It's Snow Joke Read online

  “What’s so funny?” Rosie asked her.

  “You are,” Katie told her. She pointed to the big mirror in the middle of the trailer. “Look.”

  “Oh, no!” Rosie groaned. “I look ridiculous.

  Katie giggled harder. Rosie did look ridiculous. Only half of her hair was brushed. On one side of her head, Rosie’s brown hair had been brushed and combed until it was long, straight, and shiny. The hair on the other side of her head was a tangled mess of chocolate-colored curls.

  “We haven’t finished yet,” the tall, thin man standing near the makeup mirror explained.

  “This is Raul,” Rosie told Katie. “He’s the hairstylist for the movie.”

  “Hi,” Raul said. “Rosie’s going to look fantastic when we’re finished. I promise.”

  “I’m sure she will,” Katie told him.

  “I can’t believe you’re actually here,” Rosie said to Katie. “I’ve really missed you.”

  “I missed you, too,” Katie told her.

  “I have to work until about three o’clock,” Rosie said. “But after that, we can have a snack at the ski lodge. And maybe we can go to the arcade, too.”

  “Cool!” Katie agreed.

  “I’m just sorry you have to go skiing by yourself until I’m finished working,” Rosie said sadly.

  “Oh, I won’t be alone,” Katie assured her. “I brought Jeremy and . . .”

  “Great!” Rosie interrupted her. “He’s a lot of fun.”

  Katie nodded. “I also brought Suzanne,” she added, looking doubtfully at Rosie.

  Rosie bit her lip to keep from laughing. “You mean Suzanne Superstar?” she asked.

  Katie nodded. “I sort of had to.”

  “It’s okay,” Rosie said. “She’s kind of funny. Where are they?”

  “They’re with my parents in the lodge having hot cocoa,” Katie said. “They’ll be here in a minute.”

  No sooner were the words out of Katie’s mouth than the door to the trailer opened. A blast of cold air rushed in, bringing Jeremy and Suzanne with it.

  “Wow. It’s cold out there,” Jeremy said.

  “Hi, Jeremy,” Rosie said.

  “Hey, Rosie,” he replied. “Cool hair.”

  Rosie giggled. “Katie liked it, too,” she said. Then she turned to Suzanne. “Hi, Suzanne. I love your ski outfit.”

  “Thanks.” Suzanne spun around so Rosie could get a good look at her white parka, white pants, and white boots. Then she turned her attention to Raul. “Hi,” she said, holding out her hand. “I’m Suzanne. You must be Rosie’s director. Well, today’s your lucky day. One day I’m going to be a big star, and you can say how you met me.”

  “Uh, Suzanne,” Rosie began. “He’s not . . .”

  “Oh, don’t worry, Rosie,” Suzanne said. “We won’t ever be competing for the same parts.”

  “No, that’s not it,” Rosie tried to explain. “It’s just that Raul isn’t . . .”

  But Suzanne wasn’t listening. “Would you like me to read something for you? Because I know I would be great for this film.”

  “Why?” Jeremy whispered to Katie. “Is it a horror movie or something?”

  “Shhh,” Katie whispered back. She turned to Suzanne. “Um, Suzanne. Raul isn’t who you think he is.”

  “What do you mean?” Suzanne asked.

  “I’m the stylist,” Raul told her.

  Suzanne frowned. “Oh,” she said quietly.

  “It’s okay,” Rosie told her. “Anyone might make a mistake like that. Don’t be embarrassed.”

  “I knew that he wasn’t the director,” Suzanne told Rosie. She forced a smile to her lips. “I was just acting. My character was a girl who wanted to be in a movie. And I had you all fooled. See what a good actress I am?”

  “Great,” Jeremy remarked, rolling his eyes. He looked over at Katie. “It’s getting hot in here. Let’s go over to the bunny slope and see if it’s time for our lesson.”

  “Good idea,” Katie agreed. “Come on, Suzanne.”

  “But I thought maybe I could stay here and . . .” Suzanne began.

  Katie shook her head. “Oh, no. Remember what happened the last time you tried to get into one of Rosie’s movies?”

  Suzanne frowned. There was no arguing with that. “Fine,” she harrumphed.

