Karen's Ski Trip

by Ann M. Martin

  (There always had to be a grown-up watching us on the ice. That was Daddy’s rule.)

  “Sure. Let’s go,” said Keegan.

  We took turns showing each other which moves we thought looked the best. Then we picked our favorites and tried to do them together. I called out the moves.

  “Forward,” I said. “Now circle. Forward. Now figure eight.”

  “That looks terrific, kids,” said our teacher. “What you are doing is called pair skating. You are working as a real team. I think it would look nice to hold hands when you skate forward or in a circle. Then take turns skating apart for the figure eights.”

  We tried our routine again holding hands. This time Keegan called out the moves.

  “Forward,” he said. “Circle. Forward. Figure eight.”

  At first we had a little trouble circling together. We practiced all morning until we got it right.

  “We can meet outside later to work on our snow sculpture,” said Keegan. “I have to meet my mom and dad for lunch now.”

  On the way back to the lodge, we saw Andrew skiing down the slope.

  “Your little brother really is a good skier,” said Keegan.

  “He is going to win the race on Saturday. I just know it,” I replied.

  “Maybe we will win something, too,” Keegan said. “See you later.”

  I ate at the house with Nannie and Emily. Sam was busy snowboarding. Everyone else was skiing.

  When we finished lunch, we walked back to the lodge together. Keegan was waiting for me inside.

  “I am ready,” I said.

  We found a place where Nannie could watch us.

  “I do not think we should worry about the castle now,” said Keegan. “We need to practice making our snow horse.”

  “You are right,” I said. “It would be hard to explain why there was a camel guarding our castle.”

  While we were working, we tried to check out the competition. We looked at the other people trying out their sculptures. We saw an igloo, a car, and some sculptures that were just pretty shapes. But I did not think anything looked as good as our castle.

  We tried our best to make a horse. We ended up with a dog instead.

  “Um, dog, do you think you could turn into a horse?” I asked.

  “Woof! Woof!” barked Keegan. “He says he likes being a dog.”

  Nannie was waving for us to come inside. I quickly made a snow bone and gave it to our snow dog. Then I made a plan with Keegan to meet in the morning for more practicing.

  The next day, our skating routine went perfectly. Our castle looked great. But we still could not get the horse right. We kept making the same dog. “Maybe we should just make the castle,” I said.

  “I think you are right,” said Keegan. “The carnival starts at ten o’clock tomorrow. Do you want to meet inside the lodge at nine?”

  “I will be there,” I replied.

  There were butterflies in my stomach. I was a little nervous about the carnival. But that was not the only thing I was nervous about. I was thinking about the Valentine’s Day dance, too. It would be held the next night.

  I was wondering if I would get to dance with Keegan. I really, really hoped I would.

  The Accident

  I was up early the next morning. It was Saturday, the day of the winter carnival.

  I hurried to get dressed. Then I gathered up the flags I had made for our castle. They were triangles of colored paper glued onto matching straws. I wrapped the flags in plastic so they would not get wet.

  “Happy winter carnival day!” I said, marching into the kitchen.

  “Good morning,” said Nannie. “I know that you and Andrew need to get to the lodge early. I will take you over. The rest of the family can meet us later.”

  “I am going over early, too,” said Sam. “I promised Andrew I would take him up the slope a few times before the contest.”

  We ate our breakfast. Then Nannie, Sam, Andrew, and I walked over to the lodge.

  “I bet you will win the contest,” I said to Andrew on the way.

  “The teacher said I should not worry about winning,” Andrew replied. “She said I should just do my best.”

  “If you do your best, you will win,” I said. “Everyone says you are the best skier in the group.”

  I did not say it so nicely. That is because I wished I were the one entering an important ski contest. I wished I were the one everyone expected to win.

  When we reached the lodge, Sam and Andrew waved good-bye and headed for the slopes. Keegan was outside waiting for me.

