Snowboard Maverick (11 page)

Dennis knew he wouldn’t get as good that way as if he spent all his time practicing with Dale. But it didn’t matter.

He also made up his mind to tell his parents what he was up to — first thing when he got home. He’d learned his lesson about
deceiving them. They were his biggest supporters, and they deserved to know.

As to the half-pipe contest itself, Dennis couldn’t help feeling there was no way he could ever beat Dale Morgan. But it didn’t
really matter. This wasn’t like the race with Rick Hogan, after all. He and Dale would still be friends, no matter who won.

Besides, with Tasha and Robbie as his trainers and his parents behind him, this was going to be a blast!

F
or the next four weeks, Dennis, Tasha, and Robbie were inseparable. At lunch in the school cafeteria, they talked snowboarding
stunts. Once or twice after school, when they didn’t have too much homework, they made it out to Schoolhouse Hill for an hour
or so of practice. Working out there wasn’t much use, but Dennis did manage to use the steep slope leading to the picnic area
to practice some grabs and stunts.

Then, on the weekends, the three friends spent the whole two days out at Ford’s Mountain. Dennis showed Robbie and Tasha how
to do simple stunts, and they helped him out with the fine points of his more ambitious ones. Because of his skateboarding
prowess, he had leapfrogged ahead of them in his ability to do freestyle tricks.

Every once in a while, they’d see Dale Morgan there, too, practicing. It always brought them to a halt, watching the older
boy do 360° aerial loops and other impossible-seeming stunts. “Oh, well,” Dennis said the first time they saw him. “I guess
I don’t stand a chance of winning, but it doesn’t matter. I’d rather be here with you guys, doing this, than anywhere else
in the world.”

It was true, too. Dennis didn’t really care if Dale was better than him. He liked Dale. They were friends, and a little friendly
rivalry just made him want to get better and better.

He
was
getting better, too. Quickly, he got to the point where he could do many of his tricks with some kind of flair. He still
wound up wiping out an awful lot, but this, he knew, was part of learning. He’d wiped out learning skateboarding stunts, too.
And snow, as he’d come to find out, was a whole lot softer than concrete.

His parents chauffeured Dennis, Tasha, and Robbie to Ford’s Mountain a few times, so they could stay to watch — but not for
long. Dennis’s mom couldn’t stand to watch him fall. It made her cover her eyes, she said, even though she knew he probably
would be okay, since there were no trees or rocks near the half-pipe area.

Still, every Monday morning, Dennis dragged himself into school, full of aches and pains and bruises from the falls he’d taken
over the weekend. It would take at least till Wednesday for him to feel okay again.

On the Friday before Presidents’ Week began, Dale Morgan came over to the table in the cafeteria where Dennis, Tasha, and
Robbie were sitting. “Hi, guys,” he greeted them. “Mind if I join you for a minute?”

“Sure,” they all said, and shoved over to make room for him.

“Listen, before I start, are you sure you still want to go through with this, Dennis? It’s okay with me if you feel you’re
not ready. I mean, I’m not going to call you a chicken like Rick Hogan.”

“No, it’s okay,” Dennis said. “I know I’ll probably lose, and I’ve decided it doesn’t bother me.”

“Good,” Dale said, clapping him on the shoulder. “I’m glad you feel that way. And don’t be so sure you’re going to lose, either.
I’m not taking you for granted.”

“He isn’t going to lose,” Robbie assured Dale. “Wait till you see.”

“Robbie means,” Tasha jumped in, “that Dennis has gotten a lot better.”

“I know he has,” Dale agreed. “Actually, I stopped by here to see if we can set up some rules for the contest.”

They talked it over and agreed on a format of ten stunts each. Five would be tricks they’d both have to do, and the other
five would be stunts of their own choosing. Any kids who showed up to watch would be judges. They’d rate the two contestants
on how difficult their tricks were and how well they did them. Afterward, they’d total up all the scores of all the judges,
and the winner would be the one with the most points.

That decided, Dale shook hands with all of them and went off to his next class. “We’ve got to get all our friends there, so
they vote for you!” Robbie urged Tasha and Dennis.

“You can invite anyone you want, Robbie,” Dennis said, “but no cheating. I want everyone to vote the way they see it, okay?
I’d rather lose fair and square than win by cheating.”

