Everyone had said they'd love it. But it was better than that.
A season in a ski resort, well to be fair, the best ski resort in the world with some of the richest and most famous frequenting it: Courchevel, in the French 3 Valleys. The sort of place where private school educated girls like them went after they'd finished at uni.
Okay, the hours as a chalet maid could be harsh - really early morning starts sometimes. A few of the guests could be very demanding and rude, but they seemed to be the ones who gave the biggest tips - and those tips could be massive. Most guests, however, were kind and sweet, probably remembering what life was like when they were the girls' ages. And if you got organised there was plenty of time for skiing.
Partying was sensational. Loads of other seasonaires to hang out with, and a constant turnaround of skiers and boarders just rocking up for a week's hedonism.
Katie and Steph couldn't believe their luck. Yet it was all coming to an end. It might be scorching hot right now in the spring sun and there might be an abundance of snow, but with only two weeks to go before the end of the season it was getting really close to reality time. The regular lifestyle that every girl seems to go through. Getting a sensible job, settling down with a boyfriend, renting a flat, working your butt off to get promotion, having a baby or two or three.
This needs to be the time. Out of the glare of protective parents, really free to make your own choices and do things you'll never get a chance to repeat. Creating memories that future partners needn't know about.
And so here they were swigging back a few beers in the infamous Folie Douce bar in the Meribel valley. The terrace was packed and the DJs made sure the place was rocking. As the tunes pounded out Katie had a great urge to jump on the table and dance. "Come on Steph, let's go" she shouted as she pulled her mate up with her. They weren't alone. Virtually every table had dancers on them, including one table which obviously had professionals performing in t-shirts and hotpants.
A couple of good looking lads came over to them. "What can we get you to drink?" asked a posh well-educated voice. Katie took control "We'd love some champagne." A few minutes later they returned, not just with a couple of glasses but with a bottle for the girls and a couple of beers for themselves. It must have cost them well over 100 Euros.
The girls took full advantage and quaffed the champagne with abandon. "Guys, we're really sorry, but we've got to race to catch the last lift to get back to our valley. And that means leaving now."
"That's okay. We've got to grab that as well, otherwise we won't get back to where we're staying in Le Praz."
The four of them gathered their skis and rushed to the halfway station of the Saulire Express telecabine. And it was true, they very nearly missed it. In they jumped, spreading themselves across the eight-seater cabin.
The boys introduced themselves as Darren and Tom. Two holidaymakers with only two days left to go.
As the lift set off, Steph looked across to Katie. "I think we can safely say that's another one of our Challenges completed."
"What's the Challenges?" asked Darren.
"Well it was something we set ourselves when we first arrived here. One beery night in a bar we set ourselves the Big Five Challenges to be completed while we're here. To be honest, we kind of forgot about them until the last week or two, but now we've done three of them."
"Tell us more."
"Well the first was to ski the Grand Couloir. We did that last week."
"Christ, that's tough isn't it? Isn't that the black run where you have to ski over a knife edge to get to it and it goes down at nearly 90 percent slope gradient in some places. Not sure you'd get me doing that! What's the second?"
"Probably a lot easier. We both wanted to ski in a slalom competition against the locals. Katie came twelfth and I came fifteenth, but we're pretty pleased about that."
Katie took over: "And thanks to you boys we've just achieved number three which was to drink champagne while dancing on the tables at Folie Douce."
Tom butted in "All pretty good so far but it sounds like numbers four and five haven't been done yet."
"That's true. But you've got to bear in mind we'd had a few beers, a few wines and far too many shots by now. So... number four is to ski down naked from the top of the mountain."
Silence fell among the boys as they both mentally undressed the girls and tried to picture the scene.
"How, the hell are you going to do that?"
"Well, it's all planned. First, we won't be fully naked of course. We'll both have our ski boots and socks on and we'll both have our helmets on because we'll want to have Go Pros recording each other coming down. The thinking is we'll take the last lift and go to the toilets at the top of the Pas du Lac lift because that's pretty quiet. Then we'll strip off our salopettes and pants and replace them with a pair of baggy shorts that'll be easy to slip over our boots. We'll still have a t-shirt on the top. At this time of year it's so hot others are only wearing scanty clothes so nobody will bat an eyelid. The clothes will be stuffed into a bumbag.
Then we'll stick around for about half an hour so all the skiers have gone. All we have to do then, is scoot round to the top of Creux and take off our t-shirts and shorts, then ski down. Job's a good 'un. We reckon the only people who might see us will be the pisteurs checking the slopes. And they wouldn't give a monkey's about two naked girls having fun."
After a few quiet seconds all Tom could say was "Wow."
Then the lift stopped. "Oh bugger. It was doing this yesterday. At least we're on it so we know we'll get back alright."
"So, what's number five?"
Steph felt collywobbles rising in her tummy. She knew what was coming. Her eyes scurried around to suss out the surroundings. The telecabine was certainly spacious enough and physically she could see it was possible. But it was a very modern lift and was glass almost from floor to ceiling. Anybody could look in and see what was going on and there'd be a piste full of skiers below them almost for the whole journey.
Okay, think positively: the glass was tinted a bit and why should anybody want to be looking up when they were skiing. Besides, even if someone did see them they wouldn't recognise them. It was always going to be risky; otherwise it wouldn't be a challenge. The aim was to have an experience they'd never forget.
The main thing was she'd never thought this was really going to happen. Certainly not with her and Katie, together, in the same telecabine.
Sharing a room for a season had obviously meant she'd seen Katie naked many a time, and vice-versa but nothing as intimate as what was going through her mind.
Except, of course, there had been THAT evening.
Steph had a flashback. The two of them had started to get ready for a night out. They'd both showered and Katie had sat in front of the only mirror in her bra and pants to put her make-up on. They'd shared a bottle of wine as a pre-loader. Katie came out of the shower room wearing her silk dressing gown and sat on her bed to look at some photos they'd been taking, through her camera viewfinder.
After a few minutes, Katie seemed to have got bored, or maybe she'd just got a bit mischievous, fuelled by the wine. She moved behind Step and started to take a few photos of the two of them via the mirror. Both of them posed with funny faces, each trying to outdo the other.