by Betsy Haynes
"I can't believe I'm going to learn to ski!" Brittany said the next morning. She had been primping before the mirror for almost an hour already, and it wasn't even time for breakfast.
"You mean you can't wait to hang around Marcel," Beth mumbled under her breath.
She was in no mood to put up with Brittany this morning. She hadn't fallen asleep for hours last night, alternating between reliving the embarrassing scenes in the dining room and wandering what was going on at home during the first night of Winter Carnival. She had memorized the carnival schedule before she left home. Last night there had been toboggan races down Spyglass Hill and a snowman-building contest. She knew that everyone had been there—except her. And they'd probably all had a ball. In all of that excitement, had anyone missed her? she wondered. Had anyone even noticed that she wasn't there? The thought made her shiver.
After breakfast the Barrys made a stop at the ski shop, renting skis, boots, and poles. Beth and Todd trailed behind the others as they clomped toward the slopes with their skis over their shoulders, Beth suddenly stopped and plunged her free hand into her jacket pocket.
"Oh, no," she whispered, pulling a red leather change purse out and shaking her head angrily.
"Hey, what's in there?" asked Todd. "Money," he added in a satisfied tone. "You always keep money in there, don't you?"
"Don't get any big ideas," Beth warned. "I'm not going to spend it. It's the money I'm saving for our trip to London over spring break to visit Christie. I just didn't want to leave it home while we're here. Someone could break in and steal it."
"So why did you pull it out now?" asked Todd.
"I just remembered that it was in my jacket. I meant to hide it in my room while we're skiing. I'd die if I lost it on the slopes."
"Hey, I'll keep it for you," Todd said, grinning slyly.
"Oh, no you don't." Beth pushed it deep into her pocket and zippered it in. Then she patted the pocket and said, "I'll take my chances right here."
As they hurried on to catch up with the others, Beth felt a tingle of anticipation for the trip to England during the school vacation in the spring. Each family had agreed to pay airfare if the girls would save their own spending money. It was going to be tough to accumulate enough in the few weeks left before the trip, and Beth was determined not to let her money out of her sight.
When Beth and Todd reached the meeting area for beginner lessons at the bottom of the slope, Mr. and Mrs. Barry had already dropped Alicia off at the school for tiny tots and were heading for the lifts themselves, since they already knew how to ski.
Todd had skied before, too, and he stopped short of the beginners' area and said to Beth, "Hey, I told my friends I'd meet them by the lift. See you later."
Beth waved good-bye to Todd and went to join Brian and Brittany, who were standing with Julie, Molly, and Sarah. As usual, no one noticed her. Brian was deep in conversation with Molly, and Brittany was scanning the crow d on the slopes.
Julie giggled. "If you're looking for Marcel, he's on his way." She pointed to a figure in a red ski jacket walking toward them carrying skis over his shoulder.
"Ohhhhh," Brittany breathed. "He's even better-looking in the daylight."
"He sure is," agreed Sarah.
"Okay, everyone, we're ready to start," Marcel called out when he reached the area a moment later. The skiers stopped talking and gave him their attention. "First, let me eeentroduce myself. I am Marcel Goujon, your eeenstruc-tair. Call me Marcel."
"His accent is sooo fantastic," Brittany whispered to Sarah.
"Tell me about it," Sarah whispered back.
There were about fifteen people in the class, Beth noticed as she glanced around. Their ages varied from a man who looked to be in his sixties to a few elementary school kids. Again, however, there wasn't anyone Beth's age.
"Ze first thing we need to learn," Marcel was saying, "is to put on ze skis."
"That should be helpful for skiing!" said Brittany loudly. Julie giggled.
Everyone turned to look at Brittany, and she grinned at Marcel.
He smiled back and continued. "First you'll need to clean ze snow from your boots. Use ze tip of your pole. Then step into ze bindings, toe first. Watch. I will show you."
The skiers crowded near to watch. Brittany was almost touching his shoulder. Beth followed Marcel's instructions and felt her boots click into the bindings. She slid her skis back and forth on the snow to test them. They felt tight.
