Snowboard Champ (7 page)

Melissa seemed to consider this. “You’d better not be lying to me.”

“I’m not!”

She shook her head slowly, looking disappointed in him. “Whatever,” she said. “If you say so. Look, I’ve gotta go to class.”

“See you later, okay?” he asked.

She had already started down the hallway, but he saw her shrug without turning. Maybe she would and maybe she wouldn’t, the shrug seemed to say. But one thing was for sure — she didn’t really believe him, even after he’d told her the whole story. Which meant that Abby must have been a very convincing “eyewitness.”

Great
.

Things got worse quickly. In the middle of first period, he was called down to the principal’s office. When he opened the door, Spengler was already sitting there, staring miserably into space. He looked up at Matt and gave him a weak smile. “Looks like we got ourselves into some trouble,” he said.

“We?”
Matt replied.

He would have said more, but the principal came in at that moment. He sat down, stared across his desk at them, and began talking.

“As I’m sure you know, Mr. Spengler, this school has a zero-tolerance policy regarding smoking on school grounds.”

Spengler nodded and stared at the floor between his feet.

“Mr. Harper, you’re new here, I recognize that, and perhaps you aren’t acquainted with some of the school’s lesser-known rules. The no-smoking rule is three strikes and you’re out. Mr. Spengler,” he said, turning away from Matt, “this is your second offense. One more, and you’re suspended for three days. I hope it’s the last time I see you here for this offense.”

“Oh, it will be, Mr. Koppel,” Spengler assured him in an innocent tone Matt had never heard him use before.

“I’m going to bend the rules for you, Mr. Harper, because you’re new here. I’ll let you off the hook this time.”

“Thanks, Mr. Koppel,” Matt said, feeling a wave of relief flood over him. He wanted to say it wouldn’t happen again, but the fact was, it hadn’t even happened
this
time! Of course, if he said that — if he protested his innocence — he might bring down a harsher punishment. So he decided to just go with the flow. What had Uncle Clayton said? “You have to go along to get along.”

“But next time, you will be suspended, understood?”

“Understood,” Matt said.

“Good.” The principal got up. “You may go back to your classes, gentlemen.”

As Spengler stood, he gave Matt a little nod and mouthed the words,
Only one more and I’m free!

He’d actually be happy to get a three-day suspension,
Matt realized with a start.

Matt would definitely not have been happy. He’d been suspended after the fight back in Chicago, and he knew that a suspension was more than a free vacation. It went down on your record and followed you all through your school life. You were marked as a “bad kid” and watched over like a hawk. Matt wondered if Principal Koppel had access to his old school records. Probably. But had he even looked through them? Probably not. Lucky for Matt, too.

“Oh, Mr. Harper,” the principal said, stopping him as he was about to leave.

“Yes?”

“You do understand, of course, that we’ll have to call home to notify your family about this incident.”

“What?” A sudden surge of alarm rose through Matt’s body.

“That’s a school policy I can’t bend on, I’m afraid.” The principal sat back down at his desk. “You may go now.”

Matt left and headed for his second period class. Uncle Clayton would understand, he knew. He’d definitely believe Matt hadn’t been smoking. But would he tell Matt’s mom next time she called? That would be
really
terrible.

Lunchtime was so bad that he felt like bagging it altogether, going without food and spending the period in the library, where he wouldn’t have to talk to anyone. But he was hungry, and he’d never been good at fasting. So he took a deep breath and entered the cafeteria.

The loud noise of dozens of conversations suddenly dropped to murmurs. This time, not just Riley’s table but
all
the tables were focused on nothing but him. He got in the food line and ignored the questions from the curious kids surrounding him, most of whom were sixth and seventh graders.

“Were you really in juvie?”

“What was it like?”

“What kinds of drugs was your mom dealing?”

“What gang were you in?”

Finally, Matt couldn’t take it anymore. “SHUT UP!” he exploded. “Just — just shut up, all of you! Okay?”

They did, but that just made him feel worse. After all, these were just a bunch of curious kids. They didn’t have anything against him, really, and he could tell he had really scared them.

Well, better that than listening to their stupid questions,
he thought. He paid for his food, then stalked off to the far corner of the cafeteria and sat at a table tucked behind a big pillar where no one could see him.