  “Hi, Keegan!” I said. “I am ready for the carnival.”

  “Have a good time, you two,” said Nannie. “I will be inside the lodge if you need me.”

  There was a big area marked off for the snow sculpture contest. Keegan and I walked around looking for the best spot for our castle.

  We were still looking when we noticed people pointing toward one of the ski slopes. There was a big commotion at the top of the slope.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “There was an accident,” said a woman who had just come back from skiing. “A little boy fell. It looked like he got hurt.”

  “And he was such a good skier, too,” said the woman’s friend.

  “That could be Andrew!” I said to Keegan.

  “Yes,” said the woman. “That was the boy’s name. I heard someone say it.”

  “Oh, no!” I cried. “Andrew was in an accident!”

  I looked toward the lodge. Nannie was not in her usual spot. I did not see anyone from my family at all.

  “I want to go up there. Sam and Andrew might need me,” I said to Keegan.

  “Come on,” Keegan replied. “We will grab some skis and go up the lift. That will be the fastest way.”

  We quickly got skis. We put them on, then rode the lift up the mountain.

  When we reached the top, Toby was kneeling next to Andrew. I hurried over to my little brother.

  “It is okay, Andrew,” I said. “I am here. I will not leave you alone for one second.”

  Andrew tried to smile. He was being very brave.

  “Sam went to get the Ski Patrol,” said Toby. “They will bring a snowmobile and a sled to pull Andrew down the mountain.”

  All we could do was wait for Sam and the Ski Patrol to come back. It was cold and windy on the mountain. I held Andrew’s hand and did not let go. We waited and waited. It felt like forever. Finally they came. We all helped Andrew onto the snowmobile.

  “You will be okay, Andrew,” I said. “I promise.”

  Then I watched them disappear down the mountain.

  Skiing

  “I hope Andrew will be okay,” I said to Keegan. “He looked scared.”

  “You helped him a lot,” Keegan replied. “It is good we came up here.”

  “Up here?” I repeated.

  Suddenly I realized where I was. I was way up on a ski slope. All I had been thinking about for the past half hour was Andrew. Now I had time to think about me. How was I going to get down the mountain? I was terrified of skiing.

  I thought about taking my skis off and walking down. But I did not want to do that. It would be too humiliating.

  “Are you ready to ski down the mountain?” asked Keegan.

  I had told Keegan I did not like skiing. But I had not told him I was scared of it. And I did not feel like telling him now.

  “I am ready,” I replied. “Just remember I have not done much skiing. I need to go really, really slowly.”

  “No problem,” said Keegan. “I will help you. Look, if you ski at an angle like this, you will go slower.”

  Keegan went down a little way to show me what he meant. He was going back and forth across the slope, instead of straight down. I could see he was not going very fast.

  “If you want to go even slower or stop completely, you do something called the ‘snowplow,’ ” said Keegan. “Just put your knees together like this.”

  When he put hi
s knees together a certain way, the front of his skis came together, too, in a point. There was no way to go too fast when the skis were pointing at each other.

  Keegan came back up and stood next to me. I took a deep breath. Then slowly, very slowly, we skied down the mountain together.

  A couple of times I felt so scared I wanted to sit down in the snow. But I did not do it. Instead I put my knees together the way Keegan showed me. That made me go slowly enough so I was not scared anymore.

  Little by little we skied down the slope. Little by little we came closer to the bottom. Little by little we made it!

  What a relief. I still did not like skiing. But at least I was not so scared of it anymore. Being scared was the worst part.

  We took off our skis. Then I said to Keegan, “We have to hurry to the lodge. We have to find out how Andrew is.”

  The First Contest

  I raced into the lodge to find my family.

  “Here comes Karen!” called David Michael.

  I was out of breath by the time I reached them. They were waiting outside the video game room. That is where the telephones were. Only Daddy, Sam, and Andrew were missing.

  “Where did they take Andrew? How is he?” I asked.

