Read Online Snowboard Maverick by Matt Christopher - Free Book Online Page B

‘big event’ you’ve got planned for Saturday?” she asked.
    “Um, it’s nothing, really — just — um — we’re getting together to go snowboarding.” Dennis’s voice cracked. It did that sometimes
     lately. Dennis’s voice was changing, and he hated the sound of it. He hoped he wouldn’t sound like this for too long. It was
     embarrassing when he squeaked in the middle of a sentence, and it usually happened when he was nervous anyway. Like now.
    “You go snowboarding every day,” his mother pointed out. “So what’s really going on, Dennis? It’s not like you to be secretive
     like this.”
    “We’re, uh …”
    “I hope you’re not doing something Dad and I wouldn’t approve of,” she said.
    “No, Mom,” Dennis lied, feeling awful. “I just can’t talk about it yet— that’s all. I’ll tell you some other time.”
    “All right. I trust your judgment,” his mother said after a long moment. That meant she was
choosing
to trust his judgment, not that she really believed what he was telling her. It made Dennis feel even worse.
    His mother left the room, and he sat there, his stomach tying itself in knots. He tried to tell himself that what he was doing
     wasn’t so bad, that his parents wouldn’t really disapprove if they knew. After all, they wouldn’t want him to walk away from
     a challenge, would they? They wouldn’t want him to let a bully push him around.
    Besides, he told himself, Ford’s Mountain was just a regular old ski slope, It wasn’t the Matterhorn or anything. He would
     snowboard carefully and safely, and that would prove to his mom and dad that he was a good, responsible boarder and that they
     didn’t need to worry about him.

12
    A fter a few minutes of this, Dennis had succeeded in making himself feel at least a little better. Then the phone rang.
    It was Rick Hogan. “How’re ya feeling, O’Malley?” he asked. “Got rubber legs? Are your hands shaking yet? Ha, ha, ha!”
    Dennis could hear Pat laughing in the background. He wished he could punch them both, right over the phone, even though he
     had never really punched anyone in his life and probably never would.
    “I haven’t seen you around Schoolhouse Hill lately,” Rick went on. “Are you gonna chicken out? Or are we still on for Saturday?”
    It was a golden opportunity, Dennis knew. Here was the moment to back out of this whole stupid thing. All he had to do was
     say the word… and listento Rick and Pat laugh at him the rest of the winter.
    “Yeah, we’re still on. Of course. I’m going to beat you, too.”
    “Right. Okay, I’ll see you there, at eleven o’clock Saturday. Intermediate slope.”
    “Intermediate?” Dennis tried to hide the panic in his voice, but it leapt out of his throat, making his voice squeak horribly.
    “Yeah, intermediate,” Rick repeated, mimicking the squeak and howling with laughter.
    “No way,” Dennis held firm. “That’s not what we agreed on.”
    “Awww, baby wants to go down the bunny slope,” Rick mocked.
    “I’ve only been doing this for a couple of weeks,” Dennis correctly pointed out. “You’ve been snow-boarding a lot longer than
     that.”
    “So you admit I’m better than you,” Rick said in a self-satisfied tone.
    “I didn’t say that.”
    “You can’t beat me. You just admitted it.”
    “I did not!” Dennis felt the blood rush to his cheeks. “Okay, intermediate slope it is. Just lay off me, Hogan.”
    “All right!” Rick crowed in triumph. “You’re goin’ down, O’Malley!” He hung up, and Dennis let out a mournful sigh.
    The intermediate slope? “I am such an
idiot!”
he muttered under his breath.
    The next day after school something seemed to come over Dennis. His boarding skills deserted him along with his courage. Every
     run down the Breakers seemed to result either in a fall or in Dennis sideslipping himself to a stop every few yards to
avoid
a fall.
    “I don’t know what it is,” he told a concerned Robbie