Ski Trip Trouble (12 page)

You race down to the lobby to meet him.

Go to Chapter 63.

You pick up the bottle of self-tanner and shake it hard, then spray it all over yourself as the directions say. Then you spray some on your face and rub it all around. It smells terrible, like burnt toast.

“There! Now I'm a real ski bunny,” you tell your reflection as you wash your hands. And wait.

And wait some more.

It doesn't seem to be working, so you spray on a little more, then a lot more. You look in the mirror. You're still pale!

You read the back of the bottle again, carefully, and see where it says “…can take up to two hours to see results.”
Grrrrrr!
Now what? Should you just head down to the hot tub looking ghostly white and smelling of self-tanner, or wait longer to see if this stuff works? You wonder how long Travis is going to wait for you….

You decide to just head to the hot tub.

You'd rather wait longer.

You put down the self-tanner and wrap yourself in a big, fluffy towel. That stuff never seems to work on you, anyway. When you get down to the hot tub, there are two other girls sitting in it, but Travis isn't there yet—perfect! You quickly drop your towel and climb in, letting the bubbles hide you.

Just as you get settled in, Travis shows up. “You look comfortable in there,” he says to you as he slides into the hot water. “Whoa, this is really hot!”

“I think it feels perfect,” you tell him, grinning. “Thanks for suggesting this—it's exactly what my bruises and bumps needed!”

“You did a great job for a beginner,” he tells you. “Really? Then why am I in so much pain?” you laugh. “Check this out….” You hold your knee up out of the water so that Travis can see the big purple bruise there.

“Man, that looks bad!” he says, touching your knee gently. “You're delicate, huh?” He rubs his finger over the bruise. “Probably because your skin is super soft.”

You put your leg back down and notice that Travis is either blushing or just turning red from the water temperature. “Snowboarding is really hard at first, but you'll get it,” he says. “If you want to, we can try again tomorrow, just the two of us….”

“No Mitch?” you say. Remembering how jerky Mitch had been to you today, you wouldn't mind.

“No Mitch.” Travis grins. “I'll handle that. You just work on getting yourself back in shape for tomorrow. I'm checking that knee myself before I let you back on the slopes.”

You look down at the bubbles in the tub and smile. Looks like someone has a sweet new snowboarding crush!

END

You wrap up in a towel and hope that by the time you get down to the hot tub, the self-tanner will have kicked in and you won't be so super pale.

When you get down there, Travis is already in the hot tub, so you quickly drop your towel and slide in. “Wow, this really is hot!” you turn to him and say.

“You'll get used to it,” he says, smiling.

You lean back and close your eyes for a second, letting the warm water flow around you.

“Wait, what's that?” Travis says, and you sit up to see a greasy orange pool forming around you in the hot tub. Even the bubbles are turning orange! Travis pops one of them with his finger. “It smells like sunscreen or something,” he says.

“Oh no,” you exclaim, and put your head in your hands. “I'm so embarrassed!”

“Why?” Travis laughs. “What is it?” “It's some self-tanner I used right before I came down,” you explain. “I was just so pale, and you'd already seen me fall on my butt all day. I just
wanted to look…I don't know, better.”

“You were so cute today, even when you were falling down,” Travis says, looking right at you. “You don't have to be tan for me to notice you—I noticed you the second I met you.”

“Really?” is all you can manage to say.

Travis nods. “In fact, I was going to ask you if you wanted to snowboard some more tomorrow— just the two of us.”

“I'd love to,” you hear yourself say, before you can even think about it.

“Great!” Travis grins. “But no more self-tanner— we don't want to turn the snow orange, okay?”

You smile back at him. “I promise,” you say. Looks like falling on your butt all day is a great way to get a date with a sweet guy!

END

You pace around the room for a while, then sit on the bed and open a magazine. But every couple of minutes, you go in the bathroom to look in the mirror and see if you're getting any tanner.

After about half an hour, you can almost see a difference. “Fifteen more minutes,” you tell yourself, looking at the clock. You're just hoping that Travis won't be too bummed that you're so late. When you feel like you can't wait any longer, you wrap a big towel around yourself and head down to the hot tub.

When you get there, you see a couple of other kids you know from your school soaking in the tub already. “Hi,” you say, sitting on a bench. It's so cold out here, but you want to wait for Travis to come before you climb into the tub. After a few minutes out on the deck, your teeth are chattering.

“Why don't you come in?” a girl in the tub asks you.

