Authors: Nancy Krulik

It's Snow Joke (3 page)

BOOK: It's Snow Joke

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Chapter 5

“Katie Kazoo!” Rosie Moran shouted the minute Katie entered her trailer. The actress leaped up out of her makeup chair and hugged her friend.

Katie was amazed. Rosie had really grown. She was the same age as Katie, but now she was at least three inches taller. Her face, however, looked exactly the same. But her hair . . . Katie began to giggle.

“What’s so funny?” Rosie asked her.

“You are,” Katie told her. She pointed to the big mirror in the middle of the trailer. “Look.”

“Oh, no!” Rosie groaned. “I look ridiculous.

Katie giggled harder. Rosie
did
look ridiculous. Only half of her hair was brushed. On one side of her head, Rosie’s brown hair had been brushed and combed until it was long, straight, and shiny. The hair on the other side of her head was a tangled mess of chocolate-colored curls.

“We haven’t finished yet,” the tall, thin man standing near the makeup mirror explained.

“This is Raul,” Rosie told Katie. “He’s the hairstylist for the movie.”

“Hi,” Raul said. “Rosie’s going to look fantastic when we’re finished. I promise.”

“I’m sure she will,” Katie told him.

“I can’t believe you’re actually here,” Rosie said to Katie. “I’ve really missed you.”

“I missed you, too,” Katie told her.

“I have to work until about three o’clock,” Rosie said. “But after that, we can have a snack at the ski lodge. And maybe we can go to the arcade, too.”

“Cool!” Katie agreed.

“I’m just sorry you have to go skiing by yourself until I’m finished working,” Rosie said sadly.

“Oh, I won’t be alone,” Katie assured her. “I brought Jeremy and . . .”

“Great!” Rosie interrupted her. “He’s a lot of fun.”

Katie nodded. “I also brought Suzanne,” she added, looking doubtfully at Rosie.

Rosie bit her lip to keep from laughing. “You mean Suzanne
Superstar
?” she asked.

Katie nodded. “I sort of had to.”

“It’s okay,” Rosie said. “She’s kind of funny. Where are they?”

“They’re with my parents in the lodge having hot cocoa,” Katie said. “They’ll be here in a minute.”

No sooner were the words out of Katie’s mouth than the door to the trailer opened. A blast of cold air rushed in, bringing Jeremy and Suzanne with it.

“Wow. It’s cold out there,” Jeremy said.

“Hi, Jeremy,” Rosie said.

“Hey, Rosie,” he replied. “Cool hair.”

Rosie giggled. “Katie liked it, too,” she said. Then she turned to Suzanne. “Hi, Suzanne. I love your ski outfit.”

“Thanks.” Suzanne spun around so Rosie could get a good look at her white parka, white pants, and white boots. Then she turned her attention to Raul. “Hi,” she said, holding out her hand. “I’m Suzanne. You must be Rosie’s director. Well, today’s your lucky day. One day I’m going to be a big star, and you can say how you met me.”

“Uh, Suzanne,” Rosie began. “He’s not . . .”

“Oh, don’t worry, Rosie,” Suzanne said. “We won’t ever be competing for the same parts.”

“No, that’s not it,” Rosie tried to explain. “It’s just that Raul isn’t . . .”

But Suzanne wasn’t listening. “Would you like me to read something for you? Because I know I would be great for this film.”

“Why?” Jeremy whispered to Katie. “Is it a horror movie or something?”

“Shhh,” Katie whispered back. She turned to Suzanne. “Um, Suzanne. Raul isn’t who you think he is.”

“What do you mean?” Suzanne asked.

“I’m the stylist,” Raul told her.

Suzanne frowned. “Oh,” she said quietly.

“It’s okay,” Rosie told her. “Anyone might make a mistake like that. Don’t be embarrassed.”

“I knew that he wasn’t the director,” Suzanne told Rosie. She forced a smile to her lips. “I was just acting. My character was a girl who wanted to be in a movie. And I had you all fooled. See what a good actress I am?”

“Great,” Jeremy remarked, rolling his eyes. He looked over at Katie. “It’s getting hot in here. Let’s go over to the bunny slope and see if it’s time for our lesson.”

“Good idea,” Katie agreed. “Come on, Suzanne.”

“But I thought maybe I could stay here and . . .” Suzanne began.

Katie shook her head. “Oh, no. Remember what happened the last time you tried to get into one of Rosie’s movies?”

Suzanne frowned. There was no arguing with that. “Fine,” she harrumphed.

Katie breathed a sigh of relief as Suzanne headed for the door. Now Rosie wouldn’t have to worry about what Suzanne might do or say next. And Katie was about to learn how to ski!

