“You done?” Katie muttered.
“It's all yours,” Christy whispered back. “Do you mind if I turn on a light?”
“Go ahead,” Julie said from the bed. “We need to get going.” Then she added to Katie, “I hope you're fast in the shower too.”
The light snapped on, and Christy felt awkward standing there with only a towel on, and the other three girls sitting up in bed looking at her. She quickly pulled out her new ski outfit. By the time Katie returned from her shower, Christy was dressed and ready to go.
The other two girls took their turns in the bathroom. Katie suggested that she and Christy help with breakfast since they had extra time waiting for everyone else to get ready.
Upstairs they found Mr. Riley and his wife putting out bowls and spoons on the table. On the stove, the tea kettle whisded.
“Good morning, early birds!” Mr. Riley said. “I'll go see if the guys are ready. You two can help yourselves to some instant oatmeal.”
'We also have juice and doughnuts,” Janet added. “And hot chocolate and hot apple cider if you want something to warm you before we face the icicles outside.”
Within twenty minutes, everyone had made an appearance at the breakfast table. Some ate, others only grabbed their lunches and stuck a dooughnut between their teeth as the group loaded into the van.
No doubt about it, it was cold. It took eight attempts before the engine on the poor van could turn over. Everyone huddled on the cold vinyl van seats, rubbing their hands and exhaling great puffs of air.
Christy did a final check in her backpack for her sunglasses, lip balm, and wallet. She found that she had everything except her courage. Somehow she had thought if she niade it this far in the process, the adrenaline would kick in, and she would feel wild and daring. She only felt cold and nervous.
“You look so cute,” Shannon commented from her seat behind Christy. “I love your outfit.”
“Thanks,” Christy said.
During the next half hour, Christy played different scenarios over in her mind. She told herself that many people skied all the time, and not all of them broke bones. Some of them must even like skiing, because they apparently kept coming back every year. If she started to go too fast on the skis, she could always sit down in the snow. That seemed like a safe technique. After all, how dangerous could ski lessons be?
By the time she and Katie were outfitted with boots, skis, and poles, it was almost nine and time for ski school. They were the only two from the group who were taking lessons. At first that was embarrassing. Then Christy felt thankful for the time to be alone with Katie, without all the pressure from the other girls.
They took the gondola by themselves to the ski school location and followed the signs to where their class was to meet on the side of a slightly sloping hill.
The sun had broken through the morning clouds, and everything around them looked ultra-bright as the sunlight reflected off the snow. The girls carried their skis and crunched through the white powder. They took their places with the nine other students, who were of all ages, shapes, and sizes.
“Yoohoo!” called a voice from the ski lift overhead. “Have fun, you two!”
They looked up and saw Mr. and Mrs. Riley on their way to the mountaintop, their skifitted feet swaying as they rose.
Christy waved. Katie fumbled for her goggles to block the bright sun and asked, “Was that Janet?”
Christy nodded and asked, “Do you think we'll ever graduate from ski school and be brave enough to actually ride in one of those things all the way to the top?”
“I'm counting on it,” Katie said. “So where's our ski instructor?”
“Right here,” said a deep voice behind them.
They turned and saw a tall, tanned, smiling man who looked like a movie star playing the role of every girl's dream of a ski instructor.
“Maybe I don't want to be in such a big hurry to graduate,” Katie whispered.
“I'm Dawson,” the man said, addressing the group of novices. “I'll be your instructor today. The first thing we'll work on is how to put on your skis.”
What Christy would have guessed to be an easy procedure turned out to be awkward. It took everyone in the class four or more tries before each of them managed to get the skis on. With their poles holding them steady, the class waited for further instruction.
Dawson began with showing them how to stop, demonstrating how to point the skis in a pie slice or wedge shape, how to balance, and how to plant the poles in the snow for support. Next the class was shown how to walk sideways up a hill. They all began to practice.
“So far so good,” Christy said to Katie.