  Katie breathed a sigh of relief as Suzanne headed for the door. Now Rosie wouldn’t have to worry about what Suzanne might do or say next. And Katie was about to learn how to ski!

  This was going to be a great day. Katie was sure of it!

  Chapter 6

  “Come on, Katie!” Jeremy shouted as he headed for the bunny slope.

  Katie gulped. She did not like the look of the hill. For something called a bunny slope, it sure looked steep to her.

  “I . . . I don’t know . . .” she said nervously.

  “You can do it,” Jeremy assured her. “Just think of it as a really cool roller coaster.”

  “You’re not chicken, are you?” Suzanne asked.

  Katie frowned. She hated when people said she was chicken. And there was no way she was going to let Suzanne make fun of her—especially not after Suzanne had invited herself on this ski trip. It wasn’t like Katie had wanted her along.

  “Okay,” Katie said, following Jeremy up the hill to where their lesson was going to start. It was hard work clomping on skis. Katie fell down twice.

  As they reached the top of the slope, Katie looked down. Suddenly she felt really wobbly. “I’m not sure I can do this,” she whispered to Jeremy. “Maybe I should go to the lodge and wait for my parents to finish skiing.”

  “You can do it,” Jeremy assured her again. “We’re going to learn together, remember?”

  “Well, I’m certainly not going to fall,” Suzanne told Katie. “I’m very graceful. It’s something you learn when you take modeling lessons.”

  “I wish she’d take pantomime lessons,” Jeremy whispered to Katie. “Then she’d have to keep quiet.”

  Katie giggled. Usually Katie felt bad when her two best friends said mean things about each other. But today Katie didn’t care what Jeremy said about Suzanne. After all, Suzanne wasn’t being nice. And there was no reason for it.

  Or was there a reason? Had Suzanne figured out that Katie had invited Jeremy and not her? Suzanne always got upset if Katie left her out of anything.

  But it wasn’t really Katie’s fault. She would have invited Suzanne—if Suzanne didn’t act so weird whenever she was around Rosie.

  The other beginning skiers in the class were gathered around a small woman in an orange parka. Katie tried to follow her friends over to the group. Unfortunately, she fell down again. The small woman, who had long, brown hair, hurried over and helped Katie to her feet.

  “Thanks,” Katie murmured as she wiped the snow from her ski pants.

  “No problem,” the woman said with a smile.

  Katie looked more closely at the woman’s bright orange parka. The words Ski Instructor were written on the back. Katie frowned. Her ski teacher had already seen how clumsy she could be.

  Suddenly, a little boy standing beside Katie began to cry. “I’m cold, my nose is running, these ski boots hurt, and this hill looks scary,” he wailed.

  Katie knew exactly how he felt.

  “Johnny, just wait until you start skiing,” his dad assured him. “You’re going to want to do it again and again.”

  “No, I won’t!” Johnny howled.

  The small woman with dark hair bent down, lifted up her blue snow goggles and smiled at Johnny. “Hi, I’m Lola,” she said. “I’m your ski instructor.”

  Johnny turned his back to her.

  “I’ll let you in on a little secret, Johnny,” Lola continued gently. “This is my very first day as a ski instructor. So we’re both doing something new. Isn’t that cool?”

  But Johnny didn’t think that was cool. He just kept on crying.

  So Lola stood up and, keeping a smile on her lips, said, “Hey, everybod
y! Are we going to have fun?”

  “Yes!” the class cheered.

  “No!” Johnny shouted.

  “I’m going to show you everything you need to know to begin skiing,” Lola told her students. “And then, after your lesson, we’ll all go to the lodge and have a cup of hot chocolate.”

  At the mention of hot chocolate, Johnny stopped crying.

  Lola smiled at her group of students. It wasn’t a big group. Just Jeremy, Suzanne, Katie, Johnny, Johnny’s little sister, Johnny’s dad, and an older woman in a green, fake-fur parka.

  “Okay, now let’s get started,” Lola said, using her ski poles to help her make her way to the front of the crowd. “First we’re going to learn to do the snow plow.” Lola placed her skis so that the tips were close together and the ends were wide apart. “It may seem hard at first, but before you know it, you’ll be zooming down to the bottom of the hill.”

