Sammy's Christmas List Read Free

the year!”

Chapter 4

    I tugged extra hard at the zipper. Finally it budged. But not much. It got stuck again right away. I twisted around in a futile attempt to wiggle the zipper a little farther down. When I hit my shoulder hard on the wall I realized that my wiggle dance was not working. Not only was I very likely to urinate in my snowsuit, I was also going to be late for my first ski lesson.
    I rested my hands on the bathroom sink and thought about my options. I settled on cutting the zipper free even though it would damage the snowsuit. It was that or check with the fire department to see if the jaws of life were available. I managed to get the scissors into the right spot and snipped away.
    Within a few minutes I was free, and my bladder was empty. My bright pink snowsuit was in a crumpled pile on the floor. Now the next problem was that I had nothing else to wear to the ski lesson and it was too late to cancel. I tugged the dreaded snowsuit back on and zipped it very carefully up to the cut section. Then I grabbed a few safety pins and pinned it the rest of the way. It left the suit rather drafty, but at least I was ready to walk out the door.  

    Once settled in the car, I realized that the freshly fallen snow was not such a great thing. The other drivers around me were navigating the slippery road with sharp braking and unexpected swerves. I nearly skidded through a red light and found it difficult to tell the difference between the curb and a snowdrift.
    When I managed to get on the right road to the ski resort I approached an overpass. I took a deep breath and reminded myself that this was supposed to be about a fun and enlightening experience. I started to calm down just in time for a snowball to splat against my windshield. I ducked, even though I was inside the car. I refocused on the windshield just in time for another snowball to hit my windshield.  
    “Hey, stop that!” I blared my horn.
    I saw two figures disappear from the overpass. Frazzled and certainly not enlightened, I pulled into the parking lot of the ski resort. I was relieved to see that it had been plowed. Snow was piled up at the base of the parking lot, which angled upward. I was in a rush not to be late as I parked. I tucked my keys into my pocket and sprinted up the sidewalk that led to the base of the slopes.
    The ski resort was a small place that only opened in the winter. It had three hills—bunny, intermediate, and expert. As I stared up at the tall expert hill my heart fluttered. I was sure that if I was just confident enough, and tried hard enough, I’d be sailing down the slopes in no time. I would make quite an impression on Max when he saw me on skis for the first time. I grinned thinking about it.
    As I continued to fantasize about this, a boy—maybe eight years old—whizzed right past me on a snowboard. He spun and jumped without ever losing his balance. I watched in awe as he raced toward the expert slope. Surely, if a boy his age could handle the expert slope, I could too. My confidence ran so high that I considered skipping the lesson and diving right in on my own.  
    “Samantha?”  
    The deep voice came from behind me. I turned around to find a golden-haired green-eyed beautiful man. He towered over me by about a foot, and his shoulders were as broad as a lumberjack’s. He was the kind of handsome that all women could agree to drool over, no matter their personal taste.  
    “Who?”  
    “Samantha?” He smiled.  
    “Oh, me?”  
    “Are you Samantha?” His smile grew wider.
    My heart melted. He even had perfect shiny teeth, white as the snow that surrounded us.  
    “I think so.” I cleared my throat. “I mean, yes. Yes, I’m Samantha.”  
    “Great, I thought you might not show up.”  
    “I’m here!”  
    “Good. I’m Lance, I’ll be your instructor today. Let’s get you on some skis and go over a few simple movements.”  
    All of the difficult things I faced that morning disappeared from