“It wouldn’t be cheating!” Robbie protested.

“Yes it would, kind of,” Tasha disagreed. “Dennis is right on this one.” She smiled. “But I am going to invite every person
I know just the same. I’m mad proud of you, Dennis.”

“Me, too!” Robbie said. “And you know that slob thing you do? I can do that now! Wait till you see!”

With that, the three of them went off to their afternoon classes, chattering about freestyle stunts all the way.

All Presidents’ Week, it snowed and snowed. Not just ordinary snow, either — major blizzard snow. It was impossible to get
out to Ford’s Mountain to practice. This made Dennis miserable. Not that he really thought he could beat Dale, even if he
practiced every day for the rest of the winter. But he wanted to do his very best, especially since there would be so many
people watching. And without any practice beforehand, he was scared he would be rusty.

But the snow did not let up — not until the very morning of the contest. That day, it dawned bright and sunny — even warm,
for February. Dennis got out of bed and stretched. He knew he wasn’t ready
for the contest, but he was determined to go out there anyway and give it his best shot.

After a quick breakfast, the whole family, except for Felix, piled into the van and headed out to Ford’s Mountain.

“Excited, son?” his dad asked as he drove.

“What a silly question, Russell,” his mom answered with a laugh and a roll of her eyes. “Of course he is. Even baby Elizabeth
is excited, aren’t you, baby? Yes!”

Baby Elizabeth was always excited about everything. She was excited when you gave her strained peas. But at this moment, she
did look kind of extra-excited, Dennis thought.

As for Dennis, he didn’t say much. He was trying to focus, visualizing the stunts he had practiced over and over again.

When they got to the lodge, his parents went to buy Dennis a ticket. Dennis sat down and checked over his equipment. Then
they all headed out to the half-pipe.

There had to be at least thirty kids there, waiting to watch the big event! Dennis was flabbergasted. He’d never expected
a turnout like this! There were
Robbie and Tasha, and there was Dale Morgan, too. Dale was talking to some older kids who must have been friends of his, but
he broke off his conversation to come over and greet Dennis.

“How’re you doing?” he asked, slapping Dennis a ski-gloved high five. “Ready for action?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Dennis responded. “Just let me say hi to my friends.”

“Five minutes?” Dale asked.

“Five minutes.” Dennis went over to greet Robbie and Tasha, who proceeded to give him a first-class pep talk. It was about
the last thing Dennis needed, but he let them do it anyway. They had been a big part of his success up to this point, and
he wasn’t about to deny them their chance to contribute now.

Finally, they each gave him a big hug and a pat on the back, and Dennis moved off toward the starting point.

That was when he saw them, standing a little way off— Rick Hogan and Pat Kunkel. They were staring at him silently, but Dennis
couldn’t read the look they were giving him. He wondered why they had come. Had it been to see him lose? To see him get humiliated,
the way he had humiliated Rick?
Probably, Dennis figured. Well, he was determined not to give them the chance to gloat. He was going to give a good accounting
of himself, no matter what!

“I’m ready,” he told Dale Morgan. “Let’s do it!”

O
kay,” Dale said. Turning to the assembled crowd, he announced, “Dennis and I are each going to do ten stunts. On the first
five, we’ll both do the same thing. The last five will be stunts of our choice. You can all be the judges. Give us anywhere
from one to five points per stunt. Consider the difficulty and how well we execute. Tasha here will write down your scores
after each stunt, so be sure she gets them from you, okay? That’s everything, I think. Want to go first, Dennis?”

“Sure,” Dennis said. He didn’t want to stand there watching while Dale set an impossible standard. It was better, he thought,
to get the first stunt out of the way — and the butterflies in his stomach along with it.

The first stunt was a simple series of aerials. Dennis
performed them without a hitch, although he knew in his heart he could have gone higher. The applause from the crowd was polite
afterward, with the exception of Robbie and Tasha, who hooted and hollered as if he’d just nailed a gold medal at the Olympics.

Dale Morgan’s aerials were much higher than his, and the applause was louder and longer. Oh, boy, thought Dennis. Well, at
least he hadn’t messed up.

