody's noticed the raging hard-on their snowman is sporting. Penny was attempting to coax Vincent away from the ice, while Jas collected pebbles to decorate their snowman; Emily was redressing Clint's snowman, batting his hands away whenever he tried to help; and Alex was sculpting a six-pack on his snowman, pausing to flex next to it while Haley snapped pictures on her phone.

"He's definitely into dudes," Sebastian comments, nodding towards Alex.

Abigail elbows him. "Don't go starting another fight, Seb. We're already going to be in enough shit when Lewis figures out who built this snowman."

Lewis, still blissfully unaware of the snowman that's now wearing his silk boxers, calls for the fishing tournament to begin, and the three of them shuffle towards the pond with the rest of the townspeople.

Abigail ditches Sebastian and Sam to go stand with her parents; she can only tolerate so many 'master baiter' jokes. That, and watching the two of them attempt to inconspicuously hold hands proves to be far more entertaining. They brush hands a couple of times – and even though their faces are both pink from the cold, Abigail can tell they're blushing – before linking their pinky fingers together.

The farmer's participating in the fishing tournament for the first time this year, except she's doing such a bad job that it's almost painful to watch. Halfway through she manages to get her fishing rod stuck – to what, Abigail's not exactly sure – and Willy ends up winning the tournament as usual.

"Well that was fucking excruciating," Sebastian comments once Abigail meets up with the boys again.

"Quiet," Abigail replies. "You know what's excruciating? Watching Sam get his ass kicked at a game he's been playing every Friday night for thirteen years."

"At least I don't get my cue stick stuck to anything!" Sam protests.

A sudden shout from the Mayor prevents them from bickering any further. "Who made this?" Lewis yells. Sam grabs Abigail's arm, and pulls her into a nearby bush, along with Sebastian.

"Who do you think he's gonna blame?" Sam asks as they watch from inside the bush.

"I mean, us, obviously," Abigail answers. "Or more specifically, you two, since you're always the ones causing trouble."

"Nah, I think he's actually going after the farmer," Sebastian says. "Look."

Abigail winces as Lewis marches over to the baffled looking farmer. "You!" he yells. "Is this some sort of sick prank? Those are very private!"

"Oh, Yoba," Abigail moans, "I didn't think she was going to get in trouble for it!"

Sam frowns. "Um, should we go rescue her? I mean, I don't really want to get grounded, but I feel really bad letting the farmer get blamed."

"Yeah," Sebastian agrees, though he looks a little reluctant. "Maybe he'll take pity on me and assign the service hours after my birthday…" He snorts. "Probably not, though."

Abigail sighs. She's definitely not about to let the farmer take the fall for the prank – not when Abigail was the one who stole the Mayor's letter from her – but she's also not about to ruin Sebastian's birthday. Especially not when he's about to go on his first date with Sam. "You guys owe me," she mutters to them, "so fucking much, I own your souls now."

"What?" Sam asks.

Abigail crawls out of the bush, and makes her way towards Lewis, who's still laying into the farmer. Most of the other townspeople have already left, but a fair number of them seem to have lingered behind to watch the scene. Alex is amongst them, frowning, and Abigail decides she needs to make her confession now, before he can tell Lewis about the locker room.

"I did it," she declares, loud and clear, stepping out of the small ring of people gathered around the Mayor and the farmer. "I made the snowman."

Lewis looks caught off guard, but only for a second. "Where's Sam and Sebastian?" he asks, rounding on her instead. "I know those two had to helped – they're always up to no good."

Abigail shakes her head. "They didn't, I just found the shorts and thought it would make a funny snowman. What's the big deal, anyways?"

"Those shorts are my personal property!" Lewis yells, and Abigail's surprised that he's publicly admitting to owning the most obnoxious pair of men's underwear she's ever seen. "I don't know how you got hold of those, but I know those boys had something to do with it!"

"We found them in the spa," Alex pipes up, and Abigail turns around to give him a 'what the fuck do you think you are doing' look. "I, uh, ran into Abigail there when I was finishing up my work out, and I asked her if she knew who those shorts belonged to? 'Cause they were just lying on the floor of the locker room, and I thought they were someone's swimming trunks? But she didn't know either, so uh, we thought it would make a good snowman?"

Lewis doesn't look like he's buying a word of Alex's story, and Abigail is honestly just impressed he was able to come up with something that plausible-sounding on the spot.

"Um, yeah," she agrees. "Sorry; we didn't know they were your swimming trunks?"

"They're not," Lewis mutters, but he doesn't clarify any further. In a louder voice he continues, "and I most definitely did not leave them on the floor of the change room, so-"

"Mayor Lewis, isn't it possible that you just forgot where you left them?" Marnie interrupts. "Where else would the kids have found those shorts?"

Marnie, Abigail decides, is her new favourite person in town. She makes a mental note to give Marnie a discount the next time she comes into the general store, because she definitely just saved Abigail's ass.