His mind was working a mile a minute. Maybe he should call up his dad and stepmom and say he wanted to move in with them after all. Bad as he knew it would be, it couldn’t be worse than Dragon Valley had been so far. Even living with those three little brats day in, day out . . . hmmm . . . on second thought, maybe that wasn’t such a good idea.

Or he could go off to a boarding school, like his mom had suggested. But that might wind up being just like here, without Uncle Clayton to take care of him and without a great mountain to snowboard on.

His sandwich felt like lumps of paste going down his throat, and no amount of apple juice would help it go down easier. No, he was going to have to stay here and stick it out, no matter how much it hurt or how much of a school outcast he became.

Thinking about outcasts reminded him of Spengler. It was Spengler who’d gotten him into this mess in the first place. If he hadn’t sat at the back of that stupid bus that first day, none of this would have happened. He’d have made friends with the popular kids, like Riley and the others. But no, he had to go sit next to Spengler, and ever since, he’d been lumped in with him in everyone’s mind.

And why had he ignored Riley’s advice to stay away from Melissa? If he hadn’t gone snowboarding with her that day, Riley wouldn’t have challenged him to that contest. He wouldn’t have made a fool of the most popular kid in the whole school — and no one would have cared that he was outside with Spengler instead of in class. No one would have been spreading rumors about him all over the Internet and turning him in to the principal. And then, right when he needed a friend, Melissa had turned on him, too.

He hated Melissa, he decided, almost as much as he hated Spengler, and even more than he hated his mom for doing this to him.

In fact, Matt decided, he hated
everybody
. Shoving aside his mostly uneaten lunch, he got up and left the cafeteria. The period was almost over anyway, and he didn’t feel like killing time in there with all those kids talking about him.

He was walking past the big bulletin board by the school’s front entrance. All kinds of notices were posted here: announcements for meetings of various clubs and after-school activities, stuff about the science fair in February, calls for volunteers at the local animal shelter and food pantry.

Then his eyes fell on a yellow poster he hadn’t seen before. The words SNOWBOARD CONTEST caught his attention, and he wandered over to take a closer look.

“Snowboard contest, Saturday, February 1, open to all students age 11–14,” the poster read. “Girls and boys. Jumps and half-pipe competitions. First prize in each category — a new top-of-the-line snowboard AND complete outfit, including parka, gloves, boots, hat, and goggles. Proceeds to benefit Dragon Valley Home/School Association. Enter by signing up below.” And at the bottom of the poster was a place with horizontal lines for filling in your name.

There were no names filled in yet. The poster must have been put up just minutes ago, because in this school, Matt knew, there were dozens of kids who would be thrilled to enter. Matt took out his pen and bent over to sign his name on the first line.

“Don’t bother, loser.”

Matt hadn’t heard Riley approach. At the sound of Riley’s voice in his ear, he’d let out a little scared sound.

Now Riley was laughing at him. “You
should
be scared,” he said. “This competition is no competition at all. I am the snowboard king, man. Didn’t I already beat you once? You know you’re just wasting your time.”

Matt didn’t respond to Riley’s taunts. Instead, he said, “I know you told everyone I smoked on school grounds.”

“Not that I’m admitting anything, but what if I did? It’s true, isn’t it?”

“No,” Matt said. “But that’s not the point. You shouldn’t be spreading rumors, true or false. And in fact, I happen to know you’ve been making up a lot of stuff about me.”

“What if I have?” Riley said, standing his ground. “You wanna make something of it?”

Matt could have punched him right there. Even though Riley was bigger and looked stronger, Matt knew he could do some damage in a fight. But what would that accomplish? He’d only get himself suspended or even expelled! He could just hear Riley laughing if that happened. So he backed off, forcing himself to stay calm.

“I didn’t smoke.”

“Yeah, right.”

“Ask Spengler.”

“Spengler? Ha! That’s a good one. That kid’s a total burnout. Has he even attended class this year?”

“Hey, maybe he has real problems,” Matt said, rising to Spengler’s defense even though just minutes before he’d been filled with hatred for the social outcast.

“No, ya think?” Riley said, laughing.

“You shouldn’t make fun of people’s problems,” Matt said. “Maybe you don’t think you have problems yourself, but take my word for it, you do.”