"I think mine are loose," Julie called out. "Can you help me please, Marcel?"
"Mais oui," Marcel replied. He glided gracefully over to her and leaned down to check her skis. Julie rolled her eyes in a mock swoon. Some of the girls in the group looked jealous, including Brittany.
After he had helped Julie and a few others with their skis, Marcel said, "Now let's learn how to fall."
"I thought that came naturally," commented Brittany. Everyone laughed.
"Oui, it does, but there is a right way and a wrong way to fall," Marcel answered. "It's important to remember: Do not tense up when you fall. Keep your skis together and fall to ze side and backward a little. Always try to keep your skis downhill."
Beth loved hearing Marcel talk. His accent was fabulous. But she tried to concentrate on what he was saying. If the rest of the vacation was going to be crummy, at least she would learn to ski.
"Okay, let's say you have just fallen," Marcel said. "Ze next thing to do is learn how to get back up. Everyone sit on ze ground."
The class did as they were told.
He explained how to use the poles to pull up in the snow and then demonstrated the technique. He sprang to his feet with one effortless movement. "Voilà! Nothing to it. Now you do it."
The skiers followed his directions, laughing at how awkward they felt. Beth concentrated on following Marcel's example and managed to pull herself to her feet. Pleased, she looked around at the others, who were grunting and struggling and gradually getting up. Brittany kept pulling and pushing and plopping back down.
"Marcel!" cried Brittany, falling back one more time.
With a feeling of disgust Beth watched Marcel help her sister. Brittany was obviously pretending to be helpless just to get his attention.
"If you should land with your skis crossed," Marcel continued, "or pointed in opposite directions—"
"Ouch! That sounds painful," called out Brittany.
"It sure does," said Sarah. The rest of the class murmured agreement.
Marcel smiled patiently and went on. "Roll onto your back and lift both skis in ze air. Then you can swing them so they are parallel and put them on ze snow again." He looked at Brittany. "It's not as bad as it sounds," he said. "Most of ze time you do not get hurt."
His attention made Brittany beam. Beth felt like throwing up.
"Now let's try walking," Marcel said. "It's not really walking, but gliding instead."
He taught them how to slide along in the snow and coordinate their ski poles with the right, left, right, left movement of their legs. He also taught them how to turn around on their skis, and how to do a sidestep climb up a hill.
"Okay, I believe you're ready to try a little hill," said Marcel. "Follow me to ze bunny slope."
They ski-walked behind Marcel to the smallest slope in the area. Actually, Beth decided, it was more of an incline than a hill. It was not much taller than she was, and it ran gradually down at a gentle slope.
"We'll use ze towrope," Marcel explained. He stopped near a small wooden structure from which a rope, about waist high, moved slowly up the slope to another structure at the top.
Beth watched as two skiers who had gotten there ahead of the class grasped the rope and let it pull them up the hill.
"Put your skis into ze groove in ze snow, and gently squeeze ze rope until it pulls you along. Don't squeeze tightly or put your weight on it. It will not support you. Watch. I will show you."
He grabbed the rope and squeezed gently, and it pulled him up the hill. He skied back down. "Now
I will help you. Who is first?"
Brittany's hand shot up. "I'll go first!"
"Fine. Come." He beckoned to her, and she glided over to him, grinning from ear to ear.
Marcel put his arms around Brittany from behind and helped her position her hands on the rope. Brittany stood, not paying attention to his instruction, but gazing back into his eyes. Marcel asked, "Ready?"
She didn't answer for a moment, but continued to stare at him, her mouth hanging open a little. Beth was so embarrassed, she had to look away. Brittany was making a complete fool of herself!
"Mademoiselle? Ready?" Marcel asked Brittany again.
"Oh!" Brittany snapped to attention. "Yes! Yes, I'm ready."
"Okay, hold on. Keep your skis parallel to ze rope. We'll see you at ze top," Marcel said.
"Bye," Brittany said in a little voice. She gripped the towrope, and as it started pulling her, she glanced over her shoulder with a look of panic on her face.
"Watch ze top of ze slope!" Marcel yelled to her.