  “They took him to the hospital emergency room,” said Elizabeth. “We have not heard how he is yet. We are waiting for Daddy to call us.”

  At that very minute the phone rang. Elizabeth answered it. She listened for awhile and nodded her head. Then she said into the phone, “Yes, I will tell them.”

  “Is Andrew going to be all right?” I asked.

  “Andrew is going to be fine,” Elizabeth replied. “But he did hurt himself. He twisted his knee badly. He will not be able to walk for awhile. And of course skiing is out of the question.”

  Poor Andrew. I felt really bad that he was hurt. I felt worse that he could not ski. I knew the contest was important to him. He was excited about being in it. I felt bad that I had been grouchy before, too. That was not fair. It was not Andrew’s fault that he was a good skier and I was not.

  There was a lot to think about. But I did not get to think very long. An announcement was being made over the loudspeaker in the lodge.

  “Anyone entering the ice skating contest please go to Beaver Pond now.”

  “That is us,” said Keegan. “We have to go.”

  Keegan grabbed my hand. We ran to the pond together.

  We put on our skates, laced them up, and waited for our turn on the ice. It was not long before our names were announced.

  “Our next partners on ice are Karen Brewer and Keegan Ross.”

  I was so excited. The first thing I did was trip on my way to the pond. Luckily Keegan caught me. I knew I was still a little shaky from all the excitement. Andrew had been in an accident. I had skied down a mountain. Now I was going to be in an ice skating contest. Concentrate, Karen, concentrate, I said to myself.

  Keegan looked at me and smiled. I smiled back.

  “We are on,” he said.

  We stepped out onto the ice. The minute I started to skate, everything else went out of my mind. The air was cold, the ice was smooth. I felt so happy.

  We knew our routine by heart. Forward. Circle. Forward. Figure eight.

  I could feel everyone’s eyes on Keegan and me. When we finished I heard lots of clapping. A few voices were yelling, “Yeah, Karen! Yeah, Keegan!” Our families were cheering for us. I turned and took a bow.

  We did not win the contest. But I did not mind. I had fun. And I knew I had skated well.

  There was one more thing I knew. I could skate — and now I could ski if I wanted to.

  The Second Contest

  When we got back to the lodge, Daddy, Sam, and Andrew were there. Andrew had a brace on his leg. And he was trying to use crutches.

  “How do you feel?” I asked him.

  “I guess I feel okay. My leg does not hurt too much,” Andrew replied. “But I am so mad I missed my race.”

  Andrew looked as if he were going to cry. I wanted to do something to make him feel better.

  “I know what!” I said. “You could help Keegan and me with our snow sculpture. You can be in the contest with us.” I looked at Keegan.

  “That is a great idea,” Keegan said.

  Andrew’s face lit up.

  “Thanks, Karen. Thanks, Keegan,” he said.

  The contest began after lunch. We found a spot where our families could watch us from inside the lodge.

  “You have half an hour to build your snow sculpture,” said one of the judges. “When you hear the whistle, you may begin.”

  The judge blew the whistle and we got to work. Andrew could not get around very well. I needed to think of a job he could do without walking much.

  “Hey, Andrew,” I said. “You can be our director. Just like in the movies.”

  Andrew liked that idea. I think he liked it a little too much.

  “Make that tower higher,” said Andrew.

  I made the tower higher.

  “No. That is too high,” said Andrew. “Make it this high.”

  He waved his crutch in the air to show me how high to make the tower.

  I made it lower. Then even lower. Higher. Lower.

  “Hey, Andrew, why don’t you put these flags on the castle?” said Keegan.

  “Yes, the flags are very important,” I said.

  That was the perfect job for Andrew. He did not have to walk much. And Keegan and I could finish building the castle.

  We did our best. When we finished it was a little lopsided. And it was smaller than we had planned.

  I looked at the other sculptures. Some of them were good. Really good. Next to them, our castle did not look all that great. The best thing about it was the colored flags on top.