Riley glared at him. “You know what my problem is?” he said. “It’s
you
. But don’t worry. I know how to deal with problems.”

“Oh, yeah? How?”

“You’ll see,” Riley said. Leaning past Matt, he signed his name on the first line.

Matt waited till he was done, then signed his own name right under Riley’s.

“So be it,” Riley said, staring at him. “Just remember, you asked for it.”

“Asked for what?” Matt asked.

“Like I said, you’ll see.” Riley turned and walked away.

Matt watched him go with a sinking feeling in his stomach. Five minutes ago, he would have bet that his life couldn’t get any worse than it already was. Now he knew better. It was going to get a whole lot worse.

9

T
hat night, just before he was about to go to bed, there was a knock on Matt’s door. “Hey, can I come in for a minute?” Uncle Clayton asked.

“Sure,” Matt said.

“Hey,” Clay said, opening the door and sitting in the chair by Matt’s desk. “How’s it going?”

“Okay. What’s up?” Matt asked.

“I just got the feeling we should talk,” Clay said. “You seem like you’ve got a lot on your mind. I’ve kind of let things go along because I was busy. But I’m starting to feel like a bad parent.”

“You’re not my parent,” Matt pointed out — not trying to be unkind, just stating the truth.

“I know, but I’m supposed to be watching out for you, and I guess I haven’t been.” He paused again, waiting. Then he said, “Something’s up, isn’t it? I mean, there’s something wrong, right? I mean —”

Matt stopped him. “Yeah. There is.”

“I knew it,” Clay said. “But what? You can’t talk about it with me?”

“No, I can,” Matt said, “It’s just . . . I don’t know. There’s this kid at school, and he’s making life pretty tough for me.”

“I’ll tell him to cut it out,” Clay offered. “You want me to?”

“No,” Matt said. “Thanks, but it’s not that kind of thing. He’s just . . . I guess he feels threatened by me or something.”

“In what way?”

“Well, there’s this girl he likes who likes me . . . .”

“Aha!” Clay said, perking up.

“But there’s more to it than that. I crashed into him on the slopes, and then he challenged me to a contest, and I beat him, but he won . . . .”

“Huh? How’s that?”

“His friends voted him the winner, but it was an obvious fix. I kind of made him look bad, and now he’s trying to get me into trouble.”

“Ah. Would that explain the message I had from the principal today?”

Matt gulped. “Yeah. This kid reported me for smoking on school grounds.”

“Smoking? You?”

“I wasn’t,” Matt explained hurriedly. “There’s this kid with a broken arm, and he asked me to light his cigarette for him, and someone saw me do it . . . .”

“That was pretty dumb of you,” Clay said. “And now the principal’s going to be watching you. One more mistake and . . . ”

“I know,” Matt said glumly.

“Your mom’s gonna throw a fit. She’s gonna blame me for not taking good care of you.”

“She doesn’t have to know, does she?” Matt asked, a pleading look in his eyes.

Clay didn’t answer right away. Then he said, “Tell you what. I’ll hold off for a bit, but only if you work on turning things around. Otherwise, I really do have to tell her.”

“It’s a deal,” Matt said gratefully. “And I might already have figured out a way to make people see me for who I really am — and see Riley for who he really is. There’s going to be a half-pipe and jumping contest sponsored by the school. I signed up, and so did he. He’s famous for being the best boarder in the whole school. Maybe if I beat him in the contest, people will see me differently.”

Clay cocked his head to one side. “How do you figure?”

“Okay, this may sound a little lame, but if I’ve learned anything about the kids at this school, it’s that they pay attention to whoever is snowboard champ. If I win, maybe they’ll listen to my side of the story. Who knows, maybe they’ll even realize that Riley isn’t so great after all. Only trouble is, I’m not sure I can beat him.”

“Well, if that’s the best plan you’ve got, I’ll help you make it happen,” Clay said, slapping his hands together. “I’m gonna work with you, pal — and you’re gonna take over that title!”

Matt couldn’t deny that he liked that idea. Uncle Clayton could teach him some awesome jumps and tricks. Still, he’d just realized there was one major problem with his plan. “If I beat this kid, he’ll just make my life miserable.”