“Somebody messed up my board,” Dennis repeated. “If it wasn’t you, then it had to be Pat!”
“Don’t look at me,” Pat said, holding up both his stubby hands. “I didn’t do anything, okay? So lay off.”
“Yeah, right,” Dennis said.
“Hey, are you trying to back out?” Rick asked. “Because if you are, everyone’s going to know. Roll the tape, Pat.”
At Rick’s command, Pat whipped out a camcorder and started taping the conversation. “Pat’s going to tape the whole race, just so everyone can watch you go down,” Rick told Dennis. “I’m gonna sell tickets and hand out popcorn!” He laughed, and Pat guffawed along with him from behind the camera.
“Then I guess they’ll all want to hear about the notes you left in my locker and the letter you sent to my house,” Dennis said, looking right at the lens. “And he spray-painted graffiti on my snowboard, too!”
“Yeah?” Rick retorted. “Where is it?”
“I washed it off, wise guy,” Dennis said. “Tasha and Robbie are my witnesses.”
“Look, are we gonna race, or what?” Rick demanded. "I’ve got my board; you’ve got yours. It’s not broken, as far as I can see. So, are you ready?”
“I’m ready,” Dennis said.
“Then let’s go.” Rick led him to the ticket window, where he bought their lift tickets. Pat, Robbie, and Tasha took their positions at the bottom of the run, where they could watch the whole race.
Several other kids gathered around to watch, too. Dennis recognized most of them. He knew Rick had brought them along, hoping to humiliate Dennis in front of them.
Dennis didn’t care anymore. When he’d found that message scrawled across his brand-new snowboard, he’d seen red. At this moment, he didn’t care if he wound up in traction again. He was going to beat Rick Hogan if it was the last thing he ever did!
The two of them rode up on the lift, side by side. They were alone now, without all their friends close by. Dennis could feel Rick’s confident, mocking gaze on him, but he stared straight ahead. No matter what, he was not going to allow Rick to intimidate him.
It seemed to take forever for the lift chairs to reach the top of the slope. They hopped off and trudged over to the trailhead. There were several skiers ahead of them, and they needed a clear slope to hold their contest. So they waited silently, each thinking his own thoughts.
Dennis tried to keep all doubts out of his mind. He did not look down the slope, lest his old fears return. He did not think about his lack of experience snowboarding. He thought only of the notes in his locker and mailbox, and the red paint sprayed across his new board. He thought only of getting even with Rick Hogan.
Finally it was their turn. They stood about fifteen feet apart as the skiers and boarders behind them looked on. Dennis tried to breathe through the lump in his throat.
“Ready … set … go!” Rick shouted, and they were off.
Dennis threw himself forward, gaining speed quickly. He put off turning as long as he could, then carved the turn deep into the packed snow. Rick was nowhere in sight. Good, Dennis thought. That means he’s behind me. I can just imagine the look on Hogan’s face!
Dennis was leaning into every turn now, going much faster than he’d ever gone before. Coming over a rise, he could see that most of the slope still lay before him. Ford’s Mountain was huge compared to the Breakers or Schoolhouse Hill. Most of the race was still ahead, and Dennis knew that his fast start would not be enough by itself to beat Rick Hogan. He focused like a laser beam on every weight shift, every bump and mogul on the trail.
It was by far the best he’d ever done, and Dennis was flying with the thrill of it. About halfway down, he could no longer resist the temptation to take a peek behind him.
Rick was about fifty feet back, working hard to catch up. Dennis couldn’t see the expression on his face because of the ski mask Rick was wearing, but he bet there wasn’t a trace of that mocking smile now. Ha!
But Dennis’s triumph was short-lived. When he turned back around, there was a large mogul right in front of him! It was too late to get out of the way and too late to prepare himself. He hit the mogul head-on, and sailed into the air, his arms windmilling to help him keep his balance.
Ahead, the dark form of a large evergreen tree loomed in his path. “Ahhhhh!!!” Dennis screamed as he landed, desperately trying to stay on his board as he skidded toward the towering tree.
