Ski Trip Trouble (6 page)

At the bottom, you see Heather waving, waiting for you. When she sees that Travis is with you, she makes a weird face. “He's a friend of Mitch's from Marshall,” you explain, before she can even ask.

“Well,” she says, “I was just looking for you to see if you wanted to sign up for a ski lesson—looks like you could use one!”

“With Bryce Karr?” Travis asks. “I hear he's great—he skied in the Olympics.”

“And he's gorgeous.” Heather giggles and nudges you—you want to joke with her, but you can tell she's making Travis feel totally uncomfortable.

“Guess I'm going to head out,” he says to you. “If you decide that you need a ski lesson, just know that I'm available, too. I may not be an Olympic
champ, but, well…you know where to find me,” he says as he skis off.

“'Bye,” Heather calls after him, then grabs your arm. “Are you going to do the lesson?” You can't help thinking about Mitch again—are you ready to totally give up on him? And even if you are ready, is it right to move on with his best friend? Maybe you should just take the ski lesson with Heather. Why does Travis have to be the nicest, cutest boy you've ever met? You don't know what to do!

You decide to let Travis give you a ski lesson.

You'd rather take a ski lesson with Heather.

As soon as you feel Travis's lips on yours, you know you made the right decision—he sends shivers down your spine. But in an instant, your mind is back on Mitch, and feeling guilty.

You pull away from him for a second. “I have to tell you something. Until today, I had a big crush on Mitch. And last year, something almost happened between us—,” you start, but Travis cuts you off.

“Actually, I know all that. Boys talk, too, you know!” Travis explains. “What I'm trying to tell you is that Mitch has moved on, and I think you're ready to move on, too. Aren't you?” he asks, searching your face.

You look up and meet his gaze; the answer is clear. “I am ready,” you admit. “I just hope he won't be mad at me.”

“You let me deal with that,” Travis says, putting his arm around your shoulders. “Right now, let's just ski and have fun, okay?” he asks as the chairlift starts to descend.

“Okay,” you agree.

When you get off the chairlift, he holds your hand as you ski over to the slope. “Oh, and one more thing,” he says, sticking his poles into the snow hard. “If I beat you to the bottom, you have to be my date to the movie at the lodge tonight.” He grins at you and—
whoosh!
—he's gone.

You have to laugh as you start, slowly, down the mountain behind him. Even though you can't wait to see him at the bottom, this is one race you don't want to win!

END

“You think you're ready to do this?” Mitch asks from the top of the black diamond trail.

The trail is super steep, but you nod your head, and he gives you his classic grin. You can't help but smile back. Even if Mitch does have a girlfriend, there's still a chemistry between you two—you hope that you'll always be friends.

The two of you head down the trail next to each other, and you're doing great…at first! But as you build up speed, you feel unsure of yourself, and near the end of the trail, you wipe out, skidding on your butt as your skis pop off! Mitch slides to a stop, too.

“What happened there?” he says to you, still out of breath. He reaches down with one hand to help you up. But when you grab it, you pull down too hard, and he falls down—almost on top of you! He rolls over in the snow. “Very sneaky!” he says through a smirk.

“It was an accident,” you say, tossing a handful of snow at him.

“Oh yeah?” He picks up some snow to throw at you, and before you know it, you're wrestling in the snow. Mitch finally pins you to the ground and leans over you, laughing so hard he can barely talk. “No more throwing snow!” he says. “Promise?”

“Yes!” you laugh, but as soon as he lets go of you, you grab a big handful of snow and shove it down the back of his jacket. “
AHHHHHH!
” he yells, hopping around, trying to get the snow out of his coat. That's when you notice a girl with long blond hair watching you two. She has her arms crossed over her chest and she doesn't look very happy.

“Hello, Mitch,” she says in a voice that could freeze icicles.

“Oh, uh…,” he says, the smile gone from his face. “I thought you weren't coming on the trip.”

“Obviously,” she says, staring at you. “This is my girlfriend, Hannah,” Mitch says to you quickly.

“Make that ex-girlfriend,” Hannah snips as she turns on her snow boot and storms off. Mitch
grabs his ski stuff to chase after her—forgetting that you're even there.

“Hannah, wait!” he yells, racing behind her. Oh well, so much for “just being friends.”

END

If you want to rethink skiing with Mitch, go back to Chapter 21.

When you get down to the lounge that night for karaoke, you realize you're late. “I thought maybe you weren't coming,” Zac says with a scowl when you show up.

“Sorry, I…” You hesitate, trying to think up an excuse.

“Don't worry about it,” Zac says, looking up at the stage, where a girl is about to sing a Madonna song. “I'm sure you're very busy.”

“What's
that
supposed to mean?” you ask him. “I don't know, you seem pretty popular. I've seen how guys act around you.” He looks away from the stage for a second and meets your eyes. “I'm sure you think I'm just some kid who has a crush on you or something.”

You sit stunned for a second, trying not to be distracted by the terrible warbling coming from the stage. “That's not how I feel,” you tell Zac, and you mean it. He's probably the sweetest guy you've ever met—you don't care that he's younger than you, even if your friends do.

“So your friends haven't been giving you a hard time about hanging out with the ‘brainiac'?” he scoffs.

“I can make up my own mind about people,” you tell him quickly. “I don't really care what my friends have to say about it.”

Zac just frowns and looks back up at the stage. “Okay,” the emcee says, taking the microphone when the girl finally finishes singing. “Who is our next victim—how about a duet? Do we have any takers?” He looks out over the audience. “Come on, I've got that song ‘Baby, You Broke My Heart' all cued up and ready to roll….”