  Katie gulped. Zooming? “Jeremy, I can’t do this,” Katie said. “You know how clumsy I am. I’ll break my leg if I do this. I’ll probably break both legs!”

  Johnny looked up at Katie. “I don’t wanna break my leg,” he wailed.

  “Me neither,” his little sister cried out. Now she started sobbing, too.

  Lola looked at Katie and shook her head. “I wish you hadn’t said that,” she told her. “You’re making these kids really nervous.”

  “I . . . I didn’t mean to,” Katie told her. “But I’m really nervous.”

  “I wanna go home!” Johnny cried loudly.

  “Me too!” his sister chimed in.

  Their father sighed. “Maybe my kids are too young for this,” he told Lola. “I’m taking them back to the lodge. Can we get a refund on our lessons there?”

  Lola nodded. “Of course, but . . .”

  The father took off with his children. Katie bit her lip. Lola had lost almost half the class! Katie tried to do what Lola showed them and held her poles the way Lola said. But all she could think of was how bad she felt. She hadn’t meant to scare those kids. Finally, she turned and began trudging off toward the side of the bunny slope.

  “Now where are you going?” Lola asked her.

  “I’m going to see if I can get those kids to come back,” Katie explained.

  “But you can’t leave now,” Lola told her. “You’re going to miss learning how to fall correctly.”

  “That’s okay,” Katie told her. “Falling is the one thing I’m good at already.”

  Chapter 7

  “Excuse me! Please, wait up!” Katie cried out to Johnny’s dad.

  But Katie was clumsy on skis. She couldn’t move quickly at all. So before she could catch up, Johnny, his sister, and his dad were out of sight.

  “WAAHHHH!” Katie could hear Johnny’s cries becoming softer and softer as he got farther and farther away.

  There was nothing for Katie to do except stumble back to the class. But it was so hard to move in the snow.

  “Come on,” she said to herself. “You can do it. Right, left, right, left.” Katie slid her legs back and forth on the snow. She was moving pretty well. And then . . .

  Thump. She banged into a rock that was hidden in the snow. It knocked her off balance and she fell sideways between a couple of pine trees.

  As she struggled to sit up, Katie blinked back a few tears. This day wasn’t turning out at all like she’d expected.

  And suddenly, it was getting much, much colder. A really cold wind began to blow. Katie pulled her scarf up over her mouth and nose and tried to keep warm.

  But a scarf couldn’t help Katie. Not now. After all, this was no ordinary wind. This was the magic wind. And a wool scarf was no match for that!

  The magic wind began blowing harder and harder. It was like a fierce icy tornado, circling just around Katie. It blew harder and harder, chilling her right to the bone.

  And then it stopped.

  Just like that.

  Katie Carew was gone. She had turned into someone else.

  But who was she?

  Slowly, Katie opened her eyes. She looked down at herself through blue ski goggles. She was wearing a bright orange parka.

  Wait a minute. Katie didn’t have blue ski goggles.

  Or an orange jacket.

  But Lola did.

  Katie looked down at her feet. The plain rental skis were gone. A pair of shiny red skis were in their place.

  Lola’s skis.

  Oh, no! Katie had turned into Lola—right in the middle of a ski lesson!

  Katie didn’t know how to ski. And there was no way she was going to be able to teach other people how to do it. Katie gulped nervously.

  This was so not good!

  Chapter 8

  “Lola, can we ski down the hill now?” Suzanne asked. “I want to see how fast I can go.”

  “Um . . . well . . .” Katie stammered. “I don’t think . . . I mean . . .”

  “She’s going to teach us the correct way to fall, remember?” Jeremy reminded Suzanne.

  “Why?” Suzanne replied. “Katie’s not here. She’s the one who does all the falling.”

  Katie scowled. She certainly was here. Suzanne just didn’t know it. Suzanne wouldn’t be making fun of her if she realized that Lola was really Katie.

  “That’s not nice,” Jeremy said.

  Katie smiled. At least Jeremy was standing up for her.

  “Yeah, well, it wasn’t nice for you and Katie not to invite me to come skiing today,” Suzanne answered. “I heard everything you two said while you were near the slide.”