At the last possible instant, through sheer athletic ability, he managed to right himself and narrowly avoid the tree. He ducked under some low-hanging branches and dodged two large boulders before emerging back onto the trail.
He’d done it! He’d survived a brush with disaster — and incredibly, Rick was still behind him! He had lost some speed in his desperate bid to avoid catastrophe, and Rick was gaining on him quickly. But Dennis managed to cut his turns cleanly and lean hard into them, keeping Rick at bay.
When they finally reached the bottom of the hill, Dennis was the winner — by twenty feet!
Dennis threw his hands into the air and let out a yell of triumph. A cheer went up from the crowd at the side of the trail. Tasha and Robbie were jumping up and down and waving to him.
Dennis cast a glance toward Rick Hogan. Rick was screaming at Pat, as if the whole thing were the younger boy’s fault. Rick grabbed the camcorder from Pat, then yanked out the cassette, threw it into the snow, and stamped on it. It made Dennis smile to watch the two of them.
Then he unstrapped his board and walked through the packed snow toward his friends.
“You did it! You did it!” Robbie was yelling. “Yes! Let’s go to the videotape, Rick! Whoo-oo!!”
Tasha ran over and gave Dennis a big hug. "I’m mad proud of you,” she told him.
“Thanks,” he replied with a grin. “I pretty near hit that tree, you know.”
“I know. We all caught our breath down here. It was scary.”
“You think you were scared!” Dennis said with a laugh. “How do you think I felt?”
Suddenly Dennis’s breath caught in his throat. Standing about fifty feet away, with serious looks on their faces, were his parents!
In an instant, Dennis knew that they must have seen everything. He bit his lip, knowing they’d probably ground him for the rest of the winter. They’d have every right, he said to himself guiltily.
“My folks are going to kill me. I’d better go see them.”
“Good luck, Dennis.” Tasha watched as he walked over to them, head down.
“Mom … Dad … I’m sorry,” he began. “I don’t know what came over me. I —”
“Dennis,” his father said sternly, “you told us you were coming out here to practice on the beginners’ slope.”
“I know, Dad. That was really wrong of me. But you see, Rick Hogan — ”
“Never mind Rick Hogan,” his dad stopped him. “I understand you had this race planned for some time. Don’t you think we had a right to know about it?”
“But you wouldn’t have let me race, Dad!” Dennis said. “You would have said it was too dangerous!”
His father merely stared back at him.
“I guess it was dangerous,” Dennis admitted. “I guess I did a really bonehead thing, didn’t I?” He looked down at the ground, ashamed of himself.
“Oh, honey!” his mother blurted out, giving him a big hug. Tears welled up in her eyes. “I was so worried about you.”
Dennis felt himself get teary, too. The fact that he had worried his mother felt far worse than if she’d been mad at him.
“I’m sorry. I know I should have told you.” And he explained everything then — the challenge, his indecision, the notes, and the vandalism to his board. “I just couldn’t back out of it,” he finished lamely.
“Revenge is a pretty lousy reason to risk your neck, son,” his father said soberly. “Wouldn’t you agree?” Then, as Dennis nodded contritely, a smile cracked his dad’s lips. “But you ran one heck of a race. Give me five, kid
.”
Dennis couldn’t believe it. With a wide smile on his face, he gave his father a high five and asked, “You really mean it? Wow!”
“We were watching the whole thing from the big picture window in the lodge,” his father told Dennis. “We had no idea you were so good on your snowboard.”
“Why, you only started two weeks ago,” his mother added. “It’s just amazing!”
“Well, all my skateboarding experience helped,” Dennis said.
“Still, it’s amazing,” his dad said, clapping him on the shoulder. “And I’m sure you’ve learned your lesson — haven’t you?”
“You bet I have, Dad,” Dennis said. “You trusted my judgment, and I let you down. But it’s going to be different from now on. I learned something today.”
“And what’s that, son?” his father asked.
“That you guys are on my side, and I’ve got to be straight with you,” Dennis said sincerely. “And something else — I’m still new at snowboarding, and the only way I’m going to get better is by hard work and practice. I’ve got to work up to things, not just go off and be stupid on a dare.”
