Christy noticed that all three girls had turned their backs on Katie and were gathered around Christy. It made her feel nervous and on the spot, not at all like the center of attention in a popular way.

"Well, I, umaI guess some ski clothes. Were going skiing first thing in the morning, aren't we?"

"We leave at six-thirty," Katie said.

The three girls ignored her.

"Six-thirty," Christy repeated. "Boy, that's early. Guess we'd better get some sleep. I think I'll go get my sleeping bag ready." Christy gently broke out of the coc.o.o.n surrounding her and headed for the door.

"Girls?" Janet called, coming down the stairs. "I have everything set up for making tomorrow's lunches. Could you come and help me?"

"Sure," Christy said, eager to change locations. 'What can we do?"

Katie joined her, taking the stairs two at a time. The others followed slowly behind.

Janet explained the a.s.sembly line she had set up on the kitchen counter. "Everyone gets one sandwich. Try to get two sandwiches out of each packet of lunch meat."

"I don't eat processed meat," Tiffany said, her arms folded in front of her.

"I remembered that from last year, Tiffany. I brought peanut b.u.t.ter and jelly especially for you."

Tiffany made a face.

Janet went on with her instructions. 'We need to make a total of fourteen lunches. Here's a pen to put names on them. At the end of the counter by the lunch bags is a box of apples. Here are the cookies, and drinks are in the ice chest. Any questions?"

"Let's make a production line," Katie said. "I'll start down here with the bread and mayonnaise. Christy, why don't you be the meat slapper?"

"The meat slapper," Shannon mimicked, and the three girls laughed.

Christy moved into position and bravely said, "Okay, one meat slapper coming up."

The other three reluctantly began to write names on the lunch sacks and stuff cookies into plastic bags.

Katie tried to pry the lid off the mayonnaise jar. It was stubborn and didn't cooperate with her muscular twists and turns. Shannon came over to see what was holding up the line.

"Here," she said. With a flick of her long fingernail, the plastic seal broke loose.

At the same moment, the lid popped off due to the change in alt.i.tude. A spray of mayonnaise squirted out the side, splattering Katie's face and shirt.

It was a hilarious sight, and without thinking, Christy blurted out, "You have to be smarter than the mayonnaise jar, Katie."

All the girls burst into a chorus of laughter, while Katie fumbled for a paper towel to wipe her face.

Why did I say that? Where did it come from? I didn't mean to humiliate her in front of these girls.

The girls laughed much longer than the joke deserved. By the look on Katie's face, Christy knew she had done some major damage to Katie's feelings. Christy quietly worked on dividing up the lunch meat.

The lunches were completed with a lot of chatter and uninvited directions from the guys, who suddenly appeared and gave special orders on how they liked their sandwiches. Christy kept quiet, afraid her untamed tongue might rebel on her once more before the night was over.

Maybe Janet a.s.sumed Christy's silence was a result of the guys' taunting, because she came up behind Christy and whispered, "Tomorrow night they'll make the sandwiches, and you can get even by bossing them around."

Christy smiled and let Janet think that's what she was clammed up about. She finished her part of the lunch making and slipped out of the group so she could go down to her room and get ready for bed. Katie came in about ten minutes later and silently laid out her sleeping bag.

"Katie?" Christy said softly, already in her pajamas, with her hair back in a clip and her face freshly washed. "Katie, I'm sorry I said that. I apologize."

"That's okay," Katie said without looking up from her bed preparations. "Don't worry about it. I deserved it."

"I still had no right to say it, and I'm sorry. Will you please forgive me?"

Katie looked up slowly. A smile forced its way across her face. "Sure. I forgive you. Don't worry about it."

Christy probably would have stayed awake for a long time rehashing the whole situation, except she was so tired that the minute her head hit the pillow she was gone.

A shrill alarm clock startled her into an upright position. Her eyes darted around the dark room. It took her a while to remember where she was.

"It's five-thirty, you guys," Julie announced from the other bed. "Who wants to get in the shower first?"

"I'll be second," mumbled Katie. "Give me five more minutes of sleep."

"I'll go," Christy volunteered realizing this might be her only chance with so many girls getting ready. She felt like her head was full of cotton b.a.l.l.s. All the early-morning noises seemed to bounce off her. She was quick in the shower and tried to be quick with the blow dryer since it seemed like the noise would wake up the whole building. With a towel around her, she returned to the darkened room and tried not to trip over Katie while searching for her duffel bag.

"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 sungla.s.ses, 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 embarra.s.sing. 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 cla.s.s 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 cla.s.s four or more tries before each of them managed to get the skis on. With their poles holding them steady, the cla.s.s 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 cla.s.s 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 cla.s.s. 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.

"IaI 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 cla.s.s. 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 cla.s.s 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 s...o...b..nny 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 youa""

Christy cut in and finished the sentence for her, "a"that I looked like a total klutz."

"How did you know that's what I was going to say?"