Ski Trip Trouble (7 page)

“Okay, I guess one last run can't hurt, right?” You say to Molly and Sierra. “Even if my legs are numb!”

As the chairlift grinds to a halt, all three of you climb off and head over to the trail that runs right underneath it. “Wow, this is more steep than I thought,” Molly admits, pulling her goggles down over her eyes.

“I think we can do it,” Sierra says.

You can feel your teeth chattering, you're so cold. “I just hope I can feel my legs by the time we reach the bottom,” you joke.

“Let's go!” Molly yells, pushing off with her poles. When she's a safe distance in front of you, you push off, too, and Sierra comes right behind you. In a second, you feel like you're going fifty miles an hour downhill. “Whoooooooooo!” you hear Molly yell from up ahead of you. And you do feel great—your hair flying out behind you, and wearing this awesome silver jacket. You look up to the chairlift going over your head and see two cute
guys—one of them is using his cell phone to take a picture of you!

“Hey, boys!” you hear Sierra yell from behind you, and the guys start waving like crazy—Molly was right! Then, suddenly, your right ski catches on something and, before you know it, you're flipping down the mountain—you can't stop! When you finally reach the bottom, you're bruised and freezing, but all in one piece.

“Nice one!” you hear a guy yell from the chairlift, and laughter drifts down to you.
Ugh.

As you gather up your poles and skis, your jeans are so wet and cold, they feel frozen to your body. “I think I better go inside,” you mumble to Sierra and Molly. When you finally get up to the room, it takes you forever to peel off the soaked, icy jeans. Then you climb into bed and fall asleep.

When you wake up, sunlight is streaming through the windows in your room—it's the next morning!

“You okay?” Sierra asks when she sees that you're awake.

“We tried to wake you up when we got back from the slopes, but you were out cold!” Molly says.

“And snoring!” Sierra adds. “You missed the best night ever—wait until you hear about the guys we met…,” she starts. You're so bummed! How did you sleep through the whole thing? Maybe next time, you'll pick clothes that help you stay warm instead of an outfit that just makes you look hot!

END

If you want to wear something else for skiing, go back to Chapter 19.

“I think this trail is too hard for me,” you tell Mitch. “Maybe after I warm up on the easier trail, I'll come back and meet you.”

“Fine,” Mitch says as he turns his back to you and heads down the trail.

“Let's go,” you tell Zac, and head over to the easier trail with him. On your way, you ski by a group of girls giggling and talking to some boys from your school—obviously flirting and having fun—and it makes you think of Mitch. You look over at Zac for a second. You do like him, and he's really sweet, but there's something missing—that spark you feel whenever you're with Mitch.

“Ready?” Zac says when you both reach the top of the slope.

You decide to put the whole Mitch thing out of your mind and just have fun. “Let's go!” you yell as you push off with your poles.

When you're about halfway down the mountain, you hear something beside you—a loud
thump
— and look down to see Zac rolling down the
mountain! “Zac!” you yell, just as he tumbles off the trail and into some fresh powder. You slant your skis to stop yourself, then go over to him.

“Are you okay?” you ask, but you can tell he's not. “My ankle,” he says, holding his leg, “I think it's hurt.”

You can already hear a rescue snowmobile racing up the mountain to help. When the guy arrives, he jumps off to help Zac onto the back. “Sorry, there isn't enough room for you, but we can meet you down at the infirmary,” he tells you.

“That's okay,” Zac says, looking more concerned for you than for himself. “You should keep skiing and have fun. I'll see you later.”

“Are you sure you're going to be okay?” you ask him.

“Don't worry about it.” Zac gives you a weak smile as the snowmobile races off down the mountain. You had wanted to meet back up with Mitch later and ski with him. But can you leave Zac all by himself in the infirmary?

You decide to ski down to the infirmary with Zac.

You'd rather go back and ski with Mitch.

When you get a text message from Travis that night on your phone, you're so happy, you practically jump up and down.

It only asks if you want to meet for a ski lesson tomorrow, but that's enough. You immediately accept. You can hardly wait!

The next morning, you show up early to meet him, and he's already there. “You ready?” He grins at you, and you two ski over to the bunny trail, where he takes you through some basics. Every time he touches you, a shiver goes up your spine.

“I think we can hit an actual trail now,” he says, pulling a knit cap down over his short, dark hair. “Come on.” He takes your gloved hand in his and leads you over to the chairlift. When you get to the top of the trail, Travis says, “Try to remember everything I just showed you, okay? Keep your knees bent, stay low,” he reminds you.

“I've got it,” you say, using your poles to push off. As you start down the trail, you're trying hard to keep everything Travis taught you in mind—and it's working! Before you know it, you're at the bottom of the trail—and you didn't wipe out once!

“I did it!” you shout to Travis as he slides to a stop right next to you.

“I know, you did great!” he says, and moves to grab you in a hug—but your skis and his get in the way. “Here,” he says, popping his skis off. He comes over to you and wraps his arms around you. “I'm proud of you—really,” he says quietly in your ear. When he steps back, he gives you a serious look.

“The only thing left to discuss is the payment,” he says.