  “But nobody else was there,” Jeremy insisted. “I even looked.”

  Suzanne smiled proudly. “I was camouflaged in the snow. See, I told you it works!”

  Jeremy frowned and kicked at the snow with his ski.

  Suzanne turned to Katie. “I don’t plan on falling, Lola. So can I just go?”

  “Nobody plans on falling,” Katie replied. “It just happens.”

  At just that moment, Katie’s skis slipped right out from under her. “Whoops!” The next thing Katie knew she landed hard—right on her bottom—in a big mound of snow.

  Jeremy, Suzanne, and the woman in the green furry parka all stared at her in amazement.

  “You see, uh . . . well . . .” Katie began as she struggled to her feet. “You never know when you might slip. It can happen anytime, anywhere, and to anyone.”

  “Wow,” Jeremy said. “That looked like it really hurt!”

  “Yes, it did look painful,” the woman in the furry parka agreed.

  Katie rubbed her bruised rear end. Painful? They had no idea.

  The lodge at the bottom of the bunny slope looked so far away. How was she going to make it down the hill?

  “You see,” Katie told them. “You never know when you could fall and . . . WHOA!” Katie shouted out as she lost her footing again and headed downhill. “HEEELLLLP!!!”

  Chapter 9

  “Get out of the way!” Katie shouted out as she zoomed past skiers.

  Katie slid faster and faster down the mountainside. “YIKES!” She turned, hoping to slow herself down. Instead, she skied through some trees and came out on a much steeper slope.

  “Oh, noooooo!”

  Ahead of her Katie could see the film crew and the actors. Her right ski hit a rock. She flew up in the air and twirled like an ice skater.

  Katie landed on one leg just as a cameraman was taking a close-up shot of Rosie.

  “HELP! ROSIE! PLEASE!” Katie screamed as she soared past.

  Rosie looked up at the sound of her name, but she didn’t see anyone she recognized. After all, Katie didn’t look like Katie anymore.

  Katie zoomed on, moving faster and faster.

  “Somebody stop me!” Katie called out as she flew over a bump and sailed in the air again. She shut her eyes. Over and over she flipped—one somersault, two, and then three.

  Finally she rolled to a stop.

  It wasn’t until she stood up on solid ground again that Katie ope
ned her eyes slowly and looked around. Somehow she had made it all the way down the hill not far from the lodge.

  She glanced up to the right, at the bunny slope. She could see Jeremy and Suzanne standing next to each other with their mouths wide open.

  “Ha ha ha!”

  Katie turned her head suddenly. That little boy—Johnny—was pointing in her direction.

  He, his sister, and his dad were standing outside the lodge with cups of hot cocoa in their hands.

  “Lola’s so funny, Daddy,” Johnny said. “I changed my mind. I want to ski. Can we take a class with Lola now?”

  Johnny’s dad didn’t say anything. He was too busy staring at Katie in amazement. “That was incredible, Lola,” he told Katie. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”

  Neither had the head ski instructor of the Pine Mountain Ski Resort. He stomped out of the lodge and trudged through the snow to where Katie was standing.

  “Lola!” he shouted angrily. “What was that about?”

  “I . . . um . . .” Katie mumbled. “I tripped.”

  “Yeah, right. Championship skiers don’t just trip,” the head instructor insisted with a frown. “And why would you shout for help? Do you know that a guest called the emergency rescue crew?”

  “I didn’t mean to . . .” Katie began.

  But he didn’t want to hear any excuses. “We cannot discuss this here in front of our guests,” he told Katie. “I am going to my office. I expect you to join me there in ten minutes.”

  As he stormed off, Katie gulped. Lola was in big trouble—on her very first day of work. And it was all Katie’s fault.

  All Katie wanted was to take off her skis. She trudged slowly toward the ski stand, taking care not to fall again. She didn’t need any more people staring or laughing at her.

  Actually, they were staring and laughing at Lola, which was worse. Lola was a champion skier—not a total klutz!

  Katie was so tired. And walking in skis was so hard. She couldn’t make it to the ski stand. She saw an empty bench, practically hidden by the trees.