to burst!
It was about eleven o’clock when we got there, so we had an hour to kill before our lesson at twelve. We met up with Mum and the others in the car park. I started jumping up and down, partly with excitement and partly ’cos it was so cold.
“Right, girls,” Mum said. “Me and your dad are going to go to the gym for an hour while you have your lesson, OK? Then we’ll meet up with you and we can all go for a swim. Then we can have a late lunch before coming home. What do you think of that?”
“Perfect!” I said. “Can we go in now? It’s freezing!”
Dad laughed. “I really don’t think the snowboarding area is going to be any warmer, do you?” he said.
Mum and Dad took us round the complex so we knew exactly where everything was. We finished up in the spectators’ gallery.
“Look,” Frankie said with interest, “there’s a snowboarding lesson going on!”
We all looked down eagerly. A row of people were wobbling about and falling all over the place.
“It looks a bit difficult,” Fliss said uncertainly. “Do you think we’ll be able to do it?”
“Oops! Over she goes!” Lyndz giggled, pointing to a large lady in a bright yellow puffa jacket who’d just toppled over into the snow.
“Look at him – right on his bum!” I said, laughing my head off at some poor bloke who was scrambling to his feet again.
“Ouch!” Mum said sympathetically. “Are you sure you still want to do this?”
“Definitely!” Molly said, eyes glued to the action below.
Fliss opened her mouth to say something.
“Yeah, of course we do!” I said quickly. “And anyone who doesn’t dare is a CHICKEN!”
Fliss’s mouth shut again, and I grinned to myself. I had her sussed!
“Hang on a minute – isn’t that Nick?” sharp-eyed Rosie said, pointing to a guy in a blue woolly hat who was slithering about all over the snow.
I snorted. “I don’t think so!” I said scornfully.
Lyndz scrunched up her eyes and peered in the direction of Rosie’s finger. “Well, it looks like him,” she said, slowly.
“Well, it isn’t!” I said. “He can snowboard already – he’s been snowboarding all round the world, he told me! Anyway, you’ve only seen him once, so what do you know?”
“I went into Mega Sports with Andy last week,” Fliss chimed in. “And it does look like him, if you ask me!”
“Well, no-one is asking you, are they?” I said defensively. “And you lot think I’ve got him on the brain! Come on. We’d better go and get ready for our lesson.”
Once we got into the boots-and-boards room, I found myself getting a bit bossy. Well, not bossy. Just… telling the others what to do, I suppose.
We went over to the junior boards section, and I pounced upon a turquoise board just like the one I’d stood on in the shop, although this one was about half the size! “Ah, Nick says this is a good make,” I said, feeling grand. “It’s the one I went on last time, actually.”
“What – do you mean, when you just stood on it, in the shop?” Frankie said scathingly.
“Yeah, well, it’s more than you’ve done,” I pointed out. “And Nick said—”
“He didn’t!” Rosie said sarcastically before I’d even had the chance to finish.
“What, Nick did?” Lyndz teased, joining in. “Your hero!”
“Nick really said that?” said Fliss. “You should have told us before!”
Honestly – you’d think they were jealous of my cool friend Nick or something! I couldn’t help it if he was an experienced sporting hero, could I?
“Nick, Nick, Nick!” Frankie said suddenly. “It sounds to me like you’d rather be with him than with us!”
“Of course I wouldn’t!” I said in astonishment. “I’d much rather be with you lot!”
“Good,” she sniffed, not looking me in the eye. “Well, that’s all right, then.”
I was shocked. “Just ’cos I’ve been to see him a few times!” I said hotly. “It doesn’t mean anything!”
Was Frankie jealous? I couldn’t believe it!
“Oh, stop showing off in front of your friends,” Molly said with a smirk, elbowing me out of the way. “Come on, Carls, let’s get the best boots.”
When Molly says things like that to me I really want to punch her one, but this time, I managed to hold my tongue all the time we were putting on our boots and collecting our boards. Then I held it a bit longer as we all trooped out in the snowy area where we’d be having our lesson.
Then I just couldn’t hold it any more, and picked up a huge handful of snow and stuffed it down Molly’s neck. I’d give her showing off in front of my friends!
“Aaaargh!” she screeched as the freezing snow hit her bare skin. “You little…”
“Snow fight!” yelled Rosie in delight, and grabbed an armful of snow to hurl at Carli.
Suddenly we were all screaming with excitement and chucking snow about like anything. As it was five against two, Molly and Carli were getting soaked, fast!! I was starting to feel quite glad they’d come with us after all!
But then – screeeeee! A whistle blew, and we all jumped. I jumped so hard that I chucked my last snowball over my head and behind me.
“Girls, this is a snowboarding lesson, not a zoo!” came a sharp voice. “Stop that imme—”
Then there came this awful spluttering sound like someone trying to cough through snow…
We turned round in horror to see a tall woman in a fleecy red tracksuit wiping snow off her face. She glared at me as if I was a cockroach or something, and I suddenly had a very nasty feeling about where my last snowball had gone. WHOOPS!!!
“My name’s Suzi and I’ll be teaching you today,” she said. “And I think you’d better all calm down before we do anything.” She looked straight at me. “Now, is that clear?”
“Yes,” I said in a small voice.
Her icy look seemed to thaw a bit, and then she gave us a smile. “Good,” she said. “Let’s get snowboarding!”
