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snow on the ground!”
    Bizz laughed. “Not your
skate
board, your
snow-
board! Alison called to say the hill behind the park is open for business!”
    Alison Lee was a teenager in charge of the local skatepark. She made sure the kids who were skate-boarding, inline skating, and snowboarding were being careful. Savannah knew that if Alison said it was okay to snowboard today, then the conditions were just right.
    “I’ll meet you there!”
    Twenty minutes later, her mother dropped her off in the parking lot. Savannah joined a parade of kids climbing the hill. She had just reached the top when
thwap!
a snowball smacked into her stomach. She looked up to see Xavier “X” McSweeney grinning at her. Jonas Malloy and Bizz were behind him.
    “Yo, Savannah!” Jonas said. “When are you going to get yourself some proper snowboarding gear? You know, goggles and a face thingy like mine.” He tugged his fleece face warmer into place so that only his eyes were peeking out. These he covered with yellow-tinted goggles.
    “Forget him,” X said. “You’re just in time to see my first revert of the season.”
    “Don’t make a big hole in the snow when you do a plant!” Jonas joked.
    “Ha!” X snorted. “If I fall, I’ll eat my hat.” With a wave, he took off, zigzagging his way down the hill. When he’d gone halfway, he suddenly twisted around one hundred and eighty degrees. Then he rode the rest of the hill backward. Bizz and Jonas cheered.
    “That’s a revert?” Savannah said. “Switching from forward to backward?”
    “Forward to
fakie,
” Jonas corrected. “Yep, that’s it. Wanna give it a try?”
    Savannah shook her head. “I’m still a newbie at this stuff. It’s cruiser runs for me all the way.”
    “I’m with you!” Bizz agreed. She flung an arm around Savannah’s shoulders. Savannah grinned and put an arm around Bizz, too.

    “Great shot! Say cheese!” Bizz and Savannah looked up to see Alison pointing a camera at them. “I’m taking photos to hang on the wall of the Community Center,” Alison told them as she snapped their picture. “‘Friends to the end,’ that’s what I’ll label this one. Now get a move on. You’re holding up the line!”
    Bizz didn’t hesitate. She strapped herself on to her board, gave a little hop, and took off down the slope. Savannah watched her friend go, then secured her bindings and followed Bizz down the hill.
    Friends to the end,
she thought.
That’s Bizz and me, all right!

CHAPTER THREE
    Savannah was still new to snowboarding, so she
swished
down the slope nice and easy, getting used to the feel of the snowboard. She had to pinwheel her arms a few times to stay upright. Otherwise, her first run of the winter felt great.
    She caught up with Bizz at the bottom. As they stepped out of their bindings, they saw Charlie Abbott and Mark Goldstein with X.
    “Hey, guys!” Bizz called. “Wait for —”
    Floosh!
A wall of snow covered Bizz and Savannah. Jonas had just finished his run. He’d ended it by digging his board into the snow sideways, lifting the white powder into the air.

    “Get him!” Bizz yelled. She scooped up some snow and heaved it at Jonas. Savannah and the others did the same. Then, following some unspoken signal, X and Jonas teamed up, Charlie and Mark turned on Savannah and Bizz — and the snowball fight turned into a three-way battle.
    After a few breathless minutes, Savannah dove behind a snowbank for protection. She lay still for a moment, then risked a peek.
    Bizz, X, Charlie, Jonas, and Mark jumped up from behind the other side of the bank. Each had a huge armload of snow. Savannah ducked inside her coat, but her friends moved faster. She shrieked as snow hit her neck and trickled down her back.
    “Seriously, girl, you gotta get a face warmer thingy. It protects your neck, too,” Jonas advised. Then he hurled himself over the snowbank. The others followed, howling with laughter.
    “Smile for the camera!”
    Still grinning, the