“That’s my boy,” his father said, clapping him on the shoulder again. “Come on, let us buy you and your friends a hot chocolate.”
The five of them went back inside the lodge and headed for the snack bar.
“Wasn’t Dennis awesome?” Robbie asked Mr. and Mrs. O’Malley. “I bet you thought he was going to hit that tree, huh?”
“Robbie,” Dennis cautioned him, and Robbie shut up.
“Actually we were pretty furious when we first realized what Dennis was doing,” Mrs. O’Malley said. “But when he lost his balance, we got so scared that we forgot how angry we were.”
“And when he came out of it so beautifully,” Mr. O’Malley added, “we could see that he really has become a good snowboarder. The way he managed to stay on his feet — it was incredible!” His pride in Dennis was obvious, and Dennis beamed. “It just goes to show, if you want to do something badly enough, you can do it!”
They all sipped their hot chocolate for a minute, watching the skiers and boarders outside.
“I wonder where Rick is now,” Dennis asked. “I really ought to go see him.”
“Yeah, so you can rub it in a little!” Robbie said enthusiastically.
“No,” Dennis said, shaking his head. “I don’t think that would be right. I just want to shake his hand and say, ‘Good race.’ I think that’s the class thing to do.”
“Good thought, Dennis,” his mom agreed. “Why don’t you go do that? We’ll wait here for you.”
“Not me!” Robbie said, gulping down the rest of his hot chocolate. “I’m gonna go watch.”
“Robbie,” Tasha said, “let Dennis be alone.”
“It’s okay,” Dennis said, putting an arm around Robbie. “He can come with me. After all, I owe everything to you guys. Without you, I could never have done it. I never even would have gotten Gizmo!”
He and Robbie headed to the exit. As Robbie raised his hand to push the big door open, Dennis spotted something on his friend’s fingernails that made him stop dead.
Red paint!
“Robbie!” He gasped, turning to look at his younger friend. “It was you!”
“Huh?” Robbie asked, already looking away guiltily. “What are you talking about?”
“That red paint under your fingernails!”
“Red paint? That’s — um, ketchup!”
“Wrong color. It’s red-purple, the same color as the paint on my snowboard!”
Robbie bit his lip. “I must have got it on me when I picked up the board,” he said.
“You never touched the board,” Dennis pointed out, and Robbie was caught.
“Okay, okay, so I did it,” Robbie said.
“And the notes, too?”
“Uh-huh.” Robbie looked up at him pleadingly. “Please don’t be mad at me, Dennis!” he begged. “I was just trying to get you fired up and as mad at Rick as I was, so you’d race your hardest. I wanted you to beat him so bad!”
Dennis felt his anger softening. “I could have been hurt up there,” he said.
“Nah,” Robbie said with perfect certainty. “You’re too good a snowboarder. I knew you’d come out of it.”
Dennis shook his head and chuckled. Robbie had such blind faith in him. He couldn’t be mad at him. He put his arm around Robbie’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “Well, I don’t much like your tactics, but I forgive you,” he said. “Just don’t ever do it again!”
“Yes, sir!” Robbie said happily, flashing his braces and giving Dennis a mock salute. Then the two friends went outside, to find Rick Hogan and Pat Kunkel and shake hands.
14
On Sunday, Dennis spent the day with his family. They saw a movie at the triplex, ate out at Shanahan’s Family Restaurant, exchanged a couple of Christmas gifts at the mall for sizes that fit, and played Monopoly in front of the fireplace in the evening.
When the clock on the mantelpiece struck nine, Dennis’s dad said, “Time to get ready for bed, son. School tomorrow.”
Dennis sighed, got up, and helped put the game pieces away.
“G’night, Mom and Dad.” He kissed them good night, gave the sleeping baby Elizabeth a peck on the forehead, and hugged Felix, who was lazing in front of the fire. “See you in the morning.”
He went upstairs to bed, feeling tired but satisfied with himself. All was right with the world. He was even looking forward to school tomorrow. He wondered if word had spread about his triumph over Rick Hogan.