“What payment?” you ask him, confused. “For the lesson,” he jokes. “I may not be an Olympic champ, but I still have to charge you for my time.”

“Of course,” you joke back. “So what do I owe you?” “I think…”—he leans in close to you—“three Eskimo kisses sounds about right.”

“It's a bargain,” you say, blushing as he moves
his face closer to yours. When your noses touch, you look up into his eyes and smile, just as you feel his lips touch yours. Who knew learning to ski could be so much fun?

END

You reach over and grab Zac's hand. “Come on!” you say, pulling him up to the stage before he can say no.

“I can't sing,” he whispers to you. “So?” you tell him. “That's what karaoke is all about!”

You turn to the emcee and say, “We'll do it!” “Great, two new victims.” He hands you each a microphone, points down at the monitor, and says, “Good luck!” as he walks off the stage.

“I don't know this song!” you whisper to Zac. “I don't, either!” he whispers back, just as words start crossing the monitor—and the lyrics are so embarrassing!

“Oh baby, I can't let you go…,” you try to sing along with the music.

“Ohhhhh, you broke my…” Zac pauses to look at the monitor for a second. “Uh, my heart,” he sings, and everyone laughs.

The next line is yours: “I didn't mean to do you wrong…baby,” you sing, laughing.

“Ohhhhhh, baby…,” Zac starts. “Wait, that's
your
line!” he says, pointing at you. Pretty soon, everyone in the audience is laughing so hard, you can't even remember what you're supposed to be singing. So you and Zac just sing every line together, making them laugh more. When the song finally ends, there's tons of clapping—some people even stand up to cheer for you both!

“Kiss her!” someone yells out, and suddenly the crowd is chanting, “Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss!”

Zac looks at you, smiling, “I think we need to give our fans what they want,” he says quietly.

“I agree,” you say, leaning in. When his lips touch yours, the audience goes crazy cheering.

“Encore!” someone yells.

“Uh, maybe later,” Zac says into the microphone. He grins at you as he takes your hand and leads you offstage. Not every guy is sweet enough to put up with the craziness of a spontaneous karaoke duet, but Zac is. He's adorable! That's the last time you judge anyone based on just their age!

END

“We'll do it!” you hear someone say, and a guy goes up to the stage holding a girl's hand. They take the microphones and start singing a terrible duet about heartbreak and getting dumped.

“You'd never want to do something like that with me,” Zac says, motioning to the people onstage. “You'd be too embarrassed to be seen with some nerd.” He slumps down in his seat.

“That's not true,” you say. “Look”—he turns to you—“I might as well just tell you. I heard what you and your friends were saying about me; one of my friends overheard you.”

“I don't know what you're talking about,” you tell him, but your mind goes back to some of the things that Heather had been saying. Who could have overheard her?

“About how I'm just some little kid, some super-brain….Why did you even agree to meet me here tonight? Just to make fun of me?” he asks.

You can tell he's really angry, and you feel terrible. “Zac, I—,” you start to say, but he cuts you off.

“Forget it,” he says. “I'm out of here.” He stands up and pushes his chair into the table hard before leaving the lounge. You feel bad that he heard you and your friends were talking about him, but seriously…maybe he is too immature for you after all!

END

Want to sing with Zac instead of fight with him? Go back to Chapter 37.

“Here's the idea,” Bryce says, leading you all out into the parking lot. “We'll just borrow the lodge's van for the night—they'll never notice that it's gone.”

“Yeah, and besides, we
are
lodge employees, so we should be allowed to use it, right?” Jon adds.

“That's what I'm thinking,” Bryce whispers. He leads the way through the dark parking lot over to a van that has MT. FROST SKI LODGE painted on the side of it. He opens the sliding door on the side. “Climb in,” he says to you and Heather.

She climbs up into a seat, and you join her. Aiden scoots in beside you. Bryce goes around to the driver's seat and gets in while Amanda takes the passenger seat next to him. “Now for the tricky part,” Jon says, climbing into the back of the van and closing the door. “You sure you've got this?”

“Yeah, man, no prob,” Bryce says as he reaches under the steering wheel.

“What are you doing?” Heather asks. “Well, see, we don't
exactly
have the keys,” Bryce
says, pulling out some wires from underneath the steering wheel. “So…”

“You're hot-wiring the van?” you ask. That's stealing!

“Oh, don't worry about it,” Aiden says, as if he's reading your mind. “We do this all the time—it's no big deal. Besides, it's the only way to get to this club. And I think you'll really like it.”

You look over at Heather, but she's already turned around in her seat to talk to Jon—she couldn't care less. It's up to you to decide for yourself what you want to do. You don't want to look lame—like you can't hack it hanging out with the older guys. And there is something sort of exciting about being so bad. But part of you would rather just play it safe and meet Zac back in the lodge for karaoke.

You want to get out of the van and meet Zac.

You decide to stay in the van and go dancing with Bryce and his friends.

“One hot chocolate,” you turn to Alex and say. Then you wave to Sierra and Molly. “I'll catch up with you guys later, 'kay?” Molly waves back at you, but Sierra just turns away with a scowl. Why is she so down on Alex? He seems like a great guy.