Read On a Slippery Slope for Free Online Page B

maybe I shouldn’t … NO ! I have to tell her. Come on, Hannah: BE BRAVE ! Just say it! Spit it out!
    â€œGabby, about my ski gear … I don’t …”
    â€œOh, Hannah, you don’t have to say another word! I already know.”
    â€œYou do?”
    â€œOf course I do! How could you possibly know where all your stuff is? You just moved here! It’s not unpacked yet, silly!”
    With that, she grabs my arm and pulls me down the hallway, insisting we’ll find everything in the basement.
    â€œHoly … wow!” she shouts as we reach the bottom of the stairs. “Good luck finding anything in all of that!”
    â€œYup, more stuff came yesterday. It’s a mess,” I say, looking around at the massive collection of unpacked boxes overflowing from the storage room.
    â€œNo wonder you’re stressed.” She shakes her head sympathetically. “It will take weeks to find your stuff in there!”
    The words — it will take weeks — roll around in my brain. Suddenly, my options are opening up. Weeks! That’s at least fourteen days. A lot can happen in fourteen days! I can learn! Is it really the best idea to come clean now? I’d be a laughingstock. Gabby might hate me, probably everyone would, and my ultimate fear would come true — I’d be friendless.
    â€œWell, let’ s get at it. ” Gabby grabs one of the utility knives off of the shelf and slides it across the top of a box.
    â€œGabby! What are you doing?”
    â€œWhat does it look like? I’m opening boxes! We need to get at this right away otherwise we’ll never find your stuff!” Gabby slices open another box marked SPORTS . “Hannah! Why are you just standing there?” she says. “Grab a knife and start looking!”
    Gabby is on her twentieth box when I suddenly remember an amazing little tidbit of information I heard this morning.
    â€œOh my gosh, Gabby!” I exclaim, trying hard to hide my glee. “We can’t go skiing this weekend.”
    I’m counting on my dad’s super-duper expert knowledge of all things weather-related , and hoping that this weekend’s storm, which he says is already being called The Snowstorm of the Century , will arrive on schedule, late Friday night, and continue on throughout the entire weekend .
    â€œDon’t worry,” Gabby says, ripping off a lid to a blue plastic storage tote. “Your ski gear is around here somewhere and I’m not stopping until we find it!” She digs through the stuff in the container, looks up, and smiles. “Have faith!”
    â€œIt’s not that,” I say, gravely. “There’ s a big storm coming. ”
    â€œA big storm?”
    She laughs. “It can’t be that bad.”
    â€œOh yes it is,” I correct her. They’re calling it The Snowstorm of the Century ! It’s all my dad could talk about before he left for work this morning.”
    â€œThat’s awful.” Gabby looks heartbroken, not for herself, but for me. “You must be so disappointed!”
    â€œIt’s okay, really,” I reassure her, secretly wanting to jump for joy.
    * * *
    T urns out, it doesn’t take weeks to get through all of the boxes; it only takes a couple of hours.
    â€œWell, Hannah,” Gabby says, wiping her hand across her forehead, “we’ve looked through every box and your gear is just not here.”
    I shrug, not knowing what to say.
    â€œHmmm …” she says, narrowing her eyes, “and why do you think that is?”

    â€œUmm …” I bite my lip and shrug again.
    â€œDo you think it got lost in the move?” she says, closing a lid back down on a box. “It happens all the time! It’s terrible how careless movers can be with people’s stuff!”
    â€œ Terrible. ” I echo, with a heart heavy with guilt.
    â€œWell, you know your parents can file a claim, right? The