You look over at Zac, who is still sulking a little bit and won't look over at you. Maybe you should pull him up onstage to sing a duet with you—it could be hilarious, and put him in a better mood. Or would that be too much—does he need some time to cool down and just hang out?

You want to pull Zac up to sing a duet.

You'd rather wait it out and just watch karaoke for now.

“I'm so psyched that you decided to come and hang out with us tonight—and not with that Zac kid,” Heather says as she puts on another coat of mascara. You sigh and look at her in the mirror.

“Lay off him—he's a sweet guy,” you say. “Whatever,” Heather scoffs. “Can I use your lip gloss?” she says, and you pass it over to her. “We better hurry—Jon said to meet them in the lobby, like, five minutes ago,” she says, sweeping the gloss over her lips and checking her hair one more time.

When you get down to the lobby, Bryce is there, and he's got a date—an older girl who you recognize from the ski rental shop. “Hey, this is my lady, Amanda,” he says, introducing you. Jon is there, and he's brought a friend along—a big guy with curly hair and an adorable grin. “And this is my friend Aiden,” Jon says, looking right at you. Could he be more obvious?

“So we were thinking that we'd go into town to this club I know,” Bryce says. Then he adds, with a
whisper, “The only problem is that we don't exactly have a ride, but I think I've got an idea….”

Jon lets out a little laugh. “Yeah, man, a classic idea!” His friend Aiden also laughs. You and Heather just look at each other.

“What's so funny?” Heather asks. “You'll see” is all Bryce will say.

You're suddenly feeling worried—you're not supposed to leave the lodge without telling the chaperones, and you're obviously not supposed to leave with a group of guys! You turn to Heather and whisper, “I don't know about this; maybe I should just go and join Zac at the karaoke night….”

“Oh, come on,” she says, “don't you want to have fun?”

What would be more fun tonight, doing karaoke with Zac or going dancing with Heather and these guys? You think for a second, then decide to:

Head over to karaoke and meet Zac.

Sneak into town with the guys.

“You're right,” you tell Molly. “We need to even the score before we hit the slopes!”

“Come on, Sierra!” Molly says, grinning as she scoops up a handful of snow and packs it into a hard ball.

“Well, okay,” Sierra says, quickly making a small snowball. She fires it at one boy's head. “Hey, no fair!” you hear a guy squeal. “No hitting in the face!”

“I think I got him,” Sierra laughs as she packs another snowball. You crouch down and make a few snowballs, then fire them off fast.

A guy in a white hat peeks around the snowbank, and you shoot a snowball at him—and miss. “You're pretty good,” he yells over to you, “but not fast enough!” And he pegs you in the leg.

“Hey,” you shout after him as he ducks back behind the snowbank. “Did you see that guy, the one with the white hat?” you ask Sierra.

“Actually…” She starts to say something, then turns back to making a snowball. “Just look out for him—he goes to our school, and he's—” A
snowball hits near her foot and she yells, “Watch it!” as she hurls one back.

You collect a few snowballs, the go around the snowbank and see your guy. You pelt him—fast—in the back with two before he can even turn around.

“What…,” he says, and you slam him with another one before racing off.

“Got him!” you yell to the girls.

“Okay, truce, truce!” the guy says, waving a white hat over his head. “We surrender!” The guys come out from behind the snowbank with their hands up.

“Yes!” Molly says. “We killed you guys!” She gives one guy a high five, and it's clear to you that she and Sierra know them all from school.

“Hey, nice job,” the guy with the white hat says to you. “I'm Alex.” He takes his gloves off to shake your hand. “Man, your hands are warm!” he says, holding on to your hand for longer than he should. “I'm freezing—wanna go get a hot chocolate?”

Sierra overhears and looks over at you two talking with a scowl on her face. “Oh, actually, I was just about to go skiing with Sierra and Molly,” you explain.

“One hot chocolate?” he says, giving you some
serious puppy-dog eyes. “I promise I won't keep you more than ten minutes. Besides, I think you owe me—you seriously damaged my pride in that snowball fight.” He grins.

You look over at Sierra and Molly, who are ready to line up for the chairlift. They won't be too happy if you tell them to go on without you. Then again, this Alex guy is beyond cute—you'd like to go with him to the café. But what was Sierra trying to tell you about him? It didn't sound good. Do you dare to find out on your own?

You say yes to hot chocolate with Alex.

You'd rather ski with the girls.

“Sorry, guys,” you tell Sierra and Molly, “but my legs are numb! I'm going to head down to the café.”

“You poor thing,” Molly says. “Well, watch out the window for us, and tell us how we look later, 'kay?” she says as the chairlift grinds to a halt at the first stop.

“Yeah, feel better,” Sierra says, waving her glove at you as you carefully climb off and ski back down to the lodge. You pop off your skis and set them by the door, then go into the café and order a hot chocolate. While it's being made, you look around for somewhere to sit. The café is packed—lots of families with little kids in snowsuits, and tons of students from both your school and Marshall, but you don't see anyone you know.

“One hot chocolate,” the guy behind the counter says, handing it to you. A couple gets up from one table, where you could sit by
yourself if you want to, but maybe you should look around for someone to sit with? You
are
pretty tired, but it also might be a good chance to meet someone new.…

If you want to sit alone, go to Chapter 42.

If you want to look for someone to sit with, go to Chapter 43.