“I don't know about you,” Katie said, “but I think I might need some personal instruction after class. You know, some up-close-and-personal instruction.”
“Okay, that's good!” Dawson called out. “Everyone stop where you are. Now try turning halfway around, keeping your skis together in a wedge. Remember, balance. Stay in control.”
Christy lifted one long ski and put it down. But it landed across the top of the sli on her left foot. She lifted the right one again and pointed it straight. She tried to lift the left foot. As soon as she did, the right ski began to move forward. She quickly put her left foot down. Now both skis were beginning to move, and both were pointed straight downhill, right at Dawson.
“Yikes!” Christy called out. “Stop me, Katie!”
Katie lunged her hand forward in an effort to grab Christy's leg. Instead, the point of her ski pole made contact, slicing a two-inch hole in the right side of Christy's ski pants.
Christy kept moving downhill, picking up speed.
“Plant your poles! Wedge your feet!” Dawson yelled.
Christy tried everything at once, but in her panic she lost all sense of balance. Shrieking, lurching, and flailing her arms, Christy sped forward, running face-first into Dawson's chest.
It seemed his firm stance was enough to break her fall. The problem was, Christy's skis had slid between Dawson's legs, which were planted in a firm A-frame. Even though her face had stopped with as much finesse as if it had hit a brick wall, her legs kept going, pulling the rest of her body with them.
Just as she was about to slip between his legs and slide down the rest of the hill on her backside, Dawson grabbed her under both arms and pulled her back to an upright position.
“You okay?” he asked, his arms still supporting her, their faces only inches apart.
“I…I think so.”
“Hey, Christy!” came a call from the overhead ski lift.
Christy looked up and saw Shannon waving her camera and yelling, “I captured that one on film.”
Dawson smiled.
Christy smiled back, letting out a nervous giggle. “Sorry!”
“No problem. Now I'm going to let go of you and step to the side. I want you to try sidestepping back up to the rest of the class. Think you can try that?”
Christy laughed nervously again and said the only thing that came to mind. “Guess I have to be smarter than the skis, huh?”
“You're doing fine,” Dawson said without laughing at her dumb joke. “Try to remember to balance this time. There you go. You've got it.”
Christy sidestepped uphill while the rest of the class watched. As soon as she managed to make her way back into the line next to Katie, Katie said, “Very sneaky!”
“I did not do that on purpose! You know that.”
“You'll never convince me of that, you ski-instructor-stealer, you!”
“Hey, be my guest. He's all yours!” Christy teased back. “Try the same thing I did. If you like running into a brick wall at full speed, with an audience, my technique works great!”
“Maybe I'll wait until lunch and see if he wants to join me for cookies and cocoa,” Katie said. '“What do you think? Does he look like the cookie type or the apple type?”
Christy adjusted her goggles and rubbed her sore nose. “Bricks. He looks like the bricks-and
-cement type. Believe me, I'm speaking from the up-close-and-personal viewpoint. The guy eats bricks.”
Dawson had disappeared, and Christy and Katie were on their own with their sack lunches and cups of hot cocoa. After removing their skis and getting their booted feet back on solid ground, they found a picnic table and reviewed for each other the morning's events.
“Can I just say that you were about the funniest looking snowbunny I've ever seen?” Katie asked.
“Oh, well you were a lot of help. Trying to harpoon me with your ski pole!” Christy ran her finger over the tear in her ski pants. “The purpose of ski poles is to balance yourself, not skewer your neighbor.”
Katie laughed “You should have seen the look on Dawson's face when you were coming at him! Did you see him?”
“No, I was too busy trying to 'wedge,' and then all I could do was examine the knit pattern on his ski sweater.”
“Up close and personal,” Katie quipped.
“Very up close and personal,” Christy said, still laughing. “I felt like such a total klutz!”
“Well, can I just say that you—”
Christy cut in and finished the sentence for her, “—that I looked like a total klutz.”
