The Slopes

Chapter 1

Someone once told me, 'If you can't stop thinking about it, don't stop working for it.' I never knew what it meant until one night, I had this dream where I went skiing and I became a Champion skier. That one dream is what flipped my world upside down.

"That was a nice run, Kas!" Liz said as I finished. Liz is my best friend. She has always been there for me. Even after I lied to her. Technically, I had no choice; I had to lie to keep a secret that would hurt her. When the secret got out, she understood why I had to lie to her. Liz doesn't like skiing or snowboarding. She won't attempt it after watching my last accident. I was snowboarding down a mountain, and I was afraid for a second. That second of fear was what ended my courier. I started skiing because I was too afraid to go back to snowboarding.

"Hey, Kas. I think you have a fan," Liz said as she motioned to a boy who looked about 15. "He's been watching you ski all day." As I started walking towards him, he took his helmet off. He is taller than me. He has short, blond hair with blue eyes.

"Hey. If you keep your knees bent on your turns, you'll have sharper turns. Then you'll have a quicker time." He said while watching his phone. I look at his phone and it has a video of my previous run. He pauses it and shows me where he's talking about.

"Thanks for the tip." I say as I start to head back to Liz.

"I'm Luke by the way. You must be Kas." He says before I can get far. How does he know my name? He doesn't go to my school.

"Yeah. How'd you know?" I ask carefully.

"I noticed the blue stripe in your hair that matches the video of you snowboarding down the mountain."

"Wow," I say as I turn to motion Liz over. "This is my friend Liz. She doesn't ski or snowboard after watching my accident. She doesn't want to get hurt, but at least she comes out here with me." Liz nods and Luke asks me a question that I'd never, in a million years, think he'd ask me.

"Kas. Do you want me to coach you?" Luke asks me. I look at Liz and she is nodding for me to say yes. I look back at Luke. I nod.

"Yes. I'd like to have you coach me." I say as I put on my skies.

"Ok. I'll be right back. Then we will go up together." He tells me. He runs inside to get his snowboard. We get on the lift and after about 5 minutes, we get to the top.

"Ready?" Luke asks. I nod and we take off. "Keep your knees bent." He says as he catches up to me. I nod and continue. Once we make it to the bottom, he looks at me and asks, "Kas, do you want to try to snowboard again?" I think about how good it would be to snowboard again and I finally nod. He hands me his snowboard. "I'll watch from down here," He says as I get ready to get on the lift. "And be careful." He says once I'm on the lift. As I go up, I look at him and I see him with a big smile on his face. I can tell he enjoys being out in the snow. When I get to the top, I get ready and I see Luke and Liz watching me from the bottom. I go down the hill without a single wipeout.

"Nice run. You haven't snowboarded in like, what, 4 years now?" I nod. "You are better than some of the people here. I can't believe that you got kicked off the best team just because you had an accident and broke your leg. That coach is missing out on an amazing skier and snowboarder." I feel the heat rush to my face as Liz nudges me.

"Thank you." I say as I look up at Luke. We lock eyes and stay there for a while. "It's getting late. We should probably go eat dinner now." I say not looking away from Luke. He nods and we walk close enough that out shoulders touch once in a while.