Me. Snowboarding! The local access channel cycled through the same few items over and over: birthday announcements, club meetings, a recording of the latest city council meeting, a film of Everett Walsh leading the high school Scholars’ Bowl to annihilate Telluride. Now the channel listed the scores from the Snowfall Amateur Challenge in front of footage of me in the half-pipe. Hey, nice form.
My mom brought a plate of oatmeal and fruit over to me—tripped over Doofus—and managed not to spill anything. Athleticism obviously ran in the family. She sat down and followed my gaze to the TV. “Hayden, your dad and I heard you have some kind of snowboarding bet with your boyfriend, Nick.”
I choked on a strawberry and glared at Josh, who shrugged. He hadn’t ratted on me. So I told my mom, “Nick is not my boyfriend. He may have charmed you at the health club the other day, and we did indeed both go to Mile-High Pie afterward, but we were not there together.” At least, not at first. “Don’t adults have adult bets to gossip about?”
“Are you kidding?” my dad asked—tripping over Doofus—and sitting down at his place with his breakfast intact on his plate. Good save. “He was your little friend when we first moved here, right? It’s a battle of the exes. Bets about golf aren’t nearly that juicy.”
Mom went on, “Word on the street—”
Josh snorted.
“—is that you won’t win because of your fear of heights. Now, with your lessons with Daisy Delaney coming up soon, haven’t you changed your mind? Don’t you want me to make an appointment for you with a doctor who can help you get over your phobia?”
“Yes,” said Josh.
“No!” I shouted. I ignored the three of them eyeing one another over my outburst. Me, I eyed my image on TV, landing a 900 like it was nothing. Nick was right. I was chicken, and it was now or never.
“So think back to that moment,” Chloe coaxed me, “when your mom was offering you help. Picture her face when you go off this jump all by yourself.”
“Yeah, it was weird that she mentioned the bet this morning,” I said flatly. “If I didn’t know she had to work Valentine’s night, I’d say she had a bet for Poseur tickets herself. No pressure.” After eight hours on the slopes, the last two at the jump, I was getting a little tired of Chloe’s motivational speeches.
Liz must have sensed I was about to blow. She nudged the tips of her skis between my board and Chloe’s in the snow. “Let’s review the progress we have made today. We’ve done the boardercross, and though we’re not sure Hayden can beat Nick there, we’re satisfied she’s going as fast as she can go.”
“Unless I eat a lot of meats and meat products to gain weight between now and tomorrow morning,” I interjected.
“Yuck,” Liz said at the same time as Chloe put her glove on my cheek and turned my head to face her. “Focus!”
“We’ve done the half-pipe,” Liz continued, “and we’re confident Hayden will kick Nick’s ass there.”
“Yes, but only if we employ careful strategy, as in rock-paper-scissors,” I said. “My 720 totally beats Nick falling down, like paper covers rock. Unless the rock is a boy, in which case the boy always wins.”
“Hayden—” Liz began.
“I am getting sick of your attitude, Hayden,” Chloe talked over Liz. “We’ve been up here all day with you. All we have left is to get you off this jump. Every time you try, you have some excuse: wind in your face, bug in your ear, panties up your butt—”
“I was not making that up,” I broke in. “Imagine trying a trick with uncomfortable underwear.” I squirmed, rocking back and forth on my board to make my point.
“Or you make some stupid joke!” Chloe hollered at me. Her voice echoed against the rocky slope of the mountain overhead.
I stealthily looked around in my goggles to see if any boarders I knew had heard, but it was getting late, and the slopes were empty except for us.
“I’m beginning to think you don’t want to get over your fear of heights,” she said.
Suddenly, the mountain was quiet, except for the wind swishing through the tree branches and swaying their loads of snow. A few storm clouds approached from over the next peak. “I do want to get over my fear of heights,” I said.
“You don’t,” Chloe insisted. “You’re in your comfort zone. As long as everything stays right here, exactly the same, you can handle it. Guess what, Hayden? If you stay right here without ever trying anything new, you know where you’ll be ten years from now?”
“In a convent?” I guessed.
“I seriously doubt that,” Liz said.
“Right here.” Chloe grabbed one of Liz’s ski poles and planted it in the snow. “Here. In Snowfall. Still trying to go off this jump. Not at the X Games. Not at the Olympics. Here.”
“I like it here,” I whispered.
“Obviously,” Chloe said.
“Let’s end this on a high note,” Liz suggested. “Chloe, why don’t you tell her about the surprise?”
I rolled my eyes. “Did you set me and Nick up so we can make out and then have a huge fight?”
“Better!” Chloe jerked her head and arms wide in a dramatic flourish. A few rhinestones from her goggles went flying, lost forever, white against white in the deep snow. “Remember how I promised to get three unbiased judges for the comp? And remember how I couldn’t board with you yesterday because I had something to take care of?”
“You didn’t,” I breathed.
“I did! I got Daisy Delaney to come over from Aspen, and her boyfriend, who’s also a pro. That way the boys can’t say you won just because the girl voted for the girl. All I had to do was give her and her boyfriend a complimentary night at the hotel. Though it probably didn’t hurt that I also gave her some background on your challenge with your ex.” She wagged her eyebrows at me, making her goggles move up and down. The bling remaining around the rim glittered in the sun. “One of the resort’s snowboard instructors gladly offered to serve as the third judge when I told him Daisy Delaney was coming. The resort photographer may be there to capture the event on film. And—oh yeah—the newspaper.”
“Isn’t this great?” Liz prompted me gently, patting my padded arm.
“No pressure,” I growled.