Snowboard Maverick (7 page)

“All right!” Robbie shouted. “Let’s go!” They all trudged over to the top of Schoolhouse Hill, which by now was crowded with
kids, dodging each other as they made their way down.

“Hey, everybody, it’s a race — make way!” Robbie shouted. Kids at the bottom scrambled out of their path as Dennis and Tasha
took positions side by side. “Ready,” Robbie called out, “set — go!”

Dennis shoved off with all his might and went into a glide, not turning at all until he absolutely had to. He didn’t see Tasha
shove off, nor did he see her challenging him, but he could tell from the yelling all the kids were doing that she must be
right behind him. She must have gotten off to a slow start, he realized.

Just before he got to the bottom, he saw her shoot past him to win the race. He couldn’t dwell on it, though. He was going
too fast. He had to make sure he stopped without doing a face plant.

“Great race, Dennis!” Tasha said, unstrapping her board and coming over to him. “You almost beat me!”

“What happened up there?” he asked. “You didn’t start on time.”

“Yes, I did,” she insisted, but something about her eyes and her tone of voice made him not believe her.
“You just gave me a great race — that’s all.”

“Well, thanks,” he said. “But you still beat me, remember. I’ve got a ways to go to be as good as you.”

“Not that far,” she assured him.

But Dennis knew she hadn’t raced her fastest. She’d done it to build up his confidence so he’d keep boarding. What a great
friend Tasha was, he thought. But she didn’t need to do anything to make him love snowboarding — he loved it already, even
more than skateboarding!

“Dennis!” Dennis looked up and toward the street, where his mother’s voice was coming from. There she was, with his dad, next
to their van. They were both waving to him and smiling. Dennis ran over there through the deep snow.

“My, my,” his mom said. “You sure were going fast! Was it a race?”

“Yeah,” he said. “And Tasha won.”

“Doesn’t matter who won,” his dad said. “You sure looked good going down that hill, son.”

“Thanks,” Dennis said, feeling himself blushing. “I’m starting to get used to it.”

“Now, don’t go getting overconfident, Dennis,”
his mother said. “I don’t want you doing anything foolish, like jumping off tables or stuff like that.”

Dennis’s breath caught in his throat. Had she seen him? No, she couldn’t have — they’d just driven up … hadn’t they?

“When did you guys get here?” he asked nervously.

“Just this minute,” his dad answered. “We came to pick you up for New Year’s Day dinner.”

So they hadn’t seen him jibbing. Dennis sighed with relief, then perked up. “Dinner? What time is it?” Dennis asked.

“Four o’clock,” his dad said. “Aren’t you hungry? You didn’t have lunch.”

“I guess I am, now that you mention it. Okay, let me just go say good-bye.”

He went over to say good-bye to Tasha and Robbie and to make plans to meet them tomorrow. He wanted to hit the Breakers again
— so he wouldn’t be tempted to do any more jibbing. Not until he could get his mom’s permission. Today had been a close call,
and he didn’t want to risk her catching him at it. He was feeling guilty enough about it already.

But it sure had been fun. He would have to start working on his mom right away. He knew she’d give
in. It was just going to take a little convincing. After all, she’d seen him nearly win a snowboarding race. That had to give
her some confidence in him… .

“Hey, O’Malley!”

Dennis’s heart banged in his chest as he wheeled around to face Rick Hogan.

“Hi, Rick. What’s up?”

“I see you have to have your mommy and daddy watch you while you go boarding,” Rick said, smirking.

“I notice you didn’t bring your baby-sitter with you today,” Dennis shot back. “Where’s Pat? Did he break his leg or something?”

“Don’t change the subject, newbie,” Rick insisted.

“Newbie? What’s that?”

“An amateur. A beginner. You, O’Malley.”

“Leave me alone, Hogan, okay?” Dennis said, trying not to sound wimpy.

“Yeah, right. I notice your friend Tasha almost let you beat her,” Rick laughed. “Gotta baby the newbie.”

“Shut up, Rick,” Dennis said. “She did not.”

“Oh, yeah? I’d like to see you race somebody for real. Like me, for instance.”