  The judge blew the whistle.

  “It is time to stop working,” she said. “Please stand by your sculpture. The judges will come around to each of you.”

  There were three judges. When they got to us, one of them said to Andrew, “I am sorry about your accident. I saw you skiing yesterday. You are very good.”

  “Thank you,” Andrew replied.

  “What was your job here today?” asked the judge.

  “I was the director! And I put on the flags, too,” said Andrew proudly.

  “Oh, I see,” the judge replied. He jotted something down in his notebook.

  Finally it was time to announce the winners. A sculpture of a snow angel won. I could see why. She was a very beautiful angel. She had a gold halo and everything.

  Our castle got an honorable mention. I had the feeling they gave it to us because of Andrew. I think they wanted him to win something because they felt bad about his accident.

  It was the second contest we did not win. But we had fun being in it. And that was the most important thing.

  The Phone Call

  The carnival lasted until late afternoon. Then we ate dinner at the lodge. Then it was time to go home to get ready for the Valentine’s Day dance. Saturday had been a very exciting day!

  I had lost track of Keegan by dinnertime. He probably went home with his parents to eat. He had not said anything to me about going to the dance. So I was not even sure he would be there. Boo.

  I decided to have a good time anyway. Even if I did not get to dance with Keegan.

  “What are you going to wear tonight?” I asked Kristy.

  We were standing in front of the closet deciding what to put on.

  “It is not a fancy party. So I am going to wear my jeans and a sweatshirt,” Kristy replied. (I was not surprised. Kristy always wears jeans and a sweatshirt.)

  “Then I will, too,” I replied.

  I put on my dark blue jeans and my light blue sweatshirt.

  “That was easy,” I said to Kristy. “I am all ready.”

  The phone was ringing in the other room. Nannie answered it. Then she called, “Karen, it is for you. It is Keegan.”

  Hmm. I wonder what he wants to tell me, I thoug
ht.

  “Hi, Keegan,” I said.

  Guess what. Keegan did not have something to tell me. He had something to ask me. He called to ask me to be his date at the Valentine’s Day dance.

  “Your date?” I said. “Of course I will be your date.”

  We planned to meet at the lodge at seven-thirty. I could hardly believe it! I was going to be Keegan’s date at the Valentine’s Day dance.

  I looked down at my jeans and sweatshirt. This was not a good outfit for an important date. I hurried back to the room to change my clothes.

  Red. I needed to wear red for Valentine’s Day. I pulled out my red corduroy jumper. Then I found a red cotton turtleneck, and red tights.

  I put everything on and looked in the mirror. Just then, Daddy passed by.

  “Karen, you look beautiful,” said Daddy.

  “Thank you,” I replied. I hoped Keegan would think so, too.

  The Dance

  “Hi, Karen!” called Keegan. “Hey, you are all dressed in red. You look like a red lollipop.”

  Hmm. I wondered if that was Keegan’s way of saying I looked beautiful. I decided that it was.

  “Thank you,” I replied.

  “Want to go in and get some punch?” asked Keegan.

  I had been hoping he would ask me to dance right away. I could see I was going to have to wait. Keegan and I walked together to the main room at the lodge. That is where the dance was being held.

  “Can I go in with you?” asked Andrew.

  Uh-oh. Somehow Andrew had caught up with us even on his crutches. It was okay for him to make the sculpture with us. But I did not want him tagging along on my date. I did not have much choice, though.

  “Sure,” said Keegan. “Come on.”

  The decorations in the main room were very beautiful. Everywhere you looked were red hearts, red balloons, and red crepe paper streamers.

  There were pitchers of punch and stacks of cups on a table. And there were big bowls filled with jelly beans and chocolate kisses.

  “Can I have some punch?” asked Andrew.

  I poured some punch into a cup for him. He put both crutches in one hand. He held the cup with the other.