"Oh!" Brittany nearly fell, but managed to keep herself upright.
Marcel smiled and watched her till she reached the top of the incline and slid off to one side. "Très bien!" he called up to her, clapping his hands.
From where she stood at the bottom of the slope, Beth could see the pleasure in Brittany's face. Brittany beamed, then took a dramatic bow. Beth shook her head and wished she could crawl into a hole somewhere. How could Marcel be attracted to Brittany when she was acting so stupid?
Beth was the last one to ride the towrope up the slope. She forced herself to pay attention to what she was doing. She followed Marcel's instructions carefully, so she wouldn't look as idiotic as Brittany had, and she made it up the hill without an incident.
At the top of the slope Marcel announced that the next thing they would do was learn to "snowplow." He explained that it was the easiest way to control their downhill speed. He showed the skiers how to put the tips of the skis together and the tails out to form an inverted V.
"This will slow you down," he explained. "When you want to go faster, pull your skis back into ze parallel position and continue downhill. Then when you're going too fast again, put ze tips together." He demonstrated the snowplow technique, slowing and speeding up as he skied down the slope.
"Wow," said Brittany when he had returned. "Marcel, you're such an expert! You make it look so easy!"
"Would you like to try first?" asked Marcel. "It's not hard."
Brittany practically dove at him. "You bet!"
He glided with her to the edge of the incline.
"Oh, this is scary!" she said, putting her hand on his arm.
"You'll be fine." Marcel spoke in a soothing voice.
"What if I fall?" Brittany responded helplessly.
"Remember how I taught you to fall," Marcel answered. "To ze side and backward."
"Oh, yeah," she said. "Okay. Well, here goes."
Beth was almost afraid to look, and she squinted as she watched her sister push off the slope and start down.
"Ohhhhhhh!" Brittany called out.
"When you feel yourself going too fast, put your ski tips together," Marcel shouted.
Brittany made a sudden, jerky movement and fell flat on her seat, sliding for several feet before coming to a stop. Marcel skied to her and helped her up. Then he said something to her that Beth couldn't hear, and Brittany started again. When she finally reached the bottom of the slope, she cheered loudly. Marcel laughed.
One by one the rest of the group tried the snowplow. Beth found to her surprise that she could do it pretty easily. She actually enjoyed it and tried curving back and forth across the slope. When she reached the bottom without falling once, Marcel approached her.
"Good job," he said. "Your size is good for skiing. You are small and light. That is very good."
Beth smiled at him. She turned to see if Brittany had heard Marcel's compliment, but of course she hadn't. She was huddled with Julie and Sarah, undoubtedly telling them about her own experience with Marcel a few minutes ago.
The class continued to practice on the bunny slope for the rest of the lesson. Brittany, Julie, and Sarah are acting so stupid, Beth thought. They kept falling and laughing loudly and asking Marcel for help.
Molly played the helpless female, too, only her target wasn't Marcel. It was Brian.
"Oh, Brian, can you help me up?"
"Oh, Brian, this is so hard! Would you show me how to do it."
"Brian! You're so strong!"
Beth was disgusted with all of them. When the lesson was over and they were back at the lodge, she sat by the fireplace in the great room listening to Brittany and the other girls gush about "Magnificent Marcel." They schemed about asking him to dance that night and inviting him to the game room to play pool.
Beth wished she could join in the conversation, even though she thought the girls were acting like jerks. She thought Marcel was wonderful, too, but she didn't want to say anything. The older girls would make fun of her. If only The Fabulous Five were here, she thought, they'd understand how I feel. We'd be laughing and talking and having fun, too.
Beth sighed and felt a lump forming in her chest. But The Fabulous Five weren't here. Katie, Jana, and Melanie were at home, having a blast at Winter Carnival, Christie was having the time of her life in London, and she was stuck here. Even though she was with her whole family, and there were other people around, Beth was still lonely. And there was nothing she could do about it. She had no friends here, no one she could talk to. What a crummy vacation.
When Beth walked out of the great room to go up to her room, no one even noticed.
