Mega Sleepover 6: Winter Collection. Sue Mongredien

my head off at some poor bloke who was scrambling to his feet again.

      “Ouch!” Mum said sympathetically. “Are you sure you still want to do this?”

      “Definitely!” Molly said, eyes glued to the action below.

      Fliss opened her mouth to say something.

      “Yeah, of course we do!” I said quickly. “And anyone who doesn’t dare is a CHICKEN!”

      Fliss’s mouth shut again, and I grinned to myself. I had her sussed!

      “Hang on a minute – isn’t that Nick?” sharp-eyed Rosie said, pointing to a guy in a blue woolly hat who was slithering about all over the snow.

      I snorted. “I don’t think so!” I said scornfully.

      Lyndz scrunched up her eyes and peered in the direction of Rosie’s finger. “Well, it looks like him,” she said, slowly.

      “Well, it isn’t!” I said. “He can snowboard already – he’s been snowboarding all round the world, he told me! Anyway, you’ve only seen him once, so what do you know?”

      “I went into Mega Sports with Andy last week,” Fliss chimed in. “And it does look like him, if you ask me!”

      “Well, no-one is asking you, are they?” I said defensively. “And you lot think I’ve got him on the brain! Come on. We’d better go and get ready for our lesson.”

      Once we got into the boots-and-boards room, I found myself getting a bit bossy. Well, not bossy. Just… telling the others what to do, I suppose.

      We went over to the junior boards section, and I pounced upon a turquoise board just like the one I’d stood on in the shop, although this one was about half the size! “Ah, Nick says this is a good make,” I said, feeling grand. “It’s the one I went on last time, actually.”

      “What – do you mean, when you just stood on it, in the shop?” Frankie said scathingly.

      “Yeah, well, it’s more than you’ve done,” I pointed out. “And Nick said—”

      “He didn’t!” Rosie said sarcastically before I’d even had the chance to finish.

      “What, Nick did?” Lyndz teased, joining in. “Your hero!”

      “Nick really said that?” said Fliss. “You should have told us before!”

      Honestly – you’d think they were jealous of my cool friend Nick or something! I couldn’t help it if he was an experienced sporting hero, could I?

      “Nick, Nick, Nick!” Frankie said suddenly. “It sounds to me like you’d rather be with him than with us!”

      “Of course I wouldn’t!” I said in astonishment. “I’d much rather be with you lot!”

      “Good,” she sniffed, not looking me in the eye. “Well, that’s all right, then.”

      I was shocked. “Just ’cos I’ve been to see him a few times!” I said hotly. “It doesn’t mean anything!”

      Was Frankie jealous? I couldn’t believe it!

      “Oh, stop showing off in front of your friends,” Molly said with a smirk, elbowing me out of the way. “Come on, Carls, let’s get the best boots.”

      When Molly says things like that to me I really want to punch her one, but this time, I managed to hold my tongue all the time we were putting on our boots and collecting our boards. Then I held it a bit longer as we all trooped out in the snowy area where we’d be having our lesson.

      Then I just couldn’t hold it any more, and picked up a huge handful of snow and stuffed it down Molly’s neck. I’d give her showing off in front of my friends!

      “Aaaargh!” she screeched as the freezing snow hit her bare skin. “You little…”

      “Snow fight!” yelled Rosie in delight, and grabbed an armful of snow to hurl at Carli.

      Suddenly we were all screaming with excitement and chucking snow about like anything. As it was five against two, Molly and Carli were getting soaked, fast!! I was starting to feel quite glad they’d come with us after all!

      But then – screeeeee! A whistle blew, and we all jumped. I jumped so hard that I chucked my last snowball over my head and behind me.

      “Girls, this is a snowboarding lesson, not a zoo!” came a sharp voice. “Stop that imme—”

      Then there came this awful spluttering sound like someone trying to cough through snow…

      We turned round in horror to see a tall woman in a fleecy red tracksuit wiping snow off her face. She glared at me as if I was a cockroach or something, and I suddenly had a very nasty feeling about where my last snowball had gone. WHOOPS!!!

      “My name’s Suzi and I’ll be teaching you today,” she said. “And I think you’d better all calm down before we do anything.” She looked straight at me. “Now, is that clear?”

      “Yes,” I said in a small voice.

      Her icy look seemed to thaw a bit, and then she gave us a smile. “Good,” she said. “Let’s get snowboarding!”

      

      I hate to say it, but you know what? At first, I was just the weeniest bit disappointed by our snowboarding lesson. I know, I know – after all that fuss I made and everything. But in my head, I’d imagined us all on the main slope pretty much straightaway, cruising down dead fast, just like Nick had told me he’d done, and learning all these ace tricks.

      Instead, we were on this baby slope – and even worse, Suzi told us there was no way we could go on the main slope until we’d had a few lessons and knew what we were doing. Doh! So much for my big ideas, eh?

      Suzi caught sight of my disappointed face and laughed. “Can you imagine if we just let anyone on the main slopes?” she said, shaking her head at the thought. “There would be all sorts of crashes and injuries – it would be very dangerous. Before you can go on, you have to prove you can control your speed, know how to stop and make turns properly. It’s only fair on everyone else, don’t you think?”

      “Yeah,” everyone said.

      “I suppose so,” I said grudgingly.

      But I soon cheered up once the lesson got underway. It was such fun! And then I started to feel really glad we weren’t on the main slopes, as one by one, we wobbled, fell down and knocked someone else over. It was really difficult – almost as tricky as skateboarding down the stairs had been!!

      First of all, we had to get our boards securely fastened to our feet. It had been easy when Nick had done it all for me as I’d just stood there and let him do everything – but now it was down to us to do it ourselves.

      “Make sure your board is facing across the hill,” called Suzi, checking we were all in a good position. “We don’t want you shooting off without being properly fastened in, do we? Now, put your front foot in while you’re standing up. These boards have step-in bindings, so step the toe in first, and push the heel down until you hear a click. Got it?”

      A series of clicks from along the line confirmed that we’d all managed it so far.

      “Now put on your safety leash,” Suzi said. “It goes on your front leg.”

      “What’s it for?” asked Frankie.

      “Well, if you fall over – which I’m pretty sure most of you will do – it stops the board from running away,” Suzi explained. “OK.