He needn’t have doubted it. From the moment he got on the school bus the next morning, Dennis was mobbed by everyone. Kids who’d never even bothered to say hello to him now wanted to be his friend, it seemed.
At his locker, kids surrounded him. Robbie and Tasha basked in the glory of being his best friends. Everybody had heard about the great event. And everyone was happy that Rick and Pat had been humbled.
Dennis wasn’t used to this kind of attention. He felt uncomfortable. It was way too much. “Hey, guys, it was just a race,” he protested. “I got lucky — that’s all.”
“Oh, yeah?” Robbie challenged him. “I notice Rick Hogan hasn’t asked you for a rematch!”
“I’ll bet he won’t, either,” Tasha added. “You almost wiped out, and you still beat him by a mile!”
Dennis saw that he couldn’t talk his way out of his new hero status. Robbie even started claiming Dennis could beat Dale Morgan, which Dennis knew was not true. Dale could board rings around him, or anyone else in Moorsville.
Dennis was glad when the bell rang for the start of classes. Hopefully all the fuss would die down.
A new cycle had begun at school, and his teachers were piling on the work. Dennis could see that there would be no time to snowboard this afternoon, or probably any afternoon this week. It would be Saturday before he got out on the slopes again.
He felt really disappointed. In spite of his discomfort about being a hero, Dennis looked forward to joining his friends and classmates on the hills and enjoying the sheer sensation of going down the trail at full speed, carving turns with the edge of his board. It was going to be a long week till Saturday.
After school, as he was getting his stuff out of his locker, Rick and Pat happened to pass by him. Dennis was about to say hello, even offer to forget the bad feelings that had come between them. But Rick and Pat turned their backs on him and skulked away before Dennis could say anything.
He zipped up his parka, slung his backpack over his shoulder, and went outside. Just as he was about to board the bus home, somebody tapped on his shoulder. Dennis turned around to see Dale Morgan grinning at him.
“Congratulations, Dennis,” he said, offering his hand, which Dennis shook. “I was out on the half-pipe at Ford’s Mountain on Saturday, and I happened to see you beat Rick Hogan. Good job.”
“Thanks,” Dennis said, tremendously pleased that somebody like Dale Morgan had take
n notice.
“Going airborne, too — that’s pretty impressive for a beginner.”
“Well, it was kind of an accident, actually. I didn’t mean to —”
But Dale interrupted him. “You know, I told you back at the Breakers that day that you had it in you.”
“I know,” Dennis acknowledged. “I guess you were right.”
“I understand Rick’s been going around the school telling kids you cheated by cutting through the woods.”
Dennis laughed. “That’s a good one. I turned around to see if he was close behind me, and I nearly hit that tree head-on! ”
“Well, let Rick say whatever he wants to,” Dale said. “That’s my advice. Nobody believes a thing he tells them anyway.”
Dennis nodded. “You can say that again.”
“Anyway, that’s not really what I wanted to talk to you about,” Dale went on. “But you’re going to miss your bus. I’ll catch you tomorrow at lunch, okay?”
“Sure!” Dennis said, and swung around to hoist himself onto the bus. “Bye!”
All afternoon and evening long, Dennis wondered what Dale wanted to speak to him about.
The next day at lunch, he found out.
“I’ve got to talk to Dale Morgan, guys,” he told a surprised Tasha and Robbie. “Be right back.”
Dale was a ninth-grader, and he sat in the high school section. Moorsville was a small town, so the middle school and high school were in adjoining buildings, with the cafeteria set between them. The high-schoolers sat together at their end of the huge eatery, and the middle-schoolers gathered at the other end.
“Hi, champ!” Dale said as Dennis approached, then shoved over to make room for him. “How does it feel to be king of the mountain?”
“Come on,” Dennis said, feeling the color rising in his cheeks. “It’s not that big a deal. There’s lots of people faster than me — especially you.”
“That’s kind of what I wanted to talk to you about,” Dale said.
“I don’t get it — you want to race me?” Dennis said.
“No, no — not exactly. But I know you’re the best skateboarder around. And I’ve seen you on the half-pipe in warm weather. Some of those stunts you do are incredible.”
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