CHAPTER 5
I wonder what Katie and Melanie and Jana are doing right this minute? Beth thought sadly as she made her way back to her room. They're probably somewhere together, talking about what a great time they had last night.
Closing the door behind her, she started taking off her ski jacket when her hand brushed against the pocket where she'd put her small leather purse.
"Maybe it wouldn't hurt if I spent a little," she whispered. "Just enough for one short phone call to my friends. How much could that cost, anyway? Especially if we only talked for a couple of minutes." She pursed her lips and eyed the telephone on the table between the beds. Then she picked up the instruction card lying beside the phone.
To make a long-distance call, dial 9 + area code and number. The call will be billed to your room.
That sounds easy, she thought. I'll just explain to Mom and Dad that I needed to talk to my friends, and then I'll give them the money to pay for the call when we check out and get the bill. A sudden memory stopped her for an instant. It was the time she had gotten into a lot of trouble with her parents over money when she borrowed Shawnie Pendergast's credit card to buy clothes. But this is different, she assured herself.
Beth plopped down on her bed and reached for the phone. This is going to be so much fun, she thought. But her hand stopped in midair.
"Gosh," she said. "Which one of them should I call?"
She thought for a moment, deciding on Jana. Then she picked up the receiver, dialed 9 and then the area code and Jana's number.
It rang only once before a cheery voice said, "Hello."
Beth blinked in astonishment and then looked at her watch. She had expected Jana's mother and her stepfather to be at work, but it was after five in the afternoon. "Oh, hi, Mrs. Pink. Is Jana there?"
"Beth? Is that you?" asked Mrs. Pinkerton. "I thought you were away on a big ski vacation."
"I am," said Beth. "I'm calling long-distance."
"I see. Well, Jana isn't here right now," Mrs. Pinkerton told her. "She's at the dentist. I hope nothing's wrong."
"Oh," gulped Beth. "No, nothing's wrong, but I'd better hang up. Thanks, Mrs. Pink. Just tell her I said hi."
Beth sighed as she hung up. She would have to pay for the call, and she hadn't even talked to Jana. It was a shame to spend money and get nothing for it, she
thought, looking at the phone again. Surely, she reasoned, if she made one more call, she'd catch someone at home.
This time she dialed Melanie's number.
"Hello. Edwards residence. Mr. Jeffy speaking."
"Hi, Jeffy. This is Beth. Will you get Melanie? And please hurry. I'm calling long-distance."
"Can't," Jeffy replied matter-of-factly.
"Why not?"
"She's not here. Bye."
The dial tone rang in Beth's ear before she could ask him to take a message. "Six-year-olds," she muttered in exasperation.
Beth chewed on her lip and thought again. Two calls to pay for, and she still hadn't talked to one of her friends. "It's incredible!" she exclaimed. Still, she would have to call Katie to make spending all this money worthwhile.
"But I can't spend any more money," she whispered. On the other hand, she knew Mrs. Pinkerton would tell Jana she had called, and Jeffy was a goofy six-year-old, but she was sure he would tell Melanie, too. Katie will be hurt if I don't call her, Beth reasoned.
She took a deep breath and tried again. One, two, three rings. At least I won't have to pay for a call if no one answers, she thought. Five, six, the ringing stopped.
"Hello. You have reached the Shannon residence. Neither Willie nor Katie can come to the phone right now, but if you will leave your name and number after the beep . . ."
Beth slammed down the phone. "Not the answering machine!" she cried.
She threw herself across her bed, burying her face in a pillow. Three long-distance calls, and not one of her friends had been at home. Suddenly she raised her head and moaned, "And I didn't leave a message for Katie! She won't even know I called!"
Todd bragged all during dinner about how he had skied some of the tougher slopes with "the guys."
"Man, you should have seen me bombing down those mountains. Me and the guys probably broke some speed records while we were at it." He grinned at Beth. "I bet things were pretty hairy on the bunny slopes, too, huh?"
Beth rolled her eyes in disgust. "Grow up," she growled. Even Jeffy Edwards acted more mature than Todd.
"Todd," Mr. Barry warned, "you take it easy. I watched some of your friends skiing today, and they're pretty advanced."