Fabulous Five 030 - Sibling Rivalry by Betsy Haynes Read Free Book Online Page A

in front of Marcel.
    Next it was an older man's turn. Beth had learned his name
was Charles, and even though he joked about his lack of skill as a skier, Beth
had noticed that he plunged in with more energy than most of the skiers half
his age.
    "Here goes nothing!" Charles shouted as he started
down the slope with a big grin on his face.
    But about halfway down, he began to wobble. Beth gasped as
his arms and legs flung out wildly, and he fell and tumbled in the snow.
    "Charles!" Beth called out. "Are you
okay?"
    Charles didn't answer.
    Marcel sprang into action, shooting straight down the slope
like an arrow; spraying snow as he made a whirling stop beside Charles. Marcel
quickly took off his skis and planted them upright in an X on the slope above
Charles.
    Beth and the others watched breathlessly as Marcel bent over
Charles. The two men talked, and Marcel touched Charles's leg. Then to
everyone's relief, Marcel helped Charles to his feet. A few minutes later
Charles skied the rest of the way to the bottom on his own.
    When a cheer went up, Charles grinned from ear to ear.
"Gee, if I'd known that falling would get me so much attention, I would
have done a lot more of it."
    Everyone laughed.
    When the rest of the skiers had taken their turn, Marcel
said that they would spend most of the lesson here, practicing on the new
slope. After a few more successful runs, Beth relaxed even more and
experimented with making turns and stopping. She found she loved skiing and
feeling the cold air in her face. She also loved looking around at the snow and
the majestic mountains that towered above her.
    I'm glad I'm here, she thought. Even if there isn't anyone
my age to share it with.
    As she grabbed the towrope for her sixth ride up the slope,
Brittany jumped into line right behind her.
    Beth was feeling so good that she turned around and gave her
sister a silly smile.
    "Beth, you're such a show-off," Brittany
complained.
    Beth's smile faded. "Who, me? I'm not showing
off!"
    "Just because you're catching on to some of the stuff
Marcel's teaching us, don't think he's interested in you! "
    "Get real, Brittany," Beth called back over her
shoulder. "It never crossed my mind that—"
    Suddenly Beth lost her grip on the rope. She felt herself
slide backward—into Brittany, who screamed and fell down—and then into Julie,
who crumpled in the snow—and into Sarah, who was behind her.
    Beth panicked. She was totally out of control, flying down
the slope backward, knocking people over as if they were dominoes. With a
sudden lunge to the side, she threw herself out of the towrope tracks just in
time to avoid toppling the next person.
    But now, she was careening down the hill frontward with the
storage house looming in front of her. She tried snowplowing, but the snow
under her skis had turned to ice, and there was no way she could stop. She was
speeding faster and faster, and the building was growing larger and larger as
she raced toward it.
    Suddenly, as she braced to smack into the building, her
reflexes took over. She went limp and threw herself to the side and backward
the way Marcel had taught her, and slid feetfirst between the pilings and on
under the building.
    She came to a stop, flat on her back and her nose nearly touching
the underside of the building.
    "Am I okay?" she murmured, raising her head a
little. She did a quick inventory of her arms and legs, waggling each one to
make sure it was still attached and working. Everything was, and she let out a
sigh of relief.
    Then she heard someone yelling, "Beth! Beth!" and
the horrible reality of what had just happened sank in. She had just knocked
down part of her ski class, had schussed down the hill like a hotdogger, and
had landed under the storage house! It was the most embarrassing moment of her
entire life, and the last thing in the world she ever wanted to do was
crawl out from under the building. She wondered whether, if she stayed quiet,
everybody would go away and leave her to