CHAPTER 7
Brian and Hannah were speechless.
Zach gave another sly smile, turned, and headed for the chairlift. “Time for another run,” he said. “I need to get used to this new course.”
As Zach sailed away, Brian and Hannah stood there, staring at each other.
Once again, they found themselves feeling like they didn’t want to snowboard.
They glided back toward the chalet, unstrapped their snowboards, and walked inside.
Neither of them said a word. They walked to the snack counter and ordered hot chocolate. Then they found a warm seat in the chalet.
Hannah was a bundle of emotions.
She was angry at Zach for his new rules.
She was worried that her friendship with Brian was going to cost him his chance to snowboard.
And she was worried that she, too, was done snowboarding forever.
Finally, she found the words she wanted to say. “Brian, you’ve got to be on the team,” she said.
“Not if you can’t be on it,” Brian responded.
“But if you don’t, you won’t be able to snowboard at all,” Hannah said.
“I know,” Brian said. “But what Zach’s doing isn’t right. We have to figure out a way to fight this.”
“How can we?” Hannah said. “We can’t ask our parents to help, because his mom is the new manager.”
Both of them sighed.
Just then, the other kids arrived in the chalet. They had just run into Zach on the snowboard cross course, too.
“We heard about the snowboard cross team,” B.J. said. “Sorry to hear you can’t be on the team. We’ll really miss snowboarding with you.”
“What do you mean?” Brian said, rising to his feet. “Are you saying you are going to be on the team?”
“We have to,” Will said. “Otherwise, we can’t snowboard at all.”
Hannah shrank into her seat. She couldn’t even look at the boys.
“So you would turn on your friend, just to keep snowboarding?” Brian said. The anger rose in his voice.
“It’s not our fault,” B.J. said. “We didn’t make the stupid rule.”
Suddenly, Zach appeared in the chalet. “Are you guys coming?” he called. “Our first team practice starts in fifteen minutes.”
The three boys looked back at Hannah and Brian. “Come on, Brian,” Will said.
“I’m not going anywhere,” said Brian.
The three boys left with Zach. None of them looked back to see Hannah’s face.
Brian, his anger still bubbling on the surface, looked at Hannah. “I can’t believe those guys,” he said.
“Aw, forget about them,” Hannah said. “You can’t blame them for wanting to keep snowboarding.”
“I know, but I’m not going to sit here and just take this,” he said. “We have to figure a way to challenge this.”
Suddenly, Hannah’s face brightened. “That’s it!” she shouted. “I’ll challenge him! There’s no way he’d back down from a challenge.”