“I’m not afraid to race you, or anybody,” Dennis shot back. “I’ll beat you, too.”

“Uh-oh,” Rick said, a wicked gleam in his eyes. “Now you’ve gone and done it, O’Malley. You challenged me. Well, you’ve got
yourself a race, big shot.”

“Fine with me,” Dennis said, fighting the urge to panic. Why,
why
hadn’t he just walked away and kept his mouth shut?

“Tomorrow?” Rick was grinning now, from ear to ear.

“Uh, can’t,” Dennis said lamely. “I’m busy. How about next weekend?”

“Need some time to practice, huh? Okay, fine. Next Saturday.”

“Eleven o’clock?”

“You got it.”

“Here?”

“Oh, no,” Rick said, rubbing his gloves together hungrily. “Too easy.”

“The Breakers, then?” Dennis gulped hard. He sensed what was coming.

“Uh-uh. Ford’s Mountain.”

“What?!” Dennis exclaimed before he had a
chance to bite his tongue. Ford’s Mountain was way too hard for a “newbie.” There were trees if you missed a turn, and boulders,
and moguls, and overhangs …

“Scared, O’Malley?”

“No. It’s just… it’s expensive.”

“My treat,” Rick said, jingling the change in his jacket pocket.

There was no way out, Dennis knew. Not without looking like a total chicken. “Okay,” he said. They shook on it.

“See you there, newbie. Ha! This is going to be fun!” Dennis stood there as Rick walked away, laughing as loudly as he could.

Dennis knew he was in for it now. He had just done possibly the stupidest thing he’d ever done in his entire life.

What were his parents going to say when they found out? What if he fell and made a total fool of himself? Even worse — what
if he got badly hurt?

What a jerk he was! What a total jerk!

D
ennis felt his legs go rubbery. What had he done? In an instant, all his old fears of the mountain returned, closing in on
him. Watching the kids on Schoolhouse Hill made him suddenly sick to his stomach. Incredible that he’d been racing down that
hill himself only five minutes ago! He couldn’t have done it now if his life depended on it.

Robbie ran up to him, falling once or twice in the deep snow on his way. “Hey, Dennis, what’s wrong? You look like you swallowed
a frog or something.”

“Or something,” Dennis repeated, nodding miserably. “I have to go. My parents are waiting.”

“But what is it? Tell me!”

“Oh, nothing. I just made the stupidest move of my life is all. Rick Hogan dared me to race him down Ford’s Mountain.”

“And you accepted? Are you
nuts?”
Robbie’s brows knitted in concern.

“Nuts
is a good word,” Dennis agreed. “Don’t say anything to anyone about it, okay?”

“Not even Tasha?”

“Yes, you can tell her, but nobody else. I don’t want a crowd around to watch me when I break my neck.” Dennis sighed at the
thought of it.

“Tasha! Guess what?” Robbie called out, cupping his hands to his mouth. Tasha came over to them, and Robbie told her what
Dennis had done.

“Oh, no!” she said, shaking her head. “Why did you do such a bonehead thing? Dennis, you’re just a beginner!”

“A newbie? Yeah, I know, I know,” Dennis said. “And I can’t get out of it, either.”

“Why not?” Tasha asked. “You could just tell him you changed your mind.”

“Yeah, right,” Robbie snorted. “He can’t do that, Tasha. Everyone would be laughing at him for being a chicken!”

“Well, you could say you were sick or something,” Tasha suggested.

“It would be true,” Dennis moaned. “I’ve never
felt worse in my life — except for when I broke my bones last time I went up on Ford’s Mountain.”

“Gee,” Robbie said, thinking hard. “I guess we’ll just have to get you ready for the big race.”

“In one week?” Dennis asked incredulously. “No way I’ll be ready for Ford’s Mountain in one week.”

“You looked pretty good out there today,” Tasha said. “You nearly beat me.”

“You went easy on me, and you know it,” Dennis said.

Tasha denied it, but he didn’t believe her. She was too good a snowboarder, and too good a friend.

“Besides, it’s not just about skill,” Dennis added. “I had a bad fall last time I tried Ford’s Mountain. That kind of thing
sticks with you.”

