CHAPTER 2
Brian sat quietly on the chair for a few moments.
It was a crisp, calm day. The growing chill he was feeling was not from the weather.
“What do you mean?” he finally asked.
Hannah glanced across the slopes. Below them, skiers were swooshing down the mountain through the soft, fluffy snow that had fallen only hours earlier.
“Being able to use the resort for free is a benefit that our parents have, and we have, because of their jobs,” Hannah said.
“I know that, but why would they take it away?” Brian said.
“I don’t know,” Hannah said. “All I know is what my dad told me. The new manager said she wanted to make some changes to the benefits that the families of the employees get.”
Silence again fell over the chairlift. Hannah and Brian could see the end of the chairlift now.
They both wondered if they were soon going to see the end of their time on the slopes, too.
Then Brian said what both of them were thinking.
“But if we lose the free snowboarding,” he said, “what are we going to do all winter? What else are we going to do up here on this mountain?”
Hannah just shook her head.
Both of them slipped off the chairlift and pushed over to the top of the nearby halfpipe.
At the edge of the pipe, they paused and looked at each other.
They both shook their heads and started down the run.
As soon as they swooped down one side of the halfpipe, their minds were free again.
Brian led the way as they played a game they called Chase.
They had played many times before.
One of them would go out front and do a trick on each side of the pipe.
The other would follow behind, watching and trying to match everything the leader did.
Chase was a game they had been playing for two winters, ever since both of their parents had been hired at Snowstream.
Hannah and Brian loved the game so much that they didn’t even have to talk about playing it anymore.
If they were at the halfpipe, they were playing Chase.
On the first run, Brian didn’t try anything too hard, but their first time down was usually pretty tame.
Hannah didn’t have much trouble matching Brian, trick for trick. She rarely did anyway.
Hannah was as good a snowboarder as Brian was.
There were a few tricks he could do better and a few she could do better.
When they got to the bottom of the run, they came together and gave each other a high five.
“Sweet run,” Hannah said. “Next time, I lead.”
They looked up the halfpipe and talked about the tricks they had tried and how they had done.
Suddenly, however, there was a new figure at the top of the halfpipe.
It was hard to see who it was from the bottom of the run, but the person didn’t look familiar to Hannah and Brian.
He wore a full, dark-blue snowboarding suit, with a helmet to match.
Hannah and Brian watched the new boy’s run.
He zoomed back and forth on the halfpipe at top speed.
At each turn, he performed a different trick, making each one look more effortless than the one before it.
It was a beautiful run.
At the bottom of the run, the boy zoomed up to Hannah and Brian.
He leaned back on his board to come to a stop.
Snow flew all over their boots in the process.
“Nice run!” Hannah said politely.
“Hmph,” the boy snorted back. “That’s not much of a halfpipe.”