This was going to be a great day. Katie was sure of it!

Chapter 6

“Come on, Katie!” Jeremy shouted as he headed for the bunny slope.

Katie gulped. She did not like the look of the hill. For something called a bunny slope, it sure looked steep to her.

“I . . . I don’t know . . .” she said nervously.

“You can do it,” Jeremy assured her. “Just think of it as a really cool roller coaster.”

“You’re not
chicken
, are you?” Suzanne asked.

Katie frowned. She hated when people said she was chicken. And there was no way she was going to let Suzanne make fun of her—especially not after Suzanne had invited herself on this ski trip. It wasn’t like Katie had wanted her along.

“Okay,” Katie said, following Jeremy up the hill to where their lesson was going to start. It was hard work clomping on skis. Katie fell down twice.

As they reached the top of the slope, Katie looked down. Suddenly she felt really wobbly. “I’m not sure I can do this,” she whispered to Jeremy. “Maybe I should go to the lodge and wait for my parents to finish skiing.”

“You can do it,” Jeremy assured her again. “We’re going to learn together, remember?”

“Well,
I’m
certainly not going to fall,” Suzanne told Katie. “I’m very graceful. It’s something you learn when you take modeling lessons.”

“I wish she’d take pantomime lessons,” Jeremy whispered to Katie. “Then she’d have to keep quiet.”

Katie giggled. Usually Katie felt bad when her two best friends said mean things about each other. But today Katie didn’t care what Jeremy said about Suzanne. After all, Suzanne wasn’t being nice. And there was no reason for it.

Or was there a reason? Had Suzanne figured out that Katie had invited Jeremy and not her? Suzanne always got upset if Katie left her out of anything.

But it wasn’t really Katie’s fault. She
would
have invited Suzanne—if Suzanne didn’t act so weird whenever she was around Rosie.

The other beginning skiers in the class were gathered around a small woman in an orange parka. Katie tried to follow her friends over to the group. Unfortunately, she fell down again. The small woman, who had long, brown hair, hurried over and helped Katie to her feet.

“Thanks,” Katie murmured as she wiped the snow from her ski pants.

“No problem,” the woman said with a smile.

Katie looked more closely at the woman’s bright orange parka. The words
Ski Instructor
were written on the back. Katie frowned. Her ski teacher had already seen how clumsy she could be.

Suddenly, a little boy standing beside Katie began to cry. “I’m cold, my nose is running, these ski boots hurt, and this hill looks scary,” he wailed.

Katie knew exactly how he felt.

“Johnny, just wait until you start skiing,” his dad assured him. “You’re going to want to do it again and again.”

“No, I won’t!” Johnny howled.

The small woman with dark hair bent down, lifted up her blue snow goggles and smiled at Johnny. “Hi, I’m Lola,” she said. “I’m your ski instructor.”

Johnny turned his back to her.

“I’ll let you in on a little secret, Johnny,” Lola continued gently. “This is my very first day as a ski instructor. So we’re both doing something new. Isn’t that cool?”

But Johnny didn’t think that was cool. He just kept on crying.

So Lola stood up and, keeping a smile on her lips, said, “Hey, everybody! Are we going to have fun?”

“Yes!” the class cheered.

“No!” Johnny shouted.

“I’m going to show you everything you need to know to begin skiing,” Lola told her students. “And then, after your lesson, we’ll all go to the lodge and have a cup of hot chocolate.”

At the mention of hot chocolate, Johnny stopped crying.

Lola smiled at her group of students. It wasn’t a big group. Just Jeremy, Suzanne, Katie, Johnny, Johnny’s little sister, Johnny’s dad, and an older woman in a green, fake-fur parka.

“Okay, now let’s get started,” Lola said, using her ski poles to help her make her way to the front of the crowd. “First we’re going to learn to do the snow plow.” Lola placed her skis so that the tips were close together and the ends were wide apart. “It may seem hard at first, but before you know it, you’ll be zooming down to the bottom of the hill.”

Katie gulped.
Zooming?
“Jeremy, I can’t do this,” Katie said. “You know how clumsy I am. I’ll break my leg if I do this. I’ll probably break both legs!”

Johnny looked up at Katie. “I don’t wanna break my leg,” he wailed.

“Me neither,” his little sister cried out. Now she started sobbing, too.

Lola looked at Katie and shook her head. “I wish you hadn’t said that,” she told her. “You’re making these kids really nervous.”

“I . . . I didn’t mean to,” Katie told her. “But
I’m
really nervous.”

“I wanna go home!” Johnny cried loudly.

“Me too!” his sister chimed in.