“How did you know that's what I was going to say?”
“A wild guess.”
“I can see the report on TV tonight,” Katie teased. “Innocent ski instructor maimed for life by a total klutz— news at eleven.”
They both laughed until the cold air stung the tears in their eyes.
“You have to admit,” Christy said, “that for our first time ever on skis, we didn't do too badly.”
“We?”
“Okay, you didn't do too badly. And I conquered a whole bunch of fears. I'm willing to try again after lunch.”
“Should be easy to find our ski instructor. He's the one with the indentation on his sweater in the shape of Christy's goggles,” Katie said.
They burst into another round of laughter.
“He's probably going to run when he sees us coming back for more,” Christy said.
“When he seesj;ou coming back for more. I, so far, have not yet had an up-close-and-personal encounter with the guy. However, the day isn't over yet!”
'We make a great tag team,” Christy said. “I'll terrorize him in the morning class; you terrorize him in the afternoon class. Maybe they'll give us a brand-new instructor tomorrow morning, and we can start the relay all over again!”
As soon as Katie stopped laughing, she pulled her sandwich out of her bag and said, “We should have at least insisted on turkey sandwiches. It is Thanksgiving, you know.”
“That's right! I wonder if my family has eaten yet. Probably not. We always go for a long walk while the turkey bakes. It feels strange not being there. Happy Thanksgiving, Katie.”
“Happy Thanksgiving to you too. And thanks for coming on this trip with me. It's exactly what I thought skiing would be like.”
“Katie, we haven't exactly skied yet.”
“All in good time, Christy. We have two more days of this.”
“How many ski instructors is that, if I keep up my present rate of mutilation?” Christy asked.
Katie laughed so hard, she nearly choked on her sandwich.
In spite of all their joking, they both did well in their afternoon ski class. Christy, however, felt ready to turn in her skis by three and let her aching legs have a rest.
They met the group back at the van at four-thirty and humbly listened to everyone else tell exciting stories of swooshing down Siberian Express, Shirley Lake, and some of the other more treacherous runs. Somehow, Christy's announcing that she had completed her first successful snowplow didn't seem like worthy news.
Mr. Riley drove to a Mexican restaurant at the Boatworks in Tahoe City, and the group waited twenty minutes before being seated at a long table.
The baskets of chips were instantly devoured, and everyone ordered combination plates. The conversation flowed in and around Christy. From her seat between Katie and Mr. Riley, she found it easier to listen to all the clamor rather than to try to jump in and add to it. It seemed that everyone was having a great time. Even in her weary state, Christy was enjoying all of it as well.
When they arrived back at the condos, there wasn't a lot of complaining when Mr. Riley asked everyone to go right to bed so they could be ready to leave at six-thirty again the next morning.
Christy headed for her bed, eager to make contact with her pillow. But Shannon called to her from the other bedroom, where the three girls were sitting on the floor, pulling off their boots and rubbing their feet.
“We want you to come skiing with us tomorrow,” Shannon said. 'We've all talked about it, and we'll only take you on the bunny slopes until you're ready for more.”
“I kind of already decided to go back to ski school with Katie tomorrow,” Christy said. “I'm not very good yet.”
“Yes, you are,” Shannon protested. “We saw you, and you're good enough to try a bigger hill.”
“You saw me all right! You saw me colliding with the poor ski instructor. By the way, I want that picture and the negative when you have it developed.”
“I hope it comes out,” Shannon said with a giggle. “It was kind of funny.”
'Will you come with us tomorrow?” Jennifer asked.
“Maybe I could ski with you part of the day. I could attend ski school in the morning, and then Katie and I could come with you guys for the afternoon.”
“We weren't exactly inviting. Katie,” Tiffany said. “We thought it would be more convenient with you because you'd make it a foursome, which makes it a whole lot easier on the lifts and everything.”