“I guess so!” Robbie said. “You even got your picture in the paper, remember? ‘Second-grader in traction.’ They had it up
in school for a month and a half!”

The car horn sounded behind them. “My folks are waiting for me,” Dennis said, turning to go.

“We’ve got to work on you this week,” Tasha said determinedly. “Starting tomorrow — at the Breakers.
Ten o’clock sharp. Then every day after school for as long as the light is good.”

“Okay okay,” Dennis said. He trudged off, still dreading the week to come. He was sure this whole thing was going to end in
disaster. He could feel it in his bones.

He knew he couldn’t possibly tell his parents about his plans. If they found out what he was doing, they’d flip, and probably
confiscate his board or something. But he wasn’t accustomed to holding out on them.

Dennis was racked with guilt. He knew what he was doing was wrong. And yet he couldn’t go back on things now without seeming
like a coward. Seeming? No,
being
one. Dennis would have looked at himself that way, too, if he had backed down from the challenge.

The smart move would have been never to have challenged Rick to begin with. But it was too late.

Now he was piling stupidity on stupidity, keeping his big plans secret from his mom and dad. But Dennis couldn’t see what
other choice he had. He’d made his bed of nails, and now he had to lie down on it.

“Don’t worry,” Robbie told him the next day while they were practicing back at the Breakers. “Ford’s Mountain is just another
ski slope.”

“Just play it safe, and don’t take any foolish chances,” Tasha added. “If you lose, you lose. So what? I mean, Rick’s been
snowboarding since last winter. Nobody’s expecting you to beat him.”

“Wait a minute,” Dennis said. “You mean everybody knows about this already?”

“You didn’t expect Rick to keep quiet about it, did you?” Tasha asked him.

Dennis moaned. Great, he thought. He was going to be humiliated by Rick Hogan one way or another. Unless …

Unless he won.
Seized with sudden determination, Dennis launched himself down the hill, carving his edges deep into the new powder with
every turn, tackling the slope as he’d never done before. At the bottom, he turned around to face his friends and let out
a whoop of triumph.

“Take that, Hogan!” he muttered.

He was definitely getting better, day by day, run by run. His skateboarding skills helped, making the
learning easier and faster. He tried to keep the thought of Ford’s Mountain out of his mind, and for the most part, he succeeded.
That is, until his mother walked into the kitchen Tuesday evening…

Dennis was on the phone with Robbie, talking about Saturday’s event, when he realized, to his horror, that his mother was
standing there, looking at him. How long had she been there? What had she heard?

"I’ll talk to you later,” he told Robbie, and quickly hung up the phone.

“What’s this ‘big event’ you’ve got planned for Saturday?” she asked.

“Um, it’s nothing, really — just — um — we’re getting together to go snowboarding.” Dennis’s voice cracked. It did that sometimes
lately. Dennis’s voice was changing, and he hated the sound of it. He hoped he wouldn’t sound like this for too long. It was
embarrassing when he squeaked in the middle of a sentence, and it usually happened when he was nervous anyway. Like now.

“You go snowboarding every day,” his mother pointed out. “So what’s really going on, Dennis? It’s not like you to be secretive
like this.”

“We’re, uh …”

“I hope you’re not doing something Dad and I wouldn’t approve of,” she said.

“No, Mom,” Dennis lied, feeling awful. “I just can’t talk about it yet— that’s all. I’ll tell you some other time.”

“All right. I trust your judgment,” his mother said after a long moment. That meant she was
choosing
to trust his judgment, not that she really believed what he was telling her. It made Dennis feel even worse.

His mother left the room, and he sat there, his stomach tying itself in knots. He tried to tell himself that what he was doing
wasn’t so bad, that his parents wouldn’t really disapprove if they knew. After all, they wouldn’t want him to walk away from
a challenge, would they? They wouldn’t want him to let a bully push him around.

Besides, he told himself, Ford’s Mountain was just a regular old ski slope, It wasn’t the Matterhorn or anything. He would
snowboard carefully and safely, and that would prove to his mom and dad that he was a good, responsible boarder and that they
didn’t need to worry about him.