The next stunt consisted of aerials with grabs. This time, Dennis put more flair into it, and the results were better. By
the time the first five stunts were over, the crowd was really into it, and while Dale still had to be ahead on points, Dennis
figured that at least it wasn’t a blowout.

Then came the free-choice stunts. Dennis had decided to go with the stuff he was surest of. He wanted to nail every move perfectly.
He knew Dale’s moves would be more difficult and daring, and for that reason more impressive. But since he couldn’t match
Dale’s degree of difficulty, he wanted at least to match his level of execution.

His slob was extra-special. Dennis boned out his rear leg while grabbing the toe edge of his board,
twisting the tail of the board around so it was at a right angle to the direction of the half-pipe. That got a rousing cheer.

As for Dale, he wowed the crowd with his stale fish and roast beef. Then he must have been feeling pretty confident, because
he tried a 360° somersault off the highest section of the wall. It was an amazing stunt, and Dennis had seen Dale do it to
perfection several times during their practice sessions.

Today, however, Dale’s timing was slightly off, and he wound up falling pretty badly. He wasn’t hurt, but he got up slowly,
clearly dizzy. His next stunt suffered, probably because his confidence had been momentarily shaken.

But Dale didn’t back off. He didn’t scale back his stunts to make them easier. In fact, his last stunt was a handstand off
the lip of the wall. He held it for an incredibly long time, and the crowd roared.

When it was all over, Dale and Dennis shook hands and put their arms around each other’s shoulders to accept the cheers of
the crowd. Then it was time to total up the scores. Tasha took charge of the counting. She was an A+ math student and could
do huge numbers of figures in an instant.

“Okay,” she said, when she was done totaling up the scores. “Guess what, gang? We have a tie! Congratulations, both of you
— what an amazing performance!”

A roar went up from the assembled crowd. Dennis stood there stunned as Dale clapped him on the back, smiling. How was it possible?
Could Dale’s fall and his one shaky stunt really have allowed Dennis to tie him?

“Congratulations, Dennis,” Dale said. Then he turned to the crowd. “Listen, everyone,” he called out. They all fell silent.
“I know what the score says, but you know what? Dennis is the winner. For a guy who just started to snowboard this year, to
tie me in a contest, he deserves to be the winner!” He held Dennis’s arm aloft as the crowd went wild.

Dennis was speechless. As everyone came up to congratulate him, one after the other, he just stood there, nodding and smiling
and letting his hand be shaken. It was like a dream — a big, snowy, beautiful dream!

Suddenly Rick and Pat were standing in front of him. “I owe you an apology,” Rick said, his jaw tense from the unaccustomed
words that were coming
from his mouth. “I was wrong about you, O’Malley. You’re okay.”

“Thanks, Rick,” Dennis managed to say. “I really appreciate that, coming from you.”

“No, I mean it,” Rick went on. “You could have rubbed it in when you beat me, but you didn’t. And to tell you the truth, I
came here today hoping to see you get your rear end kicked. But you were really good. In fact, I had you as the winner on
my scorecard.”

“Me, too,” Pat ventured, as always echoing Rick.

“No hard feelings?” Rick said, offering his hand.

“No hard feelings,” Dennis said, smiling and shaking it.

“Me, too,” Pat said, sticking out his hand for Dennis to shake.

“Great,” Dennis said. “Thanks, guys.”

There were big hugs from Tasha and Robbie, who made Dennis promise to teach him every stunt he’d done. And hugs, too, from
his parents, who told him they were prouder of him than they could ever say.

Sandwiched between them, Dennis realized once again how important it was in life to stick to whatever
you love to do, no matter how frustrated you get along the way or how close to failure you come.

“Hey, everyone!” his dad shouted to the crowd, which was beginning to break up. “You’re all invited back to our house, for
hot chocolate and toasted marshmallows! Let’s all celebrate!”

The crowd roared one final time, and Robbie even threw his ski mask into the air.

Dennis felt like he was floating on top of the world. He’d conquered his fear of the slopes. He’d learned to snowboard in
record time — and gotten to be really good at it. Everyone was cheering him, he’d made a new friend in Dale Morgan, and even
Rick and Pat had apologized for the way they’d treated him.

He no longer had to spend his winters skateboarding by himself on the rare occasions when the sidewalks were clear. Now he
could snowboard with all the other kids!