“I guess I'll have to see how things go tomorrow,” Christy answered cautiously. She didn't want to blow an opportunity to get “in” with these girls, but at the same time she didn't want to put any strain on her relationship with Katie after they'd had such a fun day together.
“Okay,” Shannon agreed, “we'll meet you at the snack bar after your morning class, and you can tell us then.”
For the last few minutes, Christy had been hiccuping. With each hiccup came the taste of Mexican food. “Can I get a drink in your bathroom?”
“Sure. Go ahead.”
Christy filled her hands with water since there weren't any cups around and drank quickly, hoping to shake the hiccups. She noticed a bottle of mouthwash on the counter and called out, “Is it okay if I use some of your mouthwash? I've heard that gargling sometimes helps hiccups.”
“I don't think—” Jennifer began, but Shannon interrupted.
“It's okay,” Shannon said. “It's not really ours. It was here when we got here, but I'm sure you can use it.”
Christy could hear the girls murmuring in the background as she took a quick swig of the green mouthwash and bent her head back to gargle.
Suddenly, her throat was on fire. Her whole mouth felt torched. She quickly coughed and spit out the mouthwash. Then she stuck her mouth back under the faucet to let the cold water soothe the numbness.
Christy thought she heard one of the girls say, “I told you guys!”
She grabbed a towel to dry off her face but kept coughing. Her mouth still felt tingly. “What is that stuff? That's the worst mouthwash I've ever used.”
“Why? What happened?” Tiffany asked.
She and the other girls joined Christy in the bathroom.
“I only tried to gargle with a little bit, but my whole mouth lit on fire!” Christy explained, still coughing. “I've never tasted mouthwash like that before.”
“I wonder what it could be?” Tiffany said. She opened the large bottle and sniffed its green contents.
“It doesn't really smell like anything. Maybe we should put it back under the counter where we found it,” Tiffany suggested.
Her two friends agreed.
“I'm sure it's old or something. We probably should have left it there,” Shannon said.
Tiffany was about
to stash the bottle under the counter when Katie appeared. “There you are! I wondered where everyone went.”
Spying the big bottle in Tiffany's hand, she said, “Are you having a bad breath party, and you didn't invite me?”
“There's something wrong with it,” Christy said. “I used some, and I felt as though I was about to choke to death.”
“Really?” Katie said. “Let me smell it.”
“We already smelled it,” Shannon said briskly. “We're going to put it back where we found it. I don't think you should mess with it, Katie.”
Undaunted, Katie reached over and took the bottle out of Tiffany's hand. “I'm only going to smell it, you guys. What's the big deal?”
She unscrewed the white lid and took a whiff. “Hmmm.” She sniffed again.
Christy noticed that Shannon and the other girls were exchanging glances, which showed their obvious disapproval of Katie.
Katie stuck her finger into the bottle and tasted the green liquid. “Vodka,” she announced. “It's not mouth-wash at all! Someone filled this bottle with vodka and added green food coloring to make it look like mouth-wash.”
Christy was shocked.
Shannon looked at Christy and then said, “Who would do such a thing? It was here when we got here—right, girls?”
The other two agreed, and Katie said, “I think we should give the bottle to Janet right now.” o
“Good idea,” Tiffany said, grabbing the bottle back and tightly screwing on the lid. “I'll take it to her.”
“Let's all take it up,” Katie suggested. “We can go right now.”
'We'll do it later,” Tiffany said firmly. “The guys are up there now, making lunches for tomorrow, and I don't want to cause a big scene.”
Christy thought the reasoning sounded legitimate, but Katie wasn't buying it. “So what if the guys are there? I say we take it up now.”
“Look,” Shannon said firmly, “we said we'd turn it in, and we will.”
Jennifer stepped between Shannon and Katie and said, “Katie, you don't understand. You and Christy didn't go on this trip last year. The three of us did; You see, last year they had some problems. I don't want it to appear that we're going to cause any trouble this year.”