“I'm waiting for a friend,” you tell her, shivering. “Oh, was it that Travis guy? He wanted us to tell
you that he had to go,” she says, climbing out of the tub and wrapping up fast in a towel.

“What?” you ask. “He was here already?” “Yeah, for half an hour or so, but then some girl came by and he left with her,” the guy says.

“Oh,” is all you can manage to say. You look down and notice that your legs are finally looking tan. But Travis has already left—with another girl! What a waste!

END

If you're ready to skip the waiting game, go back to Chapter 71.

“Well…,” you say, pausing for a second. “Okay, but just one more! Then we go inside.”

“Yes!” he says, leading the way over to the chairlift.

The guy running the chairlift helps you both in, and you notice that Mitch leans in and says something to him. “No problem,” the guy says with a smile and looks over at you for a second.

“Thanks, man,” Mitch says to him as the chairlift pulls away.
What was that about?
you wonder. You think about it for only a second, because then you notice the scene around you. At night, the view from the top of the mountain is amazing, looking down on the lodge and the lights along the slopes.

“Wow,” Mitch says, as if he's reading your thoughts. “It's so nice here, I wish we could come here every weekend.”

“I know,” you agree. “I was just thinking the same thing.”

He smiles over at you. “Then I could see you every weekend,” he says, and you don't know what
to say. The chairlift stops, and you notice that you're the only two people on the mountain—at least at this slope. You head over to the trail and get ready to start down, but just then the lights snap out and you're in total darkness!

“Oh no!” you squeal. “I can't believe this! We're stuck up here!”

Mitch goes to put his arm around your waist. “Don't worry, I'll protect you from the abominable snow creature,” he laughs.

“You
knew
the lights were about to go out, didn't you?” you ask him, but you already know the answer. So that's why he wanted to come up here for one more run!

“Maybe,” he says, looking sly. You can barely see his face in the dim light from the lodge down below.

“Oh Mitch,” you say, shaking your head.

If you're angry with him for tricking you, go to Chapter 76.

If you think it's sweet that he wanted to be in the dark with you, go to Chapter 77.

“I can't believe you would do something like this! You asked the guy at the chairlift to turn the lights out on us!” you say to Mitch.

“I thought it would be funny. I'd get to see you alone for a second or two, with no one else around,” Mitch says defensively.

“Yeah, in the pitch blackness! It's dangerous— how are we supposed to get down now?” you huff.

“We can see the lodge down there”—he points—“so that's enough light to get us down the mountain. Come on, it will be fun.”

“No, thanks!” you yell at him. You snap off your snowboard and storm off, trudging through the snow back toward the chairlift, but when you get there, you realize it's not running! Everything on the mountain is turned off, and you're stuck up here. You turn back to the slope, but it's so dark, you can't find Mitch. Where is he?

You get back to the top of the slope and realize that he went down without you. Now you're all alone on the top of the mountain on a freezing cold
night in the pitch black. Unbelievable! This is the last time you ever let a boy talk you into something just because he's cute!

END

Want to rethink that last trip up the mountain? Go back to Chapter 65.

“I can't believe you would do something like this!” You grin at him. “You are the sweetest guy I've ever met!”

“Oh come on,” Mitch says playfully. “You mean you haven't had guys chasing you all over school since I moved?”

“No.” You shake your head. “I was thinking that you would definitely have a serious boyfriend by now,” Mitch says, looking down.

“Well, you know, nothing too serious,” you joke. You can hardly see Mitch's face in the dark, but you can tell that he's smiling. “Let's head down and warm up by the fire,” he says, reaching out to take your hand.

“It's pretty dark,” you tell him. “I don't know if we can….”

But Mitch is already pulling you down the mountain. You somehow manage to hold hands and slowly make your way together. It takes forever, but when you reach the bottom, you're absolutely
freezing. You snap off your board and bend over to pick it up. “It's so cold at night here,” you say, watching your breath rise up into the night air.

“I know,” Mitch says. He wraps his arms around you from behind in a big bear hug, squeezing you tight. “You're lucky I'm here to keep you warm.”

You tip your head back and look up at the stars, sparkling in the crisp winter sky, and sigh. Looks like last year's crush is now your long-distance boyfriend—and you couldn't be happier!

END

You look out the window for a second, and then take a deep breath. “I want to ask you about something, but I'm kind of embarrassed,” you finally admit.

“You can ask me anything,” Alex says, his face serious. “Shoot.”

“Well, it's about Sierra. She said something about you—”

“We used to go out,” he interrupts you. “Did you know that?”