"It's possible," Lewis replies, his tone matching the reluctant look on his face. "But they made a very rude and inappropriate display out of them, and I'm not about to overlook that."

"I've got some fish they can help gut," Willy interjects, gesturing to the wooden crates of fish still sitting on the frozen 'pond'. "I'll take care of 'em, Lewis. You should prolly just take those shorts home and give 'em a good wash."

Marnie beams at Willy. "That's a great suggestion! Here Lewis, give me those shorts and I'll go pop them in the machine right now."

Lewis looks flustered at the thought, but he nods. Turning back to the farmer, he begins to quietly apologize for causing a scene. The last of the crowd starts heading for the path back to town, and Willy motions for Abigail and Alex to follow him.

"Man, what the fuck just happened?" Alex asks as they trudge along after Willy.

"Marnie and Lewis are banging," Abigail answers, which probably isn't the most eloquent way she could have put it. "We found the boxers in her bedroom. That's probably why he didn't make bigger fuss – he couldn't exactly accuse us of breaking in to steal them."

"Wait what?" Alex asks, with a blank look. "I thought you guys found them in the spa? That's why you were snooping around in there, right?"

Abigail smirks. "Well, you're sort of right. We tried looking for them there first, but all we found was your, ah… posters." Alex blushes, and looks away. "I haven't told anyone, by the way," Abigail assures him in a lowered voice.

"Thanks," he says quietly.

They stop at the edge of the pond, and Willy passes each of them a crate full of fish. "Yoba, this is so gross," Abigail chokes out, staggering a little under the weight of the wooden crate. "I think I'm actually going to throw up."

"It's not so bad," Alex replies, despite the fact that he looks just as sick as Abigail feels.

Abigail manages to laugh without throwing up. "Really? 'Cause your face is starting to match your jacket."

"Hey, we're supposed to be in this together," Alex protests. "Don't be mean… I could've just said nothing!"

"I don't know why you didn't, honestly," Abigail replies, "I was ready to take the blame."

"Why did you?" he asks, frowning. "Sam and Sebastian helped, aren't friends supposed to all take the fall together? That's not good teamwork if they just let you get in trouble."

Abigail makes sure they're out of Willy's earshot before answering. "Look, let's just say I owed them a favour this time... and obviously I couldn't just stand back and let the farmer get in trouble. She's, um, really nice, you know?"

Alex nods. "Yeah, I don't even know why he blamed her in the first place? I mean, why would she know where his shorts are?"

She shrugs; Alex doesn't need to know about the letter. "It doesn't matter now, I guess."

They fall into silence, and Abigail's kind of grateful, because she's almost out of breath from talking and trying to carry a heavy crate of fish at the same time. (Yoba, she's going to need to get into better shape if she ever wants to go adventuring.) Alex seems to be searching for something to say, though.

"So, um, I did actually write an apology letter for Sam and Sebastian," he begins, "and I took it over to Sam's house yesterday."

"I heard," Abigail replies. "I also heard that you ran off?"

"Sam's mom answered the door, and I told her that I had something to give to Sam, but she said he was still sleeping and then she offered to give it to him? But I was scared that she'd read the note. I mean, you've met Sam's dad… he's huge." Alex winces. "He'd beat the crap outta me if he found out I called his son a twink."

"Honestly? I think you might be right," she agrees. "Not about getting beat up – although you would – but about Sam's mom reading the note. Running away was still pretty stupid, though. Jodi thought you were trying to slip Sam the devil's lettuce."

Alex gives her another blank look. "What?"

"Nevermind," Abigail says quickly. "Look, I'm probably going to be grounded for the next ten years, but you should come to the Saloon with us some time. We hang out there every Friday night, and it might be a good time to apologize to them. In person."

He looks terrified at the thought, but he nods. "Can I still give them my note, though?"

"Read it, Alex. You're a grown ass man, you know how to use your words."

Alex flushes a little. "I'm not so good at reading," he admits. "The words kinda get all mixed up out of order and stuff, even though they're written down."

"Oh," she says. "I didn't know that. Sorry."

"It took me a really long time to write it," he admits, staring down at his crate of fish instead of her. "You probably think I'm really dumb now."

"No, I don't think you're dumb. Everyone's bad at something, right? Hey, I passed my last high school math class with a fifty one. Mostly 'cause I didn't do my homework. But still, that was pretty dumb of me."

He smiles at her, and it's kind of nice, seeing a warm smile on his face, instead of his usual smug, arrogant one. "Thanks, Abby. You're really nice too, you know?"

Abigail laughs. "You wouldn't be saying that if you heard how I talk to Sam and Sebastian… 'idiot' is practically my pet name for them at this point. They're like my big, dumb, older brothers, and that's why I gotta stick up for them, you know?"

"You're a good friend," Alex tells her. "Um, maybe this is stupid, but maybe we could be friends, too? I don't really have any in Pelican Town, except for Haley."

"We'll see how that apology goes," Abigail teases, and he smiles at her again.